I had made a brief comment in this post a while back that our fuel for evangelism is the holiness of God. I was talking with my pastor a while back about his trip to the Together For The Gospel conference and he mentioned that I needed to listen to David Platt's message on missions. He said that it was the best missions message he'd ever heard. That's saying a lot because he's been a Christian for about 30+ years. Here's that message: ...

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Mark 10:35-40 Sometimes the will of God is like a diamond; the more you turn it in the light of Jesus Christ the more prisms you see. One of the things that God has said to grant to us, on top of believing in Christ, is suffering. Philippians 1:29 says exactly that, "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake." Sometimes suffering, depression, and the like can be a faceless, nameless thing. It comes like a cold wind and you try to grab hold of it and it passes right through your fingers. I've often wondered about those moments in my life and I've tried to live with them in the view that God was working all things for good for the one who loves Him. I recently ran across this excerpt from Charles Spurgeon about suffering and thought it would be something worth sharing with you to remind you about one "prism" of your suffering as a Christian. Chapter 9 of The Soul Winner entitled "The Cost of Being A Soul Winner"...

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"The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to  heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the  waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!" Proverbs 30:1-4 Did you get that? Right there in Proverbs, in the wisdom literature of the scriptures, we have an clear, honest, and humble assessment of our knowledge of the Holy. If I have learned one thing in my pursuit of God its this - I don't know a thing! Listen to what John Owen says about this: For the being of God; we are so far from a knowledge of it, so as to be able to instruct one another therein by words and expressions of it, as that to frame any conceptions in our mind, with such species and impressions of things as we receive the knowledge of all other things by, is to make an idol to ourselves, and so to worship a god of our own making, and not the God that made us. We may as well and as lawfully hew him out of wood or stone as form him a being in our minds, suited to our apprehensions. The utmost of the best of our thoughts of the being of God is, that we can have no thoughts of it. Our knowledge of a being is but low when it mounts no higher but only to know that we know it not. There be some things of God which he himself hath taught us to speak of, and to regulate our expressions of them; but when we have so done, we see not the things themselves; we know them not. To believe and...

I've been thinking a lot about the god of time and comfort and how much we Christians in America sacrifice to those idols. Although it may not be living and breathing, it is still alive. It must die! I thought this was a worthy re-post for such a time as this. Some questions we've asked ourselves in the past. Are you wasting your life on the American Dream? What does a life fully lived for Christ look like? Does a Christian ever really retire? Do you really deserve all that you think you do? What subtle lie have you bought about comfort and ease? Where do you spend the majority of your time and resources? At the end of your life, what will matter more: your retirement and ease or the fact that you have spent and been spent for the sake of the gospel? In light of the fact that darkness hates light, have you been persecuted lately? If not, are you shining light? Watch this video below-- Link To The Video...

John Owen - probably the most difficult theologian I've ever read. Not only is the language a bit of a barrier, but the sheer depth of the mans thought puts anyone I've ever listened to or read who thought they knew anything to utter shame. No wonder he was called during the Puritan era the "theologian's theologian." He is in a class of his own. But, once you truly labor to understand what he is saying, the fruit of it is both pain and health. Pain because he digs around in the deepest parts of your soul and really stirs it up, but health because he always leads back to Christ. The Holy Spirit used him like a surgeons knife in precision of thought and depth of understanding in my life recently and I wanted to share it with you. I don't believe there is anyone who reads this than can escape the analysis he makes. May God grant us repentance. So I preface what I am about to post by him with that; read it, it's hard to understand - at first - but fight to grasp it and it will do your soul good. I think I sat and pondered this for almost an hour the other night and read it at least 3 times. "A man finds any lust to bring him into the condition formerly described; it is powerful, strong, tumultuating, leads captive, vexes, disquiets, takes away peace; he is not able to bear it; wherefore he sets himself against it, prays against it, groans under it, sighs to be delivered: but in the meantime, perhaps, in other duties, -- in constant communion with God, -- in reading, prayer, and meditation, -- in other ways that are not of the same kind with the lust wherewith he is troubled, -- he is loose and negligent. Let not that man think that ever he shall arrive to the mortification of the lust he is perplexed withal. This is a condition that not seldom befalls men in their pilgrimage. The Israelites, under a sense of their sin, drew nigh to God...

We look out upon a pagan nation, or even at the lives of our unregenerate neighbors, and think of the impossibilities of the mission of the gospel, yet we sit at the dinner table and open His word to heartily take up the pursuit of grasping His holiness as if grasping the fullness of it were mere childs play. It is our lack of understanding of the latter, namely His holiness, that makes the former such an obstacle. Fuel for missions and the willingness to face the challenges they propose must come from an intimate, yet never encompassing, knowledge of His holiness first. Isaiah had a vision, then Isaiah had a commission! (Isaiah 6:1-8) It is this inexhaustible holiness that must be our source and strength. All other supplies of energy that we seek will fast fade into the night. Not even a fervent zeal and love for the souls of men can sustain us. It must be Him and Him alone. Press into Him. Press hard into Him and when you rise to face Satan and all his hellish crew, you will have the strength of Heaven itself pressing your forward. Holy Spirit give us this daily bread....

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." 1 Cor. 15:10 God, I am in this struggle. I could say that there are very many things that define who I am, but none so much as Christ; still I don't have the measure of the character of Him that I would like. But I am in this struggle. I understand that what is sown does not come to life unless it dies. But I am in this struggle. Your word says in 1 Cor. 15:51-55, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable." 1 Cor. 15:42 But I am in this struggle. I'm not who I was  but I'm not who I need to be  but by your grace I am what I am. The struggle is bitter and sweet at the same time. Bitter because the more I draw near to you the more I see my wretchedness. Sweet because the more I draw near to you the more I feel I am where I need to be. My sould sometimes, Lord, feels like its bursting out of my skin towards you. But I am in this struggle. I am longing for this caterpillar to become a butterfly of grace. Come forth! Lazarus come forth! The stone has been rolled away,It's resurrection day.We shall be changed. Even so come Lord Jesus!...

For awhile fascinated by the siren voice of vain philosophy and affected culture, many of the churches have drawn perilously near to the rocks of heresy and doubt, but divine grace is visiting them, and they will shake off the spell.Everywhere there is a cry for the gospel, for men who will preach it in the love of it, for ministers who will live it, and inoculate others with its life: the church is growing sick of essayists, and asks for men of God. She is weary of word-spinners, and pretenders to deep thought, and she cries for men full of the Holy Spirit, who are lovers of the word and not speakers only. Soul-winners will soon be in demand, and your genteel essayists will have to carry their dry goods to another market. Sane men do not need fiddlers, while the life-boat is being manned to save yonder perishing ones from the devouring deep.-Charles Spurgeon, from January 1873's Sword and Trowel essay. You can download the entire essay here. It's worth the read....

A friend once shared, "We pray more to keep saints out of Heaven than we do to keep sinners out of Hell." How many times do we pray for God's hand rather than God's heart? The truth of the matter is most of us would shun the health, wealth and prosperity gospel, but we sure don't pray like it. Our prayers sound just like those heretics preach! We're too busy praying for safety, health and ease. Christ's gospel will never advance this way. We don't pray for lighter loads but the strength of Christ to carry what He has given us! (Colossians 1:29) Listen, Christian, your Lord has saved you to a life of war. Christ has not saved you to sit in the barracks, giving your opinions about war strategy when you've never stepped foot on the battle field. The strategy has already been written. The General has already spoken. Look at yourself in the mirror. Don't you see you are fitted for war? You already have the weapons, the armor, the commission and the promise of victory. You know the enemy. You know there is no guarantee of your safety. You know what you need to do. You know why you've been delaying. Stand up soldier. Don't you hear the bombs dropping? Can't you feel the rattle of the enemies guns? Don't you hear their shouts and taunts? Are you not jealous that men are still robed in enemy garments!? Resolve in your mind to die to yourself and go fight. The blood of brothers before you has advanced the cause. Now yours is needed. Great reformation calls for great sacrifice....

"There is a common complaint in these latter days that there is a want of power in modern Christianity, and that the true church of Christ, the body of which He is the Head, does not shake the world in the nineteenth century as it used to do in former years. Shall I tell you in plain words what is the reason? It is the low tone of life which is so sadly prevalent among professing believers. We want more men and women who walk with God and before God, like Enoch and Abraham. Though our numbers at this date far exceed those of our evangelical forefathers, I believe we fall far short of them in our standard of Christian practice. Where is the self–denial, the redemption of time, the absence of luxury and self–indulgence, the unmistakable separation from earthly things, the manifest air of being always about our Master’s business, the singleness of eye, the simplicity of home life, the high tone of conversation in society, the patience, the humility, the universal courtesy, which marked so many of our forerunners seventy or eighty years ago? Yes, where is it indeed? We have inherited their principles and we wear their armor, but I fear we have not inherited their practice. The Holy Spirit sees it, and is grieved; and the world sees it, and despises us. The world sees it, and cares little for our testimony. It is life, life—a heavenly, godly, Christ–like life—depend on it, which influences the world. Let us resolve, by God’s blessing, to shake off this reproach. Let us awake to a clear view of what the times require of us in this matter. Let us aim at a much higher standard of practice. Let the time past suffice us to have been content with a half–and–half holiness. For the time to come, let us endeavor to walk with God, to be thorough, and unmistakable in our daily life, and to silence, if we cannot convert, a sneering world." -J.C. Ryle, Holiness...

"Now I do beseech all who read this message to beware of this undecided state of mind in religion. It is a pestilence which walks in darkness, and a destruction that kills in noonday. It is a lazy, idle frame of soul which, doubtless, saves men the trouble of thought and investigation; but it is a frame of soul for which there is no warrant in the Bible, nor yet in the Articles or Prayer Book of the Church of England. For your own soul’s sake dare to make up your mind what you believe, and dare to have positive distinct views of truth and error. Never, never be afraid to hold decided doctrinal opinions; and let no fear of man and no morbid dread of being thought party–spirited, narrow or controversial, make you rest contented with a bloodless, boneless, tasteless, colorless, lukewarm, undogmatic Christianity. Mark what I say. If you want to do good in these times, you must throw aside indecision, and take up a distinct, sharply cut, doctrinal religion. If you believe little, those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing. The victories of Christianity, wherever they have been won, have been won by distinct doctrinal theology, by telling men roundly of Christ’s vicarious death and sacrifice, by showing them Christ’s substitution on the cross and His precious blood, by teaching them justification by faith and bidding them believe on a crucified Savior, by preaching ruin by sin, redemption by Christ, regeneration by the Spirit, by lifting up the bronze serpent, by telling men to look and live, to believe, repent and be converted. This, this is the only teaching which for eighteen centuries God has honored with success, and is honoring at the present day both at home and abroad. Let the clever advocates of a broad and undogmatic theology—the preachers of the gospel of earnestness and sincerity and cold morality—let them, I say, show us at this day any English village or parish or city or town or district, which has been evangelized without "dogma," by their principles. They cannot do it, and...

I like to read a lot, but I'm not a band-wagon reader. I don't jump on "popular" books even from solid sources when everyone else is. I really enjoy books by dead people, especially those whose teachings have stood the test of time. I simply don't have time to weed through the stuff. I'm not saying it's wrong to read every new-wave thing that comes out - I personally don't. So, up front I haven't read the book Radical by David Platt. That in itself might dismiss most of you from reading the rest of this, but I think we can get a feel for a book by a synopsis, various excerpts, or friend whose read it. I've gotten a decent grasp over what the book is about and I'd like to offer just a short thought The book, from what I can tell, basically lays out the fact that many Christians have sacrificed living for Jesus for the comfortable American Christianity (oxymoron) that's out there. It compels the reader to follow Christ in radical ways; Biblical ways. On the outset I think the book has the wrong title. I think the book should be called "Normal." Here's why: By propping the book up upon the title Radical it's making out the normal Christian life that the scriptures show us to be something other than what American Christianity has to offer. It seems to me to be saying that normal Christianity is American Christianity and radical Christianity is following Jesus and doing what He commands. A few questions: Is there such thing as a radical Christian? Or, are we seeing abnormal "Christianity" and we're so Biblically illiterate that we don't know the difference? Where in scripture does it teach that a Christian has the option of being "normal" or "radical"? Where does scripture teach of a "radical" faith and "radical" obedience? I think that idea is pushed onto the text, rather than drawn from it. I would say it's more of a rebuke to our flesh to call what the scripture shows us as examples of simple faith normal rather than radical. It shows us...

"I have read of an old Welsh believer, who used to walk several miles every Sunday to hear an English clergyman preach, though she did not understand a word of English. She was asked why she did so. She replied, that this clergyman named the name of Christ so often in his sermons, that it did her good. She loved even the name of her Savior." J.C. Ryle, Holiness...

"Love to Christ is the mainspring of work for Christ. There is little done for His cause on earth from sense of duty, or from knowledge of what is right and proper. The heart must be interested before the hands will move and continue moving. Excitement may galvanize the Christian’s hands into a fitful and spasmodic activity. But there will be no patient continuance in well–doing, no unwearied labor in missionary work at home or abroad, without love. The nurse in a hospital may do her duty properly and well, may give the sick man his medicine at the right time, may feed him, minister to him and attend to all his wants. But there is a vast difference between that nurse and a wife tending the sick–bed of a beloved husband, or a mother watching over a dying child. The one acts from a sense of duty; the other from affection and love. The one does her duty because she is paid for it; the other is what she is because of her heart. It is just the same in the matter of the service of Christ. The great workers of the church, the men who have led forlorn hopes in the mission–field, and turned the world upside down, have all been eminently lovers of Christ." -J.C. Ryle, Holiness...

An excerpt from the book Holiness by J.C. Ryle that I want to brand on my heart! "I am afraid that many who profess Christ in our day have lost sight of our Lord’s person. They talk more about salvation than about their only Savior, and more about redemption than the one true Redeemer, and more about Christ’s work than Christ Himself. This is a great fault, one that accounts for the dry and shriveled spirit that infuses the religious lives of many who profess faith. As ever you would grow in grace, and have joy and peace in believing, beware of falling into this error. Cease to regard the Gospel as a mere collection of dry doctrines. Look at it rather as the revelation of a mighty living Being in whose sight you are daily to live. Cease to regard it as a mere set of abstract propositions and abstruse principles and rules. Look at it as the introduction to a glorious personal Friend. This is the kind of Gospel that the apostles preached. They did not go about the world telling men of love and mercy and pardon in the abstract. The leading subject of all their sermons was the loving heart of an actual living Christ. This is the kind of Gospel which is most calculated to promote sanctification and fitness for glory. Nothing, surely, is so likely to prepare us for that heaven where Christ’s personal presence will be all, and that glory where we shall meet Christ face to face, as to realize communion with Christ, as an actual living Person here on earth. There is all the difference in the world between an idea and a person."...

From his book, Holiness, J.C. Ryle writes "If we desire to do good, let us never be ashamed of walking in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Work hard if you will, and have the opportunity, for the souls of others. Press them to consider their ways. Compel them with holy violence to come in, to lay down their arms and to yield themselves to God. Offer them salvation, ready, free, full, immediate salvation. Press Christ and all His benefits on their acceptance. But in all your work tell the truth, and the whole truth. Be ashamed to use the vulgar arts of a recruiting sergeant. Do not speak only of the uniform, the pay and the glory; speak also of the enemies, the battle, the armor, the watching, the marching and the drill. Do not present only one side of Christianity. Do not keep back the cross of self–denial that must be carried, when you speak of the cross on which Christ died for our redemption. Explain fully what Christianity entails. Entreat men to repent and come to Christ; but bid them at the same time to count the cost." This volume is considered the best book on the Christian life that has ever been written. We highly recommend it....

Some questions we've asked ourselves in the past. Are you wasting your life on the American Dream? What does a life fully lived for Christ look like? Does a Christian ever really retire? Do you really deserve all that you think you do? What subtle lie have you bought about comfort and ease?   Where do you spend the majority of your time and resources? At the end of your life, what will matter more: your retirement and ease or the fact that you have spent and been spent for the sake of the gospel? In light of the fact that darkness hates light, have you been persecuted lately? If not, are you shining light? Watch this video below-- Link To The Video...

Remember how your fathers, in times gone by, defended God's truth, and blush, ye cowards, who are afraid to maintain it!Remember that our Bible is a blood-stained book; the blood of martyrs is on the Bible, the blood of translators and confessors. The pool of holy baptism, in which many of you have been baptized, is a blood-stained pool: full many have had to die for the vindication of that baptism which is "the answer of a good conscience toward God."The doctrines which we preach to you are doctrines that have been baptized in blood,—swords have been drawn to slay the confessors of them; and there is not a truth which has not been sealed by them at the stake, or the block, or far away on the lofty mountains, where they have been slain by hundreds. It is but a little duty we have to discharge compared with theirs. They were called to maintain the truth when they had to die for it; you only have to maintain the truth when taunt and jeer, ignominious names and contemptuous epithets are all you have to endure for it.What! do you expect easy lives? While some have led through seas of blood, and have fought to win the prize, are you wearied with a slight skirmish on dry land? What would you do if God should suffer persecuting days to overtake you? O craven spirits, ye would flee away, and disown your profession!Be ye the pillar and ground of the truth. Let the blood of martyrs, let the voices of confessors, speak to you. Remember how they held fast the truth, how they preserved it, and handed it down to us from generation to generation; and by their noble example, I beseech you, be steadfast and faithful, tread valiantly and firmly in their steps, acquit yourselves like men,—like men of God, I implore you!Shall we not have some champions, in these times, who will deal sternly with heresies for the love of the truth,—men who will stand like rocks in the center of the sea, so that, when all others shake, they...

"Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise." 1 Corinthians 3:18 "We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute." 1 Corinthians 4:10 "Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24 I want to challenge you with something. Where I come from everyone knows everyone. The county that I live in is a fairly large county, but that doesn't stop you from running into familiar faces all the time. This is a blessing and a challenge. What do I mean by that? Most people would say that they are terrified to speak to total strangers about the Gospel because they are, well, strangers. They say that they would rather take the time to build a relationship over time with someone and then speak to them. I have found this, by experience, not to be the case and it's not because I am "good" at speaking to strangers. Talking with people I've known for a while terrifies me. Why? Because there is more to lose, in a sense. There is a greater sense of fear there. I look at this fear like a tree. The more you let it grow, the harder it is to chop it down. If it is a seedling then you can just snatch it right out of the ground with your bare hands. This fear, however, is irrational and not from God. (2 Timothy 1:7) I have pinpointed the root of my fear. It is idolatry. Covetous idolatry of self to be exact. I value myself more than Christ. I, in whatever sense, am ashamed of the Gospel in those situations. I really hate that about myself. It frustrates me and makes me cry out to God for deliverance in this. Have you struggled with the fear of identifying with Christ in public; in...