What I am Reading

This is a book that every Christian should read at least once. Augustine Confessions is a classic. Do not let the title misled you. Augustine doesn’t mean confessions in the sense of exposing his guilt and sin (although he does that), but rather a confession of faith in Christ. Augustine believes that since man has been created by God it is his natural “instinct to praise you.” “The thought of you (God) stirs him (man) so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.” I have read this classic probably a half a dozen times in my life and it never grows stale. It is a great aid for worship and prayer. I was fortunate to familiarize myself with it once again last November when I wrote a major paper on Augustine’s view of the psalms.

Help!!

“The woman in Paradise announced death to her husband, and the women in the church announced salvation to the men.”

Nuts and Bolts

Recently I watched the movie “The Fighter”.  I honestly don’t watch many movies, and most I do watch are lame.  Aside from the profane language (this isn’t a family film), this movie best depicts the neighbor I grew up in.  I saw crack houses, prostitutes, brawls, and straight forward language.  Christian Bale should have received an Oscar for his performance.  As I watched the movie, I recalled my old neighborhood, and the grace of Jesus that rescued me from its ills.  I could have easily been a criminal or harmed, but God in his kind mercy delivered me from it.
Speaking of movies, here is a recent news poll where scientists actually gauged the saddest movie in terms that make you cry the most.  It seems my sister has been right for all these years.

John MacArthur on Fashionable Preachers

“I sometimes think no group is more fashion-conscious than the current crop of hipster church planters—except perhaps teenage girls.”

Update on Southern

Recently I headed back to Louisville for half of a seminar on Baptist Spirituality with a particular emphasis on Benjamin Beddome.  I am thankful to Dr. Michael Haykin and the other men that are part of this seminar.  And my gratitude goes out to my family and church for making this possible.

Fredrick Dale Burner on Christ Death for all Saints

I have mentioned before but I and the evangelical world is indebted to the Matthew commentary by Frederick Dale Bruner.  This two volume set is on every page a classic example of what superb exegesis looks like.  Bruner comments on the section in chapter 27 when saints come back from the dead when Jesus dies.
“The most helpful doctrinal point in this text is this: Jesus death is as effective BC as it was AD; Jesus death is as retroactive into the past as it is proactive into the future.  A frequently asked question in Sunday school class is: What about all the people before Christ who looked for God’s saving work?” These opened tombs tell us that Jesus’ death has as much power to raise those who looked forward to God’s salvation as it does raise those who look back on it.  Thus Christ’s death is as cosmic in time as it is cosmic in space.  The death of Jesus reaches out as far horizontally into history as it reaches up vertically into eternity.  The two directions of the cross-outward and upward, teach the universality of Christ’s work.”