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How a Right Understanding of the Doctrine of the Fall Can Promote LovePosted by Reformation Theology - July 3, 2009 on 1:40 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments OffJesus identifies with the needy such that whatever is done to or for them, He takes as having been done to Himself. Among other things, to be a disciple of Jesus means, by the grace of God, we must, not only consider this in theory, but do it. This standard is so high that we usually fall woefully short of it, especially when we fail to treat other people as we would have them treat us. A helpful doctrine to appeal to in this regard is the doctrine of the Fall. Martin Luther was well known for having said that redeemed Christians are "Simul Iustus et Peccator" or "At the same time righteous and a sinner". Although Christ has broken our bondage to sin, we are still susceptible to sins in which we don't treat others as we should. Gossip, as one example, misapprehends the reality that every day you and I (and everyone else), could easily have plenty of fodder that could be a matter of public gossip. Just consider many of the thoughts and desires you had this week, and what if they were to be projected on a screen for all to see? All of us would be ashamed. What if your family and neighbors could see everything you have thought? Why is this worth considering? Because every time we gossip and belittle, criticize and disparage others what we are doing is postulating that others have sin or weaknesses that you regard as not having in yourself. And when we do this are we taking our own sin seriously? We think ourselves too highly. The fact that we continually and desperately need the gospel as much as any other should therefore keep us humble as we consider any good gifts we have. Keeping this in mind, especially when you are communicating the gospel, will drive up your empathy to others, since we are a needy people. Related Resources
Abortion Clinic 911 Emergency Calls: ‘No lights and sirens, please!’Posted by editor@covenantnews.com - July 3, 2009 on 9:03 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off News Wire Service: This is a composite of ambulance calls to Aware Woman abortion clinic in Melbourne, Florida. It shows the tragic results of botched abortions. Countless women have been injured at Aware Woman and other abortion clinics throughout...
Tiller, Terror, and TV TiltPosted by editor@covenantnews.com - July 3, 2009 on 9:02 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off American life League exposes the bias and hypocrisy of the main-stream media following the murder of abortionist George Tiller....
Pro-Lifers Launch Renewed Colorado ‘Personhood’ CampaignPosted by editor@covenantnews.com - July 3, 2009 on 9:00 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off DENVER, Colorado -- Abortion opponents have formally started the work of putting a measure on the Colorado ballot in 2010 that would give rights to human embryos. Colorado defeated a similar measure last year by a 3-to-1 ratio. Personhood USA,...
Stunning New Technology Allows Parents to Hold a Life-Size Model of Their Unborn ChildPosted by editor@covenantnews.com - July 3, 2009 on 8:59 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off It's a defining moment in a parent's life: Seeing their unborn child's image on an ultrasound for the first time. Now pregnant women could have the chance to hold a life-size model of their unborn baby. The startling new medical...
David Robertson on recent developments in the Church of ScotlandPosted by Martin Downes - July 3, 2009 on 3:34 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off A worthy piece. Stare carefully at the background and you may see the ghost of Lloyd-Jones. Read it here. (HT: Derek Thomas) 
What Price Freedom? [Requested classic re-post]Posted by DJP - July 3, 2009 on 2:02 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off by Dan Phillips[By special request from Scott, we reach back to June 30, 2006 for this classic 4th of July repost, slightly edited. Stay safe and sane, and don't forget the price of freedom.] In America, we enjoy a degree of freedom unknown throughout most of the history of the world. This freedom had its formal birth with the  Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, in which the 13 colonies declared themselves independent of Great Britain, and which ended with the words “for the support of this declaration…we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”Was that just big talk, or flowery rhetoric? Well, the 56 signers were marking themselves as traitors to the Crown. “By the end of the war, almost every one had lost his property; many had lost wives and families to British guns or prisons; and several died penniless, having given all to the Revolution” (Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, A Patriot’s History of the United States [Sentinel: 2004], 81). Americans enjoy freedom today because of the blood spilt by thousands of men and women from before 1776 until this very day. Our freedom, as Americans, is not free. If it hasn’t cost us personally, it surely has cost someone else! But my mind turns today to a far deeper bondage, however, and an infinitely greater freedom — and to the far more dreadful price that was paid for that freedom. It is found in Revelation 1:5b: “To Him who loves us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood.” I'd like to focus on two aspects only of that text: the love of Jesus, and the cost of that love. As to the love of Jesus, we can discern four aspects here: First, Christ's love is FREE. God is, by definition, the one and only truly free Being. He is under no external controls, subject to no overrides nor limitations. He can will and do anything in accord with His nature. Therefore, He was under no external nor moral compulsion to love guilty rebels. No committee or authority had petitioned nor ordered Him. Certainly His love was provoked by nothing in us — no foreseen faith, no anticipated holiness, as if the ultimate cause lay in us. More accurately, He loves in spite of the continued rebellions, treacheries, and unbelief of the objects of His love. When He loves, He loves because He loves. It is the only satisfactory and Biblical answer. Second, Christ's love is DISTINGUISHING. The text says that He loves "us.” The context defines "us" as “His servants" and "his servant John” (1:1; cf. v. 4), as “the seven churches” (1:4), and as people who were “loosed …from sins… made… a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (1:5-6). They are contrasted with false, pretend-Christians (chapters 2—3). They stand apart from those who try to hide “themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17). It was a targeted love, a definite love, a particular love. There were people — "us" — whom Christ meant to free. Not "offer freedom to," but free, "loose." Would anyone dare say He failed to free even one soul whom He determined to deliver? Third, Christ's love is ETERNAL. John calls Jesus “Him who loves us.” The verb is present in tense, but it is a participle, not a finite verb. It marks no starting point, it erects no terminus. It isn't “Jesus loved us," nor "Jesus will love us.” Being a verbal noun, it is a characteristic of Jesus'. It was true when John wrote it, it is true as we read it, it will be true through all the centuries and millennia and ages of eternity. Before a world began, He set His love on His own. When the last rebel fist has been shaken, and judged, still He will love His own. This characteristic trumps all of the fears of God’s people. “But I am unworthy!” So are we all; yet Christ is He “who loves us.” “But I sin!” So do we all; yet Christ is He “who loves us.” “But I am going through a dark, awful time!” So have we all; yet Christ is He “who loves us.” There is no “use by” date, no expiration, no sunset provision. Because it is eternal, it is invincible; nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Fourth, Christ's love is revelatory of HIM, not of US. If ever you find yourself starting a sentence, “Well, I think God loved me because I…” — bail out! Quick! Step away from the stupid statement! The only true and Biblical way to finish that is, “God loved because God loved." And the fact that God loved, and the wretches whom God loved, and the invincible fierceness with which God loved all say a great deal about God — and nothing about me. Away with all self-help pop-psychologizing, that tries to find self-esteem in the Cross. Many say,  “God loved me so much that He gave His Son to die for me — so I must be worth a lot! I must be worthy! I must be special!” I can’t easily imagine a more perverse line of reasoning. What the Cross says about us is that we’re helpless, we’re hopeless, we’re lost and doomed, and only the most extreme, radical, scandalous act on the part of God could redeem us from the wreck and ruin in which we’d buried ourselves!The Cross says horrible things about us, as we are in ourselves, as Christ finds us! But it says wonderful things about God! In fact, as a brief aside, to speak of loosing is to assume binding. That is, only those who are bound are interested in deliverance from their bonds. So what is it that binds us? The world, the flesh, and the Devil -- mighty, ubiquitous, tireless forces. [Sheerly because of the length of this post, I expand on this point elsewhere.] Now let's turn to the COST undertaken by Jesus, because of His love: He freed us from our sins “by His blood.” We'll focus on three aspects. First, Christ's blood is PRECIOUS blood. It is precious because of whose blood it is. It belongs to God’s Messiah, the Anointed One, the Faithful Witness, the ruler of the kings of the earth. It belongs to the blood of God incarnate; the Bible calls it the blood of God (Acts 20:28). This blood is of infinite worth. Dare anyone set a limit on the value of this blood? I would not! (It is a great misrepresentation of the Calvinist position to think that we do. We see its value as limitless, and its aim as specific.) Thus could Christ shed it on behalf of, and actually accomplish the redemption of, countless scores of multitudes of sinners from every nation, tribe and language. Second, Christ's blood is PURE blood. The blood that looses us from our sins is itself that of a sinless Man. This is the blood of the one Man who did not share Adam’s guilt, and did not replicate Adam’s sin. It is the blood of one who never violated God’s law in thought, word or deed, who kept every bit of God’s law in thought, word and deed. Can the contrast between the Lord Jesus and those for whom He died be any starker and more immense? Third, Christ's blood is POWERFUL blood. The apostle John does not say that Jesus  made it possible for us to loose ourselves from our sins by His blood. Nor does He say that Christ made loosing from our sins available by his blood. Rather, Jesus Christ actually loosed us from our sins by His blood!Christ's blood is powerful, and it is effectual. Can any imagine that a drop of that blood would be wasted, would fall to the ground defeated and impotent? I cannot. Notice the wonders He accomplishes by His blood (vv. 5b-6). Before, we were lost, rebellious, hopeless, impure slaves. After, we are a kingdom, and we are priests. We need no mere man to rule us. We need no man to stand for us before God. We are members of Christ’s kingdom, and priests to God through Him. This, my brothers and sisters, is freedom! But at what a cost! Now, it's beyond us to know who reads our posts. So let me just say, Dear Reader, if your thinking is, “Oh, I don’t need such a drastic conversion; religion is all very well for weak men and old ladies, but I have a fulfilled and meaningful life. I must follow my heart. I don’t need fairy tales to brighten up my life,” then you are still a slave to the world, the flesh, and the Devil. The worst slave is the one who has grown accustomed to his chains. What power on earth can save us from these things? No power on earth! Only Christ can — but at what a dreadful price! No mere example, or teaching, or method can save. Only the blood of God incarnate can loose us from our sins! Do you know that freedom? If you do, praise and honor Him alone who loves you, and loosed you from your sins at such a staggering price! If you do not, throw yourself on the mercy of God, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, look to Him this day!  
Emergent FlowchartPosted by Phil Johnson - July 3, 2009 on 2:01 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off posted by Phil Johnson Submitted by Ben Mordecai. (click chart for larger version)  
4 Questions to Help Us Think About MissionsPosted by Desiring God Blog - July 3, 2009 on 1:18 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off(Author: Bill Walsh) Lon Allison's article "A GPS for Global Mission" from Lausanne World Pulse sums up well the current questions and issues relevant to the global changes underway in the church. At this stage, I think questions are more helpful than anything. Here are four that Dr. Allison raises,
These ought to keep us thinking for quite some time. They will be key in the discussion that takes place at the 2010 Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. Please pray for John Piper who will be speaking at the event and for the Desiring God team who will be traveling there next year.
WOW! CHECK THIS OUT! Sunday School Class Using Dolls As Visual Abortion ProtestPosted by editor@covenantnews.com - July 3, 2009 on 1:13 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off By Greg Bailey / Gadsden Times It's an eye-catching sight -- 945 dolls attached to stakes with ribbons or cable ties lining a field next to Goodyear Heights Baptist Church off U.S. Highway 278 East. The dolls are the visual...
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