Did all you guys catch the John Calvin “Christ Alone” article in Christianity Today (June 2009)?

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ.  We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.  If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him.”  If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.  If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth.  For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.  If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of all blessings, in his kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.  In short, since a rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.” (emphasis mine)

I have the 2009 Church Almanac.

In the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy, there are these six names for the Idaho Area:

Robert E. Chambers, Kim B. Clark, Ronald J. Hammond, K. Brett Nattress, Brent H. Nielson, Gary W. Walker

So these six are under the First Quorum of the Seventy, who are under the Presidency of the Seventy, who are under the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who are under the First Presidency?  So these are the six men who provide the head oversight over the 400,000 LDS members in Southern Idaho?

“Is discipleship a commitment to doctrinal beliefs concerning God and Jesus?  Is it a way of life, a way of ‘love’ perhaps, that sets disciples apart from the world?  Or is it an experience, a mystical spiritual encounter that transforms?”

I asked our church family a couple weeks ago, “How long have we been in John’s Gospel on Sunday mornings?”

One of the sisters had it marked in her Bible.  We started on August 20, 2006.  The prologue of John’s Gospel is what got me excited about starting a blog, too.

We are meditating on the rich, opening metaphor of John 15.  May the juice of Jesus, our only hope, flow through us. 

Consider the sober words of Augustine:  aut vitis, aut ignis.

Google the phrase.  The pope back in 2000 arrives at the top of my search list.

Jonathan Edwards wrote,

The world is ready to wonder what strange principle it is that influences Christians to expose themselves to so great sufferings and who forsake the things that are seen and renounce what is dear and pleasant to their senses.  They seem to men of the world to be beside themselves and almost act as if they hated themselves.

Charles Spurgeon penned,

We love our dear ones on the earth, but we love the Lord more than all of them put together.

How many “Christians” have you met like this in the I-15 Corridor?

Let’s jump back in time to Gregory Nazianzen’s musings:

If I have any possessions, health, credit, learning, this is all the contentment I have of them, that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ, who is totus desiderabilis, et totum desiderabile (the all-desirable, the every thing desirable).

I just got back from a scouting camp-out (still going on over at Warm River).  And I have been thinking . . .

Do you have love for Jesus Christ?

This is the sure mark of a Christian.

Here is a verse my church family looked at last night:

I am He that knoweth, and am Witness, saith Jehovah (Jeremiah 29:23)

Another pastor once wrote on this verse:

Fundamentally and simply, in all true policy, whether it be for the ordering of my family, or whether it be for the ordering of my city, or whether it be for the conduct of the national life, if this thing be true, that God knows, and witnesses, or makes known, then the first thing of importance is the acceptance of the fact.  That is fundamental, and apart from it there can be no application of this text whatever.

It may be that at this point some one will fall out, intellectually, and perhaps honestly.  I am not going to stay to argue, save to say one thing.  It may be some one will say, We cannot accept this position, we do not believe God knows; or if we believe God knows, we do not believe that He makes known, that He is in any sense revealing either Himself or other things to men.  Then I can only say to the man who takes up this position, anything else I may have to say will not affect him at all; he must drop out of my argument, and appeal; only I would remind him that the claim is so tremendous, that his solemn business is to settle once and for ever, as to whether it be true.  I can understand the man who cannot accept it immediately; I can understand the man who says, I am not sure of a God Who knows.  I can understand the man who says, Oh, I know there is a God Who knows in this way, but I am not sure that He reveals Himself.  I can understand the man who is facing that difficulty, and can sympathize with him, and believe in him.  But the one man that I cannot understand is the man who drifts for years, contented with that ignorance, and with no serious attempt to settle the question.  It is fundamental.  Either God is, or He is not.  Either God knows, or there is no infinite or final knowledge.  Either there is a God Who knows, or there is no final knowledge; for knowledge is partial in you and in me; and in this school and in that school; and in this philosophy and in that philosophy.  There is no final knowledge unless it is in God.  We must settle this, because if we are living in a world where there is no final and complete knowledge, things are different; we shall live differently, entirely.  That is the first thing to be settled.

A God Who knows is fundamental to Christianity.

1.  Yesterday afternoon, I listened to the audio of James White’s presentation on the Trinity shared on May 30, 2009 in Draper, Utah.  (May 30, 2009 is a significant day.  It marked the 17th anniversary of my marriage to my precious wife.)

In his lecture, James White brought up Jeremiah 10:11.  This is an incredibly courageous declaration in Aramaic!  God brought this verse to my attention back in February of this year.

So I looked in the scriptural concordance of Blake Ostler’s third volume, Of God and Gods (2008), since I am only in chapter 3 of the book.  In my curiosity, I could not find Jeremiah 10:11 in the discussion of the book.  So now, I need to ask Blake Ostler for his take on this verse.

2.  I think it would be good if I could get both James White and Blake Ostler up here to the Idaho Falls area for a debate/conversation hosted by me and my church family on the topic of the Trinity.  I would seek to invite every Southeastern Idaho LDS religious authority to this talk.  In the event, we would reserve the last rejoinder for LDS.

In the public sharing of my thoughts, I have not talked to either man.  But I do think that it is vital for Southeastern Idaho to have a serious talk here in the future about the Trinity.  All of what we are and do flows from our thoughts about God.  Let the talk of God consume our thoughts.

So who would be game for considering such an event or something similar to it?

When you think of the LDS Church, what are the pictures that come to your mind? 

Gleaming white temples that stand starkly on the high ridges . . . church steeples throughout the neighborhoods . . .  Sunday dress . . . Nice families . . . Conservative morality . . . KJV Bibles . . . Sabbath hymns . . . a nonpaid, temporary bishop . . . and a central pulpit.

When you think of Berean Baptist Church in Ammon, Idaho, what pictures come to your mind?

A gleaming white steeple . . . Sunday dress . . . Nice families . . . Conservative morality . . . Some carrying KJV Bibles . . . Sabbath hymns . . . a paid, permanent bishop . . . and a central pulpit.

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In my mail, yesterday, I received the Ohio Bible Fellowship newsletter, entitled the “Visitor”.  My friend, Chris Anderson, wrote a short article in the newsletter, “The Church’s Self-Identity”.  He asks some provocative questions:

How do you, your church leaders, and your fellow members view your local church?  Is it the good church in town?  The conservative music church?  The uncompromising church?  The serious church?  The dressy church?  The friendly church?  The everything-runs-like-clockwork church?  The our-children-are perfect church?

Chiefly, what is it that your Church ought to be known for?

Here it is.  Chris slams the coffin lid shut on self-righteous moralism!

We’re a congregation of sinners in need of God’s grace.  We’re the we’re-a-mess-and-we-need-Jesus church.

This is the message, my friends, that will turn churches in the I-15 Corridor upside down.  In his article, Chris goes on to give eight explosive reasons why.

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And let me join Chris and share this.  I am just a struggling sinner growing in grace.  A  gleaming white steeple with a cross on top reminds me of my deplorable sin nature, my gracious redemption, and how it is about me humbly exalting God and not God exalting me.  The Sunday dress reminds me every week of my previous filthy rags and the new spotless dress given to me unmerited.  No way did I deserve it.  My marriage to my wife reminds me of God’s love for me.  When I am so unlovable – stubbornly selfish or lustfully idolatrous or broken down in prideful despair – the unconditional loving God loves me through my wife.  My KJV Bible reminds me every day of mankind’s desperate wickedness (we are all together in the mess) and God being the only Hero and Savior.  My Sabbath hymns remind me of my helplessness and sovereign gospel grace and the omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God.  As a bishop who leads the family of God in worship every week, I am reminded of the fact that I stand before them all as the chief of sinners.  And the central pulpit reminds me that my opinions and testimonies derived from my own heart carry no authority, no power, and no eternal impact for true life and godliness.

I could go on and on.

So here in the prosperous, conservative, moral I-15 Corridor, what is your Church known for?

Good, religious/spiritual, hard-working people?

I pray to God-Almighty that this would not be the chief, consuming smell of B.B.C.  Please God help us.  Turn our church worldviews upside down with Your sweeping truth and gracious work of deliverance.

We grow only in Your grace alone, Loving and Majestic Heavenly God.  Save us today.  For we are a mess in Ammon, Idaho.

Click here to see this picture!  You must.

Just over 20 years ago, the summer of 1988, I spent at Grandpa and Grandma’s house.  I painted that red barn back then (laughing).   Actually at one point while sitting on the roof, I held grandpa’s legs while he painted below an eave (We did it while grandma wasn’t looking).

But up on the rim rock behind the barn, I will never forget the experience of the Holy Spirit inflaming my heart passions for preaching the Word of God.  It was a spiritual, subjective experience that echoes now mightily in my heart.

One day, I crossed the bridge over the creek.  I walked through those fields behind the barn.  I hiked up to the top of the ridge.  I sat down with my Bible.  And God made it absolutely clear to me that He wanted me to preach the Word.

I was scared back then.

Still am. 

Glory to God! 

Looking at the picture puts goosebumps on my arms this evening.

thinking of heart issues,

Elon Todd Wood