As justification for this fast (because it is obviously imperative that one have a justification for every fast one partakes in) I offer up one simple word: time. In a recent study pollsters determined that I spend somewhere between 15-90 minutes per day using social media. Now, all of that time is not wasted – I’ve certainly had redeeming interactions via social media; but most of it is spent simply re-reading over the 297 new posts in my Facebook news feed, which is not a good use of time.

In fasting from social media I should gain approximately 10 to 60 additional hours to apply to things like reading good books, or doing a productive physical activity (like shoveling the driveway) or, heaven forbid (!), interacting with my family members in real life.

Hopefully I haven’t ruined the spiritual significance of my fast before I’ve even begun it (Matthew 6:17-18) – but, to prevent anyone (of my 2 readers) from thinking that the silence in all of my social media outlets was due to my death, I figured that might be a risk worth taking.

Enjoy anticipating the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection! And I’ll see (or twee) you in 40 days.

photo: the collective contents of my tweets conglomerated at wordle.net

Download this song on iTunes for 99 cents and the proceeds will go to Churches Helping Churches current work in Haiti.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord… Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” – Romans 8:31-39, 11:33-36

I also believe that we must evangelize, we must preach the gospel or else people will not be saved (Romans 10:13-15). Believing that God has chosen to save certain people encourages me to evangelize. Why? Because I know that I am totally incapable of persuading someone of the truth of the gospel, I simply cannot do that. But I can go out and preach the gospel in confidence, knowing that it is God who brings about the salvation of the hearers. Furthermore, knowing that God has other people all throughout the world that He has chosen to save who are not yet saved encourages me to go out to preach the gospel to those people so that they will be saved. God has chosen to use the preaching of the gospel as the means by which He saves people, so I gladly join in His work of saving lost people by preaching the gospel.

I checked it out, and they’ve got some pretty sweet deals going on. Bob Kauflin gives us the details in this post.

The 5 points of Calvinism form the acronym TULIP (my favorite flower!).

T

We can summarize Ephesians 2:1-3 by saying that all people are born with an evil and corrupt nature which causes them to hate God and love sin. This is the first point of Calvinism “T,” Total Depravity.

U

Ephesians 1:5 says that God has “predestined us for adoption in Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” Ephesians 2:4 says that God made us alive in Christ “because of the great love with which he loved us,” and this He did while we were “dead in our trespasses” and following Satan. From that, I gather that God saved us because He wanted to, not because of anything we have done. He did not save us based on His foreseeing our faith in Him; His choosing of us caused us to have faith in Him. This is the “U,” which stands for Unconditional Election.

L

In the 5 points of Calvinism “L” stands for Limited Atonement, which means that Jesus’ death is sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world; but even more than that, that His death effectively purchased the salvation of those who God had chosen to save. I don’t see this passage teaching this (okay, well, I might, I’m not sure yet, I’m still thinking through the implications of the word “with” in 2:5 and its relation to 1:15-22. But that could take a while!), and so I’m not going to argue for the truth of this point, since the verses we looked at don’t explicitly mention this.

[Also, as somewhat of a tangent, the term “limited” really turns me off. Furthermore, it is important to note that you are always in some way going to be “limiting” the extent of Jesus’ atonement. Arminians will generally say that Jesus died for everyone, but that His death did not effectively save anyone (and thus His atonement is “limited” in the sense that it does not effectively save anyone). Calvinists will generally say that Jesus died for everyone and that His death effectively saved those whom God wanted to save (and thus, His atonement is “limited” in that it does not effectively save everyone). For more on this point of Calvinism, John Piper has a lecture that was really helpful in explaining both sides of the issue, you can watch, read or listen to that lecture here: http://bit.ly/4UYhaP.]

I

Ephesians 1:5 says that God “predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ,” that He determined our destiny before we existed (that’s what the word “predestined” means) and God always accomplishes His will (see Job 42:2; Psalm 33:8-11, 115:3, and 135:6; Daniel 4:34-35…) so, if God wants to save someone, He can and will overcome that persons resistance (because we frequently resist God’s work, see Acts 7:51). From that I gather that, when He wants it to be, God’s grace is irresistible, that’s what the “I” stands for, Irresistible Grace.

P

Ephesians 1:13-14 says that we have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” and that the Holy Spirit is the “guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” Ephesians 2:4-7 says that God “made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places,” note that Paul talks about our being seated with Christ in the heavenly places in the past tense, as if it had already happened. I believe Paul does that because he is sure that God will keep us saved. Furthermore, in this passage, the whole purpose of God making us alive together with Christ is so that “in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (emphasis mine). God always accomplishes his purposes (see references in the first sentence of the paragraph on Ephesians 1:5). In view of this, I believe that once God has saved someone, God will make sure that that person will not fall away from Christ (in the ultimate sense, they may fall away for a time, but God will then bring them back). We are responsible for continuing to trust in Christ’s death to make us right with God and God will ensure that we continue in our faith. This is what the “P” stands for, Perseverance of the Saints (or Preservation of the Saints).

But God, – Paul spent the first 3 verses of chapter 2 telling us about our nature, now we turn to look at God and His nature.

Being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – When we were dead in our sins, disobeying God, and following our own carnal desires, God made us alive; that is, God saved us. Why did he save us? “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” decided to save us. The reason God chose to save us is because He loves us, and He loves us because He has chosen to. See Deuteronomy 7:6-11 where God says He chose Israel because He loves them and is keeping the promises He gave to their fathers; also, Titus 3:5 (Titus 3:3-8 is very similar to Ephesians 2:1-10). Because our salvation is based solely on God’s sovereign choice it can truly be said,

By grace you have been saved – We have not brought about our own salvation, we did not initiate our salvation, God did (John 1:12-13, 15:16; Matthew 11:27). It is all owing to the sovereign grace He has chosen to show (Romans 9:16-18).

And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. – More blessings of our salvation!!!

For by grace you have been saved through faith. – God’s grace has saved us through the faith we continually exercise in Him.

And this is not your own doing; – That whole equation that equals our salvation, namely, being saved “by grace” and “through faith” is not something we can do – it is not our own doing. We are not able to bring it about.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. – God is the one who brings about our salvation. God has chosen to show His grace to us by giving us faith to exercise in Him. He has not shown us this grace based on anything in us – God did not save us because He knew we would believe in Him, instead, our belief in God is a result of Him saving us. This means we cannot boast; the only thing we have contributed to our salvation is our sin, the faith we exercise in God is a gift from God.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, – God made us, He owns us, and he has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we would do good works.

Which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – The good works that we will do have already been “prepared” by God for us to do, so that He gets all the glory.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, – Here Paul says that the Ephesian believers (and, by implication, you and I) were once dead in our sins.

Following the course of this world, – Being dead to God we were following the “course of this world.”

Following the prince of the power of the air, – Being dead to God we were gladly following Satan.

The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – This provides a further description of Satan and his work.

Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, – We lived among and were at one point “sons of disobedience.” Being sons of disobedience we made our choices based on “the passions of our flesh.”

Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind – Again, as sons of disobedience we lived in the sinful desires of our body and our mind (for more on the state of our sinful mind see Romans 8:7-8).

And were by nature children of wrath, – We are born enemies of God (Romans 5:10, 8:7-8). We naturally abide under God’s wrath, making us “children of wrath.” In our natural state we joyfully disobey God (Genesis 6:4) and are subject to the whole of His just and loving wrath.

Like the rest of mankind. – This is the state everyone on the planet is born into – enemies of God, hating God (Romans 3:9-20, 23). Everyone, by nature, makes their choice based on their sinful desires.

“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” – Ephesians 1:7-23

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The first 2 verses are Paul’s greeting to the church at Ephesus. Verse 3 then begins:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, – Paul is exhorting us to bless God. Why?

Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, – We are to bless God (with our worship, praise, adoration, and enjoyment) because he has blessed us. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing through Christ. It is because we are “in Christ” that we have “every spiritual blessing.”

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, – In the same way we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, God the Father has chosen us in Christ “before the foundation of the world.” What has He chosen us for?

That we should be holy and blameless before him. – God has chosen us in Christ to be holy and blameless before Him. Next Paul explains what is involved in God choosing us in Christ to be holy and blameless. We may ask, “how has God chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him?” Paul answers this question in the next part of the verse.

In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, – God has lovingly predestined us to be Jesus’ brothers and sisters – to be God’s children (Hebrews 2:10-18; Romans 8:14-17). The word predestined means precisely what you would think it means; Strong’s Exhaustive concordance defines the word like this: “to predetermine, decide beforehand” (see Strong’s note G4309; or this link http://bit.ly/6Jmy7C). God determined to arrange our destiny so that we would be his children. Before we existed, God determined to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ (that is, through Christ’s saving death on the cross). Why did God do this?

According to the purpose of his will – God did it because He wanted to. He did it “according to the purpose of His will.” He did not predestine us to be His children on the basis of something we did, He predestined us to be His children “according to the purpose of his will.” See 2 Timothy 1:8-9.

To the praise of his glorious grace – We’ve been predestined to be God’s children according to His will “to the praise of his glorious grace.” God’s grace is put on display by predestining people to be His children. He has made this display of His grace so that we would praise Him in how He has graciously dealt with us.

With which he has blessed us in the Beloved. – God’s grace is given to us through Jesus.

1. Ephesians 1:1-6 – 1.26.10
2. Ephesians 1:7-23 – 1.28.10
3. Ephesians 2:1-3 – 1.29.10
4. Ephesians 2:4-10 – 2.1.10
5. TULIP – 2.3.10
6. Some Affirmations of Belief – 2.8.10
7. Conclusion: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.” – 2.10.10

“For in proportion to the sense we have of our dependence on the sovereign God for all the good we want, will be our value for him, our trust in him, our fear to offend him, and our care to please him; as likewise our gratitude and love, our delight and praise, upon our sensible experience of his free benefits.”

Here are the contents of the eJournal:

THE MINDSET OF THE NEW EVANGELICAL LIBERALISM

How to Become a Liberal Without Attending Harvard Divinity School
What kind of pastor is susceptible to liberalism? One who loves self, and even the sheep, more than he loves the Good Shepherd.
By Michael Lawrence

The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
Why do evangelical academics so crave worldly acceptance?
By Carl Trueman

Air Conditioning Hell: How Liberalism Happens
Liberalism happens when we try to save Christianity from itself.
By R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

The Neo-Liberal Stealth Offensive
The gospel’s most dangerous adversaries are not raving atheists. They are church leaders with gentle, friendly, pious demeanors.
By Phil Johnson

CASE STUDIES IN THE NEW EVANGELICAL LIBERALISM

What’s Happening to InterVarsity?
A long-term InterVarsity vet takes a hard look at some disturbing trends in this historically faithful campus ministry. 
By J. Mack Stiles

Is the God of the Missional Gospel Too Small?
When we say that a gospel that addresses systemic injustice is “bigger” than a gospel of “sin management,” what are we saying about the worth of God’s glory?
By Jonathan Leeman

What Would Athanasius Do: Is The Great Tradition Enough?
Is this new rallying point for Christian unity all it’s made out to be? Not if you want to preserve the gospel.
By Greg Gilbert

Notes from the Future: Evangelical Liberalism in the UK
Want a sneak peek at the future of evangelicalism? Then listen in as a British brother takes a look at the past and present of liberalism in the UK.
By Mike Ovey

Social Gospel Redux?
Are some evangelicals preaching a renewed social gospel?
By Russell D. Moore

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE NEW EVANGELICAL LIBERALISM

What Can We Learn from the History of Liberalism?
Historic liberalism was a response—the wrong one—to Christianity’s credibility crisis.
By Gregory A. Wills

Who Exactly Are the Evangelicals?
Is an evangelical simply “anyone who likes Billy Graham,” as one historian put it?
By Michael Horton

More Than a Feeling: The Emotions and Christian Devotion
Casting an eye toward recent evangelical history, Darryl Hart suggests that a wrong emphasis on emotions has been—and can still be—a path to liberalism.
By D. G. Hart

Evangelism and Social Action: A Tale of Two Trajectories
What do twentieth century ecumenism and twenty-first century evangelicalism have in common? More than you might think.
By Bobby Jamieson

MISCELLANEOUS BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review: The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small Is the New Big for Today’s Church, by Tony and Felicity Dale and George Barna
Reviewed by Aaron Menikoff

Book Review: Why Join a Small Church?, by John Benton
Reviewed by Aaron Menikoff

AUDIO – LEADERSHIP INTERVIEWS

The Story of Matt with Matt Chandler
Posted on January 1, 2010
A note from Mark Dever: “This past August, Matt shared an hour with us to talk about his ministry. In light of what has happened to Matt in recent days, we contacted him about publishing this interview. He said he was very happy for us to present it, and that he was continuing to trust in God for the future.  As you listen to this interview, thank God for our brother and pray for him.”

Pastoral Ministry and Training with Phillip Jensen
Posted on December 1, 2009
Phillip Jensen attacks evangelical assumptions about ministry training, spiritual gifts, and more.

HT: Thabiti