His Lavish Grace

Praying our Resolutions

2010-01-05T07:27:00.000-06:00

Jonathan Edwards was a great pastor and theologian, and one of the things he is best known for are his resolutions that he lived by. They were not necessarily new year’s resolutions. They were written by him when the Lord would convict Him.

Trevin Wax has compiled the first 21 of Edwards’ resolutions into the following prayer, which is a great one for any of us to pray…

Lord God Almighty,

I understand that I am unable to do anything without your help,

so I ask you to enable me by your grace to fulfill your will.

Give me grace to do whatever brings most glory and honor to you,

pleasure and profit to me,

and life and love to others.

Help me to number my days,

spending my time wisely,

living my life with all my might while I still have breath.

Humble me in the knowledge that I am chief of sinners;

when I hear of the sins of others,

help me to not look upon them with pride,

but to look upon myself with shame,

confessing my own sins to you.

When I go through difficulties and trials,

remind me of the pains of hell

from which you have already delivered me.

Place people in my path who need my help,

and give me a compassionate and generous spirit.

Fill my heart with such love

that I would never do anything out of a spirit of revenge,

nor lose my temper with those around me.

Hold my tongue when I am tempted to speak evil of others.

Thank you for the gospel and for the hope of glory.

Help me to live in light of these truths every day of my life,

so that when the time of my death arrives,

I will rest assuredly in you,

and you will be most glorified in me.

In Christ’s name…

Sunday sermon review - Refocus.Refine.Reflect.

2010-01-04T10:43:00.002-06:00

The start of a new year is a natural time to reflect on one’s life and contemplate making some changes. I am not a big fan of making resolutions since I usually end up abandoning them before the year ends. That is a personal problem, I know, but I think it is a common one. Why is it that the word ‘resolution’ has come to lose its forceful meaning? A common definition of the word is “a firm decision to do or not do something.” The key word that has been lost is of course the word ‘firm.’

As our church begins 2010, I thought of making some ‘resolutions’ for our church. I mean isn’t that what mission and vision statements are? But instead of making new resolutions I thought it would be best to refocus on the old ones… one really old one in particular. You can try to update it to make sound more modern and relevant, but the truth of the Great Commission remains unchangeable: go make disciples.

I am praying that our church will follow the example of Paul in “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

We must always be resolved to follow Christ, to grow up in our faith and continue the mission.

There is a generation of people who have never heard the gospel. We need to reach that generation with the good news of Jesus Christ.

This year our church will refocus our gaze on the glory of Christ that we may be changed by Him. We will refine our strategies in discipleship so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. And we will start this in our homes, seeking to reflect the glory of Christ first and foremost in our own families.

Whatever your plans for 2010 may be, I hope they are centered on Christ and are a firm decision to press on toward that wonderful, heavenly Prize.

*** UPDATE ***

I just came across this blog post that has some excellent thoughts about this subject of mission. I thought you might find them helpful...

Genesis 1-3 and Matthew 1... Great Start!!

2010-01-01T07:58:00.000-06:00

As I was reading today’s passages, I was struck by two things.

There are, of course a bazillion things that are significant in these chapters, but what really stood out to me this time was the reason God created the stars.

If Genesis 1:15 it says God created all the different lights of the night sky “to give light upon the earth.” God does everything for his glory, so creating the universe as big as He did very clearly testifies to how big God is, first and foremost. But the stars are also created for us. To help us mark the days and seasons; to give light at night. He created all those billions and billions of stars for us.

Scientists have pondered for years where all this came from and what other life might be out there. Many of them cannot even fathom that all of that was created for God’s glory and for our good. All of it… just for us. That is thrilling and humbling all at the same time. It magnifies God in all his resplendent glory and it exults in us, his highest creation.

What a way to start the new year!!!

The other thing I was struck by is how quickly the biblical narrative moves to our fall. I mean out of the 1,189 chapters in the Bible it only takes 3 to get to our demise. This HUGE universe God created only receives a few verses to describe it before the pinnacle of God’s creation messes it all up. I think this testifies that WE are the central part of this story; not the universe. Modern thinking tries to tell us that we are just one, small speck in the vastness of all that is and that we should live accordingly. It sometimes sounds like the rainforest is more important than unborn babies. But that is not how the Bible unfolds our story.

I have no idea how much time went by between God’s creation of Adam and Eve and their first sin. I suppose it could be a hundred years or it could have been on the same week. But the point is that the Bible is about God’s glory; his glory in creating us and then redeeming us.

But it it not just a generic glory that God is after. It is a very specific glory. He wants to magnify the glory of his mercy and grace through his obedient Son. That is why I think it is so cool that we read Matthew 1 today. We read about our creation and fall in Genesis along with God’s seed of promise in Genesis 3:15. Then we read about the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise in Matthew 1, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

THAT… is awesome.

Well, this has been a great day of reading, and it is only the first day!!! I can’t wait till tomorrow!!!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T07:11:00.002-06:00

Today is the day for new resolutions and college football. I plan to indulge both of these with gusto.

This morning starts a new year of reading through the Bible. My church and I are doing a simple plan that starts in Genesis and Matthew and goes through the OT and NT concurrently. Today is Genesis 1-3 and Matthew 1.

I invite you to join me in reading through the Bible and sharing what you learn and how God reveals Himself to you with others. I can’t wait to see what God does!!!

Is “X-mas” disrespectful to Christ?

2009-12-22T06:51:00.001-06:00

Here are some good thoughts from R. C. Sproul on this issue to using ‘X-mas’ as an abbreviation for Christmas…

The simple answer to your question is that the X in Christmas is used like the R in R.C. My given name at birth was Robert Charles, although before I was even taken home from the hospital my parents called me by my initials, R.C., and nobody seems to be too scandalized by that.

X can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an unknown quantity, we use the symbol X. It can refer to an obscene level of films, something that is X-rated. People seem to express chagrin about seeing Christ's name dropped and replaced by this symbol for an unknown quantity X. Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers saying, "Put Christ back into Christmas" as a response to this substitution of the letter X for the name of Christ.

First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ.

We don't see people protesting the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God.

The idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the fish historically because it is an acronym. Fish in Greek (ichthus) involved the use of the first letters for the Greek phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put those letters together to spell the Greek word for fish. That's how the symbol of the fish became the universal symbol of Christendom. There's a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect.

Doctrine of the Day - Prophecy and fulfillment

2009-12-16T08:37:00.001-06:00

There is much that could be said here about the promises of God and how they are kept, but what I really want to focus on is the fact that these kept promises are REALLY important to us.

Matthew 1:22 says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” Matthew then quotes Isaiah 7:14 about a virgin bearing a son named Immanuel.

When we are celebrating Christmas, it is hard enough to turn our attention to Christ instead of Santa. Even when we do succeed in turning our eyes to Jesus, we rarely think about the importance of fulfilled prophecy. I mean, God PROMISED to send a Messiah, and He DID.

God keeps his promises. He is the only person to keep all of his promises. That is important.

Paul magnifies this importance when he is articulating the gospel message to the church in Corinth, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” He did not merely say that Jesus died and rose again; he made sure they knew that all this happened according to the promises God made in the Old Testament.

You may ask, “What difference does it make whether God made and kept promises to us?”

That is a fair question. You might say that it should be enough for us that He acts on our behalf apart from his promising to act.

Well, operating under that idea, what would be missing from our lives if God did not give us promises that He would act for us?

I can think of at least one, huge thing: hope.

Hope kind of gets shortchanged all the time. When the Big 3 are listed at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 (faith, hope and love), faith and love get all the press and hope is the odd man out. But Andy Dufresne was right, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.”

Hope is so much more important than we realize. It is our trust in God’s faithfulness that causes us to hope. When God makes a promise we believe that He will keep it because He has been faithful in the past. This gives us hope for the future.

Think about it. Why are you confident that when you die you will live for eternity with God? You have no objective proof, no outward, tangible receipt from God that your eternal salvation has been purchased. All you have is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (which we cannot see directly) and the promise of God. This is why we call it the Christian FAITH. We BELIEVE the promise of God to forgive us and save us when we repent of our sin and follow Him.

This is so much bigger than Joe Namath guaranteeing victory or Babe Ruth calling his shot, yet those stories have risen to legendary status with us. We all place our “hope” in weathermen who promise it will not rain tomorrow or economists who tell us 2010 will be better for us financially because we are looking for someone to tell us our future is secure.

All of those pale in comparison to the Creator and Sovereign LORD of the universe making promises to us because He WILL keep them. Our future IS secure in Christ. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will hold our lives secure in his hand which in the Father’s hand. Therefore we are free to hope in tomorrow, for Jehovah-Shammah… God is already there.

So, back to this whole business about celebrating the promises that God has already kept. This Christmas I pray you will take some time to think on and celebrate the fact that “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” God did not just send Jesus to be our Savior… He PROMISED to send Jesus, and He kept his word. Praise the LORD!

Sunday sermon review - Wooing Wayward Children

2009-12-15T08:11:00.001-06:00

Perhaps nothing can be more painful for a parent than to teach your child to follow Christ only to see Him turn away from Christ as a young adult. It is a seemingly helpless position to be in.

Yesterday we looked at 2 Timothy 4:1-5 which is specifically addressed to Timothy as a pastor, but I think there is much help there for parents of wayward children as well. Here are the main points from that passage…

1. Preach the word

There is a difference in proclaiming the truth of Christ to your children and being “preachy.” As a preacher I hate that “preachy” is a negative word. That means that the general idea most people have of preaching is a kind of condescending nagging.

So parents, don’t be “preachy.” Don’t use the truth of the Bible as a weapon to beat down your children. Proclaim the truth of Christ in your words and in your life by displaying the character of Christ and showering your children with the lavish grace and love that God extends to us in Christ.

And be prepared in season and out of season. Use every opportunity to make Christ known to your kids. Point them to Christ. He is there only hope.

2. Reprove. Rebuke. Exhort.

Yes there are certainly times when you must reprove and rebuke your children. They must know that God hates sin and that he calls us to repent and follow Christ.

But don’t forget to exhort. Let your rebukes be gentle yet firm, a loving call to return to the grace of Christ. Encourage them to love the LORD, don’t demand it.

Build exhortation and encouragement into your every day conversations with them. Make sure to let them know that while you disapprove of their sin, their bad choices do not affect your love for them. I know that feels like a difficult line to walk sometimes, but we must make the effort to make our love for our children come through more clearly than our disappointment over their failures.

3. With Complete Patience and teaching

This one is so hard. But every parent who has a child that is not a Christian needs to hear this...

Don’t expect them to be Christlike.

You have to remember that lost people only know one way to behave… lost. Therefore, you will have to be extremely patient with them. In the Bible “patient” literally means “slow to anger.”

When she comes home drunk or doesn’t come home at all… again

When he wrecks your car… again

When she skips class… again

When he gets in a fight at school… again

Be patient.

Don’t ignore and dismiss their bad behavior. Deal with it rightly, but don’t be surprised by it either. They are sinners. Sinners sin. Apart from Jesus Christ the only nature and desire they are trying to fulfill is sinful.

Be patient with teaching. Again, make sure the word of God is what drives your interaction with your kid. Guide their heart to Christ with the gospel. Do not merely seek to correct their behavior with external rules. Their heart is the issue.

4. Always be sober-minded

When dealing with a teenager or young adult who is consistently rejecting Christ and going his own way, there is a tendency focus so much on their sins that we can no longer be objective in dealing with our kids. It is a “fog of familiarity.”

It happens to all of us. There are certain, little things that my wife can do that will send my into a tizzy, but when a church member does the same thing, I am quick to overlook any unintended offense. Why is that? The fog of familiarity.

Be aware of the emotional haze that can cloud your judgment. It is the same kind of haze that clouds the mind when you are drunk on alcohol. Be sober-minded. Don’t let the emotional baggage of past sins cloud your love for your child today.

Sometimes the best thing you can do to help your child is to allow another Christian minister to your child. Try to help Him connect with another person in your church with whom he has a relationship.

5. Endure suffering

Loving the unlovable will wound you… because real love opens you up for rejection.

You will suffer many a sleepless night weeping brokenhearted tears because your child has screamed, “I HATE you” …again. But love is longsuffering.

You may communicate more love to your child in your response to these wounds than by any gift you might give in an effort to buy her affection. “A gentle word turns away wrath.” When you accept these wounds humbly without lashing out in anger, then you will eventually gain an audience with your child for her to hear your, “I still love you… no matter what.”

6. Do the work of an evangelist

There are two things I think of when I hear the charge to do the work of an evangelist, especially in regard to reaching the rebellious child:

1. Keep the gospel central. Remember there is no benefit to trying to change their behavior without applying the gospel to change their heart.

2. Pursue them. Sharing the gospel with your children is not a “one and done” affair. Go after them the way God pursues us. CS Lewis called Him the “Hound of Heaven.” Don’t be overbearing, but do not give up. If he continually closes one avenue of communication then use another. If he changes his phone number then send emails.

Take every opportunity to share the life-giving truth of the gospel with them.

7. Fulfill your ministry

Point them to Christ. It really does begin and end with this.

Your ministry to your family is to help them see Jesus.

So, do not lose hope. Do not give up. Do not allow your emotions to cloud your judgment.

Love them relentlessly and point them to Jesus.

Doctrine of the Day - Santa Christ?

2009-12-09T06:57:00.002-06:00

Who is the central figure of Christmas?

Well, on the one hand, many good Christians would say Jesus Christ is the central figure. I mean it is his coming to earth as a baby that is the basis for Christmas, right? Right.

On the other hand, many good Christians would say that Santa is the central figure of Christmas because the reality is that more people are concerned with being good for Santa and getting good gifts than they are with worshiping Jesus Christ and celebrating the incarnation.

Hmmmm… what to do when our theology and reality do not match up.

There is a very real danger when the traditions of Christmas color our worship. Do we worship Christ at Christmas? Yes, of course we do. The real question is: do we worship Him rightly? Is there a sense in which we kind of merge Santa and Jesus and end up worshiping some hybrid Jesus? A Jesus who only wants to bless us if we have been good all year? A Jesus whose sole purpose is to give us good toys to play with?

Read this article by Sinclair Ferguson. It is really good.

3 Truths that will change your life

2009-12-08T07:44:00.002-06:00

The following is from Justin Buzzard, originally posted on the Gospel Coalition website. He hit me right between the eyes…

This fall I’ve been thinking through 3 truths. These 3 truths have been changing my life. If only one or two of these truths were true, the change wouldn’t be dynamic—you need all 3 to be true for the power of fear, anxiety, and insecurity to shrink in your life.

#1. God is Sovereign

God is sovereign. Nearly every page of the Bible proclaims God’s absolute sovereignty, his supremacy and power over all things. Every detail of your life, the decisions of kings and presidents, the lifespan of sparrows, swine flu, today’s weather, and each passing second of human history takes place under the umbrella of God’s sovereignty. God is in control of everything. Nothing is outside of God’s control.

If a single circumstance in the universe could occur outside of God’s sovereign control, then God is not God and he cannot be trusted. But the Scriptures reveal that God is completely sovereign and can be completely trusted.

For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps (Psalm 135:5-6).

#2 God is Wise

God is wise. Nearly every page of the Bible speaks of God’s infinite wisdom. God looks down upon the galaxies and upon your problems, plans, and prayers with perfect perspective. God is never confused, worried, or uncertain about the course of this world or the course of your future. God never makes mistakes. Yesterday God governed the universe with infallible wisdom. Today God is doing the same. Tomorrow and forever God will govern the galaxies and the ghettos with absolute wisdom.

If God were sovereign, but not wise, we could not trust him. We’d always be worried about him making a mistake, always thinking we know better than God. But from Genesis to Revelation we encounter the portrait of a completely sovereign and completely wise God who can be completely trusted.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes (Proverbs 3:5-7a).

#3 God is Good

God is good. Nearly every page of the Bible testifies that God is good, that God is loving. Not an inch of evil, deceit, or indifference dwells in God. God is love. God abounds in steadfast goodness, love, mercy, and grace. The Bible tells a single story of a good God taking relentless action to love, rescue, and bless people who don’t deserve it. God has always been good and always will be good. God’s goodness is not a mood. God’s goodness is not a mood that changes based upon your performance or circumstances, his loving goodness is an eternally-solid attribute that the fires of hell cannot melt.

If God were sovereign and wise, but not good, you could not trust him. People who are powerful and smart, but not loving, scare me. We’d live endlessly insecure lives if we knew God to be sovereign and wise, but not also good. But the Bible consistently presents a threefold picture of God as totally sovereign, wise, and good, as one who can be totally trusted.

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made (Psalm 145:8-9).

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

Preach These 3 Truths to Yourself

For the past few months I’ve been preaching these 3 truths to myself over and over again.

I do this because, by default, I don’t navigate life as though God is sovereign, wise, and good. Over the past year I’ve been convicted that my actions and attitudes reveal that I operate as though God is mostly sovereign, somewhat wise, and kind of good. I would never say I believe this, but my living reveals that I’ve built much of my life of a vision of God that is much smaller than the Bible’s gigantic vision of God as completely sovereign, wise, and good.

I feel Satan has been quick to attack me in this season, quick to lodge in my mind doubts about God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness. And I imagine, in these uncertain times, Satan is quick to attack many of you, quick to tempt you to view God through your circumstances rather than view your circumstances through a biblical lens.

So, join me. Fight back. When you wake up in the morning, when you feel anxious or discouraged, when you’re driving home from work, preach to yourself: “God is Sovereign! God is Wise! God is Good!” Say this to yourself over and over again. Choose to live by faith, rather than by sight.

Forget your past. Forget how you used to operate, how you used to be a prisoner to your circumstances and feelings. Build your life on the truth. Preach more gospel to yourself. Tell yourself every hour that God is sovereign, wise, and good. The truth will set you free. Your emotions will begin to come in line with the truth.

Doubt your old doubts and saturate yourself in the Scriptures. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Read and meditate on and pray through your Bible with this threefold lens, always on the hunt for indications of God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and love. Meditate on Romans 8 or Matthew 6 or Psalm 139. Soak in a book like Jerry Bridges’ Trusting God.

Let your imagination begin to be filled with true images of God. See him as sovereign. See him sitting on his throne, wise and good. See Jesus—behold what he did for you at the cross, the place where God’s sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness show in clearest expression. Never again think of yourself or your problems or your plans without Jesus and his blood shed for you in clear view. Let the Spirit sanctify you and your brain chemistry as you rebuild your life on a true vision of God.

God is Sovereign. God is Wise. God is Good.

These 3 truths have been changing my life. God is changing my life. May he change yours.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

Glorifying God in the face of cancer

2009-12-07T09:49:00.003-06:00

Matt Chandler is the pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, TX. On Thanksgiving Day he had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. They found a two inch tumor in his brain. They scheduled surgery for the following day.

Before the surgery he recorded the following video to be played for his church on Sunday morning.

I am amazed and humbled by his attitude going into what could be a life threatening surgery.

(BTW… The doctors removed the tumor. He is recovering in ICU and they hope to have the pathology back sometime this week.)

Sunday sermon review - Finish well

2009-12-07T07:37:00.001-06:00

Last week I had to do two funeral services. One for a very sweet church member who died from cancer and another for the mother of a church member. They were both the same day as well.

Thursday was a long day.

Spending that much concentrated time on ministering in the face of death really got me thinking about how to finish well.

Paul in 2 Timothy 4:6-8 showed us how to run through the finish line. All day on Thursday I was thinking about an article written by John Piper about how to deal with cancer. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 and wrote some very challenging thoughts. I think they are very helpful in thinking about how we can finish well. I have copied the text below:

I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.

2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Numbers 23:23). “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.

The design of God in your cancer is not to train you in the rationalistic, human calculation of odds. The world gets comfort from their odds. Not Christians. Some count their chariots (percentages of survival) and some count their horses (side effects of treatment), but we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7). God’s design is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:9, “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” The aim of God in your cancer (among a thousand other good things) is to knock props out from under our hearts so that we rely utterly on him.

4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.

We will all die, if Jesus postpones his return. Not to think about what it will be like to leave this life and meet God is folly. Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “It is better to go to the house of mourning [a funeral] than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” How can you lay it to heart if you won’t think about it? Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Numbering your days means thinking about how few there are and that they will end. How will you get a heart of wisdom if you refuse to think about this? What a waste, if we do not think about death.

5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.

Satan’s and God’s designs in your cancer are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ. God designs to deepen your love for Christ. Cancer does not win if you die. It wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God’s design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help you say and feel, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” And to know that therefore, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 3:8; 1:21).

6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.

It is not wrong to know about cancer. Ignorance is not a virtue. But the lure to know more and more and the lack of zeal to know God more and more is symptomatic of unbelief. Cancer is meant to waken us to the reality of God. It is meant to put feeling and force behind the command, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3). It is meant to waken us to the truth of Daniel 11:32, “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” It is meant to make unshakable, indestructible oak trees out of us: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:2). What a waste of cancer if we read day and night about cancer and not about God.

7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.

When Epaphroditus brought the gifts to Paul sent by the Philippian church he became ill and almost died. Paul tells the Philippians, “He has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill” (Philippians 2:26-27). What an amazing response! It does not say they were distressed that he was ill, but that he was distressed because they heard he was ill. That is the kind of heart God is aiming to create with cancer: a deeply affectionate, caring heart for people. Don’t waste your cancer by retreating into yourself.

8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.

Paul used this phrase in relation to those whose loved ones had died: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). There is a grief at death. Even for the believer who dies, there is temporary loss—loss of body, and loss of loved ones here, and loss of earthly ministry. But the grief is different—it is permeated with hope. “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Don’t waste your cancer grieving as those who don’t have this hope.

9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.

Are your besetting sins as attractive as they were before you had cancer? If so you are wasting your cancer. Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, procrastination—all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack. Don’t just think of battling against cancer. Also think of battling with cancer. All these things are worse enemies than cancer. Don’t waste the power of cancer to crush these foes. Let the presence of eternity make the sins of time look as futile as they really are. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (

10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12 -13). So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don’t waste it.

What are we doing?

2009-12-01T07:59:00.002-06:00

What are some churches thinking? I don’t mean to be judgmental, but do churches really think this stuff is necessary to reach people?

What happened to preaching Christ and Him crucified?

Doctrine of the Day: Giving thanks for Surgery

2009-11-25T12:44:00.001-06:00

What are you thankful for? Do you really understand what it means to be thankful? Are you sure? It is easy to say that until life collides with Ephesians 5:20…

Right now I am sitting in pre-op with Meredith waiting for the doctors to take her back into surgery… and I am trying to be thankful because Ephesians 5:20 says I should, “Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Notice that little bitty preposition that most of us take for granted: “for.” We are not supposed to merely be thankful IN all things (as in 1 Thessalonians 5:18), but we are to take that huge step forward in Christian maturity and be thankful FOR everything.

This is the same type of principle as “love your enemies.” In Matthew 5 Jesus says that even those who are not in Christ will love people who are loving to them first, but He says that his followers are to love even their enemies.

The point is that we are supposed to go beyond what is easy and expected of all people to do that which is difficult and expected by God of his children. This forces us to rely on Christ and not our own strength. Anyone can love the lovable. But it is only in Christ that we will love the unlovable.

The same is true with thankfulness. Anyone can be thankful for homes, families, jobs, and food. But only those who are in Christ can be thankful for homelessness, loss of a family member, unemployment, and hunger.

“Why should we be thankful for those things?” you ask. That is a great question. Here is hopefully a sufficient answer. It includes a few biblical principles of thankfulness.

1. Biblical thanksgiving is relational. That means that our gratitude is meant to be directed to a person. It is not merely a general feeling or expression of gratitude. Tomorrow people all over the US will say, “I am thankful for ______.” They are not thankful TO anyone. They are just happy that they have ________.

God commands us to recognize Him as the source of every blessing we have (James 1:17). It is not sufficient for a Christian ever say, “I am thankful for ______.” We are commanded to direct our thanks to the source of our joy… God. IF we are happy or thankful in anything we have, it is because God is good and has given us every blessing we have. So, we should ALWAYS direct our thanks to HIM and say, “I thank God for _______.”

2.Thanksgiving = Emotion + Expression. It is very easy to allow ourselves to think that thanksgiving is one or the other, but it is not biblical thanksgiving unless both are present.

For example, emotion without expression never explicitly honors the one to whom you are thankful. I may receive great joy from Meredith when she cooks me a red velvet cake. I may eat 3 pieces, make all sorts of approving noises (“Mmmm… Ohhhh yeah”), I may even say that it’s the best cake I have ever had, but if I never express my thanks to HER then she has not been honored. Similarly, when we love God’s gifts and enjoy health, monetary blessing, and family but never tell Him that we recognize Him as the Giver and our joy is toward Him, then we dishonor him.

Conversely, expression of thanks without the emotion of thanks leads to dry formalism. All of you with children know exactly what I am talking about. You can tell a child to say “Thank you” to grandma when she gives him a birthday gift, but when the gift is not what he expected, his “Thank you” falls flat because it is obvious that his is not truly grateful for his black socks when he had his heart set on an iPod.

True thanksgiving must be heartfelt and expressed explicitly.

3. Our level of true thankfulness depends on how much we value the giver… not the gift. In my previous point the little boy who is ungrateful for black socks, the real issue in his heart is not what he thinks about the socks, it is what he feels for his Grandma.

When I get more excited over a new computer than I do a new suit from Meredith, I am telling her that I love her more when she gives me something extravagant than I do when she gives me something mundane.

Why do I not go nuts over the suit but I do over the computer? Because I love the computer more than I love the suit. So how does that make Meredith feel? I can try to muster up some gratitude for the suit, but she can tell that I don’t really appreciate the suit.

The real gratitude that we are to express is supposed to be over the act of giving, not the specific nature of the gift.

4. Ephesians 5:20 tells us to be thankful FOR everything because we are supposed to believe that God does everything for our good and his glory. We should be thankful for every gift that God gives us. Every trial, every suffering He gives us is part of his plan to conform us to Christ. We should be thankful that He loves us to much to allow us to stay in our present state. He wants us to access more of Christ in our lives for his glory. I know it’s cliché but… no pain, no gain.

So, back to my situation. I now sitting in the surgery waiting room waiting for them to let me know how it all turned out. The question I am asking myself based on Ephesians 5:20 is, “Am I thankful to God for Meredith’s surgery?”

I want to be. LORD, thank you for your grace in Christ. Please help me to be thankful for all your work in my life. I know that you are working all things for my good. Give me the wisdom to accept your gifts with gratitude. Transform my cold heart into a blazing furnace, burning hot for your glory.

Thank you in advance for your work in my heart. Thank you for Meredith’s surgery. You have taught me that my hope and peace is in you and your providence.

Thanksgiving warning

2009-11-24T08:30:00.001-06:00

The following was written by Juan Sanchez. He is pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, TX. This was the message I needed to hear this week. I hope you will heed his warning also...

The Seduction of the World and the Jealousy of God

As we approach “Black Friday” (supposedly the largest shopping day of the year), it is important to be reminded of the biblical warning, “Beware of worldliness!” In no uncertain terms, the Bible repeatedly warns us against the seduction of this world. Consider these commands: “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2)! “Do not love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15)! Worldliness is dangerous because it exposes our true love; it exposes the fact that we are driven by the search to satisfy our passions with things other than God. James reminds us of this fact when he explains the source of sin, saying: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14, ESV).

How serious is worldliness? Consider James’ rebuke: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4)? The Scriptures could not be more clear. Either you love the world and the things of this world or you love God, for “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24, ESV).

The Bible presents God as a loving, faithful God who takes a rejected and despised woman, beautifies her, showers her with fine clothing and jewelry and makes a vow (covenant) to be her husband (Ezekiel 16). Within this covenant marriage, God warns that His bride is to have no other Gods, make no idols and not bow down to any other gods, “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:5-6).

In other words, God is a jealous husband who demands faithfulness. He promises to be all-satisfying, so when his bride seeks satisfaction in something or someone other than Him, He is provoked to jealousy, for His bride commits spiritual adultery. This covenant marriage relationship between God and His people is the basis for James’ calling the people in his congregation an adulterous people, for by their desire to find satisfaction in this world and the things of this world, they have turned away from God, their faithful husband.

This warning is necessary for the western church today. Worldliness is so rampant, so pervasive, that is has become the expected norm and has spawned the market-driven culture in which we now live. Beware of worldliness! I preach to myself and my family, and I appeal to you and your family: beware of worldliness!

How can we know if we are worldly? Here is a two part test — it is not a perfect test, but at least it is a beginning.

Part 1: Take some time out this week to write out your weekly schedule. Write down every activity, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you. Where are you investing your time?

Part 2: On another sheet of paper, write out your budget. Now, look at your check register, credit card and bank statements, cash flow. Where are you investing your money?

I think that this two part test will expose, at least in part, where our hearts are, for where you spend your time and money reveals what you treasure, and “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Beware of worldliness!

Sunday sermon review - Train up a child

2009-11-23T07:47:00.001-06:00

There are two things that absolutely terrify me. First and foremost I fear and revere the LORD my God. When I contemplate his awesome holiness, my conviction of my own sin threatens to overwhelm me. Thanks be to God for sending his Son to take his righteous, divine wrath from me when I believed in his Son as my Savior and LORD.

My other greatest fear is that I will not raise my son well. Before Meredith and I were married I knew that I wanted to have children. They are cute as babies, fun as toddlers and keep you young as teenagers. The only problem with my thinking back then is that as much as I wanted to have children, I had no real concept or desire to BE a father. Those were two mutually exclusive ideas for me.

When God decided in his infinite wisdom to give Asher to us, reality set in: I am now responsible to raise this child, God’s child, in God’s ways. As excited as I was on that glorious day, December 5, 2006, I feared for my son’s future. Of course I trust that God is sovereign and that He ultimately guides my son’s path, but God had now given me the task of discipling this little boy. Even now, my heart still skips a beat.

But I need not remain in my fear. It is healthy to have a certain trepidation about the weighty things of God. I should feel the significance of what God is calling me to do as a father, but that does not mean that I should feel hopeless or helpless. For God is my Hope and my Help. He has gifted us through his Son to have the grace we need to fulfill his calling. In fact it is the very righteousness of Christ that God has already accepted in my stead. So now my responsibility is to display the righteousness of Christ for my son.

My job is to point him to Christ always. That means every day I must trust in Christ for my own sustenance and satisfaction. By modeling for my son what it means to be dependent on Him I am training him in God’s grace.

But a mere wordless example of following Christ is not enough. I must also teach Him about the LORD, my God. I must declare his mighty works. Asher needs to hear the lofty requirements of the Law. He needs Paul to explain to him that he is a sinner who cannot attain salvation by his own merits. He needs to hear Jesus proclaim clearly, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He needs to be taught that it is only by grace that we are saved through faith, and that we are to live by that same faith in God’s grace every day.

I must teach him the Bible. I must teach him the gospel. I must teach him the way of God’s grace.

God has given me the responsibility to train up my son in the way he should go. He has given that responsibility to all parents.

This Thanksgiving I thank God for my son. But more than that, I thank God for giving me the privilege of discipling my son. I am so unworthy, but by God’s grace I will obey His commands and trust in Him to see it through.

Doctrine of the Day: God's Providence

2009-11-18T08:28:00.003-06:00

What are your plans for today? I am sure those are fine plans, but you do realize though that God is in control of what really happens today, right? Not just today but tomorrow as well… and the next, and the next, ad infinitum into eternity.

It is really easy for us to get caught up in the daily grind of our lives and forget that “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). We also forget Psalm 2:1-4 where the LORD laughs at people who rage and plot against Him thinking they can actually thwart God’s plans. God is sovereign over this world, his creation mind you. Nothing happens apart from his permission or his active decree.

There is a heresy that is gaining traction among many who would call themselves evangelicals today. This heresy is called open theism. It has actually been around for a while. Open theism basically states that the future is open to God or that He does not know with certainty what exactly WILL happen. He knows all the myriad possibilities but that the actual unfolding of the future is as unknown to Him as it is to us.

The rationale behind this heresy is that in order for us to truly have free will to make any decisions with the power of contrary choice (in other words our decisions are not acted on by any outside influence), then God CANNOT know the future because that would mean our choices were already set in stone.

So an open theist would say that God does not know what will happen tomorrow because I could decide to faithfully love my wife or I could decide to leave her and go to Antarctica, which is where I would have to go to escape her fury : ) The point is that God can’t know what I will decide because that would mean that I really didn’t have the ability to choose something different. If God knows that I will choose to leave my wife, then I really don’t have a choice in the matter and staying with her is not an option.

The problem with open theism is that it is foolish. It is foolish because it sets humanity up as having supreme importance and worth. In other words it makes man “Lord” instead of God.

Instead of starting with the Bible and searching it exhaustively to discover how God has revealed Himself and taking that revelation of God as absolute fact, open theism starts with a metaphysical presupposition, “I chose what I am wearing today, therefore I have free will” and concludes then that God cannot possibly be what He says He is, the sovereignly ruler over his creation because that kind of sovereignty would ruin my idea of my free will. God’s true character is subordinated to man’s nature.

This is a common error when trying to arrive at what theology we will adhere to. Starting with man and then working to understand God is getting it backwards. We start with God, seeking to know Him in his fullness from Scripture, THEN we can rightly understand who we are, created in his image, yet completely subservient to Him and his plans since He is LORD of all.

Now, back to divine providence.

God’s word is clear that God is sovereign over his creation and that He determines what is going to happen. There is no such thing as luck, fortune, chance or fate. There is God wisely governing and implementing his plan for his creation.

Isaiah 46:9-10

Remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,'

There are three very obvious things here that should shape our understanding of God’s sovereign providence.

1. God is God, and there is none like Him. In some ways this sounds a little too obvious to us Christians. But this is very important to remember every day! Let me state this another way: You are NOT God. You are not omniscient, omnipotent, omni-anything!! We are to submit completely and happily to the LORDship of Jesus Christ. We trust Him for all things, even our decisions and plans. He is central, not us. We are to live so that He gets all the glory, not us. We need to stop trying to relate to God as if it is OUR will, OUR lives that are most important.

2. He has already declared the end from the beginning… deal with it. He knows exactly what is going to happen tomorrow in my life. Not because He is some kind of medium looking into his crystal ball or reading our palms or looking at tea leaves. He knows the future because He DECLARED it! This is his creation and He does with it exactly what He wants. He is not like some amazing supercomputer who is forced to calculate a bazillion computations on the fly based on our decisions just so He can know what He is supposed to do next. Before the foundation of the world He declared exactly what the “end” would be. Sin did not surprise Him. The death of his Son did not surprise Him.

3. God will win the day. “I will accomplish ALL my purpose.” This is a powerful statement of God’s providence intersecting his omnipotence. He has the authority to declare the end from the beginning, AND He has the power to make it happen. Whoa. That is a whole lotta theology in that one verse! God says that He WILL make sure that his plans succeed. There is nothing we can do to ultimately derail his plans.

So, what does all this mean for us? Well, this means that whatever our understanding of free will is, it does NOT mean that we determine our own future. God has made it very clear that declaring the end is his job and He will make it come to pass.

That means that there is still a paradox of sorts for us in regard to our responsibility over our own sin. If God declared the end from the beginning, did God author sin? The short answer is NO. God did not author sin and we are still responsible for our sin. This is a topic for another day.

But the bottom line for us today is that we must live our lives submissive to the sovereign providence of God.

How do we make our plans? According to his revealed will in Scripture and under the guidance of his his Holy Spirit.

How do we face life’s tragedies? Fully acknowledging that God is providentially guiding those events for our good and his glory.

How do fully reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? By submitting to the truth of Scripture and trusting that God is a big God that we will never fully comprehend because He is God.

The Gospel as Warning

2009-11-17T07:51:00.002-06:00

Nahum 1:2-8

2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;

the LORD is avenging and wrathful;

the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,

and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

Bashan and Carmel wither;

the bloom of Lebanon withers.

5 The mountains quake before him;

the hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” Hmmm… does He now? Yes, the LORD is good and is a stronghold in the day of trouble for whose who take refuge in Him, but what about those who do not take refuge in Him?… well, his plan for them does not seem so wonderful.

We must take care in how we present the gospel. God does love all people. God does want all people to repent. But we must be clear that God first and foremost is Holy and his wrath is already upon those who are not in Christ (John 3:36; Romans 2:5).

The gospel call is motivated by love; our love for the lost and certainly God’s love for the lost, but we must present God in his fullness. To speak only of his love to the lost is to diminish his hatred of sin.

Our message of hope in Christ IS hope because God offers salvation from his wrath if we will submit to Christ as LORD by repenting and receiving the grace of forgiveness. We cannot fully explain God’s love until we first explain why we are desperately in need of his forgiveness.

So, the gospel is good news, and it is a warning. “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?” The answer is no one. Even Christ, the Son of God, had to die in order to appease his wrath toward his chosen people. Jesus was able to take his life up again by his own authority (John 10:18), but God the Father still required that his wrath be appeased. It is not merely wiped away or forgotten.

God’s forgiveness of our sin means that He forgives US for committing the sin, and He is willing to reconcile us back to Himself, but the penalty for our sin must still be paid. And Christ endured God’s wrath for us on the cross.

Therefore, the gospel message we share must include a warning about God’s wrath, for that is why Jesus died: to take God’s wrath away from his children who believe in Him. So, God’s wrath will either be satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross for all whose who believe in Him OR it will remain on the unrepentant for eternity. We must warn people of God’s wrath.

The LORD is good! He offers refuge from his wrath. That Refuge is named Jesus Christ. By God’s lavish grace and mercy He promises to forgive us our sins and receive us into his family if we will repent and love Him.

Sunday sermon review - Discipling God-Worshipers

2009-11-16T07:41:00.000-06:00

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

“4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.“

Quite frankly I never gave much thought to these verses until God gave me a son. I knew the Great Shema from verse 4 and that the Great Commandment was in verse 5, but verses 6 and 7 never really entered the realm of conscious thought.

However, now that I have a son, these verses take on a special significance for me. It is MY job to teach my son the commands of God. Whether sitting around the house or driving in the car, when we wake up and when we lie down, I am to teach him about our LORD.

Wow. That is going to take some work! Right now, our favorite thing to do in our house is play with our tractors and trains and read books about tractors and trains. When riding in the car we like to watch Nemo on the DVD player. As soon as we wake up it is play time. On the way to bed there IS always a story read… but only sometimes is it a story about Jesus.

I have a lot of work to do.

But then I ask myself, “What do I want my son to be when he grows up?” I don’t mean his profession, what he will do to earn a living. I mean what do I want him to BE? I want his to be a godly man who faithfully directs his family to Christ. Then it hits me… If that is what I want him to be two things need to happen: I need to train him to do that AND that means I have to be that kind of man myself.

So, I am making the commitment to the LORD to teach his commands diligently to me son. It will take work and sacrifice, but the work is not the difficult. It is the same effort I would invest in him anyway. The difference is what I invest in him. Instead of spending all of our time playing together, I will spend our time talking about our LORD from his word. As we eat dinner together, we will talk about God’s work and his glory instead of just staring at the horses in the neighbors yard.

There is too much at stake in my son’s life for me not to take the initiative in his discipleship. It is not the church’s responsibility to teach my son the LROD’s commands, and it certainly is not the public school’s responsibility to teach him! It is my job and my wife’s job to teach him.

By God’s grace we are going to teach him.

Doctrine of the Day: Just War

2009-11-11T07:42:00.004-06:00

First of all let me say, Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all who have served our country in the military. We have so many freedoms and blessings that are certainly by God’s grace, but He used our armed forces to deliver these blessings to us.

On a personal note, “Thank you, Dad, for serving in the Navy. I appreciate your willingness to serve our country especially during the trying times of the Vietnam war. Besides, I probably wouldn’t be here today if you and mom had not been in Pensacola in 1973.” : )

In honor of our veterans I give you the following from Al Mohler, President of Southeern Seminary. This was written in 2004 when our country was again entering a conflict that many questioned. We are still involved in that conflict today. Many asked the questions then and still ask them today, “Is this a just war? Is any war just for that matter?”

Here is Dr. Mohler’s response entitled 'Is War Ever Justified? A Reality Check'…

The words of Jesus are unambiguous: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." [Matt. 5:9] These familiar words from the Sermon on the Mount form the basis of any Christian understanding of war and its morality. For the Christian, the standard is already set and the goal is absolutely clear--we are to seek the peace.

The hard part comes in understanding how peace--even the partial and temporary cessation of war we call peace--can be achieved and established. Is war sometimes necessary for the making of peace?

Christians have struggled with this throughout the long span of Christian history. Some Christians have been willing to die but unwilling to kill--whatever the cause. Other Christians mounted crusades to reclaim territory and establish a Christian order by military force. The majority of Christians have struggled with the question in an attempt to be faithful in wars understood to be necessary as well as tragic.

The most thoughtful Christian tradition of moral reasoning on the question of lethal violence is customarily described as the Just War tradition. This pattern of careful thinking goes back to the earliest centuries of the church, when the armies of Rome defended the empire against aggression. When can a state lawfully go to war? What are the conditions necessary for risking and taking life? How is a war to be fought with ethical concern?

Based on biblical reasoning, the Just War tradition insists that war must be the last resort, after all reasonable alternatives have failed. A lawful authority must authorize the military action, and that authority must be driven by an intention to establish a righteous peace--not to gain territory or claim the goods of another lawful nation. Furthermore, any military action must be proportionate to the good that can be gained. No military action is justified that is not absolutely required. There must also be a very real hope of success.

In the final analysis, the only justifiable war is defensive rather than offensive--it is undertaken to right a wrong, not to gain an advantage.

Once military action is necessary and justified, commanders must take care to protect civilians to the greatest extent possible, and must avoid using certain weapons and forms of violence such as chemical and biological weapons, and torture.

These principles have guided Christian moral thought for at least 1,500 years, even as each generation has faced and answered new questions. Now, a new generation of American Christians face the challenge of thinking as Christians about the war in Iraq, the war on terror, and the use of deadly force. Now, with the war over a year old, and with the stark reality of continued warfare before us, these questions deserve our most careful thinking.

Pacifists claim that war can never be justified, whatever the cause or conditions. The moral failure of pacifism is found in its deadly naivete, not in its abhorrence of violence. In reality, the world is a violent place where humans with evil intent will make war on others. In such a world, respect for human life sometimes requires the taking of human life. That tragic fact is as clearly revealed in history as any other, and far more than most. Pacifism fails to keep the peace against those who would take it.

The moral agent of war is the sovereign state--not individuals or international organizations. In the final analysis, nations go to war one by one, and individually they will be judged. At the onset of hostilities in Iraq, President Bush stated his war aim as the removal of Saddam Hussein as a murderous tyrant against his own people and a dangerous aggressor against peaceful nations.

Further, the President claimed that all reasonable alternatives to war had been tried, and had failed. The United States pledged that the purpose of the war is to liberate the Iraqi people, not to subjugate them. The United States declaims any ambition to gain territory or resources from the nation of Iraq, and promises to rebuild the nation, feed its people, and establish a representative government accountable to Iraq's citizens. Is that enough?

With the 2004 presidential race shaping the political debate, President Bush's doctrine of preemptive war is on the agenda. Is preemptive military action ever justified? Admittedly, this is a hard question. But the answer must be yes, if the threat is real and the response is proportionate. President Franklin Roosevelt understood this when in one of his famous "Fireside Chats" he argued, "when you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him."

This simple logic is lost on those who would demand that a nation wait until it has been attacked in full force. A decision to wait is in this case a decision to allow lives to be lost when the warnings were clear. Without doubt, a doctrine of preemptive war can be misused. Statecraft must be humble as well as courageous, and the judgment for preemptive military action must be justified by overwhelming evidence of deadly ability and intention.

War is sometimes required by a motive to protect human life within another nation, when genocide or ethnic conflict threaten the innocent. As with preemptive military action, the evidence must be clear, the motivation for action must be honorable, and the goal must be nothing beyond the establishment of a just peace and respect for human life.

Augustine, the greatest theologian of the early church, gave the question of war one of its most faithful considerations. In summary, he argued that "true religion looks upon those wars that are waged, not for motives of aggrandizement or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evil-doers, and of uplifting the good."

The Christian conscience should struggle with the awful question of war. We know that every human life is sacred--and we know why. Christians must never grow to love war, nor to seek battle, yet those who righteously fight for life serve with honor. Those who fight for life and liberty deserve our gratitude, our support, and our prayer. We must pray for our troops and for their families. The terrors and heartbreaks of war are known most fully by those whose lives and loved ones are in the line of fire.

War is a demonstration of the utter sinfulness of sin. In the name of the Prince of Peace, Christians must seek to establish and maintain our faltering and transient efforts at peacemaking until our Lord comes to establish the only peace that endures. In this fallen world, we must honestly acknowledge that peacemaking will sometimes lead to war. In the final analysis, war is the worst option imaginable, until it is the only option left.

We need joyful, enthusiastic leaders

2009-11-10T07:17:00.000-06:00

"The joy of the Lord is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10

Mark Driscoll articulates an important leadership lesson here. It is so obvious, so biblical, so often disregarded.

Every church's leadership culture must have the boldness in Christ to look people straight in the eye and say forthrightly, "Hey, c'mon guys. This is for the Lord. Let's go for it!" Enthusiasm reaches for high standards, excellence, accomplishment. Enthusiasm demands of itself the best for the sake of a higher call. Enthusiasm crucifies the too-easily-wounded, silken Self for the sake of Christ. Enthusiasm cheerfully refuses to be held hostage by negative people. Another word for this kind of leadership is humility.

Self-focused leaders worry too much about offending people. Christ-focused leaders risk offense for his sake. Some people will be unable to join in the enthusiasm. Let them go. Let the joy of the Lord triumph. This happy reverence is your strength.

Sunday sermon review - Multigenerational Faithfulness

2009-11-09T08:39:00.001-06:00

"Multigenerational faithfulness"

29 Letters...

10 syllables...

2 words...

1 goal for the church

What is multigenerational faithfulness? It means that our responsibility in the church is to make sure that each generation that comes after us has been given the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It means that my job is not only to make sure that my generation hears the gospel and glorifies God, but it also means that the generation behind me is equipped and prepared to preach the gospel to all nations as well.

It is a phrase I picked up from Voddie Baucham. You can learn all about him here.

One of the glaring problems in the church today is fewer and fewer young people are staying in the church as they grow up. There are beaucoups of statistics out there and bazillions of reports about this, but all one really needs to do is look around your average church to see the dearth of young people who are maturing, contributing Christian members.

The idea of multigenerational faithfulness is found all through the Bible, but the passage that sticks out the most to me is Psalm 145…

1 I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you

and praise your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,

and his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

[The LORD is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The LORD preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

The idea of reaching another generation with the gospel for the glory of Christ is not new or all that shocking. But there is another dimension of multigenerational faithfulness that has been severely lacking in the church (at least in the SBC churches that I know). And that is the teaching that it is the primary job of the family to carry on multigenerational faithfulness… NOT the children and youth programs of the church.

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

It is the father’s job, as the leader of his home, to see that his children grow up in the instruction of the LORD. The church comes along side him to help him and support him, but not to abdicate him from that responsibility.

With the rise of quality children’s and youth ministries we have also seen a decline in parents’ initiative in training their children in our faith.

It is my prayer that we will be committed to multigenerational faithfulness. We need to be obedient to the commands of Scripture. We need parents discipling their children. If not, then we will see “another generation after (us) who does not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). Those generations who forgot the LORD’s work during the time of the Judges were ruled by evil rulers… themselves. “In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Let us not forget the work of our LORD Jesus Christ. Let us teach each generation that there is a King who rules his creation. Let us teach them to obey Him through his word.

Doctrine of the Day: Learning and Reading

2009-11-04T07:35:00.003-06:00

I don’t know if any theologian or Christian thinker has ever articulated a Doctrine of Learning (Google certainly didn’t think so). I suppose you could say that sanctification includes learning. It IS difficult to transform your spirit and mind (Romans 12:2) without learning a thing or two. Even though it seems that learning is implicit in sanctification, it seems that the general way of thinking in the church today is that sanctification and learning are two separate ideas, and that learning is really less important that our sanctification. Well, now that I think about it, right now sanctification doesn’t really seem to be that big of a priority either. Anyway...

I think the modern church is kind of “anti-learning.” And that anti-learning mindset is stalling our sanctification.

Here’s what I mean.

Ask any Christian, “Does God want you to grow in godliness?” and he would probably say, “Yes.”

Ask the same dude, “By what process does He want you to grow?” and you will probably get some quizzical looks and requests for clarification or maybe even a request that you take your crazy self somewhere else.

Those brave enough to answer might say something like, going to church, going to Sunday school, reading the Bible, praying, etc. Those are all good things, but that answer leaves out something really important that the Bible makes a priority: LEARNING.

Most people, whether they articulate it or not, think that they LEARNED all the information they needed while they were in school (whether high school or vacation Bible school). “Yes, I know the story of Elijah and the widow, and Namaan, and Simon the magician. I got it.”

Now they are just applying what they learned. “I’m just trying to get through the day.”

Well, this is not what God intended for us. We are to always be learning and arriving at truth. We are supposed to be readers. We don’t read anymore. Our excuses are that we don’t have the attention span for it. We don’t have time for it. And besides, I don’t need to read.

But we do need to read. Not People magazine. Not the newspaper. Not James Patterson novels. Not Facebook statuses. Not pointless blogs. We don't need to read these.

We need to read the Bible. And not just the Bible. Read Christian biography. Read theology books. Read Christian classics. Read things that point us to God and explicitly help to worship Him.

Why do we need to read these things? Simple. Because the process God wants you to use in order to grow in godliness uses your mind and heart. It is impossible to transform your heart into Christlikeness apart from your mind being transformed also. Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:2 and many other passages point to our sanctification being accomplished as our minds are filled with truth and filter that truth into our hearts.

In Philippians 3 Paul describes his goal in this life: to know God fully by pursuing Him every day. Once God has saved you and brought your heart back from death to life, your desires change. God places within you this desire to know Him fully, never to be satisfied with any thing less than having more of Him.

So, it says something about our sanctification, that it is being short-circuited, when we don’t want to learn more about God so that we can know Him better and worship Him more fully.

Near the end of Paul’s life he writes to Timothy and asks him to bring a few things to him (2 Timothy 4:13)

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

Paul is about to go be with the Lord, and yet he still wants his books and parchments. He wants to READ. He wants to know God fully. He wants to LEARN. Even to his last day He wants to fill his mind and heart with thoughts and meditations on Christ and Him crucified.

I encourage you, dear reader, never to be satisfied with what you presently know of God. Read the Bible first. Study it. Know your God. Know the gospel. Be transformed by it.

But also read books, articles, blogs, anything you find or is recommended to you that will help you learn and grow in godliness. This is God’s plan for us.

Overcoming Guilt

2009-11-03T07:06:00.000-06:00

My continuing struggle in the Christian life is feeling the accusations from the Evil One over my sin. I feel guilt almost every day. The following quote is very helpful to me in guiding me back to the work of Christ on the cross as the foundation of my faith and position in Christ.

“…when the devil comes and says, ‘You have no standing, you are condemned, you are finished’, you must say, ‘No! my position did not depend upon what I was doing, or not doing; it is always dependant upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Turn to the devil and tell him, ‘My relationship to God is not a variable one. The case is not that I am a child of God, and then again not a child of God. That is not the basis of my standing, that is not the position. When God had mercy upon me, He made me His child, and I remain his child. A very sinful, and a very unworthy one, perhaps, but still his child!

And now, when I fall into sin, I have not sinned against the law, I have sinned against love. Like the prodigal, I will go back to my Father and I will tell Him, “Father, I am not worthy to be called your son.” But He will embrace me, and He will say, “Do not talk nonsense, you are My child,” and He will shower his love upon me! That is the meaning of putting on the breastplate of righteousness! Never allow the devil to get you into a state of condemnation. Never allow a particular sin to call into question your standing before God. That question has been settled.”

Martyn Lloyd Jones, The Christian Soldier, p. 255

Sunday sermon review - Divorce and remarriage

2009-11-02T08:28:00.003-06:00

Yesterday’s sermon was really difficult for me. Divorce is such a painful thing, and preaching about it is painful as well. The very public nature of divorce only adds to the shame and suffering as everyone around you is able to see the fruit of your marital problems.

We in the church are sometimes not very helpful either. We can be just as gossipy and nosy as the rest of the world. Nothing creates headlines in the news like a celebrity divorce, and nothing becomes the talk of the church faster than a couple who marriage is falling apart.

There certainly two ways for us in the church to approach this issue of divorce. One, we need to do a better job of ministering to those who have been affected by divorce, not only the formerly married couple, but also their children, friends and other family members. Two, we need to regain a solid biblical understanding of divorce and what exactly is prohibited and permitted by Scripture.

With all of our enlightenment and cultural development, in the church we still love to brand people with a scarlet letter like Hester Prynne. The stigma of divorce seems to short circuit our conduit of grace for some reason. It is not like we go out of our way to avoid those who have suffered through a divorce, but we don’t know how to relate to them in constructive, helpful ways.

The church is supposed to be a place where recovering sinners saved by God’s grace are nurtured and cared for as the Spirit heals their spiritual wounds. But we are often times like a hospital whose doctors and nurses refuse to treat their patients. Instead we enter their rooms and talk about the weather, our hobbies, etc. and never once pick up their chart, talk to them about what hurts, and prescribe the life-giving balm of Scripture. Oh sure we will carry our Bibles to church on Sundays but we rarely open them or use them to minister to people elsewhere.

We pastors are no better. It is easy to proclaim truth from a pulpit. It is much harder to sit face to face with someone and truly minister to them. That takes time, energy, and drains you emotionally. I need to spend more time actually ministering to people 1-on-1.

What all of this means is that the church needs to cultivate a biblical sense of community. I don’t mean ‘community’ in the popular, emergent sense of the word where we all just sit around and have a conversation about life that does not lead us to the cross of Christ. I mean that we need to regain a biblical understanding of our connectedness in Christ as the children of God.

I just can’t get away from the straightforward, simple commands of Galatians 6:1-2

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

There are two commands given. One, restore those who are caught in sin. The condition, of course, is that we must take care of our own spirit first, but the command still stands. We are supposed to help people who are caught in sin to get out and return to Christ. The modern day notion of tolerance and/or privacy do not apply to the Christian. We do not ‘tolerate’ sin. Nor do we stay out of other people’s business. God calls us to hold each other accountable for sin and to restore each other when we do son. “Just mind your own business” does not belong in the people of God. Those who seek to restore a brother caught in sin MUST do this gently and lovingly, but do this they must.

The second command is a little vague, and I think that is by design. “Bear one another’s burdens.” What burdens? Does that mean helping your neighbor with a project around the house? Does that mean counseling a troubled teen? Yes to both. This is a broad command designed to call us to community. To help one another with whatever we need help with. And frankly, we need help with a lot! Specifically to this blog post, we need to help those whose lives have been torn apart by divorce to be healed. Only Christ can do this, so that means that we must bear one another up into the presence of Christ. Like the four friends who lowered their lame companion through the roof into a crowded room so that Jesus could heal him, so too should we come alongside our hurting church members and bring them to Jesus.

God’s grace is rich, and He lavishes it upon us. He forgives ALL our sins. He restores us fully to himself. The church should continue to facilitate that restoration for all sinners saved by grace. This should not be an afterthought or something that happens by accident. We need to be very intentional about administering God’s grace in its varied forms for the purpose of growing God’s children into mature Christlikeness.

I hope you will join me in praying for our churches, and more specifically, I hope you will join me in being an instrument of righteousness in your church.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 5

2009-10-27T09:01:00.003-05:00

Tuesday

This was our final full day in Brazil and we were going to meet with our last church in Penalva. The four of us in our group from AL had a pretty good feeling about the church in Turiacu where we spent Monday. So, going to Penalva, I did not have huge expectations. My mind was fairly settled that we would be in Turiacu.

Well, if God didn’t go and mess up my plans with his sovereign, perfect plan : ) The bottom line is that by the time we were ready to leave Penalva that night we had a complete change of heart and decided to partner with the church there instead of Turiacu. Proverbs 16:9 was at it again. I am so thankful for God’s grace in gently leading me where He wants me to go. And I am also thankful for the guys with me who displayed wisdom and discernment in helping me see God’s path. God is so cool.

Well, here is how it all unfolded.

Tuesday morning we drove into Penalva and had lunch at a local bar-b-cue place. And by the way the food there was really good! I am such a picky eater and turn green at the smell of mayonnaise that I was deathly afraid of what we would be eating on this trip. But the food was fantastic! The strangest things we ate were chicken hearts and cow tongue. They were not that bad! I have definitely had worse at my high school cafeteria.

After lunch we had a few hours to kill before our meeting with the leaders of the church, so some of us decided to explore the city on foot. Let me take this opportunity to say that the weather was really nice. Now, everyone that knows me knows that I am happiest in arctic conditions, but considering we were only a few miles from the equator I was pretty comfortable. It was hot during the day, but in the afternoon there was a refreshing breeze blowing. And at night, I am almost ashamed to say, but we had A/C in our rooms. It was awesome.

Anyway, walking around the city gave us a chance to really get a feel for the people there. Everyone was curious about us. When kids would come up to us they would always start laughing. I was about to get a complex until someone told us that they have never seen or heard people from the US. Not only is our skin lighter, but we talk funny. I felt a little better knowing it wasn’t just my fat belly and balding head.

Also, it is not a good idea to call ourselves “Americans.” I don’t remember all the reasons we were told but it has something to do with the fact that SOUTH America does actually exist as a continent and they don’t appreciate the seemingly arrogant assumption that we own the exclusive right to the “American” label.

After walking for a couple of hours we got ready for our meeting with the pastors. Going into this meeting I was still thinking about the church at Turiacu. (I love typing “Turiacu” and I really love saying “Turiacu” pronounced ‘tuhr-ee-ah-soo’… try it you’ll like it too) I decided to be respectful and attentive in the meeting and let the other guys from Florida ask all the questions since they would probably choose this church.

But as soon as the introductions began and these lay leaders and their pastor began to share their hearts for Christ and the work there, my heart began to soften. I was truly amazed at what God was doing with people who had such a passion and zeal for God but none of the resources we have here.

We learned that this church had actually been around for 30 years (I think!). They had their own building, which was very nice. And they even had 5 preaching points they were involved in. A preaching point is what we would call a church plant. They had people in the church go into the surrounding villages and start sharing the gospel. Eventually they would start meeting in someone’s home teaching a Bible study.

They have FIVE of them! That is crazy cool.

They have a children’s ministry and youth ministry and a women’s ministry.

After a little while I started wondering why we were even meeting with them. I mean we could probably learn a thing or two from them.

Then we realized. They don’t know the Bible. They are faithful to Christ, but they have never been discipled or trained. One of the preaching points was being led by a woman… a young woman… a teenager. She was 19 years old. She said she was teaching the study because there were no more available men in their church to do it. The people in her group were asking all sorts of questions about salvation, and she wanted to help them. So, she took her concordance and found every reference to being saved she could find and they would read those verses. That’s all she knew to do.

Here was a church was was practicing evangelism but had no one to help them grow in Christlike maturity.

After this meeting we walked through the town again with our whole group. Ken, Andy, Chad and I got to talking and we all agreed that this church had tugged on our hearts. We decided to strongly consider this place and to pay close attention during the worship service at the church to see how we could help these people.

God was changing our direction again… to Him be the glory! We went into that worship service really excited about the potential of this church. As we evaluated the needs of the church with the resources and abilities we four have and our churches have to offer, this seemed like a great fit.

And then… my sinful nature tried to take over.

All week I had been praying for humility. I had been trying to be submissive to the LORD’s leading. I had been trying to be Christlike.

But when the service started, all of that went out the window. My arrogant, condescending, self-righteousness took over and I started judging this church.

I was judging the heart of the pastor. I was judging the sincerity of the people as they sang. I was judging the little girls who were dancing during the service.

My desire to evaluate turned sinful and I was seeking to condemn this church simply because I didn’t think they were holy enough.

When the service was over and our group was comparing notes. We all saw the same things, and while I certainly cannot judge what was in the hearts of my cohorts, we were all seeing the same things. And it just didn’t seem like the pastor was interested in being there. The people seemed relatively unresponsive in worship.

After such a great meeting in the afternoon, this was a downer.

We didn’t want to overreact, so we decided to sleep on it. We didn’t have too much time though because Richie was hoping we could give him an answer before we left Brazil.

That night the grace of Christ rescued me again. Thank you, LORD! I was so convicted over my judgmental heart. Instead of seeing their need and being heart-broken over it, I judged them for not being holy enough to deserve my love and effort. Ugh! God reminded me that this is why He sent us here. This church needs the gospel. Oh sure, people are getting saved by the gospel, but they need to be taught how to live by the gospel; how to reproduce godliness; how to grow into Christlikeness.

Jesus said He came for the sick. And here I am acting like I am so much holier than these ‘sick’ people.

I repented of my arrogance and pleaded for God’s mercy.

The next morning at breakfast we were discussing the situation. We HAD to decide something. And it is so cool how God works. The night before we all had our reservations for different reasons, but by the morning God had made it clear to all of us that Penalva was the place for us. We knew it. We were unanimous and excited in that that decision.

As we each shared our thoughts and how we arrived at this decision, it was so cool to see that God showed each of us the same thing: This church has need that our group of churches is uniquely qualified to meet. And He gave us a passion to meet their needs.

The bottom line is that we are committing to partner with the church in Penalva for the next 3-5 years. We will send a team at least 2 times a year. We will focus our efforts on training the church there to reproduce itself. Our goal is to see Brazilians reaching Brazilians with the gospel. Our primary goal is not to send evangelistic teams that will do all the evangelizing. If we only send teams to evangelize their community, then we will actually stunt the growth of the church. Their greatest need is for us to help them be a New Testament church. So that’s what we will do.

And by making this kind of investment in missions, we will see a greater long term return in the growth of the Kingdom.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 4

2009-10-26T09:11:00.001-05:00

Monday

There is a verse in Proverbs that is very straightforward yet still makes by brow furrow every time I read it. It speaks to the sovereign work of God in our lives in planning our discipleship. God is the one who makes the plans for our growth and development. We experienced this first hand on Monday in Brazil.

Our original plan for the lat two days of our trip was to spend time with the churches in Bequimao and Alcantara. But while we were in Brazil, Richie recieved two pieces of information that caused us to rethink our trips to those towns.

First, he heard some things about the work in these two cities that gave him pause. They were not bad things, but the challenges were unique and significant enough that they put up a couple of orange flags (not red flags) in his mind.

Second, he heard that the work in two other cities was beginning to really take off and they needed help. These two cities were Turiacu and Penalva. It also just so happens that these were two places the Richie had been praying about for some time.

Remember, the whole purpose of our trip is to identify the local church in Brazil that we were going to partner with for the next 3-5 years. There was a lot at stake. Would we go to the places Richie had been working on for a long time even though they had some concerns with them? Or would we strike out in a brand new direction with no previous planning?

Hmm… We had a decision that had to be made quickly. And it was basically a decision that would affect our commitment for the next 3-5 years.

We decided to meet with two pastors who functioned as the supervising pastors of these two churches, Riba and Francisco. We drove to a neutral meeting site and spent about an hour or so discussing the situation.

This is Monday morning and we are supposed to be visiting with some pastor somewhere that afternoon, so we didn’t have a lot of time to deliberate.

By the grace of God there was a quick consensus reached, when to a man, we thought Turiacu and Penalva to be our best option. Bequimao and Alcantara were going to be just fine though. God has other plans for them.

So, we are now on the road to Turiacu. And we are all excited. There was a general sense of anticipation as we just knew that God was directing us and setting the agenda.

It was on this van ride that Proverbs 16:9 occupied my thoughts. “The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

Here is what I learned: We thought we had it all figured out. We knew where the work of the gospel was needed and our hearts were ready to go there. But God had already established our steps. He knew where He wanted us. And while our hearts were willing and ready to go to Bequimao and Alcantara, He directed us in his time to go to Turiacu and Penalva.

God directs our steps. It was always his plan for us to go there. We did not see it before. Just because we did not see it beforehand does not mean that we were wrong or disobedient. It just means that God directs our steps and that in his time He will accomplish all his purposes.

It is common to say that the number one rule on mission trips is “Be flexible.” While I understand and appreciate that sentiment. I think that it misses a great opportunity to give glory to God. Instead of “flexibility” being our guiding principle, let’s say, “God directs our steps.”

Being flexible implies that we need to handle unforeseen changes to our plans with a soft and malleable demeanor as if these things are out of our hands, so there is no use getting upset about it. But acknowledging that God sovereignly directs every detail of our trips, even the ones that inconvenience us, will lead not to a shoulder-shrugging “Oh well that didn’t go according to plan” attitude but rather to a rugged, sturdy confidence in his Spirit’s leading that truly magnifies his grace as He leads us.

Don’t let “flexibility” by your guiding principle. That does not necessarily honor God. Let submissiveness to the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit guide you. And be firm and un-flexible in following his path with a passion for fulfilling the work of God.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 3

2009-10-22T06:43:00.001-05:00

Saturday afternoon

We were able to have our first experience with evangelism. Richie likes to use this thing called an Evangecube. It is a really easy-to-use evangelism tool that is image based. It folds out and flips around as you tell the gospel story. This makes it very easy for people to see what we are talking about and it is easier for our translators.

Oh, and a special note for you door-to-door types… that method works extremely well in Brazil! We would walk to someone’s house and our translator would just yell through the doorway. Maybe one or two people would come out at first, but once we sat down with them and started our presentation, a crowd would gather. Now, some of their curiosity was more about seeing the people from the US than it was interest in our message. But they listened very attentively and wanted to understand. It was very cool. Only time will tell what will come of our efforts.

After we went through this little village, we were told that the local radio station would allow one of us to speak on air if we wanted to. “Uh… a chance to proclaim the gospel on the airwaves? Sign me up!” Richie asked which one of us would go. We cast lots and it fell to me. I’m just kidding about the lot-casting.

That was probably the most nervous I have ever been in my life. I wasn’t mentally prepared to preach at that exact moment. I was having to take extra pauses for my interpreter because we had to alternate switching each microphone on and off which threw off my tempo even more. All the guys were crowded in the studio STARING at me. AND there were 8 million Brazilians listening to me! Okay, that is a little bit of a preacher exaggeration… maybe only 7 million.

Anyway, I told the parable of the man who find the treasure in the field from Matthew 13:44. It only lasted about 5 minutes but I was able to get the gospel out to the 137 people or so who were listening.

It was really cool actually how willing the radio guy was to just stop whatever he was playing and allowed some dude from the US start preaching. They just don’t have the same hang ups about religion that we do here. In fact, we were told that if we were to go into a school and tell the teachers that we wanted to talk to the kids, they would stop everything and let us do it! Can you imagine what would happen if you tried that in the states???

Well, I could write a few thousand words about every little thing that happened, but since I want you to keep reading this, I will skip ahead a little bit. The rest of Saturday was good but the events of Sunday were very significant. I will tell you about Sunday morning and afternoon tomorrow. Now I want to tell you about Sunday night because it was a follow up to my lesson from Saturday morning about finishing the great commission.

Sunday night

Our group spilt up so that we could be at two churches for their evening services. I went to the church at Cururupu with Ken Mostella who was going to be preaching. He is my accountability and prayer partner and I wanted to be able to support him. Every Sunday morning Ken meets with me to pray for me and our church services that day. This was my chance to pray for him before his sermon.

The first night I was in this church for worship I was too busy analyzing and evaluating everything to notice all the really important things. This time I was able to really focus on Christ and worship. There were a few things that really impacted me.

First, the prayers of the worship leaders were long, detailed and totally God-centered. Sometimes when I pray in church, I get in a hurry and just cover all the usual stuff, “God we love you… help us… bless us… may your Spirit move, etc.” 30 seconds tops. This leader prayed for about 5 minutes, and the people were totally involved in the prayer. I don’t know how to explain it, but this was truly a corporate prayer. Not just a pray for the congregation, but a prayer by the congregation.

Second, the worship leaders were totally prepared. I mean they did not have one piece of paper in front of them. The singers knew the words and the musicians knew the notes. I asked later about that, and they had been taught by one of the mission teams that helped them that if they were totally prepared to sing and play that they would be able to participate in the worship. Instead of having to focus on singing the right words or playing the right notes they were able to play/sing out of the overflow of a prepared heart… they were able to worship. And it showed. You could just tell that worship was flowing out of their hearts. The Spirit was moving and using them. The whole congregation sang with passion and enthusiasm.

Third, they had the windows open and cool breeze was blowing through the church building. It was truly a unique sensation to feel the wind blowing during a worship service! I know this will sound kind of cheesy, but it really was like a fresh movement of the Spirit was blowing through that church. The church was alive and you could feel it.

Fourth, as I stood there, eyes closed, feeling the cool breeze on my face, hearing passionate worship sung in a language I do not speak the Spirit took my mind to Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

And I thanked God for giving me this glimpse into what eternity will be like with Him: My brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world from every age singing in different tongues… I was moved… and convicted.

Here is what I learned: God is actively working to make Revelation 7:9-10 a reality and I need to be as passionate as He is in bringing that to pass.

Missions is not just about telling people about Jesus. Oh we should have a compassionate heart for the lost, absolutely! But missions is also about having a vision of the Glorified Christ surrounded by people from every corner of the earth singing praises to his Holy Name, exalting Him with the worship He alone is worthy to receive.

I want to find my lost brothers and bring them home. The apostle John has already seen them around the throne. I want to be a part of making that God-centered eternity a reality.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 2

2009-10-21T08:05:00.002-05:00

After the LORD humbled my heart and gave me ears to hear, what I experienced Saturday made the whole trip worthwhile. Here’s how it happened…

We arrived in Cururupu Friday night. This was going to be our staging area for the next two days before we set off on a whirlwind tour of Maranhao searching for churches to partner with. This night we were able to sit in on the last night of one Richie’s seminary classes for the local pastors there.

ASIDE: Richie Allen is the missionary we were working with. He started LINC-UP missions in order to help churches in the states partner directly with churches in Brazil. It is a fascinating model and seems to be very effective. He works in cooperation with the IMB although he is not funded by them. One of his primary works is to train the local pastor in Bible study and theology. This Friday he was teaching them about expository preaching… and locative prepositions in Greek.

Friday, night was our first chance to see the local church worship. I was too busy taking in all the sights and sounds to really focus on God. LORD, forgive me! This night my mind was more analytical and scientific. I was too busy processing information to notice what was really going on.

That night we were all so tired from all the traveling that we just went straight to sleep without any real reflection. Besides Saturday was going to be a busy day.

Saturday morning we rose early, took a cold shower, ate a breakfast consisting of fruit, and a cheese and bologna sandwich… and NO tap water! Richie repeatedly harped on how dangerous the water was to drink. By God’s grace, the lady who owned our hotel also owned a store across the street where we were able to buy cold, bottled water every day. I had $50 worth of spending money which converted to about 85 reiz (pronounced hay-eye). I think I spent every bit of it on bottled water. I must be half camel.

Anyway, we started off to a little town to see a very interesting church. This church was startes some years ago by another missionary. He quickly had 40 converts and they started building a place for them to gather. The missionary solicited money from churches in the US and scheduled teams to come and help construct this new building. Well, when the money ran out and the missionary moved on all this church had was four half-built walls with no floor, no roof, and no doors or windows. For years this group of people had no understanding of how to finish the job.

Fast forward to Richie’s arrival. When he found this struggling church they only had two people who remained from the original missionary’s work. Richie began the long, difficult process of discipling the leader and helping them build the church… not the building, the CHURCH. Riche taught them how to evangelize the lost and make disciples. He told them they did not need to depend on US money and resources. They started growing and working.

When we arrived last week, the building had been completed. They did it themselves with just a little bit of help from outside churches. They raised the money. Most importantly, Joal, the pastor who had been one of the two to persevere through the lean years, had grown his church spiritually. When we asked them how we could help them, his answer was, “Help us grow in God’s word.” They didn’t want our money. They didn’t want us to do their work of evangelizing their community. They wanted us to finish the great commission, teaching them to obey all that God has taught us in his word.

Here is what I learned: Finishing the great commission is just as important as starting it.

Every mission trip I have been on has been very short-sighted and focused on spreading the gospel to as many people as possible in a short time. This is not bad at all! But this is only the beginning of the great commission. Jesus gave the great commission to the church, and in Southern Baptist polity that means the local church. So, it is each church’s responsibility to obey all of the great commission. Sending money to the cooperative program is essential. Sending mission teams to spread the gospel to people who have not heard it is essential. But this is where most churches end the great commission. We need to finish the great commission. We start strong, but we end weak.

If the Church in Brazil is going to survive past one generation then we must make disciples teaching them to grow up in their faith and do all that God commands in his word. We must train Brazilians to reach Brazilians. We must train their pastors to preach the word. We must help them disciple their children. We must finish the great commission.

I will have more on the really cool happenings of Sunday night in tomorrow’s post.

Lessons from Brazil - Part 1

2009-10-20T08:09:00.001-05:00

Before I even begin to recount the events of my trip to Brazil, I want to share what I learned most about me and what God is doing in my life. I am not sharing this first because I think what I am learning is more important than what He is doing there. It is the exact opposite. It is because of the amazing work of the gospel in Brazil that I need to correct a sin issue in my life first so that I can faithfully share what is happening there.

I took two books to read on the many different planes we would fly. One was a heavy (literally) book that would take some time and thought to get through. I thought that would be a good idea considering how much time we would spend in the air and in the airports.

But on the two short flights we had to Orlando, I decided to pull out the shorter book that I thought would just be a nice, devotional read; a perfect filler for two short trips. So, I started Humility: True Greatness by CJ Mahaney.

I didn’t finish that book on those two flights, not because the book is very long (only 169 pages) but because God really got my attention, and I had to read it much more thoughtfully and prayerfully than I originally intended.

God was softening my heart for what I would find in Brazil. When I got on the plane in Birmingham, my thoughts about Brazil could generally be summed up by, “Those poor Brazilians. It is a good thing we Americans are coming to rescue them from their miserable lives.” Of course, I never verbalized that. No good American Christian would ever say those things. And if you asked me to articulate my thoughts about Brazilians I would toe the party line and say that we wanted to spread the gospel to people who need Jesus.

But there was still an arrogance in my heart about this trip. I didn’t even realize it at first. As I spent those first two flights thinking on humility, God graciously showed me my sin.

I spent the rest of the week meditating and thinking on humility, especially in evangelism.

The problem with a sin like pride is that it is an attitude that can be subtly hidden in our hearts where people who aren’t looking will never recognize it. Oh sure, pride can be very obvious in some people, but it can also be just as opaque in others. The point is that it is an attitude that can manifest itself in many different actions. Looking for pride in a person cannot be as simple as examining his work. It is a deep heart issue, and those who are experts in pride have learned how to mask it well.

One way God revealed my pride to me was through my complaining. I know that complaining is wrong. Philippians 2:14 states that plainly. But the root of the sin of complaining is pride. Complaining is arrogance... rising up against God as if we are wiser than He. God has sovereignly chosen the circumstances in which I will live each day. When I complain about them, I am telling God that He was wrong to bring those into my life. Heat, humidity, long plane rides, delays, mosquitos, weird food, all of it… God in his wisdom planned those for me. He wanted to use them to shape my character, to make my faith in Him mature. He is the one who satisfies my heart. He is where my joy and comfort lies… not in cool weather or easy travel or familiar foods.

God was opposing me as I went into this trip. He had to humble me so that I would see this trip as He saw it: one undeserving sinner who received God greatest grace taking the message of hope in Christ to other sinners who are no worse than I.

I will share more about what God is doing in Brazil and how we can be a part of it, but I needed to humble myself first.

Just for fun

2009-10-19T08:28:00.001-05:00

This is a list of 10 styles of hand-raising in worship that was written by Jon Acuff on his website, Stuff Christians Like. Funny stuff and I just had to share… And, I will get back to blogging about Brazil this week.

By the way, I am a "pound cake" kind of guy : ) What about you?

1. The Ninja
You are tricky sir, truly, you are tricky. This guy is testing the waters. He sees ladies near him that throw their arms in the air at the first hint of a Chris Tomlin song but he’s not so sure. I mean, what if his friends see him? He used to make fun of people that did that. So instead of going all out, he does a fancy little move. He puts his hands by his pants pockets and just flips them over with his palms facing the heavens. From behind, you can’t see that he is doing anything out of the ordinary and from the front it just looks like he is cupping his hands slightly as if to show you what was in his pockets.

2. The Half & Half
This person often wants to sing with both hands raised, but they go to a conservative church and don’t want to be known as “that guy.” So instead of singing with both hands up, they hold one in the air and put one in their pocket or on the chair in front of them. It’s like half their body is saying, “YAY JESUS!!!!” and the other half is saying, “Nothing to see here folks, move it along please, move it along.”

3. The Single Hand Salute
This is the cousin of the half & half but is different in it’s level of intensity. Instead of just kind of floating in the air, the hand you have up goes out straight at an angle, as if you are saluting some visiting military dignitary. It’s possible this move was first instilled in people when they were young with the song, “God’s Army.”

4. The Elevator
This one technically marks our transition into multi-hand motions. In this move, you act like there is a rule against having both hands raised at the same exact time. So you start rotating your arms. As soon as one arm comes down, the other arm goes up. It’s kind of an awkward dance move, but works pretty well when set to “Blessed be the Name.”

5. The Pound Cake
This is what we in the industry, of hand raising in case you were wondering, refer to as an “underhand move.” Instead of sticking your arms out, you hold them with your palms facing the sky as if you are ready to receive something from someone in front of you. In the pound cake, your elbows should be at stomach level, with your hands tilted at a 47 degree angle as if someone visiting your house warming party is about to hand you a delicious pound cake. It’s not a heavy cake, so you don’t have to brace yourself, but can instead just relax and think, “hey cool, pound cake. Let me take that for you.”

6. The Tickler
It’s getting serious now. The tickler is the person that sticks their arms out horizontally as if they were trying to make a big T with their body. This is a fine move except that because we’re all sitting so close, they inevitably bump into you with their hands. So while you try to sing along with the chorus, you can’t help but giggle as they, lost in a moment of blissful worship, accidentally tickle you.

7. The Double High Five
I am very stingy with my high fives. I think the last time I gave one was in the delivery room of my second daughter. The next time I give one will be if I get a book deal. Other than those two situations, I find the high five to be the physical version of using a lot of exclamation marks!!! That’s why I rarely do this move. The double high five looks exactly like it sounds. You act like you’ve just scored a goal in soccer/football and are about to double high five the person in front of you. (Some people call this move the “Secret passageway” because it kind of looks like you are feeling along a wall for a hidden button that will open a secret door. But I’m a purist and don’t use that term.)

8. The Huge Watermelon
This is like the pound cake on steroids. In this move, your arms are held higher and with a considerable amount of dedication and determination. It’s still an underhand move, but now, instead of a light and fluffy cake, someone on a truck is handing down a huge watermelon to you. Better get ready, that thing looks heavy.

9. The Helicopter Rail
At this point, both arms are raised high in the air. This is professional hand raiser territory we’re in. Please don’t try to do this at home. With this one, you reach your arms out, way over your head but out in front of your body. Imagine if you were stuck on a piece of driftwood and a shark with a laser on its head was about to get you and you had to desperately reach out for the rail of a helicopter that was attempting to rescue you. Stretch, stretch, you gotta want it.

10. The YMCA
This is my favorite and probably most common hand raising technique. It’s not complicated. Much like the famous song, you simply raise your hands above your body and form a big Y. That’s all, but it leaves little doubt to the folks around you what is going on. You’re worshipping. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s messy and it’s great.

Blogfast

2009-10-06T07:16:00.001-05:00

I have only made a couple of blog posts in that past few weeks. The infrequency of the posts is due to two reasons mainly.

One, I have been busy getting ready for vacation and for a mission trip to Brazil. Before vacation I was doing two weeks worth of work in one and the same goes for the trip I leave on tomorrow.

Two, I only want to post something if I think I have something worth saying. One of the things I am learning as a preacher-pastor is that just because God has called me to proclaim his word regularly to my church that does not mean that everything that comes out of my head or heart is worth saying. So, I don’t want to talk just to talk.

Now, when I get back from Brazil, I hope and pray that I will have something worth saying. And I want to give you guys a full update on the trip when I return.

Please pray for Ken Mostella, Andy Frazier, Chad Montoya and me as we travel to Brazil to proclaim the gospel to the quilombola people and as we encourage the fledgling churches there.

Doctrine of the Day: The Trinity

2009-09-30T07:42:00.002-05:00

The following is from Kevin DeYoung, a guy whose books and blog I have read and loved. I was planning on writing about the Trinity when I came across his thoughts first. He stated everything I wanted to say so well, that I decided to repost his thoughts here. I have cut a few sections out of his original post but it is all his work, not mine...

If any doctrine makes Christianity Christian, then surely it is the doctrine of the Trinity. The three great ecumenical creeds—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed—are all structured around our three in one God, underlying the essential importance of Trinitarian theology. Augustine once commented about the Trinity that “in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.” More recently, Sinclair Ferguson has reflected on “the rather obvious thought that when his disciples were about to have the world collapse in on them, our Lord spent so much time in the Upper Room speaking to them about the mystery of the Trinity. If anything could underline the necessity of Trinitarianism for practical Christianity, that must surely be it!”

Yet, when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, most Christians are poor in their understanding, poorer in their articulation, and poorest of all in seeing any way in which the doctrine matters in real life. One theologian said, tongue in cheek, “The trinity is a matter of five notions or properties, four relations, three persons, two processions, one substance or nature, and no understanding.” All the talk of essence and persons and co-this and co-that seem like theological gobbledy-gook reserved for philosophers and scholars--maybe for thinky bookish types, but certainly not for moms and mechanics and middle-class college students.

So in a few hundred words let me try to explain what the doctrine of the Trinity means, where it is found in the Bible, and why it matters.

First, what does the doctrine mean? The doctrine of the Trinity can be summarized in seven statements. (1) There is only one God. (2) The Father is God. (3) The Son is God. (4) The Holy Spirit is God. (5) The Father is not the Son. (6) The Son is the not the Holy Spirit. (7) The Holy Spirit is not the Father. All of the creedal formulations and theological jargon and philosophical apologetics have to do with safeguarding each one of these statements and doing so without denying any of the other six. The Athanasian Creed puts it this way: “Now this is the catholic faith: That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons, nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit, still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.”

The two key words here are essence and persons. When you read “essence”, think “Godness.” All three Persons of the Trinity share the same “Godness.” One is not more God than another. None is more essentially divine than the rest. When you read “persons”, think “a particular individual distinct from the others.” Theologians use these terms because they are trying to find a way to express the relationship of three beings that are equally and uniquely God, but not three Gods. That’s why we get this confusing language of essence and persons. We want to be true to the biblical witness that there is an indivisibility and unity of God, even though Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can all be rightly called God. The Persons are not three gods; rather, they dwell in communion with each other as they subsist in the divine nature without being compounded or confused.

Confusing isn’t it? Sometimes it’s easier to understand what we believe by stating what we don’t believe.

Orthodox Trinitarianism rejects monarchianism which believes in only one person (mono) and maintains that the Son and the Spirit subsists in the divine essence as impersonal attributes not distinct and divine Persons.

Orthodox Trinitarianism rejects modalism which believes that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different names for the same God acting in different roles (like the well-intentioned but misguided “water, vapor, ice” analogy).

Orthodox Trinitarianism rejects Arianism which denies the full deity of Christ.

And finally, orthodox Trinitarianism rejects all forms of tri-theism, which teach that the three members of the Godhead are, to quote a leading Mormon apologist, “three distinct Beings, three separate Gods.”

Second, where is the doctrine of the Trinity found in the Bible? Although the word “Trinity” is famously absent from Scripture, the theology behind the word can be found in a surprising number of verses. For starters there are verses that speak of God’s oneness (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 44:6; 1 Tim. 1:17).

Then there are the myriad of passages which demonstrate that God is Father (e.g., John 6:27, Titus 1:4).

Next, we have the scores of texts which prove the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son—passages like John 1 (“the word was God”), John 8:58 (“before Abraham was born, I am”), Colossians 2:9 (“in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form”), Hebrews 1:3 (“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his being”), Titus 2:13 (“our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”)--not to mention the explicit worship Christ willingly received from his disciples (Luke 24:52; John 20:28) and the charges of blasphemy leveled against him for making himself equal with God (Mark 2:7).

Then we have similar texts which assume the deity of the Holy Spirit, calling Him an “eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14) and using “God” interchangeably with the “Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 6:19; Acts 5:3-4) without a second thought.

Third, why does any of this matter? There are lots of reasons, but I want to focus on one primarily...

The Trinity matters for relationships. We worship a God who is in constant and eternal relationship with himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Community is a buzz word in American culture, but it is only in a Christian framework that communion and interpersonal community are seen as expressions of the eternal nature of God. Likewise, it is only with a Trinitarian God that love can be an eternal attribute of God. Without a plurality of persons in the Godhead, we would be forced to think that God created humans so that he might show love and know love, thereby making love a created thing (and God a needy deity). But with a biblical understanding of the Trinity we can say that God did not create in order to be loved, but rather, created out of the overflow of the perfect love that had always existed among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who ever live in perfect and mutual relationship and delight.

Doctrine of the Day: Sanctification

2009-09-16T07:53:00.002-05:00

I read an interview last week in Leadership magazine with Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Texas. He was talking about how his church encourages its members in progressive sanctification… fancy words for growing up in Christ. I found one of his comments very helpful:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They're not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn't take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It's not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that's a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what's right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they're not immoral.

The point he is trying to make is so important! Being a good, mature Christian is not about doing all the right things and avoiding all the bad things. It is a heart issue.

The greatest commandment is to love God fully and supremely. So the questions we need to ask ourselves in our Christian growth are not merely about right and wrong actions. We must ask where our affections lie. Who do you love? What do you love?

When we get to that level of examination of our hearts we will often find that our love for God is disproportionate to our love for seemingly amoral things and activities.

What happens is that as we give much of our time and affection to hobbies, TV, sports, and even our own families, we find our love for God is diminished.

John Piper put it like this (I’m paraphrasing), we stuff ourselves with the white bread of the world, and when we find ourselves presented with the banquet table of God’s glories, we are no longer hungry.

Our problem is our heart. We will spend time and energy on the things we desire/love. And the more we fulfill our desires for things apart from Jesus Christ, we will diminish our desire for Him.

So, let me ask Matt’s questions a little differently. What stirs your affections? What gets you passionate and excited? Does Christ arouse your passions? Or does football? Or maybe TV?

We should spend our time and energy with things that point us to Jesus, that arouse our affections for Him.

Beware of the hindrances to your monogamous relationship with Christ this world offers. There are mistresses aplenty. Christian maturity is identified by a heart that is consistently loving God more and more and loving this world less and less.

Verses that scare me

2009-09-15T08:51:00.003-05:00

I am scared of deep water. I will not get in lake water or the ocean if I can’t see what is beneath me. So, I do not go water skiing or jump out of the boat for any reason in deep water.

Meredith always asked me what I am afraid of. The answer is simple: You never know what is lurking in the dark water that wants to eat you. Sharks, eels, snakes, jelly fish, sting rays, snapping turtles, goldfish. It doesn’t matter what they are… if I can’t see them then I don’t want to swim with them.

Oh, yes, I know my fear is irrational, but I don’t care. Have you seen Shark Week? Getting more biblical, have you read the book of Jonah??? How do you know the next time you get in the water that God doesn’t have some big fish ready to swallow you?

Anyway, I mention all of this because I have some irrational fears of God’s word also. There are some verses that scare me to death. Take Hebrews 13:7 for example…

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

This verse is calling for the people of the church to follow the life example of their pastors. In case you didn’t know, I am a pastor. So, this verse scares me. My church is commanded by God to consider the outcome of my way of life… Look at Chris’ life and imitate that faith. Doesn’t that sound scary to you???

One of my professors in seminary told us that after 5 years a church becomes like its pastor. In other words all the preaching and teaching and directing a pastor does will only influence a church to the degree that his life lives out what he preaches.

Yeah, that’s scary.

And consider Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I am going to have to give an account for how I lead my church.

Combine Hebrews 13:7 with verse 17 and now I am petrified. What a standard I must live up to!

So, what am I to do with these irrational fears?

I run to Jesus. He is my hope and salvation. It is his righteousness that has already fulfilled all the commands I am given by the Father. I trust in Him not only to take away my sinful fear, but also to grant me the grace to obey these commands.

God gives us incredibly difficult commands to obey. Commands we can never obey in our selves. We must run to Jesus and place our faith in Him for all things.

In a way I thank God for my irrational fears, whether it is fear of deep water or fear of failure as a pastor. Those fears remind me that I cannot do ANYTHING apart from Jesus Christ. He is the life-giving Vine. He is the source of all grace and mercy for me.

Sunday sermon review - God's Purpose for Marriage

2009-09-14T07:48:00.002-05:00

Many men get married because they want someone to take care of them and because their girlfriend is hot and they don’t want to lose her. Many women get married because they want a family and their boyfriend makes lots of money. Some people get married because that is just what they are expected to do. Maybe they don’t want to be lonely. Maybe they are in looooooooove.

Whatever their reasons for getting married, for many people, marriage is merely a way to make themselves happy, to get their needs met. Few men and women enter marriage because they want to become more holy.

I didn’t.

I never once thought about marrying Meredith so that God could use our marriage as a way to purify my character. I wanted to marry her because I loved her and I thought she would make me happy. Oh sure, in the back of my mind I thought about serving her and caring for her, but my desire to serve her was still motivated by selfishness. I thought, “If I keep her healthy and well, then she will be functioning at an optimum level to serve me.”

I cringe at my early thoughts on marriage. And I thank God that He has patiently taught me what marriage is really about. While Meredith and I do not reflect this perfectly, we do now understand that marriage is first and foremost about glorifying God by representing the relationship between Christ and his Church.

That means that we married couples are to show the world a picture of the covenant love Jesus has for us. A love that sacrifices, reconciles, forgives, serves with humility, and most importantly a love that never fails. Wow, that is a much higher calling and motivation for marriage than “She is hot… I want her.”

There is no way we can accomplish this task in our marriages. NONE. We cannot do these things because only Jesus was able to do them perfectly. So how can God make this the primary purpose of marriage?

Well, this is where the second purpose of marriage comes in: He gives us marriage to make us holy. God has given us a task that we cannot fulfill in our own strength or character. It is only through the work of Jesus on the cross in forgiving all our sins and granting us his own righteousness that we have any hope of glorifying God in our marriage. Therefore, it is imperative that we keep Christ central, that we live the gospel everyday, that we allow Him to continue the sanctification process.

We were created for worship.

Worship is glorifying Christ as supreme.

He makes us holy to make him glorious.

Marriage is intended to glorify Christ’s covenant love for the church. God uses our marriages to make us holy so that we can fulfill his purpose for them.

Now, this is not to say that there are other great reasons to get married. But what we need to recover in the church are the primary reasons for marriage and make sure we are keeping them primary. Be happy in marriage. Have kids. Grow into best friends. Do all these… for God’s glory, to make Jesus look great to the world.

Doctrine of the Day: False Teachers

2009-09-09T07:41:00.002-05:00

God’s judgment of false teachers in Galatians 1:6-9, a haiku:

Gospel: Distorted

Creator God: Deserted

The false preacher: Damned

This is how to celebrate your birthday!

2009-09-08T11:26:00.000-05:00

I am not a big fan of celebrating my birthday. It’s not because I dread getting older. As a young pastor, getting older is actually something I look forward to! You would think that since I actually look forward to getting older that I would enjoy celebrating my birthday.

But there is just something about the self-exalting nature of the way so many people celebrate their birthdays that just turns me off to them. So many times a birthday celebration is really a celebration of “me.” I need presents. I need cards. I need a party. I need to be the center of attention.

This is certainly not to say that everyone is self-centered in celebrating their birthday! But it is hard to find people who celebrate their birthdays in a God-centered way.

Well, I have finally found someone who is celebrating his 60^th birthday in a truly God-exalting way.

Read this from one of my mentors, Ray Ortlund. I hope that I can start to celebrate my birthdays with this perspective.

Doctrine of the Day: Security of Salvation

2009-09-02T08:19:00.002-05:00

For those of you that are Christians… why are you still a Christian today?

No, I mean it. You asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you repented, you placed your faith in Him… when, like 20 years ago maybe? So, why are you still a Christian today? What hope do you have that you will be delivered into God’s eternal presence when you die?

This question leads us to what we commonly call “security of salvation.” The belief we have that God will make good on his promise to save us eternally.

There are a couple of different ways this doctrine has been expressed. One way is to say “Once saved, always saved.” People usually mean by this that once you have placed your faith in Christ, there is nothing that can make you lose your salvation. Therefore, you can have complete confidence in the promise of God to save you on the last day, and nothing you do until then will cause you to lose that.

Another phrase that people use is “Perseverance of the saints.” By this people generally mean that once you have been converted, once you have a changed heart, you will live in that faith until you die.

So, which is true? Am I saved in a moment and therefore free to live however I want until I die free from any fear of losing my salvation? Am I not really saved until the last day and I must work to maintain my faith for fear of making a misstep into hell?

These are good questions because each of these statements have truth in them but still leave the door open for some misunderstanding. I think it is best to look at these two different statements as two sides of the same coin.

Here’s what I mean: If you have placed your faith in Christ alone for your salvation then on the last day you will be with God in heaven. There is nothing that can cause you to fall away from Christ. You cannot “lose” your salvation. But we must still endure to the end in our faith. If we fall away, there was something defective in our faith proving it was not saving faith.

This doctrine is much deeper and fuller than the simple statement that once you make a profession of faith then you are saved for good. So, here is how I would fill out and solidify the doctrine of security of salvation.

1. God does the saving, so He also does the holding. We are saved by the sovereign work of God’s grace through our faith in Christ. Since this salvation is a work wrought by God, then He is also the one who works our continual salvation day by day until we go to be with Him in glory (John 10:28-29; Philippians 1:6). This side of the “security of salvation” coin is God’s work in preserving our salvation by his grace and power.

2. God binds us with his Holy Spirit as his guarantee of future salvation. We were bought by Christ as his bride. This is what we mean when we say we are redeemed. In order to guarantee this purchase for Christ’s future inheritance at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9) God places his seal on us to preserve us for that inheritance we receive in Christ and that He receives in us (Ephesians 1:13-14). So, at the point of conversion we are given the Spirit of God to seal us, brand us as his until the last day.

3. We must endure in our faith to the end in order to be finally saved. This is where we get to the other side of the “security in salvation” coin. God saves us. God preserves us by his Spirit and the work of Christ on the cross. However, the Bible is also very clear that those who have been saved will live like it until the end (Mark 13:13). This is very important. It sounds like a contradiction of points 1 and 2, but it is not. The point is that the only “security” we can have in this life that we have made a genuine profession of faith and subsequent conversion is if we endure in our faith in Christ until our dying breath.

Jesus told his parable of the four soils (Mark 4:1-20) to illustrate his point. Of the four only the one plant that bore fruit represented the true believer and follower of Christ. Two of the other three exhibited some characteristics of saving faith but they were not truly converted. Those who bear fruit and endure to the end can be sure of their salvation.

4. The best way to state succinctly our doctrine of security is: preservation of the saints. This places the power rightly in Christ not only for our initial conversion but also for our continual sanctification. This means that each Christian must daily rely on Christ and his righteousness instead of our own strength. It also means that the truly converted will exhibit saving faith until the end because their faith was a gift of God through Christ’s work on the cross.

So, while “Once saved, always saved” is true, it leaves out the persevering of our faith to the end as evidence of a true conversion. And “perseverance of the saints” does include the enduring part of our faith but can make it sound like it depends on our effort in order to be finally saved.

I think “Preservation of the saints” is most helpful as his calls us to trust in the grace of Christ alone for our conversion and implies the continual faith we must display as the fruit of this conversion.

What do you think?

Sunday sermon review - In the Name of Jesus

2009-08-31T07:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday’s sermon was from Colossians 3:17 and completed that series on putting on the Character of Christ. The thought of doing EVERYTHING in the name of Jesus is initially quite intimidating. Everything? I don’t think I can do even a few things in his name.

And then that’s when it hit me.

The whole point of God’s command to do EVERYTHING in the name of Jesus is to show us that in ourselves we can’t do ANYTHING in the name of Jesus. The call to do everything in the name of JESUS is to remind us that HE was righteous and we are not.

The only way I can do anything that is worthy of God is because of the obedient life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. His death on the cross paid for my sins but it also secured the righteousness of Christ for me when I placed my faith in Him.

Now God expects me to live a holy life. But it is not my holiness… it is Christ’s. The command to do everything in the name of Jesus is simply a reminder that it is not my righteousness that gained my access to God, it is Christ’s righteousness that brought me to God. Therefore, I need to display his righteousness in my life for his glory. The light that I shine into the world (Matthew 5:14-16) calling sinners to repent and turn to Christ is not MY light. It is the Light who came into the world to expose our sins for what they are and to redeem lost sinners into his family.

Then it makes sense that EVERYTHING I do should bear the Name, the name of LORD Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is his character that should shine through my actions. He should get the glory.

Not it doesn’t feel so burdensome. The call to do EVERYTHING in the name of Jesus is really a call to FAITH, to trust and depend on Christ for everything… even the glorification of his own Name.

Take heart, Dear Christian! If God in his rich and lavish grace has saved you from his own wrath, then He has given you his greatest treasure… his own Son. And Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. No, He will abide with us even when we are faithless. And He has given us the grace to do everything in his Name, for He has given us Himself.

Look to Jesus today! Rest in his grace and strength and let the Light sine forth from your light for your good and his glory!

Is your theology real?

2009-08-25T09:22:00.001-05:00

I have been reading several books as I prepare for my next sermon series this fall. I came across this quote that is really challenging me:

Our responses to the circumstances and crises of everyday life make our theology real.

- Ted and Margy Tripp, Instructing a Child’s Heart

His point was that we parents need to instruct our children using the teachable moments that everyday life provides. And our theology becomes “real” when we actually live out what we say we believe.

When your son pours his milk all over your book, do you respond with grace and forgiveness?

When your spouse is short with you, do you respond with kindness and gentleness?

When someone at church starts to gossip, do you call them to repent and speak only that which edifies the hearer?

Man, this is convicting!

I pray we will all have a “real” theology that is truly God-honoring and Christlike. Please pray for me to display Christ to my family and my church. I will pray for you as well...

Sunday sermon review - Christ-centered Worship

2009-08-24T09:07:00.002-05:00

What is acceptable worship of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? That was the I tried to answer in yesterday’s sermon. Of course, there are many different answers based on the context, and yesterday I focused on corporate singing since that was the context of our text:

Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

This verse gives us three very clear principles for corporate worship singing.

1. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” means that our worship singing is to Christ-centered and saturated with the Bible. We are “Christians.” We are followers of Christ. This means that we are to worship and exalt Christ. Of course we worship all three persons of the Godhead, but even God the Father said that Jesus is the Name that is exalted above every name, so we will worship Christ preeminently (Philippians 2:9-11).

Therefore, when we sing, we should sing about God, especially, God the Son. We only have a short amount of time together each week when we gather for worship. I do not want to waste it by singing about me or even heaven (apart from Christ).

I don’t want to sing songs that make a vague reference to God either. If a song about god could be sung faithfully by a Muslim or a Mormon, then I don’t want to sing it in worship on Sunday. You may know what you mean when you sing that song in your car, but if the words are not explicitly magnifying Christ as LORD, then I don’t want them.

There are plenty of Christian songs to sing that explicitly exalt Jesus as God. Let’s sing those when we gather in worship.

2. “singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” means that we should have variety in worship. I had five points yesterday about having variety in style, emotions (each in response to a different characteristic of God), instrumentation, physical expression, and even in the age of our songs (we need old and new songs).

I grow weary of the “worship wars” that threaten to divide churches over music preferences. I think the Bible is actually quite plain that there is a proper “style” in worship. I can’t define it very easily, but it involves a wide variety of instruments, songs, and emotions that span the generations of Christ’s church. We are to use EVERYTHING at our disposal to magnify Christ.

Even if a church collectively and happily decides that they want one narrow “style” of worship in their church which results in peace among the members… that is wrong. It is selfish. That church is saying, “We are going to worship God this way and no other.” They are not interested in worshiping God the way He deserves to be worshiped. They just want to worship Him the way they feel comfortable.

Now if a church throws personal preference out the window and asks the question humbly, “God, what is acceptable worship? How do we worship you rightly?” I guarantee you they will not arrive at merely one “style.” How do I know this? Simple.

The church is made up of multiple generations of believers. That does not automatically mean that we have to pick different songs to make each group happy. That is a very man-centered view of worship. But it does mean that God has acted in each generation, and different songs will have been written to honor him in those generations. Those songs will naturally be different styles because we are a creative people like our God, and we are constantly coming up with new and different ways to express worship in music. So, if we want to be faithful to praising Him for ALL the works of God, even throughout history, then we will include some of these older songs (which have different “styles”) in our worship.

At the same time we will recognize that God still works in the Church today. And as new, Chirst-centered songs are written and proliferated throughout the churches, we will want to sing those too because we want to celebrate the new works of God and the creativity expressed in magnifying Him.

3. “with thankfulness in your hearts to God” means that we must worship with the right heart. Very simply put, our words that we sing must be a reflection of the the affection for God in our hearts.

Jesus’ harshest critiques were always directed to the Pharisees. And one of the criticisms leveled against them involved the disparity in their hearts and actions…

Mark 7:6

And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

"'This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me”

We must make sure that we do not come to “worship” on Sundays and sing songs that we do not mean. Jesus says this is the evidence of a hypocrite: singing “praise” to God while your heart is not in it.

It is of utmost importance that we mean what we sing.

So, what do you do if you find your heart cold and sullen when it is time to sing of our joy in the LORD? There are three possible responses, and only one is acceptable for the Christian.

A. Just don’t sing. This would at least be honest. “I don’t feel like it, so I am not going to sing it.” The obvious problem with this response is that we are commanded to sing and worship Him. So, this is honest but still disobedient.

B. Just sing along anyway. This is the response of the hypocrite. God is not honored by this response. This is what people do who are just going through the motions usually just to please themselves or put up a good appearance at church.

C. Sing repentantly praying for God to change your heart. This is the response of the true worshiper. We will all have days when we do not feel like worshiping, when we do not feel like obeying God. It is not right to disobey just because we do not feel like obeying. Nor is it right to “obey” with a heart that does not want to obey. So, what we do is obey repentantly. Sing the words asking God to help you mean them. Repent of your cold heart. Look to Christ to find your satisfaction for your heart’s desires.

God is in the business of changing stone, cold hearts to hearts of living, vibrant flesh. So call to Him and plead on his mercy. Then you will have something to sing about.

Just for fun

2009-08-12T10:54:00.001-05:00

Wordle.net is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. It is kind of hard to explain. It makes more sense when you see one.

Click here to see a Wordle of my blog.

Remember the words that are used most frequently are the largest.

I must confess that I was glad that “God” was the largest word! I would have been embarrassed if it was “I.” Although I was sad to see that “grace” was not more prominent… something to work on I suppose!

Doctrine of the Day: Original Sin

2009-08-12T06:09:00.003-05:00

The other day I asked my son, Asher, “Where will you go when you die?” He said, “Nashville.” It is hard to know what to make of that answer. Does he know that we don’t live in Nashville anymore? Does he think Nashville is Heaven or Hell? Does he even know what it means to die? He’s only 2.5 years old, so I will cut him some slack.

This made me think of a bigger question though, “What happens to infants when they die?”

This is a difficult question with huge implications for our everyday lives. My immediate response is “All infants go to heaven when they die.” Even after much reflection and serious thought, my answer is the same. I believe in a God who is gracious and merciful. I believe that in his great grace and mercy there is room for infants who die to spend eternity with Him.

But as I said, this is difficult question for two reasons.

One, the Bible does not give a clear, direct answer to this question. Two, there is the issue of original sin.

The Bible makes it clear that there is one Way to God the Father: through Jesus Christ the Son (John 14:6). That Way is the way of faith and repentance. We believe on Christ in order to be saved. This is how God’s grace in salvation is manifested in us.

So if Jesus is the only way to the Father, and if that way requires faith, what about infants who die without the ability or opportunity to express that faith? The Bible does not say much. There are passages that mention God knows us before we were conceived in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and examples of his Spirit upon babies in the womb (Luke 1:15), but none that say definitively that when those infant lives end they are immediately swept up into heaven.

Now the prevailing thought is that these babies have not yet sinned and therefore they are innocent in God’s eyes. That means He will automatically welcome them into eternity with Him.

The problem with that thinking is that we are born as sinners. This is the doctrine of original sin. We are born in sin (Psalm 51:5). We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Because of Adam we are born guilty of his first sin (Romans 5:12-21). The very fact that infants do die is evidence of this effect of sin on their lives. Adam’s sin and the penalty of death is inherited in all his descendants. This gives us what we call the sin nature. This means that every person WILL sin as soon as he understands right from wrong. There is not a single person who can make it through life without sinning. Such is Adam’s curse.

Original sin is a big problem. This means that even infants are not innocent. No, they have not consciously committed any sin, but they are Adam’s offspring and have inherited his guilt. The question we then need to ask is “On what basis can God allow them into heaven?”

I have heard and read different responses to this question, and none of them are completely satisfactory to me. John MacArthur has written a book on this topic that many find helpful, Safe in the Arms of God. He has also delivered a couple of sermons that are very detailed (http://www.gty.org/AudioPlayer/Sermons/80-242). John Piper has a more succinct answer on his website (http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/2006/1622_What_happens_to_infants_who_die/).

I don’t like coming to firm conclusions without the help of solid biblical support, so it is difficult for me to say without question that all infants who die go to heaven.

However, even with the issue of original sin and the problem it poses, I still believe that the primary attribute of his being that God chooses to magnify above all others is his mercy (Romans 15:8-9). Therefore, I believe that God in his mercy, somehow in a way unknown to us, overcomes the problem of original sin in infants who die and graciously welcomes them into his presence.

What does the LORD require of you?

2009-08-11T07:27:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I quoted a verse of the Bible without the reference and asked if anyone could identify the reference. There was no deep, underlying lesson in that. I was just curious if anyone would recognize this verse.

The verse is Deuteronomy 10:12...

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

I chose this verse to identify because if you don’t know God is speaking to Israel, then you could just as easily think He was speaking to Matthew or Peter or Paul or Timothy.

In other words, this Old Testament teaching is the same teaching we hear throughout the New Testament.

There are many people who think that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament or that people were saved differently in the OT vs. the NT. But this is not true. What God required of his people before Christ came is the same He requires of us today. God required/requires…

1. Fear the LORD = revere his holiness (1 Peter 3:15)

2. Walk in his ways = obey Him (John 14:15)

3. Love Him = well… love Him (Matthew 22:37)

4. Serve the LORD = again… serve the LORD (Romans 12:11)

5. All your heart, etc = all your heart (Mark 12:30)

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What He required in the OT is the exact same He required in the NT.

However, some would object and say that these things listed may be the same, but what about salvation? Didn’t Jesus come and die to put an end to the sacrificial system and change the way people are saved?

Yes and no.

Jesus did put away the sacrifice of animals because He is the perfect sacrifice offered once for all for our sins (Hebrews 9:11-28). He has fulfilled all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). So, there is no need for sacrificing animals because the perfect sacrifice has come.

He did not change how people get saved, though. David, Moses, Abraham, every OT “saint” was saved the same way we are today: by faith. They were saved by belief in the promise of God. So are we. God promised Abram that he would have a great many offspring. Abram believed that, and God credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). He was saved by faith. It was a “forward” looking faith where ours is a “backward” looking faith. Paul makes this point in Romans 4 and Galatians 3. The works of the law do not save us. We are saved by faith in God’s Anointed One who fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law, sacrificed his blood for our transgressions, and counted us righteous based on his work not ours.

So, what does the LORD require of you? Fear Him, follow Him, love Him, and serve Him with all your being. We do this by faith in the only One who did all these things perfectly: Jesus Christ. It is his righteousness we are to display to the world.

Name that Scripture!!!

2009-08-10T12:28:00.002-05:00

Let’s play “Name That Scripture Reference.” I give you a verse of the Bible, and you give me where it is found. I removed the name that is listed in the verse so as not to give it away. Other than that it will be straight from the Bible.

The only rule??? Do not google the text!

Here it is…

“And now, _________, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Any guesses??? I will give the answer with some of my thoughts tomorrow.

Sunday sermon review - Are you ready?

2009-08-10T07:48:00.003-05:00

This past weekend was Breaking Free for our youth ministry. Breaking Free is like a DiscipleNow weekend where the students were divided into their age groups, sent into host homes for the weekend, studied God’s word in small groups and gathered a few times for worship. The weekend culminated with our youth pastor, Steve Hunt, delivering the sermon on Sunday morning.

I have not had the opportunity yet to hear all the reports from the weekend, but the few I have heard already seem to be good. I was very thankful to hear Steve preach yesterday. That means I have the Sunday off : ) and gives me more time to mingle and meet other people. That means that today I am reviewing Steve’s sermon! Don’t worry, Steve, I won’t be passing out grades, just recapping the content.

The theme this weekend was on the return of Christ. The challenge was: Are you ready? The two questions that immediately pop into my head are: What does it mean to be ready? What does it matter to be ready?

1. What does it mean to be ready?

Christ is going to return to a world that will be deep in sin and rebellion like at the time of Noah (Matthew 24:36-44). People will go on eating and drinking, totally oblivious and uncaring about God and his ways. When Jesus returns, He will be coming for judgment. When He returns, this world will pass away and a new Heaven and a new Earth will come down. There will be no hope for those rebels when Christ returns. The time for mercy will end. God's patience with the rebellious will run out. Christ will come and settle accounts for eternity.

To be ready for his return means that we must be right with God. There is only ONE way to be right with God: we must repent of our sins, submit to Christ as LORD and believe in Him as our Savior. When we do this, when we respond to the gospel call, God will forgive our sins in Christ, He will cleanse us in Christ, and He will give us the righteousness of Christ. Then we will be right with Him.

There is no other way to be right with God. We have all sinned and fallen short of his glory. We deserve the wrath and judgment Christ will bring on that terrible day. If we put our hope in our own works, we will spend eternity separated from God in Hell. There will be many on that day who cry out to God calling his attention to their good works (helping the poor, coming to church, reading their Bibles, praying), but He will not save them because He never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23). Our only hope is in Christ alone.

2. What does it matter to be ready?

You may be wondering, “If I received ALL of Jesus’ righteousness at salvation, what does it matter if I am living right when He returns? Am I not already right with God?” These are good questions. Yes, when you are saved, you are completely forgiven and completely right with God… However, the Bible tells us that the way to know that we have been truly converted is if we endure to the end.

Matthew 24:9-13

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

In a world where the love of many grows cold toward God, it is the Christian who endures in the faithfulness of Christ to the end that is saved. This means that we are not saved by our own righteousness or good works, but that by faith in Christ we daily and consistently rest in Him and work in his strength his righteousness until He returns. We love, evangelize, forgive, worship, and serve until our last breath. That glorifies God. That is why were created.

So, even if you have already placed your faith in Christ and have been saved, you must continue to live in Christ’s righteousness until the end for that is what the children of God do: they obey because of their changed heart.

Be ready. Be converted to Christ. Be consistent in living in Christ until the end.

Book Report - Unpacking Forgiveness

2009-08-06T10:53:00.001-05:00

First of all let me confess that I have failed to keep up with my book reports. I don’t have any excuses. I want to be faithful to what I said I would do.

I have been reading though, and I want to offer my thoughts on a book I finished several weeks ago. I have already mentioned in a couple of weeks ago and used a definition I found in the book in one of my sermons. But I wanted to explain a little more why I loved this book and why you should read it.

The book is Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns. I could go on for a 1000 words about why this book is so helpful and life-changing. Instead, I want to give you a succinct and hopefully compelling summary.

Here is the book in a nutshell: biblical forgiveness matters and few of us know what it is or how to do it. I think the most challenging part of his book is teaching that forgiveness is conditional upon repentance. I know when I heard that, I paused and considered ditching it because it didn’t sound right.

Brauns lovingly reminded me though that true Christian living is not based on my ideas or feelings of right and wrong, but solely on God’s word. As he laid out the biblical teaching on forgiveness, all my objections fell… hard. Forgiveness is about extending God’s grace to those who have hurt/offended/sinned against us. But forgiveness is only one part of God’s grace. Forgiveness has a very narrow and specific purpose: reconciliation.

God does not forgive our sins and leave us unreconciled with Him. Forgiveness and reconciliation go together like regeneration and faith. One logically precedes the other but in essence they happen simultaneously. You can’t have one without the other.

So, I learned that I did not understand biblical forgiveness. Now, I see that in order for reconciliation to happen (eliminating alienation and restoring a relationship to a right standing), the offender must be repentant. Repentance means that the offender recognizes his offense and turns from it. This is what Jesus requires of us, and we forgive as He forgave.

Whew! Heady stuff. But the church needs to hear this desperately. We offend each other all the time and if we do not have a biblical understanding of forgiveness then we will not be united and more importantly we will not display forgiveness to the nations.

I highly recommend this for every believer. It will point you to Christ’s grace in the word and will answer many practical questions on forgiveness as well.

Doctrine of the Day: The Five "Solas"

2009-08-05T07:52:00.004-05:00

Not many of us today know much about the Reformation that started in 1517. Around 2000 I think, one of the major news magazines identified the protestant Reformation is the most significant event of the past millennia.

Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli Philip Melanchthon, John Knox, William Tyndale, and the list goes on. These men fought for the gospel. The Catholic church had strayed deep into unbiblical teachings (and it is still there today). They understood that theology and doctrine, what we believe about the Bible is of utmost importance.

The “five solas” is a term used to designate five great foundational rallying cries of the Protestant reformation. They are as follows:

Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone

Sola Gratia - Grace Alone

Sola Fide - Faith Alone

Solus Christus - Christ Alone

Soli Deo Gloria - To God Alone Be Glory

These “five solas” were developed in response to specific perversions of the truth that were taught by the corrupt Roman Catholic Church.

1. The Roman Church taught that the foundation for faith and practice was a combination of the scriptures, sacred tradition, and the teachings of the magisterium and the pope; but the Reformers said, “No, our foundation is sola scriptura”.

2. The Catholic Church taught that we are saved through a combination of God's grace, the merits that we accumulate through penance and good works, and the superfluity of merits that the saints before us accumulated; the reformers responded, “Salvation is a free, undeserved gift from God… sola gratia”.

3. The Catholic Church taught that we are justified by faith and the works that we produce, which the righteousness that God infuses in us through faith brings about. The reformers responded, “No, we are justified by faith alone, which lays hold of the alien righteousness of Christ that God freely credits to the account of those who believe… sola fide”.

4. The Catholic Church taught that we are saved by the merits of Christ and the saints, and that we approach God through Christ, the saints, and Mary, who all pray and intercede for us. The Reformers responded, “No, we are saved by the merits of Christ Alone, and we come to God through Christ Alone… solus christus”.

5. The Catholic Church adhered to what Martin Luther called the “theology of glory” (in opposition to the “theology of the cross”), in which the glory for a sinner's salvation could be attributed partly to Christ, partly to Mary and the saints, and partly to the sinner himself. The reformers responded, “No, the only true gospel is that which gives all glory to God alone, as is taught in the scriptures… soli deo gloria”

We can see a shift in faithfulness in the Church today that is very similar to the one that sparked that great reform. There are many who have forgotten what the gospel is and how important it is that we fight for it.

I am not suggesting we need another Reformation, but there is another Latin phrase that should be a part of our worldview: semper reformanda… “always reforming.”

I am suggesting that we must always keep a close watch on our doctrine and our teaching (1 Timothy 4:16) to make sure it accords with the faith delivered once for all to the saints (Jude 3).

The LORD fashions your heart

2009-08-04T08:17:00.000-05:00

Psalm 33:13-15

13The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.

God is watching you… How does that make you feel? There is nothing hidden from his eyes. He sees everything you think you can hide from all the people closest to you.

We feel great shame and conviction over sin that is found out by men, yet the knowledge that God watches us and knows our every thought and act does not produce a sufficient shame to motivate us to holiness instead of sin.

What hidden sins do you have? The answer… NONE. All your sins are known by God. The truth of this psalm should compel us to confess quickly and contritely. We should repent of those sins and be motivated to live the holy lives God has ordained for us.

This is not a deep thought today. It is maddening in its simplicity: God is watching. However, the implications for our lives are significant. We should live in the knowledge that God is aware of everything we think, say and do. Therefore, let’s be holy.

I leave you with a question: What does it mean that God fashions our hearts? Does that mean that He gives us our passions and desires?

Sunday sermon review - Put on Love

2009-08-03T08:15:00.001-05:00

God is love…

Doctrine of the Day: Propitiation

2009-07-29T07:01:00.002-05:00

Propitiation is a big word that doesn’t come up in our every day conversations: “Hey Meredith, I propitiated my wrath against Asher before he received a spanking.” It does not even show up in some Bible translations (The NIV, NLT translate it as ‘atonement’). While those translations are not entirely incorrect, there is definitely something missing when you leave out ‘propitiation.”

Propitiation literally means “to satisfy God’s wrath.” The reason it is important to keep this word in our Christian jargon is that we don’t want to lose sight of what really happened on the cross.

In fact there are many things that happened. Among them:

1. Our sin was removed from us: Atonement

2. We were set free from sin: Ransom

3. We were made right with God: Reconciliation

4. God’s wrath was satisfied in Christ: Propitiation

Of course the application of all these benefits happens at our conversion when we repent of our sins, ask for and receive forgiveness and commit to follow Christ in faith.

But of all the things Christ accomplished on the cross we tend to focus on our sin being removed and sometimes forget that our sins are not merely removed and forgotten by God. Oh yes, they are are removed and they are now forgotten, but God’s holiness demands that they be punished. This application of God’s holiness is his wrath.

In order for us to be fully reconciled with God, we had to be saved. This is not a new concept, I know. But saved from what? From our sin? Not exactly. It is our status as rebellious sinners that puts us at enmity with God, but it is his wrath that we need saving from.

In Christ’s death our sins were removed from us and placed on Christ (atonement). He then bore our punishment; He received the full measure of God’s wrath that was meant for us (Propitiation). This is important. This leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s grace toward us. God did not just make his wrath against us go away; He directed it toward his Son.

Romans 3:23-26 reads a little differently when you understand that God’s wrath toward us because of our sin was not deleted… it was directed toward Christ:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

And notice the reason for Christ’s death I put in italics. Jesus had to die to satisfy the holiness of God because in his mercy he chose to forgive the Old Testament saints. But you see, God cannot merely forgive our sins. His wrath must be satisfied. His wrath for ever sinner will either be satisfied on the cross for those who believe in his Son, or on the last day when the Rider of the white horse whose name is Faithful and True comes down from heaven to judge and make war on the nations. A sword will come from his mouth and He will tread the winepress of his fury pouring out the full measure of his wrath on all those who have rebelled against Him.

Oh how sweet it is that God has graciously saved us from his own wrath in Christ. LORD, I thank you and praise you for your wonderful grace. May your Church be motivated by your great grace and mercy toward us to go into the nations and proclaim the Good News that salvation is possible through faith in Christ alone!

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD

2009-07-28T08:00:00.004-05:00

Psalm 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

When you register your car with the state of Alabama you a have a few different options for your license plate that do not cost extra. One of these options is a plate that has an American flag watermark and the line at the bottom says, “God Bless America.”

This is really very interesting to me. Most of the plates you register for cost extra. All those football, environmental, education, and choose life license plates take your money and donate them to the institution or cause you are supporting. Not so with the “God Bless America” plates.

I suppose they do not cost extra because the government cannot endorse any particular religion, so it can’t take extra money for them. At the same time, it still seems odd in today’s political and social climate that these plates would be made available at all.

And there beaucoups of these plates riding around our state. They are everywhere!!!

My question though is this: Why do people put these on their cars? Is this the 21^st century version of the little fish? You know the fish that became an ichthus that became a darwin fish that became an ichthus eating a darwin fish. That was so 90’s.

No the cool thing apparently is to proclaim proudly from the read end of your car, “God Bless America.” Is this the identification of a Christian?

Well, I don’t really want to get into that. I have more concerns about what people mean when they say “God Bless America.” I have NO problems with people who want our country to be blessed with the superfluous preaching of the gospel calling all people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. If that is what you mean by calling for God’s blessings on us, then I say “Hallelujah!” This is a plea for God’s mercy… not entitlement.

However, if you have Psalm 33:12 in mind when you say “God Bless America,” then you have a wrong understanding of this verse. In fact, I have heard this verse used out of context too many times to count.

Here are the reasons this verse has nothing to do with the good ole US of A.

1. You are very mistaken if you think this is a nation “whose God is the LORD.” Yes, I know what principles our nation was founded upon. I read Peter Marshall’s The Light and the Glory and other books like them. Yes, many of our founding fathers believed in a god of some sort, some even believed in God. We even have God’s name on our money. But none of these facts mean that we are a nation “whose God is the LORD.”

In fact, right now we are one of the most godless nations on the planet. There are churches in Africa and Asia that are sending missionaries here! We have been consumed with the god of self and have indulged that god with all sorts of materialism and narcissism.

Whether you want to look at our past or our present, we are not a nation “whose God is the LORD.”

2. Most importantly, the context of this verse makes it clear that Israel is in view. If you read the entire verse and not just the first half there is no escaping the conclusion that Israel is THE nation that is referenced. One of the major themes of the Bible is that God has chosen a people for Himself, a people for his Son’s inheritance. Israel was chosen to be the instrument that would bring God’s blessings to the nations. They were a special people to God. Just read the first few chapters of Exodus to see God’s special love for his people.

There was only one “nation” that God chose as his heritage: Israel. The promise of blessing is not just for any nation who says The LORD is their God. It is a specific promise for that one nation whom God has chosen as his.

3. Even in “the Church” age of the New Testament this verse still references God’s people not a country. The Hebrew word translated nation is meant to identify a people group, not an organized state. In the Old Testament just because you were a Jew, a child of Israel, did not mean you were “saved” or received all of God’s blessings. True “Israel” were those who by faith obeyed God. So even when we see the “nation” of Israel mentioned as God’s chosen people, it was not the organized country of Israel, but the faithful followers of YHWH who are in view.

The way for us to read this Psalm in the New Testament, Church age is to remember 1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The Church is the holy nation who is blessed by having the LORD as our God. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord is a part of this “holy nation.” It is this “nation,” this people group, that God has chosen as his heritage and who are blessed.

So, I pray that God will mercifully bless America with the gospel being proclaimed by faithful churches. I pray that He will call MANY individuals to become a part of his people and be blessed in Christ. I hope this will be your prayer also.

But let’s not get distracted by thinking that we are blessed materially by God because we are a nation “whose God is the LORD.”

Sunday sermon review - Gracious speech

2009-07-27T07:40:00.002-05:00

On Sunday nights this summer I have been preaching from Colossians 4:2-6 about how our everyday speech should be gospel-centered. Last night I shared something that I have been personally feeling convicted about for some time.

I want my speech to always be gracious and seasoned with the salt of the gospel. However, I find that there are certain topics and instances when gracious speech never flows from my mouth.

The problem for me is two-fold on two levels of my life. One is a symptom of something greater.

The symptom is that talking about Alabama and Auburn football at church gets me angry. It is not my intention to blame anyone else for these conversations. It is my heart problem. The reality though is that what many people consider good natured ribbing, really gets under my skin. So, I know that this is my problem. I cannot let myself get so angry and frustrated over such a worthless topic.

But this is just a symptom of a greater problem. This shows that football has become an idol for me. We defend vehemently what we treasure. And when I put more energy and passion into defending a sports team than I do in encouraging fellow believers when we gather for worship each week, then that shows that God is not my greatest treasure. It is really sad when Christians cannot talk about Christ even when we are “at church.”

This leads me back to the original point… I will have consistently gracious, gospel-saturated speech when God is truly my treasure. So, for me to commit to gracious speech means I need to commit to valuing Christ above all else. This is especially needed on Sundays. There is nothing sacred about Sunday worship except that it is the only time when the whole church gathers. And for a couple of short hours each week we come together to make Christ supreme in our lives as a united body… theoretically at least.

So, as a pastor, I need to lead the way in obeying Colossians 4:6. For me that means that football is out as a conversation topic, especially on Sundays. This is not to be legalistic. This is because I want to gather with my church and exalt my Savior in everything we say and do. I want to be intentional in my conversations in order to point people to Christ.

I hope you will join me in treasuring Christ and allowing the grace of Christ to be evident in our speech.

Doctrine of the Day: Forgiveness

2009-07-22T08:59:00.002-05:00

I have written much on the topic of forgiveness on Monday. While there is still much more that can be said about forgiveness, I do not wish to overload us with too much to think about in a short time. So, today I will try to rehash what I have already written in the hope that we will deepen our understanding of what we already know.

I really like Chris Braun’s definition of forgiveness. So, let me give it to you again.

Forgiveness is the commitment by the offended to pardon graciously the repentant from moral liability and to be reconciled to that person, although not all consequences are necessarily eliminated.

I think it is thoroughly biblical and very helpful.

The important thing to remember here is the purpose of forgiveness. The purpose of forgiveness is not primarily to make the offended feel better about the offender. We know this because of how the Bible tells us to forgive: as the LORD forgave us (Colossians 3:13). Our forgiveness of others is meant to model and display the forgiveness we have in Christ. And the God’s forgiveness of our sins is not to make him feel better. His forgiveness of our sins is the necessary action that leads to reconciliation. He desires to bring his lost sheep back home but his holiness requires that our sin be dealt with. Jesus died for our sins, but the “transaction,” so to speak, that applies his death as payment for our sins is when God forgives repentant sinners. So, the purpose of forgiveness is to reconcile repentant sinners to God. Sure there is an “emotional” benefit for God. He is pleased to show mercy. But his emotional well-being is not dependent on our response.

The same goal of reconciliation is what drives our forgiveness of others. Forgiveness is a relationship rebuilder. There cannot be reconciliation in our relationships if there is no forgiveness of sins.

Here is an example.

Let’s say that I was standing around with some guys from church and someone started to gossip about one of our members (let’s call him Eli). And instead of cutting off the conversation as I should, I continue to pile on Eli.

Later Eli gets word that I was speaking ill of him, and he confronts me about it. I tell him, “Eli, you are right. I sinned against God and you by talking about you in this way. I realize I was wrong, and I am sorry. I will not do it again. Will you forgive me?”

At this point our relationship has been injured. Eli’s feelings are hurt; he may even be angry with me. He doubts that he can trust me. Our friendship is on the line.

We need to be reconciled. We need to get this sin out from between us so we can be friends again.

If Eli wants our relationship to return to what it was before I sinned against him, then he must forgive me. That means he must commit to release me from his “prison.” He can’t remain angry with me. He has to let that go. He must graciously (because I sure don’t deserve it!) pardon my sin, trusting it to God. He must be convinced that I am truly repentant. If our relationship is to return to its previous level of trust and love, then He needs to know that I do not intend to go around and do him harm. Then we can be reconciled.

But all of this hinges on my repentance. If am sorry for hurting him, meaning that I feel guilty that I got caught, and the only reason I am apologizing is I want to feel better about myself, then we cannot be reconciled. The reason is that in that case I love myself more than I love Eli. I do not care about his well-being. I only care about me. That kind of relationship cannot be reconciled.

Forgiveness is a difficult thing. It requires that we treat sin as seriously as God does. It requires that we put other peoples feeling and needs before our own. It requires that we humble ourselves and admit where we are wrong.

In other words it can only be accomplished in the grace of Jesus Christ. We “put on” forgiveness by allowing Christ to shine forth from our lives. We faithfully and obediently forgive others because we want to show how great and glorious God’s forgiveness of our sins truly is.

PS There were no “Eli’s” harmed in the making of this blog post… at least, not that I know of.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever

2009-07-21T08:19:00.002-05:00

Psalm 33:10-11

10The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.

Last week I planned on playing golf once or twice and reading a new book I got in the mail and enjoying my weekend playing with my son and just generally coasting along. It was a great plan. It was all about me. I was going to be able to indulge myself at my leisure.

It didn’t quite work out that way though. He frustrated my plans. He apparently had a different plan for how my week would go.

Instead of indulging myself all week I was called to serve my wife and son in a very time intensive way. Every minute of my day was geared to serving them. As I mentioned last week, my wife had to have surgery to repair her shattered kneecap. She was unable to do much of anything for herself. I did everything for her: get up, walk, sit down. I served breakfast lunch and dinner. Praise the LORD, our church family was so gracious in bringing meals to us, so I was blessed not to have to cook, which is not pretty… Then, of course I had to watch Asher, a full time job in itself.

I share all this not to complain. In fact it is the exact opposite. Nor do I share all this to make me sound like a great husband and father. In fact it is the exact opposite.

No, I share all this because I experienced first hand what Psalm 33:10-11 is about. I had plan last week that was all about indulging my selfish sin nature, which by default means that I was planning against God. God would have none of that!!!

He frustrated my plans. His sovereignty over my life broke through my selfish desires and accomplished a great plan for his glory. He took a selfish husband and dad and reminded him that his duty and greatest joy is in serving his family when their need is greatest. Oh sure, I had my moments of sef-pity and frustration, but God in his grace has made this experience with Meredith’s injury a truly blessed time for our family.

So, I do not share this to complain, I am praising God for his wise plan that sovereignly applied to my life. I am not trying to make me look good, I am thanking God for his grace in bringing me back to have the right spirit toward Him and my family.

When we read that He frustrates the plans of the peoples and brings the counsel of the nations to nothing, it is not that He is an overbearing God who is working against us or has evil planned for his children. He is working all things for his glory. And for those who love Him and are committed to his purpose, that plan will always be for our good (Romans 8:28), even if on the front end it takes the form of a painful injury that requires a long convalescence and disrupts the plans of family. He frustrates our plans for very good reasons. If we will seek Him in the midst of those course corrections then we will find the joy He has for us. I rediscovered my joy in serving my family.

There is another very important lesson in these verses. It may be even a little more difficult to accept than this first one. It is one thing to accept that God frustrates our plans for our good and his glory, but it is another thing entirely to accept that he frustrates the plans of non-Christians for his glory… and NOT for their good.

Most times we will eventually come around to accepting God’s sovereignty as long as it still fits into our understanding of a God who is always kind and good toward everyone. It gets much more difficult to accept a God who is kind and good toward some and not toward others.

“The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing” This phrase calls to mind the leaders and nations of Psalm 2, who are actively working against the LORD and his Anointed, and especially Acts 4:25-29 (which quotes Psalm 2) where Luke applies the truth of God’s sovereignty over the nations and leaders of nations to explain the Crucifixion. God turned the hearts of Herod and Pilate in their sin to accomplish his purposes (Proverbs 21:1). He brought their plans to nothing; plans to silence Christ and his followers by killing Him. His counsel, his plan to save his people through the death of his Son, is what stands forever. He even used these godless leaders to accomplish this.

Wow. He is a sovereign God, sovereign over all things and people. We would be very wise to acknowledge Him as LORD and submit willingly to his LORDship over our lives. For when we repent of our sins and turn to Him, He is faithful to forgive us and restore us to a right relationship with Him. In his sovereignty, He commits to follow through with his promises. And He promised those who believe in Him that they would receive eternal life (John 3:16). He also promised those who reject Him they will be condemned forever (John 3:18).

His plans will stand forever. I pray you will seek Him while He may be found. For, there is joy to be found in his perfect plans for his people… even when your wife breaks her kneecap.