William Petruzzo

Charles Spurgeon says in today’s evening of Morning & Evening Devotions:

How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy—view it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.

“My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself.”  I find that to be an interesting statement. One worth consideration. How long do we laugh at sin’s “fooleries” before we come ourselves to it with affection?

How many movies about adultery do I enjoy before adultery seems not-so-bad to me? How much do I enjoy our many public idols going after a glorious self-vindication before I myself crave it?

Interesting question; it deserves my attention.

I’m sure many of you have already found SermonAudio.com, but for those of you who have not, I hope you will find something that encourages you.

SermonAudio.com is…

In a nutshell, SermonAudio.com is a massive database of free audio files which can either be streamed and listened to from you computer, or downloaded and loaded onto an mp3 player or cell phone. I did say “free” right. Right, free. There are sermons from contemporary preachers from all over the US and internationally. That’s great and all, but it gets way better. SermonAudio.com also has a wealth of classic preachers as well. Tozer, Pink, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon—just to name a few. But really, it seems that the list just keeps going.

How it works…

When arriving at the site you’re dumped into a fairly cluttered environment. It takes some time to catch your breath and figure out what exactly you’re looking at. However, most folks won’t have too much trouble after a minute or too.

The main column of the site is filled mostly with updates and daily postings, popular downloads and featured speakers. But, the really juicy stuff starts on the left.

You’ll see four very important links: Sermons by Bible, Sermons by Speaker, Sermons by Topic and Sermons by Date. I’m sure you can figure out what these are. This is the main artery for browsing sermons. Choose to look up all the sermons by a favorite preacher, by the date they were delivered, or the topic they’re about. Or, by my favorite, the verse they are taken from.

When you select “Sermon by Bible”, you’re dropped onto a page displaying each book of the bible and a link to the each chapter. Within each link you’ll find sermons relevant to the selected verse. And, at the top of the page you’ll find an handy quick reference to the chapter of the bible you’re browsing in. From the scripture quick-reference, you can also further narrow your searches down by clicking on a particular verse and displaying sermons relevant to that specific verse.

When browsing through sermons, you also have some pretty advanced sorting methods to choose from. You can sort by the geographic area the sermon was delivered, the speaker, the denomination of the speaker and more.

The sermon…

Once you’ve actually found the sermon you’d like to hear, first you’ll have to sign up for their newsletter. No biggie. Then, you’ll have the option of either streaming the sermon live using Windows Media Player, meaning no hard drive space will be taken up on your computer. Or, you can choose to download the sermon onto your computer. The sermon comes in the form of an mp3 file. The files are a pretty decent size, not too big, but not so small that the sound quality stinks.

If you choose to download the sermon, you’ll then have the chance to load it into itunes, then onto you ipod. Or any other mp3 playing device.

One drawback to downloading the mp3’s are that they are not intelligently named files. So, for example, if you download a sermon by Charles Spurgeon, the file may not have a name you recognize. It will more likely be titled with a seemingly random string of numbers. You’ll want to rename the files so you can easily find them later.

Membership options…

I offer kudos to SermonAudio.com for offering this service for free. It’s commendable and, I believe a great gift to the church, if she would only take advantage of it. However, more robust options are available for people who are willing to pay a nominal premium.

For free you can get pretty much all of the best benefits. Listen to sermons. Download sermons. Browse sermons. Search the bible. Stream sermon related videos. Even get access to a lot of PDF sermon resources.

For bloggers and other web junkies, $4.95/month will get more features. Namely, the ability to download a lot of stuff unattended–although I don’t really know how this works. There’s also things like blogging tools and some advanced RSS options.

For churches and pastors, $29.95/month will get everything, plus the ability post your own sermons from your church. It seems that there must be some kind of a screening process, because the site really doesn’t seem to be overrun with junk. But whatever the case, that’s the gist of the complete package.

However, take note, the best and most important features are offered for free. The way it should be.

Highlights…

SermonAudio.com has a host of really cool and free features. There’s a few that stick out to me.

1. RSS Capabilities. Lets be honest, we’re not going to be visiting this site all that often. It just wouldn’t be a very practical stop along the road. But, with RSS subscriptions to sermon series or speakers, you can bring SermonAudion.com into your RSS reader. With Google, the sermon can stream directly from the feed.

and

2. Morning & Evening Devotions with C.H. Spurgeon. In addition to being able to read Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening Devotions, a good audio version is offered making the devotional easy to do in the car on the way to work or at your desk. Pair this one with the RSS functions and you’ve got a pretty sweet pair.

Conclusion…

SermonAudio.com is fantastic. It’s an excellent resource, especially considering all the classic content. And, it’s free, which is great.

So, go check it out. Download some sermons. Learn a thing or two and fall more in love with Jesus.

At this rate, I’m going to be done with Tim Keller’s The Reason for God in no time at all. Reading today, I came across another excellent thought. But this time, I think I’ll share more of his own words.

In this passage from his book, Keller is responding to the notion that no one religion can claim the corner on the truth market. That all religions, while have some truth, don’t have all of it; in other words, all religions are correct. Not just one. He shares an analogy he hears often about three blind men and an elephant.

An elephant approaches three blind men and allows them to touch him. When asked what they elephant looked like, the first blind man, holding the elephant’s tail, said, “it’s long and thin, like a snake.” The next blind man responded, “no, it’s tall and thick, like a tree,” holding the elephant’s leg. The last blind man argued, “no, it’s large and flat,” touching the elephants side.

Keller response to this analogy by revealing it’s inherent problem.

“This illustration backfires on its users. The story is told from the point of view of someone who is not blind. How could you know that each blind man only sees part of the elephant unless you claim to be able to see the whole elephant?

‘There is an appearance of humility in the protestation that the truth is much greater than any one of us can grasp, but if this is used to invalidate all claims to discern the truth it is in fact an arrogant claim to a kind of knowledge which is superior to [all others]… We have to ask: “What is the [absolute] vantage ground from which you claim to be able to relativize all the absolute claims these different scriptures make?’ [Leslie Newbigin – The Gospel in a Pluralists Society]

How could you possibly know that no religion can see the whole truth unless you yourself have the superior, comprehensive knowledge of spiritual reality you just claimed that none of the religions have?”

To claim that no one religion has the corner on truth, is in itself a faith based claim and, in a sense, a religious one. The user of this argument is forced to either submit to the analogy themselves and so invalidate it, or accept the hypocrisy of it.

Very interesting, Tim. Very interesting indeed.

Just two pages into the introduction to Tim Keller’s The Reason for God and he’s already stimulating my mind. I can’t wait to get into the real meat of the book.

In his introduction, Keller is recounting his early years as a college student battling over the questions of moral relativity and social justice. In the church he saw two “camps”. The liberals, who seemed to have a looser, amorphous sense of morality, but had a burning passion for the oppressed all over the world. And on the other side, the conservatives, who seemed to have less concern for social justice, but a strong moral foundation.

Keller explains:

I was emotionally drawn to the [liberal] path—what young person wouldn’t be? Liberate the oppressed and sleep with who you wanted! But I kept asking the question, “if morality is relative, why isn’t social justice as well?”

Keller’s question, I think, is just one of the many logical problems that faces the church today. I don’t say that only because I occupy a more conservative position, but because it really is illogical. There isn’t a satisfying way around the question.

If the church is going to stretch God’s word to demand less of us, why can we not stretch our social standards to demand less of us? In fact, if we believe the bible loosely, then couldn’t we also believe life loosely? For example, if God produced a person into a dreadful situation, perhaps he wants them to be there? After all, if God creates homosexuals, then he must want them to be homosexuals and therefore the lifestyle is okay, right?

So Keller’s question is poignant, I think. If our morality is relative, so our justice should also be relative. Maybe even more so.

I spent the past few months taking it easy on the literature intake. I’ve been focusing more on my photography business and getting that in line, and so extra-biblical reading has fallen by the wayside. But, in many ways I’m caught up to a healthier place in business with a good amount of momentum, so it’s time to pick up reading some more.

Here’s what’s on the table, hopefully.

The Reason for God by Tim Keller

I’ve been a pretty big fan of Tim Keller ever since I listened to a short sermon series he delivered on preaching. The Reason for God, is not like “what is God’s purpose,” but rather, “what is the reasoning in favor of God”. I hear from many people I respect that Keller’s book is outstanding and I’m looking foreword to taking it in.

The Pleasures of God by John Piper

One of my good friends holds this book up as one of the greatest he’s ever read. He’s been extolling it for months and now I have the chance to read for myself. While I’m not a huge fan of Piper’s style, his message is so important, I’m glad to bear with it.

The Holiness of God by RC Sproul

Another book recommended to me by a friend—in fact, gifted to me by him. One of Sproul’s other books, Chosen by God, is one of my favorites to date. I have fairly high expectations of this one also.

The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards

Where would I be without some classic literature in my routine? This is a book I started a few months back with Challies.com, but decided not to continue because the chapters were too long for me to keep up with. But, Edwards is a preacher I have a great respect for and Affections is a currently poignant work. So, I’ve decided to return to it again for a second try.

I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be reading all of these at once, or maybe just two at a time or one at a time. Regardless, I’m looking foreword to reading more often again and sharing my thoughts and discoveries with all of you!

Wish me luck!

Ever since I heard Shane & Shane’s Beg from their most recent CD Pages, it’s stuck in my head as almost something of an anthem. The lyrics rest at the heart of many, many Christian’s spiritual walks, yet it’s one of the few songs directly addresses it.

Here I am
One more day of not
Loving Him the way He asks
In fact my heart is singing praises to the things
that make me feel alright
So I’m sinking fast like a stone heart should
And on the way down
I’ve done what I could
To try and try to turn this stone to flesh

I’m haunted by my God
Who has the right to ask me
What by the nature of my rebellion
I cannot give.
So I beg for you to move
I beg for you to move
for you to break through

So here I am
Got my deeds for the day
All my cute little words about
How I am saved
Am I saved?
Could I love you with my mouth like a church kid should
At the end of the day
My words get burned as wood
Oh, but I was good.

I’m haunted by my God
Who has the right to ask me
What by the nature of my rebellion
I cannot give.

These songs are noise
In your ears
A clanging drum
You want my love
So I beg for you to move
I beg for you to move
for you to break through

The chorus is a beautiful prayer. And, a beautiful acknowledgment of our basic inability to do the most basic task, love our God and Savior. We need God’s grace, even for that. In all things, God receives all the glory.

Paul makes it sound so simple. Like an insensitive friend throwing the word “just” around.

Galatians 5:16:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

It almost reads like he’s saying, “So you don’t want to keep on sinning, well just walk by the Spirit!”. Easier said that done. But he goes on to explain his position.

Galatians 5:17:

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

The desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are against one another and we have to take sides. Paul, in a way, is saying that if you want to see yourself sanctified, we must choose sides rightly.

I got together with some friends this morning to study. Before getting started, on friend was reading from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest and came across something that throws interesting light on this very idea.

Chamber’s asks the question, “Do you long to be sanctified?”. The answer must be a resounding “no”. Because in this fight between flesh and Spirit, it is our failure to take sides that hinders our sanctification. Could I whole heartedly say, “yes! I long, with all that I am, to be sanctified and delivered from this body of death!”, then there would be none of me left to side with my flesh and I would be sanctified.

But, instead, there is a conflict of nature in all of us. We continue to do the things we please, simply because they are the things we please. Among our many failures, there is our failure to side rightly with the Spirit in this spiritual battle, and so we sin.

I pray that my desire to walk in the Spirit would increase and so my sanctification progress.

I’ve been slowly reading Albert Mohler’s Atheism Remix. He just introduced the figures that he’s dubbed the “four horsemen of the New Atheism” and now he’s gone into introducing their ideals. And, their disdain for religion, specifically Christianity.

Closing his address of their ideals, he says this:

“…the New Atheists argue that religion itself must be eliminated in order to preserve human freedom. Freedom is the one great good for these secularists, and thus any restriction on human freedom is by definition wrong. In their view, humanity can never be free if the authority of God and church are not overturned. Thus, there is a moral impulse behind their ambitions—as is true of all revolutionary movements. And make no mistake—the New Atheism does represent a revolution.”

There’s such great irony in their use of the word freedom.

These secularists claim that religion limits freedom. They call it bondage. They call it evil and something to be eradicated. But, there’s a deep gap in logic there. Does this ideal person, totally free, have the freedom to place himself in the “bondage” of religion? Or is that person failing to exercise their freedom? But, for the Christian, he has the freedom to believe, because God has given him the grace to do so. But, he also has the freedom not to believe, although none will reject that grace.

Looking at the argument objectively and logically, who really has more freedom?

Do you ever feel a certain satisfaction when when people get what’s coming to them? I mean, not necessarily all people, but perhaps people we perceive as bad, obnoxious, or foolish? Like, enjoying seeing them make their bed and then have to sleep in it?

It’s what makes watching action-thrillers so enjoyable. Seeing the bad guy get what’s coming to him.

But I think I’m pretty convinced that mentality is both illogical and sinful.

For one, it makes little sense that we would have unduly received mercy from God when we were least likely to get it, then for us to turn and to not hope for the same for others. It’s like the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18). A master forgives the debt of one of his servants because he cannot pay it, then the servant turns and throws one of his own debtors in jail when he cannot pay him. It just doesn’t make any good sense.

But, God also condemns such an attitude.

Consider Proverbs 24:17-18:

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, 
and do not let your heart be glad when
     he stumbles;
Or the Lord will see it and be
     displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.

It takes a second to see how this is relevant. In the proverb, we’re warned not to rejoice at the misfortune of our enemies. Then, it’s implied that our enemies stumbling is in fact caused by the Lord’s anger. If we were to rejoice over our enemy’s misfortune, as a punishment to us, God would turn his anger away from them. God would punish such an attitude. Hence, such an attitude is sinful.

But we also see it demonstrated in Jesus when he was on the cross. He prayed for his executioners and mockers: “Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).

I know that I do enjoy that subtle satisfaction of seeing people get-what’s-coming. But I would like to see that affection cease and replace it with a desire to see God pour out mercy and grace.

The past three days, I’ve posted videos from YouTube that deal with the topic of religion (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5). Namely, Christianity. Whether they be funny, convicting or inspiring, I feel they all have something for us to consider.

Shai Linne is a reformed Christian rapper. I’d heard him before, but I was formally introduced today. This video is actually something more of a podcast. It’s an interview with a radio personality of some kind listening to and commenting on a one of Shai Linne’s songs dealing with theological words. His reaction is interesting.

“Puritan rappers… that’s what you have right there… In most youth ministries, your kids won’t hear something even close to something like that!" Interesting.