Is Anger Morally Neutral?

Read the article from CCEF, by David Powlison>>>
Excerpts:

• God's anger is only good. He makes a just and justified response to true evils. At the same time, God is notably slow to anger and notably merciful (Exodus 34:6f); he does not treat us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103). But when God does express anger or warn of his anger, he expresses his goodness. “I will make my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord'” (Exodus 33:19). His character and name include his reckoning with evil.

• The devil's anger is only evil. It expresses his pride, lusts, frustration, cruelty, willfulness. He is always offended, always murderous.

• The willful, petty, entitled, irritable, argumentative, vindictive anger so typical of daily life is only evil.

• The anger of people toward genuine wrongs is usually mixed. Anger is a just and justified response to true evils, an expression of the image of God. The fact that we see a wrong as wrong is a good thing; the fact that we care enough to be troubled is a good thing. But human beings tend to return evil for evil, expressing the image of the evil one. For example, a person can get angry for good reasons, but express the anger in many wrong ways. The mix can be tipped significantly towards either end of the
spectrum. Sometimes it is barely good, quickly returning evil for evil. Sometimes it is significantly good in patiently and firmly facing down evil (though who of us is immune to the infiltration of self-righteousness?).

Read the whole article to see how he works out the false presupposition that anger is "morally neutral" and how anger is very much morally conditioned (either good or evil, but not neutral.)

10 Commandments via TxtMsg

HT RT@theLORD via Fast Company:

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.

2. dnt wrshp pix

3. no omg's

4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)

5. pos ok - ur m&d r cool

6. dnt kill ppl

7. :-X only w/ m8

8. dnt steal

9. dnt lie re: bf

10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.

ttyl, JHWH.

ps. wwjd?

Book Review: Respectable Sins

Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate
Reviewed by Deb Welch At Treasures of Encouragement>>>

To persevere in the faith and become a mature, Biblically-grounded believer is an honorable goal for any woman in this life, yet it is so easy to veer off the narrow path into what I like to sometimes called “elder sister” territory.

Having experienced freedom in the Gospel from society's most obvious sins, such as sexual immorality, murder, abortion, theft, and the like, we can become, like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31), oblivious to the insidious and subtleness of our remaining sin because it seems more socially acceptable. Rather than engaging in faith’s fight against these more “respectable sins,” we make peace with and tolerate our sin tendencies as if they were cuddly pets or mere personality types, instead of deadly offenses against our holy, just and loving God.

Perennial author, Jerry Bridges, known for other books such as The Pursuit of Holiness, The Discipline of Grace, and Transforming Grace, offers conviction, hope, and sound Gospel help for believers to identify and overcome these more subtle, daily sins. Even seasoned saints still struggle with anxiety, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, impatience, judgmentalism, envy, jealousy, worldliness, and sins of the tongue, which wage war against our souls and rage in cosmic treason against God's majesty.

With the precision of a surgeon, Bridges will cut to the quick with scriptures and every day examples of how these sins still manifest in our lives. The goal of the author is not to condemn or to merely convict, leaving his reader in a mire of woe, but to exhort us to put off sin and to put on Christ. The remedy is the same for elder siblings who suffer from "respectable sins" as it was for the prodigal son in Luke 15, that God, in His sovereign good pleasure, has graciously paid for our sin by the death, resurrection and ascension of His son Jesus Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He works in and with us to cleanse us from our sin, enabling us to “be what we are” in Christ.

This is exactly the type of book that I need as a guide to help get the plank out of my own “elder sister" eye, before examining my “younger sister’s” speck. After all, we know that God hates all sin, no matter how “refined” or “respectable” it may seem to us and the society at a large.

This is NEXT on MP3

updated: I've added links to the breakout sessions too.

Recordings from this past weekend at This is NEXT (my favorites are highlighted):

• The Preeminence of Christ (Joshua Harris)


• Christ's Incarnation (D.A. Carson) **


• Christ's Life (Kevin DeYoung)


• Christ's Death (C.J. Mahaney)


• Christ's Resurrection (Sinclair Ferguson)


• Christ's Return (Sinclair Ferguson) **

Breakout sessions:

• Just Do Something Kevin DeYoung
• Radical Womanhood Carolyn McCulley
• Panel Discussion Mark Dever, Sinclair Ferguson, Justin Taylor, Kevin DeYoung, C.J. Mahaney, and Joshua Harris
• Entrust: The Transfer of the Gospel Dave Harvey & Jared Mellinger

Photo below - Panel discussion featuring (left to right): Mark Dever, Kevin DeYoung, Sinclair Ferguson, Justin Taylor, C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris

(images ht: http://twitter.com/TonyReinke)

Heading over to Radical Womanhood Breakout...

I got to meet Carolyn this morning after CJ Mahaney's session (which was very powerful)-- she sat right in front of us!! There were about 2,500 people in the auditorium. Pretty crazy, huh?

So I asked her, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Carolyn McCulley?" to which she replied something to the effect of: well my mother did!
Anyway... gotta run off to the breakout...

Grace and Peace in Christ

D.A. Carson Session on Christ's Incarnation

D. A. Carson gave a Superb session this morning on Christ's Incarnation from John 1:1-18

Some highlights from my notes:
God’s ultimate expression of himself is Jesus - The Word

1) The Word Creates us (cross references: Genesis 1, Colossians 1:15=20)
All things made by Him, for Him -- The doctrine of creation grounds all human responsibility.
Aseity -- remember Gos is so much from Himself, that He does not need us. He doesnt need our praise, our works, or our obedience.

2) The Word Gives us Light and Life (cross references: John 3:18, John 8)
At creation God created the Light out of darkness. John 8 He is the Light of the World.
Darkness has not understood Him.
He is our eternal life - from before the foundations of the earth.

3) The Word Confronts us and divides us (The Fall) (John 3:16, Genesis 3)

The world is to be understood as human moral order in rebellion since the fall.
"God's love is not so awesome because the world is not so big, it is because it is so bad (because of the fall)."

The world did not recognize him(acknowledge him, understand him) – the world He had made – and this is what is unthinkably bad.
Even 'His own people' -- Jewish people are the specificity of humanity rejecting their own, in whom and by whom they were created.

The most heinous thins is not rape, genocide, or lying. The most heinous thing we do is ignoring our maker. The first sin is to not love God with our heart, mind, and soul. It is the sin of idolatry--- The de-Godding of God. Idolatry.

Even though the world doesn’t know him nor does it want to know him, mysteriously some are saved out of the world and are born again.

We must understand that this happened only because of the Incarnation: God becoming flesh.


4. The Word Incarnates God for Us (cross reference: Exodus 32-34)
Incarnate - from the latin word carnae="meat" or "flesh" - in-meat/in-flesh- the Word becoming human.

Directly references Exodus 32-34
Moses asks God - show me Your Glory. The manifestation of God's Glory to Moses was: God's Goodness:
Exod 33: 19 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

"The Lord, The Lord!! Abounding in Grace (love) and Truth (faithfulness.)
The whole story corresponds directly to John 1:1-18 -- in these five ways:
1- the tabernacle
2- the request to 'see' God's Glory
3- God's goodness
4- Grace and Truth
5- No one can see God (apart from Jesus)



Jesus tabernacles among us. Jesus is presented as the tabernacle, or the temple, of God. The tabernacle is the great meeting place of God and sinful people. It was a place of Sacrifice. Jesus himself is that temple.

We have seen His Glory!
- the shame and ignominy of the cross. --- the wretched cross === Christ's Glory!!
- all of God's Goodness passes in front of us upon the cross.
The fullness of God's Grace and Truth - as was spoken to Moses -- we receive grace upon grace -- the law of Moses was one grace - we have received Grace upon Grace in Christ!
Amen!!

Link to Next blog with more notes from the session>>>

If anyone is looking for me May 23-26...

... I'll be here:

("This is Next" formerly known as "New Attitude")
Just check out the line-up:

D.A. Carson
Sinclair Ferguson
C.J. Mahaney
Mark Dever
Josh Harris
Carolyn McCulley
Kevin DeYoung
Dave Harvey & Jared Mellinger

With music by:

Bob Kauflin
Reilly
Zelos
and the Na Band

This is going to be . g r r r e a t !!! (I might even try to post some notes, quotes and afterthougths.)

Would you give a little squirrel a helping hand?

Thought I'd share this very cute little video:

Be careful what you pray for...

While praying that my faith might be made more mature and complete, I then realized how God accomplishes this. (Yikes!) Now compare this to what's happening in my life right now... ah, now it's all starting to make just a little bit of sense now ....

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-5).

Lewis on Betrayal

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and probably be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the coffin or casket of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.... The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell." - C.S. Lewis

Thy Kingdom Come, Heavenly Father.