Monday, January 31, 2011

Strange Delight

Thabiti Anyabwile post:  Delusions of Strength Hinder the Lord


To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10)

“Our weakness will not get in the way of what the Lord wants to do in us.  Our delusions of strength will!  The power of God is for the weak!  The grace of God is for the unable!  The promises of God are for the faint!  The wisdom of God is for the foolish!”

Paul David Tripp, War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles, p. 130.

Anointed Ones

LifeToday Words of Life

God Did Not Save You to Tame You
with Lisa Bevere


God does not reveal himself as limitless in order to limit us. Quite the contrary. He wants to put his heart within us. My friend Christine says it best: “God did not save you to tame you!”

God is not looking for people who act like Christians. He wants us to be Christians! The word Christian means “anointed or Christlike one.” Jesus did not go around “being good”; he went around “doing good” and releasing all who were oppressed. What has he anointed you to do?

God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” (Luke 4:18-19)

If the Spirit of God was placed on Jesus to do all these things, and if we are born of the same Spirit, then we are to do as he did – preach the good news to the poor, set the burdened and battered free, and announce, “This is God’s year to act!” I believe that each and every year is God’s year to act, that he is still waiting for us to go into motion on his behalf.

In light of this charge, God does not need a band of domesticated daughters who spend their days baking and behaving well. Nothing wrong with baking, but if that is all we do, God won’t use us to change history.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich says, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” I know this quote may challenge some of you. It challenged me when I first read it. This is not an admonition to be naughty, but to realize that change often comes with the challenge of the status quo.

It is when I bow before Him that I stand the tallest In knowing I belong to Him, I am most my own, and in submission to His Spirit I experience the greatest possible freedom. The river of life flows freely and the result is fruitfulness and true fellowship with the Father and the family as Kingdom power reveals the love that never fails.

In the eyes of her southern culture and the bus company, Rosa Parks was not behaving well when she refused to yield her seat and move to the designated “colored” section in the back of the bus. One woman’s choice to hold her ground and not change seats changed how our nation looked at racial segregation. I seriously doubt in that moment she realized she was making history. Time alone has the power to reveal motives and consequences of choices. Maybe Rosa was just tired of being marginalized and denied her God-given right of human dignity.

What about Deborah, Jael, Tamar, Esther, Bathsheba, Abigail, Rahab, and even Mary? (These are just a biblical sampling, because there are more.)

Was Deborah behaving well by inciting her people against a dominant oppressor and riding into war with the men? The leaders of her time thought not. An army rose to oppose her rebellion, but they could not prevail. When the God-chosen male leader hesitated, Deborah carried out God’s directive the best she knew how.

What of Jael? Did she have to use a tent peg to kill her enemy? Couldn’t she just have turned him over to the authorities while he slept? Possibly, but she didn’t. God was okay with her choice, and a song was composed to declare her value.

Then there is Tamar. This twice-widowed woman pretended to be a prostitute and slept with her widowered father-in-law, patriarch Judah. Her behavior is shocking on many levels. There is no evidence that God instructed her to do this. She chose this course of action. But the son of this tenacious woman is found in the lineage of Christ, and she was declared righteous.

Esther disobeyed the command to come to the king only when called. Disobedience had gotten Vashti, Xerxes’ first wife, sacked. Esther should have known better! But her choice to behave badly at court saved her people.

Bathsheba was an adulteress and the mother of Solomon the wise. Rahab was a prostitute who lied to her king and hid enemy spies. Not only did her actions of faith redeem her family from the destruction of Jericho, but her son is in the lineage of David and Jesus. Abigail circumvented her husband. Her choice saved her household and won her the heart of King David.

Mary appeared to carry and illegitimate child and gave birth to the Son of God. What if she had said, “Unwed and pregnant will look bad. Can this wait until I'm married so I will look well behaved?”

History alone justifies the choices of these women. Their hearts were awakened and stirred.

How will you respond when you are fully, dangerously awake? What history will you make? Will you, like the fierce lioness, awaken from a tranquilized state and rise up to defend your family, your community, your world? Are you awake? Even now, what is stirring in your heart?

Excerpted from Lioness Arising: Wake Up and Change Your Worldby Lisa Bevere, © 2010 by Lisa Bevere, (WaterBrook Press)

Set Captives Free

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Friends Struggling with Pornography

     Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 7:21-8:2

     Jesus, my heart goes out today for friends and their spouses whose lives are being assaulted by the ravaging and enslaving grip of pornography.  I know of no other power sufficient for the task but the gospel. This is why I run to you today with grave concern, but also with great hope.
     O Lord of resurrection and redemption, bring your mercy and might to bear in stunning fashion. Things impossible for us are more than possible for you. You have come to set captives free and to heal the brokenhearted. Pornography is creating an over abundance of both.
     Jesus, for friends somewhere in the pornography continuum of titillation to addiction, we ask you to reveal yourself in the deepest place of their hearts. We ask for the holy gift of godly sorrow, not the short-lived remorse of worldly sorrow. For your non-condemning love has great power to deliver those who cry, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body which is subject to death?”
     Lead them to that cry, Jesus. They need a lot more than embarrassment and fear, they need contrition and hope. Where pornography has desensitized our friends, re-sensitize them so they can see and feel the horror of their entrapment, and more so… much more so, the wonder of your deliverance.
     For our friends who are married to someone in the talons of pornography, dear Jesus, theirs may be the greater pain and struggle. No one but you can help them with the anger, the disgust, the wound, the shame, and the mistrust that goes with this story. Help us walk with our friends who are right in the middle of this dark vortex. Show us how to validate their feelings without confirming hurt-driven conclusions. Bring patience and perspective, forbearance and faith.
     Only you can rebuild the trust. Only you, Jesus, can bring a willingness to hope again. Only you can heal the places in our hearts which have suffered the greatest violation and harm. Absolutely no one understands all this like you, Jesus, and absolutely no one redeem these messes but you. So very Amen, we pray, in your great and glorious name.

All-in-All Great Savior

Excerpt from Kevin DeYoung post:  Don't Call It a Comeback:  Interviews, Part 4

Tullian Tchividjian, Senior Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Fort Lauderdale, Florida). Tullian is married to Kim and they have 3 children. Tullian writes the chapter titled, “Worship: It’s a Big Deal.”

What does it mean to have a gospel-fueled worship service?
A gospel-fueled worship service is a service where God serves the gospel to sinners in need of rescue—which includes, of course, both Christians and non-Christians. It’s a service where “the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:6) comes through prayer and preaching, sacrament and singing. As it does, we’re given the faith, hope, and love we need to be good news people in a bad news world.
The result of a gospel-fueled worship service is the exposure of both the idols of our culture and the idols of our hearts. The faithful exposition of our true Savior in every element of worship will painfully, yet liberatingly, reveal all the pseudo-saviors we trust in culturally and personally. It will disclose the subtle ways in which we as individuals and as a culture depend on lesser things than Jesus to provide the security, acceptance, identity, protection, affection, meaning, and satisfaction that all of us long for but that only Christ can supply. The praising, praying, and preaching in such a service should constantly show just how relevant and necessary Jesus is.
A gospel-fueled worship service will continually remind us that while we’re all great sinners, Christ is an all-in-all great Savior.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Burdens and Cares

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Friends Weighed Down with Various Burdens

     Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

     Dear Jesus, huge snowflakes are gently falling as we meet this morning, covering my yard with a blanket of beauty. It makes me think of the cross and how you’ve washed us whiter than snow by the sacrifice of your blood. Thank you, a million times over. We are completely forgiven and now dressed in the matchless beauty of your righteousness. Nothing will ever separate us from your love. We praise and adore you…you are such a wonderful, merciful, caring Savior.
     In light of your great love for us, we bring friends before you today who are weighed down with various burdens and cares. Whether it’s the cold weather or simply the winter blues, it makes no difference, Jesus, there are multiplied stories of duress, stress and struggles all around us. Where else can we go but to you? Hear our prayers for those we love.
     We pray for friends dealing with health issues. All along the continuum of common colds to uncommon cancers, we ask you to bring your mercy and healing, Jesus. Whether by the special grace of divine intervention or the common grace of good medicine and health care, it makes no difference. Mete out sufficient grace in each situation. Bring great glory to yourself. Make your presence clearly felt even if your ways cannot be easily discerned.
     We pray for friends struggling financially and career-wise. You don’t promise us abundance or surplus, Jesus, but you do promise to meet all our needs. We especially think of friends whose are closer to mental and emotional bankruptcy, than financial collapse. By the power of your resurrection, and for your name’s sake, open doors that seem locked and bolted. From your storehouse of everlasting goodness, bring forth the right provision at the right time. It’s most likely you will use us as a part of the answer to our prayers. May we be generous and gracious in serving our friends.
     Lastly, we pray for friends who are burdened relationally. Marriage will always be a center of intense, unrelenting spiritual warfare, for this relationship is meant to tell the story of your great love for your Bride. Pour out your Spirit, Jesus. Humble the proud… bring hope to the despairing… dial down the anger… clarify the issues… supply the right counsel… grant miracles of forbearance, forgiveness and reconciliation.
     We ask the same for whole families, longstanding friendships and local churches under the siege of broken relationship and battered trust. Do way beyond what we can ask or imagine, for the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. Help us, Jesus, for your glory and fame. So very Amen, we pray, in your peerless and priceless name.

Redeemer

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional

THERE IS A 'BECAUSE'
 
 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Romans 5:3-4

            One of my frustrations with the church, in the past, has been the misuse of scripture.  It's as if snippets of the Bible were memorized, categorized internally on a 3x5 card, then spit out again in what was considered an appropriate situation.  I can't count how many sermons I've heard over the course of my lifetime on 'rejoicing in suffering.'  It was a command by rote, completely void of the scriptural context of intimate relationship with God.  Add to that the fact that the command to rejoice was followed up with an important 'because'.
            I don't rejoice in suffering because I enjoy hurting.  I know this is ludicrous and if I'm told that God expects that of me, that He enjoys hurting me, this creates such a crack in our relationship that only truth can fix it.  How many of God's children have shut God out of their lives because they are angry He didn't stop the pain in their lives!  Satan loves errors in theology because of their potential to damage our trust in God.
            I rejoice in my suffering today and rejoicing has two components; grief and joy.  The groaning of pain can coexist with a deep abiding joy because of the knowledge that God always uses our pain, as He did with Jesus' suffering, to bring redemption.  God is hoping that we will trust Him through our trials so that He is given the opportunity to bring full redemption and meaning to what we have endured.
            How many have come to Christ because pain drove them to God's arms?  How many have discovered that, in coming to the end of themselves, they found the power of Scripture?  That is my witness.  A life of ease numbed out my need of God.
            Suffering does produce endurance, character, and hope.  When going through something excruciating, I lean on my previous experiences in the desert.  Where I once would have panted and fainted, I now have spiritual muscles to endure, to stand on scripture, to find a strength in prayer that was not available to me ten years ago.
            If anyone has ever told you to be joyful in suffering, ended their sermon there and walked away, perhaps you became wary of God.  Let these truths repair the breech in your relationship.  Whenever things are really hard, I dig into the Word, abide in Christ deeply in my spirit, and I say out loud, "I'll tell you one thing.  The redemption of this pain must be more beautiful than I can imagine."  The greater the pain, the more stunning its outcome.  May we live to see it.

You are Redeemer!  Your death on Calvary was redeemed.  You bore the sins of the world.  Then, You rose again to give us resurrection power.  I can't wait to see all of what you do with the suffering of Your church.  Amen. 

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Two Things

Excerpts from Kevin DeYoung post:  Unifiers and Purifiers


Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure- not to put it too severely- to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. (2 Corinthians 2:5-7)


This passage contains two simple, fundamental commands for the church of Jesus Christ: discipline and forgive.

...


...  The true Christian will not pit grace against truth, love against faithfulness, discipline against forgiveness, unity against purity. But neither do we want the fullness of one half of the pair to be an excuse for a deficiency on the other side.

There are two things that will always tear a church apart, sometimes slowly and imperceptibly and sometimes quickly and loudly, but these two things will always rip the fabric of Holy Spirit unity: having no standards and having impossible standards.  If you can get one of those two things going on in a church you will be well along your way to ruining that church.  But if you can by God’s power find a way to uphold moral and doctrinal standards with a spirit of mercy, humility, and eager forgiveness, then that will be a mighty church and even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.



Spiritual Toughness

Excerpts from CT John Wilson post:  Changing Forever How You Think

When was the last time you memorized passages from Scripture? It might have been when you were in eighth grade, preparing for confirmation. Or maybe earlier still, in Sunday school, when you learned the 23rd Psalm. Can't remember when it was? Never mind. It will probably come to you.

Within living memory, as the saying goes, evangelicals unselfconsciously learned Scripture by heart. The value of this practice was taken for granted. Certainly there was a wide range, from back-row pew-sitters who could call on a few salient passages, to silver-tongued preachers who could cite Leviticus and Luke with equal authority. But if, for instance, as a child in the 1950s, you regularly attended Wednesday evening prayer meetings, where the voices of laypeople predominated, you heard Scripture quoted (and misquoted) from memory. And if you listened in, during the Sunday meal after church, when grown-ups who took their faith seriously were discussing—maybe arguing about—theological nuances, perhaps inspired by the morning sermon, you heard Scripture quoted from memory.

...
A few months ago, a strange little book arrived on my desk: Scripture by Heart: Devotional Practices for Memorizing God's Word. I wasn't familiar with the author, Joshua Choonmin Kang, who was described as a pastor and speaker in Los Angeles, the author of more than 30 books in Korean and one previous book in English. This new book, the author said, was first written and published in Korean, after which "I had it rendered into readable English." Hmm.

...
There was something else, too, what for want of a better phrase I will call a "spiritual toughness." Kang's book challenged me. When I picked it up, I was already well persuaded of the value of memorizing Scripture. Hadn't I learned great swatches of it when I was growing up? But Kang's insistence on a daily discipline—no more than 30 minutes and no less than 15 minutes a day, he says, with his characteristic firmness—jolted me. He was talking about a constantly renewed intimacy, a loving rehearsal and renewed exploration of the verses learned "by heart." And as I began to re-read the book and apply it, I made a distressing discovery. All those passages I had learned long ago? With some exceptions, they were not sufficiently fresh in my mind to recite inwardly.

...
Of course it could be distorted in that way, just as prayer can easily be distorted. But the fashion among evangelicals to deprecate Scripture memorization—or, more commonly, to ignore it—is itself based on caricature. Kang observes that Jesus was "the beneficiary of habit. He read Scripture in the synagogue (Luke 4:16); prayed early in the morning (Mark 1:35); prayed on high places (Luke 22:39)"; and, as a teacher, expounded the Word he knew by heart. "When we commit ourselves to memorizing Scripture," Kang writes, "we follow in Jesus' footsteps. We cultivate his lifestyle. We gather our wits and concentrate."

Again and again, Kang emphasizes that memorizing Scripture is not an end in itself. "When we meditate deeply on the words of Scripture," he writes, "we begin to bear fruit," directed by the Spirit. "The more we commit the Word to memory, the richer our being becomes. The melodious concert of his Word will continually echo within us. Then we'll encounter the conductor, our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, who helps us remember the Scriptures, and the Father, who'll receive glory through all of this."

...

Crying Out Lord, Lord

Ray Ortlund post:  ... if only God forgave


“Then began a meeting the like of which I had never seen before, nor wish to see again, unless in God’s sight it is absolutely necessary.  Every sin a human being can commit was publicly confessed that night.  Pale and trembling with emotion, in agony of mind and body, guilty souls, standing in the white light of their judgment, saw themselves as God saw them.  Their sins rose up in all their vileness, till shame and grief and self-loathing took complete possession; pride was driven out, the face of man forgotten.  Looking up to heaven, to Jesus whom they had betrayed, they smote themselves and cried out with bitter wailing: ‘Lord, Lord, cast us not away forever!’  Everything else was forgotten, nothing else mattered.  The scorn of men, the penalty of the law, even death itself seemed of small consequence if only God forgave.  We may have other theories of the desirability or undesirability of public confession of sin.  I have had mine; but I know now that when the Spirit of God falls upon guilty souls, there will be confession, and no power on earth can stop it.”

Eyewitness account, quoted in Young-Hoon Lee, “Korean Pentecost: The Great Revival of 1907,” AJPS 4 (2001): 77-78.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Conundrum

Stephen Furtick post:  The Controversy Conundrum


One of the greatest things preventing many pastors and churches from reaching their optimal level of impact is their fear of controversy.

Controversy over how they approach ministry compared to other churches.

Over an unpopular stance they take.

Over their dedication to the truth.

They’re so afraid of upsetting anyone that they compromise their message and the unique calling God has placed on them. They avoid criticism, which no one likes to receive. But they forfeit something far greater:

Influence. You can’t have influence if you are not willing to be controversial.

Just ask Jesus. People in Jesus’ day sharply differed on their opinions of Him. Wherever He went, people loved Him. And loved to hate Him. They flocked to Him to hear Him preach and see Him heal. But also to argue with Him and accuse Him of being the devil.

Jesus was controversial. And for that reason, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that His message spread and made the impact it did. Nor is it a coincidence that He went to the cross. They didn’t kill Jesus because He was nice. They killed Him because He was a threat. If He had backed down, taken the quiet route, and avoided controversy, they would have left Him alone. But His influence would have been minimal.

If Jesus’ ministry was controversial, why do we expect that ours should be any different? They hated Jesus. What made us think they’d be cheering us on?

If you want to be like Christ, expect controversy. If you’re faithful to what God has called you to do, you are going to be misunderstood. Criticized. Maybe even hated.

But don’t worry when people are criticizing you. Worry when they’re not criticizing you. Because at that point you’ve blended in too much to be worth noticing. Personally, I’d rather be misunderstood than ignored.

You’ve got to become comfortable with controversy.

Controversy is a sign of progress. Controversy is a sign of impact.

And that makes it worth some of the baggage that might come along with it.

Re-Salt Us

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Renewal in Our Hearts & Churches

     “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16

     Gracious Jesus, at times I fantasize about running off to Switzerland with my family… living in a community of chalets with several other “healthy” families… escaping the crazy of church life… disengaging from the chaos of my culture… eating good food… “enjoying” the Christian life… and waiting for your second coming. That’s a confession of sin, not a prayer request.
     For starters, I know I couldn’t afford to pay for such a selfish fantasy. More importantly, I realize this isn’t the lifestyle for which you’ve redeemed us. The Church belongs to you, Jesus, she’s your beloved bride. Yet, as with everything else, we often take the church into the idol factory of our hearts and retool her to be an ingrown club for our own satisfaction. Forgive us, Jesus… forgive me.
     You’ve called and commissioned us to live as the “salt of the earth.” We’re not garlic, paprika or sugar, we’re salt. Salt preserves and fends off decay. Salt heals and sooths… it has medicinal value. Salt brings flavor and enhances other flavors. And salt only “works” when it’s out of the saltshaker… Alas, my own prayer convicts me
     Jesus, how does a believer lose their saltiness or, for that matter, how does a whole church family lose their vision and passion?  What’s involved in flavor-loss? More importantly, what does renewal look like?
     Come, Holy Spirit, come. We need you to stir our hearts. Only You are powerful enough to re-salt the de-salted… to bring us back to gospel-sanity… to restore in us the joy of God’s salvation… to reengage the disengaged with God’s plan for our communities, the cities and the nations.
     How we praise you than our cry is your pleasure. Before we ask you know our need. Do exceedingly beyond all we ask and can imagine.  So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.
 

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Voice of the Holy Spirit

Scotty Smith: A Prayer About Hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit

     For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Romans 8:15-16

     Gracious Father, on any given day, there are a number of voices contending for our attention. There are the voices of from the past, sometimes yammering loudly… sometimes just nickel-and-diming our peace away with the refrain “If people really knew who you are. You still don’t have a clue, do you? You haven’t changed one bit. Why would God ever love someone like you? Didn’t I tell you you’d never amount to much?”
     Then there are the voices of the present, often hijacked by our defeated enemy, Satan. His incessant scheme is to tempt, seduce, then accuse us—doing everything possible to rob us of our enjoyment of the gospel. Sometimes he shouts, more often he whispers, always he’s conniving and always he’s condemning.
     Then there’s the voices from the future, usually fueling our fears with suggestions like, “You’re not as sharp as you used to be, are you? You’ll probably be forgotten, won’t you? You’ll eventually end up alone, right? Why do you think God would let someone like you into heaven?”
     But then there’s the voice of the Holy Spirit…O, how we praise you for that One voice which transcends and trumps every other voice—the gossiper of the gospel… the herald of our healing… the bearer of beauty… the messenger of mercy… the singer of sanity… the cantor of Christ… God the Holy Spirit testifying with our spirits that we are your bought, belonging and beloved children. How we praise you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
     Abba, Father, by the Spirit of sonship, continue to free us from all of our slavish fears—past, present and future. May the Spirit speak so loudly, every dark voice is muted. May he speak so clearly, every deceiving lie is silenced. May he speak so convincingly, every paralyzing doubt is routed. So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ tender and triumphant name.
 

Conviction Is Not Inconsistent with Civility

Excerpt from CT article:  Conviction and Civility by Jim  Wallis and Chuck Colson

We are both evangelical Christians who believe that our treatment of the poor, weak, and most vulnerable is how a society is best biblically measured. Yet we usually find ourselves at opposite poles politically and often differ with each other. We believe these political differences are normal and even to be expected among citizens expressing their faith in the public arena, for God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican.

In the aftermath of the horrible and senseless shooting in Arizona and some of the troubling responses to it, we, as leaders in the faith community, affirm with one voice our principled commitment to civil discourse in our nation's public life. The President rightly said that no act of incivility can be blamed for the profoundly evil shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the tragic killing and wounding of 19 of her constituents. Nonetheless, we should not lose this moment for moral reflection and renewal. We must re-examine the tone and character of our public debate, because solving the enormous problems we face as a nation will require that we work for a more civil public square.

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First we affirm the politics of conviction. Conviction is not inconsistent with civility, which is far deeper than political niceness, indifference, or weakness. We recall the example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who could never be accused of a lack of passion; yet he persisted in the non-violent treatment of his adversaries, hoping to win them over rather than to win over them.

Where moral concerns lie beneath our political debates, we should be firm in conviction yet also open to genuine dialogue (as Dr. King always was), and be "quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry" (James 1:19).

The obligation to show respect for others does not come from a soft sentimentalism but is rooted in the theological truth that we are all created in the image of God. How we speak to each other should reflect the honor and respect we owe each other as fellow human beings.

That means that when we disagree, especially when we strongly disagree, we should have robust debate but not resort to personal attack, falsely impugning others' motives, assaulting their character, questioning their faith, or doubting their patriotism. It also means recognizing in humility that "we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror" (1 Cor. 13:12). In other words, when it comes to policies and politics, we could be wrong.

We must be ever mindful of the language we use and the spirit of our communication. Arrogance and boasting are indeed sins, and violent language can create a poisonous and dangerous public atmosphere. We must take care to not paint our political adversaries as our mortal enemies.

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His Deeper Work

Excerpt from Michael Johnson post at DGIs Sanctification God's Effort or Our Effort?


Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Jonathan Edwards writes,
In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, we act all. For that is what produces, viz. [namely] our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active.
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, p. 557)
John Piper writes,
…it is a good fight because we are not left to our own strength in the fight. If we were, as Martin Luther says, "Our striving would be losing." In other words, when a child of God fights for joy in God, God himself is the one behind that struggle, giving the will and the power to defeat the enemy of joy (Philippians 2:12-13). We are not left to ourselves to sustain the joy of faith. God fights for us and in us. Therefore the fight of faith is a good fight.
God's work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it. We work because he is the one at work in us. Therefore, the fight for joy is possible because God is fighting for us and through us. All our efforts are owing to his deeper work in and through our willing and working.
(When I Don't Desire God, pp. 38, 41)

How Could We Not Worship Him?

Ray Ortlund post:  If you knew


“If you knew that there was one greater than yourself, who knows you better than you can know yourself and loves you better than you can love yourself, who can make you all you ought to be, steadier than your squally nature, able to save you from squandering your glorious life, who searches you beyond the standards of earth . . . one who gathered into himself all great and good things and causes, blending in his beauty all the enduring color of life, who could turn your dreams into visions and make real the things you hoped were true, and if that one had ever done one unmistakable thing to prove, even at the price of blood — his own blood — that you could come to him, and having failed, come again, would you not fall at his feet with the treasure of your years, your powers, service and love?  And is there not one such, and does he not call you?”

A. E. Whitham, quoted in Raymond C. Ortlund, Let the Church be the Church (Waco, 1983), page 39.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Current of His Peace

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional

FINALLY AT PEACE
 
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:1

            When I function, daily, in a world of frantic activity, I dream of peace.  When I work in an atmosphere where there is conflict and negativity, I dream of peace.  When there is tension between me and those close to me, I dream of peace. When I'm plagued by all my foolish choices, I dream of peace.  When I feel others' judgment, I dream of peace.  When I worry about those I love, I dream of peace.
            When I was younger, I would dream of sitting by a lake to listen to the water lap up on the shore.  But, ironically, when I finally got there and though the atmosphere was peaceful, I found myself rehearsing all the things that caused me to feel stressful.  There was not any way to drown out the inner turmoil.
            Paul nails the greatest need of my heart.  It is to know peace with God.  Since Christ's sacrifice on my behalf has made me right with God, I can immediately eradicate some of the most important reasons I fail to have peace.
            My failures have been washed away by the blood of my Savior and He has put them behind His back, never to take them out again and say to me, viciously, "Remember what you did?"  I am forgiven and that brings peace.
            Condemning comments from others, even though spoken long ago, can ring in my ears.  I can be plagued by a sense of being flawed and inadequate.  But, I am accepted by God and feel the warmth of His favor on my shoulders.  That brings peace and silences my accusers.
            Fears that I rehearse, even in peaceful surroundings, can still threaten to undo me.  Perfect love, given to me by God, casts out fear as I rehearse His love letters full of promises.  The power of prayer is mine and that brings peace.
            If you find yourself wound up tight, stop, take a minute and exhale.  Be at rest.  Be at peace.  Breathe this prayer.  Strength will be yours for this day.

Oh Father, I am loved by You and that love is never threatened!  I am forgiven for everything I've ever done and I'm free of Your condemnation!  I can cast away fear because You are in control of my life.  You turn all things for my good and I rest completely in Your sovereignty.  My circumstances can often be tumultuous but deep in my spirit, my heart abides in You.  The current of Your peace carries me through the storm.  How can I ever thank you!  Amen

Strips Away Our Slavery

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Then I Will Go With You


In my book Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels, I make the point that “those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jonah 2:8). In other words, when we depend on anything smaller than Jesus for justification, love, mercy, cleansing, a new beginning, approval, acceptance, righteousness, and rescue we consign ourselves to “the restless futility of bewilderment” because nothing and no one but Jesus can provide those things we long for most.

I close the book with a story from Civil War days before America’s slaves were freed, about a northerner who went to a slave auction and purchased a young slave girl. As they walked away from the auction, the man turned to the girl and told her, “You’re free.”

With amazement she responded, “You mean, I’m free to do whatever I want?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And to say whatever I want to say?”

“Yes, anything.”

“And to be whatever I want to be?”

“Yep.”

“And even go wherever I want to go?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile. “You’re free to go wherever you’d like.”

She looked at him intently and replied, “Then I will go with you.”

Jesus has come to the slave market. He came to us there because we could not go to him. He came and purchased us with his blood so we would no longer be a slave to sin but a slave to Christ—which is the essence of freedom.  And now there’s no freer place to be in life than going with him—with the one who is himself our true liberty.

Remember: In the person of Jesus Christ, God came into this world, not to strip away our freedom, but to strip away our slavery to self so that we could be truly free.



Friday, January 21, 2011

Multi-cultural, poly-perspective, socially-complex, theologically-diverse

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Vocational Weaker Brothers & Gospel Epicureans

     Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Romans 14:1-4

     Jesus, the more I travel the more I realize just how diverse the Body of Christ is. We see many things quite differently, sometimes to the point of critical attitudes and painful separation from one another. So I find great comfort in the last affirmation of this text morning. We will stand on the Day of judgment, not in our “rightness” but in your righteousness. You will cause us to stand, and for this we will praise you eternally. The good work of the gospel will come to a perfect completion in each of us (Phil. 1:6). Hallelujah!
     But until then, it’s often complicated. I have a fresh appreciation of the challenges Paul faced in serving the multi-cultural, poly-perspective, socially-complex, theologically-diverse churches of Rome. The continuum of “weak faith” and “strong faith” has never seem broader to me, and the conflicts between “meat eaters” and “non-meat eaters” are increasing.
     Jesus, help us recognize the difference between disputable and indisputable matters. What is clear in the Scriptures, and what is not? The line often gets challenged, blurred or changed. I certainly realize your faithful servants will disagree about many issues until your second coming. But give us fresh humility to tremble at your Word, as the court and garden in which we will have these very important discussions. Help us steward our scruples with kindness and mutual respect.
     Jesus, give us wisdom and grace for relating to those who seem to relish the role of “vocational weaker-broker”—fault-finders, conspiracy-hunters, liberty-smashers and self-appointed prosecuting attorneys in the Body of Christ. Help me know how to love them. More often, I just want to avoid and run from them.
     And give us wisdom and courage for engaging friends who have turned Christian liberty into epicurean fantasies—“Eat, drink, and be merry, for we have a big gospel!” Having escaped legalism they now feel free to indulge, even over indulge in many things once considered taboo. I’m tempted to join them, Jesus, but show me… show all of us, what real gospel-freedom looks like. You are our loving Master, not our social masseur. Help us to do all things to your glory with your joy. So very Amen, we pray, in your holy and healing name.

Living in the Tension

Stephen Furtick post:  Celebration and Anticipation


There’s a tension that exists whenever God has moved greatly in the life of a person or church. It’s the tension between looking back and looking forward.


Celebration and anticipation.

Both must exist. Together.

But what usually happens is we specialize in one of them at the expense of the other. Some people really celebrate what God has done, but they don’t anticipate the next thing He wants to do. Others really anticipate what God’s going to do, but they don’t celebrate what He’s done.

According to the way God wants it done, He commands both.

Commemoration is equal parts celebration and anticipation. 

You can see this in Joshua 4 when God tells the Israelites to put down stones in order to commemorate their passing through the Jordan River. The purpose was for it to be a reminder of how God had led the people through the desert for forty years and through the Jordan. It was a symbol for what He had done.


But it was also looking forward to the Promised Land and taking possession of it. It was a symbol for what He was about to do.

Celebration and anticipation belong together and flow into one another. And we need to be good at both.

It seems trivial, but it’s not. I believe this is one of the main reasons Elevation has seen God move mightily in the past five years. We make every attempt to celebrate passionately and adequately when God blows us away. But we also really try to anticipate how He is going to blow us away next and plan accordingly.

We’re trying to live in the tension. You need to as well.

Some of you are too busy dreaming about where God is taking you next to appreciate how far He has taken you recently. Stop for a moment and celebrate.

Others of you are so busy celebrating what God has done in your life that you’ve yet to realize it’s just a taste of what He still has to do in you and through you. Stop for a moment and anticipate.

Commemoration is equal parts celebration and anticipation. Learn how to do both well and don’t be surprised when God gives you more things to commemorate.

Our True Name

Mark Batterson Jan 18 post:  The White Stone

The day has finally arrived. Soulprint officially releases today! Here's a final excerpt from the final chapter titled The White Stone.

A day is coming when we will hear the voice of God and He will call us by a name unknown to anyone else but Him. It will be a name we’ve never heard, but we will know it’s our name. It’s a name we were given before our birth, but it’s a name that will be revealed only after our death. That name, our true name, will reveal who we really are.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

Revelation 2:17

It’s not the number of breaths we take that makes life worth living. It’s the number of things that take our breath away. In those breathless moments, our souls are inflated with awe. It’s like heaven invades earth and time stands still. One of my most recent breathless moments was getting my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. My son, Parker, and I walked into the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim and the view through the two-story picture window stopped us in our tracks. Beauty has a way of stopping the second hand. We stared out that window for what seemed like hours.

I think heaven will consist of countless moments like that one, moments when time stands still. Our glorified senses will absorb the glory of God in unearthly ways. We will see awe-inspiring sights previously imperceptible to the human eye. We will hear angels’ voices in an octave previously imperceptible to the human ear. Even our glorified olfactory bulbs will detect aromas that will make us forget every airport Cinnabon we’ve ever walked by.

The greatest moment in eternity will be the moment our eyes behold Christ—the One who died for us. But a close second (if these eternal moments can even be ranked) will be hearing our heavenly Father call us by our new name for the first time. It will be a name we’ve never heard before, but it will be like hearing the name we’ve been called by our entire lives. That name will make our entire lives make sense.

All the pain.
All the joy.
All the fears.
All the hopes.
All the confusion.
All the dreams.

In that moment, our entire lives will make sense because God will reveal who we really are. That new name will capture the true essence of who we are and it will encompass all that we will become in eternity.

Our soulprint will finally be given its true name


Thursday, January 20, 2011

Spiritual Engagement at Home and at Church

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post: Leadership Book Interview with Drew Dyck

...

ES: But many people leave the faith in every generation, and then return when they're older. Won't today's young people come back too?

DD: I would love to believe that there will be an automatic return. Unfortunately there are factors that I believe make this generation different.

First, young adults today are dropping religion at a greater rate than young adults of yesteryear--"five to six times the historic rate," according to social scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell.

Second, young adulthood is much longer than it used to be. Marriage, career, children--the primary sociological forces that drive adults back to religious commitment--are now delayed until the late 20s, even into the 30s. Returning to the fold after a two- or three-year hiatus is one thing; coming back after more than a decade absence is considerably more unlikely.

Third, I believe there's been a tectonic shift the broader culture. Past generations may have rebelled for a season, but they still inhabited a predominantly Judeo-Christian culture. But for those reared in pluralistic, post-Christian America, the cultural gravity back to the back to the faith has weakened.

ES: Has the church played a role in causing this trend?

DD: I think we've let business thinking have too large an impact on ministry philosophy, especially our approach to youth ministry. For many churches, the primary goal has become attracting large numbers of kids and keeping them entertained. As a result, today many youth ministries are practically devoid of any spiritual engagement. As you've described them, they become little more than "holding tanks with pizza." Some have been reduced to using violent video game parties to lure students through their church doors on friday nights. There's nothing wrong with video games and pizza, but they're tragic replacements for discipleship and catechism. Many young people have been exposed to a superficial form of Christianity that effectively inoculates them against authentic faith. To stem the tide of young people leaving, I believe churches need to shift the emphasis away from an entertainment model and back to religious education and spiritual growth. Fortunately, there's evidence that this is already beginning to happen. My friends in youth ministry are acutely aware of the problem and changing the way the church relates to the younger generation.

ES: What role do you think the broader culture plays?

DD: A lot of Christians fear the corrupting influence of "the world," the culture outside the church. But when it comes to the spiritual plight of young people, what happens inside the church and home seem to matter most. We've seen this from the research of Christian Smith, and it was largely true of the people I interviewed. Even for those lured away by materialist worldviews or alternative spiritualities, this was true. Their deconversions were precipitated by what happened inside rather than outside the church. In other words, it was more push than pull, which is almost always the case with deconversion. I think that's fascinating and should affect the way Christians approach this issue. Christian parents, for instance, should probably worry less about the influence of their children's peers or the media, and focus on the level of spiritual engagement in the home and at church.

...

Deeply Involved

Ray Ortlund post:  At all times, continually


I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.  Psalm 34:1

It is possible for two psychologies to coexist in our hearts at once – pain and praise.  It’s like a football player who plays hurt.  He feels bad.  But he also feels good.  Both at the same time.  It is so meaningful to be on the team and not in the stands, on the field and not on the bench.  A man doesn’t mind the two-a-day practices and the wind sprints and the drills and the work and the sweat.  He’s glad to be playing the game, and not an easy game.  That is the very thing that satisfies a man’s heart.

We rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3).  Not in spite of our sufferings.  Not in the midst of our sufferings.  But in our sufferings.  It is our sufferings that make us rejoice.  Our sufferings prove that we are not sidelined but deeply involved in the great struggle of our times.  God, in grace, has set us apart to himself for a purpose of glory in this generation.

It’s not easy.  We wouldn’t want it to be easy.  We praise God just for including us.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Sticky Situation Loving

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Times When We’re Caught in the Middle

     Sometime later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. Acts 15:36-40

     Gracious Jesus, once again I start my day thankful for the broken stories included in the Scriptures. They give me hope. The Bible is so authentic and honest mere men couldn’t possibly have written it without your hand and heart guiding them.
     In particular, I’m thankful today for this story of two good friends, Paul and Barnabas, having “such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.” Lord, I’ve been in that situation and right now I’m watching that story play out between two friends I deeply love and respect. It’s sticky and messy, and I hate being caught in the middle.
     So I look to you right now for the resources of the gospel. I need wisdom from above… power in my weakness… and grace to love two stubborn, hurting people. My default mode is to not get involved—hoping the whole thing will just blow over or go away. But that’s not going happen.
     Jesus, the good news is you’ve come to destroy hostilities… to tear down walls of division… to make peace and be our peace. You reconcile enemies to God and to one another, so I can trust you to be at work in this tense and complicated situation.
     It took time plus grace for Paul and Barnabas to get back together. I don’t know what time plus grace will look like for my friends, but show me my role in the story you are writing. Help me listen from the heart and confront in love. Lead my praying and let me feel their hurt. Help me engage with both sides without taking sides. Help me stay present in the chaos without giving into the pulls. As I serve my friends, show me more of my sin and more of the power of the gospel.
     Jesus, no one is better at sticky-situation loving than you, so I abandon myself to you… with my fears, my confusion and my very real hope of your showing up. So very Amen, I pray, in your powerful and reconciling name.

Loved to Forgive

Excerpt from Kevin DeYoung post:  What Made David Great


Everyone who knows the Bible knows that King David was a great man.

And yet everyone familiar with the Bible will also recognize that David did a lot of not-so-great things. Of course, there was the sin with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband Uriah, and the subsequent cover-up. That was not exactly delighting in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2). But there was also the ill-advised census motivated by David’s pride, not to mention a series of lessons in how not to manage your household well. For being a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), David managed to follow his own heart quite a bit.

So with all these flaws, what made David great? One could easily mention David’s courage, his loyalty, his faith, his success as a leader, musician, and warrior. But he was great in other lesser-known ways as well. In particular, David was a great man because he was willing to overlook others’ sin but unwilling to overlook his own.

...



David knew how to forgive, and he knew how to repent too. He never blamed others for his mistakes. He did not make excuses based on family history, peer pressure, or the demands of leadership. He did not use passive language, referring to his sin as a dysfunction or a growth edge. He did not lament over his sins simply because of the negative effects they could have over his kingdom and his relationships. He saw his transgressions primarily in their vertical dimension, as an offense against almighty God (Psalm 51:4). He never ran from the light when it exposed his darkness. Instead, he squinted hard, admitted his iniquity and worked to make things right. When we consider how rare it is in our day for athletes, movie stars, and politicians to candidly and clearly take responsibility for their public sins, we should be all the more amazed that the king of Israel, arguably the most famous man in the history of God’s old covenant people, was humble enough to listen to the chastisement of those who were beneath him and change accordingly.

David was a man after God’s own heart because he hated sin but loved to forgive it. What better example of God could there be? God doesn’t just welcome his enemies in, he dies in their stead (Rom. 5:6-11). He is always eager to show mercy, always willing to give traitors a second chance. And yet, God is not soft on sin. He exposes it and calls on us to exterminate it (John 16:8-11; Col. 3:5). But of course, God, unlike David, is never guilty of his own sin. God showed his condescension not by humbling himself before a needed rebuke, but by humbling himself to take on human flesh and take up a cross (Phil. 2:5-8). David was great, but not nearly as much as great David’s greater Son.

This article also appears in the January issue of Tabletalk.

Holy Spirit Alone

Miscellanies post:  All The Doctrines In The World


B.B. Warfield, The Right of Systematic Theology (1897), pages 84-85:
There is no creative power in doctrines, however true; and they will pass over dead souls, leaving them as inert as they found them: it is the Creator Spiritus [Holy Spirit] alone who is competent to quicken dead souls into life; and without Him there has never been, and never will be, one spark of life produced by all the doctrines in the world.
HT: Zaspel, p. 76.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Bring Your Empty Pitcher

Ray Ortlund post:  "I will help you"


I will help youIsaiah 41:10

“Let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: ‘I will help you.  It is but a small thing for me, your God, to help you.  Consider what I have done already.  What! not help you?  Why, I bought you with my blood.  What! not help you?  I have died for you; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less?  Help you!  It is the least thing I will ever do for you.  I have done more, and will do more.  Before the world began I chose you.  I made the covenant for you.  I laid aside my glory and became a man for you, I gave up my life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now.  In helping you, I am giving you what I have bought for you already.  If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you; you require little compared with what I am ready to give.  ‘Tis much for you to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow.  Help you? Fear not!  If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat; and you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency.  I will help you.’

O my soul, is not this enough?  Do you need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity?  Do you want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit?  Bring here your empty pitcher!  Surely this well will fill it.  Haste, gather up your needs, and bring them here – your emptiness, your woes, your needs.  Behold, this river of God is full for your supply; what can you desire beside?  Go forth, my soul, in this your might.  The Eternal God is your helper.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  Style updated.

On the Basis of Love

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer About Formerly “Useless” People

     Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. Philemon 8-11

     Dear Jesus, what a great story these few verses tell—the story of how one man’s “useless” slave became another man’s beloved son. Stories like this make the gospel beautiful and believable. I see myself in this story… both as Onesimus and as Philemon.
     Jesus, thank you for not giving up on me… for coming after me when I was running away from you as fast as I could, just like Onesimus ran from Philemon. Overtly and covertly, I did everything I could to avoid you and ignore you. But you found me and bound me to your heart with the cords of the gospel. And, slowly-but-surely, you’re changing me. The journey from slavery to sonship hasn’t always been easy.
      I also know what it’s like to be Philemon. I’ve been failed and hurt. I’ve been betrayed and suffered loss. But forgive me for labeling anyone as “useless.” Paul saw something in Onesimus that Philemon didn’t see. Jesus, you saw something in me that no one else saw. Please give me your eyes. Let me see what you see in others.
     Who have I branded “useless”… either with my actual words or unspoken words?  Who have I written off? Who have I unwittingly named “failure”… “worthless”… “you’ll-never-amount-to-anything”… or “never-to-be-trusted-again”?
     I know we are to be wise, but I also know we are to love others as you love us. In our churches and in our families, write powerful stories of redemption and restoration. Bring rebellious prodigals home. Melt the heart of self-righteous prigs. Demonstrate the wonder of your reconciling love. No one is beyond the need of your grace and no one is beyond the reach of your grace. So very Amen, I pray, in your chain-breaking name.

Faith Hurts

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional

WHEN BELIEVING HURTS
 
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.  Romans 4:19

Faith doesn't exist if I can possibly manufacture an answer to my problem.  Faith begins when a situation is absolutely hopeless.  There appears to be no solution.  God says He can heal it, fix it, reform it - yet I can not see how.  At that point, I choose to believe.  But believing hurts because I must invest my heart when it feels like suicide. 

Abraham was probably felt exhilarated when he received the promise of a child.  High on spiritual adrenalin, he was full of faith.  When faith meets the real world and the thrill of hearing from God is dulled by life, it begins to be tested.  The miracle of Abraham's story, and why God blessed him so, was that his faith did not weaken when he considered the odds against he and Sarah.  They had always been barren.  They were old.  They had never known anyone their age who had conceived.  It seemed preposterous to believe they could be the first.  

Faith hurts ~ because it requires me to believe God though I have sunk comfortably into disbelief.  I grew complacent when I threw my hands up and finally gave up.  It was a relief not to trust anymore, to let my hope die.  Faith challenges me to repent of that, to open my heart to God and the promise of change.  

"Open my heart again?" you ask.  "No way!  I'm doing that again."  But what if our faith could be the catalyst to the greatest breakthrough in our lives?  Our faith is being tested and this is the moment to pass, not fail.  God promised.  God is mighty.  God can deliver.  When things are the bleakest, faith has a starting place.

When there is no proof that faith is rational, that's when I cling all the more to it.  Let Abraham's faith be mine today in all the impossible places.  Amen

Monday, January 17, 2011

Get Planted

Stephen Furtick post:  Stop the hop


This past weekend we had Christine Caine in the house to continue us in our Get Back series. She spoke on the simple, yet profoundly powerful idea of getting planted and embracing your place in a local church.

I don’t remember the last time I heard a sermon that I knew so specifically was the exact thing God wanted to say to a group of people. And I think it’s what He wants to say to the American church as a whole.

One of the things that really troubles me about the church today is the phenomenon of church hopping and church shopping. It’s a consumeristic mindset towards the body of Christ that grieves the heart of God.

It’s time for us to stop the hop. This isn’t Christianity. Jesus didn’t die so we could sample different churches like varieties of meat on a party platter. Jesus died to establish His church as the most powerful entity on the planet.

We are alive at the greatest time in history for the advance of the gospel. We have so much going for us.

We have the ability.

We have the resources.

We have the people.

What we don’t have is them committed to a place where they can actually be used for their God-ordained purpose.

If this generation doesn’t make the impact it should, it won’t be because it didn’t have the resources. Or even the passion. It will be because it was too busy hopping to different churches to stop and commit to one where its resources and passion could actually find an outlet.

The church is the change the world is waiting for. God help us if we keep the world waiting for us while we try to find the perfect church for us.

If you’ve fallen into the trap of church hopping, let me encourage you: embrace your place somewhere where God can use you. At the end of your life, God’s not going to be impressed or pleased that you saw what He was doing at ten different churches. He’s going be more pleased that you were a part of what He was doing at one church.

And you’re never going to find the perfect one, so give up looking. If the church you’re visiting doesn’t have what you’re looking for, it might be because God wants you to provide it.

Let’s all commit together to begin a campaign to stop the hop.

Find a place to get planted. Embrace it. And start changing the world.

The question of our day isn’t if God wants to do incredible things through the church. The question is will we be in place to experience it?

A Colony of Heaven

Excerpt of Ed Stetzer post:  Letters from a Birmingham Jail


There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

Perceived Disadvantages

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Soulprint (Mark Batterson post: Theory of Compensation)


Around the turn of the twentieth century, a pioneering psychologist named Alfred Adler proposed the counterintuitive theory of compensation. Adler believed that perceived disadvantages often prove to be disguised advantages because they force us to develop attitudes and abilities that would have otherwise gone undiscovered. And it’s only as we compensate for those disadvantages that our greatest gifts are revealed. Seventy percent of the art students that Adler studied had optical anomalies. He observed that some of history’s greatest composers, Mozart and Beethoven among them, had degenerative traces in their ears. And he cited a multiplicity of other examples, from a wide variety of vocations, of those who leveraged their weaknesses by discovering new strengths. Adler concluded that perceived disadvantages, such as birth defects, physical ailments, and poverty, can be springboards to success. And that success is not achieved in spite of those perceived disadvantages. It’s achieved because of them.

Our greatest advantages may not be what we perceive as our greatest advantages. Our greatest advantages may actually be hidden in our greatest disadvantages, if we learn to leverage them. And one key to discovering your soulprint is identifying those disadvantages via careful, and sometimes painful, self-inventory. Your destiny is hidden in your history, but it’s often hidden where you would least expect to find it. Your destiny isn’t just revealed in your natural gifts and abilities. It is also revealed in the compensatory skills you had to develop because of the disadvantages you had to overcome.

When I was starting out in ministry, I was frustrated by the fact that I had to preach from a manuscript. I had friends who could preach from an outline or just jot down a few notes on a note card. I couldn’t speak extemporaneously. I had to study longer hours and read more books. Then I had to script and rescript every single word. I would often stay up till three o’clock on Sunday mornings putting the finishing touches on my manuscripts, and that was after working on the message for more than twenty hours during the week. I thought that the inability to speak extemporaneously was a handicap, but what I perceived as a preaching disadvantage proved to be a writing advantage. Those sermon manuscripts, after some adaptations and alterations, became book manuscripts. And without that perceived disadvantage, I don’t think I would have cultivated my writing gifts. Writing, for me, is a compensatory skill.

When was the last time you praised God for your perceived disadvantages or thanked God for the challenges in your life? Without them, we’d never discover or develop the compensatory skills that God wants to use to catapult us spiritually, relationally, and occupationally. Our strengths are hidden within our weaknesses. Our advantages are hidden within our disadvantages. And no one is a better example of that than the king who came disguised as a shepherd. His greatest advantage was the direct result of a perceived disadvantage. And without that disadvantage, he would have never fulfilled his destiny.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Imagine

Gospel's Prize is God Himself

J.D. Greear post:  Defining the Gospel


The below is a draft for an article I’ve been asked to write for the new “HCSB Missional Study Bible” coming out later this year. I’d love for you to read it and give me feedback. I love open-source writing… you guys give me the best ideas and feedback sometimes.

They asked me to write a 1000-word article called “What is Salvation” and tie it specifically to John 17:3, which is the place in the study Bible they will put the article.

Let me know what you think!

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and the One you have sent–Jesus Christ.” John 17:3 (HCSB)

John 17:3 encapsulates the essence of salvation.

First, salvation is essentially the knowledge of God. Jesus’ work in salvation was not simply forgiving us of our sins. Jesus’ prime objective was to reunite us and God.

Have you ever seen that bumper sticker, “Christians are not perfect; they’re just forgiven?” Christians aren’t perfect yet, that is true; but they are not “just forgiven.” Christians have been restored to God. God has resumed again His rightful place as our master, our joy, and our security. Jesus came not just to free people from hell, but to bring people back to God.

This is one of the things that separate the message of Jesus from that of other religions. The Gospel’s prize is not eternal safety in paradise, it is God Himself.

Second, salvation comes through knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus, whom the Gospel of John teaches was both fully God and fully man (John 1:1-14; 2:19-22; 8:58), was uniquely able to accomplish our salvation. As man, He could be our substitute, living the life we should have lived and dying the death we had been condemned to die. As God, He had the right to forgive our sin, the power to overcome death, and the ability to restore us to the fellowship of the Father.

Jesus Christ suffered the full fury of God’s wrath in our place. On the cross, every ounce of punishment due unto us was unleashed upon Him. For those who have trusted Jesus as their Savior, no more punishment remains. God cannot hold us accountable for our sin, because it would be unjust for God to demand two payments for the same sin.

The Bible teaches us that God accomplishes salvation all by Himself (John 1:12-13). This also distinguishes the Gospel from other religions. We can essentially classify all religions in 2 categories. In one type of religion, man earns his salvation. “If you obey enough, you will be accepted.” This is the approach of every religion in the world—whether through Islam’s 5 pillars; Buddhism’s 8-fold path; or Hinduism’s scheme of karma and reincarnation. The Gospel flips that on its head. The Gospel teaches us that our acceptance is given to us as a gift. God has done the work; ours is only to believe and receive. Our obedience to God is done in grateful response to what He has done for us, not to earn favors from Him. Religion is spelled “D-O;” the Gospel is spelled “D-O-N-E” by Jesus Christ.

Lastly, eternal life is our present possession. In the book of John, “eternal life” functions as both a duration of time and a quality of living. Not only did Jesus’ work guarantee us safety in the future, it gives us God in the present. God’s presence in our lives is the abundant life (John 10:10)—or, as Jesus says here, “eternal life.” The one who has God has everything.

As Blaise Pascal said, God created the human heart with a God-shaped hole. Before the Fall, we lived satisfied in His presence and fulfilled by His acceptance. Our sin stripped us from God’s presence and left us with insatiable void. This void, this vacuum, has given rise to all types of human dysfunction—perpetual discontentment; worry; fear; addictions; depression; hatred, etc. True life begins with knowing God again, and when we abide in His love, spiritual fruit (things like love, joy, peace, contentment, self-control) will grow abundantly in our hearts (John 15:1-8).

So then, the question that screams out from the Gospel of John is, “Do you know Jesus?” Not, “Have you prayed a prayer?” or “Do you go to church?” or “Is your obedience to the 10 commandments better than most other people’s?” but “Do you know the love of Jesus and have you received His free offer of salvation?”

Jesus said that many people who called Him Lord would be turned away from Him on the last day because “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23).

I used to interpret that as if Jesus were giving a warning that only the upper 10% of “Christians” would actually make it into heaven and “many” would be cut. So, each time I heard that passage taught, I determined that I was going to be in that upper 10%. I’d redouble my efforts to give more sacrificially, be more regular in my quiet time, and be more pure. “Then,” I thought, “there’s no way God could cut me from the team. I’m going to be on the Dean’s List of Christians.”

The people turned away on the last day are not people who were not busy enough for God. Jesus said they were plenty busy—going to church, preaching sermons, making offerings, doing miracles, even casting out demons. Their problem is that they never knew a Jesus so gracious that He receives sinners freely. And they didn’t value that Jesus enough to forsake all the treasures of this world for Him. As a result, they never rested their souls in His grace or feasted their souls on His pleasures.

Even then, on the Last Day, they think their religious activity will earn their right to heaven. They say, “Look, Lord… look at what we did!” That proves, you see, they never really knew who He was. Jesus is not known by doing enough or giving enough. Jesus is ‘known’ only by believing in His compassion toward you and resting in His promise of eternal life.

The good news is that knowing Him is easy, at least for you. Jesus did everything necessary to reconcile you fully to God. You simply believe that what the Gospel says about Him is true. He is a God who stands ready to accept you, completely, because of what Jesus has done for you. He is a God whose mercy and love for you knows no bounds. It stretches out toward you right at this very moment. Following Jesus as Lord means that your life will change radically, as He must now call all the shots, but you’ll find that obedience and even sacrifice are sweet because of His presence with you.

Have you ever felt that love in your heart? Have you believed and embraced it, personally? Have you ever heard His voice in your soul saying, “You. You are my child. I died for you. I have accepted you.”

If not, open your heart to Him today.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Be God-Designed Self

Mark Batterson post:  The Greatest Regret

The countdown is on. T-minus six days till the release of Soulprint. Here is another excerpt from the opening chapter.



On a recent vacation that took my family through the Badlands, our first stop was Crazy Horse. In 1948, Korczak Ziolkowski was commissioned by Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear to design a mountain carving that would honor the famous war leader. The great irony, if you know your history, is that Crazy Horse didn’t even allow himself to be photographed. I wonder what he would have thought about a 563-foot-high statue on the granite face of the Black Hills. Ziolkowski invested more than thirty years of his life carving the statue that is intended to be eight feet higher than the Washington Monument and nine times larger than the faces at Mount Rushmore. Following his death in 1982, his family has carried on the vision their father started. Their projected completion date is 2050.

That vision, carving what will be the largest sculpture in the world, begs this question: why spend a lifetime carving one larger-than-life statue? In the words of Ziolkowski himself, “When your life is over, the world will ask you only one question: Did you do what you were supposed to do?”

Why do composers write music? Why do athletes compete? Why do politicians run for office? Why do entrepreneurs start businesses? Why do doctors practice medicine? Why do teachers teach?

There are certainly lots of answers to those questions, but the right answer is this: we do it to give expression to something that is deep within our soul. That something is our soulprint. We find fulfillment in doing what we were originally designed and ultimately destined to do. The song or box score or legislation or company or surgery or curriculum is more than the work of our hands. It’s an expression of our soul. It’s a reflection of our soulprint.

The failure to give expression to our soulprint will result in our greatest regrets. What a man can become, he must become, or he will be miserable. It’s the only way to be true to ourselves, and more importantly, true to God. “The deepest form of despair,” warned Sören Kierkegaard, “is to choose to be another than oneself.”

At the end of the day, God isn’t going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa?” He won’t even ask, “Why weren’t you more like David?” God is going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like you?”