05 Monday Jul 2010
Posted in Book Discussion, Theology
Part 2 in a series considering Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible by C. F. W. Walther.
The law of God is written on the hearts of all mankind. It was created along with us. It is what God demands of us as people. When the Law is preached to even ungodly people, their conscience will tell them that what they’re hearing is true.
The Law is Written On Their Hearts
03 Saturday Jul 2010
Posted in Book Discussion, Theology
I just picked up C. F. W. Walther’s Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible in the new Reader’s Edition. It’s a great read and extremely friendly to the modern reader. I’d like to pass along a couple of things I’ve been pondering…in no particular order.
07 Monday Jun 2010
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I began seminary today with summer Greek. I’m not completely freaked out, but I’m sufficiently motivated. I’ve been studying flash cards I’ve made with vocabulary and the Greek alphabet, so I figured I’d take a few moments to look at a Jonathan Edwards dissertation concerning The End for which God Created the World. It was recommended to me by a fellow Greek student, so I thought I’d give it a look. I’m reading out of the 1860 printing of the 1834 edition. It’s a rewarding experience to read a classic in an older edition, but for the sake of my notes, I’ll be paraphrasing most of what I read. Continue reading
08 Friday Jan 2010
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Thomas Watson writes, “there must be first some seeds of faith in the heart of a penitent, otherwise it is a dead repentance and so of no value” (emphasis mine). It is not simply an essential command of the Christian to repent; it is, Watson reasons, the essential command, being the foundation-grace given by God (Hebrews 6:1). “…religion which is not built upon this foundation must needs fall to the ground.”
07 Thursday Jan 2010
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Watson begins at this point to direct his readers toward a definition of repentance, which he first defines in the negative. Realizing this is no way to define something, I shall skip ahead to his positive thesis (which actually occurs in a subsequent chapter) and then circle back to deal with the material in Chapter Two.
“Repentance,” writes Watson, “is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.” Seems an excellent definition. This deals specifically with the inner presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life as well as sanctification which is brought about by the inner machinations of the Third Person of the Trinity.
06 Wednesday Jan 2010
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Paul defends himself before King Agrippa in Acts 26, pointing out three things: the way his life was before his conversion, the way he was converted and the how he lived after his conversion. Says Watson, “When Paul, this ‘vessel of election’, was savingly wrought upon, he laboured to do as much good as previously he had done hurt. He had persecuted saints to death before, now he preached sinners to life.”
Watson speaks also of which comes first, the chicken or the egg repentance or faith. “Doubtless repentance shows itself first in a Christian’s life. Yet I am apt to think that the seeds of faith are first wrought in the heart.” He then compares the light of a candle, when entering a room from a hallway…you see the light from the flame before the candle gets there, but the light emanates from the candle’s burning wick.
05 Tuesday Jan 2010
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An excellent friend has sent me an excellent little book on The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson. In a similar vein to my mini-review of key points of John Owen’s On Temptation and Sin in Believers, &c, I will be offering reviews on this blog of this work which will no doubt have effect on me that I will only be able to dream of at present.
29 Thursday Oct 2009
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books, false teaching, Gospel, prayer, relationships, repentance, Scripture, theology, worship
Luke 18
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Gay and Evangelical 
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