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From the DGM blog
God’s Unsinkable Ship
February 27, 2007 | By: Jon Bloom
Category: Current Events
By now most of you have heard the announcement that James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici are releasing a documentary titled, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” to be aired on the Discovery Channel on March 4th. The film asserts that the tomb of Jesus may have been found in Jerusalem. It’s not really new news–the tomb was discovered in 1980. A BBC documentary about it was aired in 1996. Serious archeologists have largely dismissed a real connection to the historical Jesus of Nazareth. Justin Taylor points us to helpful responses from Ben Witherington, Paul Maier , and Time Magazine’s Middle East blog. Also, CNN has a helpful, brief overview.
This announcement got me to thinking about the church. If the assertion is proven true, of course, Christianity has hit the mother of all icebergs and will sink like the Titanic. But the world has good reason to be very cautious in the pronouncement of the church’s demise. Man’s unsinkable ship failed catastrophically on the first collision. But the church of Jesus Christ has rammed into one iceberg after another for 2,000 years: derision, persecution, moral failure, hypocrisy, heresy, internal corruption, political manipulation, cultural and linguistic barriers, and on and on. Sometimes it has looked very fragile, barely seaworthy. Over and over its imminent sinking has been pronounced, only to see it rise back up larger, stronger, and faster than before. It’s mind-blowing. Even if you’re a skeptic, you have to appreciate the amazing resiliency of the church over two millennia. There is nothing quite like it in all of history.
The church is God’s unsinkable ship. He will keep her afloat and sailing on until the gospel has been preached to every people group. Then the end will come. But it’s not the church that will sink.
It’s officially official! Monergism.com has renovated their site. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Monergism.com it is a website that provides resources on pretty much every subject that will help you “guard your life and doctrine.” The old Monergism.com was packed with sermons, audio, articles, online books, lectures, etc. from contemporary theologians and hundreds of saints who have gone before us. The new Monergism.com is packed with the same great resources–just a little easier to navigate around. I would highly encouarage old Monergism.com fans to take some time and familiarize yourself with the new look. And for those who have yet to venture to Monergism.com there is no better time than the present to be blessed and helped by all that they have to offer.
You can visit the site now by clicking here. And you can always go directly to the site by clicking on the Monergism link located in the left side bar.
Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in the Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.
Lord, thou knowest that no strength, wisdom or contrivance of human power can signify, or relieve me. It is in thy power alone to deliver me. I fly to thee for succor and support, O Lord let it come speedily; give me full proof of a thy Almighty power; I am in great troubles, insurmountable by me; but to thee slight and inconsiderable; look upon me O Lord with compassion and mercy, and restore me to rest, quietness, and comfort, in the world, or in another by removing the hence into a state of peace and happiness. Amen.
Hebrews 13 reminds us to “remember [our] leaders, those who spoke to [us] the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” That is why I would encourage each of you (funds permitting) to go and see this movie. Be encouraged how our great and mighty God worked in history to display his glory to slaves, slave owners, slave traders, abolitionists, and the indifferent.
As far as I can tell the movie is only showing at the Riverside theater in downtown Reno. This weekend the show times are: 12:10pm | 3:00pm | 5:50pm | 8:35pm.
View the trailer:
Helpful resources to learn about the man and the movie:
John Piper’s Biographical sermon Listen or read online
John Piper’s new book (more historically accurate than the movie apparently) Read or order online
Plugged In’s Review (It’s PG, I can’t tell if its suitable for kids…you can read their review and discern for yourself)
This Wednesday our church board will meet for their February board meeting. Please be praying for God to lead them in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
If you aren’t quite sure how to pray for our church board pray through God’s word (maybe Ephesians 4; Titus; 1 & 2 Timothy; a psalm; etc.). Also, you might find this article that John Piper wrote for his church on praying for our elders helpful and encouraging:
“Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ . . . that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Colossians 4:3-4).
1. Ask God to give us an inclination to his Word and not to money or fame or power (Psalm 119:36), and to open our eyes to see wonderful things when we read his Word (Psalm 119:18), and to have hearts united in the fear of God rather than fragmented over a dozen concerns (Psalm 86:11), and to be satisfied in his steadfast love (Psalm 90:14). (This is the IOUS acronym I use almost every day in praying for those I love.)
2. Pray for our purity and that we not come into temptation. “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). It is so crucial that our minds, not just our bodies, be pure. Defiled minds dull spiritual sight and make a pastor weak and, in the end, useless.
3. Pray for our biblical, doctrinal faithfulness. An elder “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). “Keep a close watch on . . . the teaching” (1 Timothy 4:16). Pray that a hundred years from now the leaders of Bethlehem will believe and love and teach “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
4. Pray for solid, joyful, Christ-exalting marriages where dad leads in daily family devotions and where dad leads his wife in times of prayer with just the two of them. “Fathers . . . bring [your children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. . . so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).
5. Pray for our boldness in witnessing to the truth and beauty and necessity of Christ as the only way to escape the wrath of God and enjoy the pleasure of God’s presence. “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:9-10).
6. Pray for visionary, creative energy. Some of us are older and have been around a long time. Pray that we not get lazy. Pray that age brings both wisdom and strength and zeal. Pray against any couch potatoes on the staff. Pray that we dream and create and press for more and more impact on this world for Christ. “Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, ‘You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess” (Joshua 13:1). Yes! No time for coasting, or retiring, or playing. Pray that we dream and work hard till we drop.
7. Pray for converting power. We do not want to counsel and pray and lead and plan and teach and preach powerlessly and without eternal effect. Pray that what happened with Paul and Lydia will happen in our ministries. “On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:13-14). Ask the Lord to open hearts and save people through our ministry.
8. Pray that we would be a small part of a great, global awakening of fully biblical, doctrinally complete, Christ-exalting, God-centered reformation in the church and awakening in the world. “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Don’t pray prayers that are too small. Pray that you and we will be swept up by the Spirit in a great new work in our day that has the supremacy of God in all things at the center of it.
You’re invited!
To
Nick and Joey’s graduation
from the Police Academy
When: Thursday, March 1st
Ten o’clock in the morning
Where: Grand Sierra Resort
Reno Ballroom
by A.W. Pink
from Attributes of God
In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, “Your thoughts of God are too human.” Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a miner’s son; nevertheless it was thoroughly deserved. We too, though having no standing among the religious leaders of this degenerate age, prefer the same charge against the majority of the preachers of our day, and against those who, instead of searching the scriptures for themselves, lazily accept the teaching of others. The most dishonoring and degrading conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even among those professing to be Christians, the God of the Scriptures is quite unknown. Of old, God complained to an apostate Israel, “Though thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself” (Psa. 50.21). Such must now be His indictment against an apostate Christendom. Men imagine that the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather than actuated by principle. They suppose that His Omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan is thwarting His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power He posses must be restricted, lest He invade the citadel of man’s “free will” and reduce him to a “machine.” They lower the all-efficacious Atonement, which has actually redeemed everyone for whom it was made, to a mere “remedy,” which sin-sick souls may use if they feel disposed to; and they enervate the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an “offer” of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please. The “god” of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The “god” who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible Conferences is the figment of the human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality. The heathen outside of the pale of Christendom form “gods” out of wood and stone, while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a “god” out of their own carnal mind. In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God, and no God at all. A “god” whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nought but contempt. The supremacy of the true and living God might well be argued from the infinite distance which seperates the mightiest creatures from the Almighty Creator. He is the Potter, they are but the clay in His hands, to be molded into vessels of honor, or to be dashed into pieces (Psa. 2:9) as He pleases. Were all the denizens of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth to combine in revolt against Him, it would occasion Him no uneasiness, and would have less effect upon His eternal and unassailable Throne than has the spray of Mediterranean’s waves upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High, Scripture itself tells us that when the Gentile heads unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” (Psa. 2:4). The absolute and universal supremacy of God is plainly and positively affirmed in many scriptures. “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all in the heaven and all in the earth is Thine; Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as Head above all….And Thou reignest over all” (I Chron 29:11, 12) -note, “reignest” now, not “will do so in the Millennium.” O Lord God of our fathers, art not Thou God heaven? and in Thine hand is there not power and might, so that none (not even the Devil himself) is able to withstand Thee?” (II Chron 20:6). Before Him presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers. “But He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth” (Job 23:13). Ah my reader, the God of Scripture is no make-believe monarch, no mere imaginary sovereign, but King of kings, and Lord of lords. “I know that Thou canst do everything, and that thought of Thine can be hindered” (job 42:2, margin) , or, as another translator renders it, “no purpose of Thine can be frustrated.” All that He has designed He does. All that He has decreed, He performs. “But our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” (Psa 115:3) ; andwhy has He? Because “there is no wisdom, nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord” (Prov. 21:30). God’s supremacy of the works of His hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter, irrational creatures, all perform their Maker’s bidding. At His pleasure the Red Sea divided and it’s waters stood up as walls (Ex. 14) ; and the earth opened her mouth, and the guilty rebels went down alive into the pit (Num. 16). When He so ordered, the sun stood still (Josh. 10) ; and on another occasion went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isa. 38:8). To exemplify His supremacy, He made ravens carry food to Elijah (I Kings 17) , iron to swim on top of the waters (II Kings 6:5), lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places” (Psa. 135:6). God’s supremacy is also demonstrated in His perfect rule over the wills of men. Let the reader ponder carefully Ex. 34:24. Three times in the year, all the males of Israel were required to leave their homes and go up to Jerusalem. They lived in the midst of hostile people, who hated them for having appropriated their lands. What then, was to hinder the Cannanites from seizing their opportunity, and, during the absence of the men, slaying the women and children and taking possession of their farms? If the hand of the Almighty was not upon the wills even of the whicked men, how could He make this promise beforehand, that no should so much as “desire” their lands? Ah, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will” (Prov. 21:1). But, it may be objected, do we not read again and again in Scripture how that men defied God, resisted His will, broke His commandments, disregarded His warnings, and turned a deaf ear to all His exhortations? Certainly we do. And does this nullify all that we have said above? If it does, then the Bible plainly contradicts itself. But that cannot be. What the objector refers to is simply the wickeness of man against the external word of God, whereas what we have mentioned above is what God has purposed in Himself. The rule of conduct He has given us to walk by, it is perfectly fulfilled by none of us; His own eternal “counsels” are accomplished to their minutest details. The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed with equal plainness and positiveness in the New Testament. There we are told that God “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11) -the Greek for “worketh” means “to work effectually.” For this reason we read, “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things:to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). Men may boast that they are free agents, with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please, but Scripture says to those who boast “we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell….Ye ought to say, If the Lord will” (James 4:13, 14) ! Here then is a sure resting-place for the heart. Our lives are neither the product of blind fate nor the result of capricious chance, but every detail of them was ordained from all eternity, and is now ordered by the living and reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission. “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Prov. 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort this should give the real Christian! “My times are in Thy hand” (Psa. 31:15). Then let me “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psa. 37:7)
Joshua Harris: Don’t Feed The Flesh!
(1) This is you. Or us, a human made in God’s image. Ladies, sorry you have to identify with a little guy. I’m not sure why he doesn’t have a shirt.
(2) This is the flesh. He’s kind of a Jabba the Hut meets WWF wrestler. The Flesh represents the sinful, corrupted desires of our heart. It’s not a reference to our bodies–our bodies are created by God and are good. The flesh represents our sinful cravings to live for ourselves and disobey God’s laws and commands.
(3) Before Jesus saves us, this is how all of us relate to the flesh. The Bible says that we are slaves to our sinful desires. Our flesh is boss. If you’re not a Christian, I’m not trying to offend you. I know this isn’t a flattering picture of your current condition but it’s true of all of us apart from God saving us.
(4) This is what happens when we trust in Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross and conquered sin and rose again, we are freed from the power of sin. It’s no longer our boss. See how the chain is broken? And we get clothes, which is really great.
(5) But our flesh doesn’t disappear. It still hangs around to entice us. After we’re Christians, we’re no longer slaves to sin, but the flesh can still tempt us. We can choose to give into temptation and indulge the flesh. This is what theologians call “indwelling sin.” Jesus broke the power of sin, but we still live with the presence and influence of sinful desires.
(6) That’s why the Bible is full of encouragement to fight our fleshly desires. We can’t live at peace with it. We have to attack it and deny it. (In hindsight, I guess the “sword of the Spirit” would have been a bit more biblical. Oh well.)
(7) The problem is that too often Christians make friends with their flesh. In fact they feed their flesh. We give into our sinful desires. We pamper our flesh. We provide it three rounded meals a day with snacks and dessert. We might think that since we’ve been freed by the cross it’s okay to indulge the flesh. But there’s a real problem. When we feed the flesh…
(8) …it grows! And before you know it, the flesh is bigger and stronger than you and starts to push you around. That’s why Paul is telling us in Romans 13 that we need to…
(9) …starve our flesh! That’s what we want our flesh to look like. We want the flesh gaunt and feeble. When Paul says “make no provision for the flesh” he’s saying don’t feed your sinful desires. Don’t do things—don’t think things, don’t watch things, don’t meditate on things—that strengthen your sinful inclinations.
An interview with our very own Mike Parsons will be airing today and tomorrow on KNIS (91.3 fm). The air times are 12:00pm and 9:00pm both days. So tune in and lend your ear!
Check out what the guys over at The Rebelution have been up to. They surveyed some loving brothers about modesty and released the results today as a valentines present for all their sisters. So check it out! And Happy Valentines Day!
ps:::to all the girls:::make sure you read the open statements from the guys before you freak out. (Just a little helpful hint!)
Welcome to our very own Mt. Rose blog. We hope that the resources on this page will serve to encourage you throughout the week to abide in Christ and be knit together with one another.
Our church purpose statement is: Loving God…reconciling people to Christ and restoring lives in harmony with His design. That’s what we as a church are all about. We love God and know His desire is to see the nations brought near to Himself through the blood of His Son. So this blog will hopefully serve you as one more way that you and your family can grow in your love for God and live that reconciled life–one that is in line with God, His ways, and His purposes.
So on this blog site you will find helpful resources located on the left side bar. We’ve listed websites and other blogs that can encourage you in whatever season of life God has you. Over time you will hopefully see devotions from different members, updates on church happenings, prayer requests, sermon debriefings ( 
), and much much more!
So check in often and see what’s new!
