Love God

Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!

Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates. 

Deuteronomy 6: 5-9 [Message]

Used In Extraordinary Ways

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer post:  Outreach Magazine Column: Small is the Kingdom Big

Here is my most recent column in this month's Outreach Magazine. The July/August issue each year focuses on small churches and their impact, so my column is reflective of that theme. 

...

"'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown it's taller than the vegetables and becomes a tree so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.' He told them another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it spread through all of it.'" (Matt. 13:31-33, HCSB).


Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed dropped into the soil and to an insignificant portion of yeast mixed into pounds of flour. Each has a potential impact that is beyond their appearance.

Church leaders in America also tend to think big is good and bigger is better, but Jesus says that small is reflective of the kingdom of God. It starts as something small, but it will not stay small and, ultimately, it will change everything. A revolutionary movement begins with only a handful of subversives, but eventually expands so widely that it can overthrow a king with an army. The subversive kingdom starts small, but ultimately overwhelms the Devil and his minions when Jesus returns as reigning King, replacing the deepest darkness with brilliant light.

Jesus is unembarrassed, unashamed and unperturbed by describing the Kingdom using small things. That is His point. He says the mustard seed "is the smallest of all the seeds." He is emphasizing the smallness of the kingdom of God. But more to the point, He is describing how small can be subversive.


Small churches are normal (the typical church has less than 100 in attendance) and can easily reflect the kingdom of God. So, why are so many embarrassed by them? Why do pastors sometimes aspire to leave them (and go on to bigger things)?

Too many church leaders are like the teenage girl who thinks the beautiful actress she sees every day on TV is normal. It is a skewed view of reality. Actually, what's normal (and very valuable) is small churches living on mission in their contexts, being about the business of the kingdom of God.

I think we have forgotten the value of small. We need to relearn that "normal" churches are used by the extraordinary kingdom for subversive effects on the culture.

Hold Fast What Is Good

Justin Taylor post:  Second Thoughts on Family Worship

I found this post by Jerry Owen refreshing and helpful. Most of us have a strange mixture of laziness and legalism in our hearts, and a post like this could fuel either—or both! So . . . “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21).

Here is his outline:

1. Family Worship isn’t required by the Bible.
2. Family Worship, if done, is not the most important spiritual thing you do.
3. Family Worship should be delightful for everyone.

Here is his explanation of the first point:

This might seem impious, but it’s really only impietistic. We simply are not required to have a set, formal, liturgical time of worship as families. I’m glad some people do this and benefit from it, and as far as they do, I’m for it, but no one should feel it is something they ought to do. This is not the same thing as saying parents shouldn’t read the Bible, pray and talk about God with their children. Of course they should. And it’s helpful if this is regular, methodical, and often. But some of the healthiest Christian families I know never had “family worship” formally conducted. They would read and discuss the Bible at meal and other times for particular seasons, sing and pray before going to bed etc, but these things were not done primarily in one sitting, not in what we would typically call family worship. I know there are lazy parents, particularly fathers, who don’t make time to regularly read and teach the Bible to their kids, and I know my point here will be used by them to justify and continue their laziness. This is what gracious biblical standards always do, and in response legalists try to curb sin by adding rules. So no excuses for lazy people, and no excuse for pietists combating laziness with legalism.

Anguish and Joy

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Revealing Jesus through Our Brokenness

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 2 Cor. 4:7–10

Dear Jesus, to compare my season of stress with the apostle Paul’s would be like comparing my guitar playing with Eric Clapton’s, my dancing with the cast of River Dance, or my cooking skill with Mario Batali. There’s simply no comparison. When I consider everything your servant Paul experienced, I have nothing to bemoan or groan about—the whine meter doesn’t register very much.

Nonetheless, Paul’s honesty and vulnerability are great gifts to me this morning. His freedom to acknowledge both his anguish and his joy in the same paragraph gives me tremendous encouragement and focus. Posing and pretending were crucified at Calvary. Despair and hopelessness were sabotaged by your resurrection. Fear and uncertainty are domesticated by your ascension and present reign.

Jesus, in the midst of everything I’d love to fix, change or eliminate, help me to be far more preoccupied with the treasure within than with the pressures without. If your all-surpassing power will be shown most dramatically through my weakness, I surrender to your will. If your incomparable beauty will be most clearly revealed through my hardships, I surrender to your ways. If your redeeming purposes will be most fully realized through my brokenness, I surrender to you.

With my palms up, I offer you praise for the treasure of the gospel. The gospel will win the day, my heart, the nations, and the cosmos. Though there are seasons when throwing in the towel, finding another story, or just flat running away are incredibly attractive, where else would I go but to you? You alone give the words of life, the sufficient grace, and the hope of glory. May your voice be ten times louder than the murmurings around me and the grumblings inside me.

Jesus, in the coming hours and days and weeks, prove the wonders of your love in our midst.

I pray the same for good friends reeling from betrayals, exhausted by chronic pain, shamed by their foolish choices, disillusioned with vocational ministry, lonely in their marriages, enslaved by an addiction, or just flat out weary from the demands and daily-ness of life. So very Amen I pray, with hungry expectancy in your powerful name. Amen.

Culture

Collin Hansen post:  Chandler, Horton, and Keller on the Church in Culture

It’s a perennial question: What is the church’s role in culture? Put another way, how does the church equip members to carry out their callings in the world?

The questions persist because myriad problems in our day demand urgent attention. And yet we know that the wrong approach has often led the church astray, sometimes accommodating social sins and sometimes baptizing the world’s agenda. So we posted these questions to three church leaders—Matt Chandler, Michael Horton, and Tim Keller—who have thought through their responses and implemented them on a local level.

Horton reiterates his recent writing on the difference between the church as an institution that acts on its calling to fulfill the Great Commission and the church as an organism. Chandler follows up on the Great Commission’s call to make disciples and wants that mandate to include the church helping Christians live as a faithful presence in the world and not merely imparting knowledge to them.

Watch to see how Keller explains that the church itself doesn’t transform culture even while he works as a pastor to equip people to do that very thing. But he admits that when he’s asked to sign statements on subjects such as climate change that it’s impossible to explain that his personal views do not necessary reflect the church’s official position.


Chandler, Horton, and Keller on the Church in Culture from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Rhythms of Grace

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 

Matthew 11 [Message]

For Joy

I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. 

John 15:11 [Message]

In Need of Grace

Love these words:

Jesus, please come
Please come today
Hear me
Heal me
Be near me I pray

I have fallen so far
Flat on my face
I'm in need of your grace today
I stumble and fall
But in spite of it all
Your love always stays the same
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Heather Williams, Hallelujah

Simply Ask

Kevin DeYoung post:  Kings of Judah: Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat

2 Chronicles 17:1-21:3
And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord… (20:4a)

You don’t have to be a genius to follow the Lord. Simply ask the Lord what he thinks and do what he says. That’s the story of Jehoshaphat’s life.

“The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because in the early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed” (17:3). He did not consult the Baals. He established the kingdom. He sent out teachers. He sought God and God blessed him. He didn’t discover the polio vaccine or invent the internet. His obedience was pretty plain. Yet, it was still obedience, and that pleased the Lord.

His secret to success was simple. He asked the Lord what to do and then did it. Before going to war with Ramoth Gilead he admonished Ahab, “First seek the counsel of the Lord” (18:4). Before fighting Moab and Ammon, Jehoshaphat prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (20:12).

This is the glorious and mundane life of a Christian. You pray, do the right thing, ask for help, say no to bad things, trust the Lord in hard things, and depend on him for everything. Jehoshaphat didn’t get everything right. But he was still a great, ordinary man. And we can be too if we ask the Lord what he thinks and do what he says.

Love Taken Over

Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people!
   His love has taken over our lives;
   God's faithful ways are eternal.
      Hallelujah! 

Psalm 117 [Message]

Life Changing

Tullian Tchividjian post:  My Biggest Regret

Guest Post by Chuck Collins (read more about Chuck here)

I marvel when someone says, “I have no regrets.”  That’s not me; I have plenty. Perhaps my biggest regret, outside of not spending more time with my kids when they were growing up and not discovering Irish whiskey sooner, is that for much of my 30 years of ordained ministry I have not preached “the gospel.”  By-and-large I have been a nice man standing in front of nice people, telling them that God calls them to be nicer (S. Brown).  And just about none of it was life-changing.

I have come to see that there are really just two ways to preach: one is the gospel, the other is get-better messages.  The first is based on God’s goodness; the second on self-improvement.  Gospel preaching presupposes that, even though we deserve punishment for our sins,  Jesus Christ suffered the punishment in our place on the cross.  Get-better sermons, on the other hand, is moralistic advice in which a preacher mounts a pulpit to scold the people for not doing more or getting better (F Allison).

For more years than I care to think I preached get-better messages.  I cringe thinking about my old sermons.  I regret the lost opportunities of those messages that pounded home the idea that we just need to be better, try harder, pray and give more, read the Bible every day, attend church every week, and be nicer.  It was plain ole Phariseeism, works-righteousness under the guise of preaching – “an easy-listening version of salvation by self-help” (M Horton).  Those who came were vaguely entertained, I think, because I am a fairly entertaining personality (so they tell me on their way out of church), but they left mostly feeling beat up and like they don’t measure up.  Instead of relieving guilt, get-better sermons reinforced guilt and our inadequacies.  They didn’t touch people where they need most. “Whenever you feel comforted or elated or absolved as ‘fresh as a foal in new mowed hay,’ then you know you are hearing the gospel” (P Zahl).

My conversion to gospel preaching was gradual.  I don’t remember what the initial catalyst was, except that people weren’t getting better with sermons on discipline and how to improve your marriage.  Those moralistic sermons doled out plenty of advice about what to do, but it totally missed what God has done for us in his Son. Christ came, not to help religious people get better, but to help sinners realize that forgiveness and salvation is outside themselves: in Jesus Christ.

St. Paul, in Romans, explains the gospel as God’s power and God’s righteousness (1:16, 17).  This is exactly opposite of repairing your nature by a determined will.  It is what God has done for us when we couldn’t do it ourselves.  He fulfilled the law. He took upon himself our sins.  He burst the bonds of death to give us new life. When this message of one-way love – God’s love without strings attached – love when we are not lovely – reaches our hearts, it causes our spirits to come alive to God and it fills us with meaning and purpose. The gospel speaks to our heart’s deepest need.

When you get to church to find out that the preacher is in the third of a 10-sermon series on “10 steps to cure depression” get up and run out of there as fast as your depressed legs can take you.  It’s self-help, not the gospel.  Chalk it up to a well meaning preacher who hasn’t yet realized that our real hope is in God, in the sufficiency of his work on the cross and in the salvation that is not found in get-better sermons.

Proclaim, Explain, Deliver Good News

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  Developing Missional Churches for the Great Commission, Part Four: The Missional Idea in Scripture

This is the fourth of an eight-part series on Developing Missional Churches for the Great Commission. Here are the first three posts:

1. Understanding What We Mean When We Talk about Being Missional
2. The Great Commission and Missional Thinking
3. The Challenge of Being Missional

Today I want to focus on The Missional Idea in Scripture.

...

The story of the little boy gives insight concerning the tension created through the missio Dei movement. Completing the assignment given by the sender is the critical factor. In a post-resurrection appearance to the disciples, Jesus said to them, "'Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.' After saying this, He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained'" (John 20:21-23 HCSB). Jesus sends His disciples to proclaim delivery through the forgiveness of sins. That is clearly an essential part of the mission and shapes how we view being missional. No social, political, or ethical scorecards should replace the specific mission of Christ. When sins are forgiven and new life is experienced social, political, and ethical arenas in our culture will change. Churches and individuals are right when they live for the good of their world in these areas. God is glorified when there is more peace and justice in His world. But these arenas are not the ultimate focus of God's mission and why He sends us. Christ died to save sinners. We proclaim, explain, and deliver that Good News.

...

The question is: what do you do when you go? To answer the question, we need to look to the God who sent us because it is His mission, not ours. If we don't understand His purpose, we can do good things and still fail. So when we talk about mission and being missional, we need to remember that generating mission activity is not the mission. The mission is tied into the nature of who God is and the nature of the gospel itself. We take our cue from God's activity, and our lives are to be ordered and shaped by what God's mission for His world is. Playing "missional" without being gospel-centered and Great Commission engaged only means you have a personal agenda. The term missional has changed the conversation in the church, and that conversation is largely good. But we must keep a perspective of gospel-centrality in the process.

God is a sender by nature, and has been sending for a long time. It isn't just a phenomenon of the New Testament. In Genesis 12:1-4, Abraham was sent by God to be blessed and to be a blessing. Abraham's obedience resulted in his joining God on mission. Another example is seen in the life of Isaiah. He encountered the holiness of God (Isaiah 6) and became aware of his own sinfulness. God asked, "Whom shall go for us, whom shall we send?" Tied up in the nature of God himself--in the nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit--He is a sender.


Because God by nature is a sender, it implies two simple ideas. First, there is One who sends; and second, there are people to whom we are sent. But, it is not that God just sends us anywhere; God sends us somewhere. You are called and sent on mission; the only question is where and among whom. It could be to the Pokot in East Africa or to a cultural mosaic of urban Los Angeles. We are called because we have a sender, but we also have a people to whom we are sent. This is the reason we plant or lead so many diverse churches, because ultimately God is a sender by nature.

When you understand that God is a sender, you are simply responding to the character of God and His purpose for His world when you live sent. And because you live sent, it means you will live and lead differently. We join Him in that mission so that everyone--from every tongue, tribe, nation, every people group, every population segment, every cultural environment--hears the good news of Jesus Christ and is reached by a church appropriate to its cultural setting.

Unity, Liberty, Charity

Mark Batterson post:  Straining Gnats, Swallowing Camels

One of my father-in-law’s unforgettable quips was this: I have one friend who’s for it, one friend who’s against it, and I’m for my friends.

I take that approach in some instances, and I’m not given to getting into the middle of crossfire, but few things bother me more than sideways energy in the kingdom of God. We end up infighting and forget who our very real enemy is. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we stopped throwing stones at each other.  Unfortunately, we’ll keep throwing stones as long as textual critics argue about whether that story about throwing stones in John 8 belongs in the text.

If something is heretical, that’s one thing. But we quibble over far too many things. In the words of Matthew 23:24, we “strain gnats” and “swallow camels.”  I’ll keep this generic, but last week I heard about a group of churches who won’t endorse one translation of Scripture because of gender-neutral language that in appropriate places is inclusive of the female gender.  I’m all for holding the fort of orthodoxy, but that strikes me as misidentifying the enemy.  For the record, it’s one of my favorite translations and I’m grateful for all the scholarly research that went into producing it.

I’ve always subscribed to something Rupertus Meldenius said: “In the essentials, unity.  In the non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.”

Obviously, it’s hard to know where to draw the line between essential and non-essentials.  But let’s not major in minors. Let’s not strain gnats and swallow camels. If we converted all of our sideways energy into synergy (which is another word for unity), we’d see another Great Awakening. If we stopped fighting with each other and started fighting our true enemy, we’d see a revival that would rival history’s greatest revivals.

Most Compassionate

God is gracious—it is he who makes things right,
      our most compassionate God. 

Ps 116:5 [Message]

Prayer for Friends

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer to Offer for Our Various Friends

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 1 Sam. 12:23–24

Lord Jesus, there’s a lot more to friendship than praying for our friends, but we haven’t really been a good friend unless we’ve prayed and continue to pray for them. The fact that you call us “friend” is overwhelming. And knowing that you are always praying for us is all the motivation we need to repent of our prayerlessness. Indeed, how can we enjoy such a rich standing in grace and not “stand in the gap” for our friends?

Jesus, for our friends with broken or breaking hearts, we pray for the reach and touch of your tear-wiping hand. May they not suffer from those of us who would try to “heal their wounds lightly”—by not taking their pain seriously, or offering pragmatic answers rather than a living Savior. Don’t just eliminate the pain. Heal them in such a way that their mercy toward others will grow exponentially.

Jesus, for our friends with shamed hearts—feeling condemned, worthless and a growing sense of self-contempt… no one but you, Jesus, can heal our shame. For you have exhausted our guilt and have born our shame that we might share in your glory. Make eye contact through the gospel of your grace with our friends. Let them hear you say, “There is now and forevermore no condemnation for you, for I am your righteousness.”

Jesus, for our friends with angry hearts, we ask you to dialogue with them the way you entered Jonah’s rage. “Do you have a right to be angry?”, you asked the conflicted prophet. We’re not praying for you simply to make our angry friends sweet and easy to be around. Help them see the sadness behind the madness in their hearts—the real hurt being mishandled in more hurtful ways. If they’re just being petty and petulant, may your kindness lead them to repentance.

Jesus, for our friends with fearful hearts, please bring your centering, calming presence to bear. To be fearful is one thing, but to be fearful and alone is almost unbearable. Place your hand upon them in the gospel, the way you touched the apostle John. Speak deep into their hearts, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One” (Rev. 1:17–18).

Jesus, for our friends with deceived hearts, though we’re prone to wander we are so glad you’re prone to come after us. Come quickly. For our friends with hearts en route to being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for those under Satanic spells, for those who are simply selfish and stubborn—Jesus, rescue them before they bring any more harm to themselves and others, we pray.

Jesus, help all of us—starting with me—constantly remember what great things you have done for us in the gospel, that we might fear you with affectionate reverence and serve you faithfully with all our hearts. So very Amen we pray, in your grace-full name.

Starting Point

Ray Ortlund post:  Fav #2:  Fullness and plenty

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  John 4:13-14

“Jesus wants to express his fullness through you.  Always begin your thinking and your planning and your deciding from the standpoint of Jesus’ fullness in your life.  Always begin with the plenty of God.  Face life with all you have in Christ.  Never face life from the standpoint of all the problems and all the needs and all the difficulties.  Always begin with your standing in Christ.  You have rivers of living water, Christ in you, fullness of grace and truth.  That’s what Jesus gives us!”

My dad, preaching at Lake Avenue Church, May 11, 1975.

Feels Cruel

Jon Bloom post:  I Cry to You and You Do Not Answer Me

I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me (Job 30:20-21).

These words came out of the mouth of the man God considered the most blameless and upright on earth at the time (Job 1:8).

Thank you, God, for these words! Thank you that the Bible is so guileless. It says it like it is, and sometimes just what it feels like. Most of its heroes are unvarnished and clay-footed. Sometimes they wonder if you’re cruel. That’s a mercy to all of us shortsighted, weak, doubting, clay-footed stumblers.

There’s hope for us.

Can you identify with Job? You cry out to God in your affliction and you see nothing change. It seems like he’s just standing there watching you writhe. It feels cruel.

But this is not, in fact, true. What is true is that God is doing far more in our affliction than we know.
For Job, he did not know that he was putting Satan to shame by trusting in God despite his desolate confusion. He did not know that his experience would encourage millions for millennia. And like Job, we do not know what mind-blowing designs God has in store for what may feel unbearable and appear cruel today.

But we do know this: God was answering Job when it seemed he wasn’t. And God was remembering David when David cried, “Will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1). And when Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), God had turned his face away from our sin, only to raise his Son from the dead to undying, unsurpassed, and eternal glory.

Your suffering may be inscrutable today. But in reality it is preparing for you “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Take heart and hold on.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you (1 Peter 5:10).

Knowing → Being → Doing

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  Musings on the Manifesto, Part 7: Disciple-Making

...


But what is the end game? What should the intersection of the Word of God, Jesus, the gospel, the kingdom, mission, and the church produce? That brings us to today's affirmation: disciples.
One of our framers, Alan Hirsch, says it this way:

...rediscovering what it means to radically follow Jesus is now an area of strategic--and definitely missional--concern. To recover mission we are going to have to take discipleship seriously again, but the reverse is also true; to rediscover discipleship we are also going to have to take mission seriously. We cannot be true disciples without also being missionaries (sent ones) to our worlds.
...The church must become missional or fade into increasing irrelevance in the 21st Century. But we simply cannot get there from here without factoring discipleship into the equation. We can't have one without the other: if there be no mission there can be no discipleship, and if there is no discipleship there will be no mission. And there can be no missional church if there is no disciple-making church--it's as simple as that. If ever there was a time to recover the true meaning of the Great Commission to make disciples of the nations it is now. [1]

Alan is right. Discipleship is a missional concern. Without mission, there are no disciples. Without disciples, there is no church and there is no mission.

Let me be frank. The elephant in evangelicalism is this: We have focused our energies on our corporate worship gatherings, sermons, and organization-- while we have struggled to produce disciples. If the central command of the Great Commission is to make disciples, and your church's philosophy of ministry revolves around marketing, facilities, and programs, you have missed the point. You must have a plan for discipleship if you want to be missional.

To some it may sound counterintuitive to say that to be missional you must value discipleship. In the recent past, discipleship has been seen as primarily an educational endeavor inside the four walls of the church. Unfortunately, discipleship programs have had a tendency to "puff up" (1 Corinthians 8:1) rather than to send out.

Now don't get me wrong, at the heart of discipleship is knowing the Scriptures intimately. It requires instruction. But when the reality is that it has become normal for us NOT to grow, something is wrong with our discipleship. LifeWay Research recently studied over 2500 church attendees and only 3.5% of those we surveyed over the course of a year displayed any measurable growth. Something has to change. (We are in the process of completing an even larger study on the subject, out next year.)

In Colossians, I see a focus on discipleship from the apostle Paul when he says:
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10)

I see a progression. Knowing → Being → Doing

We can observe from Scripture a clear pattern that spiritual transformation begins with exposure to the truth. As God's revealed Truth (the Word) penetrates the mind it leads to the transformation of heart and character. Paul also expresses it this way: "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2).

The renewal of the mind, a work of the Holy Spirit, brings about spiritual growth. Here you can see the pattern of knowledge leading to understanding (knowing), which leads to walking worthy (being, or living out who we are), which leads to bearing fruit (doing).

Discipleship and mission interface in the "doing." As a disciple understands the gospel and lives in light of it (Galatians 2:14), he/she will naturally be on mission, proclaiming and enacting the gospel. This is how more disciples are made and churches are birthed.

Disciples don't just know, they do. If we disciple through knowledge and not action, then we have raised up puffed up Gnostics. It is concerning to see knowledgeable people not living in mission, but criticizing it.

When Jesus commanded us to teach the world to obey all that He commanded, he was showing us what discipleship look likes. And it's inevitable: obedience-based discipleship leads to mission-shaped disciples. So let's help people become disciples on mission, becoming spiritual self-feeders, serving the marginalized, loving their neighbors, and telling others about Christ. It the end game of mission.

============
[1] Alan Hirsch, "No Mission, No Disciples," from catalystspace.com; excerpted from Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship, by Alan and Debra Hirsch (Baker Books, February 2010).

Preaching Radical Grace

Tullian Tchividjian post:  An Open Letter to Mr. Grace-Loving Antinomian

There seems to be a fear out there that the preaching of radical grace produces serial killers. Or, to put it in more theological terms, too much emphasis on the indicatives of the gospel leads to antinomianism (a lawless version of Christianity that believes the directives and commands of God don’t matter). My problem with this fear is that I’ve never actually met anyone who has been truly gripped by God’s amazing grace in the gospel who then doesn’t care about obeying him. As I have said before: antinomianism happens not when we think too much of grace. Just the opposite, actually. Antinomianism happens when we think too little of grace.

Wondering whether this common fear is valid, my dear friend Elyse Fitzpatrick (in C.S. Lewis fashion) writes an open letter to Mr. Grace-Loving Antinomian–a person she’s heard about for years but never met–asking him to please step forward and identify himself.

Enjoy…
——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Dear Mr. Antinomian,

Forgive me for writing to you in such an open forum but I’ve been trying to meet you for years and we just never seem to connect. While it’s true that I live in a little corner of the States and while it’s true that I am, well, a woman, I did assume that I would meet you at some point in my decades old counseling practice. But alas, neither you nor any of your (must be) thousands of brothers and sisters have ever shown up for my help…So again, please do pardon my writing in such a public manner but, you see, I’ve got a few things to say to you and I think it’s time I got them off my chest.

I wonder if you know how hard you’re making it for those of us who love to brag about the gospel. You say that you love the gospel and grace too, but I wonder how that can be possible since it’s been continuously reported to me that you live like such a slug. I’ve even heard that you are lazy and don’t work at obeying God at all…Rather you sit around munching on cigars and Twinkies, brewing beer and watching porn on your computer. Mr. A, really! Can this be true?

So many of my friends and acquaintances are simply up in arms about the way you act and they tell me it’s because you talk too much about grace. They suggest (and I’m almost tempted to agree) that what you need is more and more rules to live by. In fact, I’m very tempted to tell you that you need to get up off your lazy chair, pour your beer down the drain, turn off your computer and get about the business of the Kingdom.

I admit that I’m absolutely flummoxed, though, which is why I’m writing as I am. You puzzle me. How can you think about all that Christ has done for you, about your Father’s steadfast, immeasurable, extravagantly generous love and still live the way you do? Have you never considered the incarnation, about the Son leaving ineffable light to be consigned first to the darkness of Mary’s womb and then the darkness of this world? Have you never considered how He labored day-after-day in His home, obeying His parents, loving His brothers and sisters so that you could be counted righteous in the sight of His Father? Have you forgotten the bloody disgrace of the cross you deserve? Don’t you know that in the resurrection He demolished sin’s power over you? Aren’t you moved to loving action knowing that He’s now your ascended Lord Who prays for you and daily bears you on His heart? Has your heart of stone never been warmed and transformed by the Spirit? Does this grace really not impel zealous obedience? Hello…Are you there?

Honestly, even though my friends talk about you as though you were just everywhere in every church, always talking about justification but living like the devil, frankly I wonder if you even exist. I suppose you must because everyone is so afraid that talking about grace will produce more of you. So that’s why I’m writing: Will you please come forward? Will you please stand up in front of all of us and tell us that your heart has been captivated so deeply by grace that it makes you want to watch the Playboy channel?

Again, please do forgive me for calling you out like this. I really would like to meet you. I am,

Trusting in Grace Alone,
Elyse

Christ Exalting Way

What's Best Next post:  The Well Educated Person

Piper, in Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God:

The well-educated person is the person who has the habits of mind and heart to go on learning what he needs to learn to live in a Christ-exalting way for the rest of his life — and that would apply to whatever sphere of life he pursues.

Slow Work

Excerpts from Tim Keller post:  Lloyd-Jones on the Practice of Real Preaching

This post resumes the series on D. M. Lloyd-Jones’s classic book Preaching and Preachers.

When Lloyd-Jones says that people still will come to hear preaching in our contemporary culture, he adds two qualifications—or you might say he has two underlying assumptions. He says: “The answer is that they will come, and that they do come . . . when it is true preaching. This may be slow work . . . it is a long-term policy.”

First, he says, it must be “real preaching,” and he later explains that this means preaching done by someone who is gifted to speak to larger groups. And that is a rub. As someone who taught preaching in seminary, I know that only a fraction of the students coming through seminary show promise of having such gifts.

There are indeed many “incarnational” approaches to ministry that do not require a gifted speaker, and we should use them all. In fact, I would argue that in a post-Christian culture, preaching will not be effective in the gathered assembly if Christians are not also highly effective in their scattered state. In our times, people will be indifferent or hostile to the idea of attending church services without positive contact with Christians living out their lives in love and service. Therefore the incarnational “dispersed” ministry of the church is extremely vital and necessary.

Nevertheless, it is a mistake to argue that people in our society will not come to hear “real preaching.” The fact is that, even in a very post-Christian city, if the preaching is of high quality, people will be brought and will come back. They will be shocked at how convicting and attractive the gospel message is, and they will feel like they’ve never really heard it before (even if they have been raised in a church).

...

In other words, though Lloyd-Jones often warns against being too adapted to the culture, in the end the Doctor argues strongly that preaching must not be dry and intellectual but profoundly life-related, that the preacher’s tone must not be affected and “parsonic” but genuine, passionate, and transparent. If you listen to the Doctor’s evening sermons in particular, you learn that he was always referring to current events and intellectual trends, often expounding Scripture in order to answer the questions posed by the culture. So the preaching must not be just a “running commentary” or an overly cognitive explanation of the text, but must have shape and passion and connect forcefully with the heart and life of the congregant.

But the Doctor’s assurance that “people will come” rested on two assumptions. First, that it was “real preaching”; second, that “it is a long-term policy.” He means an effective preaching ministry takes many years of hard work. Americans, of course, are impatient and don’t like to hear this. But he is right, and I’d add that it takes years of work in two regards. First, it requires the creation of a community, a body of believers who understands not only how to profit from real preaching themselves, but who know how to leverage it in their own ministry to their friends and neighborhoods.

The Doctor begins to address this, but not enough for my satisfaction. Second, it requires many years and hundreds of sermons before preachers become as good as they have the capacity to be. Some of that means the preacher staying put and becoming involved enough in the lives of the people and city so as to be able to address their questions and issues well from the Scripture. Some of that means coming to understand the Bible well enough to always make it clear. Some of it means years of repentance and prayer that creates an increasingly holy, transparent character.

...

Lord's Work .. Lord's Way

Ray Ortlund post:  Fav #8:  Reality with God at the center

“As I see it, the Christian life must be comprised of three concentric circles, each of which must be kept in its proper place.  In the outer circle must be the correct theological position, true biblical orthodoxy and the purity of the visible church.  This is first, but if that is all there is, it is just one more seedbed for spiritual pride.

In the second circle must be good intellectual training and comprehension of our own generation.  But having only this leads to intellectualism and again provides a seedbed for pride.

In the inner circle must be the humble heart — the love of God, the devotional attitude toward God.  There must be the daily practice of the reality of the God whom we know is there. . . .

When each of these three circles is established in its proper place, there will be tongues of fire and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Then, at the end of my life, when I look back over my work since I have been a Christian, I will see that I have not wasted my life.  The Lord’s work must be done in the Lord’s way.”

Francis A. Schaeffer, “The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way,” in No Little People (Downers Grove, 1974), page 74, italics his.

Update:  Justin Taylor has kindly let me know that Crossway Books has put this sermon of Schaeffer’s online.  You can view it here. “The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way” is one of the most important things I have ever read. It is never far from my thoughts.

Those Days

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Strength for “One of THOSE Days”

“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Zechariah 4:6-7

Dear Lord Jesus, it’s looking like one of THOSE days—one of those days I’m dreading like a root canal; like a busy interstate turned parking lot when I’m in a hurry to get home; like having to organize a garage filled with three years of clutter. I’m already wishing I was just finishing supper rather than soon enjoying breakfast. Am I whining? Yes I am, Lord, but I’m bringing my bad attitude and my very busy day to you.

You promised the sufficiency of your Spirit to Zerubbabel—the doubting governor of Jerusalem faced with the overwhelming task of rebuilding the Temple. My task is not nearly as daunting, neither am I facing a mountain than needs to be leveled. But I am no less in need of the power of the Holy Spirit today. I feel like my might and power are the equivalent of one AAA battery facing a day requiring a whole power plant. So I take you at your word, O LORD of hosts.

Jesus, please give me emotional strength to be really present with all the people I’ll meet with today. I’ve taken on more than is reasonable and my temptation will be to objectify each situation and move through my schedule as quickly as possible. But nobody is “just” an appointment to keep, a problem to solve or somebody to fix. I’ll be with your sons and daughters today—broken, like me; needing you, like me; precious in your sight, like me.

Please give me spiritual strength to be discerning, wise and faithful to the gospel. Enable me to listen below the waterline of normal conversation. Help me hear what’s really being said not spend most of my energy simply rehearsing my next words. Help me resist the “pulls” and the temptation to give pragmatic formulas for situations demanding a demonstration of the truth and power of the gospel.

Please give me physical strength as the day goes on. Doing hard and heart work is exhausting, and the more tired I get the less likely I am to love well. I can do all things through you, Lord Jesus, for you give strength that we simply do not have in ourselves.

Our great joy and hope is in knowing that you are the fulfillment of Zechariah’s vision of the completed temple. Lord Jesus, you are the top stone, capstone and cornerstone of the everlasting temple (1 Peter 2:4-10). When we trust in you, we are never shamed or disappointed. Help us fix our gaze on you today and offer heartfelt shouts of thanksgiving and praise. “Grace, grace from you,” O, faithful and loving Savior. So very Amen, we pray in your name, with anticipation and hope.

Joy, Joy, Joy

John Piper post:  Thank you, Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematical genius who was born June 19, 1623. After running from God until he was 31 years old, on November 23, 1654 at 10:30 pm, Pascal met God and was profoundly and unshakably converted to Jesus Christ. He wrote it down on a piece of parchment and sewed into his coat where it was found after his death eight years later. It said,

Year of grace 1654, Monday 23 November, feast of St. Clement . . . from about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight, FIRE. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars. Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. "My God and your God." . . . Joy, Joy, Joy, tears of joy. . . Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. May I never be separated from him.

In 1968 Pascal and C. S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards and Dan Fuller and the Bible teamed up to change my life forever with those words, "Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy." Here’s how Pascal blew away my resistance to joy.

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

I suspected this was true. But I always feared that it was sin. That wanting to be happy was a moral defect. That self-denial meant renouncing joy, not renouncing lesser joys for greater joys.

But then God conspired with these writers to force me to reread the Bible. To give it a chance to have its true say. And what I found there concerning joy changed me forever. I have been trying to understand it and live it and teach it ever since. It’s not new. It’s been there for thousands of years.
I thank God today for Pascal’s part in my awakening.

Completely Free

What's Best Next post: The Counterintuitive Nature of the Gospel

CJ Mahaney, in The Cross Centered Life:  

Do you see any traces of [a sense of] condemnation in your life? Don’t be surprised if you do. But don’t keep carrying the burden! Because of the gospel’s power you can be completely free of all condemnation.

Not mostly free; completely free.

Don’t buy the lie that cultivating condemnation and wallowing in your shame is somehow pleasing to God, or that a constant, low-grade guilt will somehow promote holiness and spiritual maturity.

It’s just the opposite! God is glorified when we believe with all our hearts that those who trust in Christ can never be condemned. It’s only when we receive his free gift of grace and live in the good of total forgiveness that we’re able to turn from old, sinful ways of living and walk in grace-motivated obedience.

 

Both Avoidance and Engagement

Jonathan Parnell post:  Six Truths on Christian Involvement

In a 2000 sermon, John Piper draws out six truths from 1 Peter 2:9-17 about how Christians should be involved in society and culture.

________

1. We were once all in darkness, along with the whole world.

Notice the phrase near the end of verse 9: "Him who has called you out of darkness." We were once in darkness. The darkness of sin and unbelief and ignorance about God and his ways. It was the darkness of deadness in sin, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:5. This is the condition of our culture and our society. And we were once a part of it by nature. Why are we no longer?

2. God called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

This truth comes from the same phrase in verse 9: "Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." We are not by nature smarter or wiser or more courageous than those who remain in darkness. The difference is that God exerted toward us an absolutely undeserved and compelling kindness: he called us. Paul put it like this in1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." It was the omnipotent call of God that wakened us from the spiritual sleep of death and opened our eyes to the power and wisdom of God in Christ. Let us never forget: Free and powerful grace alone is the decisive reason that we are able to see the darkness of our culture and be free in some measure from it.

3. God's aim in calling us out of darkness is to send us back to (but not in) that darkness to "proclaim his excellencies."

Now all of verse 9: "But you are a chosen race, A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." That is why you have been called out. That is why you are God's people, a chosen race. We exist to display with word and deed the excellencies of God. This is the way God's call came to us. Freely we received, now let us freely give. Our witness is not the same as the call of God. But God's call happens through our display of God's excellencies. When we speak and show God's excellencies to others, we provide the truth that God may grant the blind to see. If we say nothing, they will see nothing. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). And new birth is "through the living and abiding word," the gospel (1 Peter 1:23-25).

4. God's aim is that the way we make his excellencies known to the darkened culture around us take place both by avoidance and by engagement.

This is very crucial to see. Some err here by stressing one to the exclusion of the other. One group is swept away with social action. Another is absorbed in personal holiness. The Biblical way is both/and, not either/or.

Notice verse 11: "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." This is the avoidance ethic. And it is absolutely right and necessary. There are things in our culture that we should simply avoid and abstain from.

But notice verse 12: "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." Here we are "among the Gentiles." Here we are going on display to the Gentiles. Here we are not just avoiding their effect on us, we are aiming at having an effect on them with positive action. "They observe your good deeds and glorify God."

Over and over in the New Testament the writers stress that we were created and converted to be engaged relentlessly in a life of public good deeds. Indeed, Titus 1:14says that Christ died to "purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." The term "good deeds" does not mean sitting at home watching wholesome videos instead of going out and watching dirty movies.

Good deeds means designing ministries for caring for AIDS orphans in Africa, and feeding the malnourished, and housing the homeless, and teaching the illiterate and ignorant, and freeing the addicted and fighting crime and visiting the prisoner and befriending the lonely, laboring in the cause of protecting the unborn and relieving the crisis of unexpected pregnancies, and a thousand other visible ways of doing good to others in the name of Jesus (see Titus 2:7-8;3:8; Hebrews 10:22; Matthew 5:16).

My point here is that, in relation to our sin-riddled culture, we should pursue both avoidance and engagement; both purity of heart and merciful involvement, both personal holiness and public justice. In short, we should with the mind of Christ be both culture-denying and cultural transforming. The transformed mind steeped in scripture will discern when and how.

5. Submission to cultural institutions (like the state, and places of employment and family) is not canceled out by our freedom in Christ (and our citizenship being in heaven, and our being "strangers and exiles on earth), but our submission is put on a whole new footing of submission to God.

You see the call to submission in verse 13: "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution." Christians are not self-assertive rebels who kick against the pricks of regulations in government and business and schools and home. We are eager to be supportive and compliant wherever it does not compromise our commitment to Christ our king.

But notice the words in verse 13, "for the Lord's sake." Or: "On account of the Lord." Once we may have been submissive out of fear, or out of conniving for advancement, or out of greed, or out of laziness, or because we believed that these earthly institutions really were our master. But that is not how Christians submit now. It is for the Lord's sake.

Verse 16 is Peter's interpretation of those crucial words: "Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God." We are free. We are not slaves to any human institution. So why submit? Why not drive at any speed we want? Why not pay whatever tax we feel like? Why not come to class late? Why not wear perfume to the first service and park in the most convenient place for ourselves? Why not come in at whatever hour you please as a teenager? Why submit to a hundred rules and laws and guidelines in our culture and work places and schools and homes?

The answer is, God freed us from these institutions as masters, and then sent us back into them to declare his excellencies as his servants, not the servants of man. We submit in freedom, for the Lord's sake. Everything is on a different footing. All is from the Lord and for the Lord. Christ died to purify us for good deeds and we enter the world and the culture with a view to displaying the glory and the excellency of this great Christ.

6. Finally, Christians honor all persons, and seek to do it in different ways that are not the same for each, but appropriate to their roles in life.

Verse 17: "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." There is a special kind of honor for the king. There is a special fear for God. There is a special love for fellow Christians. But there is an honor for all persons, including the wicked.

Matthew Henry wrote:

The wicked must be honored, not for their wickedness, but for any other qualities, such as wit, prudence, courage, eminency of employment, or the hoary head. Abraham, Jacob, Samuel, the prophets, and the apostles never scrupled to give due honor to bad men (Commentary on the Whole Bible [Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., n.d.], 1019).

So in conclusion, let us not simply be a passive and apathetic people priding ourselves in our avoidance ethic. Let us live in the power of the grace that called us out of darkness into light and let us turn back to that very dark and dying culture and declare the excellencies of the One who called us, and let us be rich in good deeds, so that people might see the kind of Master we serve and give him glory on the day of visitation.

Shouts in Our Pain

Words of Life Weekly Devotional | LIFE Today

Sacrificial Suffering
by Andy McQuitty

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – C.S. Lewis

I struggled to figure out what God was doing when I was diagnosed with cancer. It was like He was tapping me on the shoulder and saying, “Get on this train, I want you to make a journey for me.” It wasn’t as if I could say, "No, I think I won’t get on the train.” That wasn’t the choice God was giving me. I was getting on the train whether I liked it or not. The choice I did have was what kind of journey it would be – a good one or a bad one.

My prayer from the beginning was simply, “Lord, wherever this train takes me, make this a good journey.”

And it was.

It still is. And not only for me. I think in all my years of pastoral ministry, God has used my suffering and my cancer to encourage and bless more people than anything I’ve ever done. From a human (selfish!) perspective, that’s kind of sad. Like anybody in their chosen career, I suppose I started out years ago in ministry daydreaming of someday being famous as a world-renowned preacher, or consummate author, or powerful leader and influencer in the church. But God is laughing, because any notoriety I may have is not because I became successful, but because I got sick. I’m not famous for being great, but for being the dude who almost died and lived to tell the tale. So be it! This is my calling. . . and yours. The ministry of sacrificial suffering. It’s the most peculiar sacrifice you can offer because it’s the most redemptive sacrifice you can offer.

Sacrificial suffering is undeserved and unavoidable. Rob a bank and you deserve jail. Lie to people and you deserve mistrust. But Jesus didn’t deserve what He got. He committed no sin and told no lies, yet he was sorely persecuted. There was nothing about his suffering that he brought upon himself or that he could have changed.

“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." (I Peter 2:23, NIV)

Sacrificial suffering is consciously entrusted to God. It’s not just miserably enduring pain and hoping God sees your plight. It’s embracing the pain knowing God is using your plight for redemption. Such ones impress God Himself with their faith and insight.

"For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God." (I Peter 2:19-20, NIV)

Consciousness of God’s good purposes for sacrificial suffering leads us to endure those sufferings as an active choice. The Greek word for endure is hupomenō. It means “to remain under.” In order to voluntarily stay in the place of pain for as long as God chooses, we have to entrust ourselves to God like Jesus did. Christ’s sacrificial suffering was redemptive. It brought us to God. Now we follow in His footsteps and are amazed to find that our sacrificial suffering is redemptive as well.

“Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’” (John 12:23-24, NIV)

Wheat, in scripture, is the basis of life. Raw wheat can be powdered into flour, germinated and dried into malt, or processed into pasta or roux. Wheat is the basic ingredient in porridge, crackers, biscuits, Muesli, pancakes, pastries, cakes, cookies, rolls, gravy, cereals and more. All this goodness comes from the kernel of wheat which, when planted, produces a stalk of wheat with a head that contains many kernels. When many stalks are harvested and replanted, acres of wheat can be grown. Eighty pounds of wheat seed per acre will harvest about 60 bushels of wheat from that one acre!

All that is required is that the one kernel dies. If the grain of wheat remains the same, according to the word of Jesus, it will never change. "But if it dies, it produces many seeds." Thus, a plant teaches a powerful principle: Sacrifice releases power; the greater the sacrifice, the greater the released power.

Jesus willingly “fell into the ground and died.” He willingly sacrificed His life. And the result of that sacrifice is the multitude of lives eternally saved. Here is the great Christian paradox, the unmistakable mark of an authentic gospel. It begins with dying -- a cross – and that sacrifice releases great power. That’s not just true for Jesus. It’s true for us as well.

When I have difficulty understanding my suffering in light of the cross of Christ, this declaration, taken from the words of the great South African writer and minister Andrew Murray, Jr., has helped me. In times of suffering say:

He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this strait place. In that I will rest.
He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.
He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.

In His good time He can bring me out again - how and when He knows.

The promises of Jesus seem like a paradox, but they are profoundly true. To be whole, you must be broken. To live, you must give up your life. To receive, you must give. To be exalted, you must humble yourself. To be strong, you must be weak. To be fruitful, you must die. Therein lies the power of sacrifice.

Andy McQuitty is the pastor of Irving Bible Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You can read the blog “A Note from Pastor Andy” on Facebook.

Living Life

Stephen Furtick post:  How to Glorify God

By this is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit.
John 15:8

The glory of God is the single most important thing in the world to God. And therefore you glorifying God is the single most important thing you can do with your life.

But if we were honest, most of us have little to no idea what that actually means. We talk about God’s glory in abstract ways. We talk about glorifying God in convoluted ways. And so at the end of the day, we know what everything is for – the glory of God – and what we should do – glorify Him – but we don’t know how to actually do it.

Do we sing?

Do we simply go around saying “for your glory” after every little thing we do and at the end of every prayer?

Is it just that we know that everything is for the glory of God?

If I’m a professional athlete, is it mentioning God’s name after I win a game?

If I’m a designer, do I have to stitch a verse somewhere on my clothing?

It can get pretty complicated and nebulous. Luckily, Jesus says it’s actually pretty simple, straightforward, and concrete. It’s the practical fruit of your life that produces the glory of God.

In other words, I don’t know that it matters to God that you can articulate the Westminster Catechism’s definition of the glory of God and our duty to glorify Him. I don’t know that it matters if you top off your prayers with a little “glory of God” throw in at the end.

I think what matters to God and what actually glorifies Him is that you do life His way. That you live in such a way that God’s activity is actually visible in your life. And not just your words.

Let me put it simply:
When husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church, it glorifies God.
When you manage your finances God’s way, it glorifies God.
When you honor the people around you, it glorifies God.
When you love the waiter that’s serving you on Sunday and leave them a good tip, it glorifies God much more than when you sang about His glory an hour earlier.

Let’s all stop the abstract “glory” talk and lets get down to the business of actually doing it. Press into Jesus. Live life the way He intends it. And let the fruit you’re producing do the talking for you.

Fruit

Kevin DeYoung post:  Glory of God:  Fruit from the Root

John 15:1-11
“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”  (verse eight)



Talk is cheap. Anyone can say he is a Christian. In fact, Jesus tells us that on the last day many will say “Lord, Lord” who never really knew Jesus. We must do more than say we are Jesus’ disciples. We must bear fruit like we are Jesus’ disciples. The Bible is very clear about this: we are saved by grace, but the grace that saves also transforms. It is joyfully and mercifully true that we don’t have to merit a good standing before God. Justification is by faith alone. But everyone who is truly justified–declared righteous–will also be sanctified–made more and more into Christ’s image. Bad trees bear bad fruit. Good trees bear good fruit.

Bearing good fruit brings God glory. When we look and act like Jesus, it shows that he is good enough to save us, valuable enough to be followed, and strong enough to change us. God is not glorified by nominal Christians who never lift a finger to serve others, or egg-headed believers who never pray or evangelize, or cranky disciples who show zero love, joy, patience, or kindness. God is glorified when we follow Jesus in all of life and bear fruit as his disciples.

Reveal More and More

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Seeing MUCH More of the Gospel

The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Cor. 4:4

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gift of another day. Please fill our gaze with your beauty, our minds with your truth, and our hearts with more of the gospel—MUCH more of the gospel. If the main strategy of the kingdom of darkness is to keep unbelievers in the dark about the gospel of your glory and grace, why would we think evil would choose some other tactic for believers—for us? So as we pray for our unbelieving friends today, we also pray for ourselves.

Jesus, reveal more and more of the gospel to us—more and more of who you really and fully are; more and more of what you’ve already accomplished by your life, death, and resurrection for us; more and more of your life of heavenly orchestration, intercession and advocacy on our behalf; more and more of what you’re continuing to do in your commitment to make all things new; more and more of what it’s going to be like to live with you and the whole family of God in the new heaven and new earth. Show us, convince us, dazzle us, change us . . . and then show us even more.

Lord Jesus, don’t let us frame any notion of God apart from you, for you are the very image of God—God incarnate. Don’t let us read any part of the Bible without thinking about you—for everything written about you in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). Don’t let us desert you, even for fifteen minutes, by turning to some other gospel—which is really no gospel at all (Gal. 1:6–7). As the gospel is producing fruit and growing all over the world, so may it enlarge our hearts and bring forth lasting fruit to your glory (Col. 1:6).

Jesus, you’ve already moved us from total blindness to a 20/200 vision of the gospel. But take us on to 20/100, then 20/50, then 20/20, then 20/15, until the day we see you with glorified eyes. In that day we’ll see you as you are and we will be like you (1 John 3:2). Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! What a heart-liberating and life-purifying this hope is!  By the light of this hope, we surrender to your purposes for this day. So very Amen, we pray in your peerless and powerful name. Amen.

Restore Us to the Joy of Our Salvation

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Only The Gospel Fills Our Sails

Michael Horton rightly warns against depending on “guidance technology” to put wind in our sails:

Like a sailboat equipped with the most sophisticated guidance technology, our Christian lives are often decked out with the latest principles for living, with spiritual guidance counselors telling us what will make life really work for us and our families. Oftentimes, brand new Christians sail out of the harbor under full sail, eager to follow the guidance system, making use of all the gadgets, enthusiastically listening to every fellow boater who has some advice to offer. Yet as many long-time believers know, eventually the winds die down and we find ourselves dead in the water. Then when storm clouds gather on the horizon, we discover that all of the guidance technology and good advice in the world cannot fill our sails so that we can return safely to the harbor. The equipment can plot our course, tell us that a storm is coming, and indicate our present location, but it cannot move us one inch toward the safety of the harbor. In other words, if we are looking for motivation in the Christian life, it cannot come from motivational principles; only the gospel fills our sails…While God’s wise directions are necessary, apart from the ever present word of promise that despite our failures at sea, God is at the helm piloting us to safety, we will eventually give up on sailing altogether.  Purposes, laws, principles, suggestions, and good advice can set our course, but only the gospel promise can fill our sails and restore to us the joy of our salvation.

The Gospel Driven Life, pg. 143-144

Ultimate Allegiance

Excerpt from Stephen Um:  Discipleship and the Idols of Family and Culture

Much has been written about the cost of discipleship. Even more has been said. And yet, as often as we hear about all that Jesus demands of us as his disciples, we cannot avoid being set off balance when we run into a difficult passage like Luke 14:26-27, 33:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. . . . So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Who doesn’t bristle under the sharp language of hate, cross bearing, and renunciation? It seems to cut against everything that makes us who we are. Indeed, it does.

So what is Jesus up to in this passage? Is he really suggesting that we should “hate” our families, and even ourselves, with all that such a stance would entail? On the one hand, we must obviously say “no.” After all, Jesus is the one who perfectly fulfilled the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, and even calls us to love our enemies. Whatever he means, he is not contradicting himself, and he is not suggesting that we do something that is out of accord with the rest of God’s Word.

...


This call to ultimate allegiance challenges and cuts against the idols of every culture. We might certainly explore this on the micro-levels of nation, ethnicity, neighborhoods, and more. But in this context I’m particularly interested in the macro-level differences between a more traditional Eastern culture and a progressive Western culture. The costly call of Luke 14 challenges both the Eastern and the Western cultural mindset, and is seen clearly in episodes in which Jesus calls his disciples to follow him.

In Matthew 4:21-22 we find James and John in a boat mending their fishing nets, and their father was with them in the boat. It is at this point that Jesus “called them,” and upon hearing this call, the brothers “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”

Now, what’s intriguing here is the different ways in which this text could be read. On the one hand, a typical Westerner might look at this passage and see little challenge in a call that results in the leaving behind of one’s father. This is because, in Western cultures, greater allegiance tends to be given to the individual and his vocation, regardless of how it might affect one’s family, community, and others. In stark contrast, a more conservative Eastern culture often places more emphasis on family, community, and corporate solidarity.

Thus, this call, which is a shining example of the kind of commitment that Christ called for in Luke 14, is particularly challenging to more traditional cultures. While society itself, our local communities, and even our families may be demanding that we give our primary devotion to them, the call to discipleship always includes a drastic re-ordering of that which is most precious to us, and may sometimes include a departure from those things that refuse to come under the rule of our new Master.


Interestingly, however, Matthew 4:18-20 gives us a picture that equally challenges the overly individualized Western reader. It is there that we find Peter and Andrew in the middle of their day’s work—fishing. When Jesus sees them, he says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Notice that the call here is in specific relationship to their vocation. Jesus wants to redefine their entire lives, and he does so by calling them to shift their line of work. Upon hearing the call they immediately leave their nets and follow him.

Such a call might not be all that hard for those in a more traditional culture to hear. After all, they may be accustomed to sacrificing personal ambition and dreams on the altar of community and family. But for the more progressive Western reader, it is almost unfathomable that devotion to Christ might mean that ambition and career-building would need to take a back seat to Jesus.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying that Christ is calling Easterners to leave their families, and Westerners to leave their careers. Rather, I am saying that the call to discipleship is a fundamental redirection of our human existence, a reorientation, an all-embracing turning about of our lives in order that our affections might be placed primarily upon Christ. And, this being the case, the call to discipleship will cut through and across every culture. So, for the progressive, part of the call will be to make sure that Christ is more important than one’s work. We must find our identity in being a disciple of Christ, rather than as disciples of our career development. As for the traditionalist, the challenge may be in making certain that Christ takes precedence in one’s life over and above family, community, and society. We must make sure that Christ is the supreme treasure in our lives.

Whatever the case may be, as disciples of Christ we are challenged to give him our ultimate allegiance, no matter our cultural background or social location. This being the case, our comfort and our energies must be derived from the fact that Christ not only transcends human culture, but he also entered into it. And, having entered into culture, he not only challenges the reigning paradigms, but also promises to redeem all that is broken about them.

...

Artesian Springs

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Pentecost Sunday

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Rev. 22:17

Blessed Holy Spirit, it’s Pentecost Sunday, and how appropriate to be meditating on the last command in the Bible—the final invitation in which you beckon believers and non-believers alike: “Come, thirsty ones! Come, desiring ones! Come and take the free gift of the water of life.”

How we praise you for constantly preaching the gospel to our hearts and to the nations—making much of Jesus and helping us see how much we need the grace of God. Even to the very end of history, you will continue faithfully to do so. By your power, I remain redemptively thirsty. I have deep desire you alone can meet. I do come once again, gratefully and expectantly.

On the day you first convinced me of my need for Jesus and gave me gave me faith to trust him, you created an unquenchable thirst in my heart for more of the water of life—the artesian springs of eternal life. By your doing, I have discovered how the bitter waters of sin only make me sick; the deceiving waters of my broken cisterns satisfy me ever so briefly; and the illusionary waters of countless mirages are just that—empty illusions. I’ve paid a great price for all of these deadly waters, but the life-renewing water Jesus gives is absolutely free! Hallelujah!

So once again, I bring my ever-present thirst to you. I’m thirsty to know Jesus better and better. I’m thirsty to be quicker in my repentances and slower in my excuses. I’m thirsty to grow more of your fruit and less of my thorns. I’m thirsty to be freer to love others as Jesus loves us. Slake these thirsts by the water of the gospel, and then intensify them again and again.

I’m thirsty for the life we will enjoy in new heaven and new earth—where every magnificent promise God has made will be wondrously fulfilled. I’m thirsty for the wedding feast of the Lamb, when the Bride will no longer say, “Come!” but will say, “We’re here, all of us—the entire pan-national family of God!” I’m thirsty for the day of no longer knowing in part—the day when the knowledge of God’s glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. I’m thirsty for the day of no more thirst. Hasten that Day.

Indeed, on this Pentecost Sunday, we hear you, and we come and we cry, “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us!” So very Amen, we pray in the fullness and faithfulness of Jesus’ name.

Calling and Cost

Steven Furtick post:  Great Calling, Great Cost

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Acts 9:15-16

Most of us focus on the incredible accomplishments of Paul.
How he wrote 2/3 of the New Testament.
Took the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Became the greatest missionary and one of the greatest preachers ever.

Sometimes we’ll point out his suffering. But it’s usually isolated. We use it to talk about pain and trials and how to get through them. Or how God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. All of that is true, but I think we often miss a crucial point.

Paul’s accomplishments and his suffering went together.
And there’s a reason for that.

It’s not because God had some kind of a secret vendetta against Paul. He had killed Christians, so why not make him drink a little of his own medicine while using him to spread the gospel.

As others have pointed out before, it’s because for Paul to be used greatly, he had to be wounded deeply. The greater the calling, the greater the cost. Making a difference in the world means absorbing substantial pain. For the sake of God, and for the sake of the people you’re making a difference for.

That was true for Paul.

And it will be true for you, too.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you’ve got flogging to look forward to. But I am saying that most of us want to do the kinds of things Paul did without having to go through the kinds of things Paul went through. And it doesn’t work like that.

God has to bruise you before He can use you. So you’ll be sensitive to His touch. So you won’t have an ounce of self-reliance in you. So you’ll be able to relate to the people you’re ministering to. So when everything is dark around you, your light within you will actually have a chance to shine.

If you really want to be used greatly by God, accept this now:
You’re going to be tired.
You’re going to be betrayed.
You’re going to suffer.

Like Paul, your great calling will exact a great cost. You’ll be able to say, “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body” (2 Corinthians 4:11).

But also like Paul, that won’t be the final word for you. You’ll be able to say, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

God Himself: The Greatest Treasure

Excerpt from John Piper:  The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus

...


The implication of this for your life is profound. No matter what mess you’re in or what pain you’re in, the causes of that mess and that pain are not decisive in explaining it. What is decisive in explaining it is God’s purpose. Yes, there are causes. Some of them your fault, perhaps, and some of them not. But those causes are not decisive in determining the meaning of your mess or your pain. What is absolutely decisive is God’s purpose. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (verse 3).

And if you will confess your sins, and hold fast to Jesus as your Rock and your Redeemer and your Riches, God’s purpose for your mess and your pain will be a good purpose. It will be worth everything you must endure. We know this is true because God says so. Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”


Of course, none of this will make sense, or be helpful, if God himself, and the glory of his incomparable works, is not your greatest treasure. When Jesus says, the purpose of this blindness is “that the works of God might be displayed in him,” he assumes the manifestation of the works of God, has a value that outweighs years and years of blindness. Both for the man and his parents.

In order to embrace that, we have to value the manifestation of the works of God more than we value seeing. Indeed more than we value life itself. Psalm 63:3 says, “Your steadfast love is better than life.” And Jesus said to the prisoners in Smyrna, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Being loved by God, and being with God forever, is better than having eyes and better than being alive in this world. If we don’t believe that, then saying that God has wise and good purposes in all our losses, will not be much comfort. But if we do believe it, not only will God’s purposes comfort us and strengthen us, but they will make us able to patiently, and gently help others through their times of darkness.

...

Vast Heart of God

Ray Ortlund post:  The love of God to you

“Oh, you are not dealing with trifles when you are dealing with the love of God to you.  It is not a spare corner of the heart of God that He gives to you, as you may give a little love to the criminals in the jails, but the great, inconceivably vast heart of God belongs as much to every Christian as if there were not another being in the world for God to love!  Even as Jehovah loves His Only-begotten, so does He love each one of His children.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Old Testament (London, n.d.), III:568.