Happy Birthday JE!

304 years ago today, Jonathan Edwards was born.  Figured everyone would like to know.

Battles from "Within"

Just yesterday, having just finished listening to Mark Driscoll's comments on the Emergent crowd at Convergent (if you haven't heard it and are interested, listen here.), I mentioned to Myrriah that our future in ministry will involve undoing a lot of the damage that the Emergent folks have done and are doing. Essentially my concern is that these are people claiming to be believers yet consistently they separate themselves from any sense of orthodoxy. My fear is the confusion that they are causing to people that we are called to shepherd.

This afternoon a book arrived at our home by the title of Pierced for Our Transgressions. The book is a defense of a very hot theological topic right now, the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, and will arrive in the US this fall to much fanfare I have no doubt (Only available in the UK right now, so unless you want to pay too much, wait until November).  I mention it to you because these guys share a concern very similar to mine though theirs is specific to their topic:

"...it is no surprise that the Bible's teaching should be criticized this way, for foundational truths of the Christian faith always come under attack from time to time...The more disturbing thing is that some of the more recent critics of penal substitution regard themselves as evangelicals, and claim to be committed to the authority of Scripture." -Jaffrey, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 24-5.

Scary, but True

"For many, evangelicals have become a voting block rather than a
spiritual force."- Stetzer and Putman, Breaking the Missional Code, 9

What's going to be happening around here?

Well, this is post number 7 here at Thoughts of JGott. And an interesting thing has happened. Blogging's kind of fun again. It hasn't been a chore for me to come up with new stuff to write about like the old blog was sometimes. As you know, what has been happening is, as I read, I've just been throwing up some interesting and, hopefully, meaningful quotations up. Basically, I'm trying to spread the benefit of the reading I do for school. Additionally I'll throw some other stuff up here from time to time, but I kind of like the way this is going for now. For the next couple of month's, you can expect a good deal of posting on the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. If you don't know what the last sentence means, then just keep coming back and you'll find out. I'll be writing a paper on said topic for class so I'm hoping to come across some good content to pass along.

Anyway, thanks for reading and please keep coming back. And feel free to drop a comment or email anytime.

God's Providence in Tiny Things

" Scripture teaches that the love and care of God extend to the details of our lives in a wide variety of ways... As characters such as Moses and Joseph looked back on their lives, no doubt they could see how seemingly trivial events- the many coloured coat, the cry of a baby in the bulrushes, the forgetfulness of a released prisoner- all contributed to the fulfillment of their God-given destiny."- Paul Helm, The Providence of God, 19.

Our church spent 42 weeks last year going through the book of Exodus. As we did so, I was floored at the way God's sovereign hand brought the redemption of his people to fruition. Reading this passage in Helm's book the other day reminded me of how the tiny things in life can eventually be key to the advancement of the gospel. Interesting to think what seemingly insignificant part of your day may be huge for the kingdom.

A right view of God: necessary or not?

"But there can be no good, sure foundation of religion, without mankind having a right idea of God, and some sure and clear knowledge of him, and of our dependence on him." - Jonathan Edwards, from Observations on the Scriptures; their authority and necessity.

Some times I hear people talk about foundations. "You've got to have the foundation right," I'll hear them say. In fact I remember talking about foundation in regards to time management in college. The idea was that we'd know the right foundation to form our day on. There was an illustration with rocks and sand and a big glass jar. If you put the sand (the non-foundational things) in first, then the rocks wouldn't fit. But if you put the rocks in first (the rocks being the "right" foundation), then the sand would fill in the gaps around the rocks allowing all the non-foundational things to fit. Maybe I'm mixing some ideas here, but many of you will understand what I'm talking about.

All that aside, I'm not so sure that we always get the foundation thing right. See we like to have firm footing, but often times we claim the firm footing without looking at what we're standing on. This should be scary if you think about it. But we don't think about it. We just do it. Now I'm thinking right now about the foundation which many of us would, at the very least nominally, say our life was set on: Christ. See its easy to say that we're Christians and that we believe in Jesus, but do we have a right view of Jesus. Is the Jesus we are standing on the right Jesus? This isn't the time for me to go off on any tangents with this, but I'm challenging myself right now and figure I can throw it out there for everybody else: Am I investing enough of my time, energy and life in the Scriptures to say that I have a clear and right view of Jesus? Am I constantly coming to grips with my depravity as I read the Scriptures? Are my affections for Christ fueled by his glory as revealed in the Bible?

Baptism: My Story

There is a swirl of theological controversy on the internet right now concerning baptism. Two sides are feeling through the implications of their theology. This post, however, will not address any of those issues. In fact this will be quite brief. Merely some of the story of my baptism and why I get so darn excited when people are getting baptized. Why am I doing this today? Well in about four hours, our church is going to head over to Upper Mystic Lake and baptize some folks that have come to faith this year.

I came to faith in the Fall of 1998, as Jesus called me to faith. I remember it vividly. Sitting on top of a mountain in Arkansas, late at night, I can still tell you about how the breeze was blowing gently the moment I knew something had changed. The moment that Jesus became my hope as I realized the bankruptcy of my sin.

Fast forward three years.

I had been attending Community Bible Church in Russellville, AR for about a year and a half. They were going to be baptizing new believers one Sunday evening. One of my friends was on slate to be immersed, so at the last minute I decided to attend. I had not been baptized, even though I was a believer. Regardless, I headed out to the lake. I should point out that, at this point, I had zero framework for baptism. I had no idea where to even put baptism theologically. Was it necessary? I had no idea. Sprinkle or dunk? I had no idea.

So I get out to the lake and see these other people being baptized. Mike and Roy were out in the water, working together as people went underwater and then emerged new, clean, and confessedly Christian. I was drawn. I'm sure it will sound silly to some, but it's moments like these that make it easy for me to believe in God's Sovereignty in a practical manner. When I say I was drawn, I mean that I showed up at the lake reluctantly to watch a friend be baptized, but when Mike asked if there was anyone else present that wanted to be baptized, I made my way to the water in a very single-minded manner. I was going to be baptized and I had nothing to do with it. I spoke with Mike and Roy as we walked out in the water, Mike asking about my faith, confirming that I was a believer. Then it happened. I was baptized. Public confession of my faith in Christ. This moment I do not forget.

So I've been baptized. I'm not sure that all that were there that day will remember, but I do. It was an amazing moment. A moment that I did not realize was so important until it happened. And now I get baptism. I've not had any seminary classes that really discuss it much to this point, so it has nothing to do with that. But I've had a wretched heart that rebelled against God with everything it had. And I've had that wretched heart changed by the grace of God. I am, at best, a work in progress, and I've got no issue in telling you that. But now I get baptism. It means something. It means alot as people who were once opposed to God become identified as people of God through this sacrament. People redeemed by the grace of God. I'm thrilled for all the folks who are being baptized today. I can't wait!

A Must-Have CD

There's a new CD coming out sometime in the next few weeks that you must know about. Read an article about it here. Carmen Dei, the music ministry of our church, has just completed production of Truth Within the Static. I'll pass along more info as the CD nears distribution over the next few weeks, but for now you should head here to check out the website and hear some of the songs. My current favorite is "Foolishness." You can read some of my thoughts on it here.

History

"The meaning of history is in God's work: God reaching down into the mass of fallen humanity and saving some hell-bent men and women, bringing them into a new fellowship, the church, and beginning to work in them in such a way that glory is brought to Jesus Christ." - James Montgomery Boice, Acts, p.15.

A New Start

So this isn't my first blog. Or my second. It's my third if you don't count the church blog. Why a new blog? Well, I wanted something new. I went to my second blog, because I didn't want to be a xanga user any longer. Now I'm leaving the second blog for two reasons: I don't want to pay any more domain name registration and I was tired of the domain name. So here we are. At my new digs: Thoughts of JGott.

More posts coming soon!