Learn your doctrine from texts. It stands up better that way, and feeds the soul. For example, learn irresistible grace from texts. In this way you will see it does not mean grace cannot be resisted; it means that when God chooses he can and will overcome that resistance.

In Isaiah 57:17-19, for instance. God chastises his rebellious people by striking them and hiding his face: “Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry” (v. 17).

But they did not respond with repentance. Rather, they kept backsliding. They resisted: “But he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart” (v. 17). So grace can be resisted. In fact, Stephen said…

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106 years ago today Clyde Kilby was born near Johnson City, Tennessee. He was one of the most formative teachers of my college days at Wheaton. He taught English literature. What made the difference was his extraordinarily awake, God-oriented palate for wonder in poetry and nature.

Dr. Kilby stood in front of us and exulted in beauty and wonder. He did not say: This poem is amazing. He was amazed. He didn’t just say the last chapters of the book of Job are mind-boggling glimpses of God’s power and wisdom. His mind was boggled. It was irresistibly contagious—at least for me.

We sat there and for the first time we saw things. We felt. We were drawn into the bright day of wakefulness …

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Five times in Isaiah 53 we are told that God is the one who brings about the suffering and death of Christ.

We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted ... (v. 4)

But he was wounded for our transgressions ... (v.5)

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all ... (v. 6)

It was the will of the Lord to crush him ... (v. 10)

He has put him to grief ... (v. 10)

In Romans 8:3, Paul says God does what the law can’t do:

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

God’s condemnation on sin fell on Jesus’ flesh, not ours, though …

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Human language is precious. It sets us off from the animals. It makes our most sophisticated scientific discoveries and our deepest emotions sharable. Above all, God chose to reveal himself to us through human language in the Bible. At the fullness of time, he spoke to us by a Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). But that Son spoke human language, and he sent his Spirit to lead his apostles into all truth so that they could tell the story of the Son in human language. Without this story in human language, we would not know the Son. Therefore, human language is immeasurably precious.

But it is also imperfect for capturing the fullness of God...

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I just got word that Dick Turnwall went to be with Jesus yesterday. I want to give public thanks for a life-directing influence he had on me.

Dick was the Executive Minister of the Minnesota Baptist Conference in 1979 when, on October 14, in the wee hours of the morning, God rocked my world. Soon after midnight, there was no turning back. There arose in my soul a deeply settled conviction that God was calling me to leave academia (teaching at Bethel College) and pursue pastoral ministry.

Within a few days, I found myself sitting with Dick in his office on County Road E2, telling him that I was going to resign at Bethel and asking if he would help me find a church. I said, I am green as…

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A pair of Brits have a provocative book appearing in the States this month. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis published Total Church in the UK last year, and enough readers here have found it helpful to prompt Crossway Books and Mark Driscoll’s Resurgence ministry to pick up the title in the Re:Lit series. You can watch Tim Chester introduce the book at Crossway's blog.

Chester’s and Timmis’s refrain for what they are advocating in the book is “ordinary life with gospel intentionality.” They make a case for the church’s need to exercise “dual fidelity” to the content of the spoken gospel and the context of a relational community.

Tim Chester kindly agreed to answer a few questions below…

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Recently I wrote that we seldom know the micro reasons for our sufferings, but the Bible does give us faith-sustaining macro reasons. It is good to have a way to remember some of these so that when we are suddenly afflicted, or have a chance to help others in their affliction, we can recall some of the truths God has given us to help us not lose hope.

Here is one way to remember.  Five R’s (or if it helps, just pick three and try to remember them). The macro purposes of God in our sufferings include:

Repentance

Suffering is a call for us and others to turn from treasuring anything on earth above God.

Luke 13:4-5 - Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell …

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Happy fifth anniversary Molly and Abraham!

You have brought great joy in to our lives. We pray that the next five years will be full of faith and fruitful fellowship with Jesus, and each other.

Count on our support.

We love you,

Daddy and Mom

I pray for the economy at all times, not just times of crisis, because as Christians we are to wish for and seek the welfare of others. There are few things that have more impact on the welfare of large groups of people, in the physical sense, than the state of the economy. Therefore, I believe that the command to “love your neighbor” implies that we desire, seek, and pray for the welfare of the economy.

A healthy economy serves people in multiple ways. Here are two.

First, it is better for people to be able to work for their living than to have to depend upon others to provide for their needs. For example, Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to work with their hands so that they “will …

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Several of us from DG were in one of the first cars to cross the new 35W bridge this morning. And all it took was getting up at 4 AM and then waiting for a little while.

At first when I told Mike Tong, our Customer Service Manager, that I wanted to be there for the opening, he thought I was crazy. But he came around pretty quick. David Mathis, my dad's assistant, was eager to join us. Then, at the last minute, Peter Melling, our IT guy, and his wife Jessica showed up.

So we all packed into Mike's Camry at half past 4 and drove off to be a part of history.

Now, we wouldn't ordinarily put this kind of effort into trying out a new road. But obviously this was different. It was def…

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