His Wrath is... so we can be.

The Spurgeon Fellowship.

2008-09-13T01:27:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday, I had a chance to attend the Spurgeon Fellowship at Western Seminary. This was my second time there, and I am becoming more a fan each time. Dr. R Kent Hughes was the guest speaker (author of Disciplines of a Godly Man). He titled his messages, "A prolegomenon to Biblical Exposition." So as you can imagine, we ended up googling prolegomenon to find out what that means during the car ride.

Prolegomenon - A preliminary discussion, especially a formal essay introducing a work of considerable length or complexity.

Okay, complex word for complex subject. Got it. Anyways, Dr. Hughes had three main points to his first speech regarding the mind of the preacher as it encounters and relates to God's Word.

Scripture is to be revered as
1. Wholly Inerrant - Completely True
2. Totally Sufficient - The only supreme truth, with all other things subordinate
3. Massively Potent - Capable to accomplish

When any of these points are not met, we're left with a "dysexpositional disaster." If you're like me, you will need to work on that pronunciation. Here are the 5 types of common disasters he listed.

Decontext - Out of context
Lensed - Always through a preacher's "bent"
Moralized - Misprioritization of the text causing it to be trivialized
Doctrinalized - Proof-texting as a springboard to desired doctrinal destination
Silenced - Muted so as not to speak for itself.

He gave a few examples, and I'll add my own.

Decontext - when a preacher yanks things out of context to make a desired claim. I've seen people use the liberty given in Genesis 2 as a claim to legalize pot. This wasn't a preacher, but they didn't quite get it.

Lensed - The second one brought up a less obvious pitfall. He used the example of how preachers have always turned scripture into a world-view to talk psychology, or how people look at Israel and then wrap the covenant in an American flag. This is what happens when scripture isn't viewed as sufficient... We need to add to it?

Moralized - Not much explanation necessary. Strip the message of any real redemptive theme and just give people externals so people are surprised at their condemnation later.

Doctrinalized - When preachers use the text to get to their doctrinal position. Does the Bible scream of the sovereignty of God? Absolutely. Does that mean every text has to be directly tied back a specific doctrine? No. This is why I'm so thankful for Josh's sermon, "Chosen for Worship." Sure, anyone can get up and look at 1 Peter 2 and scream a Calvinistic message, but it takes a slave of all of scripture to proclaim it faithfully. Yes, we were chosen. Thank you Josh for reminding this was for a purpose and we are to respond to it by proclaiming the excellencies of the One who chose us. Doctrine serves a purpose. It is the means to an end, not the end itself.

Silenced - Read the verse, hit the mute button. Then talk out of the side of your face for an hour.

He quoted an old dead guy on how preachers ought to preach, "It needs to come with affections, but without affectations." In other words, own it, and don't change it.

Long blog. My apologies. In Living the Cross-Centered Life we were reminded to "preach the gospel to ourselves." This may have been for vocational preachers, but we can all learn from this how to preach more faithfully to ourselves as a result of having a high view of scripture.

A mighty stupid thing I did....

2008-09-13T01:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, clearly nothing serious.. but a funny story nonetheless. I went to Taco-Bell tonight for supper, a move I always regret. I decided to listen to a CD in my car at work while eating (Thank you again Merkel's for the Enfield CD). I opened a pack of fire sauce and began to cover the spicy chicken burrito as is required, because afterall, who can eat Taco-Bell food without coating it in sauce to mask the taste? Well, I didn't open it quite fully enough so I squeezed a little harder. Now, I'm wearing it. Amazing how I have to use 2 packets to cover a burrito, yet one packet is fully sufficient for my shirt. o_O

My first blog.

2008-08-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start blogging. Over at DesiringGod.org, Abraham Piper gave a convincing argument for 6 reasons pastors should blog. At least 3 of them apply to me. My intentions for this blog are the following, in no particular order:

1. To improve my writing ability, spelling, and grammar
2. To enable those who may not otherwise have time or ability to interact with me to do so
3. To give people an idea of what goes on in my head as a motivation for rebuke, reproach, and exhortation as needed for myself and others.
4. To make more profitable my time spent in front of a computer screen

Okay, now I've laid the foundation for the purpose the blog. I do not expect this to turn into an exhaustive discussion of doctorate-level theological understandings. Not that I would mind, but I'm not qualified to talk on such matters and big words scare me. Not all posts will be directly related to scripture. Some may just be about life observations, however it is my desire to be so close to Christ as to make any blog, thought, or action inseparable from the gospel. Already this blog has proven to be effective in at least one area. I have learned how to spell inseparable and remembered to find and eliminate all unnecessary occurrences of, "that" in my writing. I also misspelled unnecessary and occurrences in my last sentence. I am very thankful of red, squiggly lines making me aware of my need for improvement in spelling. Bed time. Goodnight.