Infinite Supremacy

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  The Supremacy of Christ

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Paul’s goal is to help us see the infinite supremacy and beauty of Jesus so we would be able to resist looking to anything smaller for the freedom and fullness we long for.

As I closed out the series yesterday, I read the lines below from Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)–lines that I have gone back to time and time again since I first read them in college. Muggeridge was a British journalist who, later in life, became a winsome defender of the Christian faith (if you have never heard his debate from the 1960’s with the atheist Charles Templeton, track it down somehow–it is wildly entertaining). Muggeridge’s unique journalistic perspective on 20th century world history (he lived it and wrote about it) and the preeminence of Christ is both true and poetic.

He wrote this in the 1970’s. Enjoy…

We look back upon history, and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counterrevolutions, wealth accumulated and wealth disbursed. Shakespeare has written of the rise and fall of great ones, that ebb and flow with the moon.

I look back upon my own fellow countrymen (Great Britain), once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world, most of them convinced, in the words of what is still a popular song, that ‘the God who made them mighty, shall make them mightier yet.’

I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian (Hitler) announce to the world the establishment of a Reich that would last a thousand years. I have seen an Italian clown (Mussolini) say he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin (Stalin), acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as being wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka.

I have seen America wealthier and, in terms of military weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together–so that had the American people so desired, they could have outdone a Caesar, or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquests.

All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone! Gone with the wind!

England, now part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keeps their motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixote’s of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone! Gone with the wind!

Behind the debris of these solemn supermen, and self-styled imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of One: because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone, mankind may still have peace–the person of Jesus Christ.

I present him as the way, the truth, and the life. Do you know Him?

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Spirit Bond

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

SOUL TIE OR SPIRIT TIE?

We, brethren, have been bereft of you for a short while - in person, not in spirit - were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.  I Thess. 2:17

            Paul was in Corinth when he wrote this to the believers in Thessalonica, but though they were geographically separated, they were together in spirit.  He felt it.  The Holy Spirit, in him, was connected to the Holy Spirit, in them.

            Spirit ties are healthy, conceived by God.  The common denominator in their unity is the Holy Spirit who binds people together.  This very phenomenon is what makes for a great marriage, an enduring and strong friendship, and a harmonious home.  God desires that all of us fatten our Spirit, that place where His Spirit speaks to us, so that one Spirit-filled believer can connect to another Spirit-filled believer.  The result is a bond that spans distance and time.  It will take them into eternity where their relationship will continue where it left off on earth. 

            A soul tie is a completely different thing.  The soul is the place in me where my 'flesh' lives.  It consists of my beliefs, my feelings, and my mental grid from which I am tempted to rule my life.  My soul can be ruled by my spirit if I submit to it, but I must be infused enough with scripture to live that way.  Because I am prone to idolatrous ways, the needs of my soul may rage.  If I'm not careful, I will perceive that I need another person to thrive.  My soul reaches out to that other soul, and we begin to feed off of each other.  (soul-mates)  Anytime there is manipulation, control, or domination, you can be sure that a soul tie exists. 

            This is not of God and He wants me to sever the soul tie, that unhealthy connection, which exists between me and another.  I am not to be controlled, nor control, anyone else.  Those in soul-tie relationships are tied to the other person just as surely as if a spiritual umbilical cord connected them.  Only God can sever that cord, in response to our prayers, so that we can hear and obey the Spirit instead of our flesh.
  

Help me see every relationship in my life today through Your eyes. Amen 

Every Detail Is Worked

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. 

Romans 8:26-28 [The Message]

Group Faith

Ed Stetzer post:  Barna on Group Expressions of Faith

A new study done by the Barna Group "examined various expressions of "group" faith, such as: church attendance, small groups, adult Sunday school programs, church volunteering, and house churches." Below are excerpts from the nine insights they provided. (Be sure to read their whole article here.)

1. Women drive most faith participation. A majority of weekly churchgoers are women (53%). Small groups that meet for prayer or Bible study (60%) and Sunday school programs for adults (59%) are also more likely to be attended by women...
2. Religious activities are typically missing single adults, especially those who have never been married. Just less than half of Americans are unmarried; however, the Barna study found that two-thirds of those who attend church, go to small groups, and participate in Sunday school are married; and 69% of church volunteers are married...

3. Older adults also dominate faith involvement. Conventional wisdom suggests that older adults are more likely to participate spiritually, and the Barna research confirmed such thinking...

4. Regionally, Americans' faith involvement falls along stereotypical lines. Residents of the South make up half of the nation's small group attenders as well as a majority of its Sunday school attenders...

5. Catholics are not particularly active beyond worship attendance, while evangelicals participate in many different forms of "group faith." While Catholics make up one-quarter of all the nation's worshippers each week, they are only one-tenth of small group attenders, Sunday School participants, and church volunteers...

6. Attenders of larger churches involve themselves in the broadest spectrum of faith activities. Americans who typically attend a church of at least 500 adults were among the most likely to also attend small groups...

7. African-Americans represent a significant share of those involved in participatory faith. True to their community-oriented religious heritage and experience, blacks help to power the group religious expressions of the nation. While blacks are 13% of the nation's adult population, the segment accounts for one-quarter of America's small group participants (27%)...

8. Personal Bible reading is most common among small group attenders. In comparing a personal spiritual activity with participatory involvement, the study showed that two-thirds of church attenders (67%) said they had read the Bible outside of church in the last week - whether their church was a conventional or house church. Small group attenders were more likely to read the Bible personally (84%)...

9. Many religiously active Americans lean toward conservative political views, though there is more diversity than expected - especially among house church attenders. Churchgoers, small group attenders, and church volunteers are likely to be either politically conservative or moderate. House church attenders are unique in that one-quarter of such participants describe themselves as political liberals and nearly half are registered Democrats - uncharacteristically high levels compared with other faith activities, perhaps connected with the above-average proportion of black adults who report house church attendance. Further demonstrating their non-conventional and independent inclinations, one-quarter of house church attenders said they are not registered to vote, twice the national average.

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Not Share Glory

Mark Batterson post:  Delighting in Numbers

Numbers are a dangerous thing. They help us measure things, but measuring in the spiritual realm isn't always a healthy or holy thing. In one sense, we count people because people count. I get that. But there is a great danger when it comes to churches. Numbers tend to produce pride or jealousy. And both of those things will eat you alive spiritually.

I find it interesting that counting numbers was one of David's downfalls. In II Samuel 24 he tells Joab to number the people. Joab asks an insightful question: "Why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" David wasn't just counting. He was delighting in it. But I don't think it was always that way. When the people sang about David killing his tens of thousands it didn't translate into pride, but something changed over time. David is relying on numbers. David is delighting in numbers. It's a prideful numbering. David was conscience-stricken after he took the census, but it was too late. The punishment for David adding up? God subtracted 70,000.
The point? Be careful how you count. And if it results in pride or jealousy, stop counting. The Lord will not share his glory!

He Is

Perry Noble post:  Don't Look At What Is Wrong But Rather Who He Is

I have found during my most stressful times it is best if I just stop and focus on who God is…it’s a time when I set my requests aside and just seek HIM…

I’ve made a list that helps me when I tend to freak out…

HE IS…

• Sovereign…He reigns over everyone and everything and has never been stressed out.
• Unstoppable…and so are those who follow Him.
• Holy…perfect, which means everything He wants/desires for my life is so far greater than anything I could have thought up.
• Consistent…I don’t have to worry about Him being in a bad mood.
• GREATER than any temptation the enemy throws my way.
• Better than anything the world has to offer.
• BIGGER than any sin/failure in my life.
• Gracious in that He knows every stupid, foolish, sinful thing I’ve ever done (or will do)…and yet He loves me anyway!  (Romans 5:8 ALWAYS amazes me!)
• ALWAYS there with me…He has NEVER walked away from me.  He doesn’t always deliver me from the fire…but He has ALWAYS walked with me through it!  (See Isaiah 43:1-3)
• Faithful…if I fail to see His faithfulness in my past I will probably not recognize the fruitfulness of my future.  (Philippians 1:6)
• The ONE who pursues me…even on the days I tend to walk away from Him.
• RELENTLESS…He NEVER has given up on me!
• PASSIONATE…His passion and zeal that the Scriptures reveal cause me to be in AWE.

I could go on and on…the point being is that when stress comes it is an awesome opportunity to KNOW HIM.  SO…if you are stressed out, freaked out and feel like you are about to give out…then “check out” for 10 minutes from your busy life, sit down with a piece of paper, make a list of who the Scriptures say that HE IS…and focus on that rather than your circumstances.

Just a thought…but it sure has helped me!

Context

Excerpts from Dan Kimball post: Avoiding Scary Mary: The importance of the whole Bible and knowing context

I am in the last stages of going through my next Zondervan book (tentatively titled "Adventures in Churchland") - which is quite late (Sorry Paul and Ryan!). But finally getting it done. It is my first non-church leaders book, so quite excited and nervous about it. I am directly addressing a couple of controversial and very sensitive issues such as homosexuality and the Bible along with fundamentalism and the Bible, pluralism and world religions. I am  showing how so many of the arguments we have about certain theological views are focused on isolated verses from the Bible pulled from context. Now every sentence and word of the Bible is inspired and incredibly important of course. But we have to be looking at things in context and in the whole story of the Bible.

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Now this isn't anything new, it is really basic hermeneutics. But my goodness, from spending a bunch of time reading arguments pro and against things (from both sides of various arguments, I am not talking only about conservatives or liberals here) - it is amazing how often we make Scary Mary videos from the Bible narrative to defend or teach something we want to believe. We can revise the original whole narrative and create a different Mary by piecing together what we want to in order to create the Mary we want. So if we want to believe a certain thing, we then can piece together our own Scary Mary version of the Bible. It can even sound convincing. If someone didn't know the original entire storyline of Mary Poppins and only saw that revised Scary Mary version - the story of Mary Poppins would be thought of entirely different than the actual Mary Poppins full movie. It isn't as though those isolated clips aren't in the movie. But pulling them out and revising them into something out of the whole story makes Mary a very Scary Mary.

We do have to study and  look at isolated verses in the Bible, of course. But we better be very careful what we do with them. So we aren't taking verses or even small sections of the Bible and piecing them together and revising the narrative to what we hope the Bible says or wish it would say. We can create our own Scary Mary version of the Bible. You can turn the Bible into almost anything if we do that. I wonder if we may do that more than we realize. And I wonder if we may also read someone's Scary Mary version of the Bible and think it is the true Mary more than we realize too. If it is pieced together well and has a good soundtrack behind it. And if we never really understood and studied the whole storyline of the Bible, how easy it is to then be swayed into a Scary Mary version of a doctrine or theology or biblical narrative.

For those that know me, and what I wrote in the chapters I am not a universalist and do hold the church's historical view of sexuality.However, I didn't use to hold these views as I was raised outside of the church and believed the opposite because of my cultural background. When I first read the Bible narrative I was hoping it was the opposite of what I believe now that would be true and the biblical narrative. But it was from reading the whole Bible and narrative and then looking at verses in context and then in holistic Bible context (we need to do both) is why I then went against what I personally hoped and yielded to the Scriptural holistic storyline. And then on these issues as I wrote about them in these chapters I personally then checked with scholars again - NT Wright, Scot McKnight, Stan Grenz's writings and scholars whom I respect and who give me confidence about what I was writing as I looked to them for guidance .

But the Scary Mary video was in my mind as I wrote these chapters as it reminded me of the importance of narrative and context and the danger of arguing only about isolated verses.

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Out of Solitary Conceit

Ray Ortlund post:  "I saw great merit in it"

“When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls. . . .  I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music.  But as I went on I saw the great merit in it.   I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off.   I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots.  It gets you out of your solitary conceit.”

C. S. Lewis, God In The Dock (Grand Rapids, 1970), pages 61-62.

Desperate

Perry Noble post:  Extreme Desperation = Revelation

#2 – Extreme desperation often brings undeniable revelation!

I’ve personally experienced that the times that I’ve truly become the most desperate for God are the times that I’ve been able to hear His voice SO much clearer than ever before.
He doesn’t bring us to times of desperation to reprimand us but rather to remind us that, apart from His power, we’re screwed.

I believe the reason that so many times the church isn’t hearing from God is because we don’t really think we need Him…we have ceased to be desperate.

YET…over and over again in the Scriptures we see that extreme desperation brings undeniable revelation.  Take a second and read Acts 16:6-10.  Seriously…go ahead, either look it up or just click on the link.  Here we have the Apostle Paul in a desperate situation…He is passionately pursuing the vision God gave him back in Acts 9.  (AND…he keeps meeting resistance to what he thought he needed to do!)

YET…in Acts 16:9 God’s purpose and plan for Paul becomes UNDENIABLY clear…the vision was straight forward, all because Paul was willing to stay DESPERATE until he heard from God.
Pastors…church leaders…when was the LAST TIME we were truly desperate for God?

Because…extreme desperation often brings undeniable revelation.  Let’s be leaders who are not merely dependent upon our own strategies…but rather are DESPERATE to see Him move in a way that is unexplainable and undeniable.

Community

Ed Stetzer post excerpt: Transformational Churches and the Value of Community

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Our study revealed that community is highly valued in Transformational Churches. Sixty-four percent of TC members agree (strongly or moderately, here and throughout) with the statement "New members are immediately taught about the importance of living in community with other Christians." In these churches, community is a way of life.

Here are three observations from the research:

1) Valuing community empowers people to do ministry. Sadly, empowering only vocational pastors to do ministry is a common problem in our churches. But in a TC, everyone is empowered to do ministry. Seventy-two percent of TC members agree with the statement "When people are plugged into a small group at our church, they are ministered to and well cared for."

2) Strong small community structure leads to a new reality of service. The "80/20 Rule" comes up - a lot - as I speak to pastors of varying backgrounds. For all the resources consulted and prayers offered, we still struggle to mobilize people. On the other hand, TCs do not. We found that 71 percent agree "Serving is considered normal behavior at our church." It's not 100 percent, but it's worth celebrating.
If serving were "considered normal behavior" at your church, how would it change both the members and the city? The recent flooding in Nashville, Tenn., displaced thousands, but churches mobilized to help. For several weeks, service was "considered normal behavior." In a TC, that mentality lasts.

3) Multiplying groups is a blessing, not a curse. There is a rule among small-group pastors and education ministers: Never say "split." "Start," "multiply" and "reproduce" are acceptable, but never, ever "split."

Small groups in TCs work to gather and to scatter. Gathering leads people into a relationship with Christ and teaches them to participate in His mission. Thus, the scattering. Starting new small groups gives room for new people and opportunities for new leaders.

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Everything

Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done.

Philippians 1:19 [The Message]

Interceding

Mark Batterson post:  History Belongs to the Intercessors

Walter Wink once said: "History belongs to the intercessors." I love that statement and I believe it's true. Prayer has no expiration date. In a sense they are timeless. It's almost like prayer is a spiritual wormhole. We pray with our four-dimensional limitations, God isn't limited to four-dimensional answers! Why? Because He exists outside the four spacetime dimensions He created.

I dedicated my last book, Primal, to my grandparents with this statement: your prayers outlive you. There have been moments in my life when the Holy Spirit has whispered to my spirit: I'm answering the prayers of your grandparents in your life right now. Those are powerful moments.

Intercessors typically don't make headlines, but if you read between the lines, they are the ones writing His-story!

Steadfast Love

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
   will enter your house.

Psalm 5:7a

Great Story

"People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen.  But joy costs pain."

Donald Miller, A  Million Miles in a Thousand Years (p. 100)

Our Maker

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
   let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

Psalm 95:6

He Is There

Ray Ortlund post:  "... you also"

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22

After his vision of the Church in its grandeur, Paul adds this thought for his readers: “In Christ you also — yes, you there in your church — are being built into this magnificent spiritual reality where God dwells by the Holy Spirit.”

Waking up on a Sunday morning and asking “Do I feel like going to church today?” is another way of asking “Do I care about what the Triune God is doing here in my world, right within my reach?”
As we participate in our churches, does God see us seeking him? Are we discerning and honoring his presence in our churches? How we treat our churches is a God-issue.

It’s more than “Don’t waste your Sunday.” It’s “Don’t offend your God. Unless your church is apostate, he is there — for you also.”

Sustaining Grace

Miscellanies post:  Letter to a Wife

Because of travel John Newton and his beloved wife Mary were often separated for several weeks and even for months at a time. On April 17, 1774 John Newton wrote the following letter to Mary [as it appears in the published collection Letters to a Wife (London, 1793; now long op)]:

Though I miss you continually, I am neither lonely nor dull. I hope the Lord will give me a heart to wait upon Him, and then I shall do well enough till you are restored to me. I need not wish the time away. It flies amazingly fast, and alas too poorly improved. These little separations should engage us to seek his blessing that we may be prepared for the hour (which must come) when one of us must have the trial of living awhile without the other. The Lord, who appoints and times all things wisely and well. He only knows which of us will be reserved for this painful exercise. But I rely on his all-sufficiency and faithfulness to make our strength equal to our day. It will require a power above our own, to support us under either party of the alternative, whether we are called to leave, or to resign. But He who so wonderfully brought us together, and has so mercifully spared us hitherto, can sweeten what would otherwise be most bitter to the flesh. If he is pleased to shine upon us all will be well. His presence can supply the loss of the most endeared creature comforts as a candle may be easily spared when the sun is seen.

John Newton’s beloved wife Mary died on December 15, 1790 after a long battle with cancer. John Newton was by her side when she died. He later wrote: “When I was sure she was gone, I took off her ring, according to her repeated injunction, and put it upon my own finger. I then kneeled down, with the servants who were in the room, and returned the Lord my unfeigned thanks for her deliverance, and her peaceful dismission.”

Upheld by God’s sustaining grace, John Newton lived under the trial of living without his bride for 17 years.

Dads: Courageous

Courageous -- Synopsis 

Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. 
 
As law enforcement officers, Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, and their partners are confident and focused. They willingly stand up to the worst the world can offer. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood.

While they consistently give their best on the job, good enough seems to be all they can muster as dads. But they're quickly discovering that their standard is missing the mark.

They know that God desires to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, but their children are beginning to drift further and further away from them. Will they be able to find a way to serve and protect those that are most dear to them?

When tragedy hits home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God ... and to their children?

Courageous is the fourth release of Sherwood Pictures, the moviemaking ministry of Sherwood Church in Albany, Georgia. Their first release since FIREPROOF, the No. 1 independent film of 2008, Courageous joins Facing the Giants and Flywheel in touching and impacting lives through heartfelt stories of faith and hope.

Moviegoers will again find themselves crying, laughing, and cheering—sometimes simultaneously—as they are inspired by everyday heroes who long to be the kinds of dads that make a lifelong impact on their children.

Protecting the streets is second nature to these law enforcement officers. Raising their children? That will take courage.

Courageous ... honor begins at home.

Is Able ... But If Not

 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Daniel 3:16-18

Gratitude

Excerpt from Warren Buffett:  My Philanthropic Pledge | Fortune Magazine

First, my pledge: More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.

Millions of people who regularly contribute to churches, schools, and other organizations thereby relinquish the use of funds that would otherwise benefit their own families. The dollars these people drop into a collection plate or give to United Way mean forgone movies, dinners out, or other personal pleasures. In contrast, my family and I will give up nothing we need or want by fulfilling this 99% pledge.

Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time. Many people, including -- I'm proud to say -- my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money. A struggling child, befriended and nurtured by a caring mentor, receives a gift whose value far exceeds what can be bestowed by a check. My sister, Doris, extends significant person-to-person help daily. I've done little of this.

What I can do, however, is to take a pile of Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates -- "claim checks" that when converted to cash can command far-ranging resources -- and commit them to benefit others who, through the luck of the draw, have received the short straws in life. To date about 20% of my shares have been distributed (including shares given by my late wife, Susan Buffett). I will continue to annually distribute about 4% of the shares I retain. At the latest, the proceeds from all of my Berkshire shares will be expended for philanthropic purposes by 10 years after my estate is settled. Nothing will go to endowments; I want the money spent on current needs.

This pledge will leave my lifestyle untouched and that of my children as well. They have already received significant sums for their personal use and will receive more in the future. They live comfortable and productive lives. And I will continue to live in a manner that gives me everything that I could possibly want in life.

Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.

My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. Both my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery. (For starters, the odds against my 1930 birth taking place in the U.S. were at least 30 to 1. My being male and white also removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced.)

My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate's distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.

The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others. That reality sets an obvious course for me and my family: Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs. My pledge starts us down that course.

Reformation of Heart

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

REFORMATION OR TRANSFORMATION
 
We are being hindered from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins.  I Thess. 2:16

    Paul knew.  Unless the Gentiles heard the words of Jesus Christ, they would have absolutely no chance of leading a different life.  They would be trapped in a cycle of sin that would lead to death and ultimate separation from God.  "Filling up the measure of their sins" means that they would keep walking in the paths of corruption that would cause them to suffer utter futility.  Only God can rescue a man or woman from such a desperate journey.

    Two things are true from this verse.

Satan does everything possible to keep the Word of Christ from bringing people to a point of saving faith.  He will throw up every obstacle.  If a person, far from Christ, encounters someone who loves them enough to tell them about Jesus, Satan will tamper with their ears.  He will skew their perception of what they are hearing so that the message is unpalatable.  There will be minefields in their understanding, stumbling blocks that will encourage them to choose what is safe rather than step out on faith.  Satan makes sure of that.  All the more reason for any who share the Gospel to do warfare before opening their mouth.  Taking a stand against the deceiver insures that they will be able to hear the truth without demonic interference.

Without Christ, they are in bondage to sin.  Have you ever known anyone who vowed to change, but no matter how sincere the desire, they kept falling back into the same sinful ways?  One addicted to alcohol, without Christ, can usually  stay sober for only a brief time.  One who is self-centered, without Christ, can only pretend to be altruistic.  Eventually, his true colors show again.  One who needs to control others in order to feel safe reigns himself in only temporarily.  Let enough stress come his way and his need to have things under his control  again will emerge.  When he begins to act out this time around, it will be even more destructive to his relationships.

Reformation of behavior is possible without Christ, but it is only behavior modification.  Reformation of heart, true heart change, is only possible when Jesus becomes more important than the things which men allow to rule them.
   

May I never be satisfied with resolutions for better behavior.  You promise to change my heart so that I never have to act again.  Save me from performance.  Amen

Live Freely and Lightly

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." 

Matthew 11:28-30 [The Message]

Shine

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. 

Matthew 5:14-16 [The Message]

Final Word

Life Today Weekly Devotional

War of Words
with Robert Morris

When we talk about spiritual warfare, it can be best described as a war of words. There are man’s words against God’s words, and Satan’s voice against God’s voice. Satan can quickly say so many words which cause us to fear; troubling thoughts he puts into our minds like a flood a flood of words.

In Psalm 69 David cries out to God, saying:

"Save me, O God, For the floodwaters are up to my neck. Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, And the floods overwhelm me." (Psalm 69:1-2)
David doesn’t refer to literal floodwaters in this psalm. He uses floodwaters to represent the words of the enemy. Later, David likens the result of being overcome by the words of the enemy to a pit of death. (Psalm 69:14-15)

Like it or not, all of us will go through times when we feel as though we are in a pit.

Consider Joseph. His jealous brothers threw him into a pit then sold him into slavery and told their father that he was dead. Later, after he’d risen to a place of responsibility within Potiphar’s house, the lies of Potiphar’s wife caused Joseph to be put into Pharaoh’s prison.

Be assured, any time you fall into a pit you will encounter the lies of the enemy lies of accusation, lies of hopelessness, even fabricated evidence. And if you believe his lies, you could stay in that pit indefinitely. If you want to get out of that pit, you are going to have to learn to discern the enemy’s lies and resist them with the Truth.

From the very beginning, Satan’s tactic has been to contradict what God says through deceptive words. (Genesis 3:1-6; 2 Corinthians 11:3) Before he could convince Eve to sin, Satan had to cast doubt on the word of God.

Joseph had to fight against the lies of the enemy, and so must we if we want to get out of the pit. For us to effectively battle the enemy’s tactics, we must know what God says. We know God is faithful. We know His words are true. But when we are in the pit, the enemy will try to get us to focus on our circumstances, rather than on God’s faithfulness. The enemy will even manipulate those circumstances to try to make his lies look like the truth. So if we let the circumstances determine what we believe, we can be caught in the lies of the pit.

It’s important to understand this, because the enemy is very deceptive. He will not only tell you a lie, he will fabricate evidence to support his lies. This is how he was able to get Joseph’s father to believe the lie that Joseph was dead. (Genesis 37:31-33)

The brothers didn’t actually tell their father that Joseph had been devoured by wild animals. Instead, they created false evidence and asked their father a misleading question “Is this your son’s coat?” Jacob believed that evidence, and he jumped to the conclusion that his son was dead. Out of his own mouth, Jacob said, “My son has been killed by wild animals.” But it was a lie and he believed that lie for more than 20 years.

Satan wants your words to agree with his words. He wants you to start saying what he is saying. He wants you to agree with him.

Satan is not original. He stole this idea from God. God wants your words to agree with His words. He wants you to say about yourself what He says about you. So does Satan. Satan wants you to believe the lie. God wants you to know the truth.

If you want to start living free, you must learn to discern the lies of the enemy. When you are in the pit, you are especially vulnerable. Circumstances usually don’t look very favorable. That is exactly when Satan will manipulate circumstances in order to deceive you. He will hold up those circumstances before you as evidence that you should believe him rather than have faith in God. But fabricated evidence is not the truth. Joseph’s brothers held up a bloody coat as evidence, and that evidence looked pretty convincing. But it was fabricated evidence. It was not the truth.

If you want to overcome the lies, you must learn to focus on what God has said. When you encounter difficult circumstances, you must remember that nothing is too hard for God, no matter what evidence the enemy might produce.

When we are in an argument with someone, words are our weapon of choice. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is the most effective weapon we have in spiritual warfare. (Ephesians 6:10-17) That is what is successful against Satan’s arguments against us. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Jesus tells his listeners that those who listen to his words and do what he says are like those whose foundations are so solid that they will not be overcome by floodwaters. (Matthew 7:24-27) His disciples are those who are faithful to His teachings. They are the ones who will be set free because they know the truth. (John 8:31)

In the end, Satan is overcome by the shed blood of Jesus and the word of our testimony. (Revelation 12:11) The word of our testimony is what God says is true about us. That’s the final word. Winning this war of words is the first step to living free.



Adapted from Pastor Robert Morris' teachings in "Living Free." Read more about the teaching series.

Good News

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  My Time on TBN

Here is the gospel definition I used on the broadcast (though I messed up the quote a bit). More information about the definition is here:

The gospel is the good news that God, who is more holy than we can imagine, looked upon with compassion, people, who are more sinful than we would possibly admit, and sent Jesus into history to establish His Kingdom and reconcile people and the world to himself. Jesus, whose love is more extravagant than we can measure, came to sacrificially die for us so that, by His death and resurrection, we might gain through His grace what the Bible defines as new and eternal life.

Belief

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

WHAT I BELIEVE WHEN TROUBLE HITS
 
Let no man be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.  I Thess. 2:3

    The grid of my true beliefs is revealed when trouble visits my front door.  What I really believe about myself, and what I believe about how He rules His kingdom becomes apparent.  When there is a cancer of disbelief, down deep, pain drives this faulty theology to the surface. 

    Satan's goal has always been to become the object of my worship.  He attempted to assume God's throne and to this day, he is driven to destroy any reason upon which I would want to worship God.  If he can convince me that God is weak, that things are beyond God's power to heal, or that I am being punished through my trials, then he knows that it will be almost impossible for me to worship my Father.  Jesus said that God has to "seek for those who will worship Him."  (John 4:23)  Obviously, Satan knows how to make serious inroads to steal Jehovah's worship.

    While I may not be attending Satan's church and bowing at his altar, I can be suspended into limbo by the lies I believe about God, revealed through my hopeless ranting.  He snickers just out of sight that the arrows he shot at me, arrows of mis-interpretations of the events of my life, were embraced and believed.   He is always all too willing to analyze my troubles and concoct a version that encourages distrust of God's promises. 

    Self-examination when trouble comes is critical.  Have I disobeyed God and brought these consequences on myself?  Have foolish choices resulted in my plight?  Or, is this the suffering Jesus talked about, the kind that would accompany every child of God into the kingdom.  Let not a painful period in my life cause me to let go of my Savior's hand.  It is time for courage, for faith, and sound theology.

I am committed to let nothing interrupt my worship of You, Lord.  Amen

Bedrock

I love you, God— you make me strong.
   God is bedrock under my feet,
      the castle in which I live,
      my rescuing knight.
   My God—the high crag
      where I run for dear life,
      hiding behind the boulders,
      safe in the granite hideout. 

Psalm 18:1-2 [The Message]

Thoughts

Miscellanies post:  Hard Thoughts

C. H. Spurgeon:

Let us repent heartily of every hard thought we have ever had of our God and Father. I am forced to look back upon some such sins of thought with much distress of mind. They have come from me in serious pain and depression of spirit; and now I pray the Lord of his great mercy to look at them as though I had never thought them, for I do heartily abhor them, and I loathe myself in his sight that I should ever have questioned his tender love and gracious care. If you have similarly transgressed, dear friends, in your dark nights of trouble, come now, and bow your heads, and pray the Lord to forgive his servants concerning this thing; for he is so good, so gracious, that it is a wanton cruelty to think of him as otherwise than overflowing with love.

Fear

Justin Taylor post:  Fighting Fear of Man

“The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.”
Proverbs 29:25

“Fear of man is such a part of our human fabric that we should check for pulse if someone denies it.”

—Ed Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small.

In order to fear God not man, here are the steps Welch sets forth in his book:

Step 1: Recognize that the fear of man is a major theme both in the Bible and in your own life.

Step 2: Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by people in your past.

Step 3: Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by the assumptions of the world.

Step 4: Understand and grow in the fear of the Lord. The person who fears God will fear nothing else.

Step 5: Examine where your desires have been too big. When we fear people, people are big, our desires are even bigger, and God is small.

Step 6: Rejoice that God has covered your shame, protected you from danger, and accepted you. He has filled you with love.

Step 7: Need other people less, love other people more. Out of obedience to Christ, and as a response to his love toward you, pursue others in love.

You can read chapter 1 of the book online for free.

Worst Days and Best Days

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Good Days, Bad Days, and God (excerpt)

Well, reading through the manuscript was such a rich experience for me that I went back and picked up some of my favorite Jerry Bridges books and began reading through them again. Recently I read through chapter one of The Discipline of Grace and was once again devotionally wowed by the power of God’s truth explained so clearly and compellingly through Jerry’s pen. In talking about the necessity of the gospel for both the self-righteous and the guilt-ridden he writes:

Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behavior. Guilt-laden believers  are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God…Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.

That’s a keeper. Thank-you “pastor” Jerry for this gospel-soaked reminder.

Gracious Guest

Ed Stetzer post:  Thursday is for Thinkers:  Michael Carpenter

Last week I kicked off a new feature called Thursday is for Thinkers, where I will invite guest bloggers to share every week. Today's guest blogger is Michael Carpenter. Michael is pastor of Matthew's Table, a missional church community in Lebanon, Tennessee. He is sharing today on Stranger-Centered Hospitality.

"I was a stranger and you welcomed me." -Jesus.

When we first moved into our city to plant a church, we were strangers, outsiders. "You ain't from around here" is the most common phrase we heard. But we soon began to settle in and our church purchased a local coffee shop to serve as a hub of mission. We began meeting the regulars and quickly made several friends. We were becoming "acceptable outsiders."

In order to engage the creative community in our city, we discussed hosting a visual art show at the coffee shop. One of our regulars at the coffee shop, Amanda (iced white chocolate mocha with a quad shot of espresso), owns a local tattoo parlor. So I ventured out to her shop one afternoon to see if she and any other of the artists would like to produce some paintings around the theme of redemption. She and some of the others at the shop that day began pulling out their work and we all huddled around and began discussing it. I began telling them how we wanted to have a big opening with live music and a facilitated discussion on the various views of redemption represented by the artists' work. They all seemed interested, so Amanda and I sat down to hammer out some of the details. During the course of our conversation, I began telling Amanda about our church.

What happened next I never would of imagined. Amanda began back peddling while screaming over and over, "I am a pagan!" and demanded that I leave her place of business. Startled and wondering what I said or did I respected her wishes and left. I reviewed the conversation, looked down at my forearms examining my many tattoos, and could not understand what caused that sort of reaction. Needless to say, the art show did not happen. What I soon began to realize is that while we were trying to demonstrate hospitality to Amanda and her tribe of tattoo artists by hosting a show of their work, I lacked the ability to deal with myself as a stranger - an outsider.

My experience that day led me to an exploration of the missional role of hospitality in order to gain a deeper appreciation of the importance of receiving hospitality in Jesus' life as he often found himself as a guest of others. For this reason, I define hospitality as: "the transformation of the unknown traveler into guest, from stranger into one of the circle of friends." In this definition, I tend to view myself and my church community as the stranger, the unknown travelers who are seeking to be invited into the social circles of those who are far from God.

However, we have discovered that many followers of Jesus are unable to be gracious guests. But unless the person who extends hospitality is also able to become the stranger and be received by another, we are merely creating unidirectional lines of power flow - however unintended this may be. Mission has then become something we do to people, rather than something we do with people. Moreover, if we are only extending but not receiving hospitality, mission becomes quite antithetical to the example of Jesus and his habit of being a guest.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus sat at other people's tables as a guest, he was a recipient, and he allowed others to minister to him. Only as we understand Jesus as a wandering stranger can we then begin to understand the missiological implications of entering a (sub) culture that is not our own. That is, to be a stranger and invited in.

We all know that extending hospitality to others is essential to mission, but so is receiving hospitality when you are the stranger arriving on the scene. The mission of the church is not only giving, but also, more importantly, receiving hospitality. Only then can we claim to be engaged in truly mutual relationships.

Surely, since we do not have a "lasting city" (Hebrews 13:14), followers of Christ will always be "strangers and exiles on earth" (Hebrews 11:13). Thus our longing for a better country, a heavenly one, where God has prepared a city for us (Hebrews 11:16) is the locus of missional activity.

Waiting

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional: 

WAITING FOR WHOM WE LOVE

...to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.  I Thess. 1:10

            Getting ready for company that I enjoy is a lot of fun.  Though it also means considerable work, the labor is obscured by the anticipation of being together with people I love.   Just before they are expected, everything is double checked.  If their arrival is late in the evening, the coffee is ready to drip, a cobbler is usually baking in the oven, a candle is lit in the kitchen, and if it's summertime, a vase full of bluish/lavender hydrangeas from my garden sit on their bedside table. All my senses are engaged as I listen for their car, and then, a knock on the door.

            Since Jesus hasn't visited earth during my lifetime, it's hard to believe He's really coming.  It's easier to coast along and convince myself that it has little chance of happening.  Why go to all the trouble to prepare for someone I've never seen, especially when I have no idea when He will appear?  It's like being on suspended alert with a vague promise of a main event. 

            What do you say to such logic?  If you've got your face in the headlines and your Bible open, you'd shake me and tell me to think twice!  This could very well be the generation that experiences the rapture.  Signs are everywhere and though scripture says that we can not know the exact hour, we are given signs to clue us in as to the general time of His arrival on the kingdom clock. 

            The earth groans for the commencement of end times and the eventual restoration of Eden.  Oh, for King Jesus to reign one day!  The air seems electric and the fragility of mankind has never seemed so fragile.

           Having once had an impersonal faith, I was unable to sustain the passion of living with my eyes glued to the skies.  The discipline required to stay ready and to watch for His appearing failed on account of my deadened heart.  Not anymore.  I'm breathing prayers, dozens of times a day, for His coming.

Let me live this day as if it were my last.  Even so come, Lord Jesus.  Amen  

Jesus Can and Does

I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. 

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

Romans 7:24-8:2 [The Message]

Four Words

Ray Ortlund post:  The gospel in four words

“‘Come unto me,’ he says, ‘and I will give you.’  You say, ‘Lord, I cannot give you anything.’  He does not want anything.  Come to Jesus, and he says, ‘I will give you.’  Not what you give to God, but what he gives to you, will be your salvation.  ‘I will give you‘ — that is the gospel in four words.

Will you come and have it?  It lies open before you.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), I:175.  Italics original.

You Knew I'd Need a Savior

"I'd Need a Savior"

How many names
Can I use to explain
The love of my Jesus
The life that He gave
And so many times
Will I praise You today
I lift up my life
Cause You're always the same
And my offering
To you I bring

Your name is Jesus
Your name is Jesus
You're the wonderful, counselor, my friend
You're what I hold on to
I know that You brought me through
All the days of loss and to the cross, You knew
That I'd need a Savior

...

Yielded to Him

Ray Ortlund post:  Not primarily ethics

The Christian life is not most profoundly a matter of ethics; most profoundly, it is a matter of faith. Abraham trusted God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. As Kierkegaard points out in The Sickness Unto Death, “The opposite of sin is not virtue but faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23).”

Ethics we can manage on our own. We can even observe biblical ethics to keep God at a safe distance. But if our hearts are believing the promises of God, we cannot say no to him. We yield to him. We suffer dislocation in this world for his sake. We feel the ground shifting under our feet and we don’t panic. Nothing seems stable, but we accept that. We surrender to God. Drawn on toward his promises, we start changing.

The most urgent question in our lives today is not moral versus immoral but true versus false, heavenly versus earthly, divine promise versus human control, trust versus possession.

Good news for sinners.

Every Thought, Emotion and Impulse

... fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

2 Cor 10:6 [The Message]

Preeminence and Sovereignty

Excerpt from Len Sweet and Frank Viola:  nano-Manifesto

We declare that only Jesus can transfix and transfigure the void at the heart of the church. God has chosen to vest all power, authority, and life in the living Christ. And God in Christ is only known fully in and through His church. God has no hands but our hands; no feet but our feet. If we are doing today what Jesus did then, we wouldn’t be doing what Jesus did in the past. We’d be doing what Jesus is doing today.

We, therefore, members of the body of Christ, assembled in virtual space and real space, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the moral integrity of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the holy Scriptures, solemnly publish and declare, that we return to the absolute preeminence and sovereignty of Jesus—the triumphant, victorious, resurrected, ascended, enthroned, glorified, Lord of the universe and God’s All in All.

 
And for the support of this Manifesto, with a firm reliance on God our Creator, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor in pursuit of our passion, our mission, and our very life – which is Christ Jesus, this world’s true Lord.

Christ for the World

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with loving zeal,
The poor and them that mourn, the faint and overborne,
Sin sick and sorrow worn, whom Christ doth heal.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer;
The wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
Redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with one accord;
With us the work to share, with us reproach to dare,
With us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with joyful song;
The newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error’s ways,
Inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.

Christ for the World We Sing by Samuel Wolcott

Reaches Both Directions

Tullian Tchividjian post:  The Double-Reach of Self-Righteousness

The Bible makes it clear that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel. And there is perhaps no group of people who better embody the sin of self-righteousness in the Bible than the Pharisees. In fact, Jesus reserved his harshest criticisms for them, calling them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites. Surprisingly to some, this demonstrates that the greatest threat to gospel advancement is not unrighteous badness, but self-righteous goodness.

In Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels, I retell the story of Jonah and show how Jonah was just as much in need of God’s grace as the sailors and the Ninevites. But the fascinating thing about Jonah is that, unlike the pagan sailors and wicked Ninevites,  Jonah was one of the “good guys.” He was a prophet. He was moral. He was a part of God’s covenant community. He was one who “kept all the rules”, and did everything he was supposed to do. He wasn’t some long-haired, tattooed indie rocker; he was a clean-cut prep. He wasn’t a liberal; he was a conservative. He wasn’t irreligious; he was religious. If you’ve ever read S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, than you’ll immediately see that the Ninevites and the sailors in the story were like the “greasers”, while Jonah was like a “soashe.”

What’s fascinating to me is that, not only in the story of Jonah, but throughout the Bible, it’s always the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person. It’s the prostitute who understands grace; it’s the Pharisee who doesn’t. It’s the unrighteous younger brother who gets it before the self-righteous older brother.

There is, however, another (perhaps more subtle) side to self-righteousness that younger-brother types need to be careful of. There’s an equally dangerous form of self-righteousness that plagues the unconventional, the liberal, and the non-religious types. We anti-legalists can become just as guilty of legalism in the opposite direction. What do I mean?

It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are. That makes me better than you.” See the irony?
In other words, they’re proud that they’re not self-righteous!

Listen: self-righteousness is no respecter of persons. It reaches to the religious and the irreligious; the “buttoned down” and the “untucked.” The entire Bible reveals how shortsighted all of us are when it comes to our own sin. For example, it was easy for Jonah to see the idolatry of the sailors. It was easy for him to see the perverse ways of the Ninevites. What he couldn’t see was his own idolatry, his own perversion. So the question is, in which direction does your self-righteousness lean?

Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God’s grace reaches farther. And the good news is, that it reaches in both directions!

Far Happier

I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess ...

Philippians 4:10a [The Message]

Jesus Is

Ray Ortlund post:  #8 My dad's message to me on the day he died

Sunday, July 22, 2007.  Dad woke up very early in his hospital room in Newport Beach.  He knew it was finally his day of release.  He had the nurse call the family in.  Jani and I had just arrived in Northern Ireland for ministry there.  We didn’t know what was happening back home.  But the family gathered around dad’s bed.  They read Scripture.  They sang hymns.  Dad spoke a word of patriarchal blessing and admonition to each one.  He pronounced over them the Aaronic blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).  He fell asleep.

I asked my sister about dad’s message to me.  It was this: “Tell Bud, ministry isn’t everything.  Jesus is.”

Above All

Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
      He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
   Bans war from pole to pole,
      breaks all the weapons across his knee.
   "Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
      loving look at me, your High God,
      above politics, above everything."

Psalm 46:8-10 [The Message]

Reform

Justin Taylor post:  Sanctified Terms for Our Drifts from Holiness

D.A. Carson, For the Love of God, volume 2, Jan. 23 entry:

One of the most striking evidences of sinful human nature lies in the universal propensity for downward drift.

In other words, it takes thought, resolve, energy, and effort to bring about reform.

In the grace of God, sometimes human beings display such virtues. But where such virtues are absent, the drift is invariably toward compromise, comfort, indiscipline, sliding disobedience and decay that advances, sometimes at a crawl and sometimes at a gallop, across generations.

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;

we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom;

we drift toward superstition and call it faith.

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;

we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism;

we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

Chosen

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

PREDOMINANTLY GENTILE
 
For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.  I Thess. 1:4

                One of Paul's themes in I and II Thessalonians is that the believer is chosen by God for salvation.  Many read verses about being chosen and say under their breath, "Right!  Doctrine of election."  What an intellectual response to something highly emotional.

                The problem is, the news that we are chosen by God can fail to have the same ring in our ears as it did in the ears of the predominantly Gentile church who read his letter.  The Gentiles were pinching themselves that God was offering His covenant love outside of the Jewish race.  Where they had once been mostly disqualified, now they were declared worthy.  Paul is so gracious as to reinforce what must be so unbelievable to them.

                This subject had to be one of their tender spots; a place where they might be tempted to disbelieve the good news of the Gospel.  When something appears to be too good to be true, we often write it off and believe that it is.  Paul, their spiritual father, gently drives this point home lest they review the grounds of their salvation and begin to doubt God's favor because of their Gentile origin.  I wonder if, each time they read Paul's words, they breathed out new sighs of relief.

                Each of us has our tender spots; those repeated themes of our story lines that trip us up.  If we've known abandonment, we struggle with God's promise of companionship.  If we've had to take care of ourselves, we distrust God's promise of provision.  If we've suffered a string of broken relationships, we can't relax in God's love.  There is nothing more meaningful than a mentor who comes alongside to reinforce the beautiful messages of Christ in the very area in which we struggle.  Paul is that messenger of mercy; the one who assures this Gentile church that they are God's elect.

                For any of us who were made to feel unworthy of love, undeserving of anything good, we must lift our hands from our sides and reach up to receive this good news today.  Though we may never have been chosen by anyone in this world, God chose us before we were ever rejected.  He chose us before our birth and still chooses us today.  May Paul's paternal words of comfort pour warm oil over the tears in our souls.
 

Chosen.  A word that brings tears.  I will praise Your love forever.  Amen

Honor - Bear - Filter

Excerpt from Ray Ortlund post:  Brothers together in Christ

One, “Outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10).  No flippant put-downs.  No undercutting.  Not even waiting for the next guy to make the first move.  But me getting out of my self-concern to lift the next man up with high honor.  Doing this verbally, unashamedly.

Two, “Bear with one another” (Colossians 3:13).  Not trying to change one another.  Who appointed us to that role?  Our privilege is to bear with one another’s “weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, . . . to break through to the point where we take joy in [the other man’s quirkiness]” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, page 101).

Three, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up” (Ephesians 4:29).  Nothing could be more unAmerican than denying ourselves our right of free speech.  Men of God filter every word by a higher standard.  Even if the words wanting to come out of my mouth are factually true, the real question is, Are my words positively helping the man listening?

With Thanksgiving

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:5b-6a

Disappointment

Mark Batterson post:  Do Not Lose Heart

I love the phrase that is repeated several times in II Corinthians 4: "do not lose heart." It has sustained me the last few days.

I still can't believe the Alcatraz Swim was canceled. We had trained for months. It took quite a bit of time and money to get out to San Fran. And we were emotionally amped. The adrenaline was pumping through our veins as we got ready to jump into the water. Then, without warning, they pulled the plug. It was like a sucker punch that knocks the wind out of you because you didn't see it coming. I had no clue that was even a possibility.

Swimming Alcatraz was more than a life goal. It was a rite of passage for Summer. I wanted to show her that she was capable of more than she realized. I wanted her to do something that would test her mental and physical limits. I wanted that shared experience. We certainly redeemed the time. And the goal wasn't as important as the time we shared as Father and Daughter. But there is still that feeling of an unresolved chord in our hearts.

I feel like I'm taking a graduate course in disappointment. This is one of those things that was simply out of my control. And something like this can't not get you down if you really had your heart set on it. There is no way not to feel a letdown. But too often we let these kinds of things keep us down. That's the issue. If you stay down, you fail the test. The way you pass the test is simply by getting back up. We will return to Alcatraz! I'm not sure when. But that goal stays on the list. I have an even greater resolve. And we'll train even harder the next time. I believe that disappointment is a form of preparation. It pulls out new levels of resolve, new levels of persistence, new levels of desire. Honestly, this helps me appreciate the goals already accomplished even more. And it steels my resolve to go after the goals remaining.

Do not lose heart!

Faith-Full

Jon Bloom post:  Faith that Made Jesus Marvel

Jesus, the “founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), once marveled at the great faith he found in a man. And it’s the only instance recorded in the gospels when Jesus responded that way (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10).

Who was this man? A rabbi? No. A disciple? Nope. A Roman soldier.

*          *          *

Jesus had walked down from the brow of the low mountain outside of Capernaum, his adopted home (Matthew 4:12-16). He had just delivered what would become the most famous sermon in history.

When he entered the town, he was met by a small delegation of Jewish elders. They had an urgent request. There was this Roman centurion whose servant was so sick that he was expected to die shortly. The centurion had asked these elders to go to Jesus on his behalf to see if Jesus might be willing to heal his servant.

Now, this was very unusual. Jewish leaders were not in the habit of being fond of Roman soldiers.

Feeling the obvious oddness of the request, one of the elders quickly added, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

This was also unusual. Roman soldiers were not in the habit of being fond of Jews.

Jesus discerned the Father’s hand in this and so he set off with them to the centurion’s home. He had also just preached a couple hours earlier on the importance of loving one’s enemies. This was something to encourage.

As they neared the house another group of friends intercepted them. There was a brief huddled conference with the confused elders. There were hushed earnest voices. Some observers thought the servant must have died.

Then a representative of the interceptors stepped over to Jesus and said respectfully, “Teacher, I have a message for you from my Roman friend. He says,

Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, “Go” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.

Jesus’ expression turned thoughtful. He pondered the words, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” and “I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me.” He nodded his head slightly and there was just a hint of a chuckle. This from a Roman soldier; a representative of Israel’s enemy. And yet he understood what even these Jewish elders didn’t yet grasp. It was a marvel.

He looked back at the friend and then to the elders. Then he turned and scanned his eyes over his disciples and the small crowd of people who had followed him down the mountain.

Then he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:9).

*          *          *

Both Luke (Luke 7:9) and Matthew (Matthew 8:10) use the Greek word thaumazo (thou-mad'-zo) which we translate “marveled” or “amazed” to describe Jesus’ response to the centurion’s faith. The only time this word is used to describe Jesus’ response to others’ faith is in Mark 6:6, when he marvels at the lack of faith in the people of Nazareth, where he grew up.

The centurion was one of the most unlikely persons to amaze Jesus. He was a Gentile. Doubtless he had a pagan upbringing. He was a Roman, stationed in Palestine to subject the Jews to the Emperor’s rule. He was a man of war. He achieved the rank of centurion by distinguishing himself above others in the brutal Roman martial arts. Not exactly the résumé you’d expect for becoming one of the Bible’s great heroes of faith.

So what in the world had happened to this man? We don’t know. But there he is in Capernaum; a miracle of God’s marvelous grace. And he’s a firstfruit and a foreshadow of what Jesus had come to bring about. He was a living illustration that “many [would] come from the east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

This centurion is also a reminder to us that “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). I think we will be surprised someday when Jesus doles out rewards. Most of the great ones among us will probably have lived in obscurity. Jesus is not as impressed with titles, degrees, and achievements as we are. He is impressed with those who really do humbly believe him.

John Piper once quoted Billy Graham, saying, “God will not reward fruitfulness, he will reward faithfulness.” The centurion was faith-full. I want to be like him when I grow up. 

Summing It All Up

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 [The Message]

My Fuel

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

HIDE OR BEAR DOWN?
 
We give thanks to God for you, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  I Thess. 1:2-3

    What do you do when you're persecuted?  Run and hide?  Engage in all out self-preservation?  What would you do if your life were in danger because your witness for Christ had reached the desks of someone powerful in authority?  Would you lay low until you were sure they had forgotten you?  It would be tempting, wouldn't it?

    What would your expectation be of a brand new believer?  If you led your neighbor to Christ, bought her a Bible, and knew she was reading the book of I John everyday for 15 minutes, how much would you worry about her if you knew something traumatic had happened to her?  Probably a lot.  You might fear that she will cave under the pressure and second guess her decision to trust Christ.  

    Paul's words in his letter to the Thessalonians are pretty mind blowing.  They rehearse the fact that these Christians are new converts.  And, the letter validates that these people, precious to Paul, are in danger.  They are enduring the same persecution Paul faces because they have aligned themselves with Jesus Christ.  But Paul does not hear that they have retreated in fear, nor are they discouraged.  Amazing!  What are they doing?  1.) Performing acts of faith  2.) Laboring in love  3.) Holding fast to Christ, who is their hope.

    Someone close to me wrote this morning and said, "It's a new day.  Tighten up!"  Well said.  When dusk comes, may I look back and know that I took God up on His offer of grace to labor in love and stand fast in my faith.  May it be said that I clung to the hope of Christ's return instead of some empty platitude.  "It'll be okay" accompanied by a pat on the shoulder does nothing to make me feel better when it's offered outside of scripture.  Never has Jesus appearing seemed to be so close on the horizon.  Hope is rock solid.

Loving others, even in my storm, proves that my faith in You is real.  Knowing You're coming back, Jesus, and that you love me is my fuel.  Amen

Humbling Truth

Miscellanies post:  Humbling Orthodoxy

The doctrine of God’s divine election of unworthy sinners is a humbling truth. Or to use Spurgeon’s words, “a sense of election causes a low opinion of self.” That is the bullet point under which the following quote from Spurgeon comes to us, as recorded in a sermon delivered on July 1, 1888:

Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.

Gospel

Ray Ortlund post:  #7 Centered on one or the other

“. . . a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”  Luke 7:34

What does it mean for a church to be gospel-centered?  That’s a popular concept these days.  Good.  What if we were scrambling to be law-centered?  But the difference is not so easy in real terms.

A gospel-centered church holds together two things.  One, a gospel-centered church preaches a bold message of grace — so bold that it becomes the end of the law for all who believe.  Not our performance but Christ’s performance for us.  Not our sacrifices but his sacrifice for us.  Not our superiority but only his worth and prestige.  The good news of substitution.  The good news that our okayness is not in us but exterior to us in Christ alone.  Climbing down from the high moral ground, because only Christ belongs up there.  That message, that awareness, that clarity.  Every Sunday.

Two, a gospel-centered church translates that theology into its sociology.  The good news of God’s grace beautifies how we treat one another.  In fact, the horizontal reveals the vertical.  How we treat one another reveals what we really believe as opposed to what we think we believe.  It is possible to say, “We are a gospel-centered church,” and sincerely mean it, while we make our church into a law-centered social environment.  We see God above lowering his gun, and we breathe a sigh of relief.  But if we are trigger-happy toward one another, we don’t really get it yet.

A gospel-centered church looks something like this album cover — my all-time favorite.  A gospel-centered church is a variegated collection of sinners.  They come together and stick together because they have nothing to fear from their message or their culture.  The theology creates the sociology, and the sociology incarnates the theology.

The one deal-breaker in a gospel-centered church: anyone for any reason turning it into a culture of legal demandingness and negative scrutiny.  Few would do that in the theology, of course.  But still, a church with a message of grace can stop being gospel-centered in real terms.

A major part of pastoral ministry is preaching the doctrines of grace and managing an environment of grace.  The latter is harder to accomplish than the former.  It is more intuitive.  It requires more humility and self-awareness.

May the Friend of sinners grant beautiful gospel-centricity in all our churches.