Through the Gospel and the new birth, all believers have an identity implanted in their spiritual DNA that is to profoundly affect the world around them. That identity is that of being a missionary, or ‘sent one’, to their community. To be a ‘sent one’ implies that there is a mission field of people that the missionary is to engage and deliver the good news to. The  task of a missionary is not to try to attract the mission field to our programs, buildings, or services, but rather to GO. The question to ponder is how do we begin?

To begin, a missionary needs to GO by changing their posture. Changing your posture means to change what you believe and feel.Think about your community’s assumptions, experiences, worldviews, biases, and emotions. What are the hang-ups your community has to the Gospel? Many times the obstacles are the pictures of the Gospel that are displayed through the lives of people who claim to know the truth, but do not live it. Our posture is what we communicate nonverbally, no matter what our lips say. Christ is hard to explain as powerful and radically life-changing, no matter how simple the concepts are, when the ‘followers’ of Christ–the living letters and examples of what the message means–don’t line up with the content of the message.

The message means nothing if our lives are saying the message is powerless and doesn’t work through our marriages, kids, work ethics, generosity, love for our fellow believers, love for our community, etc. Sure the truth of the Gospel is powerful, but the best apologetic and persuasion of the Gospel truth to an unbeliever is the real-life person who has been changed by it in their attitudes and actions (1 Thess. 2:7-8). And when that person fails, they are not hypocritical, but repent and claim the power of the Gospel to get back up and continue changing them into little Christs.

According to 1 Peter 3:15, if people aren’t asking about your life, then you haven’t postured your faith as a missionary disciple should. This means changing your posture to having Christ’s compassion for others. What did Christ’s compassion look like? Christ’s compassion was not simply empathy but it was advocacy. Here’s how Hugh Halter explains the difference:

“Empathy can be shown from a distance; it can be communicated through a card or phone call. But to advocate for someone means you are with them in their need, and you must speak and act on their behalf because they can’t speak or act on their own. It is caring in a way that touches another soul, person to person, rather than trying to fix that person from a position of perceived superiority.” 

Want a picture of this? Read Luke 10 and John 8. Our task is to present Jesus as the great advocate for the soul’s deep need and guilt through our representative posture that enforces the power of the Gospel message that we’ll share.

As Paul Tripp so probingly asks, “How is your present disappointment, discouragement, or grief a window on what has actually captured your heart?” When we depend on anything smaller than God to provide us with the security, significance, meaning, and value that we long for, God will love us enough to take it away. Much of our anger and bitterness, therefore, is God prying open our hands and taking away something we’ve held onto more tightly than him.

via Z

Our church is transitioning to a new website and I have been working on the structure and information that will be featured on the site. Thinking through the identities that grow out of the Gospel and the purposes that flow from those identities for the church, has helped structure the site a whole lot and simplified our discipling process. Here’s the first part:

SHCC: Our Identity

#1: We gather as a church family

Because of the Good News, Christ takes people from every ethnic group, economic level, and social status to form a family that is bonded in humility by an awe of the mercy and grace Jesus Christ has shown to each of us.

Before the Good News transforms us, we are “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3), orphans separated from God and each other, and doomed to God’s judgment because of His perfect holiness and our sin.

But through the Good News, we’re adopted into God’s family (Galatians 4:4-7) and made His sons and daughters and therefore brothers and sisters. Because we’re a family, we love and obey our Father and bring honor to His name (Matthew 6:9),  look out for each other, and care for one another, just as our Older Brother, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, did for us.

• Colossians 3:11 "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all."
• Ephesians 2:19 "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God."
• Galatians 6:10 "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

Sinclair Ferguson:

. . . B. B. Warfield describes the Old Testament as a richly furnished but dimly lit room. Only when the light is turned on do the contents become clear. That light has been switched on in Christ and the New Testament’s testimony to him. Now the triune personal being of God becomes clear.”

Kevin DeYoung:

Find a good local church.
• Get involved.
• Become a member.
• Stay there as long as you can.
• Put away thoughts of a revolution for a while.
• Join the plodding visionaries.
• Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.
• Be patient with your leaders.
• Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.
• Bear with those who hurt you.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Say “hi” to the teenager that no one notices.
• Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.
• Volunteer for the nursery.
• Attend the congregational meeting.
• Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.
• Invite a friend.
• Take a new couple out for coffee.
• Give to the Christmas offering.
• Sing like you mean it.
• Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.
• Enjoy the Sundays that “click.”
• Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t.
• And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).

Click through if you can’t see the video.

We purchased the first book in the God’s Design for Sex Series by Stan and Brenna Jones to have a tool to work off of in our family.  These begin at age 3. For older children (10-14), the Passport2Purity materials from FamilyLife are a great tool as well, I’m told.

. . .  Yet underneath and undergirding all of these, it seems to me, is the motif of God’s grace, his perplexing favor and love to the undeserving. Don’t we see the grace of God in every book of the Bible? (NT books include the single verse that best crystallizes the point.)

Genesis shows God’s grace to a universally wicked world as he enters into relationship with a sinful family line (Abraham) and promises to bless the world through him.

Exodus shows God’s grace to his enslaved people in bringing them out of Egyptian bondage.

Leviticus shows God’s grace in providing his people with a sacrificial system to atone for their sins.

Numbers shows God’s grace in patiently sustaining his grumbling people in the wilderness and bringing them to the border of the promised land not because of them but in spite of them.

Deuteronomy shows God’s grace in giving the people the new land “not because of your righteousness” (ch. 9).

Joshua shows God’s grace in giving Israel victory after victory in their conquest of the land with neither superior numbers nor superior obedience on Israel’s part.

Judges shows God’s grace in taking sinful, weak Israelites as leaders and using them to purge the land, time and again, of foreign incursion and idolatry.

Ruth shows God’s grace in incorporating a poverty-stricken, desolate, foreign woman into the line of Christ.

1 and 2 Samuel show God’s grace in establishing the throne (forever—2 Sam 7) of an adulterous murderer.

Read the whole post.

Paul Tripp: "As pseudo-sovereigns, we hate waiting, disappointment, obstacles, and failure. We struggle to accept the fact that these things exist in a world that is under the wisest and most benevolent rule possible. C. S. Lewis comments that a hardy belief in the truths of Christianity actually makes your experience of pain more painful. It is bad enough to have to endure pain, but as a believer you must say that it was not an accident and that it was sent by a God who declares himself to be good!" Read the rest.

I just received Complete in Him, A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Gospel, in the mail. I stumbled upon it through someone mentioning what a blessing it was to them and that it was now back in print for a limited time, so I grabbed it and have skimmed it and looked through the chapters and appendices so far. I think I can already say that this is an invaluable resource to deepen my love for Christ’s work on my behalf. Let me share the chapter titles and subthemes:
1. Condemnation: The Need of the Gospel
     Sinners are Spiritually Dead, Morally Corrupt, and Justly Condemned
2. Christ: the Essence of the Gospel
     Key Aspects of Christ’s Humiliation & Exaltation
3. Conversion: The Response to the Gospel
     The Components, Positive Side, and "Negative" Side of Conversion
4. Regeneration: New Life in the Gospel
     The Definition and Exposition of New Life
5. Union with Christ
     United to Christ Representatively, Mystically, Vitally, Intimately, and Eternally
6. Justification: The Legality of the Gospel
     The Meaning of, Need for, Grounds of, Result of, and Means of Justification
7. Reconciliation: The Peace of the Gospel
     The Necessity, Character, and Results of Reconciliation
8. Adoption: The Privileges in the Gospel
     Definition of Adoption and the Development of the Doctrine
9. Sanctification: The Effect of the Gospel
     The Principle of, Problem for, Provision for, Performance of, and      Pattern for  Sanctification
10. Glorification: The End of the Gospel
     The New Body and a New Standard of Living
11. Assurance: The Enjoyment of the Gospel
     The Objective Basis for and Subjective Experience of Assurance
12. Conclusion
13. Appendices
     Justification and Sanctification
     Who Fought the Battle of Jericho?
     Union with Christ: The Ground of Sanctification
     God’s Law: The Absolute Standard for Ethics

The given revelation is a means toward an end, and God is the end, not the text itself. That’s why I never fight over a translation and get all worked up and steamed up over it. A text is a means to an end.

-A.W. Tozer

From Alex and Brett Harris’s book for teens, Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations:

• Is it possible that even though teens today have more freedom than any other generation in history, we’re actually missing out on some of the best years of our lives?

 

• Is it possible that what our culture says about the purpose and potential of the teen years is a lie and that we are its victims?

 

• Is it possible that our teen years give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for huge accomplishments—as individuals and as a generation?

 

• And finally, what would our lives look like if we set out on a different path entirely—a path that required more effort but promised a lot more reward?

“Let no man despise your youth” –the Apostle Paul

 

Wondering why terrorists are so quick to commit suicide? No Jesus, no Christmas, no television, no car races, no football, no soccer, no pork BBQ, no hot dogs, no burgers, no chocolate chip cookies, no lobster, no nachos, no beer nuts!

Rags for clothes and towels for hats. Constant wailing from the guy next-door because he’s sick and there are no doctors. Constant wailing from the guy in the tower. On your knees facing east most of the day. More than one wife. You can’t shave. Your wives can’t shave. You can’t shower to wash off the smell of donkey cooked over burning camel dung. Your bride is picked by someone else. She smells just like your donkey. Then they tell you that when you die it all gets better!

I mean, really, is there a mystery here?

— Submitted

HT: Patriot Post

4 New Testament (Church) Family Values:

1. We share our stuff with one another.
2. We share our hearts with one another.
3. We stay, embrace the pain, and grow up with one another.
4. Family is about more than me, the wife, and the kids.

~ Joseph Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family, (pg. 145).

HT:  Doug Wolter

“The world does not need a better system of education, more social reform, new ideas in religion. It needs the gospel. The gospel message grips the mind, stabs, the conscience, warms the heart, saves the soul, and sanctifies the life. It can make drunken men sober, crooked men straight and profligate women pure. It is a message sufficient to transform the life of any who believe.”

If the gospel is to challenge the public life of our society, if Christians are to occupy the “high ground” which they vacated in the noon time of “modernity,” it will not be by forming a Christian political party, or by aggressive propaganda campaigns. Once again it has to be said that there can be no going back to the “Constantinian” era. It will only be by movements that begin with the local congregation in which the reality of the new creation is present, known, and experienced, and from which men and women will go into every sector of public life to claim it for Christ, to unmask the illusions which have remained hidden and to expose all areas of public life to the illumination of the gospel. But that will only happen as and when local congregations renounce an introverted concern for their own life, and recognize that they exist for the sake of those who are not members, as sign, instrument, and foretaste of God’s redeeming grace for the whole life of society.

B. B. Warfield (1851 – 1921) on why the gospel is necessary for Christians:

There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

Reasons Not To Wash

1. I was forced to as a child.
2. People who make soap are only after your money.
3. I wash on special occasions like Christmas and Easter.
4. People who wash are hypocrites-they think they are cleaner than everyone else.
5. There are so many different kinds of soap, I can’t decide which one is best.
6. I used to wash, but it got boring so I stopped.
7. None of my friends wash.
8. The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer.
9. I’ll start washing when I get older and dirtier.
10. I can’t spare the time.

HT: “Pastor Tim”

The catechesis is the term for the substance of the teaching process of Christian doctrine to ground believers in the Gospel.

J. I. Packer, in his book, Grounded in the Gospel, lists 5 founts, or frames for the teaching process:

To speak of five founts is to indicate that we are now identifying sources for all our catechetical account. From these we derive the substance of vital catechesis, and together they form an ever-present backdrop for all catechetical ministry. Although these could certainly be framed or enumerated differently, we here specify the following five as the essential bases of our catechizing:

• the Triune God, who alone is God and has revealed Himself to us
• the Scriptures, the faithful and trustworthy record of God’s revelation
• the Story, which is unfolded in those Scriptures
• the Gospel, which is both apex and summary of the Story
• the Faith, which includes the Gospel and its implications

“He made the stars also.”

What a great God!

(To enlarge the picture on the page, click on it. you can also move the horizontal and vertical scrollbars to see the whole image.)

Telling people that being part of the local church is optional for the health of the Christian, is like telling a married couple they can replace living together with being friends on Facebook to grow closer and become One as God intends.

– Carlos Griego

One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house.

Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.
He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?"

She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world I did today?"

"Yes" was his incredulous reply.

She answered, "Well, today I didn’t do it."

Colossians 1:17 says that He (Christ) is before all things and holds all things together. Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ upholds all things with His hand. And if HE didn’t do it today? But He is the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121). He is the preserving power of an undeserving creation. But one day that preserving governing hand will pull back and 1 Peter 3:10-13 says,

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

And that day will display what will happen when He says, “The end of a fallen creation worthy of judgment has come. Today I didn’t do it.”

I came across this quote reading and was convicted by it.

…if your church closed its doors today, would anyone but its own members notice? Would the city be saddened by because such a great community-transformation partner—a missionary of impact—was gone? Or would it even miss a beat?

I realize the community approval is not the benchmark for success, but it’s certainly worth thinking about.  Deeds verify the spoken word.

Justin Taylor:

 

Abba Changes Everything

The opening paragraphs of Christianity Today‘s cover story on adoption and orphans, by Russell Moore (dean of Southern Seminary and author of Adopted for Life):

The creepiest sound I have ever heard was nothing at all. My wife, Maria, and I stood in the hallway of an orphanage somewhere in the former Soviet Union, on the first of two trips required for our petition to adopt. Orphanage staff led us down a hallway to greet the two 1-year-olds we hoped would become our sons. The horror wasn’t the squalor and the stench, although we at times stifled the urge to vomit and weep. The horror was the quiet of it all. The place was more silent than a funeral home by night.

I stopped and pulled on Maria’s elbow. “Why is it so quiet? The place is filled with babies.” Both of us compared the stillness with the buzz and punctuated squeals that came from our church nursery back home. Here, if we listened carefully enough, we could hear babies rocking themselves back and forth, the crib slats gently bumping against the walls. These children did not cry, because infants eventually learn to stop crying if no one ever responds to their calls for food, for comfort, for love. No one ever responded to these children. So they stopped.

The silence continued as we entered the boys’ room. Little Sergei (now Timothy) smiled at us, dancing up and down while holding the side of his crib. Little Maxim (now Benjamin) stood straight at attention, regal and czar-like. But neither boy made a sound. We read them books filled with words they couldn’t understand, about saying goodnight to the moon and cows jumping over the same. But there were no cries, no squeals, no groans. Every day we left at the appointed time in the same way we had entered: in silence.

On the last day of the trip, Maria and I arrived at the moment we had dreaded since the minute we received our adoption referral. We had to tell the boys goodbye, as by law we had to return to the United States and wait for the legal paperwork to be completed before returning to pick them up for good. After hugging and kissing them, we walked out into the quiet hallway as Maria shook with tears.

And that’s when we heard the scream.

Little Maxim fell back in his crib and let out a guttural yell. It seemed he knew, maybe for the first time, that he would be heard. On some primal level, he knew he had a father and mother now. I will never forget how the hairs on my arms stood up as I heard the yell. I was struck, maybe for the first time, by the force of the Abba cry passages in the New Testament, ones I had memorized in Vacation Bible School. And I was surprised by how little I had gotten it until now.

Read the whole thing.

It is sad to see many kids “accept Christ” and then live horrible lives and constantly be assured that they are saved because they “said the prayer” as a kid.

People are not saved because they said a ten second prayer as a child. You do not know you are saved because you remember the day you said your prayer.

You know you are saved because you continue in the faith. This is so frequently said in Scripture it boggles the mind how we’ve seemingly missed it completely.

Those that can bring their hearts to delight in Christ know most his ways . . . . Love is the best entertainer of truth.

-Richard Sibbes

Tremper Longman & Raymond Dillard:

[A]s Christians read the book of Proverbs in the light of the continued revelation of the New Testament, they are confronted with the same questions as the ancient Israelites, but with a different nuance. Will we dine with Wisdom or with Folly? The Wisdom who beckons us is none other than Jesus Christ, while the folly that attempts to seduce is any created thing that we put in place of the Creator (Romans 1:22-23).

Just in time for Father’s Day from an email:

 

10. Teach him the secret male ritual of leaving the toilet seat up and the toilet paper roll empty.                                                                                                           

9. Have a ceremony where you give him his own remote control.

8. Lead him through an afternoon of rigorous physical training in the back yard while you sit in a lawn chair with a half-gallon of ice cream.

7. Eat until you’re about to burst and then ride the Screamin’ Hurler roller coaster.

6. Put cream on his face and let the cat shave him with its tongue.

5. Walk behind him through his school halls yelling, "You da man!"

4. Send him to the local discount store to buy mom’s "personal things."

3. Give him Grandma’s lime green Ford Pinto with personalized license plates that say, "TUFFGUY."

2. Send the womenfolk shopping, then get out your secret Old Yeller video and have a good cry together.

1. Shot put catching.

God’s method of sanctification is neither activism (self-reliant activity) nor apathy (God-reliant passivity), but God-dependent effort (2 Cor. 7:1; Phil. 3:10-14; Heb. 12:14).

     -J. I. Packer

Christian Hedonism: The truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

We praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise. If we were not allowed to speak of what we value and celebrate what we love and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full.

So if God loves us enough to make our joy full, He must not only give us Himself; He must also win from us the praise of our hearts—not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings. (Desiring God, pg. 49 [paragraphing added])

Excerpted:

“We live in a culture where mothers and fathers hover over their children in school, on athletic fields and even on social media sites such as Facebook. Yet why do so many parents take a hands-off approach to religion and spirituality, setting youth adrift in crucial areas of moral reasoning and finding meaning in life?”

Justin Taylor:

Here is an outline of Randy Alcorn’s article on ways that parents can help their kids learn to think biblically about money.

1. Give your children something greater than money—your time.

2. Use life’s teachable moments to train your children.

3. Take a field trip to a junkyard.

4. Teach your children to link money with labor.

5. Teach your children how to save.

6. Get your children started on the lifetime adventure of giving.

7. Provide your children with financial planning tools.

8. Teach your children how to say “No.”

9. Show your children how family finances work.

10. Never underestimate the power of your example.

Read the whole thing for an explanation of each point.

     HT: Z

ALL anger is righteous anger.

Sadly, most of our anger is not rooted in the righteousness of Christ, but rooted in our self-righteousness as we defend and protect OUR kingdom and its expansion.

Righteous anger is the overflow of our zealousness and jealousy for Christ’s kingdom’s defense and expansion.

http://dbts.edu/journals/2000/Snoeberger.pdf

You’re truly leaning on something if you’d fall over if it wasn’t there. That’s a really bad thing if you lean on any part of this creation, because no created thing can bear the weight of the eternal God. That’s a really good thing if you lean on the One who is transcendent above His creation, because He never changes. Theologians call this His immutability. And leaning on Him is really, really good. Because I don’t deserve it. Especially when I remember He is so transcendent and apart from His creation, it makes his immanence is so much more gracious and glorious.

A gospel-centered church holds together two things. One, a gospel-centered church preaches a bold message of grace — so bold that it becomes the end of the law for all who believe. Not our performance but Christ’s performance for us. Not our sacrifices but his sacrifice for us. Not our superiority but only his worth and prestige. The good news of substitution. The good news that our okayness is not in us but exterior to us in Christ alone. Climbing down from the high moral ground, because only Christ belongs up there. That message, that awareness, that clarity. Every Sunday.

You all have by you a large treasure of divine knowledge, in that you
have the Bible in your hands; therefore be not contented in possessing
but little of this treasure. God hath spoken much to you in the
Scripture; labor to understand as much of what he saith as you can. God
hath made you all reasonable creatures; therefore let not the noble
faculty of reason or understanding lie neglected. Content not yourselves
with having so much knowledge as is thrown in your way, and as you
receive in some sense unavoidably by the frequent inculcation of divine
truth in the preaching of the word, of which you are obliged to be
hearers, or as you accidentally gain in conversation; but let it be very
much your business to search for it, and that with the same diligence
and labor with which men are wont to dig in mines of silver and gold.

     Jonathan Edwards

One line of the hymn, “I’ve Found a Friend”, always stuck out to me:

“He drew me with the cords of love, and thus He bound me to Him;
And round my heart still closely twine those ties which naught can sever,”

The idea of being bound by cords of love is taken from Hosea 11:4, “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.” The grace of God fuels the motivation to delight in Him and turns duty into seeing his beauty. The quote below describes what bondage by love is:

“Grace binds you with far stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you. Grace is free, but when once you take it, you are bound forever to the Giver and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like. Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give.”

     -E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973)

(James W. Alexander, "Consolation" 1852)

Our pleasure and our duty,

though opposite before,

since we have seen His beauty

are joined to part no more.

                    -John Newton

To see the Law by Christ fulfilled,

and hear his pardoning voice,

changes a slave into a child

and duty into choice.

                 -William Cowper

Believe God’s word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.

–Samuel Rutherford

“The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy”, Peggy Noonan argues in The Wall Street Journal. Her overall thesis:

When your most creative thoughts in the middle of a disaster revolve around protecting your position, you are summoning trouble. When you try to dodge ownership of a problem, when you try to hide from responsibility, life will give you ownership and responsibility the hard way.

Dave Doran points out that  this is something for all leaders to think about in whatever context we’re in. Whether the article by Peggy Noonan is true or not about the President, one thing is true of all of us and especially those who have the power of influence spiritually: The fear of man is a snare, but fearing the awesomeness of God is freedom.

See also Collision, a debate between Doug Wilson and Christopher Hitchens over the question, “Is Christianity good for the world?” It was far from dry and certainly entertaining and stimulating at the least to see the repercussions of one’s worldviews. 

Spurgeon:

I would not . . . judge men by their features, but their general physique is no small criterion. That narrow chest does not indicate a man formed for public speech. You may think it odd, but still I feel very well assured, that when a man has a contracted chest, with no distance between his shoulders, the all-wise Creator did not intend him habitually to preach. If he had meant him to speak he would have given him in some measure breadth of chest, sufficient to yield a reasonable amount of lung force. When the Lord means a creature to run, he gives it nimble legs, and if he means another creature to preach, he will give it suitable lungs. A brother who has to pause in the middle of a sentence and work his air-pump, should ask himself whether there is not some other occupation for which he is better adapted.

HT: Paleoevangelical

This post by Tullian Tchividjian is rich Gospel gold and reminds us that Christ has given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness:

This morning, as I was re-reading a portion of her book Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life, I was recaptured by a truth that I preached recently. In my sermon on Colossians 1:9-14, I said:

It’s important to note that in these verses Paul doesn’t pray for something the Colossian Christians don’t have. Rather, he prays they will grow in their awareness and understanding of what they do have. Christian growth doesn’t happen by working hard to get something you don’t have. Christian growth happens by working hard to live in the reality of what you do have.

I used to think that when the Bible tells us to work out our salvation, it meant go out and get what you don’t have—get more patience, get more strength, get more joy, get more love, and so on. But after reading the Bible more carefully I now understand that real gospel fruit happens, not as we “work harder” but only as we continually rediscover the gospel. You could put it this way: rediscovering the gospel is the hard work we’re called to.

You see, the secret of the gospel is that we become more spiritually mature when we focus less on what we need to do for God and focus more on all that God has already done for us. The irony of the gospel is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance for us, not our performance for him.

With this same idea in mind, Elyse writes:

One reason we don’t grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. In other words, ongoing failure in sanctification (the slow process of change into Christlikeness) is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us in the gospel. If we lack the comfort and assurance that his love and cleansing are meant to supply, our failures will handcuff us to yesterday’s sins, and we won’t have faith or courage to fight against them, or the love for God that’s meant to empower this war. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we’ll struggle in our sanctification.

I guess you could say that Christian growth does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners. (full article here)

Again and again we see in the New Testament that sanctification is obtained by reaccessing what we’ve already been given from what has already been accomplished by the work of Christ.

“The Bible is the story of God’s counteroffensive against sin. It is the grand narrative of how God made it right, how he is making it right, and how he will one day make it right finally and forever.”

- Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel?

I’m currently preaching a series of sermons from the book of Colossians entitled Jesus+Nothing=Everything. It’s really a series on how the gospel sanctifies Christians. Over and over again I’m making the point that I used to think Christian growth happened as we go out and get what we don’t have–if we’re going to grow we have to go out and get more patience, get more strength, get more joy, etc. But after reading the Bible more carefully I’ve learned that Christian growth does not happen by working hard to get something you don’t have; Christian growth happens by working hard to live in the reality of what you do have.

You could say that Christian growth does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners. In other words, the hard work of sanctification that Paul talks about in Philippians 2:12 is a continuous, daily going back to the reality of your justification.

Wake up, Prince  Charming!

He is tall, dark and handsome. He drives a nice car, possesses advanced degrees from leading institutions of higher education, fetches a six-figure salary. And, he boasts bloodlines that, from a purely human perspective, are impeccable. Likewise, she is from a prominent family, graduated as valedictorian at college, has a smile and overall bearing reminiscent of Lady Diane and has a winsome personality to match. They meet, they marry, they honeymoon in a tropical paradise and then they go home, both expecting to have a dream life together in their new house with its spacious lawn, its picket fence, its existence in an upper-middle class neighborhood and its conspicuous existence under perpetual blue skies.

But, Paul David Tripp argues that this new couple, Mr. and Mrs. perfect, have just entered into what might best be called round one of holy headlock. Inevitably, they will go to their separate corners. And they will come out swinging. The giddiness will fade. And the gloves will come off. Why? How did paradise so quickly evaporate like a desert mirage? In his new book, What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage (Crossway), Tripp tells us, and he puts a biblical finger on perhaps the single greatest factor that has troubled marriages for generations in the modern-day West …

I purchased Tripp’s book recently and look forward to gleaning from it.

Read the rest.

I should interact with the inane things Christians say on Facebook more often. Maybe it’ll become a regular feature. Or maybe that would be too cynical and curmudgeonly and critical, even for me.
But here’s a gem from my feed today:

"Take today and make it your own."

You know, I don’t need anyone to tell me to do that. And you don’t either, probably. All of us do that already, automatically. We all take each day and make it our own. We generally have no problem living as though each day belongs to us. We typically want it to revolve around us and when things go wrong, we get upset because we naturally believe the day should submit to our comfort and command.
But it’s not ours. This is the day the Lord has made, so it belongs to him.
Better advice, then, something that we really do need to be reminded of, might be to take your day and make it look like it’s God’s.

“Everything that a man leans upon but God—will be a dart which will certainly pierce his heart through and through. He who leans only upon Christ—lives the highest, choicest, safest and sweetest life.”

- Thomas Brooks

“Mid-life crises are dreaded by many men, but my advice is: gents, seize with both hands the opportunity to truly grasp that, whatever you thought at age eighteen, you are not actually the messiah and you have no special destiny which sets you apart from everybody else. The former is Christ alone; the latter is primarily reserved for his church. We all need to cultivate that certain unmessianic sense of non-destiny which will make us better citizens of the kingdom.” –Carl Trueman

Ray Ortlund:

The Lord appointed a great fish.  Jonah 1:17
The Lord God appointed a plant.  Jonah 4:6
God appointed a worm.  Jonah 4:7
God appointed a scorching east wind.  Jonah 4:8
The Lord has more ways of confronting me than I have ways of evading him.

Francis Schaeffer wrote that believers should live their lives as if they had died and gone to heaven and then returned again. Just how would you respond to your normal temptations after having seen heaven?

"Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth . . . therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed . . ." (Col. 3:2,5)

It is crucial to understand the basic doctrines of Scripture from an early age. The Puritans passed on these doctrines to their children through a question and answer system called the catechism based on the Westminster Confession of Faith. Here is a simpler version for smaller children that I have taken, reduced, and adapted (due to differences I have with the Westminster Confession and reduced into easier language) that I would encourage you to use at the supper table regularly and systematically to enhance their grasp on God’s revelation of Himself to us. Set goals as a family, make it fun, and reward them when they reach your family goal!

1. Who made you? God

2. What else did God make? God made all things.

3. Why did God make all things? For His own glory and enjoyment.

4. Why do things work as they do? God has ordered it.

5. How do we learn about God? God shows Himself.

6. Where does God show Himself? In His word and in creation.

7. What does God show about Himself in creation? His character, law, and anger.

8. What more does God show about Himself in His Word? God’s mercy toward His people.

9. Where is God’s Word today? The Bible is God’s Word.

10. How many Gods are there? There is one true God.

11. How many persons are in the Godhead? Three.

12. Who are these persons? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

13. Where is God? He is everywhere.

14. How long has God been alive? He has always been alive.

15. How is man special? He is made in God’s image.

16. Who was the first man? Adam.

17. What was Adam like at creation? He was good.

18. Did Adam remain good? No, he sinned.

19. What is sin? Disobedience to God’s law.

20. What is the penalty for sin? Death.

21. What happened because of Adam’s sin? Death came to all men.

22. Why did Adam’s sin affect all of us? We all sinned when Adam did.

23. Must everyone die for sin? No, God offers eternal life.

24. How may we be saved from sin and death? Only through Jesus Christ.

25. Who is Jesus Christ? He is God’s Son.

26. Did Jesus ever sin? No, only He is righteous.

27. What did Jesus do for His people? He conquered death.

28. How did He do this? He died, then rose again.

29. What else did Christ conquer? All his enemies.

30. Are His enemies powerful? They have come to nothing.

31. What did He give to His people? His own righteousness.

32. What did He take from His people? Their sin.

33. How is Christ’s work brought to His people? By the Holy Spirit.

34. What does the Holy Spirit do? He gives faith.

35. What is faith? Resting on Christ for salvation.

36. How do we recognize true faith? It produces good works.

37. Who are Christ’s people? They make up His church.

38. What are the traits of His church? The Word, discipline, and ceremonies.

39. How is the Word a trait of His church? All God’s Word is preached.

40. How is discipline a trait of His church? God’s people are protected.

41. What are ceremonies? Signs of God’s new promise.

42. What ceremonies are there? Baptism and the Lord’s supper.

43. Who is Head of the Church? Jesus Christ.

44. What offices has Christ appointed? Overseers and deacons.

45. Is His Church perfect? It is being perfected.

46. When will it be perfect? At the resurrection.

47. What happens at the resurrection? Christ judges all men’s deeds.

48. What of those He holds righteous? They dwell with Him forever.

49. What of those He condemns? They perish forever.

50. How does this judgment affect Christ? It makes His glory bigger.

So is God selfish and vain [to pursue His own glory]? No, for while it would be sinful for sinners (like us) to promote our own glory, it would be wrong if God acted for any purpose less than His own glory. Giving preeminence to any purpose other than Himself – since all things are less than God – would make God an idolater. God can give us nothing greater than Himself in all His glory, so it’s to our advantage for God to glorify Himself above all.

-Don Whitney

Let me enumerate the ecological disaster that exists on the moon.

1. There is no breathable air on the moon. We worry selfishly about the quality of our air here on earth when there is no breathable air on the moon.

2. There is no clean, potable water on the moon.  We have been selfishly hoarding it here on earth.

3. The moon lacks healthy verdant vegetation because of numbers 1 and 2.

4. Animals are completely missing from the moon. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 make it impossible for animals to live on the moon.  Think about how much more beautiful the moon would look in the sky if it was more like our earth.

5. The moon’s climate is unhealthy. Half of the moon is in the dark perpetually. The other half is exposed to dangerous unfiltered solar radiation. We are worried about climate change here on earth, when the moon’s climate is more than changing, it is uninhabitable.

Read the rest here.

Tullian:

A decade ago, some people were offended when media mogul Ted Turner called Christianity “a religion for losers” (he later expressed regret for that and similar remarks).  But the fact is, in one sense Ted Turner was exactly right. Christianity is for losers.

For a long time, we Christians have spent time and energy and money trying our best to convince the world we’re cool, and that we’re winners. And in our world, cool means being just as prominent and prosperous, just as smart and stylish, just as successful and savvy as anybody else. Just look at how Christians swell with pride when a successful athlete or actor or politician professes his faith. It’s as if we shout to everyone, “See! This guy has everything, and he’s a believer—so Christianity has to be cool.” We want to parade these celebrities and their faith before the world.

In Too Good to Be True, Michael Horton asks, “Have you ever seen a janitor interviewed for his testimony?”  The reason we haven’t is that God-fearing janitors don’t represent strength or intelligence or coolness in our culture. They’re viewed as less valuable than the famous entertainer or the sports star or the rising politician. And we, as the church, have adopted the same categorization.

The gospel, however, is not just for the all-star and the illustrious and the legendary. It’s for the loser. It’s for the defeated, not the dominant. It’s for those who realize they’re unable to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders—those who’ve figured out that they’re not gods. It’s for people who understand the bankruptcy of life without God. It’s for people who recognize that while they’re definitely deficient, God is more than sufficient.  

Read entire article.

God admitteth all men unto himself without exception, and by this means doth he invite them to salvation, as Paul gathereth in the tenth chapter to the Romans, and as the prophet had set it down before, "Thou, Lord, which hearest the prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come," (Psalm lxv. 2.)
Therefore, forasmuch as no man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men; neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief. I speak of all unto whom God doth make himself manifest by the gospel.

At the cross we see the full extent of our sin:  when we get the chance, we kill our Creator.

Are You Gospel-Shaped, or Just Religious?

3 ways to tell.

1. Your reaction when things fall apart.

Do you catch yourself saying, "God, why is this happening? I’ve done x, y, and z?" Do suffering, difficulty, and obstacles provoke "why?" questions predicated on your goodness or effort? You’ve been working so hard, reading your Bible, going to church, serving others . . . why would God let this happen to you now? If that’s your line of thinking, it reveals you believe God owes you. And that’s religion.

2. Your reaction to others.

Do you compare yourself, bad or good, against others? Do you belittle, mock, condescend, even if just internally? Do you resent others’ successes? Do you celebrate others’ failures? Do you really wish people would get their act together, or do you really wish people knew Jesus? Are you frequently annoyed, put out, irritated, embarrassed, or inconvenienced by others?

3. Your appraisal of Jesus.

Is he your greatest treasure? That’s the number one indicator of gospel-conformity. You may know right off the bat if this is true or not. For some, it’s true only sentimentally or religiously. You may think it’s true ultimately, but your time, talents, words, emotions, and bank account testify differently.

 

These are all heart issues. Anybody can get the behavior right. The Pharisees certainly did, and most of them went to hell. But this isn’t even about looking Pharisaical or legalistic or churchy. There’s a lot of Christian hipsters out there in coffee shop churches who have no idea they’re just religious.

29 years ago today Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones went to be with the Lord. He is widely considered to be one of the best preachers of the 20th century.

For a 10-minute documentary introduction to his life, watch this:

For biographies, see the following from Iain Murray, his official biographer and former assistant:

• D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939
• D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Fight of Faith 1939-1981
• Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace

See also this collection of personal correspondence: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Letters 1919-1981.

You can hear The Doctor preach online for free at Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust.

Crossway Books continues to publish new volumes by Dr. Lloyd-Jones, expertly edited from transcribed sermons by his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Catherwood. You can see all the Crossway volumes here.

A few years ago Mark Dever interviewed Lady Elizabeth and her husband, Sir Fred Catherwood, about the famed preacher: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Reflections on His Ministry with His Family.

Richard Baxter was an English Puritan whose practical works on the Christian ministry and life are still some of the best in existence. He wrote a massive 1,143 page book called A Christian Directory, that covered the practical Christian life as a minister, the master of a family, and private Christians.  He wrote it to be thorough and  addressed a wide array of questions and cases for wisdom in godly living.  His ministry completely transformed the town of Kidderminister, England. It was said that one could not walk through the streets without hearing families praying and singing praises together.  The selection below is a a bulleted list of the main points of a section entitled “Directions about Marriage.”

To the right constituting of a family belongs the right contracting of marriage…

Direction 1: Take heed that neither lust nor rashness thrust you into a married condition before you see reasons to invite you to it as may assure you of the call and approval of God.

Direction 2: To restrain your inordinate desire for marriage, keep the inconveniences of it in memory.

Direction 3: If God calls you to a married life, expect all these troubles or most of them and make particular preparation for each temptation, cross, and duty that you must expect.

Direction 4: Take special care that fancy and passion do not overrule reason and friends’ advice in the choice of your condition or of the person.

Direction 5: Do not be too hasty in your choice or resolution, but deliberate well, and thoroughly know the person on whom so much of the comfort or sorrow of your life will depend.

Direction 6: Do not let carnal motives persuade you to join yourself to an ungodly person.

Direction 7: Next to the fear of God, make the choice of a nature or temperament that is not too much unsuitable to you.

Direction 8: Next to grace and nature, have a due and moderate respect to person, education, and estate.

Direction 9: If God calls you to marriage, take notice of the helps and comforts of that condition as well as the hindrances and troubles, that you may cheerfully serve God in it, in the expectation of his blessing. 

Direction 10: Let your marriage covenant be made understandingly, deliberately, heartily, in the fear of God, with a fixed resolution to perform it.

Direction 11: Be sure that God is the ultimate end of your marriage and that you choose that state of life in which you may be the most serviceable to him and that you heartily devote yourselves and your families unto God, so that it may be to you a sanctified condition.

Direction 12: When you are first joined together, (and through the rest of your lives), remember the day of your separation.

As we consider the meaning of the death of Jesus—intended by God as the death of all envy—and the power of His resurrection, intended as the basis for the proclamation of the gospel of life, what should we do? In the light of this, how should we live in community with one another?

Here is a fundamental rule of thumb to test whether you are living in accordance with gospel logic. What is your attitude toward people who excel you in anything? . . .

Read the rest . . .

Sound like heresy?

Sermons are needed, yes, but they are not all that is needed…

To say that sermons (in the sense of Bible expositions in our Sunday gatherings) are necessary but not sufficient is simply to stand on the theological truth that it is the word of the gospel that is sufficient, rather than on any one particular form of its delivery. We might say that the speaking of the word of the gospel under the power of the Spirit is entirely sufficient—it’s just that on its own, the 25-minute sermonic form of it is not.

We say this because the New Testament compels us to. As we have already seen, God expects all Christians to be disciple-makers by prayerfully speaking the word of God to others—in whatever way and to whatever extent that their gifting and circumstances allow. When God has gifted all the members of the congregation to help grow disciples, why should we silence the contribution of all but one of them (the pastor), and think that this is sufficient or acceptable?

In his fine book on preaching, Speaking God’s Words, Peter Adam… concludes that:

…while preaching…is one form of the ministry of the Word, many other forms are reflected in the Bible and in contemporary Christian church life. It is important to grasp this point clearly, or we shall try and make preaching carry a load which it cannot bear; that is, the burden of doing all that th Bible expects of every form of ministry of the Word.

Adam goes on to define preaching as the “explanation and application" of the Word to the congregation of Christ in order to produce corporate preparation for service, unity of faith, maturity, growth and upbuilding”. But he points out that Sunday preaching is not the only way to address the edification of the body:

While individuals may be edified in so far as they are members of the congregation, there may well be other areas in which they need correction and training in righteousness which they will not obtain through the Sunday sermon, because by its very nature it is generalist in its application.”

…Sunday is not the only place where the action is.

John Piper, certainly no opponent to the preaching of the Word, agrees that it is not enough:

Ray Ortlund:

“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” 1 Thessalonians 1:9

You and I are not integrated, unified, whole persons. Our hearts are multi-divided. There is a board room in every heart. Big table. Leather chairs. Coffee. Bottled water. Whiteboard. A committee sits around the table. There is the social self, the private self, the work self, the sexual self, the recreational self, the religious self, and others. The committee is arguing and debating and voting. Constantly agitated and upset. Rarely can they come to a unanimous, wholehearted decision. We tell ourselves we’re this way because we’re so busy with so many responsibilities. The truth is, we’re just divided, unfocused, hesitant, unfree.

That kind of person can “accept Jesus” in either of two ways. One way is to invite him onto the committee. Give him a vote too. But then he becomes just one more complication. The other way to “accept Jesus” is to say to him, “My life isn’t working. Please come in and fire my committee, every last one of them. I hand myself over to you. Please run my whole life for me.”  That is not complication; that is salvation.

“Accepting Jesus” is not just adding Jesus. It is also subtracting the idols.

I knew more. . . alot more. . .about parenting before I ever had kids myself. Then I had kids. Then I had teenagers. Then I got to the age I’m at now. Along the way, reality came at me through experience, and then even more importantly, God’s Word.

My own personal history from one who was sure of and dependent on the "foolproof" stuff I once believed. . . to sure of the ignorance of the "foolproof" stuff I once believed and currently experiencing the joy and freedom of riding along while God’s at the wheel. . . has been quite a journey. Early in the journey I immersed myself in every Christian parenting book I could find. I was in search of the foolproof formula that would enable me to become the perfect parent raising perfect kids. I don’t know how many books I digested before giving up. I’m glad that it didn’t take too long to realize that those books leave you feeling quite beat up. I stopped reading them. Why? Because as your eyes are locked on the pages, they’re also locked on your own heart. And what you see on the page doesn’t mesh with the complex darkness that exists inside, which explains why the formulas don’t lead to fruit.

Now, I run into parents each and every week who are looking for the "how to." It’s not there. Rather, I’m convinced that our certainty, joy, and wisdom as parents is dependent on who we believe. If there’s a secret, it lies in knowing, worshiping, following, and believing the One who made us for Himself. It comes in bathing ourselves in the truths of His Word. I was reminded of this yesterday when our pastor preached on the Resurrection from Matthew 22. The answer Jesus gave to the ignorant Sadducees applies to all of us and our confusion in life. . . even when it comes to our misplaced priorities and beliefs regarding parenting and our kids. Jesus said, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God" (v. 29).

If we only knew the Scriptures we would see that many of our parenting beliefs and practices are about replacing the Creator with created things. . . including our parenting skills, our twisted beliefs, the family, and even our kids. They can all become idols.

So for the last few years I’ve been committed to answering the question, "What’s the best parenting book I can read?" with this simple answer: "The best parenting book I’ve ever read is Paul Tripp’s "Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens, Second Edition (Resources for Changing Lives)" For one, Paul gets the Creator and created priorities right. Paul knows how sinful we and our kids really are. Paul knows how dependent we are on God. Paul knows that there are no foolproof formulas. Paul knows because he knows the Word, and he’s been through it as a dad. It’s a great book.

This morning I finished a book that joins Age of Opportunity on my list. A few weeks ago I mentioned Leslie Leyland Fields’ article – "The Myth of the Perfect Parent" – in Christianity Today Magazine. The article was full of truth that is liberating to those of us who have bought the lies. It made me want to hear more from this mother of six. She sent me a copy of her book, :"Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt"Now I’ve got a number two on my list. Fields addresses each of the 9 myths straight from the Scriptures in a way that leaves readers wondering, "Duh, how did I ever miss that?!?" She busts through the myths by taking us into a deeper understanding of the sovereignty of God and His grace in the lives of fallen humans who cannot save themselves.

The myths (and idols!) Fields’ says we believe? . . .
1. Having children makes you happy.
2. Nurturing your children is natural and instinctive.
3. Parenting is your highest calling.
4. Good parenting leads to happy children.
5. If you find parenting difficult, you must not be following the right plan.
6. You represent Jesus to your children.
7. You will always feel unconditional love for your children.
8. Successful parents produce Godly children.
9. Why God is not limited by imperfect families.
Do you scoff at any of these myths? Don’t. . . until you’ve read the book.

Some Christians love to talk about the sins of Obama or gays or the mainstream media, but get really animated when I suggest we need to talk about our own, even if they are listed in the Bible dozens of times.

If the Gospel isn’t grabbing you by the real sins in your real life, just exactly what is the Gospel doing for you? Or you with it?

I don’t like the fact that I can give a really good talk on prayer when I rarely pray.

I don’t like it that I can read Matthew 5:23-24 and, as far as I can recall, never take a single step toward obeying it.

I don’t like that I can sin and then condemn someone else’s sin in almost the same breath.

I don’t like it that I’m convinced people need to understand me, but I take so little time to understand others.

I regret that I’ve spent so much of my life seeking to make myself happy in ways that never led to real happiness at all.

I don’t like it that I’ve accumulated so much stuff I don’t need, and I’m so reluctant to give it away.

It causes me real sorrow that I’ve said “I love you” far to little in my life, especially to the people I love the most.

I don’t like the fact that some of my students think I’m a hero, when I’ve done nothing more than be an unprofitable servant.

I hate the difference between what I know and what I do.

I hate the fact that I can use words like “radical” describing what others should do in following Jesus when I’m the first one to want to play it safe.

I don’t like that part of me that thinks everyone should listen to what I say.

I wish I could see myself as God sees me, both in my sinfulness and in the Gospel of Jesus.

I regret using so little of my life’s time, energy and resources for worship and communion with God.

I despise that part of me that always finds fault, and uses that knowledge to put myself above others.

I am embarrassed by the words I use that come so easily from the tongue but have little root in the heart.

I regret taking so few risks in the cause of living a God-filled life.

I despise the shallowness of my repentance for sin that has caused hurt and pain for others.

I don’t like that part of me that can make up an excuse, even lie, almost endlessly in the cause of avoiding the truth and its consequences.

I don’t like that I can talk of heaven in a sermon or at a funeral, but very little of me wants to go there.

I regret that I have loved my arrogant self far than I’ve loved my self humbled in Christ.

I regret that so much good advice, good teaching and good example was wasted on me.

But I am glad . . .

Tim Chester:

Here’s a quote from Organic Church (p 211-212) by Neil Cole. It’s a story that made me cry when I first read it.

While doing some teaching in Japan, I had a dream that Heather, my daughter, started a church. In the dream, a room was full of young people who were all seriously worshiping God. When I returned from the trip, I mentioned it to her just to let her know that she was on my mind and in my dreams while I was away.

The next day she said, ‘Dad, my friends all want to do it!’ ‘Do what?’ I asked. ‘Start a church.’ I told her that she would have to do most of the work, and I would coach and lead only a little. She said that was fine. The next day she arranged a house to meet in, picked a night of the week, and found a worship leader; flyers were soon being passed out to friends on campus.

After the church had been meeting for several months, I met with these students and we all sang praises to the Lord. I felt the Lord’s pleasure. I asked the students what was the biggest church they had ever been to. Living in Southern California there are many options of megachurches, and a number of churches were mentioned, ranging in size from two thousand attendees to more than fifteen thousand.

I then told them that I think Satan is more intimidated by this little church of fifteen high school kids than by any of those Godzilla-sized churches. They all sort of chuckled and looked around the room at one another with smiles.

I showed them why I thought this way: ‘How many of you think you could start a church like one of those megachurches?’ No one raised a hand. I asked, ‘How many of you think you could start a church like this one?’ and all raised their hands. I asked them to look around the room at all the raised hands, and I said with a new found soberness, ‘I assure you, Satan is terrified by this.’

There are four covenants God made with Israel that are unconditional and bear much weight in prophecy and Israel. They are the Abrahamic Covenant, the Palestinian Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant. The foundational Covenant of these four is the Abrahamic Covenant.

The Abrahamic covenant is an unconditional, unilateral, eternal covenant found in six passages of Scripture: Genesis 12:1-3, 12:7, 13:14-17, 15:1-21, 17:1-21, and 22:15-18. The persons involved in this covenant are God and Abraham. Abraham was the representation of the entire Jewish nation in by nature of his descendants in this covenant.

There are fourteen promises made in this covenant. First, a great nation would come from Abraham (Israel). Second, Abraham was given Canaan geographically. Third, Abraham would be blessed extensively. Fourth, Abraham would have a great name. Fifth, Abraham would become a blessing to others. Sixth, those who blessed would receive blessing themselves. Seventh, those who cursed Abraham would experience cursing of themselves. Eighth, all would be blessed ultimately by Abraham, specifically the Gentiles. Ninth, Sarah would bear Abraham a son. Tenth, Abraham’s seed would see bondage by the Egyptians. Eleventh, other nations beside Israel would descend from Abraham (Arabs). Twelfth, Abram’s name would be changed to Abraham. Thirteenth, Sarai’s name would be changed to Sarah. Finally, circumcision on the eight day would be the token of the covenant.[1]

This would be a unilateral covenant meaning that the responsibility would be completed by God unconditionally. The land would be covered in the Palestinian covenant, the seed would be developed in the Davidic covenant, and the blessing would be ultimately designated in the new covenant. Much of the Abrahamic covenant has been unfulfilled to this day and will ultimately be completed in the Millennium.

This covenant was confirmed and reconfirmed several times to Abraham and his descendants. In Genesis 26:2-5 and 24 Jehovah appears to Isaac and reminds him of the covenant that God made with his father that would continue through Isaac. Later in Genesis 28:13-15, God moves the covenant through Jacob to establish the perpetuality of it. The twelve sons then became the twelve tribes of Israel that would be the patriarchs of the nation to whom God would work this covenant through.

The second unconditional covenant is called the Palestinian covenant because it mainly has to do with the geographical land of Palestine. Fruchtenbaum prefers the more accurate term of “Land Covenant” to reduce confusion with what we associate with Palestine in this day.[2] The main text for this covenant is found in Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20. It is not a part of the Mosaic Covenant but separate as stated in 29:1.

There are eight provisions in this covenant. First, Israel would be scattered because of their disobedience to Moses’ law. Second, Israel would repent. Third, the Messiah would return. Fourth, Israel would be regathered. Fifth, Israel would finally possess all the area in the Promised Land that He had originally intended for them to conquer. Sixth, Israel would be regenerated. Seventh, the foes of the Jews would be under God’s judgment. Eighth, the complete blessings of the millennial kingdom would be enjoyed by Israel.[3]

The importance of the Palestinian Covenant is that God gave His full stamp of approval and affirmation of Israel’s legitimate right to the land He promised her. Her disobedience conditioned her enjoyment of the land but never did it relinquish her right to ownership. The unconditional Abrahamic covenant bypasses the Mosaic covenant conditions through this Palestinian covenant and is in effect today where ultimately it will be fulfilled during the Millennial kingdom.

The next covenant is the Davidic Covenant. Two primary passages spell out the Davidic Covenant. They are 2 Samuel 7:11b- 17 and 1 Chronicles 17:10b-15. The Samuel passage focuses on Solomon’s role and the Chronicles passage emphasizes Messiah’s[4]. This covenant was made between God and David as David represented the kingly line of Israel.

This covenant has seven provisions. First, an eternal dynasty kingdom is eternally promised to David through his descendants. Second, Solomon would take the throne after David’s death. Third, the temple would not be built by David because of his shedding of blood in war and his murder of Uriah, but by Solomon. Fourth, David’s throne and Solomon’s kingdom or his authority to rule would be forever established. Fifth, although Solomon would be punished for his disobedience, God would not take away His lovingkindness from him because of the unconditional nature of the covenant. Sixth, the Messiah would come from the line of David. Seventh, the Messiah would rule His kingdom forever.[5]

So four main things from these seven provisions are promised in summary: an everlasting dynasty, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal descendant promised thorough the Messiah.[6] The Davidic covenant amplifies the seed portion of the Abrahamic covenant and narrowed down to the Israelites from who the Redeemer would be born. Much of the Davidic covenant is still unfulfilled and will be seen in its fullness in the Millennium.

The New Covenant is recorded in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Nine promises are seen in this covenant. First, the nature of the covenant is unconditional involving God and both houses of Israel, the entire nation of Israel, or all Jews. Second, it is not involved with the temporal and conditional Mosaic covenant and is the cancellation of the Mosaic Law. Third, the new covenant will see Israel as a nation regenerated. Fourth, this regeneration will be for all Jews from the initial generation to succeeding generations, and therefore the unregenerate people at that time will be in the group of Gentiles. Fifth, forgiveness of sin will be provided for since the Mosaic covenant could only accomplish covering of sin but not forgiveness. Sixth, the Holy Spirit will supply the power to obey God’s righteous expectations of man. Seventh, physical blessings will be given to Israel as they are empowered to Keep God’s righteous law. Eight, the temple would be rebuilt for worship in the Millennium. Ninth, the Law of Christ rather than the Law of Moses would be the standard of obedience.[7]

The New Covenant expounds the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant and because it is unconditional it is in action today in some parts but will ultimately be fulfilled in the millennial reign of Christ. This covenant is the basis now for the age of grace in which the church participates in and enjoys the salvation and spiritual blessings spoken of.

Each of these four covenants has parts that have been partially fulfilled and others that have yet to see fulfillment. The partial fulfillment does not cast doubt on the fulfillment of these four, but rather proves the future fulfillment of these. The very character of God will see these entirely fulfilled as they relate to the nation of Israel in the Messianic Kingdom.

[1] Fruchtenbaum, Israelology. 574-575.

[2] Ibid 581.

[3] Ibid 582.

[4] Ibid 583-584.

[5] Ibid 584-585.

[6] Ibid 585.

[7] Ibid 586-587.

Albert Mohler shares some insights on the fad of environmentalism and turning the creation into the Creator:

Instead of religious sins plaguing our conscience, we now have the transgressions of leaving the water running, leaving the lights on, failing to recycle, and using plastic grocery bags instead of paper. In addition, the righteous pleasures of being more orthodox than your neighbor (in this case being more green) can still be had—the new heresies include failure to compost, or refusal to go organic. Vitriol that used to be reserved for Satan can now be discharged against evil corporate chief executives and drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles. Apocalyptic fear-mongering previously took the shape of repent or burn in hell, but now it is recycle or burn in the ozone hole. In fact, it is interesting the way environmentalism takes on the apocalyptic aspects of the traditional religious narrative. The idea that the end is nigh is quite central to traditional Christianity—it is a jolting wake-up call to get on the righteous path. And we find many environmentalists in a similarly earnest panic about climate change and global warming.

Full article here.

So, my Reformed friends, let’s not only read 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John (that is, John Calvin, John MacArthur, and John Piper), let’s go plant some more churches. My emerging church friends, let’s take a pause from the theological rethink and head into the neighborhood and to tell someone about Jesus. My missional friends, let’s speak of justice, but always tell others how God can be both "just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." My house church friends, let’s have community, but let’s be sure it is one focused on redemption. My Baptist friends, let’s focus more on convincing pagans than Presbyterians. And, my charismatic friends, let’s focus less on getting existing believers to speak in tongues and more on using our tongue to tell others about Jesus.

Michael Emlet, in his excellent book CrossTalk, writes about worldview questions in the chapter “What’s Your Story?”:

A way to speak about the storied quality of human life is to affirm that each person (or community) asks and answers foundational questions about the nature of life, consciously or subconsciously. The answers we give to these questions characterize our “worldview,” our “take” on the nature of reality. The Bible itself answers these foundational questions and urges us to live in light of the Biblical worldview, the true story of the world. In fact, you might say that even asking these questions shows that we are God’s image bearers. As we will see later, the fact that we are broken, fallen image bearers means that we answer those questions in ways that compete with the biblical narrative.

Brian Walsh and J. Richard Middleton propose four basic worldview questions:

1. Where are we? That is, what is the nature of the world in which we live?

2. Who are we? Or, what is the essential nature of human beings?

3. What’s wrong? That is, why is the world (and my life!) in such a mess?

4. What’s the remedy? Or, how can these problems be solved?

These questions—and how we answer them—form the narrative backbone of our lives. They shape the way we interpret life events, from the mundane (no milk in the refrigerator for the breakfast cereal) to the horrific (loss of children in a car accident). They shape our view of ourselves and others. They shape our vision of what constitutes a meaningful life, even a meaningful moment. They shape our beliefs, emotions, and decisions every day. Everybody has an overarching story he or she lives by, moment by moment. Everybody is a meaning maker with categories for making sense of life. Reality does not come to us unfiltered but always through the lens of our perception. The real question is, What lens will we use? What story, what narrative will we use to see our world and interpret our lives?     

Thinking About Santa

(Author: Noel Piper)

Over the years, we have chosen not to include Santa Claus in our Christmas stories and decorations. There are several reasons.

First, fairy tales are fun and we enjoy them, but we don’t ask our children to believe them.

Second, we want our children to understand God as fully as they’re able at whatever age they are. So we try to avoid anything that would delay or distort that understanding. It seems to us that celebrating with a mixture of Santa and manger will postpone a child’s clear understanding of what the real truth of God is. It’s very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part-truth and part-imagination to find the crumbs of reality.

Third, we think about how confusing it must be to a straight-thinking, uncritically-minded preschooler because Santa is so much like what we’re trying all year to teach our children about God. Look, for example, at the "attributes" of Santa.

• He’s omniscient—he sees everything you do.
• He rewards you if you’re good.
• He’s omnipresent—at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
• He gives you good gifts.
• He’s the most famous "old man in the sky" figure.

But at the deeper level that young children haven’t reached yet in their understanding, he is not like God at all.

For example, does Santa really care if we’re bad or good? Think of the most awful kid you can remember. Did he or she ever not get gifts from Santa?

What about Santa’s spying and then rewarding you if you’re good enough? That’s not the way God operates. He gave us his gift—his Son—even though we weren’t good at all. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He gave his gift to us to make us good, not because we had proved ourselves good enough.

Helping our children understand God as much as they’re able at whatever age they are is our primary goal. But we’ve also seen some other encouraging effects of not including Santa in our celebration.

First, I think children are glad to realize that their parents, who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them, still show their love at Christmas. Isn’t that more significant than a funny, old, make-believe man who drops in just once a year?

Second, I think most children know their family’s usual giving patterns for birthday and special events. They tend to have an instinct about their family’s typical spending levels and abilities. Knowing that their Christmas gifts come from the people they love, rather than from a bottomless sack, can help diminish the "I-want-this, give-me-that" syndrome.

And finally, when children know that God’s generosity is reflected by God’s people, it tends to encourage a sense of responsibility about helping make Christmas good for others.

Karsten, for example, worked hard on one gift in 1975. On that Christmas morning, his daddy stepped around a large, loose-flapped cardboard box to get to his chair at the breakfast table. "Where’s Karsten?" he asked, expecting to see our excited three-year-old raring to leap into the day. Sitting down, I said, "He’ll be here in a minute."

I nudged the box with my toe. From inside the carton, Karsten threw back the flaps and sprang to his full three-foot stature. "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them . . ." He had memorized Luke 2:8-20 as a gift for his dad. Karsten knew the real story.

In fact, a few days later, he and I were walking down the hall at the church we attended then. One of the older ladies leaned down to squeeze his pink, round cheek and asked, "What did Santa bring you?" Karsten’s head jerked quickly toward me, and he whispered loudly, "Doesn’t she know?"

(Adapted from Treasuring God in Our Traditions)                   

Agree? Or disagree?

Sinclair Ferguson:

It is always easier to lament and critique the new paganism of secularism’s blatant idolatry than to see how easily the church — and we ourselves — twist or dilute the message of the incarnation in order to suit our own tastes. But, sadly, we have various ways of turning the Savior into a kind of Santa Claus.

Santa Claus Christianity
For one thing, in our worship at Christmas we may varnish the staggering truth of the incarnation with what is visually, audibly, and aesthetically pleasing. We confuse emotional pleasure — or worse, sentiment — with true adoration.

For another thing, we may denigrate our Lord with a Santa Claus Christology. How sadly common it is for the church to manufacture a Jesus who is a mirror refection of Santa Claus. He becomes Santa Christ.

Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus. Like Santa, he simply asks us whether we have been good. More exactly, since the assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we have been "good enough." So just as Christmas dinner is simply the better dinner we really deserve, Jesus becomes a kind of added bonus who makes a good life even better. He is not seen as the Savior of helpless sinners.

Or Santa Christ may be a Semi-Pelagian Jesus — a slightly more sophisticated Jesus who, Santa-like, gives gifts to those who have already done the best they could! Thus, Jesus’ hand, like Santa’s sack, opens only when we can give an upper-percentile answer to the none-too-weighty probe, "Have you done your best this year?" The only difference from medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere quod in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one’s own, or, in common parlance, "Heaven helps those who help themselves").

Then again, Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about him, irrespective of his historical reality. It doesn’t really matter whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa Christ. For that matter, while it would spoil things to tell the children this, everyone can make up his or her own Santa Christ. As long as we have the right spirit of Santa Christ, all is well.

But Jesus is not to be identified with Santa Claus; worldly thinking — however much it employs Jesus-language–is not to be confused with biblical truth.

The Christ of Christmas
The Scriptures systematically strip away the veneer that covers the real truth of the Christmas story. Jesus did not come to add to our comforts. He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves or to fill life with more pleasant experiences. He came on a deliverance mission, to save sinners, and to do so He had to destroy the works of the Devil (Matt. 1:21; 1 John 3:8b).

Those whose lives were bound up with the events of the first Christmas did not find His coming an easy and pleasurable experience.

Mary and Joseph’s lives were turned upside down.

The shepherds’ night was frighteningly interrupted, and their futures potentially radically changed.

The magi faced all kinds of inconvenience and family separation.

Our Lord Himself, conceived before wedlock, born probably in a cave, would spend His early days as a refugee from the bloodthirsty and vindictive Herod (Matt. 2:13-21).

There is, therefore, an element in the Gospel narratives that stresses that the coming of Jesus is a disturbing event of the deepest proportions. It had to be thus, for He did not come merely to add something extra to life, but to deal with our spiritual insolvency and the debt of our sin. He was not conceived in the womb of Mary for those who have done their best, but for those who know that their best is "like filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6)–far from good enough–and that in their flesh there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18). He was not sent to be the source of good experiences, but to suffer the pangs of hell in order to be our Savior.

A Christian Christmas
The Christians who first began to celebrate the birth of the Savior saw this. Christmas for them was not (contrary to what is sometimes mistakenly said) simply adding a Christian veneer to a pagan festival–the Roman Saturnalia. They may have been doing what many Christians have done in marking Reformation Day (which happens to fall on Halloween), namely, committing themselves to a radical alternative to the world’s Saturnalia, refusing to be squeezed into its mold. They were determined to fix mind, heart, will, and strength exclusively on the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no confusion in their thinking between the world and the gospel, Saturnalia and Christmas, Santa Jesus and Christ Jesus. They were citizens of another empire altogether.

In fact, such was the malice evoked by their other-worldly devotion to Christ that during the persecutions under the Emperor Diocletian, some believers were murdered as they gathered to celebrate Christmas. What was their gross offense? Worship of the true Christ — incarnate, crucified, risen, glorified, and returning. They celebrated Him that day for giving His all for them, and as they did so, they gave their all for Him.

One Christmas Eve in my teenage years, I opened a book a friend had given to me as a present. I found myself so overwhelmed by its teaching on my recently found Savior that I began to shake with emotion at what had dawned on me: the world had not celebrated His coming, but rather had crucified Him.

Doubtless I was an impressionable teenager. But should it not cause us to tremble that "they crucified my Lord"? Or is that true only in song, not in reality? Are we not there when the world still crucifies Him in its own, often-subtle ways?

The truth is that unless the significance of what Christ did at the first Christmas shakes us, we can scarcely be said to have understood much of what it means, or of who He really is.

Who is He in yonder stall
At Whose feet the shepherds fall?
‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! Crown Him, Lord of all!

And we might add:

Who is He on yonder cross
Suffers for this dark world’s loss?
‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! Crown Him, Lord of all!

Let us not confuse Jesus Christ with Santa Claus.

From the Pew Forum, here’s what the lack of solid Biblical teaching produces:

“The religious beliefs and practices of Americans do not fit neatly into conventional categories. A new poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, mixing elements of diverse traditions. Many say they attend worship services of more than one faith or denomination — even when they are not traveling or going to special events like weddings and funerals. Many also blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects. And sizeable minorities of all major U.S. religious groups say they have experienced supernatural phenomena, such as being in touch with the dead or with ghosts.

One-third of Americans (35%) say they regularly (9%) or occasionally (26%) attend religious services at more than one place, and most of these (24% of the public overall) indicate that they sometimes attend religious services of a faith different from their own. Aside from when they are traveling and special events like weddings and funerals, three-in-ten Protestants attend services outside their own denomination, and one-fifth of Catholics say they sometimes attend non-Catholic services.

Among those who attend religious services at least once a week, nearly four-in-ten (39%) say they attend at multiple places and nearly three-in-ten (28%) go to services outside their own faith, according to the Pew Forum survey, which was conducted Aug. 11-27 among 4,013 adults reached on both landlines and cell phones. Attending services at more than one place and across multiple religious traditions is even more common among those who go to religious services on a monthly or yearly basis, with nearly six-in-ten (59%) saying they attend at multiple places and four-in-ten attending services from outside their own faith at least sometimes.

Religiously mixed marriages are common in the United States, and the survey finds that the link between being in a religiously mixed union and attendance at multiple types of services is a complex one. Overall, people in religiously mixed marriages attend worship services less often than people married to someone of the same faith. But among those who attend religious services at least yearly, those in religiously mixed marriages attend multiple types of services at a higher rate than people married to someone of the same religion.

Though the U.S. is an overwhelmingly Christian country, significant minorities profess belief in a variety of Eastern or New Age beliefs. For instance, 24% of the public overall and 22% of Christians say they believe in reincarnation — that people will be reborn in this world again and again. And similar numbers (25% of the public overall, 23% of Christians) believe in astrology. Nearly three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with someone who has already died, almost one-in-five say they have seen or been in the presence of ghosts, and 15% have consulted a fortuneteller or a psychic.

Nearly half of the public (49%) says they have had a religious or mystical experience, defined as a "moment of sudden religious insight or awakening." This is similar to a survey conducted in 2006 but much higher than in surveys conducted in 1976 and 1994 and more than twice as high as a 1962 Gallup survey (22%). In fact, this year’s survey finds that religious and mystical experiences are more common today among those who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (30%) than they were in the 1960s among the public as whole (22%).”

Read the whole article.

1. Paint a few white and place them outside on the grass so people won’t park on your lawn.

2. Use it as building material. (This is actually what the Ancient Egyptians used to build the Great Pyramids.)

3. Keep one under your pillow for home defense.

4. Send one to the junk mail company with a note asking them to take you off their list.

5. It’s colorful, use it as a Yule Log.

6. Carve the Presidents’ faces in one and submit it as a science project.

7. Give one to your boss and tell him it’s a life preserver.

8. Use it as a base for flower arrangements.

9. Donate to the local airport for use as airliner wheel blocks.

10. Grind a few up and give it back to your in-laws in a bag marked "lawn fertilizer."

11. For a community project, sink a few in the ocean and build an artificial reef.

12. Tie one to each foot when you walk through deep snow to keep your feet dry.

…we usually read the Bible as a series of disconnected stories, each with a ‘moral’ for how we should live our lives. It is not. Rather, it comprises a single story, telling us how the human race got into its present condition, and how God through Jesus Christ has come and will come to put things right. In other words, the Bible doesn’t give us a god at the top of a moral ladder saying, ‘If you try hard to summon up your strength and live right, you can make it up!’ Instead, the Bible repeatedly shows us weak people who don’t deserve God’s grace, don’t seek it, and don’t appreciate it even after they have received it. If that is the great biblical story arc into which every individual scriptural narrative fits, then what do we learn from this story?

-Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pp. 36-37

The Humble Bethlehem

Author: Dwight A. Pryor

. . .NEARBY HERODIUM LAY A SMALL JEWISH VILLAGE named Beit Lechem (House of Bread in Hebrew). Only three miles away in distance, Bethlehem was a world removed from Herod’s opulence and grandeur. Populated by the lowest strata of Roman society, shepherds, and other common folks, no more than 200-300 people likely lived in the lowly rural community at the time. . .  

Read the whole article.

Piper On Why Staying Married is not Just About Staying in Love

08.12.2009 | Author: Staff | Posted in Books, Excerpts

“I’m not a dog in heat, I’m a covenant keeper! We are not blown around by the billboards, the internet, movies, the television. We’ve got roots in reality, in Genesis, in creation. We don’t blow. We stand. All hell breaks loose against this marriage. We stand. There are many wimps in the world. Men and women. I’m in the business of putting fiber in the backbones of wimps. God never leaves his wife. He never divorced her. He wooed her back every time. Marriage is on display here. God is on display in marriage.”

Hear John Piper on why staying married is not just about staying in love or learn more about This Momentary Marriage. Check out Take Your Vitamin Z for your chance to win a copy!

. . . What About Christ?

Many may be surprised where I do find fault with Going Rouge.

Where is Christ in Going Rogue?

I’m not questioning Sarah Palin’s personal Christian faith in Christ. Nor am I questioning her religious values. Neither am I denigrating her Christian lifestyle. She prays. She depends upon God. She attends church. She loves her husband and family. She lives out her pro-life beliefs. Etc., etc., etc.

I also realize that Going Rogue is primarily a political autobiography, not a religious one. I understand that Palin’s purpose was not to make converts. Still, Sarah Palin is not afraid, throughout Going Rogue, to speak her mind and to share her heart. In fact, she’s not afraid to talk about her relationship to God.

All that said, I ask again, “Where is Christ in Going Rogue?”

My antennae first went up when I read Palin’s two explicit descriptions of what Evangelicals might call “conversion.” The first, on page 22, describes her personal conversion.

“I made the conscious decision that summer to put my life in my Creator’s hands and trust Him as I sought my life’s path.”

The second, on the last page of her book (page 413), involves what some might describe as an “altar call.”

“And I do know there is a God. My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over . . . then see what He will do and how He will get you through. Test Him on this. You’ll see there’s no such thing as coincidence. I’m thankful for His majestic creation called Alaska, which has given me my home, and for His touch on America, which has given us all so many opportunities. By His grace, an American life is an extraordinary life.”

What’s missing?

Christ is missing.

Sin is missing. Confession of guilt before a holy God is missing. Salvation is missing.

My antennae alerted, it then dawned on me that I didn’t remember hearing any Christian salvation concepts anywhere in Going Rogue. Perhaps my memory was bad, especially since I wasn’t consciously looking for these concepts in a political autobiography.

So I performed an Amazon “Search Inside” the book.

How many times in her 413 pages does Sarah Palin mention Christ? Zero.

Christian? Zero.

Christianity? Zero.

Salvation? Zero.

Sin? Twice. However, both are said sarcastically about journalistic sins of omission. So, sin? Zero.

Grace? A dozen times. However, not once in the context, or with the meaning of, “saving grace.” So, saving grace? Zero.

Evangelical? Twice. Once about her mother being invited to an Evangelical church, and once about Sarah being called a “book-burning Evangelical extremist.”

Lord? Eleven times. Several in Old Testament quotes. Several in prayers, such as “Dear Lord.” Several in slang, such as, “Dear lord, you call that a good interview?” Never in the Evangelical sense of Christ as Lord.

Church? Eleven times.

God? Forty-two times.

If Palin had never shared her conversion experience (page 22), or never broached the topic of encouraging her readers to do what she did many years ago (page 413), then I would have been a little less concerned. I could say, “It’s a political memoir, that’s why Christ is missing.”

However, having addressed the topic, plus having mentioned God 42 times, and then leaving Christ, sin, and salvation totally out of all 413 pages… I have to ask, “Where is Christ in Going Rogue?” “Why was Christ omitted from Going Rogue?”

What to make of this? Again, I’m not questioning Sarah Palin’s Christian faith or Christian life.

However, I am raising the important question of how she chose to describe her conversion and her Christian faith in her autobiography, where on so many other personal issues she’s so unafraid to speak her mind boldly.

Honestly, it’s scary. Scary because it’s illustrative of our post-modern conception of religious faith.

It’s religion lite. It’s conversion without Christ. It’s salvation without the cross. It’s redemption without sin and guilt.

It’s “AA Faith”: putting our hands in the hands of an anonymous, generic “Higher Power.”

If the “Religious Right” is behind Sarah Palin, it had better not be because of her depiction of salvation from sin by grace through faith in Christ alone. At least not on the basis of 413 pages of autobiographical narrative where she mentions Christ zero times, where she never once mentions sin and salvation from sin.

Yes, unfortunately, it is a typical American life. We pray to God in the hard times. We mention God. But we eschew explicit dependence upon Christ as our only Savior from sin by grace through faith.

A Political Autobiography

As a political autobiography, Going Rogue: An American Life is an excellent read. If you want Sarah Palin’s defense of Sarah Palin’s political life (which is what every political autobiography offers), and you want it in a tell-all, fast-paced, well-crafted book, then do what 2.5 million people have done already—buy Going Rogue.

However, if you want a personal autobiography (of someone who claims to be a spokesperson for the Evangelical Right) that at least provides a snippet of content about conversion to Christ from sin by faith—then Going Rogue will disappoint. Going Rogue, while it is a defense of Sarah Palin’s life and politics, is not a defense of Christ’s saving life, death, burial, and resurrection for our sin. Which, in my conviction, is not only America’s only hope, but the only hope of the world

Chris Brauns:

Below are two messages that parents of young children should memorize.

The Bible instructs parents to love their children. But, the Bible does not define love as squishy sentimentalism that gives children whatever they want whenever they ask for it.

In fact, Scripture says, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” (Pr 13:24) Parents who truly love their children consistently discipline them.

As the parent of four children, I do not enjoy disciplining my children. But, one sentence I learned early on is very helpful. In the context of discipline I have learned to say and think:

Message #1: I love you too much to teach you that you can make bad choices without any consequences. As someone has said, “Choose to sin, choose to suffer.” Don’t be deceived God cannot be mocked. You reap what you sow. (Galatians 6:7-8).

Or, when my children are upset with me because they think I am too protective, I say and think this:

Message #2: All your life, I have been willing to die for you. I can honestly tell you that it came down to your life or my life, I would give up mine on your behalf. So, if I am willing to die for you, then having you upset with me because I am protecting you is a relatively small thing in my world. If protecting you, means you being mad at me, then so be it.”

Parents, if you are unwilling to discipline your children then you are being unloving to them.

“He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” (Pr 13:24)

1. The Bible is not primarily a book of do’s and don’ts.

2. The Bible is not primarily a book of timeless principles for the problems of life.

3. The Bible is not primarily a casebook of characters to imitate or avoid.

4. The Bible is not primarily a system of doctrines.

All of these approaches produce a Gospel-deficient Bible.  The Bible is The Story of God.

I’d encourage you to check out the book yourself and order it:

CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet

by Mike Emlet

Announcing a New Book by Mike Emlet

A Remedy for “Take Two Verses and Call Me in the Morning”

Mike Emlet knows that Christians struggle with real life problems—and he believes the Bible offers divine wisdom for life’s challenges. But he discovered that effectively applying ancient Scripture to modern life is challenging, sometimes resulting in simplistic prescriptions, which resemble “Take two verses and call me in the morning.” So, Mike wrote the new book CrossTalk: Where Life & Scripture Meet to give Christians the tools to bridge the gap between the Bible and the everyday struggles of contemporary life. He provides not only specific guidelines for using Scripture in ministry, but also illustrates how it might look, by providing case studies of Scripture effectively applied to life struggles.

Read the Introduction and Chapter 1 (PDF) and watch a video (below) of author Mike Emlet talking about CrossTalk.

CrossTalk is available now through New Growth Press…and it’s selling FAST. Order yours today!

About the Author: Michael R. Emlet, M.Div., M.D., practiced as a family physician for twelve years before becoming a counselor and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation. He has written numerous published articles and is the author of several CCEF booklets including Asperger Syndrome; Angry Children: Understanding and Helping Your Child Regain Control; Help for the Caregiver: Facing the Challenges with Understanding and Strength; and OCD: Freedom for the Obsessive Compulsive.

Why Say That Marriage Is Like Christ and the Church?

from Desiring God Blog

(Author: John Piper)

When I asked Noël if there was anything she wanted me to say about marriage, she said, "You cannot say too often that marriage is a model of Christ and the church."

I think she is right and there are at least three reasons:

1. It lifts marriage out of sordid sitcom images and gives it the magnificent meaning God meant it to have.
2. It gives marriage a solid basis in grace, since Christ obtained and sustains his bride by grace alone.
3. It shows that the husband’s headship and the wife’s submission are crucial and crucified. That is, they are woven into the very meaning of marriage as a display of Christ and the church, but they are both defined by Christ’s self-denying work on the cross so that pride and slavishness are cancelled.

Adapted from the 2007 sermon "Marriage: God’s Showcase of Covenant-Keeping Grace."

Nicole Davis:

On Sunday mornings, I come to church wearing two hats: parent and Sunday school teacher. Drawing on my experiences from both roles, I thought I’d put together a few thoughts about how parents can encourage our children’s secondary ‘disciplers’ (in this case, their Sunday school teachers) to keep doing the job with perseverance, diligence and joy. It’s a somewhat random list based mainly on my own frustrations and joys over the years. I’d love to hear your additions to the list.

1. Turn up. Turn up each week. Resist the temptation to think about Sunday school as a child-minding service that someone provides for the weeks when we happen to find it convenient to drop into church. Think of it instead as a regular weekly commitment for the teaching and discipling of our kids. If we Christian parents were as committed to church and Sunday school as we are to swimming lessons, sporting teams and so on, I suspect there would be a fair bit less fluctuation in the numbers at Sunday school week by week!
2. Reinforce the lessons at home. Ask your children what they’ve learned, help them learn the memory verse, sing the songs, display the craft, etc.
3. Teach your kids the Bible yourself, and teach them how to make connections between the message of the Bible and their daily lives as kids. The tiny opportunities that their Sunday school teacher has to teach the application of God’s word week by week are greatly amplified if the kids come along already knowing that the Bible is a book to be learned and believed, remembered and lived out.
4. Get to know the Sunday school teachers and treat them as an important part of your kids’ lives. Give them opportunities to meet your kids’ non-Christian friends and their families too, so that they can experience a sense of partnership in mission with your family, and so that your kids’ friends and their families will have one more familiar face when you invite them along to church and Sunday school.
5. Pick up your kids on time at the end of the lesson.
6. Get your kids to bed on time on Saturday nights.
7. Take your kids to the toilet before you drop them off.

What would you add?

Ruth Simons:

Here are 10 Things I had to remind myself today when the job of correcting my children felt especially difficult…

1. You disobey the Lord…and He is the perfect Father.

2. His kindness leads us to repentance.

3. God disciplines those He loves.

4. Your child’s disobedience does not measure your value any more than his obedience showcases your achievement.

5. Your child’s disobedience teaches you dependence on God.

6. And sometimes it’s more than dependence He’s after, it’s complete desperation for Him.

7. Your child is clearly a sinner, and needs to hear the truth of the Gospel, and see it lived out through you.

8. Times of correction serve to remind, or establish within your child, his own sense of need for a Savior.

9. It’s not good behavior you really desire…you want his heart.

10. Your child is a person, not a project.

5. A Lifestyle of Repentance and Faith

God has blessed you with His grace, gifted you with His presence, strengthened you with His power, and made you the object of His eternal love. Because we belong to Him, we live for His agenda. And if change is His agenda, then repentance and faith is the lifestyle to which we have been called.

Near to the end of his career, Michael Jordan was asked why he always came early to practice before a game, even before the rookies. He was already being called the greatest player of all time. He replied that his shooting percentage was just over 50%, which meant that over his career, he had failed almost as much as he had succeeded. He was committed to keep on practicing as long as there was room for him to improve.

There are always new sins for the Christian to address and new enemies to defeat. The Christian life makes God’s work of change our paradigm for living, while we celebrate the grace that makes it possible. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13).

4. God’s Call to Growth and Change

It is so easy to coast! We have been accepted into God’s family, and someday will be with Him in eternity. But what goes on in between? From the time we come to Christ until the time we go home to be with Him, God calls us to change. We have been changed by His grace, are being changed by His grace, and will be changed by His grace.

What is the goal of this change? It is more than a better marriage, well-adjusted children, professional success, or freedom from a few nagging sins. God’s goal is that we would actually become like Him. He just doesn’t want you to escape the fires of hell—though we praise God that through Christ you can! His goal is to free us from our slavery to sin, our bondage to self, and our functional idolatry, so that we actually take on His character!

Peter summarizes the change this way: “Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4).

3. The Present Benefits of Christ

The Christian hope is more than a redemptive system with practical principles that can change your life. The hope of every Christian is a person, the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. He is the wisdom behind every biblical principle and the power we need to live them out. Because Christ lives inside us today, because He rules all things for our sakes (see Eph. 1:22-23), and because He is presently putting all His enemies under His feet (see 1 Cor. 15:25-28), we can live with courage and hope.

Our hope is not in our theological knowledge or our experience within the body of Christ. We are thankful for these things, yet we hold on to one hope: Christ. In Him we find everything we need to live a godly life in the here and now. Paul captures it so well: “I have been crucified with Christ and I know longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

(Italics and emphasis are added)

2. The Centrality of the Heart

The average Christian defines sin by talking about behavior. For example, what is the goal of most Christian parents? Is it not to get their children to do the right things? We set up all kinds of relational, motivational, and corrective structures to constrain and direct our children’s behavior. These structures are not without value, but if this is your only response to your child’s rebellion and sin, you will leave him defenseless against sin once he leaves home and the structures are no longer there.

Beneath the battle for behavior is another, more fundamental battle—the battle for the thoughts and motives of the heart.

The heart is the real or essential you. All of the ways in which the Bible refers to the inner person (mind, emotions, spirit, soul, will, etc.) are summed up with this one term: heart. The heart is the steering wheel of every human being. Everything we do is shaped and controlled by what our hearts desire.

That is why the Bible is very clear that God wants our hearts. Only when God has your heart does he have you. As much as we are affected by our broken world and the sins of others against us, our greatest problem is the sin that resides in our hearts. That is why the message of the gospel is that God transforms lives by transforming our hearts.

Lasting change always comes through the heart. This is one of Scriptures most thoroughly developed themes, but many of us have missed its profound implications. We need a deeper understanding of Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

1. The Extent and Gravity of Our Sin

It has been said that the doctrine of sin is the one doctrine you can prove empirically, yet we all tend to minimize it. Early in our marriage my wife, Luella, graciously pointed out many failures in my love for her. She wasn’t being overcritical; she had seen real areas of sin rooted in wrong attitudes in my heart. I knew she loved me and she wasn’t crazy, but I couldn’t believe that I was as bad as she was making me out to be! I look back and cringe at how self-righteous I was. Self-righteousness is your own personal defense attorney. In a scary moment of self-defense, I said to her, “Ninety-five percent of the women in our church would love to be married to me!” (How’s that for humility?) Luella sweetly informed me that she was in the 5 percent!

I was a pastor at the time and regularly counseling married couples, helping them deal with the sin that stood in the way of the loving unity God intended for them. I was good at helping other people see and own their sin. But I was not willing to believe that my need was just as desperate. Maybe I was blinded by my theological knowledge or my pastoral skill. but one thing is sure: I had forgotten who I was, and I was offended that Luella had such a low opinion of me!

I don’t think I am alone. The struggle to accept our exceeding sinfulness is everywhere in the church of Christ. We accept the doctrine of total depravity, but when we are approached about our own sin, we wrap our robes of self-righteousness around us and rise to our own defense.

Scripture challenges this self-righteousness with clarity and power: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5), and “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10). The effects of sin twist every thought, motive, desire, word, and action. This disease has infected us all, and the consequences are severe.

Why is this perspective so essential? Only when you accept the bad news of the gospel does the good news make any sense. The grace, restoration, reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, power, healing, and hope of the gospel are for sinners. They are only meaningful to you if you admit that you have the disease and realize that it is terminal. 

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that I will share as I quote from the book:

7. “Social-ism”

George was so thankful for the relationships he had found in the body of Christ. They were unlike any relationships he had experienced before. He was so full of joy for his Christian family that he participated in any activity that put him in contact with other believers. George loved his twenty-something Bible study, but he particularly enjoyed going out with the gang afterward. He loved the retreats, the camping trips, and the short-term missionary projects. For the first time in his life, George felt alive and connected.

George’s trouble started when one of his closest friends was transferred out of state and another friend got married. Then his church called a new pastor who decided to de-emphasize ministry to singles.  When the small groups at his church were reorganized, George felt that he was stuck with a group of older married people with whom he couldn’t relate. Church wasn’t the same anymore, so he quit going to his small group. Before long his attendance on Sunday began to wane. Going to church, he said, was like going to someone else’s family reunion.

George didn’t realize it, but fellowship, acceptance, respect, and position into the body of Christ depended on communion with Christ. The church had become his spiritual social club, and when the church began to break up, he lost his motivation to continue. For George, the grace of friendship replaced Christ as the thing that gave him identity, purpose, and hope. The gospel had been reduced to a network of fulfilling Christian relationships.

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that I will share as I quote from the book:

6. “Psychology-ism”

Jen always has a group of people ministering to her. She talks a lot about how many “hurting” people are in her congregation, and how the church isn’t doing enough to help them. An avid reader of Christian self-help books, she is always recommending the latest one to someone. She often says that Christianity is the only place to find real help and healing, yet she doesn’t seem to find that healing herself.

Jen is right that our deepest needs are met in Christ, but she sees Christ more as a therapist than as the Savior. Jen is convinced that her deepest needs come out of her experience of neglect and rejection, and so she sees herself more in need of healing than redemption. She is blind to how demanding, critical, and self-absorbed she actually is.

Without realizing it, Jen has redefined the problem that the gospel addresses. Rather than seeing our problem as moral and relational—the result of our willingness to worship and serve ourselves and the things of this world instead of worshipping and serving our Creator (Romans 1)—she sees our problem as a whole catalog of unmet needs. But whenever you view the sin of another against you as a greater problem than your own sin, you will tend to seek Christ as your therapist more than you seek Him as your Savior. Christianity becomes more a pursuit of healing than a pursuit of godliness. The gospel is reduced to the healing of emotional needs. 

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that these few blog posts will share as I quote from the book:

5. Biblicism

John is a biblical and theological expert. His theological library includes rare, antique Christian volumes, and he is always seeking to buy first editions. John frequently uses phrases like “biblical worldview,” “theologically consistent,” and “thinking like a Christian.” He loves the Bible (which is a very good thing), but there are things in John’s life that don’t seem to fit.

Despite his dedicated study of Christianity, John isn’t known for being like Christ. He has a reputation for being proud, critical, and intolerant of anyone who lacks his fine-grained understanding of the faith. John endlessly critiques his pastor’s sermons and unnerves Sunday School teachers when he enters the room.

In John’s Christianity, communion, dependency, and worship of Christ have been replaced by a drive to master the content of Scripture and systematic theology. John is a theological expert, but he is unable to live by the grace he can define with such technical precision. He has invested a great deal of time and energy mastering the Word, but he does not allow the Word to master him. In biblicism, the gospel is reduced to a mastery of biblical content and theology.

Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, have a chapter in the beginning called The Gospel Gap in which they identify Christian externalism as a false replacement for gospel-shaped, Christ-confident, and change-committed Christianity.  There are 7 things that surface which deceptively replace authentic Christianity that the next few blog posts will share as I quote from them:

4. Activism

Shirley stands on the right-to-life picket line wondering why more Christians aren’t there. Of course, Shirley feels the same about protests at the adult bookstore and her work on the coming local election. These causes define what it means to be a Christian. Her constant refrain is, “Stand up for what is right, wherever and whenever it is needed.” There is something admirable about Shirley’s willingness to devote time, energy, and money to stand up for what is right.

But on closer examination, Shirley’s Christianity is more of a defense of what’s right than a joyful pursuit of Christ. The focus of this kind of Christian activism is always on external evil. As a result, it can take on the form of a modern monasticism. The monastics essentially said, “There is an evil world out there, and the way to fight evil is to separate from it.” But monasteries failed because they forgot to focus on the evil inside every monk who entered their walls!

Whenever you believe that the evil outside you is greater than the evil inside you, a heartfelt pursuit of Christ will be replaced by a zealous fighting of the “evil” around you. A celebration of the grace that rescues you from your own sin will be replaced by a crusade to rescue the church from the ills of the surrounding culture. Christian maturity becomes defined as a willingness to defend right from wrong. The gospel is reduced to participation in Christian causes.