Mining Grace

hALloween - Al Mohler weighs in on the significant dangers Christians face as they contemplate participating in Halloween.  For many of the reasons cited by Mohler, the Holland family does not participate in Halloween.

Indulge - Tim Challies continues his October 31st tradition of encouraging and linking to bloggers who have written about the value and significance of the Reformation.

When I wrote about common grace a few weeks ago I promised to write a future post outlining some basic principles on how to interact with different forms of media with common grace issues in mind. You will remember that we defined common grace as those gracious gifts that God gives to all men regardless of whether they are Christians or not. But I also offered the warning that not all uses of these gifts are worth seeing, reading, listening to, etc. A rare coin dropped into a wading pool deserves every effort of retrieval. A rare coin dropped into the deepest depths of the ocean should simply be forgotten. So it is with common grace in the works of men. Sometimes the grace is visible and profitable. Sometime, however, it is buried under fathoms of sin that make it useless to pursue.

The following principles are set forward as a guide to determining what media deserves to be mined for common grace themes. This is by no means intended to be complete and I welcome any additions in the comments.

1. The goal of the work should be to articulate some Biblically worthy message or value. Even apart from salvation, men and woman can desire to be and promote biblical virtues. The end of those virtues, in the hands of of a non-Christian artist, is not the ultimate glory of God. The end may be monetary profit, personal recognition, or based on some false view of global altruism. However, these bad ends do not make those virtues irrelevant or invaluable. There is something to be said for that which is beautiful, just, and true. We can find great value in someone articulating the desire for personal salvation or the misery of the human condition. Artistic media is the mouth piece of these noble desires. It is therefore imperative for a Christian interacting with culture to ask the question, “What is the goal of this media?” If the goal is a Biblical worthy message or value, then find in it the common grace placed ,there by God almighty. If it is not, lay it aside as useless.
2. The work should be produced with skill. It should go without saying that there are good artists and bad artists. There are musicians that have been gifted with tremendous gifts of vocalization and musical composition as well as are there musicians who cannot sing a coherent melody or thought. Christians should look for artistic skill and give praise to God for his great gift in a particular artist.
3. Consider your besetting sins. God has made all of us with differing personalities and backgrounds. Each of us have peculiar sins that find footing with peculiar strength in our own hearts that do not find equal footing in the hearts of others. For some a particular song linked to some event in their past will conjure up unhealthy and sinful patterns of thought. For others, images innocuous to most, can lead to incredible temptations. You must be mindful of how different forms of media tempt you to unhealthy patterns of thought and living.
4. Consider the besetting sins of others. Take the above consideration and think of those with whom you view or listen to media. You would not offer a beer to an alcoholic. You should treat your brothers and sisters in Christ the same way as it pertains to their own propensities for sin.

These are just a few principles for guiding you in determining how you interact with culture and specifically media. You could certainly apply many of these principles to other areas in which men are gifted with common grace such as scholarly pursuits, engineering, sciences, et al.

Remember, that in finding and appreciating common grace, we are not extolling grace for grace’s sake. In fact the concept of grace makes no sense without considering the giver of the grace. So to see in different forms of media, the fruit of divine gifting, is to give glory to God for his own work in the heart of men. It is to glorify God almighty. It is also to point men to Jesus Christ. Consider Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17). For him, poetry and sculpture served as a means to speak to the Athenians about the salvation that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the great end of our life and the great end of cultural interaction: the glory of God highlighted in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

“Respect to the glory of God is as salt that must be served up with every dish.  The great work of our life is to glorify him; it is the end of our first and of our second creation.” - Thomas Brooks, Works: Vol 1, 13.

Cueball - Carl Trueman writes about baldness and “relating to the youth” in his most recent Reformation 21 article.

Hanging Out - Jim Ellif offers his reflections on and advice for hanging out to God’s glory.

“For this reason sin in its essence is rebellion against God, refusal to be subject to him (Rom 8:7), enmity against God (Rom 5:10, 8:7; Col 1:21), disobedience (Rom 11:32; cf Gal 3:22; Eph 2:2, 5:6; et al.).  One can define it as man’s willing-to-have-command-of-himself, wanting-to-be-as-God.” - Herman Ridderbos, Paul: an outline of his Theology, 106.

“Why is your site so ugly?”, you ask.

Well, I have been a wordpress.com-er for a long time. I’ve fiddled with blogger a bit through the years but keep coming back to wordpress. One of my few sore spots with wordpress.com was the inability to make design changes to my site’s css, like blogger has the ability to do. So, I was thrilled to see that wp was offering a site add-on allowing for css stylesheet edits. I jumped on the band-wagon and am trying to learn css. To help me along, I’ve decided to use a theme that is ugly needs a good bit of editing in order to inspire my code cogitations.

So stop back by every once in a while and see how the site progresses. Hopefully I can bring the medium in line with the message soon.

Huckabee-lieve - JT et al endorse Mike Huckabee.  Who are you going to vote for?

Called? - Mohler on Conyers on calling and vocation.

10/31/07 $15.17 -  Tony Reinke blogs about Ligonier’s clever sale of Reformation Study Bibles.

I CAN HAS THEOLOGY - Fred Sanders provides some I CAN like humor.

Write like you Talk? - Dave Zimmerman provides some good advice on how to write well.

It has been fun to look back upon my hibernating blog to see what people continue to find valuable out of what I have written. With that information in mind, and for the sake of localization, I’m going to repost updated versions of two series I have worked on in the past. I’m excited to look back over the material for a second edit. So, over the next few weeks and months, you’ll see revived versions of How God Answers Prayer and my brief commentaries on the chapters of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It may be, if I feel up to it, that I will pick up the Westminster series again and bring it to completion.

Just a preview of things to come.

Jerry Falwell - The Bayly brothers pass along a great article by John Neuhaus showing a different side of Jerry Falwell.

Tracking the Fires - Mark Lauterbach is the pastor of Grace Church in San Diego.  In addition to his other great blog content, he is posting updates on the fires and how you can pray for him, his church, and San Diego.

I’ve just started reading Lectures to My Students by CH Spurgeon. I’m only into the second chapter, but one particular quote stood out to me in the first chapter.

It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organize societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle axe and weapons of war.

This quote especially resonated with me as I struggle to remind myself that email, paper work, blogs, programs, and ministry philosophies do not strike at the heart of gospel ministry. Instead, my ability to see and savor Jesus Christ should be my greatest concern.

I thought this quote my be an encouragement to any pastors who are reading. If you’re not a pastor, forward this quote onto him as an encouragement.

When Your Wife Nods - Al Mohler shares some common grace insights concerning communication between men and women.

Speak Authoritatively - Do you speak authoritatively or do you, you know, like, just say something?

This morning, I read an old Puritan evangelistic tract by David Dickson, written around the middle of the 17th century.  I came across this prayer, offered as an example of how someone, under conviction of sin, could plead for mercy from Jesus.  Though the gospel is preached in many languages through many centuries, all come to Jesus the same way: pleading for his mercy.

Whereupon let the penitent desiring to believe take with him words, and say heartily to the Lord, “Seeing thou sayest, Seek ye my face; my soul answereth unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. I have hearkened unto the offer of an everlasting covenant of all saving mercies to be had in Christ, and I do heartily embrace thy offer. Lord let it be a bargain; Lord, I believe; help my unbelief: Behold, I give myself to thee, to serve thee in all things for ever; and I hope thy right hand shall save me: the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.“

Ask and You Will Receive - Mark Driscoll unveils his plan to base a sermon series on a 1 Corinthians-style question and answer format.

Grudem for Romney - I’m still a fan of Fred Thompson but Wayne Grudem makes a good case for why Evangelicals should vote for Mitt, in spite of his being a Mormon.