What's going on...

Here are a few things going on around the internets...

• Discussion boards
  

If you are a veteran of reading blogs and commenting, then you really need to read this opinion piece. It is funny but way too true.

• An Old Hymn
  

I love old hymns. I mean REALLY old hymns. Here are the words for a hymn by Charles Wesley that I absolutely love!! 

• The Power of Imputation
  

One of my mentors, Ray Ortlund, pastor of a church plant in Nashville, posted this great look at the implications of imputation (the fact that God declares us righteous because of Christ's work on the cross). Here is his conclusion...

With our appropriate emphasis today on accountability among us men, let's not forget to hold each other accountable to this, the highest exercise of the gospel in our lives: to be so happy in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we defy the devil and all his destroying accusations and throw them back into his face to shame him even as we triumph by faith in Christ, to his honor and glory as the only Savior of sinners.

• Persecution is coming to America

Thanks to Emily Rainer from my church for alerting me to this story out of California. A local pastor is facing a tough battle with the local government because he hosts a Bible study in his house!!! It is coming...

Doctrine of the Day: The Gospel - Part 3

So... Last week we learned that God does everything for his own glory. It is necessary to understand this about God if we are to understand what He expects of us and therefore why the gospel is so necessary. Now we move to the next part of explaining the gospel:

• Man
  

God's purpose in creation is to magnify his own glory. This means that He created mankind for the same purpose. When Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, it was not merely for fellowship that God created them as if He was somehow incomplete and needed someone to talk to. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were perfectly happy and fulfilled in the love relationship they shared in the Godhead before we ever came to be. No, man was created as part of a great prism. 

A prism is a clear piece of glass shaped like a triangle. When you take pure, white light and shine it through the prism at the right angle, the prism will refract the light into its component colors... the full spectrum of Roy G. Biv. You remember him? Red, orange, yellow, etc. 

Creation fulfills the same function for God's glory. If you want to see the beauty of "blue" in God's brilliant white, hot glory, then see how He has refracted the glory of his mercy in forgiving our sins. Or see the "green" of his grace in his provision for our needs. Or see the "yellow" of his joy in the sweetness of Christian fellowship. But we see all of these glories in his creation and how He interacts with us.

The point is that we were created in order to fully glorify Him. We are meant to reflect and refract the many "colors" of his glory for all creation, on earth and in the heavens, to see and exult in. The only way for us as limited and finite creatures to appreciate the fullness of that blinding, white glory is for Him to refract it through creation to help us see the individual "colors." 

This is what 1 Corinthians 10:31 means... in every aspect of our lives we are to display how glorious God is. Even in something so mundane as eating and drinking, God is to be magnified and shown as wonderful. This is our purpose. Every little thing we do is supposed to be done out of hearts that love and cherish Him and therefore honor Him for what He is worth. We were created for worship. 

This sets us up for next week when we talk about the next word, "sin." Now when we share Romans 3:23 there will be a specific context that gives serious meaning to sin as we understand that EVERYTHING we do is supposed to honor and glorify God for who He is.

There are some things you never get tired of

I love bran flakes for breakfast. Actually I love them all the time. If I am ever hungry in the afternoon and need a snack... bran flakes it is! I do not love them because they are healthy. I love them because I love the taste. I know this sounds odd. It sounds odd to me too! 

My love for bran flakes started when I was a kid. I would wake up every morning, go downstairs and prepare a bowl, then go get ready before I returned to eat them. I liked them soggy. I ate them all the time. 

As much as I love bran flakes though, I do eventually get tired of them. In fact, I just started eating them again after a hiatus of several years because I had grown weary of them before. It does not matter how great some things are, there will come a time when I don't love them anymore. 

However, there are some things you never get tired of. These are very rare and usually they have great intrinsic value. For me, John 3:16 is a verse of Scripture that I never get tired of. It is probably the first verse all of us memorized when we were kids beginning to learn the Bible. I know it so well, yet I never grow tired of hearing it. 

Every time I go back and study it I still learn something new. It is sweet and refreshing to me. 

God loves us... all of us... all the people in the world.

He gave his Son to us... He sent his Son to us... He sent his Son to die for us.

Anyone can believe... there are no restrictions... no favoritism.

Believing Jesus saves... we can have eternal life.

It is still incredible to me. That God would love enough to send his Son to die. That we do not have to earn our salvation. That He would give so great a gift. 

I never get tired of that...

Sunday sermon review - Remember my chains

Today is the day we remember those who gave their lives in service of our country. It is so easy to take them for granted. Every day we are able to enjoy freedoms that few other nations bestow on their citizens. We take advantage of those freedoms with little regard for what cost they required. So today is a great opportunity to pause and reflect and be thankful...

We Christians have the same deficiency of gratitude toward those who gave their lives so that we we could know the gospel. Christianity is unique in that God calls us to fight for our faith by dying. I know there are other religions that have martyrs, but we are the only ones who go on the offensive so to speak by suffering and dying from persecution. 

Yesterday, we looked at a few stories of some of the more well-known martyrs as the application of Colossians 4:18. But there are still today men and women who are suffering and dying for their faith in Jesus Christ. We need to remember them... not only because they earned our remembrance, but also because that is the life and death that God has called all of us to. Read these verses again and feel their enormous weight...

Philippians 1:29

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake

Revelation 6:11

Then they were each (the martyrs) given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been

As I was thinking on these verses this morning, I began wondering how they should affect my prayers. We should pray for those who are suffering and dying for Jesus. But should we also be praying for the next generation of martyrs? That would mean praying that some of our sons and daughters would feel the call to lay down their lives for Christ. Are you praying that God will grant this grace to your children? Are you praying that God might grant this grace to you? 

He has granted to us the gift of suffering for his sake. And He will not return until the full number of martyrs have come in. We should be praying for God's will to be done on earth. That means praying that some of us will willingly lay down our lives. Have you considered that you may be next? Are you willing to go? 

Memorial Day Sermon...

Monday is Memorial Day. Americans everywhere will celebrate our nation's freedom by barbecuing, swimming and whatever else we can think of on our day off from work. I hope that we will all take at least a little time and remember the men and women who have given their lives in service to this country to obtain and protect that freedom. This freedom is not only for us but for many other nations to whose defense we have come. 

This remembering is what Memorial Day is for.

However, there is a different remembering we will do at our church on Sunday. We will remember those who have given their lives in service of our LORD and the spread of the gospel. 

Our text is Colossians 4:18b...

"Remember my chains. Grace be with you."

Paul tells the Colossian church to remember that his work for them is a labor of suffering and sacrifice. This labor for Paul would end in death at the hands of the Romans because of the gospel. 

"Remember my chains."

This Sunday we will remember...

Monday we will remember our fallen service men and women. But Sunday is for remembering the countless Christian martyrs who gave their lives to proclaim to us freedom from sin and death that is only available through Jesus Christ. 

Around the blogs in 80 seconds

I will be out of town this weekend so I am posting Friday and Saturday's posts today... Read ahead if you like : )

I found many things this week that I found very interesting. The first two are primarily for the ladies (but I guess we men can learn from them also) I will list them all and you can pick your favorites...

• Nancy Leigh Demoss on Carrie Prejean

Ms. Demoss is one, awesome lady. My wife loves her books. She is definitely has a great ministry to women. Which is why her comments on Carrie Prejean are very interesting and insightful. 

• Death is not dying

This is one of the best testimonies I have ever heard. Rachel is speaking at a women's event and she has only weeks left to live. Her rock solid faith in God and outlook on her remaining days are so God exalting. It is long (55 minutes), but the blessing is worth the time investment. 

• The State of American Religion
  

This column in the New York Times does a great job pinpointing the problems with Dan brown and his religious agenda in the newly released Angels and Demons (the sequel to The DaVinci Code). Too many Christians-in-name-only are buying in to his horrible theology.

• More Americans are "pro-life" than "pro-choice"?
  

According to a recent Gallup poll this could be true. Small victory?

• Missing link in evolution is found
  

From good news (see above on abortion) to "bad" news... Apparently the "missing link" in the case for evolution has been discovered. The speculation is that this could be as significant as the discovery of the Rosetta stone (which made the translations of several ancient language possible).  

"Bookends of the Christian Life" - Part 2

Last week I detailed the first bookend of our life: the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We lean on and trust that Jesus accomplished everything that was required for our acceptance by God. He not only died for our sins, but he gave us his righteousness. That means that when we struggle with guilt or self-righteousness we need to preach the gospel to ourselves again and realize we ARE forgiven... we ARE accepted by God.

But this is only one half of the equation so to speak. A bookshelf with one bookend can still fall into disarray. God has given us another bookend to keep us secure in his grace. The second bookend is the power of the Holy Spirit. 

One of the cool verses the authors point to is 2 Timothy 2:1...

"Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

I don't mean to take you back to high school grammar, but that first verb is a passive imperative. That is a pretty strange sounding combo. It means that God commands us to be strong by letting him work in us. Cool huh? This grace that Christ purchased for us continues to be made available to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Another verse that speaks to the Spirit's work in our sanctification that is absolutely one of my favorites is 2 Corinthians 3:18...

"And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." 

Apart from the transforming power that comes from the Spirit, our faces remain veiled, we don't see God's glory, and we aren't transformed.

This is all well and good, it probably leaves some of us (myself included) wondering, "Well, what is my role in all this?"

Perhaps the biggest problem most of us have in the Christian life is trying to figure out how to be obedient and Christlike... without working in our own strength. We know that we are supposed to trust in his power, but how do we know when we are trusting in him and when we aren't?

The answer is dependent responsibility. We are responsible to work in the strength the Spirit provides. These responsibilities are frequently called the spiritual disciplines (like a quiet time, prayer, Bible reading, etc.). We are commanded to do these things. They are the means by which the Spirit transforms us and helps us apply God's grace to our lives. The way we participate in these disciplines without depending on ourselves is to remember two things primarily:

1. The disciplines themselves are not the source of power; the Spirit is. We have to be careful that we don't elevate these disciplines above God himself, not in terms of worship or reverence, but in power. For example the phrase "there is power in prayer" is biblical (James 5:16), however, it is not the prayer itself that is powerful. It is the Holy Spirit. When we make the Bible verses and the verbal prayers the focus of our gratitude and strength, they will be void of the Spirit's power. Just quoting Scripture to yourself does not sanctify you. The Spirit does the work. 

2. The practice of these disciplines does not earn us favor with God or secure his blessings. This is a subtle trap that I have fallen into often. Many times I think, "Well, I have prayed well and read my Bible, therefore God is going to bless me richly today." Then, when good things happen to me I praise my good disciplines instead of his grace.

The converse of number 2 is also dangerous... thinking that if I am not feeling blessed by God, then I must not be praying enough or reading enough. This leads to the self-reliant "Just try harder" view of Christian growth. 

So, lean on the righteousness of Christ when you feel guilty over your present sin or when you feel the lure to self-reliance. And lean on the power of the Holy Spirit as you daily commune with God in his word and prayer. 

If you begin to doubt your own motives... look to Christ, trust the Spirit, and pray to God for the grace to live in his grace.

This is not your pastor...

I actually have a few minutes to relax this afternoon, so I decided I needed to have a little fun...

This is not your pastor...

I know that sometimes it may seem that this is what I am like, but I promise I am not. My eyes are green not scary white.

This is not your pastor...

I do not have a forked tongue. My speech may sound different from what you are used to, but I just talk fast. 

This is not your pastor....

I know it may seem like I am big brother watching over you, but I just have a few eye issues...

THIS is your pastor!!!!

I am just a regular guy who loves Starbucks and listens to his ipod while he reads and studies the Bible. I love my church and will always do everything I can to be Christlike toward her. 

We are growing in Christ together. I hope you, church, will be patient with me as I seek to discharge my pastoral duties. 

Thank you all for your kind and gracious encouragement of me in my brief time with you so far!!!

"May the Lord direct OUR hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ"

Pastor Chris

PS There were no pastors injured in the making of these photos.

Doctrine of the Day: The Gospel - Part 2

Last week I introduced the gospel as the first doctrine I would write about. This week I want to begin to lay out what the gospel is piece by piece. 

Now, it is common to start a conversation about the gospel with either John 3:16 or with some other verse that goes directly to the Good News of what Jesus accomplished on the cross in purchasing salvation for those who believe in Him. That is certainly understandable when you consider that "gospel" literally means "good news."

However, in order to really understand the Good News of what Jesus did on the cross, and therefore proclaim that news to those who are lost, we must place the good news in its fuller context of God's entire "old redemption story." That means that we need to go back a little further, actually a LOT further back and talk about God's plan for creation. 

The five words that I use as a rough outline for the Gospel (God. Man. Sin. Christ. Faith.) are not original. They are meant to be helpful in placing the gospel in the right context that begins with God and not with man. There is a danger in beginning our gospel presentations with man's sin by starting with a verse like Romans 3:23. It throws the lost person into the story about sin's affront to the glory of God without giving a reason why the glory of God is a big deal. Therefore, I think it is helpful to begin with God and his purposes for creation to give a context for sin and the necessity of Christ's death on the cross.

• God

We start our explanation of the Gospel with the purpose for which God created the world: He created us for his glory. This is the supreme purpose and plan of God... to magnify and glorify himself.  

Isaiah 43:6-7

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.

In fact, the Bible is replete with verses that say that He does everything for his glory:

He called Israel for his glory (Jeremiah 13:11)

He rescued Israel from Egypt for his glory (Psalm 106:7-8)

He raised Pharaoh up for his glory (Romans 9:17)

He spared Israel in the desert for his glory (2 Samuel 7:23)

He was faithful to his people for his glory (1 Samuel 12:22)

Jesus went to the cross for his own glory (John 17:5)

The list goes on, but I think these are enough for now. 

So the thing we need to communicate in setting up the Good News is that God is central and supreme; man is not. Everything God does is to glorify his Name because his Name is preeminent not ours. 

THE biggest problem every person has is sin. That sin manifests itself in everyone's life the exact same way... selfish pride. Every lost person thinks he is the center of the universe and lives in a way that reflects that. Every person acts out of a desire to satisfy their own desires. We do not acknowledge God or honor Him and we worship the god of self (Romans 1:18-25). 

We must begin a Copernican revolution in their lives by telling them they are not the center of the universe... God is. Once we lay this foundation we will be able to build on it with a more specific discussion of what our responsibilities are to this Supreme God of the universe who does everything for his own glory, even love us. 

But that is for next week. In the meantime, meditate on the truth that God does everything for his own glory and ask yourself "Do I give Him the glory He deserves?" 

Praying like Jesus

Mark 1:35… ‘And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.’

This verse has always amazed and convicted me. 

The amazing part is that Jesus prayed. I know on the surface that does not sound like some big revelation. “Jesus talked to his Father… so what?” But think about that for a moment. Something changed in the relationship Jesus had with the Father when He took on flesh. Before the incarnation the three Persons of the Trinity knew perfect fellowship and love, but Philippians 2:7 says he “made himself nothing” when He took the form of a servant.  The Greek word used here is “kenosis.” It literally means He “emptied himself.” Unpacking all the meaning of this one word would take too long here, but let it suffice to say that there is a sense in which Jesus willingly gave up part of what makes Him God in order to take on flesh and fulfill the Father’s wishes. 

One thing He gave up was the intimate closeness He had with his Father, which is why it is amazing to me that Jesus prayed. He prayed because He, too, needed to talk to his God. He did not merely set us an example by praying (although it certainly IS an example for us). No, He needed to pray. Just as He felt real physical hunger which made Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread a real temptation, He also felt the separation from the Father and longing to be with Him that we feel. 

Amazing. He did not just lay down his life in death for us, He also sacrificed his closeness to his Father for us for a time. This separation of course culminated when He was fully rejected by God on the cross because of our sin. Again, this is not the time to get deep into it, but Jesus was actually forsaken by the Father on the cross… He did not just feel forsaken.  

His sacrifice for us is so much greater than we generally think about. 

The part of this verse that convicts me is that I do not have the same passion and dedication to my mission as He did. It would be wrong to assume that the universal application of the truth of this verse is to say, “Well, since Jesus got up before dawn to pray, so should I.” (I know all of you non-morning people are rejoicing with that conclusion!) The reason that would be a wrong application is that it misses the big picture. 

Read Mark 1:29-39 and get the context for Jesus’ prayer. In verse 32 it says that at sundown the night before He gets up early to pray all the sick of the town were brought to him… the whole city gathered at the door.  Then after his prayer time, in verse 39 it says “he went throughout all Galilee preaching.”

What is convicting about his prayer time is not merely that He got up early to pray but that the night before he was probably up late and the day of his prayer he went through all Galilee. Basically, He never slowed down, stayed on mission, and instead of ditching prayer, He made time for it by sacrificing something else He needed, but needed less than he needed prayer… sleep. 

That is convicting. Prayer should be a greater priority for me not because there are people out there who need to be prayed for… no I need to pray because I need God more this day so that I can go and finish my mission of taking the grace of Christ to them. 

Let me be clear. We should pray for people, for all sorts of needs. But our prayers should be consumed more with knowing God fully and rightly so that we are empowered to go throughout OUR Galilee all day and actually deliver God’s grace to those who need it. 

Praying for people’s needs is not a substitute for physically going and meeting those needs. Jesus prayed for us (John 17), but more importantly He prayed to connect in fellowship with the Father so that He could actually meet those needs He prayed for. 

We need to do the same. 

Sunday sermon review - Christ’s Supremacy in Action

Yesterday’s sermon was from Colossians 4:7-18 where Paul wraps us his letter to the Colossians by sending a bunch of greetings. This is not a typical sermon text! And that means there are not a lot of great resources from which to draw some inspiration. 

However, through diligent study but primarily the inspiration of the Spirt, a significant, main point rose out of this otherwise innocent looking passage. In verse 11 Paul called the people who joined him in ministry “my fellow workers for the kingdom of God.” Not “fellow Christians,” “fellow ministers” or even “fellow workers for the gospel.” No, the title he chose was “fellow workers for the kingdom of God.” 

What is the significance of calling these people “workers for the kingdom of God”? 

The end of the book of Acts (Acts 28:23-31) records two of Paul’s years in Rome. While preaching to the Jewish leaders there, said he was “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:31) This last phrase “without hindrance” is actually one Greek word that does end the book which means literally “unhinderedly.” This unique little gem usually occupies my thoughts on this verse and has heretofore distracted me from this really cool reference to the kingdom of God. 

Here’s the point… Paul’s message in Rome while all these “fellow workers” are joining him is about the kingdom of God. Do you see the connection?

Think about this. Paul’s main point in Colossians has been the supremacy of Christ in all things especially in the church and the life of the believer. As he is getting ready to sum up his letter to the Colossians here in 4:7-18, instead of stating again that Christ is supreme, he switches metaphors so to speak and mentions his fellow laborers who are working for the kingdom of God. What Paul taught for two years in Rome (the kingdom of God), his followers became (workers for the kingdom of God).

Paul’s final encouragement to the Colossians is “If you will devote yourself to these teachings, you will become what Christ wants you to be: a living display of his supreme glory. Just look at these workers with me who heard me preach for two years about the Kingdom, and now they are faithful workers for that same Kingdom.” 

It is a remarkable testimony to close this letter. The implicit promise of God that we will become like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29) will be fulfilled if we, by faith, obey these words Paul writes. 

So, Colossians closes not just with a bunch of greetings, but with the promise of Christlikeness for his glory… if we will by faith let God’s word saturate our hearts and minds. 

Sunday is a comin'

There is a famous Resurrection Day sermon called "It's Friday but Sunday is Comin'" originally by S. M. Lockridge. The conclusion of the sermon is a great riff running down all the sad and scary things that face us on Good Friday but remind us that the Resurrection and Christ's victory over death is coming. You can listen to it here if you like. It is REALLY good. 

My point is that Sunday is coming for us as well. Are we prepared for the gathered worship time? Most times we dutifully show up at church on Sundays and go through our standard ritual of pseudo-worship. Oh, we love God alright. I do not doubt that. But we are dangerously close to a heart condition that Jesus saddled the Pharisees with in Matthew 15:7-9...

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, buttheir heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me'

In order for our hearts to be not far from Him, we must prepare for worship. No, we do not prepare the way the saints did in the Old Testament for God does not delight in sacrifice, but He does delight in a contrite heart that approaches Him humbly, seeking his grace and desiring his glory. 

So... Sunday is a comin'. Are you going to prepare your heart to worship corporately?

What I will try to do every Saturday is provide a short reminder to us by giving a brief introduction to the sermon so that you can begin to marinate your heart in the text. That way we can show up Sunday morning expecting to encounter God and receive his grace!!

Our text for tomorrow at New Temple Baptist is Colossians 4:7-18. 

Have you ever wondered why the Bible contains all these lists of greetings at the end of many of the New Testament letters? Well, tomorrow we are going to answer that question. 

As you prepare your heart to receive the Word, ask yourself this question: Am I a worker for the Kingdom of God? 

Grace and peace,

Chris

What's going on in Christendom?

Every week I read several different blogs to keep sharp and to learn what God is doing in the Church. I know that few of us have time to sift through the myriad blogs out there to unearth a few gems, so I thought that since I am doing that already, I could just direct you to a few of them each week. 

• Desiring God

The guys at DG have posted a smashing lesson on preaching!!! I think this description of preaching is one of the best I have ever come across, and I think it will be very helpful for you as well. 

Watch and read along as Piper describes what preaching is and why it is important.

I make no effort to hide the fact that Piper is one of my heroes. In fact, my son’s middle name is John because John Piper, John Owen, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, John the Apostle, they are the ones who have influenced me most in my Christian life. 

I digress… the bottom line is that this is a must for anyone who is serious about the preaching of the gospel.

• The Blazing Center

Stephen Altrogge is a young guy like me who has a great heart for the LORD and has done a lot of great work in writing Christ-centered worship music. 

In this blog post he takes a very humorous yet convicting look at pride. 

• Real Life

This is the blog of our student minister, Steve Hunt. He does a great job of encouraging our students to know God in his word. This post is a follow up to the message delivered Wednesday night by one of our students, Zach Mullins. This was Zach’s first time to preach to anyone. 

Good job, Zach!!!

• World Magazine Online

This is an interesting take on why we should read the Bible everyday...

"Bookends of the Christian Life" - Part 1

Right now I am reading Bookends of the Christian Life by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington. Actually I am almost finished with it. It is a rather short book (154 pages), but in typical Bridges fashion, it is full of rich, Biblical truth. I plan on taking three posts to cover everything I have read. Today I want to give an introduction to the book and cover the first bookend. Next week we will tackle the second bookend. The final installment will be my concluding thoughts and summary of how this book helped me. 

Before I get too deep into this topic I want to say that I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is probably one of the five most influential books I have read. That is saying a lot! I will save my personal experience for another time, but this book is awesome!

Why is it so awesome, you ask? First of all, the image Bridges and Bevington use to describe the Christian life, a bookshelf where all the books on it represent the different parts of our lives, is so simple and appropriate. These “books” can be spiritual or practical every day stuff, but our life is full of them. And every bookshelf needs two sturdy bookends to keep the books propped up, preventing them from falling into disarray. 

Everyone of us feel at one time or another that we are juggling life, trying to keep all the balls in the air. That is a typical analogy, but this image of a bookshelf to me makes much more sense. Bookends are meant to leaned upon. They are designed to be heavy, sturdy, immovable. Otherwise, they would be useless. The two bookends of our Christian life are the righteousness of Christ on the one side and the power of the Holy Spirit on the other. God has placed these two sturdy gifts around our lives to prop us up and keep us aligned with Him. 

The first bookend, the righteousness of Christ is one that we sometimes take for granted in the Christian life. 

Answer me this: What did Jesus accomplish for us on the cross? Yes, He saved us from our sins, purchased our ransom, and took away the wrath of God. He was truly the perfect, Paschal Lamb. Very good. But that is only part of the answer. 

Having our sins forgiven and therefore having a blank slate before God is NOT sufficient to enter heaven to be with God. We forget that God requires us not merely to be clean; we must be perfect (Matthew 5:48). “Perfect” means perfectly keeping all of God’s commands. So, even if we are forgiven how are we going to fulfill every command of the Law?

This is why what Jesus accomplished in his life on earth was so important. He completely fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s law (Matthew 5:17).  And the second half of what was accomplished on the cross is that we were declared righteous by God based on the righteousness of Christ that was imputed (given) to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). When we stand before God to be judged, He will look at us and see the righteousness of Christ and allow us into eternal fellowship with Him… wow. 

Think about that for a moment. 

This is an amazing bookend for our walk with Him. This means that we depend on, lean on, and rest on the righteousness of Christ when it comes to obeying God. We don’t depend on our righteousness, or good works. We have none… even as Christians. Only Christ was righteous. Only Christ obeyed and fulfilled the righteous commands of God. 

All of this so far is mostly theological, and it is important, but here is where the rubber really hits the road: This means that the way we live our lives as Christians is NOT to generate good works or righteousness in order to please God… we are meant to lean on the righteousness of Christ and display that righteousness which is inside us to the world in order to glorify Christ. 

Our maturity as believers is not a matter of doing more for God. Our maturity is a matter of letting Christ and his righteousness shine out of our lives. This is the first bookend. 

I’ll flesh this out a little more next week. But think on this… As a Christian, you are completely forgiven and accepted by God because of Christ’s righteousness. God will not love you more or less based on your performance.  You are forgiven. You are accepted. There is no need for perpetual guilt. Lean on this bookend. Rest in the grace of Christ. You are loved. Feel that. 

Doctrine of the Day: The Gospel

Imagine you are either working in your front yard talking to a neighbor, or walking down an aisle at Wal-Mart and run into a friend, or standing in the break room at work chatting with a co-worker, or visiting with your family from out of town. You are having a pleasant conversation about the events of the day when seemingly out of the blue this person says to you, “What is the gospel?”

Whoa! Where did that come from? That is not a topic on our list of polite, yet insignificant conversations that we rehearse everyday. You know the list. 

• At work you are allowed to talk about sports, TV shows, internet jokes, funny family stories, and your boss.

• With your neighbor you discuss your yard, garden, the weather and “Didja hear about so-n-so?”

• Wal-Mart run-ins have to be short and sweet lest the milk in our cart go bad. That usually means you can give a quick, “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. Well, gotta run. I’ve got milk souring in my cart.” 

• Families of course can talk about anything as long as it doesn’t make the visit tense. Which usually brings us back to the standard, sports, TV, and “Didja hear about so-n-so?” 

We just aren’t prepared to answer possibly the most important question we could be asked, “Can you tell me how to have hope in this world?” 

Granted there aren’t that many people asking that question. Which is why we should be bringing it up without being prompted. 

So, can you answer the question? Can you tell people what the gospel is? 

This summer I am going to be teaching through a series on Sunday nights that will hopefully help our church answer this question and give us tools to communicate the gospel clearly in everyday conversations. 

I have tried to boil the gospel down into is kernel form many times. Here is my latest attempt to get the gospel into a short paragraph. If fact this is the gospel in 111 words…

God created us for His glory. We have all sinned and fallen short of that Glory. God in his mercy sent his only Son to take on flesh, live out his Father’s righteous requirements, die on a cross as a substitute for our death, taking away our sin and God’s wrath, and giving us his own righteousness. On the third day He rose from the dead and now reigns in heaven. In doing this He made the ONLY way for us to see and savor the glory of God through a relationship with Him. This He offers freely by his grace if we would repent and place our faith in Him.

I still want to work on that some more. But there are 5 key words that I think we must consistently communicate in order for people to know and understand the gospel as taught in the Bible:

God. Man. Sin. Christ. Faith. 

Each of those words requires explanation because the gospel IS what we call propositional truth. In other words, there are objective truths that DO have to be known and believed. Even though we need only the faith of a child, we still must understand these five words. 

In the coming weeks I will unpack each of the these words and hopefully refine this explanation a little further. 

In the meantime, I know there aren’t many who know about this blog yet, but I would love to hear how you put the gospel into 111 words or less.

The beheading of John the Baptist

 I am a week into a 40 day journey that our youth minister has challenged our students with. We are reading a few chapters of the Gospels a day so that by the end of the 40 days we will have read all four Gospels. I was very excited when he told me about it and immediately wanted to join in with them. He even went so far as to write a brief devotional to guide their reading and prayers. It is fantastic! We have hope for our students because we know that God's word does not return to him empty but instead accomplishes all his purposes (Isaiah 55:11). 

One of the reasons I love these systematic reading plans is that invariably I will discover something new that I may have skimmed over previously or the Spirit just illuminates something I had not thought about before. 

Today I read Matthew 14-15. And the thing that jumped out at me was the death of John the Baptist. He was the first martyr recorded in the New Testament. His life was given as a sacrifice to the LORD. But for all the significance his life had for the purpose of Christ and heralding his arrival, his death was merely the final move in a cruel game played by the family of Herod. 

You see, John had spoken boldly, as God's prophet, against the relationship between Herod and his wife Herodias. They had each divorced their previous spouses in order to marry each other. In other words, they committed adultery and abandoned their marriages in order to satiate their lust. John rightfully called them out. Herodias was furious. And wanted her new husband to deal with John. Herod was afraid of the reaction of the people because they knew John was sent from God. Like a typical, corrupt politician he gave in to public opinion and refused to kill John. 

One day, Herod's step-daughter pleased him by her dancing, and he promised her whatever she wanted. Sensing the opportunity to finally get what she wanted, Herodias told her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod reluctantly complied. And so John was martyred to satisfy the desires of a scorned adulteress. 

The thing that gets me about this story is not that John was killed. Jesus promised us we would have trouble in this world (John 16:33). Peter said we can expect persecution if we have the name of Christ attached to us (1 Peter 4:12-14). 

What gets me is how callused people get in their sin. 

Herod and Herodias divorced and remarried and John rightfully called them out in their sin. Instead of humbling themselves before God and asking for forgiveness, Herodias hardens her heart and instead desires the death of the man who dared to call her sin a sin. Not only does she call for his death, but she gets her daughter to ask for his head. That is sick. 

Then when John is killed, his head is paraded around the court of Herod as some type of trophy by the daughter. How depraved do you have to be to do something like that?

The thing that really gets me as I read this passage is that I am no different from Herodias. And neither are you. 

Every time God's word calls out our sin and we don't respond with immediate repentance and contrition, we are showing contempt for Christ and calling for his head. I don't want to exaggerate this point, but every time we sin it is like we are driving that nail in his hand or pressing that crown on his head or giving him one more lashing from the whip. This is true because it is our sin which he bore on the cross... all of them. 

I pray we will be as appalled at our own sin as we are at the heinous sins we read here. We will grow in Christlikeness as we grow in our understanding that all sin offensive to God no matter how small they may seem.

I pray that our hearts will not grow insensitive to the loving rebukes from God that call us back to Himself. When He calls attention to our sin our hearts which have been made new in Christ should break over that offense. We should return to the cross not to heap more sins on it, but to receive more of his lavish grace for the cleansing of our sins. His grace is abundant for all our sin. He wants to restore us to a right relationship with Him. 

Just what we need... another blog

Greetings in the LORD!! 

Welcome to "his lavish grace."  I certainly don't mean to imply that anything I say is worthy of comparing to his grace, but I do want to be refreshing for anyone who comes here to read about what God is doing in my life and my church. 

When deciding whether or not to create this blog, the most important question I asked myself was, "Do I really have anything worth saying?" While I am still not sure if I do have much to offer the blogosphere, I do know that there are at least a few things I can offer my church and anyone else who happens upon this corner of cyberspace. 

As with anything that is new, I expect at least a few content changes along the way, but in the beginning, what I would like to do with this space is provide some helpful thoughts to encourage all of us to grow in the grace of Christ. This will probably include the following:

• Mondays - I will offer some follow up to Sunday's sermon to hopefully drive the word deeper into our hearts and help with living out the truth of the text that week.

• Tuesdays - This is primarily my day to study, but I would like to share some thoughts about what I am reading in God's word. Next year I am hoping that we will read through the Bible as a church, and this would be the time when I would encourage our church in the reading for the week.

• Wednesdays - "Doctrine of the Day" We could all use some frequent reminders of some of the foundational truths of our faith. And there are some doctrines that we may never think on but are still necessary for our spiritual health. 

• Thursdays - As a level of accountability but also to expose us all to some great writers, I think this day might be when I provide a book report on what I am reading each week. I love to read, but it is easy to let this discipline slip if I do not have a challenge to keep me going. 

• Fridays - This is officially my day off, but it is also the day I love to check all my favorite blogs to see what's going on in the world. I figure while I am at it I might as well link a few for you as well.

• Saturdays - I know this is not a very busy day of surfing for most of us, but I hope this can become a time prepare for our gathered worship on Sundays. So, I will provide a brief preview of the sermon on Sunday. That way when we come to the preaching of the word we have already begun to let the text soften our hearts. 

• Sundays - No blogging. 
  

Anyway, these are just some ways that I want to be an encouragement to as many as I can. I would love to hear your thoughts on how I might make this more useful to you, so please feel free to offer suggestions or ask questions anytime...

Grace and peace,

Chris