Peeling Away the Grave Clothes

Christine Wyrtzen post:  Has My Past Been Altered?

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.  Romans 8:11

         Harry Ironside, one of the first pastors of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, said…“Christians are people whose past has been altered.”  The resurrection power of Jesus has forgiven their sins and forever stripped Satan of his right to damn them.  What power!  Without Christ’s death, my sins would have been enumerated and posted on my own cross.  I would have died the death of one condemned.  Hell would have been my end.

If my past has been altered, forgiven, then why does my past still affect me so much?  Is it possible that the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead can also make me new, in every way, on the inside? 

• If an angry mother raised me and I still tremble in the presence of anger, Christ’s resurrection power can deliver me from fear and make me bold.  I can be calm and prayerful though others rage.
• If I was raised to be someone’s puppet and never had a thought or dream of my own, Christ’s resurrection power can deliver me from the control of others.  I can be free to follow Christ and follow His plans for me.
• If I was criticized relentlessly for most everything I did and still feel a crippling fear of doing something wrong, Christ’s resurrection power can deliver me from playing it safe.  I can become a Joshua who goes forward in the God’s confidence to conquer spiritual mountains.

How does this happen?  Not by a simple prayer and one-time event.  While Jesus washed away my sins through one event, His own death, the process of being made new on the inside is progressive.  It’s something God does, but with my full cooperation and involvement.

Wouldn’t it be tragic to get to heaven and see a picture of who I could have been if I had trusted Jesus, and His Word, to really change?  If I am a radical disciple, a woman who has great faith in the transforming power of Christ and every Word He speaks, I will cease to resemble the person I was in my past.  Jesus calls each of His children out of the grave, offers to slowly unwrap the grave clothes, so that we can be free to live in resurrection power.  To what extent am I allowing that?

I just realized, Lord.  It’s called sanctification.  Peeling away the graveclothes.  May it be!  Amen

New Song, New Vision, New Gift

Mark Batterson post:  The Land of Unfamiliarity

We naturally gravitate toward what is familiar.  Once we find a place to sit, we’ll sit there every time.  Once we find a favorite dish, we’ll stop trying new things on the menu.  Once we get into a routine, it’s next to impossible to get out of it. As the old adage put it: you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  Or can you?
Most of us live most of our lives in the land of the familiar.  We never cross the border into the land of unfamiliarity.  Why?  Because unfamiliarity is full of uncertainty.  We know that is where life’s greatest discoveries are to be made, but we don’t dare cross the bridge of risk.

Here’s out it plays out spiritually.  God moves in a profound way and we don’t know what to do so we do what we’ve always done. We return to the land of familiarity.  We quickly sing a song or pray a prayer.  Is there anything wrong with that?  No.  But that is the land of the familiar. Maybe God wants to give you a new song, a new vision, a new gift.

Remember what it says about Abraham?  “He went even though he didn’t know where he was going.”  He ventured into unfamiliar territory.  No map.  Just a compass.  Most Christians want a map, but God gives us a compass.  His name is the Holy Spirit. He points us and prompts us and stirs us. He is the voice behind us saying “this is the way, walk in it.”  And he always leads toward the land of unfamiliarity.  But we don’t want to have to rely on hearing His voice so we settle for the land of the familiar.  And that is where most of us die.  We die of familiarity.  We’re buried in the land of familiarity.

If you want to experience God in a new way, you can’t keep doing the same old thing.

“Behold, the former things have come to pass.  New things I now declare.”

Isaiah 42:9

Know What Really Counts

What's Best Next post:  The Secret of Effectiveness

It’s really simple to understand on one level; but on another level, it’s very hard to truly grasp and put in to practice. Here it is, stated very well by Rick Warren in The Purpose-Driven Church:

The secret of effectiveness is to know what really counts, then do what really counts, and not worry about all the rest.

This makes sense if you think about it. Effectiveness means doing the right things. It doesn’t mean just getting things done, but getting the right things done.

If you are going to be effective, then, you need to know what the most important things are. But that’s not enough, because if you know what is most important but don’t actually do those things, it won’t help you. so you not only need to know what really counts, you have to actually do what counts.

But in seeking to do this, there are obstacles. There is a villain, so to speak: all the other things (many of which are good in themselves) which are outside of our core purpose and threaten to distract us from it by splintering our efforts and pulling us in too many directions. So in order to put first things first, you also need to know how not to worry about other things.

So: Know what counts, put it first, and know how to keep yourself from being distracted by everything else.

Intentionality

Mark Batterson post:  Live Naked

I know that title is a little shocking so let me explain.  In Hebrews 12 it says: “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.  And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”

This is athletic language.  The writer of Hebrews is probably referencing ancient Olympic athletes who stripped off their clothing before competing so nothing would impede their peak performance.  Let me borrow that imagery and suggest that we are to live naked before God and each other. In other words, with nothing to hide.  Isn’t that the imagery in Eden?  Adam and Eve lived naked before God and before each other.  It’s an image of absolute authenticity and it follows on the heels of deep repentance.

Is there something you’re hiding?  Is there something you need to repent of? Is there something you need to strip off? I’m not just talking about the “gross sins” that are thousand pound weights.  I’m talking about the one-ounce sins that keep you from running your best race!

Don’t settle for what is permissible!  Strive for what is beneficial!

What if we approached our spiritual race with the same intensity and intentionality with which Olympic athletes train and compete?

The Ordinary Is Not Ordinary

What's Best Next post:  Starbucks, Vocation, and The Meaning of the Mundane

The other day I came across an excerpt from the new book by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul. I don’t know if he’s a believer or not, but right at the start he does a fantastic job of articulating, in shadow form, a core concept of the biblical doctrine of vocation. Here’s what he says:

Only weeks earlier, I’d sat in my Seattle office holding back-to-back meetings about how to quickly fix myriad problems that were beginning to surface inside the company. One team had to figure out how we could, in short order, retrain 135,000 baristas to pour the perfect shot of espresso.

Pouring espresso is an art, one that requires the barista to care about the quality of the beverage. If the barista only goes through the motions, if he or she does not care and produces an inferior espresso that is too weak or too bitter, then Starbucks has lost the essence of what we set out to do 40 years ago: inspire the human spirit.

I realize this is a lofty mission for a cup of coffee, but this is what merchants do. We take the ordinary—a shoe, a knife—and give it new life, believing that what we create has the potential to touch others’ lives because it touched ours.

Here’s the point: the ordinary is not ordinary. Rather, it is in the ordinary that we are able to build people up and, yes, inspire the human spirit.

When you clean house for your family, or pour a cup of coffee, or take your car to the wash, you aren’t just doing small, mundane things. You are building building people up. You are making things better, and making a statement that people matter. Or, that’s how you ought to see it.

And the doctrine of vocation takes us further than this. For it means that, when we serve others in the everyday, it is actually God himself who is serving people through us. God is hidden in the everyday. This is true if we are believers; and God is also working through unbelievers, even if they don’t know it (Gene Veith makes this point very well in God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life
when he discusses why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “give us this day our daily bread” when we actually get it from the grocery store, who got it from the bread company, who got the ingredients from various other spots, and so forth).

In fact, the doctrine of vocation even takes us one more step. When we, as followers of Christ, serve others for his sake, we aren’t just serving them. We are actually serving the Lord himself. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24; see also Ephesians 6:7-8).

Monster of Uncertainty

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Where To Look When You're In Trouble

A shift has taken place in the Evangelical church with regard to the way we think about the gospel–and it’s far from simply an ivory tower conversation. This shift effects us on the ground of everyday life.

In his book Paul: An Outline of His Theology, famed Dutch Theologian Herman Ridderbos (1909 – 2007) summarizes this shift which took place following Calvin and Luther. It was a sizable but subtle shift which turned the focus of salvation from Christ’s external accomplishment to our internal appropriation:

While in Calvin and Luther all the emphasis fell on the redemptive event that took place with Christ’s death and resurrection, later under the influence of pietism, mysticism and moralism, the emphasis shifted to the individual appropriation of the salvation given in Christ and to it’s mystical and moral effect in the life of the believer. Accordingly, in the history of the interpretation of the epistles of Paul the center of gravity shifted more and more from the forensic to the pneumatic and ethical aspects of his preaching, and there arose an entirely different conception of the structures that lay at the foundation of Paul’s preaching.

Donald Bloesch made a similar observation when he wrote, “Among the Evangelicals, it is not the justification of the ungodly (which formed the basic motif in the Reformation) but the sanctification of  the righteous that is given the most attention.”

With this shift came a renewed focus on the internal life of the individual. The subjective question, “How am I doing?” became a more dominant feature than the objective question, “What did Jesus do?” As a result, generations of Christians were taught that Christianity was primarily a life-style; that the essence of our faith centered on “how to live”; that real Christianity was demonstrated in the moral change that took place inside those who had a “personal relationship with Jesus.” Our ongoing performance for Jesus, therefore, not Jesus’ finished performance for us, became the focus of sermons, books, and conferences. What I need to do and who I need to become, became the end game.

Believe it or not, this shift in focus from “the forensic to the pneumatic”, from the external to the internal, has enslaving practical consequences.

When you’re on the brink of despair–looking into the abyss of darkness, experiencing a dark-night of the soul–turning to the internal quality of your faith will bring you no hope, no rescue, no relief. Every internal answer will collapse underneath you. Turning to the external object of your faith, namely Christ and his finished work on your behalf, is the only place to find peace, re-orientation, and help.

The gospel always directs you to something, Someone, outside you instead of to something inside you for the assurance you crave and need in seasons of desperation and doubt. The surety you long for when everything seems to be falling apart won’t come from discovering the dedicated “hero within” but only from the realization that no matter how you feel or what you’re going through, you’ve already been discovered by the “Hero without.”

As Sinclair Ferguson writes in his book The Christian Life:

True faith takes its character and quality from its object and not from itself. Faith gets a man out of himself and into Christ. Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ. Even those of us who have weak faith have the same strong Christ as others!

By his Spirit, Christ’s continuing subjective work in me consists of his constant, daily driving me back to his completed objective work for me. Sanctification feeds on justification, not the other way around. To be sure, both doctrine and devotion go hand in hand, but the gospel is the good news announcing Christ’s devotion to us, not our devotion to him. The gospel is not a command to hang onto Jesus. Rather, it’s a promise that no matter how weak your faith may be in seasons of spiritual depression, God is always holding on to you.

Martin Luther had a term for the debilitating danger that comes from locating our hope in anything inside us: monstrum incertitudinis (the monster of uncertainty).  It’s a danger that has always plagued Christians since the fall but especially Christians in our highly subjectivistic age. And it’s a monster that can only be destroyed by the external promises of God in Jesus.

Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a  bonafide peace that’s built on a real change in status before God—from standing guilty before God the judge to standing righteous before God our Father. This is the objective custody of even the weakest believer. It’s a peace that rests squarely on the fact that we’ve already been “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (v. 10), justified before God once and for all through faith in Christ’s finished work. It will surely produce real feelings and robust action, but this peace with God that Paul describes rests securely on the work of Christ for us, outside us. The truth is, that the more I look into my own heart for peace, the less I find. On the other hand, the more I look to Christ and his promises for peace, the more I find.

So, when pressed in on every side, look up. In God’s economy, the only way out is always up, not in.

Encourage Your Servants

Scotty Smith post:  A Prayer for Weary Servants of the Gospel

     But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:1-3 ESV

     Dear Lord Jesus, you’ve stirring my heart today to pray for weary men and women serving in the ministry of the gospel. It seems like a week does not go by without my hearing of another ministry crisis, casualty or corpse. Before your throne of grace, we bring to you missionaries, pastors, elders, counselors—a wide range of friends you’ve called and gifted to share the gospel of your grace.
     Many of them are living Jonah’s story. In their heads they still know you to be a God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. But in their hearts, they are drained and angry; disconnected and disillusioned; and some, like Jonah, aren’t sure they want many more days in this world. Have mercy, on them, Lord, have great mercy today.
     Jesus, you know all the issues. You know what’s under the anger; what’s compounding the contempt; and what’s fueling the flight. Meet these dear servants of your right where they are. I pray for their spouses and children as well, for sometimes it’s the family members who suffer ministry pangs the most.
     Comfort them with your endless mercies and fresh grace. Grant them a renewed perspective of eternity, so they will know their labors in you are never in vain. Rekindle hope in their hurting hearts. Where needed, may your kindness drive them to appropriate repentance. Provide the right medical help, a sabbatical, or even an intervention team, if necessary. Refresh them by the power of the gospel, for the glory of your name.
     Until you return, Jesus, Satan will continue to mount an all out assault against you by attacking your Bride—especially those called to nourish and prepare your church for the great Wedding Day. He knows he’s lost us for eternity, so he will do anything and everything within his power to bring havoc, heartache and hell. Use us, however you choose, to encourage your servants, and all the more as we see that great Day approaching. We pray, in your holy and loving name.

Why I Wait to Run to Him

Excerpt from Gospel Balm post:  Chasing the Freedom from Worry Phantom

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I'm convinced that we'll never catch it because God doesn't want us to. Bear with me for a moment as I explain this. Scripture tells us that God doesn't want us to be anxious. In fact, Jesus told us not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34). This is because we're supposed to be doing something else instead--praying (Philippians 4:6,7).

That's right. Our anxieties are meant to drive us to God in prayer. The struggles we have with uncertainty remind us that we aren't in control of our own lives. Neither we ourselves, nor our circumstances, can ever make us safe. Only the Lord can do that.

Why do I want to be free from my struggles with worry? Because I don't like feeling uncomfortable. I should be more willing to welcome my anxieties though, because God uses them to remind me how much I need him. And when I finally come running to him in desperation, he welcomes me with open arms and showers me with compassion and provision.

I wonder why I so often wait to run to him. It must be because I keep forgetting that God's doing good to me when he sends me the things that make me uncomfortable (Romans 8:28). My fears are friends, not enemies, because they drive me to the only One who can keep me safe.

When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
In God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
(Psalm 56:3,4)

How about you? Do you sometimes find yourself dreading the very thing God uses to bring you closer to himself? 

Constantly On the Lookout

What's Best Next post:  "No Man Has a Right to be Idle"

William Wilberforce:

No man has a right to be idle. Where is it that in such a world as this, that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate?

In other words, be constantly on the lookout for good that you can do. Use the time and energy that God has given you not to make your own life easier or more restful primarily, but rather to meet the needs of others, both nearby and on a global scale.

Here are some easy things you can do right now, in just a few minutes:

• Empower an entrepreneur in the developing world with a $25 loan through Kiva.
• Help bring rescue and restoration to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression through a $250 gift to International Justice Mission.
• Give one person the gift of clean, safe water through a gift of $20 to Charity:Water
• Contribute to theological famine relief by helping supply pastors in the developing world with resources through a gift of $100 to Desiring God.

This is what true productivity is: Being creative and thoughtful in finding ways to use our time and skills to become fruitful in good works.

Open on the God-ward Side

Ray Ortlund post:  There is Someone here at work

“It is impossible to spend several months in close study of the remarkable short book, conventionally known as the Acts of the Apostles, without being profoundly stirred and to be honest, disturbed.  The reader is stirred because he is seeing Christianity, the real thing, in action for the first time in human history.  The newborn church, as vulnerable as any human child, having neither money, influence nor power in the ordinary sense, is setting forth joyfully and courageously to win the pagan world for God through Christ.  The young Church, like all young creatures, is appealing in its simplicity and singleheartedness.  Here we are seeing the Church in its first youth, valiant and unspoiled — a body of ordinary men and women joined in an unconquerable fellowship never before seen on this earth.

Yet we cannot help feeling disturbed as well as moved, for this surely is the Church as it was meant to be.  It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity or muscle-bound by over-organisation.  These men did not make ‘acts of faith,’ they believed, they did not ‘say their prayers,’ they really prayed.  They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick.  But if they were uncomplicated and naive by modern standards, we have ruefully to admit that they were open on the God-ward side in a way that is almost unknown today.

No one can read this book without being convinced that there is Someone here at work besides mere human beings.  Perhaps because in their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer, and if need be to die, the Spirit of God found what surely He must always be seeking – a fellowship of men and women so united in love and faith that He can work in them and through them with the minimum of let or hindrance.  Consequently it is a matter of sober historical fact that never before has any small body of ordinary people so moved the world that their enemies could say, with tears of rage in their eyes, that these men ‘have turned the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6).”

J. B. Phillips, Preface to The Young Church in Action (New York, 1955), page vii.

Everyone Loses

Mark Batterson post:  The Comparison Game

Comparisons are a killer!  We naturally compare ourselves with others whether it’s a score on an exam or box score, the way we look or the way we dress.  But the problem with comparisons is that it leads down one of two pathways: the pathway of jealousy or the pathway of pride.  You can always find someone who you compare to favorably, and it might make you feel good about yourself, but that is a form of pride and a form of false security.  You can also find someone to compare yourself to that will make you feel pretty bad about yourself and jealousy will eat you alive.

Everyone loses in the comparison game.

So what do we do?  Fix your eyes on Jesus.  He is the only sinless standard.  We were made in his image, and that is our destiny: to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  So quit looking at others for comparison points.  Look to Christ.

First Importance

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer post: Musings on the Manifesto, Part 2: Gospel

On Monday, we looked at the first affirmation of the Missional Manifesto regarding the authority of Scripture. In the weeks to come, we are going to take some time to look at each of the affirmations in greater detail in the weeks to come here on the blog. Today, we scan the second affirmation on the gospel.

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In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian church of the gospel that he had preached to them and that it was delivered to them "as of first importance." He then goes on to give one of the many Gospel "nutshells" we find in the Bible in verses 3-4, "...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures."

Why did Paul say that this was of "first importance?" Looking at verse 17, Paul says that if Christ was not raised from the dead, we are still in our sins. One of our framers, Tim Keller, says it this way, "It is...important to realize that the gospel is primarily about how our alienation with God is addressed and removed by the work of Christ." Tim is right. The good news of the gospel is, as J.I. Packer says, "God saves sinners."

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Here is what is interesting. One's view of salvation-- however it is defined-- will determine the missionary work. To say it another way, being "missional" is inextricable from one's soteriology.

In Transforming Mission, David Bosch states that the Christian missionary movement has been driven throughout its history by the aspiration to mediate salvation to all. And just as there have been paradigm shifts in the understanding of how Scripture informs mission, there have been shifts in the understanding of the nature of the salvation the church mediates in its mission. Now, I do not intend in these posts to say "this is what we all thought as framers," but I think these shifts explain why it was important to convey of an understanding of the gospel in the manifesto.

Many evangelicals would be surprised that anyone would want to make the gospel into something more than being "reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10). But if you've watched the missional conversation over the past few years, many have expressed concern that this approach to the gospel has the potential to thwart mission. Why?

The discomfort that some have about a definition of the gospel that stops at redemption is that it has a tendency to minimize the gospel. In other words, if the gospel is only about salvation, what about the imperatives in the Bible that seem to connect the gospel with caring for the poor, visiting the captive, ministering to the marginalized, and engaging in social action (Ps. 14:6; Deut. 10:18; 24:17; Mal. 3:5; Mt. 6:2; James 2:2-6; 1 Jn. 3:17-18)?

I think it is important to remember that there is a difference between the gospel and the implications of the gospel. The gospel is the good news of the gracious work of Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection that restores our relationship with God when we, as the manifesto says, repent of our sin, confess the Messiah as Lord, and trust in him. Some have called this the "God-Man-Christ-Response" understanding of the gospel. A gospel-centered mission will always include a call to the individual to place their faith and trust in Jesus. This is why evangelism is an indispensable part of mission.

But others prefer to describe the story-arc of the Bible as "Creation-Sin-Redemption-Restoration." The addition of restoration emphasizes that God 's end game is to restore His creation back to its original order. God's purpose is to redeem individuals, gathered as one people who will dwell securely forever in a restored creation (Revelation 21).

In his booklet, The Restoration of All Things, Sam Storms says it this way:

The efficacy and finality of Christ's redemptive work, together with his resurrection and exaltation as Lord to the right hand of the Father, alone accounts for the anticipation all Christians have of the return of Christ and the consummate fulfillment of God's eternal purpose in the new heavens and new earth. [1]

The emphasis on restoration also includes the idea that God is not merely saving individuals but a people who will join Him, as the manifesto says, as "agents of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5). The gospel of "first importance" removes our primary alienation from God (sin) but it also sends us out to join God in His restoration movement. to bring healing to culture's physical, emotional, psychological, relational and societal brokenness. This is why acts of mercy and justice through the church is also a fundamental facet of mission. Our work as agents of reconciliation is primarily carried out through our calling to make disciples of all nations, but is also connected to obeying the commands of God in seeking the good of others.

I believe the addition of restoration to the story-arc of the gospel is helpful and something I teach and preach, but let me caution us here. When you look at mission history, an emphasis on social awareness and world transformation has led to problems. Any Christian with a history book and a willingness to learn can see that, as missionary Stephen Neill said, "if everything is mission, nothing is mission."

I have pointed out before that the last two times that Christians "discovered" social justice, it did not end well. I think that evangelical Christians must focus more acts of mercy and justice but they need to know and avoid the errors of those who came before us that shared the same concern.

The Manifesto takes a "both-and" approach to the gospel and its implications. It is both "God-Man-Christ-Response" and "Creation-Sin-Redemption-Restoration." God's plan is to save individuals but in saving individuals he gathers them together as one people, and sends them out into the world on one mission.

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Being Bright Lights

Excerpt from Steve Viars post:  Biblical Counseling as a Community Bridge

One of the great aspects of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has given His church clear marching orders.  While we all articulate our mission statements in slightly different ways, the thrust is to glorify God by winning people to Jesus Christ and equipping them to be more faithful disciples.

Jesus said it like this in the Sermon on the Mount; “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

The apostle Paul told the Philippians; “…prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” (Philippians 2:15-16).

God has called us to identify bridges where we connect what we believe with men and women in need of the gospel.


Most church leaders that I know spend significant amounts of time contemplating the best ways to accomplish our God-given mission in the culture in which we live.  Pastors literally around the world have asked me the same question; How can we reach our communities for Christ?

It is one thing to know the verses quoted above and the many others we could add to the list.  But knowing what this looks like it practical terms in the average church today is an entirely different issue.  How many of us are really satisfied that we are being the bright lights in our community that the Scripture envisions?


There are many ways to answer the question I’m posing.  High on the list would be the importance of churches equipping our members to spiritual growth in the practical areas of everyday life.  One of the strongest tools in the witnessing bag is a changed and changing life.  This kind of emphasis on progressive sanctification within the walls of the church will lead to all sorts of redemptive conversations throughout the week (1 Peter 3:15).

Another strong answer is churches choosing to make biblical counseling services available to people in your community.  At Faith, we have been doing so now for over thirty years and have found it to be a marvelous source of evangelistic contacts.  Each Monday, twenty-five of our staff members and key lay-persons come together and provide 60-100 hours of biblical counseling services free of charge to people in our community.  We have never advertised our services and we still always have a waiting list.  In a real sense people in our town are standing in line in order to sit down with someone who will talk with them about their problems with the Word of God.

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Close the Gap

Excerpt from Thabiti Anyabwile post:  An Existential Affirmation of the Truth of the Gospel

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In God’s providence, since the conference we’ve been studying 1 Corinthians 6 in our Wednesday night Bible study.  Our Wednesday nights have been a good reinforcement of many of the peacemaking principles we’ve learned and are practicing with God’s help.  And more and more we’re seeing that our ability to live as a community of peace, which pleases God (1 Tim. 2:2-3), either affirms or denies our testimony of Christ’s redemptive work in our lives.  The presence or absence of peace testifies to a watching, unbelieving world.

As one commentator puts it:

A united community in which love dominates is the existential affirmation of the truth of the gospel.  A community which contains within itself the divisions which characterize ‘the world’ has no power to transform its environment, because the contradiction between theory and practice is too evident.

–J. Murphy-O’Connor, 1 Corinthians (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1979); cited in David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians (Baker), p. 210.

Have you thought lately about the unity of your church family and its affirmation of the truth of the gospel?  Have you prayed lately for the unity of your church?  Have you thought and prayed that your church’s unity might be used of the Lord to transform your community?  May the Lord close the gap between gospel theory and gospel practice in all His churches!

Assurance of Unfailing Love

Scotty Smith post:  A Prayer of Trust for Seasons of Change

    Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Psalm 143:8

     Dear heavenly Father, in the morning, at mid-day, in the afternoon and throughout the night, keep on bringing us word of your unfailing love. That’s all we need, that’s all we really need. By the Holy Spirit, incessantly gossip the gospel in our inmost ear. Wrap the good news of your boundless, endless affections around our hearts, tighter and tighter and tighter. Permeate every bit of our being with your fresh mercies, steadfast love and transforming grace, for we have put our trust in you.
     Father, it’s the assurance of your unfailing love which enables us to trust you with the transitions we go through in life and the uncertainties about the future. Change is never easy. Change makes us feel vulnerable, fearful and insecure.
     We get tempted, once again, to be our own savior. Spare us that misery, Father, spare us and those we love.  May our broken cisterns hold bitter water and our idols of choice fail us quickly. May your Word dwell in us richly; your peace rule in us powerfully; and your glory be our main passion and delight.
     We’ve entrusted our lives to you, Father, because you alone are trustworthy. We’ve given you our sins, wounds, brokenness and weakness. Now, in fresh surrender, we give you our planning for the next season of our lives. Show us the way we should go through our transitions—transitions of age and stage; career and calling; health and finances; relationships and ministries. Write stories of redemption beyond our wildest dreams and hopes. It’s all about you, Jesus, not us, you.
     We’re not so arrogant as to expect all the details. Just take us by the hand and lead the way. Father, continue to open doors we cannot shut and shut doors we cannot open. All we need to know is that you love us and that you’re with us. You’ve promised us both, and you do not lie. So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ peerless and priceless name.

Personal But Not Private

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  Up And Out, Not In

When a lot of Christian’s think about “spirituality” they tend to think of it monastically, individualistically. In fact, in his book on sanctification, Harold Senkbeil writes, “What has developed under the guise of the practice of the Christian faith borders on a new monasticism.” Many of us, in other words, think about spirituality exclusively in terms of personal piety, internal devotion, and spiritual formation. We focus almost entirely on ourselves and our private disciplines: praying, reading the Bible, and so on. That, we conclude, is what spirituality is first and foremost. And while personal disciplines are indispensable aspects of staying tethered to the truth of gospel (you’ll shrink without them), it’s interesting that when James makes his strong point in 2:14-26 about faith without works being dead, what he describes are not works of private spirituality but public service:

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2:15)

As one of my friends wrote recently, “True Christianity may be personal, but it’s not private. It is wildly, unashamedly, thoroughly public.”

Similarly, in James 1:27 he writes (the only place in the Bible where the word “religion” is used positively):

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Even in that last phrase “keep oneself unstained from the world”, he’s not talking about monastic retreat, private meditation, or even personal piety. The contextual implication there  involves the need to “wash our hands of worldliness” which, throughout the book of James, is defined as self-absorption–a “my life for me” approach to life in contrast from a “my life for you” approach to life. Worldliness then, according to James, is me thinking always about me (see James 4:1-3).

Therefore, in both James 1:27 and 2:15, he’s making it clear that true spirituality actually take us away from ourselves and into the messy lives of other people. It is, in other words, not introverted, but extroverted—it doesn’t take me deeper into me; it sends me away from me. Real spirituality is forgetting about yourself, washing your hands of you.

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Felt Union

Excerpts from Miscellanies post:  Union With Christ and Body Life 

The believer’s union with Christ is one of the richest and most precious doctrines. It is a doctrine that can be misunderstood without the proper nuances, but the proper nuances still do not make the doctrine simple or easy to comprehend. It is incomprehensible–Christ is in us, and we are in Him. We strive to better appreciate this marvelous truth, which is what the Valley of Vision calls our “felt union” with Christ.

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Recently I’ve begun thinking about the ways our individual union with Christ influences how we view our corporate life together. This was originally provoked while reading the works of Thomas Manton where he writes [Works, 10:323]:

Mystical union is the union of believers with Christ the head, and with one another; with Christ the head by faith, and with one another by love. … This union of believers in the same body is often compared with the mystery of the Trinity; and it is elsewhere expressed by one body.

That is both a huge claim and a broad definition of union.

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But in what ways is the connection between our union with Christ and our corporate life together in the church expressed in the New Testament, if at all? If it is connected, what are the main ramifications?
With those questions, I began my search.

I cannot deal here with every ramification, and the ones I have here identified I cannot address at length. This post intends just to put forward a few themes for further study. I’ll begin with a few foundational points before moving into specific applications:

• Union with Christ means inclusion into His Body (the Church). This really gets at the heart of the main question: Is the theme of the believer’s union with Christ wed to the theme of union into the body of Christ (the Church)? Or are these separate and distinct unions? The simple answer is that it appears the unions are united in passages like 1 Corinthians 10:17 (see also 12:12–13 and Colossians 3:3 and 3:11–15). That is why I think Manton is correct in saying that “mystical union is the union of believers with Christ the head, and with one another.” Our personal union with Christ is the basis of our union into his body, the Church. Okay, so what are the consequences?

• Union with Christ is the foundation of our corporate solidarity and mutual ministry together. This is especially clear in the words of Romans 12:3–5.

• Union with Christ, and corporate solidarity, are displayed in the Lord’s Supper. I don’t think we have a clearer visual picture of our union with Christ than in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (see Matthew 26:26–27 and John 6:41–56). With that in mind, the Lord’s Supper is where we show ourselves to be “one body” as we partake of “one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16–17).

• Baptism is a symbol of our union with Christ and our union with all those who are in Christ. The NDT states, “Baptism signifies union with Christ in his body, the church, for to be ‘in Christ’ is to be one with all who are united to him.” See Galatians 3:26–28 and 1 Corinthians 12:12–13 for this connection.

• Union with Christ is the context of our corporate maturity and growth. We are growing up, growing up together, growing up together “in him.” See Ephesians 4:11–16 along with Colossians 3:12–17 (in light of verses 1–4).

• Union with Christ is the basis of our mutual dependence. We are united to Christ, we are one body. Therefore, we need one another. This unity in Christ showcases the diversity of gifts and our need for one another in 1 Corinthians 12:12–31.

• Union with Christ is the basis for corporate sexual purity. See 1 Corinthians 6:12–20.

• Union with Christ is the basis for church membership. In the context of church membership, John Piper writes: “becoming a Christian means being united to Christ, and union with Christ expresses itself in union with a local body of believers. It seems to us that in the New Testament, to be excluded from the local church was to be excluded from Christ” (see 1 Corinthians 5:1–5). Union with Christ and church membership are seemingly inseparable.

• Union with Christ is the foundation for corporate unity in the local church. Richard Baxter writes: “As their union with Christ the head and principle of their life is principally necessary, so unity among themselves is secondarily necessary, for the conveyance and reception of that life which floweth to all from Christ” (Works, 5:170). Clearly Baxter imagines union with Christ requiring corporate solidarity and it’s not hard to see how he came to this conclusion, given the NT passages above.

• Union with Christ is a basis for racial and social unity in the local church. In his New Testament theology George Eldon Ladd writes, “When we believe in Christ, we are made members of Christ’s body; we are joined to Christ himself and therefore to all others who in union with Christ constitute his body [note that Ladd here merges the personal union/corporate union themes] … Race does not matter; social status does not matter; by Spirit baptism all kinds of people are equally members of the body of Christ” (page 588).

This brief list merely suggests a few of the many ways in which our individual union with Christ provides us with a helpful context for better understanding our life together in the church. But I think that much work could be done on this topic.

As I continue to study the many facets of union with Christ I discover myself simultaneously being led deeper into ecclesiology, nearer to the communion of the saints, and closer to the heart of God’s plan for his Church. So I am not surprised when Michael Horton writes, “The communion of saints, in Calvin’s thinking, has its source in union with Christ” (The Christian Faith, 745). And I’m not surprised when Edmond Clowney writes, “Paul describes the church as the body of Christ because of its union with Christ.” It all makes sense. Our personal union with Christ is the basis for our life together.

The bottom line for me is this: In our union with Christ we discover the groundwork for our corporate life and solidarity. In union with Christ we find the source and purpose for our spiritual gifts, we become less inclined to favoritism and racial division, and we find the basis of our unity with other Christians in our church, our cities, and around the globe. These are just a few ways in which I think further study on our union with Christ will deepen our ecclesiology.

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Given Me to Encourage

The Master, God, has given me
   a well-taught tongue,
So I know how to encourage tired people.
  He wakes me up in the morning,
Wakes me up, opens my ears
   to listen as one ready to take orders.  [Message]

[The Servant of God says] The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple [as one who is taught].  [Amplified]

The Lord GOD has given me
   the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
    him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
   he awakens my ear
   to hear as those who are taught.  [ESV]


Isaiah 50:4

 

Plenty of Time for R and R in the Resurrection

Excerpts from John Piper post:  What Happens When You Turn 65

Turning 65 in January has me all fired up to get busy. I am close enough to the finish line that the face of Jesus is coming into sharper focus. This is very exciting and makes me want to pick up the pace.

Of course, he is not the least impressed with frenzy. Nor is he pleased with Boomer indolence. What his face says to me is: “I am your rest every day, and there is good work to do every day till you’re home.

God has called me to this one great thing, and his face affirms it every day: “With full courage, now (after 65) as always, let Christ be magnified in your body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Live now to make much of Christ. Measure everything by this: Will it help more people admire Jesus more intensely and treasure Jesus more deeply?

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Turning 65 has set me to pondering what people have done in their later years.


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So I started poking around on the Internet. Here’s some of what I found (for example, at www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished):

• At 65 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England, and for the next five years led the Western world to freedom.

• At 69 English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson began his last major work, The Lives of the English Poets.

• At 69 Ronald Reagan became the oldest man ever sworn in as President of the United States. He was reelected at 73.

• At 70 Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence.

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And don’t forget, if you are running this marathon with Jesus, you have a great advantage. God has promised you: “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). Nothing to be ashamed of here. We’ve been dangling in the yoke of Jesus ever since he called us. At out peak, we were totally dependent. So it will be to the end.

So, all you Boomers just breaking into Medicare, gird up your loins, pick up your cane, head for the gym, and get fit for the last lap. Fix your eyes on the Face at the finish line. There will plenty of time for R and R in the Resurrection. For now, there is happy work to be done.

Issue of Faith

Excerpts from Kevin DeYoung post:  Money and Possessions in Proverbs

The Bible says a lot about money and possessions. There are a lot of verses about wealth and poverty. With some topics, we can get off track because the Bible says so little. What should we think of tanning? Well, we don’t have a lot of specific instructions, so there’s not much to be dogmatic about.


But when it comes to money and possessions there’s an opposite problem. Because the Bible says so much about money it is tempting to develop an imbalanced theology of money.

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I’ll give the points roughly in order of how much Proverbs says about a particular principle. That way we’ll end with the most important themes.

Ten Principles on Money and Possessions from Proverbs

1. There are extremes of wealth and poverty that provide unique temptations to those who live in them (Prov. 30:7-9).
2. Don’t worry about keeping up with the Jones’ (Prov. 12:9; 13:7).
3. The rich and poor are more alike than they think (Prov. 22:2; 29:13).
4. You can’t out give God (Prov. 3:9-10; 11:24; 22:9).
5. Poverty is not pretty (Prov. 10:15; 14:20; 19:4).
6. Money cannot give you ultimate security (Prov. 11:7; 11:28; 13:8).
7. The Lord hates those who get rich by injustice (Prov. 21:6; 22:16, 22-23).
8. The Lord loves those who are generous to the poor (Prov. 14:21, 31; 19:7; 28:21)
9. Hard work and good decision-making usually lead to increased prosperity (Prov. 6:6-11; 10:4; 13:11; 14:24;  21:17, 20; 22:4, 13; 27:23-27; 28:20
10. Money isn’t everything. It does not satisfy (Prov. 23:4-5). It is inferior to wisdom (Prov. 8:10-11, 18-19; 24:3-4). It is inferior to righteousness (10:2; 11:4; 13:25; 16:8; 19:22; 20:17; 28:6). It is inferior to the fear of the Lord (Prov. 15:16). It is inferior to humility (Prov. 16:19). It is inferior to good relationships (Prov. 15:17; 17:1).

You can’t understand the biblical view of money unless you are prepared to accept a number of truths held in tension.

• You’ll probably acquire more money if you work hard and are full of wisdom. But if all you care about is getting more money, you are the biggest fool.
• Money is a blessing from God, but you’ll be more blessed if you give it away.
• God gives you money because he is generous, but he is generous with you so that you can be generous with others. And if you are generous with your money, God will likely be more generous with you.
• It is wise to save money, but don’t ever think money gives you real security.
• Wealth is more desirable than poverty, but wealth is not as good as righteousness, humility, wisdom, good relationships, and the fear of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says that Christ is for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Money can’t give you any of the things you ultimately need. It can’t make you holy. It can’t make you righteous. It can’t save you from your sins. Wealth is a sign of blessing, but it’s also one of your biggest temptations because it entices you to boast in yourself. It promises to be your self-worth and promises to make you self-sufficient. It invites you to boast in something or someone other than the Lord.

So through and through money is an issue of faith. Believe that doing things God’s way is the best way for you. Believe that if you give your money away, he can give it back. Believe that money can be good. But don’t you dare believe it is everything. Money is a gift from God, but the gifts you really need can only be found in God.