The good Samaritan.
Lk 10:33-35

How kind the good Samaritan
To him who fell among the thieves!
Thus Jesus pities fallen man,
And heals the wounds the soul receives.

O! I remember well the day,
When sorely wounded, nearly slain;
Like that poor man I bleeding lay,
And groaned for help, but groaned in vain.

Men saw me in this helpless case,
And passed without compassion by;
Each neighbor turned away his face,
Unmoved by my mournful cry.

But he whose name had been my scorn,
(As Jews Samaritans despise)
Came, when he saw me thus forlorn,
With love and pity in his eyes.

Gently he raised me from the ground,
Pressed me to lean upon his arm;
And into every gaping wound
He poured his own all-healing balm.

Unto his church my steps he led,
The house prepared for sinners lost;
Gave charge I should be clothed and fed;
And took upon him all the cost.

Thus saved from death, from want secured,
I wait till he again shall come,
(When I shall be completely cured)
And take me to his heav’nly home.

There through eternal boundless days,
When nature’s wheel no longer rolls,
How shall I love, adore, and praise,
This good Samaritan to souls!

John Newton (1725-1807)
Olney Hymns, 1779.

For those hispano-hablantes, here is my new blog: Evangelio del reino

The new blog will essentially do what this one is designed to do: give announcements for new materials on my main website, and post small articles too small to make a web page for.  As well, I plan to, Lord willing, make a comparison between the gospel of the kingdom against the so-called gospel of the Protestants.

I am planning to write a book about “The Gospel of the Kingdom”, but it will be a while before it ever gets completed, maybe a year or two??  The deeper I delve into the subject, the more I have to dig.   Nothing short of a theological revolution has been taking place within me over the last few years.  And I feel short-changed by the current “gospel” being promoted!  How did we ever come to imagine that being “saved” means a white-wash job of daily forgiveness, rather than a reconstruction of the inner man by the power of the Ever Living One?

Ok, I only intended to write a two-sentence post about my Spanish  blog.  And here I have several paragraphs– My heart is full, ready to speak out!

As an introduction to this blog, I am pasting the following, taken from an e-mail sent to me:

Ask the average “plain person” what he is patterning his life after, and 9.5 out of 10 will tell you the Bible is his pattern. This answer is great, in as far as it goes.

But we must go beyond mere Biblicism and pattern our lives after Christ. The one does not exclude the other, but following Christ is brutally spiritual in nature; while being Biblical may be nothing more than a theological exercise. And yet, those who follow Christ and focus on Him are the best Biblicists (whether they know it or not) that you can find.

Think of the Ephesian church. (Rev. 2)

I’m sick and tired of cheap spirituality, where people become merely “liberated, enthused and spiritual,” when real spirituality has the cross/death/discipleship (and Jesus) at its core.

And I’m weary of the opposite rationale that hinges everything on the fear of apostasy, legislates a form of Biblicism to keep the church faithful, and has a 50-point plan to keep the church “safe”.

Discipleship is neither of these—it’s personally (and then collectively) following Christ with commitment enough that all of life is ordered by that devotion. (And my wife and children will be the first to recognize it).

Revival can happen just as easily in settings that aren’t perfect positionally. In fact, our sense of already having everything right can be a real hindrance to revival. Being 100% “right” on baptism, dress, etc. is not the issue; following Christ with absolute commitment to doing his will is.

Being in the Truth is not having the right positions/doctrines on everything; being in the Truth is knowing Him that is the Truth.