Who says that God lacks the wisdom to bring good out of evil? Take the most grotesque murder in the history of the world—what could God possibly do with that? Well, what He did was save the world with it. – D. Wilson
The Church Should Be Like a Gang… At Least in One Sense
Francis Chan in Forgotten God:
“A while back a former gang member came to our church. He was heavily tattooed and rough around the edges, but he was curious to see what church was like. He had a relationship with Jesus and seemed to get fairly involved with the church. After a few months, I found out the guy was no longer coming to the church. When asked why he didn’t come anymore, he gave the following explanation: ‘I had the wrong idea of what church was going to be like. When I joined the church, I thought it was going to be like joining a gang. You see, in the gangs we weren’t just nice to each other once a week – we were family.’ That killed me because I knew that what he expected is what the church is intended to be. It saddened me to think that a gang could paint a better picture of commitment, loyalty, and family than the local church body.” (152)
(HT: Doug Wolter)
Read & Explain: The Key to Good Preaching
From Stand to Reason: http://www.str.org/site/News2?news_iv_ctrl=-1&page=NewsArticle&id=9370
By: Gregory Koukl
Why is it that there’s so much Biblical illiteracy in the church? Certainly the Bible is taught, and by well-meaning people who care about the Bible. But still people are ill equipped, it seems, to understand the nature of reality as characterized by the foundational pieces of the Christian worldview, to understand the scope of the Biblical message, and be able to explain it.
Though I think pastors are working very hard, I don’t think they’re always working smart theologically. There’s a habit that pastors have when they go to a text with the idea of teaching the Bible. They have a notion in mind already that they want to teach, so they find a phrase or a verse in the Bible that seems to substantiate it. So they’re not really teaching the Bible. They’re just teaching an idea that may be their personal view, and may be a very useful idea, and they’re trying to give legitimacy to it through the Scriptures. But they’re not teaching what the Bible teaches because they’ve pulled a verse out of the text to support the lesson.
Read more
Is Jesus an Egomaniac?
“Here is the end of the matter: God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is not the act of a needy ego, but an act of infinite giving. The reason God seeks our praise is not because he won’t be fully God until he gets it, but that we won’t be happy until we give it.
This is not arrogance. This is grace.
This is not egomania. This is love.”
– John Piper, Is Jesus an Egomaniac?
The Message of the Gospel is Not “Behave!”
by Jared Wilson
This is the major malfunction of American evangelicalism’s political idolatry. To the extent we equate God’s blessings and his kingdom coming to bear with the right men on Capitol Hill and the right laws in place, we settle for moralism and a righteousness born of self.
We’d all reject this theologically, I think, but it is implicitly central in a lot of the rhetoric and the exasperation from American Christians about what’s wrong with America, etc etc.
As I was waiting for my ride to the airport from the hotel in Louisville, KY last week after the Together 4 the Gospel Conference, I was reminded of cultural Christianity’s real concerns. The transportation attendant at the hotel noticed from my tag that I was from Vermont. Our conversation went like this:
Him: “You’re from Vermont?”
Me: “Yup.”
Him: “That’s great. That van load that just left were from Vermont.”
Me: “Oh cool.”
Him: “Yeah. Good to know you guys are getting the good news out up there.”
Me: “Well, we’re trying.”
Him: “Need to get some Republicans up there.”
And there I was transported back to everything that drives me nuts about American evangelicalism: the equation of the good news with something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, in this case — as is often the case — with political conservatism.
I believe many Christians in America would be satisfied if “the culture” just stopped using pornography and drugs and alcohol and stopped aborting babies and started “acting right.” As far as I can tell, that would be a Win.
But it’s not a win. A land where everybody acts right and is on their best behavior, where peace reigns and social decay is no more and the poor are helped and the hungry are fed, but Christ is not worshiped as the sole supreme satisfaction in all the universe, is a big fat FAIL.
As C.S. Lewis says:
We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.
The message of the gospel is not “Behave!”
But that is the message American evangelicalism — Southern and Northeastern, and most other places — has been proclaiming. It is at its heart pharisaical.
We are called to preach not moralism but Christ crucified, foolishness to American culture and a stumbling block to American Christians.
Michael Horton illustrates this well in his book Christless Christianity:
What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.
There is a great difference between “being good” and the gospel. Some call it moralism. Moralism, in fact, blinds us from the gospel by giving us something of “the real thing” ensuring that we miss out on the true gospel all together. We must remember that Christ came first not to make bad people good but to make dead people live. If we forget that, our Christianity will turn out to be Christless.
http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2010/04/message-of-gospel-is-not-behave.html
Knowledge So That
-by Kevin DeYoung
A few weeks ago I started a Sunday evening series on 2 Peter. We’re only seven verses into the book, but already I can see the importance of knowledge in this epistle. In verse 2 Peter asks that grace and peace be multiplied to his hearers in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. In the next verse we see that we have been granted all things necessary for life and godliness through our knowledge of Christ. And again in verse 5 Peter instructs us to add to our faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. Growing in knowledge is clearly central to our growth in godliness.
No doubt, this knowledge is more than an awareness of doctrinal propositions. Peter wants his Christian audience to grow in discernment and in a relational “knowing” of God. But it would be a mistake to make “knowledge” nothing but a synonym for living a godly life. Why specify the need for knowledge in verse 5 if it is not different than virtue or self-control or godliness? When Peter talks about grace and peace coming through knowledge he means that learning about God, which includes a cognitive dimension, is key for Christian maturity.
Now, some Christians love to talk about knowledge and learning about God. But, as we all know, the smartest doctrinal whipper-snappers don’t always set the standard for Christlikeness. Because of this, and for a host of other reasons I imagine, some Christians are eager to downplay the importance of knowledge. They are quick to point out “knowledge puffs up.” They will talk about how doctrine matters, but a lot of other things matter too. And make no mistake, the “but” in that sentence is what really matters.
So how should we talk about knowledge, doctrine, and learning in the Christian life? I want to propose a simple change of the conjunction that may help clear up a lot of problems.
Instead of saying “Knowledge of God is important, but…” let’s say, “Knowledge of God is important, so that…” In the first sentence knowledge is quickly affirmed, only to be subtly undermined in the second half of the sentence. But if we use “so that” instead of “but” we’ve managed to affirm knowledge without apology while affirming that knowledge (the good kind at least) is producing something. Growing in knowledge is crucial so that we can receive peace and grace and be empowered for holiness.
The problem is not too much knowledge or too much doctrine or caring too much about thinking. The problem is when knowledge of God becomes a vat instead of a vessel. Doctrinal knowledge is to the Christian life what blood is to the human body. If the blood flows through vessels, it literally gives life to the whole body. But if you just collected blood in a big bucket, some kind of grotesque vat, then you’ve got something unnatural going on. Blood isn’t meant to be stored in a vat. It is meant to flow through vessels of veins and arteries. Likewise, knowledge is not meant to be pooled in a giant theological noggin. Good doctrine and a robust understanding of God is meant to flow through us, producing fruit, leading to worship, making us more like Christ.
We need to find ways to stop pitting head Christians against heart Christians. We shouldn’t allow some churches to be “doctrine churches” and others to be some other kind of church. Every Christian must have knowledge and grow in knowledge. After all, as Peter reminds us, it’s how grace and peace will be multiplied to us. It’s how we receive power for life and godliness.
So we need not make any apologies for insisting that Christians and churches care about knowledge and grow in knowledge. Let’s just add a “so that” before someone else tries to put in a “but.”
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2010/04/06/knowledge-so-that/
In Evil Long I Took Delight
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear;
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.
I saw one hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood;
Who fixed his languid eyes on me,
As near his cross I stood.
Sure, never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with his death,
Though not a word he spoke.
My conscience felt, and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair;
I saw my sins his blood had spilt,
And helped to nail him there.
Alas! I knew not what I did,
But now my tears are vain;
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the LORD have slain.
A second look he gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid,
I die, that thou may’st live.”
Thus, while his death my sin displays,
In all its blackest hue;
Such is the mystery of grace
It seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief and mournful joy,
My spirit now is filled;
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by him I killed.
By John Newton
True Saving Faith vs. Fire Insurance
True saving faith is not simply a matter of believing in Christ because you are afraid of going to hell; faith is not simply a matter of avoiding punishment where you do not have any desire to love and enjoy Christ. Rather, true saving faith means that you come to a deep, heartfelt conviction of how precious Christ is, and ‘account all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Philippians 3:8). You come to see Christ as all your salvation and happiness (Colossians 3:1).
True saving faith also means that you love every part of Christ’s salvation – holiness as well as forgiveness of sins. It means that you earnestly desire God to ‘create in you a clean heart and a right spirit’ as well as ‘hide his face from your sins’ (Psalm 51:9-10). Do not be like those who care nothing about Christ at all, except to be delivered from hell. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.’ (Matthew 5:6)
– Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, p. 51
(HT: Trinity Church Blog)
What is the Missional Church?
Sadly, this concept almost seems foreign to most churches today…
How to Increase Your Joy In Christ
“A few days ago I called my eighty-five-year-old father and said, “Daddy, I am writing a book on how to fight for joy. What one thing comes to your mind from sixty years of ministry as to what Christians could do to increase their joy?” Almost without hesitation he said, “Share their faith.” Joy in Christ thrives on being shared. That is the essence of Christian joy: It overflows or dies.”
John Piper, from his book, When I Don’t Desire God (free download)
