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May 21, 2008
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Posted by allenmickle
The Kissing Diet
May 20, 2008I decided I have the next big plan for a fad diet. The Kissing Diet. Everytime you feel hungry, go kiss your spouse. You’ll loose the pounds because you won’t be eating all the time, and your marriage will be even better as you shower love and affection on your spouse.
Well I think it’s a good idea. :)
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Posted by allenmickle
John Gill (1697-1771) on Prayer
May 13, 2008It is good for the saints to draw near to God; it is not only good because it is their duty, but because it yields their souls a spiritual pleasure; and it is also of great profit and advantage to them: It is often an ordinance of God, and which he owns for the quickening the graces of his spirit, for the restraining and subduing the corruptions of our hearts, and for the bringing of our souls into nearer communion and fellowship with himself. Satan has often felt the force and power of this piece of our spiritual armour; and it is, indeed, the last which the believer is directed to make use of. Praying souls are profitable in families, neighbourhoods, churches, and common-wealths, when prayerless ones are in a great measure useless. The believer has the utmost encouragement to this work he can desire; he may come to God, not as on a seat of justice, but as on a throne of grace. Christ is the Mediator between God and him, his way of access to God, and his Advocate with the Father; the Spirit is his Guide, Director, and Assister; he has many exceeding great and precious promises to plead with God; nor need he doubt of a kind reception, a gracious audience, and a proper answer, though never so mean and unworthy in himself; since the Lord will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise his prayer.
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Posted by allenmickle
Centre for Mentorship and Theological Reflection
May 11, 2008
CENTRE FOR MENTORSHIP AND THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
“The Cross is Our Theology” – Martin Luther
Learning from John Calvin
about Ministry Today
Date: Thursday, June 05, 2008
Time: 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Venue: Van Norman Centre, Tyndale University College & Seminary – 25 Ballyconnor Court, Toronto, ON
Dr.Timothy George, Executive Editor of Christianity Today and Dean of Beeson Divinity School
“Learning from Calvin about Ministry Today”
Dr. Victor Shepherd,
Winner of the Centre’s Best Preacher Award
“My ministry is dearer to me than life”
Dr. Dennis Ngien, Founder, Centre for Mentorship and Theological Reflection
Founder’s charge
No registration needed, except pay $3.00 parking fee.
For further information, please contact Dr. Dennis Ngien at: dngien_center@yahoo.com.
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Posted by allenmickle
John Gill (1697-1771) on Marriage – In Preparation for my own Marriage
May 11, 2008“Marriage is honourable in all”, (Heb. 13:4) it being an institution of God, and that of God in paradise; by whom our first parents were directed to it, in a state of purity and innocence; God made the woman for an help meet, and brought her to the man, proposed her to him, whom he approved and accepted of, and she became his wife, (Gen. 2:18, 22-24) it was the Lord’s act and deed, and to him Christ ascribes the act of marriage (Matthew 19:6). Christ honoured it by his presence, and at such a solemnity wrought his first miracle, and manifested forth the glory of his Deity, (John 2:1, 2, 11) and what makes this state yet more honourable is, that the marriage of Adam and Eve was a type and emblem of the conjugal union of Christ and the church, (Eph. 5:32) Adam was a figure or type of Christ, and, among other things, in his marriage; and Eve, the mother of all living, was a type of the church; Adam was first formed, and then Eve; Christ was before the church, and, indeed, before all things; Eve was formed from Adam, from a rib taken out of his side; the church has her original from Christ, and her subsistence by him; all her grace, blessings, and happiness, are from him; her justification and sanctification are from him, signified by the blood and water which sprung from his pierced side. Eve was brought by the Lord to Adam, not against her will, but with it, and by him presented as a proper match for him, which he approved and accepted of; and the church was brought to Christ, and given to him by his Father, to be his spouse and bride, whom he liked, accepted of, and betrothed to himself; and her consent is obtained by the drawings and influences of his Father’s grace: and though this is no direct proof of, yet it has a favourable aspect upon, and may serve to illustrate the “supralapsarian” scheme; that Christ had an interest in his church, and she in him, and was espoused unto him before she fell in Adam; this marriage transaction between Adam and Eve being before the fall. Moreover, marriage is honourable with respect to the ends of it; which even before the fall, and supposing Adam had stood, hereby he would have had an help meet; and the first law of creation would have been carried into execution, increase and multiply; a godly seed, a legitimate offspring would have sprung from hence; families formed and built up, and the world peopled with inhabitants; and since the fall the ends and uses of it are to preserve chastity, to prevent incontinence, and to avoid fornication; as well as to answer the other ends: and particularly this state appears honourable.
– A Body of Practical Divinity – Book 4 Chapter 1 – Of the Respective Duties of Husband and Wife
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New Ministry – Slavic Gospel Association Canada
May 10, 2008
Slavic Gospel Association Canada
“Serving Churches – Reaching Russia – Since 1934”
I have recently accepted the position of Coordinator of Training and Equipping for Slavic Gospel Association Canada headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario. Our mission, taken from the ministry website, is as follows:
Serving churches – Reaching Russia: The Lord is preparing His church in the lands of Russia for the gathering of waiting fields that are white unto harvest. He has graciously placed SGA in the midst of it, serving Russian churches and North American churches to partner in the reaping of millions of souls for the glory of Christ.
The focus of SGA’s ministry is the marvelous work of the Lord in the lands of Russia, preparing His church for a vast harvest. Since 1934 SGA has been blessed to have a part in God’s plan for reaching the Slavic peoples with the glorious Good News of salvation.
One of the qualities that sets the former Soviet world apart from other mission fields is the historical presence of a small network of sound Bible-preaching, evangelical churches. Having a legacy of faithfulness throughout periods of cruel persecution since their beginning in 1865, the church members are precious brothers and sisters in the Lord. Because these proven Bible-driven churches are already there, SGA’s purpose is to support and strengthen them in their persistent efforts to reach their own peoples with the Gospel. These churches are a beautiful testament to the love of God for His people. He has purified them, protected their sound doctrine, blessed them with freedom, and now he is using them powerfully to carry the light of His Gospel to the aching world around them.
But SGA’s mission of service does not end with Russian churches. The great blessings of partnership are flowing in both directions. When as North American Christians we pray for and come alongside the ministries of our Russian brothers and sisters who have suffered for the Savior, we are thrilled to see the Lord bless their labors of love. We teach them systematic theology and they teach us how to love one another and live each day for the Lord. North American pastors, whose churches send them to teach, are thoroughly blessed by their enthusiastic students and eager to return. By serving as a bridge between the nations, SGA is serving both the Bible-preaching churches of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and the Bible-preaching churches of the West.
Our purpose, Serving Churches – Reaching Russia, is to encourage biblically-based relationships between North American and Russian Christians for the strengthening of the Saints and the furtherance of the Gospel.
I am available to speak in churches in Ontario starting in June to tell people about the great work of God happening in the former Soviet Union. This is an area of much growth and North American churches can be on the front line of serving Christ by serving His church in the CIS.
For more information on the Slavic Gospel Association see the Canadian website here.
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Gill on the Pactum Salutis
May 5, 2008
My good friend Mark Jones, who is doing his PhD alongside me on Thomas Goodwin’s Christology at Leiden University, has noted that the work of the Spirit in the pactum salutis is an area that still needs to be explored in PhD work here.
Now Mark knows that the grand Particular Baptist theologian John Gill (1697-1771) is one of the few who have made a contribution in this regard. Richard Muller, has noted this contribution in his article, “The Spirit and the Covenant: John Gill’s Critique of the Pactum Salutis,” Foundations 24 (1981): 4-14. I would suggest any pursuing the idea of the Spirit’s role in the pactum salutis check out Muller’s article and the go directly to the source to Gill to see how he approached the issue.
Mark is right, it is an area that needs to be explored. Let’s not forget our Particular Baptist brethren though as we look at this issue. Often scholars fail to see the Baptist contribution to Reformed thought. Muller, has argued that Gill carries the 17th century Reformed legacy into the 18th century (see his “John Gill and the Reformed Tradtion: A Study in the Reception of Protestant Orthodoxy in the Eighteenth Century” in Michael A. G. Haykin, ed. The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation [Leiden, Brill, 1997]). Let’s not forget that!
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Posted by allenmickle
Annual Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies Conference
May 4, 2008
Steave Weaver, the extraordinary PhD student at SBTS, pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church, and new Administrative Assistant of The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies located at SBTS, has posted a reminder about the upcoming Andrew Fuller conference in Louisville, KY on August 25-26, 2008. You can see the update and a brochure of the conference here.
Make sure you are there and here me present my paper, “‘An Uncongenial Soil’: Thomas Patient (d.1666) and the Irish Baptists.”
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John Gill on the Eternal State
May 3, 2008“So the heavenly glory is not obtained by the works of men, though they naturally think they must do some good thing to inherit eternal life; nor is it to be purchased, if a man would give all the substance of his house for it it would utterly be condemened: it is bequeathed to saints by their heavenly Father, whose good pleasure is to give them the kingdom; and this he gives by will, by testament, and which comes to them, upon, and through the death of the testator Jesus Christ.”
“The Glorious State of the Saints in Heaven” – A Sermon Preached to the Society which Support the Wednesday’s Evening Lecture in Cannon-Street, London – December 31, 1755.
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The Purpose of Christian Biography
April 24, 2008“The great ends of Christian biography are instruction and example. By faithfully describing the lives of men eminent for godliness, we not only embalm their memory, but furnish ourselves with fresh materials and motives for a holy life. It is abundantly more impressive to view the religion of Jesus as operating in a living character than to contemplate it abstractedly. For this reason we may suppose the Lord the Spirit has condescended to exhibit, first and principally, the life of Christ; and, after his, that of many of his eminent followers. And for this reason he by his holy influences still furnishes the church with now and then a singular example of godliness, which it is our duty to notice and record. There can be no reasonable doubt that the life of Mr. Pearce ought to be considered as one of these examples. May that same Divine Spirit who had manifestly so great a hand in forming his character teach us to derive from it both instruction and edification.”
Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) from Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Pearce, M.A. (Complete Works of Andrew Fuller, III, 444)
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Working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling 