2013 Magnify Conference with Alistair Begg

If you plan on being anywhere near Mid-Michigan on April 5th and 6th, please allow me to heartily recommend that you attend the Magnify Conference, hosted by a quintet of churches from the Lansing area. Alistair Begg will be the featured speaker and will be examining the priority of God in a world that is eminently consumed with self.

The conference is very affordable ($20 for an individual, $10 for each additional family member) and you can register by clicking here.

If you're interested the schedule will be as follows:

Friday
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm...Plenary Session #1

Saturday 
8:00 am – 9:00 am...Musician & Pastor Breakfast Seminar (RSVP only)
9:15 am – 10:45am ...Plenary Session #2
11:00 am – Noon...Q & A
Noon – 1:30 pm...Lunch on your own
1:30pm – 3:00 pm...Plenary Session #3

Alistair Begg's Thoughts for Pastors

Last week I was blessed to attend a luncheon for pastors hosted by WLQV Faith Talk 1500. This is an annual event I enjoy greatly, and this year was my favorite yet, as the guest speaker was one of my favorites: Alistair Begg. In his message he suggested (with a tip of the hat to Owen and Warfield) that faithful preachers MUST have the following:

1) Spiritual wisdom and understanding about the mystery of the gospel

If we are to preach faithfully, we must above all else understand that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." And, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21). God has come to do for us what we could never have done for ourselves. This is the very heart of the gospel.

2) The experience of the power of truth in our own souls

This is not just a theoretical set of truths that we are expounding. Our congregation is asking, "Is he offering bread he has never tasted, or that bread by which he himself has been nourished?"

3) Skill in rightly dividing the word of God

It is not enough to merely be "a nice man." We would not accept it in any other field. Even if they were "nice men" you would not fly in an airplane if the pilot had never been in a cockpit or undergo cardiothoracic surgery performed by a man who'd never held a scalpel. People everywhere are dying under the preaching of "nice men." Let Scripture always be the source of our message. As preachers, we serve the Bible; it does not serve us.

4) Spiritual discernment of our congregation

Preach to the congregation you have, not to the congregation you wish you had. God has entrusted these very real souls to your care, not some other hypothetical ones.

 5) A zeal for the glory of God and genuine compassion for the souls of men and women.

John Murray spoke of preaching as "a personal, passionate plea." 2 Corinthians 5:19 and 21 were mentioned earlier. Verse 20, of course fits in between them is: "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." Preaching is not just a sharing of the facts presented in the Bible. It goes one step further to imploring people to be reconciled to God on account of those facts.

Richard Baxter once proclaimed, "I seldom come out of the pulpit but my conscience smiteth me that I have been no more serious and fervent." We should similarly be convicted that we could have done more, but at the same time be comforted by the fact that "a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench" (Isaiah 42:3), knowing that he is pleased to place his "treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."

Some Final Thoughts on Harold Camping

Yesterday I was invited to be a guest on the local radio program Off the KUF with Tom Sumner. It was a fun experience for me to return to my roots in the radio studio as we discussed Harold Camping, faux raptures and what the Bible really says about the end of the world. I want to point out a couple of good things to come out of this whole experience that I mentioned on the radio program. After this, we'll leave Harold Camping alone...at least until October, which is when he says the world will actually come to an end.

I am thankful first of all that, because of this whole episode, there was a great deal of talk (and hopefully at least a little bit of thought) about spiritual matters. News outlets around the country discussed the idea of the rapture. As I drove home on Friday afternoon, it even dominated the discussion on sports radio. And hey, I got the opportunity to talk about the gospel on the radio yesterday.

Secondly, we were reminded of a reality that is especially important in our day. Harold Camping believed quite passionately in what he proclaimed. But no matter the fervency with which he believed these ideas, that did not make them true. It is not our faith that is ultimately most important, but rather the Object of our faith.  And truth is not dependent upon what we believe; it is what it is. We can't all be equally right. Even in this age of relativism, there are those whose beliefs are wrong.

If you'd like to think further about issues of the Lord's return, others deal with it far better than I have. Click here to listen to Allistair Begg's sermon, or click here to read a short devotional message from Mike Wittmer. And while we should certainly refrain from date/time predictions, may those of us who are Christians long for Christ's return. For when he returns, we will experience the greatest good: We will be with Him.

Teaching From The Gospel Coalition

Two years ago I attended The Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago.  It was a fantastic experience and I thought very seriously about attending the 2011 installment of TGC this week.

Though it didn't work out for me to go, thanks to the wonders of technology, I've been blessed by the opportunity to take in some of the conference's great teaching.  Yesterday I watched Albert Mohler's talk via the live online stream of the conference's plenary talks provided  courtesy of Desiring God and TGC.  Last night I reviewed hundreds upon hundreds of tweets tagged #TGC11 and got a good feel for Tim Keller's talk, which has now been posted online, and which I plan on listening to later.

After the conference is over I will post another entry with links to all the talks.  Though I haven't heard it yet, I look forward to hearing Allistair Begg's talk from last night.  According to Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds, he concluded with this quote from John Calvin:

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel

we are not Christians;

without the gospel

all riches is poverty,

all wisdom, folly before God;

strength is weakness, and

all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made

children of God,

brothers of Jesus Christ,

fellow townsmen with the saints,

citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,

heirs of God with Jesus Christ,

by whom

the poor are made rich,

the weak strong,

the fools wise,

the sinners justified,

the desolate comforted,

the doubting sure, and

slaves free.

The gospel is the Word of life.