Living for God's Glory

Do we really believe Romans 8:28?
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

We must live for his glory and fight the fight of faith to be holy.
Consider the following quote form John Calvin:

I call "piety" that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of there every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him -- they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him.

It's our sinful nature that tells us that "we" are the only one who knows how to run our own life. A lie from the prince of darkness himself. God knows ALL. Remember "I AM WHO I AM"? When God said that He already knew ALL about His children in Egypt and He also knew how it would end as well.

So who would you rather live for? Yourself, who has a proven track record of failure?
Or, would you rather live to the Glory of the God of the universe and let him help direct your paths?

Living Your Best Life Now

Well Joel Osteen is right about one thing, we should be living our best life now! The only problem is that his methods are all wrong!!

I like the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (and the response).

Q1. What is the chief end of man?
Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The following is the first resolution that Jonathan Edwards wrote:

1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. ...

Here is a preamble that he wrote that goes with the resolutions:

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ's sake.

Here is an entry from Jonathan Edwards diary Tuesday, Jan 15.

But alas ! how soon do I decay! O how weak, how infirm, how unable to do anything of myself! What a poor inconsistent being! What a miserable wretch, without the assistance of the Spirit of God! While I stand, I am ready to think that I stand by my own strength, and upon my own legs; and I am ready to triumph over my own spiritual enemies, as if it were myself that caused them to flee: - when alas! I am but a poor infant, upheld by Jesus Christ; who holds me up, and gives me liberty to smile to see my enemies flee, when he drives them before me. And so I laugh, as though I myself did it, when it is only Jesus Christ leads me along, and fights himself against my enemies. And now the Lord has a little left me, how weak do I find myself! O let it teach me to depend less on myself, to be more humble, and to give more of the praise of my ability to Jesus Christ! The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it!

We can live our best live now by living for God's Glory alone. But yet, "we" are incapable of living it ourselves. We must daily be on our knees and go before the throne of Grace and confess our sinfulness and ask for the Holy Spirit's help in living each day to Glorify God!

If we stay humble and with the Holy Spirit's help we can live our best life now to the Glory of God!! Our best life now is not a life that is lived for ourselves as Joel Osteen would suggest. We must always with the Spirit's help fight the fight of faith to look to God, read his revealed Word and humble ourselves before His Majesty and Glory!

Grace and Peace

Review of Young, Restless, Reformed by Collin Hansen

Young, Restless, Reformed, A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists by Collin Hansen

This book is about a journey of discovery, learning how the younger generation is discovering anew the Great Doctrines of the Christian faith. The younger generation is weary of attending churches that merely entertain rather than preach the Word. These young people long for the true meat of Scripture that changes their lives! They are pursuing true doctrine! There are youth groups and groups on college campuses that are intently studying the Word as well as the Systematic Theologies of Berkhof and Grudem. Some are also reading the Puritans (Edwards and Owen).

One humorous story is about a High School group that started reading through Calvin's Institutes and their parent's found out about it and forbid them to read it. So the youth stopped as their parents wished. They instead started reading a Puritan that their parents had never heard of, John Owen! My spirit has been greatly encouraged by reading this book!!

The books consists of a Prologue, seven chapters and a Epilogue and is 156 pages in length.

Chapter 1 - Born Again Again - Passion Conference, Atlanta, Georgia
Chapter 2 - Out of Bethlehem - Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Chapter 3 - Big Man on Campus - Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Chapter 4 - Ground Zero - Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
Chapter 5 - Drug-Induced Calvinism - Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Chapter 6 - Forget Reinvention - New Attitude Conference, Louisville, Kentucky
Chapter 7 - Missional Mind-set - Mars Hill Church, Seattle, Washington

I'm not wild about some of the chapter titles but the content is good. I am also not fond of the last chapter which is about Mark Driscoll. I'm not really a "fan" of Mark Driscoll.

It's good to know about the things that are happening around the country in the Reformed world. It's easy to get discouraged when all around you is "easy believeism" and "live your best life now".

God is still Sovereign and still on His throne!!

The Three John's

The Lord has lead me to read John Calvin's Institutes. I will be reading some of it each day.
I have also been drawn to read Jonathan Edwards. The desire to read Edwards has come from several places mainly from Pastor Stephen and John Piper. My desire for John Owen has come from Derek Thomas. I have listened to Dr. Thomas's Faiths Foundations class at RTS and a class he taught at PRTS on John Owen.

I realize that if I happened to be 20 years old (which I'm not) I could easily spend the rest of my life studying God's word as well as the works by these men and yet not fully grasp all that they have taught.

I can say that one thing that draws me to these great men of God is their holiness and humility.

I will post a couple of book reviews in the next couple of days.
One for Young, Restless, Reformed by Collin Hansen and the other for Christless Christianity by Michael Horton.

Grace and Peace

Calvinistic Book Reviews Part 2

I have been saving Part 2 for today! This will be a long post today! :-)

The year 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. There are books being published celebrating this fact. They are published under "The Calvin 500 Series".

The book that would be great for everyone to start with is The Legacy of John Calvin by David W. Hall. This book is just 100 pages long. It lists some of Calvin's accomplishments throughout his lifetime and beyond. It also has a brief biography of John Calvin.

The following is the contents of the book:

A Chronology of John Calvin's Life

Ten Ways Modern Culture Is Different because of John Calvin
1. Education: The Academy
2. Care for the Poor: The Bourse
3. Ethics and Interpretation of the Moral Law: The Decalogue
4. Freedom of the Church: The Company of Pastors
5. Collegial Governing: The Senate
6. Decentralized Politics: The Republic
7. Parity among All Professions: The Doctrine of Vocation
8. Economics and Profit: The Invisible Hand
9. Music in the Vernacular: The Psalter
10. The Power of Publishing Ideas: The Genevan Presses

John Calvin: A Life Worth Knowing

Tributes: Measuring a Man after Many Generations

Since this year celebrates the 500th year of Calvin's birth the Foundation for Reformed Theology is encouraging everyone to read through Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.
They have come up with a daily reading plan for the Institutes so it can be read in one year. Anyone who has a copy of the Institutes and would like to read it through in a year can email me and I will send you the PDF of the suggested reading schedule.

If you are wondering how to live out Calvinism (or more accurately, living out the christian life) then this next book is for you.

Living for God's Glory - An Introduction to Calvinism by Joel R. Beeke

The book is just over 400 pages in length and has Six Parts and 28 Chapters. I have really enjoyed reading this book. I want to read it over again sometime in the future. There is a good bit of theology in the second part of the book but I would like to suggest that we all need to fully understand it. It's not a full treatment of the theology but it should be enough for anyone to fully grasp it.

Part One: Calvinism in History
Part Two: Calvinism in the Mind
Part Three: Calvinism in the Heart
Part Four: Calvinism in the Church
Part Five: Calvinism in Practice
Part Six: Calvinism's Goal

I believe this book would be really good for family's especially those who have older children or teens. This is really an excellent book.

Soli Deo Gloria

P.S. My posts will be much slower in the future. I have started reading lager books. I have started Concise Reformed Theology (900+ pages) and the four book Reformed Theology by Herman Bavnik. So it will take me a good while to get through those. I do have some other smaller books that I will be reading a well.