Sarasota CREC Plant

08/30/2024

Repentance smells like burnt Marshwiggle: Hating your idols enough to give them the finger should be a given, but do you hate them enough to hack their ugly heads from their pathetic shoulders, to beat them all to dust, to smash their places of worship, to pull down their asherah stripper poles; to forcefully remove those little gods from their tiny little thrones?

The besetting sin of Israel has been the same ever since there was an Israel. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The only difference between us and the people of ancient Israel is that we carry temple prostitution around on a magic piece of glass in our pocket, and they had to walk up a hill to violate their consciences -at least they were getting their steps in for the day.

Being a faithful confessor (martyr) and being unwilling to deny Christ in the face of sword, lion, whip, or flame is the last confession in a longer series of much smaller and less significant confessions. If you’re hiding p**n addiction from your pastor and your wife and unwilling to confess your sin, don’t kid yourself, you’d be first in line to sn**ch a pinch of incense, toss it into the flames and, ‘Hail Caesar!’ As King of kings and Lord of Lords; all to save your own neck.

I’m reminded of the scene in CS Lewis’s The Silver Chair where Prince Rilian, Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum are all deeply held by the enchantment of the Green Witch; the scent of her spell lifting them on top of the breeze, her sweet music thrumming in their ears. But then their enemy’s plan came to a thundering halt. Puddleglum suddenly thrust his foot into the flames. The smell of burnt marshwiggle filled the air and the magic curse was broken just long enough to hack the head of the witch, now turned serpent, from her scaly body. Repentance and confession of sin is intentionally sticking your foot into the flame in order to upset the hold the enemy has on your life. It’ll give you just enough time to find new strength in the grip of an old sword, and swing away. Without the hundreds and thousands of other confessions of sin in the life path of a Christian -sins of bitterness, and lethargy, sins of anger and greed, sins of selfishness and betrayal- believing you would be a faithful Confessor at the most important moment in your Christian walk is a bit presumptuous.

If your unwilling to give the finger to these idols, your definitely unable to put them to death.

08/30/2024

Look at the stars. Can you count them? We say a trillion stars, but we don’t count a trillion the same way we counted, 4 apples taken away from 6 apples leaves 2 apples, in 2nd grade.

The Lord has promised to increase the amount of Levitical priests to rival the number of stars in the heavens and the sands on the sea shore. He’s promised that He’ll never ‘lack a man in (His) presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.’ Jer 33‬:‭18‬ and again, “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.” Jer 33‬:‭22‬

The Lord has made a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, for Himself. Peter was drawing on a promise way back in Exodus 19 when he said, ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.’ 1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬

We are priests who are called not once a year by lot into the temple, but to minister continually, and not just before the altar of incense, but to come and rest beneath the shadow of his wing, the wing of the cherubim, the very throne of God.

Sunday worship is a gathering of forgiven saints, A sea of people before the throne of God on the Lord’s day: saints who have gone before us, your next door neighbor at the church down the street, Moravians brothers raising a common cup in Bohemia, and your baptized six month old cooing in your wife’s arms, and all the hosts of heaven to boot. All gathered under one banner, in service of one King, lifting up the triune name of Yahweh God; the same way the priests once shouldered and raised the Ark of the Covenant. This is how we conquer the world. And this is the means by which a stream of people no one can number will come pouring into Zion, the ends of the earth remembering and turning back to the Lord.

08/29/2024

Gentlemen part two: a follow up to my previous post. The Practice of consuming theology in a vacuum is not a possibility for the Christian husband and father. You are wholly and completely responsible to tackle the scriptures to the ground, and wrestle with them like Jacob and the angel; to not let go until you have received your blessing. Just remember that the blessing is not just for you, the blessing is for you and for your children -for your entire family. 

08/29/2024

Gentlemen, don’t get too far ahead of your family theologically. It’s easy to go on a doctrinal deep dive and get so far ahead of your wife and kids that you can’t see them in the rearview mirror. When you come to a conviction, take the time to patiently lead your wife towards that end. My wife was six months behind my shift to Calvinism. That six months was filled with fruitful dialogue, and a honing of my ability to articulate scriptural truths. If you can’t teach your own family, you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself and expect others to listen to what you have to say.

08/28/2024

Congregational singing should be loud, expressive, passionate, boisterous; you should hear the strength of the men as well as the joy of the children.

Modern worship on the other hand is largely a passive exercise, something that the children aren’t invited to, and that the men check out of. It’s so passive that it requires all the smells and bells of a modern rave complete with light shows, thumping bass, and fog machines. It also has all of the participation required of a Latin mass.

Bring back the men and the kids.

08/28/2024

Some sound counsel… ‘If (your) church has betrayed the gospel, protest. If the protest fails, leave. When you do criticize, do it directly to the church’s leaders. Don’t start talking to other members to form a sub-congregation of complaint, what (is called) a “fellowship of the grievance.” Grievance is a powerful force for forming bonds, but the bonds are demonic. Whatever criticisms or suggestions you offer to the pastor or other leaders, remember that they are your shepherds who are charged by Jesus to keep watch for your soul (Heb 13:17).’
-Peter Leithart
Treasures of the Kings
The Theopolitan Vision

08/25/2024

If you will not take a pinch of incense and put it into the fire, if you will not deny the presence of God and give yourself over to the enemy’s rites of worship, then you set yourself apart as a danger to the whole system.

If you become a man who can not be bought off with cheap thrills, who will not be led around by the nose by the wh**es of Babylon, who will not bow in submission to to the lusts of his own belly, then you have truly set yourself apart as a danger to the whole system.

If you will not be baptized in the raw sewage of their baptism, if you will not sit at their table and corrupt your own flesh and blood; calling down the curse of heaven upon your own head, if you will not devote yourself to their wicked teaching, then you have most certainly set yourself apart as a danger to the whole system.

08/25/2024

Worship and prayer rendered as service to God from an unrepentant heart doesn’t just bounce off the ceiling, it angers God. Amos 5:21 says, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.”

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE for repentance and confession of sin. No amount of confiding your secret sin to an unrelated or un-offended party will lift the curse. You’ve offended someone? Make it right. You’ve talked about someone behind their back; extending the slanders of others? Confess your sins and be restored. You’ve failed your wife and children? You’ve been unwilling to release years of bitterness and frustration against your husband, or parents, or siblings? Confess your sins to God, and to the offended party, and receive the forgiveness of God in Christ… BE HEALED. Then the Lord will finally hear your prayers, the heavens will open and the Lord will receive your worship; your songs of ascension and your peace offerings, your life will become well ordered, and you will have peace with God and with your brother or sister in Christ. Then you will be enabled to live at peace -as much as it depends on you- with your fellow man.

Call now to connect with business.

08/23/2024

How did people worship in the Old Testament? Sacrifices. Then the questions we should ask are what did each of those sacrifices entail, and how should they inform our practices as New Testament worshipers. Rome gets it wrong by assuming that the altar is the prominent feature, sacrificing the Lamb of God again and again on a unhewn stone table. The winding and wandering through all those Old Covenant altars, quartered animals, knives and flame, lavers and ceremonial washings, and hyssop and blood… were meant to lead you to a family table.

The peace offering was a family meal eaten in the presence of God, showing that the worshiper and his entire family was at peace with God. The Lord’s Table is God’s table fellowship with us; the hospitality of our Triune God extended to all those washed in the waters of baptism. All other hospitality springs from this one source.

08/22/2024

We are invited to sit and dine at the Lord‘s table the same way that Mephibosheth was invited to the abundant provision of David’s table: Without reference to us, and completely on account of someone else. David loved Mephibosheth, not because of Mephibosheth, but because he loved Jonathan. God the Father feeds us bread from heaven and rich wine; loving us with a great love on account of His great love for Christ.

08/19/2024

We were mentioned on CrossPolitic this past week 😎

08/09/2024

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4

Your path may be tangled and twisted, adversity may be staring you down, affliction may be knocking at the door… Trust the Lord with all your heart. Psalm 34 also says,

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.”

The Lord is using these troubles to shape you into the man that you need to be. CS Lewis put it this way,

“Shasta's heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.”
C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy