Weekly Spurgeon

From Morning and Evening

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light.”
-1 John 1:7

As He is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as He is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all”? Certainly, this is the model which it set before us, for the Saviour Himself said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect”; and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to His image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in His holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.

Top 10 (According to Me)

Everyone loves lists.  They are neat, compact, easy to read, and controversial.  So, in the next few days, I’m going to have a series of Top 10 (or 5) lists.  Feel free to share your thoughts.  Here’s the proposed linup:

Today: Top 10 Christian Albums
Sunday: Top 10 American Heroes of the 20th Century
Monday: Top 10 Sitcoms in the 1990s
Tuesday: Top 10 Sports Moments since I was born (1984)

That’s a wild, crazy, wide-ranged list.  Enjoy.

. . .

Top 10 Christian Albums of All Time

10.  Satellite, POD, 2001 – Released on 9/11/01, this album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200.  POD is well-known to have Christian band members, but they have long had success in the secular market.  Satellite is by far their best project.  Four songs had extensive radio play, with “Youth of a Nation” and “Alive” charting at 1 and 2 respectively on the Modern Rock Track chart.  The album has metal, alternative, reggae, and rap influences.  “Set if Off” and “Boom” are songs that will get you out of your seat.  If you can handle the tattoos, piercings, loud bass, and hard choruses, you’ll enjoy this San Diego band’s fourth studio release.  Top Track: “Alive”

9.  Wherever You Are, Third Day, 2005 – Either this album had major mainstream appeal or a lot of Christians went out to buy it.  It peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200 — comparable to Blink 182’s greatest hits.  Perhaps down the road, we’ll find their newest album Revelation to surpass this in popularity, but for now, Wherever You Are is on top for this Atlanta band.  Third Day still opens up most live shows with the first track, “Tunnel.”  This album had CCM radio #1’s “Cry Out to Jesus” and “Mountain of God.”  This is perhaps Third Day’s most “Christian” album (other than their Offerings worship projects).  Songs like “Carry My Cross” and “Communion” are about Jesus, for sure, but communicate so well the biblical message of redemption.  Top Track: “Carry My Cross”

8.  Anybody Out There?, Burlap to Cashmere, 1998 – This was the only studio album put out by this New York, Greek-folk influenced group.  Burlap to Cashmere toured extensively and now, most of their members are in other bands or have solo projects, such as front-man Steven Delopoulosave.  The album itself is additively catchy.  There are pick-me-up songs like “Digee Dime” and “Chop Chop” as well as slow, beautiful ballads like “Treasures in Heaven” and “Eileen’s Song.”  And who doesn’t want to get up and dance during “Basic Instructions”?  I feel like I’m at a Greek family reunion whenever it comes on.  Top Track: “Eileen’s Song”

7.  Stay, Jeremy Camp, 2002 – Still Camp’s best project, this album produced five radio singles: “Understand,” “Right Here,” “Walk by Faith,” “Stay,” and “I Still Believe.”  This album ranges from an alternative rock sound to contemporary pop.  “Take My Life” and “One Day at a Time” are the power tracks.  They mix well with the slower, reflective “Breaking My Fall” and “I Know Your Calling.”  Camp was going through the death of his first wife while this album was in process.  Most of the songs reflect his dependence on the Lord as he dealt with that loss.  Top Track: “I Still Believe”

6.  Five Score and Seven Years Ago, Relient K, 2007 – By far their most diverse album, Relient K stretches their teenage punk sound to be more mature and radio friendly.  There are six singles on this album (two of which have seen secular play) and the album reached #6 on the Billboard 200.  There’s no “Christianese,” that is, non-believers will love it.  The album stretches across religious boundaries into social, emotional, and interpersonal conflict.  “Forgiven” and “The Best Thing” are perhaps the most well-known songs, but “Come Right out and Say It” and “Must Have Done Something Right,” though not singles, are quite good.  “Deathbed,” the 11-minute ballad to close the album, features a cameo by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot.  The song is a stirring, inspiring story of one man’s life that is changed by the power of the gosple.  Top Track: “Deathbed”

5. Speechless, Steven Curtis Chapman, 1999 – I’m pretty sure every one of these songs are on Christian radio (well, 7 for the record).  This is Chapman’s best album, and as far as I can tell, it always will be.  It was certified Platinum in less than a year and a half.  The album is richly diverse with pop, rock, bluegrass, and ballad tracks.  Plus, you aren’t getting cheated on length in this album: there are 13 songs and it is over 55 minutes long.  What I especially appreciate is that Chapman is spiritual and Christian without singing “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!”  That’s not bad; non-Christians will enjoy this album as well.  Top Track: “Dive”

4.  Good Monsters, Jars of Clay, 2006 – This is JOC’s most musically diverse and most lyrically aggressive album.  The idea of a “good monster” is that we all have the ability to be utterly evil, but by God’s grace we are spared for that.  It’s expressed in the title track when Dan Haseltine sings, “Do you know what you are?  Not a monster whose bad, but the ones who are good, never do what they could, never do what they could.”  On the last page of the album insert is the quote, “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”  This album explores that idea.  Tracks like “Work,” “Dead Man (Carry Me),” “There is River,” and “Mirrors and Smoke” give the album musical spice.  “Oh My God” is the greatest song I have ever heard.  Haseltine’s voice is emotional, sultry, and, at times, eerie.  The song encapsulates the human condition of sin and brokenness.  “If the world was how it should be,” Haseltine sings, “maybe I could get some sleep.” Top track: “Oh My God.”

3. The Joshua Tree, U2, 1987 – You don’t need to listen to the whole album to know that this is one of greatest (not just Christian) albums ever recorded.  The Joshua Tree peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was a six time Platinum album in the U.S. alone.  The first three tracks are “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and “With or Without You.”  Though U2 will never call themselves a “Christian” band, their music will forever be linked to deep, biblical, spiritual allegory, and The Joshua Tree is one of their best collections.  The three songs mentioned above all made it onto U2’s Best of 1980-1990 album and will forever be stamped as U2 concert favorites.  Top Track: “Where the Streets Have No Name”

2.  Jesus Freak, DC Talk, 1996 – The fathers’ of Christian hip-hop came out with their fourth studio album and rocked the CCM world.  This album has pop, rock, contemporary, and gospel roots and every song is a must-listen.  From the title track to singles “Colored People,” “In the Light,” and “What if I Stumble,” DC Talk doesn’t let up from start to finish.  Twelve years after the release date, I still find myself remembering the lyrics word-for-word.  “Between You and Me” hit #15 on the Top 40 and was #1 on MTV’s TRL.  Each song is spiritual and authentic and relate to thoughts that we all think, but are not courageous enough to express.  Top Track: “Between You and Me”

1.  Nothing is Sound, Switcfoot, 2005 – This will make my brother happy.  I labored over this decision.  I don’t think this is the album I listen to the most, but let’s be honest, it is probably the best.  The U2 influence is unmistakeable on Nothing is Sound.  It hit #3 on the Billboard 200.  It went Gold in less than a month.  The album starts off with the in-your-face track “Lonely Nation.”  Add in tracks like “Politicians,” “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine,” and, the Bob Dylan like, “Happy is Yuppie Word” to go along with hits “Stars” and “We Are One Tonight,” it’s hard to argue what album is more complete top to bottom.  “The Blues” is the longest, most introspective song on the album and is smack in the middle.  Perhaps it paints a picture of where John Foreman gets the lyrical motivation for the other songs.  It examines what it will look like when the world ends — when Jesus come back.  Foreman sings, “Nothing is okay until the world caves in.”  Top Track: “Stars”

I Think Jesus Would be a Darn Good Quarterback

Welcome to Saturday.

This is the place where dreams come true, where the clapping is a little louder, where boys become men, where grown men learn to cry, and where the grass is actually a bit greener…on the other side of the goaline.

Nebraska plays in a football game today.  And for the first time in four years, I’m excited to watch it.  For the first time in four years, I expect to clap and (maybe) cheer aloud.

I know football is not that important in the grand perspective of eternity and that there are millions of people today who will be worshiping Wolverines, Bulldogs, Longhorns, Tigers, and Gators, and probably less who corporately worship Jesus tomorrow morning.   I know that every game is just that — a game.  I know that football dominates too highly of a percentage of conversation, especially in my state.  I know that Bo Pelini will not save anyone from their sins and that Tom Osborne coming to Nebraska was, in fact, not the Second Coming.

But, I’m sure that Jesus would be a darn good quarterback, because he’s rather good at everything else he does.  The only question is whether you think Jesus would run a Middle East Coast offense or the Triple “Trinity” Option?  (Go ahead, it’s okay to laugh.)  Besides, Audio Adrenaline tells me that in our Father’s house, there will be “a big, big yard where we can play football.”  I mean, who can argue with that theology?

Welcome to Saturday.  It’s going to be fun.

I plan on enjoying it.  I hope you do, too.

Nebraska 31  -  Western Michigan 14

Luke 18:1-8

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”  And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Interesting VP Choice for McCain

John McCain picks Sarah Palin as his VP.  I think that adds a very interesting twist to this race.  Seems like a very “political” move.

Any thoughts?

The Gospel Shows Up in Strange Places

Last night, I was at the Nebraska State Fair. Third Day, a southern rock band from Atlanta, played a concert in our open-air auditorium. It was hot and humid, as you would expect for an August night in Nebraska. The concert started at 7:30. My friend, Dusty, and I arrived around 6:30, hoping to find a seat. Well, Third Day is a Christian band, so all the Lincolnite Christians were out with their Jesus t-shirts saving seats. (By the way, I never see anyone wear Christian t-shirts except at Christian concerts or music festivals. Perhaps that’s another blog.)

Saving seats frustrates me. I saw people using whatever they could to mark their territory. Juice boxes, Orbit gum packaging (are you serious?). I even saw a guy who had a meter stick with him. Whatever happened to using jackets or having your five year-old son lie down across the bench? Saving seats communicates, “I will have friends show up early and do the hard work, then I will show up five minutes before the show, call them on my cell phone, look around the crowd like I’m lost and confused, then find them and then sit down in my comfy seat.” Meanwhile, there I was, standing hopelessly against a cement block on an I-beam, content to watch the show from an angle that I don’t remember using in high school geometry. A security lady kept pacing our area telling us to move back, as if she didn’t want us to actually watch the show.

After standing and moving back for about 10 minutes, a lady walked up to Dusty and said, “Would you like one of these wristbands to go stand up in front of the stage during the show?” He looked and said, “Uh, yeah.” I looked at the kind, angelic lady and said in my ignorance, “What do I have to do to get one of those?” She replied, “All you have to do is say yes.” I looked at her as if she were giving me water in a desert and held out my wrist, “Oh yes,” I said.

She put the band on my wrist and I asked, “Do you have more?” Of course she did, so I asked if she could spare four of them for other friends who just arrived. “There are 150 of these,” she said, “so if you have other friends let me know.” Mind you, there were 3,000+ people at this concert. I looked at Dusty and laughed. “Want to go up front?” he asked. I felt like we were crossing over the Jordan to go to the Promise Land. For the entire 2 hour show, we eight feet from the band, singing, laughing, and praisin’ Jesus. It was incredible.

Good story huh? Lucky break, right? As soon as it all transpired I couldn’t help but compare it to God’s grace. This lady had looked at us, chosen us out of a large crowd, set her wristband affection on us and came to us, out of her own initiative and said, “Do you want this?” Then I, in my ignorance, still asked, “What do I have to do to get one of those?” as if I could have given her money or a corn dog. “All you have to do is say yes.” There was no part of me that could have said no. It was an irresistable calling. I had to say yes. I had to accept this free gift. So I did. But it didn’t stop there. I was so filled with joy that I looked at her and said, “Can you spare more for my friends.” I looked at my friends and said, “Do you want a wristband to go to the Promise Land known as front and center stage?” Then, in their joy, they gave up their standing-room only spot and exchanged it for concert bliss.

And so it is with God and us. His gospel is irresistable. He chose us, set his saving affection on us, and came to us out of his own initiative. He arrived on the scene when we were far off and at an extreme angle from the concert and said, “Do you want this? Do you want to experience the show in all its fullness? Do you want to want to taste and see the concert, instead of just hear it from afar?” When God effectually called me, I couldn’t say no. And everyone whom God effecutally calls will answer with joy and delight, “Yes, Lord, I want to go to the Promise Land.”

Piper: Abortion is About God

Some Thoughts About Miller’s DNC Prayer

First of all, I want to say that I want to be very careful to not be critical or judgmental toward Don Miller.  I know he loves Jesus and is a Christian.  I think he meant the best when he accepted the invitation to pray and when he actually said the prayer.  I’m not a Democrat, but I’m not hard-lined Republican either.  I love the poor, minorities, single moms, and to some extent the environment (but you won’t find me worshiping trees ever).  I love diversity and change and new ways of thinking.  But I also love free enterprise, market economy, the sanctity of life, biblical morality, and having a strong military and using it when needed.

For the prayer itself, some was biblical.  Much of it was vague.  Miller prayed and expressed God’s heart to move in the lives of the lesser-thans, the poor, the orphans and widows, the disenfranchised, the uneducated.  He said, “God, we know that you are good” and “Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.”  I agree with those statements.  I affirm that they are biblical things to say.  He also prayed, “Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.”  I like that line.  We are white-collared crooks here in America, unlike other areas of the world, and it needs to change.

But I have some concerns about things that Miller left out.  The problem wasn’t what Miller said.  It was the vagueness in what he said; and it was what he failed to say.  Furthermore, I feel that Miller prayed a party-platform prayer.  He prayed, “Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.”  Is that what our children need, really?  Don’t they need a relaionship with the Lord Jesus?  A college education never made any truly satisfied.  There is more to life than school.  It took me 21 years to learn that.  They need parents to love them and care for them.  They need to be protected from freaks and perverts.  They need to grow up in a country where the dollar is not god.

“A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.”  Our hearts can be good, yes, in the sense that we want to raise families, work hard, and help people, but in reality, they are totally evil and in need of a Savior.  I would like to ask Don what he meant by this.  The Bible would certainly say otherwise.  Jesus said that out of the heart flow evil thoughts and intentions.

Finally, the end of the prayer is still hard to wrap my mind around: “I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.  Let Him be our example.”  I am thrilled that Don used the name of Jesus!  Praise God!  It makes people uncomfortable.  However, what are the forces of injustice that Miller is referring to?  Is it the injustice that was just mentioned in the prayer?  Or, Lord willing, Miller meant the injustice of cosmic treason that we have committed against the Living God and that we deserve condemnation and damnation.  For some reason, I doubt it’s the latter.  I wish Miller would have said that Jesus came to free us from the injustice we have committed against God because of sin.

Finally, I think the Bible shows that Jesus is not just our example.  He is, certainly, but he is primarily a Holy King and General, worthy to be treasured, who says, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  He is the Fountain of life who proclaims, “All who are thirsty come and take the water of life without price.”  He is a the Good Shepherd who reasons, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  He is a Savior with an outstretched arm who cries, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus is only called our “example” one time in all of Scripture.  The context?  Suffering.  First Peter 2:21 says, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”  I doubt any of the people at the DNC last night had that in mind when Miller prayed.  Jesus is man acquainted with sorrows, who knows grief, and understands pain.  He’s calling us to join him in suffering, not only against social injustice, but the injustice in my own heart that wants pleasure and selfish satisfaction.  Jesus wants us to suffer in the battle against evil, first and foremost against the evil in my own life.  My prayer is that the DNC would realize that and would come know and love Jesus.

You cannot separate politics and God — last night showed that.  There’s no perfect party or perfect politician.  Are there some better than others?  I’d by lying if I said No.  However, let’s be honest here.  Last night, a man stood up on stage, in front of Democrats no less, and prayed to “Father God” and “in the name of Jesus.”  He wasn’t praying to Allah or Buddha or Confucious.  He was praying to Jehovah, Yahweh, El Shaddai — the God of the Bible.  He prayed to Jesus, the central figure in human history.  I think the DNC knew he’d pray “in Jesus’ name.”  Just the fact that the DNC invited Miller is astounding.  This shows that politics, just like everything else, is about God.

Who’s vote will determine this election in November?  Evangelicals.  Who is Obama targeting in this election?  Evangelicals.

I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Donald Miller’s Prayer at the DNC

Here’s the text of Miller’s prayer tonight at the DNC.  I’m going to sleep on this one.  I’ll let you all comment. I don’t want to be “that guy” right now.  There is some good stuff here.  But a fair reading of this text shows that there are some big things missing as well.

Father God,

This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.

We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.

We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.

Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.

Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.

Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.

Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.

Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.

Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.

We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.

Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.

A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.

Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.

Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.

Lastly, father, unify us.

Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.

And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.

God we know that you are good.

Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.

I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.

Let Him be our example.

Amen.

Weekly Spurgeon

From Morning and Evening

“His fruit was sweet to my taste.”
- Song of Solomon 2:3

Faith, in the Scripture, is spoken of under the emblem of all the senses. It is sight: “Look unto me and be ye saved.” It is hearing: “Hear, and your soul shall live.” Faith is smelling: “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia”; “thy name is as ointment poured forth.” Faith is spiritual touch. By this faith the woman came behind and touched the hem of Christ’s garment, and by this we handle the things of the good word of life. Faith is equally the spirit’s taste. “How sweet are Thy words to my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my lips.” “Except a man eat my flesh,” saith Christ, “and drink my blood, there is no life in him.”  This “taste” is faith in one of its highest operations. One of the first performances of faith is hearing. We hear the voice of God, not with the outward ear alone, but with the inward ear; we hear it as God’s Word, and we believe it to be so; that is the “hearing” of faith. Then our mind looketh upon the truth as it is presented to us; that is to say, we understand it, we perceive its meaning; that is the “seeing” of faith. Next we discover its preciousness; we begin to admire it, and find how fragrant it is; that is faith in its “smell.” Then we appropriate the mercies which are prepared for us in Christ; that is faith in its “touch.” Hence follow the enjoyments, peace, delight, communion; which are faith in its “taste.” Any one of these acts of faith is saving. To hear Christ’s voice as the sure voice of God in the soul will save us; but that which gives true enjoyment is the aspect of faith wherein Christ, by holy taste, is received into us, and made, by inward and spiritual apprehension of His sweetness and preciousness, to be the food of our souls. It is then we sit “under His shadow with great delight,” and find His fruit sweet to our taste.