The Mover

O Lord, I am astonished at the difference
between my receivings and my deservings,
between the state that I am now in and my past gracelessness,
between the heaven I am bound for and the hell I merit.

Who made me to differ, but thee?
for I was no more ready to receive Christ than were others;
I could not have begun to love thee hadst thou not first loved me,
or been willing unless thou hadst first made me so.

Let 'wrath deserved' be written on the door of hell,
But 'the free gift of grace' on the gate of heaven.

- excerpts from 'The Valley of Vision'

Christmas 'Break' Readings

Although I have graduated, it still seems like a got a mini-Christmas break this year. I've been reading some powerful texts from the prophets.

"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They have made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words whcih the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore the great wrath came from the Lord of hosts." - Zechariah 7:11-12

A text that reminds me of being a sinner. These words were written by Zechariah the prophet warning people of who they are serving and what has been going on.

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; and I will bring them and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.' " - Zechariah 8:7-8

A text of hope and promise of the Lord.

" ' A son honors father, and a servanth His master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the Lord of hosts" - Malachi 1:6

Another text of warning to the rebellious people. Malachi 1:8-9 has a similar warning, with the example that if you're able to give the best to your governor to please him, why are you giving poor offering to your God. Later in the book, even during judgement and warning, Malachi 2:14-16 shows us the Lord's value of marriage, He as a witness of the covenant and the Spirit as 'binder'. " 'For I hate divorce (sending away),' says the Lord." That was really neat to learn glean from the passage, although the overall theme of the book is not towards marriage.

Some Christmas Bounty

God has been gracious over the Christmas break. He has been a God of provision through the workings of family and friends. Listed below are some of the books that received for Christmas. While I am proud of these gifts, I hope that they will give you new ideas of authors to read, maybe a new avenue of good reading to be had.

C.S. Lewis - The Four Loves













C.S. Lewis - The Great Divorce













Jerry Bridges - The Gospel for Real Life













Randy Alcorn - The Grace and Truth Paradox













Jerry Bridges - The Discipline of Grace

Merry Christmas

After the weighty post below, not to take away any of the seriousness, but I wanted to wish all:

Merry Christmas!

The Disappearing Doctrine of Hell

I read this after seeing the link to Al Mohler's website on Chris's blog:

"Belief in hell is fast disappearing in Scotland, according to press reports. Reporter Donald MacLeod points to the fact that one third of Scottish clergy "still believe in the existence of hell." Of course, that means that the other two-thirds have decided against hell.

From MacLeod's article in The Guardian [London]:

Eric Stoddart, a lecturer in practical theology at St Andrews University, surveyed 750 randomly selected clergy and found that 37% believed in hell, although this was more marked in the Highlands and Western Isles, where conservative, Presbyterian congregations predominate.
"The doctrine of hell is downplayed by most of today's churches even by those who still believe in it. It isn't viewed as very politically correct even by a new generation of more theologically conservative ministers," said Dr Stoddart, who commented that there was a conspiracy of silence on the subject.

This is consistent with what is happening in the United States as well. Hell has become an odium theologicum -- an odious doctrine that is just too politically-incorrect for modern taste. Many preachers just find a way never to mention it. Or, as one wag has observed, they just air-condition hell, denying that it is a place of everlasting torment.

Look at this fascinating section of the article:

Dr Stoddart is interested in how belief in hell affects everyday life and is keen to hear from ordinary Christians as well. He said: "I'm interested in how people handle their belief in hell. If you believe (or are told you should believe) your grandmother is going to hell because she is not a Christian, how do you deal with that? Do you dehumanise her or psychologically distance yourself in order to accept her fate? How is it possible to go about daily life while believing that a loved-one has entered eternal suffering? When most hell-believing Christians are likely to encounter the death of 'non-Christian' loved-ones it is striking that it is a subject rarely tackled. No one talksabout this aspect. There is something of a conspiracy of silence."

Dr. Stoddartis interested in how the relational aspects of human life influence an individual's belief in hell -- and vice versa. At the Web site for his research project, Hell: The Pastoral Implications, he comments:

I concluded that the pain that arises from believing in hell whilst suspecting that your loved-ones might already be there is something that churches fail to recognise. There's something of a conspiracy of silence when it comes to acknowledging that it might apply to real, actual people rather than just an anonymous group called 'the lost'.

The knowledge of what hell really represents is a humbling consciousness that leads to heartbreak and serves as an impetus to evangelism. Those who deny the reality of hell will bear some real responsibility for the fact that so many will be found there.

Ezekiel 3:16-21

A very good article to compliment this is one of John Piper's on DesiringGod.org:

'Dorothy Sayers on Why Hell in Non-Negotiable'

Comment: Is this the same St. Andrews that PCM read about in 'St. Andrew's Seven' this summer in our missions Bible study?

The Chronicles of Narnia

My wife and I went to see the movie last nite, along with my brother and some of his friends. It was a good movie, not great, but good. It did have some very powerful moments in there. Those key moments were awesome.
It's hard when everyone has seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and how well done those movies were done. The LOTR series had such excellent detail, imagery, and direction, it was an awesome series really. Well, I'm not saying Narnia doesn't have any of this, it's hard to hold up to that series. Maybe that's the problem, it may be 'Lord of the Rings Lite', but it really is probably directed to a different genre or audience.
It is toned down, you notice there will be no blood, even for the great sacrifice. (* I'm being vague to not ruin any storylines intentionally). The children are the main story line, even if they are going to battle later in the film.
The allusions that some of the things in the film holds, they can be very powerful. Edmund's treason and betrayal. Aslan and his actions. I think the being of Aslan was just very powerful, the respect to he was on film and Who is portraying. And what Aslan does, wow.
It was definitely worth seeing, but as a film, won't take the place of LOTR for me. But some of those moments in Narnia are just chilling due to imagery it holds and the power of the imagery.

A Link to the Movie site:
http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/index.html

Wedding Announcement

Mr. and Mrs. Blinson

Blinson - Madden

Megan Ashleigh Madden and Joshua Lee Blinson were married October 22, 2005, at Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh. Reverend Chip Bugnar officiated their ceremony.
The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Madden of Apex. She is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herb Hilsinger of Kinston, and Mrs. Kiyoko Madden of Holly Springs and the late Mr. Madden.
Parents of the groom are Mr. and Mrs. Mel Blinson of Raleigh. He is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. L.W. Sharp of Raleigh, and Mr. and Mrs. Shelton Blinson of Raleigh.
The couple will live in Raleigh, having completed their honeymoon to Topsail Island.

- Isaiah 46:9-10 -

* sorry for the delay, this is 'official' unofficial announcement *

Spice Shower Pictures

Thanks to all who helped in throw the Spice Shower for us. We really appreciated it. Thanks to the Whatleys for hosting it in there home. Thanks for attending too, and all the great spices and other gifts that we got.

-The Shower Cake - The theme was "Love, Honor, Cherish"

This is a few of the attenders that we at the show. Love you guys.

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More Wedding Pictures

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Exchanging of the Rings

The New Mr. & Mrs. Blinson

Excitement After the Ceremony

Our Wedding Party

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Wedding Pictures - The Beginning

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My beautiful bride, Meg, along with two of her bridesmaids, Kristen McCutchen (L) and Sarah Thuston (R).

My bride with only one of her many favorite aunts, this one is Aunt Michelle.

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Streams of Mercy

Man's great difficulty is that we have religion without guilt, and religion without guilt just tries to make God a big 'pal' of a man. But religion without guilt is a religion that cannot escape hell for it deceives and finally destroys all who are a part of it.

Religion without any consciousness of guilt is a false religion. If I come to Jesus Christ without any confession of guilt, simply to gain some benefit, I still have woe upon me, as did the Pharisees before me! But if my guilt drives me to Jesus, than I have my guilt taken from me and I find mercy. Oh, the mercy of God! We sing about the mercy of God, and I hope we know what we are singing about: 'O depths of mercy, can it be, that gate is left ajar for me.'

If God could not extend us His mercy and grace, and treated us exactly as we deserved, there would be only one course for Him to follow. God would have to turn an angered face to us in life and He would have to turn His back to us in death. That would happen to the best human beings that ever lived, if we should only receive what we deserve.

But, oh, the grace of God! God through the plan of salvation in Jesus Christ will go beyond our merits, beyond that which we deserve. Even if our sins have been like a mountain, it is the grace of God that assures our forgiveness. There is cleansing for the defiled, gracious and satisfying cleansing - a beautiful element in Christianity as revealed by the Lord Himself, and not just abstract theology.

- A.W. Tozer

Pictures Coming Soon

We've gotten some of our pictures back from what the family has taken, and also some from the beaches during our honeymoon. I will work on uploading these to the website soon. Stay tuned...

The Catch-Up

It's been a blast the past couple weeks. I recently got married on October 22nd. The wedding was phenomenal. God was working. Our friends and family really helped out too to make this a very beautiful wedding. I hope all that attended enjoyed and got to praise the King also. We enjoyed everybody showing up, it was great time of celebration.

Then me and my new bride were off to the honeymoon! We spent the week enjoying each other, getting to one another better, and experiencing the joy of living with your best friend. No more going home late at nite because we can be together! It's such a beautiful thing to give oneself to another.

And now we begin to live in the apartment with each other. We will sorting and living out of boxes for a while. And looking through all the new wedding gifts, wow, thanks everybody. But's it's a great time.

p.s. for a preview of some of the wedding pics, check out our friends the McCutchen's site. Cutch

Absolute Heresy

This is a disturbing news article from Europe:

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.
“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.
The bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is “God’s word expressed in human language” and that proper acknowledgement should be given both to the word of
God and its human dimensions.
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”

This could be very damaging to many believers in establishing wrong patterns at the basis of their faith. The Bible is the Word of God and inerrant, very true in every sense. It is the foundation and the rock, and the only thing that can be trusted as being the truest thing. We have a world that wants to be stuck in a very postmodern mind-set. The only thing that is true is what you think about it, that's very incorrect. This article and this kind of thinking erodes the power of the Scripture. If we can be skeptical about we can believe or not about the Word, we lose our foundation and our footing about what we believe, we begin to believe what we want to believe, in order to serve our means.

They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways “appropriate to changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries”.

Here's the reason why they stated the above. We need to all be very careful of trying to not stand ABOVE the Word, but UNDER its teaching. If we can pick and choose, what parts about the Bible we believe, we are OVER the Word. It doesn't have meaning to us, we try to put meaning on the Bible. "I don't think that parts true, we don't have to follow what it says."

I believe we can interpret their saying above as, "If WE don't change how the Bible is presented, it won't be attractive to modern day people." This is the beginning of the slide in connecting the WE to the ATTRACTION, as if we are determining how important "God" is. God is Almighty, the power of the gospel is true, let's not water down biblical doctrine to serve our means.

Let us become better listerners to what the Word has to say to us. Let us take that as truth into our hearts, being the Word of God, which we know is truth. Let us communicate these absolute truths to others in a gracious, loving way.

Here's a link to the website. Click Here.

More Time Management

Here's some other quotes that I found useful in understanding time management:

Procrastination may represent a failure to identify and to act in congruence with your own basic values. - Dr. William Knaus

Unwillingness to say No: Recognize the pain of saying YES is becoming greater than the pain of saying NO.

A Counter !?!

Did you see the counter on the left side? What's that for? Who would be keeping track of that?

Time Management

I was reading a time management booklet at work on how to better manage time for business. They were some great quotes in there, a lot of them had biblical principles behind them. I hope they are as encouraging to you too.

"The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good'. - Stephen Covey

How true. Sometimes we get caught in doing good things, that we don't take the time to really ponder what God wants us to do. His plans work out in better ways than we can ever think or plan. His plans are what's best, so we can't fill our schedule with what we think is best, even if they're great, good things.

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." - Goetne

We must always keep our core values first, our goals, our principles in place before we let other things push those aside.

On Christ's Care

"The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." - John 20:20b

"We should come to know Christ in this way: He is kindly disposed and comforting to all the poor who are needy and anxious; on the other hand, He is a severe judge of all who despise Him. To know Him this way is to know Him rightly.
Therefore, we should expect from Christ all love, kindness, comfort, salvation, and encouragement, and call on Him in perils of fire, perils of water, in death, and in all assaults on your faith. For He is also the only Cornerstone, to whom we should hold in all our troubles."

The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther - 6: 55

Seven Issues with the church's current evanglestic state.

1. Sunday School has lost its' priority. The importance of the small groups and the small groups specifically reaching specific people. (86% of people that go to Sunday school will be invovled in the church 5 years later as compared to 17% of those not in Sunday school being involved in the church.
2. The uninvited 81%. Of the unchurched, 81% haven't been invited to church ONE time.
3. Failure to grasp the '4-legged stool'. Of keeping people in church, we aren't encouraging these aspects enough: expectations, ministry invovlement, small groups, relationships.
4. The interested unchurched person. Of those that hadn't been invited to church, 84% would say yes they would come to church if invited, as long as you would come with them through the doors.
5. Failure of members to develop meaningful relationships with the lost.
6. Lack of intentionality in evangelism.
7. Theological beliefs that diminish evangelistic passion. Christ is the ONLY way for salvation and to be excluded from condemnation. Also, we need to cling to the gospel, not this life.

- notes from Thom Rainer, Providence Baptist Church 8/14/2005

The Effect of Universalism on Missions

The notion that people are saved without hearing the gospel has wreaked havoc in the missions effort of denominations and churches that minimize the biblical teaching of human lostness without Christ.

Apart from the special, saving grace of God, people are dead in sin, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God and hardened in heart (Ephesians 2:1, 4:18). And the means God has ordained to administer that special saving grace is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

J.Piper - Desiring God, pg 192-193