Pilgrim In Conflict

Let the Process Begin...

2011-11-23T21:19:00.003+03:00

Man Up Anthem
by Lecrae, KB, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Sho Baraka, Pro, Andy Mineo

All:
MAN UP!

Lecrae:
Momma want some Obama in me
The hood want PAC hip-hop wanna see the common in me
And since it's a senseless contradiction
I end up a misfit trying to fit in
This is when I stand up
And see the hands that are standard
Holy is The lamb huh(holy is the lamb)
Now we holding you to man up
Cause we were made in his image start looking at what you came from

KB:
Right after Adam every atom in our anatomy's Adamic adamant after what Adonai is against
Let me take you back to the tree in Eden
If you read it, you'll see that Eve was deceived
But Adam is the one who let her eat it
Instead of leading, No we ain't leading - we bump that
Basically li'l boys with muscles and a mustache
To femininity...we need a remedy
The God-Man: 100% masculinity

Trip Lee:
We the last.....

Where the men at, seems like they all lost
None of them are on the scene, seems like they died off
They extinct but my dream is to rise up
We chasing the prize of the King the divine boss
But we fell away, now we ungodly
We lose and we really got the blues like Na'vi
I want to celebrate the dudes that's beside me
Fellas let's elevate, we through with the lobby

Tedashii:
Go ahead say boy get your shine on
And if a sucker try to block you get your 9 homes
That's what I heard you gotta do to be a man now
Stand up for yourself so I took it in my hands now
And that's the problem man we busy trying to solve it
All the while we walking dead, man somebody bring the coffin
Voice drop peach fuzz now you think that your a man cause you feeling yourself
You need to man up!

Sho Baraka:
There's many things
Man is chasin' after
They got some questions
We got some answers

Sex and models and tipping bottles
Pack a pile of excuses right next to your bottle caps
A roll of decks filled with names that you aim to please
Next to the stack of money building up a heart of greed
Ice on his neck, givin' jokers the cold shoulder
You drunk off pride plus you loving the hangover
You gotta whole lotta stuff that won't amount to gain
Life will never make sense(cents) because you never made change

PRo:
We got it twisted, sick like a fever
Lil man live to stack dough, Keebler
Man up!
Get up out of that treehouse
Leave the cookies alone it's time to eat meat now
Trying to show you a new way to live now
No charge, you can call it a freestyle
Without Christ you wont know what a man is
You a boy in a man's body like Tom Hanks in Big

Andy Mineo:
Being a man got nothing to do with age
You can be a boy til the day you lay in your grave
None of us behave in the image of who we're made
Cause we fallen the ways it's better known as depraved
Running from responsibility really we crave
The easy way out of places that call us to pull our weight
Man they blowing through everyday decisions are made
Responding to the call God's giving em from the...

All:
Man Up!
Andy:
Let the process begin, separate the boys from the men
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
It don't matter how you started, partner, it's about how you end
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
Jesus is the model follow us we gon follow him
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
We the- we the last of a dying breed
It's time that we

All:
MAN UP!

HT: Pure Church

Ordered by Infinite Love and Mercy

2011-11-15T23:57:00.001+03:00

Only goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...
Psalm 23:6

Lessons from Hebrew

2011-10-24T12:42:00.005+03:00

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

This verse says more than you might realize at first. In fact, there are things that are impossible for you to see in this verse when you read it in English. So here are three lessons from Hebrew to show you the depth of theology that is contained in just this one verse.

1) God

The Hebrew word that we translate into English as "God" in the Old Testament is "elohim." It's not technically a proper name. Even more peculiar is the fact that it's in plural form. Literally, it means "gods" in the most generic way. In other parts of the Old Testament, the same word is used for the false gods that are worshipped by the Gentiles and often by even Israel itself.

Why is this significant? From the very first verse of the Bible, we see this mystery of plurality referred to as singular. The singular God of heaven and earth is referred to in the Hebrew text as a God of plurality. From the very first verse of the Bible, we are being pointed to the doctrine of the Trinity, the truth that God exists as three in one: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2) Created

The Hebrew word that we translate into English as "created" in this verse is "bara." And it's only used in association with God. A different Hebrew word is used when we see the word "created" translated into English in association with man. That word is "asah."

Why is this significant? From the very first verse of the Bible, a very important foundation is being laid. Even though God will go on to create man who himself will have the ability to create as one who bears the image of God, the sense in which God creates is fundamentally different from the sense in which man creates. God creates out of nothing (hence, the popular Latin phrase "ex nihilo"). But not man. Man can only create using the materials that God created out of nothing.

3) The heavens and the earth

This one to me is most fascinating. The Hebrew word that we translate into English as "heavens" in this verse is "shamayim." Similar to "elohim," it's in plural form ("im" ending). But, more specifically, the "ayim" ending in Hebrew always refers to the number two. So, most literally, the word "shamayim" means "two heavens."

Why is this significant? The traditional evangelical view is that there are three heavens. The clearest evidence for this in the Bible is when Paul describes his experience of being caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2). The traditional evangelical view holds that the first heaven is the air we breathe (the earth's atmosphere); the second heaven is the realm of the sun, moon, and stars (outer space); and the third heaven is the realm where God dwells.

So how do we reconcile the traditional evangelical understanding of three heavens with the Hebrew text, which clearly communicates that there are two heavens?

From the human perspective there are three heavens. But from God's perspective there are two heavens, the natural and the spiritual. In other words, God sees the first two heavens (both in the natural realm) as the same.

Three lessons from Hebrew to show you the depth of theology in just this one verse, the first verse in the Bible. Imagine the depths we have to descend into in the entirety of the Old Testament.

Lessons from Church History: Part 3

2011-10-18T01:48:00.007+03:00

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
Ecclesiastes 1:8-9
With this third and final lesson from church history, I begin with the same big idea I've highlighted at the beginning of the last two posts: the reason it's so important to study and know church history today is because there is nothing that the church in the 21st century is currently dealing with that the church hasn't dealt with at some point in the past (in one form or another).

The first monastic movement in the church arose towards the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century. Located in Egypt, it wasn't long before it began to spread rapidly not only in the East but also in the West. The monastic movement was especially prominent during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century).

What's so interesting to note is that almost every order of monasticism began with a radical commitment to self-denial (asceticism) but all of them eventually led to self-indulgence, which only shows that the flesh is of no avail when it comes to spiritual transformation (Colossians 2:23). Sadly, this has been evidenced in the modern day Catholic Church, where an initial vow of celibacy (commitment to self-denial) has eventually led many priests into gross sexual immorality (self-indulgence).

Is asceticism bad? Is the monastic movement intrinsically unbiblical? Not necessarily. Jesus calls all Christians to a life of deliberate self-denial (Luke 9:23-24, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 9:14-15). But the problem is when this asceticism becomes an external law that we impose on ourselves and others (Colossians 2:20-23, 1 Timothy 4:1-5) rather than the result of the internal transforming power of the gospel (Romans 6:17) that sets us free from bondage to the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life (Luke 8:14).

The latter will lead us to lives of joyful self-denial and self-sacrifice (Matthew 6:19-21, 13:44; Hebrews 10:32-34, 13:13-14).

But history (and the Bible) has shown us that the former will almost always lead to licentiousness (Colossians 2:23).

There's nothing new under the sun. So let's learn from church history and deny ourselves not as a means to spiritual transformation but because the power of the gospel has set us free from bondage to the world. Following Jesus in the life of self-denial is when, having had our eyes opened (2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 1:18) to the fact that here we have no lasting city, we joyfully seek the city that is to come (Hebrews 13:13-14).

Lessons from Church History: Part 2

2011-10-15T13:10:00.014+03:00

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
Ecclesiastes 1:8-9
Why is the study of church history so vital for the health of the church today? Because there is nothing that the church in the 21st century is currently dealing with that the church hasn't dealt with at some point in the past (in one form or another). There is nothing new under the sun.

In 431, the council of Ephesus was convened. Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, had been strongly advocating for the teaching that Christ has two persons. He did so to correct the false teachings of those who were seeking to essentially deify and glorify Mary because she was "the Mother of God" (Theotokos). Nestorius sought to correct this false teaching by claiming that Mary was the mother of Jesus, but not the mother of the Son of God. But, in so strongly opposing one false teaching (the deification of Mary), he himself fell into another false teaching by implying that Jesus has two persons. The council of Ephesus brought clarity to the issue by denying that Jesus has two natures and subsequently condemning Nestorius as a false teacher.

In 451, the council of Chalcedon confirmed what had been agreed upon at the council of Ephesus, namely, that Jesus has two distinct natures (human and divine) that are united in His one person, which is what we have come to know today as the hypostatic union.

The history of the church in general, not just the specific example of Nestorius, has confirmed that false teaching is the result not just of denying a particular biblical truth but of overemphasizing one biblical truth to the exclusion of another, which is why we must demonstrate great care in embracing a balanced view of the multifaceted teachings of Scripture.

I've been teaching through Paul's letter to the Romans and we've spent the past couple of months in chapters 9 and 10, where Paul is explaining why so many ethnic Israelites haven't come to faith in Christ . In chapter 9, Paul's argument emphasizes the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. In other words, the reason so many Israelites don't trust Jesus is because God has chosen some for salvation but not all. In chapter 10, Paul's argument emphasizes human responsibility in salvation. In other words, the reason so many Israelites don't trust Jesus is because the majority of them are self-righteous and hard-hearted, refusing to believe that Jesus is the Messiah even though many Gentiles are putting their faith in Jesus.

Historically, this tension between the absolute sovereignty of God and human responsibility in salvation has resulted in two factions: Calvinism (which emphasizes God's sovereignty, named after John Calvin) and Arminianism (which emphasizes human responsibility, named after Jacobus Arminius).

An overemphasis on God's sovereignty (I'm not saying this is necessarily true of Calvin or of all who embrace Calvinism) often concludes that since God has only chosen some people to be saved and not all, then when the Bible says that God is "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9) or that God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4) or that God "so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16), the "all" must be referring only to those God has chosen and not all human beings.

An overemphasis on human responsibility (I'm not saying this is necessarily true of Arminius or of all who embrace Arminianism) often concludes that since all human beings have the choice to either trust Jesus or reject Jesus, then when the Bible talks about names being "written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain" (Revelation 13:8) or being "chosen in [Christ] before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4) or "those whom [God] foreknew [and] predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29), it must mean that before He created the world, God was able to "look down the corridors of time," see those who would trust Jesus, and it is those people He predestined, writing their names down in the Lamb's book of life.

Overemphasis on any particular biblical truth to the exclusion of another is usually the result of trying to force everything the Bible teaches to conform to our reason. We reason like this, "Since God chooses only some people to be saved, He can't possibly want all people to be saved. Since all human beings are responsible for whether they trust Jesus or not, God can't possibly be the one who ultimately determines that choice. Since Mary is a human being, she can't possibly be the mother of God."

But it really is true that God chooses only some people to be saved and at the same time He wants all people to be saved. It really is true that human beings are responsible for whether they trust Jesus or not and at the same time God has already unalterably determined who will trust Jesus and who will reject Him. It really is true that Mary is the mother of God and at the same time is only a human being. It really is true that Jesus, being fully God and fully man, has two separate, distinct natures and at the same time He is only one person.

Why? Because the Bible says so.

Whether we can make complete sense of it or not is irrelevant. And, if we're not careful, our insatiable desire to make complete sense of it all will inevitably lead us to embrace false teaching or, worse, to become false teachers.

There's nothing new under the sun. So let's learn from church history and embrace all that the Bible teaches without trying to force it to conform to our reason, instead asking God to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).

Lessons from Church History: Part 1

2011-10-14T00:37:00.014+03:00

If we really believe what the Preacher--under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--tells us in these verses, then one of the reasons why the study of church history is so important for the health of the church today is because there is nothing that the church in the 21st century is currently dealing with that the church hasn't dealt with at some point in the past (in one form or another). And if we are ignorant (whether purposely or not) of how the church has historically responded to and treated disease when it has begun to infect the the body of Christ, then we (especially church leaders) are like doctors who are ignorant of already existing treatments that have been proven effective because we are ignorantly in search of treatments of our own. But there is nothing new under the sun. So church history couldn't be more relevant for the health of the church today.

While reading for my church history class this week, this quote stopped me dead in my tracks:

Arius was not straightforward in his controversial methods and cleverly tried to cloud the issues. He was deposed in 321, but being an able and charming man he was befriended by eminent ecclesiastics like Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Eusebius of Caesarea, the historian.
--A.M. Renwick, The Story of the Church, p.54

Arius was a church leader between the 3rd and 4th century who taught that Jesus Christ was not co-eternal with the Father but instead was the first being created by the Father. Arius was vehemently opposed by those who recognized the threat his teachings posed to the gospel, most notably Athanasius of Alexandria. Arius was eventually denounced as a false teacher.

What struck me from what I read is how Arius, the man we have come to know as a false teacher, is described. He "was not straightforward in his controversial methods" and he "cleverly tried to cloud the issues."

Earlier this year, Rob Bell released a book entitled Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Before the book was even released, it was swirling in controversy because of the trailer that was released as a preview to the book:

Then, after the release of the book, the controversy continued to stir, with Bell quite literally being put in the hot seat:

Now, I'm not going to lie. I haven't read a single page of Love Wins. And I don't have plans to read it anytime soon (though I'm not opposed to reading it). So I don't have any grounds for criticizing what Bell has written in that book. That's not my point here. Others have already done so thoroughly (e.g. Kevin DeYoung). But, in light of the concerns that others have raised about Bell's teaching, I can't help but recognize how the description of Arius could very easily be used to describe Bell.

Arius is described as "not straightforward in his controversial methods." In the video trailer for his book (first video above), Bell's method for communicating the ideas in his book is no doubt intentional because of how effective it is in creating interest. But, at the same time, this method of asking questions that might or might not be rhetorical (one can only find out by reading the book) is not straightforward, which was undoubtedly one of the contributing factors (if not the contributing factor) to the controversy that arose around the book before it was even released.

Arius is also described as a man who "cleverly tried to cloud the issues." In the MSNBC interview with Bell after the release of his book (second video above), the interviewer has to ask Bell the same question multiple times (the first question is admittedly unfair). The question is simple and straightforward: "Is a person's response to Christ in this life relevant to his or her eternal destiny?"And yet it seems like each time Rob Bell responds he "cleverly clouds the issue" in order to avoid answering the question conclusively one way or another, which is why the same question is asked multiple times.

I'm not questioning whether Rob Bell means well or not. I'm sure he does (and I'm not being sarcastic). But that's not the point. I'm sure Arius had all the best intentions (again, I'm not being sarcastic). He's described as an "able and charming man." And Rob Bell seems to be a very able and charming man as well. But there's a reason why the Bible warns that not many should become teachers. In doing so, we subject ourselves to a judgment of greater strictness before God (James 3:1) and at the same time greater scrutiny before others. It's not possible for a teacher to be completely separated from his teaching. So when we oppose the erroneous teaching of a particular individual, there's unfortunately no way to altogether avoid opposing the individual as well.

But we must "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). This isn't about Rob Bell just like it was never about Arius. This is about Jesus Christ. His gospel is at stake, just like it was in the 3rd and 4th century when Arius was gaining popularity even as controversy surrounded him.

Is Rob Bell a false teacher? Some evangelicals would say "yes"and some would say "no." However we answer that question today, what we must keep in mind is that there was a time when the jury was still out on Arius. There was a time when his teachings were widely circulated and embraced as the spiritual diet of multitudes of believing Christians. And if he had never been denounced as a false teacher, those teachings would still be widely circulated and embraced as the spiritual diet of multitudes of evangelical Christians today over 1500 years later. Who knows what state the church of Jesus Christ would be in today if Arius had never been denounced as a false teacher?

There's nothing new under the sun. So, for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the church 1500 years from now if Jesus would tarry, let's learn from church history and, like Athanasius, "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

The Gospel According to Steve Jobs

2011-10-11T23:58:00.002+03:00

Below is an excerpt from a phenomenal article written by Andy Crouch shortly after the death of Steve Jobs:

Steve Jobs was extraordinary in countless ways—as a designer, an innovator, a (demanding and occasionally ruthless) leader. But his most singular quality was his ability to articulate a perfectly secular form of hope. Nothing exemplifies that ability more than Apple's early logo, which slapped a rainbow on the very archetype of human fallenness and failure—the bitten fruit—and turned it into a sign of promise and progress.

...

The biblical story of the Fall pronounced a curse upon human work—"cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." All technology implicitly promises to reverse the curse, easing the burden of creaturely existence. And technology is most celebrated when it is most invisible—when the machinery is completely hidden, combining godlike effortlessness with blissful ignorance about the mechanisms that deliver our disburdened lives. No company combined simplicity and hiddenness better than Apple under Mr. Jobs's leadership.

...

For people of a secular age, Steve Jobs's gospel may seem like all the good news we need. But people of another age would have considered it a set of beautifully polished empty promises, notwithstanding all its magical results. Indeed, they would have been suspicious of it precisely because of its magical results.

And that may be true of a future age as well. Our grandchildren may discover that technological progress, for all its gifts, is the exception rather than the rule. It works wonders within its own walled garden, but it falters when confronted with the worst of the world and the worst in ourselves. Indeed, it may be that rather than concealing difficulty and relieving burdens, the only way forward in the most tenacious human troubles is to embrace difficulty and take up burdens—in Dr. King's words, to embrace a "dangerous unselfishness."

Read the entire article here.

Listen to the Last of a Dying Breed

2011-10-10T23:30:00.001+03:00

Don't Wave the Reformed Banner...

2011-10-06T01:00:00.002+03:00

"...let's talk Bible."

Yes!

Where Is Your Sting, Death?

2011-10-04T23:06:00.002+03:00

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

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Colossians 2:13-15
Read the manuscript here.

It's a Blood Issue

2011-10-03T15:59:00.001+03:00

We Are Over-Cautious

2011-09-28T00:00:00.001+03:00

Why do we not confess, that everything is so governed and ordered by the providence of God, that nothing happens apart from His will or command? We are over-cautious; for we are afraid lest we be compelled to confess that God is the author of evil also.
--Ulrich Zwingli as quoted by Steven Lawson in Pillars of Grace, p.437

Let's not undermine the absolute sovereignty of God by denying His control over sin and evil because of the limitations of our fallen human minds and our desire to get God "off the hook." It really is possible for God to ordain and plan every sin and calamity and yet to be a God who never commits or participates in sin. Why? Because the Bible says so (Ephesians 1:11, Genesis 50:20, Proverbs 21:1, Jeremiah 10:23, Acts 2:23, Acts 4:27-28, Matthew 26:24, Romans 9:17-23, Job 2:9-10, Isaiah 45:7, Amos 3:6, Lamentations 3:38, Psalm 105:23-25, James 1:13, 1 John 1:5, Deuteronomy 29:29).

God is sovereign over all things, including sin and evil. Human beings are responsible for the sins they commit.

The Bible never tries to reconcile these two truths. So there's no need for us to try to, which is what many people attempt to do when they remove the second clause from the first sentence.

Nothing In My Hand I Bring...

2011-09-26T23:32:00.005+03:00

Yesterday, as part of a ministry assignment I was participating in with some classmates from seminary, I attended a different local church here in Nairobi for Sunday morning corporate worship.

The lead pastor was concluding what appeared to be an exhortation to prayer as I walked in and took my seat before any of my other classmates had arrived, about quarter to nine. No sooner had I sat down than the pastor stepped down from the pulpit (which had no Bible in it) and began to passionately exhort the congregation:

Think of some good work that you've done and then take that to the Lord in prayer and demand that you deserve a blessing. You deserve a better position. You deserve a better job. You deserve a better home. You deserve a better spouse...

As I sat there and listened to this pastor's rant, I felt myself becoming choked up. This was clearly prosperity theology. But that's not what broke my heart the most. What moved me in that moment was the fact that I couldn't think of any good work I had done that I could possibly bring before the Lord. All I could think about was the loveless, sarcastic comment that I had made about a fellow brother in Christ the night before. All I could think about was how often my speech is careless and corrupting rather than that which gives grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29).

If I were to take anything before the Lord in that moment, it wouldn't be a good work. All I could possibly bring in that moment was a sinful deed, a deed which grieves the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30).

I don't deserve a blessing. I don't deserve a better position. I don't deserve a better job. I don't deserve a better home. I don't deserve a spouse. I deserve the righteous condemnation of God because of the works I've done.

So what the pastor was saying to us was not good news. I'm not sure why the entire congregation was cheering when in my heart I was grieving. Perhaps if we had good works of our own to bring before God, we might deserve a blessing. But I didn't. And I know for a fact that no one else in that room did (Romans 3:10-18).

And yet, ironically, it was in that very same moment that the Holy Spirit quietly applied the true good news to my heart, lifting my burden and filling me with peace and joy:

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32

As God in Christ forgave you.

God forgave me. He took my sinful deeds from my hand and gave them to Jesus. At the cross, He punished Jesus mercilessly so that He could forgive me tenderheartedly. Having taken my sinful deeds from my hands and borne them in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), Jesus has left me with nothing in my hands. There's nothing left to condemn me.

So nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Before the Lord in prayer, this is my only plea.

That's the good news that this particular pastor (and, even sadder, this cheering congregation) seemed to know absolutely nothing about.

Progress Is Possible

2011-09-22T01:44:00.000+03:00

Thank you Jesus. Amen.

Plant? Or Revitalize?

2011-09-21T16:53:00.004+03:00

...there are a number of strategic benefits to revitalizing a dead church. First, revitalizing provides a kingdom two-for-one. Like church plants, revitalization efforts establish a new gospel presence in a town, but they also remove a bad witness. People in Sterling, Virginia, no longer see our church like a billboard that reads, "Jesus and his people are irrelevant. Keep driving." Instead they increasingly see a lighthouse on the hill. They increasingly see a vibrant and dynamic witness for the Truth. Yes, it's harder to mosey into town on your horse to set up a new general store while playing sheriff, but doing so benefits everyone, both the kingdom and the onlooking world.

Also, church revitalization encourages the saints in the dead congregation. Dead churches are often populated by faithful believers who are deeply committed to their congregation. They have hung in through lean times. They have shown up Sunday after Sunday even though little was happening. These dear sheep are loved by the Savior, but they usually do not have a pastor who can care for them. When we were considering our options in Sterling, it seemed wrong to begin a new church in Guilford's backyard while the people there struggled.

When a church is revitalized, these saints are encouraged and shepherded in a new way. One of my chief joys as a pastor has been to hear some of the older women in our congregation recount stories of praying faithfully for this church for years. Now they are delighted by what God has done. Their faith is refreshed, and they are encouraged anew as they serve the growing body.

Finally, church revitalization enables us to harness resources for the gospel. Oftentimes dead churches are sitting on a treasure trove of resources (land, money, equipment) that can be leveraged for the spread of the gospel (Luke 16:9). Guilford Fellowship had a building. It had land worth millions of dollars. And it had over one hundred thousand dollars in the bank. All of those resources were just sitting around, doing almost nothing for the kingdom. Simply as a matter of good stewardship, evangelical churches interested in planting should consider revitalizing as well. Our work at Guilford has allowed us to leverage those resources to revitalize one church, plant another, evangelize our community, and support missions. If we had planted a new church instead, we would be broke, and Guilford's money would probably still be sitting in the bank.

--Mike McKinley, Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things, chapter 2

Holiness and the Gospel

2011-09-20T23:05:00.011+03:00

19 minutes. Very helpful. Looking forward to the next.

I didn't plan this, but it just so happens that much of what is expressed in this discussion as a desire to place more emphasis on the imperatives of Scripture is a response to the whole thrust of the book and author in the last post: a desire to place more emphasis on the indicatives of Scripture (see here).

I love both. We need both. Depends on who you are. Perhaps what season of life the Lord has you in. It could be that in one season of life you need to place more emphasis on the imperatives of Scripture (without forgetting the indicatives!) because you are more inclined to laziness. And in another season of life you need to place more emphasis on the indicatives of Scripture (without forgetting the imperatives!) because you are more inclined to legalism and works-righteousness.

Or perhaps it depends on the day.

What is the Holy Spirit leading you to emphasize today? It may not be the same thing He was leading you to emphasize yesterday. It may not be the same thing He will lead you to emphasize tomorrow.

He may lead you to emphasize indicative today:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
Romans 8:1-3
But then He may lead you to emphasize imperative tomorrow:
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13

The only way that I've found to hold these truths in tension is to consistently and regularly be reading through all of Scripture and to submit to all that it teaches, trusting that the Holy Spirit knows exactly what truths I need to be reminded of at any given moment, even when today's truth may feel like it contradicts yesterday's truth. It's not possible to respond to the truth of all of Scripture in any one moment. Even during His life, the teachings of Jesus were almost never balanced in any one moment. And if you're not consistently and regularly reading through all of Scripture, you'll just avoid the tension altogether by gravitating toward the truths that are most comfortable for you.

There's a good reason why the Bible doesn't say the same thing on every page. The Holy Spirit knows the depth of your need and the complexities of your heart in a way that you'll never be able to. He knows what you needed yesterday. He knows what you need today. And He knows what you'll need tomorrow. You don't need to figure out how it all fits together. Just trust Him moment by moment. After all, it's what the fishermen had to do when Jesus told them to leave their day jobs and follow Him (Mark 1:17).

That's why we need the Holy Spirit and that's why the Father has given Him to dwell in us.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

2011-09-20T01:46:00.002+03:00

God Gives New Beginnings

2011-09-17T23:39:00.001+03:00

What does God have for us after we've squandered His grace in the past?

The answer from Psalm 85: more grace.

God Gives New Beginnings from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

The Center of Sound Christian Teaching

2011-09-17T02:27:00.003+03:00

In the third and fourth centuries, Africa became a fertile field for the progress of the church. The North African coast of the Mediterranean Sea witnessed significant advances in the development of Christian doctrine. Many of the greatest theologians of the early church lived and ministered in cities along this coast. It was there that the first center for Christian learning was established in Alexandria, Egypt.

...

Among the highly esteemed theologians who comprised the body of teachers known as the African Fathers were Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-ca. 215), Tertullian of Carthage (ca. 160/170-ca. 215/220), Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200-258), and Athanasius of Alexandria (ca. 298-373). In later years, even the greatest of all theologians of the early church, Augustine of Hippo, would arise from African soil.

Concerning the contribution of the African Fathers to the larger body of Christ, Thomas C. Oden comments:
These African exegetes powerfully affected the dogmatic formulations of the orthodoxy of the East and the West. Dogmatic definitions [worked] off of textual interpretations hammered out chiefly in Africa, the Maghreb and the Nile Valley. [Later] definitions of Christology and the Trinity were profoundly shaped by definitions and concepts that were defined decades earlier in Africa by Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Augustine and Cyril.... The major battles with heresy were fought in Africa before they were received ecumenically. Gnosticism, Arianism, Montanism, Marcionism, and Manichaeism were all thoroughly argued as problems of biblical interpretation in Africa before these arguments reached clear definitions in the Rhone and Rhine and Orontes Valleys.
This is to say, the African church became, for a time, the center of sound Christian teaching for the body of Christ.

--Steven Lawson, Pillars of Grace, p.110-111

For the sake of Your fame among the nations and for the sake of Your Son and His bride, do it again, Father. Do it again. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

2011-09-15T00:25:00.002+03:00

And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
Revelation 5:9-10

In Proportion Then As We Value the Gospel...

2011-09-13T00:19:00.005+03:00

"In proportion then as we value the gospel, let us zealously hold to the languages. For it was not without purpose that God caused his Scriptures to be set down in these two languages alone – the Old Testament in Hebrew, the New in Greek. Now if God did not despise them but chose them above all others for his Word, then we too ought to honor them above all others. . . . Let us be sure of this: we will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which this jewel is enshrined; they are the vessel in which this wine is held."
--Martin Luther, 1524

A timely word as I take my first Hebrew quiz tomorrow morning and a great perspective-setter as I begin my study of biblical Hebrew.

Lord, please remind me again and again. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

What Jesus Calls Us To Do

2011-09-09T02:20:00.003+03:00

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Luke 19:10

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
John 20:21

Father, please make this my all-absorbing passion as well. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

HT: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology

Every Man Is As Close To God As He Wants To Be

2011-09-06T00:24:00.003+03:00

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
James 4:8

HT: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology

I'm Talkin' Bout Obedience!

2011-08-30T01:49:00.002+03:00

Move
by Flame

Intro –

Ah how you doing sir, how you doing ma’am,
Just want to talk to you for a minute, can I do that?
Ah excuse me sir, excuse me ma’am.
Hello, How you durn, how your durn (2x)
Hello, How your peoples them durn,
Hello. Yeah, Yeah,
Let’s Go!
Now To left wit it, now to the right wit it (4x),
Let’s Go!

Chorus -

When the Lord tell me move I move
Anything He want me to yeah I do
But if it ain't of the Lord then I won't budge
It's cause I’m Spirit lead So I still show your love
When He tell me I – move, move, move, move, move, move, move (talking about obedience 6x)
When He tell me I – move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move

Verse 1 -

Man, I hate my disobedience
Always second guessing GOD
When he tell me share my Faith
Now I got question now

Then I end up reasoning myself
Out of sayin something,
Now the opportunity is gone
Cause I ran from it.

Now I am praying for his Grace
That everytime I would speak
In the schools, in the mall,
On the job, on the streets.

This is how it got to be
I am talking about obedience,
Fearing GOD, Not Man
That is the ingredients.

Yes I know you can relate
Some of yall are shacking up
Time for you to move it out
Get your clothes pack it up

Yes I know you can relate
Why are you standing still
When the Lord has called you
To hit the foreign mission field

Yes I know its hard though
Plus I understand it
But JESUS says If You Love Me
Then You’ll Keep My Commandments

Yes I know it’s scary though
Plus I understand it
But JESUS says If You Love Me
Then You’ll Keep My Commandments

Chorus

Verse 2 -

Hey what you looking at
Get from in front of that screen
That is so obscene
JESUS died for that very thing

Hey time for you to move
You need to go reconcile
You been havin beef
With you fam for a while now

Go and confess your sins
Go to the LORD in prayer
Go go, go go, go
People everywhere

Should be steppin in the way
That’s is called obedience
In this case it is good
For you to be deviant

Deviate from the world
Run to CHRIST Likeness
Run I say Run
To the one who is Righteous,

Get accountability
Go and read your Bible too
Get into the WORD of GOD
And get the WORD of GOD in you

Hey here is an idea
Why don’t you go and forgive
Why don’t you go and repent
Turn from you sin and than live

Yes I know its hard though
Plus I understand it
but JESUS says If You Love Me
Then You’ll Keep My Commandments

Chorus

Verse 3 –

Do what you got to do
Go on ahead and get it on
Get a Church Membership
Stop Church Hoppin Homes

This ain’t legalism FAM
This is Christianity
Go ahead Obey The WORD
All else is Vanity

You in that relationship
Do you plan to marry her
Love her like CHRIST loves the Church
Till you bury her

You in that relationship
Do you plan to marry him
Submit to him like you are the church
Or just worry him.

If you not then back it up
Flee the temptation
You can spend your singleness
Witnessing to the nations

You, don’t you compromise
Stand firm with it though
Keep your eyes on the Christ
Even if you feeling low.

Yes I know its hard though
Plus I understand it
But JESUS says If You Love Me
Then You’ll Keep My Commandments

Yes I know it’s scary though
Plus I understand it
But JESUS says If You Love Me
Then You’ll Keep My Commandments

Gospel Community

2011-08-25T23:03:00.005+03:00

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his [Jesus'] heel.
Genesis 3:15 (emphasis added)
This verse predicts that one day there will be a group of people who—instead of living as self-seeking individuals whose self-centered desires will ultimately put them at enmity with each other [e.g. Cain and Abel, 2 Corinthians 5:15]—will live as a selfless community whose Christ-centered desires will put them at enmity with Satan instead of each other.

Its fulfillment? Gospel community. The church. The body of Jesus Christ made up of the ransomed from every tribe, language, people and nation (Revelation 5:9-10).
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. [In other words, watch out for and avoid people who destroy gospel community]. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites [their own selfish interests! Which are in direct contrast with gospel community], and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your [the church's] feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Romans 16:17-20 (emphasis added)

Just Your Average ... Not So Average Girl!

2011-08-24T23:27:00.002+03:00

After calling the fellas to man up a couple of weeks ago, this is for you ladies. =)

Not So Average
by V. Rose

Who made up the rules of how you got to be
Picture-perfect everything, so magazine
I mean, I'm stuck in a world where I can't just be me

So what if my nail polish always chips
So what if I prefer to where my kicks
You know, models aren't really models when they're not modeling

Why don't you tell me something
Cuz what I'm really wondering
Is how long do you expect to be following
Trying to be a star like them
It's not the way you're gonna win, always trying to fit in

So I'm takin ay, ay, ay cuz no matter what you say, ay, ay
We goin do it God's way, ay, ay
Cuz I'm just your average, not-so-average
Ay, ay, ay, so tell em it's okay, ay, ay
You know what to say, ay, ay
I'm just your average, not-so-average girl

I'm just your average, no-so-average girl

So what if I don't got everything they have
I'm the prettiest, you can ask my dad (go ask him)
Cuz I'm not gonna spend my life chasing that

So what if I'm not a cheerleader and
So what if you don't even like my band (so what)
I'm gonna be happy with whose I am

So let me tell you something
You're more beautiful than them (than them)
Cuz who you have inside of you is part of Him
And trying to be a star like them
Is not the way you're going to win
Stop trying to fit in

Now we're takin ay, ay, ay, it doesn't matter what you say, ay, ay
We goin do it God's way, ay, ay
Cuz I'm just your average, not-so-average
Ay, ay, ay, so tell em it's okay, ay, ay
And we know what to say, ay, ay
I'm just your average, not-so-average girl

I'm just your average, not-so-average girl
The only way to shine like a star
Is to realize whose you are
You were created to go far
Baby, doesn't matter what you look like
If you have Jesus on the inside
Cuz everything that you need, in your life
Ay, ay, ay, ay

I think I'm going to have to cop this album!

Serpents, Stones, and the Son of God

2011-08-23T14:08:00.011+03:00

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:7-11

Good fathers don’t give bad gifts to their children. They only give their children good gifts, the best of gifts. And Jesus reasons with us to make His point. He’s been reasoning with us throughout the Sermon on the Mount. He wants us to think about how foolish our unbelief in the Father is.

If God feeds the birds, and you are of more value to Him than birds, then how is it possible that He won’t feed you (Matthew 6:26)? Answer: it’s not possible.

If God clothes the grass with splendor, and you are of more value to Him than grass, then how is it possible that He won’t clothe you even more gloriously (Matthew 6:28-30)? Answer: it’s not possible.

If evil fathers (yes, that’s you) give good gifts to their children, then how is it possible that the perfect Heavenly Father will give bad gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11)? Answer: it’s not possible. The Heavenly Father only gives the best gifts to His children!

But Jesus isn’t done making His point.

If a father is asked by his son for a piece of bread and subsequently responds by giving him a stone (Matthew 7:9), he would be the worst possible father. Similarly, if a father is asked by his son for a piece of fish and subsequently responds by giving him a serpent (Matthew 7:10), he would be the worst possible father. Even those fathers who Jesus describes as evil fathers would be outraged at such a gesture demonstrated by any father (Matthew 7:11). Wouldn’t you?

But pause with me for a moment. Have you ever considered why Jesus specifically uses the images of bread, stone, fish, and serpent? Were these just random objects that He is using simply for the sake of illustration?

I don’t think so.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Matthew 4:1-3
Now picture this scene. Jesus hasn’t eaten for at least forty days and forty nights. He’s hungry. If there’s anything that He would want His gracious Father to provide for Him, it’s a tasty meal of bread and fish. But what does He get instead? Remember, Jesus is in a dry wilderness. He’s almost certainly surrounded by what?

Serpents and stones.

Everywhere He looks.

When Jesus is teaching us about persistence in prayer, He doesn’t pull the images of bread, stone, fish, and serpent out of thin air. He’s drawing from His intense spiritual battle in the wilderness. He knows what it’s like to be tempted to doubt the goodness of the Father. He’s been there. If there ever was anyone in any situation who had a legitimate reason to doubt that the Father gives good gifts to His children, it was Jesus in the wilderness. When the Son of God was longing for bread and fish, it seemed as though the Father had given Him only serpents and stones.

His response? Faith.

The truth Jesus teaches us about the nature of the Father in the Sermon on the Mount is the same truth He was clinging to in the wilderness during His time of hunger and temptation: the Father only gives good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11).

Jesus not only teaches us but shows us by His example in the wilderness how to submit to the fatherhood of God.

So what’s the connection between the wilderness and this teaching on prayer? Well, Jesus was undoubtedly praying during His time of fasting in the wilderness. Fasting and prayer go hand in hand (Matthew 6:5-18).

But, more specifically, Jesus seems to make it clear that when we pray, God often isn’t going to answer us immediately (Matthew 7:7-8). Our asking is often going to have to turn into seeking. And seeking is is often going to have to turn into knocking. Going from asking to seeking involves adding an obstacle of distance. Going from seeking to knocking involves adding an obstacle of a door which is closed. Over time, the obstacles to prayer become bigger, not smaller.

And I think the point is this. Often when we pray for something specific over a period of time, our temptation is to abandon praying because it feels like we’re moving farther from rather than closer to our prayer being answered positively. Our temptation is to abandon praying because it feels like God has given us serpents and stones rather than fish and bread.

But in the midst of such temptations, the way we submit to the fatherhood of God like Jesus did is by continuing to ask, seek, and knock rather than to stop praying. And the reason we can continue to ask, seek, and knock with unflinching confidence when it feels like we’ve been given serpents and stones is because the story can’t end with serpents and stones. It’s impossible. The Father only gives good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11).

You don’t believe me? Look for yourself at the way the story ends when Jesus is in the wilderness:
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Matthew 4:11
In other words, this story ends with fish and bread for the Son of God, not serpents and stones.

And if you don’t stop praying, your fish and bread will come in due time as well.

It will come in the best time when it [comes] in God's time, neither too soon nor too late.
--Thomas Manton

Leave Your Comfort Zone

2011-08-15T23:57:00.004+03:00

In classic buddy movies two people are thrown together, typically as police partners. At first their stark differences create conflict. But after going through a life-and-death experience together, they become deep, lifelong friends. The church is a community full of differences that humanly speaking ought to result in conflict. But we have a shared life-and-death experience. We're sharers in the death and resurrection of Jesus. His death is our death and his life is our life. Nothing expresses this more than baptism (Romans 6:2-3). Now this life-and-death experience binds us together in community: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28). And that means there can be no distinctions around the meal table.
--Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table, p. 53

Lord, Take Me Back To Calvary...

2011-08-13T13:59:00.016+03:00

... where I behold Your love for me.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Romans 8:35

As we wrapped up our study through Romans 8 last night, we began with these verses. After asking who shall separate us from the love of Christ, Paul gives us a list of things that we might possibly think could separate us from the love of Christ: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword. He's going to make clear in verse 37 that it's not possible for any of these things to separate believers from the love of Christ. In fact, there's nothing in all of creation (that's everything other than God) that will ever be able to separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

But look back at the list in the second half of verse 35: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Why does Paul even suggest the possibility that these things might separate us from the love of Christ?

I think the answer is that when people experience any of these things, it's going to feel like God doesn't love them. It's going to feel like they have been separated from the love of Christ. And to the outside world looking at them, they will use it as another reason to deny the existence of a loving God because, as the question has been asked again and again, "How could a loving God allow that to happen to them?"

Right now, there's a famine happening in East Africa. So these words of Paul couldn't be more relevant: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Famine?

We know the textbook answer: no. At some level, we all know the right answer in our minds. That's easy. But what about our hearts? How does a person experience the love of Christ in the midst of the hunger pangs of famine?

As believers in the 21st century, most of us will never experience the majority of the things Paul listed in verse 35 (all of which he personally experienced). But we all struggle from time to time—if not daily—experiencing in our hearts the love of God that we can quote Bible verses about from memory.

So the question is relevant for us all: how do we experience the love of Christ?

Answer: the same way the person in the midst of hunger pangs experiences the love of God, by beholding the cross where 2,000 years ago Jesus died to rescue sinners from Satan, sin, death, and God's wrath.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:37

After a brief one verse detour in which he takes us back to the Old Testament to show us an example of faithful people of God being led like sheep to the slaughter (Psalm 44:22), Paul answers the question he had originally asked in verse 35. Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword separate us from the love of Christ? Answer: no. Why? Because, in all these things that might make us feel like we are separated from the love of Christ, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Notice that last phrase: Him who loved us. Past tense.

The question Paul asked was if anything could separate us from the present tense love of Christ (Romans 8:35). But when he gives us the answer, he speaks of the past tense love of Christ. Why?

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

The apostle Paul was gripped by the love of Christ. He says elsewhere that the love of Christ constrains him (2 Corinthians 5:14). But what you have to realize is that Paul's present experience of the love of Christ had little—and I might go so far as to say nothing—to do with his present circumstances. How could it when Paul was constantly in dire circumstances (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)?

So what did Paul's experience of the love of Christ have to do with?

He never got over the fact that Jesus was crucified in his place. He never got over the fact that, in his place, condemned Christ stood. He never got over the fact that Jesus bore the wrath of God that Paul the blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent deserved (1 Timothy 1:12-14).

I can picture Paul's heart exploding with wonder as he writes Galatians 2:20. He loved me! He gave Himself... for me!

What we see in Galatians 2:20 is that Paul's understanding and experience of the love of Christ for him which compels him to daily die to himself and live by faith in Christ is rooted in remembering and meditating on how Jesus loved him by dying for him on the cross. His present experience of Christ's love for him is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.

We see the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5:14 where he talks about being constrained by the present tense love of Christ. What does that whole verse say?

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
2 Corinthians 5:14

Paul's present experience of the love of Christ which constrains him is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.

And this is the same experience he's inviting his fellow believers into as he brings Romans 8 to an end.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (present tense)? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (past tense).
Romans 8:35, 37 (emphasis added)

How does a person experience the love of Christ in the midst of the hunger pangs of famine? There's only one way. By knowing, remembering, and meditating on how Jesus loved him by dying for him on the cross. His present experience of the love of Christ is based on the death of Christ for him in the past.

Sadly, the love of Christ has become trivialized in our generation, especially in the Western world. Whether we admit it or not, in one way or another we've bought into the idea that Christ's love for us mainly has to do with our circumstances. That's why when we find ourselves in undesirable circumstances, we struggle to experience Christ's love for us.

But if Christ's love for us is demonstrated primarily through our circumstances, then how could He love anyone who is experiencing famine? If that's the case, then the atheists are right. We have no choice but to conclude that there is no one who is experiencing the famine in East Africa right now that Christ loves. And what we call the gospel (John 3:16) is left utterly unintelligible to anyone living in a developing country. We might as well close up shop. Let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Does this mean that we shouldn't bother feeding the hungry because Christ's love for them isn't based on their circumstances and what they need more than anything else is to know that Jesus died for their sins? As the apostle Paul would say, may it never be! If that's the impression you've gotten from what I've written, then you've completely misunderstood me. To walk away with that conclusion, as the apostle James so boldly puts it, would be to completely misunderstand the gospel (James 2:15-17).

The truth that our present experience of the love of Christ is based on our remembering and meditating on His death for us 2,000 years ago isn't meant to free us from feeling obligated to relieve the burdens of others. It's meant to do the opposite. It's meant to gives us such unshakable security in Christ's love for us that we are set free to be risk-takers who boldly lay down our lives to serve and meet the needs (temporal AND eternal!) of others for the glory of God, even when we are squandering ourselves—as Paul did—in the process. Because when we are certain—utterly certain—that absolutely nothing could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ, then nothing else matters. We no longer need to preserve our lives (Luke 17:32-33) by holding onto idols, which is what we all do by nature.

If there's anything in your life that you're not willing to let go of, then it's probably because you've elevated it to the place of the love of God in Christ as the security which you can't live without, that which you can't bear to be separated from. But as John Piper has so concisely and poetically stated: "Romans 8 is about God in Christ giving massive security for merciful service through many sufferings." Whatever you're tempted to find your security in, you do realize that you're going to be separated from it eventually, right? Romans 8 offers you a more massive security, an eternal security.

So, one more time, how do we experience the love of Christ? The same way the person in the midst of hunger pangs experiences the love of Christ: by beholding the cross where 2,000 years ago Jesus died to rescue sinners from Satan, sin, death, and God's wrath. There's no other way. If I don't continually meditate on and marvel, as Paul did, at the wonder that 2,000 years ago God condemned my sin—past, present, and future—in the body of Christ (Romans 8:3) so that now there is no more condemnation for me (Romans 8:1) but only grace and mercy, I'll always struggle to experience Christ's present love for me.

Lord, take me back to Calvary,
Where I behold Your love for me.

Lord, take me back (past) to Calvary,

Where I behold Your love (present) for me.

Constrained by that love, as Paul was, may we no longer live for ourselves but as self-squandering risk-takers who boldly lay down our lives for others because of Him who for our sake died and was raised from the dead (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, 4:5).
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Romans 8 In Poetry

2011-08-12T15:14:00.005+03:00

Over the past couple of months, few things have been as life-giving to my soul as studying, soaking in, and teaching through Romans 8. This chapter couldn't have come at a more timely period of my life.

We just finished tonight.

If you told me that you were going to take my Bible away from me and I could only keep one chapter, I'm pretty sure I know what my choice would be...

Here's a poetic summary:

v. 1–4

For those who in Jesus their refuge have found
There’s no condemnation. Their blessings abound.
For through what Christ Jesus has done within me
The Spirit from sin and from death set me free.

For that which the law, by our nature laid low,
Could never achieve and much less could bestow,
God wrought, when, in order to save us from sin,
He sent his own Son our salvation to win.

God did this in order that Law’s just demand
In us might be met, and we righteous might stand,
And show by our conduct from day unto day,
That, shunning the flesh, we his Spirit obey.

v. 5–8

For those who have chosen the flesh as their Guide,
In things of the flesh, not the Spirit, take pride.
But those who have chosen the Spirit as Guide
In things of the Spirit, not flesh, do take pride.

Now those who take pride in the flesh sure should know
That flesh and its fruit, death, together will go.
So, too, those who honor the Spirit will see
That life and deep peace their requital will be.

For fav’ring the flesh will mean hating the Lord,
Since keeping God’s statutes it cannot afford.
And it should be obvious to those in the flesh
That pleasing both God and one’s sin do not mesh.

v. 9–11

But not in the flesh, my dear brothers, are you.
The Spirit who’s in you proves this to be true.
If one lacks the Spirit, it sure would be wrong
To say that this man could to Jesus belong.

But if Christ is in you, then though, due to sin,
The body may die, yet the Spirit within
Is life and brings life, so that you before God
Stand sinless and pure through the ransom Christ brought.

And if you’re indwelt by the Spirit of God
Who raised Christ from death, then that Father who brought
To life the dead Jesus will also restore
Your bodies from death. They’ll be living once more.

v. 12–16

Therefore, my dear brothers, our duty is clear:
To live by the standard of flesh while you’re here
Will lead but to death. It’s your duty to give
The deathblow to sin’s shameful ways. Then you’ll live.

It is by the strength of the Spirit alone
That this is successful and this can be done.
For all God’s true children, with him as their Head,
Are by the blest Spirit of God being led.

You’re children indeed, for you’ve not received
The spirit of slavery when you believed.
No longer does sickening dread you oppress,
With joy you your God as your Father address.

The Spirit bears witness, and not from afar,
But from close within us, that children we are,
Confirming the voice of our own heart and mind,
And leaving uncertainty far, far behind.

v. 17, 18

And if we are children, then, too, we are heirs
Of God and with Christ, for the person who shares
With Christ in his sufferings must certainly know
That on him indeed God will glory bestow.

For this I consider; of this I am sure!
That sufferings and hardships which now we endure
Are nothing compared with the glory which then
Will shine from within us, ne’er leave us again.

v. 19–22

And this is established that Nature entire
For the revelation of saints does aspire,
For not by its own choice did Nature grow dim.
’tWas man who transgressed, and the Lord punished him

By rendering Nature unable to cope
With enemies many; yet not without hope
That Nature itself, though now bound to despair
One day will the freedom of God’s children share.

v. 23–25

Now all of creation, all Nature, ’tis known;
In anguish of childbirth does suffer and groan.
Not only is this true but we must confess:
We also do groan, who the Spirit possess.

Yes, we also groan, even though we are free,
Enriched by the Spirit, as firm guarantee
That also our bodies the Lord will display
As dear to himself on that glorious day.

In hope we were saved, for its object, though near
Is hidden from view and does not yet appear.
But when we no longer of it are deprived,
It stops to be object of hope; ’t has arrived!

But since for the present we hope for still more,
For fulness of bliss which for us is in store,
We long for these blessings, so rich and so great,
And therefore with patient endurance we wait.

v. 26, 27

The Spirit, too, knows that we sinners are weak,
And often unable to find what we seek,
Not knowing at certain times just how to pray:
The words will not come; we don’t know what to say.

The Spirit then helps us, for he knows our need.
With unspoken groanings he does intercede.
The Searcher of hearts knows the Spirit’s intent;
He’ll ever agree, and the Spirit’s plea grant.

v.28–30

Therefore we conclude that to those who love God
All things, in a sense not restricted but broad,
Co-operate fully, in line with God’s plan
Established and ordered before time began.

In line with this program or purpose of old
The lovers of God were effectively called.
For whom he foreknew he did also elect
The image of Jesus, his Son, to reflect.

In this way it was that God did foreordain
That Christ should become and forever remain
Close linked to his people, firstborn among all,
Yet humble, and willing them brothers to call.

Resulting is therefore salvation’s firm chain:
Those whom God foreknew he did, too, foreordain
And those foreordained he did afterward call,
And justify later and glorify all.

v. 31–34

How then shall we answer? How shall we reply?
If he who is for us is God from on high?
Who, now, of all creatures against us can be
When he who is for us is certainly he?

His love is so matchless, so tender his care
That even his own Son he never did spare.
For us, wretched sinners, he gave him to die.
How will he not with him our own needs supply?

Who dares to bring charges against God’s elect?
Whom God declares pure, and will ever protect?
Who’s really so bold that he dares to condemn
The children of God when he justifies them?

It’s Jesus who died, and what’s more, who was raised
From death to God’s right hand. Let heaven be praised!
Christ Jesus this place of trust occupies thus.
It’s he who is now interceding for us.

v. 35, 36

Who then can he be who will tear us apart
From Christ and his love, which was ours from the start?
Distress, persecution, pain due to the Word?
Or famine or nakedness, peril or sword?

It is as the Psalmist declared long ago:
“Each day we face death and are being brought low.
As sheep that are led to the slaughter are we,
For doing thy will and for honoring thee.”

v. 37–39

And yet it’s a fact that by these very things
Which might seem to harm us God victory brings
To us whom he loves, so that conquerors we,
No, rather far better than this, we should be.

For this I know well, and on this I can count
That nothing at all can forever be found
That causes the Savior his own to forsake,
Twixt him and his dear ones division can make.

Not death and not life and not angels above
Can ever exclude us from God’s lasting love.
Nor present nor future can ever avail
To cause that great love for his dear ones to fail.

Not demons or powers, not depth and not height
Can weaken its glow or diminish its might
No creature can part us, whatever the sort,
From God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

--Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 12-13: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. New Testament Commentary (294–298). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Solitude and Fellowship

2011-08-09T02:36:00.003+03:00

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Mark 1:35

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him...
Mark 3:13-14

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ's call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called. "The challenge of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone... I will not be with you then, nor you with me" (Luther).

But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you. "If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer they [the fellowship] suffer with me" (Luther).

We recognize, then, that only as we are within the fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship. Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship. It is not as though the one preceded the other; both begin at the same time, namely, with the call of Jesus Christ.

Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.

Along with the day of the Christian family fellowship together there goes the lonely day of the individual. This is as it should be. The day together will be unfruitful without the day alone, both for the fellowship and for the individual.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p.77-78

Over at The Gospel Coalition, an outstanding recent blog post about the theological significance of loneliness concisely and compellingly emphasizes the indispensable place of community:

The power of Christian community is this: when we invert our natural desire to be loved and choose to love and serve others, the love of God through us mitigates the loneliness in us.

Man Up!

2011-08-06T00:00:00.002+03:00

The official manup anthem (playing in the background) is bangin'! You can peep it here.

And make sure to check out Lecrae's latest music video, which is part of the man up campaign:

Men... what will you do with this life? Man up!

And spread the word...

Only In So Far As We Are There...

2011-08-05T01:17:00.004+03:00

Consecutive reading of Biblical books forces everyone who wants to hear to put himself, or to allow himself to be found, where God has acted once and for all for the salvation of men. We become a part of what once took place for our salvation. Forgetting and losing ourselves, we, too, pass through the Red Sea, through the desert, across the Jordan into the promised land. With Israel we fall into doubt and unbelief and through punishment and repentance experience again God's help and faithfulness. All this is not mere reverie but holy, godly reality. We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there He still deals with us, our needs and sins, in judgment and grace. It is not that God is the spectator and sharer of our present life, howsoever important that is; but rather we are the reverent listeners and participants in God's action in the sacred story, the history of Christ on earth. And only in so far as we are there, is God with us today also.

A complete reversal occurs. It is not in our life that God's help and presence must still be proved, but rather God's presence and help have been demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ. It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today. The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day. Our salvation is "external to ourselves." I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ. Only he who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, his Cross, and his resurrection, is with God and God with him.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 53-54

Redeemed.

2011-08-02T00:29:00.008+03:00

I'd never known the meaning of that word until we went through this.

One sentence that sums up the story of infidelity, pain, and forgiveness as told by the wife of one of my best friends in this sermon:

Corinthian, we can forgive. (audio)

Almost exactly four years ago, I had the privilege of standing with them as the best man in their wedding. So this story hits really close to home.

Reading this sermon wasn't the first time I learned about this. I heard the news firsthand several months ago almost immediately after the initial confession. But, for some reason, it wasn't until I read this sermon that the faithfulness of God and the glory of Christ in the gospel was impressed upon me in a fresh and powerful way.

During the reception after the wedding ceremony four years ago, I had the privilege of toasting the newlywed couple.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16

Taking my cue from these verses, I began by talking about how during our junior year in college my friendship with the groom had initially sprung from interests that we shared in common. But, by the time we graduated, something mysterious had happened. Our conversations were no longer about those shared interests. Rather, with roots deeply planted in the gospel of grace, our conversations were about building one another up in love and spurring each other on in the pursuit of Christ. In other words, our friendship had grown up. Our friendship had matured.

I then expressed how my prayer for them was that their marriage would in a more significant way be one that--with each passing year--would grow and mature and deepen and ripen with roots deeply planted in the gospel of grace. We then lifted our glasses and toasted them:

May your marriage be one that is continually maturing...

Almost four years later, here are the words of the bride from the last paragraph of the sermon:

Though our marriage looked like the perfection of romance on the outside, it was dying inside. Once we acknowledged the sin that was in our marriage and moved forward by letting God refine us through fire we were given and now have a life together that is sanctified and truly one for the first time.

Their marriage is only now maturing the way I hoped and prayed it would. Never in a million years did I think God would answer my prayer this way.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:31-32

There's no marriage I know where the truth of the gospel--the relationship between a crucified Christ and a deeply flawed church--shines more brightly than this one.

The Gospel and Disagreement

2011-07-28T01:28:00.002+03:00

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12
These might not be the best examples but the reason I post them is because I was thinking about this idea earlier tonight when talking with a brother and welcoming any disagreement he might have about something I had just said.

Although I find the content of these conversations interesting, I found myself much more interested in the way the conversations unfolded than I was in the content of the conversations themselves.

When the gospel of grace brings us from our hiding place behind trees into true reconciliation with each other in Christ, that doesn't mean that we are going to agree about everything. Not even close. As long as we're waiting for Jesus to come back, we all see through a glass dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12). And when one dim perspective of Jesus meets with another dim perspective of Jesus, at some point disagreement is inevitable.

But the glory of the gospel is that it's not our agreement about everything that unites us. It's Jesus Christ alone, who He is and what He's done, that unites us. As long as we agree on that, there's a sense in which nothing else really matters. We can disagree about anything else.

The gospel frees us to disagree because we don't have to justify ourselves by being especially defensive or trying to prove that we're right. Jesus is our justification. He was always right in His living and speaking. We don't have to tiptoe on the thin ice of shared opinion because we're afraid of a disagreement that might damage our fellowship. We stand on a Rock. Christ is unbreakable. And the mystery of the gospel is that when we disagree it's an opportunity for our gospel fellowship to be dug down deeper and for Christ's glory to shine all the more brightly.

So don't be afraid to disagree. If you are, it's probably a sign that you're not believing the gospel and are still hiding behind trees.

Have you already forgotten? You've been clothed with Christ (Philippians 3:9). You're no longer naked. You can come out from hiding.

And, after all, what a boring world we would live in and where we would lose so many opportunities to learn and grow if disagreement never happened.

Thank you, Father, for these diligent and seasoned laborers who so faithfully guard and proclaim the gospel of grace not just in their pulpits and with their pens and with the content of conversations like these, but with the in-between moments of their lives and with the nature of conversations like these. Help us to imitate them and so live in light of the gospel more and more with each day that passes. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

Everything I Need

2011-07-11T23:54:00.001+03:00

The Spurgeon of Africa

2011-07-09T00:09:00.005+03:00

Or so he's called.

Conrad Mbewe on his life and conversion. It's kind of eerie how much of his testimony I can identify with: carefully choosing his words to say that he grew up in a "church-going" family, wrestling with prideful ambition in the call to preach (he's far more humble than I have been), college campus ministry, being part of his local church's planting efforts before becoming a pastor, the lengthy delay between his call to ministry and the fulfillment of that call, and the very request of asking God to "open the door and I'll walk through" (I prayed this almost verbatim the night when I sensed God calling me to Kenya just over three years ago).

And then on African Evangelicalism and Nigerian Junk.

And his sermon from the recent Gospel Coalition conference in April:

So what do you think? Do you see any resemblance?

HT: Gospel Coalition Blog

He Was Delighted to Be a Doorkeeper

2011-07-05T20:21:00.002+03:00

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Psalm 84:10

The value which he set upon the sanctuary is presented in a very striking light by the comparison, that he would prefer having a place at the very doors of the temple, to his having full possession of the tents of wickedness, the plain import of which is, that he would rather be cast into a common and unhonoured place, provided he were among the people of God, than exalted to the highest rank of honor among unbelievers. A rare example of godliness indeed! Many are to be found who desire to occupy a place in the Church, but such is the sway which ambition has over the minds of men, that very few are content to continue among the number of the common and undistinguished class. Almost all are carried away with the frantic desire of rising to distinction, and can never think of being at ease until they have attained to some station of eminence.

--John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 84:10

I'm rebuked by these words.

Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl: The Movie

2011-06-25T19:45:00.008+03:00

I read the book a couple of months ago. It was outstanding. One of my two favorite reads of 2010 (this was the other in case you're wondering). The lens through which N.D. Wilson views the world is for me the best embodiment of what Jesus means when He says that the kingdom of God belongs to such as are children (Luke 18:15-17).

The movie looks to be just as good if not better. Highly recommended. Especially since it's on sale at a steep discount until June 28th. Here are some previews.

Trailer:

Preview of chapter 3 entitled "Breathing Characters":

Interview with the author:

Who We Are and What We Do

2011-06-20T16:05:00.004+03:00

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
Romans 8:14-15 (emphasis added)

No verses have impacted me more than these two in the past couple of months as I have been studying and teaching through the book of Romans. As I was studying these verses a couple of weeks ago, the Holy Spirit used them to begin to press one simple gospel truth into my heart. It wasn't the first time I've heard this gospel truth but for some reason it's never impacted me so powerfully until now. That truth has to do with the relationship between who we are and what we do. What's the connection between who we are and what we do?

The world tells us that what we do is what determines who we are. To put it another way, the world tells us that our behavior is what creates our identity. If you work hard in school, you'll be an A student. If you thrive in your career, you'll have a prominent title and you'll be rich. If you treat your spouse well, you're a good husband or wife. If you love your children, you're a good parent. If you're obedient to your parents, you're a good son or daughter. It's all around us. Whether we realize it or not.

But this, in fact, is the opposite of the gospel.

In Romans 8:14, Paul describes what Christians do. He says that "all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." In other words, Christians are led by the Spirit of God to put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13). In this context, being led by the Spirit to put sin to death is what every true Christian does.

Then in Romans 8:15 (the very next verse) Paul gives the reason why Christians do this: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" Put simply, Paul is saying: "Christian, you're not a slave! You're an adopted son! The reason you put to death sin is because you're an adopted son." In other words, an adopted son or daughter of God is what every true Christian is.

The world tells us that what we do is what determines who we are. But here's the simple gospel truth (based on the connection between those two verses): The gospel tells us that who we are is what determines what we do. The gospel says: "Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you are an adopted son or daughter of God who is infinitely loved by the Father apart from anything you do! Now go live out of that understanding of who you are!"

During His lifetime, before Jesus ever overcame a single temptation in the wilderness, cast out a single demon, healed a single sick person, or forgave a single sin; before any of His ministry, before He ever was crucified and risen Savior, He was first and foremost a beloved Son.

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:16-17

Before you're an employee, before you're a student, before you're a son or daughter to your parents, before you're a husband or wife, before you're a mom or dad, before any other identity you embrace, if you're a follower of Jesus, then first and foremost through your faith in Christ you are an adopted son or daughter of God with whom the Father is well-pleased apart from anything you do (or don't do).

If you don't live firmly rooted in that truth, you're going to live standing on shaky ground. The truth is that you almost always can (and probably should!) be a better employee, student, spouse, or parent. There will be times when you fail in each of these roles. So none of these identities is a firm place to stand. But our identity as children of God is based on what Jesus did and not on what we do. And He never failed! He was perfect! He couldn't have been better! So it's the only firm foundation we have to stand on.

The gospel tells us that who we are in Christ--because of His life, death, and resurrection--is what determines what we do. With the gospel, our identity is what creates our behavior. Nothing else in the world works that way.

If I tell you you're an A student, it's not necessarily going to make you start getting A's. If I give you a job position with a prominent title that makes you rich, it's not necessarily going to make you thrive in your career. If I call you a good spouse or a good parent, that's not necessarily going to make you a good spouse or a good parent.

But the mystery of the gospel is that when God Himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God (Romans 8:16) whom He loves infinitely and with whom He is well-pleased, believing and living firmly rooted in this truth will necessarily lead you to put to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:13-14).

And you know what? In the process, believing and living firmly rooted in this truth is going to make you a better student, employee, spouse, or parent too.

Satan Is Willing To Surrender

2011-06-19T23:20:00.003+03:00

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
Matthew 4:8-9

The Devil doesn't mind "family values" as long as what you ultimately value is the family. Satan doesn't mind "social justice" as long as you see justice as most importantly social. Satan does not tremble at a "Christian worldview" as long as your ultimate goal is to view the world. Satan doesn't even mind born-again Christianity as long as the new birth is preached apart from the blood of the cross and the life of the resurrection. Pastor, Satan doesn't mind if you preach on the decrees of God with fervor and passion, reconciling all the tensions between sovereignty and freedom, as long as you don't preach the gospel.

Homeschooling mom, Satan doesn't mind if your children can recite the catechism and translate the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from English to Latin, as long as they don't hear the gospel. Churches, Satan doesn't care if your people vote for pro-life candidates, stay married, have sex with whom they're supposed to, and tear up at all the praise choruses, as long as they don't see the only power that cancels condemnation--the gospel of Christ crucified. Satan so fears that gospel, he was willing to surrender his entire empire just to stave it off. He still is.

--Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ, p.158

Would You Do It?

2011-06-15T23:31:00.003+03:00

Jeremiah labored for forty years and never saw any fruit from his work. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. No one heard him, no one believed him, and no one turned from their sin. But Jeremiah did what he did because the Lord called him to do it.

So here's the question we must all answer in our hearts and with our lives: If the Lord came to you and said, "You're going to preach for forty years, you're never going to see any fruit, you're never going to make any money for your family," would you do it? Would you still be faithful to the call of Jesus? Is Jesus enough for you? If you can't answer with a "yes", you need to quit the ministry and go sell insurance.

--Matt Carter (and Darrin Patrick), For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel, p. 142

Beautiful.

2011-06-10T23:50:00.002+03:00

Soma Communities - Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

Loneliness and Church Planting

2011-06-08T20:11:00.004+03:00

I originally posted this short video clip almost two years ago. Yes, Eric, I only now know what you mean. And I don't think there's anything I could have done to truly prepare myself for it. There's a part of that burden that nobody in the world but Jesus can share.

Keeping His Men in the Game

2011-06-07T15:36:00.003+03:00

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

One night after our core group meeting, my worship leader (with the chick drummer wife) called me on the phone.

"Bro, I can't do this anymore. I think I'm done," he said.

"Dude, it is OK; my wife can lead worship for a while and give you guys a break," I told him.

"No," he said. "I'm not talking about the church. I mean I don't think I can be married anymore; I'm done with my marriage."

He wasn't kidding. Within a few weeks he left his wife...

The worship leader and I had spent hours upon hours together. We probably spent twenty hours a week together for nine months, dreaming and planning and praying for this church, and I worked for him part-time installing ceramic tile. When he told me he was leaving his wife, I resigned from planting the church, unofficially.

I went home to Annie, who was pregnant with our second child, and announced that I was quitting. "We can't quit," she said. "God has called us to do this!" I love my wife. She always seems to speak the truth at the right time. In this instance, her response shocked me, largely because she had spent the first six months crying about how she disliked the city, our house, and the fact that we had some more than slightly messed-up people living beneath our bedroom floor. Evidently, God had worked in her heart, and it was her courage and God's encouragement through her that kept me in the game.

--Darrin Patrick (and Matt Carter), For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel

Please keep me in the game, Father. If this truly is Your idea, whatever it takes, no matter how many deaths, please keep me in the game. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

2011-06-07T00:00:00.002+03:00

Looking forward to being coached in this much-needed discipline.

Joe Thorn Interview V. 1 from Crossway on Vimeo.

A Part of the World I Love...

2011-06-05T20:41:00.003+03:00

... and some brothers I love dearly:

Why Plant Churches? from NorCal Network on Vimeo.

Thank You Jesus for this movement in answer to years of prayer ... now please do it in Nairobi!

True & Better

2011-05-29T20:22:00.003+03:00

This is 2 minutes worth coming back to again and again.

True & Better from Peter Artemenko on Vimeo.

We Have A Rich History...

2011-05-13T23:28:00.001+03:00

...of trying to make heaven on earth here in California.

Drama, Doctrine, Doxology, Discipleship

2011-05-09T23:27:00.002+03:00

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20

Drama, doctrine, doxology, and discipleship: these are the aspects of our high calling that must be integrated. Conservatives may be tempted to abstract the doctrine from its dramatic narrative, doxological practice, and discipleship. Much of evangelical worship over the past generation has focused on praise without adequate grounding in the drama, doctrine, or discipleship. And now the current emphasis on discipleship is threatened by an inadequate grounding in these other important aspects of Christian maturity. The danger is that discipleship becomes little more than spiritual exercises of moralistic activism: "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5).

First we need to learn the drama and the doctrine. In becoming a disciple, you can't just "go." You have to submit yourself to the grammar of Christian faith and practice. This was true even for the apostles, whom Jesus instructed for forty days before his ascension. Like learning Mandarin, dance moves, baseball, or (for some of us) how to use an iPhone, becoming a Christian takes a lifetime. You have to indwell the world that these new vocabularies and practices generate. You can't really play the piano without learning the piano.

We spend our lives as believers learning the plotline and central characters of the story. Then we have to become familiar with the authoritative interpretations and implications (doctrine). Yet it is really when we are led to lament and praise that we begin to internalize the story and live into it. When we are not just imitators of the characters but actually united to the central figure in the plot, we find ourselves actually recast from our own stories about nothing into the greatest story ever told. We say (and pray and sing) our lines in the story.

This pattern of drama, doctrine, doxology, and discipleship is not actually followed in stages. It's not as if the first few years of our Christian life are spent only on getting the basic plot of Scripture down and the next decade is spent on the doctrine, and only then do we get around to worship and discipleship. Instead of stages, these are facets of every moment in our pilgrimage. Nevertheless, there is a certain logical order here.

Without the story, the doctrine is abstract. Without the doctrine, the story lacks meaning and significance for us. Yet if we are not led by the drama and the doctrine to mourn and dance, have we really been swept into it--experientially, not just as truth but as good news? Failing to grab our hearts, the doctrine fails to animate our hands and feet. Yet if we concentrate everything on the doxology itself, we end up trying to work ourselves into a state of perpetual praise without knowing exactly who we're praising or why. And an obsession with discipleship, apart from these other aspects, will generate a kind of mindless and eventually heartless moralism that confuses activism with the fruit of the Spirit.

--Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, Recovering God's Strategy for Making Disciples

It was as if a pin dropped for me when I read this today. I think Horton really hits the nail on the head in clarifying the essential elements of Christianity. When I first began following Jesus in college almost 9 years ago, what I got for those first couple of years more than anything else was discipleship that led me to a place of nearly complete burnout and shipwreck of my faith. Then about a year after I graduated from college, after that lowest point in my short life of faith, I entered into a phase where it was all about doctrine, which in turn led me to become big-headed and divisive. It has only been over the past couple of years that Jesus has graciously been helping me to begin to understand the indispensable integration of--now that Horton has given me the words--drama, doctrine, doxology, and discipleship in the life of following Him. Each one is exceedingly important.

For a while now, I have thought about what was missing during my early days of following Jesus in college. At first, I thought it was merely a lack of doctrine. But now I believe that it was a doxology and discipleship that--thankful as I am for them--were tremendously lacking in both drama and doctrine.

Drama, doctrine, doxology, and discipleship. We can't afford to neglect any of these because, where we do, our Christianity will almost certainly eventually abort.

Make Us This Kind of People Lord!

2011-04-17T23:32:00.002+03:00

"May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins."
--Martin Luther, in Luther’s Works (St. Louis, 1957), XXII:55.

Only a week ago I wrote an email to a friend here in Nairobi echoing this very prayer. But Luther says it much better than I could.

Amen, brother. Amen.

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

Freedom: The End of the Matter

2011-04-09T18:53:00.004+03:00

I originally wrote this post in the summer of 2010 after we finished preaching through the book of Galatians in a series called "Freedom" at West Hills Downtown.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14
Most of us aren’t audacious enough to boast. We don’t go out of our way to explicitly draw attention to ourselves. So if that kind of boasting is what comes to mind when you hear Paul make this statement, you’ll probably miss its effect.

In order to see how deeply penetrating this statement is meant to be, first consider two other places where Paul uses this same Greek word that is translated here as “boast.”

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice [= boast] in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2

More than that, we also rejoice [= boast] in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:11

The same Greek word that is translated as “boasting” is the same word that is elsewhere translated as “rejoicing.” In a few other places, it’s translated as “glorying.” So the question that Galatians 6:14 should beg for us to ask isn’t limited to “What do I boast in?” but it should be expanded to include “What do I rejoice in? What do I take comfort in? What gives me confidence and emotional stability?” Whatever my answer is to these questions, that is what I boast in.

Last week, I played in the championship game for the lunchtime intramural basketball league at work. My team ended up losing a long, competitive game. I don’t think I would have boasted if we won, but why did I feel discouraged and as though I had failed my team for most of the rest of the day? Not just because we lost, but because I felt I had played poorly. And this revealed that my “boasting” was really in my performance.

Last week, I ended up staying at work one night much later than I had planned to because I was trying to get something done even though I didn’t have to meet a deadline the next day. I didn’t want to leave work until I had accomplished my goal. But I was frustrated that I had to stop working that night without getting the task done. I don’t think I boast about my achievements at work, but why did I experience a growing frustration that made me stubbornly refuse to leave work no matter how much time went by? Because my “boasting” is in feeling like I’m successful in my career.

Last week, I spent some time after work having an extended conversation with one of my co-workers. After having dinner, we joked and laughed and talked about life. But why did I afterwards feel a little disappointed in myself? Because I felt as though I didn’t seize the opportunity to talk to him about Jesus. And this revealed that my “boasting” is in how well I do the job of an evangelist.

The reality is that there are many things that I boast in. There are many things that you boast in. Yet Paul’s statement is clear in its scope. All boasting is excluded except for boasting in the cross. There is to be only one source of our joy, our comfort, our confidence, and our emotional stability: the cross of Christ.

The world and its philosophy give us comfort when we perform well. The world gives us emotional stability when we’re successful in our jobs. The world gives us its vote of confidence when we make logical decisions. Because, in these moments, there is something we can point to in ourselves that makes us acceptable.

But here’s the catch. The world will NOT give us comfort when we don’t perform well. At least not the kind we desire. The world will NOT provide us with emotional stability when we’re not making as much progress at work. The world will NOT give us its vote of confidence when we make decisions that put us in the minority. Because, in these moments, there is nothing we can point to in ourselves that makes us acceptable.

The reality is that the times will come when we don’t perform well, when we’re less productive at work, when we make decisions that are unpopular. If we’re looking for our joy, comfort, confidence, and emotional stability in the places where it’s nowhere to be found because the world isn’t giving it, that’s slavery.

But if we’re always looking for our joy, comfort, confidence, and emotional stability in the cross of Christ, then we’ll never be lacking. It’s always available. And that’s why freedom is found when our only boast is in the cross of Jesus, by which He made us acceptable to God through His life and death in our place, and when the world has been crucified to us.

When the world is crucified to us, we’re no longer seeking our joy, comfort, confidence, and emotional stability in the world so it doesn’t matter whether or not the world gives these things to us. And in this sense, we’re crucified to the world.

And what’s usually the case is that the things we seek to find our joy, our comfort, our confidence, and our emotional stability in are really just different ways of trying to make ourselves acceptable (which is what the Judaizers in Galatians were seeking by forcing the Gentiles to be circumcised). Last week, I wanted to make myself acceptable to the guys I played basketball with. I wanted to make myself acceptable to my employer. I wanted to make myself acceptable to my ministry partners (in a very worldly sense). I’m trying to make myself acceptable in multiple ways every day. We all are.

Does the world offer acceptance? It certainly does. But only if you always meet its conditions. Which again and again you will fail to do. However, the gospel tells us that through the cross of Christ we’re already accepted by God. Always. There’s only one condition: trust Jesus. Look away from yourself (both your failures and your successes) and trust the One who never failed and never will.

So what do you “boast” in?

Six-pack abs?
Owning your own home?
Good grades?
Job performance?
Having a certain amount of money saved in the bank?
Obedient children?
Always pleasing your spouse?
The autonomy of being single?
Your plans for the future?
Being the leader of or part of a successful church plant?
Being told how great your sermon was?

To “boast” in these things is to look to them as “functional saviors” even if you trust Jesus for eternal life. It’s to look to these things to make you acceptable, whether before yourself, before others, or before God. But Jesus didn’t just die to give you eternal life. He died so that you could die to the bondage of boasting in your “functional saviors” and live in the freedom of boasting in Him alone. He died so that you could find your acceptance before God (the only acceptance you need!) in Him alone. In other words, He died to become your only Functional Savior.

And because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:30-31

Don’t wait for the time to come when your “functional saviors” disappear in your time of need (they fail to make you acceptable) because you fail to meet their conditions before you look to make Jesus and His cross your only boast. We boast in the things that make us acceptable. If He’s not your only boast now, there’s no way He’ll be your boast then, when He’ll really be all you have to boast in.

The gospel is simple. And yet so profound. Only the cross of Christ makes us acceptable to God. Believe it. Be free.

Do I Define the Jesus Story or Does It Define Me?

2011-04-04T00:07:00.003+03:00

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:39

So what does this mean: "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it?" The context, of course, is the imminent persecution of the disciples and indeed the wider church. Those who cling to their life as it is will never receive eternal life. The securities of this fleeting lifespan pale in comparison with the riches of the inheritance that the saints have in Christ. (This is precisely the point that the apostle Paul makes in Romans 8:17-25.)

Such passages speak directly to suffering brothers and sisters in China, India, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, but what about the rest of us? We like to imagine sometimes that we too share in Christ's sufferings, but we do not suffer in the same way or to the same degree as the martyrs and the persecuted. The suffering that Jesus had in mind is not the general troubles that believers face in common with unbelievers, such as physical or financial hardships. It was suffering for their witness to Christ that Jesus had in mind.

Yet precisely because we do not find ourselves threatened with death for the sake of the gospel, those of us in liberal democracies may be the ones who find it most difficult to accept Jesus's exhortation. Like a cross that is worn around one's neck, Christ can become an accessory. Rather than being commanded at gunpoint to deny Christ, we are led by the devil into the wilderness of consumerism, shopping for identities. Far from being harried and harassed, we are shown the kingdoms of the world that can be ours if we will only turn away from Golgotha. We don't have to become atheists. We do not even have to renounce Jesus Christ. In fact, we can sell everything from rock concerts to coffee mugs with Jesus as the trademark. All that is necessary is for us to cling to ourselves--the securities, aspirations, felt needs, and relationships that define us and that we have chosen for ourselves--rather than to God's saving love in Christ and the identity for which he has chosen us.

To put it simply, Jesus's warning about finding our life by losing it versus losing our life to find it presses us to ask ourselves this question: Do I define the Jesus story or does it define me? Is Jesus's significance objective and universal, which I am simply to acknowledge and embrace, or do I determine his significance in my own life? Paul tells believers, "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).

This is more radical than anything we could conceive. According to the gospel, "I" don't really exist anymore. Our self-identity is not a stable "thing," but is defined by the story that we tell--or hear--about ourselves. Of course, the gospel does not obliterate my identity; it comes to save nature, not to destroy it. However, my nature "in Adam" is corrupt, in bondage to sin and death. Even in my moral striving, I am decadent. Even in my craving for spiritual experience, I am an idolater. Another makeover or transformation will not really change my identity. I must be crucified and buried with Christ--and raised with him to newness of life.

...

The salvation that God promises in Christ requires my death. Here I am, cheerfully going about my daily affairs, picking and choosing the roles I would like to play from the advertisements, movies, and "put-together" people I admire around me. I may even find a role for Jesus, although who am I to say that others are wrong for finding someone or something else more helpful for achieving their goals in life? Then along comes the law, nailing me, telling me who I really am, telling me how this character I have written for myself is doomed. I begin to question the believability of my screenplay. And then God hands me a new script: the Good News that I am no longer a child of Adam, stranger and alien to God's promises, but a child of God in Jesus Christ, stranger and alien to the world's spin. I no longer can see God as existing to make me happy, to satisfy my felt needs, even giving me a sense of well-being and add a few suggestions to improve my life. He comes to kill me and to make me alive. Repentance means I give up my script; I stop pretending that I can write the story of my life. Through faith in Christ, I become a character in God's story, part of the new creation.

--Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World, p.115-117

G.O.S.P.E.L

2011-04-02T23:48:00.003+03:00

God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life.

My favorite quote:

His righteousness, His death functions as payment. Yes. Payment. Wrote a check with His life but at the resurrection we all cheered cuz that means the check cleared.

HT: Desiring God Blog

The Self-Righteous Young Man

2011-03-28T00:29:00.017+03:00

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Mark 10:17-22

What's going on here? Here's my paraphrase:

Young man (Mark 10:17): Jesus, how much does eternal life cost?

Jesus (Mark 10:18-19): Keep the law. Can you pay it?

Young man (Mark 10:20): Yes, I can!

Jesus (Mark 10:21): Let's try this again. It'll cost you everything you own. Can you pay it?

Young man (Mark 10:22): No, I can't.

The young man's problem wasn't primarily a matter of money. The young man's problem was primarily a matter of righteousness. Jesus merely used money to reveal the deeper spiritual reality that the young man wouldn't have otherwise been able to see: "I can't pay for my salvation."

Trust in money or any other idol we don't want to let go of (e.g. family, known comforts, Mark 10:29) reveals a heart that trusts in self more than God. At the root of idolatry is self-righteousness. If there's an idol of any sort that you're struggling with, then your main problem is self-righteousness. So the proper way to deal with an idol isn't to try to get rid of it (because, just like the rich young man, you can't!) but rather to repent of self-righteousness and trust Jesus alone as your righteousness. Only then will you be irresistibly compelled to leave behind every idol and follow Him (Mark 10:28).

The attribute that most characterizes this man that we've come to know as "the rich young man" isn't so much that he's rich but rather that he's self-righteous. If only he had known that Jesus pays it all (Mark 10:27, Isaiah 53:3-12) so that he doesn't have to, he wouldn't have went away sorrowful (Mark 10:22) but instead would have went on his way rejoicing like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:39).

Solemn Joy

2011-03-21T02:30:00.002+03:00

Not an oxymoron. Here's an excerpt:

There is a frothiness that laughs and jokes and jeers which is utterly devoid of real joy. And there is a quiet sobriety that fights back tears, the joy is so intense. One is external joy hiding internal misery. The other is external seriousness hiding internal delight. Do a search for 'laughter' in the Bible. It is more often discouraged than encouraged.

...

Have you ever met someone who wasn't comfortable with more than thirty seconds without some snide comment or trivializing joke? Someone for whom seriousness is just too awkward? I have just one question: Will you go to such a one when the heart is breaking?

The Death of Disobedience in the Death of Christ

2011-03-12T08:06:00.006+03:00

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Romans 6:3

When Jesus died 2,000 years ago, the effects of His death were incalculable. The effects of His death were incalculable in that He died for people of every tribe, nation, and language, to the utmost corners of the world, far as the curse is found. The effects of His death were incalculable in that what His death has done for each individual who trusts in Him will have ripple effects to eternity. And the effects of His death were incalculable in that His death produces numerous changes in the life of each individual who trusts in Him.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40

During His lifetime, one of the ways that Jesus foretold His death was by comparing it to how the Old Testament prophet Jonah was swallowed by a fish. In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jesus, the Son of Man, would spend three days and three nights buried in the heart of the earth. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that He's going to die, be buried, and then rise from the grave after three days.

Of all the illustrations that He could have used to describe His death and resurrection, why does Jesus use the illustration of Jonah being swallowed by a fish? This compelled me to look again at the story of Jonah, specifically with this question in mind: "How can this story better help me understand what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection?"

The story of Jonah begins in chapter 1:

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah 1:1-3

What's the point of these first three verses? Jonah is disobedient. God commands Jonah to do something, but Jonah doesn't do it. God commands Jonah to go in a certain direction, but Jonah goes somewhere else. Jonah is disobedient.

Now, look with me at the beginning of chapter 3:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.
Jonah 3:1-3

What's the point of these three verses? Jonah is obedient! God commands Jonah to do the very same thing that He commanded him to do back at the beginning of chapter one. Think about this: it's the very same command! And, this time, Jonah obeys!

And what happened in between the beginning of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 3 to transform Jonah from disobedient to obedient?

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights...And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah 1:17, 2:10

The decisive event that brought about Jonah's transformation from disobedient to obedient was the three days and three nights that he spent in the belly of a fish. And just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). What does this teach us about what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4

The story of Jonah foreshadows the death and resurrection of Christ. Before Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, his life as communicated to us in the Bible was one of responding to God in disobedience. But after being vomited out on dry land by the command of God speaking to the fish (the glory of the Father in Romans 6:4!), we most certainly see a newness of life in Jonah: He responds to God in obedience. Spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish brought him from disobedience to obedience!

This shows us that one of the reasons Jesus died was so that when we put our faith in Him, we would share in His death, burial, and resurrection. Not in a literal sense but in the sense that we would, like Jonah, be brought through this spiritual experience of death, burial, and resurrection from disobedience to obedience.

Paul tells the Ephesian church that they "were dead in the trespasses and since in which you once walked following...the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived" (Ephesians 2:1-3, emphasis added). Apart from Christ, we all walk in a certain kind of life. It's a life marked by disobedience. It may not be the outrageous, flagrant kind of disobedience that lives in shameless rebellion. For some of us, it's a subtle, quiet kind of disobedience that on the surface parades as being good but deep down pursues the agenda of self rather than the agenda of God. Apart from Christ, we are all sons of disobedience.

And what we deserve as a result of this disobedience is the wrath of God, which is why another way Paul describes the Ephesians apart from Christ is as "children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3).

When Jesus died, one of the main things His death accomplished was to take upon Himself the wrath of God that we all deserved.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"
Galatians 3:13

After living a life of perfect obedience, Jesus died in our place so that instead of being cursed by God we would be accepted by God on account of His obedience, not ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But Jesus didn't just live, die, and rise again in order to perform the perfect obedience to God that we couldn't. Jesus lived, died, and rose again in order to make it possible for us to obey God as His adopted children (Ephesians 5:1-2). He died so that we could go from being sons of disobedience who walk in trespasses and sins to resurrected sons who walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:3-4 (emphasis added)

Does walking in this newness of life (Romans 6:4), walking according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4) mean that we will no longer disobey? That we will always walk in perfect obedience? Of course not. The story of Jonah shows us that even after spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jonah still struggled at times with having desires, attitudes, and behaviors that weren't fully in submission to God (Jonah 4:1-2, 9-11). But the trajectory of his life had significantly changed.

The cross doesn't take away the need for us to obey God. The cross makes it possible for us to obey God. God's standards haven't changed. He still demands and requires our obedience. And the only reason obedience to God is possible is because of the death of disobedience in the death of Christ, which happened decisively 2,000 years ago and will be brought to its perfect completion when Jesus comes back one day soon.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3-4

Do you even have a clue what happened to you when He died?
When that tomb got rolled when He rose in the sky
...
When Jesus died in our lives something strange happened

--Flame, from verse 2 of the song "Make War" by Tedashii

Salvation Costs Us Nothing, Discipleship Everything

2011-03-08T03:22:00.001+03:00

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:25-33

2 minutes from The Cost of Discipleship by Mark Driscoll:

A Biblical Approach to Guidance

2011-03-05T03:37:00.001+03:00

Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalm 25:8-10

Earlier today, I read a blog post by Justin Buzzard that highly recommended chapter 6 of J.I. Packer's book God's Plans for You as "the best exegetical, theological, and practical treatment of knowing and doing the will of God/God’s guidance."

This topic of God's guidance is one that has been on my mind alot over the past couple of years as I've prayed, prepared, and made plans to pursue church planting in Kenya. And now that I'm in Kenya, that hasn't changed. Or, I should correct myself. It has. I feel the need for God's guidance even more now that I'm here.

Because of my experience and reading how Buzzard was recently redirected by God from planting a new church in Phoenix to planting a new church in downtown San Jose, I was eager to get my hands on that chapter. And I don't know what I would have done without my brand new Amazon Kindle. All it took was jumping onto Amazon.com, searching for the book, one click, and voila! There was the book in my Kindle library here in Nairobi in a matter of minutes (at half the price of the paperback I might add)!

With that, I highly recommend the Amazon Kindle if you're regularly looking for that next good book to read. But, more importantly, I highly recommend chapter 6 of J.I. Packers' God's Plans for You as "the best exegetical, theological, and practical treatment of knowing and doing the will of God/God’s guidance." Here's Packer's summary from that chapter:

How may we formulate[a biblical approach to guidance]? I offer the following ten checkpoints:
Ask the question: What is the best I can do for my God?
Note the instructions of Scripture. The summons to love God and others, the limits set and the obligations established by the law, the insistence on energetic action (Ecclesiastes 8:10; 1 Cor. 15:58), and the detailed drilling in wisdom (see Proverbs and James especially) enable one to make the best choice among behavioral options.
Follow the examples of godliness in Scripture. Imitate the love and humility of Jesus himself. If we do this, we cannot go far wrong.
Let wisdom judge the best course of action. Consider not only the wisdom God gives you personally, but the corporate wisdom of your friends and mentors in the Christian community. Don't be a spiritual Lone Ranger. When you think you know God's will, have your perception checked. Draw on the wisdom of those who are wiser than you are. Take advice.
Note nudges from God that come your way--special concerns or restlessness of heart might indicate that something needs to be changed.
Cherish the divine peace that Paul says "garrisons" (guards, keeps safe and steady) the hearts of those who are in God's will (Phil. 4:7).
Observe the limits set by circumstances to what is possible. When it is clear that those limits cannot be changed, accept them as from God.
Be prepared for God's guidance to be withheld until the right time comes for a decision. God usually guides one step at a time.
Be prepared for God to direct you to something you do not like and teach you to like it!
Never forget that if you make a bad decision, it is not the end. God forgives and restores. He is your covenant God and Savior. He will not let you go, however badly you may have slipped. "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me" (Micah 7:8).
Micah's words, just quoted, offer great comfort to all who want to do God's will but find themselves afraid they may have missed it. The Lord is my Shepherd. He leads me. He restores me. He stays with me. I need not be uptight! What a relief!

--J.I. Packer, God's Plans for You, Chapter 6

What a relief, indeed!

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want [= lack].
Psalm 23:1

In other words, as long as Jesus is my shepherd, I'll never go without. It's impossible.

That's really good news!

Grace Over Karma

2011-02-23T20:10:00.000+03:00

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God...For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:18,21-25

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.
Assayas: I'd be interested to hear that.
Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.
Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.
Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.
Assayas: That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?
Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was the Messiah or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched
Bono later says it all comes down to how we regard Jesus:
Bono: If only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed. When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my s--- and everybody else's. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that's the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it.
-- Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas

HT: @muriithiw, The Poached Egg

Obedience Is A Gift of Grace

2011-02-22T12:12:00.000+03:00

This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts.
Psalm 119:56

This is a difficult verse to translate. In the original Hebrew, the word "blessing" isn't actually there. It's been added by the translator. But to make things even more unclear, the word "that" can also be translated as "because."

So, in light of the different ways this verse can be translated, how should we understand it?

Translation #1

This has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts.
Psalm 119:56

In this translation, I understand "this" to refer to the second half of the sentence. In other words, "This is what has fallen to me: that I have kept your precepts." And the conclusion I arrive at is this: obedience (keeping God's precepts) is a gift of grace ("has fallen to me" implies that I am ultimately a passive recipient).

Translation #2

This has fallen to me, because I have kept your precepts.
Psalm 119:56

In this translation, I understand the "this" to refer to the previous verse.

I remember your name in the night, O LORD, and keep your law.
Psalm 119:55

In other words, "This is what has fallen to me: that I remember your name in the night and keep your law." And the conclusion I arrive at is this: obedience (keeping God's law) is a gift of grace ("has fallen to me" implies that I am ultimately a passive recipient). But in this case, obedience ("keeping God's law" in v. 55) is a gift of grace that God grants in response to my obedience ("keeping God's precepts" in v. 56).

Obedience is a gift of grace that God grants in response to our obedience. He rewards our obedience with grace for future obedience.

But before we could ever be rewarded with the grace for obedience in response to our obedience, God had to initiate our first act of obedience when we had no ability to obey (Ephesians 2:1-8, 2 Timothy 2:25).

"This has fallen to me" underscores the fact that even though I must make an active choice to obey God (Philippians 2:12), I am ultimately a passive recipient of the sovereign, sin-conquering grace of God (Philippians 2:13).

Grace unending all my days
You'll give me strength to run this race
And when my years on earth are through
The praise will all belong to You

Which is why it's the ultimate culmination of grace that God could one day say to us: "Well done, good and faithful servant....enter into the joy of your master" (Matthew 25:21).

You mean to tell me that He's going to reward me for the gift that He gave to me in the first place?

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD [who are obedient]!
Psalm 119:1

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in his ways [who are obedient]!
Psalm 119:2-3

This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts [I have been obedient].
Psalm 119:56

In the end, it doesn't really matter which way you end up translating verse 56 of Psalm 119. Either way, obedience is a gift of grace.

I couldn't more wholeheartedly agree with the translator's decision to insert the word "blessing."

The Nations

2011-02-18T10:55:00.000+03:00

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
Isaiah 49:6 (emphasis added)

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:18-20 (emphasis added)

I just watched a dear brother in Christ get on an airplane to Vietnam, where he is moving to live for this next season of his life in his nation of ethnic origin.

In just over a week I will get on an airplane to Kenya, where I am moving to live for this next season of my life in my nation of ethnic origin.

Even though I've only known Tony for a couple of months, I have great affection for him because of his commitment to the truth of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the sake of rebellious sinners like me who only deserve the wrath of a righteous God but through Jesus get only grace.

And one day soon, multitudes from Vietnam and Kenya and every other nation on the planet who are seeing each other for only the first time will have an immeasurably greater depth of affection for one another because of our singular, undivided, all-consuming passion to praise the Lamb for sinners slain who wrote with blood our eternal praise!

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 5:9-10 (emphasis added)

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Why I Didn't Apply to Seminary 4 Years Ago...

2011-02-15T06:11:00.000+03:00

...but became a member at West Hills Community Church instead.

HT: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology

Desiring God

2011-02-01T06:22:00.000+03:00

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
--John Piper

From the "About me" box to the right:

I used to think that my joy and God's glory were completely unrelated. I lived for God's glory and not my own pleasure. I praise my Father of grace and mercy for showing me that the two are not at odds, but are one and the same, standing and falling together: that me seeking God's glory is what it means to seek my highest joy. When one is missing, so is the other. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Oh, if only we could fully absorb the implications of this truth! I guess that is what I will spend the rest of my life trying to do. Thanks John Piper. Thank You Father.

Waiting Isn't About What We Get

2011-01-27T03:17:00.000+03:00

... it's about who we become.

When God asks you to wait, what happens to your spiritual muscles? While you wait, do your spiritual muscles grow bigger and stronger or do they grow flaccid and atrophied? Waiting for the Lord isn’t about God forgetting you, forsaking you, or being unfaithful to his promises. It’s actually God giving you time to consider his glory and to grow stronger in faith. Remember, waiting isn’t just about what you are hoping for at the end of the wait, but also about what you will become as you wait.

Yes! Read the entire post by Paul Tripp over at DG.

And we know that for those who love God all things [including all our waiting] work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [Why?] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:28-29

In other words, all of our at times agonizing waiting will work together for good not mainly because of what we end up getting, but because of who we end up becoming in the often painful process of sanctification: a pristine reflection of Jesus.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Do it, Lord, do it. For Your name's sake, do it. Amen.

Prosperity, Worship, Grace

2011-01-25T11:00:00.000+03:00

And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples' toil, that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws [i.e. that they might worship him!]. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 105:44-45

God gives His people prosperity in order that they might worship Him (Psalm 105:44-45). That's grace. We do not worship God in order to receive prosperity. That's works.

Prosperity is a means to the end of worship. And the way God keeps prosperity from becoming our end (which we're all inclined to make it into!) is that He sometimes takes it away (Psalm 105:16-19,25).

If we live our lives with worship as a means to the end of prosperity, then when God takes our prosperity away (affliction of any kind), we'll be tempted to think that there's something wrong with God and the quality of His wisdom and love. And we'll forget about grace. If this is how you typically respond to God in times of affliction (big or small), then there's a good chance that for you worship is a means to the end of prosperity even though almost no self-professing believer would ever admit it.

But if we live our lives with prosperity as a means to the end of worship, then when God takes our prosperity away (affliction of any kind), we'll come to see in those moments of loss that there's nothing wrong with God. There's something wrong with us and the quality of our worship and faith. And we'll be reminded of why we're so desperate for grace.

Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Psalm 105:4

Why? Because that's where grace comes from: the LORD and His presence (2 Timothy 4:22). And that's what grace is: the unmerited favor God gives me so that I can have the privilege of seeking and worshiping Him (Psalm 105:45)!

Praise the LORD!
Psalm 105:45

Faith and Risk

2011-01-25T06:38:00.000+03:00

"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."

--C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (New York, 1961), page 21, as quoted by Ray Ortlund.

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

Purposeful Pain

2011-01-22T11:00:00.000+03:00

Are you discouraged and weighed down?

My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
Psalm 102:4a

Feeling a decrease or loss of appetite?

I forget to eat my bread.
Psalm 102:4b

Struggling to sleep at night?

I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake;
Psalm 102:6-7a

Lonely?

I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
Psalm 102:7b

Emotionally overwhelmed?

For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink
Psalm 102:9

If so, you're not alone. These things are not rare to the human experience. In fact, quite the opposite. These things are quite common for human beings living in a fallen world. I've experienced it. Thousands of saints throughout the ages have experienced it. The psalmist in Psalm 102--among many other places--experienced it. The inscription at the beginning of this psalm says "A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD."

Why do we have these experiences of pain and affliction as followers of Jesus? I don't claim to know all of God's good and wise reasons for leading His people into the valley of the shadow of death, but I see at least two in this psalm:

1) To drive us to prayer (or deeper in prayer). "[God] regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer" (Psalm 102:17). We simply will not pray unless we are desperate for God. The more desperate we are, the more we will seek God's presence in prayer.

2) To awaken the praise of a people yet to be created. "Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD: that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD." (Psalm 102:18-22). This is astonishing. And deeply sobering. In God's infinite wisdom, He uses the pains of His children to awaken the praise of their children. How often have you read of saints in previous generations who persevered through affliction and found your own heart soaring in praise to God? That's one of the reasons that Hebrews 11 is in your Bible! Mark this: God ordains that you experience pain and affliction so that through the testimony of your crying out to Jesus (desperate prayer!) and treasuring Him your children that have not yet been born and their children will come to treasure Jesus as well. He gives you a pain that is temporary in order to rescue your children and theirs from one that is eternal.

The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.
Psalm 102:28

Your pain couldn't be more purposeful. I plead with you: don't waste it.

In Christ: Dead and Alive, Before and After

2011-01-21T11:00:00.001+03:00

Before following Jesus, we are both dead and alive.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh...
Colossians 2:13a (emphasis added)

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
Romans 6:5 (emphasis added)

As followers of Jesus, we are both dead and alive.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 6:1-2 (emphasis added)

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses...
Colossians 2:13 (emphasis added)

Before following Jesus, we were both dead and alive: we were dead to God and alive to sin and the law. In becoming followers of Jesus, we both die and come to life. We die to sin and the law and ourselves (the flesh). And we come alive to God.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4

This kind of language isn't merely an illustration or analogy to help us understand how the gospel transforms us, as if to say, "Think of it as though you died when you became a follower of Jesus or like you were dead and came to life." This is describing what the gospel actually does in our lives when we experience its power. "You have died", Paul says. It's an indescribably deep, powerful, mystical, and supernatural reality that is experienced through our union with Christ. Are you a follower of Jesus? You died. Whoever you used to be is dead (Romans 6:6). Or at least he should be (Romans 6:11-12).

So which dead man do you resemble most? Which living man are you most similar to?

Theology with Passion for Jesus Can Conquer Biology

2011-01-20T09:54:00.000+03:00

My Own Little World

2011-01-14T09:23:00.000+03:00

Convicting. Beautiful.

My Own Little World
by Matthew West

In my own little world it hardly ever rains
I’ve never gone hungry, always felt safe
I got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet
In my own little world
Population me

I try to stay awake through Sunday morning church
I throw a twenty in the plate but I never give ’til it hurts
and I turn off the news when I don’t like what I see
it’s easy to do when it’s
population me

What if there’s a bigger picture
what if I’m missing out
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now
outside my own little world, ooo

Stopped at the red light, looked out my window
I saw a cardboard sign said “Help this homeless widow”
Just above that sign was the face of a human
I thought to myself, “God, what have I been doing?”
So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye
Oh how many times have I just passed her by
I gave her some money then I drove on through
in my own little world there’s
Population two, woah

What if there’s a bigger picture
what if I’m missing out
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now
outside my own little world, ooo
my own little world, ooo

Wo-a-oh x3
yeah-ah

Father break my heart for what breaks Yours
give me open hands and open doors
put Your light in my eyes and let me see
that my own little world is not about me

What if there’s a bigger picture
what if I’m missing out
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now

I don't wanna miss what matters
I wanna be reachin' out
Show me the greater purpose
So I can start livin' right now
outside my own little world, (yeah)ooo
my own little world, (yeah),yeah, yeah
my own little world, ooo

Lecrae and Trip Lee with Justin Taylor

2011-01-12T11:00:00.000+03:00

Superb. Fascinating. Funny. Challenging. Inspiring. Trip is just 22?!?!

00:00—3:35 // Trip’s testimony
3:35—9:00 // Lecrae’s testimony
9:00—12:35 // Trip’s path from conversion to today
12:35—16:20 // Lecrae’s path from conversion to today
16:20—17:45 // Lecrae on Reach Records and Reach Life as soundtrack and resources for the movement
17:45—21:35 // Trip on hip-hop as an in-your-face content-heavy art form
21:35—25:11 // Lecrae gives an example of content-packing from “Don’t Waste Your Life”
25:11—27:15 // Lecrae on the origins of Christian rap
27:15—28:57 // Lecrae on the poetical elements of the genre
28:57—30:00 // Trip gives an example from his songs
30:00—32:50 // Lecrae on Reformed theology and race relations
32:50—33:55 // Trip on the diversity of their audience
33:55—36:40 // Lecrae and Trip on being an indigenous missionaries to the urban culture and Reformed theology
36:40—38:00 // Trip on what’s next for him in the next five years
38:00—41:55 // Lecrae on what’s next for him and the opportunities ahead in the cities
41:55—46:20 // Trip and Lecrae on the need to deflect adulation from fans
46:20—47:15 // Trip on Christian hip-hop as one stream of the Reformed resurgence
47:15—49:05 // Lecrae on how folks can be praying for them

On that note, Lecrae's new album "The Overdose" just released yesterday:

Around every corner is the lure to consume. A desire to be satisfied. Unfortunately no human being has found anything under the sun that brings satisfaction. So we consume more, and more, and more. Eventually we overdose. However, there is hope if Christianity is our Rehab. In Jesus satisfaction can be found. Grace, love, peace and hope can be found...and there is always more. Consume more of Jesus.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done...

2011-01-11T11:00:00.000+03:00

...in our lives, and in this world.

Please watch this 10 minute video clip (requires Windows Media Player) from Urbana 2003 . You won't regret it.

I got chills as I sat there having my world rocked listening to it live in that event center in Illinois for the first time 7 years ago. It feels like it was just last week.

I still get chills listening to it 7 years later.

This is 10 minutes that only gets better and better as it goes along.

Romance: Why The Universe Is Here

2011-01-11T04:36:00.000+03:00

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more...And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
Hosea 2:14-17,19-20

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you [as my betrothed bride], I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also [as my consummated wife forever].
John 14:2-3

Over at Christ Is Deeper Still, Ray Ortlund quotes these lyrics from a love song:

And of all the things that I want
In this whole wide world
Is just for you to say
That you’ll be my girl

And then goes on to explain briefly why that heart cry, from the depths of God's being, is the reason why the universe exists...and why it's an indescribably glorious, beautiful, and good thing for a man's heart to be unflinchingly drawn towards one woman in this way and for a woman's heart to deeply desire to be loved by one man in this way.

No, romance is not stupid.

Thanks brother.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5:25-27

Jesus, All for Jesus

2011-01-06T21:19:00.000+03:00

2002-2003

Eight years ago, while I was a sophomore at Stanford University, my life began to be turned upside down when I met Jesus Christ. One of the reasons Jesus rocked my world was because I knew that if I was truly going to follow Him, it would require me to leave behind everything. Though perhaps not literally everything, absolutely everything. And I knew that as much I wanted to, I couldn't do it. There was too much that I still wanted to hold on to.

From those earliest days following Jesus, I've always loved to sing to Him. And it's something I've never taken lightly because it's an exercise of both my heart and my mind. We should always think about what we're singing and the truth is that sometimes we'd be wise not to sing if we really understood what we're singing. One such song that I always hesitated to sing during my time as a student with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Stanford was called "Jesus, All for Jesus" (below). Every time we sang that song as a fellowship I almost always chose not to sing because of what I knew it could mean for my life if I sang it and really meant it. So I would just sit or stand there and listen.

2003-2004

In December 2003, as a junior at Stanford and new follower of Jesus, I attended InterVarsity's Urbana conference for world missions where I learned for the first time about God's global purposes. Gathered for 5 days with 20,000 other students from all over the world, the magnitude and scale of what was at stake was overwhelming for me. I can't explain to you why, but for some reason I chose to participate in the international track for that week (even though it was specifically for international students, which I wasn't) and as a result found myself worshiping and praying with a smaller group of native Africans each night. I can still remember how all my fellow Stanford students at Urbana that year were kind of taken aback when I explained to them that the reason they didn't see me much that week was because I was in the international track, which was housed completely separately. I was kind of taken aback myself when thinking after the fact about how I arrived at that decision! And only now does the reason for my being there make a little bit more sense to me in light of God's providence.

On one of the last nights of that conference, in the presence of 20,000 other students, there was an invitation for anyone to stand up and make a commitment to spend an extended period of time overseas participating in world missions. As I watched handfuls of students standing up all around me in that event center, everything in me wanted to stand up. But I didn't. I couldn't.

2005

At the beginning of 2005, only a couple of months away from my college graduation, I distinctly remember my interview at Adobe. After multiple career fairs, interviews, and resume distributions that year, it was March and I still didn't have one job offer. But after a series of conversations with multiple people during that interview (which felt more like an information session than an interview!), I sat in an empty office by myself as all the people I had talked to huddled in another office to determine whether they wanted to hire me or not.

I can't fully put into words my experience as I sat in that office by myself, but it was as though God Himself came down and assured me that I was going to get that job. There wasn't the slightest doubt in my mind that they were going to hire me. But as certain as that assurance was, there was another impression that was etched upon my mind and heart in those moments that I still remember to this day as though God Himself had spoken to me: "I'm going to give you this job. But don't hold on to it tightly. I'm your security. So, in the day that I call, be as ready and willing to leave this job as you are today to take it." It's been almost 6 years since that day. Despite other possible job/career opportunities and multiple layoffs the company has gone through, I've been at Adobe this whole time.

2008

About two and a half years ago, God irresistibly and irrevocably called me to labor for the spread of the gospel in Kenya. But two and a half years later, why am I still in the United States? God has kept me here in the United States because at no point along the way have I been ready for the transition to Kenya.

2011

Yesterday I officially informed my manager that I will be leaving my position at Adobe in just over a month. It was a little emotional and my manager would have talked me out of it if she could, but the peace and clarity and confidence and joy that I had from the Holy Spirit in those moments was abundant. The day that God had spoken of as I sat in that office by myself almost 6 years ago in March 2005 had finally arrived.

In those fellowship meetings as a college student, at Urbana in 2003, waiting in that Adobe office by myself in 2005, that decisive night in Kenya in 2008, over these past couple of years, and yesterday--through those experiences and every step of the way--God has been loosening my heart so that I can sing "Jesus, All for Jesus" not primarily with my tongue, but with the fullness of my life, with everything in me.

And, even now, I still feel a hesitation to sing this song.

But, oh Lord, I pray that where my tongue may lag, my heart and my life never would. Only by your grace do I make this my constant, unceasing prayer, from this time forth and forevermore:

Different Cultures, Different Generations, Same Passion

2011-01-06T03:08:00.000+03:00

...bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
Isaiah 43:7

I love these two brothers and the fact that--as different as they are--they both exist for one reason: to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

To share in this same passion now is a sweet foretaste of and preparation for the day when we'll share in the same song.

And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 5:9-10

Even so. Come Lord Jesus.

I am Second

2010-12-30T12:10:00.000+03:00

"No, the team is not going to be the most important thing to me."

I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Romans 11:4

HT: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology

Women Worthy of Praise

2010-12-28T10:54:00.000+03:00

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30

Lisa Chan (wife of Francis Chan):

Lauren Chandler (wife of Matt Chandler):

Blair Linne (wife of Shai Linne):

I'm so greatly encouraged by these wives.

But God...

2010-12-27T08:46:00.000+03:00

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God...
Ephesians 2:1-4

After watching this powerfully moving testimony to the rebel-pursuing, sin-conquering, irresistible grace of God, I'm really looking forward to reading the book (to be released in May 2011):

Note: If you want to watch the video testimony, just a couple of things to note: 1) It's long (about an hour I think). And it's worth it. 2) It doesn't start off in English and you have to wait a while before it gets to the English. And it's worth it.

It Was Not A Silent Night...

2010-12-25T12:10:00.000+03:00

Labor of Love
by Andrew Peterson

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Immanuel (God With Us): Past, Present, Future

2010-12-25T02:44:00.000+03:00

Past:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (emphasis added)

Present:

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:20 (emphasis added)

Future:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them as their God."...And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Revelation 21:3, 22-23 (emphasis added)

A very merry Christmas to you and yours.

Wide-Eyed With Wonder in God's Spoken World

2010-12-21T22:15:00.000+03:00

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Hebrews 1:3

Tree, I say, and you know what I mean. You see one in your mind, or glance out your window and remember the much-needed pruning. Tree, God says, and there is one. But He doesn't say the word tree; He says the tree itself. He needs no shortcut. He's not merely calling one into existence, though His voice creates. His voice is its existence. That thing in your yard, that mangy apple or towering spruce, that thing is not the referent of His word. It is His word and its referent. If He were to stop talking, it wouldn't be there. Or do you think that its molecules and atoms and quarks are made of some mysterious, self-sustaining matter that has always been and always will be, some infinite Play-Doh or hydrogen, holy be its name? Maybe there was an Adam Up Quark and Eve Lepton? Maybe God found a bit of infinite matter and blew it up like a balloon, and now its sputters and spits while it swirls, sustaining itself? Maybe the balloon found itself and did its own huffing and puffing. Place your faith in the infinitude of matter if you like, and Chance will write your story. He'll shuffle together pages, words, scribbles from different languages, other people's noses, and small bits of string, run it all through a mulcher, and spray it into your yard. Enjoy your novel.

Imagine a poem written with such enormous three-dimensional words that we had to invent a smaller word to reference each of the big ones; that we had to rewrite the whole thing in shorthand, smashing it into two dimensions, just to talk about it. Or don't imagine it. Look outside. Human language is our attempt at navigating God's language; it is us running between the lines of His epic, climbing on the vowels and building houses out of the consonants.

See that thing?

What thing?

That huge pile of stones that climbs to where the air gets thin?

Yes. It has a lot of syllables.

Let's call it a mountain, okay? When I say mountain, that's what I mean. It'll be easier than building one every time.

It's supposed to blow up?

Let's call it a volcano.

--N.D. Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World, p. 43-44

Wow! I think the subtitle of this book is accomplishing its intended effect in my life.

Oh how much there is to see and marvel at! Oh how blind I am! Oh Lord, widen my eyes with wonder!

To Pursue Unity Itself Will Eventually Destroy It

2010-12-09T21:29:00.000+03:00

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:11-13, 15-16

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.

--A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, 80

Here is a picture of the only unity that endures:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (emphasis added)

HT: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology

Wasting Your Life By Asking The Wrong Questions

2010-12-09T07:29:00.000+03:00

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Philippians 3:17

[M]y sense is that in the prosperous West, the danger in the church is not that there are too many overly zealous people who care too deeply about the lost, and invest hazardously in the cause of the Gospel, and ruin their lives with excessive mercy to the poor. For every careless saint who burns himself out and breaks up his family with misdirected zeal, I venture, there are a thousand who coast with the world, treating Jesus like a helpful add-on, but not as an all-satisfying, all-authoritative King in the cause of love.

One of the marks of this peacetime mind-set is what I call an avoidance ethic. In wartime we ask different questions about what to do with our lives than we do in peacetime. We ask: What can I do to advance the cause? What can I do to bring the victory? What sacrifice can I make or what risk can I take to insure the joy of triumph? In peacetime we tend to ask, What can I do to be more comfortable? To have more fun? To avoid trouble and, possibly, avoid sin?

If we are going to pay the price and take the risks it will cost to make people glad in God, we move beyond the avoidance ethic. This way of life is utterly inadequate to waken people to the beauty of Christ. Avoiding fearful trouble and forbidden behaviors impresses almost no one. The avoidance ethic by itself is not Christ-commending or God-glorifying. There are many disciplined unbelievers who avoid the same behaviors Christians do. Jesus calls us to something far more radical than that.

People who are content with the avoidance ethic generally ask the wrong question about behavior. They ask, What’s wrong with it? What’s wrong with this movie? Or this music? Or this game? Or these companions? Or this way of relaxing? Or this investment? Or this restaurant? Or shopping at this store? What’s wrong with going to the cabin every weekend? Or having a cabin? This kind of question will rarely yield a lifestyle that commends Christ as all-satisfying and makes people glad in God. It simply results in a list of don’ts. It feeds the avoidance ethic.

The better questions to ask about possible behaviors is: How will this help me treasure Christ more? How will it help me show that I do treasure Christ? How will it help me know Christ or display Christ? The Bible says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). So the question is mainly positive, not negative. How can I portray God as glorious in this action? How can I enjoy making much of him in this behavior?

Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud—just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more.

--John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p.118-120

Culture Makin' That's Bangin'!

2010-12-04T12:56:00.000+03:00

And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

This song is from FLAME's last released album, Our World Redeemed (this album is my new top two favorite! Grab a copy for yourself!).

Then watch/listen to FLAME talk about his latest culture making efforts:

And here's a peek at the new album that's gonna drop at the end of this month, Lord willing:

Captured is an album that was derived from a personal burden on FLAME's heart. When reflecting upon the state of the world and the church, FLAME noticed that people fell into two categories:

1. being captured by sin and still under its grip and control; or
2. having been captured by God and under His rule and sway.

Yet, he saw something similar in both groups: the need to be recaptured. The non-Christian needs to be captured by God for the first time, while the Christian needs to constantly be captured by God's beauty, His holiness, and His grace. As the psalmist says in Psalm 42, "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 is the language of one who is captured and is being captured by a holy God and a sweet Savior.

FLAME takes you on a journey from what its like to be captured from birth to childhood to adulthood and then throughout your Christian journey. FLAME shares many personal stories of how God captured him and is continuing to capture him. He also gives a glimpse of how he and all the saints will eventually be captured once and for all in the presence of God. This album is a plea and a call for God's created people and His children to follow hard after God and to cling to Him. Who or what has captured you?

Culture Making: Bringing Grace and Cross to Every Nook and Cranny of Culture

2010-12-03T10:28:00.000+03:00

Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it spring up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
Mark 4:3-8

The religious or secular nature of our cultural creativity is simply the wrong question. The right question is whether, when we undertake the work we believe to be our vocation, we experience the joy and humility that come only when God multiplies our work so that it bears thirty, sixty and a hundredfold beyond what we could expect from our feeble inputs. Vocation--calling--becomes another word for a continual process of discernment, examining the fruits of our work to see whether they are producing that kind of fruit, and doing all we can to scatter the next round of seed in the most fruitful places.

...

So where are we called to create culture? At the intersection of grace and cross. Where do we find our work and play bearing awe-inspiring fruit--and at the same time find ourselves able to identify with Christ on the cross? That intersection is where we are called to dig into the dirt, cultivate and create.

We are marvelously different enough from one another that the simple quest for each one's intersection of grace and cross will take us to every nook and cranny of culture.

...

Frederick Buechner writes that your calling is found "where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

--Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, p.256, 262, 263

Jesus Is Building His Church...

2010-12-01T11:44:00.001+03:00

...and I'm almost positive it doesn't look like what we think it should.

I highly recommend you read that blog post, which talks about The Line, a church plant in Chicago that one of my best friends has been helping to plant over the past year and a half.

I really wish that every person who has been inclined to comment on this thread had the opportunity to actually visit The Line. As one who has been there recently and experienced the grace of God there firsthand, I can say without any hesitation that the Holy Spirit is working in powerful ways in and through The Line for the exaltation of King Jesus. It's undeniable. I was so tremendously encouraged AND challenged by The Line's commitment to both contend for AND contextualize the gospel. To do both well isn't easy. Quite honestly, I don't think most evangelicals do both well (myself included). I would argue that the majority of churches/organizations are better at and/or focus on one more than the other (for me, I'm definitely better at and probably more focused on contending). Not The Line. The Line does both, very well.

Just a couple of things that stick out in my mind most:

I had the privilege of being in Chicago the weekend when Milano (the band mentioned in the article) dropped their latest release with a concert on a Saturday night. It was a unique experience. Being an outsider, I didn't know anyone who was there. I have no clue what percentage of the audience was professing believers. But honestly, the best part was that it didn't really matter. My guess is that the majority of the audience was Christian, but even if that was the case it was an environment that seemed like an atmosphere that a non-Christian would totally enjoy and feel at home in (like the tax collectors and prostitutes did around Jesus). There came a point during the concert when Jon (the band leader) had his opportunity to "preach." And preach he did. Even though it probably wouldn't be what alot of evangelicals define as preaching. He pointed to sin by talking about the brokenness of the world that we can all identify with, Christian or non-Christian. And he pointed to the Savior by talking about the hope that we are all in need of, Christian or non-Christian. But he did so with what clearly appeared to me as carefully chosen words that wouldn't immediately alienate the non-Christians but rather invite them in to look past all the stereotypes (and we all know there are many) and take a closer peak at the gospel and the Christ who it's about. And my favorite part was when he said that the celebration that Saturday night was going to continue the next morning at a particular theater (which is where The Line gathers for their Sunday morning worship) and invited everyone at the concert to come and be a part of the celebration.

I just finished reading a book called Culture Making by Andy Crouch. I can say confidently that this is one of the best books I have ever read. And definitely the best book I read in 2010. It's oozing with insight, commanding in its biblical theology, and it's just simply beautiful in its rhetoric. It opened my eyes to see the entire Bible through the lens of culture in a way that I've never before considered, but which has clearly been there all along. I'm still working out the implications for my life. I was challenged to the core. One of the main premises of the book revolves around this concept of gestures and postures. A gesture is a movement our body makes in response to something. A posture is a position our body assumes over time. Crouch argues compellingly that, as the church, there are four different gestures that we can make in response to culture: condemn culture, criticize culture, copy culture, or consume culture. And each of these is necessary at some point. But one of our biggest problems is that at one point or another in church history or in certain wings of the church, we have turned these gestures into postures that we assume by default. And even though these gestures are necessary and good at the appropriate time, embracing any one of them as postures will end up bearing no fruit in the long run. Because the main posture that God has called us to embrace is none of these four (they're meant to be gestures only!) but instead that of being cultivators and creators of culture. Why do I mention this book and bother giving you this short little synopsis? Because The Line and Milano are doing exactly that. The Line and Milano aren't mainly condemning (like me!), criticizing, copying, or consuming culture. They are mainly cultivating and creating culture, showing Chicago what a culture that is submitted to the one true God looks like. And they are offering a legitimate and similar yet altogether different alternative to all the other cultures that people in Chicago can choose to embrace.

I'll be honest. It was hard for me to enter into musical worship at The Line. It's so remotely different from anything that I'm used to. But that's evidence that they are contextualizing for a Chicago culture that I'm an alien to (as would be the case if I were in a church in Japan). And so by the end of the service, when we were singing the last truth-filled song celebrating the hope of Jesus coming to make everything right, I was jamming because the gospel that secures that hope for us is powerfully at work in Chicago through The Line and that fills me with hope for the church here and now.

Thank you The Line. Thank you Milano. You're a gift and an example to us. Keep doing what you do. Thanks D. I praise Jesus you followed Him to Chicago.

Thank You King Jesus that You are building Your church. And that neither the gates of Hades nor our folly will prevail against it.

Real Faith: God or Total Collapse

2010-11-28T08:06:00.000+03:00

Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.
2 Samuel 10:12

Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.
Esther 4:16

And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
Matthew 4:3-4

"Pseudo-faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God fails it. Real faith knows only one way and gladly allows itself to be stripped of any second way or makeshift substitutes. For true faith, it is either God or total collapse. And not since Adam first stood up on the earth has God failed a single man or woman who trusted him."

--A. W. Tozer, "True Faith Brings Committal," In The Root of the Righteous (Harrisburg, 1955), pages 49-50.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

Giving Thanks

2010-11-27T07:17:00.000+03:00

We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 75:1

That was the beginning of the psalm that my latest journey through the Psalms providentially brought me to on Thanksgiving yesterday. Perfect.

Two days earlier I read Psalm 73 and was especially struck by what I saw as the connection between the first and last verse of the psalm:

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
Psalm 73:1 (emphasis added)

...

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the LORD GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm 73:29 (emphasis added)

What's the connection between these two verses in light of everything that comes in between them? The way God is good to Israel is by bringing Israel near to Himself.

And then the next day (the day before Thanksgiving) I read Psalm 74 which draws a connection between the way God seems to at times abandon His people and the way He seems to at times ignore the dishonoring of His name. What's the connection between the two? Because of the covenant that God made with Israel, the cause of God's people is inextricably bound up with the cause of God's name. The God who seems to look on idly while His name is being reviled is the same God who seems to look on idly as His people suffer. But verse 12 tells us that He is NOT idle:

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
Psalm 74:12

His glory. Our good, our joy. Inseparable.

So by the time Thanksgiving day came and I found myself in Psalm 75, verse 1 made perfect sense.

We give thanks to you, O God;
we give you thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 75:1 (emphasis added)

Why are the people giving thanks to God? Because His name--which not only represents His presence (Psalm 73) but also is bound up with their cause (Psalm 74)--has drawn near. And so they love to rejoice in the exaltation of His name! This is the greatest possible reason for thanksgiving, not just on the last Thursday of November but every day (and every moment of every day).

So today I celebrate no less than I did yesterday that Jesus "suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). There's no greater good than this.

For the gospel that brings me near to God, I give thanks. And I recount some of His wondrous deeds from this past year that I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

I'm thankful for the local church: the mothers, brothers, and sisters that Jesus surrounds me with so that even though I may be single, I'm not alone (Genesis 2:18, Mark 3:33-35, Mark 10:29-30)

I'm thankful for the infinitely powerful, fear-destroying love of God for me through Jesus' wrath-bearing death in my place (1 John 4:10, 18, Revelation 1:5) that gives me invincible joy today and bold hope as I look to an unknown tomorrow

I'm thankful that in spite of the ups and downs of transferring to a new position at work at the beginning of this year, I still have a great job in this unstable economy when, all things considered, I really should have been laid off (Daniel 2:20-21)

I'm thankful for the Christ-exalting, Scripture-saturated army of gospel soldiers that God is using to bring revival and reformation in His church through rap and hip-hop culture (Romans 11:4-5). Just yesterday, as we were reminiscing about some of the songs we used to listen to, I was telling my sister how, in my opinion, this past decade can't touch the 90's when it comes to music in general (no pun intended =P ). But when it comes to the genre of rap and hip hop, this music seems to be a recent, supernatural phenomena of this past decade with no other explanation but a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a particular sphere of culture.

I'm thankful for the ever-fresh, ever-relevant, ever-fascinating, Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures that daily root me in an otherwise imperceptible reality (Psalm 119:18, Psalm 119:105, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12)

I'm thankful for several meetings with my pastor discussing my plans for Kenya that left me mindful of my insufficiencies as a leader (let alone church planter) and the many messages I preached (just about all of them) that left me mindful of my inabilities as a preacher because each has served to establish me more deeply in the gospel of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection as my only boast (Galatians 6:14)

I'm thankful for the significant recovery of my former roommate whose illness brought him literally into the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 64:19-20, Psalm 69:13, Psalm 40:1-3, Psalm 103:3)

I'm thankful for being surrounded by fellow believers who, in the midst of hardship, strive to submit to the sovereign Father of spirits and live (Hebrews 12:9, Job 1:21) rather than disapprove of or question His wisdom (Job 2:9-10, Romans 11:33-34) which is the default impulse of our fallen nature

I'm thankful for fellow laborers in my church whose lives are marked by a passionate urgency to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10, John 17:18, John 20:21)

I'm thankful for a new resurgence of the gospel and biblical theology in Nairobi among young adults; and the missionally-minded community that is graciously extending to me the honor of joining them in the new year as God continues to direct the greatest story ever told that He wrote in eternity past (Ephesians 1:9-11, Isaiah 46:9-11)

Just a few things I'm thankful for this year. And there's so much more.

We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 75:1

What are you thankful for?

Which One?

2010-11-26T10:59:00.000+03:00

Great stuff from Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology:

I recently asked four brothers: What would you rather have--

One billion dollars deposited into your checking account when you roll out of bed in the morning

or

the assurance of Isaiah 43: 'But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you."'

Which one?

Make War!

2010-11-21T10:12:00.000+03:00

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [make war against!] the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13

And the official music video...

HT: Be Transformed

And From No Other...

2010-11-19T21:07:00.000+03:00

...in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge...
Colossians 2:3

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects, that he might learn to feel our pain. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.”
--John Calvin, Institutes, 2.16.19.

Yup...Christ is deeper still...

Actions Speak Louder

2010-11-17T00:09:00.001+03:00

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:10-12

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

Who's Voice Are You Listening To Most Today?

2010-11-11T20:28:00.000+03:00

Jesus' blood speaks a better word. Period.

[You have come] to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Hebrews 12:24

Limitations: This Is By Design

2010-11-08T09:04:00.000+03:00

Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14

Limitations
by Trip Lee ft. Leah Smith

You know we feelin like we cant move many times
So we waitin for a break through at any time
So many things that we cant do, we really find
That any climb can be strangled in any grind
Can get tangled we get behind
And in the end they find, we feelin trapped like prison time
Got big vision, we're beginning tryin
But ain't grinnin when we gettin to the finish line

And we all feelin like we been tryin for too long
This day been racin through my mind for too long
I can't be runnin in place, do i need to save face and move on?

I watched friends fall short, i've seen many cryin
I watched my dad breath his last, we are really dyin
If I can grasp in my past, I see many times
When I was really tryin, but was limited by His design

This is the way that life will be, limitless You put limits on me
By Your grace, help us see, this is Your design
This is the way that life will be, infinite You made finite me
By Your grace, help us see, this is the way this is the way that life will be

So many things that we wanna get our hands on
So many heights we wanna reach that we planned on
And we was thinkin we just missed our chance homes
But our reach ain't long enough no matter what we stand on
I'll never be the kind of rapper that I like to be (yea, yea)
And I can see all the books that I like to read (yea, yea)
And twice the speed all the folks that i'd like to reach
I like to speak, but i'm limited my might is weak

Though God was pleased with the creation of man
We still gotta understand the limitations of man
Many of us stuck in the days of the trance
Man, thinking we can do some things that we cant

You may be thinkin you a beast but believe me
You still gotta sleep in the evening,
Ya you still gotta eat, need heat when its freezing
You peak for a season, but peep what we speakin

This is the way that life will be, limitless You put limits on me
By Your grace, help us see, this is Your design
This is the way that life will be, infinite You made finite me
By Your grace, help us see, this is the way this is the way that life will be

I know some folks who aint poor they crusin
We can work hard but if the Lord aint movin
No fruit in store man before they ruin
They should trust God who supports they doin
We not in control of the earth He's the owner
One day we get work, next day we a goner
Humanity's not getting any stronger, so we shouldn't front any longer

Behold the God of wonders, He has no hunger
Never does He sleep or He slumber
He's never limited, no enemies can ever come up
We're the victory He's got the one up, He runs us (He runs us)

So let's submit to that King who's in the skies
This is something that we cant do in our pride
Humble yourself under His name dude He is God
All powerful until the end of time

This is the way that life will be, limitless You put limits on me
By Your grace, help us see, this is Your design
This is the way that life will be, infinite You made finite me
By Your grace, help us see, this is the way this is the way that life will be

This is the way that life will be, limitless You put limits on me
By Your grace, help us see, this is Your design
This is the way that life will be, infinite You made finite me
By Your grace, help us see, this is the way this is the way that life will be

Lausanne 2010: The Unfinished Task

2010-11-05T06:20:00.000+03:00

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:14

The following is Piper's prophetic exposition of Ephesians 3 at Lausanne where he pleads for Christians with a passion for social action and Christians with a passion for evangelism to, instead of being suspicious of one another, come together as one church united with a single passion to alleviate every kind of suffering--especially eternal suffering--for the joy of the nations and the glory of Christ. Highly recommended.

Of this gospel I was made a minister...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 3:7,10

Part 1:

Part 2:

Change: Speed and Longevity

2010-11-02T07:03:00.000+03:00

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:23-24

The faster a given layer of culture changes, the less long-term effect it has on the horizons of possibility and impossibility...The bigger the change we hope for, the longer we must be willing to invest, work, and wait for it ... Nothing that matters, no matter how sudden, does not have a long history and take part in a long future ... the most beneficial events have little positive effect in the short run...

As Christians tell the story, the three days encompassing the condemnation crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth where the most extraordinary sequence of events in human history--events accompanied by physical earthquakes, splitting the temple veil and opening tombs, which mirrored the historical and spiritual drama of that divine intervention...

And yet the cultural implications of Jesus' resurrection, one day or one week after the event, were exactly nil. The following Sunday, according to the Gospels, the witnesses to that earth-shattering event were hidden in an obscure corner of Jerusalem in fear for their lives. The event that would do more than any other in history to alter the horizons of possibility and impossibility had not yet had the slightest effect on the life of a typical resident of Jerusalem. Arguably, it had not even had much effect on the few who had seen evidence of the event with their own eyes.

A few decades later there was a burgeoning movement of witnesses to the resurrection and those who believed their testimony. But their cultural impact was still minimal, meriting only the most cursory references in the correspondence of Roman officials and the annals of contemporary historians. It was not until seven hundred years had passed that the Christian movement, with the assistance of a possibly converted and certainly savvy emperor named Constantine, began to shape the horizons of the Roman Empire. Even the resurrection of Jesus, the most extraordinary intervention of God in history, took hundreds of years to have widespread cultural effects.

So hope in a future revolution, or revival, to solve the problems of our contemporary culture is usually misplaced. And such a hope makes us especially vulnerable to fashion, mistaking shifts in the wind for changes in the climate. Fads sweep across the cultural landscape and believers invest outsized portions of energy and commitment in furthering the fad, mistaking it for real change.

--Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, p.56-59 (emphasis added)

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away...And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
Mark 4:5-6,8 (emphasis added)

What's The Least I Can Do?

2010-10-29T09:12:00.000+03:00

That's the question we all tend to roll out of bed asking. What's the least I can do here? What's the minimum requirement? What bar do I have to meet, after which I can do what I want to do?

It's the question Peter asked with respect to forgiveness--what's the least number of times I can forgive before finally having the right to stop forgiving? (Matthew 18:21-35)

It's the question the Pharisees asked with respect to marriage--what's the least excuse I can have for divorcing my wife? (Matthew 19:1-12)

It's the question the rich young man asked with respect to morality--what's the least I can do to have eternal life? (Matthew 19:16-22)

Read the rest of this short (you're already halfway done), excellent post to learn the alternative.

I love this blog: how biblical, prophetic, challenging, direct, and to the point it is. Here are two of my other favorite posts:

2 Samuel 10:12

How Do We Make the Huge Decisions in Life?

No irony that two of my favorite blogs are authored by father and son.

Only Two Options: Religion or Jesus

2010-10-26T07:02:00.000+03:00

Religion:

...having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law...
Philippians 3:9

Jesus:

...that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
Philippians 3:9

Come Close!

2010-10-23T08:22:00.000+03:00

Tell me, what do you see?! It's God! And that's something to see!

(I don't know about you, but I'm ready to dance!)

Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
Psalm 66:5

Come Close
by Trip Lee, featuring Flame and Sho Baraka

Set the scene, in the beginning was God
He was holy, glorious and He was wise
If anyone tries, to question His power
Tell them cowards, you really don't buy it
He's really so fly, He don't need no assistance
He made everything spoke it into existence
Creation listened, with no resistance
What kinda powerful God is this?
I'm tripping sometimes I stop and just gaze
I'm so amazed that He made this in 6 days
Made land, made man, but man made a mistake
Men ate fruit now we all in a sin state
But don't think He's no match for the serpent He
Smashes His adversaries, laughs at adversity
They plan, they scam, but they ain't got a good fate
The seed of the woman will smash on the serpent's seed
Time goes, guys grow mo and mo sin filled
God grows, tired though, He's hatred for their sin builds
Because they lacked great faith and love
God showed that He reigned with a flood
He showed His hatred for sin that sits in mens hearts
And the grace He extends to men on His ark
He's amazing man, His great works are a testimony to His person
And I'm so blessed He knows me

Hook:
Come close, tell me what do you see?
It's God and that's something to see
You wanna know who the boss is?
Flip through His narrative, switch through His character
Come close, tell me what do you see?
It's God and that's something to see
You wanna know who the boss is?
Take a look at His works you can see ID

Verse 2 - Flame:
Aye Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph in the hands of Yahweh how they showed us
How raw our God is never say no
ask Pharaoh let go my people like ego
they know who so parted the Red Seas
plans to redeem through Abraham's seed
Here comes another parting through the Jordan waters
God is such an artist should be askin' for His auto-graph
this ain't the half my brother
that God reveals like pealing the covers
back His attributes and acts
that we will see when we go in OT
but-what I aint talkin' bout overtime
the Old Testament see the plagues and pestilence
that reveals how holy God is
so much so that even armies had to bow down
look at Jericho the walls had to let em go
who can tell Him no dawg betta let em know
who can stay afloat when God got the levees broke
see for His glory
it will get gory
yet at the same time the same God of Jacob
the same God of Joseph and Caleb
Can take a sinner man and make em a nation
make laws just to show off His power and patience

Hook

Verse 3 - Sho Baraka:
Let the Gospels introduce you to the Lamb and the light
In Revelation He returns as the Lion with the might
He runs the urban jungle crushed my burden to the law
Took a bite out of sin/ Got death in His claw
He demonstrates his power over death, sickness
Over Nature, over evil over time and distance
All power is in his hand, when they thought he was ruined
But he rose from the grave like "How you doing"
He established the church and working hard like adrenaline
But Satan and the world they want to pump us with Ritalin
Gotta keep running whether in your bapes or timberland
Perseverance of the saints, baby there is no giving in
Now the Holy Spirit provides gifts for the church
So we can build one another and complete his works
What does this say about Jehovah, He so consistent
Man falls man repents man is freed from his prison
All by His power, through His mercy and His grace
So man will stop worshiping self and seek his face
We live the great commandment then do the great commission
So we see 20/20, continue the family business