Thorn Tree

New Blog

Jacob — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:26:46 +0000

Hey ya’ll I’ve moved everything over to a different blog because well… I wanted a new URL for awhile because I’d like one that’s just…better. It’s the same blog (the old posts and comments are there and everything) just new URL. If anything I changed for my own sake. New URL is, youngreformedbaptist.wordpress.com

Quote

Jacob — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:47:12 +0000

Listen, ye unbelieving men, ye dishonest men, ye profane men, ye lewd men and women, ye slaves of lust and appetite, ye scoffers at the truth of God, how can ye escape the damnation of Hell? Ye men of business, ye whose souls are absorbed with the pursuit of gain, ye people of wealth without riches toward God, ye passengers on the voyage of life without prayer, without church relations, without concern for your immortal soul, Hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and your glory and your multitude and your pomp and your rejoicing shall descend into it. Listen, ye almost Christians, lingering these many years on the margins of the Kingdom, looking in through the gates but never quite ready to enter them, intending but never performing, often wishing but still postponing, hoping but without right to hope, the appeal is to you, How can ye escape if ye neglect so great a salvation? And ye who call yourselves Christians but have forgotten your covenant promises, ye Terahs and Lot’s wife, who have started out of the place of sin and death but hesitate halfway and stay to look back, ye are baptized Elymases and Judases and Balaams, who through covetousness and feigned words, make merchandise of the Grace of God, see ye not that your judgment now of a long time lingereth not and your damnation slumbereth not? And if there be anyone oblivious or indifferent toward these great matters, asleep amidst the dashing waves of coming retribution, the message is to you, What meanest thou o sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God shall think upon thee that thou perish not! For if any one be not found written in the Book of Life, he must be swallowed up by the Lake of Fire.

-Joseph Seiss

$3 Worth of God

Jacob — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:56:49 +0000

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

— Wilbur Rees

Sola Scriptura

Jacob — Sat, 08 May 2010 07:05:52 +0000

“You can quote Scripture appropriately and say that you are quoting God.” -Dan Phillips

John Piper on the Supremacy of Christ

Jacob — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:35:46 +0000

What if Satan took over?

Jacob — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:06:28 +0000

Michael Horton:

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.

—Christless Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), p. 15. (You can read the first chapter online for free.)

What a Way to Request a Marriage

Jacob — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:24:46 +0000

A letter from Adoniram Judson (Baptist missionary to Burma) to the father of his fiance, asking for his permission to marry his daughter.

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

Keswick

Jacob — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:10:15 +0000

In the past, I’ve written about how I dislike the phrase, “Let go and let God”. I’ve written about the danger of believing we were “made righteous” at Justification. But it wasn’t until recently that I learned that both of those (and other beliefs) are products of a movement called the Keswick Movement or the “Higher Life Movement”. This is a movement that has it’s roots deep in American Evangelicalism. My old church was into it. It’s main characteristics are a relaxed view of sanctification, a more infused view of Justification, a second outpouring or rededication philosophy, and sometimes perfectionism. This creates a view of Justification that is more Catholic than orthodox; a view of sanctification that is relaxed and uninterested in dealing with sins; and a faulty view of salvation. To a Keswickian, there are two types of Christians, carnal and normal. This is where the idea of carnal Christianity comes in. This is a dangerous theology that is in our churches, Campus Crusade events, and many other things. In fact, I was confronted with Keswick teaching today. My band director recommended I watch some videos he liked. Watch the first one and listen carefully to the quiz part. Try to remember that they believe that we are made righteous, not declared.

Free Music

Jacob — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:10:42 +0000

Here’s a free album from Page CXVI
They’re giving away their first album for free for a few days! The songs are old hymns set to modern music. I like most, especially Solid Rock and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross! I hope you enjoy them too and maybe look into buying their new album. Hymns II.

A Good Word from Spurgeon

Jacob — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:58:01 +0000

I have seen boys bathing in a river in the morning. One of them has just dipped his toes in the water, and he cries out, as he shivers, “Oh, it’s so cold!” Another has gone in up to his ankles, and he also declares that it is fearfully chilly.

But see! another runs to the bank, and takes a header. He rises all in a glow. All his blood is circulating, and he cries “Delicious! What a beautiful morning! I am all in a glow. The water is splendid!” That is the boy for enjoying a bath!

You Christian people who are paddling about in the shallows of religion, and just dipping your toes into it—you stand shivering in the cold air of the world which you are afraid to leave. Oh, that you would plunge into the river of life! How it would brace you! What tone it would give you! In for it, young man! In for it!

Be a Christian, out and out. Serve the Lord with your whole being. Give yourself wholly to him who bought you with his blood. Plunge into the sacred flood by grace, and you will exclaim—

“Oh, this is life! Oh, this is joy,
My God, to find thee so!
Thy face to see, thy voice to hear,
And all thy love to know.”

May we thus walk in newness of life! Amen.

— Charles Spurgeon from his sermon, Christ’s Resurrection and Our Newness of Life.