I turned 35 yesterday. What does this mean?

According to the very first line of Dante’s Inferno, it means that I am “Midway in the journey of our life,” a reference to Psalm 90:10.

According to the U. S. Constitution, it means I am now eligible to become President of the United States.

Shazam Cake

But in our household, it means one thing bigger than both of those…

It means SHAZAM CAKE!

Blowing Out the Candles

Yep, that’s right. Shannon made me an awesome Captain Marvel cake
for my birthday. This is, of course, the DC Captain Marvel, not the Marvel Captain Marvel. She did an outstanding job on the cake, and as I ate his head, I was taken back in time to Saturday mornings, when I would watch Billy Batson transform himself into Captain Marvel by saying that magic word, Shazam!

Eating Shazam

So, what did I get? Well, having the awesome wife that I do, she knows I love books! So, she got me a bunch…

In addition to the video Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism, and a really nice new ESV Single-Column Reference Bible, she got me the following from the Puritan Paperbacks series:

• Dying Thoughts, by Richard Baxter
• The Spirit and the Church, by John Owen
• Communion With God, by John Owen
• The Art Of Prophesying, by William Perkins
• The Acceptable Sacrifice , by John Bunyan
• The Godly Man’s Picture, by Thomas Watson
• A Sure Guide To Heaven, by Joseph Alleine
• The Doctrine of Repentance, by Thomas Watson
• All Loves Excelling, by John Bunyan
• The True Bounds Of Christian Freedom, by Samuel Bolton
• The Sinfulness of Sin, by Ralph Venning
• Christian Love, by Hugh Binning
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, by Jeremiah Burroughs
• The Glory of Christ, by John Owen
• Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ , by John Bunyan

Wow. How cool is my wife?

Well, I’d talk more, but obviously, there’s plenty o’ reading to be done! I better get crack-a-lackin!

(Side note: How sad is it that this is my longest post in a while? Sorry!)

On the heels of Tuesday’s post about Reformed theology…

Tim Challies today takes up the issue of Hyper-Calvinism… What it is, what it isn’t, why it’s wrong -i.e., “it undermines evangelism and/or somehow distorts the gospel message.” Amen.

Bonus random thought: I sometimes think that Calvinists and Arminians are both guilty of the exact same issue with regard to sharing the Gospel – the fear of man. They just confront the fear differently – Calvinists fail to evangelize as much as they should, while Arminians evangelize, but with a seriously weakened or even broken evangel.

joethorn.net » Blog Archive » Founders Fresh!

…I do believe that more people, especially within our younger generations, will discover and embrace a more Reformed theology because they do not feel a sense of obligation to tradition, or title, but rather have a radical dependence on the Scripture. Instead of asking, “Is this Southern Baptist?” they are asking, “Is this right?” We should all be asking such questions and allow the Scripture to give us the answer. For the record, I believe we all need to ask this question from within every perspective. Especially within our Reformed traditions. It is far too easy to become proud and think one system has settled every question. As a Calvinist I must not ask, “Is this Reformed?” but, “Is this right?”

Every once in a while, you stumble across a really good resource on the web that you just know you’re going to return to again and again.

I’ve always known the 9 Marks web site (from Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and author of 9 Marks of a Healthy Church and The Deliberate Church) has some excellent resources, but I’ve only recently become aware of their wonderful section of book reviews. These reviews are thorough, balanced, and well-thought out. Check them out!

Also, while you’re there, you might take a look at…

• The 9 Marks of healthy churches
• A great collection of articles
• An even greater collection of interview audio, downloadable for free
• A collection of Q&A’s targeting pastors, but useful for any believer

How cool am I? The cow is my friend Russ’ son, Ryan, who was wearing the suit for the first time. Good job, man!

Last week I mentioned that my friend Jerry had just started a blog. And so far, he’s outdoing me on output, with wonderful posts like these:

• Boldness in a Culture of Political Correctness
• Spurgeon’s ‘Marks of True Conversion’

So I guess the bar has been raised for me, now, as well. I better get cracking…

P.S. – May I simply say this: In the first link there, Jerry mentions a John Piper essay titled “Very Calmly Say, ‘Your Outrageous Opinions Are Not Based on Truth.’” Is that a great title, or what?

I was reading through Genesis 3 for a class I’m taking, and I noticed something I’d not noticed before:

Genesis 3:8

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (ESV)

They hid themselves from God? You can’t hide from God…

Psalm 139:7-8

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! (ESV)

So why does it say they hid from God? Oh, wait… It doesn’t say that. Let’s look at it again…

Genesis 3:8

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (ESV)

Adam and Eve, in their shame, hid not from God, but from His presence in the Garden. The Bible doesn’t tell us what form this presence took. Shekinah glory? Theophany? One day, we may find out, but until then, we can take comfort (or discomfort) in this: We may flee from His presence, we may flee from some manifestation of him, but we can never truly flee from Him. He is always present.

While reading through 1 Samuel 3-4, I was struck by a couple of interesting things just prior to God’s call of Samuel:

1 Samuel 3:3

3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. (ESV)

1. Note that “the lamp of God had not yet gone out.” If you have a cross-reference Bible, it will probably point you to Exodus 27:20-21 to the description of the lamp in question. There, we find that the lamp was tended by Aaron and his sons (i.e., the Levitical priesthood), “from evening to morning before the Lord.” Since, in 1 Samuel, it had “not yet gone out,” we can conclude that God’s calling of Samuel happened just before dawn. I don’t know if there is any significance to the time of day, but I am still amazed by the this level of detail in the stories in the Bible.

2. The other thing that struck me was where it says Samuel was lying. “Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.” It’s not entirely clear whether Samuel was actually sleeping in the Most Holy Place, inside the veil, or simply nearby. Still, the implications are pretty staggering, especially since we are told later in verse 7 that Samuel “did not yet know the Lord.” Could this be another indication of Eli’s disregard for the holiness of the temple?

“The amount of misrepresentation to which Calvin’s theology has been subjected is enough to prove his doctrine of total depravity several times over.”

J. I. Packer, “John Calvin and Reformed Europe,” in Packer, Honouring the People of God, p. 19.

HT: Justin Taylor

My friend Jerry has just joined the blogosphere. He starts with a review of Iain Murray’s The Forgotten Spurgeon. Welcome, Jerry!