The Path To Heaven

Joseph Alleine was an English Puritan who was a fervent evangelist.  Alleine was immensely passionate about proclaiming the gospel to unbelievers  – so passionate that his frequent and fervent evangelistic preaching led to his premature death at the age of 34 in 1668.  His evangelistic booklet, A Sure Guide to Heaven, is a little window into his missionary zeal.  Take a look at these quotes from the book.

“Conversion does not consist in…a superficial change or partial reformation. …There is a vast difference between being sanctified and civilized.”

“God finds nothing in man to turn His heart, but enough to turn His stomach; He finds enough to provoke His loathing, but nothing to excite his love. …The efficient, internal cause of conversion is free grace alone.”

“The sincere convert is not one man at church and another at home.  He is not a saint on his knees and a cheat in his shop.”

“[Dear sinner,] you must look out of yourself and away from your own doings for help.  Do not think your praying, reading, hearing, confessing, or amending will affect the cure.  These must be attended to, but you are undone if you rest in them.  You are a lost man if you hope to escape drowning on any other plank but Jesus Christ.  You must unlearn yourself, and renounce your own wisdom, your own righteousness, your own strength, and throw yourself wholly upon Christ, or you cannot escape.”

I recommend this book for these reasons: 1) It magnifies the triune God’s sovereign work of saving sinners from sin, death, and hell; therefore it is an edifying read.  2) It is a solid example of evangelism – a discussion of sin, salvation, and service.  3) It shows clearly that the doctrines of grace (i.e. Calvinism, the five solas, etc.) are great motivations to tell the world about Jesus.  4) It is further proof that the Puritans had a deep love not only for the Savior of sinners, but also for sinners who need the Savior.

shane lems

Horton’s Gospel Commission Half Price!!!

I just noticed today that WTS books has Michael Horton’s new book, The Gospel Commission, at half price for a limited time.  Check the past week on this blog, and you’ll see some highlights of this excellent book.  Get it quick – the sale ends soon.

shane lems

Church Plants – Clones?

 When an existing church does a church plant, should the plant look exactly like the planting church?  Should the plant do things exactly like the planting church – from the Bible translation to the detailed traditions and customs?  I believe we should not plant clone churches that are exactly like the planting church.  My explanation is longer, but for now I’ll quote a helpful section of Chester and Timmis’ Total Church.

“If past experience and tradition define what it means to be church, that will constrain church planting. Or church plants may run the risk of being clones – copies of sending churches.  Unless we recognize this danger, church planting may in fact reduce missionary activity as small churches struggle to ape the programs of larger churches.”

“Often the main limitation to church planting is a failure of imagination.  People cannot imagine how church planting might be done or how church might be done differently.  People do not want to let go of the ‘success’ their church has become.  This may be because some do not want the risk, effort, and discomfort that church planting involves.  But often it has more to do with their view of church.  We have a notion of what a ‘successful’ church is, and this involves a certain level of staff, programs, and activity.  Church planting feels like it will involve letting this go, moving from success to lack of success.”

“We must not be driven by sociology or accommodate to our culture. …Church planting cannot involve an uncritical replication of existing models.  Church planting should be at the forefront of new ecclesiological thinking. …Through mission the church can break free from external conformity to culture and internal conformity to tradition to rediscover the vitality of the gospel.”

These great words are taken from pages 95-96 of Total Church.

shane lems

Planting Churches: What Kind?

 In light of many church planting books I’ve read, studied, and blogged, I want to recommend Michael Horton’s new one, The Gospel Commission.  In my reading, studies, and discussions I’ve noticed that many church plant books, movements, and networks are lacking in the area of ecclesiology.  (Use our search feature on the left to find and read other church plant book reviews we’ve done on this blog.)  I recommend Horton’s book for church planters and missionaries who want a solid, biblical, Reformation discussion of the Great Commission and the local church.  This book by Horton will fill in the blanks, so to speak, of many church planting books that lack a solid doctrine of the church.  We certainly don’t want churches being planted by Christians who only have a vague idea of what the Bible teaches about the Christian church!  Horton’s book is a great help in this area. 

Here’s one section I appreciated – which can be applied to church plants.

“We do not need more political, moral, and cultural crusades. Instead, what we need are ‘salty’ Christians whose robust faith and discipleship shape the way they think, live, and exercise their gifts, training, and wisdom in their callings. We do not need more churches called to active duty in the culture wars. What we need are more churches that are resalinization instead of desalinization plants, churches that are dedicated to making disciples who are not only forgiven and renewed in Christ but also well taught and actually active in the world – in their families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and volunteer organizations, loving their neighbors through their vocational excellence as well as through their witness to Christ.”

Of course not only church planters and missionaries will benefit from this book.  I recommend it to all Christians who want a solid discussion of what the Great Commission has to do with the church and individual Christians.  It’s not a book for new Christians because it is written at a more intermediate level, yet any mature Christian who enjoys reading will certainly be challenged and motivated by The Gospel Commission. 

(The above quote was taken from page 242.) 

shane lems

The Means of Grace, William Gurnall and the Puritan Hard Drive

Several weeks ago, the good folks at Stillwaters Revival Books sent me a review copy of the Puritan Hard Drive (hereafter PHD). On the day I received the drive, I spent a couple of hours searching through the contents and was floored by what was available here. I sent an initial review, which they posted here (see also the youtube advertisement), and told them that I would interact further with the PHD when my quarter ended.

Well, the wonderful news is that I am completely done with my winter academic term and now have time to work through some parts of the drive. In this first post, I wanted to show how I decided to put the PHD to use in preparing for a sermon on Art. 29 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, “The Marks of the True Church.”

I decided to find an illustration regarding the importance of the means of grace and turned to I.D.E. Thomas’ A Puritan Golden Treasury which has an entire section devoted to this topic (pgs. 180-82). Anyone familiar with Thomas’ book, however, knows that he provides only the name of each quote’s author. There is no index enabling one to find where the quote comes from. Enter the PHD.

I found this quote by William Gurnall in Thomas:

What is Jordan that I should wash in it? What is the preaching that I should attend on it, while I hear nothing but what I knew before? What are these beggarly elements of water, bread and wine? Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints the means of grace?

Cited in A Puritan Golden Treasury, pg. 181.

Interested in the broader context of this quote and thinking that this work might contain other gems like this, I turned to the KnowledgeBase Application that is the main index of the PHD. I searched for authors and found that the PHD had two books by William Gurnall, both in .pdf format and both OCR’d (i.e., searchable). Since there were only two sources, I opened the first (vol. 1 of The Christian in Complete Armour: A Treatise of the Saints’ War Against the Devil) and searched for the following phrase: “What is Jordan that I should wash.”

Success! On pg. 54 of this 600+ page volume, I found the larger context from which Thomas extracted aforementioned quote:

It appears we look not at God’s appointment, when we have low thoughts of the means. What is Jordan that I should wash in it? What is this preaching that I should attend on it, where I hear nothing but I knew before? what these beggarly elements of water, and bread, and wine! Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints them? Didst thou remember who commands, thou wouldst not question what the command is. What though it be clay, let Christ use it and it shall open the eyes, though in itself more like to put them out. Hadst thou thy eye on God, thou wouldst silence thy carnal reason with this, It is God sends me to such a duty; whatsoever he saith unto me I will do it , though he should send me, as Christ them, to draw wine out of pots filled with water.

(Original quote in Italics)

These are indeed a solid indictment of our tendency to succumb to rationalism when considering the means of grace. Yes, they are counter intuitive. Note how Gurnall suggests that clay in and of itself might actually injure one’s eyes, whereas in the hands of our Lord, it restores sight to the blind! It is these means by which Christ has been pleased to strengthen our faith.

Another thing gleaned from use of the PHD to locate this quote is Gurnall larger argument. At this point, he is illustrating the following point:

They do not use the armour of God as such, who in the performing of divine duties, eye not God through them, and this makes them all weak and ineffectual Then the Word is mighty, when read as the Word of God; then the gospel preached, powerful to convince the conscience, and revive the drooping spirit, when heard as the appointment of the great God, and not the exercise of a mean creature. Now it will appear in three things, whether we eye divine appointment in the means.

The Christian in Complete Armour, Vol. 1, pg. 53.

This is only the beginning. I’ve been able to put the PHD to use preparing for this sermon, but in doing so have used only one of the PHD’s many resources. With each perusal through this drive, I’m finding it to be a fine selection of texts and resources in a useful format. The KnowledgeBase Application takes getting used to, but it lists search results in a format that I find intuitive.

More interaction with/and review of the PHD to come!

____________________
Andrew