December 21, 2009
The ministry of the Word is not the exclusive property of pastors and teachers, but is to be shared with the whole people of God in various capacities–one another speaking the Word to one another.
This culture of Word-speaking will not be a reality in a pastor’s congregation if it is not the reality in his own life. The question must first be, does “word-speaking” happen in my family? Does it happen outside of a formal context?
My hope is a home that is saturated with the Word. It is hung on the walls and prayed at the table and whispered in the morning when we awake from sleep and sung in the evenings before we go to bed and served in the busy monotony of regular days. I want my daughters to speak words of life to one another and I want them to love doing it. And even in my most frustrated and often sin-blinding moments, I want to break through to speak words of life to Melissa. Please, Jesus!
Do we really believe this Book? Brothers, do we believe the Book?
December 20, 2009
After hearing raving review of The Trellis and the Vine, I was eager to get a copy and began reading. I’ve been reading through with a red pen and orange highlighter. Pages are marked up and tagged. I think I’ll come back to this one more than once. So far it is very good.
It is not that the content is so revolutionary, in fact, it is rather simple. That is maybe what is most fascinating. It is simple, straight-forward stuff that has become lost in many local churches. There is a radical flavor to the simplicity of what Marshall and Payne are saying.
- Local churches should be more about gospel-growth, disciple-making, and authentic training.
- Training itself is not competency in a skill, but maturity in Christ and the character that ensues
- The ministry of the Word is not the exclusive property of pastors and teachers, but is to be shared with the whole people of God in various capacities–one another speaking the Word to one another.
This is a picture of a church that believes the Word. May their tribe increase!
December 15, 2009
The church always tends towards institutionalism and secularization. The focus shifts to preserving traditional programs and structures, and the goal of discipleship is lost. The mandate of disciple-making provides the touchstone for whether our church is engaging in Christ’s mission. Are we making genuine disciples of Jesus Christ? Our goal is not to make church members or members of our institution, but genuine disciples of Jesus.
Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine, 14
December 14, 2009
A crucial problem with how people conceive the doctrine of Christ’s saving work is the attempt to understand the doctrine apart from the doctrine of God. Until we have a biblical understanding of God and His nature, we are not fit to see the necessity of the cross. Propitiation and expiation and the various aspects of the atonement will be nonsense to us. If we step into this doctrine without a grasp of who God is then we will most likely gravitate to the aspect of the atonement that seems most compatible to our own interests, expectations, standards, etc.
Most people conceive of God to be a God of love. That is not controversial. To most people the caricature of the Divine Being is at least some giant ‘care bear’ in the sky who is nice to people. The “man upstairs” is everybody’s kind of guy. He loves and is comfortably lovable to the point that there is enough mercy to go around when we screw up. But what is nature of this real love and real mercy?
It should be clear that we would know nothing about love or mercy if there were no such thing as wrath. The meaning of mercy implies an alternative. Mercy is not an independent concept that drops out of an undermined idea of love. Mercy is the response that’s very presence testifies to the fact that it is what should not be. If mercy is to be fully understood then understanding wrath is a necessity.
Unless we get that we really deserve eternal condemnation, unless we get that we really deserve the furious anger of God’s wrath against us forever–unless we get all of that then Jesus’ death in our place is emptied of its glory. How can we appreciate salvation if we don’t know what it is that we are saved from?
December 12, 2009
The Scriptures aim to affect our hearts and change the way we feel about God and his will. The exegete, who believes that this aim is the aim of the living God for our day, cannot be content with merely uncovering what the Scriptures originally meant. He must aim, in his exegesis, to help achieve the ultimate goal of Scripture: its contemporary significance for faith.
John Piper,
Biblical Exegesis: Discovering the Meaning of Scriptural Texts, 9.
December 11, 2009
Are we more blessed than the virgin Mary?… Luke 11:27-28
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“The hearing and keeping the word of God brings the happiness of a spiritual union and communion with God. ‘Tis a greater blessedness to have spiritual communion with God and to have a saving intercourse with him by the instances of his Spirit and by the exercise of true devotion than it is to converse with God externally, to see the visible representation and manifestations of his presence and glory, and to hear his voice with the bodily ears as Moses did. For in this spiritual intercourse the soul is nigh unto and hath more a particular portion than in any external intercourse.
‘Tis more blessed to be spiritually related to Jesus Christ–to be his disciples, his brethren and the members–than to stand in the nearest temporal relation, than to be his brother or his mother.”
“That Hearing and Keeping the Word of God Renders a Person More Blessed Than Any Other Privilege That Ever God Bestowed on Any of the Children of Men” Unpublished Sermons, ed. McMullen, in Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, ed. Nancy Guthrie.
December 10, 2009
This is the word of the prophet: “Unto to us a child is born, unto to us a son is given” (Isa. 9:6). This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that he is the son of the virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours. That is where we wilt, but he who feels it has become another man. Truly it is marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessedness should lie in him. And this Child belongs to all mankind. God feeds the whole world through a Babe nursing at Mary’s breast. This must be our daily exercise: to be transformed into Christ, being nourished by this food. The will the heart be suffused with all joy and will be strong and confident against every assault.
Martin Luther in his Christmas Book
in Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, ed. Nancy Guthrie, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 26-27.
December 7, 2009
Paul takes us the centrality of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 with a special focus on its implication for believers. He also gives an in-depth look in Romans 6 of how the resurrection affects the nuts and bolts of the believer’s everyday experience. 1 Cortinthians 15 and Romans 6 are important passages about the resurrection and their role in the believer’s life.
1 Corinthians 15 is the more broad, bold effect– “if Jesus is not raised then this whole thing is worthless and we are morons.”
Romans 6 is the more detailed, day-to-day effect– “live in the newness of life because Jesus is raised and you were raised with Him.”
December 4, 2009
Thus my end in preaching is to know Christ, and impart his truth; my principle in preaching is Christ himself, whom I trust, for in him is fullness of spirit and strength; my comfort in preaching is to do all for him. Help me in my work to grow more humble, to pick something out of all providences to that end, to joy in thee and loathe myself, to keep my life, being, soul, and body only for thee, to carry my heart to thee in love and delight, to see all my grace in thee, coming from thee, to walk with thee in endearment.
Then, whether I succeed or fail, nought matter but thee alone.
Valley of Vision, 337
My name is Jonathan Parnell. My wife is Melissa and our daughters are Elizabeth and Hannah. We live in Minneapolis, MN where I am a member at Bethlehem Baptist Church, an apprentice in the seminary, and an employee at Desiring God.
