The Futility of Idols

Isaiah 44:6-18

⁶Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel

and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:

"I am the first and I am the last;

besides me there is no god.

⁷Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.

Let him declare and set it before me,

since I appointed an ancient people.

Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.

⁸Fear not, nor be afraid;

have I not told you from of old and declared it?

And you are my witnesses!

Is there a God besides me?

There is no Rock; I know not any."

⁹All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. ¹⁰Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? ¹¹Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.

¹²The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. ¹³The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. ¹⁴He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.¹⁵Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" ¹⁷And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!"

¹⁸They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. ¹⁹No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, "Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?" ²⁰He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

For I am Not Ashamed of the Gospel

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" - Romans 1:16-17

It was my second time hearing the sermon on the above two verses last Tuesday. In His infinite wisdom, God always grants us opportunities to put what we hear from Him into practice.

I have often been ashamed of the gospel, and the number of people I have invited for any evangelistic events have always toed the "zero" line. By the grace of God, two friends came for the church Christmas Outreach, and have indicated willingness to find out more about the church.

So, in the few hours preceding this sermon, while my Bible Study group were praying over friends whom we want to invite for Proclaim 2010!, I found myself asking the question in my head, "Isn't it that I am still ashamed of the gospel that I have not been sharing the Gospel with people around me and inviting them to 'Proclaim 2010!'?" Indeed, I was.

In the week that has passed, God has reminded me that the Gospel is indeed His power for salvation to all who believe. God acts rightly in salvation through Jesus Christ paying our penalties of sin for us, so that we may be reconciled to Him for eternity. Reminding myself about what I say in seeing life as processes and outcomes, I started e-mailing and meeting up with friends to tell them about "Proclaim 2010!" Even at RT, I started sharing the gospel with old friends whom I met, and God gave me an encouragement in the form of Farand, my TCHS classmate, who has been doing a series of Bible Studies with his girlfriend's father on the Gospel of Luke despite being an unbeliever. It was an encouragement on two counts - (1), that the father while wanting to protect his daughter in discharging his duties as a father responsible before God for his family, manages to see it as an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel and win souls for Christ; and (2), that my friend Farand would actually be open enough to study the Word of God and investigate His claims.

On Monday, I bumped into SC, a year 1 project group mate of mine. Despite not chatting with her since Year 2, in the short walk between Dhoby Gaut MRT and SESS I managed to invite her for "Proclaim 2010!"! Even though she did not turn up last night, I will be praying for her to be able to make it for one of the talks next week.

And so, 3o minutes ago, I submitted my job application for a Management Associate programme. The company had wanted me to submit, along with testimonials and transcripts, something which I've written so that they may assess my writing skills. I submitted the blog entry dated 30 Oct0ber 2009 - you might want to check it out in your leisure; but the point is that I submitted something I wrote about my belief in God and a part of Scripture too! Counter-cultural huh!

It does not matter to me if they reject me because of this blog entry that I sent, telling them that God is #1 in my life above all else. God knows what I need, and I am sure He will provide what He already knows is best for me even though in my finite wisdom I have absolutely no clue now as to what that may possibly be.

There is no reason to be ashamed of the Gospel, if we truly understand that it is God who saves, and we are just weak vessels communicating His glorious message of salvation to all who believe in Him and call upon His name.

Why Do You Think Christianity Is True?

Taken from Desiring God ministry website.

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

Why do you think Christianity is true? What compelling evidence do you see for it?

You can come at the truth of Christianity through several angles of apologetics and reasoning. Let me mention a few and tell you the one that is most existentially real for me.

1) One would be historical. I think arguments can be mounted that are solid and compelling—first for the existence of Jesus, and then for the death and the resurrection of Jesus—to give an account for why the apostles were the way they were after his death.

The arguments that Pannenberg and Evangelicals have developed for the resurrection of the dead—Who Moved the Stone?-type arguments—are strong and have helped many people get over the barrier. Because if Jesus has been raised from the dead, never to die again, and ascended into heaven, then we should take very seriously and credit what he said about himself. So that's one line of evidence.

2) A second line of evidence is called presuppositional. It says that without God and the Bible as an assumption all of our reasoning processes and all of our perceiving processes are not possible.

In other words, every time we start thinking and every time we start perceiving, something is happening in our heads which assumes something. And if you're going to have any kind of credible conversation about what you're thinking or about what you're seeing, then you are assuming certain laws of logic, causality, and existence which can't have any absolute significance unless they're rooted in God.

So everybody is talking nonsense, but hardly anybody will say, "We're all just animals talking nonsense." Even those who are total secular, naturalistic evolutionists don't like to be treated like animals.

When a dog barks, I don't assume he's writing poetry. But when a man puts poetry down, I assume he wants me to take him seriously as a human being who has serious meaning there. He doesn't like it if I say, "O that's just chicken scratch!" So he's assuming something unbelievably profound about the significance and the basis of what he's doing, which he couldn't do unless he had a Christian construction of God.

So that's the presuppositional angle. Here's the third one, and the last one that is most significant to me.

3) How do you, when you want to decide if someone's testimony or witness is true? You weren't there. There were no videos. There was no recording. And you have to decide whether what he's saying happened actually happened.

When I read the Bible, that's the way I feel I am. I'm reading Paul, say, the 13 letters of the Apostle Paul. And he's telling me he saw the Lord Jesus, that he was knocked off of his donkey on the Damascus road, saw the Lord Jesus, was commisioned by the Lord Jesus, and now is inspired by the Lord Jesus. And then he interprets all of that in terms of the gospel.

I've got to reckon, "Paul, are you a lunatic? Are you a liar? Or are you telling the truth?" (Those questions are usually used with Jesus: "Are you a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord?") I think it's a good argument, and I use it for the writers of the New Testament, not just for Jesus. I know that I've got Paul right here in my hand, and I want to know, "Are you crazy?"

So when I'm reading the Bible, whether it's the Gospel of John or Romans, I'm asking the question, "How can I credit what's here, both the testimony of the man and the portrait of Jesus?" And I think there is a light that stands forth from the text of the truthfulness of Jesus that is self-authenticating. And there is a kind of character for the writers that stands forth that is authenticating of their solidity and truthfulness, confirming that they're not lunatics or liars.

If somebody said to me today, "Just tell me in 30 seconds why you're a Christian," I would say, "The portrait that I see of Jesus Christ in the Gospels is self-authenticating to me. I cannot meet this man and have him speak like nobody else spoke and not believe him. He wins my trust."

And then if they say, "Ah, but how do you know that that person is not being created by somebody else?" Then I would say, "Then the person creating him is just as phenomenal, and they win my trust. And if they win my trust then they're not lying to me." The Apostle Paul is not a lunatic. I cannot read the 13 letters of Paul and think he's crazy or a liar.

So those two things:

1. the self-authenticating portrait of Jesus Christ that I find in Scripture, and
2. the character-endorsing way that the apostles write their books and reveal their own trustworthiness.

---

© Desiring God

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

The Shocking Message

Watch This!

DBR 2009 - A Summary & A Personal Challenge

DBR 2009 was great stuff! We had a great preacher in Rory Shiner who preached to us from the Book of Jonah, and had three workshops where we learned more about evangelism. Here are the learning points from "Jonah: A Call to Evangelism":

Jonah 1: A simple message from Jonah, “I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land”, underscored both his sound theology and the problem he had living it out. (1) Does our lives reflect our understanding of theology? (2) Are we running away from God’s call to preach to the lost His message of salvation? (3) How are we helping the unbelievers around us ask, “Who is this man (Jesus)?” in our lives? [Reference: Mark 4:35-41]

Jonah 2: Salvation belongs to the LORD. Two reasons why one will turn to God: (1) He realizes that there is no way out by relying on himself; (2) God wants to save the lost. All a person has to do to get saved is to call upon the name of the LORD [Reference: Romans 10:9-13]

Jonah 3: The nature of salvation: (1) God takes us as who we are (Jonah 2); (2) God never leaves us by ourselves once He’s taken us (Jonah 3). IF the Ninevites could repent on that simple sermon that Jonah preached, how much more are we expected to repent and respond appropriately to God’s grace and mercy! (Luke 11:29-32). Let our lives reflect to the world one of repentance.

Jonah 4: Jonah was angry at God because he did not want Nineveh to be saved, and is rebuked by God. Are we like Jonah (in that we don’t think that some people deserve to hear the Gospel)? Jonah was like the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15).

Evangelism Workshop: (1) Evangelism is first and foremost God’s work [See John 6:44]. (2) God works through His church in Evangelism [3 Reasons Why We Evangelize: (a) We will all be judged; (b) Christ’s love compels us; (c) He has given to us a ministry of reconciliation, between sinners and a holy God] (See 2 Cor 5:9-21). We evangelize by preaching the Gospel, persuading with the Gospel, and praying down doors for the Gospel while living out Gospel centred lives, being all things to reach all men.

Apologetics Workshop: Apologetics as 3 Ds: Defense of the Gospel, Demolish the strongholds of the world, and Developing a case for Christ. It is important in the minds for the faith of those who believe, its impact in the world, and on the church to build up the congregation so they will not be swayed by false teachings.

Predestination vs Evangelism: The Bible teaches that God is sovereign over the world, including human decision, and that human beings are responsible for their own actions. They are not 50-50, but 100-100. Believe that God is in control, and therefore evangelize without guilt nor manipulation, putting His Word forth simply; and believe that the Word of God needs to be preached, for faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. Evangelize with passion!

It is my most sincere prayer that all of us do not just hear God’s Word to us and not respond. Genuine faith results in changing lives, and faith without works is dead.

The Colossians were known to Paul as Genuine Christians who heard a Genuine Gospel from a Genuine Messenger. (Colossians 1:3-8)

What would we be known to God by?

Too Many Assumptions Too Little Verification

General observations have led to a hypothesis that everyone makes too many assumptions and too little verification when it comes to friendships between people of the opposite gender.

Men's Assumptions:

1. Confident that close platonic friendships can exist between men and women.
2. Confident that we can control our emotions very well.

Women's Assumptions: (I am assuming the assumptions of women - haha)

1. Men can handle close platonic friendships with women (and they hear it from men who CAN, not men who CAN'T)
2. Men are emotionally more stable than they are (just because they don't show it)

There needs to be more verification and less assumptions.