- The church’s mission--in both belief and practice--should be grounded in the biblical theology of mission.
- Reflection on the church’s mission should be predicated upon the affirmation of the full and sole authority of Scripture.
- The church’s mission should be conceived primarily in terms of the church’s faithfulness and responsiveness to the missionary mandate given by the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Scripture.
- The church’s understanding of its mission should be hermeneutically sound.
- The church’s mission is to be conceived ultimately in theocentric rather than anthropocentric terms.
- The church’s mission, properly and biblically conceived, is to be trinitarian in its orientation, but not at the expense of neglecting the distinct roles of the three persons within the Godhead.
- The contemporary context of the church’s mission, while important, ought not to override the church’s commitment to the authority of Scripture, its need to be grounded in the biblical theology of mission, and the understanding of its task in terms of faithfulness to the gospel.
- The church is the God-ordained agent of his mission in this world today.
- The way in which the kingdom of God is extended in this world today is through regenerate believers acting out their Christian faith in their God-assigned spheres of life: the church, their families, their workplace, the societies in which they live (Eph 5:18-6:9; 1 Pet 2:13-3:7).
- There is no true lasting social transformation apart from personal conversion through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Human organization does not necessarily entail a lack of acknowledgment of God and his initiative in mission.
- The church’s task today is to nurture, renew, and plant churches composed of a spiritually regenerate membership and constituted in keeping with the biblical teaching regarding church leadership.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Mission
Excerpt from Andreas Kostenberger’s Twelve Theses on the Mission of the Church in the 21st Century
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Busyness
Christian Working Woman Transcript
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 - Busyness: What Does God Think About It?
Are you busy? Your response is likely to be “Are you kidding?” Who isn’t busy? I’m asking some questions to help us determine what God thinks about our busyness. The next question to ask yourself:
Has busyness become my identity? Do I take pride in my busyness?
Some years ago I recognized this was true of me. I found my self-worth, in part, in staying very busy, accomplishing lots of things, and having people notice. Often I would hear, “How do you do all you do?” and I would take pride in knowing that people noticed how busy I was. Mind you, for the most part I was busy doing things in ministry, doing things for Jesus, but far too much of my motivation was to get the praise and admiration of others. That was who I was.
As God’s Spirit revealed this spirit of pride to me, I began to pray that God would deliver me from being addicted to busyness. I truly believe it can become an addiction, when we are driven to keep going and stay busy because—well, because that’s who we are! We have built our worth on our accomplishments instead of on Christ.
One way you can tell if this is your problem is to notice how much you talk about how busy you are. Do you wear your busyness like a badge of honor, a point of pride? You may be doing good works, the good things God put you here to do, but if your busyness is all about you instead of pure service to the Lord, then you need to pray about this. Ask God to deliver you—not from doing the good things he wants you to do, but from that sense of pride and identity based on your busyness.
I’ve noticed how we are prone to play one-upsmanship. You know what I mean. We say, “Hi, how you’re doing?” and the other person gives a litany of how busy they are. Then we replay with our own list, as though we’re trying to prove that we’re busier than the other person. And on it goes. Subtly, without realizing it, we’ve taken on a spirit of pride in how busy we are.
I hope you’ll ask yourself this question, and be willing to let God change that attitude in you, if necessary.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 - Busyness: What Does God Think About It?
Are you busy? Your response is likely to be “Are you kidding?” Who isn’t busy? I’m asking some questions to help us determine what God thinks about our busyness. The next question to ask yourself:
Has busyness become my identity? Do I take pride in my busyness?
Some years ago I recognized this was true of me. I found my self-worth, in part, in staying very busy, accomplishing lots of things, and having people notice. Often I would hear, “How do you do all you do?” and I would take pride in knowing that people noticed how busy I was. Mind you, for the most part I was busy doing things in ministry, doing things for Jesus, but far too much of my motivation was to get the praise and admiration of others. That was who I was.
As God’s Spirit revealed this spirit of pride to me, I began to pray that God would deliver me from being addicted to busyness. I truly believe it can become an addiction, when we are driven to keep going and stay busy because—well, because that’s who we are! We have built our worth on our accomplishments instead of on Christ.
One way you can tell if this is your problem is to notice how much you talk about how busy you are. Do you wear your busyness like a badge of honor, a point of pride? You may be doing good works, the good things God put you here to do, but if your busyness is all about you instead of pure service to the Lord, then you need to pray about this. Ask God to deliver you—not from doing the good things he wants you to do, but from that sense of pride and identity based on your busyness.
I’ve noticed how we are prone to play one-upsmanship. You know what I mean. We say, “Hi, how you’re doing?” and the other person gives a litany of how busy they are. Then we replay with our own list, as though we’re trying to prove that we’re busier than the other person. And on it goes. Subtly, without realizing it, we’ve taken on a spirit of pride in how busy we are.
I hope you’ll ask yourself this question, and be willing to let God change that attitude in you, if necessary.
Responding to Those in Pain
Neil Anderson Daily in Christ
WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP
Early in my pastoral ministry I received one of those middle-of-the-night telephone calls that every pastor dreads: "Pastor, our son has been in an accident. They don't expect him to live. Could you please come to the hospital?"
I arrived at the hospital about one in the morning. I sat with the parents in the waiting room hoping and praying for the best but fearing the worst. About 4:00 a.m., the doctor came out to give us the worst: "We lost him."
We were devastated. I was so tired and emotionally depleted that instead of offering them words of comfort, I just sat there and cried with them. I couldn't think of anything to say. I went home feeling that I had failed the family in their darkest hour.
Soon after the accident the young man's parents moved away. But about five years later they stopped by the church for a visit and took me out to lunch. "Neil, we'll never forget what you did for us when our son died," they said. "We knew you loved us because you cried with us."
One of our challenges in the ministry is in learning how to respond to others when they honestly acknowledge their feelings. I find a very helpful principle in the conversations between Job and his friends. Job said: "The words of one in despair belong to the wind" (Job 6:26). What people say in an emotional crisis is irrelevant other than to convey how deeply hurt they are. We have a tendency to fixate on words and ignore the hurt. When grief-stricken Mary and Martha greeted Jesus with the news of Lazarus' death, He wept (John 11:35). Paul's words crystallize it for us: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15). We are not supposed to instruct those who weep; we are supposed to weep with those who weep.
Lord, teach me to love like You love. Give me the freedom to respond emotionally to those who are in pain.
Movie Comments
Excerpts from Peter Suderman's review of the Bill Maher movie Religulous
Let's face it: Bill Maher is smart. And funny. Problem is, he's also crass, arrogant, smug, and, with some frequency, totally insufferable. The common name for someone like this is "jerk." But unlike most jerks, that endless supply of lumbering brutes whose only goal in life is to goad others, you can't quite dismiss Maher -- because, well, he's smart. And funny.
So it's no surprise that Maher's newest project, the anti-religion documentary Religulous, is also smart and funny, just as it is also crass, smug, and occasionally insufferable. In it, Maher travels the world in search of... it's not clear what, but he gets himself into plenty of arguments with religious believers, mostly Christians, but a few Muslims too, over the nature of faith, the historicity of the Bible, and whether a perfectly good God is compatible with the horrors of the modern world. Like Michael Moore, Maher has turned the documentary into a personal polemic with himself as the host and star. But Maher is sharper than Moore, a frank, bracing, compulsive quip-artist who never resorts to Moore's fake stumblebum idiocy.
...
In Religulous, though, Maher's playing an openly rigged game. On one hand, he seems, as always, to display a willingness to take all comers. Bring it, world; anywhere, anyone, anytime, I'll best you, seems to be the subtext of his globe-hopping chats with believers of all stripes. He speaks with worshiping truckers in a big-rig trailer converted into a church, with a pastor who claims to be a direct descendant of Christ, an actor who plays Jesus at a religious theme park in Orlando, a U.S. Senator, a maker of devices that allow Jews to get around scriptural restrictions, an anti-Zionist rabbi who attended a Holocaust denial conference thrown by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a host of lesser knowns.
...
... Religulous isn't a stupid movie by any means, and Maher shows himself in possession of a greater understanding of religion -- especially its historical particulars -- than most of those whom he encounters. Yet for all his bluster, he seems to lack confidence in the power of his own knowledge, for whenever smart and funny collide, funny wins out.
That's not to say he lands no blows. Indeed, Maher employs a well honed rhetorical strategy. Unlike so many of the loudest anti-religion voices, Maher does not argue that God clearly does not exist. No, instead of the fist-shaking, boisterous atheiesm peddeled by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett, Maher sells doubt. His product is not strident unbelief, but uncertainty -- a far easier and more powerful sell. All it requires is a skeptical mind.
...
-----------
Also excerpts from Dan Kimball and his thoughts on seeing the movie
...
The movie was basically Bill painting Christianity and Christians as what I would call the extreme broad-brushed examples within Christianity. From showing de-frocked television evangelist Robert Tilton speaking in tongues, to Ted Haggard clips talking about sex, to going to the Holyland Experience in Orlando (which I blogged about my time there here), to some church leader who feels he is a blood ancestor of Jesus and he is the Messiah. He interviewed various average and not so average Christians who for the most part came across rather silly and not able to answer his questions with intelligent answers. Often it felt like Bill knew the Bible and church history better than they did. I understand that we don't see the full interviews and edits can make anyone look silly. But Bill raised good and legitimate questions but he didn't get good answers from the people he interviewed (again, at least how they edited the film). People in the theater laughed (including me) at how the responses generally came across from Christians to his questions.
Let's face it: Bill Maher is smart. And funny. Problem is, he's also crass, arrogant, smug, and, with some frequency, totally insufferable. The common name for someone like this is "jerk." But unlike most jerks, that endless supply of lumbering brutes whose only goal in life is to goad others, you can't quite dismiss Maher -- because, well, he's smart. And funny.
So it's no surprise that Maher's newest project, the anti-religion documentary Religulous, is also smart and funny, just as it is also crass, smug, and occasionally insufferable. In it, Maher travels the world in search of... it's not clear what, but he gets himself into plenty of arguments with religious believers, mostly Christians, but a few Muslims too, over the nature of faith, the historicity of the Bible, and whether a perfectly good God is compatible with the horrors of the modern world. Like Michael Moore, Maher has turned the documentary into a personal polemic with himself as the host and star. But Maher is sharper than Moore, a frank, bracing, compulsive quip-artist who never resorts to Moore's fake stumblebum idiocy.
...
In Religulous, though, Maher's playing an openly rigged game. On one hand, he seems, as always, to display a willingness to take all comers. Bring it, world; anywhere, anyone, anytime, I'll best you, seems to be the subtext of his globe-hopping chats with believers of all stripes. He speaks with worshiping truckers in a big-rig trailer converted into a church, with a pastor who claims to be a direct descendant of Christ, an actor who plays Jesus at a religious theme park in Orlando, a U.S. Senator, a maker of devices that allow Jews to get around scriptural restrictions, an anti-Zionist rabbi who attended a Holocaust denial conference thrown by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a host of lesser knowns.
...
... Religulous isn't a stupid movie by any means, and Maher shows himself in possession of a greater understanding of religion -- especially its historical particulars -- than most of those whom he encounters. Yet for all his bluster, he seems to lack confidence in the power of his own knowledge, for whenever smart and funny collide, funny wins out.
That's not to say he lands no blows. Indeed, Maher employs a well honed rhetorical strategy. Unlike so many of the loudest anti-religion voices, Maher does not argue that God clearly does not exist. No, instead of the fist-shaking, boisterous atheiesm peddeled by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett, Maher sells doubt. His product is not strident unbelief, but uncertainty -- a far easier and more powerful sell. All it requires is a skeptical mind.
...
-----------
Also excerpts from Dan Kimball and his thoughts on seeing the movie
...
The movie was basically Bill painting Christianity and Christians as what I would call the extreme broad-brushed examples within Christianity. From showing de-frocked television evangelist Robert Tilton speaking in tongues, to Ted Haggard clips talking about sex, to going to the Holyland Experience in Orlando (which I blogged about my time there here), to some church leader who feels he is a blood ancestor of Jesus and he is the Messiah. He interviewed various average and not so average Christians who for the most part came across rather silly and not able to answer his questions with intelligent answers. Often it felt like Bill knew the Bible and church history better than they did. I understand that we don't see the full interviews and edits can make anyone look silly. But Bill raised good and legitimate questions but he didn't get good answers from the people he interviewed (again, at least how they edited the film). People in the theater laughed (including me) at how the responses generally came across from Christians to his questions.
Although it was a humorous film, and although it raised great questions which need to be asked - it only showed a very one-sided perspective. Thus, to me it was a poor film journalistically as it misrepresented Christianity by only showing the extremes of it.
...
After I drove Tim home, we stopped outside his house and we prayed together for a few minutes in the car. We prayed for Bill Maher and we prayed for all the people who will be viewing this film. Not that I don't think people shouldn't see this film. I think Christians should see this film (*although---I want to warn anyone thinking of seeing it and say that there was a lot of coarse language and scenes in it). But it will cause Christians to ask themselves "how would I respond to the questions Bill raises?" In our culture and world today, the questions Bill raises are very valid. I just wish he interviewed people who could have responded better than what was at least shown in the film. There are reasonable and intelligent answers to about everything Bill Maher was raising.
I also wish that Bill would have shown the positive things Christianity and Christians have done throughout history. Yes, there are some very shameful things that have happened unfortunately that would be against what the Bible itself teaches. But because of the "faith" that Bill mocks, we have seen Christian organizations like Compassion International and World Vision help out thousands and thousands of people in need across the world. We have seen Christians and churches serving the needy and those hurting all across the world and give millions of dollars to those in need. We have seen marriages healed and lives changed for the better in all types of ways. So many things, you could go on and on about the good faith in Jesus has done in our world. But unfortunately, the focus is all on the negative and reinforcing the negative in the minds of those who see the film.
But... the bottom line for me, is that this film actually motivates me. It gives me energy to want to be more personally missional as well as in terms of rallying the church to be in the world and among people. It motivates me to want to be training and teaching Christians how to respond to these very things that are being asked today. I have a lot of hope and optimism, because I believe there are answers.
...
Monday, October 06, 2008
In the Name of Our Master
Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master. Husbands, go all out in love for your wives. Don't take advantage of them.
Children, do what your parents tell you. This delights the Master no end. Parents, don't come down too hard on your children or you'll crush their spirits.
Servants, do what you're told by your earthly masters. And don't just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you'll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you're serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn't cover up bad work. And masters, treat your servants considerately. Be fair with them. Don't forget for a minute that you, too, serve a Master—God in heaven.
Colossians 3:17-4:1, The Message
Friday, October 03, 2008
Seeing
Lyrics from Brandon Heath (tour): Give Me Your Eyes
...
Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me your love for humanity.
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.
...
...
Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me your love for humanity.
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see.
...
Yielded to God
Neil Anderson Daily in Christ
BEYOND THE BOUNDARY OF GOD'S DESIGN
Sex glands are a God-given part of our autonomic nervous system. Normal sexual functioning is a regular, rhythmic cycle of life. But when Jesus said, "Everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28), He was describing something beyond the boundary of God's design for sex. The word for lust is epithumos . The prefix epi means "to add to," signifying that something is being added to a normal drive. Jesus challenged us not to add onto the God-given sexual drive by polluting our minds with lustful thoughts. The only way to control your sexual drive is to control your thought life.
Sexual lust demands physical expression, and that's where Romans 6 comes into play. We are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies (verse 12) by using our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness (verse 13). Whenever you use your body wrongly through a sexual offense, you give Satan a foothold and your sexual problem becomes a spiritual problem. A missionary shared with me at the end of a conference that he was finally free after 20 years of bondage to lust. He sought counseling for his problem during his preparation for missionary service and on every furlough, but he never gained lasting victory until he realized that it was a spiritual problem which needed a spiritual solution.
Scripture indicates that sexual sins are in a class by themselves because they require the use of the body. Virtually every person I have counseled regarding a spiritual conflict has confessed some kind of sexual aberration.
Lord, I yield my sexual life to You as an expression of loving worship. I choose today to assume responsibility for my thoughts.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Make Me Whole
Nothing But the Blood
(Robert Lowry, 1876)
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
(Robert Lowry, 1876)
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Salvation-Defined History
"In a salvation-defined history, sin is not diminished -- if anything we are even more aware of it -- but it is no longer definitive; salvation is definitive. Salvation provides the terms that set the limits, establish the boundaries, inform the conditions in which wars are fought, gardens planted, marriages arranged, good and services bought and sold, elections conducted, funerals held, football games played, and meals cooked. These limits are grand, exceeding by far what we are used to. Only worship can approximate such conditions.
...
A sin-defined history understands history as primarily the experience of what men and women, some better and some worse than us, do. ...
...
By contrast, a salvation-defined history accepts all the sin-evidence but penetratingly discerns the sovereignty of God and the work of salvation "in, through, and under" all of it. St. John puts Israel's salvation perspective in an epigram: "he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). The "he who is in the world" is thoughtlessly and ignorantly presumed to be definitive for history. John, compressing the biblical salvation work into a phrase, says "not so -- he who is in you is greater." We say, "Greater? Are you sure? Can this be true? Is this evangelical bluff? Pious bombast? Maybe this is 'spiritually' true but certainly not historically true."
But Israel never spiritualized salvation. The Song of Moses is emphatically historical, something happened. And what happened continues to happen."
Eugene Peterson
...
A sin-defined history understands history as primarily the experience of what men and women, some better and some worse than us, do. ...
...
By contrast, a salvation-defined history accepts all the sin-evidence but penetratingly discerns the sovereignty of God and the work of salvation "in, through, and under" all of it. St. John puts Israel's salvation perspective in an epigram: "he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). The "he who is in the world" is thoughtlessly and ignorantly presumed to be definitive for history. John, compressing the biblical salvation work into a phrase, says "not so -- he who is in you is greater." We say, "Greater? Are you sure? Can this be true? Is this evangelical bluff? Pious bombast? Maybe this is 'spiritually' true but certainly not historically true."
But Israel never spiritualized salvation. The Song of Moses is emphatically historical, something happened. And what happened continues to happen."
Eugene Peterson
Blessing
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
"So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them."
Numbers 6: 22-27
Trends
Excerpts from Acts29 Blog of Don Carson talk
3. The most dangerous trends in any age are the trends that most people do not see.
Five Trends in the Church Today
By D A Carson, September 26, 2008
1. It is important to observe contradictory trends.
Interestingly, Don encouraged us to recognize the good things in our current culture. He said we have a lot more good commentaries available to us than we did fifty years ago. Yet, mainline churches have fewer conversions than ever before. This is a contradictory trend, according to Carson.
...
2. Current evangelical fragments are moving into a new phase -- into polarized "clumps."Don said evangelicals are identifying themselves in clump-like expressions of evangelicalism (Health/Wealth clump, Openness clump, Arminian clump, etc.). Carson said the National Pastor's Conference (NPC) is as inclusive as possible -- some speakers are stellar while others are simply heretical -- but they include as many unique tribal representatives as possible. "Even Reformed circles are clumping," said Carson, "and the center is emptying out in favor of vague, dilute evangelicalism."
...3. The most dangerous trends in any age are the trends that most people do not see.
Orthodoxy is always focused on the past but the new expressions of evangelicalism are the most dangerous. Carson recalled the once Christian colleges like Princeton and Yale that were led by pastor/theologians but became so big that they hired administrators who were not as discerning of current trends; only of past. A formally orthodox leader will head into trouble if he is not astute toward current trends in evangelicalism.
...
4. There is a trend in our churches to be consumed by social concern.In the most intriguing point of his talk, Don said that the Gospel plus caring for the poor was an inseparable couplet. He cautioned that if the gospel was merely assumed (and not clearly articulated), our passion for social justice would overshadow the gospel. While we are not intentionally exalting social concern over the gospel, people learn what we are excited about (gospel over caring for the poor). Carson warned, "Our passion must first be the gospel and not assume it to be understood." He continued, "We must be careful to keep the gospel central and not turn our responses to the gospel as the main target."
Furthermore, Carson exhorted these Christian leaders to spend our time on prayer and the ministry of the Word and allow our people to begin and maintain efforts in social concern. He said we must distinguish between what the church as church must do and what the community of believers in the church must do (I did not personally see the difference but it seemed to suggest that the pastor was exempt from exemplifying an outpouring of the gospel into the community through social efforts).
Our calling, Carson said is to do good in the city (Jer. 29), because the person has an eternal destiny and we care for them. We are all poor beggars telling other poor beggars where they can find bread. Don concluded this section by warning us not to make the issues of gospel and social concern antithetical.
5. There is a trend in our churches to emphasize discipleship over the gospel.
Carson emphasized teaching the whole council of God centering on Christ crucified as the power of the gospel and salvation. If we see the gospel as what "saves" us and if we see discipleship as the actual place where real transformation takes place, it is not a biblical approach. Carson said this trend has a tendency to lead us to see discipleship as legalism; as what pleases God.
...
Anticipation
Excerpt from Perhaps by Mark Batterson
Here's one of my favorite phrases in Scripture. I Samuel 14:6 says, "Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf." I love that modus operandi. But I honestly think many if not most Christians take the opposite approach. Perhaps the Lord WON'T act in our behalf. We let fear dictate our decisions. We have a better-safe-than-sorry mentality. We live as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
Maybe it's time for a paradigm shift. When did we start believing that God wants to take us to safe places to do easy things? Here's a thought: the will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan.
...
Here's one of my favorite phrases in Scripture. I Samuel 14:6 says, "Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf." I love that modus operandi. But I honestly think many if not most Christians take the opposite approach. Perhaps the Lord WON'T act in our behalf. We let fear dictate our decisions. We have a better-safe-than-sorry mentality. We live as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
Maybe it's time for a paradigm shift. When did we start believing that God wants to take us to safe places to do easy things? Here's a thought: the will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan.
...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Restoring
Neil Anderson Daily in Christ
DISCIPLINE VS. JUDGMENT
Are there any occasions when Christians should confront each other on matters of behavior? Yes. We are required by God to confront and restore those who have clearly violated the boundaries of Scripture (Matthew 18:15, 16). But let me alert you to an important distinction in this area: Discipline is an issue of confronting observed behavior--that which you have personally witnessed (Galatians 6:1); judgment is an issue of character. We are instructed to confront others concerning sins we have observed, but we are not allowed to judge their character (Matthew 7:1; Romans 14:13). Disciplining is our responsibility; judging character is God's responsibility.
For example, imagine that you just caught your child telling a lie. "You're a liar," you say to him. That's judgment, an attack on his character. But if you say, "Son, you just told a lie," that's discipline. You're holding him accountable based on an observed behavior.
Or let's say that a Christian friend admits to you that he cheated on his income tax return. If you confront him as a thief, you are judging his character and that's not your responsibility. You can only confront him on the basis of what you see: "By cheating on your taxes, you are stealing from the government and that's wrong."
Much of what we call discipline is nothing less than character assassination. We say to our disobedient child: "You're a bad boy." We say to a failing Christian brother or sister: "You're not a good Christian." Such statements don't correct or edify; they tear down character and convey disapproval for the person as well as his problem. Your child is not a liar; he's a child of God who has told a lie. Your Christian friend is not a thief; he's a child of God who has taken something which doesn't belong to him. We must hold people accountable for their behavior, but we are never allowed to denigrate their character.
Forgive me, Father, for judging others. Enable me to discipline in love those I care about and for whom I am responsible.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Your Real Life
So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
Colossians 3: 1-4 (The Message)
Ministry of Reconciliation
Neil Anderson Daily in Christ
WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR CONVICTION
I grew up with a good, moral background, and I even went to church, but I wasn't a Christian. In those days I really enjoyed beer, especially on a hot day after mowing the lawn. When I received Christ as a young man, I joined a church which preached total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. I wasn't a drunk, so I decided to scratch that rule and keep my beer.
My beer-drinking wasn't excessive, but two years later the Lord convicted me about it. With the conviction came the power to obey. So I gave it up. I'm so glad that no one laid a guilt trip on me or made an issue over my drinking an occasional beer.
Sometimes we are tempted to play the role of the Holy Spirit or the conscience in someone else's life on issues where the Scriptures are not crystal clear: "Christians don't drink or smoke"; "You should spend at least 30 minutes a day in prayer and Bible study"; "Buying lottery tickets is not good stewardship." I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit knows exactly when to bring conviction on issues of conscience. It's part of the process of sanctification which He superintends. When we attempt to play His role, we often do little more than convey criticism and rejection. Our job is to accept people and let the Holy Spirit bring conviction in His time.
God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, not condemnation. Paul wrote, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19). There is a time and place to confront Christians about immoral behavior. But when we do so, it is only because we care about their relationship with God and desire to protect others.
Lord, teach me to confront others in love when I must and to accept others in love as You have accepted me.
Eschatology
Excerpts from Scot McKnight: The Eschatology of Politics | Out of Ur
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Where is our hope? To be sure, I hope our country solves its international conflicts and I hope we resolve poverty and dissolve our educational problems and racism. But where does my hope turn when I think of war or poverty or education or racism? Does it focus on November 4? Does it gain its energy from thinking that if we get the right candidate elected our problems will be dissolved? If so, I submit that our eschatology has become empire-shaped, Constantinian, and political. ...
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Where is our hope? To be sure, I hope our country solves its international conflicts and I hope we resolve poverty and dissolve our educational problems and racism. But where does my hope turn when I think of war or poverty or education or racism? Does it focus on November 4? Does it gain its energy from thinking that if we get the right candidate elected our problems will be dissolved? If so, I submit that our eschatology has become empire-shaped, Constantinian, and political. ...
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But, participation in the federal election dare not be seen as the lever that turns the eschatological designs God has for this world. Where is our hope? November 4 may tell us. What I hope it reveals is that:
Our hope is in God. The great South African missiologist, David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission impressed upon many of us that the church’s mission is not in fact the “church’s” mission but God’s mission. Our calling is to participate in the missio Dei, the mission of God in this world. So, at election time we can use the season to re-align our mission with the mission of God. Therein lies our hope.
Our hope is in the gospel of God. God’s mission is gospel-shaped. Some today want to reduce gospel to what we find in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, while others want to expand it to bigger proportions (and I’m one of the latter), we would do well at election time to re-align ourselves once again with the gospel as God’s good news for our world. Therein lies our hope.
Our hope is in the gospel of God that creates God’s people. God’s gospel-shaped mission creates a new people of God. In fact, the temptation of good Protestants to skip from Genesis 3 (the Fall) to Romans 3 (salvation) must be resisted consciously. We need to soak up how God’s gospel-shaped work always and forever creates a gospel people. The first thing God does with Abraham is to form a covenant people, Israel, and Jesus’ favorite word was “kingdom,” and Paul was a church-obsessed theologian-missionary. ...
Our hope is in the gospel of God that creates a kind of people that extends God’s gospel to the world. Chris Wright’s big book, The Mission of God, reminds us that election is missional: God creates the people of God not so the people of God can compare themselves to those who are not God’s people, but so that God’s people will become a priesthood in this world to mediate the mission of God, so that all hear the good news that God’s grace is the way forward.
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Friday, September 26, 2008
Consider
Neil Anderson Daily in Christ
OUR RELATIONSHIP TO SIN
Even though you are dead to sin, sin's strong appeal may still cause you to struggle with feeling that you are more alive to sin than you are to Christ. But Romans 6:1-11 teaches us that what is true of the Lord Jesus Christ is true of us in terms of our relationship to sin and death. God the Father allowed His Son to "be sin" in order that all the sins of the world--past, present and future--would fall on Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). When He died on the cross, our sins were on Him. But when He rose from the grave, there was no sin on Him. When He ascended to the Father, there was no sin on Him. And today, as He sits at the Father's right hand, there is no sin on Him. Since we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, we too have died to sin.
Christ already died to sin, and because you are in Him, you have died to sin too. Sin is still strong and appealing, but your relationship with sin has ended. I've met many Christians who are still trying to die to sin, and their lives are miserable and fruitless as a result because they are struggling to do something that has already been done. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death" (Romans 8:2).
Romans 6:11 summarizes what we are to believe about our relationship to sin because of our position in Christ. It doesn't matter whether you feel dead to sin or not; you are to consider it so because it is so. People wrongly wonder, "What experience must I have in order for this to be true?" The only necessary experience is that of Christ on the cross, which has already happened. When we choose to believe what is true about ourselves and sin, and walk on the basis of what we believe, our right relationship with sin will work out in our experience. But as long as we put our experience before our belief, we will never fully know the freedom that Christ purchased for us on the cross.
Lord, teach me not always to believe what I feel about my relationship to sin, but to believe the truth that I am dead to it.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Worship
" ... I have been to many concerts of music ranging from major symphonic works to big-band jazz. I have heard world-class orchestras under world-famous conductors. I have been in the audience for some great performances that have moved me and fed me and satisfied me richly. But only two or three times in my life have I been in an audience which, the moment the conductor's baton came down the last time, leaped to its feet in electrified excitement, unable to contain its enthusiastic delight and wonder at what it had just experienced. (American readers might like to know that English audiences are very sparing with standing ovations.)
That sort of response is pretty close to genuine worship. Something like that, but more so, is the mood of Revelation 4 and 5. That is what, when we come to worship the living God, we are being invited to join in.
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... Worship is at the very center of all Christian living. One of the main reasons that theology (trying to think straight about who God is) matters is that we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. It matters that we learn more about who God is so that we can praise him more appropriately. Perhaps one of the reasons why so much worship, in some churches at least, appears unattractive to so many people is that we have forgotten, or covered up, the truth about the one we are worshiping. But whenever we even glimpse the truth we are drawn back. Like groupies sneaking off work to see a rock star who's in town for just an hour or so, like fans waiting all night for a glimpse of a football team returning in triumph -- only more so! -- those who come to recognize the God we see in Jesus, the Lion who is also the Lamb, will long to come and worship him."
N. T. Wright, Simply Christian
That sort of response is pretty close to genuine worship. Something like that, but more so, is the mood of Revelation 4 and 5. That is what, when we come to worship the living God, we are being invited to join in.
...
... Worship is at the very center of all Christian living. One of the main reasons that theology (trying to think straight about who God is) matters is that we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. It matters that we learn more about who God is so that we can praise him more appropriately. Perhaps one of the reasons why so much worship, in some churches at least, appears unattractive to so many people is that we have forgotten, or covered up, the truth about the one we are worshiping. But whenever we even glimpse the truth we are drawn back. Like groupies sneaking off work to see a rock star who's in town for just an hour or so, like fans waiting all night for a glimpse of a football team returning in triumph -- only more so! -- those who come to recognize the God we see in Jesus, the Lion who is also the Lamb, will long to come and worship him."
N. T. Wright, Simply Christian
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