// April 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
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// April 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Doctrine
On Thursday, April 23, 2009, at Park Community Church in Chicago, IL, the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School hosted an evening of free lectures and discussion with Dr. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church and Dr. D. A. Carson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Titled “The Pastor as Scholar, and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry with John Piper and D.A. Carson”, the evening featured hour-long lectures by Drs. Piper and Carson, offering reflections of a theological and personal nature on the work of the pastor and the scholar, respectively.
A Personal Journey
April 23, 2009
John Piper
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April 23, 2009
D. A. Carson
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The Pastor As Scholar and the Scholar As Pastor
April 23, 2009
// April 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Affection, Doctrine, Life
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// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
| Name of the Song | Downloads |
|---|---|
| Wonderful Grace of Jesus |   |
Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin;
How can my tongue describe it, where will its praise begin?
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free,
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me!
REFRAIN: Wonderful grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All-sufficient grace for even me;
Bigger than my sins,
Greater than my shame;
O magnify the precious name of Jesus, Praise His name (3x)!
Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost,
By it I have been pardoned, saved to the uttermost;
Chains have been torn away, giving me liberty,
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me!
REFRAIN: Wonderful grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All-sufficient grace for even me;
Bigger than my sins,
Greater than my shame;
O magnify the precious name of Jesus, Praise His name (3x)!
From http://www.faithalone.org/journal/1997i/Ward.html
“Wonderful Grace of Jesus”—the very title proclaims from the outset and at the beginning of each stanza that this hymn by Haldor Lillenas is a hymn of grace. First introduced in 1918, this song has become a favorite across denominational lines in the Church today. Its upbeat, bouncy meter and somewhat unusual refrain, which splits into two parts, with the melody alternating between the bass/tenor and alto/soprano parts, endear the tune to many. However, as is often the case, the strong doctrinal message carried by the words of the hymn are often obscured in the enthusiasm for the music. In fact, the author himself, in his autobiography, cautions against distorting the words of the hymn by performing it at too rapid a tempo.1
While at first glance “Wonderful Grace of Jesus” may seem to be simply a general song of praise to God for His grace, several of its phrases make it clear that the author understands not just the term but the substance of the grace of God. In the first stanza and the chorus, the surpassing nature of God’s grace is set forth with the phrases “greater than all my sin” and “Broader than the scope of my transgressions, greater far than all my sin and shame” (Rom 5:20). It is grace, Lillenas proclaims, that takes away the burden of sin and liberates the captive soul.
In the second stanza, Lillenas demonstrates his understanding of the extent of God’s grace. Not covering just a favored few, the grace of God reaches to “all the lost.” People may choose to reject grace, but God extends the offer of salvation freely to all (Titus 2:11). Also in this stanza, and again in the chorus, the sufficiency of grace is described. Lillenas says he has been “saved to the uttermost” by an “all-sufficient grace.” Lillenas’s view of salvation by grace is not one of meeting God halfway, with both parties contributing to the transaction (Titus 3:5; Eph 2:8). His words here indicate an understanding that when Christ completed His work on the cross, salvation was finished (John 19:30), leaving nothing for man to do but accept the gift of grace and be completely saved.
The third stanza touches on another hallmark of the doctrine of grace—that regardless of the magnitude of one’s sin, God’s grace is available and is sufficient for salvation even to “the most defiled.” This is reminiscent of Fanny Crosby’s words in “To God be the Glory”3 when she wrote “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”
The words of this third stanza may strike some as inconsistent with Lillenas’s Nazarene theology. While most evangelicals generally recognize that ultimate sanctification will occur only in the presence of the Lord in Heaven, Nazarene theology teaches a doctrine of “entire sanctification,” in which the believer can and should obtain complete sanctification in this life.4 Connected to this doctrine is the Nazarene teaching that apostasy in the life of a believer can result in the loss of salvation. Thus, for the Nazarene, there is no true doctrine of eternal security. This makes Lillenas’s words in the third stanza even more interesting, when he writes “Purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity,” and even in the second stanza where he tells us that we have been “saved to the uttermost”. While these words may have meant something quite different to Lillenas, they seem equally applicable to our understanding of God’s grace in salvation, sanctification, and security.
“Wonderful Grace of Jesus” combines doctrinal truth with a buoyant melody and serves as a good vehicle for teaching the doctrine of grace. It touches on the availability, sufficiency, and efficacy of the salvation offered by grace through faith in Christ, and so carries an appropriate message for believer and unbeliever alike. Though we should be aware that Lillenas’s own theology may not line up completely with that of most evangelicals, his words do carry the Gospel of grace, making this hymn worthy of the category “Hymn of Grace.”
Endnotes:
1Paul G. Hammond, “Wonderful Grace of Jesus,” in Handbook to The Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), 277-78.
2Hammond, “Lillenas, Haldor,” Ibid., 387.
3Reviewed in JOTGES (Spring 96), 97-99.
4Manual (1993-1997), Church of the Nazarene, (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1993), 26-45.
| Name of the Song | Downloads |
|---|---|
| My King | |
| Who You Are | |
| I Surrender All | |
| Overwhelm Me | |
| Glory To Our King | |
| Glorious Day | |
| Shine Your Light On Us | |
| Grace Greater Than My Sin | |
| Great is Thy Faithfulness | |
| Rejoice | |
| Hope in a Child | |
| In My Place | |
| Hallelujah God is Here | |
| My Hope | |
| It Is Well With My Soul | |
| Here I Am | |
// April 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Pictures from our Men’s Advance last year…
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Last summer, myself and a few friends went out to Lost Lake Campgrounds near Mt. Hood and studied the biblical themes of Suffering and Endurance through the book of Job. We fasted, prayed, sang songs of worship, confessed sin, went on prayer hikes, had time for silence and solitude, climbed a butte and held a bible study on the summit, told jokes and laughed around a campfire, suffered through a night of bitter cold, and feasted in thanksgiving to the Lord the following morning. Men’s Retreats are all too often escapist in nature, where men get together to do “masculine” things like watch Gladiator, do ropes courses, and eat inordinate amounts of chicken wings/pizza. All the while, many men on these trips enjoy an “escape” from the reality of the battlefield of life, and feed the mentality that discipleship can be reduced to a search for friendship and new hobbies. We men need to embrace the call to suffer for Christ, and we need to learn how to endure the battle and fight the good fight of faith. Every Sunday we walk into church looking like men who have forgotten the Gospel, and that’s because we’ve been retreating all week. I would love to see a philosophical shift away from “retreats” and toward “advances”. Not that we have to change the name, just the way we see them. I think this would produce a greater sense of urgency in men’s ministry, and give younger men a vision for biblical manhood that would inspire and challenge them to radical transformation.
// April 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
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I’ve been meaning to start tearing through Grudem’s magnum opus on Systematic Theology over the past few years, just haven’t found the time. I just found out that audio versions of Dr. Grudem’s lessons in his Christian Essentials class (taken from his book) are free online. This is a goldmine for someone like me who has a lot of time throughout the day for audio and little spare time for reading. I’m nerding out about this. What an amazing resource available to the church, and all for free. Unreal.
Here is the link to all of his messages:
// April 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
“If the story of the world’s sufferings under different tyrants could all be written, there would be no man found who would be capable of reading it. I believe that even the despots themselves, who have committed the atrocities to which I refer, would not be suf?ciently cold-blooded to sit down and read the account of the agonies which their own victims have endured. I have been struck in passing through many lands with the horrible sufferings which in the olden times were endured by the poor at the hands of the rich kings and lords who were their oppressors. In almost every town in which you enter, you either have shown to you the rack, the dark dungeon, the thumb-screw, or the infernal machine, or instruments too horrible to describe-that make one’s blood run chill at the very thought and sight of them. Verily, O earth, thou hast been scarred; thy back has been ploughed with many a furrow; from thy veins have gushed forth plenteous streams of blood, and thy sons and thy daughters have had to suffer agonies extreme! But oh! my brethren, I speak in sober earnestness when I declare that all the sufferings that have ever been exercised upon man have never been equal to the tyranny which man has brought upon himself-the tyranny of sin. Sin has brought more plagues upon this earth than all the earth’s tyrants. It has brought more pangs and more miseries upon men’s bodies and souls than the craftiest inventions of the most cold-blooded and diabolical tormentors. Sin is the world’s great Despot. It is the serpent in whose subtle folds earth’s inhabitants are crushed. It is such a tyranny that none but those whom God delivers have been able to escape from it.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Sin Slain, 1860
// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I cannot tell you how I am buffeted sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I have. Yet I do know that I love God and love his work, and desire to serve him only and in all things. And I value above all else that precious Savior in whom alone I can be accepted. Often I am tempted to think that one so full of sin cannot be a child of God at all. But I try to throw it back, and rejoice all the more in the preciousness of Jesus and in the riches of the grace that has made us “accepted in the beloved.” Beloved he is of God; beloved he ought to be of us. But oh, how short I fall here again! May God help me to love him more and serve him better. Do pray for me. Pray that the Lord would keep me from sin, will sanctify me wholly, will use me more largely in his service.
p. 128, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret
// April 15th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Uncategorized
I believe that for this new generation of Christians, blogging has become a new spiritual discipline. By most experts of biblical spirituality, journaling is a spiritual discipline that Christians have practiced for hundreds of years. Take for example, the fact that a huge portion of the Old Testament book of Nehemiah is the personal journal of a man whom God called to rebuild a city. And many of the Psalms are great examples of journal entries. In my opinion, blogging is the 21st-century form of journaling…E-journaling, if you will. There are some obvious differences, like the potential for an immediate audience, whereas regular journaling would only be read by others after the journaler had passed away. But for many, blogging is simply a new medium for the same essential task: devotionally recording the journey of faith.
John and Abraham Piper at Desiring God Ministries have some helpful thoughts on the purpose and value of blogging, especially for those that are pastors:
In his book Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, Donald Whitney writes this:
[where the word "journal" is used, read "blog"]
“That there is a crying need for the recovery of the devotional life cannot be denied. If anything characterizes modern Protestantism, it is the absence of spiritual disciplines or spiritual exercises. Yet such disciplines form the core of the life of devotion. It is not an exaggeration to state that this is the lost dimension in modern Protestantism. One of the seldom-practiced but very valuable Spiritual Disciplines is journaling. Though not commanded in Scripture, God has blessed its use since Biblical times. Journaling is one way to express the pursuit of Christlikeness commanded in 1 Timothy 4:7: ‘Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.’”
WHAT IS A JOURNAL?
A journal is a book in which a person may keep a variety of things, including a record of the works and ways of God in his life, of daily events, of personal relationships, of insights into Scripture, of prayer requests, of his feelings about and responses to these things, and the interpretation of all these from his own spiritual perspective. The Bible itself contains many examples of God-inspired journals. Many Psalms are records of David’s personal spiritual journey with the Lord. The journal of Jeremiah’s feelings about the fall of Jerusalem we call Lamentations. A journal not only promotes spiritual growth by means of its own virtues but it’s also a valuable aid to the other Spiritual Disciplines as well.
THE VALUE OF JOURNALING
// April 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
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