U.S.A.

Wise words from R.C. Sproul, Jr. regarding America and Independence Day.

There are a host of shameful episodes in the history of these United States — people were bought and sold like cattle. Others were locked into government camps simply because of their racial background. Eugenics was embraced and practised. And today perverts parade in the streets. All of these, as dark as they are, however, pale in comparison to our great national ignominy — the wholesale slaughter of the unborn. For forty-one years now we have been a nation whose highest government protects over a million murders each year, and worse, whose citizens will commit over a three thousand murders of the unborn just today. Whether we consider our government, or our people, we are wicked. How then can we wave our flag, sing odes to our national patrimony, pledge our allegiance? . . . Independence Day should be for the Christian a day of mourning and repentance, a day of confessing our dependence on the finished work of Christ. It should be a day to remember that we, like our true founding father, seek a city whose builder and maker is God. It should be that day when we fly the white flag of surrender, and pray that the King of Glory would come in. A day when the blood of the babies on our hands drives us into the bloodstained hands of the Innocent One.

Internet

In 2008, R.C. Sproul, Jr. made a great observation:

The internet has been about as useful in encouraging thoughtful theological discourse, or even appropriate ecclesiastical judgments, as it has been in encouraging sexual fidelity.

LOL

"What would our forefathers have thought had they known that the blessings of their blessings would one day schedule the arrival of blessings as if they were bottles of milk left on the stoop? A soon-to-be-married couple tells themselves, "We figure that we'll spend a few years after the wedding getting to know each other, just the two of us, and working so we can save money for a house. Then we'll have our first child, and when he turns four, then we'll start working on the next. If at that point we have one of each then we'll probably just quit, and then fiver years after that I can go back to work. If they're the same, we'll wait three years and try again.' God will not be mocked; He who opens and closes the womb will not take orders from yuppie brides" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 81).

Children

"There is probably no greater life-changing event than the arrival of a child. Jobs change often. That big mortgage we signed is financing a house that will one day be rubble. But children last forever" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 80).

Technological Discernment

"We live in an age of technological wonders, and have lost the capacity to wonder whether all this technology is actually healthy" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 76).

Patience

"One nearby church chided passers-by with its sign that read, 'Be patient. It takes time for grass to become butter.' I needed the patience called for by the sign to figure out what that meant" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 74).

To a Thousand Generations

"The biblical vision, however, can inspire us to obedience. When we know the kingdom will grow, when we know that God is faithful in His covenants, when we know that He has promised to be God to us, to our children, and to as many as are afar off, when we know that Christ not only came to conquer the world but that He has already overcome it--then we move forward in the faith. We move forward believing the good news of the Kingdom of Christ. We don't send our little children out to drag their heathen classmates onto the boat; we prepare them for the larger task of raising their own children to be a light to a world that is not triumphing but perishing. Eschatology then becomes more than a theological parlor game. It is the very spring in our step, the very hope that is within us, the very vision that we are to pass onto His blessings--that He is in the midst of blessing to a thousand generations" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 58).

Chicken Little the Patron Saint of Dispensationalism

"Only the fool living under the sun determines to 'Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.' What then do we make of those under the Son who claim 'Evangelize, evangelize, evangelize, for tomorrow we are raptured?' No one wants to come out against evangelism, especially me. It may very well be that in the providence of God the threat of an impending rapture, and of a tribulation to follow, may actually have motivated a few folks to spread the Good News. Wouldn't it just be like God to use such a thing to bring His sheep into His fold? There's a true sign of the sovereignty of God--He is strong enough to use even a dispensational eschatology for His glory. On the other hand, it may be that one day all their apologetical labors will fall on deaf ears when they come to be seen by the world as those whose patron saint is Chicken Little" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 55).

Closing Prayer: March for Life, Billings, MT

Yellowstone Valley Christians for Life sponsored the local March for Life here in Billings on Sunday, January 19th. We gathered at Soup and Such and marched to the Court House, where Mike Rapkoch, member of YVCfL, provided a brief talk before keynote speaker Dr. R. C. Sproul, Jr. (RC Jr. also provided the opening prayer at the Court House.) I had the privilege of leading the crowd in a closing prayer.

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1:30 PM
Sunday, January 19, 2014
March for Life
Billings, MT

Our Father in Heaven, sanctify us through thy word; thy word is truth (John 17:17). We praise you for Jesus Christ, for having ransomed sinners like us from sin’s curse. We praise you for Jesus Christ, who prays for us and intercedes on our behalf right now at your right hand in Heaven. And we thank you for the gift of the Holy Ghost, who regenerated us—giving us new natures, making you our Heavenly Father.

O Lord, we are reminded of what Christ told his disciples: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Lord, we know that tribulations occur according to your all good and wise providence, and that they are the means by which you cultivate our faith and craft our souls to desire you, our Triune Lord, more and more and more. And Lord, we do not fear tribulations; for You are our strength and defense (Psalm 59:9).

And Lord, because you are our strength and defense, we pray and ask and beseech that you would teach us how to be both a strength and defense for the innocents—teach us how to be penitent defenders of the unborn and of the downtrodden. We also pray for our prayers: fill us with your Holy Ghost, and in filling us make us powerful and diligent, make us humble and submissive before you in prayers-of-repentance and prayers-of-intercession on the behalf of children in the womb. And we pray for the salvation of men: we pray that you would give the gift of saving faith to the fathers and mothers whose hearts have turned away from their children; we pray that you would give the gift of saving faith to the butchers who perform abortions, that they might confess their sin, repent, and find salvation in the Redeemer-Jesus.
 
And Father, we pray to you corporately:

 

Prayer to End Abortion

 

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift

 

of my life,

 

and for the lives of all

 

my brothers and sisters.

 

I know there is nothing that destroys more life

 

than abortion,

 

yet I rejoice that you have conquered death

 

by the Resurrection of Your Son.

 

I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.

 

Today I commit myself

 

Never to be silent,

 

Never to be passive,

 

Never to be forgetful of the unborn.

 

I commit myself to be active

 

in the pro-life movement,

 

and never to stop defending life

 

until all my brothers and sisters are protected,

 

and our nation once again becomes

 

a nation with liberty and justice,

 

not just for some, but for all.

 

Through Christ our Lord, Amen!



The Church and The World

"The world has embraced lawlessness because the church has embraced lawlessness. We have carnal presidents because we have carnal "Christians." We have a culture saturated with ennui because we are too bored, waiting for the end to come" (R. C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 53-54).

Living

"Get close to God's covenant people. Get to know your neighbors, and those with whom you transact business. Be a neighbor, as Christ has commanded. Get out of the rat race. Find a sense of place, and when you have, you will know that you must never leave. . . . Put your heart where your home is, and you will never be sorry" (R.C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 30).

Parenting

"I shelter my children. I would sooner have my children left out in a tornado than placed in the hands of a professional priest of the religion of the state, a government school teacher" (R.C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 23).

And government school teachers are professional priests of the religion of the state; fifty years ago this book demonstrated that function of American Education.

Parenting

"Children need to be sheltered, to be protected. They need to be protected from themselves, and from those who would lead them astray. They are not ready to reason out the will of God in all circumstances; far less are they ready to defeat temptation in whatever form it comes. While God certainly can and does use sin for god, just as He can use a storm, we cannot sin that providential grace might abound all the more" (R.C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 23).

Parenting

"Some argue against homeschooling on the grounds that such is sheltering children. I always reply, "What are you going to accuse us of next--feeding and clothing our children?" This parenting philosophy, that we must throw our lambs to the wolves so that they might become brave, is thinly veiled folly" (R.C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 22).

Joyful Living

"For what we do with our time should be joyful. Play cards with your family. Read a good book . . . . Write a letter to an author. Try raising chickens--well, don't do that. Start musing, and you just might find it entertaining" (R. C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 21).

Parenting

"My children, like all children, are sinners; they were born that way. But that doesn't mean they need to become experts in sin. Wise, yes--jaded, no. While they are by no means innocent before the throne of God in themselves, I still want to maintain their 'innocence' as long as possible" (R.C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 23).

Christian Education, Again

"We don't start with the state's curriculum, and then attempt to find a Bible passage to justify each part. Rather, we start with the Bible and go from there, learning evermore of who God is, of what he has done, and of what he requires of us" (R.C. Sproul Jr., When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling, 96).

Christian Education, Again

"Changed hearts is the goal, the function, the very purpose of education" (R.C. Sproul Jr., When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling, 29).

Christian Education, Again

"In simplest form, the covenant God has made with man is simply this: Love, trust, and obey God . . . and teach your children to do the same. And to take it one step further, we haven't taught our children to do the same unless or until we have taught them to teach their children" (R.C. Sproul Jr., When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling, 26).

Christian Education

"Thinking that education is something different from discipling our children is a sure sign that we have been "educated" by the state. Education is discipleship" (R.C. Sproul Jr., When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling, 21).