SHE SAID "YES"!!!!

I am happy to announce to the Reformed blog world that I, the Ebony Puritan, will be soon tying the knot! Yesterday, on my Birthday, I proposed to my precious Tulip Debra-Anne, and she accepted.

I have waited a long time for this day to come, and I praise our Sovereign God for how He orchestrated this situation and for the precious gem He has blessed me with.

Please pray for Debra and I as we embark on a union we pray will bring glory to our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

AMAZING GRACE IS AN AMAZING BUY!!!!

This past weekend, I had the "privilege" of listening to a sermon delivered by Bob Coy, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale, on the Calvinism-Arminianism debate. And if you know anything about Calvary Chapel's stance on the doctrine of salvation, you would not be surprised by the conclusions that Pastor Bob gave: That we do not know if God chose us or we chose Him because the Bible isn't clear in this area (FYI: One of the major attacks on Scripture that the Seeker Sensitive/Emerging Church promotes is that it is not clear in many areas).

And after listening to this sermon, I was moved to watch a DVD I have had for a number of years called, "Amazing Grace", produced by the Apologetics Group, which is designed to defend the truths of Calvinism. Without question, this DVD is the BEST resource I have seen in defending the Reformed Doctrines of Grace. The DVD traces the doctrine's beginnings, the historic Calvinism-Arminianism debate, defines what true Arminianism and Calvinism is, and gives an excellent apologetic against Arminian "proof verses". In fact, I will go on record and say that if one is not either bed rocked in their Reformed view of Salvation or doesn't become a Calvinist after watching this DVD, then there may not be any hope for you to see these truths for what they truly are (I'm being sarcastic here!!!).

So, if you want to learn more about the Doctrines of Grace or you want to be more solid in your understanding of them, then I would encourage you to get a copy of this DVD! It is definitely worth the money!!!!!

To purchase a copy, please click here

REFORMING ATLANTA

If you are a follower of the Reformed African-American blog world, you know that our brother (and now I can proudly say, My Mentor) Pastor Anthony Carter has started a new church plant named East Point Church in Atlanta. This is an exciting venture that he is on, and it is my prayer that the LORD will use Pastor Carter and his congregation for His glory. So let us keep in prayer Pastor Carter's work, and pray that his labors will impact--not just his city--but the world for Christ!!!

CHRIST IN THE STORY OF JOSEPH

This past Sunday Night in my jail ministry, I had the joy of teaching my group how to see Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus says, in John 5:39, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me". So this tells us that Scripture's metanarritive (or its "big picture") all revolves around only one idea: Jesus Christ!

Now it is very easy to see Christ in the New Testament (NT) because of its clarity. But where some in the modern Evangelical Church gets tripped up, is that many cannot see Christ in the Old Testament (OT) unless some OT passage is referred to in the NT. However, Christ--in the context of this passage--is saying that He is just as broad in the OT as it is in the NT.

A prime example of this point is found in the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50. In this post, I would like to take you to one passage in the story, Genesis 41. It is here that we see Pharaoh being stressed by two dreams he has had, and he is looking for someone to interpret the dreams for him. The cup bearer, who was once imprisoned, tells Pharaoh about a young man who interpreted one of his dreams while he was in prison. Now to set the tone for where I am going, two nuggets need to be established: One, Joseph was only sent to this prison due to a false accusation (i.e., Potipher's wife lied on him). And two, the prisons in Egypt during this time were underground (in fact, some Bibles like the New American Standard Update calls the prison a "dungeon"). In short, those who were imprisoned in Egypt were looked at as "buried under the ground", thus seen as dead. So Joseph's was put to "death" due to a false accusation.

So, taking the cup bearer's recommendation, Pharaoh summons Joseph from the prison. Thus, he's "called out of the place of death" and, in v. 14 we read, Joseph "shaved himself and was given new clothes". Now this statement is striking because, in Egypt, body hair of any kind is seen as filthy and dirty. So in order to be presented to Pharaoh, Joseph had to get his filthiness removed. And it was only then that he could come into the presence of Pharaoh.

So after this happens, Joseph is brought into the palace of Pharaoh and is told his dream. To which, Joseph interprets and gives a suggestion on how to handle the impending issue. To this, Pharaoh adopts his plan and makes Joseph second in command in all of Egypt. Again, we see some interesting points: In one day, Joseph goes from a prisoner to a royal official in the palace. And the way it happens is that Joseph was able--by the power of God--to solve a problem that would have caused impending death to a nation. So, while a lie was the means by which Joseph was "given over to death", in the overall Sovereign plan of God, He used it to bring Joseph to a place where he would use him to save lives.

Isn't this story an amazing picture of the work of Christ? Because of false accusations against Him, our LORD was put to death. However, in the Father's Sovereign plan, He used the death of Christ to save the lives of His Holy Nation, Spiritual Israel, from the impending death of sin. So Jesus took our sins upon Himself and--as 2 Corinthians 5:21 states--"became sin for us". Afterwards, He was raised from the dead, thus removing our sin and He gloriously stands in the presence of the Father as our Redeemer, Righteous Savior, and LORD.

And as a postscript, after Joseph came into power, he would later call all his family to come to Egypt and they were given the best of everything because of their relationship to Joseph. And equally, because of our relationship to Christ, we are given the rewards of heaven and share in His glory for all eternity.

So as we see, all Scripture does bear witness about our LORD. And throughout the year, I hope to share more Old Testament passages that will show marvelous pictures of His selfless work towards his people.

THE CROWD STANDARD

A while back, I was watching a TV show called "Divine Restoration" in which this man and woman team goes around to selected North American Afro-American Churches, and restores portions of the church's building (it's kind of the "Trading Spaces" of Christian Television). And in every episode, the show interviews several people of the church they are restoring and--as you would guess--the Senior Pastor of the church is always one of the people.

In one of these episodes, they were interviewing a pastor and asked him two interesting questions. The first one was, "What is your preaching style"? To which the pastor says "I have what they call a "hooping" style. I like to 'hoop'". Now, while this answer can raise several issues in and of itself, the second question asked him--and the pastor's answer to this question--was very disturbing. The pastor was asked, "What happens if the congregation does not respond your preaching (i.e, in an emotional outburst) "? To which the pastor replied, "In that case, it's over and I might as well stop preaching and sit down and let someone else take over"! In short, this preacher saw the congregation's approval as the means to the success or failure of his preaching.

However, it is very interesting to me that the LORD Jesus never had this mentality when it came to His own preaching. In fact, if the crowds were the standard, Jesus Himself would be a failure because there were times that people walked away from his messages due to the hardness of their hearts (John 6:66). In addition, some messages were so rejected by the people they almost got Him killed (Luke 4:18-29; John 8:31-59). Equally, Paul told Timothy to "preach the Word in season and out of season"--that is, when the people want to hear it and when they don't want to hear it (2 Tim. 4:2b). So faithfulness to the message "as it has been taught"--as Paul states in Titus 1:9--is the true barometer and not public approval.

Now, in saying this, I am not stating that there should not be passion in preaching. It is just as wrong to be cold and dry in your preaching as it is to be commercialized. In fact, the Bible tells us that Jesus was passionate and authoritative in his preaching (refer to the Greek word for "preach" in Matt. 4:17 as an example). Equally, a preacher should not be "too educated" over his congregation (i.e., using words and/or phrases that the people don't know without explanation). However, the Afro-American church has to also realize that getting the people "emotionally stirred" is not a proper determiner either, because it is not the people we should strive to please in our preaching. We are to please God because it is He who will use our faithful preaching to save those whom He has chosen.

And thus, this is where the Reformed Faith shines in its truthfulness. Because true Reformed pastors understand that it is God's job to add to the church (Acts 2:47). Thus, they will stay "within the game plan"--that is, they won't submit to worldly ideas, philosophies, or unbiblical methods to attract a crowd. In short, they shape their preaching around the directives of the Word of God. So, may God shape all his Ministerial leaders to stay faithful to His Word and not be drawn by the cunning of tradition or methods that ultimately give a false sense of true Biblical growth.

FYI: For a further study on this topic, let me suggest you order a video series called, "Does the Truth Matter Anymore" hosted by John MacArthur. To order it, please click on the Cross TV link to the right.