Back Home and Ready to Work

Gentlemen of the soul-satisfied table, it is good to be home. I know what you're thinking, when can I serve at another service project? Well, the answer is on Saturday. We'll be spreading mulch at the Palmer's house on Saturday after Bible study, so if you can come, I would encourage you to be there.

We'll be finishing our look at the doctrine of redemption as well as discussion some things from the Na conference. If you didn't have a chance to attend, I would encourage you to grab the downloads of the messages ( www.sovereigngraceministries.org ). They will serve your soul well.

I'll see you on Saturday morning gentlemen.

New Attitude, Here We Come

Well, the conference is finally upon us. We'll be joining 3,000 other individuals in KY to grow in discernment and humility in regards to orthodoxy. For those of you not attending, we will not be having bible study this Saturday, but we will resume our study next Saturday at the normal time.

Here is the pertinant information in case you missed in on Saturday

Depart: 9 am on Saturday morning

Saturday
3pm Check-In Begins
7:30pm-10:00pm General Session – speaker: Josh Harris
10:15pm-11:30pm Community and Family Groups

Sunday
9:00am-10:30am Community and Family Groups
10:45am-1:00pm General Session – speaker: Mark Dever
1:00pm-3:00pm Break
3:00pm-4:30pm General Session – speaker: Al Mohler
4:30pm-7:45pm Break
7:45pm-10:15pm General Session – speaker: CJ Mahaney

Monday
9:00am-10:30am Community and Family Groups
10:45am-1:00pm General Session – speaker: Eric Simmons
1:00pm-3:00pm Break
3:00pm-4:30pm General Session – speaker: John Piper
4:30pm-7:45pm Break
7:45pm-10:15pm General Session – speaker: John Piper

Tuesday
9:00am-10:30am Community and Family Groups
10:45am-1:00pm Final Session
1:00pm Conference Concludes

Return: 7 pm on Tuesday night

I'll have more information posted throughout the week. Stay in touch.

Service, Sanctification, and Sparcity

Gentlemen of the sparcely attended table. Thank you to those of you who came last week. We had a great discussion about the relationship between Covenantalism and Justification. It is amazing to see that God's consistency in establishing the two covenants and ordaining our participation in those covenants exposes His unchangeableness even more. He truly is a great God.

This week we'll be continuiing our study through salvation, moving onto Sanctification (ch. 23). We'll also be having furthur discussion on the Covenantalism pamphlet I handed out.

On a side note, we do have an opportunity to serve someone in our congregation as well as earn a little money for our NA Conference. We'll be helping Leslee Jelm pick up brush in her yard next Saturday, May 19th from 10am-Noon. It would be great if you all were available for this, but at least the guys going to NA should plan on helping out. I'll have more information at our meeting on Saturday. Keep up the reading and don't forget to put sin to death daily.

New Attitude $$$

Well, the conference is fast approaching (1 month left), and so is the final bill. Here is what you are going to be responsible for as far as payment. We will be putting a bulletin anouncement in this week asking people for projects for us to do in order to raise money to cover the $145 each that the registration costs. Transportation is being taken care of by the church and the Sterns. That leaves food. If each of you could be responsible for your food costs, that would be excellent. We will be having around 6 meals at the conference that aren't provided, so if you could bring enough money to cover that, plus additional personal expenses (books from the bookstore, souvenirs, etc.) that would be excellent. I'll have more info on the projects on Saturday morning. Thanks guys, and see you later.

An Early Meeting

Gentlemen of the Creative Caribou Coffee table, thanks for a great discussion last weekend. For those of you who couldn't make it, Jonah, Anthony, Dwayne and I had a great time at Caribou, indulging in the common grace of good coffee and specific grace of God's word. It was profitable to better understand the elements of common grace and what our response should be to those revelations.

In regards to our upcoming meeting, I would request that we meet 1 hour earlier to accomodate a trip my family is taking on Saturday with the Szobodys. If that's not possible, we'll have to work something else out. Let me know if any of you can't come because of an 8:00 meeting. Also, we need to come up with some fundraising ideas for our trip. I'm open to any suggestions. Just post them in the comments section or give me a call or email. That's it for now. Adios amigos...

Resurrection and Redemption

Gentlemen of the mulched and fertilized table, I bring you greetings. After the week off, I hope you are ready to continue in our study. As I looked at the upcoming chapter, I realized that it is very short, so what I would like to do is discuss chapters 16-17 for next week. That will finish up our discussion of Christ and begin our discussion on Redemption.

I know of few of you will be gone, but I'm not exactly sure who that will be. If those of you who won't be there would let me know on Wed. or just leave a comment, I would appreciate it.

I'll see you on Wed. or Sat. Have a profitable week.

No Meeting, but the Service must continue

Gentlemen of the dirty table, I hope all of you are planning on attending the service day this coming Saturday morning at our normal Bible Study time. It's a great opportunity to be an example to your fellow students and also to serve the Lord by serving the church. Plan on meeting again the following week to continue our study on the person of Christ.

For those of you who can, I plan on watching the NCAA Tourney finals tonight after 24. It should go 'til around 11pm. I'll see a number of you tonight as we cheer for Jack to defeat terrorism. Adios muchachos.

The Atonement at IHOP

Gentlemen of the syrup soaked table, the IHOP discussion is fast approaching. I am greatly anticipating our time together as we indulge in pancakes and God's Word. While the pancakes are international, I wonder if the Atonement also is? We'll have to wait and see. Make sure to read chapter 15. We'll be meeting there at 9 am.

After our time at IHOP, those of you interested in the NA conference we talked about will come back to the Mission's House with me and we'll register together there. Make sure to check with your parents whether or not you are able to attend. Here is the website in case you forgot: www.newattitude.org I'll see you later.

Christology

Gentlemen of the early morning table, thanks for the great discussion last week. It is great to be able to have so many doctrines at least discussed and worked through. Sin is an especially relevant topic to all of our lives. This coming Saturday we begin our study of Christ (Chapter 14). There's a lot of great info in this chapter, so make sure to read up.

Also, as we discussed last week, we will be having our IHOP breakfast a week from Saturday morning on March 31. We'll be going over chapter 15, The Atonement, so it should be a good time. I'll see you when I see you.

Sin on St. Patrick's Day

Gentlemen of the well-rested table, it is good to be back. As is our custom, we'll be meeting again this coming Saturday morning to discuss Hamartiology, or the Doctrine of Sin (Ch. 13). Make sure to read carefully and come with any questions and comments you might have.

On a side note, it was great to be away for a bit, but it is really good to be home. I trust you have all been putting into practice the things we discussed over the past few weeks, particularly being biblical, manly leaders in the youth group. I look forward to hearing how things are going in that arena.

Keep the faith gentlemen, and I'll plan on seeing you on Saturday at 9 am.

Jonah sent me this. Stare at the four dots in the middle for 30 seconds then look at a plain surface, like the ceiling. Who is that???

A Few Weeks Off

Well, gentlemen of the meat saturated table, thanks for a great afternoon. The meat of the cows, chickens, pigs and boars was delicious, as was the meat of God's word. Thanks for the great discussion. As many of you may have pieced together, we will not be meeting for the next two weeks. I'm leaving on a Spring Break vacation this Friday and won't be back until Sunday. Unfortunately, that means missing two Saturdays with you. Plan on picking things up the week after, right where we left off, with chapter 13, the unlucky chapter about the unluckiest thing of all, sin and the Fall of Mankind. Make sure to read up and be ready to discuss. See you later...

Bible Study, BBQ, and lots of Beef

Hello gentlemen of the round table. As many of you are aware, we aren't having our Bible study at its regular time due to a meeting I have to attend at my restaurant. However, I would still like to meet with you all on Saturday. We will be having our bible study at 12 noon instead of the regular 9 am time. I'll be providing the grills and you'll be bringing the meat for our Bible Study BBQ. If it's raining, which it is supposed to, we'll break out the Foreman grills and cook inside. Either way it should be a great time of eating the meat of the Word and the real meat from our friendly neighborhood cows. Let me know if you can't make it. Our chapter is number 12 and we'll be discussing the different roles of men and women. See you all there.

Gentlemen of the Theological Table:

As you may have surmised, we will not be meeting this coming Saturday morning in light of Winter Camp this weekend. We will be meeting the week afterwards, continuing our study of the Doctrine of Man here at my house. Thanks for the great breakfast last week. There's nothing like pancakes and eggs to start a day off right. I look forward to our next meeting. Until then...

Clarification:

There has been some confusion about this coming Saturday morning, so here are the facts. We'll be meeting at the IHOP in Elgin off of Randall Rd. in front of the Elgin Fox Theatre by Rt. 20. Times are the same (9:00am - 10:15am). Bring money for your breakfast. I'll see you there.

-Josh

Thus begins the study of Man. Don't forget that we're taking this week off for you to rest up and get ready to tackle anthropology. We'll pick up with chapter 11 on Feb. 10 at IHOP. That's right, I said the International House of Pancakes. Plan on meeting at the Mission's house promptly at 9am. We'll carpool over to the IHOP up north. Plan on being back around 10:30, so tell your folks not to pick you up until then. Let me know if you have any questions.

Hello gentlemen. Thanks for the great discussion on God's providence in prayer last week. I hope you've been applying it well to you lives.

This next week is the ever exciting topic of Angels, Demons, and Satan. Make sure to get a good read of the chapter and come with lots of questions and comments. This is a fun topic. Hopefully we'll get a good Biblical perspective on it this Sat. See you there at 9 am.

Just a side note, I need to cancel our meeting for Feb. 3 as I will be unavailable to meet. I'll remind you on Sat. when I see you. Later...

Tomorrow's Meeting:

We'll be covering chapter 7: Creation at tomorrow's meeting. Make sure to read up for our discussion time. Later...

Discussion Questions from Sunday School:

There were several great questions brought up yesterday in Sunday School. I hope the "Who did Christ die for?" question was adequately answered. Like I said in class, it is in issue that sparks endless controversy because the Bible isn't crystal clear about it. Something to remember is that the atonement accomplished salvation for all who believe. That simple statement encompasses infinitely hard topics to understand with our finite minds. However, that doesn' mean they are untrue.

Other questions that were brought up were equally hard to understand, but also good to discuss. Here are a few if you want to take a crack at them:

1 Peter 3:18-20 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water."

-Who did Christ preach to, where did he preach, and when did he do it?
Possibilities- Christ descended to hell to preach to unbelievers between his death and resurrection
- Christ, after his death, proclaimed his victory to the fallen angels

While there are several answers to this question out there, I find the most agreeable one to my mind is the one offered by John Calvin in his commentary on 1 Peter. I provided the link to his thoughts below:
http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol45/htm/iv.iv.viii.htm

If there are any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. For now, adios amigos

The Trinity

Today's discussion centered around the doctrine of the Trinity. These three truths are central to understanding the Trinity:

1. God is three persons
2. Each person is fully God
3. There is one God

While it is hard to understand this in our limited minds, we do have several verses from scripture that clarify it. However, there are some teachings that deny one or all three of the above principles:

Modalism- There is one God that operates in three modes, much the same as a person that is sometimes a firefighter, sometimes a father, and sometimes a husband. Depending on the situation, he acts in a different role, but always the same person. The problem with this is that it denies that each person is fully God within the trinity and that God is made up of three persons.

Arianism- God the Father created the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are God, but not the same as the Father. They are subordinate to Him. This denies the equality of the Godhead and that there is only one God.

Although several illustrations fall short of describing the Trinity (the egg, water, partitioned harddrive, etc.), the one we discussed seemed to help me a lot.

The Trinity Shield

P= pater (Father) SS= spiritus sanctus (Holy Spirit) F= filius (Son)

non est = is not est = is

The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father

But all are God

Questions for discussion:
If understanding the Trinity is so important, why doesn't scripture spend more time unpacking this doctrine?

Is a proper understanding of the Trinity essential to being a believer? Can someone be a believer and not understand the Trinity as defined above?

Assignment for tomorrow:

Don't forget we're meeting tomorrow morning at 9 am. We'll be discussing chapter 6 "The Trinity". Now that the madness of the season is over, this blog will be updated much more often. Make sure to check back after we meet tomorrow.