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Club 300

This afternoon on the way home from work I was eligible to join the 300,000 club as the odometer of my TDI Jetta rolled to 300,000 miles!  And she’s still running strong, too

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Talent Show Night

IMG_0604In this year’s Elementary Talent Show Night at Fresno Christian Schools, ten students showcased their talents which included Vocal Solo, Keyboard Solo, and Gymnastics.  Tryphena played “It’s a Small World” on keyboard.

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Weekend Trip to Hearst Castle

On the Valentine’s weekend we went to Solvang and to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon for a weekend-getaway.  The trip was pleasant and the weather was great.

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Happy Thanksgiving 2014

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“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from the pestilence and granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of nine and twelve in the daytime on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there to listen to ye Pastor and render Thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all his blessings.”

– William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony, Thanksgiving Proclamation 1623

Thanksgiving Day should be remembered not just as a day when we give thanks for our abundance, but more deeply and historically when we recall why we have this abundance.  In our Thanksgiving Day celebrations, let us therefore tell one another the true origins of the thanksgiving and the great economic lesson that it rightfully should be remember.  What is that economic lesson?  Click here to learn about it.

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The Distinction between Law and Gospel

On the distinction between Law and Gospel, Theodore Beza, John Calvin’s successor in Geneva once said, “Ignorance of the distinction between the Law and Gospel is one of the principle sources of all the abuses which corrupt and still corrupt Christianity.”

Martin Luther, the great Reformer, said, “Virtually the whole of the scriptures and the understanding of the whole of theology-the entire Christian life, even- depends upon the true understanding of the law and the gospel.”

On the Reformation Sunday last Sunday, Rev. Inks preached on Galatians 3:6-14, and he explained why it is crucial to maintain this distinction.  Said he, “This distinction is apart from Roman Catholicism, Federal Vision, New Perspective on Paul, some Reformed camps, failed to make this distinction and should.  And in many sectors of Evangelical world failed to make and maintain this distinction between the Law and the Gospel that’s found here in Galatians chapter three”

If you only have two sermons to listen to this year, you must listen to this one.  It is truly edifying and refreshing!  The other one is its precursor, a sermon on Habakkuk.

Here is Pastor Inks on “The Law-Gospel Distinction”

And you need to hear this great sermon on Habakkuk to gain  greater understanding between this distinction of the Law and the Gospel.

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Semper Reformanda

reformation-day-powerpoint-1-638On this year’s Reformation Day commemoration, I would like to share an article that I recently read in the November 2014’s issue of the Tabletalk magazine.

I’d like to share this article so that we can have a good understanding of the historical background of the phrase “Semper Reformanda” that has often been abused and misused by so many people, mostly the liberal Christians.

The article is titled Semper Reformanda in its Historical Context by Dr. W.  Robert Godrey, president and professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary California.  The article is available in its entirety online, so you can read the whole article yourself.   Below are the first two paragraphs of the article.
BOQ: (Beginning of Quote)

Semper Reformanda in its Historical Contexts

The phrase ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the church reformed, always reforming) has been used so often as to make it a motto or slogan. People have used it to support a surprising array of theological and ecclesiastical programs and purposes. Scholars have traced its origins to a devotional book written by Jodocus van Lodenstein in 1674. Van Lodenstein, no doubt, had no intention of being a phrase-maker or sloganeer. What was his intention, and what did he mean by this phrase?

Van Lodenstein was a minister in the Reformed Church of the United Provinces in what we know today as the Netherlands. This church was born of decades of faithful preaching by ministers—many educated in Geneva—who risked their lives to carry the gospel, first into the French-speaking regions of the Low Countries, and later into the Dutch-speaking regions farther north. Some ministers were martyred for their faith, but they gathered a rich harvest of committed believers. Their message of the need for the reform of the church according to the Bible resonated with many who saw the corruptions of the old church.

EOQ (End of Quote)

(click on the link below to continue reading:  http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/semper-reformanda-its-historical-context/  )