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Standing in the Gap: Fighting God's Enemies

Fri, 2011-02-18 18:03 — Joseph Bayly

In a recent post, I explained that Standing in the Gap means three things. This post will focus on the first one: Fighting against the enemies of God to protect His people.

The first thing to note is that this work is still necessary today. 

Standing in the Gap: What Does It Mean?

Wed, 2011-02-09 10:25 — Joseph Bayly

When discussing what is unique about ClearNote Church Indy, one of the things I usually bring up is the concept of "Standing in the Gap". I'm referring to a biblical analogy of a protective wall around a city. If the wall is broken in a certain place, that is a gap in the wall. In case you are wondering, gaps are not good. Ezekiel 13:4-6 says:


O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. “You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD. “They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word.


Inside the city are God's people. Outside are their enemies. The godly shepherd must stand in the gap and fight to protect the sheep. Religious leaders that don't care to protect God's people from being destroyed will not do the hard work of re-building the wall and fighting in that place of danger.

Why Confessions Are Important

Mon, 2010-12-06 12:50 — Joseph Bayly

I was speaking with another Indianapolis pastor a few months ago, and he wanted to know how we are able to have paedo-baptists (Presbyterians) and credo-baptists (Baptists) work together in the same denomination and even in leadership at the same church. I began to explain to him that really we have a lot more in common with each other than we disagree about. I told him that we require leaders to adopt one of the classic reformed confessions, and I was going to move from there into describing how we allow freedom on time and mode of baptism, but he interrupted me. “What is it with you reformed guys and confessions?” he asked. “Haven’t you ever heard of sola Scriptura?”

Unemployed!

Fri, 2010-12-03 10:39 — Kevin Jackson

 

"MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD,
         NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 
    FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,
         AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."  (Hebrews 12:5b-6)
 
I am a discontent person by nature; but then, aren’t we all.  In my previous job I would spend half my day resenting those over me and the other half of the day doing my work.  Then God disciplined me.  At the beginning of September I lost my job.  When I was fired (“let go” sounds so much nicer, and even “terminated” has a certain ring to it, but I choose to use the word that is most stigmatized) I was told that it was “not working out.”  Not working out?  That was the understatement of the year...

The Church: Fast Food Franchise or Flock

Wed, 2010-12-01 12:10 — Tim Bayly

Galatians 6:6: The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.

Biblical churches forget this command today, but it remains a critical aspect of the life of God’s Household. The members of God’s flock are commanded to “share all good things” with their shepherd. In our churches, though, it’s not normal for the sheep to be focused on their duties toward their shepherds. Rather, their focus is on the duties of the shepherd to care for his sheep. And in some ways, this is natural. The health of the flock is integrally and uniquely tied to the work of the shepherd. So it’s important the pastor fulfill his obligations to his flock. If he doesn’t, the flock will inevitably suffer…

Rotten Eggs

Mon, 2010-11-29 11:35 — Stephen Baker

 

When my wife and I were about to get married, there were many voices that cautioned her against it.

They weren’t against me, per se. They were against her marrying without a college degree. Why? Over and over again, the reason was, “You never know what might happen.”

Translation: “You might marry a louse.”

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times: Why should young women make sure they get a college education? In case they marry a rotter. A bum. A lowlife. A dirt ball.

Pornography is Poison

Wed, 2010-11-17 11:44 — M Scott Foster

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be putting up a couple of excerpts from ClearNote Press’ first book, Man Vs. Lust: A Young Man’s Guide to Purity (buy a copy here). Man Vs. Lust is a primer for young men about one of God's greatest gifts - sex. The book’s author, David Canfield, serves as a board member of ClearNote Fellowship and teaches at ClearNote Pastors College in Bloomington, Indiana. An elder at Church of the Good Shepherd, David has spent years mentoring young men with sexual addictions.

Humility Prepares Us for the "Exceptions"

Mon, 2010-11-08 10:18 — ldweeks

Computer programmers like things to be "just so". They tend to be finicky about details, and it's never enough, really, to simply solve a problem. The solution needs to be elegant and efficient, on top of being effective. The level of detail is sometimes surprising. Open source software projects commonly publish "coding standards", for instance, in which they specify things like how many spaces should be included in a tab, and whether variable names should be uppercase, lowercase or mixed.

A Sketch of Masculine Worship

Wed, 2010-10-13 08:06 — Jody Killingsworth

In yesterday's post, Ryan asked, "How would you describe masculine worship?"

It's difficult to describe what no longer exists, and what none of us has ever seen. In his essay "Ministers in Skirts," Doug Wilson briefly summarizes the complicated history of the feminization of the church since the days of the Industrial Revolution. There's been a complete sea-change, he says, in our understanding of sexuality, so much so that we retain virtually no memory of what life was like prior to that time. What God intended to be a compliment to masculine piety--feminine piety--has become in this post-Industrial Revolution, post-Enlightenment age the measure for what all true piety is. All our assumptions about godliness today are feminine. Masculine piety has been entirely, or almost entirely, lost. Whenever it does occasionally raise its head, we're completely flummoxed by it...

Why Masculine Worship Matters

Tue, 2010-10-12 09:39 — moderator

Our sexuality effects everything. In this quote, Doug Wilson gives a great explanation how this is true of the worship service:

The Dangers of Professionalism

Thu, 2010-09-30 21:23 — moderator

We're posting some conversation-stirring quotes this Tuesday and Thusday. This week’s theme is preaching and preachers.

Today’s quote is from D. Martyn Llyod-Jones:

 

Expositing Isn't Enough

Tue, 2010-09-28 22:57 — moderator

We're posting some conversation-stirring quotes this Tuesday and Thusday. This week’s theme is preaching and preachers. 

Lets start with a working definition of preaching based on John Calvin’s understanding:
 

Why Meditation is Essential

Sat, 2010-09-25 10:39 — moderator

We're posting some conversation-stirring quotes every Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. This week’s theme is prayer and meditation.

Most believers think of some Hindu guru when they think of meditation. You know, meditating on the sound of a one-handed clap and all that nonsense. As result, Christians either totally reject or rarely  approach this biblical discipline. This is a travesty because biblical meditation is essential to a Christian’s spiritual health. Thomas Manton explains just why it is so important:
 

Bitter Just Like Charbuck’s Coffee

Thu, 2010-09-23 15:27 — moderator

We're posting some conversation-stirring quotes every Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. This week’s theme is prayer and meditation.

Albert Day said, “We Protestants are an undisciplined people. Therein lies the reason for much of the dearth if spiritual insights and serious lack of moral power.” Nowhere is this lack of discipline more evident than our prayer lives. We are by a prayer-less people full of excuses for our negligence. In today’s quote, D. A. Carson tackles one of these common excuses for prayerlessness:

Making Master Yoda Proud

Tue, 2010-09-21 09:22 — moderator

We're posting some conversation-stirring quotes every Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. This week’s theme is prayer and meditation.

The following quote is taken from a church newsletter. The newsletter’s focus was prayer. The part quoted here comes from the section entitled, “Prayer Exercise for Members.” Here it is in its entirety:
 

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