Spurgeon's Cigar

My friend Jonathan and I got into a discussion the other night over whether or not the "commands" of scripture are really commands, or suggestions. I say commands, he says suggestions. Now, the truth of the matter, as usual, is that he and I are saying the same thing from different angles, but I tend to be a little bit more particular about how something is said; that's just my nature. Calling the instruction of scripture a "suggestion" is problematic because it hints or indicates that these precepts are not necessities for humanity, but merely accessories. Why do people question scripture? Simple: because we love ourselves more than we love God. If the Bible commanded that people breathe and eat when their bodies were hungry, people would still question it. Our natures are such that we don't like, no, we despise, being told what to do. The commands of scripture are not suggestions, and they are not because God is a control freak or because He likes making r

What are your favorite hobbies? My top three are playing basketball, reading, and ascertaining whether total strangers are charismatics. This weekend, I successfully played two of the three. Saturdays I routinely go to a local coffee shop to finalize my Sunday School lesson and to engage in some casual reading. This particular Saturday I found myself having completed my lesson on Jesus’ link between love and obedience found in John 14. Wanting to relax, I pulled two books out of my bag: Martin Lloyd Jones’s lectures on biblical doctrine, and Nietzsche’s The Gay Science . After wending my way through The Gay Science for an hour or so, I put it down to pick up Jones’s tome. As I was taking notes on a passage about our condition of original guilt, I noticed a young man, in his mid-twenties it appeared, walk in. He was well built, dressed in the requisite Birckenstocks, khaki shorts, and grey T-shirt, toting a backpack and a smile. He approached the barista and, in an effete manner, with

“And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Rev 22:17 Walk into nearly any evangelical Sunday School class on a given Sunday morning and before too long, some well-intentioned lady will answer a question with the phrase “because we are created with a free will to choose.” (Incidentally, that answer has just surpassed “because He loves us” and “I know in the Bible it says...” topping the “Most Common Sunday School Answer” charts at #1 of all time). At that point, most everyone else will nod in agreement with their arms folded in a satisfied and even somewhat smug look on their faces. If the argument were articulated from their side, it would go something like this: “God is Sovereign; yet, in His Sovereignty he has allowed for a small window that belongs to the creature exclusive of the Creator called man’s free will ; in this small window, man can either choose God or reject Him; God has done this so that men are not human robots controlled at all times by