William Petruzzo

Reading in All Loves Excelling, John Bunyan illustrated the comforting effects of sin beautifully.

“In the sin of his people there is a breadth; a breadth that spreadeth over au, wheresoever a man shall look. The sin of the saints is a spreading leprosy (Leviticus 13:12). Sin is a scab that spreadeth; it is a spreading plague; it knows no bounds (Leviticus 13:8,57). Or as David saith, ‘I have seen the wicked spreading himself.’ (Psalm 37:35). Hence it is compared to a cloud, to a thick cloud, that covereth or spreadeth over the face of all the sky. Wherefore here is a breadth called for, a breadth that can cover all, or else what is done is to no purpose. Therefore to answer this, here we have a breadth, a spreading breadth; ‘I spread my skirt over thee’ But how far? Even so far as to cover all. ‘I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness.’ (Ezekiel 16:8). Here now is a breadth according to the spreading nature of the sin of this wretched one; yea, a super-abounding spreading; a spreading beyond; a spreading to cover. ‘Blessed is he whose sin is covered,’ (Psalm 32:1) whose spreading sin is covered by the mercy of God through Christ (Romans 4:4-7).”

Bunyan reminds us of the encouragement that Christ’s work is deeper and more profound than any and all sin that could ever be committed. If his people’s sin spreads, so will his grace. If our failures increase, so will his mercies. Profoundly beautiful. There is little else that makes me desire to flee from sin more than that!

Several months back, I attempted to start reading John Bunyan’s All Loves Excelling. The book is a meditation on Ephesians 3:18-19:

“That you… may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The book is only a breath over 100 pages, but perhaps it was the circumstances in life at the time, but I just couldn’t push through. I found that after about the first two chapters I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. So, I decided to shelf the book for a while and come back later.

Well, just recently I picked the book back up and started over. This time, I seem more prepared to share in Bunyan’s meditation.

In fact, tonight, all I really wanted to do was share a quick bit from the last chapter in Part 1.

Bunyan is talking about the height of God. How to man, he is utterly out of reach and beyond our grasp. But, in commenting on the Apostle’s citation of the “height” he reminds us of Jacob’s Ladder. In the vision Jacob had, he saw a ladder going up into the heavens and “the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28).

In Jacob’s vision, the Ladder was Jesus (John 1:51).

The height of God is inaccessible to man. But the height of Christ is fully adequate. Just like Jacob’s dream, he is our access to the father, but faith. And, concerning such faith, Bunyan had this to say:

“All the rounds of this ladder are sound and fitly placed not one of them set further than that by faith thou mayest step by step unto even until thou shalt to the highest step thereof from whence or which thou mayest step in at the celestial gate where thy soul desireth to dwell.”

Thank you for those words of encouragement, Mr. Bunyan. Thank you Jesus, for Mr. Bunyan.

I won’t say too much here, because I don’t think a conventional review of this book would either be adequate or appropriate. But there are three things I would like specifically to bring up.

1. The theology John Piper’s of Desiring God is not gimmicky and it’s not a fad of Christianity. It’s just plain biblical. Frankly, it’s simply biblical theology, with a slightly different packaging. It’s the staple and the life force of some of history’s great saints and it would be foolish to ignore it.

2. If at any point we undermine and neglect the message Piper brings forth in Desiring God we dishonor God, and we cheat ourselves.

3. Few books rely as heavily on biblical reference and citation as this one.

I have only a small handful of criticisms.

Piper has subtitled this book Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. As poignant a subtitle as that may be in light of scripture, in this circumstance it mostly just threatens the reader’s confidence in the message.

Piper spends a good deal of time in the beginning of the book explaining that Christian Hedonism isn’t a new thing. It was the faith of steadfast saints before us as well as the church fathers. That is a strong point, not easily discredited. Unfortunately, coining a new term makes it seem new and shiny and thus less credible. I had trouble with the term the whole way through the book. Being Christian Hedonist simply means being a biblical Christian, then just call them Christians.

I think this is a point Piper and I are simple going to have to disagree on.

My second criticism is what seems to be Piper’s inclinations to extremes. For example, in a chapter on suffering, Piper argues that Christians must suffer. That we must choose to suffer. A point and bible believe Christian will have difficulty arguing against. However, Piper’s inclination is to the extremes in that situation. Torture, martyrdom and such. While these circumstances are certainly reality for many Christians worldwide, they aren’t for much of his audience.

He does spend a short bit to explain that suffering is a broader scope than simply the physical extremes, but not enough time. So unfortunately, what may be communicated is that real suffering is only in those extremes. Or worse, that perhaps we should seek out those extremes. That’s not the case. When called for the sake of the Gospel, we ought to tread boldly into situations where those extremes are possibilities, without fear of them.

I think Piper would agree with that, but it’s a bit unclear in his writing.

However, these criticisms are minor and the benefit held in the pages of this book far outweighs them. I have to recommend this book to everyone. It’s a bit long and the style takes some getting used to, but it’s worth it.

After about two months of long days and (seemingly) endless tweaking and troubleshooting, I’ve finally finished new website! I have to admit, I love Wordpress & Zenphoto who provided such an excellent platform to build my website on!

I kept a familiar layout, but upgraded to a formal status with khaki colors! I also added a ton of new information. I now have a section for regular updates which I’ll use for introducing new albums and images. I also have a more robust section for pricing, as well as a fairly comprehensive FAQ section, answering a lot of questions people might have.

I’ve also tweaked the way that images display, making navigation easier, and hopefully accessible from lower screen resolutions.

All in all, I’m pleased with the new website. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check it out and maybe drop me some feedback!

I’ve spent a pretty good deal of time dwelling on the idea of justification. It’s a beautiful doctrine, one that is absolutely central to our lives with God. Unfortunately, I’ve not given so much of my thought and meditation to propitiation. 

Now, the doctrine of justification says that because of the work of Christ on the Cross, we have been declared legally righteous. Like a pardon from a government official on a criminal. The criminal is still guilty of having committed the crimes, but legally has been declared just.

In the case of us and God, the work of Christ has justified us so that we are declared “righteous” with the righteousness of Christ (Romans 3:22-24). We are still technically sinners, but we are just with the righteousness of Christ, through faith.

Propitiation is a word that is basically extinct in day to day use. Most people have no idea what it means. Propitiation means basically to appease the wrath of an offended party.

So, for example we’ll revisit our pardoned criminal illustration. A government official may pardon a thief. According to the state, the criminal is just. He has been justified. But, the wrath of his victim’s still burns against him. Now, let’s say that the criminal was deeply sorry and gave an honest apology and returned the stolen goods. His victims would no longer be angry at him and so he would have propitiated for his wrongs against them.

Well, with us and God, we are justified by the work of Christ on the cross and Jesus’ work was the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). So, in Jesus, God has declared us righteous legally and because of Jesus, there is absolutely no wrath in God towards his children.

That is stellar news. I mean, out of this world kind of news.

Jesus’ death was sufficient to pay the debt owed for our sins; justifying us. But, his death was also sufficient to turn away every ounce of God’s wrath against us forever. That means when I sin, I do not cower before God, awaiting judgement. I humbly and boldly approach him, covered with the blood of Christ, in praise and adoration that his grace would extend even to this depth!

Tonight, I went into my parent’s kitchen and found my mother offering some water to a pair of young Mormon missionaries. As I passed through, I had a very brief introduction, then passed into another room where I began to sort of mentally assault them. Consider them scum, worthy of total hatred.

Shortly thereafter, then departed and it all rushed at me. Jesus desires to give mercy. We are in a time of mercy. He hasn’t yet come for judgement and so I should look at those young men mercifully and compassionately.

Unfortunately, it was too late. They had left and all of a sudden conviction set in. There’s nothing that stings quite like the sin of a selfishly missed opportunity.

So, I went and gathered up my Bible and Gospel Primer and went out onto the front porch to meditate and think and confess. As I sat quietly, reading scripture and the Primer aloud, a couple of things dawned on me about the circumstance.

Walking door to do attempting to share your faith takes guts. Frankly, it’s a humiliation to most of the church that an entire band of apostates would act on their faith so diligently as to actually go door to door to the world. While most of the church wouldn’t share it’s faith if the world came to them.

I also considered the likely hood of them actually coming to believe the Gospel. My mental consensus was “unlikely”. Most of the time the door to door people are out on a mandatory two year mission. At that point they’ve spent months and months sitting in intense (bad) discipleship and are generally more well versed in scripture than Christians are.

But my proud thinking hit me. I don’t have to convince them. Is God bigger than their discipleship? Certainly. My duty was to be faithful to the Word of God. Not to carefully assess my success in evangelism based on the hearer.

But my opportunity was gone. I was kicking myself for being so unloving and uncompassionate. I was praying for a second opportunity, mostly out of my guilt. God provided.

They circled back around and I was able to talk to them for nearly an hour. Based on my performance, no converts were made. But maybe, based on the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus one of my objections and questions will be lodged well enough to crack the stronghold of lies they’re caught in.

If you feel so compelled, you can join me praying for Bret (19) and Mark (23).

I sometimes ponder unanswerable questions over and over and over. I often let them stop life from moving foreword. But ultimately, I will find them to be silly questions. I ought to remember that even if I had the answers to those questions, I would just have space to ponder others.

If then I knew,
what now I know…
If then I knew,
what now I know…
If then I knew,
what now I know…
If then I knew,
what now I know…
My life right now,
I’d wish to know.

I often read about the importance of making specific time for prayer. Many in my generation see prayer as only legitimate when it comes about spontaneously. Frankly I think that kind of thinking is a bit silly, but I won’t go into why right now.

Now, I personally find it difficult to make out specific time for prayer. Not because I don’t want to pray, but because I’m usually well distracted. Even if I set aside a whole hour just for the purpose of prayer, I’ll often settle into the time and only skim across the top of prayer because my mind is running a million miles a minute about all the different stuff I need to do.

Ever heard a prayer that sounds something like, "Lord, help me to focus, just set my mind on you"? Seriously, some times that’s every third prayer for me.

So, in those times I’ve adopted the practice of praying and walking. Not to be confused with "Prayer Walking" which apparently is something different altogether. No, I’m talking about the process of walking and praying. Just praying while putting one foot in front of the other along some path.

I find that taking time to pray and using that time to walk and pray, my prayers end up mirroring my walking. I don’t mean they’re about what I see. I mean they move foreword. I don’t end up hung up and distracted thinking about all kinds of other stuff after 15 minutes or so, I find that I’ve reached depths in prayer that I often don’t reach in an hour of stationary prayer.

So, if you find that your easily distractible in prayer, try taking your prayers out on a walk.

A Gospel Primer for Christians by Milton Vincent is not one of those books you pick up, nod to yourself, lightly discuss with friends, then put back on your shelf. A Gospel Primer is a great deal more useful than that.

This little, under-100-page, book is a bible-complimenting tool for the mind and heart that, in the hands of the faithful, stands to cause the powers of darkness and the sinful flesh alike tremble! Truthfully, I cannot extol the usefulness and quality of this book enough.

A Gospel Primer has one basic purpose: help Christians to clearly, confidently and consistently “rehearse” the Gospel to themselves. What does it mean to “rehearse”, well, in short, it means to stir yourself up, by way of reminder. Remind yourself of the Gospel. The whole Gospel. And just as is characteristic of the Gospel, allow the truth of that Gospel to change us as we dwell and meditate on it.

The book is broken up into four sections. The first one being the longest. It is the full explanation of the Gospel and the reasons why it’s so important to rehearse it regularly. The second and third sections are where we meet the real toolbox of this work. The second and third sections are the actual articulations of the Gospel, the Gospel "Narrative", written in first person. For example:

"My God is immense beyond imagination. He measured the entire universe with merely the span of His hand. He is unimaginably awesome in all of His perfections, absolutely righteous, holy and just in all His ways. He has also been unbelievably good and merciful to me as the Creator and Sustainer of my life."

The Narrative section is broken down into four parts. Each part representing a different a major piece of the Gospel. The first about God. Who God is, his profound attributes. The second about my sin and my profound failure before a holy God. The third about the heroic work of Christ Jesus on the Cross. And finally, the life I now live to the glory of God because of the all sufficient work of Christ.

The third section of the book is a repeat of the Gospel narrative, but in the form of poetry, and a beautiful poem it is.

The final section of the book is extremely brief and is used to describe how Mr. Vincent came upon writing this book. In it he shares his testimony as well as his deep conviction to love and live the Gospel of Jesus. Less important to the whole of the text, but worth reading for the sake of encouragement.

The best thing about this book, is it’s extremely heavy use of scripture references. Every page of text is only half way down the page, because the bottom half of the page is used for scripture citations. Not only reference numbers but the entire quotation. This is not only helpful for confidence in knowing the Word of God, but also for the sake of meditation.

Over the past few weeks reading and using this book, I’ve found deep comforts in rehearsing the Gospel. I often read the narrative aloud to myself and as a specific truth shines before me, I stop and meditate on the scripture reference. The more I am using the tool, I am finding it easier to move away from the tool and rehearse the Gospel on my own, unaided.

At this point, A Gospel Primer is a book that I think every Christian should own and read and heed. Pick it up on Amazon.com, it’s only $5 used.

Reading tonight in John Piper’s Desiring God, he pointed out an astounding piece of scripture that stands to challenge a good deal of phraseology, not to mention the motives of my heart.

The scripture is Mark 10:28-31:

Peter said to [Jesus], "We have left everything to follow you!"

"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.

I think this verse always sounded something like Jesus was reaffirming Peter’s statement. That’s not so much the case. Looking closer, Jesus is actually rebuking Peter.

Peter has just boasted about all that his disciples have sacrificed in order to go and follow him. Jesus turns the statement on its head and says “no one makes a sacrifice to me, because I always give recompense!” He says that anyone who does give up everything will receive hugely on their investment!

(As Piper also points out, Jesus is not promising material gain in this age, but superior spiritual gain, reminding us of Luke 9:58.)

When someone purchases stocks in the market, they aren’t sacrificing money for the sake of the business, they’re hoping for a return on their investment.

Jesus here is telling us, when we leave all we have, we don’t lose, but gain far more.

So, I ought not think about making sacrifices, or giving things up for God. God won’t be served by human hands, as if he needed anything. But rather, I should look at it more as a joyful investment, through which Jesus will certainly bring huge returns.