Proclaiming the Gospel

From chapter 4, which is J. I. Packer’s classic introductory essay for John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. (The quotes in this quote are from Owen.)

What does it mean to preach ‘the gospel of the grace of God’?  …According to Scripture, preaching the gospel is entirely a matter of proclaiming to men, as truth from God which all are bound to believe and act on, the following four facts:

1. that all men are sinners, and cannot do anything to save themselves;
2. that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is a perfect Savior for sinners, even the worst;
3. that the Father and the Son have promised that all who know themselves to he sinners and put faith in Christ as Savior shall be received into favor, and none cast out - which promise is ‘a certain infallible truth, grounded upon the superabundant sufficiency of the oblation of Christ in itself, for whomsoever (fewer or more) it be intended’;
4. that God has made repentance and faith a duty, requiring of every man who hears the gospel ‘a serious full recumbency and rolling of the soul upon Christ in the promise of the gospel, as an all-suffcient Savior, able to deliver and save to the utmost them that come to God by him; ready, able and willing, through the preciousness of his blood and sufficiency of his ransom, to save every soul that shall freely give up themselves unto him for that end.’

The preacher’s task, in other words, is to display Christ, to explain man’s need of him, his sufficiency to save, and his offer of himself in the promises as Savior to all who truly turn to him; and to show as fully as he can how these truths apply to the congregation before for him.

Gas Up: June 12

The good news is that we can finally have a new photo of the sign at my neighbourhood gas station. The bad news, at least for me, is that the reason we need a new photo is that the price of gas rose 5¢ a litre last week from $1.399 to $1.449. So I’m paying around $5.50 Canadian per gallon or $5.37ish US.

How about you? Tell me about gas prices where you live. And I’d like to know if you’re doing anything differently as a result of high gas prices.

Update on Friday, June 13, 2008 at 10:32AM by rebecca

Jen says:

Last I checked, we were around 4$ a gallon here in western PA. We’ve had to raise our pickup/delivery fees as a result.

That would be fees for the business she and her husband operate.  Check out her blog for some photos of Jen’s craftsmanship.

Update on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 12:03AM by rebecca

From Miles L. in northern Minnesota, where the price for gas is a little less than most others have been reporting:

The price here in northern Mn. is 3.89/gallon today. It is down a dime since last weekend. I’ve made an effort over the last month to drive slower. I’ve raised my mpg by aprox. 1 1/2-2mpg. It doesn’t really change my schedule, just my attitude. Maybe I need to slow down my life a little anyway. I reduced my speed by aprox. 7 miles per hour to 58 instead of 65.

Update on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 10:15PM by rebecca

From Larissa:

Here in Missouri it is 3.83 this weekend, but I bet on the way to church it  will be more tomorrow.

Here’s the changes her family is making because of high gas prices:

We have cut down on a lot of things. Driving farther for visits to friends and family outings. We have also cut our driving speed and  also turn off the car every time we stop. We also try and use less AC as that sucks our gas more then anything. Mostly we have cut out our extra expenditures, instead of getting a pool membership for the fam for the summer, we are now frequenting the public spray parks and pools in a close proximity. That has really helped our budget, doing things for free.

Update on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 6:08PM by rebecca

• Candy is paying $4.12/gallon. Candy and her husband have one vehicle running, “a gas guzzling truck with camper,” so here’s what she is doing.

  I am getting my bicycle tuned up in hopes I will use it for work instead. I will have to work hard at getting in shape to ride it all the way to work though, but I have all summer.

• From Denise:

  Down in southeastern PA (Philadelphia) we’ve been sitting at $4.09/gallon. 8 years ago when I graduated from high school gas was $1.50…what a change!

Update on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 2:43PM by rebecca

Karen says:

I paid $4.64 a gallon this past weekend for ARCO 87 gasoline (here in Monrovia, CA)——cheapest I could find.

Update on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 8:05AM by rebecca

• Dorothy gives us the scoop on the gas prices in Wisconsin during her recent trip there.
• Lisa Nunley says that her family needs

  to get rid of our 15 passenger van. We get maybe 8mpg. I need 8 seats, so we are thinking about trading in for a Honda Pilot. It gets  22mpg.

My Desktop Photo 11: May Day Tree

Each spring I wait for June so I can sit outside with my morning coffee and enjoy my May day tree in bloom. This year, the weather hasn’t made sitting outside in the early morning much fun, so I’m putting some blooms on my desktop and I’ll enjoy them there instead.