“Malice that cannot speak its name, cold-blooded but secret
hostility, hidden rancor and spite – all cluster at the center of envy.
Envy clouds thought, clobbers generosity, precludes any hope of
serenity and ends in shriveling the heart. Of the seven deadly sins,
only envy is no fun at all.” Notes on the cover of Joseph Epstein, Envy (Oxford, 2003).
Psalm 73 is spiritual medicine for hearts sick with envy. Verse 25
is a good diagnostic for examining my own heart toward God: “Whom have
I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire
besides you.” But the psalm is more than diagnosis; it is also remedy.
The outline of the psalm is not obvious. Here is how I think it holds together:
A1 The problem: “I was envious of the arrogant” (1-3)
>B1 They have it so good (4-12)
>>C1 Poor me! (13-15)
>>>D “Then I discerned . . .” (16-17)
>>C2 Stupid me! (18-22)
>B2 I have it so good (23-26)
A2 The privilege: “It is good to be near God” (27-28)
Psalm 73 is an awakening word for real people living real lives in
hard (but good) times. It invites us on a journey from envy (verse 3)
to desire (verse 25).
You’re picking up toys on the living room floor
for the 15th time today
Matching up socks and sweeping up lost
Cheerios that got away
You put a baby on your hip and color on your lips
and head out the door
And while I may not know you I bet I know you
Wonder sometimes does it matter at all
We’ll let me remind you it all matters just as long as you
Do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you to do
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace
With every move that you make
And every little thing you do
The title of this blog post and question that
I ask is not one I am totally serious about - and not really suggesting
we actually do call the accountant the worship pastor. But I do have
the question of how we have overwhelmingly defined "worship" to
primarily be music and singing.
I have become very aware of the power of words—and the power of
defining words. In the Christian culture we have created I don't believe
we can ever assume anymore when we say the terms "gospel", "Jesus",
"salvation", "inspired", "evangelical", "evangelism", "missional" etc.
we all mean the same thing. I have learned (and sometimes the hard way)
that you need to be asking definitions of terms with specific meaning to
understand how someone else uses a term that may differ from your
definition.
One of these terms is "worship".
If you were to ask most teenagers and young adults what comes to
their minds when they hear the word "worship" it will likely be singing.
I understand why they do, as we have pretty much defined worship to
them over the past 20 years or more as worship = singing.
Now it is totally true that we worship as we sing. But that is only one
aspect of worship. We have subtly taught (in my opinion) a reductionist
view of worship limiting it primarily to music and singing as what
defines the word and practice.
I try to pay attention to reasons why we define worship mainly as
music these days. And it is not too difficult to discover. What do we
call the person in a church who leads the band or singing? It is
normally the "worship pastor" or "worship leader". When our music
leaders say, "Let's now worship," that is when the singing begins. When a
sermon begins or when the offering is received we often don't say
""Let's now worship" like we do when the singing starts. When we think
of Sunday gatherings of the church and when does worship happen, we
generally think of the singing - not the teaching or the sacrifice of
people who are worshiping by volunteering time in the children's
ministry or other things happening. You look the Christian albums and as
we call them "Best of Worship" or "Worship Greatest Hits" that
reinforce the idea that music is the primary—or even only—form of
worship. I just read on a Facebook post how a group was bringing in a
guest person to "lead worship" and of course this guest person was a
musician.We constantly, constantly reinforce by how we use that word
casually all the time that it primarily means music and singing.
I recently attended a college-age gathering, and after the time of
musical worship ended (I personally try to always say "musical worship"
), the person up front who announced that the offering would be taken
referred to it as a time of sacrifice as we give our finances as an act
of worship. The word sacrifice really stood out to me as being defined
with worship.
I also fully am aware that there are times when "worship" occurred
without any actual physical sacrifice. but when you study the whole of
the Bible, you will see that worship so often involved the sacrifice of
something. Romans 12:1-2,
after the first 11 chapters teach on the act of Jesus and His sacrifice
for us, tells us to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices." This kind
of sacrifice includes all areas of our lives, and it is costly. We
choose to refrain from something we may otherwise want to but is could
be sin, so we sacrifice aligning ourselves our ways to God's ways. The
Old Testament was filled with times of coming to worship and sacrificing
something. Generally something that was costly with animals or grains -
as it showed that worship was a sacrifice of something worth something
to the worshiper, but offers it back to God who owns everything anyway.
You read in 2 Samuel 24:24 "I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord
my God that cost me nothing."
What is intriguing is that as we primarily define worship as singing,
in terms of sacrifice - singing doesn't cost us too much. We mentally
and emotionally bring ascent to our thoughts as we sing and focus on
God. But we aren't really sacrificing something. Are we? Maybe I am
wrong and would love to hear other thoughts. But it is pretty easy to
come into a room and sit and then "worship" by singing (which is
worship). I am super glad in our church we have worship times of
singing. So I am not saying at all that I don't thoroughly believe we
worship in major ways as we sing. But what I am saying is that worship
through singing doesn't involve much sacrifice or cost us. It is
probably one of the least sacrificial ways we do worship. Worship it is
of course when we sing. But I can't say it is too much sacrificial
worship.
As you look at sacrificial worship, in today's world what are the two
most sacrificial things that do cost us something as we worship? It
seems to be our time and most of all, our finances.
At the college-age gathering I attended, I watched the bags being
passed around for the offering, and maybe one out of every 20 people put
anything at all in the offering bags. I fully understand that people
give online, and people may give bi-weekly or monthly, so this isn't an
accurate representation of how much actually was given that
morning. Still, this interesting to watch response to the request for
financial sacrifice served to illustrate how easy it is for us to
worship God when all that is required is singing a few songs, and how
difficult it is for us to worship God by giving financially or giving up
some of our precious time.
In hyperbole way, I have been thinking about why we use the title of
"worship pastor" or "worship leader" to designate the person who leads
an area of worship that doesn't cost us to much to participate in with
our singing songs. So why don't we switch the title to the person who
does lead or oversee the area that people generally sacrifice the most -
is finances - so shouldn't the title of "worship pastor" or "worship
leader" be the person who oversees the finances of the church? Usually
the church accountant. Isn't that person the one who truly oversees the
most sacrificial worship of the people of the church, not the person who
leads the music when people sing?
Now in our church, we don't do this. Our bookkeeper is called the
bookkeeper. It would be confusing calling the accountant the "worship
leader". We actually try not to use too many titles for people and on
our bulletin we don't even distinguish between paid staff and key
volunteer leaders in our church leading major areas of ministry.
But I am curious about whether anyone also has thought of this?
Whether we unintentionally have reduced the power and true meaning of
the word worship by generally assigning the title to the person
who leads the music? Have we incorrectly and unintentionally taught
youth, young adults to think of worship primarily as singing by how we
title roles and use the term? Try listening in your church gatherings to
how the word is used during the gathering. I know in our church we try
our best to always say what aspect of worship we are doing. "Let's now
worship God as we sing" "We are now receiving our sacrificial worship of
giving finances" etc. Even on our actual offering envelope it says
"Sacrificial Worship" instead of just giving or offering. Try paying
attention to how you generally see the word "worship" used in the
Christian world in general. It is fascinating. Words matter. Definitions
matter.
Who you are and what you've done are all we'll ever want. Through the night my soul longs for you. Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right.
We're excited to have Louie Giglio join us at our upcoming 2011 National Conference, "Finish the Mission: For the Joy of All Peoples." Register for the conference before July 29 for just $145 per person (save $40).
A few months ago at Passion 2011 in Fort Worth, TX, Pastor John sat down with Louie to talk about his life, the Passion movement, and the global vision of God's glory:
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Romans 9:14-16
I'm writing prayerfully, and with trembling, about these passages of scripture. These are, admittedly by teachers, scholars, and theologians, the most difficult to understand in all of Scripture. It is impossible to have God choosing some without the counterpart also being true; that He passes over others. There is a blessing and a condemnation happening simultaneously. But does God really pick out people to condemn? To understand the answer, I have to look again at election. To see the glory of Jesus and believe, my eyes had to be opened. God's grace and the wind of His Spirit came to me, and enabled belief. Although I, of my free will, chose God, He gave me the grace to understand the Gospel. It is not so with those who are not elected. God does not open their eyes to see the truth. However, God does not cause them to disbelieve. He is not the author of their condemnation. Those who are condemned choose to reject God on their own. Their condemnation is the result of their sin of disbelief. So, all of us are tempted to rise up and say, "That's not fair. God is like that?" In order for my faith in God to stay in tact and not be eroded by my many questions, I must take this doctrine and put it in the context of the whole of Scripture. God loves. God rules righteously. It is not His will that any perish. We do have the free will to choose or reject Christ. God is trustworthy. In the stable foundation of God's love and mercy, there is the doctrine of election and reprobation (passing over of some). To rise up and put God on trial is to put myself in a position to never understand these concepts. God teaches the humble. When I don't understand, I don't question God. I dig in deeper and cry out, "Have mercy on me. Teach me."
While the bunny is an incredible creation for marketing a product, he
(I guess it’s a “he”) is totally fiction. But there are real
energizers; they are real people that make our lives brighter.
Conversely there are de-energizers as well. These people sap our energy
and demotivate and demoralize us.
Rob Cross and Robert Thomas wrote an intriguing article on these two groups of people in Harvard Business Review. This quote was my favorite:
“Energizers
bring out the best in everyone around them, and our data show that
having them in your network is a strong predictor of success over time.
These people aren’t necessarily extroverted or charismatic. They’re
people who always see opportunities, even in challenging situations, and
create room for others to meaningfully contribute. Good energizers are
trustworthy and committed to principles larger than their self-interest,
and they enjoy other people. ‘De-energizers,’ by contrast, are quick to
point out obstacles, critique people rather than ideas, are inflexible
in their thinking, fail to create opportunities, miss commitments, and
don’t show concern for others. Unfortunately, energy-sapping
interactions have more impact than energizing ones—up to seven times as
much, according to one study. And our own research suggests that roughly
90% of anxiety at work is created by 5% of one’s network—the people who
sap energy.”
An
energizer can transform an organization. He or she brings out the best
in others. When energizers are in a meeting, in the room, or in a
decision-making session, positive results typically flow. Good leaders
surround themselves with these types of people. Indeed good leaders are
strategic and intentional about bringing energizers into the
organization.
But the opposite is true with de-energizers. Note the quote above. One de-energizer can have seven times the impact of an energizer. One de-energizer can cause great damage to an organization. As the HBR article notes, they bring 90 percent of the anxiety to an organization.
De-energizers
hurt churches, businesses, and other organizations. They are quick to
say no. For them the sky is always falling. They are critical and
inflexible. These demotivators will always let you know where the
obstacles are; but they will rarely point you toward the opportunities.
George Müller (1805 - 1898), was a preacher of the gospel, an
evangelist, and the Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol,
England, and established 117 schools which offered Christian education
to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans. He is also known
as a man of prayer. Below are some of his thoughts on the primary
business of a Christian, prayer, and communion with God. Read it
thoughtfully. ...
I saw more clearly than ever that the first great primary business to
which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord
. . . not how much I might serve the Lord, . . . but how I might get my
soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I
might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to
benefit believers . . . and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not
being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this
might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice
had been . . . to give myself to prayer after having dressed myself in
the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to
give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it,
that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved,
instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst
meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion
with the Lord.
- The Life of Trust, George Muller
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for
you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I
come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Ps. 42:1–3
Gracious Father, your Word gives voice to every season, circumstance,
and emotion we experience in the journey to gospel wholeness. In our
delight and in our despair, in our certainty and in our frailty; in our
cheers and in our fears—and in everything in between, you are with us and you are for us.
You don’t love us more when we have a dancing heart. You don’t love
us less when we have a doubting heart. Delightful circumstances don’t
mean we’ve done everything right and hard providences don’t mean we’ve
done something wrong. Indeed, with kindness you drew us, and with an
everlasting, unwavering love, you hold us—no matter what.
Today we bring our discouraged, weary, deeply hurting friends to you,
Lord. For you tell us that when one part of the Body hurts, the whole
Body hurts. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with
those who weep. We fulfill the law of Christ by bearing one another’s
burdens.
Lord, sometimes it feels like life is just too much: the hard events,
the difficult people, the aches and pains of this “tent” of a body;
cars and plumbing that break down, friends who bury their wives way too
early, children who seem allergic to the gospel, mounting bills and
decreasing resources, and a world—even family members who say, “Where is
your God in all this? What have you done wrong? Why are you holding
on?”
Tears in our coffee and beer, on our sandwiches and in our cereal,
and dry tears when there is no heart water left. Lord Jesus, you know
what this is like—you better than anyone else. For you took the ultimate
combination of assaults and insults on the cross, for me and my
friends. Your cry, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”, assures
us we will neverbe forsaken—never, even when life mocks our creed and confession. It’s your thirst on the cross that assures us that out thirst is fleeting, though at times it feels fatal.
Lord Jesus, as we pant for you, you are running to us with the living
water of the gospel; as we starve for hope, you are preparing the fresh
bread of mercy and grace. Come quickly, Lord. Show us how to love our
friends well when our words are simply not enough. So very Amen we
pray, in your faithful and tender name. Amen.
In 1951 Francis Schaeffer’s life and ministry were turned upside
down, despite already having walked with the Lord for many years and
having seen much fruit in ministry. He was 39.
In the introduction to his book True Spirituality, Schaeffer recounts what happened.
I faced a spiritual crisis in my own life. I had become a
Christian from agnosticism many years ago. After that I had become a
pastor for ten years in the United States, and then for several years my
wife, Edith, and I had been working in Europe. During this time I felt a
strong burden to stand for the historical Christian position and for
the purity of the visible church. Gradually, however, a problem came to
me—the problem of reality. This has two parts: first, it seemed to me
that among many of those who held the orthodox position one saw little
reality in the things that the Bible so clearly says should be the
result of Christianity. Second, it gradually grew on me that my reality
was less than it had been in the early days after I had become a
Christian. I realized that in honesty I had to go back and rethink my
whole position.
I searched through what the Bible said concerning reality as a
Christian. Gradually I saw that the problem was that with all the
teaching I had received after I was a Christian, I had heard little
about what the Bible says about the meaning of the finished work of
Christ for our present lives. Gradually the sun came out and the song
came. Interestingly enough, although I had written no poetry for many
years, in that time of joy and song I found poetry beginning to flow
again.
Three things are striking here, and worth considering for our own time.
1. Right doctrine matters.
Schaeffer says that he spent many of his early Christian years
working for “the historical Christian position.” That means orthodoxy.
Right belief. And nowhere in this autobiographical reflection does
Schaeffer go back on the importance of such orthodoxy. On the contrary,
he says that after going back and rethinking his foundational reasons
for believing, he identified his lack of vibrancy as due to something other than his theology. The problem was not his doctrine. It was something else—the absence of “reality.”
2. Right doctrine exists not ultimately for correct thinking but for beautiful living.
True doctrine, as Paul tells Titus, is to be “adorned” (Titus 2:10).
To lack grace in our lives is to deny grace in our theology. We can
unsay with our lives in the living room what we say with our lips in the
pew. The doctrines of grace generate a culture of grace. If they don’t,
the doctrines of grace are not truly believed. We may say we believe
them. We may even think we do. But we don’t. Not really.
A man who says he believes his treasure is in heaven as he drives a
Bentley, owns five homes on three continents, and refuses to give any
resources to the church or anyone else doesn’t really believe what he
says he believes. You can see what he believes.
And if a man says he believes the doctrines of grace but does not
exude what Schaeffer calls the “reality” of those doctrines, such a man
does not really believe those doctrines. He might align himself with the
doctrines of grace creedally. But he has not adorned the doctrines of
grace.
“Dead orthodoxy,” Schaeffer once preached, “is always a contradiction in terms.”
3. The crucial doctrine that fuels beautiful living is the gospel.
“I had heard little,” Schaeffer says, “about what the Bible says
about the meaning of the finished work of Christ for our present lives.”
Francis Schaeffer came to discover, many years after his conversion,
that the finished work of Christ mattered—mattered tremendously—for his
present life. Not just for his past moment of conversion and not only
for the future moment when he would stand before God. For today.
As he says elsewhere, “I become a Christian once for all on the basis
of the finished work of Christ through faith; that is justification. But
the Christian life, sanctification, operates on the same basis, but
moment by moment.”
The gospel is a home, not a hotel. We pass through a hotel; we reside
in a home. And it was when this washed over him—note this, now—it was
when his heart came to dwell in the finished work of Christ that his
soul began to live again. “Gradually the sun came out and the song
came.” Poetry flowed once more. Vitality returned. Orthodoxy had never
left; life, however, had.
Doctrine matters. But doctrine is meant to fuel some thing
else—beautiful, radiant living. Standing immovably on the finished work
of Christ will get us there.
“I could tell you a case of a man back home, forty-five years old – a
pagan, illiterate, who knew nothing about Christ. Then he was brought
by grace, through the preaching of the Christians, into the presence of
Jesus and Him crucified; and that man was so changed that within a
month, when impure thoughts came into his heart he literally went
outside from a meeting and vomited. What a standard, what sensitivity!
A man steeped in paganism, with no Bible training, no background. And
now in the light of Calvary, in that smashing, invading love, this man
is taken, re-created, renewed, his conscience is so clean that when
impure thoughts came he even went and physically vomited. A sensitivity
had been created. The Holy Spirit had renewed the personality. Is
this your case?
I find after I have gone on with the Lord, sometimes I grow
insensitive. But the impact of the Holy Spirit, the impact of the
renewal, is that you begin to move with that sensitive tact in the
heart. If it is jealousy, don’t you think the time has come when you
can say, ‘My heart has been renewed, and I am going to write a letter to
that person and ask for forgiveness’? Yes, the posts of England may be
very busy when God begins to work. And the homes of your country may
experience men renewed, coming to put a few things right. That’s when
Jesus comes alive: not when we enjoy lovely teaching, but when the
teaching becomes so embarrassing that you walk away and do something
about it.”
Bishop Festo Kivengere, “Christ the Renewer,” in The Keswick Week 1972, page 75.
2And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
It is all about God. I think that is something that God is working in each of us every day .. to see that everything is to the "praise of His glory", as it says in Ephesians 1
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (v13-14)
God desires that we not count anything as more valuable than Him and that nothing is so terrible that it can cause us to stop believing in the His ultimate goodness, wisdom and sovereignty. That we would see Him as the "pearl of greatest price".
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44-46
16So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are
unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that
are unseen are eternal. 2 Cor 4
I think these thoughts were expressed in my mom's blog post yesterday where she says:
I am going back over my blog for the past two years nearly. I cannot
believe some of the experiences this cancer has given to us. I am, along
with a dear friend, hoping to put this into a book form. I would hope
that these weeks and months of trial might give hope to someone. I told
my sister last week (and never in this world would think I could say
this) that I would not take away this cancer and what it has done for
me. I have gained so much dependence on God and feel so much closer to
my Savior. I know the Holy Spirit is there for me every day, speaking
for me when I have no voice to pray. Micah 7:8..."Do not gloat over me,
my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be my light."
Your kids will fail. This is both inevitable and also necessary.
Apparently not many parents today want to hear this uncomfortable fact.
And they certainly don’t want to implement it in how they discipline
their children. Writing the cover story for The Atlantic’s July/August issue, therapist Lori Gottlieb alerts us that the cult of self-esteem is ruining our kids.
Convinced they are the center of the universe and capable of anything,
our children have become insufferable narcissists. Then, when these kids
grow up and fail, as they must, they head for the nearest therapist,
worried their lives have gone horribly wrong. ...
...
It’s not hard to see, then, why “moralistic therapeutic deism” (to
borrow Christian Smith’s famous descriptor) plagues our churches. This
god wants what’s best for us—chiefly, our happiness in all
circumstances. He aims to please. Whatever does not please, then, must
not come from god. Consider the latest findings of Smith and his
colleagues, revealed in their forthcoming book, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood.
They asked young adults age 18 to 23, “If you were unsure of what was
right or wrong in a particular situation, how would you decide what to
do?” The most popular answer (39 percent): “doing what would make you
feel happy.”
As you can hopefully see, this is a perfect recipe for discipleship
disaster. Happiness is neither assured nor even God’s ultimate aim for
us. Sometimes, for example, he demonstrates the grace of his fatherly
concern by disciplining those he loves (Prov. 3:11-12;
Heb: 12:5-11). When we aim primarily for happiness in our parenting and
discipleship, we actually set up these young adults for needless
failure. They will be surprised and hopelessly discouraged when their
faith is eventually challenged, whether by skeptical professors and
classmates or the inevitable disappointment of life.
The God of the Bible does not seem so concerned to protect us from all
failure. In fact, you’ll search Scripture in vain for anyone but Jesus
who avoids failure altogether. Abraham, the man of faith, displays his
lack of faith when he lies about his wife to protect himself (Gen. 12:13).
Moses, the man of bold and steadfast conviction in God’s power to
deliver his people, takes matters into his own hands to control a
rebellious people (Num. 20:11-12). David, a man after God’s own heart, indulges the lust of his flesh and takes another man’s wife (2 Sam. 11:2-4). If these men failed, so will we.
...
And what if you don’t teach your children how to overcome by the
grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit by patiently enduring their
failures? They’ll find out the truth anyway, the hard way. They’ll see
failure in church with the backbiting, gossip, power plays, and
judgmentalism. They’ll see it in themselves when they struggle with
doubts and no one will listen. They’ll see it in you and wonder why you
can’t just admit it.
If you don’t teach them that Christians sometimes fail, then they’ll
conclude Christianity has failed. But by the grace of God they’ll add to
the numbers of bitter adults who grew up in the church and rail against
its destructive influence. Yet when they see us fail, repent, and ask
God’s forgiveness, they’ll see in action the most glorious truth of all,
that God himself took on flesh and walked among us, failures all, so we
might walk with him in heaven forevermore. They’ll know that when they
fail, too, God’s grace abounds to even the chief of sinners.
He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.
2 Kings 18:4
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
The bronze snake had at one time been an instrument of transformation. It healed people. Saved them from the consequences of their sin. But then the people turned it into an object of worship. And thereby ruined it and robbed it of its power.
This is the essence of traditionalism. It’s not
simply holding onto Grandma’s preferences. It’s when we take things.
Good things. Effective things. And we end up worshipping them instead of
the God who used them for a season. And it can happen to anything.
Hymns. Or modern worship.
Live preaching. Or video preaching.
One campus. Or multiple campuses.
Sunday School. Or small groups.
None of these are bad things, but they’re also not the ultimate
thing. And therefore we shouldn’t treat them as such. Otherwise we run a
dangerous risk. The very thing that you hold up as a tool for transformation today can easily become an idol of tradition tomorrow.
And God has a way of smashing our idols. Or rendering them powerless.
Don’t get me wrong. We should never lose our appreciation or respect
for the things God uses to reach people and transform their lives. But
we should also never allow them to steal God’s glory by becoming a
greater object of our affections than God or the new ways He wants to
work among us.
The Spirit helps us in our
weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he
who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8:26-27
Dear heavenly Father, we cannot thank and praise you too much for sending your Spirit into our hearts.He doesn’t just guarantee our eternal inheritance, he groans
within us—identifying with the brokenness of our lives and praying
according to the perfection of your will. What comfort, what joy, what
freedom this gives us.
Our comfort comes from knowing that having weaknesses and pain is not
a sign of spiritual immaturity but of spiritual reality—of new life
within us. We are your “already and not yet” children—already adopted
and destined to be like Jesus one day, but presently filled with birth
pangs. There is a profound ache—a longing inside of us which is best
expressed by groans. These are deep groans, painful groans—like
a mother birthing a child in the wilderness without the aid of
anesthetics. You’re not calling us to “grin and bear it” stoically, but
groan with the confidence your Spirit enters our groans.
Indeed, our joy comes from the assurance that we don’t groan alone.
Though sometimes it feels like it, you haven’t abandoned us Lord—you
never have and you never will. Like the most engaged mid-wife, your
Spirit is present in our pain and longings—praying for us according to
your will; encouraging us throughout the whole birthing process;
guaranteeing us you will bring to completion the good work you have
begun in us. Nothing is going to keep us from entering the
fullness of our adoption and the redemption of our bodies. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Our freedom comes as we quit pretending we’re not pregnant with glory and stop reaching for anything, anything
that will numb our pain. Blessed Father, by the grace of Jesus and the
power of your Spirit, free us to cooperate with what you are doing in
our lives. It hurts, but it hurts for your glory and our transformation.
And free us to enter into one another’s groans and longings, as well.
You are adopting a gigantic family of fraternal twins—all guaranteed to
be like your beloved Son, Jesus. We’re in this journey together.
Show us how to encourage one another, and all the more, as we see the
great Day of our full redemption getting closer and closer. O that our
churches would be more like big birthing units and less like sedentary
retirement communities. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ beautiful and
faithful name.
Recovering biblical doctrine requires recognizing biblical
authority. This lesson from church history reminds us that we need to
make thorough and reasonable arguments, all the while keeping our finger
in the text and making our conclusions from the text.
Don Carson, Tim Keller, and John Piper discuss the challenge for
Christians today, who live in an age where doubt and uncertainty are
seen as humble. Does drawing lines and making clear connections from the
Bible make you arrogant?
Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth
that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his
working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.
At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say
that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I
am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the
Bible talks about God’s working for us. As in: “God works for those who
wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).
The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am
bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am
endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I
am lost and need a Rescuer.
"God works for me" means I can’t do the work.
And this glorifies him not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.
I just completed a series on Twitter (@JohnPiper)
celebrating some of the texts that express this truth. Here’s the
summary list. Read and be freed from the burden of bearing your own
load. “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). Let him do that work.
“No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:4)
“God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, but he himself gives 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 a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
“The eyes of the LORD run through the earth, to show himself strong for those who trust him.” (2 Chronicles. 16:9)
“If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. Call on me, I will deliver you. You will glorify me.” (Psalm 50:15)
“To old age I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” (Isaiah 46:4)
“I worked harder than any, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians. 15:10).
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)
“Whoever serves, let him serve by the strength God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified.” (1 Peter 4:11)
“Work out your own salvation, for it is God who works in you, to will and to work.” (Philippians 2:12–13)
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)
...
The good news is that our salvation is not dependent on our success at making right choices, even the right choice of
faith. In fact, the Bible regularly reminds us that we cannot
consistently make good choices with our corrupt wills. As Paul puts it,
“I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For
what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to
do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18-19,
niv). Instead of relying on an autonomous free will to remind us to
make right choices, we are called to simply trust what Christ has done
for us on the cross and through his resurrection.
But isn’t that a choice, to trust in Christ? Yes and no. It is not
even a possibility without God’s intervention. We can’t even recognize
who Christ is, what he has done for us, and sense his invitation to
respond in faith without the work of the Holy Spirit. The very fact that we can apprehend all this is a gift right from the start.
Furthermore, to trust in Christ means that it is not my trust
that reconciles God to me or me to God. It is the death and
resurrection of Christ that reconciles God to me, and the faith
empowered by the Holy Spirit that reconciles me to God.
This is why the gospel is such good news. There are times when even
the most dedicated Christian will recognize that his or her life is
still in shambles, still driven by selfishness, still filled with doubt
and confusion about God. At such times, panic can set in. Am I
really a Christian? Is God working in my life to bring me into deeper
fellowship with him? Has God given me the gift of grace? Will I enjoy
the fellowship of heaven? Do I believe enough to be saved? The very
fact that these sorts of questions bother us at such times shows that
the Holy Spirit is, in fact, working in our lives. One of the Holy
Spirit’s jobs is to convict the world of sin and guilt (see John 16:8).
So the paradox is that when we’re troubled like this, it’s the very
sign of God working in our lives to bring us into deeper fellowship with
him.
And of course, we do not believe enough to be saved. Of
course, selfishness rules our hearts in too many ways. Of course, we
have doubts and confusion about God. It’s called sin. But the gospel
calls us to stop looking at ourselves—at our doubts, our sins, and our
choices. The gospel says look to Christ. Don’t trust in your ability to
choose right or even to trust perfectly. Look to Christ, who died for
sinners. Faith is recognizing the reality of our situation and the
deeper reality of our Savior. Faith is the drowning man grasping the
outstretched arm of his rescuer. Faith includes a response, but our
response is not the main thing. Christ is.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
“One is struck with the personality of this text. There are two
persons in it, ‘you’ and ‘me.’ . . . Jesus says, ‘Come to me, not to
anybody else but to me.’ He does not say, ‘Come to hear a sermon about
me’ but ‘Come to me, to my work and person.’ You will observe that
no one is put between you and Christ. . . . Come to Jesus directly,
even to Jesus himself. You do want a mediator between yourselves and
God, but you do not want a mediator between yourselves and Jesus. . . .
To him we may look at once, with unveiled face, guilty as we are. To
him we may come, just as we are, without anyone to recommend us or
plead for us or make a bridge for us to Jesus. . . . You, as you are,
are to come to Christ as he is, and the promise is that on your coming
to him he will give you rest. That is the assurance of Jesus himself,
and there is no deception in it. . . . You see there are two persons.
Let everybody else vanish, and let these two be left alone, to
transact heavenly business with each other.”
C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), I:171.
