George Mueller:

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.

George Mueller:

For more than half a century, I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 40 years, I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. I have nine assistants always at work corresponding in German, French, English, Danish, Italian, Russian, and other languages. Then, as pastor of a church with 1200 believers, great has been my care. I have had charge of five orphanages; also at my publishing depot, the printing and circulation of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles. But I have always made it a rule never to begin work till I have had a good season with God.

(HT:  bible.org)

Title:  John Calvin:  A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology

Editor:  Burk Parsons

Contributors Include:  Jay Adams, Jerry Bridges, Sinclair Ferguson, Michael Horton, Steve Lawson, John MacArthur, Philip Ryken

Publisher:  Reformation Trust, 2008; 257 pp. $19.00

Recommendation (4-star scale): 

This year, in honor of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, I have focused more of my reading on Calvin — works both about him and by him.  And I have been much encouraged and helped in the process.

I purchased this book near the end of last year and it sat on my shelf for some time before I picked it back up, and I’ve spent the last month or so working my way through the 19 essays that make up the book.

Most of these essays are not as much about Calvin the person (though there are a couple of those), but about Calvin and his theology and spiritual legacy.  As noted above, the contributors to this volume make up something of a contemporary “who’s who” in the Reformed tradition (though conspicuously missing were R. C. Sproul and John Piper).  Each article had a contribution to make, though a couple seemed somewhat scant in their insights.

Two articles alone made the volume worth the purchase price for me:  “The Churchman of the Reformation,” and “The Principle Article of Salvation.”

In the former article, author Harry Reeder draws attention to Calvin’s role as a leader, preacher, teacher, writer, shepherd, and evangelist-missionary.  What was most significant in this article is that final role of Calvin, for a common lament against Calvinism is its lack of evangelistic emphasis.  Yet evangelism was central to his personal and ministerial life:

Calvin persistently evangelized the children of Geneva through catechism classes and the Geneva Academy.  Moreover, he trained preachers to appeal for men and women to follow Christ.  The visitation of the sick prescribed an evangelistic inquiry.  Even a cursory examination of Calvin’s sermons reveals an unquenchable zeal for men and women to be converted to Christ.

But what about missions?  In the Registry of the Venerable Company of Pastors, it is recorded that eighty-eight missionaries had been sent out from Geneva.  In actuality, there were probably more than one hundred.…The blessing of God upon the missionary endeavors of Calvin and the Geneva churches from 1555 to 1562 was extraordinary — more than one hundred underground churches were planted in France by 1560.  By 1562, the number had increased to 2,150, producing more than three million members.…

Calvin did not evangelize and plant churches in France alone.  Geneva-trained missionaries planted churches in Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Germany, England, Scotland, and the independent states of the Rhineland.  Even more astonishing was an initiative that sent missionaries to Brazil.  Calvin’s commitment to evangelism and missions was not theoretical, but as in every other area of his life and ministry, a matter of zealous action and passionate commitment.

So Reeder is helpful in debunking some of the misapprehensions and misnomers about the impact of Calvin’s theology on ministry and missions, making this article particularly helpful.

The other article that was especially helpful for me personally was Michael Horton’s essay, “The Principle Article of Salvation.”  Horton illustrates what Calvin centrally believed about justification, how believers are united to Christ, and what the implication of that justification and union is on sanctification.

As I told a couple people after reading that article, I felt that I had misunderstood sanctification for much of my life.  Quoting from The Institutes, Horton draws attention to this statement:

…sons, who are more generously and candidly treated by their fathers, do not hesitate to offer them incomplete and half-done and even defective works, trusting that their obedience and readiness will be approved by our most merciful Father, however small, rude, and imperfect these may be.

Horton then draws this conclusion:  “Once works are no longer presented to God for justification, they can be accepted despite their imperfections by a merciful Father for the sake of Christ.”

And later he adds that because we have in heaven not a Judge, but a gracious Father, we are freed “for the first time to obey God and serve our neighbor without fear of punishment for our shortcomings.…Although they play no role in God’s acceptance of us, even believers’ imperfect works are welcomed by the Father because their corruption ‘is buried in Christ’s purity and is not charged to our account.’”

So a believer’s works are “justified” in the sense that they are accepted entirely by God because of our union to Christ and His perfect righteousness being attributed and reckoned to us, yet they do not contribute to our justification.  The latter part of the previous sentence is widely acknowledged by evangelicals — our works do not merit our salvation.  Yet that the favor of God on all our works — even incomplete and imperfect works — is uncommonly known to believers (and misunderstood about Calvinism).

Because of the cross-work of Christ, we are justified, and because of the cross-work of Christ, we (and all our works) are entirely accepted by the Father.  This, of course, is not to produce in us apathy to works, but rest and contentment that failure will not produce judgment and disavowal, but rather the loving correction of the Father and the continued application of Christ’s righteousness to those failures.

Here is not only a chapter that I will continue to reference and re-read, but also an encouragement to continue reading The Institutes myself so I might read the entire context of Calvin’s words.

So purchase this book for these two chapters — it’s worth it — and then read the rest of the book as well and reap the extra blessing of added insights into Calvin and Calvinism.

When we do not pray, there are a multiplicity of reasons that we offer for our waywardness:

• busy-ness
• weariness
• apathy and distractions
• lack of knowledge about what (or how) to pray
• sin

May I suggest also that one primary reason we do not pray is because we either do not know or do not believe the authority of the One to whom we pray and our access to Him.

In Ephesians 1, Paul is exceedingly careful to expound the activity of the triune God in our salvation — the Father has blessed, chosen, predestined, and adopted us (vv. 3-6); the Son redeemed and forgiven us, lavished His grace on us, revealed the mystery of His will to us, and given us an inheritance and hope (vv. 7-12); the Spirit has sealed us and been given to us as a pledge (guarantee) of our inheritance (vv. 13-14).

The entire Godhead is (and has eternally been) active in our salvation.

Then, as Paul summarizes the first three chapters in a prayer for the Ephesians, he notes the availability of the triune God in prayer.  Moreover, the three requests in this prayer correspond to the three persons of the Godhead:

• that they would know the power of the Spirit (vv. 16-17)
• that they would know the love of Christ (vv. 18-19a)
• that they would know the fulness of God (v. 19b)

This God who has eternally prepared and brought about our salvation not only makes Himself accessible to us through prayer, but He also offers His divine power, love and fulness for the daily living of our lives.  As I said, one reason we do not pray is because we do not know what has been made available to us.  This infinite, majestic, holy, powerful, wrathful, gracious and loving God is also the One who is our accessible Father!

John MacArthur well summarizes our position before our God and Father when he writes,

Because God is our heavenly Father, we do not come to Him in fear and trembling, afraid that He will rebuff us or be indifferent.  We do not come to God to appease Him as the pagans do to their deities.  We come to a tender, loving, concerned, compassionate, accepting Father.  A loving human father always accepts the advances of his children, even when they have been disobedient or ungrateful.  How much more does our heavenly Father accept His children, regardless of what they have done or not done?  Paul approaches the Father with boldness and confidence, knowing that He is more willing for His children to come to Him than they ever are of going to Him.  He knows that God has been waiting all the while with a Father’s heart of love and anticipation. [Ephesians, p. 101.]

So the appeal to us to pray is not out of guilt and obligation, but from a gracious, generous, and sweet invitation from God Himself that we might delight in Him and in coming to Him.  Come and pray because you can!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ:

…as Christians let us always remember that the Name that is on us is the Name of God, ‘from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named’.  What matters is no longer the family of David, no longer this tribe or that tribe, no longer this country or that country, this class or that class, this group or that group.  No!  The family name which I claim is the Name of God, and I am to live in this world as one who represents that family, as one who represents that Father.  His name is on me; so may it never be besmirched!  May men never think meanly of Him and His Name because of what they see in me!

I didn’t have my radio on most of the day yesterday, so I heard no news during the day.  On my drive home I was listening to a sermon, so I likewise missed the news.  So when I got home one of the girls said something about Fort Hood, and I was confused about what she was saying.

Then I turned on the news.

Another violent shooting tragedy.

When I opened my web browser this morning, I saw an article I’d forgotten that I’d pulled up a couple days ago to read later:  “A Violent, Vicious Cycle.” It chronicled two recent violent killings that seemed particularly senseless.  One columnist is quoted as saying,

“This has got to stop,” Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote. But why doesn’t it? The cycle of death repeats itself again and again.

“The killing, the shock. The shouting, the weeping. The refreshed resolve to make it end. And then the urgency wanes.”

The urgency wanes.  It wanes, in part, because so many have such inadequate answers and so few have relevant answers.  What I said at a previous, similar event is still appropriate today:

• This is the reality of what unrestrained sin looks like and is the natural result of the work of Satan. He is a destroyer (1 Pt. 5:8) and a murderer (Jn. 8:44; 10:10a), and we should not be surprised (though it is a work of grace that we are, since it indicates that sin is still a horror to us) that those who live under his control, authority and domain do such things.  This is not to suggest in any way that this shooter was demon possessed or part of a Satanic cult; it is simply to say that the ruler of this world influences this world with his objectives and desires, and his desire is destruction — which we saw far too graphically again yesterday.
• The suddenness of their deaths serves as a reminder to the realities of eternity — heaven and hell and the truth that all men will go to one place or the other (Rev. 22:11-15).
• Thus, the events of the week also serve as a reminder about the urgency of the gospel and the need for the clarity of the gospel. We do not know how much time we have. We must be clear, and we must be clear, now. We want to give saving truth, not pacifying words that will leave them comfortable now and condemned in hell later.  Keith has been preaching the last three weeks about the gospel and evangelism.  This circumstance is an opportunity for us to speak relevantly and precisely and hopefully about the only resolution to these sin circumstances.
• Even in this, there is an opportunity to glorify God. Job said it, didn’t he (in a situation not too dissimilar from what we’ve seen this week) — “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Situations like this will not destroy our worship; they will enhance it. That is why we intentionally sing the doxology when we remember events like this.
• God is sufficient to see anyone through any trouble (2 Pet. 1:3). What all men need is not so much the removal of trouble, but an awareness of the weight of glory that awaits those who trust in Christ (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

Of course the common complaint in this circumstance often is, “how could God allow this?  How could He let all these innocent people die?”  Yet the greater and more penetrating question is, “why did He spare me?  Why did He extend His grace on me another day and allow me to live?”  Over the course of my life I have sinned enough against the standard of God’s perfection that He would have been fully just to have condemned me to hell decades ago.  It is only because of grace and Christ that He spares me.  I do not merit life; only His grace grants that life.  That any on earth this morning awakened to life is a manifestation of God’s kindness and grace.

So even in this tragedy, there is opportunity for the gracious intermingling of both the gospel and gratitude.

Mark Galli, “Yawning at the Word:”

Whenever the Bible is read, a hush should come over us. We should be inching toward the edge of our seats, leaning forward, turning our best ear toward the speaker, fearful we’ll miss a single word—the deeds and words and character of Almighty and Merciful God are being revealed! In a world of suffering and pain, of doubt and despair, of questions about the meaning and purpose of existence, we are about to hear of God’s glory, forgiveness, mercy and love, of his intention for the world, of his promise to make it all good in the end, of the way to join his people, of the means to abide with him forever!

Title:  Disciplines of a Godly Man

Author:  R. Kent Hughes

Publisher:  Crossway Books, 2009; 304 pp. $15.99

Recommendation (4-star scale): 

There are a variety of reasons that people fail to live disciplined lives — laziness and apathy, fleeting awareness of the cost of feeble discipline, weakness and immaturity, lack of a role model, and sometimes, we’re simply uneducated and untaught.

It is this last issue that Kent Hughes addresses in his wonderfully helpful book, Disciplines of a Godly Man.

Why write a book like this?  Because, Hughes says, “disciplined Christian lives are the exception, not the rule…[and because] men are so much less spiritually inclined and spiritually disciplined than women.”

To help men become more disciplined, Hughes fingers four primary areas of a man’s life — his relationships, his soul, his character, and his ministry — and writes several chapters in each area to address specific areas of need.  For instance, under “character,” he addresses the needs of integrity, tongue, and work.

Each chapter is relatively brief — 10-15 pages — and includes a simple discussion guide that can be used either individually or in a group setting.  Hughes’ writing is also engaging with multiple illustrations and examples, along with concise explanations of Bible passages.  Even for the man who is disinclined to read, this book is invitingly readable.

A sample statement from his chapter on devotion:

The reason many men do not have an effective devotional life is, they never plan for it.  They do not know what it is because they have never taken the time to find out.  They do not pray because they do not set aside the time.…The question for prayerless men is a very masculine one:  Are we man enough to meditate?  To confess?  To adore?  To submit?  To sweat and endure?

Now the real challenge in writing a book like this is not just in the writing, but in persuading men to read it.  Face it, more books for men are purchased by women for their men than by the men themselves.  Let’s be culturally different at GBC — men, don’t just buy this book.  Buy it, read it, and implement it in your life.

This book is available in the church library, and in the bookstore ($11).

John Calvin, quoted in John Calvin:  A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology:

For what can be more awfully tormenting than to be constantly racked with doubt and anxiety?  And we will never be able to arrive at a calm state of mind until we are taught to repose with implicit confidence in the providence of God.

J. W. Alexander, Remember Him:

The greatest care is necessary in an affair so important as the examination of your state before God.  You will naturally be reluctant to come to an unfavourable conclusion about this and so self-love combined with self-ignorance will expose you to the danger of self-deception.  Earnestly endeavour to exercise a holy candour.  Be thorough and, for this purpose, do not be hasty in your search but use frequent repetition.