Bible Reading Plan

Dear Church Members,

I hope that you have started the Bible Reading Plan for the 2010 Calendar Year. This year, we are following Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Bible Reading plan. This consists of four chapters a day - two from the New Testament and Two from the Old Testament. This will get you through the entire Bible in One Year! This month of January, we will be reading in the books of Genesis, Matthew, Ezra, and Acts. By the end of the month, we will have read through the entire book of Matthew, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Acts. There is also the option of having two of the readings each day to be family reading in a family devotional setting. This is a great way to get your family involved in the daily discipline of reading Scripture. I hope that this will be profitable to everyone.

Blessings, Joshua

Funny Picture at Southern Seminary

There is a Catholic Church in Louisville close by the Seminary called Holy Spirit Catholic Church. I like one of the signs that it has by the parking lot entrances. Thought everyone would like it.

At Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY

I am at school this week at Southern Seminary and I thought that I would share a couple of pictures of the campus. Every time I am here, I simply get in a "scholastic frame of mind". I love this campus, it is so beautiful to me.

Conversion Day

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of my public profession in the Lord Jesus Christ. To commemorate this event in my life, I like to each year read the full hymn of "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing", which Charles Wesley wrote on one of the anniversaries of his conversion. The hymn actually has many more stanzas than we normally sing. Please read the full hymn below. Thanks be to God and the Lord Jesus Christ for such a gift of grace!

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Reclaiming a Merry Christmas

When did Christmas become like it is today? This is going to be a rambling post, but here it goes.

As a young boy and teenager, I did not mind the commercialization of Christmas, for I always enjoyed opening gifts at Christmas and cherished it as one of the greatest days of the year, one where my wishes for new toys, video games, clothes, candy, cash, and other great items came true. I would then spend the next week while off from school enjoying the gifts that I had received. It was always a highlight! Sure, as a Christian, I understood the deeper meaning of Christmas, that it was the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and enjoyed the festivities at church each year. But as I have grown older, Christmas has become complicated. Now, I have a hard time answering the question, "What makes Christmas merry?" It seems that America's answer to this question would not line up with the biblical ideal.

What happened? Well, in my own life, the realization that there has been a secular backlash against the political incorrectness of celebrating Jesus' birth came a couple of years ago. During that Christmas season, JC Penny had an advertisement that had the music to Joy to the World in the background. But it was not the Christian version. It was the song "Joy to the World" sung by Three Dog Night which starts, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog...". When I heard that, it hit me, Christmas is no longer about Jesus Christ in this country. This year, the similar effect on me occurred when I first saw the jewelry commercial on television where a couple is skating on a frozen pond and the man intentionally falls down to give a Christmas gift to his love as she comes to his aid. The song in

the background? "I've got you babe" by Sonny and Cher.

It seems to me (I could be way off base here) that the focus has shifted from the celebration of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the focus on charitable giving and philanthropy to a focus on the gift giving within the immediate and extended family with little or no giving to those in need. Yes, we give side notice to the plight of the poor, but the focus is on what little Johnny is getting for Christmas from Santa. When did Santa Claus go from gift-giver of the poor to gift-giver to good boys and

girls divorced from its Christian origin? This I think is the key. The change in the legend of Santa Claus in the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries, especially in America, moved Santa Claus from the category of charity to the category of giving children the toys of their dreams and all they had to do was be good. Here is the problem with this picture:

Santa Claus' other name - Saint Nicholas is based on the Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas of Myra who died in 346 A.D. He is famous for two things. First, he was a defender of Orthodoxy who in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea, tradition holds that he punched the heretic Arius after Arius repudiated the deity of Christ. Also, and this gets more to the issue of Christmas, he was renowned for his charity to the POOR. He is especially well-known for donating money to three destitute, young women's dowries so that they could get married, and thus he prevented them from a life of prostitution. The name of Santa Claus comes from the Dutch "Sinterklaas" which is a hybrid of the St. Nicholas tradition and the Norse myths surrounding the god Odin. I recommend that you go to Wikipedia.com and research the origins of Santa Claus.

But, before digressing into a Santa = Satan discussion, let's answer the problem of reclaiming a Merry Christmas. Here is a list of ideas that I recommend:

1. Remember that Christmas is a festival about the INCARNATION of CHRIST = God incarnate. This is the greatest event in human history. We should focus everything / filter everything around this central and glorious truth! Glory be to God!

2. Unapologetically say "Merry Christmas" to everyone - don't worry about political correctness.

3. Celebrate the spirit of giving by investing your time in participating in charitable activities - especially giving to the poor or participating with organizations that do.

4. Celebrate your family! Spend time with your family!

5. Don't get sucked into the commercialization of Christmas. Resist it. Give gifts with meaning and purpose.

I am sure that there are many more tips and recommendations to make a Merry Christmas, but the greatest way to make this Christmas merry is to celebrate your relationship with Christ. The most merry Christmas comes with being a redeemed follower of the Christ who was born on the night that split history.

Merry Christmas!

A Conversion of Sorts

I have recently made the plunge and have bought an Apple MacBook. The last time I owned an Apple was never, because I was in elementary school the last time I used one. My fondest memory of Apple computers was playing Oregon Trail. I cannot count the times I died of dysentery on the game - not even knowing what that was. It certainly is a change in computing. I am enjoying it so far. I am thankful that Microsoft has a version of Microsoft Office that is compatible with Apple Mac's.

I put the logo of Apple on the blog post for a reason. The logo is of an apple with a bite out of it. I seriously doubt that this is the motive behind the logo, but whenever I look at the image, I am reminded of the fallenness of humanity - that Adam and Eve took of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and sinned. Just thought I would throw that imagery out there.

James vs. Paul? The dynamic between Faith and Works

For those who were not at the service on Sunday, I preached on James 2:14-17. James 2:14-17 states this:

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”


Is James contradicting Paul here? James goes on to say specifically Abraham and Rahab were justified by works in verses 21-26. Paul states in Romans 3:23-27 that we are justified freely by grace and the propitiation of Christ Jesus our Lord (“for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.") Many in scholarship today and in the past saw no way to reconcile James and Paul. What about James and Jesus? James was a half-brother of our Lord, but some could say that James and Jesus both teach a justification by works and Paul teaches a justification by faith. Look at Matthew 5:17-20:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.

How do we reconcile this? The words justify, righteous, and righteousness all come from the same root Greek word - dikaios. Justify in Greek is simply the verbal form of the word righteous. To justify is to make righteous. So when Jesus says that unless our righteousness / justification exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and James says that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and faith without works are dead, how do we reconcile that with Romans 3-6?

First, we need to realize that the way Jesus and James define and use the word justification is different than the way Paul uses it. James uses the term to refer to an expression of the faith that is in you. The justification is an evidence or a proof of saving faith. And thus, what Abraham did in his agreeing to sacrifice Isaac or Rahab in assisting the spies was to evidence the saving faith that they already possessed. Genesis 15:6 records that when Abram believed in the covenant that God made to him, Abraham believed the Lord, and God counted it to Abram as righteousness. The event referenced in James about the almost sacrifice of Isaac did not occur until Genesis 22. Therefore, Abraham was already justified by faith in Genesis 15, 7 chapters before he was "justified by works". You see how James is using this term differently - as an evidence or a proof. Regarding the Matthew 5 passage in the Sermon on the Mount, my ESV study bible notes (written Michael J. Wilkins) state this (this is not gospel but I agree with him):

"Jesus calls his disciples to a different kind and quality of righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees. They took pride in outward conformity to many extrabiblical regulations but still had impure hearts. But KINGDOM righteousness works from the inside out because it first produces changed hearts and new motivations (see Rom. 6:17; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:22-23; Phil. 2:12; Heb. 8:10), so that the actual conduct of Jesus' followers does in fact 'exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.'"

This is deep stuff - BUT IT IS CRITICAL. The idea of justification by grace through faith because of the propitiatory work of Christ on the Cross (Propitiation is another word for ATONEMENT) is so mind boggling that we many times cannot grasp the concept even after salvation. Last night during class as we were going through Romans, my professor Dr. Steven Carlson mentioned this (in paraphrase):

Works righteousness and the idea that you can earn salvation or favor from God through works is the default religious view of fallen humanity. After the fall, there was within us a desire to still commune with God and to get back to that relationship. The problem is that in our fallen state, we by default assume that it is through "being good" or "good works" that this comes about. Thus, every religion in the world assumes works righteousness leads to salvation except Christianity (and I suppose Hinduism / Buddhism, which simply denies that sin exists, which is why it is so popular today).

Many of us who have lived within an evangelical context read the previous statements and say, "Sure, we get that you are saved by grace through faith and not by works, what else is new?"

But the following is what I think the hidden danger of legalism in the church:

Are you a closet legalist? A closet legalist is one that believes in salvation by grace through faith and not by works but once saved does good works to either reap the blessings of God or stave off the chastisement of God. We may think this is a proper reading of Scripture, but it robs us of the God of Scripture. It makes our God out to be some cosmic ogre demanding repayment of a stifling debt or a divine Santa Claus “making a list and checking it twice to see who’s been naughty or nice!”

NO – WE DO GOOD WORKS, WE ARE CHARITABLE, WE ARE LOVING, WE ARE OBEDIENT BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN, WE ARE A NEW CREATION, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS AND OUR GOOD WORKS IS OUR HIGHEST FORM OF WORSHIP THAT WE CAN GIVE TO A GOD WHO SAVES!!!!!! Any other faith, any other work/deed that is not rooted in CHRIST and for his glory is DEAD.


In the Heidelberg Catechism question 86 says this: “Since we are redeemed from our sin and its consequences by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why must we do good works?” In other words, if salvation is by grace, why be good? The answer that the catechism gives is very instructive: “So that with our whole life we may show ourselves grateful to God for his goodness and that he may be glorified through us.” We offer service to the kingdom of God not to gain his affection but in loving thankfulness for his affection. (Question 86, pulled from Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching, p. 314)

It is my prayer that Christian evangelicalism will have a revival during the coming decades that will reclaim the true Gospel teaching of faith-righteousness in Christ Jesus. We truly are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. All this is from GOD WHO THROUGH CHRIST RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF AND GAVE US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION (II Cor. 5:17-18).

Amen, Christ Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father from everlasting to everlasting!