21, 100

A month ago I turned 21 years old. And throughout this last month I had a lot of things to reflect about. I reflected on God’s kindness that led me to repentance (Rom 2:4). I reflected on God’s specific revelation  of His Word (John 1). I reflected on the godly and not so godly relationships that I have made throughout the course of my life (Acts 2:42-47). I reflected on my successes. I reflected on my failures.

It’s been a long way coming in my life and three weeks from now, I’m ready to begin the next chapter in my life.

This is also my 100th blog post. And I do feel somewhat proud of this small yet sentimental feat. I wrote this before explaining why I like blogging:

With writing, there is a magic to it and also formality to it that I cannot just write about things that I would normally talk about, such as what happened in the latest Naruto or  whose fantasy team is the best. But the etiquette of blogging (for me at least) prompts me to write about what really matters in my heart even when I rarely speak about it within my environment of friends, family, even my church family. It certainly is regrettable that I cannot be so open to converse about the things I most care about, yet a side of me says build approachability via simpler speech and when it’s spiritual time, talk about spiritual things.

Even as I reflect on this short excerpt of what I have written in the past, with a little growth and maturity over the seasons, I can rebuke myself and feed myself Ephesians 4:29 that says “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Instead of identifying certain moments as spiritual moments and limiting certain spiritual moments to be the only occasions to regard speech that involved the Bible, Christ, and spiritual matters; I should see every opportunity as an opportunity to show grace reflecting through a tarnished reflection of Christ. Man I can’t wait for the day of perfection and glorification. But ’til that day I must (out of want) wait in a manner worthy of the calling of the Lord and speak and write in a manner of building up. Still I do think blogging is an appropriate forum for such “spiritual” matters to be brought up, as I think I said before, I can expressly share my thoughts without the feeling of scrutiny (from other people). Then again, I must continue to examine myself and my speech in that, it reflects scripture as accurately as possible.

I hope I benefitted you all. I certainly have been benifitted by the rebuke I received from the majority of times I have written.

Anyways, this is what I have been preparing for this past month. I really did want to write something… Special. And this is what I thought of. Or copied. As I reflected on Jonathan Edwards 70 resolutions this past month I wanted to write a set of resolutions of my own, so that I should be committed to them, in so walking through its fire that I might be somewhat purified after the course of it’s scrutiny.  [On a sidenote: this was heavily heavily influenced by Jonathan Edwards Resolutions] [Sidenote #2: Although I have thought much of it, I know these resolutions are subject to many errors, hence subject to much correction, if there every be a correction or an addition in the future I will update it]

My 21 Resolutions.

1. Resolved, to live in the utmost to God’s glory, that I should seek what is profitable in life and relationships, to His glory, rather than what is merely acceptable or even negligent to the glory of God the Father.
2. Resolved, to know and trust this saying, “the reason why I am standing inside the Church in the present day, is because the Lord has delayed the coming of Christ, that the Lord has delayed the final execution of His wrath and salvation.”
3. Resolved, to keep the two great commandments, to love the Lord my God with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength, and to love my members of my family, my friends, my peers, my acquaintances, my neighbors, as I do love myself.
4. Resolved, that I should consider myself always under the highest scrutiny of the Word of God, that His divine scriptures will be my objective standard, in all my activities and speech. That if I ever count my act in contradiction to His Word, I shall immediately repent so that I might not quench the Spirit.
5. Resolved, to consider all time to be God’s time.
6. Resolved, to live in a manner knowing that it is God working in me, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13)
7. Resolved, to ruminate the notion of godly humility to be more than mere kindness, rather it is a humility in which Christ being found in human form, humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.
8. Resolved, to hate self-glorification, knowing that exalting myself is subject to humbling, and the humbling of myself is subject to honor.(Pr 29:23; Mt 23:12)
9. Resolved, never to allow corrupting talk to come out of my mouth, but only such as good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Eph 4:29)
10. Resolved, to discern the evidences of the grace of God in my neighbors by the Fruit of the Spirit which is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; which against such things there is no law.
11. Resolved, never to act as if I did not know that the triune God, is dwelling inside of my heart.
12. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, that I might be given “understanding that I may know His [Your] testimonies.” (Psalm 119:125)
13. Resolved, whenever I do any sinful action, to which I cannot immediately discern, to trace it back, to the original cause; and then both carefully endure to do so more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it. (J.E’s Res.24)
14. Resolved, that I make a covenant with my eyes, that I be transparent to my brothers, of my sins regarding lust, but also that my pleasure be agony as I think about the Lord in regards to the sins of my eyes.
15. Resolved, never to allow a thought that adding a performance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ will enhance my spiritual being and that the original gospel is less than sufficient.
16. Resolved, to work out my own salvation in fear and trembling before the Lord my God, that I should not be rash with my words, that God Almighty is in heaven and here I am on earth, so that my words would be few. (Phil 2:12; Ecc 5:2, Mt 6:7)
17. Resolved, to discern the will of God by testing all things, holding fast to what is good, abstaining from every form of evil. (1 Th 5:21)
18. Resolved, to live for His glory and to let His glory be known.
19. “Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.” (J.E’s Res.4)
20. Resolved, to endure in all I do and to pursue all that I do, as if I have “already seen the happiness of heaven and the torments of hell.” (J.E’s Res.55)
21. Resolved, to think much of my own death, that in all it’s gloom and circumstances surrounding it, it is rather the joyous of all occasions as it fits the day of which I shall come face to face with the glory of the true and living God. (J.E’s Res. 9) (1 Co 15:19)

*Selah*

The believer or the unbeliever?

I have been reading through Romans these last few weeks and I finally got to the infamous Romans 7 passage. In it contains a state/condition of sin belonging to, as debaters point out, the believer or the nonbeliever. Read for yourself.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:13-25

I’ve studied this briefly in the past and I didn’t quite get a full grasp of it. So I plan on doing it now. I do already have a stance on it, by the conviction of the Word, but I do plan to study more on as I want establish a greater stronghold concerning my conviction, that it’d rather not be subjective, but objective and reasonable upon the standards of Scripture. Also, just as a foothold, from what I have read so far, though it not be comprehensive of all the thoughts that are out there,  my convictions are based clinging to verses 24-25.

For now, I’ll leave it at that. I want to write more on it, but I know I have not studied this passage nearly enough to even scratch the surface, or maybe I did… just a scratch though. I will try to write on it the future. This post is a just a reminder for me, not only for the intellectual intracies behind this, nor the love for controversies, but rather to serve as a reminder that I, whether the today or the yesterday, am a wretched man, but I do know who delievered me, is delivering me, and one day will finally deliver me.

Compatibilism

Hrm. I’ve heard a lot of discussion on free will as of late and came across this quote by B.B Warfield.

Christ dwells within us not for the purpose of sinking our being into His being, nor of substituting Himself for us as the agent in our activities; much less of seizing our wills and operating them for us in contradiction to our own immanent mind; but to operate directly upon us, to make us good, that our works, freely done by us, may under His continual leading, be good also.

B.B. Warfield

How Dare You.

I hope this doesn’t come off as arrogant. But I’m glad the “How Dare You!” phrase is catching on.

It makes me smile, when freshmen and sophomores go around saying “How Dare You!” in their squeaky little voices. HAHA!

on a more serious note. I talked to a couple people about their thoughts on religion and got to share the gospel with them.

As I talked to them and realized there was no convincing them, however well the conversation went, I remembered Romans 2.

1Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

Before my coming to know Christ, How dare I reject Him when I have seen the beauty of creation and redemption in His Word.

I’m glad that God softened my heart. And by his common and special grace I’m glad I was led to repentance.

DA Carson on 1 Corinthians 8

http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-video/2009-conference/plenary/Carson_session_10.mp3

excerpt (not verbatim):

since their conscience is weak it is defiled… the issue is how do you preserve the integrity of the individual conscience? Be careful how you exercise your rights… Be careful that the exercise of this right does not become a stumbling block to the weak… That’s what weak means here. Someone who has sensitivities to right and wrong even though in the issue itself it’s not a matter of right and wrong. Somebody who has sensitivities and thinks that something is wrong even though it’s not. That’s what makes it a weak conscience…

Now this passage is often abused in some conservative circles. It is less so today than 30 years ago but today in some circles. “I don’t think you should drink alcohol, and if you do you would be offending me so 1 Corinthians 8 says you must not do it because you would be offending me.” Now most of the people that said something like that to me really doesn’t have weak consciences. They’re control freaks. They’re legalists in the worst possible sense.

And so I inevitably say in that case, do you think that no Christian can drink, that a person who drinks is not a Christian or can’t be a Christian, do you think it is essential to be a tea-tottler to be a Christian. And if they say yes, I say pass the pork. And I’m not be a smart alec because the Word of God won’t allow anyone or anything to jeopardize the exclusive sufficiency of Jesus, it’s not Jesus plus being a tea-tottler. In this country I wander around as a tea-tottler, but in France I’m not promising anything. But in this country I’m a tea-tottler unless somebody tells me I must not drink or I cannot be a Christian than I will glad have some Burgeoule.

You cannot jeopardize the exclusive sufficiency of Jesus. This passage is talking about weak consciences. People you can lead astray. People with sensitivities.

At that point what does Paul say? “If what I eat causes my brother to sin, I will never eat again so that I will not cause them to fall.”

Here is the self-abnegation of a right out of love and concern for the brother and sister in Christ… And it is done cheerfully (1 Cor. 9)