Sunday, January 22, 2012

No Mr. President...

Today, President Obama commemorated Roe v. Wade. Instead of recognizing it as an open door for one of the most grievous sins our nation has ever committed, he praised the ruling as an open door for women's rights. He stated the following:
"As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.  I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right.  While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue- no matter what our views, we must stay united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant woman and mothers, reduce the need for abortion, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption.  And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams."
Desiring God produced this video a few years ago and it still rings true today as it did when Obama entered into the Oval Office four years ago.



Denny Burk wrote this article today about Obama's remarks. Click here to read the full article

"It was the last line of the statement that provoked me the most. The President says he wants “our daughters [to] have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons.” Who could disagree with that statement? I agree with it totally. The problem is that President Obama does not really mean it. At the same time he calls us to protect our daughters’ rights, President Obama praises the decision that has led to the legal killing of at least 25 million of our unborn daughters. Clearly he does not want to protect the rights of all of our daughters, but only some of them. How can he not see the moral absurdity of his own words?"

Monday, January 16, 2012

God's Amazing Grace - Martin Luther King Jr.



"The other day, I went out to Kilby prison to pray with some of the men on death row. And it’s always a very tragic experience, not so much a tragic experience as a sort of sad experience to look at men who have committed great crimes and now they are standing in a little cell with nothing there much, just in a little cell between four walls. And they can’t see much and they’re just waiting for the day of their death and the day of their ultimate doom. And I went to pray with some of these men. And I never can forget as I walked away from there after praying and walked out of all of these bars, I couldn’t walk out with arrogance. I couldn’t walk out with the feeling that I’m not like these men. I couldn’t walk out with the attitude of the Pharisee, “I thank Thee God that I’m not like other men.” But as I walked out of that door, something was ringing in my heart saying, “But for the grace of God, you would be here.” As I look at drunkard men walking the streets of Montgomery and of other cities every day, I find myself saying, “But by the grace of God, you too would be a drunkard.” As I look at those who have lost balance of themselves and those who are giving their lives to a tragic life of pleasure and throwing away everything they have in riotous living, I find myself saying, “But by the grace of God, I too would be here.” And when you see that point, you cannot be arrogant. But you walk through life with a humility that takes away the self-centeredness that makes you a disintegrated personality. And you begin to sing: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saves a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I’m found, Was blind, but now I see. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Twas grace that brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. And when you take this attitude, you go into the room of your life and take down the mirrors because you cannot any longer see yourself. But the mirrors somehow are transformed into windows and you look out into the objective world and see that you are what you are because of somebody else. You are what you are because of the grace of the Almighty God."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

A Letter from Martin Luther on Spiritual Warfare - from Justin Taylor's Blog

I read this on Justin Taylor's Blog yesterday and thought that this was great in talking about dealing with spiritual warfare. Personally, I've heard many things in my few years about how to deal with spiritual warfare, and I've done everything from praying "warfare prayers" to "binding and loosing". After reading this I can imagine laughing with a response of "hahahah....wait, wait, wait...who is this again?", realizing that Christ is victorious over my sin and failures and all attacks that serve to destroy me only serve His sovereign purposes in bringing me to Himself. Enjoy!

A Letter from Martin Luther on Spiritual Warfare
The following is from a letter written in July 1530 to Jerome Weller, a 31-year-old friend who had previously lived in the Luther home, tutored his children, and was now struggling with spiritual despair: . .
Excellent Jerome, You ought to rejoice in this temptation of the devil because it is a certain sign that God is propitious and merciful to you. You say that the temptation is heavier than you can bear, and that you fear that it will so break and beat you down as to drive you to despair and blasphemy. I know this wile of the devil. If he cannot break a person with his first attack, he tries by persevering to wear him out and weaken him until the person falls and confesses himself beaten. Whenever this temptation comes to you, avoid entering upon a disputation with the devil and do not allow yourself to dwell on those deadly thoughts, for to do so is nothing short of yielding to the devil and letting him have his way. Try as hard as you can to despise those thoughts which are induced by the devil. In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. . . When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus:
“I admit that I deserve death and hell.
What of it?
Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation?
By no means.
For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.”
Yours, Martin Luther Luther:
Letters of Spiritual Counsel, trans. and ed. Theodore G. Tappert (orig., 1960; reprint, Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 85.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

An Update on The Reading List - "Bloodlines" and "Liberating Black Theology"

This Fall/Winter, I have been reading a few books in my spare time and here is an update on the two that I am currently reading. I have finished "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer and "Doctrine" by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears and I am currently reading "Bloodlines:Race, Cross and The Christian" by John Piper and "Liberating Black Theology" by Anthony B. Bradley. Here are two excerpts from the books...some things that have stood out to me. The first excerpt is from John Piper's "Bloodlines"
Racial tensions are rife with pride - the pride of white supremacy, the pride of black power, the pride of intellectual analysis, the pride of anti-intellectual scorn, the pride of loud verbal attack, and the pride of despising silence, the pride that feels secure, and the pride that masks fear. Where pride holds sway, there is no hope for the kind of listening and patience and understanding and openness to correction that relationships require. The gospel of Jesus breaks the power of pride by revealing the magnitude and the ugliness and the deadliness of it, even as it provides deliverance from it. The gospel makes plain that I am so hopelessly sinful and my debt before God was so huge that my salvation required the death of the Son of God in my place. This is devastating to the human ego. And God means it to be: "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). He saves us by grace alone so that we would boast in him alone. Pride is shattered...Imagine what race relations and racial controversies would look like if the participants were all dead to pride and deeply humble before God and each other.
This excerpt is from Bradley's "Liberating Black Theology"
The fact of the Fall and the accomplished redemptive work of Christ serve as the true foundation for the liberation of black people. The fruits of Christ's sacrifice are not restricted to any one group of people because of our common human solidarity as sinners. Bavinck describes three benefits that accrue from the reconciliation of God through Christ: "(1) juridicial - that forgiveness of sins is our justification, mystical - consisting of the Christ being crucified, buried, raised, and being seated with Christ in heaven, ethical - through regeneration and being made alive, (2) moral - consisting in the imitation of Christ, economic - in the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant and the inaguration of the new covenant , and (3) physical - in our victory over the world, death, hell, and Satan."
I'm sure there will be more to come from these books. I recommend both - they are filled with great content and they walk through the gospel and how it applies to racial issues in the world we live in.