My relationship to Andrew Peterson is realized only through my listening to his voice through the speakers of my car stereo. I have been known to purchase an Andrew Peterson CD and listen to it for months on end – literally. When the special urge hits me, I can fill my car with everything Andrew has ever written (almost) and be as content as a baby with a bottle of milk. I’m telling you this one thing. The man makes me weep. His vision of the love of God is so clear and compelling and echoes through the refrains of his folky style with such clarity that it can almost send me to heaven without even having to die. That’s a pretty good deal.

Here’s another good deal. Right now the Rabbit Room has a package deal on Andrew Peterson CD’s. The box set contains his first five mainstream albums, including the Christmas favorite Behold the Lamb of God. I couldn’t recommend anyone’s music with any greater praise than Andrew’s. Please buy it and listen to it. Five CD’s for $68.00 – you can’t beat that with a fork.

I recommend it to you because it will clear up a lot of the issues we have faced in class concerning righteous living and sin in the Christian life. You won’t go wrong reading this one.

Buy it here.

In this article by Dr. Moore, he discusses the atonement as it relates to the Great Commission. It’s a brilliant article but may cause some of you to ask some serious questions. I’m still not sure I agree with Dr. Moore completely on this one. This relates to our class in some very practical ways so it is useful in that it will cause you to think more deeply about the atonement and what that means to our day to day living. It also touches on the all-important topic of our union with Christ. I would love for some of you who are a bit more theologically inclined to sink your teeth into this one.

Let the games begin!

But Ron King’s life was not an accident and if we really believe the Bible, neither was his death. I was able to look his wife in her eyes tonight and say that God was not surprised at the events of her day. He had completed his plans for Ron and now was demonstrating his glory through Ron’s death.

Getting to the bottom of that kind of glory is a long and difficult process. For some it takes the remainder of a lifetime. It immediately impresses upon me the absolute need for ministry right now. There are people that need your touch, your encouragement, your admonition, your instruction, correction, care, affection, love, tender word, harsh word, financial help, listening ear – today. Not tomorrow. Whatever little things we had planned on doing, we had better get to it. God does not guarantee we will come down off the ladder. He has given us this moment to be obedient or let it slide off into eternity.

The Law of God – This is a sermon preached by John Piper on the Law

Declared Righteous – This is a collection of articles from a publication, The Free Grace Broadcaster (FGB, for brevity purposes), a place from which I will link many resources in this post.

(conscious of) Sin - Scriptutre is our reference point. Here is some Paul for your daily dose.

The Law and the Prophets -

Matt. 5:17 abolish the Law or the Prophets. The “Law” or “Torah” refers to the first five books of the OT, while the “Prophets” includes the rest of the OT, all of which was held to have been written by prophets (cf. Matt. 13:35, which cites Ps. 78:2; on “Law [and the] Prophets,” cf. Matt. 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Rom. 3:21). but to fulfill them. Jesus “fulfills” all of the OT in that it all points to him, not only in its specific predictions of a Messiah but also in its sacrificial system, which looked forward to his great sacrifice of himself, in many events in the history of Israel which foreshadowed his life as God’s true Son, in the laws which only he perfectly obeyed, and in the Wisdom Literature, which sets forth a behavioral pattern that his life exemplified (cf. Matt. 2:15; 11:13; 12:3–6, 39–41, 42; also Luke 24:27). Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom does not replace the OT but rather fulfills it as Jesus’ life and ministry, coupled with his interpretation, complete and clarify God’s intent and meaning in the entire OT.

- from ESV Study Bible

Righteousness from God – See link for Declared Righteous

Faith – Some Spurgeon, Pink, Edwards (not the politician), Mueller and others

Glory of God – Two link: This and This

Justified Freely – Praise the Lord! Read it.

Grace -

Grace
I believe there is nothing in and of the sinner that prompts God to act kindly towards him (Romans 1:16; Galatians 3:26 ff). Why, then, does a sinner, an unrighteous hell-deserving rebel, receive eternal life and escape eternal punishment? It is solely by God’s grace, alone. The grace of God in the gospel is first and foremost the good news that God himself has rescued us from His own wrath and that He adopts its recipients as sons into an eternal relationship with Himself. In the gospel the love of God is revealed. God is fiercely opposed to our unrighteousness and our suppression and distortion of the truth to justify ourselves (Rom 1:18). But in spite of our rebellion, Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The love of God had to deal with both man’s unrighteousness and God’s wrath. How does this gospel do this? The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes because “in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” (Rom 1:17)

From Monergism.com

Redemption – Here is a History of Redemption from John Piper’s sermon series. Just reading the sermon titles is encouraging but for extra enlightment, listen to them or read them.

Propitiation – An article from Theopedia (a baptized Wikipedia)

The Blood of Christ -  “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Oh! that I could repent,
With all my idols part,
And to Thy gracious eyes present
A humble, contrite heart.

A heart with grief oppress’d,
For having grieved my God,
A troubled heart that cannot rest,
Till sprinkled with Thy blood.

Jesus, on me bestow
The penitent desire;
With true sincerity of woe
My aching breast inspire.

With softening pity look,
And melt my hardness down;
Strike with Thy love’s resistless stroke,
And break this heart of stone!

—Charles Wesley, 1749

I’ll stop there. I am aware there are to more “terms to know”. You look that up.

Hopefully this will be a help to many of you and will encourage you to look deeper into the things of our faith. David Miller often told me it is better to study and get the question wrong than to not even know what the question is. So, this will help you get these things going. And you ought to comment on this post (or any of the posts for that matter) with any questions or blessings you might encouter as a result. Go DoG Blog!

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Read, meditate, discuss.

Many of you are asking questions about pleasing God. Does our good work really please him at all? Should we even be concerned with pleasing him or is our standing in Christ enough? We are going to be developing this in the coming weeks during class. In the meantime, let me give away a little of the plot here. Storms does a decent job of saying what needs to be said in just a few words.