Sex before marriage.

This type of conversations come up all the time and I'm sad to say that, in general, evangelicals give what I call the "Nike answer": Just do it! Or, in this case, "just don't do it! I wish more people would be able to convey what Piper does right here. He, as always, is masterful at pointing out that the issue is not obedience in and of itself, but the issue is the motivation for obedience. Piper is quick to point out that "staying out of bed with your girlfriend" does not make you a good person. Nobody is good, he says. Which brings me to another point of appreciation for Piper: The fact that he does not let anything ever take the place of the Gospel. Spurgeon was also really good at it. He could bring any conversation (and Bible texts) to the cross. I, personally, need to learn to do this way better. Mark Dever preached a message once about "Improving the gospel" where he talked about this, things that aren't necessarily bad, some that were even good, replacing the gospel and he made those distinctions. We have to recognize that some things are actually good but we also have to recognize that they are not the gospel. In this video, Piper gives a great example of how to do it.

Don't waste your blog.

This is the first of a series of posts I've been thinking about for a while. It is easy to get caught up in the whole "blog adventure", have lots of fun and accomplish nothing for the kingdom. Not that I believe in salvation by works, but I do think we should be mindful of everything we do, especially because most of the things which get godly people in trouble are actually morally neutral. It is not a sin to go golfing with the boys on my day off. It is a sin to go golfing at the expense of my marriage's intimacy. It isn't sinful to take vacations, it is actually healthy to make sure you get enough rest and relaxation. One of the ten commandments even encompasses it, but vacations can be very sinful if they are taken with the purpose of feeding laziness or if they stretch you financially way beyond the family's means. Vacations can be a highway to hell if they are taken because you bought into the american dream of making a ton of cash, buy a lot of toys, retire young and never produce a thing after that, stretching adolescence until the end of your days. Blogging, in the same manner, isn't necessarily sinful but it can be. It can be a gross mismanagement of time and resources, a family divider, a means to neglect intimacy, a way to live in "La La Land" and YES, a great tool in the Lord's hands to grow the blogger in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. I look forward to writting these posts and I hope you enjoy them.

Here are some guidelines I find very helpful in my own blogging.