Palm Sunday

"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!" Matthew 21:9 (ESV)

In Morocco, a Crackdown on Christian Aid Workers - TIME

Christian persecution continues all over the world. This is the newest example. In Morocco, a Crackdown on Christian Aid Workers - TIME

Black Monday

First they came for the unborn, for it was too costly to raise them;
Next they came for the very old for it was too costly to sustain their life;
Next they came for the chronically ill for there were not enough doctors or money to treat them;
Finally I caught a cold…

Pascal's Prayer

A Prayer by Blaise Pascal*
"I ask You neither for health nor for sickness, for life nor for death; but that You may dispose of my health and my sickness, my life and my death for Your glory... You alone know what is expedient for me; You are the sovereign master; do with me according to Your will. Give to me or take away from me, only conform my will to Yours. I know but one thing Lord, that it is good to follow You, and bad to offend You. Apart from that, I know not what is good or bad in anything. I know not what is most profitable to me, Health or sickness, wealth or poverty, nor anything else in the world. That discernment is beyond the power of men or angels and is hidden among the secrets of Your providence, which I adore, but do not seek to fathom."
* Pascal was a French theologian and mathematician

Scripture and the message of the Cross

“Secular wisdom may lead us to the truth about the revolution of the planets, but it cannot explain the nature of God, man, sin and redemption. It cannot lead us to the truth of how we are saved from God’s wrath, for it refuses to believe that divine wrath is a reality. ‘The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing’ (Romans 1:18a), said the apostle Paul, because it does not fit the questions – much less the answers – of secular wisdom… the message of the cross assumes the terror of the law, divine wrath toward sinners (and not just their sins), and the need for a substitutionary sacrifice to assuage divine justice. It assumes the greatest problem facing humanity is original and actual sin – personal rebellion against a holy God – not stress, low self-esteem, and a failure to realize one’s potential.” - Michael Horton in Sola Scriptura

Abortion and the Health Care Bill

 Dr. Al Mohler has once again put his finger on a very important point for all Christians to consider about the proposed Health Care Bill. I urge you, dear reader, to read what he says.
This is Life We're Talking About" -- Abortion and the Health Care Bill

The Scandal of Gendercide -- War on Baby Girls

Dr. Albert Mohler once again keeps us abreast of the current cultural scene by calling our attention to one of the unspoken issues of abortion: The Scandal of Gendercide -- War on Baby Girls

A Wasted Life

How to avoid a wasted life: “God created me – and you – to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion – namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.” -- Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper

For the Lord's Day

“True faith – created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel – is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything that God reveals in his word is true, but also a deep-rooted assurance that not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace earned for us by Christ.” Zacharius Ursinus, 1534 – 1583

On Reading Books

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones. Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.” - C. S. Lewis
HT: Tolle Lege

God & Guinness

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  Other than St. Patrick and the shamrock, what is more Irish than Guinness?

Stephen Mansfield writes a wonderful history of the Guinness brewing dynasty; a history that includes a strong faith in God that led the Guinness Company to pioneer social change in Dublin and throughout the world. We may think that companies like Google that provide for their employees well-being as a modern invention, but Guinness was providing for their employees in such a manner at the beginning of the 20th century. Just as amazing as the Guinness family’s investment in their employees was the story of Rupert Guinness who took his new bride and their £5 million pound wedding gift and moved into the slums to work towards improving the lives of the poor.

This book is full of beer history, Irish history, and the Guinness family’s commitment to social justice and care for the working class of Dublin. The first chapter is a thorough history of beer, the brewing process and the way that religion and beer have been inextricably linked throughout the years. The rest of the book tells the story of the Guinness family; it's business genius, it's commitment to God, and to the needy. Here are some quotes which give a ‘flavor’ of the book.

"They did not see themselves as secular, but rather as called. They did not see themselves as apart from Christian ministry, but rather as in the Christian ministry of industry and trade. They did not think of their brewing work as a menial way to pay the bills, hoping that they might compensate for such worldliness by giving occasional service to the church. No, they had absorbed the great Reformation ideal that everything a man did was to be done for God and that his calling and his vocation were usually the same thing. They understood that this transformed workbenches into altars and the labor of a man’s hands into liturgies pleasing to God."

“Arthur Guinness founded the first Sunday schools in Ireland, fought against dueling, and chaired the board of a hospital for the poor.”

“Henry Grattan Guinness, grandson of brewery founder Arthur Guinness, was a Christian leader of such impact that he was ranked with Dwight L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon in his day. He has been called the Billy Graham of the nineteenth century.”

“Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused,” [Martin Luther] once wrote. “Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?”

“The truth is that most post-Reformation Christians believed as their first-century fathers did–that drunkenness is sin but that alcohol in moderation is one of the great gifts of God.”

In 2003, a researcher for the University of Wisconsin concluded that a pint of Guinness a day actually bolsters heart health and is infinitely better for you than the caffeine in coffee or the high fructose corn syrup in soda.

So, on St. Patrick’s Day: Up the Irish and down a pint of Guinness. Enjoy one of God’s great gifts and celebrate a family who worked for the Lord.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Justin Taylor has a wonderful post here:
Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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