J.I. Packer, on Calvinism

"The five points, though separately stated, are really inseparable. They hang together; you cannot reject one without rejecting them all, at least in the sense in which the Synod meant them. For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners. God—the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing. Saves—does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies. Sinners—men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. God saves sinners—and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner’s inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the “five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen."

Zambia Update

Here is the latest blog update on the Reece families who moved to Zambia earlier in the year to serve as missionaries. Please pray for their endeavors as they labor in this country and adjust to their new home.

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Progress on the camp pavilion is painfully slow but the structure is going up little by little everyday. The foundation walls and footings have been laid and the floor leveled. Seventeen teak posts are in the ground. For those who may wonder, we don't use teak to be extravagant. We use it because it's strong and it's the locally available building material of choice among the Lozi. Each teak pole costs about $3 USD. The bond beam (they call it a "ring beam" here) is almost finished. It is made up of seventeen beams running horizontally from post to post all around the perimeter of the structure. Four beams still need to be added and then it will be complete. The earth bag wall that separates the kitchen from the showers/bathroom area is almost finished. When we stand on it the bond beam (which is about nine-and-a-half feet up in the air) it is about waist high. One more hard day and I think we'll have it done. After that we will start on teak cross beams. Then teak king posts. Then mopani ridge poles and rafters. The last step before thatching will be to add small sticks called "lats" that will span between rafters and run parallel with the top of the wall. The bundles of thatch will be tied to the "lats". Vincent, our "foreman", is supposed to have a crew working on the storage room walls of the pavilion so that it will be finished when we get back. He needs monitoring so this could be interesting leaving him alone to manage this part. He's using the traditional Lozi building method called kukangala (adobe mud packed around a stick frame "matrix" - also referred to in England as waddle and daub).

A quick note about Vincent. He is very pleasant to work with. He's responsible, faithful, intuitive and shows initiative. I think he's a keeper. We continue to pray that the Lord will truly save him. It's possible that his heart has already been made new and he is trusting in Christ alone for salvation but just doesn't know how to express it in words.

So the Lord gave us a good gift the other day. Sean and I took Vincent with us to a place between Mwandi and Kazangula to see if we could buy some Mopani poles that I had seen in huge piles on the side of the highway. After driving two-and-a-half hours we were told that the man who owned them was building a lodge in Livingstone and was not willing to sell. I was praying and asking the Lord to help my attitude because it seemed that the whole trip was a waste. One of the old women suggested that we try to phone the man and, after a while provided his number. We took the old woman with us to where we could find a network signal. As it turned out we ran into a man who had cut all the trees for the guy building the lodge. He took us way out into the bush (30 more minutes) to his pile of poles out in the forest. He sold them to us for K 5,000 per pole which is about $1 per pole. To put that in perspective... these poles are at least twelve feet long and at least six inches in diameter, the strength of teak and the color of pine. Vincent was shocked at the quality of the wood and the low price. That made us feel pretty good about it. It was also a great testimony for him to see the Lord provide. It was a long day - Twelve hours altogether. But it was worth it. We pulled into camp at nine p.m. that night with 25 poles. Hopefully we can get 50 more from this same guy.

The rains have started but we are praying that we can be moved into this by Christmas! Thank you for continuing to pray.

~Shannon Reece

Response to the Gracious Summons

The Conversion of William Wilberforce

"It is a great story of the providence of God in pursuing a person through seemingly casual choices. On the long holidays when Parliament was not in session, Wilberforce would sometimes travel with friends or family. In the winter of 1784, when he was twenty-five, on an impulse he invited Isaac Milner, his former schoolmaster and friend from grammar school, who was now a tutor in Queens College, Cambridge to go with him and his mother and sister to the French Riviera. To his amazement Milner turned out to be a convinced Christian without any of the stereotypes that Wilberforce had built up against the evangelicals. They talked for hours about the Christian faith.

In another seemingly accidental turn, Wilberforce saw lying in the house where they were staying a copy of Philip Doddridge's The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul (1745). He asked Milner about it, and Milner said that it was "one of the best books ever written" and suggested they take it along and read it on the way home. Wilberforce later ascribes a huge influence in his conversion to this book. When he arrived home in February 1785 he "had reached intellectual assent into the Biblical view of man, God, and Christ." But he would not yet have claimed what he later described as true Christianity. It was all intellectual. He pushed it to the back of his mind and went on with political and social life.

That summer Wilberforce traveled again with Milner, and they discussed the Greek New Testament for hours. Slowly his "intellectual assent became profound conviction." One of the first manifestations of what he called "the great change"--the conversion--was the contempt he felt for his wealth and the luxury he lived in, especially on those trips between Parliamentary sessions. Seeds were sown almost immediately at the beginning of his Christian life, it seems, of the later passion to help the poor and to turn all his inherited wealth and his naturally high station into a means of blessing the oppressed."


~From John Piper's "The Roots of Endurance," pages 124-125

We Begin to be Like Christ

(J. R. Miller, "The Life of Jesus")

"I am among you as one who serves." Luke 22:27

"He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him." John 13:4-5

Serving is not an easy lesson to learn. But it is a lesson we must learn--if ever we would become like our Master. He did not come to be served--but to serve. He served to the uttermost, just as He loved to the uttermost. Anything that needed to be done for another, He did as naturally and as simply as He breathed. He loved people, and was interested in them, and was ready always to be helpful to them. It never mattered what the service was, whether it was the saving of a soul, the curing of a grievous sickness, or the giving of a cup of water--He did the least as graciously and as divinely, as the greatest.

The washing of feet was the lowliest service any man could do for another. It was the work of the lowliest slave. Yet Jesus without hesitation, did this service for His own disciples. Thus He taught them that nothing anyone may ever need to have done--is unfit for the whitest hands. We begin to be like Christ--only when we begin to love others enough to serve them.

There is no surer test of the genuineness of Christian life, than in this matter of serving others. When we see the Son of God washing His disciples' feet--no service is too menial for us to do. A king may do the lowliest kindness to the poorest peasant in his realm, and his honor will only be enhanced by it.

"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet--you also should wash one another's feet." John 13:14