Archives: March 2010

25 Mar 2010, Comments (4)

On What Are You Setting Your Hope?

Author: Brian

1 Peter 1:13 reads:

“Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”

NOT on food or my physical health.
NOT on the economy or my job security.
NOT on my bank account or on the next pay day.
NOT on my accomplishments, professional training or on the strength or ability of my hands.
NOT my children, or their performance in competitive sports, academic achievement or artistic ability.
NOT on my ability to communicate.
NOT on my wife.
NOT on entertainment or my next hiking trip.
NOT on the day when I can play the guitar like Phil Keaggy or the hammered dulcimer like Rich Mullins.

No, I am to set my hope fully – not in part – on the grace brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not just on today’s grace, though Paul was told that His grace was sufficient in Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9) and it is sufficient for me for today. No, I am to set my hope fully on the grace to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That’s a long way ahead (perhaps). This means the life of a Christian is akin to running a long-distance race. There’s a lot at stake, but endurance is key. We must set our hope fully at the end. I am to keep my eyes heavenward (Philippians 3:12-14)when I shall be forever freed from the mess that sin has wrought around and within me. Thankfully, we are also reminded that “hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” Romans 5:5.

Brothers, it’s a long race. Keep your eyes on the prize and I will see you at the end.

24 Mar 2010, Comments Off

The Perils of the Pulpit

Author: Elijah Layfield

“Truth to tell, the pulpit is a perilous place for any child of Adam to occupy. It is ‘high and lifted up’, and thus enjoys a prominence which should be restricted to Yahweh’s throne. (Isa. 6.1) We stand there in solitude, while the eyes of all are upon us. We hold forth in monologue, while all sit still, silent and subdued. Who can endure such public exposure and remain unscathed by vanity? Pride is without doubt the chief occupational hazard of the preacher. It has ruined many, and deprived their ministry of power” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, 320).

23 Mar 2010, Comments (3)

Tweeting when you should Google

Author: Elijah Layfield

I’ve been thinking about church planting a lot for the past few days (and years).  Like most people that think on these matters, I follow Ed Stetzer on Twitter. So, I had the great idea, I’ll send Ed Stetzer a direct message on Twitter to see if he could recommend some books on church planting.  Then, this thought hit me.  I bet he gets that question alot. So, I googled to see if he ever gave a list of resources.  Lo and behold, he not only has a list, but it’s an annotated bibliography.  It’s a very good list with 70 books.  Find it here.

22 Mar 2010, Comments Off

Disturb & Comfort: True Preaching

Author: Elijah Layfield

“The true function of a preacher is to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed” (Chad Walsh, Campus Gods on Trial, 95).

15 Mar 2010, Comments Off

The Dangerous Duty of Delight, John Piper

Author: Elijah Layfield

225 Book Reviews

Book Reviews in 225 Words

Just the naked and unashamed truth (Genesis 2.25).

The Dangerous Duty of Delight.

John Piper.

Multnomah Publishers.

91 pages.

Somewhere, I heard John Piper say, “You want to buy a Piper book? Only buy one. I say the same thing in every book.” At the core of that quote and at the core of every book that Piper has written over the past 20+ years is the simple fact that he has been gripped by a theology of finding all of his satisfaction in God through Jesus Christ. “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in him.” His writings have become, to me, like dining at my favorite restaurant. He, a master chef, may use the same ingredients in every entree, yet I never tire of dining on what he has prepared.

This book is, in essence, an abbreviated version of his magnus opus, Desiring God. After laying the foundation in the first five chapters that the chief end of man is glorify God forever by enjoying him forever, he focuses the last four on how this theology relates to worship, marriage, money, and missions. It’s a great introduction, into an even greater introduction (Desiring God), into one of the greatest truths that I have ever encountered. Read it and enjoy!

14 Mar 2010, Comments Off

Get Up, For You Have Sinned

Author: Elijah Layfield

“The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. 12Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. 13Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you”” (Joshua 7:10-13 ESV).

13 Mar 2010, Comments Off

A Preacher’s Courage: No Flatterer of Flesh

Author: Elijah Layfield

“No Christian preacher can have shown more courage…than the Scottish reformer, John Knox. His contemporaries described him as little and frail, but he had a fiery disposition and a vehement way of speaking. After his return to Scotland in 1559 from his exile in Geneva, his audacious biblical preaching put new heart into the Scots who longed for deliverance from the Catholic French and for a reformed kirk. As Randolph, the English envoy, said in a dispatch to Queen Elizabeth, ‘the voice of one man is able in one hour to put more life in us than 500 trumpets continually blustering in our ears’ (Elizabeth Whitley, Plain Mr. Knox, 149.). When Mary Queen of Scots was contemplating marriage with Don Carlos, son and heir of King Philip of Spain, which would have brought the Pope’s power (political as well as religious) and the Spanish Inquisition to Scotland, Knox preached publicly against it. Such a union, he cried, would ‘banish Christ Jesus from this realm’. the Queen was deeply offended, sent for him, protested, burst into tears, and vowed that she would get her revenge. Knox replied,

Without [sc. outside]the preaching place, Madam, I think few have occasion to be offended at me; but there, Madam, I am not master of myself, but maun [sc. must] obey him who commands me to speak plain, and to flatter no flesh upon the face of the earth.

Knox died in 1572, and was buried with national mourning in the churchyard behind St. Giles’, Edinburgh. the Regent (the Earl of Morton) said at his grave, ‘Here lies one who never feared the face of man.’ (Whitley, 199, 235).” (John Stott, Between Two World, 304-5).

12 Mar 2010, Comments Off

The Old Testament of Grace

Author: Elijah Layfield

“The central theme of the Old Testament is redemption by grace. But incredibly, the Pharisees entirely missed it. In their rigid emphasis on religious works, they deemphasized the truth of God’s grace and forgiveness to sinners, evident throughout the Old Testament. They stressed obedience to law, not conversion to the Lord, as the way to gain eternal life. They were so busy trying to earn righteousness that they neglected the marvelous truth of Habakkuk 2.4: ‘The righteous will live by his faith.’ They looked to Abraham as their father but overlooked the key lesson of his life: ‘He believed in the Lord; and [the Lord] reckoned it to him as righteousness’ (Gen 15.6). They scoured the psalms for laws they could add to their list, but they ignored the most sublime truth of all-that God forgives sins, covers transgressions, and refuses to impute iniquity to sinners who turn to Him (Ps. 32.1-2).  They anticipated the coming of their Messiah but closed their eyes to the fact that He would come to die as a sacrifice for sin (Isa. 53.4-9). They were confident that they were guides to the blind, lights to those in darkness, correctors of the foolish, and teachers of the  immature (cf. Rom. 2.19-20), but they missed the most basic lesson of God’s law: that they themselves were sinners in need of redemption” (John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus, 56).

10 Mar 2010, Comments Off

The Sermon of a Lifetime

Author: Elijah Layfield

“If the process of preparing sermons is so elaborate, I have sometimes been asked by ordination candidates and young preachers, how long does it take to prepare a single sermon? The question has always flummoxed me, because it is impossible to give a simple reply. Probably the best answer is ‘your whole lifetime’, because every sermon is, in a way, a distillation of everything one has learned hitherto; and is a reflection of the kind of person one has become over the years” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, 258).

8 Mar 2010, Comments Off

The Dangers of Mixing Theology and Sin

Author: Elijah Layfield

“No matter how intelligent, if the student does not continue to pray for God to give him or her an understanding mind and a believing and humble heart, and the student does not maintain a personal walk with the Lord, then the teachings of Scripture will be misunderstood and disbelieved, doctrinal error will result, and the mind and heart of the student will not be changed for the better but for the worse” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 33).

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