Love Earnestly

Scotty Smith post:  A Prayer about Loving Well ‘Cause Life Is Short

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. 1 Pet. 4:7–10

Dear Jesus, may Peter’s words sink and settle deep into my heart today—“the end of all things is at hand.” If I really believed this, if I really believed your return could happen within my lifetime—or that my life might end before I see another Christmas, how could it not make a huge difference in how I love?

Whenever I attend a funeral, I always go away with a renewed sense of my mortality and the fragility of life, at least for a few days. I hug loved ones a little tighter and linger a little longer in conversations. I make a few overdue calls to friends. But then it’s “back to normal,” and the same old harried pace takes over and the same old broken patterns in relationships resume. None of us loves well in cruise control. Without the gospel, we have no love, and without love, we are nothing.

Rather than love loving earnestly, we get irritated easily. Rather than covering one another’s sins, we gossip about one another’s sins. Rather than welcoming one another without grumbling, we guard our own space with complaining. Rather than using the gifts you’ve given us to serve others, we hoard our gifts to satisfy ourselves. Rather than being generous stewards of your grace, we live as selfish misers of your mercy. Yet “the end of all things is near.” God, have mercy on me, the sinner.

Jesus, I don’t want to love by guilt, but by grace. I don’t want to love by fear, but by faith. I don’t want to love with a heart of manipulation, but with a heart of ministry. I don’t want to love with a view to another funeral, but with a view of your second coming. I don’t want to love to get anything from people, but because I’ve received everything I need in you. I don’t want to love others as others love me, but as you love me.

You’re the only one who loves really deeply and it’s us that you deeply love. You’ve haven’t just covered a multitude of our sins, but all of them—taking the judgment we deserve on the cross. You always offer us hospitality without grumbling. You’re always serving us, and giving us more and more grace. We are humbled. We are convicted. We are grateful.

Live in us and love through us today, Lord Jesus, whether you return in the next fifteen minutes or fifteen hundred years from now. So very Amen we pray in your kind and faithful name.

Diligence

What's Best Next Post:  Edwards: Many Who Mean Well Actually, Through Lack of Knowledge, Do Great Harm

A good exhortation from Edwards on the importance of learning about the practical dimension of life and our vocations:

Many who mean well, and are full of a good spirit, yet for want of prudence, conduct themselves so as to wound religion. Many have a zeal for God, which doth more hurt than good, because it is not according to knowledge, Rom 10: 2. The reason why many good men behave no better in many instances, is not so much that they want grace, as they want knowledge. (From “Christian Knowledge: The Importance and Advantage of a Thorough Knowledge of Divine Truth,” p. 162 in volume 2 of the Banner edition of his works.)

In other words: Good intentions are admirable. But we should not think that they are enough. If we have good intentions but do not understand how to do things right, we will end up doing harm — and this, in turn, not only hurts people, but casts a bad reflection on the gospel.

It’s easy to leave this in the realm of the abstract and think it applies mostly to people other than ourselves. So, to make this a bit more concrete, here’s what this means.

If you are in a position of leadership, you need to learn how to lead. You should not think that your natural inclinations are sufficient to make you a good leader. Some people do have better instincts than others, but in both cases we need to actually apply ourselves to learning from others — including through reading books — about what it means to lead well.

If you are a manager and responsible for the more detailed planning and coordinating of things, you need to know how to manage. For some people, this comes more naturally. But for others, they have a lot to learn. But, once again, in both cases it is important to learn from the best people outside of yourself. This can mean, as with leadership, reading some books and articles, being intentional to learn from other managers in your organization, and going to some of the one-day seminars that you probably get fliers for in the mail every so often. (They’re not perfect, but some of them can be pretty helpful.)

If you are a pastor, learn about preaching. If you are a missionary, don’t just wing it, but make sure you have a strategy. And, be diligent to learn about the culture you are in so you can properly contextualize.

If you are in marketing, subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog and read some of his books. If you are in finance or run an organization, make sure not to let financial considerations be the main thing in how your business is run, don’t let the short-term be the primary consideration, and realize that cost-cutting often backfires (also this). (And, be ruthlessly ethical.)

If you are in IT, don’t be ultra conservative and controlling in how you allow your people to use their computers.

If you are in construction, don’t cut corners or allow your business model to be based upon giving people as little as possible for their money (which is, according to Proverbs 18:9, actually a form of vandalism).

If you work at a fast food restaurant, give people quick service. If you are a truck driver, be extra safe by trying to be always asking “what if” questions about things the other drivers around you could do that would cause problems (that’s actually one of the core skills of the best truck drivers, according to Marcus Buckingham’s First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently).

And this list could go on and on. The point is: see the vocations God has given you in your life as important and see people as important. And therefore be diligent in fulfilling your vocations and upgrading your skills so that you are actually doing good, and not thinking it is sufficient to merely intend to do good.

Don't Look at the Locked Gate and Despair

John Piper post:  The Prison Gates Opened of Their Own Accord -- Really?

One of the great benefits of vacation is that there are no deadlines for being done with devotions. I can start and go as long as I want. If the Bible plan says four chapters (which it does), I can read eight. If it takes 20 minutes to read four chapters, I can take two hours. That’s the way I really like to read the Bible. Roll it around in the mouth of your mind before you swallow it down into your soul.

Reading Acts 12

So one morning in the book of Acts, I was reading chapter 12 where Peter is about to be killed. Herod had just killed one of the Sons of Thunder, James, with the sword (Acts 12:2). I suppose he beheaded him like another Herod did John the Baptist. Just like that, James is gone. James! As in Peter, James, and John. You’d think time would stop. But everything moved on.

Killing James pleased the people — at least some of them (Acts 12:3). So Herod decided to do the same thing to Peter. Peter was put in prison with four squads of soldiers keeping watch (12:4-5) — two chains on his hands and a soldier on either side — and more at the door.

The night before his execution, an angel from God woke him, and “the chains fell off his hands” (Acts 12:7). Just like that. The soldiers stayed fast asleep. Peter thought he was dreaming. But he obeyed. That’s a good sign. I hope I obey God in my dreams.

The Gate Opened. . .

But here’s the part that slowed my devotions way down. “The iron gate leading into the city opened of its own accord” (Acts 12:10). Of its own accord? Gates don’t have any accord. No will. No desire. No decision. No accord. Is it an odd translation? Actually it’s a pretty good translation of the Greek automatē. You can even read that. Automatic. Auto: self. Mate: an impulse. So, the gate opened of its own impulse.

And, of course, we know it’s a figure of speech. Gates don’t have impulses. God opened the gate. I wonder if that figure of speech was used to remind us that even if the gate had a mind (like the soldiers had minds) those minds would swing on the hinges of God’s will. The soldiers’ minds slept.

The mindless gate opened. That’s the way it works — mind or no mind — when God means to get something done. Peter’s work was not done. So, no mere king (and no mere soldier, or mere gate) could stop Peter — not yet. His hour had not yet come.

What Is Between You and God's Call?

So I sat there a long time thinking. Gates. Locks. Iron bars. All mindless, decision-less, volition-less. They can’t decide to do anything. How many of these are between me and God’s call on my life? How many of these mindless obstacles are between you and God’s call?

A good friend had just been hospitalized with a virus attack on his heart. That’s dangerous. So I thought, and later wrote, “I take heart and pray for you that this mindless virus will, like the gate, ‘of its own accord’ get out of your way. I’m counting on ten or twenty more years of camaraderie in the great warfare before we give our account.”

Here’s the point. God has a good plan for every one of his children. No exceptions (Romans 8:28–30). But there are innumerable bars of iron in the way. Gates. Fallen trees. Canyons. Maybe it’s money. Maybe disability, cancer, virus, aging, hostile adversaries, lack of training, discouragement, fear, anger, unjust policies, prejudice, lost hope.

Mindless Obstacles Will Not Stop Us

But these obstacles do not have a mind of their own. The gate didn’t. And they don’t. Why is that story in the Bible? It’s there to show that, until God’s good purpose is done for you, mindless obstacles will not stop us.

The soldiers did not wake up. Peter’s chains fell off. And the gate opened. Mindless material obeys the mind of God. Mindless states obey the mind of God. If God has a good purpose for you — and he always does — every gate will open of its own accord. That is, we can’t make it open. We pray. We work. And we wait. The accord belongs to God.

Let’s trust him together. Let’s believe that there are no locked gates he cannot open. Let’s believe that he will open them because he loves us and has an amazing, Christ-exalting plan for us. Don’t look at the locked gate and despair. Look at the locked gate and say, “Excuse me, I have work to do.” Look at the soldiers and say, “Sleep on.” And then move forward. You may think you’re dreaming. You’re not.

In An Instant Everything Changed

Steven Furtick post:  Upon Further Review

As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow…When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Luke 7:12-15

This widow’s son. Lazarus. The son of the Shunammite.

All of them looked dead. Were dead.
But then in one instant, everything changed.

Life was reintroduced.
Hope was rekindled.
Vitality was restored.

It reminds of how sometimes in football, the officials will come out after a play or a call has left a team dead in the water. Everything appears hopeless. The game or the opportunity looks over. But then after they have looked at the tape, the officials will say, “upon further review,” and overturn the play or the call. And in one instant, everything changes.

Every dead area of your life is available for further review from God’s life-giving power.

Maybe a relationship in your life just fell apart.
Maybe you lost your job last year.
Maybe you’ve made some terrible mistakes that have cost you a lot of time and opportunity.

It looks like a dead situation.
But it’s not over as long as Jesus is on the scene.

Upon further review, He can restore your relationships.
Upon further review, He can supply all your needs.
Upon further review, He can forgive you and make you whole.

Most of us give up on God too easily.
Don’t lose hope.

With God, nothing in your life is ever beyond its resuscitation point.

Defect in Our Belief in the Freeness of Grace

Ray Ortlund post:  Why we grow so slowly

In his Thoughts on Religious Experience, Archibald Alexander asked why we grow so slowly as Christians.  First, he rounded up the usual suspects: “The influence of worldly relatives and companions, embarking too deeply in business, devoting too much time to amusements, immoderate attachment to a worldly object,” etc.  But then he drilled down further and asked why these things get such a hold on us, “why Christians commonly are of so diminutive a stature and of such feeble strength in their religion.”  He proposed three reasons:

1.  “There is a defect in our belief in the freeness of divine grace.”  Even when the gospel is acknowledged in theory, he wrote, Christians depend on their moods and performances rather than on Christ alone.  Then, in our inevitable failure, we become discouraged, and worldliness regains strength with nothing to counteract it.  “The covenant of grace must be more clearly and repeatedly expounded in all its rich plentitude of mercy, and in all its absolute freeness.”

2.  “Christians do not make their obedience to Christ comprehend every other object of pursuit.”  We compartmentalize our lives, and Jesus becomes a sidebar to the more compelling things of every day, like making money.  “The secular employments and pursuits of the pious should all be consecrated and become a part of their religion.”  That way, our work Monday through Friday is no distraction from Christ but more activity for Christ.

3.  “We make general resolutions of improvement but neglect to extend our efforts to particulars.”  Rather than be satisfied that we haven’t sinned hugely on any given day and therefore we must be doing okay as Christians, we should be strategizing for specific, actionable, new steps of obedience on a daily basis.

Archibald Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience (Edinburgh, 1989), pages 165-167.

Evangelical Repentance

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  Interview With Mike Horton: Part Three

This is Part Three of my four-part interview with Mike Horton on the nature of the gospel and sanctification. You can (and should) read Part One and Two.

In a blog post of mine the other day I quoted Tim Keller who said that some people claim that to constantly be striking a ‘note of grace, grace, grace’ in our sermons is not helpful in our culture today because legalism is not the problem, license is. But Keller points out that unless you critique moralism, many irreligious people won’t know the difference between moralism and what you’re offering. He contends that non-Christians will always automatically hear gospel presentations as appeals to do more and try harder unless in your preaching you use the good news of grace to deconstruct legalism. Only if you show them there’s a difference–that what they really rejected wasn’t real Christianity at all–will they even begin to consider Christianity.” Do you agree with this? And how does this square with the idea that non-Christians will never be able to hear the good news of the gospel unless they first hear the crushing blow of God’s law?

Again, I’m not sure that the problem is either legalism or license: those are categories of a largely Christian culture, that thinks in theological categories. Our default setting is always legalism: the assertion of our own goodness. However, the reference point in our world today is no longer God, much less heaven or hell.  It’s the “heaven” of personal peace and affluence and the “hell” of meaningless nihilism.  “Legalism” in our culture today often takes the secular form of climbing the corporate ladder while trying to raise a family and own three homes, with anxiety about which call to return and which song to download.  It’s nihilism: the life of vanity described in Ecclesiastes.

Go back and read (or listen to/watch) R. C. Sproul’s “The Holiness of God.” Now there you can’t help but be faced with a person rather than a principle. Your questions, not just answers, change. The vertical dimension is recovered. Sure, you’d like to have a better marriage and family, but a deeper set of questions emerges—questions you never had before. Then you find that God is not a prop or resource for your life movie, but your problem.  Only then does the question, “How then can I be saved?” arise.  Only then is the gospel really good news—namely, that in Christ the Judge has become your father.

So I agree wholeheartedly that a renewed proclamation of the law in its full force and threat is needed today, but that means a renewed proclamation of the Triune God.  People need to be stopped in their tracks, no longer measuring “god” by their own sense of morality, goodness, truth, and beauty.  They need to encounter the God who is actually there, judging and justifying sinners.  If we start with the Bible’s answers, we’re too late.  We need to allow God’s Word to give us new questions first.  There is a massive place for God’s holiness, justice, goodness, and righteousness in the law to do that.  Apart from the holiness of God, neither the law nor the gospel makes any sense.

At the same time—and I take it that this is Tim Keller’s point—the gospel is just as necessary.  Otherwise, what we have is what the Puritans called “legal” rather than “evangelical” repentance: that is, fear of the law without gospel-driven hatred of sin.  It’s one thing to run from a judge; it’s another thing to hear the surprising announcement from the Good Father that he welcomes the sinner, wraps him in his best robe, puts a ring on his finger, and kills the fatted calf for the celebration. Many of our contemporaries have never met anyone like that.

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Perpetually Restless

Excerpt from Justin Taylor post:  Addicted to Diversion and Afraid of Silence

Some people write out of their strengths; others out of their weaknesses, because they care most about what they struggle with most. I’m aware of my own temptations toward distraction and busyness, so I care about calls away from our cultural addiction to diversion.

Blasie Pascal (1623-1662) has been a good mentor on these issues. I’d recommend getting Peter Kreeft’s edition, Christianity for Modern Pagans, Pascal’s Pensees Edited, Outlined, and Explained, where his thoughts on God, man, and diversion are all gathered in one section (pp. 167-187). Kreeft writes that when he teaches this material, his “students are always stunned and shamed to silence as

Pascal shows them in these pensees their own lives in all their shallowness, cowardice and dishonesty.”

Here is one line from Pascal (from #136) that it worthy of a lot of meditation::

I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

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Inspired, Challenged and Disturbed

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  Review of "The Help." It's Worth Seeing... and Discussing

On a recent date with Donna, I saw, and was moved by, the new movie The Help. Based on Kathryn Stockett's best selling book of the same name, the movie, starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard, genuinely inspired, challenged, and even disturbed me.

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Most days, I live in a world where courtesy is considered, by some, more important than courage. Ultimately, such a view fails to work. To use Aibileen's words, "Loving our enemies can be hard, but it starts by telling the truth." This movie told the truth in a powerful way and impacted me emotionally. I was inspired be courageous, angered at injustice, and determined to write something about the religious aspect in the movie, something you can read in an upcoming post.

Finally, the movie has its share of profanity and I am particularly bothered by uses of God's name in vain, but I will show my children the movie when the edited version comes out and talk about issues of race, gender, and cultural religion. It will be worth your time to do the same.

As I said, the movie moved me (as a good movie can)-- but it also angered me. I tweeted from the movie, "The Help's mix of elitism, judgment, & scorn (wrapped in cultural religion) is STILL real & even taught as discipleship in some places." More on that in a few days...

Us-ness

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Coming Together in Hurt with Hope

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:1-7

Dear heavenly Father, until Jesus comes back, we, your people will live through all kinds of seasons together. Indeed, “there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heaven. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:1,4).

But our life in Christ is not like life in the natural world. In the natural world our seasons predictably change, because our orbiting earth rotates on its titled axis. In Christ, our seasons providentially change, because we are a broken people in a broken world utterly dependent on you, our sovereign Father and redeeming Lord.

Because of you, merciful Father, we don’t have to wait for a summer drought to be over before we enjoy the colors and cool of fall. Harsh winters don’t have to cease before we can experience the wonders of a rejuvenating spring. For you come to us in every season. You aren’t subject to seasons. Seasons are subject to you. You are an every present help in times of trouble, periods of pain, moments of madness and seasons of sadness. Come to us now, Father, come to us today.

Because of you, mighty Father, the river of restoration and streams of grace flow to us even as “mountains fall into the heart of the sea… waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.” You cause real gardens to bloom in real deserts; you bring the gladness of the gospel into the agony of our pain; you bring the hope of your kingdom into our kingdom-size hurts. Come to us now, Father, come to us today. We hurt, we need your hope.

“The LORD almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” Help us to embrace our “us-ness” as your people in seasons of trouble. Our hurt will either drive us to you, or it will divide us and separate us, and hurting people hurt other people. May we come before you on our faces with our pain, not get in each another’s faces, causing even greater pain. You are with us; we will not fall; you will help us at the break of day. So very Amen we pray, with hurt and hope, in Jesus’ name.

Give Thanks Daily

Jonathan Parnell post:  Are You Frustrated with Your Local Church?

By grace, Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

This applies in a special way to the complaints often heard from pastors and zealous members about their congregations. A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.

. . . let [the pastor or zealous member] nevertheless guard against ever becoming an accuser of the congregation before God. Let him rather accuse himself for his unbelief. Let him pray God for an understanding of his own failure and his particular sin, and pray that he may not wrong his brethren. Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren. Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God.

Life Together, trans. John W. Doberstein, (New York: HarperOne, 1954), 29, paragraphing mine.

Crowning His Own Works

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  Interview With Mike Horton: Part Two

This is a continuation of my four-part interview with Mike Horton on the nature of the gospel and sanctification. You can (and should) read Part One here.

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Does the law of God have the power to sanctify us? During this conversation, some have pointed out the Westminster Confession of Faith 19.6 and the Canons of Dordt 5.14 and conclude that both the promises of the gospel and the threatenings of the law carry the power to sanctify. So, when they hear you (or me) say things like “the law guides but only the gospel gives us the power to do what it says” they wonder if we disagree with those portions of our confession. How would you respond?

The law has an indispensable role in our sanctification, but it doesn’t have any power to justify or to sanctify. The law and the gospel simply do different things, but both are essential.  The gospel doesn’t tell us what to do; it tells us what God has done.  The law doesn’t announce God’s pardon and renewal; it tells us what God requires.  In a covenant of law (where perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience is the basis of blessing/cursing), the law can only condemn; in the covenant of grace, the law can no longer condemn the justified but can only guide them in the way of righteousness.  That’s why Calvin called this third use “the primary use” in the Christian life, because while the threatening of the law still drive us to Christ (first use), it must never be used to terrify the conscience of those who cling to Christ.  So it’s not only a question of whether the law is still present, but of what role the law has in determining the basis of the covenant.

The law and the gospel do different things. That doesn’t change after conversion. Think of a sailboat. You can have all the guidance equipment to tell you where to go, to plot your course, and to warn you when you’ve been blown off course. However, you can’t move an inch without wind in your sails. All of the spiritual technology in the world—tools, techniques, and guidance—will not actually drive sanctification anymore than justification. The law (in this case, the third use) directs, but it cannot drive gospel sanctification. Paul answers his own question, “Shall we then sin that grace may abound?” not by switching back to threats and principles, but rather he shows the expansiveness of the gospel as the answer to the dominion as well as condemnation of sin. Persevering on the high seas requires both God’s guidance and God’s power, but it’s the gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation.”

A more biblical analogy, of course, is adoption. As a minister, I have to ask myself whether I’m preaching the law in a given moment on behalf of God as Judge or as Father?  If I’m preaching to God’s children as if the one I’m representing is their Judge (pedagogical use), without sending them back to Christ, I’m using the law unlawfully. There is such a thing as God’s fatherly displeasure and rebukes. That’s part of perseverance.

Sometimes, over-reacting against legalism, we’re nervous about passages in Scripture that speak of God punishing his children when they transgress his will and rewarding them for obedience.  Yet these are wonderful passages.  Think of an older adopted child who is delighted when his new father disciplines him just as he does the others whom he has known much longer.  Similarly, “God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Heb 12:7-8).  In this process, the law may rebuke as well as guide.

WCF 19.6 says that “believers are not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned”; yet it’s “of great use” because it does the following things: (1) “informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; (2) discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives, so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfections of his obedience.  (3) It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin: and the threatening of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect from them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law.”

Very deliberately, the Confession does not say that “the threatening” of the law is an appropriate way to exhort repentant believers.  Rather, it causes us all to flee to Christ and its threats “show what even their [the believers’] sins deserve.”  When it comes to the threatening power of the law, it can extend no further than “reaping what you sow” in temporal afflictions.  The Confession also speaks of promises attached to the law.  This is not because the law itself is gospel, since the law’s promises (blessings/curses) are conditional on obedience.  However, the promises attached to the law do indeed become ours—not through the law itself, but through the gospel.  Without the law, though, we wouldn’t even know what those promises are!  That’s why this statement in 19.6 follows up with the reminder that this is not to be taken in the sense of “the law as a covenant of works.”

A quick and folksy illustration.  My dad was a professional builder (constructed houses) and an expert mechanic (built planes during WWII).  In my case, the apple not only fell far from the tree; it rolled down the hill, into the street, under a bus, and was never seen again.  Nevertheless, my dad was fond not only of letting me watch him at work, but bringing me into the process at the final stage.  “Now drive in that nail,” or “press that valve,” he would say, and then we’d go home and he’d tell my mom that I built a house or fixed the car.  Calvin talks about God “crowning his own works” when he rewards believers.  It’s not something they deserve, but something that God delights to give because he’s a good father.  Although the child’s performance doesn’t exactly rise to the level of the prize, a good father does not reward bad behavior, but good behavior.

None of this threatens justification.  In fact, justification makes it possible for God in Christ to switch from Judge to Father and reward our obedience without any reference to what we deserve one way or the other, but rather what will benefit us.  Once the person is justified for the sake of Christ alone, his or her works can also be accepted.   As the ground of acceptance before God, our best works fall short of God’s glory.  However, once we are declared righteous in Christ, God can overlook the imperfection—even sin—still clinging to our best works.  There’s nothing that God as Judge can do with our works but condemn us, but there’s nothing left for God as Father to do with our good works than delight in them.  Analogous to what my dad did with me, our Heavenly Father can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” not only because of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness but also because, on that basis, we are already totally justified in Christ.  Even the mixed works of a justified child bring pleasure to God.  He’s too good of a Father to ignore our imperfect obedience, though even this is wrought within us by his Spirit.  This is over-the-top-amazing: On judgment day, it will not be enough that our gracious Father announces to the world what he has already declared to us: that we are perfectly righteous in Christ; he will add to this rewards for things that we didn’t even really do perfectly, completely, or without mixed motives—and that we could never have done apart from his grace.  That’s not justification; it’s ON TOP OF justification!!!

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Eternal Joy and Safety

What's Best Next post:  John Piper: “Don’t be Afraid of Doctrine — Be Afraid of Disconnected Doctrine”

Great comments by John Piper from his latest sermon:

“But you do not believe, because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Notice three things. First, when the Father gives his sheep into the omnipotent hand of the Son, they are still in the Father’s hand. Verse 29: “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Even though the Father has put them into the Son’s hand, they are in the Father’s hand. What does this imply?

Second, notice that Jesus explains this with the words of verse 30: “I and the Father are one.” His final answer about his identity is way beyond messiahship. It is oneness with God the Father.

Doctrine Matters

And third, notice that Jesus takes us to this answer by showing how this oneness serves our salvation—our eternal safety and joy. The Father and I are one. No one can take you from me because I am stronger than all. And no one can take you from my Father, because my Father is stronger than all. When you are in my hand, you are in his hand, and when you are in his hand, you are in my hand. Our omnipotence, and our unity are your safety, your salvation.

Now there is a lesson here, and I want to drive it home. Jesus takes us to the heights of doctrinal truth about himself. He is one with the Father. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). But he does it by showing us the immediate implication for our lives: No one can snatch you from my hand. Or the Father’s hand. Which are one hand. In other words, doctrine, theology, biblical propositions (like “I and the Father are one”) are always related to their implications for human life. Don’t be afraid of doctrine. Just be afraid of disconnected doctrine. Doctrine that doesn’t make a difference for life and eternity.

Live a Lover's Life

Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. 

Philippians 1:11 [Message]

Keep Growing

Mark Batterson post:  Trying New Things

I’m so proud of Summer.

She’s never played a day of organized volleyball, but she tried out for the team anyway.  It took a lot of courage.  And she made it. In order to do so, she had to do something she wasn’t very good at–yet.  Isn’t that always the case?  You always start out bad, but that is the only way you get good at anything.  Many of us would rather do nothing!

At some point, many of us stop trying new things, stop doing new things. That’s when you stop living and start dying.  I’m determined to try new things till the day I die.  I love climbing new learning curves.

I’m uber-impressed with people who learn new languages, learn new skills, and go new places just because they want to continue expanding their horizons!

Keep growing. Keep trying. Keep learning.

Bold Defiance of Common Sense

Kevin DeYoung post:  Kings of Judah: Hezekiah’s Heroic God

2 Chronicles 32:1-32:33
So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem…he provided for them on every side. (32:22)

One of the most interesting books I’ve read in recent years is entitled What If? The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. It’s a book of counterfactual history where scholars suggest how history would be different if key conflicts–the Battle of Brooklyn, Midway, D-Day, etc.–had gone differently.

The first chapter, by William McNeill, is about the plague that saved Jerusalem in 701 B.C. Assyria was threatening to destroy Jerusalem and wipe Judah off the map. This was no idle threat. Nation after nation had fallen to this superpower from the north. But God would not abandon his people. “Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,” the Lord reassured King Hezekiah, “I will defend this city and save it.” Overnight the entire army was wiped out and the city spared without one drop of Israelite blood.

These events confirmed for the Jews the implausible and world changing belief that their God was the only true God, making the failed siege of Jerusalem the most fateful might-have-been of history. “Never before or since,” writes McNeill, “has so much depended on so few, believing so wholly in their one true god, and in such bold defiance of common sense.”

Will Never Have Perfect Clarity

Excerpts from two posts:  Michael Hyatt and What's Best Next  

Michael Hyatt:  WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO

 ...

That simple concept simultaneously gave me relief and clarity. I have used it time and time again in moments when I have felt overwhelmed and uncertain.

Here are the three steps I take.

1. Forget about the ultimate outcome. The truth is that I probably have less control over the outcome than I think. I can undoubtedly influence it, but I can’t control it. Besides, before I ever get to the final destination, many of the variables will change. Projects and deals have a way of unfolding over time. There will be problems—and resources—I can’t see now.
2. Instead, focus on the next right action. Since worrying about the outcome is unproductive, I try to think about the next actions that will move the project forward. This is far more accessible that something in the distant future. For example, as an author, I can worry about whether or not my book will become a bestseller or I can make sure that I am fully prepped for the interview I have scheduled today.
3. And do something now! This is key. Something is better than nothing. Too often, we think that we have to have clarity about how it will all turn out. In my experience, I rarely have this. But, as I move toward the destination, making course corrections as necessary, I experience clarity. Therefore, it is important to get off the sidelines and into the game.

...


What's Best Next:  If You Wait for Favorable Conditions, You Will Never Act

Lewis:

The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come” (from “Learning in Wartime,” in The Weight of Glory, 50).

Ecclesiastes 11:4:

He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Two Words

What's Best Next post:  “But God…”

From the introduction to Casey Lute’s encouraging book, But God…The Two Words at the Heart of the Gospel:

This is a book about two words. Concerning them, the late James Montgomery Boice wrote, “May I put it quite simply? If you understand those two words — ‘but God’ — they will save your soul. If you recall them daily and live by them, they will transform your life completely.”

It is no surprise, then, that the human authors of Scripture use this phrase repeatedly to highlight God’s grace in every aspect of salvation. From Moses to Paul and just about everywhere in between, “But God” appears time and again at many crucial junctures in Scripture. It is the perfect phrase for highlighting the grace of God against the dark backdrop of human sin.

To the left of “But God” in Scripture appear some of the worst human atrocities, characterized by disobedience and rebellion. To the left of “But God” is hopelessness, darkness, and death. But to its right, following “But God,” readers of Scripture will find hope, light, and life. Following God’s intervention, the story of Scripture becomes one of grace, righ- teousness, and justice.

This book has been born out of my desire to better understand these two words, and how they are used in Scripture. Having searched through and referenced every instance of “But God” (or “But he,” “But you,” etc.), I have found that this phrase is used to describe God’s activity in nearly every great salvation story in the Bible.

“But God” marks God’s relentless, merciful interventions in human history. It teaches us that God does not wait for us to bring ourselves to him, but that he acts first to bring about our good. It also teaches us of the potential consequences if God were not to act. Scripture shows over and over that without God’s intervening grace, without the “But God” statements in the Bible, the world would be completely lost in sin and under judgment.

It may not be a common thing to write a book about two words, but these are no insignificant words. Indeed, everything Dr. Boice wrote above is true. If we understand these two words as the biblical authors use them, we will understand salvation—a salvation that is by grace alone, through Christ alone.

May the reading of this book, and of the biblical “But God” statements it contains, cause you to understand these two words, recall them regularly, and allow them to transform your understanding of God’s grace and thus transform your very life.

But / conjunction / (but): 1) Used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned. 2) Nevertheless; however. 3) On the contrary; in contrast.

God / noun / (How much time do you have?)

Need Not Worry

Excerpt from Colin Hansen post:  Postmodernism:  Dead But Not Gone

No obituary appeared in The New York Times. Television newscasts offered no tribute. But make no mistake: postmodernism is dead. Even those who could foresee this end could do nothing to prevent its suicide. Demise was built into its very DNA.

If you’re a church leader, you probably missed this news. Many of our publishers, culture gurus, and so-called futurists have been touting postmodernism as the next big thing, an unstoppable force. Adapt or die, they told us for much of the last decade, neglecting 2,000 years of history when the church built by Jesus Christ has withstood nearly every imaginable assault. But next month you can attend the funeral for postmodernism at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. That’s when the art exhibit “Postmodernism—Style and Subversion 1970-1990” will open.


Christians tend to think of postmodernism as a revolution in philosophy and ethics. This view of postmodernism—an all-encompassing, coherent alternative to the arrogant certainty of modernism—stands on shaky ground. Postmodernism has always been applied selectively and often resembles a hyper-modernism, not a radically new enterprise. Indeed, postmodernism can only be explained in relation to its predecessor. The postmodern schools of art and literature represented a scattered protest against the conventions of modernism. The London art exhibit’s curators explain:

The modernists wanted to open a window onto a new world. Postmodernism, by contrast, was more like a broken mirror, a reflecting surface made of many fragments. Its key principles were complexity and contradiction. It was meant to resist authority, yet over the course of two decades, from about 1970 to 1990, it became enmeshed in the very circuits of money and influence that it had initially sought to dismantle.

Here we see several key elements of what has led so many Christian observers to take notice of postmodernism. We have grown skeptical of grand theories that purport to explain the way things were, are, and will be. Unlike modern schools of thought—say, Marxism—we recognize the complexity of human motivations. We have learned to live with contradiction, to embrace paradox.

All that may be true, albeit misleading if described as a sudden, decisive shift between then and now. But postmodernists sound suspiciously like modernists when they visit the hospital or seek justice. In fact, there is a strong family resemblance between modernism and its prodigal son. The son swore he would never grow up to be like his father, who lusted after money and power. Then postmodernism looked in the mirror one day and recoiled at the likeness.

Journalist Edwards Docx drives home this point about the collapse of postmodernism into consumerism for Prospect magazine. He describes the postmodernism rebellion in literature against authorial intent. What seemed at first liberating to some—opening the door for marginalized voices seeking feminist and queer interpretations, for example—turned into anti-intellectual anarchy. Docx writes:

For a while, as communism began to collapse, the supremacy of Western capitalism seemed best challenged by deploying the ironic tactics of postmodernism. Over time, though, a new difficulty was created: because postmodernism attacks everything, a mood of confusion and uncertainty began to grow and flourish until, in recent years, it became ubiquitous. A lack of confidence in the tenets, skills, and aesthetics of literature permeated the culture and few felt secure or able or skilled enough or politically permitted to distinguish or recognize the schlock from the not. And so, sure enough, in the absence of any aesthetic criteria, it became more and more useful to assess the value of works according to the profits they yielded.

By this analysis, we begin to understand the ironic outcome of postmodernism. Take one artifact from the era: Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. Here we see a scholar poseur enabled by allies in the academy pass off his irresponsible money grab as speaking truth to power. He begins with the largely accurate premise that winners write history, an observation enabled by postmodern currents. Ignoring the standards of credible scholarship, he proceeds to exalt strange heterodox sects as somehow more trustworthy than their orthodox opponents in the church. He takes his low-brow thriller to the popular market and capitalizes on widespread ignorance of true history to rake in millions.

...


God’s Word tells us where to find that basis. But advocates for postmodernism within the church have sometimes missed how Scripture teaches us to deal with these cultural shifts by way of negative example. Consider just two. Pontius Pilate mused about truth when faced by competing claims. He couldn’t even recognize it when standing right before him (John 18:38). Only when God give us ears to hear can we recognize voice of him who bears witness to the truth (John 18:37).

Solomon despaired of life itself even though he had all the money, power, and sex anyone could want. Like a good postmodern pluralist, he welcomed new gods from foreign nations (1 Kings 11:1-8). All this did him no good. “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Sounds a little like Docx’s lament. The end of Ecclesiastes, though, reveals the only reliable basis for justice. “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

Our cultural circumstances may change, but human nature does not. Though dead, postmodernism remains with us, in so far as it reflected universal human despair apart from God, the only fully reliable source of truth, justice, and authenticity.

The church should learn about whatever replaces postmodernism, but we need not worry. We need only trust in God and proclaim the good news that transcends every culture and epoch. This Truth makes no empty claims and grabs no power except what properly belongs to him as Creator and Redeemer.

“It is finished,” he cried from the Cross, the beautiful paradox of divine justice, when the death of God’s only Son gave birth to everlasting life for sinners.

Not Random Events

What's Best Next post:  Tim Keller on Discerning Your Calling

The other day I linked to Michael Horton’s article on discerning your calling. Tim Keller also has a very helpful article on that as well (online as a pdf).

You’ll notice these articles are in agreement with the same basic three questions to consider, but they complement one another in a helpful way.

Here’s the summary from the end of Keller’s article:

Your vocation is a part of God’s work in the world, and God gives you resources for serving the human community. These factors can help you identify your calling.

Affinity—“Look out.”
Affinity is the normal, existential/priestly way to discern call. What people needs do I vibrate to?

Ability—“Look in.”
Ability is the normal, rational/prophetic way to discern call. What am I good at doing?

Opportunity—“Look up.”
Opportunity is the normal, organizational/kingly way to discern call. What do the leaders/my friends believe is the most strategic kingdom need?

Your life is not a series of random events. Your family background, education, and life experiences—even the most painful ones—all equip you to do some work that no one else can do. “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do“ (Eph. 2:10).

Jesus, You Alone

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer When Your Heart Is Aching for Peace

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace.” Luke 19:38–42

Jesus, the ache within our hearts for peace is unrelenting and unremitting. Let me get specific: the ache within my heart for peace is ramped up to a 9.1 on a scale of 1 to 10. Though nothing can disrupt the peace I have that comes from resting in you-plus-nothing for my justification, there are circumstances and stories afoot which are unsettling and peace-robbing. At times like this, I can get sucker punched into thinking peace can be found in something or someone else than you.

I’m quite capable of acting like Esau. My peace-pangs take over, and in the moment, I’ll gladly settle for a bowl of hot porridge over the hope of a future banquet. The provision of a snack-in-hand blinds my eye, deafens my ear, and dulls my taste buds to the sumptuous fare of the wedding feast of the Lamb—the day when my longing and demanding heart will be fully set free to delight in you.
“Maranatha!” Even so, Lord Jesus, come . . . hasten that day!

Jesus, I can also get lost in the world of “if only.” If only there were no tensions in any of my relationships (an entirely unrealistic notion), I’d be a happy man. If only “such and such” hadn’t happened (even though I know you are sovereign over all things), everything would be great. If only I lived somewhere else, was twenty years younger, had a different family of origin, had more money, had fewer hassles, had never been deeply wounded. . . if only. The list grows as I fix my eyes on my navel and not on you, Lord Jesus.

But right now I hear you saying to me, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace” (Luke 19:42). Indeed, Jesus, you alone, this day and every day, are the Prince of Peace. I don’t need less storms, I just need to see more of you in the storms. Only in union with you—only in vital communion with you do we find the true and sufficient peace for which we long.

Right now, I join the chorus of those who cry out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38), for you, Jesus, are the king of glory and grace. Until the day of consummate peace, continue to free me from the illusion and delusion that sufficient peace can be found anywhere else but in you. Corral my running-wild thoughts; calm my restless heart; “shalom” my fretful imagination. So very Amen I pray in your merciful and mighty name.

Plug In

Excerpt of Steven Furtick post:  Bonus Tracks: The Blessing of Connection

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Get connected to the body of Christ.

People in society have a very low value on truly being connected. Sadly, those in the church are not much better. With their family. With spiritual leaders. But most of all, with the church.

And that’s sad because there are blessings that flow from being connected to the body of Christ.

You see this so clearly in passages of scripture like Ephesians 4:11-16. It’s a little long, but go ahead and read the whole passage:
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Did you catch that? You can’t truly grow into everything God wants you to be unless you are connected to the local church. It truly is through connection that all the good things of God flow through our lives. There simply is no such thing as a mature Christian who is not vitally connected to the local church.

You must follow Jesus for yourself, but you can’t follow Him by yourself.

So wherever you are, get connected. Stay planted in the house of God. At Elevation. At another church. Wherever.

As I’ve said elsewhere, at the end of your life, God’s not going to be impressed or pleased that you saw what He was doing at ten different churches.He’s going be more pleased that you were a part of what He was doing at one church.

So find one. Plug into it.

And get the blessing of connection.

Nourished

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Gospel-Driven Sanctification

In light of the recent discussion regarding the nature of Christian growth and sanctification (see my last post), I thought I would re-post the helpful quote below from Sinclair Ferguson. In it, he reminds us that any piety and pursuit of holiness not grounded in, and driven by, the gospel will eventually run out of gas–that imperatives minus indicatives equal impossibilities:

The first thing to remember is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual but from the New Testament’s point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality, that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only where our piety forgets about us and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety be nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. Ferguson reminds us that the secret of gospel-based sanctification is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ’s performance for us, not our performance for him.

There is Enough

Ray Ortlund post:  The joyful finality of "It is finished"

“If today you feel that sin is hateful to you, believe in Him who has said, ‘It is finished.’  Let me link your hand in mine.  Let us come together, both of us, and say, ‘Here are two poor naked souls, good Lord; we cannot clothe ourselves,’ and He will give us a robe, for ‘it is finished.’ . . . ‘But must we not add tears to it?’  ‘No,’ says He, ‘no, it is finished, there is enough.’

Child of God, will you have Christ’s finished righteousness this morning, and will you rejoice in it more than you ever have before?”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), II:675.  Style updated.

Listen .. Ask .. Focus .. Work Hard

Themelios post:  Generational Conflict in Ministry by D. A. Carson

About five years after the Berlin wall came down and the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe had mostly fallen or been transmuted into something rather different, I had the privilege of speaking at a conference for pastors in one of those formerly eastern-bloc countries. The numbers were not large. Most interesting was the way this group of men reflected a natural breakdown. They were clearly divided into two groups. ...

...

More recently I spoke at a denominational meeting of ministers in a Western country. Again there was a generational breakdown, cast somewhat differently. The older men had, during the decades of their ministry, combated the old-fashioned liberalism that had threatened their denomination in their youth. Many of them had been converted out of rough backgrounds and subsequently built strong fences around their churches to keep out alcohol and sleaze of every sort. Most of their congregations were aging along with their ministers; only a handful of them were growing. They loved older hymns and patterns of worship. The younger men dressed in jeans, loved corporate worship where the music was at least 95 decibels, were interested in evangelism, and loved to talk to the ecclesiastically disaffected—homosexuals, self-proclaimed atheists, mystically orientated “spiritual” artists. Some were starting Bible studies, fledgling churches, in pubs. This group thought the older men were out of date, too defensive, unable to communicate with people under twenty-five without sounding stuffy and even condescending, much too linear and boring in their thinking, and largely unable to communicate in the digital world (except by emails, already largely dismissed as belonging to the age of dinosaurs), mere traditionalists. The older group thought the younger men were brash, disrespectful, far too enamored with what’s “in” and far too ignorant of a well-integrated theology, frenetic but not deep, energetic but not wise, and more than a little cocky.  And in very large measure, both sides were right.

Doubtless there have always been generational conflicts of one sort or another. Arguably, however, in some ways they are becoming worse. There are at least two reasons for this. First, the rate of cultural change has sped up, making it far more difficult for older people to empathize with a world so very different from the one in which they grew up three or four decades earlier, while making it far more difficult for younger people to empathize with a world in which people used typewriters and wired telephones and had never heard of Facebook or Twitter. Second, and far more important, the social dynamics of most Western cultures have been changing dramatically for decades. The Sixties tore huge breaches into the fabric that had united young and old, assigning more and more authority to the young. The cult of youth and health that characterized the Eighties and Nineties, complete with hair transplants and liposuction, along with gated communities for the middle-class elderly and social welfare that meant families did not really have to care for, or even interact much with, the older generation, built a world in which integration across generational lines could be happily avoided. Even the new digital tools that facilitate interaction tend to enable people to link up with very similar people—very much unlike the way the church is supposed to be, bringing together very different redeemed people who have but one thing in common, Jesus Christ and his gospel. 1 Ideally, how should both sides act so as to honor Christ and advance the gospel?

1. Listen to criticism in a non-defensive way. This needs to be done on both sides of the divide. It is easy to label criticism as hostile or non-empathetic and write it off. Nevertheless the path of wisdom is to try to discern what validity the criticism may have and learn from it. It may be that some older pastors do not know very well how to communicate with a younger generation. How, then, could they strengthen their ministry in these domains? It may be that some younger pastors are brash and intemperate in speech, finding it easy to build a following out of the gift of the gab. How then might reflection on 1 Cor 2 modify their speech? Even well-intentioned criticism hurts enough that we are sometimes seduced into a defensive posture because we have forgotten that the wounds inflicted by a friend are faithful and helpful, but wisdom also listens carefully and respectfully even to disrespectful speech in order to learn lessons not otherwise picked up.

2. Be prepared to ask the question, “What are we doing in our church, especially in our public meetings, that is not mandated by Scripture and that may, however unwittingly, be functioning as a barrier to getting the gospel out?” That question is of course merely another way of probing the extent to which tradition has trumped Scripture. There is no value in changing a tradition merely for the sake of changing a tradition. The two tests buried in my question must be rigorously observed: (a) Is the tradition itself mandated by Scripture, or, in all fairness, is its connection with Scripture highly dubious? (b) Is the tradition helpful only to the traditionalists, while getting in the way of outreach?
Even when the question is asked, the answers are rarely easy or clear-cut. The answers may bear on, say, what we wear, styles of music, the order of service, what we do with our massive pulpit. In each case, the bearing of Scripture and tradition can lead to conflicting inferences. Obviously there is no specific biblical mandate for a large pulpit in the middle of the front, preferably elevated to ensure the minister is six feet above contradiction. Knowledge of historic disputes reminds us of the way this arrangement has functioned in the past: the Reformation taught us that not the “altar” 2 was to be central but the Word of God—so the large pulpits were installed in the center. In today’s climate, however, the very same furniture may signal something else to casual visitors—not the centrality of the Word, but the lecture hall, or talking down to others. How can one rightly emphasize the authority of the Word of God without, on the one hand, erecting unnecessary barriers, and without, on the other hand, turning the front of the building into a “stage” associated with entertainment and performance arts? Fine pastors may disagree on the prudential outworking of such reflections in their specific contexts. Unless the questions are addressed with ruthless rigor, however, unbending lines will be drawn and positions staked out that serve only to foster division, not thought.

3. Always focus most attention on the most important things, what Paul calls the matters of first importance—and that means the gospel, with all its rich intertwinings, its focus on Christ and his death and resurrection, its setting people right with God and its power to transform. So when we take a dislike of another’s ministry primarily because he belongs to that other generation, must we not first of all ask whether the man in question heralds the gospel? If so, the most precious kinship already exists and should be nurtured. This is not to say that every other consideration can be ignored. Some ministers are pretty poor at addressing homosexuals in a faithful and winsome way, at speaking the truth in love, at coping with the rising relativism without sounding angry all the time, at avoiding the unpretty habit of nurturing a smart mouth. But Paul in Phil 1 understands that whatever the shortcomings and confused motives of some ministers, if they preach Christ faithfully, he will cheer them on, and be grateful.

4. Work hard at developing and fostering good relations with those from the other generation. This means meeting with them, even if, initially at least, you don’t like them. It means listening patiently, explaining a different point of view with gentleness. It means that the new generation of ministers should be publicly thanking God for the older ministers, praying for them with respect and gratitude; it means that the older generations of ministers should be publicly thanking God for the new generation, seeking to encourage them while publicly praying for them. It means that ideally, disputes should be negotiated in person, winsomely, not by blogposts that are ill-tempered and capable of doing nothing more than ensuring deeper divisions by cheering on one’s supporters. It means shared meals, shared prayer meetings, shared discussions. It means younger men will seek out older men for their wisdom in a plethora of pastorally challenging situations; it means older men will be trying to find out what these younger men are doing effectively and well, and how they see the world and understand their culture in the light of Scripture. It means that younger men will listen carefully in order better to understand the past; it means that older men will listen carefully in order better to understand the present. It means humility of mind and heart, and a passion for the glory of God and the good of others.

Blessings

Miscellanies post:  Sabbath rest in a 24/7 culture

Without qualification Eichrodt makes the point that in OT history the weekly practice of setting aside one day for rest was unique to Israel. In other words, Israelites lived in a 24/7 world where trade was happening 24/7. To take one day off each week would result in compounded business implications for faithful Israelite businessmen over the long term. Writes Goldengay: “Not to trade on the sabbath seriously reduces opportunity to succeed in business. The prophet [Isaiah] does not promise that people will do so well on the other six days that they will not lose out, in the manner of the Israelites in the wilderness who found enough manna on Friday to last two days. The exhortation does not even promise that people will do well enough, even if not as well as the most successful foreigners who are free to trade on the sabbath. It does promise, specifically to eunuchs and foreigners who accept this discipline, the joy of making their mark within the people of God and of participating in the worship of the temple (Is 56:1–8).” In other words, taking a day to gather with the people of God will cost you–it will cost you financially because that’s one day you cannot trade, and it will cost you in productivity because that’s one day out of the field or mill or workshop. All the while the Israelites must have been aware that their neighbors were using Saturday to make money. But for those foreigners willing to turn away from the 24/7 attitude of their culture, to walk by faith, and to observe the Sabbath rest, to these God promises (through Isaiah) a fruitful place among the People of God and a truckload of spiritual and eternal blessings.

Object of Our Affections

Steven Furtick at ChurchLeaders.com:  God's Glory and Grandma's Traditions

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.

God’s glory is greater than Grandma’s traditions.

And our own as well.

The Gift

May the Master of Peace himself give you the gift of getting along with each other at all times, in all ways. May the Master be truly among you! 

2 Thes 3:16 [Message]

Author of All Knowledge

What's Best Next post: All Moral Knowledge and Business Skill Are From God

Jonathan Edwards, in A Divine and Supernatural Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul:

All Moral Knowledge and business Skill from God
God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever. He is the author of the knowledge that is obtained by human learning: he is the author of all moral prudence, and of the knowledge and skill that men have in their secular business. Thus it is said of all in Israel that were wise-hearted, and skilled in embroidering, that God had filled them with the spirit of wisdom, Exodus 28:3.

Yet Flesh and Blood Reveals It
God is the author of such knowledge; but yet not so but that flesh and blood reveals it. Mortal men are capable of imparting the knowledge of human arts and sciences, and skill in temporal affairs. God is the author of such knowledge by those means: flesh and blood is employed as the mediate or second cause of it; he conveys it by the power and influence of natural means.

This is not Edward’s main point in the sermon — his main point is that apprehension of the truth of the Gospel and the beauty of Christ is given immediately by God (illuminating Scripture), whereas he uses means to bring about moral knowledge and skill.

But this is still a helpful and important point: All knowledge, including your knowledge of how to do your job and be effective in it, ultimate comes from God.

Making Disciples Who Make Disciples

Jeff Vanderstelt post: What Is a Missional Community

A missional community is a family of missionary servants who make disciples who make disciples.

Family

First of all, a missional community is a group of believers who live and experience life together like a family. They see God as their Father because of their faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ and the new regeneration brought about by the Holy Spirit. This means they have and know of a divine love that leads them to love one another as brothers and sisters. They treat one another as children of God deeply loved by the Father in everything — sharing their money, time, resources, needs, hurts, successes, etc. They know each other well. This knowledge includes knowing each other’s stories and having familiarity with one another’s strengths and struggles in regards to belief in the gospel and it’s application to all of life (John 1:11-13; Romans 12:10-16; Ephesians 5:1-2).

Missionaries

God’s family is also sent like the Son by the Spirit to proclaim the good news of the kingdom — the gospel — and fulfill the commission of Jesus. A missional community is more than a bible study or a small group that cares for other believers. A missional community is made up of Spirit-led and Spirit-filled people who radically reorient their lives together for the mission of making disciples of a particular people and place where there is a gospel gap (no consistent gospel witness). This means people’s schedule, resources and decisions are now collectively built around reaching people together (Matthew 3:16-4:1; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; 13:2).

Servants

Jesus is Lord and we are his Servants. A missional community serves those around them as though they are serving Jesus. In doing so, they give a foretaste of what life will be like under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Living as servants to the King who serve others as he served presents a tangible witness to Jesus’ kingdom and the power of the gospel to change lives. A missional community serves in such a way that it demands a Gospel explanation — lives that cannot be explained in any other way than by the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus (Matthew 20:25-28; John 13:1-17; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Peter 2:16).

Disciples

We are all learners of Jesus our rabbi who has given us his Spirit to teach us all that is true about Jesus and enable us to live out his commands. Jesus commanded us to make disciples who believe the gospel, are established in a new identity and are able to obey all of his commands (Matthew 28:19-20).

The missional community is the best context in which this can happen. Disciples are made and developed:

1. through life on life, where there is visibility and accessibility
2. in community, where they can practice the one anothers, and
3. on mission where they learn how to proclaim the gospel and make disciples.

Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor at Soma Communities, an Acts 29 church in Tacoma, WA. He coaches and trains church planters, serves on the Board of Acts 29, and leads the Soma movement in vision and teaching.

Community Life

Jonathan Parnell post:  What Does a Missional Community Look Like?

In a previous post, Jeff Vanderstelt explains that a missional community is a "family of missionary servants who make disciples who make disciples." In this video, he gives a glimpse into the life of Soma Communities and shares about their heart to see Jesus glorified:

Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor at Soma Communities, an Acts 29 church in Tacoma, WA. He coaches and trains church planters, serves on the Board of Acts 29, and leads the Soma movement in vision and teaching.

His Plans For Me

Christine Wyrtzen post:  NAME CHANGE

"In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me `my husband'; you will no longer call me `my master.'  Hosea 2: 16

            The only thing that used to unsettle me more than thinking of myself as a slave in God's household was discovering that He designed me to be intimate with Him as a bride.  I feared God's intentions because slavery had become very comfortable.  I had grown accustomed to the pace of working tirelessly, of training myself to perform grueling tasks without complaint.  I was so used to pain that I hardly noticed its presence.  I was out of touch with the needs of my body and spirit.  If people told me I looked tired, I argued with them.  "Tired" was normal and therefore nothing about which to be alarmed.  If a friend suggested that I should get away for a few days to restore my heart and feed my spirit, I ended up sitting on a dock, feet dangling in the water, but mind still racing.  I didn't know how to connect with a benevolent God to find rest. 
            God promised to teach me how to be a bride instead of slave.  In 1997, He took away the tool that perpetuated slavery.  My ministry!  He shut it down completely and I was left in deafening silence.  I didn't know who I was without frantic activity.  In that strange wilderness, I slowly began to know God; how He loved, how I related to Him, and understanding His plans for me.  He also taught me about the needs of my body and spirit.  Consequently, I started taking care of myself because I could see that God was going to restore me to a place of ministry. He completely overhauled my paradigm for Christian service.
            I came to understand that I had been living as the older brother in the prodigal son parable. I had been the rule-keeper, scared of my own heart, scared that my relationship with God would not survive if I were honest about my doubts and questions. I tried to do everything perfectly, believing that God would reward that. He didn't. He did the most loving thing possible. He used the betrayal of a friend to bring my ministry to ashes and bring me to the end of myself. With no energy to pretend, I came with a heart laid bare to God. I came to embrace what I had feared; intimacy.

As far as You've brought me into your bridal chamber, I've still got so far to go. But I trust where You lead me. Amen

 

Wait .. Be Strong .. Take Courage

Wait for the LORD;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
   wait for the LORD!

Ps 27:14

The Power of Radical Grace

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Deconstructing Moralism

A lot of conversation has been happening with regard to the nature of the gospel and it’s role in sanctification. First, Kevin DeYoung and I engaged in a healthy dialogue about this a few months ago (see here, here, here, and here) and then over at the Reformation 21 blog this week Bill Evans and Sean Lucas have had a healthy dialogue about this (see here, here, here, and here). I have intentionally stayed out of the most recent conversation because I’ve already said in many ways what I would say again if I weighed in.

Without addressing all of the important details, nuances, and perspectives, the simple fact is that if someone is giving short-shrift to the necessity of obeying biblical imperatives, it’s because they are not glorying in the indicatives of the gospel. Their problem is not first and foremost that they aren’t giving full-throat to the imperatives. It’s that they’re not giving full-throat to the indicatives. I’ve never met anyone who revels in the gospel of grace who then doesn’t want to obey God. It’s a phantom fear (see this brilliantly creative post). Disobedience and moral laxity happens not when we think too much of grace, but when we think too little of it (Rom. 6:1-4). Grace is not the enemy of radical obedience–it is its fuel! That’s all I have to say about that.

There is, however, something specific that has come up in the conversation that I do want to address. It’s the idea that since our culture is relativistic, licentious, and morally lax, is preaching grace what this culture really needs? Or, to put it another way, is preaching the gospel of grace really the means by which God will save licentious people? I mean, surely God doesn’t think that the saving solution for the immoral and rebellious is his free grace? That doesn’t make sense. It seems backwards, counter-intuitive. Given our restraint-free cultural context, what does make sense to me is that preachers in our day should be very wary of talking about grace at all. That’s the last thing lawless people need to hear. Surely they’ll take advantage of it and get worse, not better. After all, it would seem logical to me that the only way to “save” licentious people is to show them more rules, intensify my exhortations to behave.

Well, besides the fact that the Bible makes it clear that the power which saves even the worst rule-breaking sinner is the gospel (Romans 1:16), and not the law (Romans 7:13-24), there’s another reason why preaching the gospel of free grace is both necessary and effective (counter-intuitive as it may seem) even at a time when moral laxity reigns supreme: moralism is what most people outside and inside the church think Christianity is all about—rules and standards and behavior and cleaning yourself up.

Millions of people, both inside and outside the church, believe that the essential message of Christianity is, “If you behave, then you belong.” The reason they come to that conclusion is because many of us preachers have led them to believe that. We’ve led them to believe that God is most interested in people becoming good instead of people coming to terms with how bad they really are so that they’ll fix their eyes on Christ “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). From a human standpoint, this is precisely why many people outside the church reject Christianity and why many people inside the church conk out: they’re just not good enough to get it done over the long haul. (Then there are those who ignore the gospel because they’ve deceived themselves into believing that they really are making it, when in reality they’re not.)

In his article “Preaching in a Post-modern Climate”, Tim Keller makes this point brilliantly:

Some claim that to constantly be striking a ‘note of grace, grace, grace’ in our sermons is not helpful in our culture today. The objection goes like this: “Surely Phariseeism and moralism is not a problem in our culture today. Rather, our problem is license and antinomianism. People lack a sense of right or wrong. It is ‘carrying coal to Newcastle’ to talk about grace all the time to postmodern people.” But I don’t believe that’s the case. Unless you point to the ‘good news’ of grace, people won’t even be able to bear the ‘bad news’ of God’s judgment. Also, unless you critique moralism, many irreligious people won’t know the difference between moralism and what you’re offering. The way to get antinomians to move away from lawlessness is to distinguish the gospel from legalism. Why? Because modern and post-modern people have been rejecting Christianity for years thinking that it was indistinguishable from moralism. Non-Christians will always automatically hear gospel presentations as appeals to become moral and religious, unless in your preaching you use the good news of grace to deconstruct legalism. Only if you show them there’s a difference–that what they really rejected wasn’t real Christianity at all–will they even begin to consider Christianity.

As I’ve pointed out before, in Romans 6:1-4 the Apostle Paul answers antinomianism (lawlessness) not with law but with more gospel! I imagine it would have been tempting for Paul (as it often is with us when dealing with licentious people) to put the brakes on grace and give the law in this passage, but instead he gives more grace—grace upon grace. Paul knows that licentious people aren’t those who believe the gospel of God’s free grace too much, but too little. “The ultimate antidote to antinomianism”, writes Mike Horton, “is not more imperatives, but the realization that the gospel swallows the tyranny as well as the guilt of sin.”

The fact is, that the only way licentious people start to obey is when they get a taste of God’s radical, unconditional acceptance of sinners. It was the kindness of the Lord that led you to repentance (Romans 2:4). What makes you think that same kindness which flows supremely from the gospel of free grace won’t lead others to repentance?

Here’s a great scene from Les Miserables illustrating how powerful the radicality of grace is in melting hard, undeserving, law-breaking hearts.