.rhythm.

Always Learning

2009-11-24T16:46:00.003-05:00

If you get emails from me, you know that I often sign-off with the tagline "always learning." It's not meant to be creative or cute...I really hope that it is a reality. And, don't tell anyone, but the truth is that I stole the tagline from my old youth pastor, whose name happened to be Jason.

This season of serving at Mars Hill has been a tremendous season of learning, and a while I back I took a few minutes to journal some of those lessons. Hope that this serves as a brief blessing and challenge, as it has been for me...

Just because you have a seat at the table doesn't mean you have a voice at the table. And this is the way it should be. You need to embrace when your role is to serve, man-up when your role is to lead, and have the understanding and graciousness to do both.
Always look for evidences of God's grace. Doing so in community with others will encourage the weary toward gratefulness for God's faithfulness.
Engaging in silence and solitude is of utmost importance. Life may start out as a lazy river and quickly turn into a raging rapid. Sometimes you have to get out of the river of ministry to reevaluate before the tube flips and you're gasping for air.
Reading books doesn't mean you've learned anything. You have to pray for the Spirit to help you grow in knowledge and understanding, so that you can retain what God is teaching you.
Jesus fought temptation in the same way we must, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is good for me to get out into the mountains. I need to feel my smallness and see God's greatness.

Always Learning,
Jason

41 Day Update

2009-10-25T20:36:00.003-04:00

It's been a long while since last I wrote. On August 17th, I mentioned that some big transitions would be happening.

Two months later, I'm well into the transition. I thought I'd briefly share a few things (in no particular order) that are going on.

Moving to Seattle.
On September 12th I finished a cross-country road trip and arrived in Seattle. Thanks to the grace of God and the generosity of His people, I have a place to live that has been a tremendous blessing. John and Noemi Elliott, who attend Mars Hill Shoreline, have graciously and patiently allowed me to stay with them while I get settled in.

Seattle has been, thus far, a great transition. Those of you who I spoke with before I left Ohio know that I was a bit nervous about the "culture shock" that would occur. In every way, I've been a Midwest suburbs dude, so to move to the urban Pacific Northwest seemed a significant hurdle. Again, by the grace of God, this transition has been not a burden but a delight, and I'm constantly grateful for the people who He has placed in my life to help make the transition.

And, if you've seen any pictures on Facebook, it's beautiful here and I've ha the opportunity to enjoy a few great hikes before the Fall/Winter weather sets in.

A season of firsts.
It's been a season of firsts, particularly in the realm of food. A few silly things to mention.

Eating sushi (which I enjoyed)
Eating albacore tuna (which I loved)
Drinking coffee (which I patiently endure)

Serving at Mars Hill Church.
On September 14th, I began serving as the assistant to Pastor Tim Smith, the Lead Worship Pastor at Mars Hill Church. Suffice it to say that I've been blessed beyond measure to learn from his wisdom and experience. The transition into this position has often felt like drinking from the fire-hose, particularly in the busyness of the Fall ministry season. But I've grown tremendously and continue to enjoy both the work and the co-workers.

Student at Re:Train.
I'm working on my Masters of Missional Leadership through the Resurgence Training Center. So far, we've had three classes (Spiritual Formations, Missional Christology, and Missional Ecclesiology). Most of my "free-time" is spent reading or writing for classes, which has been a healthy challenge and tremendous growing experience.

Loving it here, and missing it there.
When I am asked how things are going, my most frequent response is simply that I'm loving it here, and missing it there. I could not ask for a better situation than God has granted, yet I do often miss being at home, both with my family and church-family at Calvary. Needless to say, I deeply look forward to returning home at Christmas to worship with the Body of Christ at Calvary.

Prayer Requests
Thank you to those who have been praying. Here are a few specific areas to pray for:

Pray that Re:Train would be a time of growth, not only in an academic sense of theological knowledge, but that the great truths of Scripture would have deep impact on life.
Pray that I would continue to be able to adequately and humbly serve Pastor Tim as we seek to make Christ known through music at Mars Hill Church. Specifically, we're working on some projects for Re:Sound in which we need God's wisdom.
Please pray that I would continue to build solid friendships and relationships with those here in Seattle. You may not know it, but I'm more of an introvert...so it's much more my preference to bunker down and read a book for the evening rather than get out and get to know people.
Pastor Tim and I are traveling to Louisville, KY November 9-12 for the Acts29 Bootcamp. Please pray that our time would be fruitful as we consider the planning of future events.

Transitions

2009-08-17T04:12:00.000-04:00

Acts 17:26-28 says that God has“…determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’”

Here the Scripture is telling us that God’s care and concern for us is so deep, so true, and so intimate that He has laid out a plan not only for our salvation, but even to the detail of where we will live and serve Him, that in doing so we would know Him more.

Serving at Calvary Baptist Church in Avon Lake over the last three years have been a tremendous opportunity to learn and grow in every way. Having the chance to work with the Worship Team at Calvary has been far greater than I could have imagined…often being challenged not only by their gifted musicianship, but more importantly by their heart to serve and their dedication to Christ. And while I have often joked about working with “Pastor Dad,” it has been a privilege beyond description to magnify the glory of Christ under his leadership. But just as Acts 17 says, God knew in his infinite wisdom the allotted period in which we would serve together at Calvary.

As some of you are aware, the last several years have included a series of disappointments in which I wondered where God was leading, particularly in regard to seminary. While having a deep love for the people of Calvary and the music ministry there, I’ve also had a strong desire to pursue further theological education through seminary. As God shifted my passions, it seemed that no matter which option I pursued, the door was never fully opened.

Several weeks ago, I became aware of a position at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. Many of you know that I have been deeply affected by the ministry of Mark Driscoll, and have had the opportunity to visit Mars Hill and other related events on several occasions. When I found out about the position, though I had much apprehension, the Spirit seemed to be giving a calm assurance that this was God’s will for me to pursue.

Throughout the last several weeks, God has worked out the many details. I have accepted this position at Mars Hill Church as the Worship Department Assistant, and will begin in mid-September. I’ll be assisting Tim Smith, the Worship Pastor at Mars Hill Church. He is responsible for the training of new worship leaders for Mars Hill Church, as they seek to expand, by God’s grace, to 100 campuses by the year 2020.

In the meantime, the position also involves full scholarship for seminary education (a Masters of Missional Leadership) at the Resurgence Training Center in Seattle (also called Re:Train). I will be spending the next 5 days (August 16-20) in Seattle, and then returning to complete three weeks at Calvary.

I cannot express the extreme joy and pleasure that it has been to serve at Calvary. In the midst of both good times and bad, God has allowed Calvary to be a place where not only friendships are built, but where Gospel partnerships are formed. Thank you for your patience with me, allowing me to learn and grow in leadership, making many mistakes along the way. Your grace toward me has been truly humbling, and your encouragement over the last several years has been a tremendous source of sustenance.

In my office I have a file folder with every encouraging card or note or email that I’ve received…reading it this past week was a blessing beyond words. These words, written nearly three years ago by my Dad, had deep meaning... “As iron sharpens iron, I hope we can sharpen each other as we serve together.” I want to publicly thank my Dad, whom I have often called “Pastor Dad.” When people have asked over the last few years how it has been to work together, by God’s grace I have been able to genuinely say that it has been far better than either of expected, and infinitely better than either of us deserved. Dad has been a source of godly wisdom, timely rebuke, and humble service. I count it a joy to have learned from his experience, and as Hebrews says, to imitate his way of faith.

To those at Calvary, thank you for the opportunity to serve, learn, and grow with you. You are deeply loved. I look forward to hearing of how God strengthens not only the music ministry, but the entire body of Christ, as you continue to lift His Name in worship.

As we say often, keep everything Christ-centered and Cross-driven.

Vacation

2009-06-14T23:24:00.003-04:00

I'm on vacation.

Tomorrow morning the fam flies down to Orlando, Florida to spend 10 days at the vacation home of one of our relatives. My sister flew into Orlando from Hong Kong today (and the airline lost her luggage!), and we're looking forward to meeting up with her tomorrow afternoon. Personally, I'm looking forward to relaxing by the pool, driving around in golf carts looking for alligators, and getting some sunburn that never seems to come in Northeast Ohio.

I'm praying that this vacation will be a time of both physical rest and spiritual rejuvenation. With that in mind, I'm doing something I haven't done in a long time: I'm not taking a computer. If you know me well, you know that my good ol' MacBook Pro travels with me everywhere I go. Every vacation I've been on for the last three years has found me side by side with my trusty companion, my computer.

So, as silly as it seems, the next 10 days will be unique for me. No blogs. No emails. No Facebook. No checking the news. No Day-Timer. Just a few relaxing days with the family.

In the midst of a few days with no plans and no schedule, I do have a few things in mind that I hope you'll pray for. I intend to read three books:

The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis - For some reason this topic has been heavy on my heart recently, and I hope to come to a clearer understand of our God who is both sovereign and good, even in the midst of suffering and struggle.
Why Churches Die, by Mac Brunson and Ergun Caner - I love the church, and I love serving as a part of the church. The survival and ability for a church to thrive is dependent upon the Spirit's enabling, but there are also poisons that can creep into the church and kill it if we are not aware. My hope is to read this and come away with a deeper conviction of why I love the church, and how serving Christ through the local church is one of the greatest blessing any man or woman can have.
Empowered Evangelicals, by Rick Nathan and Ken Wilson - This book was recommended to me by a great friend with whom I've had some good dialogue with regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I'm interested to read this and have a better understanding of his position, but more importantly to have an open mind and heart to allow the Spirit to work in my life.

So I would ask for your prayers - that vacation would be a time of rest, but that it would not be a time of laziness.

See you in a few weeks.

The Prosperity Gospel

2009-06-12T22:49:00.000-04:00

5 Things: people I wish I knew

2009-06-12T07:00:00.002-04:00

Mark Driscoll – There have been few people that have influenced my faith and passion for ministry like this guy. I’ve met him, but one day I’d love to sit down and have dinner.
Matt Chandler – This guy can preach. I love his passion for the Gospel, and have learned a lot about servant leadership from him.
Billy Graham – In a culture like today when mega-church ministers fall daily (it seems), Billy leaves a legacy of faithfulness to the Gospel that is quite humbling.
John Piper – I love how Piper speaks with clarity, conviction, and a passion for the next generation. He addresses the tough issues like few seem to do these days.
Pam Beasley – If you watch The Office, this is self-explanatory.

Treasuring Him

2009-06-11T22:00:00.001-04:00

HT: Desiring God

5 Things: embarrassing moments

2009-06-11T07:00:00.001-04:00

When I peed my pants in Mrs. Hanson’s 2nd Grade class during recess and told my friend T.K. that I fell in a puddle. He was not convinced.
When I played the theme song from “Jurassic Park” in the 7th Grade talent show and choked halfway through. I cried.
When I was taking a bathroom break at Golden Corral and my Grandma opened the door and said “Hey, what are you doing in here?” Much to her surprise, it was, in fact, the Men’s Room.
When I was leading worship during chapel at Cedarville University in front of 3,000 people and my guitar string broke, made a hideously loud noise, snapped back, and sliced open my finger.
When my sister Julie dared me to cut her hair, so I did. And then when Mom and Dad asked what happened, I lied about it and let Julie take the fall and get spanked to kingdom come.

5 Things: songs that make me smile

2009-06-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

1. The Olympic Fanfare and Theme – John Williams
2. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variation 18 – Sergei Rachmaninov
3. In a Mellow Tone – Count Basie
4. Save the Last Dance for Me – Michael Buble
5. Better Days – Goo Goo Dolls

5 Things: things that make LOL

2009-06-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

When people use language like “LOL, brb, ttyl, imo, gtg, cu2morrow, etc ” in regular conversation (see here for more examples).
Michael Scott, Regional Manager of Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. For an example of his hilarities, see here.
Everything Comes Down to Poo - perhaps my favorite song of 2009. Listen carefully to the words.
Any sort of dancing, but particularly this sort.
When Bob Wiley sets sail on Lake Winnipesaukee.

5 Things: books that make me think

2009-06-08T07:00:00.002-04:00

1. Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper
2. The Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther
3. Humility: True Greatness, CJ Mahaney
4. Music Through the Eyes of Faith, Harold Best
5. Death By Love, Mark Driscoll

Sometimes I need a reminder...

2009-06-05T19:39:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I get proud. The cross reminds me that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5).

Sometimes I am arrogant. The cross reminds me of the One who laid aside all his rights so that He might save (Philippians 2:1-11).

Sometimes I speak too soon. The cross reminds me of the One who was lead to His crucifixion and did not utter a word (Isaiah 53:7).

Sometimes I am boastful. The cross reminds me of the one who was crucified that I might boast in Him alone (Galatians 6:14).

Sometimes I am angry. The cross reminds me of One whose anger has been poured out on His Son so that I might receive mercy (Psalm 103:6-14).

Sometimes I am hurt. The cross reminds me of One who was bruised and beaten that I might have life (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Sometimes I am broken. The cross reminds me of One who requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit (Psalm 51:17).

Sometimes I am lonely. The cross reminds me of One who will never leave me and will never forsake me (Hebrews 13:5b)

Sometimes I am greedy. The cross reminds me of One who made Himself nothing so that I could have Him (Philippians 2:1-11).

Sometimes I feel dirty. The cross reminds me of One who gives clean hands and pure hearts (Psalm 24:3-6)

Sometimes I am impatient. The cross reminds me of One who displays perfect patience with me (1 Timothy 1:16).

Sometimes I am selfish. The cross reminds me of One who gave His life to serve rather than be served (Matthew 20:28)

Sometimes I need to forgive. The cross reminds me of One who forgave even the deepest of enemies (Luke 23:34)

Sometimes I need forgiveness. The cross reminds me of Him who is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sin (1 John 1:9).

Sometimes I just need a reminder. And today is one of those days…

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-10)

Is the Bible true?

2009-06-05T07:00:00.001-04:00

by Peter Lillback, Ph.D., President and Professor of Historical Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary

Is the Bible true? Not if what Angels and Demons declares is right:

Faith does not protect you. Medicine and airbags…those are things that protect you. God does not protect you. Intelligence protects you. Enlightenment. Put your faith in something with tangible results. How long has it been since someone walked on water? Modern miracles belong to science…computers, vaccines, space stations…even the divine miracle of creation. Matter from nothing…in a lab. Who needs God? No! Science is God. (page 174)

This statement calls everything that the Bible teaches into question and in essence declares it to be false. There is perhaps no more important question than the profound yet basic question of the truthfulness of the Bible.

The Bible’s Influence on Culture is immeasurable

There is no debate about the Bible’s pivotal role in the creation and formation of Western Civilization. Victor Hugo declared, "England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England."

But is the Bible merely a great work of literature? Is the Bible merely a human book? If it is merely a human book, even if the greatest of human books, it is conceivable that it might not be true. Few would argue that fictional literature is useless because it is fiction, that is, that it is not a true description of reality.

So, the question is not the usefulness of the Bible or the power and beauty of its literary content. The question is if it is true, if it is a reliable teacher of whatever it speaks.

To establish the truthfulness of the Bible, we can appeal to two key lines of thought. The first is what the Bible says about itself. The second is the evidence of the Bible being what it claims to be.

The Bible Claims to Be True

First, consider what the Bible claims about itself. The Bible claims to be true.

Jesus taught that the Bible was true. Jesus prayed to God, “Sanctify them through your Word. Your Word is truth.” (John 17:17.) Jesus said, "The Scripture cannot be broken" (Jn 10.35).

Not only does the Bible claim to be true, it also claims to be God’s Word in written form. It declares that its words bring us “the very Word of God” (Romans 3:2). Over 1,400 times the Bible claims to be God speaking to us. This is significant because the Bible also declares that God is true and that God does not deceive us or mislead us. This means that the Bible also possesses the truth of God’s nature.

Think about it this way. If the Bible is not the Word of God, yet claims to be, it is not just false, but also deceitful. Yet these things are the very things the Bible says God cannot be. Untruthfulness and deceitfulness cannot be attributed to God who is complete in knowledge and perfect in moral character. If God is true and speaks the truth, so His written Word in the Bible must be true and speak the truth as well. If the Bible is God’s Word, it must also be true because God Himself is true.

God’s nature of truth is taught consistently in the Bible. 1 Samuel 15:29 says:

And he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind! (New Living Translation)

Hebrews 6:16-18 explains that God’s Word is His true promise. He will not break His promise because it is impossible for God not to tell the truth and to lie:

16 Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. (NLT)
The Bible describes itself as the source of truth for our lives:

Psalm 119:105 declares,
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

2 Timothy 3:16, 17 says,
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Because the Bible is true, it penetrates our very hearts with its truth. Hebrews 4:12 teaches:
"The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart"

But we might expect the Bible to claim to be the trustworthy word of God. Is there objective historical evidence for or against this assertion?

If the Bible claims to be True, is there good evidence that supports that claim?

Is the Bible True? Consider the manuscript evidence. No original manuscripts exist for any ancient book. Writing materials were too fragile to stand the passage of centuries. This is the case for Aristotle, Plato, Julius Caesar, the writings of Buddha and the Koran just as much as it is for the Old and New Testaments.

However, we possess today some 5,000 ancient Greek copies of the New Testament, and 10,000 copies in other ancient languages. Latin and Coptic copies go back to the second century; fragments of papyrus documents go back to AD 130. Quotations in the writings of early church fathers date to A.D. 100. Complete versions of the Gospels, Acts, Paul's letters and Hebrews date to the early part of the third century; Revelation to the latter half. Complete volumes of the New Testament date to the 4th century.

Now compare these manuscripts with other ancient documents. Of Caesar's Gallic Wars, we have today only nine or ten good manuscripts, none copied earlier than 900 years after Caesar. For the Histories of Tacitus, we have only 4 of his 14 original books, none copied earlier than the 10th century A.D. For Aristotle's works, we possess only five manuscripts of any one volume, none copied earlier than A.D. 1100 (14 centuries after the original).
Manuscript evidence for the New Testament is remarkable, far surpassing that which exists for any other ancient book. And those who work with these ancient copies (called "textual critics") are convinced that they have been able to recover a Greek New Testament which is virtually identical to the original. Quoting F.F. Bruce, "The variant readings about which any doubt remains among textual critics of the New Testament affect no material question of historic fact or of Christian faith and practice."

This evidence does not prove that the Bible is the word of God. But it does demonstrate conclusively that the Bible you have is the same which was first written by its authors.

Is the Bible True? - There's good evidence from archaeology

Let's look next at the evidence of archaeology. Such findings continue to confirm the geographical and historical veracity of the biblical texts. For instance, the pool of Bethesda (Jn 5:2ff) was once dismissed as historical fiction. Now archaeologists locate it in the northeast quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. You can see it when you visit Jerusalem today.

Researchers have identified the remains of Caiaphas, the high priest of Jesus' trial and crucifixion. They have discovered the skeleton of Yohanan, a crucifixion victim from AD 70, and note that these remains confirm the details of Jesus' crucifixion as it is described in the gospels. Archaeological evidence strongly supports the trustworthiness of the biblical narratives.

Is the Bible True? - Consider the evidence from fulfilled prophecy

Last, consider the evidence of fulfilled prophecy. At least 48 major Messianic prophecies can be identified in the Old Testament. Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled each one. Endeavoring to determine the odds of such a phenomenon, mathematician Peter Stoner isolated eight of these 48 prophecies. He then calculated the odds that any one person might have fulfilled them all.
Stoner determined those odds to be one in 10 to the 17th power (one followed by 17 zeroes). Visualize the number this way: take this number in silver dollars and lay them across the state of Texas. They will cover the entire state, two feet deep. Now mark one of those silver dollars. Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he likes, but he must pick up the one silver dollar that you marked. What are the chances he will pick the one you marked? The same odds that the prophets would have had of writing those eight prophecies and having them all fulfilled in one person.

Is the Bible true? Reflect on the spiritual experience of billions of people.

Countless multitudes across 20 centuries can attest to the fact that the teachings of the Bible have been proven true and authoritative in their personal lives. Each believer in Christ who has trusted the Gospel of Christ found in the Bible can testify to its truth of changing their lives. The Bible’s truth changes lives from the inside out showing the truth of its power. Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation.” (Romans 1:16.)

To conclude, the Bible claims to be trustworthy because it is the word of God. There is overwhelming personal experience for the truth of the Bible. And there is outstanding historical and scholarly evidence to support this claim that the Bible is true.

HT: The Truth About Angels and Demons

Is there evidence that God created the earth?

2009-06-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

by Vern S. Poythress, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Westminster Theological Seminary

... he [Leonardo Vetra] told you and the Pope that he had made a scientific discovery with profound religious implications. He had proved Genesis was physically possible, and that intense sources of energy—what Vetra called God—could duplicate the moment of Creation.
--Maximilian Kohler, in Dan Brown, Angels and Demons, 439.

High energy physics

Can modern experiments in high energy physics "duplicate the moment of Creation"? The rhetoric is sensational; the reality is more down-to-earth.

Particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN have been built to deliver higher and higher energies to single atomic particles. The particles are then made to collide, sometimes using two equally energic beams in opposite directions for maximum effect. The higher the energy, the deeper physicists can look into the structure of the particles.

According to current thinking about the origin of the cosmos, the highest energy concentration of all time existed at the beginning of the universe, the "Big Bang." What is meant by the "Big Bang"? By tracing the motions of galaxies backwards in time, astronomers calculate that about 14 billion years ago the entire matter in the present universe was condensed in a single point of extremely high energy. From that point the present universe expanded explosively. The initial explosive expansion is called "the Big Bang." Present high energy experiments do not achieve nearly the energy density that is postulated for the Big Bang. But by getting closer to the initial high energy densities, physicists hope that they may find out more about physical laws governing high energies. Those discoveries may help them to understand in greater detail what may have happened shortly after the Big Bang.

Dan Brown's fictional character Kohler says that intense sources of energy could duplicate the moment of Creation. That is not completely correct. Intense sources of energy can approximate the time just after the Big Bang. But the Big Bang itself cannot be duplicated. All of existing physics, including the physics conducted in particle accelerators like CERN, relies on the physical principle of the conservation of energy: energy can be neither created nor destroyed. But that principle is not valid for the actual moment of creation. The Big Bang represents a stupendous amount of energy. Where did it come from? Physicists have no clear answer—though there are speculations at the edge of currently well-established theory.

The uniqueness of the Big Bang

The Big Bang leaves many physicists uncomfortable, because they like to have explanations for everything. And the Big Bang seems to come out of nowhere. It looks uncomfortably like the moment of creation that the Bible describes: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). The Bible teaches creation "out of nothing," that is, with no pre-existing material. The Big Bang looks just like such a creation.

In the early days of the Big Bang theory, cosmologists were also considering an alternative called the "steady state" theory, which postulates that the universe has always been around with more or less its present appearance. But how can such a theory deal with the fact that galaxies are gradually moving farther apart? The steady state theory postulates that matter, in the form of atomic particles like protons and electrons, may gradually be coming into existence throughout the known universe, thereby replenishing the matter being lost by the outward movement of galaxies. This matter supposedly is coming into existence at a very low, undetectable rate. In retrospect, this hypothesis is unattractive, because it has to postulate repeated violations of the fundamental principle of the conservation of energy. In addition, other observations, like the observation of background microwave radiation throughout the universe, seem to confirm the Big Bang theory. But in earlier days, some preferred the steady state theory because the Big Bang theory left no explanation of the Big Bang itself. The Big Bang itself stood out like a sore thumb.

Further speculations

Today cosmologists agree that the Big Bang was real. But they debate whether something else came before it. They discuss oscillating models, where the universe repeatedly collapses to a point and then re-expands. (But most current opinion thinks that the present universe will never stop expanding, and hence will never collapse and oscillate.) Cosmologists also discuss the possibility of multiple universes, perhaps in huge numbers.

But at present there is no hard experimental evidence for any of these possibilities. Why then the flurry of exotic speculation? Why not just stop with the Big Bang? But that leaves the Big Bang itself without any further explanation. Unless—unless we say that the Big Bang is the moment of creation, and that behind it stands God.

And here is the parting of the ways. Do we believe in a personal God, a God such as the Bible describes, or not? If we do believe in God, the Big Bang is quite in harmony with our belief. If we do not, we look for a substitute, in the form of impersonal, mechanical, physical effects that will offer a further explanation. Either way, we are showing a kind of "faith": either in God or in a God-substitute, something that will be the ultimate explanation and that will in the end be the causal source for the universe. Those who believe in God might suspect that the search for other possibilities, given the absence of evidence, is faith in the dark, and that it is motivated by wanting to avoid God. That is what we humans have been doing for a long time. The Bible is the story of man's flight from God and desire to be a little god, to run his own life independently.

Scientific law

The questions posed by the Big Bang do not all go away even if people make up stories about oscillating universes and multiple universes. We still have to confront the fact that all the talk about universes presupposes the existence of an even more fundamental reality, namely the existence of physical laws governing the course of the universe. What are these laws, and where do they come from? This question about law increases the mystery. We need to ask, not only about the galaxies and the stars, but about the laws. The galaxies and the stars can be traced back to the concentration of energy in the Big Bang. But what about the laws, which are just as essential to our understanding? In a sense they are even more essential, because even the postulation a universe or universes before the Big Bang presupposes the existence of these laws, which govern all time.

The laws, it turns out, have the attributes of God. They reveal God. But that is another story.

HT: The Truth About Angels and Demons

Can science answer ultimate questions?

2009-06-03T07:00:00.002-04:00

by Vern S. Poythress, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Westminster Theological Seminary

"Science has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask. There are only a few questions left, and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe?"
Langdon was amazed. "And these are questions CERN is trying to answer?"
"Correction. These are questions we are answering."
--Maximilian Kohler, in Dan Brown, Angels and Demons.

Can science answer the ultimate questions? Dan Brown's Maximilian Kohler promises that it can. But a more searching inspection of the culture and methods of science turns up limitations. Natural science studies matter and energy and forces and interactions in time and space. In biology it studies the complexities of living things, but it stills focuses on understanding these within the framework of forces and matter and energy at the bottom.

Materialism

Explanation on this level can never rise beyond its starting decision to focus on one level of structure within our world. For the sake of detailed progress and understanding at one level--the physico-material--it restricts its focus to that level. It leaves out consciousness, human personality, moral right and wrong, beauty, worship.

Strict materialists believe that matter and motion are all that is or ever can be. But that is a philosophical postulate, not the inevitable product of scientific reasoning. If science deliberately restricts itself to the material dimension, its conclusions will necessarily speak about the material dimension. The conclusions may be impressive and insightful. But it is a fallacy to think that they establish that the material is all that there is. The fallacy overlooks the human choice of a restricted standpoint at the beginning.

Believers in materialism may nevertheless be devoted to their philosophy. Because of the confusion about where materialistic assumptions are smuggled in, it seems to many people that materialism gains prestige from the triumphs and insights of science. Moreover, materialism can be satisfying after a fashion because it gives answers to big questions, or at least says that some kinds of questions cannot be answered. According to materialism, we ourselves are the chance byproduct of matter and motion. We have come into being by chance, and our destiny for the future is a matter of chance.

Then what is the meaning of life? Most people want an answer in terms of purpose and personal meaning. The materialist claims that there is no such answer, but that all meaning reduces to atoms and motion. It is a grim philosophy. No one can consistently live on that level, because we crave meaning, love, beauty.

Paradoxically, beauty crops up in the very structure of scientific laws, as well as in the world governed by those laws. And the materialist has no explanation for the laws themselves. Why is there something rather than nothing? And why are there laws at all? In fact, the laws reflect the character of an infinite God. We as human beings are in flight from God. So it is spiritually "convenient" to forget the laws and to claim that the matter and motion exhaust reality. It gets us off the hook from confronting our responsibility to God.

HT: The Truth About Angels and Demons

What is the future of religion?

2009-06-02T07:00:00.006-04:00

"Vetra was on the cutting edge of particle phsyics," Kohler said. "He was starting to fuse science and religion ... showing that they complement each other in most unanticipated ways. He called the field New Physics."
...
"Many scientific purists despised him [Vetra]. Even here at CERN. They felt that using analytic physics to support religious principles was a treason against science." -- Dan Brown, Angels and Demons, 38-39.

The dialog in Dan Brown's book reveals a tension between two parties at CERN. The dialog is fictional, but the tension is real. Some scientists, particularly those at home within the last century of secularization, conceive of true science as firmly nonreligious. Or they may even see it as anti-religious. According to their view science pushes back superstition. It brings us into the light of truth and leaves no room for "gods." Vetra, by contrast, belongs to a new breed that sees science as having positive religious implications. He is on the way to "fusing" science and religion.

The main issue here is the question of what to make of the relation of science to religion. Several options open up. And several fascinating trails of thought confront us.

Materialism

The first option, which characterizes Vetra's opponents, is to picture science as the opponent and destroyer of religion. Such a role for science seemed plausible to many cultural analysts who have observed the secularizing influence of popularized science in the twentieth century. But the end of the twentieth century has seen the rise of renewed interest in spirituality of various kinds. To the surprise of the analysts, spirituality has blossomed rather than withering away. It seems that the human spirit is insatiably hungry for some deeper satisfaction. Pure materialism leaves us empty and searching for more.

Science As Religion

A second option, closely related to the materialistic option, is to make science itself into a force that commands ultimate allegiance. Science and its progress becomes for some people the all-consuming goal. When it is all-consuming, it commands ultimate allegiance. And whatever has a persons' ultimate allegiance has become his substitute god. To be sure, this new god is not a material idol nor a personal god. But the fervor of devotion that characterizes religious believers still holds sway here, and such fervor still receives in return "religious" satisfactions in the form of blessing and approval for work well done.

Vetra: the "New Physics," the Fusion of Science and Religion

In contrast to the secularizing view of science, the character of Leonardo Vetra searches for a fusion. He desires to bring together ideas from here and there into a creative and powerful combination. The combination, stronger than the individual pieces, promises to satisfy both our desire for human mastery of knowledge and control of nature, on the one hand, and our desire for mystery and personal meaning and personal fulfillment on the other hand.

It sounds attractive. But the attraction has a dangerous underside, namely the seductive influence of human desire to construct our own religion in a manner that will leave us without any onerous obligations. We construct religion according to our own desires. Naturally, the religion is so designed that it will satisfy those desires. But it is all empty in the end, because we risk the fate of only talking to ourselves and our own desires. We are feeding ourselves with ourselves. We lack personal fellowship with a God who is there, a God who is more than and other than ourselves.

The Force

One plank in Vetra's new religion is "the force." That concept deserves further exploration. Vetra, we learn from the book, is a Catholic priest. But ironically the concept of the force is at odds with the Bible and with the very nature of reality.

God-Made Religion

The final irony here is that Vetra, who as a priest should have known about the Bible, is searching for a future fusion when the Bible has already given a satisfying answer.

First of all, the Bible gives a satisfying religious answer in the form of God-made religion instead of man-made religion. Our central difficulty is that we are alienated from God and in rebellion against him. We construct our own false religions in order to evade his claim. We do not need one more man-made religion in order to outdo and out-promise the rest. We need God to come and rescue us. The story of the Bible is not the story of man searching for God, questing and finally finding. It is the story of God coming to find man and rescue him, in spite of his flight from God.

Second, the Bible has a satisfying answer concerning the relation of science to God. God made the world by speaking (Psalm 33:6; John 1:1-3). Scientific law is the expression of his speech. It harmonizes with his speech to us in the Bible, which comes to call us back to personal fellowship with him.

HT: The Truth About Angels and Demons

Does science fear religion?

2009-06-01T07:00:00.002-04:00

by Vern S. Poythress, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Westminster Theological Seminary

Do we love science or fear it?

Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons draws us in by its fast-moving plot. But it also contains fascinating examples of our modern struggles to come to terms with science. Ambivalent attitudes come to the surface as we read.

On the one hand, we admire the progress of science, the almost magical character of some of its great achievements. It offers the power not only to understand the world but to spin off technological products like high-speed jets and retinal pattern identifiers.

On the other hand, we fear science. Will it get out of bounds? Memories of the Frankenstein monster and mad scientists and the atomic bomb rise in our minds. And even if the scientists are decent people, will their pride or their secrecy or their desire for achievement push them? Will they, like father and daughter Vetra, make risky judgments that end up endangering the world?

The most haunting image comes from near the end of Brown's book. Will the son, whose artificial insemination symbolically represents the science spawned in our modern world, be able to come to terms with himself and with science? Or will he destroy the father, who can symbolically represent the Western civilization that spawned him? Will the son destroy himself as well?

Why the fear?

Why do we fear? Partly we fear what we do not know. Much of the most advanced science requires advanced training. And science as a whole has become so so vast and so technical that no one can master all of it.

But we also fear what the scientists themselves do not know. On the edge of knowledge they cannot know for certain what are the limits or the dangers within the areas within which they work. Marie Curie made great contributions to the study of radioactivity. But no one knew at the time the biological dangers of long-term exposure to radioactivity. Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia, probably a result of her repeated exposure to radioactivity.

What are the long-term effects of the use of chemical pesticides? No one knew at the time they first came into use.

We also fear that the technological power in modern science will fall into the wrong hands. How long will it be until some terrorist manages to steal or construct a nuclear bomb?

So let us think about the deeper sources for our fears.

A source for fear: fear of failure

For some of us, fear arises because of bad experiences in science education. At a certain point, we did not understand the science we were taught, and we got bad grades. We failed. And failure has left a bitter aftertaste about science as a whole. What can we do about it?

The God of the Bible comes to pick up those who fall down into failure. "The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down" (Psalm 145:14). "A bruised reed he will not break" (Isaiah 42:3).

If your value depends only on what you can achieve in comparison with others, your value drops low when others excel in science. If, on the other hand, you receive God's love, you come to understand that he values you as a person, not for what you can achieve. You can admire others' achievements without yourself being deflated.

A source for fear: the mystery of deep knowledge

Another source for fear is the awe that we may feel for deep knowledge, knowledge beyond our grasp. Science has a capacity to evoke this kind of fear, partly because it has over the last century grown incredibly rich in its extent. But in addition, the question always remains, "Why this instead of something else?" The answer to one question only leads to another, just as the small child can stump his parent by continuing to ask "Why?" and pushing the trail of explanation further and further back.

The awe we feel, we feel because science confronts us with the outskirts of the mind and the plan of God in his governance of the world. Awe toward science is a reflection of the awe for the infinity of God, who is infinite in knowledge. His "why's" go on forever.

A source for fear: human finitness

We also fear because scientists themselves, for all their skill, can make ghastly mistakes when they are stretching beyond the limits of our present knowledge. They stretch into the unknown, and the unknown can have unpleasant surprises in the form of radiation damage from radioactivity or cancer from chemical pesticides.

In short, we are finite. We are limited in knowledge. Human finiteness reminds us of our dependence on the infinity of God. We cannot, in and of ourselves, protect ourselves and master our fate in every dimension. Eventually we die, whether it be prematurely from cancer or in ripe old age. And what then? We cannot master life after death.

Not to be masters of our fate points to the One who is. And that One can miraculously or providentially protect us from sad consequences of ignorance or folly, if he so chooses. But the final protection is a life other than this one, an eternal life unthreatened by death or disease:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyon who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)

A source for fear: human perversion and sin

Finally, we fear because we know that human beings can misuse the power that technology increasingly puts in our hands. We may be progressing technologically, but are we progressing morally? If not, we are progressing not only in the ability to do good but in the ability to do evil. And sometimes it seems that the evil is much easier. It is easier to destroy a whole city with one bomb than to build it through the labors of decades.

What is the remedy for human perversity? Is it just to be good? Some people think so. But I suggest that they have not yet become aware of the deeper shadows of pride and hatred and selfishness that hide deep down beneath our veneer of niceness.

The Bible is realistic. It is realistic about human failure (Matt. 11:28-30). It is realistic about the awe of deep knowledge (Rom. 11:33-36; Ps. 139). It is realistic about the limitations of human finiteness (Job 38:4). It is realistic about human perversity--"sin" is the name for it. All four of these strands come together in what the Bible calls "the fear of the Lord": "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 111:10). "Fear" is not just dread, but reverence. It ends in worship. But it cannot end in proper worship with confronting the fourth of our four fears, human sin. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). In the very next line the Bible offers us a remedy for this deepest of fears: "But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

HT: The Truth About Angels and Demons

Technology Is Not Neutral

2009-05-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

Take a few minutes below to view this presention, called Technology is Not Neutral...

Technology Is Not Neutral: How Bible Technology Shapes Our Faith

View more presentations from John Dyer.

You are a living house...

2009-05-28T07:00:00.002-04:00

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. And at first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He’s getting the drains right, stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on. And you knew that those jobs needed doing so you’re not surprised.

But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably, and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to?

The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of. Throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to live in a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace. And He intends to come and live in it Himself.

From C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Divorce and Remarriage

2009-05-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

Sadly, singleness in our day is not only for those who have never been married. For many, singleness comes again through painful and bitter divorce. Mars Hill Church in Seattle put together a position paper on the issue of divorce and remarriage that I have found tremendously helpful. Their elders speak with clarity, conviction, and grace on an issue that is in many ways an epidemic in our culture.

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The issue of divorce, particularly in the current cultural climate, is such a tremendously sensitive and poorly taught subject that the entire counsel of God must be examined to properly understand how it relates to Jesus’ teachings. Many fine scholars who love the Lord disagree on this issue and it must be treated with a tremendous amount of mercy and grace. In no other period of human history has the ability to leave one’s commitment of marriage been so prevalent and easy. Today, all that is required is a statement of irreconcilable differences. What, then, should be the response of the Christian?

Are Christians as apt to run and abandon our covenant of love and life together until death do us part as the rest of society? Sadly, statistics reveal that we are just as guilty. Maybe it is because of the fact that we really do not understand the concept of covenant, or maybe it is because we do not truly understand the sacrifice and forgiveness Jesus made for us. Either way, divorce has found a home in the church. It is our hope and prayer that it never makes its abode in yours.

The Biblical portrait of all relationship begins with God. Scripture tells us there is one God who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (i.e. in Deut. 6:4 the word for “one” is echad). This concept of the Trinity provides for us the ultimate model for a relationship (i.e. in Gen. 2:24 the word for “one” is also echad). Likewise, a husband and wife united in God should seek to be in relationship as similar to the Trinity as is possible in a fallen world with finite people. In the Trinity we see that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are all equal. Yet, we also see that Jesus submits to the Father, and that the Spirit submits to the Father and the Son. In the Trinity we also see great love, honest communication, authentic love & devotion, a diversity of personalities and functions, a unity of purpose, and complete oneness. Indeed, the Trinity is the ultimate relationship that serves as the model for all families and communities.

Christians should love the Word that God has given them and embrace the concept of marriage as the earthly manifestation of Christ and of His “bride” the church (Ephesians 5). Marriage is a living metaphor of this transformational relationship between Christ and the church. Instituted by God at creation, and designed to reflect the loving relationship between God and His people, marriage is preeminent, intended to be permanent, and must be guarded wisely. Just as we are new creations created for His workmanship, we are living out the new covenant in marriage.

The Christian marriage becomes a very vital way by which we bring glory to God. Our marriages speaks to the world the reality of Christ in our lives. His love and covenant with His bride (the church) are revealed through the love and covenant of two becoming one flesh. We no longer remain individuals with individual plans and ambitions. God joins us together into “ONE,” and as one, we reflect the beautiful union between Christ and us.

Scripture is clear: God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). The pain of divorce is well known and has deeply impacted many people’s lives. Well over half of those who read this will have endured divorce as children of parents who gave up on their promises of lifelong devotion to each other. The subsequent ripples emanating from these rifts have adversely affected and scarred those in close proximity to the divorce, as well as future generations.

Scripture has much to say about the matter, but not exhaustively. Opinions are numerous regarding how to interpret what Jesus and the apostle Paul said regarding divorce and remarriage. This is partly due to very difficult exegetical options we encounter when studying Scripture. It is also due to the varying beliefs, behaviors, and degrees of commitment people bring into marriage. Complicating the issues are numerous challenges that assault families. These include unrealistic expectations and subsequent disappointment, financial problems, immaturity, selfish ambitions, commitment to personal pleasure, and sins that betray love, commitment, and safety within marriage.

Marriage is also assaulted from external sources. Embedded social temptations to taste the thrill of “the forbidden” endanger the covenant of marriage. Social structures make no-fault divorce laws inviting when relationship development becomes hard. Serial divorce-and- remarriage, a contemporary variation of polygamy, has become common. At the core of the problem is society’s prevailing, but flawed, pledge to eudemonism, a philosophy that places happiness and fulfillment as the highest achievement of humanity. According to this philosophy, an action is morally right if it makes a person happy. God is expected to agree with and serve this goal or be abandoned.

It must be the commitment of all who wrestle with these issues to follow Scripture wherever it goes. We must live and enjoy life within the expectations God designed. This fully acknowledges that we live in a fallen world in which broken covenants, betrayals, and enormous harm are inflicted without apparent justice being served.

Read the rest of the document here.

The Challenge of Dating for Christian Men

2009-05-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

Part Seven – Dating and the Christian Man

Gentlemen, dating is no easy task. Some would simply say avoid it all together, some would rather say to court instead of date, and others (perhaps myself at times) would gladly welcome the return of arranged marriages. Okay, maybe not.

Anyway, the common practice of dating has been long lamented by Christians who argue that it simply lends itself to raging hormones and physical intimacy, particularly when it begins with a series of meaningless high school relationships. This lament is well-warranted, as our culture tells us that our dating methods should include finding the hottest girl around, using her for all the pleasure you can get, then finding someone else who will make you happy. Holiness has nothing to do with it.

Again, I would say, dating is no easy task. But as it is a husband’s responsibility to love, lead, and cherish his wife, so it should also be a man’s responsibility to primarily be the one who initiates relationships.

Justin Buzzard posted six helpful points in his Six Step Dating Method for Christian Men. For those who are single (like myself), this is a bit more difficult to execute than simply to read, but I have no doubt that he’s right on…

Keep it as your first priority to be walking tightly with Jesus, to be growing in godly dude-ness. This includes have other godly men/friendships in your life.
If your godly dude-ness is pretty solid, you know yourself pretty well, and you don't think God has given you the gift of singleness, move on to step 3.
Pray daily that God would bring into your life a godly woman who you can have a kickin' marriage with, all the while working on the bait (that's you) that you're putting on the dating fishing hook.
Meet a lady who is a Christian, who is breathing, who is over the age of 18, and who you feel some level of the hots for, then move on to step 5.
Step up and ask the lady out on a date, then see what happens. If things don't go well (if you get rejected, etc.), re-evaluate steps 1-3, especially examining the quality of the bait, then get working on step 4 again. If things go well (and if those who know you best and who you're in community with here at the church also think things are going well), move on to step 6.
Buy a ring, get married, start making babies, and love your bride like Christ loved the church until death do you part.

Good advice, particularly the first point. Gentlemen who read this, I would encourage you to walk with Jesus. Seek a good and godly wife and a legacy that is more than having a hot wife (though you should, in every way, be passionately attracted to her). And when you find her, don’t act like you deserve her...but instead love, lead, cherish, and provide for her as a gift from God.

The Single Woman and the Modesty of Personal Restraint

2009-05-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

Part Six – The Single Woman and the Modesty of Personal Restraint

I appreciated this article, written by a woman and for women. No doubt, her honest talk will not resonate with all, but nevertheless, she touches on areas of modesty that go far beyond skimpy clothing, and to the deeper issues of the heart.

Here is Lydia Brownback’s article, The Single Woman and the Modesty of Personal Restraint…

As the spring season blooms, talk about modesty heats up in Christian conversation as fast as the weather. Bloggers, radio hosts, and the rest of us lament the shorter hemlines, deeper necklines, exposed bellies, and bare bottoms in thong bikinis at the neighborhood swim club. But immodesty deals with a lot more than revealing too much skin. We are just as prone—if not more so—to overexpose what’s under our skin. Revealing too much about ourselves is immodest too. When Peter painted his picture of godly womanhood, it included outward modesty—how we handle “the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing”—but it also included the modesty of personal restraint—“a gentle and quiet spirit,” which, he said, is very precious in God’s sight (1 Pet. 3:4).

I wish Carrie had known the wisdom of Peter’s words. Fresh out of college and starting her first “real” job, she came to work each day eager to be part of the team. But after just two months of work, Carrie experienced a personal crisis, and it began to affect her performance. Carrie was never at her desk. Instead, she spent the better part of the workday pouring out her struggles to her colleagues behind closed office doors. Finally, a female colleague was asked to talk to Carrie and to put a stop to it. But Carrie didn’t understand. What was wrong with being open and honest? Were office friendships forbidden? “It’s not appropriate, especially with the men,” she was told. “After all, how would their wives feel if they knew you were pouring your heart out to their husbands?” Carrie had no boundaries because she lacked a “gentle and quiet spirit,” the modesty of personal restraint that Peter taught. Happily, Carrie learned through the experience and went on to cultivate a godly self-restraint.

There is a time and place to open up and share our sin struggles and personal concerns, and if we are careful to apply Peter’s words about the modesty of personal restraint, we will be wise not only about the time and the place, but also about the people we choose to share our hearts with. The book of Proverbs warns us, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (4:23). Along with this there’s general biblical call on all of us to love one another, which means that we are called to guard the hearts of others, too. We might be tempted to think that this verse is guiding us toward self-protection, but it is not. What we are called to guard is our heart—our passion—for God, and we do this primarily by holding at bay anything that would compete with that passion in ourselves or in those around us.

Sharing confidences and personal experiences with someone forms a bond. There is always an element of vulnerability when we choose to trust another with our confidences and with not rejecting us when our weaknesses are exposed. If we share a little bit with someone and all goes well, it seems safe to share more, and before we know it, a bond has formed. This can be a great blessing, but when we allow it to happen in the wrong context, it is unwise, and great hurt can result.

Single women are free to enjoy the company of single men, but there is a way to go about it that reflects Peter’s idea of modesty and keeps hearts guarded. Time spent in groups is always wise because group conversations tend to be less personal. The group dynamic provides a safety net for the heart. On the other hand, private conversations and e-mail chats lead naturally to bond-forming, and if you overexpose your soul in a relationship where there has been no stated commitment, you are risking the hearts of both involved.

Single women are not free to enjoy the company of married men—other women’s husbands–in the same way they are with single men. This includes pastors. Pastors are our God-given shepherds, certainly, but many if not most are also husbands. We are free to take our concerns to them, but there is a way to open up that shows appropriate personal restraint.. It’s one thing to seek our pastor’s counsel, perhaps repeatedly. But there is a difference between a genuine need for his wisdom and our desire for his attention and involvement in our lives. Countless phone calls and endless e-mails are probably going too far. This is the point at which most pastors will wisely redirect us elsewhere.

Inward and outward modesty is also a must in the workplace, as we saw with Carrie. Many women today are likely to spend some portion of their lives out in the job market. This means that men in the workforce spend more waking hours with their business colleagues—a significant number of which are women—than with their wives. Those of us in the workplace ought to consider that one of the primary motivations for modesty is safeguarding the marriages of our colleagues. A low-cut blouse isn’t necessarily going to lead to an extra-marital affair; however, when we recall Jesus’ words about what constitutes adultery—“everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28)—we see the need to be extra careful about what we wear in the office.

Modesty of speech is also crucial in the workplace. Office banter can be a slippery slope. Working together is also a bonding experience, and, naturally, friendships arise. But because this is so, it is all the more reason to restrain what we share about ourselves with our coworkers. “Wait a minute,” we say, like Carrie did. “We’re just friends! There’s nothing wrong with that.” Oh, but there is. Sharing verbal intimacies with a man is the exclusive right of his wife. It takes something away from her when we focus her husband’s attention onto ourselves, however harmless our intent. The best of marriages takes work, and because of that there are certainly seasons in which a man can be especially tempted by an illicit attraction. The new and different is exciting to almost everyone, so even the most innocuous revelations about ourselves can prove distracting.

Of course, there exists the very real possibility that friendship with a man—a single guy or another woman’s husband—however innocent at first, will morph into something more. But if there is no commitment to accompany the attachment that has developed, or the attachment violates a commitment made to someone else, heart destruction is sure to follow. Believing that this can’t happen makes the possibility of it happening even greater. “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall,” Paul warns (1 Cor. 10:12). We’re not above it. None of us is. No one intentionally seeks out a destructive relationship, but they happen all the time. And they typically develop one conversation, one shared laugh, one lunch meeting at a time.

Are you as modest with your heart as you are with your clothing? It is a great way to love your brothers in Christ. It is also the best way to guard your heart and the reputation of your Savior.

Lydia Brownback is the author of the On-the-Go Devotional series (Crossway); Fine China Is for Single Women Too (P&R, 2003); and Legacy of Faith: From Women of the Bible to Women of Today (P&R, 2002) and a speaker at women’s conferences. Lydia is an editor at Crossway Books, and she blogs at The Purple Cellar. Previously she served as the writer-in-residence for Reverend Alistair Begg and as the broadcast media manager for Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, where she produced The Bible Study Hour radio program with James Montgomery Boice. Lydia holds degrees from Syracuse University and Westminster Theological Seminary and resides in Wheaton, Illinois.

(HT: NEXT – April Webzine)

The Freedom and Bondage of Singleness

2009-05-22T07:00:00.001-04:00

Part Five – The Bondage and Freedom of Singleness

For many and perhaps most, remaining single is not a holy calling but rather an immoral pursuit of sex outside of the bounds of marriage. Freedom is seen as the most important virtue of singleness, a time when you can do anything and everything you want without facing the consequences of your actions.

So our culture would tell us that freedom in singleness is a time to hit the club, find someone who is loose enough to give themselves away for the night, and do it all again the next weekend with someone different. Freedom is really just bondage to sin.

One author writes:

“Our culture is full of "empty words" that tell us that sexual gratification is most important. But Paul warns that choosing anything—whether sexual impurity or greed—over God is idolatry. So our choices regarding "how far is too far" aren't about the behaviors themselves but about our esteem of God and His commands.”

“These choices are so serious that we can potentially separate ourselves from our spiritual inheritance—not only the prize awaiting us in heaven but the power in Christ we can have now. One friend described it this way: "Getting too physical just dulls you spiritually. Pretty soon stuff that felt wrong doesn't feel wrong anymore."

“Loose sexual boundaries in a dating or even engagement relationship will carry over into to marriage. Adultery, pornography, abuse and all types of sexual dysfunction plague Christian marriages and families. And these are simply behaviors that overflow from a heart where sexuality has not been brought under Christ's control. A heart where gratification trumps God's way. Sex is about giving sacrificially to another person within a covenant relationship, not taking whatever you can get away with.”

Tim Adeney offers these words about the freedoms of singleness…

Firstly, don't take advantage of all the freedoms of being single. In Paul's day, everyone was embedded in a community. These days, no-one is. Marriages and children force this kind of settling upon us to some extent. So if you are single, I think your life will be more rich and joyful relationally if you can manage to welcome some of this settling—for example, by finding long-term accommodation, by making long-term financial plans, by committing to a few relationships (including relationships with families), by committing to a community group, by finding a few ways to serve, and so on. Such measures won't be forced on you, and even though, in your 20s, they may seem restrictive and redundant, by your 30s, they may be lifesaving.

Secondly, do take advantage of the freedoms of being single. Certainly get more done if you can, but don't just get more done; get stuff done that couldn't be done if you were married with children. For example, one of my friends works in Australia, but has family in the US, so every Christmas, she relocates to New York for a couple of months and works from there. However painful singleness may be, it still has its discrete advantages. Utilize them. If a friend in another city needs help, get on a plane and visit them. If you have a passion for serving the poor, run and live in a boarding house. If you don't like cooking and can afford it, don't cook; catch up with a different friend each night for dinner. And married people: please don't be jealous.

The Church and Singles

2009-05-21T07:00:00.004-04:00

Part Four – The Church and Singles
“On many church web sites are photos of loving couples and families with children. Many churches promote their program as being tailored to the whole family. In many churches nearly every leader at nearly every level of the organization is married. During most church services, the preacher’s points are all about how to improve one’s marriage and family.”

“However, for the first time ever, a slight majority of Americans are single. Practically speaking, this means that a missional church is not solely built for families; it also takes into series consideration how to ministry to those who are unmarried.”

“For too long the church has assumed that most people are married with children, or will get married and have children. But with divorce, widowhood, people waiting longer to marry, some people never marrying, some not wanting children, others delaying children, and still others struggling with infertility and the like, the assumption that people in general, and lost people in particular, are or will be a typical family is incredibly outdated.”

(Mark Driscoll, Vintage Church, pg 231)

The following is a continuation of Tim Adeney’s article, entitled Making Singleness Better.

1. The habits of families
The purpose of family is not only to be a blessing to its members, but also to be a blessing beyond itself. One of the major ways a family can bless beyond itself is by treating those who are outside as though they were inside. This, more likely than not, will require initiative (i.e. it won't happen accidentally), and that initiative needs to come from the families, not the singles.

Families in our culture generally don't feel strong, but socially we are in a position where we can invite others. Our invitations need to be extensive and habitual. For example,
We could invite people into our homes—not just occasionally, but regularly. I'm sure there are many who would love to share a weekly meal with a family.
We could invite others to come on holidays with us.
Perhaps we could consider whether we could have others live with us. If we can't do that where we live now, perhaps we could consider moving somewhere else where we could.
In addition, couples need to give each other space to build quality relationships with single people. At this point, it is worth taking a small detour to talk about how to relate to single people of the opposite gender. Paul counsels Timothy to treat “younger women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Tim 5:2). Most Christian men have a predisposition to read just half this verse—that is, as either “treat younger women as sisters” or “treat younger women in all purity”. Men who do the former imagine that the distinctions of gender are no longer significant, and so relate to women as though they aren't married, or as though the women are actually their biological sisters. Men who do the latter (which is more common in Christian culture) imagine that they can completely ignore women in the name of purity.

But both are wrong. Paul deftly avoids allowing me to deceive myself into thinking that there is no difference between my sisters in Christ and my biological sisters. But at the same time, he tells me where to get my cue for how to relate to my sisters in Christ. So I would not, in the ordinary course of events, hang out with my sisters in Christ without either my wife or their husbands, even though I would happily do this with my biological sisters. But I will offer lifts, I will have conversations, I will exchange the (occasional) email or text, I will give the (also occasional) hug, I won't leave the house immediately if I come home and find that my wife has ducked out to the shops while a female friend minds my children, and if I could fix cars, I'd happily go over to a single friend's place to spend an hour or two having a go. I think I can do these things without running the risk of unfaithfulness and creating a ‘hint’ of sexual immorality (Eph 5:3 NIV).

2. The structure and design of our churches
Families need to develop good habits to encourage singles. However, it is also necessary for the Christian community to interrogate and change some of our church structures. In many churches, we classically separate the younger from the older. We start out our adult lives going to night church, then some of us get married, a little later the married have children and then they move off to a morning service. This presents an unwelcome dilemma for the single person: do they go to the morning service and stay with their age peers, thus losing contact with those in their life stage, or do they stay at night church and remain in contact with single people, thus losing contact with their age peers?

A better strategy would be for our churches to find ways for different generations and life stages to stay in genuine contact with each other. This could be a subject of a whole other article, but let me confine my remarks to two possible solutions.

Firstly, the time of our services could be adjusted to accommodate everyone. At a previous church, we held small-ish twilight Sunday services with a meal. The time of day enabled both those with kids and those without to attend, and the meal gave us a chance to speak to each other.

Secondly, structures outside the main church meeting could be adjusted. At the church I currently belong to, we are seeing whether we can achieve a similar result through small groups. Members are welcome regardless of which Sunday service they attend. Groups go beyond the average 12-month period and even beyond the recommended number of 12. We regard kids as being part of the group, and try to include them in age-appropriate ways. We eat together each week, we read the Bible and pray, we aim to catch up with each other at different times during the week, and we are currently attempting to undertake some projects together. All this means I see the group I belong to as a small community instead of just an event.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some thoughts on The Bondage and Freedom of Singleness.

Paul and the Involuntary Single

2009-05-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Part Three – Paul and the Involuntary Single

The following is a continuation of Tim Adeney’s article, entitled Making Singleness Better.

This opens up the possibility of taking Paul's cue, making some temporal observations and considering them alongside more permanent realities. We can add further ‘lenses’ or considerations, and enter into imaginary dialogue with Paul (and the other Bible writers) by asking what he would have thought if this or that ‘lens’ were in place. For example, what would Paul have said in response to these questions?

What if most long-term singleness was involuntary because of aforementioned social and demographic barriers?
What if most voluntary singleness in our Christian culture was chosen by younger people who are keen to be free from the concerns of marriage and children, but who aren't too concerned with “the things of the Lord”, preferring instead the things of, say, Xbox?
What if long-term singleness brought with it much loneliness and dislocation?

How would Paul respond? It does not take a great deal of imagination to guess that Paul would not be content with our circumstances. I cannot imagine him being thrilled with a generation of young men who are struggling with sexual temptation, all the while avoiding the responsibilities of marriage and children. Like the young widows of 1 Timothy 5, he would simply counsel them to grow up and get married. Similarly, I suspect Paul would encourage us to find ways through the social barriers to marriage; I'm almost certain he would want us to become ‘men to the men, in order to win some’ (cf. 1 Cor 9:19-22).

But perhaps his strongest response would be to the extreme loneliness many single people experience. I do not think that, in commending singleness, Paul was also commending a life without quality long-term relationships. The thought would have distressed him. A quick tour through his letters gives us every indication that he knew a lot of people, and that he knew them well; in some sense, Paul experienced our future—a multitude of great relationships with his brothers and sisters in Christ from every nation, people and tribe.

Paul was not married, but neither was he lonely. I think he would see this epidemic of loneliness as a major moral failure of the church to be the church, and, perhaps, more particularly, a moral failure of families to treat those not in their family as family. The church is a family, and we are to treat those in the church as family—not by lowering the standard with which we treat our family, but by raising the standard with which we treat others. For this ideal to become a reality, I suggest that our thinking and action proceed along two lines—firstly, in the habits of families and secondly, in the structure and design of our churches.

Tomorrow we will look at The Church and Singles…

The Call to Marriage-Mindedness

2009-05-19T07:00:00.004-04:00

Part Two – The Call to Marriage Mindedness

Living with single-minded focus on the glory of God means that, for most, they should be living in the future hope of marriage. In other words, single-mindedness means marriage-mindedness. Until that day comes, there is calm contentedness even in the midst of pursuit.

If you’re anything like me, it’s quite difficult to live in that tension, particularly when Scripture often seems to make singleness appear so much better and so much more freeing for ministry.

The following is an article from Tim Adeney on singleness in Scripture…

Is singleness better? I know what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, and I know Jesus, the ultimate human, was single, but I can't help noticing that, however much this ought to be the case, it just isn't the experience of many long-term single people. Singleness was thrust upon them because of social barriers to getting married (e.g. it's hard to meet people and there are no protocols for proceeding) and demographic barriers (e.g. there are more Christian women than Christian men). In addition, long-term singleness brings with it extreme loneliness and dislocation; it often not only means not being married, but also not having any friends who are married.

Singles did not choose singleness for the sake of the gospel; it was chosen for them. And they are unhappy.

How should Christians respond? Many (who are usually married with children, and therefore no longer single) look in 1 Corinthians 7 and note that “the appointed time has grown very short” (v. 29), that marriage can be really difficult, that singleness offers lots of advantages and that singles should rejoice in the opportunities God has given them. Then they say to singles, “Singleness is better, so get on with your life and deal with it”.

Singleness and Paul
Further reflection on singleness will not enable us to escape Paul's positive view of it in 1 Corinthians 7. He wishes that “all were as I myself am” (v. 7); he counsels the unmarried that “it is good for them to remain single as I am” (v. 8; cf. vv. 17, 26, 40); and while he notes that those who marry “do well”, he insists that “he who refrains from marriage will do even better” (vv. 37-38).

We might pause at this point and notice that singleness is our future: “[I]n the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Matt 22:30) for the great marriage between Christ and the church will have taken place, and there will no longer be any need for its signpost. The new world order ushered in with the death and resurrection of Jesus will have reached its fulfillment—an order where Jesus' “mother and … brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21), and where “[h]umanity in the presence of God will know a community in which the fidelity of love which marriage makes possible will be extended beyond the limits of marriage”. In heaven, I won't be restricted to knowing my wife, my children and perhaps a few others really well; I will be able to know all those who belong to Christ really well.

However, we must not run ahead and get ourselves tangled in an over-realized eschatological stupor. While Jesus has indeed ushered in a new world order, he has not yet ushered in a new creation. We live in a new age and an old creation, and this old creation was made for marriage (cf. Gen 2:18-25). If our destiny is singleness, our created design is marriage. This does not detract from the status of being single; rather, it is a comment on its experience. In this creation, the ordinary pattern for humanity is marriage and family life, and while there is no suggestion in the Old Testament that being single is a sin, neither is there any suggestion that you would choose it. Perhaps we could go so far as to say that, from the point of view of our creaturely design, singleness isn't better, and so we should expect any long-term singleness to be accompanied by grief and temptation to a greater or lesser extent.

We see Paul's acknowledgment of the ongoing reality of the created order at play in 1 Corinthians 7. Jesus may have risen, but marriage is still marriage. Therefore, those who are married need to stay married, even if they're married to an unbeliever (vv. 12-13), and those who are married need to be married properly by remaining sexually active (vv. 2-6). The novelty Paul contemplates is the possibility of choosing singleness, not of rearranging the structure of marriage. Even while he contemplates this novelty, Paul remains keenly aware of the reality of our design, articulating circumstances where it is better to marry (e.g. vv. 2, 9), all the while conceding that those who marry “have not sinned” (v. 28).

Throughout the chapter, he provides us with a worked example of how to think eschatologically. “[T]he appointed time has grown very short” (v. 29), and all of us are called to live in light of that reality. Even married people must live as though they are not. How this eschatological reality affects decisions about singleness or marriage depends on what else needs to be considered along with the return of Christ. That is, Paul holds up a number of realities like lenses, and looks through them. In particular, he holds up the shortness of time and places it next to an appraisal of the practical realities of marriage as opposed to singleness. Thus he notes that marriage is complicated, involving “worldly troubles” (v. 28), whereas singleness leaves one “free from anxieties” (v. 32). He concludes that the opportunity to be single-mindedly devoted to “the things of the Lord” (v. 32) renders singleness a better option. But it is only better when certain realities or ‘lenses’ (i.e. the shortness of time and the practicalities of marriage) are considered; as he looks through both lenses together, his overall recommendation changes, which is why the person who is already married should stay married and the person who yearns for love should get married.

A more striking illustration of this can be found in 1 Timothy 5:11-15. Here, Paul recommends that younger widows be left off the widow's list. Somewhat surprisingly, if we have 1 Corinthians 7 in mind, he doesn't counsel or entertain the possibility of them remaining single. Instead, he recommends marriage—firstly, because they will want to marry anyway (v. 11), and secondly because, while they are single, their time is unlikely to be spent well (v. 13). In other words, Paul holds up additional ‘lenses’ or ‘considerations’ (i.e. the fact that they want to get married and the fact that they wouldn't be using their time productively anyway if they remained single), and concludes that marriage is the better option.

Tomorrow, more on Paul and the involuntary single...

Living Single Minded

2009-05-18T07:00:00.003-04:00

Many moons ago, I took on reading John Piper’s epic book, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, having the unashamed goal of becoming better prepared for future marriage…serving, cherishing, and leading a wife so that the love of Christ would be evident and magnified in our relationship. It appears that I had a quicker timeline in mind than God did/does, but on that point, I digress.

Nevertheless, with that as my goal, I was shocked and perhaps even a bit perplexed when Piper begins his book that is largely focused on marital relationships with a chapter on singleness. You can (and should) read his chapter here. What I quickly learned (or rather, was quickly reminded of) is that marriage does not make a godly man, but a godly man makes a marriage.

Then I decided to read Piper’s new book, entitled This Momentary Marriage. Here Piper offers several chapters on singleness as well. He says:

My main point is that God promises those who remain single in Christ blessings that are better than the blessings of marriage and children, and he calls you to display, by the Christ-exalting devotion to your singleness, the truths about Christ and his kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness than through marriage and child-rearing. What truths shine more brightly through singleness?
The truth that the family of God grows not by propagation through sexual intercourse, but by regeneration through faith in Christ.
The truth that relationships in Christ are more permanent, and more precious, than relationships in families (and, of course, it is wonderful when relationships in families are also relationships in Christ; but we know that is often not the case).
The truth that marriage is temporary and finally gives way to the relationships to which it was pointing all along: Christ and the church—the way a picture is no longer needed when you see face-to-face.
The truth that faithfulness to Christ defines the value of life; all other relationships get their final significance from this. No family relationship is ultimate; relationship to Christ is.

I would contend that, though many who will read this are married and not single, we all could use a reminder to live with the single-mindedness that John Piper argues for. In doing so, it is not to denigrate the value of marriage, but to life up the glory of Christ so that in every relationship we would see Him as ultimate. He goes on to say:

“Marriage and celibacy can be idolatrous. Spouses can worship each other or worship sex or worship their children or worship double-income-no-kid buying power. Singles can worship autonomy and independence. Singles can look on marriage as a second-class Christian compromise with the sexual drive. Married people can look upon singleness as a mark of immaturity or irresponsibility or incompetence.

“But what I am trying to clarify is that there are Christ-exalting ways to be married, and there are Christ-exalting ways to be single. There are ways to use our bodies and our appetites in marriage and in singleness that make much of Christ.”

(Piper, This Momentary Marriage, pg 120)

This week we’ll take a look at singleness, and the call of every single man and single woman to live single-minded for the glory of God. Some, and likely most, will soon find themselves a spouse to love and cherish til death when they part. But in the weeks, months, or years until marriage comes, we should all be living in single-minded focus upon the exalted Jesus Christ.

I'm no expert, so most of this will be articles and resources from others...The first few days will be theological foundations for singleness and the pursuit of marriage, and the last few will be practical implications for those who are single.

Tactics - The Professor's Ploy

2009-05-17T17:54:00.003-04:00

I'm currently reading through Gregory Koukl's excellent book entitled Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions. The following section is helpful, particularly for those in a college classroom setting. It's a little bit long, but well worth the time to read.

Koukl titles this section "The Professor's Ploy"...

Some professors are fond of taking potshots at Christianity with remarks like "The Bible is just a bunch of fables," even if the topic of the class has nothing to do with religious issues. Well-meaning believers sometimes take up the challenge and attempt a head-to-head duel with the professor.

Don't make this mistake. It's right-hearted, but wrong-headed. This approach rarely works because it violates a fundamental rule of engagement: Never make a frontal assault on a superior force in an entrenched position. An unwritten law of nature seems to govern exchanges like these: The man with the micropone wins. The professor always has the strategic advantage, and he knows it. It's foolish to get into a power struggle when you are outgunned.

There's a better way. Don't disengage. Instead, use your tactics. Raise your hand and ask a question. For starters, you might ask, "Professor, can you give us a little more detail on what you mean? What kind of fable are you talking about? Do you think nothing in the Biblical documents has any historical value? Is everything in the book a fanciful invention of some sort? What's your opinion?" Notice that these are all creative variations of the question "What do you mean by that?"

Let the professor explain himself. As a good studnet, listen carefully to his response. Take notes. Ask further clarification questions if necessary. If he falters in any way, the other students will notice. If he has trouble making his ideas clear, it will become obvious that he has not thought carefully about his ideas.

When you are satisfied that you have a clear take on his view, raise your hand again and ask him how he came to his conclusions. Ask him to explain the line of evidence that convinced him not to take the Bible seriously. Make the teacher, the one making the claim, shoulder the burden of proof for his own assertions. This allows you to stay engaged while deftly sidestepping the power struggle.

Now here's the pitfall I warned you about, the distractive "ploy" intended to derail efforts. The professor may sense your maneuver and try to turn the tables. He might say something like, "Oh, you must be one of those Fundamentalist Christians who thinks the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Okay, I'm a fair man," he continues, looking at his watch. "We have a little extra time. Why don't you take a moment and prove to the rest of the class that the Bible is not filled with fables."

What has the professor just done? In one quick move, he has cleverly shifted the burden of proof back on you, the student. This is unfair, because you have not made any claim. He is the one who is expressing a view. It's up to him to defend it. He's the teacher, after all.

Don't take the bait. Falling into this trap is nearly always fatal. The professor is trying to get you to do his job. Don't let it happen.

Instead, when you find yourself facing any form of the "Why don't you try to prove me wrong?" challenge, shift the burden back where it belongs, on the one who made the claim. Respond this way: "Professor, I actually haven't said anything about my own view, so you're just guessing right now. For all you know, I could be on your side. More to the point, my own view is irrelevant. It doesn't matter what I believe. Your ideas are on the table, not mine. I'm just a student trying to learn. I'm asking for clarification and wondering if you have good reasons. That's all."

If If he gives an answer, thank him for explaining himself and either ask another question or let it go for the time being. You have the best you can under circumstances.

The "professors ploy" is to shift the burden of proof from himself to someone else. He demands that other defend views they have not expressed even though he is the one who has made specific claims. He tries to sidestep his responsibility, but the burden of proof is still his.

Do not be afraid to question your professors. Challenge them on your terms, though, not theirs. And do it with grace, respect, and tact. Remember, you don't have to be the expert on every subject. If you keep the burden of proof on the other side when the other person is making the claim, it takes the pressure off you but still allows you to direct the converation.

How Could the Church Help Transform the World?

2009-05-16T13:12:00.003-04:00

Just finished Mark Driscoll's most recent book, entitled Vintage Church. If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it. Most likely you won't agree with everything, but he speaks with great wisdom and clarity on some issues in the church that are often overlooked, like church discipline, use of technology, and the importance of preaching.

One section that was particular meaningful is his chapter entitled How Could the Church Help Transform the World. He summarizes some points from Tim Keller, a Pastor in New York city whom I had the privilege of hearing speak several weeks ago in Chicago at The Gospel Coalition. The following section is directly from Vintage Church. It is my hope that Calvary Baptist Church will continue to become more and more a city within the city.

The first model is church as bomb shelter. This church rightly sees that there is great danger for harm in the city. So, the church separates from the city, sadly primarily speaks only ill of the city, and functions as a safe place in which Christians hide from the city. The church forgets that it is called to lovingly serve the city so that it might become a great city like Jerusalem was during seasons of the Old Testament when the city loved and obeyed God and his Word. The strength of the church as bomb shelter model is that it rightly understands the danger of the city. The weakness is that it is not eager to help rescue other people from the dangers of the city through evangelism and discipleship but is primarily concerned for its own safety.

The second model is church as mirror. The strength of this model is its awareness of things in the city that reflect the goodness of God through his common grace and general revelation and the fact that we are made in his image and likeness. The weakness is that it underestimates or even overlooks human sin and its devastating effects. The result is that what the church believes and how the church behaves is nothing more than a reflection of the city. Therefore, such things as homosexuality, sexual perversion, and approval of all kinds of sin, as well as the belief that Jesus was little more than an exemplary man, are tolerated in the name of lovingly relating to the city in a nonjudgmental manner. The sin of the church as mirror is that it has so overly contextualized the gospel that it has failed to also contend for the truth of the gospel, so much so that there is little if any gospel left. Further, rather than mirroring the Scriptures and Jesus by calling the city to repentance, it simply approves of the city in ways that God does not by overlooking the evil of the city as typified in biblical cities such as Babylon.

The third model is church as parasite. The strength of the church as parasite is its awareness of the beneficial resources of the city. However, the weakness is that the church uses the resources of the city for its own benefit but does not acre to serve the good of the entire city in any meaningful way. The result is that the church is seen as a drain on the city rather than as a blessing. Church members are dismissed as people who do not live in the city, love the city, or serve the city but merely drive in to the city to attend church events, thereby using the city in an incredibly selfish manner that is repugnant to lost people who love the city. The sin of the church as parasite is its failure to see the city as the battleground between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness and its refusal to live as a city within the city committed to the transformation of the people and culture that make up the city by the power of the gospel. Subsequently, the church as parasite settles for selfishly using the resources of the city but not for the purpose of seeing people saved and their city transformed.

The fourth model is church as city within the city. In the church as city within the city there is a love for God, lost people, and fellow Christians simultaneously as Jesus commanded without neglecting any of the three. In the city within the city, life is lived in a countercultural and kingdom manner, taking into account the need to discern when and how to reject the sin and folly of the city. Indeed, the church co-opts the hopes and dreams of the city (for example, racial harmony and generosity to the most needy) by offering the gospel as the true hope for such things. The church partners with the city and its resources with the distinct purpose of doing good for the whole city to make it the best city possible.

If you live in Avon Lake and are a part of Calvary, let's together consider how we can serve our town...no, it's not a large city or booming metropolis, but God has called us to be here to serve not only the spiritual needs of our church family, but the needs of the community, that God may be glorified.

Maybe it seems over the top, but transforming the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ could start with just helping your neighbor with the yard, or buying groceries for a family in need...finding ways to serve the people in Avon Lake so that they would see that Jesus has changed your heart and life and enabled you to love others with His love.

Living Water | True Worship

2009-05-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Karl Barth said, "Christian worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, and the most glorious action that can take place in human life."

“The Father is seeking such people to worship Him.” (John 4:23) Worship begins with God looking for you. Don’t you see this in your own life? You are lost, and God is seeking you. Look at how God has been pursuing you and seeking you, even when you tried to avoid him the most adamantly. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Perhaps the very reason you are reading this is because God is seeking you, calling you out of darkness and sin so that you could have life, and freedom, and joy as you worship Him.

But what does it mean to worship “in spirit and truth”?

I used to think that “spirit” in this verse was speaking of the Holy Spirit. But I don’t believe that this is the case. It is certainly true that we only come to worship God after the Holy Spirit has been at working and moving in our hearts. But in this verse Jesus is not speaking of that. He is speaking of spirit generally, not the Holy Spirit, and He is teaching that because of His death and resurrection the place of worship would not matter. We worship not merely by being in the right place and doing the right things. We would worship in His spirit, which could be anywhere.

In our day this would refer to people who think they have worshiped God simply because they have occupied a seat in church on Sunday morning, or sung a hymn, or rocked out on the guitar, or said a prayer, or knelt in the aisle, or raised their hands. Jesus says this is not worship. These customs may be a means for worship, but in some cases they may actually hinder it. They are not worship in themselves. Therefore we must not confuse worship with the particular things we do on Sunday morning.

Worship in spirit:

Believe in the spiritual realm: There is a part of us that will endure beyond the grave.
Worship comes from our spirit when it has been touched by the Spirit.
No formalism, no false ideas.
Worship comes from our spirit, based on the truth that is revealed about God.
The temple that she sought was now her body, the temple of the Living God.

Worship in truth:

We worship truthfully, honestly, and wholeheartedly.
We worship on the basis of Biblical revelation.
We worship God Christo-centrically.

Truth without emotion is dead orthodoxy.

Emotion without truth is empty frenzy.

We need to worship in spirit and in truth.

Living Water | Revealing the Idols

2009-05-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Just pause a moment to feel this woman’s pain. Imagine this lonely, rejected woman, who makes the journey each day in the hot sun to get water for a man that doesn’t even love her and only uses her for her body. She cries out “Give me this water” because she doesn’t want to be stuck doing what she always does. She’s saying, “Tell me, what do I have to do.”

Jesus confronts both her ignorance and her darkness gently…He touches the most sensitive point in her life. Isn’t it true for us that the quickest way to your heart is through a wound? In a small town like hers it would have been hard enough to get five guys, let alone five husbands! She has a problem with worship. She is a woman who worships men. Instead of offering her body as a living sacrifice to God, she offers it to man after man after man.

Jesus is telling her that to get the “living water” she’ll have to get rid of her idols. Idolatry is a lot more subtle than we assume, because we are continual worshippers, always worshipping someone or something. Worship is simply the giving of self.

What do you worship? What do you offer yourself to? What got you out of bed this morning? What rattles around in your head when you have nothing else to think about? What do you give yourself to? That’s what you worship.

Worship is the giving of self. It’s giving our time, our talents, and our treasure to the thing that we make supreme in our lives. If we’re honest, that’s not always Jesus. Sometimes it’s our kids. Sometimes it’s our job. Sometimes it’s our reputation. Sometimes it’s even our knowledge of the Scriptures.

Jesus jolted the Samaritan woman to her senses with a single sentence. It was not unkind; everything He said to the woman was kind. But it was a sentence that must have hit the woman like a slap in the face and exposed her most serious failing and deepest guilt. He struck her not in the mind with theological truth, but in the heart with the conviction of sin. This stranger knew everything about her.

In verse 17, she is a trapped sinner; she is hiding something, and is sucked into responding with a partial confession. She says, “I don’t have a husband,” which is true…but she has had FIVE husbands! She wanted to appear repentant but still maintain public posture.

What is it in your life that you don’t like to fully confess to Jesus? What idols do you keep to yourself, pretending He doesn’t fully know?

Living Water | Wells and Fountains

2009-05-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

There is a difference between a well and a fountain – a well collects the rainwater and drainage, but would be useless in seasons of drought. A fountain, on the other hand, flows eternally. Jesus is promising to place a fountain of living water in the life of anyone who will come to Him. But what exactly is living water?

John 7:38-39 says, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit…”

If you’re tracking with this, here’s the point: When we come to faith in Jesus, He gives us living water, which is the Spirit of God; the water is the Holy Spirit. He alone possesses it, and He wants to freely and abundantly give it.

But if you’re like me, you come to this verse a little bit perplexed. Because Jesus says that we’ll never be thirsty for the Spirit again. But we come to verses like Psalm 42:1. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

This isn’t just some cute Christian song or a nice saying for a t-shirt or wall hanging. This is a desperate cry for God from someone who thirsts for Him, and pants for Him, because He can’t find Him. Why are there times in our life that we are thirsty for God?

Let’s think about the metaphor Jesus gives of a spring of water. James Montgomery Boice offers a helpful illustration:

What happens when a spring comes bubbling through dirt? The answer is: It produces muddy water. Is it the spring’s fault? No! The mud comes because of the dirt that has been pushed on top.

Does this describe your life? Are you a Christian who has run from God, trying to cover over His presence, but instead only had your life filled with muddy water? If this does describe you, why don’t you allow Jesus to remove the dirt and purify the spring of His life within you?

Romans 8:13 says, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” He wants us to put sin out of our lives so that we can live for His glory and our good.

Here’s what Jesus is telling us in John 4. He doesn’t say that, from the very first day we become a Christian, we drink in the Spirit and are fully and always satisfied. But He does say that the Spirit is a continually flowing fountain; and that there is no danger that those who have been renewed by the Spirit will ever be dried up.

John Calvin offers these helpful comments. "So believers, you and I, thirst, and eagerly thirst, throughout our whole lives; yet they have abundance of quickening moisture; however small may have been the measure of grace which they have received, it gives them eternal life, so that they are never entirely dry. When He says that they will be satisfied, He contrasts not with Desire but only with Drought."

So eternal life starts with the Spirit filling us now, and filling us forever, so that we would live for His glory. But the woman still does not fully understand. She’s a few steps behind, only thinking about how great it would be if she had a supply of this miraculous water and had no more need to make the long journey to Jacob’s Well.

No, Mr. President. Killing Is Killing No Matter What We Call It.

2009-05-13T15:07:00.001-04:00

From John Piper:

It's a magnificent thing: The only newly-originating life in the universe that comes in the image of God is Man. The only newly-originating life in the universe that lasts forever is Man.

This is an awesome thing.

And, as everyone knows, that reverence is not shared by our new President, over whom we have rejoiced.

He is trapped and blind in a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he released this statement,

We are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.

To which I say:

No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women; you are authorizing the destruction of 500,000 little women every year.
No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for one million little human beings every year.
No, Mr. President, killing our children is killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter. You may say it is a private family matter over and over and over, and still they are dead. And we killed them. And you, would have it remain legal.

Mr. President, some of us wept for joy at your inauguration. And we pledge that we will pray for you.

We have hope in our sovereign God.

(From the sermon: "The Baby in My Arms Leaped for Joy.")

HT: Desiring God

Living Water | What Is It?

2009-05-13T08:00:00.001-04:00

Though the gift was free to the woman, it would come at great cost. A few things about the gift of living water:

He had it. There was no need of a bucket to draw with.
He had it to give. He doesn’t want to keep it to Himself.
He would have given it for the asking. It can be freely accepted by faith.
He alone could give it. It would be found in no earthly well.

Jesus offered this priceless gift for free…but the woman didn’t want to ask…because asking for new life would have meant admitting the old life wasn’t worth living. Maybe you’ve experienced this before coming to Christ, feeling like your sin was too great. Maybe your guilt had led you to believe that Jesus could never forgive you. Maybe you just can’t humble yourself to admit that you need a Savior.

We live in a world where our reputation is far too important. Jesus has destroyed His reputation by speaking with the immoral Samaritan woman, but she’d rather lie and conceal her sin than lose face with a complete stranger. He destroyed His reputation for the woman who had no reputation.

But what exactly is it that Jesus is offering? And why doesn’t she understand? Doesn’t she know what the living water is?

Several years ago I took a 5-day hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail, hiking the state of Maryland with some college friends. Needless to say, we quickly learned the importance of carrying water, and plenty of it. And we also learned that you only drink from certain, well-marked springs of water, not just every water source that comes along. But even with this fresh, mountain spring, we still had to filter and treat the water before drinking.

It’s not clear whether the Samaritan woman understood the “living water” remarks from Jesus. “Living water” was the opposite of “dead water” in the same way a spring of water is the opposite of stagnant water. Nobody wants to drink from the algae infested pond...they want the fresh, clear, mountain springs. For the woman and everyone else in town, Jacob’s Well was the next best thing.

But the woman responds with classic sarcasm. She says “Come on, you don’t even have a bucket…how can you give me water without a bucket?”

I think she understands the metaphor. She knows that He’s talking about spiritual water, not physical water. He’s talking about spiritual life, not physical life. That’s why she starts boasting about her lineage from Jacob, as if to say that she already has an “in,” as if to say that her spiritual life was already taken care of.

She understands one thing – water gives life, but not eternal life. Jacob is a prime example.

Living Water | The Inner Heart

2009-05-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Jesus’ interaction with this woman would have baffled the culture of His day. Jewish men were told not to speak to Samaritan women in the street, and women were not to be instructed in the law. There were also those called the “bleeding Pharisees,” who didn’t want to lust, so they ran with their eyes covered from women. There were Jews who would rather pack their own dishes to avoid being ceremonially unclean by using a Samaritan’s dishes. Within generation or two, all Samaritan women were assumed to be in a perpetual state of uncleanness. This is the woman who Jesus freely spoke with. His actions show that He cares far more about the inner heart than the outer skin.

But there is important detail that we can easily skip over. It wasn’t normal for a woman to collect heavy jugs of water in the middle of a hot summer day. It’s best to come in the early morning or late evening, when it’s cooler. So why is the woman there alone now?

We’ll learn quickly that the woman of Samaria was an immoral woman, and she apparently had a bad reputation in the community, judging by the fact that she came to draw water in the heat of the day when no one else, particularly the other women, would be at Jacob’s well. In that day, the Samaritans were the lowest of the low, so to be rejected by them is to be rejected by everyone. She’s so far at the bottom of the social food chain that no one will even walk to get water with her.

But Jesus comes, asks for a drink, and then begins a conversation that was far more important than His desire to quench His thirst. He prefers the salvation of this immoral woman to His own wants. Notice that the text never says He gets the drink He wanted.

Jesus might be the only Jewish man who ever talks to this unnamed, immoral, Samaritan woman. So her surprise was only natural. Normally anyone and everyone that was unlike her would avoid her at all costs. Jesus is already breaking down barriers to her heart. He cares more about her future than He does her background.

Maybe you have felt this in your life. Maybe you are feeling this even today. You feel avoided and betrayed by friends and family, but Jesus is the faithful friend who comes seeking you and offering hope. Maybe, like the woman, you feel so sinful and dirty that no one could ever love you, especially if they knew what you did last night, or about the vicious fight you had with your spouse before church this morning. But Jesus is the faithful Savior that comes offering new life.

So to reach out to her, Jesus breaks cultural and racial barriers, gender barriers, and even sin barriers. He simply comes to her in gentleness and humility and asks for a drink.

How does she react to His request? We’ll see in the next verses (4:10-12) that she reacts with mockery. It is as if she says, “Samaritans are the scum of the earth to you, but you’re quick to come when you’re thirsty!” “Are you better than Jacob?” There was a sting hidden in her comeback. She felt inferior to this thirsty stranger and so made her reply a bit bitter.

Living Water | Our Weary Savior

2009-05-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

The first thing we see about Jesus is that He was always focused on something outside of Himself. He was focused on the will of the Father (John 4:34). It’s not very often that He is said to have “had” to do something. Normally, as you might imagine, the God of the universe is pretty free to do as He pleases. It’s one of the benefits of being God. But Jesus “had” to pass through Samaria.

But why did Jesus have to pass through Samaria? As we said before, most Jews would have insisted on avoiding Samaria because of their hatred toward the Samaritans. They would have stayed away at all costs, going around Samaria entirely, even if it meant taking the long route. In our day, this is like saying “To get to the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan, I have to pass through Ann Arbor.” No, there are many other ways to go. Just like we try (or at least should try) to avoid Ann Arbor at all costs, the Jews normally avoided Samaria.

So to understand why Jesus “had” to go to Samaria, we’ve got to understand the heart and ministry of Jesus. There were other roads Jesus could have taken. His reason wasn’t geographical necessity or social pressure, but His underlying compulsion of God’s will to seek out the lost Samaritan sheep. The whore at the well was being sought by the Savior of the world.

John gives us excruciating detail in verse 6 – the text never gives anything that is not important:

Jacob’s Well (4:6) – This is one of very few sites from Jesus’ day about which there is no dispute. It was dug by Jacob himself, after he purchased the land from the sons of Hamor (Gen. 33:19). Jacob’s Well was filled by water from rains percolating through the ground. It was a sort of cistern filled with good water, but not equal to a real spring, which was always preferred. Even today, the well is over 75 feet deep, and was likely much deeper at the time. It takes 2.5 seconds to drop a stone before you hear the splash.
The sixth hour (4:6) – In Roman time, the clock began at sunrise, which would make the 6th hour around noon – a natural time of day for a weary traveler to seek rest and refreshment. From April-October, average temperature around 84 degrees, and you might get only 2 inches of rain during an entire summer. It’s hot, dry, and wearying, and that’s exactly what Scripture tells us.
Jesus was weary (4:6) – I love the brutal honesty of the Scriptures. Our all-powerful God was weary. This tells us two things about Jesus:

Jesus did not pretend weariness. He was actually fatigued. In order that He could identify with us in sympathy and compassion, He took upon himself our weaknesses. He became like us.
Jesus’ weariness was purposeful. He could have remained in Judea, where it was much cooler. Here was a Jesus who was wearied in His search for sinners and who had become thirsty seeking those to whom He was to offer the water of life.

Living Water | Intro

2009-05-10T18:00:00.000-04:00

On May 3rd, I had the privilege of preaching at Calvary Baptist Church on John 4. This week I'll post some of my notes. For the curious, below is a "wordle" of my sermon, showing what words are used most often (large words are used many times, small words used few times).

Our culture tells us to “Obey our thirst.” It’s a silly but brilliant marketing proposal, because they get something foundationally right that I think as Christians we often try to avoid: We are thirsty. Sometimes there’s a loneliness and desire in our hearts that doesn’t seem to be filled. Try as we may, we walk through life parched, dry, and wanting more. We’re thirsty.

Now of course, Sprite wants us to believe that we can fulfill all our thirsts with a canned carbonated beverage…that 12 ounces of lemon-lime flavored fizz will stop our craving for something more significant…and for only a dollar or two our thirsts will be forever quenched.

But really, we all know that it will leave us thirsty again.

Jesus says that we can come to Him with our thirsts…our deepest desires…our greatest fears…our most pressing longings…and He will give us what He calls “living water” so that we will never be forever thirsty.

But what does this mean? And for those of us who even right now feel dried up, worn out, and weary, how is any of this good news? If He says we’ll never thirst again, then why I am thirsty right now?

John 4 offers us some answers, but not in ways we might think. Jesus tells us about worship, and worship that has to do with real life, real thirsts, and real conflicts. Curiously enough, when Jesus has something to say about worship He doesn’t go to the well respected High Priest, or the temple theologian, or even the temple worship leader…

Instead, He goes into town to the well, and finds a whore.

That may sound shocking, and maybe some of you don’t like to hear it. But it’s what the Bible reveals. You probably know the story well. Jesus, on his way to Galilee, makes a quick pit stop for a drink in a town in Samaria called Sychar. As luck would have it, a thirsty and weary Jesus finds a silent oasis at Jacob’s Well in the middle of the hot and dry day. A woman is there, and He asks her for a drink. What she doesn’t know is that His request will be the means by which she finds living water.

Before we meet this woman at the well, we should recall who the Samaritans were. They were the remnant of the northern Jewish kingdom that had intermarried with foreigners after the chiefs and nobles had been carried into exile in 729 BC. They built a separate worship place on Mt. Gerizim and they rejected all of the Old Testament except their version of the first five books of Moses. The hostility toward Jews was deep and centuries old.

Tomorrow we'll begin our journey through the story...

Living With Purpose

2009-05-09T15:00:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Dodson from The Resurgence has offered some helpful words on what he calls "Simplified Missional Living." Maybe living with purpose is just as simple as doing things on purpose. See what you think...

Eat with Non-Christians

We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal, invite a non-Christian friend. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversations. Have cookouts and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

Walk, Don’t Drive

If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to the mailbox or convenience store, walk to get mail or groceries. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog and bringing the kids. Make friends. Get out of your house! Last night I spent an hour outside gardening with my family. We had good conversations with about four of our neighbors. Take interest in your neighbors. Ask questions. Engage. Pray as you go. Save some gas, the planet, and some people.

Be a Regular

Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places at the same times. Get to know the staff. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. My friends at Starbucks donate a ton of leftover pastries to our church 2-3 times a week. We use them for church gatherings and occasionally give them to the homeless. Build relationships. Be a regular.

Hobby with Non-Christians

Pick a hobby that you can share. Get out and do something you enjoy with others. Try city league sports or local rowing and cycling teams. Share your hobby by teaching lessons, such as sewing, piano, knitting, or tennis lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be yourself.

Talk to Your Co-workers

How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Go out with your team or task force after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form moms’ groups in your neighborhood and don’t make them exclusively non-Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Work on mission.

Volunteer with Non-Profits

Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take a Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group. Spend time with your church serving your city. Once a month. You can do it!

Participate in City Events

Instead of playing XBox, watching TV, or surfing the net, participate in city events. Go to fundraisers, festivals, cleanups, summer shows, and concerts. Participate missionally. Strike up conversation. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

Serve Your Neighbors

Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, or fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Ask your local Police and Fire Stations if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative. Just serve!

(HT: The Resurgence)

Religulous & Expelled

2009-05-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

God. War. Religion. Intelligent Design. Evolution.

Just a few issues that everyone agrees on.

Riiiiight…

Two documentaries came out grappling with these from differing perspectives on religion, evolution, atheism, and the source of human conflict. Comedian Bill Maher is so adamant about the views in his film Religulous that he had to continue taking potshots at God during the Oscars (or maybe just using the platform to further promote his DVD sales).

Dryer in delivery but equally passionate, Ben Stein interviews Richard Dawkins and leading men in the scientific community with his film Expelled. While not targeting the same subject, they definitely spiral around many of the same debatable questions. How did we get here? What is the primary source of human conflict? Is life random and meaningless, or designed and destined?

HT: Mars Hill Church

The Futility of Religion

2009-05-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

"The staircases represent the many was by which humans learn to rise toward the fulfillment of God's purpose. They include all the ethical and religious achievement that so richly adorn the cultures of humankind. But in the middle of them is placed a symbol that represents something of a different kind -- a historic deed in which God exposed himself in a total vulnerability to all our purposes and in that meeting exposed us as the beloved of God who are, even in our highest religion, enemies of God. The picture expresses the central paradox of the human situation, that God comes to meet us at the bottom of our stairways, not at the top; that our real ascent towards God's will for us takes us further away from the place where he actually meets us. " I came to call not the righteous, but sinners"

"Out meeting, therefore, with those of other faiths takes place at the bottom of the stairway, not at the top. "Christianity" as it develops in history takes on the form of one of those stairways. Christians also have to come down to the bottom of their stairway to meet the adherents of another faith. There has to be a kenosis, a self-empyting. Christians do not meet their partners in dialogue as those who possess the truth and the holiness of God but as those who bear witness to a truth and holiness that are God's judgent on them and who are ready to hear the judgment spoken through the lips and life of their partner of another faith."

From Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret

Lessons From Pastor Dad

2009-05-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've learned a lot from working with my Dad, and several months ago posted 10 lessons that I've learned from serving alongside of him in ministry at Calvary Baptist Church.

Hope you enjoy...

The Sins of Youth

2009-05-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” Paul is telling Timothy, his child in the faith, that the sins of youth are in 5 areas…speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.

A few weeks ago we examined these areas...perhaps we can all learn as we contemplate them again.

Part One - Speech
Part Two - Conduct
Part Three - Love
Part Four - Faith
Part Five - Purity

Finding Our Idols

2009-05-04T08:00:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I posted a series called "Finding Our Idols."

How do we fight idolatry? We look to Jesus. We not only turn our eyes to Him, but we give our hearts to Him. We study His Word because in it is His truth. We sing songs that proclaim His truth because in it we find life…the life abundant.

You can read all the posts here...

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

The Woman at the Well

2009-05-01T13:28:00.001-04:00

This Sunday I'll be preaching at Calvary on John 4, the woman at the well. There's some important history to unpack, so that we would have greater understanding and amazement in seeing why Jesus, a Jew, could relate to the woman, a Samaritan.

About 750 years before Christ’s conversation with the woman, when the northern half of the Jewish nation, the nation of Israel, had been carried off into the captivity by the Assyrians, the conquering people had moved other people back into the area to resettle it (2 Kings 17). Of course, it’s not possible to transport an entire population, so the result was that some Jewish people remained. Perhaps they hid in caves, bribed their captors, or escaped captivity. Almost at once these Jews began to intermarry with the newcomers, producing a race that was partially Jewish and partially Assyrian.

For the Jew this was almost an unforgivable sin. It was, in fact, forbidden in the Old Testament. Therefore, in the eyes of the pure-blooded Jews who remained in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, those who remained in the north actually lost their right to be considered Jews at all and forfeited their heritage. In time the same type of defeat that had resulted in the captivity of the Northern Kingdom also befell the south. The southern Jews did not lose their identity, however. Babylon did the conquering. There was a seventy-year long captivity.

Nevertheless, when the exiles returned at the end of that period and began to rebuild their city and its temple, these people were still Jewish and were proud of their heritage. Perhaps for this reason and perhaps also because of the teaching of the law, the southern Jews refused help in rebuilding the temple when such help was offered to them by the Samaritans in about 450 BC. In anger the Samaritans then build their own temple on Mount Gerizim in Samaria, contrary to the law. This was the temple to which the Samaritan woman referred. Eventually this became a rival temple, and the religion of the Samaritans became a rival religion.

See you at Calvary on Sunday at 9:00 and 10:45am as we learn about what it means to "worship in spirit and in truth." Be sure to read and pray over John 4:1-26 to be ready.

Most of the information in this post is from James Montgomery Boice's commentary, "The Gospel of John."

The Persecuted Church | Philippines

2009-05-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Persecuted Church | Philippines

Fast Facts
Population:90,544,498
Literacy: 95%%
Official Language: Filipino (based on Tagalog), English
All Languages: 169
Languages with Scriptures: 8 full Bible, 52 New Testament, 37 portions, 44 works in progress
Average Income: 4% of USA

Economy
A mixed agricultural and industrial economy. High population growth, widespread corruption, protectionism, social and political unrest, two guerrilla wars and a series of natural disasters have played havoc with the economy, causing widespread poverty and unemployment. The uncontrolled crime wave and series of kidnappings along with the closing of US military bases in 1992 have cut aid and inhibited foreign investment. The Asian economic crisis of 1997 was a further setback. Between 32% and 50% live below the poverty line.

Politics
A Spanish colony from 1565 to 1898; hence the Catholic majority and many Spanish customs. Ruled by the USA until independence in 1946. Martial law imposed in 1971 to combat Communist subversion; the country became virtually a one-party republic. Political manipulation, mismanagement and abuse of civil liberties stimulated antipathy to the Marcos regime and led to its downfall in 1986. Democratic rule since then, but none have adequately addressed the need for land reform, for taming the excesses of the military, for limiting the power o the elite and ending the Muslim secessionist and Marxist guerrilla wars. The Philippines is a member of ASEAN. President Estrada’s time in office ended in 2001 due to public indignation at corruption. A new government is now trying to consolidate power, gain democratic credibility and bring in reforms.

Religion
Freedom of religion. The Catholic Church wields enormous influence. The Muslim minority in Mindanao seeks to set up an independent Islamic state in the south.

Persecution
Persecution of Christians is increasingly common. Several Muslim terrorist organizations in the Philippines have been linked to Al Qaeda. Islamic terrorists are believed to be responsible for several bombings in train stations, on buses and other areas in Mindanao. On April 15, 2008, an unknown gunman shot Pastor Vic who worked with Muslims and tribal people in Mindanao. The Muslims who lived in the houses around him had pressured him to join the Islamic faith. The terrorists believe killing a Christian will allow them into heaven.

Sources
Operation World - http://www.operationworld.org/
Voice of the Martyrs - http://www.persecution.com/

The Persecuted Church | Laos

2009-04-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Persecuted Church | Laos

Fast Facts
Population: 6,964,623
Literacy: 57%
Official Language: Lao
All Languages: 92
Languages with Scriptures: 10 full Bible, 8 New Testament, 11 portions, 16 works in progress.
Average Income: 1.3% of USA

Economy
Subsistence agricultural economy with a growing tourist trade. The Vietnam war and its aftermath combined to make Laos the poor region of Southeast Asia. The economy is slowly opening up to market forces, but not enough to counteract high inflation, a weak currency, and profit-skimming by those in power.

Politics
Independent from France in 1954, Lao and Vietnamese Communist forces were in complete control by 1975. There is a history of anti-government guerrilla activity in the northwest which has increased since 1998. The government leans heavily on Vietnam for policy direction, but indications are that many Laotians desire otherwise. The Communist leaders are still in full political control despite economic liberalization.

Religion
Communist persecution of Christians was especially harsh between 1975 and 1978. Restrictions eased after that time, though the churches are still seen as potentially subversive, and are watched. Buddhism is regaining some of its old influence, but is heavily syncretized with animism. In the late 1990s persecution significantly increased and the government is intent on the complete elimination of any Christian presence in the country.

Persecution
The situation in Laos in particularly volatile at present. On February 14th, 2008, a Khmu church was burned down in Laos. Police refused to help when called. Bravely, believers held a service among the building’s ashes two days later. Another Christian, Boon Chan, has been held in prison for nine years. It has become common practice to evict Christians from villages. On March 18, two groups of pastors were leaving the country to attend Christian meetings in nearby Thailand. The first group made it. The second group of eight Khum pastors from Oudomxay province was followed by the Laotian police. The pastors were searched, and all of their belongings were confiscated. All were arrested and imprisoned in their home province.

Sources
Operation World - http://www.operationworld.org/
Voice of the Martyrs - http://www.persecution.com/

The Persecuted Church | Indonesia

2009-04-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Persecuted Church | Indonesia

Fast Facts
Population: 239,026,778
Literacy: 83.8% and rising steadily
Official Language: Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). Its increasing use is both unifying the nation and lessening the importance of smaller languages to the younger generation.
All Languages: 726 (18 spoken by more than 1 million speakers)
Languages with Scriptures: 20 full Bible, 38 New Testament, 77 portions
Average Income: 1.4% of USA

Economy
Increasingly diversified economy based on oil, gas, forest products, agriculture and textiles, with large reserves of many minerals. Steady economic improvement of 30 years came to a stunning halt in the Asian economic crisis which began in 1997. The large devaluation of the local currency led to inflation and a reduction in living standards. In 1996 11% of the population lived below the poverty line, but by 2000 it was 48%. Economic recovery is hampered by endemic corruption, the continuing strength of anti-democratic forces, the spread of sectarian (largely Islamist) violence and lack of bank and debt restructuring. These hold back the inflow of international aid and finance. Environmental damage has been immense with widespread deforestation in Sumatra, Kalimantan and elsewhere. Inflation was reduced to 5% by 2000.

Politics
Colonial rule by Portuguese (1511-1605), Dutch (1605-1942, 1945-9), British (1807-1815) and Japanese (1942-45). The populist President Sukarno ruled for 22 years until deposed by General Suharto after the abortive Communist coup in 1965. President Suharto sought to bring economic growth while crushing political dissent. The economic crisis in 1997 was the spark that led to Suharto’s downfall, following large demonstrations against the corruption and nepotism of the regime. The transition to a popularly elected government in 1999 has been traumatic. The government has been strongly opposed by an alliance of powerful extremists in both the military and Islamic parties. Both groups manipulate ethnic and religious differences to protect or strengthen their economic and political power base and discredit the democratic movement. The appalling human rights record of the government and army threatens Indonesia with possible disintegration. There are strong secessionist movements; the most serious being in Aceh (Sumatra) where thousands have perished in 10 years of bitter fighting; and East Timor (Timor Lorosae) where independence and then devastation resulted in 1999.

Religion
Monotheism and communal peace are the basis for the stated government ideology of Pancasila. All citizens must choose one of five religions: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Christianity (Protestant or Catholic). The numerical and political strength of Islam has been increasingly exercised since 1990 to give it preferential treatment, limit Christian expansion, and reduce Christian influence in public life. There are, therefore some restrictions imposed on evangelism and many Christians seek to avoid antagonizing the Muslim majority.

Persecution
During the last 40 years the number of evangelicals has grown from 1.3 million to 1.5 million. Following this growth has been an increase in persecution. On May 2, 2008, Muslim warriors attacked the Christian village of Horale, on the north part of Seram Island. At 4 a.m., the attackers besieged the village from the sea, burning homes and throwing bombs. They dragged a 47-year-old woman from her home and smashed her skull with an ax. Next they killed her si-year-old granddaughter with a machete swipe to the stomach. Many churches were closed in 2008. Muslim protestors stopped worship services at Love Evangelical Beth Church in Sumatra on February 15th, 2008. Similarly, in Banten province on the island of Java, on February 8, 2008, a mob of Muslim youths marched on a house that also served as the place of worship for the Indonesia Pentacostal Church Kalibaru. The largest Christian seminary in the country was also attacked on July 26 and 27, 2008. The attack by a Muslim mob on the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology injured about 20 students and left the rest of the students to sleep in tents and the school to conduct classes at a campground. Yet even with the increase in persecution, Indonesia has experienced a greater unity among the Body of Christ. A national prayer movement has spread and more evangelism is occurring among Indonesians.

Sources
Operation World - http://www.operationworld.org/
Voice of the Martyrs - http://www.persecution.com/

The Persecuted Church | China

2009-04-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Persecuted Church | China

Fast Facts
Population: 1,356,939,193
Literacy: 81.5%
Official Language: Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese); local languages in the five Autonomous Regions
All Languages: 470
Languages with Scriptures: 13 full Bible, 13 New Testament, 16 portions, 24 works in progress
Average Income: 2.7% of USA

Economy
The Cultural Revolution with its application of an extreme Marxist economic system was a fiasco. Since 1978, the see-saw conflict between the hardliners and pragmatists within the Communist government has been reflected in the degree of economic liberalization pursued. First agriculture and then much industry was privatized with dramatic improvements in food production, consumer goods and living standards. Massive growth in the 1980s and somewhat slower growth in the ‘90s have partially restored China’s industrial might after two centuries of eclipse to become the 8th largest economy in the world. The greatest growth has been in Hong Kong’s hinterland and more recently in most coastal cities. Fear of political liberalization, widespread corruption and unwillingness to deal with large state and army-run industries is holding back growth. The massive increase in unemployment and widespread poverty could create serious social unrest. Unemployment is officially 4.8%, but it is estimated that the urban labor surplus is 18% and rural 30%. This means about 200 million without a meaningful income.

Politics
This great and ancient nation has regained its place of importance in the world after nearly two centuries of decline and humiliation at the hands of the Western powers and Japan. After the final conquest of mainland China in 1949, the Communist Party remolded the nation along Marxist lines. The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) was the culmination of Mao’s policy. It caused immeasurable suffering and economic chaos. Intellectuals and religious believers were cruelly persecuted. It is estimated that 20 million Chinese lost their lives during that time. The death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and discrediting of radical leftists in 1978 was followed by a more pragmatic leadership under Deng. He initiated a series of economic, political and cultural reforms and developed links with other nations, but all within the limits set by Deng. The crushing of the 1989 student protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and also the collapse of Communism in Europe and the USSR left China diplomatically isolated as the oldest surviving Communist regime. The threatened government responded with a reversion to ideological rigidity and repression of all political, ethnic and religious dissent. Economic reform with tight political control has been government policy during the 1990s. In 1997 and 1999 Hong Kong and Macau reverted to Chinese rule. China’s growing economic strength could be directed at the absorption of Taiwan, seizure of island archipelagos in the South China Sea and possibly other surrounding countries. Russia’s under-populated Siberia could also come under pressure from over-populated China.

Religion
Elimination of all religious groups has always been the ultimate aim of the Marxist government. I the 1950s the government engineered the infiltration, subversion, and control of all organized Christianity. By 1958 this had been achieved through the Three Self Patriotic Movement among Protestants, and the Catholic Patriotic Association among Catholics. During the Cultural Revolution even these puppet structures were banned, and all religious activity forced underground, giving birth to the house church movement. In 1978 restrictions were eased and TPSM and CPA resurrected as a means of regaining governmental control of the thousands of house churches. This has been only partially successful. The collapse of Communism in Europe is perceived as due to ‘religion’, so strict controls are maintained over Christian and Muslim organizations and all unregistered activity repressed wherever possible.

The Communist Party claims that there are 100 million ‘believers’ in the five recognized religions (Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism) with 85,000 registered meeting places and 300,000 religious personnel. The actual figures probably double this.

The beliefs of the Chinese and many minorities are a blend of folk religions, Daoism and Buddhism. The Buddhists are of three major strands: Mahayana and Theravada among the Chinese and southern peoples such as the Dai, Zhaung, Manch, etc., and Lama Buddhism among the Tibetan and Mongolian peoples of the west and north.

Islam is dominant in Xinjiang and Ningxia, and is the major religion of the Hui, Uygur, Kyrgyz, Kazak, Dongziang, etc. The severe suppression of the Falun Gong sect in 1999 onwards has also greatly intensified persecution of the Christian networks outside the TSPM.

Persecution
More Christians are in prison or under detention in China than in any other country. The house church movement (unregistered churches), which comprises approximately 90% of China’s Christians, endures unimaginable persecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel, no matter the cost. China continued its crackdown against Christians and missionaries in 2008, as they sought to purge the country of religion before hosing the Olympic Games. Officials pressured house churches and drove Christian leaders from Beijing. Church property and Bibles were confiscated. Christians were harassed, questioned, arrested and imprisoned. Christians in prison are routinely beaten and abused. House Church Alliance President Zhang “Bike” Mingzuan was repeatedly detained, arrested, and driven from his home. Pastor Bike was eventually released but the persecution did not end. His family is still harassed by Chinese officials. Many other house church leaders remain in detention.

Sources
Operation World - http://www.operationworld.org/
Voice of the Martyrs - http://www.persecution.com/

The Persecuted Church | Burma

2009-04-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Persecuted Church | Burma (Myanmar)

Fast Facts
Population: 50,902,661
Literacy: 83%
Official Language: Burmese
All Languages: 107
Languages with Scriptures: 2 full Bible, 10 New Testament, 16 portions.
Average Income: 8% of USA

Economy
Burma is rich in natural resources, but ravaged by the greed of its rulers. Few countries have been so effectively plundered and impoverished by its own leaders. The large teak forests are being stripped. The most successful export is opium, producing over 50% of the world’s supply from the so-called Golden Triangle in the Lao-Thai border region.

Politics
The country has known little peace since the Japanese invasion of World War II, in 1942. Independent from Britain in 1948 as a Federal Union of seven districts and seven ethnic minority states. Insensitivity of the central government to the aspirations of ethnic minorities provoked unrest and bitter ethnic wars in nine areas. Popular demands for democratic rule opened the way for elections in 1990. The opposition party won 85% of the seats, but the military regime refused to hand over the power. The secretive military junta, the ‘State Peace and Development Council’, has turned Myanmar into a prison with widespread human rights abuses and killings, forced labor, rape and imprisonment used as tools of repression. Most of the democratic leaders have been arrested, exiled, or killed.

Religion
Officially Buddhism is no longer the state religion, but the military regime actively promotes it. Theoretically, there is freedom of religion, but because Christianity is strong among the restive ethnic minorities there is much discrimination against Christians. There have been many cases of enforced conversions to Buddhism and violence against rural Christians.

Persecution
The government of Burman continues to discourage, harass and use other, more severe, forms of persecution on any group it considers harmful to the state. Christianity is high on the list, though the government claims freedom of religion in Burma. A secret memo entitled “Program to destroy the Christian religion in Burma,” details point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out. It calls for anyone caught evangelizing to be imprisoned. There are widespread reports of churches being burned, forcible conversion of Christians to Buddhism and Christian children barred from schools. Ethnic Christians, in particular, are singled out for repression because of the government’s goal to create a uniform society of one language, one ethnicity and one religion.

Sources
Operation World - http://www.operationworld.org/
Voice of the Martyrs - http://www.persecution.com/

Imitate Their Faith

2009-04-26T19:08:00.005-04:00

As I've said before, greatness is not in the man, but in the one whom the man serves. That is why Scripture tells us that we should imitate the faith of faithful men and women who have gone before us; not because of the appeal of their celebrity, but because of the One in whom they place their trust.

After the Desiring God pastors conference in February, John Piper (of Bethlehem Baptist Church) sat down with Matt Chandler (of The Village Church) for a conversation. It takes about an hour to listen to all four parts, but it is well worth the time.

Part 1 - Chandler tells his story up to about 20 years old.
Part 2 - More on Chandler's story, through becoming a pastor.
Part 3 - Chandler's thoughts on being a pastor, a Calvinist, and a Complementarian.
Part 4 - Chandler and Piper finish up with some advice for pastors.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. (Hebrews 13:7)

True Love

2009-04-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

This is one of the most moving videos I've ever seen...

"True Love" HD wide angle from Northland Media Design on Vimeo.

More Thoughts from The Gospel Coalition

2009-04-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Day Three - It's a short conference day as The Gospel Coalition wraps up...

Thursday 23 April 2009: 9:00 am Worship; 9:30 am Session 9: Ligon Duncan, “Finishing Well” (2 Timothy 4:6-22); 10:30 am Break; 11:00 am Session 10: Don Carson, "'That By All Means I Might Win Some': Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

We'll be spending the afternoon visiting Moody Bible Institute, and then heading back to Avon Lake.

Aside from the many sermons, breakout sessions, and blogging training, yesterday was a deeply challenging day for all of us, particularly because of the words of C.J. Mahaney and John Piper. C.J. spoke on "The Pastor's Charge" to shepherd the flock of God, always remembering that he himself is one of the Good Shepherd's beloved sheep. The call of a pastor to shepherd is a temporary call, until the Good Shepherd returns.

C.J. also spoke on the manner in which shepherding should occur...that it should be done both skillfully and joyfully. Many (and perhaps even most) occupations do not require this...we don't particularly care if our dentist cleans our teeth joyfully, provided that he cleans our teeth well. We don't care if the surgeon operates joyfully, provided that the tumor is fully removed. This is not so with the pastor...the pastor must preach the Word accurately, skillfully, and passionately, and he must also do it joyfully. As 1 Peter tells us, it should "not be under compulsion, but willingly."

And what is the motivation for doing this? It is the hope of glory. We can preach, pray, love, and stay because we have hope of heaven. If you lose sight of THE Day, you will grow weary today.

John Piper spoke last evening in a Q&A Panel, and offered a challenging charge to Pastor's as well. He said leadership happens by teaching. The Bible only becomes the center of the ministries when the ministries are taught and fed in every single meeting. There’s way too much preaching that merely hovers over the text, which means you're drawing attention to yourself and your insights, instead of the text itself. He also said that the main reason we lose expository preaching because it’s hard, and because we lack confidence in God. If it bores you, it will bore your people. Linger over words before you jump to commentaries and books. Stay close to Scripture until it is on fire in your soul. Bowl people out of the water with the relevance of this book.

Piper closed with some final thoughts about ministry and family. Of all the many struggles in ministry, the greatest sorrows are not from the church, but from family. You’ll never be happier than your unhappiest child. Piper told stories of the battles he and his wife have faced, and how God spoke to Him through His Word about the importance of daily telling of the good deeds that God has done. So many times we preach the gospel from the pulpit, but not at the dinner table. Speak the Gospel and Good News into your family. Verbally good news your children.

I'll share some more thoughts from these men when I get home. It's been an incredible conference. I can't wait to see what God will do through the 3,500 men and women present.

Check out the video below from Pastor James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Church and a member of the council of The Gospel Coalition...

The Gospel Coalition Serves Pastors

2009-04-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today is Day Two at The Gospel Coalition in Chicago...it will be another busy day, with lots of free books!

Wednesday 22 April 2009: 7:30 am Information Session: Tim Keller and Don Carson; 9:00 am Worship; 9:30 am Session 5: K. Edward Copeland, “Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry” (2 Timothy 3:1-9); 10:30 am Break; 11:00 am Session 6: Bryan Chapell, “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 3:10-4:5); 12:00 pm Lunch Band of Bloggers 2009; 2:00 pm Workshops: Session 1; 3:15 pm Break; 3:45 pm Workshops: Session 2; 5:00 pm Dinner; 7:00 pm Session 7: Ajith Fernando, “Gospel-Faithful Mission in the New Christendom”; 8:00 pm Session 8: Panel Discussion: Tim Keller, John Piper, Ligon Duncan and Crawford Loritts (chair: Stephen Um)

A few thoughts from yesterday's sessions:

Tim Keller: "The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry"

Truth can be made an idol. Are you resting in the rightness of your doctrine rather than the work of Jesus? If so, the Bible calls you a fool. In Proverbs, "the scoffer" is a person like this. The scoffer is always sure he is right, and always disrespectful, disdainful, and mocking toward his opponents. The internet breeds scoffers, because if you're a scoffer you get more traffic to your blog.

Gifts can be an idol. You can mistake spiritual gifts for spiritual fruit. Especially if you are successful in ministry, you can begin believing in justification by ministry: "I know I'm in God's will because my ministry is going well." Many of us in the Reformed world make an idol out of being a great preacher: "If I could just be a great preacher, then my life would have significance."

Morality can be a religious idol. Holiness is good, but Christians can feel like God loves them and will bless them because of their moral record.

John Piper: "Feed the Flame of God's Gift"

"Keep feeding the white hot flame of God's gift of unashamed courage in speaking about Christ and suffering for the Gospel."
Every minister of the Gospel goes through seasons when they can begin to tend toward cowardice if they neglect feeding the fire, which it's God's power, received through grace in His Word. How does Paul instruct Timothy to fan the flame in 2 Timothy 1:1-12...?
Paul encourages Timothy's authentic faith, speaking to him as a father who loves his beloved son.
Paul gives himself as a pattern for courageous suffering with confidence in God's sustaining grace.
Paul reminds Timothy that grace was given to hi before he was born. God's favor was upon him before anything else was.

Phil Ryken: “The Pattern of Sound Words”

In 2 Timothy 1:13-2:13, Paul gives us:
An apostolic call to faithful ministry (1:13-14).
A personal example of faithful ministry (1:15-18)
A sacred trust committed to faithful men (2:1-2).
Illustrations of faithful work (2:3-7).
A command to remember the faithful Savior (2:8-9).
An encouragement meant to to endure suffering faithfully, for the sake of the elect (2:10-13).

Mark Driscoll: "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth"

There are three types of people:

Positives do gospel things in gospel ways for gospel reasons, bringing health, working for good, and being a blessing because they want the gospel to win. Few people are positives, and remaining one is difficult because it requires dealing with even negative people and negative situations in positive ways.
Negatives do ungospel things in ungospel ways for ungospel reasons, bringing sickness, division, and trouble because they want to win. Sadly, although negatives are not usually the majority, they are often vocal, determined, and well-networked, and therefore, as Charles Spurgeon said, much like bees who swarm into a painful threat.
Neutrals are unsure, confused, fearful, and caught in the middle. They need to be cared for by a positive shepherd or they will turn into negatives. Most people are neutrals and are swayed by the friends they keep, leaders they follow, and information they believe, and they need to grow in discernment and pursue wise friends.
Young men, in particular, need to be careful that they be both faithful and passionate, not merely passionate. Responding to critics can be an opportunity for either sanctification or a cause of sinful bitterness and jealousy. Respond, as Paul says, by "correcting opponents with gentleness," so that they, and more importantly, we ourselves, might enjoy the fruit of Godly repentance.

The video below is from C.J. Mahaney, founding pastor of Covenant Life Church and author of "The Cross-Centered Life."

What is the Gospel?

2009-04-21T08:00:00.007-04:00

Hello from The Gospel Coalition. Please be in prayer for us, at it will be a VERY busy day.

Tuesday 21 April 2009: 10:00 am Registration Opens; 1:30 pm Introduction, Worship; 2:00 pm Session 1: Tim Keller, “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry” (Acts 19:21-41); 3:00 pm Break; 3:30 pm Sung Worship; 4:00 pm Session 2: John Piper, "Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel" (2 Timothy 1:1-12); 5:00 pm Dinner; 7:00 pm Session 3: Phil Ryken, “The Pattern of Sound Words” (2 Timothy 1:13-2:13); 8:00 pm Session 4: Mark Driscoll, “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:14-26)

You can follow along with the entire conference live over at Christianity.com. Check out the video below from John Piper, preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church and founder of Desiring God. He'll be speaking today at 4pm (Central).

What the Church in America Needs

2009-04-20T08:00:00.003-04:00

Today is our travel day to Chicago. We'll be leaving at 8:30am, and making a few pit stops on our way to The Gospel Coalition.

We're stopping at Willow Creek Community Church to check out their bookstore, and get a tour of their incredible facility. They do some incredible things for Jesus' fame.
We're having dinner with some great friends from Chicago, and then stopping by our old stomping grounds at Calvary Community Church in Schaumburg. I have some great memories here...not the least of which is that it is at Calvary that I became a Christian.
For the very curious, you can read the program for The Gospel Coalition here.

The video below is from D.A. Carson, one of the founders of The Gospel Coalition and a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, on the topic of "What the Church in America Needs."

The Potential of The Gospel Coalition

2009-04-19T18:00:00.003-04:00

This week the pastoral staff from Calvary is headed to The Gospel Coalition in Chicago. I won't be blogging, but I will post a few videos to keep you updated on what's going on, as well as the conference schedule. Please be in prayer for us, that we would learn, grow, and be more captivated by the truth of the Gospel.

Don't Waste Your Life

2009-04-18T20:52:00.002-04:00

Reach Records' official Don't Waste Your Life music video is below. The DG video team produced and edited it.

You can also check out the DWYL Tour website to see if they are coming to your city.

HT: Justin Taylor

The Shack | On the Sovereignty of God in Suffering

2009-04-18T08:00:00.004-04:00

The Sovereignty of God in Suffering

I tread lightly in this area of suffering in The Shack. Young’s words have brought hope to many thousands, if not millions of people. He is able to relate to suffering and hurting readers because of his brutal honesty. His dealing with the harsh and calloused feelings of Mack’s grief in times of suffering are what cause us to be able to relate, and even put ourselves in this story.

Even the subtitle of The Shack wants us to know that we will be speaking of the age old questions, the problem of God and evil: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity. What is the reason for all this suffering in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? Young sets out to answer a question that has perplexed, or even haunted the brightest of minds and most tender of souls.

So what is the answer to all this suffering? Why so much evil in the world? Let’s examine Young’s views, as presented in The Shack.

He begins in the right direction. “A created being can only take what already exists and from it fashion something different…But when I created it, it was only Good, because that’s is just the way that I am” (page 131). Here “Sarayu,” who is the Holy Spirit in Young’s story, echoes the creation story, where everything created by God is good and glorious.

He goes on, still on the right track, saying that we’ve pursued our own independence. “You humans, so little in your own eyes. You are truly blind to your own place in the Creation. Having chosen the ravaged path of independence, you don’t even comprehend that you are dragging the entire Creation along with you” (page 132). So the sin of humanity is the cause of the destruction and evil in the world. Our independence from God’s will is the cause our demise.

But why does God allow this to take place? Here is where Young begins to stray from Biblical teaching. On page 145, Jesus says that genuine relationships are marked by love. “To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do…That’s the beauty you see in my relationship with Abba and Sarayu. We are indeed submitted to one another and have always been so and always will be. Papa is as much submitted to me as I to him, or Sarayu to me, or Papa to her. Submission is not about authority and it is not about obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect. In fat, we are submitted to you in the same way.”

Submitted to us? God is submitted to humans? Mack is obviously taken back by this statement and questions Jesus’ words. Jesus answer “We want you to join us in our circle of relationship. I don’t want slaves to my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me.”

The concept that Young is here and many other places asserting with complete confidence is that of free will; that God has so submitted Himself to the choices of mankind that He has no influence or power of their decisions. As is often the case, Young argues in The Shack that free will is the necessary result of love. To have anything but free will is to remove the possibility for genuine relationship. So Young believes that the cause of suffering and evil in the world is purely because of the decisions of man.

While this is sometimes the case, and explains much of the suffering that we experience on a day‐to‐day basis, sometimes there is suffering and evil that is unexplainable and that reaches into the realm of unexplainable mystery. Young wants us to believe that all evil is senseless and can only be attributed to the sins of man. He ignores the fact that sometimes God uses evil for His purposes.

This is the glory of the Christian faith. God is not ignorant of our suffering, and He is not immune to our suffering. In fact, in the person of Jesus, God enters into human history to live and suffer as we do, experiencing spiritual death so that we would not need to. No other religion offers a Savior who becomes like the ones He will save.

John Piper says “The ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. The suffering of the utterly innocent and the infinitely holy Son of God in the place of the utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be.”

“This was the moment—Good Friday—for which everything in the universe was planned. In conceiving a universe in which to display the gory of his grace, God did not choose Plan B. There could be no greater display of the glory of the Grace of God than what happened at Calvary. Everything leading to it and everything flowing from it is explained by it, including all the suffering in the world.”

The Shack | On the Church

2009-04-17T08:00:00.004-04:00

The Church

William Young makes it quite clear in The Shack that he has some baggage when it comes to the church. It is no surprise after reading the book that after attending seminary, he now no longer participates in a local church. And isn’t that the view The Shack is espousing? It seems that Young’s entire argument is to say that the church isn’t necessary, but God will reveal Himself apart from the local body of believers.

Young also is not very fond of theological education or systems. But instead of coming out and saying it, he has “Papa” God say it. “Don’t you remember your seminary classes? These kids ain’t saying anything I haven’t heard before; they’re just full of vinegar and fizz. Lots of anger and, I must say, with some good reason too. They’re just some of my kids, showin’ and spoutin’ off” (page 91).

So why is it that Young is against the church? He’s already told us: It’s because he believes that all authority and submission is evil. Page 122 notes:

Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or ‘great chain of being’ as your ancestors termed it…Hierarchy would make no sense among us…Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it.

So in Young’s view, if there is no authority in the Trinity, there should be no authority in the church. But does this line up with Scripture?

Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

But this is not possible in Young’s view of the church. In The Shack, Jesus says, “It’s all about relationships and simply sharing life. What we are doing right now—just doing this—and being open and available to others around us. My church is all about people and life is all about relationships. You can’t build it. It’s my job and I’m actually pretty good at it” (page 178).

Young wants relationships to be built, and growth to occur, but expects this to happen outside of the local body of believers and the accountability of called and gifted men and women in leadership positions, submitted to the authority of God. How does one “Obey your leaders and submit to them,” as Scripture says, if there is no such thing as leadership and submission in the church?

The Shack | On the Way to Salvation

2009-04-16T08:00:00.006-04:00

If you're just joining in, I'd encourage you to read the Intro, Part One, Two, and Three...

The Way to Salvation
Scott Lindsey posted a review of The Shack at The Resurgence. In it, he notes that among other concerns in The Shack, William Young has God say that He has already reconciled the whole world to Himself. Young’s position is that the world has been redeemed from God’s side, but we must embrace it from ours. This is okay, in a sense that might be true, but if taken too far it sounds like everybody is going to heaven. This is the danger of Young’s words.

Of even greater danger is that Young puts his view and portrays them as the very words of God, who is called “Papa” in The Shack. “All I am telling you is that reconciliation is a two way street, and I have done my part, totally, completely, finally. It is not the nature of love to force a relationship but it is the nature of love to open the way.”

Then Young portrays Jesus as saying “Who said anything about being a Christian? I’m not a Christian…Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don’t vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have followers who were murderers and many who were self‐righteous. Some are bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraqis, Jews and Palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my beloved.” (page 182)

This seems like a compelling argument. But what does it really mean? If it means that God calls sinners to repentance no matter what their background, then we can all agree. But Young means more than this. He is intentionally leaving open the option that God can make Muslim Christians, or Buddhist Christians. Certainly, God can (and by His grace, often DOES) call Muslim and Buddhist men and women to Himself, but He does this by means of faith in Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross, taking the wrath of God in our place.

So we rightly can ask that “What does this mean?” If all are reconciled to God, is there a need for personal trust and faith in this finished work of Christ? Or will all ultimately be saved? Young is intentionally ambiguous on this point, because he just doesn’t know the answer, as he says in an interview.

If, as Young argues, we are already reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18), why does the same passage continue: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (5:21)?

Challies notes the The Shack muddles this concept of redemption and reconciliation:

Redemption, according to Young is not something that happened once for all on the cross. Rather, he claims that God has already forgiven all men for their sin, but that it remains for humans to accept this forgiveness. “In Jesus, I have forgiven all humans for their sins against me, but only some choose relationship” (page 225). “When Jesus forgave those who nailed him to the cross they were no longer in his debt, nor mine. In my relationship with those men, I will never bring up what they did, or shame them, or embarrass them” (page 225). Only when men choose to embrace God’s offer of forgiveness will they be redeemed.

Challies concludes with these helpful words:

Taken together, Young’s muddying of redemption and his incomplete gospel message presents a troubling view of salvation. The Shack certainly does not make plain what is made plain in the Bible—that Jesus Christ is the one and the only way to be reconciled to the Father and this only by faith in Him. The book presents less than the full gospel message. It teaches that God died for the sins of the whole world and that He now waits for us to respond to this potential gift. It teaches that God does not punish sin but that sin is sufficient punishment in itself. It opens the possibility that people can come to God in ways other than a saving faith in Jesus Christ. It obfuscates the doctrine of salvation that the Bible makes so clear and so central. It muddies the very heart of the faith.

Universal salvation, quite simply, is not Biblical. This is why the message of the gospel, that God, in His infinite wisdom, sent Jesus Christ to take the penalty for our sins so that, by faith, we might be reconciled to Him, must be foremost in our minds. This is why the gospel has urgency, because man is appointed to “to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Salvation is secured in Jesus, by faith, and it must be done so before death.

The Shack | On the Atonement

2009-04-15T08:00:00.005-04:00

The Atonement
From the outset, The Shack presents us with what seems to be a view of substitutionary atonement. Missy’s (Mack’s daughter) favorite children’s story is of an Indian Princess, the daughter of the chief of the Multanomah tribe, who sacrificed her own life by jumping off a waterfall in the firm belief that it would save her people from the terrible illness they were facing (page 28‐29).

This story of substitutionary atonement in The Shack is a beautiful picture of what God has done for us in Jesus, but does it go far enough? Does it fully explain was Jesus accomplished for us?

Scripture presents Jesus as the one who not only takes our place, but he takes our punishment. He actually bears the wrath of God for our sake, because of our sin.

Theologians call this penal substitutionary atonement, or “the view that Christ in his death bore the just penalty of God for our sins as a substitute for us” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, page 1251). Many have called this the very heart of the gospel; to remove this doctrine and deny that Christ has taken your punishment is to stray from Christianity.

Young denies the reality of penal substitution not only by implying it through his characters in The Shack, but by explicitly saying it in an interview. On page 120, Papa says “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.”

Young argues that every motivation in God must be out of love. This is true, as it is an essential element of His nature. However we must ask what motivates God’s love? Is it, as Young would argue, merely an intense love for His creation? Or is it, as the Bible teaches, a passionate, all‐consuming, universe altering love for His own glory? Love is certainly the motivation, but our answer to these questions determines how we will view even our suffering.

Scripture presents the suffering of Jesus as suffering the wrath of God, for our sins. He takes on the full weight of our guilt so that we might be forgiven, viewed by God in the perfection and holiness of Jesus. By faith, we trade the death that we have earned for the life that Jesus offers.

Consider these words from Scripture:

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

…yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:24‐25)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3)

These verses make it painfully clear that God the Father does punish sin, and He has done so in the person of Jesus Christ. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

So a view such as Young’s is incredibly dangerous, because it leaves us wondering why the suffering of Jesus took place in the first place? If it is not for our sins, is it merely an example to us of selfless service? If it is not to take the wrath of God, why would Jesus plead that the cup of God’s wrath be taken from Him? And if it does not bear the death that we deserve because of sin, who will do so?

Penal Substitutionary Atonement is at the heart of the Gospel. This is not one of the finer points of theology…it is at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. To deny it is to deny the power of the cross. Love is the ultimate motivation, but it does not eliminate God’s holiness, justice and wrath. If you want to know the love of God, you must look to the cross, where Jesus took our punishment…where He took your punishment.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The Shack | On the Trinity

2009-04-14T08:00:00.011-04:00

The Trinity
There is no greater question a person can face than what Jesus asked in Matthew 16:15. “But who do you say that I am?” William Young attempts to answer this question in his book, The Shack, by presenting the Godhead, also known as the Trinity.

Without a doubt, explaining the Trinity is not only difficult, but it remains very much a mystery. The great ancient theologian Augustine said, “If you deny the Trinity, you lose your soul. If you try to explain it, you lose your mind.” Yet it remains that the Scriptures portray the Godhead in this way, and it has become a foundational belief of the Christian faith since Tertullian in the 2nd Century. Father, Son, and Spirit relate to one another in perfect unity: three persons, but one God.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) summarizes the doctrine of the Trinity by saying, “In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost (or Spirit).”

For those who are unfamiliar with the story of The Shack, three years after the kidnapping and assumed murder of his daughter, Missy, Mack receives a letter (page 16) from God, “Papa,” that simply reads:

Mackenzie,
It’s been a while. I’ve missed you.
I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together.
-Papa

With much confusion and apprehension, Mackenzie sets out on his trip to the shack, where he finds evidence of his daughter’s brutal murder. Perhaps more importantly, Mackenzie is also confronted by the Trinity. God is represented as Papa, a large African‐American woman; Jesus is in the form of a man of Middle‐Eastern descent and the Holy Spirit is portrayed as an Asian woman named Sarayu (pages 82‐84).

Is God Gender Neutral?
Quickly, we’re confronted with a view of God that is quite different than what most Americans think today. Why has Young chosen to present God as a woman? Is this even significant? How can this help our relationship with God? How can it hurt? Isn’t this fiction? What’s the big deal?

Young explains in a radio interview that his reason for presenting God this way is to get us outside our stereotypical thinking about who God is and how he relates to us. In Young’s words, God is Spirit (John 4:24), and “He is no more male than female.” So he sets out to break down the labels of who we assume God must be so that we can appreciate who He (or She) might be.

In a sense, Young's point is significant. God is not the great Santa Claus in the sky. And God is not the great Gandolf from The Lord of the Rings. But, truth be told, it is these characters that many Christians base their views upon. So Young is right to expand our perceptions of God far beyond the typical representations of our day.

But as Mark Driscoll explains, if God reveals Himself as Father we are to honor Him as Father, and "not allow ourselves to participate in goddess worship," as The Shack lends itself to. While God is presented at times with motherly care and tenderness, this does not mean that we should worship God as Mother. We should, as Jesus did, worship Him as an Almighty Father (Luke 11:2-4; John 14:7; John 17:1-5; Ephesians 3:13-14).

Is God Role Neutral?
In Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, he explains the different functions of the persons of the Trinity:

So we may say that the role of the Father in creation and redemption has been to plan and direct and send the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is not surprising, for it shows that the Father and the Son relate to one another as a father and son relate to one another in a human family: the father directs and has authority over the son, and the son obeys and is responsive to the directions of the father. The Holy Spirit is obedient to the directives of both the Father and the Son.

Thus, while the persons of the Trinity are equal in all their attributes, they nonetheless differ in their relationship to the creation. The Son and Holy Spirit are equal in deity to God the Father, but they are subordinate in their roles.

This view, however, is most certainly not espoused by Young in The Shack. For instance, page 122 describes the way the Trinity relates to itself:

Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or ‘great chain of being’ as your ancestors termed it…Hierarchy would make no sense among us…Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it.

Thus the view presented in The Shack presents itself contrary to Scripture, where in 1 Corinthians 15:28, Paul tells us, “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” Also consider 1 Corinthians 11:3, John 6:38, and John 8:28 as additional examples.

Why are roles in the Trinity important? Because it is not only foundational in the Godhead, but it is the foundation of the way we relate to one another. We are able to joyfully and lovingly submit and serve one another because we see it perfectly displayed in love when we look at the Trinity. As Tim Challies notes, “Young goes so far as to suggest that submission is inherently evil—that it is possible only where there is sin.” There is most certainly no sin within the Godhead, and there is most certainly role, hierarchy, submission, and authority.

Is God Identity Neutral?
Young presents a view of God that, within the Trinity, maintains such amazing unity that there is no identity and distinction in the persons. One of the first physical attributes that Mack notices about God is “the scars on her wrists, like those he now assumed Jesus also had on his” (page 95). Why is it that that God the Father, or in the case of The Shack, God the Mother, had scars on her wrists.

Young explains through “Papa” that “when we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this created universe, we now became flesh and blood” (page 99).

This is, without question, one of Young’s most significant errors in The Shack. Without understanding the identity of the Trinity, he says that all three members of the Godhead have brought themselves into human history, as human flesh. This is incredibly inaccurate, and does not present that Godhead in any way as Scripture has revealed. The Father did not enter human history as a man. The Father was not born of a virgin. The Father was not crucified for our sins. The Father was not resurrected for our new life. Young makes significant error when he says, “When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human” (page 99). This is, at best, heresy.

Conclusion
The Trinity, in all its perfection and splendor, is a glorious reality to be cherished. Not one of us would or could know God the Father, the all‐powerful God of the universe, without His Son Jesus. Jesus acts as our perfect Mediator; we know God only through Him.

To Young’s credit, he represents the Trinity as the immanent God who is present in our lives, so we are able to have a personal relationship with Him. But he does so at the expense of losing God’s transcendence. God is holy, righteous, omniscient and omnipotent. Like 2 Timothy 3:5, Young’s view of the Trinity has the form of godliness, but without the power.

We would do well to consider Scripture in our formulation of views of the Trinity.

UPDATE: For some other helpful thoughts on this subject, read Gerald Hiestand's review of the The Shack.

The Shack | The Genre

2009-04-13T08:00:00.002-04:00

The Genre: Religious Fiction

Tim Challies, reviewer at “The Discerning Reader,” addresses the fact that The Shack is fiction. He begins his review of the book saying:

The Shack is a fictional tale. Though the story’s narrator is identified as “Willie” (referring to William Young, the book’s author) never is the reader expected to believe that the story is real. Yet though The Shack is fiction, it is clearly intended to communicate theological truths. It is meant to impact the way the reader thinks about God, about love and about life. It is not a book that was written only to share a story, but to share theology.

This is of particular importance as we begin looking into The Shack. There is no doubt that The Shack powerfully portrays the love of a father for his family. In fact, much of the book centers upon Mackenzie Allen Phillips and his grief over his murdered daughter, Missy. She was kidnapped on their family camping trip, and Mack is working through both grief and sorrow, all the while partially blaming himself for his daughter’s disappearance. This fictional tale relates to so many because, in it, they can see themselves.

Where we must be cautiously aware, however, is when we enter the realm of religious fiction. It is one thing to have Mackenzie express ideas about God, because we know that not only is a mere man, he is a made up mere man. It is quite another thing to express ideas about God straight from the mouth of God.

Why is this so? As an illustration, let's think briefly about the realm of art.

If I look at a painting of an apple, for instance, I would be quite right in saying that the painting is not actually an apple. It is a graphical and artistic representation of an apple, but not the real thing. Some would say that this is what Paul Young has attempted to do, giving us an artistic representation of who God is.

But let's think more clearly about the apple. Someone, somewhere, has intentionally painted that picture of the apple to tell us about what he or she believes an apple is really like. Their interpretation of true apples is meant to guide us to believe that their painting really is an apple.

Like the apples, even though this is a fictional story, William Young gives us his representation of who he believes God is. He's telling us what he believes to be true about God's character, actions in human history, and means of salvation of sinful mankind. By his own admission, he is writing the book as a teaching tool about God for his daughters. Thus, while Young's words in The Shack may be fiction, they present his views about truth.

Even from the most discerning of readers, it is easy to allow oneself to simply agree with what God (or in The Shack, “Papa”) says. We must remember that, unlike the Scriptures which speak the perfect, inspired (God‐breathed) and infallible (without error) words of God, The Shack presents the ideas of a man, William Young.

In summary, while The Shack presents itself in the form of a fictional story, it does not excuse itself from being theologically evaluated simply on this basis. Young wrote The Shack as a Christmas gift to teach his children about God. Therefore, fact or fiction, we must see if we can find God in The Shack.

The Shack | Intro

2009-04-12T20:00:00.003-04:00

Introduction

Some books are destined to be best‐sellers. With well‐known authors and high‐power publishing houses, they have the ability to market themselves into success. From the start, The Shack was not supposed to be one of these books.

So how is it that The Shack, written by a salesman from Oregon for his daughter’s Christmas present in 2005 and originally printed on a $300 budget at Kinko’s, has been on the New York Times Bestsellers list for 41 weeks (as of March 11, 2009), and currently resides at #3 on Amazon.com (with 2,739 reviews!)?

This is, some would say, nothing short of a miracle. But in spite of all the hype and even potential of upcoming movie productions of The Shack, there have been mixed reviews since day one.

Eugene Peterson proudly notes that “This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good.” At the same time, Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said in a radio interview that “This book includes undiluted heresy.” So what is it that draws people to enter into The Shack?

No review is without biases, but this does not mean that we should not both critically and charitably evaluate the writings of other men and women. This is especially true in a book like The Shack, which is affecting the spiritual life and vitality of literally millions of readers.

So let us examine The Shack on several points…

The Genre
The Trinity
The Atonement
The Way to Salvation
The Church
The Sovereignty of God in Suffering

I want you to know that I do not think it is inherently wrong to read The Shack. And there are many helpful things to be taken away. Nevertheless, in areas where there is unnoticed error it should be pointed out for the glory of God and the edification of His Church.

Far too often, blogs start controversy over trivial matters, acting as snipers going in for the unnoticed kill, rather than as brothers and sisters who seek to lovingly exhort and rebuke. In light of this, my thoughts have previously been sent via email directly to the author, Paul Young. Controversy is not my intent by any means, but rather contending for the truth of Scripture, the Person of the Trinity, and the glory of God.

I hope you’ll join me in discussion.

A Conversation With Death

2009-04-11T13:19:00.001-04:00

John Piper writes...

CHRISTIAN:

Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me?

I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. Let me ask you a question, Death.

Where is your sting?

DEATH, sneeringly:

My sting is your sin.

CHRISTIAN:

I know that, Death. But that’s not what I asked you. I asked, where is your sting? I know what it is. But tell me where it is.

Why are you fidgeting, Death? Why are you looking away? Why are you turning to go? Wait, Death, you have not answered my question. Where is your sting?

Where is, my sin?

What? You have no answer? But, Death, why do you have no answer? How will you terrify me, if you have no answer?

O Death, I will tell you the answer. Where is your sting? Where is my sin? It is hanging on that tree. God made Christ to be sin—my sin. When he died, the penalty of my sin was paid. The power of it was broken. I bear it no more.

Farewell, Death. You need not show up here again to frighten me. God will tell you when to come next time. And when you come, you will be his servant. For me, you will have no sting.

O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

The Easter Bunny

2009-04-10T20:00:00.003-04:00

The guys over at The Resurgence have written a helpful (and somewhat witty) post on the Easter Bunny...

How in the world did the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, the most sacred and central event in Christianity, come to be represented by a fluffy bunny who lays colored eggs and gives out cheap candy to kids? The Easter Bunny is a commercialized cultural commonplace around the world (though it may be losing ground to the Easter Bilby in Australia), yet for all its familiarity, the Easter Bunny's true origins are a mystery.

Eggs and Bunnies

Eggs and rabbits have been used as traditional symbols of springtime fertility and rebirth by various cultures throughout history. Eggs symbolize new life about to emerge, while hares and rabbits are conspicuous in the spring because they breed—like rabbits. The hare's association with Easter may be a holdover from the ancient pagan spring festivals of Europe. According to Bede, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon church historian, the British pagans used to celebrate a spring feast in honor of the goddess Eostre, who was represented by the hare.

Eostre and the Hare

When Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) sent missionaries to the British Isles, he instructed them to adapt the existing religious places and festivals for Christian use. He wrote, "Since the people are accustomed, when they assemble for sacrifice, to kill many oxen in sacrifice to the devils, it seems reasonable to appoint a festival for the people by way of exchange. The people must learn to slay their cattle not in honor of the devil, but in honor of God and for their own food…" Because the celebration of the Resurrection replaced the old spring feast of Eostre, the Christian holiday came to be called Easter, and Eostre's pet animal the hare apparently came along for the ride.

Osterhase

The first known mention of the actual Easter Bunny comes from Germany in the 1600s, where the cute little guy was known as the Osterhase, or "Oschter Haws." German immigrants came to America with a tradition in which the kids would build nests around the house out of hats and bonnets, and if they had been good children, Osterhase would leave brightly-colored eggs in the nests. The tradition grew and spread over time, and eventually Osterhase turned into the Easter Bunny and began giving out chocolate and candy as well as eggs.

The Resurrection

Easter is still celebrated as a major holiday all around the globe, but the truth of Jesus' gory crucifixion and glorious resurrection is often obscured by the garish cartoon bunny in the stores and the gaudy displays of springtime fashion among the religious. Traditions of cute bunnies, colored eggs, and little girls in pink dresses are harmless enough, but at the same time we must not let anything obstruct our view of the earth-shattering reality represented by Easter. There's nothing cute or cuddly about the fact that we killed God. When we were his enemies, he came to us, suffered in our place through the horror that was Good Friday, and rose from his grave on Easter Sunday so that we will one day rise from ours. The curse is broken, and we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus because we know we will one day experience it (1 Cor. 15:20-23). Let's be joyful, let's never shrink from speaking about Jesus' death and resurrection, and let's never trivialize it.

(HT: The Resurgence)

Why Is Good Friday Good?

2009-04-10T09:30:00.003-04:00

Good Friday is ‘good’ because…

…Jesus was my substitute there upon that blood-stained tree

…Jesus wore the crown of thorns that I might wear the crown of life

…Jesus was scourged that I might be healed

…Jesus was condemned that I might be pardoned

…Jesus was abandoned that I might be accepted

…Jesus was made to be sin that I might become righteous

…Jesus pleased the Father whom I had angered

…Jesus tasted death that I may never taste it

…Jesus drank wrath that I might drink the waters of life

…Jesus died that I may live

…Jesus was showered with judgment he did not deserve that I might be showered with the grace that I do not deserve

…Jesus distinguished himself as the exclusive basis for divine forgiveness

…Jesus purchased eternal redemption through his eternal sacrifice to pay my eternal debt

…Good Friday is good because I am so bad

…and Good Friday is only good because the Savior, our Lord Jesus is so good

(HT Irish Calvinist)

Facebook for the Glory of God | part five

2009-04-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

Narcissistic Temptations

Tim Sweetman asks us a challenging and frightening question: I struggle with what to write for my status update; how often do I struggle with the great depths of God?

If we’re not careful, we can become so wrapped up in ourselves that the only reason we update our status is so that people will comment on it. We hope that people will catch our humor. We hope that people will like us.

If we’re not careful, we’ll find that the reason we upload pictures is that that people find us attractive and captivating.

According to Wikipedia, which has all the right answers for every question (right?), “Narcissism describes the trait of excessive self-love, based on self-image or ego.”

Facebook can quickly be a tool that, instead of connect us with friends and family, is really all about promoting ourselves. And instead of telling God about how we’re doing, we’re telling the rest of the world.

Like Al Mohler has said, “Do all things to the glory of God, and do not allow social networking to become an idol or a display of narcissism.”

So we need to ask ourselves…

If I were to lose Facebook, would it feel like I lost a part of myself? (At this point it has become an idol.)
Is my Facebook account all about me? How can I use it to show love for God and love for others?
Why do I update my status? Is it really a cry for help?

What about you? Does Facebook make you Christ-centered, or self-centered?

Facebook for the Glory of God | part four

2009-04-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

Deceptive Temptations

850 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook every month. It goes without saying that there is great temptation for wasting time, viewing unhealthy images, and being seduced by seductive ads.

But let’s talk about another type of temptation – the temptation to have multiple personalities. We all know it happens: you get so wrapped up in being sure that your Facebook profile presents you in the best light possible that it really describes more the person that you WANT to be, not the person that you ARE.

Maybe that means you describe yourself as a great athlete, when you haven’t played a sport in months. Maybe you’re a great guitar player, but the only band you’ve ever played in is in Guitar Hero. Or maybe you describe yourself as a great Christian, but you haven’t talked to God in months.

Whatever the case, Facebook presents the great temptation to describe ourselves as someone very different than we really are.

So we need to ask ourselves…

Do I say things on Facebook that I would never say in person?
Am I a person of integrity and wholeness with every word I type, every picture I upload, and every application I download?
Is using Facebook causing me to be sexually tempted?
Am I taking the appropriate, biblical measures to fight against these temptations?

What about you? Are you the same person in real life as you are on Facebook?

Facebook for the Glory of God | part three

2009-04-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

Selfish Temptations

Facebook has the potential for incredible benefit. Just recently, I witnessed how Facebook played an integral role in supporting a friend who has cancer, raising nearly $10,000 to help he and his wife in the midst of significant trials.

There’s great potential in Facebook, but it requires great discernment.

As Stephen Altrogge says, “We were made for real, person-to-person relationships. Superpoking, chatting, and throwing snowballs at each other doesn’t constitute biblical fellowship. God created us to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), “meet together” (Heb. 10:25), “rejoice with those who rejoice”, and “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15) This doesn’t usually happen in a meaningful way on Facebook.”

As Al Mohler has rightly said, “Never allow social networking to replace or rival personal contact and communication. God made us to be social creatures that crave community. We cannot permit ourselves to substitute social networking for the harder work of building and maintaining personal relationships that are face to face.”

There’s nothing wrong with the occasional snowball fight. There’s nothing wrong with writing on people’s wall. But real relationships and fellowship are at risk when you prefer finding out about your friends through checking their status, rather than calling them and having a cup of coffee.

So we need to ask ourselves…

Do I invest more time in Facebook relationships than face-to-face relationships?
Does Facebook distract me from caring about people’s real physical and spiritual needs?
How can I use Facebook as a way that will help people know about Jesus?

What about you? Does Facebook help or hinder you from serving others?

Facebook for the Glory of God | part two

2009-04-07T08:00:00.002-04:00

Soul-Killing Temptations

Stephen Altrogge wrote a helpful post on how we can use Facebook to aid in our relationship with God. He says…

Facebook is a source of everlasting entertainment. It’s so easy to bounce from page to page, game to game, photo to photo. It’s mindless, distracting, and somewhat fun. Without self-control, a quick dip into Facebook can turn into a two-hour Internet safari.

Is it wrong to spend two hours on Facebook? Not necessarily. But it has the potential to drain the vitality out of our relationship with the Lord. Can you relate?

Tim Sweetman offers some wise words:

“Essentially Facebook is just one more thing that has shown me how easily I can lose interest in God's Word, the Bible. The words of J.I Packer come to mind: How long is it since you read right through the Bible? Do you spend as much time with the Bible each day as you do even with the newspaper? What fools some of us are! — and we remain fools all our lives, simply because we will not take the trouble to do what has to be done to receive the wisdom which is God's free gift. (Knowing God, pp. 101-102)

If I take the newspaper out and insert Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, e-mail and IM ... I likewise "remain a fool." Perhaps even a bigger fool who wastes not just 30 minutes, but hours upon hours a day pouring himself into an often self-serving and ultimately temporary tool.”

So we need to ask ourselves…

Does using Facebook result in me spending less time with the Lord?
Does it result in me being more distracted in my devotional times?

What about you? How does Facebook help or hinder your relationship with God?

Facebook for the Glory of God | part one

2009-04-06T08:00:00.003-04:00

Are you addicted to boredom?

If you’re on Stalkerbook, I mean Facebook, you might be. Facebook has taught us that we can fix our loneliness with a new application, or a fancy quiz, or an updated status. It’s the ultimate narcissism, keeping us so addicted to ourselves that we can’t help but keep updating over and over and over again. And if you’re mad at me for saying that, then yes, I’m probably talking about you.

With over 175 million Facebook users, I’m going to make the assumption that if you’re not on Facebook, you will be soon. Give it a week or two, and you’ll be either curious enough, or pressured enough, that you’ll cave. And if you’re like me, you’ll have times in your life that you’ll give up Facebook, maybe for a day, maybe for a week, maybe even for a month. But for some reason we keep coming back to this social media giant.

Maybe you know nothing about Facebook, so here’s a few impressive stats:

More than half of Facebook users are outside of college
The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
More than 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
More than 18 million users update their statuses at least once each day

I’m not a Facebook-hater. In fact, I spend a fair amount of time on it. Facebook proclaims that it is to “connect and share with the people in your life.” So let’s talk about if that’s really happening…and in doing so, I think I (and we) can do a better job of using Facebooking for the glory of God.

How? Well, I’m glad you asked. This week we’ll chat a little bit about how (and why) we can use Facebook to honor God, serve others, and be a catalyst for growth.

As Zack Clark has said, “If you have not jumped on the Facebook bandwagon yet you may want to check it out. It is the virtual soap box of choice for millions that want to share their thoughts, opinions, photos, and maybe even their selection from the lunch buffet from earlier in the their day. The big question to ask ourselves as Christians as we use Facebook is, are we using it in a way that is true to 1 Corinthians 10:31? Is it glorifying the Almighty Creator God?”

This week we’ll chat about Facebook, and some of it’s temptations.

Why Believe in the Resurrection?

2009-04-05T20:50:00.002-04:00

THAT'S EASTER Life to Death from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

THAT'S EASTER Death to Life from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

The Missionary Heart of John Calvin | 5

2009-04-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

The missionary efforts of John Calvin provide for the discerning theologian both a model of faithfulness and a marvel at the work of God. As a Christian man and a faithful pastor, Calvin showed that the hearts of men and women are moved by the teaching of the Word of God. For this reason he labored to train effective missionaries who would be reliant upon the Spirit to convict the hearts of their hearers. In turn, God was pleased to work, and in only a short period of time the landscape of Europe and the voice of Reformation theology was forever changed.

Today, we must ask this question: Should the methods of Calvin’s training be modeled by our churches and missions agencies? Should intense, rigorous training be a prerequisite for proclaiming the Word of God in a foreign land? This writer believes that the incredible academic knowledge of the missionaries of Calvin’s day aided especially because they sought to defeat the long-standing reign of Roman Catholicism in France. For that reason it was absolutely essentially to carry with them an academic and scholastic knowledge that far out weighed that of their opponents.

However, if we take Calvin’s doctrine of election into view as we ought, our weapons for advancing the kingdom of God are certainly not merely languages and knowledge; it must be specifically the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So in our day missionary training may vary greatly, but it is the Gospel that must be known, and it is the Gospel that must be preached.

Because after all, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” So we preach, and God works through the mystery of divine grace.

The Missionary Heart of John Calvin | 4

2009-04-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

John Calvin, The Theologian on Mission

The challenges and obstacles of foreign mission work were much greater in the time of Calvin than in our day. With travel easier now in our present time than ever, the efforts of John Calvin and his followers to send missionaries to France and even as far as Brazil should not be quickly overlooked. These monumental milestones in missions were not only a bold move for the sake of the gospel, but also required tremendous time, commitment, and resources. In our day when we make “short-term mission trips” across the globe, we are a far cry from the efforts it would consume to send men across a vastly unexplored ocean.

Far from being disinterested in missions, history reveals that Calvin was enraptured by it. Calvin shows in his sermon on Pentecost that the very reason the Spirit descended upon the apostles was that the gospel might by preached and that God might be known by all the world. It is true, however, that missions efforts of Calvin took different shape than ours today. Calvin’s missionaries were not merely men who wanted to share the Gospel. They were highly trained, well-educated pastors.

While the bulk of Calvin’s attention in Geneva from 1547 to 1555 seems to lay in church discipline and the purification of the church and its membership, these concerns are greatly overshadowed in the years following 1555 by missionary preoccupations. The dispatch of Genevan-trained pastors to announce the Word of God to mushrooming Reformed congregations in France and elsewhere became their primary concern. These missionaries were highly trained, well-educated men who could carefully articulate and persuade people of the truths of Jesus. With great care and secrecy these men were sent off, sometimes to face a martyr’s death. Men were drawn in from France, educated in an incredibly strenuous process, often having to prepare an exegesis of a selected Scripture verse before the Company of Pastors. All of Calvin’s missionaries had to be fully proficient in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, in order to be thoroughly proficient in line by line exegesis of the Scriptures. This should not be altogether surprising, especially in light of cultural and religious context of the 16th Century.

Calvin did not want to send uneducated missionaries back to the dangers of Catholic France. He believed that a good missionary had to be a good theologian first. And so he inspired and educated them. He trained them theologically, tested their preaching ability, and carefully scrutinized their moral character. The candidate was then given a formal letter of accreditation by the Company. At last, under an assumed name and often posing as a travelling merchant, the pastor was sent to a French town which had requested a shepherd from Geneva.

Robert M. Kingdon, whose defining work revolutionized Reformation missions thinking, notes, “The process of placement seems to have occupied most of the Company’s time from 1555 through 1562; practically every page of their registers is devoted to lists of elected men and to various matters pertaining to assignments, or to copies of the subsequent written reports from men sent out. Though the registers are abbreviated and have long and annoying lacunae, they still provide the impression that the pastors were really absorbed in their supervision of the missionary campaign”(emphasis mine).

Thus Geneva was a dynamic center of missionary concern and activity, an axis from which the light of the Good News radiated forth through the testimony of those who, after thorough preparation in this school, were sent forth in the service of Jesus Christ. Geneva itself was a unique city in a unique time, and Calvin took advantage of that fact. In their organization of the mission to France, we see both the missionary genius and the political and social necessity of Calvin’s colleague, Guillaume Farel.

In the early 16th century, he concentrated his preaching in French-speaking Switzerland, specifically the provinces of Berne and Geneva. With the support of these two regions, Farel had the government support for the propagation of the gospel in France. As Kingdon said, “Only through Geneva could Protestants find a relatively sure entry into France.”

Concrete information about the Genevan mission effort in France exists from the year 1555 onwards. The data indicate that by 1555, there were five underground Protestant churches in France. By 1559, the number of these Protestant churches jumped to more than one hundred. The height of this mission effort was 1561, when 151 missions were undertaken involving 142 men. And the official record of the Genevan Register holds that by 1562 there were more than 2,150 churches established in France with approximately three-million Protestant souls in attendance. There is, however, considerable debate regarding some of these numbers. Nevertheless, for a church the size of Geneva’s, which included eight urban and ten rural ministers, this was indeed a mammoth enterprise. Yet it was carried off with little visible strain, except once or twice around 1560 when the Church of Geneva was so short of manpower that a few requests had to be refused.

One of the most impressive evangelism efforts is the missionaries sent to a French colony in Brazil. In The Heritage of John Calvin, John Bratt gives great insight into the efforts of Calvin’s missionaries to work in this land. The Register, which detailed each missionaries training and specific geographic calling, simply states that on Tuesday, August 25, 1556, M. Pierre Richier and M. Guillaume were sent as ministers to Brazil. These two were sent in response to a request from Admiral Coligny, a Huguenot leader. They were to serve as chaplains for a group of Protestants who were going to Brazil to establish a colony, and they would have the opportunity to instruct the natives in the gospel. Jean de Lery, a young shoemaker who was in Geneva as a student of theology who also went on the trip, wrote that upon receiving the request, “the church of Geneva at once gave thanks to God for the extension of the reign of Jesus Christ in a country so distant and likewise so foreign and among a nation entirely without knowledge of the true God.” De Lery is responsible for the detailed account of the mission and was himself an active missionary to the native population during his stay in Brazil.

Though their effort was failed because the group’s leader eventually betrayed them and many others were killed, this attempt should nonetheless be evaluated in several ways: First, as stated before, missionaries to a foreign country (overseas, nonetheless) was an incredible undertaking. The resources which it required should not be overlooked. Second, this again shows the way the Genevan missionaries were trained to see the power of the word. Highly trained men were sent with the intention of preaching the gospel, both to the colonists and to the native people in a land where Christ had not been named. Third, it shows the strategic missionary vision of Calvin and his followers.

Tomorrow, a few concluding thoughts on the missionary heart of John Calvin...

The Missionary Heart of John Calvin | 3

2009-04-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

John Calvin, His Letters

While the theology of Calvin most certainly reveals his heart, there are few places where his compassion can be more greatly seen than in his personal correspondence. In writing to both kings and peasants, Calvin gave words of both encouragement and rebuke. One such case is his letter to the five prisoners of Lyons on May 15, 1553: “But since it appears as though God would use your blood to sign His truth, there is nothing better than for you to prepare yourselves to that end, beseeching Him so to subdue you to His good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever he shall call. But as he hath given you this privilege…it must needs be, in despite of Satan, that your death should resound far more powerfully, so that the name of our Lord be magnified thereby.”(emphasis mine) In the mind of Calvin, the death of the prisoners of Lyons would serve as an awakening to for the faith of those who heard of their sacrifice. Martyrdom was a high calling and a means for the advancement of the Gospel.

Similarly, we also see Calvin’s mission-mindedness in his letter to the Earl of Arran, August 1, 1558: “Inasmuch as but few of us are called, we are the more strictly bound to the Father of mercies, who has looked upon us with compassion to confer on us this special privilege, which no more belonged to us than to the vast number of persons who are denied any part in it, except that by his gratuitous bounty he has been pleased to adopt and elect us. Thus let the poor blinded persons whom you see wandering in darkness be to you a mirror, in which to contemplate the inestimable blessing which has been bestowed on you. I am very glad, Monseigneur, that you have Captain Bourdick with you, who, from the fervent zeal which I have ascertained to be in him for advancing the kingdom of God, will serve you as a good example…we must not, if possible, allow the good beginnings which God has bestowed to fall to the ground, without striving to advance them still further”(emphasis mine).

Lastly, and most significantly, Calvin writes to Venceslas Zeuleger in 1558 on the progress of the gospel dramatically seen in France: “God protects in a miraculous manner the little churches which are scattered up and down France; nay, amid the atrocious threats of our enemies, he gives an increase which no one would ever have dared to hope…the number of the faithful is every where increasing, and already in very many places secret meetings are held.” This quote shows Calvin’s surprise and delight in the advancement of the Gospel. God had worked in ways that he had not even been able to dream of.

Tomorrow, a closer look at Calvin, the theologian on mission...

The Missionary Heart of John Calvin | 2

2009-03-31T08:00:00.002-04:00

John Calvin on Predestination and Mission

Many have argued that the controversial nature of predestination taught by John Calvin requires that it never be spoken of. Especially in our day, missiologists fail to see how the preaching of the Word can correlate with human responsibility. Since many are offended by it, it ought not be taught so that men do not stumble over it. Calvin certainly anticipated this, and while understanding and commending that the mysteries of grace should be “treated with moderation,’ he nevertheless stood firm that any and every doctrine taught in Scripture should be heralded and believed upon with full acceptance.

In no place does John Calvin expound his doctrine of predestination greater than in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, wherein he begins with a daunting warning on the necessity of treading lightly through holy ground of seeking divine wisdom in the area of God’s providence in our salvation. “First then, when they inquire into predestination, let them remember that they are penetrating into the recesses of divine wisdom, where he who rushes forward securely and confidently instead of satisfying his curiosity will enter an inextricable labyrinth. For it is not right that man should with impunity pry into things which the Lord has been pleased to conceal within himself…Those secrets of his will are revealed in his word—revealed in so far as he knew to be conducive to our interest and welfare.”

He defines this doctrine of predestination as the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. The elect thus receive the grace of adoption by faith, though their election does not depend on faith but is prior in time and order. This, he goes on to say, involves not only God’s election of some for eternal salvation but also by necessity it involves his preordination of some for eternal damnation. “Accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.” Calvin argues that we are never fully persuaded of the grace and mercy of God in our salvation until we come to understand eternal election. On this point he says that God has not given the hope of salvation promiscuously, but rather he has specifically given it to some, while rejecting to give it to others.

In contrast, we later see that Calvin believed that we must preach the gospel promiscuously. So, Calvin argues, it is not our right to decide who we preach the gospel to, nor do we have the superior knowledge of eternal salvation to know who God has chosen. Thus, in the mind of Calvin, we must preach to all, that some may be saved.

Moreover, it is the preaching of the gospel which shows who are the elect and the reprobate. Through seeing the response of hearers to the preaching of the Word, God works in the hearts of the elect while the he hardens the hearts of the reprobate. Calvin quotes the words of Augustine: “If every one who has learned cometh, then every one who does not come has not learned. It does not follow, that he who can come does come, unless he have willed and done it; but every one who hath learned of the Father, not only can come, but also comes.” This same point was preached by Calvin in his sermon on Ephesians 1:3-4, where he explains that “Upon the preaching of the gospel in a place, some will be affected with lively faith in their hearts and others will go away as they came without benefiting at all, or else they harden themselves against God and betray the stubbornness that was hidden in them before. What is the reason for this difference? Even this, that God directs the one sort by his Holy Spirit and leaves the other sort in their natural corruption.”

Theologically, it is inaccurate to say that Calvin’s belief in predestination caused his fervency to spread the gospel to diminish. Much to the contrary, Calvin believed that God desires for all men to be saved and by His election assured that some will be. His belief in predestination did not cause him to have a hardened heart toward unbelievers, but rather it moved him toward compassion and grace.

“Since we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, it befits us so to feel as to wish that all be saved. So it will come about that, whoever we come across, we shall study to make him a sharer of peace…even severe rebuke will be administered like medicine, lest they should perish or cause others to perish. But it will be for God to make it effective in those whom He foreknew and predestined.”

Calvin believed, as Paul teaches in Romans 10, that it is by hearing the word of God that faith comes. So the elect have a greater responsibility to preach the gospel, since they themselves have come to understand themselves to be elect by that very same means of preaching. “For as the cause of faith among them is the preaching of the gospel, so the cause of preaching is the mission of God, by which it had pleased him in this manner to provide for their salvation.”

Additionally, Calvin taught from Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8 that we must “go forward manfully and courageously in our vocation, and God will give fruit in due time…His kingdom consisteth in the preaching of the gospel…they must not work for the space of one day only, while that he assigneth the whole world unto them in which they must publish the doctrine of the gospel. Hereby we learn that the gospel was preached everywhere by the manifest commandment of Christ, that it might also come unto us.”

Calvin understood that it was the missionary heart and the missionary call of the early church that led to his very own salvation, and thus his heart became the same as their call had been.

From Romans 10, Calvin also taught that “the very presence of the preaching of the gospel in any nation or land is evidence of the love and favor of God upon that land. It should be seen, then, as a testament of his grace and his desire to save men from their sins. The gospel does not fall like rain from the clouds, but is brought by the hands of men wherever it is sent from above.

Additionally, Calvin taught that neither race, gender, class, nor any other distinction could merit or disqualify one from God’s grace. “There is no people and no rank in the world that is excluded from salvation; because God wishes that the gospel should be proclaimed to all without exception.” On a particularly interesting and relevant note, it is from 1 Timothy 2:4, a passage that notoriously stands in the face of those who believe in predestination, that Calvin argues for evangelism. He also claims that it is pure “childish folly of those who represent this passage to be opposed to predestination.”

Simply put, it is untrue that Calvin was unmotivated for the advance of the gospel. Nor did he permit the doctrine of predestination to be used as an excuse for not proclaiming the gospel to everyone: Since God alone knows whom He has elected to salvation and whom not, we preach the gospel promiscuously, trusting the Holy Spirit to us it as an external means for the effectual calling of the very ones who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at some of Calvin's personal letters, and how it shows his heart for evangelism...

The Missionary Heart of John Calvin | 1

2009-03-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

Skepticism has loudly rung throughout the centuries concerning how divine sovereignty and its relationship with proclaiming the gospel relate in the view on John Calvin. Of what use, it is asked, is evangelism if the elect are called by God before the foundations of the world?

The infamous Reformer has come under harsh criticism from many in the area of evangelism, even from those who claim adherence to much of his doctrine. Many dismiss him entirely because of his staunch devotion to God’s sovereignty and absolute power, assuming these beliefs to be incompatible with a gracious and loving man who would devote his life to spreading the Good News. Calvin foresaw that his doctrine would be misunderstood when he preached on Ephesians 1: “Now then it is no marvel that some men think this doctrine to be strange and hard, for it does not fit in at all with man’s natural understanding.”

Thus it becomes quickly obvious that Calvin understood this doctrine differently from those who question him today. Rather than being a detriment to motivation for evangelism and mission, the sovereignty of God actually became the impetus for such a cause. As J.I. Packer sums up in our day, “So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility – indeed, the certainty – that evangelism will be fruitful. Apart from it, there is not even a possibility of evangelism being fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel.”

To recognize how sovereignty becomes the motivation for heralding the gospel, we must know this man who understood sovereignty so clearly, John Calvin. Only in understanding John Calvin can we know his upright character, his righteous desire that the kingdom be increased, and his Almighty God who sovereignly gives us his grace.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more on Calvin's view of predestination and mission...

Finding Our Idols | Part Five

2009-03-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”

William Law said, “We may justly condemn ourselves as the greatest sinners we know, because we know more of the folly of our own heart than we do of other people’s…Therefore every sinner knows more of the aggravations of his own guilt than he does of other people’s, and consequently may justly look upon himself to be the greatest sinner that he knows.”

Paul’s words give us hope, not because we’re not as bad as him, but because we’re all equally bad in comparison to Jesus’ perfection.

How do we fight idolatry? We look to Jesus. We not only turn our eyes to Him, but we give our hearts to Him. We study His Word because in it is His truth. We sing songs that proclaim His truth because in it we find life…the life abundant.

The mind and the heart must go together…and they must always be looking upward, in the direction of Jesus.

Finding Our Idols | Part Four

2009-03-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we asked some pretty intense questions about finding idols in our lives. Today let’s get even more painfully specific. Take a look through the list below, and ask God to reveal to you areas where you have valued any of these above your love for God. If you’re like me, your list will be far too long…

Power idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I have power and influence over others.

Approval idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am loved and respected by…

Comfort idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I have this kind of pleasure experience, a particular quality of life.

Image idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I have a particular kind of look or body image.

Control idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am able to get mastery over my life in the area of…

Dependence idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if someone is there to protect me and keep me safe.

Independence idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am completely free from obligations or responsibilities to take care of someone.

Work idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am highly productive getting a lot done.

Achievement idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am being recognized for my accomplishments, if I am excelling in my career.

Materialism idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I have a certain level of wealth, financial freedom, and very nice possessions.

Religion idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am adhering to my religion's moral codes and accomplished in it activities.

Inner ring idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if a particular social grouping or professional grouping or other group lets me in

Family idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if my children and/OR my parents
are happy and happy with me.

Relationship idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if Mr. or Ms. 'Right' is in love with me.

Suffering idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if I am hurting, in a problem ¬only then do I feel noble or worthy of love or am able to deal with guilt.

Ideology idolatry: Life only has meaning /I only have worth if my political or social cause or party is making progress and ascending in influence or power.

Again, repentance is turning our backs from sin and face to God. Give these over to Jesus, who
has been perfect in our place, and allow him to transform your heart.

If you’re feeling like the worst of sinners, you’re not alone. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about why Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 1:15 give us hope…

Finding Our Idols | Part Three

2009-03-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

Tim Keller, a pastor from New York City, says that to find our idols, we need to answer these questions:

What is my greatest nightmare? What do I worry about most?
What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live? What keeps me going?
What do I rely on or comfort self with when things go bad or get difficult?
What do I think most easily about? What does my mind go to when I am free? What pre occupies me?
What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?
What makes me feel the most self worth? What am I the proudest of?
What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?

When we are honest about these questions, it becomes painfully obvious that our lives are not as “Christ-centered and Cross-driven” as we once believed. What we need is a change of direction…a repentant heart.

Repentance is turning our backs from sin and face to God. To crush our idolatry, we look upward and turn our eyes to Him to believe what His promises in Scripture reveal.

C.J. Mahaney says that in our day, we like to say say “God loves you” and “God accepts you just as you are.” Instead of telling of God’s grace for sinners, we downplay the Gospel to simply be unconditional acceptance. We treat the Gospel as if God looks the other direction and allows us to continue in our idolatry and sin, merely forgiving without really changing us.

The Gospel is better. It says “God accepts you just as Christ is.” Instead of looking the other direction, God looks in the direction of Christ. God never accepts me “as I am.” He accepts me “as I am in Jesus Christ.”

What about you? Where are your idols? And where do you need to repent and allow God to change you?

Nightline Debate on Satan

2009-03-24T22:24:00.003-04:00

UPDATE: Watch the Debate here.

Thursday night at 11:35pm, the ABC Nightline Face-Off Debate will be on the existence of Satan with Mark Driscoll, Deepak Chopra, and a few others. You should most certainly watch it.

I just came across this summary from a Mars Hill attender. Check it out...

Pastor Mark preached the gospel and read the Bible. Can we ask more of him? I should have expected this strategy, but I was pleasantly surprised. His opening statement was the Gospel, how Jesus died in our place for our sins, defeating Satan, sin, and death. When he finished, the Mars Hill people were practically jumping out of their chairs. I was one of the screamers. I'm sure you'll hear me on the tapes, joining the masses. He also closed with the gospel, but this time, he merely read it. And it was all about Jesus. I'm not sure the passage even referenced Satan. It was 1 John 5:20, and I don't know if he even mentioned the verse 19, which mentions Satan. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Pastor Mark seemed to be the only one that was challenging each and every member of the other side, bringing evidence against their points, logically articulating why they were wrong. He also defended Lobert, who at one point was under attack, ironically, about her demonic attack. The other side looked bad for continually slamming her and her experience, when she was obviously a victim. They showed little to no compassion for her, and that was the strongest argument against their side.

The Nightline debate airs this Thursday night at 11:35 on ABC. Please be praying for the ABC editors who are busily trying to trim down 2 hours of footage to 20 minutes. Pray that Jesus gets fair representation. Pray that he is glorified in the program.

Read the rest of the review here. It's well worth the time.

(HT Joshua Harris)

Finding Our Idols | Part Two

2009-03-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

Starting in the right direction is important. But according to the great church father St. Augustine, all our worship is started in the wrong direction. He said that we were “curvatus in se” or, bent in on ourselves. What he means by this is that we’re always looking to ourselves; we’re always looking out for number one; we always have our best interests at heart. Rather than looking to serve others, we look to serve ourselves. Rather than looking to worship God, we worship ourselves. We’re looking in the wrong direction.

This is a scary proposition. We’re to be serving God as we serve others. If our whole motivation is “bent in on ourselves,” then we may have our hands lifted to heaven while our hearts our filled with love for self. Rather than displaying humility, we become the perfect definition of pride.

Biblical worship is giving our time, talent, and treasure to glorify God as we serve Jesus in the power of the Spirit. So if we’re using our limited time, our God-given talents, and our precious treasures to serve anything but Jesus, we’re not talking about worship, we’re talking about idolatry. Suddenly we’ve strayed in a very different direction from Biblical worship.

John Calvin said, “In the Bible, an idol is something within creation that is inflated to function as God…An idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero – anything that can substitute for God.”

He added, “The human heart is a factory of idols…Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.”

Tomorrow we’ll take a deeper look at how to find our idols…

Finding Our Idols | Part One

2009-03-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

What is the greatest challenge we face? It may not be what you think.

It’s not our budgets, though we’re constantly told we don’t have enough. It’s not our kids, though they’re always yelling and screaming. It’s not our friends, though they betray when we need them most. And it’s not our jobs, though we would get rid of them if we could.

It’s us. We are the greatest challenge. It’s you. It’s me.

Maybe you’re not convinced. Maybe you’re pretty sure that you almost always do and say the right things, and the problem is always someone else. Maybe you’re pretty confident that when you look inward, God sees a pretty good Christian.

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Let’s start here: We can only get an accurate picture of who we are when we look inward if we first look upward.

Maybe that doesn’t make sense, so I’ll say it again: To know who you really are, you have to look upward. Otherwise we will either think too highly of ourselves and not understand our sin, or we will think wrongly of ourselves and not understand God’s grace.

Over the next week we’ll talk about what it means to look upward to Jesus. For most, if not all of us, it will mean removing some idols from our lives…

The Paradox of Prayer

2009-03-22T16:26:00.002-04:00

He asked for strength that he might achieve;
he was made weak that he might obey.
He asked for health that he might do greater things;
he was given infirmity that he might do better things.
He asked for riches that he might be happy;
he was given poverty that he might be wise.

He asked for power that he might have the praise of men;
he was given weakness that he might feel the need of God.
He asked for all things that he might enjoy life;
he was given life that he might enjoy all things.

He has received nothing that he asked for, but all that he hoped for.
His prayer is answered.

(J.I. Packer, Praying, page 58-59)

Free From Perfect | Part Five

2009-03-20T08:00:00.002-04:00

5. Standards: Other-centered vs. God-centered

Who are you trying to please?

We are not all professionals. We are certainly not perfect. But we are all called to be continually pursuing excellence.

We can all think of times when a lack of excellence was distracting. Maybe it was in a movie we saw, when the background music was so loud that you couldn’t hear the spoken lines. Maybe it was in a business presentation, when your CEO’s PowerPoint went on the fritz. Maybe it was even at Calvary, when the lyrics on the screen were wrong and the guitar was out of tune. Or when the vocalist sounded oddly familiar to the sound that used to come from your baby’s room when he/she was teething. Whenever it was, we know that a lack of excellence can be distracting.

But equally so, and maybe surprising to some, too much excellence can be distracting. Maybe it’s in a movie again, when the special effects are so real that it actually takes away from the mystery of the film. Or in that CEO’s presentation, when he’s obviously trying to win over the audience with unnecessary stats and figures to promote himself. Or maybe it’s even at church, when it seems like we Christians are pursuing excellence in an effort to be perfect.

The question is: Who are you trying to please?

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 says, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

There is no doubt, we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And it is then that or true motivations and hopes will be revealed. Have we been spending all our lives performing for the crowd? Or have we joyfully submitted ourselves the Audience of One?

Overcome

2009-03-19T15:30:00.001-04:00

We're learning this new song on Sunday morning...

Free From Perfect | Part Four

2009-03-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

4. Hopes: Depression in Failure vs. Hoping in God

When things don’t go well, how do you react?

If perfection is your goal, I’d bet you end up either in depression or pride. Depression, because you set your hopes at an unattainable level of expertise. Or pride, because you achieved your hopes and think you deserve the glory.

That’s why perfection can’t be our goal, and shouldn’t even be our hope. Instead, we should be driven by excellence, always doing our best, and giving God the glory, by using our time, resources, and talents in service to Him.

Hebrews 12:11 tells us that through seasons of discipline, we can see tremendous fruit. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Having this attitude helps us to glorify God no matter the circumstances. We can hope for the best, but not fall into despair when the worst comes. We can actually begin to do what Colossians 3:17 says, giving thanks in all circumstances. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Free From Perfect | Part Three

2009-03-18T08:00:00.002-04:00

3. Meditations: Past Failures vs. Future Grace (Philippians 3:12-14)

When your mind wanders, where does it go?

If you’re a perfectionist, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about your past failures. You read that Jesus has taken your sin “as far as the east is from the west,” but it sure feels like your failure is at the forefront of your mind every day. He says “Be perfect, as I am perfect” and you can’t help but laugh at how impossible that would be.

Besides Jesus, if there was any man that you would meet and consider him perfect, that man would be the Apostle Paul. His resume is rather impressive...

He was trained under Gamelial, one of the most prestigious scholars of his day.
He wrote 13 books of the NT.
He planted churches all across the region.
He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, starved and imprisoned for the Gospel.

Paul had a lot of things going for him. But if you had met him before he met Jesus, things would have looked very different. He despised Christians to the point that he murdered and tortured them. Needless to say, something changed Paul. Or perhaps more accurately, someONE changed Paul.

Paul was freed from his past, and freed from his perfectionism when he came to know Christ. Now he says that instead of looking to the past with despair, we can instead look to the future with great hope.

“Not that I have already obtained this or a already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of god in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

One of my favorite hymns contains these treasured words:

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.

Perhaps the next time your mind wanders, you ought to look upward to Jesus.

The Gospel Coalition

2009-03-17T16:01:00.001-04:00

I can't wait to go to this next month...

Free From Perfect | Part Two

2009-03-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

2. Motivations: Failure vs. Gratitude (Romans 12:1)

Why do you do what you do?

Really. Come on now. Why what makes you tick? What prompts your heart? Why do you want to be a good parent? What makes you want to devote so many countless hours to your ministry? Why do you want to do gain recognition at work?

For some, the motivations may not be as admirable as it appears. Because if you’re trying to be perfect, your motivation will quickly become a fear of failure.

Let’s take parenting for example. It is admirable and good and godly to desire to be a good parent, training up children in the way of the Lord. But for many parents, they want their kids to be perfect so that it reflects well on them. They want him or her to be the best in class so that parent/teacher conferences reflect well on them. They want him or her to memorize all the verses so that they receive credit. The success of their child becomes their way of furthering their personal goal of perfection.

Parenting is just one example, but so if that’s not it for you, it may be a relationship with a spouse, or a co-worker, or even your ministry at church. It’s easy to be deceived by motivation that are all about me.

On the contrary, Scripture presents a different approach to godly motivation. Instead of pursuing perfectionism from a fear of failure, Christians should be motivated by Biblical excellence, which is motivated by gratitude. We seek to do things well, because God has given us grace in His Son.

Romans 12:1 says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy ad acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” This redefines our motivations: Instead of showing ourselves perfect, we show ourselves weak.

Free From Perfect | Part One

2009-03-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

Goals: Perfection vs. Faithfulness (James 4:13-16)

What do you want to accomplish in life?

A true test of one’s heart it to look at one’s goals. Are you seeking to be perfect, or are you seeking to be faithful?

The Bible tells us that should set a goal and faithfully give our best effort. Many of us do this, but we stop short of doing all that we ought. Instead of humbly and prayerfully leaving the results to God, we feel like we have to come out the winner.

James 4:13-16 sheds light on the issue. James tells us that we tend to make our plans and set our goals, not realizing that it is the Lord who guides our steps. In the language of James, “…you do not know what tomorrow will bring…as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

James is telling us that if we truly trust in the sovereignty, instead of seeking perfection we will seek faithfulness. We will set a goal, faithfully give our best effort, and then leave it in God’s hands. The results are His.

Free From Perfect | Intro

2009-03-15T18:00:00.005-04:00

What is excellent is always changing. By definition, excellence must always be excelling.

Excellence is doing your best, and giving God the glory, by using your time, resources, and talents in service to Him.

Sound pretty muddy? That’s because it is. Excellence looks very different in different people. Let’s think of some examples.

For instance, art. I am a miserable artist. Sure, I can color inside the lines, but I can’t draw or paint or sculpt. Excellence in these areas, for me, is simply trying. But for someone like Michelangelo, excellence looks a lot more like the Sistine Chapel. Both of us may be pursuing excellence, both may be trying their very hardest, but the result is very different.

Let’s try another example. I played basketball for a few years when I was a kid until I got cut from the 7th grade Jr. High team. I tried my hardest, but I just wasn’t good enough. Excellence for me meant practicing and playing, until I realized it wasn’t where I was gifted. On the other hand, Lebron James is a basketball superstar, perhaps one of the greatest to ever play the game. For him, excellence means that he has the entire world watching and waiting for his next “Play of the Week” showing up on ESPN SportsCenter. Both are pursuing excellence, both may be trying their very hardest, but the result is very different.

If excellence can be pursued and achieved at different levels, then this means that while one church may have the worst music team you’ve ever heard, they may in fact be pursuing excellence. If they’re giving the best of their time, resources, and talent to God, then nothing more can or should be expected.

The converse is true. You may listen to the best band and the best CD’s all the time, with vocalists and instrumentalists gifted like you’ve never heard before, but this doesn’t mean they’re pursuing excellence. They may be good…real good, even…but if their excellence is not excelling, they may not be honoring God as they ought.

Over the next week, well take a look at what Biblical excellence is. What is it? Should we pursue is? And how is it any different from perfectionism?

(Photo from Flickr | PicDisk)

The Sins of Youth | Purity

2009-03-13T08:00:00.002-04:00

People say that there has never been a culture more sexually explicit than ours. You are part of a culture that spends more money each year on pornography than country music, rock music, classical music, Broadway plays, and ballet combined.

What we often forget is that culture doesn’t just become this way on it’s own. It is this way because culture is made of people. Sinful people. We make intentional choices either for the glory of themselves or the glory of God. Culture only becomes sexually immoral when it is filled with sexually immoral people.

Paul’s words to Timothy, the young pastor of the church Ephesus, are incredibly applicable to us today. He says that we’re supposed to be setting an example in our purity. But for many, rather than setting an example of purity, we act as the antithesis of Paul’s exhortation…we set the example of what should NOT be done.

For many, impurity isn’t even a conscious choice. Most single guys become such slaves to their lusts that they’re ignorant of the fact that every decision they make is based off of sitting next to the hot girl a few rows away. They don’t even realize they’re motives when they offer the girl a ride home in hopes that they’ll some day soon get some action.

Purity requires intentional choices and intentional sacrifices. It means delaying pleasure and gratification. It is difficult. But it is not without reward.

I fear that the reason we struggle with impurity is because we don’t really believe the promises of God. We hear that the love of God is better than life, but by our perverse actions we scoff at such a statement when given the option of being with a girl. Rather than seeking the pleasures of God, we’re stuck begging for the pleasures of a woman.

But woman are to be treated as sisters in Christ, not objects to be conquered.

Love is expressed when one is fully given to another…when one’s desires are foregone so that selfless service can be given in something that is much deeper than affection...it’s is sacrificial love.

So what can we do to be continually pursuing purity…?

Keep the desires of the Father in mind. As a father wants what is best for His Son, God’s standards of purity are for our good. “God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7)
Keep the sacrifice of Jesus in mind. Just as it was for Jesus, life is not about fulfilling our desires, but about the desires of the Father. We have to die to ourselves daily. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
Keep the power of the Spirit in mind. You are not alone, and nothing you face is stronger than the power of the Holy Spirit in you. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

The Sins of Youth | Faith

2009-03-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

My thoughts on leaving a lasting legacy have been greatly challenged by the ministry of Mark Driscoll. He’s said it many times, but it remains true: Most men are only looking for a good time, instead of looking to leave a good legacy.

Perhaps we should be spending more time thinking about how we would like our children to be instructed in the ways of the Lord, and less time thinking about how we’ll get tickets to the big game next week. Perhaps we should spend more time considering how we’ll leave a legacy of faithful and loyal work to our grandchildren, rather than complaining about how much we hate our job today. And when I say perhaps, I mean absolutely.

What this means is that we should be seeking to set an example in our faith, understanding that the decisions we make today regarding what we believe have dramatic impact on our future. If we choose not to have faith in God’s Word, we make ourselves ultimately authoritative and take control of our lives. If we choose not to have faith in a Savior who rescues and forgives us from our sin, we will spend our lives trying to earn forgiveness that has already been granted.

Legacies begin at the beginning, and if you’re not faithful in the small things that God has entrusted you with today, you’re foolish to think that your life will be any different in the future.

So what can we do to pursue a legacy of faith…?

Be trustworthy with your time. Turn off the dumb video game, and read your Bible.
Be trustworthy with your resources. Listen to the wise counsel of the men whose faith we admire.
Be trustworthy with your talent. God gives gifts so that we can serve Him faithfully. When an opportunity comes, consider not only your desires, but the legacy of faith it will leave for your children.

The Sins of Youth | Love

2009-03-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

We’ve already established that adolescence is assumed in our culture. The interesting thing is, it’s also assumed that marriage will change even the most boy-ish boys into a manly man. Guys who can’t keep a budget, spend all their free-time looking at porn, and only use their Bibles when they need a good paper weight somehow delude themselves into thinking that marriage will change their habits and make them into a godly family man who will responsibly lead his children in the ways of the Lord. It doesn’t work that way.

Men are not made men by getting married. Instead, they must be men to earn the right to ask for a woman’s heart. This means working hard, sacrificing much in order to prepare for the future, and studying hard to build character and integrity. This means spending time with young families to learn what it is like to be married with children. This means spending time with older couples that have, by the grace of God, stood firm in the midst of trials in marriage. This means, above all, that a man must spend his time in the Word of God.

Marriage does not make a boy into a man.

So what can we do to become men who are ready for marriage…?

Surround yourself with men of responsibility. Get off the couch and get a job.
Surround yourself with men of experience. Get with men and women who are in the stage of life you desire to be in next.
Surround yourself with men of wisdom. Ask questions. Learn from older men why their marriages have lasted for decades.

The Sins of Youth | Conduct

2009-03-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

These days, it’s just assumed that men will be idiots. Rather than setting an example of godly conduct in both leadership and discernment, our culture expects men to be nothing more than incompetent losers who will spend their days watching sports, drinking beer, and forever searching for ways to look young, all the while growing physically older but mentally younger (and dumber) as each moment passes. Adolescence is not only permitted, it’s assumed.

And the truth is, we even encourage adolescence. Parents say “Well he’s just a kid” and excuse sin and folly. Teachers say “Boys will be boys” and silently approve the losers who will one day grow up to abuse their future wives. We’re growing up in a culture that expects men to act as boys, who think there’s no consequence for sin.

TV and movies encourage this. I challenge you: find one modern show that portrays a man of character and integrity leading his family. You won’t find it. And the reason you won’t find it is because they don’t make it anymore…because it doesn’t relate to anyone.

The Bible calls us to something higher than adolescence. In fact, it calls us to lay aside our adolescence and “set an example,” no matter what age we may be.

Wisdom does not come with age. Wisdom comes with pursuing God, and seeking to obey His Word. So if you’re going to set an example in your conduct, it’s going to take seeking Him.
Adolescence is not a right to be tightly held. It is a sin to be repented of.

So what can we do to be men of good conduct?

Follow the example of Jesus. Be a Spirit-filled, Spirit-led man who turns every decision over to Him.
Follow the example of the disciples. Surround yourself with godly men who will challenge and encourage you.
Follow the example of Paul. Learn from older men, and teach younger men. Be challenged by men of every age.