Friday, July 29, 2011

Unfailing Love

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Seasons of Uncertainty and Change

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Psalm 143:8
Dear Jesus, in the morning, at mid-day, in the afternoon and throughout the night, keep on bringing us word of your unfailing love. That’s all we need, that’s all we really need. By the Holy Spirit, incessantly gossip the gospel in our inmost ear. Wrap the good news of your boundless, endless affections around our hearts, tighter and tighter and tighter. Permeate every bit of our being with your fresh mercies, steadfast love and transforming grace, for we have put our trust in you.

Jesus, it’s the assurance of your unfailing love which enables us to trust you with the changes we go through in life and the uncertainties about the future. Change is never easy. Change makes us feel vulnerable, fearful and insecure. We get tempted, once again, to be our own savior. Spare us that misery, Jesus, spare us and those we love. Now’s not a time to lean on our own understanding or walk by the light our own torches (Isaiah 50:10-11). May your Word dwell in us richly, your peace rule in us powerfully, your Spirit pray in us effectually. We want your glory be our main passion and delight.

We’ve entrusted our lives to you, Jesus, because you alone are trustworthy. We’ve given you our sins, wounds, brokenness and weakness. Now, in fresh surrender, we give you our planning for the next season of our lives. Show us the way we should go through our transitions—transitions of age and stage; loses and crosses; career and calling; health and finances; relationships and ministries. Write stories of redemption beyond our wildest dreams and hopes. It’s all about you, Jesus, not us. It’s all about your glory and our growth.

We’re not so arrogant as to expect all the details. Just take us by the hand and lead the way. Shepherd us, Jesus, open doors we cannot shut and shut doors we cannot open. All we need to know is that you love us and that you’re with us. You’ve promised us both, and you do not lie. So very Amen we pray, in your peerless and priceless name.

Commit To What Could Be

What's Best Next post:  Jump in With Both Hands and Feet

Andy Stanley, in Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision (a fantastic book, by the way):

If God has birthed a vision in your heart, the day will come when you will be called upon to make a sacrifice to achieve it. And you will have to make the sacrifice with no guarantee of success.
I talk to people all the time who have what seem to be “God ideas” but who are unwilling to commit with both hands and feet. The conversation often begins with, “If I had a million dollars.”
A well-meaning lady once said to me, “You know, I am so burdened by the problems in the inner city. If I had a million dollars, I would love to go down there and start a school for underprivileged kids.
As sensitively as I knew how, I said, “I know people with far less than you have now who have started schools for inner-city kids. You don’t need a million dollars to start a school.” What she needed was the courage to act on her vision.
The difference between those with a burden for inner-city kids and those who actually do something is not resources. It is a willingness to take risks and make sacrifices. The people who make a difference in this world commit to what could be before they know where the money is coming from. Their vision is enough to cause them to jump in. Money usually follows vision. It rarely happens the other way around. Consequently, vision always involves sacrifice and risk-taking.

What Do We Do

Excerpts from Jon Nielson post:  Why Youth Stay in Church When They Grow Up

“What do we do about our kids?” The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes. I’m a high school pastor, but for once, they weren’t talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. Each had a story to tell about a “good Christian” child, raised in their home and in our church, who had walked away from the faith during the college years. ...

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It’s hard to sort through the various reports and find the real story. And there is no one easy solution for bringing all of those “lost” kids back into the church, other than continuing to pray for them and speaking the gospel into their lives. However, we can all look at the 20-somethings in our churches who are engaged and involved in ministry. What is it that sets apart the kids who stay in the church? Here are just a few observations I have made about such kids, with a few applications for those of us serving in youth ministry.

1. They are converted.

The apostle Paul, interestingly enough, doesn’t use phrases like “nominal Christian” or “pretty good kid.” The Bible doesn’t seem to mess around with platitudes like: “Yeah, it’s a shame he did that, but he’s got a good heart.” When we listen to the witness of Scripture, particularly on the topic of conversion, we find that there is very little wiggle room. Listen to these words: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). We youth pastors need to get back to understanding salvation as what it really is: a miracle that comes from the glorious power of God through the working of the Holy Spirit.

We need to stop talking about “good kids.” We need to stop being pleased with attendance at youth group and fun retreats. We need to start getting on our knees and praying that the Holy Spirit will do miraculous saving work in the hearts of our students as the Word of God speaks to them. In short, we need to get back to a focus on conversion. How many of us are preaching to “unconverted evangelicals”? Youth pastors, we need to preach, teach, and talk—all the while praying fervently for the miraculous work of regeneration to occur in the hearts and souls of our students by the power of the Holy Spirit! When that happens—when the “old goes” and the “new comes”—it will not be iffy. We will not be dealing with a group of “nominal Christians.” We will be ready to teach, disciple, and equip a generation of future church leaders—“new creations”!—who are hungry to know and speak God’s Word. It is converted students who go on to love Jesus and serve the church.

2. They have been equipped, not entertained.

Recently we had “man day” with some of the guys in our youth group. We began with an hour of basketball at the local park, moved to an intense game of 16” (“Chicago Style”) softball, and finished the afternoon by gorging ourselves on meaty pizzas and 2-liters of soda. I am not against fun (or gross, depending on your opinion of the afternoon I just described) things in youth ministry. But youth pastors especially need to keep repeating the words of Ephesians 4:11-12 to themselves: “[Christ] gave . . . the teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Christ gives us—teachers—to the church, not for entertainment, encouragement, examples, or even friendship primarily. He gives us to the church to “equip” the saints to do gospel ministry, in order that the church of Christ may be built up.

If I have not equipped the students in my ministry to share the gospel, disciple a younger believer, and lead a Bible study, then I have not fulfilled my calling to them, no matter how good my sermons have been. We pray for conversion; that is all we can do, for it is entirely a gracious gift of God. But after conversion, it is our Christ-given duty to help fan into flame a faith that serves, leads, teaches, and grows. If our students leave high school without Bible-reading habits, Bible-study skills, and strong examples of discipleship and prayer, we have lost them. We have entertained, not equipped them . . . and it may indeed be time to panic!

Forget your youth programs for a second. Are we sending out from our ministries the kind of students who will show up to college in a different state, join a church, and begin doing the work of gospel ministry there without ever being asked? Are we equipping them to that end, or are we merely giving them a good time while they’re with us? We don’t need youth group junkies; we need to be growing churchmen and churchwomen who are equipped to teach, lead, and serve. Put your youth ministry strategies aside as you look at that 16-year-old young man and ask: “How can I spend four years with this kid, helping him become the best church deacon and sixth-grade Sunday school class teacher he can be, ten years down the road?”

3. Their parents preached the gospel to them.

As a youth pastor, I can’t do all this. All this equipping that I’m talking about is utterly beyond my limited capabilities. It is impossible for me to bring conversion, of course, but it is also impossible for me to have an equipping ministry that sends out vibrant churchmen and churchwomen if my ministry is not being reinforced tenfold in the students’ homes. The common thread that binds together almost every ministry-minded 20-something that I know is abundantly clear: a home where the gospel was not peripheral but absolutely central. The 20-somethings who are serving, leading, and driving the ministries at our church were kids whose parents made them go to church. They are kids whose parents punished them and held them accountable when they were rebellious. They are kids whose parents read the Bible around the dinner table every night. And they are kids whose parents were tough, but who ultimately operated from a framework of grace that held up the cross of Jesus as the basis for peace with God and forgiveness toward one another.

This is not a formula! Kids from wonderful gospel-centered homes leave the church; people from messed-up family backgrounds find eternal life in Jesus and have beautiful marriages and families. But it’s also not a crap-shoot. In general, children who are led in their faith during their growing-up years by parents who love Jesus vibrantly, serve their church actively, and saturate their home with the gospel completely, grow up to love Jesus and the church. The words of Proverbs 22:6 do not constitute a formula that is true 100 percent of the time, but they do provide us with a principle that comes from the gracious plan of God, the God who delights to see his gracious Word passed from generation to generation: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Youth pastors, pray with all your might for true conversion; that is God’s work. Equip the saints for the work of the ministry; that is your work. Parents, preach the gospel and live the gospel for your children; our work depends on you.

No Other

Ray Ortlund post:  The first commandment: always controversial

You shall have no other gods before me.  Exodus 20:3

“This intolerant claim to exclusive worship is something unique in the history of religion, for in antiquity the cults [that is, the various centers of worship] were on easy terms with one another and left devotees a free hand to ensure a blessing for themselves from other gods as well.”

Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology (New York, 1962), I:208.


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Bound to Them Profoundly

Justin Taylor post:  What It May Have Been Like to Hear the Letter to the Philippians for the First Time

Ray Ortlund:

. . . we can reconstruct in our imaginations the key moment in Philippi when this Christ-exalting outlook came home to those who first heard these words.

It is the Lord’s Day in that great Macedonian city sometime in A.D. 62.

During the previous week Epaphroditus has returned from Paul in Rome, with this letter from the apostle in hand. The buzz has gone around the Christian network in town, and everyone is excited to hear the letter read aloud when the church gathers for worship.

They meet in Lydia’s home this Sunday, seated together throughout the inner courtyard.

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Euodia is there, as is Syntyche, but not yet sitting together (cf. Phil. 4:2).

This is a lovely but imperfect church.

As the believers gather, exchanges of greetings and small talk draw each one into the circle of fellowship.

Eventually, an elder stands and welcomes them all, prays, and leads them in a hymn of praise.

Then he asks Epaphroditus to step forward and join him at the front. Everyone claps and cheers, receiving him in the Lord with all joy (2:29). Epaphroditus, after giving a brief account of his journey and of Paul and his situation, relays Paul’s greetings and formally presents the letter to the elders of the church. He resumes his seat.

The presiding elder then reads aloud Paul’s letter, which requires only about fifteen minutes—less than a typical sermon in our churches today.

As the letter is read to everyone, in rapt attention, the Holy Spirit is speaking to their hearts. They start changing, at least a little, under the ministry of this letter. They become more willing than ever before, some of them dramatically more willing, to offer themselves to God by faith as a Christlike sacrificial offering. A hush settles over that courtyard, a solemn happiness, as the Spirit imparts a wonderful sense of the glory of Christ. They are worshiping.

Paul knew this would happen. He meant it to happen. He wanted to share in it.

Back in Rome, Paul is sitting in his prison cell on that same Lord’s Day. He and Epaphroditus have discussed how long the return journey to Philippi may take. Paul figures that Epaphroditus is likely there by now. He goes there himself in memory and joins the meeting of his dear Philippian friends in heart and mind. Their faces—elders, deacons, members, children—pass before his mind’s eye. He longs for them. He prays for them. And his deepest emotion, having years before settled the matter in his own heart that he is himself a living sacrifice—his deepest thought and feeling at this moment constitute a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of their faith. The humility of the poured-out life has taken its rightful place of happy authority at the center of Paul’s soul.

The great apostle does not feel that he is the important figure around which the Philippians ought to rally. They are the important ones. Their sacrifices seem to him greater than his own. He views their daily faith with awe, as they stand firm in one spirit, striving for the gospel, not running from conflict but engaged in it, shining as lights in their world, holding fast to the word of life.

Paul remembers how he first met them—pagans living as pagans must. He has watched the gospel transform them into “the saints of Christ Jesus who are at Philippi” (Phil. 1:1). Though Paul has witnessed these gospel miracles over and over again around the Mediterranean world (Col. 1:6), he is always moved by the saving power of God.

At this moment of quiet thought in his cell, his heart is swallowed up with a sense of privilege that he is being drawn into the only sacred and saving thing on the face of the earth. That he, a former blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent (1 Tim. 1:13), is directly and personally participating in the outspreading grace of God in the world, raising up a bright new church out of the former human devastations of pagan Philippi—his sense of amazement exceeds his powers of utterance. Oh, that he would indeed be a drink offering on such a holy sacrifice!

Sitting there in his prison cell that day, Paul too is worshiping, as only a pastor can. Far from this removing him from his people, he feels bound to them profoundly.

Ray Ortlund, “The Pastor as Worshipper,” in For the Fame of God’s Name, ed. Sam Storms and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), pp. 414-416.

Remember What He's Done

Steven Furtick post: Remember Egypt


You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:17-18

Nothing can sabotage radical belief in the promises of God quite like calculation.

The Israelites were facing a seemingly insurmountable task. They were about to enter the Promised Land and face not only a multitude of enemies, but enemies who were clearly stronger and more capable than them. God knew what would happen: they would ask the faith-shattering calculative question, how?

And so He preempted their question with an instruction: remember Egypt.

Essentially, don’t try to calculate how I’ll do it…just remember how I did it.

God’s instructions haven’t changed much thousands of years later for those of us facing uncertainty as to how God is going to come through for us. You might be wondering how God is going to provide for your family now that you’ve lost your job. Or how He is going to cover the costs of your education. Or how He is going to do any of the other number of things you need Him to do.

Well, I don’t know how. Neither do you. And the truth is, we don’t have to know how. We just need to know that He can. And the way we know that He can is by calling to mind what He’s done.

And He’s done plenty. Your life is littered with signposts of God’s faithfulness. Regardless of your circumstances, take a moment and take a look at them. Remember Egypt. Remember what God has already overcome in your past as you face your present. Then leave the how to Him.

Prayer Circles

Mark Batterson post:  The Circle Maker


The next three days are devoted to shooting the video curriculum for The Circle Maker.  It’ll be a four-part series for small groups and church-wide campaigns based on the book.  We’ll shoot at a variety of locations around DC.

Fifteen years ago I did a 4.7 mile prayer walk around Capitol Hill.  It took about three hours to pray the circle, but God has been answering that prayer for fifteen years! All of our properties are located right on that prayer circle.  No coincidence. Providence.

All of the sessions will wrap up on the rooftop of Ebenezers Coffeehouse which doubles as my favorite place to pray.  I love praying up there for lots of reasons, but chief among them is that I’m praying on top of a miracle. It’s hard not to have faith when you’re praying on top of an answered prayer!

I’d appreciate your prayers.  I’m believing that the net result of this curriculum will be thousands of prayer circles in churches across the country.


Obsession

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post: The Pornification of American Culture


I recently wrote a journal article for the Assemblies of God Enrichment Journal. I will be turning that into a series here at the blog. The entire issue is worth your time and you can access it here.

Here is part 1: Introducing the Issue.

The world seemed shocked by the Tiger Woods scandal. The media feasted on the stories, rumors, and drama that surrounded Tiger's life of undisputed sexually infidelity. But who created Tiger Woods?

From American hero worship to a dysfunctional childhood and everything in between, multiple factors contributed to Tiger being Tiger. His saga has emerged as one of the most sad and shocking stories in American sports history.  But one thing is for sure--Tiger's story is only a symptom of our sex-obsessed, pornified culture.  Even greater, our obsession with Tiger's story may be an indicator of where we are as much as where he is.  Sexual deviance is now the norm, not the exception.

The term "pornification" is not original with me.  New York Times columnist, author and speaker Pamela Paul might have coined the term. Her 2005 book "Pornified: How Pornography is Damaging our Lives, our Relationships and our Families" caused quite a stir. Paul observed, "It is easier to get pornography than to avoid it. We have protected the rights of those who wish to live in a pornified culture while altogether ignoring the interests of those who do not." (page 253).  There is no question that she raised awareness of this cultural current and the corresponding devastation. The term has gone viral. William Todd Schultz blogged on the subject for Psychology Today.  His article, "The 'Pornification' of Human Consciousness" carefully suggested that the effect of continual exposure to pornography could lead to a wide range of abnormalities. Schultz said:

"Porn is... the new universally shared experience. The nation has been 'pornified'. It's everywhere. It's open 24/7. And chances are good, judging from research into internet habits, that before or after reading this post, a high percentage of you will visit a porn site. . . The point is if you did, you are hardly alone." [www.psychologytoday.com/print/4041 accessed 8/29/10]

Although the world has largely forgotten Tiger Woods by now, the pattern of his downfall is rehearsed in millions of households everyday. On the blog we are going to be exploring this topic-- taboo though it may be-- over the next several weeks. I would love to see some healthy, encouraging discussion in the comments section. Let's also try to let Philippians 4:8 serve as the guiding principle of how speak, even when we discuss.

"Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable --if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise --dwell on these things." http://msb.to/Ph4:8

To read the lengthier article I wrote for the Enrichment Journal you can access it here.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Conflict Redemptively Not Destructively

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Freedom from Christian Cannibalism

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Gal. 5:13-15
Dear Lord Jesus, we are exceedingly grateful that the gospel is more like an irresistible subpoena than a polite invitation. Our need is so great and we are so stubborn, we cannot respond to the gospel apart from the Spirit’s strong summons.

Indeed, the gospel is a life-giving subpoena—the means by which you call us from death to life and from slavery to freedom. We were just as dead and bound in grave clothes as Lazarus was when you spoke the words, “Come forth,” and you raised us from spiritual death.

We praise you today for the effectually sovereign, death-defeating, liberty-giving power of the gospel. Those you set free are free indeed, and the freedom to which you’ve called us is to define the rest of our days and permeate every area of our lives.

This is nowhere more necessary than in the world of our relationships. You have called us to love one another as you love us, Jesus—the confirming mark of true discipleship (John 13:34). But as in Galatia, so in our churches, marriages and friendships, we often fail miserably. At times our grace-less attitudes and actions result in “Christian cannibalism”—a biting and devouring of one another. When we do so, we sabotage your glory and veil your beauty. We lie about who you are and what it means to be in relationship with you. We give non-believers an opportunity to blaspheme your name and mock your church. Cut us to the heart with the ugliness we offer the watching world.

Grant us godly grief and gospel repentance for acting like relational piranha—nibbling on others’ brokenness and inconsistencies more than we feast on your grace and love. Forgive us for holding onto un-forgiveness just to gain advantage in a relationship or minimize our sin. Forgive our rehearsing the sins of others more than we remember the way you’ve forgiven us. Forgive us for being petty rather than patient; critical rather than compassionate; mean rather than merciful. Help us know when overlooking the failures of others wouldn’t be cowardly or co-dependent, but courageous. Help us learn how to conflict redemptively, rather than destructively.

Lord Jesus, we are irrepressibly and eternally free because of what you’ve accomplished for us by your death and resurrection. Help us steward this costly freedom today in our world and web of broken people and broken relationships. So very Amen we pray, in your glorious and grace-full name.

Much More Than That

Kevin DeYoung post:  Kings of Judah: Amaziah’s God of Plenty

2 Chronicles 25:1-28
“The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” (v. 9b)

Amaziah’s reign was far from perfect, but it did include a great victory.

Amaziah marshaled together 300,000 fighting men to fight against Edom. Just to be safe, he hired 100,000 Israelite mercenaries for a hundred talents of silver. But a man of God warned the king otherwise, saying “the Lord is not with Israel” (v. 7). “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops,” asked Amaziah (v. 8). The man of God replied with one of my favorite lines in the Bible, “The Lord can give you much more than that” (9). So Amaziah dismissed the troops and won the battle.

God seems to enjoy victory most when it seems most improbable. He turned away most of Gideon’s men, accomplished salvation through death on a cross, and displays his glory in jars of clay. God loves to beat the odds. And he loves it when we trust him for more than we can ask or imagine. Some people think this means that God will make them rich and healthy. That’s the wrong application of this passage. But never taking risks for God is also wrong. Recklessness is bad, but so is faithlessness. “Depend on it,” Hudson Taylor famously remarked, “God’s work done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.”

Good News

Ray Ortlund post:  Happy people sing


“Nothing is more characteristic of Reformation theology and few parts of Reformation Church activity have been so neglected as the congregational singing.  It was far from being a pleasant element introduced rather inconsistently into a service otherwise ruled by a sombre view of life.  We have already seen that in 1537 one of the four foundations for the reform of the Church was congregational singing. . . . We have seen in effect that Calvin placed singing at the heart of his theology of the Church.  The reason is not far to seek.  To put it with the utmost simplicity: The Church is the place where the Gospel is preached; Gospel is good news; good news makes people happy; happy people sing.  But then, too, unhappy people may sing to cheer themselves up.”

T. H. L. Parker, John Calvin (London, 1975), page 87.

Took the Plunge

Excerpt from Julie Todd post:  As a woman thinketh…..

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The Spirit within me quickened as my husband explained to me the phenomena that had just taken place.  The snake was dead, it just didn’t know it.

That one event explains the bulk of my existence.  I was dead in Christ yet I was clueless to my actuality.   I was encouraged to manage my sin, be holy, make him proud, do the right thing.  Everything, everywhere was about behavior.   I can understand why.  When I don’t understand the reality of what took place when Jesus said “it is finished” I can only focus on behavior.  It becomes the barometer of my spirituality.

There’s a cliché that was often spoken throughout the years of my church upbringing.  “I need to get it from my head to my heart.”  How does one do that anyways?  How does one get the mind to convince the heart?  Isn’t it the other way around?   After all God said  He would put a new heart with a new spirit in me.  Isn’t it the programming of the mind that is all screwed up? Doesn’t the mind need to conform to what has already happened?

I spent the better part of my life assessing who I was based on what I had done.  It’s not the way things go down in His world.  He sees the person at heart, not the action.  He knows who I am.   The question is, do I believe what He believes? Doesn’t it all come down to this.  Do I really think what He thinks, about me?

Jesus speaks to a crowd.  He tells them that to know Him is to know the Father for He speaks just what the Father has taught Him.  He tells them that if they remain in what He speaks they too will be taught.  For they will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

I was taken back the first time someone told me to ask God what He thought about me.   What if He doesn’t have anything to say?  What if I all I hear are crickets chirping in the deafening silence?  It’s a scary place to step into, much like jumping off the side of the pool hoping that someone will be there to catch you.   But one never knows what it feels like to be caught until they jump.

I took the plunge.  I needed to know what He thought of me.  I had been ashamed of who I was for as long as I could remember.  I felt as if I was not enough and too much all at the same time.  Things I had perceived about myself  became the focal points of conversations with Him.  Did He think these things too?  If not, what did He think?

He began rewriting the story of my life as He spoke.  I began to listen.  I found myself overwhelmed at the thought of it all.  Could it possibly be true that I was who He said I was?

My head has been learning to grasp the truth of my heart.  Jesus has made me right.  He has pronounced me as holy, godly, and pure.  I don’t have to try to be holy, I already am.  I am a joint-heir with the Son of God, what He inherits, I inherit.  I am a new creation.  I have the mind of Christ, the Spirit of the living God, given as a seal, is woven into my very being.  I am the righteousness of Christ, even on my worst day.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, changes that.

It all comes around full circle. Will I choose to believe what He says or will I believe what I feel?    Will I let my past define me or will I step into my reality.  Do not dwell on the past He reminds me… see I am doing something new.  Will I see?  Will I embrace what He speaks and be taught.  It is the choice of life or death, freedom or captivity.  It’s where the rubber meets the road, you know.

For as a man thinketh so is he….

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I Can't Fly Either

Excerpts from Steve Brown post (at Tullian Tchividjian):  You Can’t Teach A Frog To Fly, So Stop Trying

Guest Post by Steve Brown (read more about Steve here). Few people make me laugh more than Steve. Enjoy…

I’ve had a lousy job for most of my life.

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Let me tell you. There is a very human and undeniable proclivity of human beings to sin-to jump off the cliff. We’re drawn to it. We love it (at least for awhile). No matter who tries to keep us from doing it or how much pain it will cause, we are irresistibly drawn to that cliff. Maybe we want to fly. Could be that we have a masochistic streak in our DNA. Could be that our default position is jumping off cliffs. I don’t know. But for whatever reason, we do jump, we do get hurt, and if we survive, we then climb back up the cliff and jump again.

There is a parable (author unknown) about Felix, the flying frog. Even if I mix the metaphor a bit, let me tell you the parable.

Once upon a time, there lived a man named Clarence who had a pet frog named Felix.
Clarence lived a modestly comfortable existence on what he earned working at the Wal-Mart, but he always dreamed of being rich. “Felix!” he said one day, hit by sudden inspiration, “We’re going to be rich! I’m going to teach you to fly!”
Felix, of course, was terrified at the prospect. “I can’t fly, you twit! I’m a frog, not a canary!”
Clarence, disappointed at the initial response, told Felix: “That negative attitude of yours could be a real problem. We’re going to remain poor, and it will be your fault.”
So Felix and Clarence began their work on flying.
On the first day of the “flying lessons,” Clarence could barely control his excitement (and Felix could barely control his bladder). Clarence explained that their apartment building had 15 floors, and each day Felix would jump out of a window, starting with the first floor and eventually getting to the top floor. After each jump, they would analyze how well he flew, isolate the most effective flying techniques, and implement the improved process for the next flight. By the time they reached the top floor, Felix would surely be able to fly.
Felix pleaded for his life, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. “He just doesn’t understand how important this is,” thought Clarence. “He can’t see the big picture.”
So, with that, Clarence opened the window and threw Felix out. He landed with a thud.
The next day, poised for his second flying lesson, Felix again begged not to be thrown out of the window. Clarence told Felix about how one must always expect resistance when introducing new, innovative plans.
With that, he threw Felix out the window. THUD!
Now this is not to say that Felix wasn’t trying his best. On the fifth day, he flapped his legs madly in a vain attempt at flying. On the sixth day, he tied a small red cape around his neck and tried to think “Superman” thoughts. It didn’t help.
By the seventh day, Felix, accepting his fate, no longer begged for mercy. He simply looked at Clarence and said, “You know you’re killing me, don’t you?”
Clarence pointed out that Felix’s performance so far had been less than exemplary, failing to meet any of the milestone goals he had set for him.
With that, Felix said quietly, “Shut up and open the window,” and he leaped out, taking careful aim at the large jagged rock by the corner of the building.
Felix went to that great lily pad in the sky.
Clarence was extremely upset, as his project had failed to meet a single objective that he had set out to accomplish. Felix had not only failed to fly, he hadn’t even learned to steer his fall as he dropped like a sack of cement, nor had he heeded Clarence’s advice to “Fall smarter, not harder.”
The only thing left for Clarence to do was to analyze the process and try to determine where it had gone wrong. After much thought, Clarence smiled and said…
“Next time, I’m getting a smarter frog!”



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A number of years ago, I realized that I was, as it were, trying to teach frogs to fly. Frogs can’t fly. Not only that, they get angry when you try to teach them. The gullible ones will try, but they eventually get hurt so badly they quit trying. And the really sad thing about being a “frog flying teacher” is that I can’t fly either.

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Now I just send them to Jesus and try to get out of the way.

Come to think of it, if you’re struggling with sin and aren’t getting better, don’t come to me. I like you okay, but that kind of depends on how my day is going. Instead of coming to me, run to Jesus. He’ll love you and maybe even make you better.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Grander Promise

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer about Being Kept in Perfect Peace

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isa. 26:3-4
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
Most loving and trustworthy Father, you haven’t promised us a storm-less, hassle-free life. You offer us no formulas for decreasing the probability of discouraging things happening around us or disillusioning things happening to us.  But you have promised something that transcends the chaos and uncertainty of life. You’ve promised to give us your peace and keep us in peace, no matter what happens. A thousand times over, we thank you.

Being kept by you… we treasure this promise more than all the gold in Fort Knox; all the chalets in Switzerland; all the oil in the Arab States, for we cannot keep ourselves. We don’t have strength to muster or enough boot straps to pull up. Thank you for being an engaged Father who will never forget or abandon your children; a sovereign Lord who names stars, feeds birds and controls our destiny; mighty Warrior, you defends and safeguards our passage home.

But your promise is even grander. You have promised to keep us in perfect peace—an unparalled a peace, a peace which cannot be found anywhere else, a peace which passes all understanding (Phil 4:7), a peace won for us by Jesus, the Prince of Peace. You are now and eternally at peace with us, Father—for you have justified us freely and fully. What more could we possibly need or want!

All we have to do is mine the riches of the gospel and keep in mind the wonders of your love. All we have to do is to set our minds on things above, for you are the LORD—the everlasting Rock that is higher than us; the Rock of refuge; the Rock of ages.

What a compassionate and generous God you are. There is no other god like you, Father. How great are your mercies; how profound your kindnesses; how more-than-sufficient is your grace. Reign in our hearts this day, to your glory and for our freedom. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ glorious name.

Scripture

Ed Stetzer post:  The Effects of Reading Scripture


The media provides a constant message about evangelicals: they are uneducated, easily led, and don't care about others. Recent polling data tells a different story. Here are some examples from a new study by Baylor University, as reported in the Huffington Post:
  • The likelihood of Christians saying it is important to actively seek social and economic justice to be a good person increased 39 percent with each jump up the ladder of the frequency of reading Scripture, from reading the Bible less than once a year to no more than once a month to about weekly to several times a week or more.
  • Christian respondents overall were 27 percent more likely to say it is important to consume or use fewer goods to be a good person as they became more frequent Bible readers.
  • Reading the Bible more often also was linked to improved attitudes toward science. Respondents were 22 percent less likely to view religion and science as incompatible at each step toward more frequent Bible reading.
  • The issues seemed to matter more than conservative-liberal tags. In the case of another major public policy debate, same-sex unions, nearly half of respondents who read the Bible less than once a year said homosexuals should be allowed to marry, while only 6 percent of people who read the Bible several times a week or more approved of such marriages.
Be sure to read the whole article here.

Unidimensional

Excerpts from Betsy Hart post:  Beware Romantic Pornography

I recently watched the film Sleepless in Seattle with my teen and tween daughters. I hadn’t seen this particular romantic comedy since it was first a blockbuster in 1993. I suppose I found watching the film a little bit like riding a stomach-dropping roller coaster—I have to do it every so often to remind myself why I don’t do it more frequently.
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When you’ve seen one romantic comedy you’ve of course seen them all. There is some level of confusion involving a wonderful woman and an idiotic man. He doesn’t know how romantic he really is until the wonderful woman shows him the way and reveals his fabulous, sensitive, romantic side that was aching to get out all along we find. He so wants to talk about his feelings, just like her best girlfriends! Who knew? Romantic man finally realizes he cannot live without said woman, and pursues her in an ever-so-sensitive if bumbling way. There seems to typically be a fountain involved at some point.

If it’s all not quite “magic,” it sure is fantasy.

That’s where the pornography comes in. Just as sexual pornography twists an understanding for men about real women’s bodies and sexual appetites, so romantic pornography twists the perception for women about real men and how they “ought” to behave toward women, which tends to amount to, well, behaving like a woman. I have a dear friend who once didn’t like a fellow I was dating. Among other shortcomings, he didn’t arrange spa treatments for me, she explained. Seriously. No more chick flicks for that girl.

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But both kinds of pornography go wrong by portraying genders as unidimensional. And the unidimension of men in romantic porn gets magnified because our mainstream culture has a “man bad, woman good” view that opposes traditionally male qualities (unless they turn up in women, but that’s another column). In a symptom of what’s going on in the culture at large, “rom coms” and many television sitcoms denigrate such traits such as aggression, competitiveness, a certain amount of stoicism, and even the desire to protect and care for a woman.

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I can’t fix the culture at large, but I sure hope to affect it in my own home. So I tell my girls that I want them one day to look to marry a Christian man of faithful and strong character; whom they will respect and whose distinctly male characteristics they will appreciate; that I hope they will have a group of close women friends, and that they will never get them and their husbands confused.

And yes, I tell my girls if they want to enjoy some good romantic comedies along the way, go ahead. I just encourage them to remember where fantasy meets reality, and to never, ever judge a man by whether or not he makes spa appointments for them.

First in Aspirations

Excerpt from D.A. Carson Put the Advance of the Gospel at the Center of Your Aspirations

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This is not a subtle plea for … a gospel without social ramifications. We wisely reread the accounts of the Evangelical Awakening in England and the Great Awakening in America and the extraordinary ministries of Howell Harris, George Whitefield, the Wesley brothers, and others. We rightly remind ourselves how under God their converts led the fights to abolish slavery, reform the penal code, begin trade unions, transform prisons, and free children from serving in the mines. All of society was transformed because soundly converted men and women saw that life must be lived under God and in a manner pleasing to him. But virtually without exception these men and women put the gospel first. They reveled in it, preached it, cherished Bible reading and exposition that was Christ-centered and gospel centered, and from that base moved out into the broader social agendas. In short, they put the gospel first, not least in their own aspirations. Not to see this priority means we are not more than a generation away from denying the gospel.

It may be that God has called you to be a homemaker or an engineer or a chemist or a ditch digger. It may be that you will take some significant role in, say, the rising field of bioethics. But although the gospel directly affects how you will discharge your duties in each case, none of these should displace the gospel that is central to every thoughtful Christian. You will put the gospel first in your aspirations. Then you will be able to endure affliction and persecution and even misunderstanding and misrepresentation from other Christians. You will say with Paul, “I want you to know … that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (1:12).

… Put the advance of the gospel at the center of your aspirations.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Rock of Ages

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer about Being Kept in Perfect Peace

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isa. 26:3-4
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
Most loving and trustworthy Father, you haven’t promised us a storm-less, hassle-free life. You offer us no formulas for decreasing the probability of discouraging things happening around us or disillusioning things happening to us.  But you have promised something that transcends the chaos and uncertainty of life. You’ve promised to give us your peace and keep us in peace, no matter what happens. A thousand times over, we thank you.

Being kept by you… we treasure this promise more than all the gold in Fort Knox; all the chalets in Switzerland; all the oil in the Arab States, for we cannot keep ourselves. We don’t have strength to muster or enough boot straps to pull up. Thank you for being an engaged Father who will never forget or abandon your children; a sovereign Lord who names stars, feeds birds and controls our destiny; mighty Warrior, you defends and safeguards our passage home.

But your promise is even grander. You have promised to keep us in perfect peace—an unparalled a peace, a peace which cannot be found anywhere else, a peace which passes all understanding (Phil 4:7), a peace won for us by Jesus, the Prince of Peace. You are now and eternally at peace with us, Father—for you have justified us freely and fully. What more could we possibly need or want!

All we have to do is mine the riches of the gospel and keep in mind the wonders of your love. All we have to do is to set our minds on things above, for you are the LORD—the everlasting Rock that is higher than us; the Rock of refuge; the Rock of ages.

What a compassionate and generous God you are. There is no other god like you, Father. How great are your mercies; how profound your kindnesses; how more-than-sufficient is your grace. Reign in our hearts this day, to your glory and for our freedom. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ glorious name.

Simplify not Complicate: Point to God

Stephen Furtick post:  My Fear for Preachers Today


I have a growing fear for preachers today. I’m afraid that if we’re not careful, we’re going to end up becoming like the Pharisees.

Here’s what I mean.
Preaching, when done correctly, should unburden people. As preachers, our job is to challenge people, yes, but not to burden them.

When describing the Pharisees and what they did to the people through their teaching, Jesus said: They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders (Matthew 23:4).

What’s interesting is that when we read that, we automatically despise the Pharisees and assume they had bad motives. But if you study their history, their motives were actually very good. What they were trying to do by creating all of the rules they are now infamous for was make the Law applicable to people’s lives.

They’d read a command like, “Keep the Sabbath holy,” and their concern was that everyone could actually do it. So they’d create applications like:
Items used for work can’t be touched on the Sabbath.
You shouldn’t take more than 500 steps on the Sabbath.

Their driving motivation really was to help by giving people things to do. But in their desire to make the Bible applicable, they actually created burdens that weighed their people down.

Here’s how I think this happens today. We do a sermon series on marriage, which in itself is great. But then we say things like “you need to do these 15 things with your spouse to have a great marriage.” Or we do a series on joy, and we then give them the 7 steps to attaining it. We’re trying help, but without realizing it, we’ve actually burdened people who were already carrying such a heavy load.

And we’ve become the group we all love to hate on – the Pharisees.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t give our people applications or practical next steps. Of course we should. Jesus did it many times. But I am saying that we need to be careful. When we stand up to speak to our churches, our goal should be to unburden them. To emulate Jesus’ teaching when he said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

And we do that by simplifying rather than complicating. By pointing to God and all that He has done. Not just at our people and all that they need to do.

Abiding Fixation

Excerpts from Justin Holcolb post (at Tullian Tchividjian):  Paul’s Downward Trajectory

Guest Post by Justin Holcomb (read more about Justin here)

Paul refers to himself numerous times as worth “imitating” when it comes to spiritual growth and maturity (1 Cor. 4:16, 11:1; Phil. 3:17, 4:19; 1 Thess. 1:6; and 2 Thess. 3:7, 9). What do we see when we look to Paul as an example? He makes three significant statements about himself throughout his years in ministry that are helpful insights into his view of spiritual growth.

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Do you see the trajectory as Paul matures in faith? This is what happens when you boast in Christ alone. Your weakness becomes more evident. You can’t help but make much of Christ and little of self. That is maturity according to Paul—boasting in nothing but Christ’s grace and our weakness.


Paul isn’t just using self-deprecating hyperbole as a teaching device. Each of the three statements about himself is surrounded by references to the cross (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 3:7-8; and 1 Tim. 1:15) and grace or mercy (1 Cor. 15:10; Eph. 3:2, 7; and 1 Tim. 1:13-14, 16). For him, spiritual growth is realizing how utterly dependent he is on Jesus’ cross and mercy, not arriving at some point where he somehow needs the cross and mercy less. Paul’s view of himself diminishes and his dependence on Jesus’ cross and grace increases. How do you talk about spiritual maturity? Imitating Paul’s example, there should be more talk of the depth and scope of God’s mercy, less talk of self-reliance, and an abiding fixation on Jesus’ cross that secured God’s grace for you.

Sent a Savior

Miscellanies post:  Our Greatest Need


D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Baker, 1992), page 109:
If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Strong Hearts

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Grace-Strengthened Hearts

It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. Hebrews 13:9-10
Lord Jesus, the issue of heart care is quite personal, as many of us have lost friends and family members to heart disease—of congenital and life-choice varieties. I’ve also had close friends suffer heart attacks and strokes, young and old alike. This has sobered me, and led to changes in my diet and commitment to exercise. You’re honored when we take care of ourselves physically. It’s a part of our discipleship and one of the ways we demonstrate our love for you.

However, what will it profit us if we only eat organic non-gluten foods, run an 8 minute mile at age 65, have a cholesterol count of 125, a resting heart rate of 59 and yet have a hearts that are weak in grace? What’s the point of being able to wear the same clothes we did in high school and yet still have the heart of legalists or libertines beating within us? Who wants to be physically fit and spiritually flabby?
Jesus, strengthen our hearts with the unsearchable, non-exhaustible, incomparable riches of the gospel. Lead us to the gym, training table and gospel-regimens which will cause our hearts to grow stronger and stronger in your grace. For the more our hearts are strengthened by grace the more they’ll beat for your glory; the quicker and deeper will be our repentances; the less room there will be for idols, and the more fully we will love you with delight and abandon.

As our hearts are strengthened by grace, we’ll throw more gospel parties and less pity parties. We won’t think less of ourselves, we’ll just think about ourselves less of the time. We’ll keep shorter records of the ways others fail and longer records of your faithfulness to us. We’ll make a bigger deal about the things that really matter, and a lesser deal about the things which simply go with life in a broken world filled with broken people. We’ll live more generously and less miserly; more doxologically and less fearfully; more missionally and less obsessively…  Jesus, it’s not just good, it’s essential for our hearts to be strengthened by your grace. So very Amen we pray, in your kind and loving name.

Run Strong to the End

Kevin DeYoung post:  Kings of Judah: Finishing Well

2 Chronicles 24:1-27
Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him… (v. 22)

Joash ran the race of life like a sprinter when he should have been a marathoner. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest (v. 2). But sadly, Joash’s piety lasted only as long as Jehoiada’s life. Joash was a good follower and a bad leader. He was passive, a people-pleaser who was easily swayed by devious flatters (v. 17). During his reign, the people abandoned the temple, worshiped idols, ignored the prophets, and killed Jehoiada’s son. Joash started his life strong, but finished poorly.

If you want to run the race strong to the end, ask yourself these four questions: (1) Is my faith my own?” Your parent’s faith won’t save you. Believe for yourself before you don’t believe at all. (2) “Am I surrounded by people who will run with me to the finish line?” Joash wasn’t. You need godly running partners in the race. (3) “Am I praying for conviction of sin?” Make this prayer weekly. It will keep you from falling away. The Lord will correct you if you ask him to. (4) “Am I quick to recall God’s mercy and slow to remember my own triumphs?” Remember God and forget yourself and you will finish well.

Serve by Receiving

John Piper post:  What Does It Mean to Serve God


“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). What does that mean?
  • It means to do what he says in a way that makes him look supremely valuable in himself.
  • It means to submit to him in a way that makes him look thrilling.
There are ways to submit to God that only make him look threatening, not thrilling. There are ways to do what he says that only call attention to the fact that he is an authority not a treasure.

That kind of service is not the service God commands.

What’s the difference?

The difference is that God has told us not to serve him as though he needed anything.
“He is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Both these texts put all the emphasis on God’s giving to us when we serve.

So the kind of service that makes God look valuable and thrilling is the kind that serves God by constantly receiving from God. The key text to describe this is 1 Peter 4:11
“Whoever serves, [let it be] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
God is seen as glorious when all our serving is moment-by-moment receiving from God’s supply.

We receive this supply by faith. That is, we trust moment-by-moment that what we need, in serving him, he will supply (“life, breath, and everything”). This is the opposite of being anxious. Such serving is happy. And it makes God look no less authoritative, but infinitely more desirable. This is the glory he means to have. The giver gets the glory.

Therefore, “serve the Lord with gladness” (Psalm 100:2).

Plus Nothing

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  First Things First

It is through the preaching of the gospel that Jesus summons sinners (both Christians and non-Christians) and says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). The difference between “religion” and the gospel is that religion gives burdens by announcing that Jesus plus something equals everything while the gospel absorbs burdens announcing that Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Us/Them Falls Short

Excerpt from Ray Ortlund post:  Christ our only social category

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If we would never allow a racial division in our churches, and we wouldn’t, let us neither allow a generational division or any other merely human line of separation.  Any thought grounded in an “us/them” assumption falls short of the gospel.  The wonderful reality we are seeing in one another moment by moment is Christ.

One Church

Mark Batterson post:  The Curse of Territorialism

I think territorialism is one of the greatest curses on the church.  There should be no turf wars in the Kingdom of God.  Why does it happen?  To put it bluntly: insecurity. It’s the Saul Complex. David was his greatest asset, but Saul perceived him as his greatest threat.  Why? He kept a “jealous eye” on him.   

Any pastor who is threatened by a neighboring pastor is building his own kingdom, not God’s kingdom.

Let me be the first to say: I’m guilty.  A few years ago, the Lord convicted me big time.  I remember writing a confession in my prayer journal: it’s easier for me to pray for a church that is four states away than a church that is four blocks away.  By the grace of God, that is changing.

I honestly think the key is relationship.  Last week I met with an Episcopal priest who pastors on Capitol Hill.  We had a meeting with a handful of local pastors dreaming about a corporate prayer gathering a few days ago.  Today I’m having lunch with Amos Dodge who pastors Capital Church–the church that hosts the Easter Sunrise Service every year at the Lincoln Memorial. The more I get to know these neighboring pastors and churches, the more I love them.

One of the lessons I learned from my Father-in-Law, Bob Schmidgall, is that a humble and genuine effort to embrace and celebrate other neighboring churches dissolves territorialism.  It can’t be superficial. Calvary Church prayed for other churches every week and I believe it’s one reason why God blessed them. But God wanted bless sibling rivalry.

I can only imagine how God could impact a city if the Christ-centered, Bible-believing, Spirit-led churches actually joined hearts and joined hands.  I’m praying for revival in DC, but certainly not just at NCC.  If it starts in another church, praise God.  Let it spread to us!

We all have different church  names, but there is only one Church in DC.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Propinquity

Excerpt from Colin Marshall:  Pastoral Ministry Requires Propinquity


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However, I suggest that our fellowships should be characterized by propinquity.

So what is propinquity and why is it important? According to the Oxford Dictionary, propinquity is "the state of being close to someone or something; proximity." (He kept his distance as though afraid propinquity might lead him into temptation).

What would it look like if each member had a personal pastor to help him or her grow, no matter how big the church becomes? Realistically our members will vary in how much they learn and apply from sermons. And most will benefit greatly from someone getting alongside them, listening and understanding, speaking the word of truth in love, praying, and being open about his or her own struggles. Many need the parent they never had, just to learn some basic wisdom in how to live.

There is biblical warrant for thinking of pastoral ministry in this personal way. Paul was a father to the Thessalonians, dealing with each of them as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging them to live lives worthy of God (1 Thess. 2:11-12). He writes to the Corinthians as his dear children, since he had become their father through the gospel, and they are to imitate him (1 Cor. 4:14-17). The overseers are to be known by the church as blameless in life and doctrine (1 Tim. 3:1-7). Timothy was to set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, in purity (1 Tim. 4:12). Peter exhorts the elders as shepherds, to be examples to God’s flock under their care (1 Pet. 5:1-4). Pastoral ministry requires propinquity.

So as the body of believers grows, how do we maintain this closeness of pastoral relationship? We need a different mental image of church.

If you had to draw a diagram that represented the ministry in your church, what would it look like? An organizational tree? A mind-map of different ministries and programs? A tangle of spaghetti
What if our mental image was not of an organization or a structure but of the people God has brought together in our church? And what if the key question we asked was: Who is getting alongside each person to invest in their lives and help them grow towards maturity in Christ?

This is a different vision of church—not as an organization, but as a community of disciple-making disciples. It’s the vision of ministry Tony Payne and I wrote about in The Trellis and the Vine—a ministry where we focus more on people than programs.

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Nothing Can Stop God

Joe Rigney post:  What Is the River of History?


Edwards writes:
God’s providence may not unfitly be compared to a large and long river, having innumerable branches beginning in different regions, and at a great distance one from another, and all conspiring to one common issue. After their very diverse and contrary courses which they hold for a while, yet all gathering more and more together the nearer they come to their common end, and all at length discharging themselves at one mouth into the same ocean.
The different streams of this river are ready to look like mere jumble and confusion to us because of the limitedness of our sight, whereby we can’t see from one branch to another and can’t see the whole at once, so as to see how all are united in one.  A man that sees but one or two streams at a time can’t tell what their course tends to.  Their course seems very crooked, and the different streams seem to run for a while different and contrary ways.
And if we view things at a distance, there seem to be innumerable obstacles and impediments in the way to hinder their ever uniting and coming to the ocean, as rocks and mountains and the like.  But yet if we trace them they all unite at last and all come to the same issue, disgorging themselves into one and the same great ocean.  Not one of the streams fail of coming hither at last (“A History of the Work of Redemption,” 520, paragraphing mine) .
Here are three points on this river of history:

The Two Motifs

First, this quotation confirms the two motifs in Edwards’ view of history: the cyclical and the progressive. Sometimes, the river of history looks chaotic, like it’s aimless and wandering nobody knows where, that there’s no ultimate direction. But there is an ultimate direction; all of the streams and branches and tributaries are making their way inexorably to the ocean.

The Contrary Ways

Second, the river may run off in a crooked direction, heading northwest when the ocean is southeast. At times like these, we can wonder whether the ocean is truly the final destination. “If the sea is that way, why is the river running this way?” “If God is good and he rules and reigns, why does it appear that evil is so often winning?”

Edwards’s analogy allows us to affirm two key truths about evil in history. First, evil really is evil; at that point, the river really is running northwest. But second, it will not always run northwest; the banks will turn and it will head toward the sea again. In the end nothing can stop God from guiding history to its glorious conclusion.

Everything Is Coming to a Point

Finally, while the branches of the river may begin far apart, as time goes on, they come to a point, moving nearer to their appointed consummation. This sentiment is related to one that C. S. Lewis describes through Dimble in That Hideous Strength
Have you ever noticed that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point? . . . If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family — anything you like — at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that there's going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous.
Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder (283, paragraphing mine).
Joe Rigney is Assistant Professor of Theology and Christian Worldview at Bethlehem College and Seminary.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Work of the Redeemer

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  First Things First

It’s very important to remember that the focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. When the Christian faith becomes defined by who we are and what we do and not by who Christ is and what he did for us, we miss the gospel–and we, ironically, become more disobedient.

What You Can Bring to Life

Stephen Furtick post:  Daydreams and Sweatshops

I was recently reading Robert McKee’s book on the process of storytelling and came across a sentence that really challenged me. He was discussing the hard work of the creative endeavor and constructing fictional environments and he said:
Worlds are not daydreams but sweatshops.


It got me thinking on a different but similar vein about how we often misunderstand the concept of having a vision from God. For our lives, our ministries, and really for everything in general.

I think when most people think or talk about getting a vision from God, it’s more along the lines of a daydream. We associate receiving a vision from God with being passive. We think that God speaks to you with candles lit and music playing.

He often does. But that’s not where the vision comes to life. It’s simply the moment of conception. The vision really comes to life when the candles go out and the music stops. It’s when you have to get down to the hard work of actually making it happen. Visions don’t come to life in daydreams but in sweatshops.

If you’re a church planter, it’s in the hours you spend setting up your portable location just to be able to preach for forty minutes.

If God has called you to be a doctor, it’s in the years of school and interning that you have to endure to get those two simple letters, M.D., attached to your name.

If you’re a writer or filmmaker, it’s in the days and months of brainstorming, executing, and editing that it takes to make your project a reality.

Being a visionary or receiving a vision isn’t defined simply by what you can think of. My five-year old can think of a lot of things that have no chance of becoming real. Being a visionary has to do with what you can bring to life. God is the Creator not because He imagined or envisioned creation. But because He acted and brought it into existence.

Why should it be any different for the creation that was made in His image?


Reconnaissance

Mark Batterson post:  Inattentional Blindness

One of the greatest dangers leaders face is inattentional blindness. Simply put: we become blind to our environment. We stop noticing things.  The end result? We maintain the status quo.  That’s why reconnaissance is so important. That’s why I love visiting other churches!  It helps me see NCC in fresh ways and it gives me new ideas.

Yesterday I visited Area 10 Faith Community that meets in the historic Byrd Theatre in Richmond, VA.  I wanted to do recon at the Byrd because we’re restoring a historic theater on Capitol Hill, but I walked away with so much more.  So great to meet Pastor Chris Barras and his wife, Abby.

Love their coffeehouse concept called Cartwheels & Coffee.  Found out that a former NCCer helped them name it.  Love it.  It’s a combination coffeehouse with play space for kids. I think it’s the future of coffeehouses. It’s all about combinations isn’t it?  A great example is Barnes & Noble combining bookstore with cafe.  When we build out our new property on Virginia Avenue, we’ll incorporate an indoor play space for kids and families.

I have to say that I love God’s kingdom!  So cool to see one corner of His kingdom in Richmond this weekend.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Just Because

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Worshiping God Just Because He’s God

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Dan. 3:16–18
Heavenly Father, I’m intrigued, convicted, and encouraged by the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. How refreshing it is to behold non-utilitarian non-pragmatic Other-centered worship. These three friends loved and adored you not because of the gifts you gave but because of the God that you are. They were firmly convinced that you could rescue them from the fiery furnace, but even if you didn’t rescue them, it would have no effect on their worship of you. They would rather be delivered into your presence through the fire than worship some other false god just to escape the fire.

Father, forgive me when my worship of you varies in response to my perceptions of how well you care for me. As cynical as I am about the “name it and claim it” and prosperity theologies, I’m quite capable of doubting your love when life gets complicated and painful. Forgive me for ever score-carding you. Forgive me for being more passionate in my worship when things are going well, and less engaged when they’re not. I want to worship you before there’s a fire, when I’m in the fire, when the fire’s extinguished, or if the flames get even higher and hotter.

Lord Jesus, only you can change and free my heart to love and serve God like this—like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did. Only the truth, grace and power of the gospel are sufficient for the task. You were the fourth man in the fiery furnace with them. More importantly, you were the one who endured the fiery trial of the cross for us that we might forever live in the presence and favor of God. You will never leave or forsake us, at any time or in any trial.

Because of you, Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid to die, and we don’t have to be afraid to live, hurt and wait. May your beauty and grace be so compelling that at the very moment we’re tempted to turn to some other god for temporal deliverance or instant relief, we won’t. So very Amen we pray, in your peerless and powerful name.

Litmus Test

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  First Things First

So, here’s a good litmus test: whether it’s a sermon, a book, a blog post, or a tweet–if the lasting impression you get causes you to focus more on what you must do than on what Christ has done, the gospel has not been communicated and the communicator (albeit, unwittingly) is no better than the Pharisees who were charged by Jesus with “tying up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laying them on people’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:4).

Outside of Us

Excerpts from Rod Rosenbladt post:  Christ Died For The Sins Of Christians Too

Guest Post by Dr. Rod Rosenbladt. Rod is a dear friend of mine and professor of theology and apologetics at Concordia University (Irvine, California). He is also co-host of The White Horse Inn radio broadcast. This article first appeared in Modern Reformation Magazine in May/June 2003 (used by permission).

 ...

One of my favorite stories that illustrates this particular matter deals with a time when the German reformer Martin Luther was translating the Bible into German at the Wartburg castle and could only have contact with his colleague Phillip Melanchthon by courier. Melanchthon had a different sort of temperament than Luther. Some would call him timid; others of a less generous bent might call him spineless. At one time, while Luther was off in the Wartburg castle translating, Melanchthon had another one of his attacks of timidity. He wrote to Luther, “I woke this morning wondering if I trust Christ enough.” Luther received such letters from Melanchthon regularly. He had a tendency, a propensity, to navel-gaze and to wonder about the state of his inner faith, and whether it was enough to save. Finally, in an effort to pull out all the stops and pull Melanchthon out of himself, Luther wrote back and said, “Melanchthon! Go sin bravely! Then go to the cross and bravely confess it! The whole gospel is outside of us.”

...


A friend of mine was walking down a street in Minneapolis one day and was confronted by an evangelical brother who asked, “Brother, are you saved?” Hal rolled his eyes back and said, “Yes.” That didn’t satisfy this brother, so he said, “Well, when were you saved?” Hal said, “About two thousand years ago, about a twenty minutes’ walk from downtown Jerusalem.” This is the gospel message. It’s just as important for Christians to believe for their sanctification as it is for pagans to believe for their justification; for it is the same message, the same salvation, the same work of God. It’s just as important for the evangelical church today as it was for the reformers in the sixteenth century. Without this simple, but mind-boggling message, there is no hope, not for the sinner nor for the saint.

Whatever You Do

Josh Etter post:  Ready for Work This Week?


John Calvin:
It is an error to think that those who flee worldly affairs and engage in contemplation are leading an angelic life. . . We know that men were created to busy themselves with labor and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when each one attends to his calling and studies well to live for the common good (Calvin's Commentaries, Luke 10:38).
Martin Luther:
A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another. . . (An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility).
The Apostle Paul:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Friday, July 15, 2011

Not A Hobby

Rachel Jankovic post:  Motherhood Is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)

A few years ago, when I just had four children and when the oldest was still three, I loaded them all up to go on a walk. After the final sippy cup had found a place and we were ready to go, my two-year-old turned to me and said, “Wow! You have your hands full!”

She could have just as well said, “Don’t you know what causes that?” or “Are they all yours?!”

Everywhere you go, people want to talk about your children. Why you shouldn’t have had them, how you could have prevented them, and why they would never do what you have done. They want to make sure you know that you won’t be smiling anymore when they are teenagers. All this at the grocery store, in line, while your children listen.

A Rock-Bottom Job?

The truth is that years ago, before this generation of mothers was even born, our society decided where children rank in the list of important things. When abortion was legalized, we wrote it into law.

Children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below honing your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get. In fact, children rate below your desire to sit around and pick your toes, if that is what you want to do. Below everything. Children are the last thing you should ever spend your time doing.

If you grew up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood, to think like a free Christian woman about your life, your children. How much have we listened to partial truths and half lies? Do we believe that we want children because there is some biological urge, or the phantom “baby itch”? Are we really in this because of cute little clothes and photo opportunities? Is motherhood a rock-bottom job for those who can’t do more, or those who are satisfied with drudgery? If so, what were we thinking?

It's Not a Hobby

Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.

Christian mothers carry their children in hostile territory. When you are in public with them, you are standing with, and defending, the objects of cultural dislike. You are publicly testifying that you value what God values, and that you refuse to value what the world values. You stand with the defenseless and in front of the needy. You represent everything that our culture hates, because you represent laying down your life for another—and laying down your life for another represents the gospel.

Our culture is simply afraid of death. Laying down your own life, in any way, is terrifying. Strangely, it is that fear that drives the abortion industry: fear that your dreams will die, that your future will die, that your freedom will die—and trying to escape that death by running into the arms of death.

Run to the Cross

But a Christian should have a different paradigm. We should run to to the cross. To death. So lay down your hopes. Lay down your future. Lay down your petty annoyances. Lay down your desire to be recognized. Lay down your fussiness at your children. Lay down your perfectly clean house. Lay down your grievances about the life you are living. Lay down the imaginary life you could have had by yourself. Let it go.

Death to yourself is not the end of the story. We, of all people, ought to know what follows death. The Christian life is resurrection life, life that cannot be contained by death, the kind of life that is only possible when you have been to the cross and back.

The Bible is clear about the value of children. Jesus loved them, and we are commanded to love them, to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. We are to imitate God and take pleasure in our children.

The Question Is How

The question here is not whether you are representing the gospel, it is how you are representing it. Have you given your life to your children resentfully? Do you tally every thing you do for them like a loan shark tallies debts? Or do you give them life the way God gave it to us—freely?

It isn’t enough to pretend. You might fool a few people. That person in line at the store might believe you when you plaster on a fake smile, but your children won’t. They know exactly where they stand with you. They know the things that you rate above them. They know everything you resent and hold against them. They know that you faked a cheerful answer to that lady, only to whisper threats or bark at them in the car.

Children know the difference between a mother who is saving face to a stranger and a mother who defends their life and their worth with her smile, her love, and her absolute loyalty.

Hands Full of Good Things

When my little girl told me, “Your hands are full!” I was so thankful that she already knew what my answer would be. It was the same one that I always gave: “Yes they are—full of good things!”

Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.

Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone.

Rachel Jankovic is a wife, homemaker, and mother. She is the author of "Loving the Little Years" and blogs at Femina. Her husband is Luke, and they have five children: Evangeline (5), Daphne (4), Chloe (2), Titus (2), and Blaire (5 months).