MONDAY night, FEBRUARY 1st from 6:30pm – 8:30pm

What to bring:
$3 for admission/skates
Tube socks to wear with new skates
Spending $$$ for concession stand
Canned goods for 2nd Mile Ministries

For more information contact the UBC Children’s Office at 479-442-3904, or email Bev Worley here.

Dr. Fort has served as a summer staff worker at Glorieta (N.M.) and was Pastor of Macedonia‑Hix Baptist Church, Caldwell, Texas.  He has served the IMB in many capacities:
♦ Appointed missionary in February 1985.
♦ Language study in Lerato, Bophuthatswana, 1985-86.
♦ General evangelist in Maun, Botswana.
♦ Associate to Area Director for Southern Africa, July 1996-June
1997, living in Maun, Botswana.
♦ Regional Leader for Southern Africa, July 1, 1997-June 30,
2004
♦ Vice President for the Office of Overseas Operations at the International Mission Board, Richmond, VA, July 1, 2004–July 1, 2009.
♦ Current assignment: Vice President, Office of Global Strategy,
July 1, 2009

What many don’t know is that Calvin averaged some 5 sermons a week during his ministry.  He was a faithful (and sometimes reluctant) pastor / preacher.  He emphasized the sovereignty of God over all things, and proclaimed the gospel until his death in 1564.

Many people have formed opinions without ever reading a word about Calvin.  They have decided what they believe about his teachings (even what he taught) by only listening to others who have disagreed.

As well, others have just associated with his theology without learning it for themselves.  In fact, Calvin would certainly have never referred to himself as a “Calvinist.”  He was simply wanting the church to return to Scripture and sound orthodoxy.

One thing is sure, Calvin leaves few with a neutral opinion.  Here is a brief video of Sam Storms (pastor in OK City – and relative of a UBC attender) on why Calvin is controversial:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RVPlZbR1pg]

I agree with Sam, especially on the last point.  One of the most intense confrontations I’ve ever had in serving the Church happened about 10 years ago.  I was teaching a youth retreat and there was a college student who was an intern there to help.  This student was not a member of my church, and during a training session getting ready for the weekend, he lashed out at another college intern about his views on Calvinism and her opposing views to Calvinism.  I don’t even know how it came up, I just overheard part of the conversation before she stormed out of the room in tears.  I immediately went out of the room to comfort her and all she could say was, “I’ll never believe such terrible things about God!”  All I could say was not to let someone’s arrogant perspective keep her from even some of the truths that might be associate with Calvinism, but would benefit her greatly.  My next move was toward the male intern.  I have never rebuked someone as sternly as I did that young man.  I don’t remember him crying, but I know that he was humiliated to the extent that the doctrines he held to, that should promote the deepest level of humility, brought his behavior more in line.

Read this from The Institutes (2.17.3):

That Christ, by his obedience, truly purchased and merited grace for us with the Father, is accurately inferred from several passages of Scripture. I take it for granted, that if Christ satisfied for our sins, if he paid the penalty due by us, if he appeased God by his obedience; in fine, if he suffered the just for the unjust, salvation was obtained for us by his righteousness; which is just equivalent to meriting. Now, Paul’s testimony is, that we were reconciled, and received reconciliation through his death, (Rom. 5:11). But there is no room for reconciliation unless where offence has preceded. The meaning, therefore, is, that God, to whom we were hateful through sin, was appeased by the death of his Son, and made propitious to us. And the antithesis which immediately follows is carefully to be observed, “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,” (Rom. 5:19). For the meaning is — As by the sin of Adam we were alienated from God and doomed to destruction, so by the obedience of Christ we are restored to his favour as if we were righteous. The future tense of the verb does not exclude present righteousness, as is apparent from the context. For he had previously said, “the free gift is of many offences unto justification.”

I was one of those guys who, years ago, knew I believed in God’s providence in all things, but would not have claimed Calvin as a friend…until I read him.  While I do not care for the label “Calvinist” in many circles, I certainly would fall more into that category than others in opposition.  Once I read Calvin, I realized that I had more to learn from him than avoid.  Through that process I came to hold to Christ being the supreme ruler of the universe and my soul, both with the same end — His magnificent glory!

Now, we have to be careful with any person that we follow as a teacher of the Scriptures (alive or dead).  We must make certain that we find our focus in the Christ they point us to!  We cannot emphasize a system of thought over the Scriptures themselves.  So, be driven to the Scripture.  If you wonder whether or not you would like Calvin, read The Institutes…then test him by the Scriptures.

As a Southern Baptist pastor, I know that we have much to be grateful for as a denomination for the work of the Reformers including John Calvin.  Without God’s gracious work through their faithful service we probably wouldn’t have such powerful articles like the following out of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 (and our statement of faith):

God’s Purpose of Grace

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

So, like him or not, be thankful that men like John Calvin were preserved by God to help defend orthodoxy against heretics that claimed the name of The Church so that we may continue to see the Gospel intact.  May we not fear the opinions of men as we hold to the doctrines of grace as they promote the Gospel of God in the face of Christ!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Just outside the gates of King College, which if I remember correctly has produced 32 noble prize winners over the years, is a tiny blue plaque on the wall marking the former location of The White Horse Inn. King College is the most prestigious college in all of the Cambridge University system. The White Horse Inn has great significance because it is at this pub that “Little Germany” would meet to discuss the writings of Martin Luther and implications of these kinds of teachings. The members of “Little Germany were most likely Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Lattimer, Robert Barnes, Thomas Bilney, and others over the years.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Horse_Tavern,_Cambridge

Finally, I find great irony in the fact that this year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Darwin, the father of evolutionary thinking. Darwin though not a particularly good student from what I have heard was indeed a student in Cambridge. 661 miles miles away thousands are gathered in Geneva Switzerland to commemorate the 500th birth of John Calvin, a man who has had more than a tremendous impact on the church and that statement is far understated. God used and uses Calvin greatly in the life of the church and in Christianity across the world.

Tonight at dinner we had a great conversation, one that I am always interested in having. It went something like this; we have seen a lot and heard a lot…not what are we going to do about it? Certainly this is not a question that can be answered in one dinner setting but it was these types of questions that made the White Horse Inn what it was. What are we going to do to champion the Word of God in our churches today? What are going to do to anthem the name of Jesus Christ in our culture today? What are we going to do to prepare laborers for the harvest? What are we going to do to reach the lost and disciple the eager? What are we going to do in this ministry God has called each of us to? I know for me it was a good reminder that change, transformational change takes time and perseverance as well as fortitude to stay in the place where God has you. There are many implications of which this blog would not be readable were I to expound too much, but these are the types of questions that got the Reformation started and I believe that only by these types of questions and obedience to the answers will our churches be reformed today. To God be the Glory forever!

Probably the greatest treat today upon arriving to Cambridge was knowing we were going to a lecture of a man I deeply respect, Wayne Grudem. The venue held only about 100-150 people and the topic for tonight was The Perspicuity of Scripture, that is to say the clarity of Scripture. Dr. Grudem is a professor at Phoenix Seminary in Arizona. The greatest impact, to date, he has had on my life is his single volume Systematic Theology text titled Systematic Theology (fitting). I highly recommend it, as even tonight he talked about why he wrote it which was quite simply to provide a text that could provide complex doctrines of the nature and character of God and other essentials of the Christian faith in a way everyday people could understand. I also recommend it because he litters his doctrinal discussions with Scripture.

I will not do justice to what was spoken on tongiht but I will hit a couple of really great high points. (these are my notes based on what I heard him say so not direct quotes) The clarity of Scripture means that complex doctrines can be taught in a way that can be understood. Scripture affirms that it is able to be understood but not all at once, and not without effort, and not without ordinary means, and not without the help of the Holy Spirit, and not without human misunderstanding, and never completely.

Clarity is a property of Scripture, NOT of its reader who varies greatly!

(One quick word about the photo below, this is obviously me with Dr. Grudem and I look like I have had a hat on all day because I have, but what a treat to meet him tonight.

I am sitting on a train to Cambridge right now meandering through the beautiful countryside from town to town. I just finished reading a little booklet on the life and ministry of Charles Simeon titled, Simeon, by Max Warren. Simeon was a faithful pastor in Cambridge for 54 years where he died in 1836. This book has some amazing insights into the pastor and believer that Charles Simeon was; one of which I will share with you that has had an impact on me this morning as I sit on the train bound for the very streets that Simeon walked in faith for the Gospel.

Writing to a distressed believer he says, “….There is another thing that I would suggest…namely, that you are too much occupied in looking at yourself, and too little in beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by the former you are to be humbled; but it is by the latter that you are to be “changed into the divine image” (2 Cor 3:18). You want a greater measure of holiness to warrant your confidence in the divine promises; when it is only by apprehending those promises that you can attain the holiness you are seeking after (2 Cor 7:1). You must learn to “glory in your infirmities (so to speak), that the power of Christ may rest upon you”. You are nothing, and it discourages you; but you must be content to be nothing, that Christ may be “all in all.”

What a profound statement about how we are to view ourselves in light of the mercy and grace of our holy God. I have my headphones on listening to some music while working on some of seminary classwork, and the song that seems to compliment so well the profession of gratitude I wish my life more readily reflected is a song by Andrew Peterson called, The Good Confession (I believe). I have listened to this song at least 5 times as my heart wants to jump out of my chest proclaiming the very anthem of this song, I BELIEVE…HE IS THE CHRIST…SON OF THE LIVING GOD…MY LORD…MY SAVIOR! I am more and more convinced that I could spend the rest of eternity proclaiming this truth and never adequately speak the gratitude of my heart to my God who saw fit to wash clean the filth that is and was my life apart from Him. I am including the lyrics that are speaking so powerfully to me today and hope you find time today to google, itunes, or myspace this song and take it in for what it is, a anthem of the majesty of the glory, grace, and love of God the Father. What is your life dying to cry out? Is it true genuine gratitude to a God who loves you so much He sent his Son to die on your behalf paying the penalty for sin forever that you might be made right in the eyes of God? Is it your status? Is it your pride? What is your heart dying to cry out and what is stopping it? I beleive, He is the Christ…Son of the Living God!

The Good Confession (I believe)
I was a boy, just nine years old, I heard the call and came. They buried me beneath the water, then I rose again. Well, you know my dad was a preacher man. I walked the aisle and I took his hand. He said, “Son, just do the best you can, and say the words, ‘I believe he is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Through the years I barely fell; I mostly dove right in. I drank so deep from the shallow well only to thirst again. Well, I sang the hymns at the summer camp, then I rocked and rolled with a lousy band till I heard a song that took my hand and led me home. And I believe he is the Christ, Son of the living God.
All I know is that I was blind but now I see that though I kick and scream, Love is leading me. And every step of the way his grace is making me; with every breath I breathe, he is saving me. And I believe.
So when my body’s weak and the day is long, when I feel my faith is all but gone, I’ll remember when I sing this song that I believe. I believe he is the Christ, Son of the living God, my Lord, my Savior. Oh, hosanna, I believe.

All Glory forever belongs to the One who sits on the Throne FOREVER! Amen and amen

Blessings
Stephen

“Give me liberty or give me death!” is the powerful quote by Patrick Henry in 1775 that helped bring the Virginia Commonwealth into the fight for independence.  It is one of several important statements that were both symbolic of the fight for independence and instigating to garner actual support needed at the time.  It’s a great quote.

Now, my play on the quote is less aspiring, but I still hope it provokes a mini-revolution in some preacher’s heart somewhere.

Some background…

I grew up in a church much like many of you — traditional Southern Baptist experience that I remember particularly marked by two things: 1) Get decisions by getting crowds and 2) Make a BIG deal about the holidays.  Now, I want to say right off (knowing I could offend some – even family – who may read this blog or attended the church I did) that I had a rich experience in my home church, coming to Christ there and being called to ministry.  Much of the most important early decisions of my spiritual life were made while at my home church.  So, I am grateful to God for working through many faithful workers (even if it was a revolving door with vocational leadership – the lay leaders are the ones I remember most).  Bottom line, over time I’ve come to be grateful for God’s faithfulness in my early years.

That said, when I remember those two elements mentioned above, I tend to be somewhat (okay, VERY) skeptical when I see a semblance of the same elements in churches today.  When you combine the “crowd” idea with the “holiday” idea you often wind up with an awfully “Americanized” church experience.  If the church is faithful, there will be a smattering of “gospel” elements, but often it feels more like a nod to what we are supposed to be about as a church (and at any worship gathering) rather than what is clearly central.

Personally, this puts me at risk with family, friends, even church members.  It sounds like I’m against all things holiday (no Santa, no Stars-n-Stripes, no bunnies — these aren’t good examples because we actually don’t teach our kids about Santa and ignore bunnies altogether at Easter — do love our country and the American flag).  Nonetheless, it’s risky.  What I’m against in TOTAL are competitors for the gospel when we gather together as God’s people.  By nature, we are easily distracted (with ourselves) and if we promote things above the gospel on a Sunday morning that make much of “us” (as individuals or a nation) I believe we lose sight of our true identity as believers (a humble, sorry lot redeemed by God’s grace in Christ Jesus and made citizens of heaven, NOT more entrenched as citizens of earthly kingdoms).

Let me give you a brief example.  One time I had a letter from a member of a worship team that said, “Can’t you step out of the spotlight just a few times a year to let us play?”  The charge related to having zero preaching in lieu of having a music only service (I think it related to a holiday).  This didn’t provoke happy thoughts for me, but I had to make sure my response was equal to my offense, which had nothing to do with me being at the “center” (as the preacher), rather the proclamation of the gospel being central to every worship gathering.  This has been my tenet for years (long before UBC) and will continue to be.

There are times for some of these special occasion services and I believe that holiday services can be done in such a way that God is truly glorified.  Usually, however, the tone of these services when performed (and I mean that intentionally) on a Sunday morning feels more like God empowering us to be a great people with great dreams, able to accomplish anything – but little if nothing related to the gospel, the TRUE gospel.  The gospel that redeems men from sin and reconciles them to God because God hates sin and will deal with all sin (meaning, the gospel is NOT about God redeeming a people so that we can bless them with democratic ideals — take it easy, love democracy…).

I’m just saying that the church must be distinct.  What torch are we to bear?  I believe it is the gospel proclaimed (usually expositionally) through the preaching of the Word that must be our aim every single Sunday morning (or whenever our main worship gathering is).  Again, there are times for other things, as long as they are consistent with our aim as a people.

Too hard?  Maybe.  Too narrow?  Certainly by some standards.  Truth is, I think my dad should be honored as a veteran, as well as other men in my family who have died serving our country.  I think there is a general kindness that we should be reminded of each Thanksgiving and Christmas to amp up our generosity.  But when we leave out the proclamation of the Word, which scripture commands we do when we are gathered as a people, we have done something less than have a biblically-defined worship service.  At UBC, we seasonally remember our vets and pray for our military and gospel-centered military chaplains.  But we do so without forgetting that while dying for our country is noble and good, it’s not that same as Romans 5:8 that says Christ died for His enemies (the ones that killed him) not for those already His friends.  One thing points to another and is a powerful image of the more eternal thing.

So, I’m not saying let’s not celebrate our country or holidays, but I am saying let us not waste one corporate worship gathering without proclaiming the very Word of God that will last longer than any country, any holiday.

This is just one reason I’m so grateful to God for a church that is so receptive to the Scriptures and understanding that preaching is to be central to each time we gather on a Sunday.  I’m thankful for elder / pastor types (like John Mueller) this past Sunday who faithfully proclaim the Word helping the church to see that it is the Word that is central not the personality proclaiming it.

May God make us the kind of Christians who go hard after the eternal while faithfully brining the eternal into the temporal world we live in.  We will blow it on this point and I’m certain that many of us will fail at being too stringent.  May we be gracious and loving in our veracious love for Scripture proclaimed KNOWING that the REAL difference in us will occur when that Word proclaimed changes the way that we LIVE.

We would be missing the point of earthly freedoms if we did not allow such earthly reminders to point us to the real (and eternal) independence we have as born-again believers in Christ.  To capture this thought, I’ve included a quote below by Spurgeon on Christ’s rule over heaven and earth and hell (thanks 9Marks):

“It is the iron crown of hell, for Christ reigneth there supreme. Not only in the dazzling brightness of heaven, but in the black impenetrable darkness of hell is his omnipotence felt, and his sovereignty acknowledged; the chains which bind damned spirits are the chains of his strength; the fires which burn are the fires of his vengeance; the burning rays that scorch through their eyeballs, and melt their very heart, are flashed from his vindictive eye. There is no power in hell besides his. The very devils show his might. He chaineth the great dragon. If he give him a temporary liberty, yet is the chain in his hand, and he can draw him back lest he go beyond his limit. Hell trembles at him. The very howlings of lost spirits are but deep bass notes of his praise . While in heaven the glorious notes shout forth his goodness; in hell the deep growlings resound his justice, and his certain victory over all his foes. Thus his empire is higher than the highest heaven, and deeper than the lowest hell.” C. H. Spurgeon, “The Savior’s Many Crowns” Oct. 30, 1859, printed in New Park Street Pulpit, vol. 5, p. 450.

Which yields a second thought…

In a recent article, Conrad Mbewe, a Baptist pastor in Zambia, exhorted American Christians on several ways they could could help the Zambian Church.  One point that seemed particularly significant to me was the following:

3) DEMONSTRATE BIBLICAL CHURCHMANSHIP

Western Christians entering Zambia as missionaries are generally very good examples to us with respect to their personal and domestic lives. In these two areas, we see a very clear difference between them and their non-Christian counterparts from the Western world.

However, where we see no difference is in their commitment to the local church. Their church attendance is scanty to say the least. They do not join a local church. We do not know where they give their tithes and offerings. They are not involved in any local church ministries (except to preach when they are asked to do so), and so on.

As a result, our young professional Christians believe that this is enlightened Christianity. They also end up having a very loose relationship with the church. I really think that this has been the Achilles’ heel of the work of Western missionaries in Zambia today. They are not good examples of biblical churchmanship!

We need to find a way in which Western missionaries can maintain relationships with their sending churches and at the same time exhibit biblical accountability to local churches where they labor, so that they can be good examples in this area to those whom they win to Christ.

This gives some evidence to a concern / suspicion I’ve had in the years I’ve worked with (or chosen not to work with) certain mission agencies or para-church organizations.  Many mission organization (SBC or not) do a great job in arousing a passion for missions and equipping individuals to live as missionaries.  However, many of them lack a most critical element:  teaching missionaries to love the CONTEXT of their work – The Church.

When missionaries go and proclaim the freedom in Christ from sin, death and hell even in cultures where freedoms are withheld in just about every way, they often do so with an independence that is not good.  It is not good for a missionary to go and do mission work independent of the local church sending and the local church established locally.  We have made huge strides in de-Americanizing the churches we start on the mission field, but too often we treat the local church in a missional setting as if it would just be icing on the cake if it just happened to pop up after we’ve done our missionary work.

However we train missionaries to proclaim the freedoms we have in Christ, we must make certain that they have a biblical ecclesiology and model that on the mission field.  We are not saved unto ourselves.  We are ransomed as a people by God and for God, gathered together in local settings to show the distinctiveness of being His people and proclaiming the gospel through Word and modeled in deed (particularly toward fellow believers).

Much of the classes I am taking this summer deal with our spiritual forefathers in a sense, and today gave me an opportunity to walk the streets, sit in the churches and cathedrals, and praise God for men that loved the Lord Jesus enough to be martyred for their beliefs. I hesitate to even begin to list some of the men I am talking about that walked the halls of various colleges and universities in the historic Oxford system for fear of leaving some out, nevertheless; John and Charles Wesley, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer, John Wycliffe and many others.

For obvious reasons, today was nostalgic as I sat and ate lunch with our group in the historic Eagle and Child Pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien would regularly go to discuss theological matters. However today the most valuable place was a very simple cross in a road in the heart of Oxford where three men were martyred for their faith. I am including a link so you can read more about their stories. I am including an except from the story but urge you to take 5 minutes to read their stories: Speaking of Cranmer who was the archbishop of Canterbury,

“He (Cranmer) had believed, with a fervor that many people today will find hard to understand, that it is the duty of every Christian to obey the monarch, and that “the powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13). As long as the monarch was ordering things that Cranmer thought good, it was easy for Cranmer to believe that the king was sent by God’s providence to guide the people in the path of true religion, and that disobedience to the king was disobedience to God. Now Mary was Queen, and commanding him to return to the Roman obedience. Cranmer five times wrote a letter of submission to the Pope and to Roman Catholic doctrines, and four times he tore it up. In the end, he submitted. However, Mary was unwilling to believe that the submission was sincere, and he was ordered to be burned at Oxford on 21 March 1556. At the very end, he repudiated his final letter of submission, and announced that he died a Protestant. He said, “I have sinned, in that I signed with my hand what I did not believe with my heart. When the flames are lit, this hand shall be the first to burn.” And when the fire was lit around his feet, he leaned forward and held his right hand in the fire until it was charred to a stump. Aside from this, he did not speak or move, except that once he raised his left hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.”

Article Link: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/269.html I am sure there are better articles for this that are a more full treatment of this, but this one is brief and will give you a little bit of history! Enjoy!

Again I am flooded with these questions in my mind like would I be willing to defend the faith at the price of my life? Would I be willing to recant my recantation and honor my Lord in the end should I have chosen foolishly? I like to believe that the Lord will sustain those who are truly His to the very end, Praise God! I was also just reminded of how grateful I need to be for the men and women that have stood for the faith generation after generation to as Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-3, ” You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” In addition to that, the passage in Timothy where Paul implores Timothy to guard the good deposit of the Gospel…today I was privileged to walk one of the many streets of those who heeded Paul’s advice to Timothy to preserve the riches of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The architecture was amazing and with every church and college I walked in I said to someone near to me, “I wish my brother was here….he would love this!” He is an architect for those who may not know. Oxford truly was breath taking on many levels and I am glad that I had the opportunity to walk the cobblestone roads of Oxford, England today praising my Father for His sovereignty in preserving the Gospel through faithful men. The picture I am posting is a picture of the actual pulpit where John Wesley and C.S. Lewis gave several sermons in St. Mary’s Cathedral. Arguably Lewis’ most famous sermon he preached from this pulpit was preached June 8, 1942 titled, “The Weight of Glory” if you are interested in it you can google it and download it for free.

One last note about the location of the pulpit; it is not the focal point in the church, in fact it is off to the side. In many Anglican and other denominations the Eucharist table is central whereas in almost all traditional Evangelical churches today, even bad ones , the pulpit is central in the churches. The reason for the dispute is based on what is seen as most important for the church. In traditional evangelical churches the proclamation of God’s Word is the most common means by which the church is edified, sanctified, and the most common means of grace extended to sinful man. However, in churches where the Eucharist table is central it is usually so because the common thought is that is what is most important to the church. Many believe that the means of grace, that being the receiving of God’s grace comes through receiving of the Lord’s Supper. This is part of the doctrine of transubstantiation whereby the bread and wine are believed to literally become the actual body and blood of Jesus while retaining there bread and wine qualities. Many believe, though I disagree, that it is in the receiving of such elements that God dispenses his grace to man.

Romans 10:9-17, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Blessings,
stephen

This new ipod / iphone speaker is called “The Edifier Luna5″.  Here’s what I’m thinking.  As big as this speaker is (in fact, Jan saw the picture and says, “Don’t you dare buy that ‘Darth Vader’ lookin’ thing!”) without the smaller device plugged in (ipod or iphone) that contains the content to be magnified, it’s just a big, useless “Darth Vader lookin’ thing” speaker.

The body of Christ should be compelled by Scripture to edify (that is, build up) one another in love with the Scriptures.  Without the simple, powerful Word of God plugged into our lives, we’re just big mouths with nothing of benefit to say.  At best we utter static, or at worst we pick up on other “signals” and just are negative.

According to Paul, the Gospel is what edifies the church the most…

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

Make sure the Gospel is plugged into your life and then encourage one another with it.  Be an Edifier!

Speakers Corner

Today was a most unusual day, both in London and for me personally. This day was unusual in London from the stand point that Speaker’s Corner only happens once a week on Sundays in Hyde Park in Central London. It was most unusual for me because what Speaker’s Corner is…let me explain. For a number of years, there have been radical Muslims engaging in debate over who is the One true God with what I will call a group of “radical” Christians. This debate has been started by these “radical” Christians and their street preaching against the beliefs of the Koran. For most the term radical Christians will elicit a picture in your mind…some accurate and some not so accurate. Those “radical” Christians at Speaker’s Corner today very much love the Lord and want very desperately for the Sunni Muslims in Central London to love this same Lord and God through the worship of adoration of the Son, Jesus Christ. The “radical” Christians at Speaker’s Corner today use a polemic method of sharing Christ, that is to say where an apologetic is a defense of the faith; a polemic is an offense of the faith. These “radical” Christians were quick to point out that Speaker’s Corner is unique and this method is most likely not transferable in every Muslim environment. Literally in Hyde Park today as thousands fled to the grounds to hear Dave Matthews opening for Bruce Springsteen, there were Muslims clerics and “radical” Christians alike proclaiming their beliefs from step ladders, hence the name Speaker’s Corner. There was shouting, debating, points, counterpoints, and even a few fists thrown by angry Muslims (though none of those punches were thrown at our group), all over the issue of who is the One true God. There are groups that go to Hyde Park every Sunday to engage in this open air preaching debate and part of the design is to draw a crowd and engage willing listeners in evangelism opportunities. You need not look far because if you did not engage a willing participant in one of the opportunities, one of the willing Muslims would engage you in conversation. One of the most helpful things I heard in going to Hyde Park today was the conversation you enter into when it is heated is not as much for the person you are debating rather for the those who are casual observers of the conversation. It is about what you say, but is also about how you say it. I am posting a link to an article about Speaker’s Corner from Christianity Today, 2008http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/june/21.34.html Whether you agree with the method or not is not the point of this post. Learn what you can learn from this post and the article and ask yourself what are you willing to do for the name of Jesus Christ to be anthemed on this earth?

Before I tell you what I learned I want to take you on a little journey through my mind as we sat in a pre-meeting about this excursion/adventure that we had no prior knowledge of before it was announced. Before we left to walk to Hyde Park I ran the gamete of emotions; fear and excitement, hope and inadequacy, spiritual warfare and spiritual victory, etc. We had been told that though unlikely, violence was a possibility and, we were told that some Muslims would be very nasty to us personally. It was kind of a prepare for anything type of let’s go get’em pep talk! The skies were overcast and even spitting some rain and I found myself in my flesh thinking, “maybe I will pray for rain so this thing might get canceled.” I have never in my life thought about doing anything of this nature in this manner. I have shared my faith before and I have witnessed to friends and others, but never gone out looking for confrontation of sorts. Then, as I was thinking about the reality that the victory is the Lord’s forever and ever and I as a child of the King can claim this victory I was reminded of at least three things: First, this was not and never would be about me, this was about the Lord and what He wanted. Second, instead of praying for rain in the flesh, I was reminded that I was to pray for fruit walking in the Spirit. Third, I was reminded of one of the verses that I have been memorizing this summer: Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” So literally in a worst case scenario, the worst that could happen to me is I could be killed for my faith. While that would be and was a little difficult to think about I was reminded of the words of Paul, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain!”

Today was a most unique experience indeed! I am glad that I had the opportunity and I am glad that I engaged in conversation today with a Muslim man named, or as they say in London a man called, Hussein. Pray for him, that the Lord would open his heart and his mind and he will come to know without a shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I am posting 2 pictures from today so you can see Hussein to be reminded to pray for him and one of the crowd gathered at Speaker’s Corner. May God receive all the glory and honor forever and may the seeds planted today in the hearts and minds of those who engaged in conversation and those who only observed bring about fruit that glorifies our God and King! Been outside YOUR comfort zone lately???

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piZq6aX4wDQ]

Second, a really great statement was received well today at the Southern Baptist Convention that was championed by Johnny Hunt, SBC president, Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and my president, Al Mohler of Southern Seminary.  Here is what the statement says:

Toward a Great Commission Resurgence

Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20, HCSB).

Preamble

Southern Baptists have always been a Great Commission people. Christ’s command to go, disciple, baptize, and teach is woven into the very DNA of our churches. By God’s grace, over the last thirty years, the SBC has undergone a Conservative Resurgence that has brought substantive changes to many of our churches and all of our Convention’s seminaries and boards. We are thankful for the Conservative Resurgence and believe that God has also called Southern Baptists to a Great Commission Resurgence as the next step in the fulfillment of our mandate in missions and evangelism which will result in the renewal of our Convention. It is our conviction that a Great Commission Resurgence must embrace the following ten commitments:

I. A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship. We call upon all Southern Baptists to submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things at the personal, local church, and denominational levels. (Col. 1:18; 3:16-17, 23-24)

Scripture is clear that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Therefore, Jesus Christ must be our passion and priority and we should aspire to both know Him and love Him more fully. We must long to see Him have preeminence in all things. We desire to see a Convention of Christ-centered, “Jesus-intoxicated” people who pursue all that we do by God’s grace and for His glory. We believe we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lead us into a new and fresh intimacy and communion with the Lord Jesus that results in greater obedience to all that He commands. Christ’s Lordship must be first and foremost in a Great Commission Resurgence or we will miss our most important priority and fail in all of our other pursuits.

II. A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness. We call upon all Southern Baptists to make the gospel of Jesus Christ central in our lives, our churches, and our convention ministries. (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:17-21)

The gospel is the good news of all that God has done on behalf of sinners through the perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus. As individual Southern Baptists, we must be gospel-centered from first to last. Gospel-centered living will promote a grace-filled salvation from beginning to end by putting on display the beauty of the gospel in every aspect of our lives. It will remind us that we do not obey in order to be accepted, but rather we obey because we are accepted by God in Christ. Gospel-centered living will help ensure that the bloody cross of a crucified King is the offense to non-believers rather than our styles, traditions, legalisms, moralisms, personal preferences, or unhelpful attitudes.

The gospel must also guide and saturate our local churches and convention ministries. Too many of our pulpits have jettisoned the pure proclamation of the gospel, which has resulted in many of our people losing the full meaning and wonder of the gospel. Too often our convention programs and agendas have been crafted without a close tethering to the gospel. If we assume the gospel, we will lose the gospel.  If we are to experience a Great Commission Resurgence, we must get the gospel right and proclaim it with clarity and boldness.

III. A Commitment to the Great Commandments. We call upon all Southern Baptists to recommit to the priority of the Great Commandments in every aspect of our lives and every priority we embrace as a network of local Baptist churches. (Matt. 22:37-40)

Every Christian is called first and foremost to love God and secondly to love others. Greater love for God will always lead to greater love for people created in His image. The Great Commission flows from the Great Commandments.

We believe too many of us have lost some of our love for God and others somewhere along the way. This has devastated our witness. If we love Jesus as we should, we will love sinners as we ought and pursue them as He did. Though we believe that God calls believers to speak out against moral ills, this must not be done in a way that is hateful toward unbelievers or trades gospel priorities for political influence. We must not condemn those who are already under the just wrath of God, but must seek to serve them and proclaim Christ to them with the hope that God will save them.

Loving God and loving others means our churches must become more diverse. Southern Baptists were born, in part, out of a racist context and for over a century embraced systemic racism. For far too much of our history we failed to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that will forever be to our shame. By God’s grace and the Spirit’s conviction, we publically repented of this in 1995 on our 150th anniversary, but there is still much work to be done. Until our churches better reflect the diversity we look forward to in heaven, we must labor at gospel-centered racial reconciliation.

Furthermore, loving God and loving others means each of us must be watchful in our relationships with others in our churches and our Convention. We must accept our constant need to humble ourselves and repent of pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, contentions, lying, selfish ambitions, laziness, complacency, idolatries and every other sin of the flesh that leads to broken relationships and harms our witness before the watching world.

IV. A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency. We call upon all Southern Baptists to unite around a firm conviction in the full truthfulness and complete sufficiency of Christian Scripture in all matters of faith and practice. (Matt 5:17-18; John 10:35; 17:17; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

Through the Conservative Resurgence Southern Baptists reaffirmed their historic belief that the Bible is God’s written revelation to humanity and is “truth without any mixture of error.” By God’s grace, what some have called the “Battle for the Bible” that began in the SBC 1979 has been won. However, we believe the “War for the Bible” began in the Garden of Eden when the serpent first questioned the truthfulness of God’s words and will continue until all things are made new in Christ. Southern Baptists must not retreat one inch from the non-negotiable doctrine that the Bible is without error, lest we squander the gains of recent years. Furthermore, we must recommit ourselves to the full sufficiency of Scripture. It is not enough to believe that the Bible is inerrant; we must also be willing to submit to all of its teachings, even if that means we must relinquish our own preferences or human traditions.

V. A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center. We call upon all Southern Baptists to look to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the gospel, refusing to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract us from our Lord’s Commission. (1 Tim. 6:3-4)

In 2000 the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly adopted a revised edition of the Baptist Faith and Message as an instrument of doctrinal accountability to be used by our seminaries and boards. Many state conventions followed suit. While the BF&M 2000 is neither exhaustive nor infallible, we believe that it is a sound confession for building theological consensus for Great Commission cooperation. Like the best of confessions, the BF&M 2000 speaks most clearly to those doctrines wherein we enjoy greatest agreement and speaks more generally concerning areas where some differing opinions exist.

The promise of the Conservative Resurgence was that eventually we would find enough common biblical and theological ground that we could focus on the Great Commission. We believe the BF&M 2000 is a key tool in this endeavor because it articulates a theological consensus that is simultaneously orthodox, evangelical, and Baptist. As we attempt to discern the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary issues, we believe that by God’s grace the BF&M 2000 will guide us in our cooperation.  This is what lies at the heart of many of our present tensions.

VI. A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches. We call upon all Southern Baptists to focus on building local churches that are thoroughly orthodox, distinctively Baptist, and passionately committed to the Great Commission. (Matt. 16:13-20, 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-47; Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 5)

Baptists have always been a people committed to building local churches that reflect as closely as possible the faith and practice of New Testament churches. We sense numerous threats to contemporary Baptist churches including worldliness, laziness, faddishness, heterodoxy, arrogant sectarianism, and naïve ecumenism. Our churches must be committed to a biblical orthodoxy that informs every aspect of church life. Sound doctrine must guide every priority our churches embrace and every task they undertake.

We must be especially mindful to resist contemporary threats to our historic, biblical Baptist identity. Our churches must remain committed to the Baptist distinctives of a regenerate church membership, believer’s baptism by immersion, the priesthood of all believers, congregational church polity, local church autonomy, and liberty of conscience for all people. Each of these distinctives must be embraced under the Lordship of Christ as revealed in Christian Scripture and interpreted by gospel-centered congregations. We must be willing to alter our practices to better accord with a robust Baptist identity, including in many churches a more responsible baptismal policy, the recovery of a redemptive church discipline, a healthier relationship between pastors and their people, and a commitment to an every-member ministry.

Mission is not a ministry of the church, it is at the heart of the church’s identity and essence. We must encourage our churches to see themselves as the missionary bodies that they are. Pastors and other leaders must be willing to teach and model for their people how to be missionaries in their community, regardless of their vocation or location. Churches must have a global perspective and recognize those members who are called to serve overseas long-term and engage in short-term global missions. Churches must labor to both plant new churches in unevangelized areas of North America, especially the great urban centers, and revitalize existing congregations. We long to see a Convention where every church is a church planting church in its unique Jerusalem, its Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

VII. A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching. We call upon all Southern Baptists to affirm and expect a pastoral ministry that is characterized by faithful biblical preaching that teaches both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 4:1-5)

Biblical preaching is central to building healthy churches that pursue healthy agendas within the context of a healthy Convention. We need a new battalion of well trained pastors who preach the whole Bible with clarity and conviction. Authentic preaching must develop systematically the Bible’s theological content. It should understand both the Old Testament and New Testament to be Christian Scripture that together communicates one grand narrative about the world’s creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, with the person and work of Jesus Christ as the climax of the Bible’s storyline.

We also believe that genuine preaching is more than mere Bible teaching, no matter how orthodox and articulate. Healthy preaching should apply biblical truths in a way that makes unchanging truths relevant to contemporary believers. It must also be gospel preaching that pleads with men to be reconciled with God and expects the living and powerful Word of God to produce results and usher in conversions. It must be preaching that convicts sinners, encourages saints, changes lives, and glorifies God.

VIII. A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed. We call upon all Southern Baptists to consider themselves and their churches to be missionaries in non-Christian cultures, each of which requires unique strategies and emphases if the gospel is to penetrate and saturate every community in North America. (Phil. 2:1-5; 4:2-9)

There are essential and non-negotiable components of biblical ministry like proclamation, evangelism, service to others, prayer, and corporate worship. At the same time, we are convinced there is no specific style or method ordained by our God through which we must engage in these biblical ministries. In the past, Southern Baptists were characterized by a remarkable uniformity in both style and substance, but those days have long passed. Though we must remain united in substance, we must embrace a healthy, biblically informed diversity in our methodology if we are to effectively evangelize North America.

Different contexts demand diverse strategies and methods. We must think like missionaries and ask, “What is the best way to reach the people I live amongst with the gospel?” Various ethnic believers and social/cultural tribes will worship the same God, adore the same Jesus, believe the same Bible, and preach the same gospel. However, they may meet in different kinds of structures, wear different kinds of clothes, sing different kinds of songs, and engage in different kinds of ministries. We must treat the United States missiologically and do so with the same seriousness that our international missionaries treat their foreign people groups. As long as our varied methods communicate gospel truth, with theological integrity, unto God’s glory, we should not allow our different approaches to divide us.

IX. A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure. We call upon all Southern Baptists, through our valued partnerships of SBC agencies, state conventions/institutions, and Baptist associations to evaluate our Convention structures and priorities so that we can maximize our energy and resources for the health of our local churches and the fulfillment of the Great Commission.  This commitment recognizes the great strength of our partnership, which has been enabled by the Cooperative Program and enhanced by a belief that we can do more together than we can separately.

At the midpoint of the 20th century the Southern Baptist Convention was a convention characterized by impressive institutions, innovative programs, and strong loyalty from the churches. But the convention has too often failed to adapt its structure and programs to the changing culture. We are frequently aiming at a culture that went out of existence years ago, failing to understand how mid-20th century methods and strategies are not working in the 21st century.

Some of our convention structures at all levels need to be streamlined for more faithful stewardship of the funds entrusted to them. We must address with courage and action where there is overlap and duplication of ministries, and where poor stewardship is present. We are grateful for God’s gift of Cooperative Program dollars to both state and national entities.  Both state and national entities must be wise stewards of these funds, and closely examine whether the allocation of Cooperative Program dollars genuinely contributes to Kingdom work or simply maintains the status quo. We are grateful for those churches and state conventions that are seeking to move more Cooperative Program  dollars  beyond  their  respective selves, and encourage this movement to continue and increase in the days ahead.

We must take steps toward simplifying our convention structures in an effort to streamline our structure, clarify our institutional identity, and maximize our resources for Great Commission priorities. We should ask hard questions about every aspect of our Convention structure and priorities and pray for God’s wisdom and blessing as we pursue wise answers to those questions. We must be willing to make needed changes for the good of our churches and the spread of the gospel. We believe that North American church planting, pioneer missions around the globe, and theological education are three priorities around which Southern Baptists will unite. Our Convention must be examined at every level to facilitate a more effective pursuit of these priorities.

The Great Commission, missions and theological education is the responsibility of the local church.  As a convention of churches, we cooperate together to support theological education so that we can continually train competent shepherds who will lead churches through teaching, love and example, and who will see to it that the churches they lead are Great Commission churches that are promoting missions and advancing theological education.  We are blessed as Southern Baptists to have such an avenue to serve the local church.  Furthermore, we are grateful for the impact of the Conservative Resurgence that has given us seminaries committed to the inerrancy, infallibility, and the sufficiency of the Bible.

We believe the local church must be “ground zero” in a Great Commission Resurgence, and that our associations, state conventions and national agencies exist to serve and assist the churches in their divine assignment.  We are convinced that as our people see our entities in this light, they will respond in even greater support of the Cooperative Program.

X. A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families. We call upon all Southern Baptists to build gospel-saturated homes that see children as a gift from God and as our first and primary mission field. (Deut. 6:1-9; Psalm 127, 128; Eph. 6:4)

The family is the first institution ordained by God and the foundational institution in all human cultures. Unfortunately, in our own time we see the family attacked on a number of fronts. Too many Southern Baptists have embraced unbiblical notions about marriage and family. Too often we believe that children are a burden rather than a blessing and smaller families are more “responsible” than large families. Too many believe that motherhood is not valuable as a woman’s unique and primary calling and is not as “fulfilling” as other occupations. Too many believe that husbands and fathers are not uniquely called and gifted for leadership in the home and that biblical gender roles destroy authentic equality.

We believe that distinctively Christian families are characterized by a deep love of Jesus Christ above all things and a desire to honor God as a family. We believe that Biblical truth is loved, taught, and lived out in healthy Christian homes. We believe that godly families cast a vision for spiritual greatness and equip every member, including children, to live for God’s glory and pursue great things for His name’s sake. We believe that strong Christian families are characterized by an atmosphere of love, fun, service, humor, faith, and fellowship. Southern Baptists must continue to reject the cultural status quo and seek to be a counter-culture for the common good when it comes to building God-centered, gospel-driven, Great Commission-loving homes.

David begins this Psalm by connecting his actions with his speech.  He resolves to guard his ways SO THAT he will not sin with his tongue.  That’s how important our words are.  He goes on to say that by keeping his mouth shut around his detractors was exhausting and even appeared useless.

Then, when he did open his mouth it was to pray (vv.3-4).  When he prays he asks God to remind him of his mortality so that he would have perspective of his current circumstances and hope in God appropriately.  In his waiting (while praying) David realizes that more tragic than anything an enemy could do would be for God to remove His favor.  In fact, it’s as if David has an “aha” moment and realizes that he is being disciplined by the Lord for his own sinfulness, even attaching the very circumstances that he is enduring as an act of God to reprove him and lead him to hope only in God.

That’s not what the world does.  The world is so riddled with victimization ideals that speech is disconnected from action, which disconnects a person from responsibility.  Christ said that our speech pours out the motivations of our heart.  The world speaks as if words mean nothing.  Are we any different?

Unlike David, the world speaks as if it will go on forever.  People need serious doses of mortality because it produces wisdom.  However, even in the face of death and tragedy the world will often play it off as anything but governed by God.  I do not mean that in a harsh way, simply that in David’s case, his difficult circumstances ended up being the discipline of the Lord for sin.

We would do well to hold our tongues and NOT vent.  There is nothing biblical or godly (as if they’re separate) about venting and just regurgitating our emotional responses all over those who would listen to us.

May we hold our tongues, endure our circumstances and when we do open our mouths to pray first.  In such praying we will get God’s perspective of the circumstances and find our resolute hope in God!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRRkJ95RxIo]

I’ve never heard such sound doctrine so quickly!  Good stuff.

“God, help us to love seeing your sanctifying work in our spouses.  May we own up to our own sinfulness in light of your character and forgive us for comparing our sinfulness to our spouse’s.  May you be the standard in our home and your Word our light.  May our homes reflect your good gospel of grace and mercy.  And, God, may all of these things be granted us for your glory and pleasure!”

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

1 John 3:13

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” - GALATIANS 5:17

In every believer’s heart there is a constant struggle between the old nature and the new. The old nature is very active, and loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armoury against newborn grace; while on the other hand, the new nature is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. Grace within us will employ prayer, and faith, and hope, and love, to cast out the evil; it takes unto it the “whole armour of God,” and wrestles earnestly. These two opposing natures will never cease to struggle so long as we are in this world. The battle of “Christian” with “Apollyon” lasted three hours, but the battle of Christian with himself lasted all the way from the Wicket Gate in the river Jordan. The enemy is so securely entrenched within us that he can never be driven out while we are in this body: but although we are closely beset, and often in sore conflict, we have an Almighty helper, even Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, who is ever with us, and who assures us that we shall eventually come off more than conquerors through Him. With such assistance the new-born nature is more than a match for its foes. Are you fighting with the adversary to-day? Are Satan, the world, and the flesh, all against you? Be not discouraged nor dismayed. Fight on! For God Himself is with you;Jehovah Nissi is your banner, and Jehovah Rophi is the healer of your wounds. Fear not, you shall overcome, for who can defeat Omnipotence? Fight on, “looking unto Jesus”; and though long and stern be the conflict, sweet will be the victory, and glorious the promised reward.

“From strength to strength go on;
Wrestle, and fight, and pray,
Tread all the powers of darkness down,
And win the well-fought day.”

- Taken from Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon (the morning of June 2nd)

3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!

“Ascribe” means to give, set, take upon.  In this glorious Psalm, David is clear that ALL glory belongs to the Lord.  It’s to be given to Him as an offering.  It’s to be set upon Him as the only ONE worthy to receive it.  It’s to be taken to Him as obedience to a command…which it is (an imperative).

As much as we look to the grandiose to spark some “God thoughts” in us, I want to encourage / challenge you to give, set, take the Glory to God in the mundane, everyday things.  Consider the majestic language in the Psalm.  What’s the point of reflection?  Creation.  You got that every day!  Certainly we live in a culture where creation is exalted above Creator (except where unborn babies are concerned, they’re treated as less than creation by some), so we must be cautious.  However, don’t lose seeing that the God that whispers is the God that thunders and roars.

Within creation, David notices that God is still at work causing things and allowing things that will praise Him (as it’s doing from David’s lips).  There are storms, devastation, births.  God is not passive, nor is He uninvolved.  This means that God’s glory is right here, right now.  Whether you are sitting in a coffee shop like I am right now, or peering out an office window, riding a bike…God’s glory is ever-present because God is ever-present.

And lest we forget, the way that God has chosen to be glorified the greatest is when we treasure His Son, Jesus Christ…

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

Therefore, the title of this blog “death sentence” is no response to it being a Tuesday-Monday.  It’s a response to some thoughts from Sunday’s message.

In John 21:18-19, John makes clear that what’s been said by Christ is to show what kind of death Peter would glorify God in.  Essentially, we only have snippets of church history / folk-lore to give any indication how Peter died.  It is common to think he was crucified upside down, having deemed himself  unworthy to die like Christ.  We just don’t know.  Therefore, the point of John’s statement must focus on the fact that Christ was preparing Peter to live in such a way that even in his death, God would be glorified.

Now, John goes on to record Christ’s words in John 21:19 to Peter, “Follow me.”  It is in this two word imperative that we essentially find the means of dying a God glorified death.  I know, this is awfully morbid talk for a Tuesday-Monday, but I’m in good company.  Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 that it’s better to go to a funeral than a birthday party.  Why?  Because it makes us wise for living.  The Puritans were seen as a melancholic sort (I like ‘em), but when you read the amount and depth of their writings you see a pervading wisdom of living because they examined their own mortality on a regular basis.  Luther did this as well.

At different times we all have mortality moments.  It may come at the death of a loved one, a difficult medical diagnosis, or even testing for something that may turn out to be nothing.  Take wisdom from those experiences to examine how your “follow me” part of life is going.  Are you treasuring Christ above all things?  Do you love Him?  Are you truly born again?  Ask these questions in light of the fact that we all have a death sentence and rejoice in the Lord’s provision of “mortality moments” so that we find even greater assurance in our eternal destiny.

The idea of human rights is based on the idea in our constitution that we are endowed with said rights by our “Creator.”  Now, the church too often adopts this for their overall view of humanity, which scripture says is fallen.  While we are the chief of God’s creation, we are creation nonetheless.  We have a capacity for social good, and responsible to do that.  However, God’s kind of good is only for those who are in Christ Jesus (read Rom.3 if you doubt what I’m saying).  Soldiers throughout American history have died to maintain our human freedoms and their sacrifice (through God’s providence) make us the most free society on the face of the planet, with the greatest capacity for human good.

Our government should lead the world in defending and helping the helpless.  There is no greater helpless segment of our society than unborn children.  As long as these unborn humans are seen as tissue, the government will get it wrong.  Perhaps while many are trying to remove the 10 Commandments from courthouses everywhere we should have many publicly reading Psalm 139.

Here’s what Piper says…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O68MByaMVdM]

There we were about half way through the first day and I began to notice an underlying theme.  I leaned over to Cole Penick and inquired of him…he confirmed my suspicions… The Gospel Coalition is the Shire of evangelicalism.  Allow me to explain.

First, I noticed the strong resemblance between Don Carson, and Bilbo Baggins…

Then, there came the nagging feeling that Tim Keller had a little “Gollum” in him…

I then get a text from Cole Penick to notice the speakers in our workshop room.  Here they are…

And the final piece of the “puzzle” was when Ligon Duncan professed his strong affinity for all things J.R.R. Tolkien, whom I suspect he’ll look like when he gets older (pipe or no, I have no idea)…

So, there and back again.  The Gospel Coalition Conference was fantastic, but we definitely got more than we bargained for!

Don Carson

1 Cor.9:19-23

How do you demand faithfulness and flexibility?

You must flow the argument of chps.8&9.

Who are the weak? (Chp.8)

The issue here is that the exercising of rights must be constrained by understanding the nature of being a stumbling block.  The weakness, then, is in the one who does not have knowledge of the truth to lead to a clear conscience in the manner.  If the mature believer goes ahead and acts knowing there is damage to the weaker brother, they sin against the brother and Christ Himself.

Out of the compulsion of being captured by Christ, Paul DESIRES to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.  He then goes on to describe just how he constrains his personal rights in order to joyfully and willfully make the gospel plain…

1 Cor.9:19-23

1)    Paul has to be flexible because he doesn’t belong to these categories any more

2)    How do you flex to this NOT under the law?  He’s not under the law.  He’s free but He’s not.  Paul makes determination on whether or not to flex according to the gospel.  If there is a demand unto salvation, no flexibility is in order (or associate with those who demand such things).  Where it’s cultural there is possibility given that it doesn’t damage the weaker brother.

3)    Paul has to flex because he wants to win people in all these categories

4)    If you want to flex so the gospel is more accessible to others then understand you have to bring them back to being a Christian.  Every culture has idols.  To follow Christ, idols must be forsaken.  So, be flexible, but call and command the mandate of the gospel.

5)    Paul has to flex because he wants to participate in the gospel category (v.23)

6)    ALL FOR THE GOSPEL

Paul wants to be certain of his own conversion in his actions and his fellowship in the sufferings of Christ.

PREACHING IT / LIVING IT

The flexibility and accommodation in this passage are the flexibility and accommodation of the messenger, not the message OR the convert.

Ligon Duncan

2 Timothy 4:6-22

READ and PRAY the pastoral epistles of Paul.

Problems in the Western Church:

1)    Paul’s message won’t work today

2)    Message works, but our methods need overhaul and they are removed from the church’s doctrine and theology

However, Scripture makes plain that our methodology is connected to our theology.  If our methods are contrary to our beliefs, then methodology will overcome theological positions.

The pastoral epistles give us gospel message and gospel means.  Our theology informs our methodology.

“What you win them by is what you win them to,” James M. Boice.

What can we learn about the gospel and ministry in closing remarks?

2 Timothy is more personal than 1 Timothy, yet they both are written with the corporate body in view.  So, it is a public letter.

Chp.4:6-22 outline

Exhortation, Requests, Warnings, Greetings, Benediction

Remember, the main message of the letter is for Timothy to fan the gift of the white hot flame of the gospel and to endure even through suffering.

Exhortation (vv.6-8)

-       There is no goal / finish line short of the Day you see your Savior.  Do not find some contentment to finish early.  See communities and lives transformed NOW to see Him face to face THEN!

-       Early in ministry, you may have wanted to do great things and be great for God, but ultimately your aim now must be to finish the race, cross the finish line, and all the while not shaming the bride of Christ or the gospel.  Just endure and finish well.  Be spent and spilled out for Him.

Requests (vv.9-13)

-        “Come Before Winter” Spurgeon’s sermon on this passage

-       Paul is lonely.  He wants books and parchments.  Something in these writings gives him comfort.

-       Give yourself to reading.  Focus on the Puritans and biblical Expositions.

-       Consider this meeting – Paul is there with Timothy, Luke, Mark (these men comprise the majority of NT writings…wow!)

Warnings (vv.14-18)

-       Being faithful in gospel ministry does not mean that you will not be left alone.

-       Those bitter toward the church have forgotten that faithfulness and love for the bride of Christ should continue even if they’ve been left alone.

-       While alone, he was able to proclaim the message for Gentiles to hear (1:8; 1 Tim.2).

Greetings (vv.19-21)

-       Paul genuinely loves God’s people and wants the people to know that and that they genuinely love one another

-       This is inspired as well

Benediction (v.22)

-       Assurance of Christ’s presence and ongoing grace

-       Reflect on Moses’ response to God’s charge in Exodus 33 to go on up to Canaan without Him.  Moses says to kill him now.

-       Our longing (regardless of circumstances) must be, should be, to be with Him – the absence of fellowship with God should be horrendous to the disciple.

-       Our charge is “go” but it also includes the vital “I will go with you.”

-       How will Timothy deal with finishing well?  Fulfill requests?  Face danger?  Be alone?  Deliver messages?  Only by the GRACE OF GOD.

Bryan Chapell

2 Timothy 3:10-4:1-5

You bank everything on the truth and nature of the Book.  Being reminded of the nature of the book (vv.16-17) is essential to effective ministry.

1)    The Word of God is “breathed out” by God, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  When the Bible is read, God speaks.

1. Luther, “The Church is God’s ‘mouth-house.’”
2. God speaks to His people through the Word
3. The faithful exposition of the pastor is the voice of God.
4. Jesus continues to speak to His people through preaching the Scriptures.
5. God has left Himself a witness

2)    There are expectations at the preaching of the Word

1. Expectation of purity
2. Expectation of persecution
3. Expectation of power (4:1)
   1. Jesus is speaker and audience in our preaching
   2. Resurrection power
   3. Enables preaching the Word (v.2)
4. Expectation of patience (even as you preach with authority)

3)    The Hand of Jesus is Present in the Proclamation (the voice of Jesus)

1. Ps.19:7-10 (that which inspired by God reflects His nature)
   1. Perfect (reviving)
   2. Sure (making wise)
   3. Right (rejoicing)
   4. Pure (enlightening)
   5. Clean (enduring)
   6. True (righteous)
   7. Desireable (satisfying)
2. At least 3000 times in the Bible “thus saith the Lord” is used in one form or another
3. The idolatry of self will be confronted
4. The isolation of self will be addressed

4)    The Heart of God is revealed in the Word Proclaimed (His voice)

1. Apart from him there is heartlessness
2. Only God is perfect, and the sacred writings (OT) led Timothy to understanding the gospel.
3. It is the Word that has done this – given Timothy a heart for God
4. When you have the voice, hand and heart of God, you have Jesus (the Word proclaimed is the presence of Christ with His people)
5. Ps.119:131 – God revealing Himself in His Word (the Law) that the only satisfying drink is to know all that we can know about God and fulfilling all that pleases Him
6. The way you give your people Him, is by giving them His Word!!!

Ten Practical Preparations for Hearing the Word of God on Sunday Morning

By John Piper

March 2, 1998

1. Pray that God would give you a good and honest heart.

The heart we need is a work of God. That’s why we pray for it. Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart.” Jeremiah 24:7, “I will give them a heart to know Me.” Let’s pray, “O Lord, give me a heart for you. Give me a good and honest heart. Give me a soft and receptive heart. Give me a humble and meek heart. Give me a fruitful heart.”

2. Meditate on the Word of God.

Psalm 34:8, “O taste and see that the LORD is good.” On Saturday night read some delicious portion of your Bible with a view to stirring up hunger for God. This is the appetizer for Sunday morning’s meal.

3. Purify your mind by turning away from worldly entertainment.

James 1:21, “Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” It astonishes me how many Christians watch the same banal, empty, silly, trivial, titillating, suggestive, immodest TV shows that most unbelievers watch. This makes us small and weak and worldly and inauthentic in worship. Instead, turn off the television on Saturday night and read something true and great and beautiful and pure and honorable and excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). Your heart will unshrivel and be able to feel greatness again.

4. Trust in the truth that you already have.

The hearing of the word of God that fails during trial has no root (Luke 8:13). What is the root we need? It is trust. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream.” Trusting in the truth you already have is the best way to prepare yourself to receive more.

5. Rest long enough Saturday night to be alert and hopeful Sunday morning.

1 Corinthians 6:12, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.” I am not laying down any law here. I am saying there are Saturday night ways that ruin Sunday morning worship. Don’t be enslaved by them. Without sufficient sleep, our minds are dull, our emotions are flat, our proneness to depression is higher, and our fuses are short. My counsel decide when you must get up on Sunday in order to have time to eat, get dressed, pray and meditate on the Word, prepare the family, and travel to church; and then compute backward eight hours and be sure that you are in bed 15 minutes before that. Read your Bible in bed and fall asleep with the Word of God in your mind. I especially exhort parents to teach teenagers that Saturday is NOT the night to stay out late with friends. If there is a special late night, make it Friday. It is a terrible thing to teach children that worship is so optional that it doesn’t matter if you are exhausted when you come.

6. Forebear one another Sunday morning without grumbling and criticism.

Psalm 106:25, “They grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the LORD.” Sunday morning grumbling and controversy and quarreling can ruin a worship service for a family. When there is something you are angry about or some conflict that you genuinely think needs to be talked about, forebear. Of course if you are clearly the problem and need to apologize, do it as quickly as you can (Matthew 5:23-24). But if you are fuming because of children or spouse delinquency, forebear, that is, be slow to anger and quick to listen (James 1:19). In worship open yourself to God’s exposing the log in your own eye. It may be that all of you will be humbled and chastened so that no conflict is necessary.

7. Be meek and teachable when you come.

James 1:21 “In meekness receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” Meekness and teachability are not gullibility. You have your Bible and you have your brain. Use them. But if we come with a chip on our shoulder and a suspicion of the preaching week after week, we will not hear the Word of God. Meekness is a humble openness to God’s truth with a longing to be changed by it.

8. Be still as you enter the room and focus your mind’s attention and heart’s affection on God.

Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” As we enter the sanctuary, let us “come on the lookout for God and leave on the lookout for people.” Come with a quiet passion to seek God and his power. We will not be an unfriendly church if we are aggressive in our pursuit of God during the prelude and aggressive in our pursuit of visitors during the postlude.

9. Think earnestly about what is sung and prayed and preached.

1 Corinthians 14:20, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature”. So Paul says to Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7). Anything worth hearing is worth thinking about. If you would take heed how you hear, think about what you hear.

10. Desire the Truth of God’s Word more than you desire riches or food.

1 Peter 2:2 “Like newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” As you sit quietly and pray and meditate on the text and the songs, remind yourself of what Psalm 19:10-11 says about the Words of God “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Pastor John

© Desiring God

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

K. Edward Copeland

2 Timothy 3:1-9

1)    The Last Days

1. Last days began with Christ
2. Paul was informed about these last days because he was also in his last days – there is focus and a sense of urgency for him in life and ministry.
3. This urgency informs our ministry.
4. No time to waste in preaching, with personal dealings, focus!
5. These last days are burdensome because of the type of people who populate these final times (characterized by vv.2-9).  These descriptions are not exhaustive, they are descriptive.

2)    What’s the real essence of these people?

1. Copernican – posited that everything orbits around the sun, not the earth
2. The ultimate issue is that these people believe that the center of all existence will be self.
3. This is consistent throughout the scriptures.
4. Like the neurotic rooster who thinks that the sun rises because he crows.
5. You must be a qualified conduit.

3)    Avoid these people.  Don’t associate with impersonators.

1. A subset of these are those who a false ministers
2. Even without going to extremes in your application, you must possess the scriptures for yourself, not collect the opinions of others and make it your own
3. These guys specialize in appealing to and approaching the idle and weak.
4. But the power of the proclamation is not depended upon.
5. They performed some of the acts that Moses did, but not with power (more like trickery).
6. 2 is the number of witnesses (A.W. Pink).  Throughout 2 Timothy, Paul gives examples of 2 false witnesses and those in opposition.

4)    These men will not make much progress, because deeds will be known (v.9)

1. Be faithful regardless of opposition
2. God has established a limit on this
3. Folly will be exposed and truth will be found out!

5)    Application

1. Preach the truth!  The power is in the truth!
2. Be filled with the Spirit personally and you will be filled in proclamation
3. Preach for fruit-bearing, not a response / results (in short).
4. God is in control
5. All lies have expiration dates
6. God’s truth lasts from everlasting to everlasting

American Christianity is so numb to signs of the end of the age.  However, with the current state of affairs more Christians are becoming more aware of the signs that we are becoming increasingly secularized and following Europe socially, religiously, and politically.  With that, hopefully many are waking up to the fact that false teachers have been in our midst for years, and their following is many.  I hope that we will awaken to the love for sound doctrine, love for the body of Christ and enduring faith.  We will realize that those who are truly Christian are far fewer than we ever thought…it’s just going to get too hard to fake it.

Mark Driscoll

2 Timothy 2:14-26

Notes on resurgence website

In ministry you will face:  positives, negatives and neutrals

20 Types of Negatives:

1)    Success / Jealousy

2)    False witness

3)    Misinformed (act as if it were true)

4)    Personal dislike (they just don’t like you)

5)    Take up offense for another person

6)    Missiological (over-contextualization / irrelevant)

7)    Single-issue voter

8)    Chain of command (want access to the top)

9)    Little world (scared of those outside of the same “city”)

10) Tradition (opposed to change, any at all)

11) Unforgiving

12) Plank-speck (classic religiosity / someone else’s sin)

13) Diatrophes (always up front and known)

14) Distrust (start with guilt)

15) Control (don’t understand diff. between control & influence)

16) Critic (nitpickers)

17) Warrior (looking for a hill to die on)

18) One-handed (everything is held in the closed hand or the open hand)

19) Gossip

20) Theological (just don’t agree with)

The charge:

1)    Emphasize what your for (the essential positives:  right doctrine)

2)    Preach the Word (don’t react to criticism) in the pulpit

3)    Positively use your God-given authority (there are some parental insights to use here) – Be courageous and lead strongly (the sheep need this strength when negative people try to assert control)

4)    Positively invest your words

5)    Positively do your best (don’t waste energy and sleep over negative, critical people – serve and work hard)

6)    Positively study harder (rightly handle the word of truth)

7)    Positively avoid negative arguments

8)    Positively use words carefully (battle heresy with truth – don’t name someone a “heretic” unless you mean it, name sparingly) – Warn the sheep

9)    Rejoice that the church is God’s (preach faithfully, God will redeem His own and use you despite unfaithfulness on your part)

10) Practice repentance and participate in grace (be honest with your people – confess and repent where appropriate) – Humility is required!

11) Positively use your passion – Be usable, holy and honorable!

12) Positively grow up quickly

13) Positively seek righteousness, faith, love and peace from a pure heart

14) Positively grow in Jesus

15) Positively be kind like Jesus

16) Harness the opportunity to teach the people

17) Suffer patiently like Jesus

18) Correct with gentleness

19) Positively desire good for your enemies (granted repentance – true salvation / redemption) – wanting this and having spiritual eyes to see them.

Observations:

Driscoll’s talk was interesting.  I found myself wanting more out of the text than he brought, which any preacher (including myself) tends to miss at times.  I appreciated the observations of negative people and how to positively deal with them.  However, I felt the text that was emphatic in other areas.  Either way, it was helpful and certainly humorous, but I certainly was more taken by the other speakers at this point.

On the definitively positive side, I did find great encouragement from his honesty of the text working him over during his preparation and confessing mistakes / misdeeds that were exposed – I relate to that so well.

Phil Ryken

2 Timothy 1:13-2:13

Apostolic Call to Faithful Ministry (vv.13-14)

-       Follow the pattern (Words that Paul has said and used in explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ)

-       The Gospel is sealed and protected by the Holy Spirit

-       NOTE:  Really guard against the idolatry of truth

-       Trusting Christ for EVERYTHING

• Doctrine
• Life
• Time (to be spent for His gospel in loving other people)
• Success in ministry – will be gauged by faithfulness to Christ, the Word, His Gospel

Personal Example of Faithful Ministry (vv.15-18)

-       Bad examples (v.15) – lessons learned from those who have been faithless.  Important to learn… A fool would ignore such examples

• 1700 ministers leave the ministry every month (1 in 10 will actually retire a minister) – There is immorality; financial misdealings; lost leaders

-       By God’s grace (before the beginning of time) there can be faithfulness: Onesiphorus

• Loved those who preached God’s Word
  • Ministered (physically and spiritually) to Paul
  • Do I love my fellow ministers / pastors?  Do I serve them?
• Courageous to go to Rome (ready and willing to suffer for the gospel cause)
  • Faithfulness requires courage
• Fruitfulness (those faithful in ministry are faithful wherever they go)

A Sacred Trust Given to Faithful Men (2:1-2)

-       Colossians 1:29 is foundational

-       Passing ministry along to faithful men is critical

-       Those younger should be those you see as faithful to preach the gospel

-       Your ministry should be “transmissional” (prepare to pass it along – work with SBTS)

-       Passing on the faith

-       In a sense your ministry should be a perpetual work of witnessing to the unconverted; training young pastors; meeting with seasoned pastors

Illustrations of Faithful Work (2:3-7)

-       Difficult professions are used as illustrations

-       The Soldier

• Not given to worldly affairs
• Does not speak against bi-vocational ministry
• Does not condone sacrifice of family (pastoral position is no excuse for neglect)
• The point is don’t waste time!  Don’t get distracted!  Do the thing that most needs to be done!  Do the hard work FIRST!
• Limit the amount of time spent in entertainment – remember you are to live in the mindset of wartime, not peace-time
• The aim is pleasing the Commanding Officer (you don’t take a leave!)

-       The Athlete

• Competing according to the rules
• Regulations of athletes?  Probably.  Much self-control to avoid any disqualification
• Work hard as an Olympian – work hard in the word, prayer, evangelism
• Victory crown is a gift of grace for the faithful, not an award of merit

-       The Farmer

• The hard working farmer
• Up before dawn, working all day, exhausted after nightfall
• Faithful – this is not work-a-holic tendency.
• The most important harvest for the hard-working pastor is the fruit of the seed sown of the Word of God – IN DUE SEASON
• Are you working faithfully for the gospel reward?

Command to Remember a Faithful Savior (2:8-10)

-       We must be careful not to take these things as law, but has grace-filled / rooted effort!

-       Highlights the death, burial and resurrection of Christ

-       He is our Salvation

-       What He did!  Who He is!

-       Remember Christ is why suffering is enabled in us!  The scriptures will prevail and because it’s the Word that is powerful, our suffering is warranted.

-       It is for the sake of the lost – Be Faithful!

Faithful Commendation of a Faithful Savior (2:11-13)

-       If we persevere and remain faithful, we will be with Him

-       If Jesus Christ is our greatest joy then there is nothing more satisfying than being with Him forever.

-       Will we remain faithful?  Will we endure?

-       Some become faithless and eventually deny Christ, proving to be unregenerate.

-       The last line is for you… If faithless, HE REMAINS FAITHFUL!  Why?  He cannot deny Himself! (He is not talking about an unregenerate pastor.  He’s talking about our weak, lazy, selfish work in ministry)

-       Even our unfaithfulness cannot undo the power of the gospel (reflect on the cross in the faithfulness of God in your ministry – Humility)

NOTE:  Look at practical decisions to live out this vision for hard-working, time-efficient, soldiering, running, farming type of pastoral ministry.

Reflections…

As I look back over this week and remember the consistency of the message by Paul to charge Timothy to be faithful even in the midst of hardship, I am challenged on so many levels.  As much as I feel that overall I’m a hard-worker in ministry I know that (probably like many of you) I’m fooled by my busy-ness to presume that I’m effective.

Paul’s use of these images for ministry all are very productive in the task at hand.  Focused.  I’m not focused like I should be.  I aim to be more focused, just as we are working very hard this year to focus the ministry and schedule of UBC.  My hopes by the end of this year for UBC is to be more efficient and effective in equipping the saints for every good work.  To do this, I have to BE this.

There’s no doubt I am busy.  But I would be a fool to think that all that I’m doing is the right thing to be doing.  God has equipped us with EVERYTHING we need pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) including the energy and effort needed to do those things (2 Peter 1:4-10).  So, we just have to make sure that our great effort is being given to personal godliness and ministry effectiveness (according to biblical standards).

John Piper  (2 Timothy 1:1-12)

Main point (not necessarily the most important point, the main point is what you want to focus on)

-       Timothy, keep feeding the flame of God’s gift in you.  Namely, the gift of unashamed courage to speak openly of Christ and to suffer for the gospel.

1)    Where does this point come from?

1. Vv.6-8
2. Fuel the “white hot” flame – “keep on” doing it – God’s gift in you (dependent on the obedient of Timothy, who is enabled to keep it enflamed by God’s indwelling grace) – to speak openly without shame (unashamed courage) – of the testimony of our Lord or the circumstances of others who have spoken of Him (prepare to suffer) – share the suffering (remain under the circumstances) – by the power of God.
3. How does Timothy get this power?
   1. Through the laying on of Paul’s hands
   2. 1 Tim.4:14

2)    Is this the point of the whole book?

1. 1:16
2. 2:3
3. 2:9
4. 2:10
5. 2:12
6. 2:15
7. 2:24
8. 3:1
9. 3:10
10. 3:12
11. 4:5
12. 4:6
13. 4:7
14. 4:16

3)    How does Paul intend for us to feed the flame of the gift in us?

1. By the power of God
2. Linking 1:2 with 2:1
3. By the power of God’s grace in Christ Jesus
4. Grace, mercy and peace are from God and Christ (Grace to you / Grace be with you)
   1. Paul’s epistles are rooted in this
   2. The Words mediate the grace.
   3. Heed the Word of the Lord and the empowering grace of God in Christ Jesus will give all power and courage to speak and suffer well.

4)    Let’s do it!

1. This produces a bit of timidity and fear…probably) – you do need to own your faith, but don’t be timid that it flowed from your family lineage
2. Paul gives himself as a pattern of suffering in sustaining grace
3. It’s works v. God’s purpose and grace (Eph.2:8-10)

BE STRIPPED OF ALL SELF-RELIANCE AND FIND THAT ALL OF YOUR DEPENDENCE IS ON THE GRACE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!

Keller was the first speaker for The Gospel Coalition Conference.  Here are my basic notes from his talk on engaging idols in the culture:

1) Discerning Idols

a. Look around the city and see what the idols are (look at the University, etc)

b. Paul went into the marketplace to identify and confront the idols of the culture (agera – cultural center). This would include political centers as well as social centers (commerce & theater)

c. David Clarkson (Puritan – 2 vol. work)

d. Ezek.16

e. Jer.2:3

f. When you look at any created thing to give you what only God can give you is idolatry (anything so central to your life that you cannot have a meaningful life)

2) Exposing Idols

a. Paul knew how to expose idols

b. Idols demands salvation by works.

c. 3 kinds of idols you have to expose

i. Personal (relying on self-righteousness)

1. Money

a. For instance, worship at the altar of business demands child-sacrifice (give up your family)

2. Romance

a. If you actually look to this other person for personal worth and value due to the person’s love, this is an idol

b. Leads to actions even beyond previous set boundaries

3. Children can be idols. If you find greatest worth through the children, they have become an idol.

ii. Religious

1. Those who worship religious idols believe they are very devoted to God. They are not looking to God alone for salvation. Rather, they are looking to truth, gifts and morality as salvific

2. I’m okay because I believe right or because of Christ’s finished work?

3. If you’re always sarcastic, mocking, disdainful you are exposed as a doctrinal Pharisee – there is a sense of doctrinal superiority in this and this is the person who makes an idol out of truth.

4. Idol out of gifts is also evident. The mistaking of spiritual gifts for spiritual fruit (preaching, teaching, leading, etc.. replacing the fruit of the spirit, etc.) – Justification by ministry, that there are results and the people conspire because they enjoy the “success”. Being a great preacher can become an idol.

5. Typical for Christians to say that the reason God loves us is because of all that we are doing and what we are not doing. Taking morality to a point of idolatry. To trust in morality to win God’s approval is idolatry.

6. All of these things must be exposed and fought.

iii. Cultural

1. Example: The enlightenment (exaltation of reason)

2. The gods will always let you down. The social order will be brought down by these gods.

3. Family can be an idol. Family above all else.

4. Western culture and individualism is idolatrous. No one should ever say anything that their beliefs are wrong.

5. Politics are idolatry. We can see shifts all along the way. Too big government, liberal, conservative, free society, capitalism, etc – what it all shows is that original sin is strong and intact. It’s as if people people that there is a savior in a form of government (comprised of men) instead of the God who establishes said governments

3) Destroying Idols

a. When the idols are opposed, it’s dangerous. Idols are violent. The biblical writers are ambivalent about whether idols are something or nothing. No power, yet enormous power.

b. Paul risked his life to challenge the idols and principalities

c. Christ challenged it and it cost Him his life (Col.2:15) – when Satan and his principalities brought their rage against Christ, He defeated them by willfully bowing His head into their rage and overcoming it all.

d. “Idolatry” written in 1992

e. Objectively He has overcome the power of idols on the cross

f. Subjectively He has overcome – He has called me by His own glory and excellence. My affections are overwhelmed for Him in opposition to my earthly idols

g. TAKE THE GOSPEL TO THE IDOLS

UBC is uniquely located in a cultural center that is very diverse because of our downtown location and proximity to the University of Arkansas.  There are many idols around and within for us to identify and destroy with the gospel.  One thing that became very clear to me is that UBC is on the road to being Christ / Cross / Gospel – Centered and that the natural outflow of that will be to mercifully and faithfully engage and destroy idols within while we seek to see others rescued from their idols and treasuring Christ, finding joy in HIm alone.

So, what I aim to do with the blog over the next many days is to unpack the things I heard and learned at the conference (plus, it makes up for my guilt of not blogging while there – proved more challenging than I thought).  I know this will prove useful for me and I hope that (first) it will edify the members of UBC, who I am privileged to serve, and (second) help any others who just read this to process some of these thoughts to be a benefit in your local church as well.

I’m not going to commit to any framework or order of thought.  I’m guessing it will fall along the lines of the days and their order of events as well as categories like observations, lessons learned, provocation, things funny, etc.

Observation #1:  I’ve never seen more “soul patches” in one room!

Okay, I wear one of those “soul patches” every once and a while.  You know, that little hair clump that grows under the lip, but without connecting to the greater go-tee.  I do that only because it’s the last bit of my beard that doesn’t have a ton of gray (vanity, vanity).  Anyway, the “soul patch” is no respecter of ages.  I saw guys in their 20′s and 60′s sporting these things EVERYWHERE.  Kind of enjoyed that.  Baptists, Presbyterians, “Bible Church” guys…”Soul Patch” Coalition was strong enough to make it into impression #1.

Don’t worry, no sessions had started by the time this observation was made.

Observation #2:  3300

There were 3300 people gathered.  Among us were mostly pastors, ministers and many of their wives and laymen.  Worship was STRONG…all hymns to start with and very vocally loud, even though there was a contemporary band leading us.  Good balance with the instrument volume being where voices are mostly heard.  Sound doctrine, put to familiar tunes can gather the people of God quickly.  However, the great gathering of our hearts occurred (in my opinion) as we all read scripture aloud together.  Wow!

Observation #3:  Seven

That’s how many UBCers went.  What a blessing to hear such great teaching and fellowship with 5 of our staff and 2 spouses.  This kind of thing continues to deepen our like-minded / like-hearted leadership and service.  Thanks UBC for seeing fit to include conference monies for your staff!  It’s critical for our ongoing shepherding souls!

More to come…

As before, I’ve found it helpful to disclose to the body at UBC the “voices” that are influential in your pastors’ life.

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We come to You and pray that, for Jesus’s sake, and through the virtue of the blood once shed for many for the remission of sins, You would give us perfect pardon of every sin of the past. Blot out, O God, all our sins like a cloud, and let them never be seen again. Grant us also the peace- speaking word of promise supplied by the Holy Spirit, that being justified by faith we may have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us be forgiven and know it, and may there remain no lingering question in our heart about our reconciliation with God, but by a firm, full assurance based on faith in the finished work of Christ may we stand as forgiven men and women against whom transgression shall never be mentioned forever again.

And then, Lord, we have another mercy to ask which shall be the burden of our prayer. It is that You would help us to live such lives as pardoned men should live. We have but a little time to live here, for our life is but a vapor; soon it vanishes away; but we are most anxious that we may spend the time of our sojourning here in holy fear, that grace may be on us from the commencement of our Christian life even to the earthly close of it.

Charles Spurgeon from “The Wings of Prayer”

In my conversation with this pastor, I found myself clearly at odds with the ministry philosophy being purported on the other end of the phone.  His position was (essentially) that any means to reach more people is okay.  I truly believe his heart is to reach people, but the mentality that any and all means are okay proves that the dependency to reach others is on man instead of God.

Let me give you an example that is very real in our culture:  divorce and remarriage.  Unfortunately the church has little to nothing to offer society when it comes to proof that marriage is sacred.  What I mean by this is that even within evangelical circles the percentage of marriages that end in divorce is virtually the same as the greater American society (little more than 50% divorce).  While I’m not going into detail at this point on my position of divorce and remarriage, I am going to venture into this territory simply because it provides a great backdrop for the purpose of this post.

Here’s how the philosophy runs…  Because divorce is so prevelant and people are hurting, as a pastor I have an opportunity to minister to these hurting people.  Therefore, regardless of the reasons or circumstances, I’m going to perform their wedding because it gives me a voice in their lives.  Christian or not… Biblical concessions or not… I’m going to do this wedding because, well, they will get married anyway no matter what, so it might as well be me so I can have an influence in their lives.

Consider…

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? [2] Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Some would argue that this is not directly about marriage.  Actually, it’s about the covenant relationship of God’s people (the church).  Is marriage not the great, long-standing image of this covenant relationship (Eph.5:22-33)?  It would be in keeping with scripture, then that the command would certainly extend to believers most intimate relationship.

31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 5:31-32

3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Matthew 19:3-9

10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you [2] to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

1 Corinthians 7:10-16

Okay, without giving much explanation, at the very least the clearest concessions for divorce are adultery and the dismissal by an unbelieving spouse.  Remarriage is even less clear.  Either one is free (the innocent party) to remarry under the above concessions, or remarriage is never okay.

So, back to the point…

We are in a fallen world and people (including Christian types) sin and are messed up.  So, even if they are failing at the above concessions for their divorce (just saying they can’t get along or someone yells too much), then as a pastor I should re-marry them to new spouses just so I can have a voice.

To this line of thinking, I say…RUBBISH!

We are the church of the living God called to be distinct.  We are messed up, sinners who have been saved by a glorious Savior who calls us out to be holy in all we do.  While we will never be perfect we are to pursue His standard.  When people sin in marriage, divorce, and re-marriage the Christian should be convicted of such sin and own up to it, repent and make restitution where possible and biblical supported (i.e. – you don’t divorce your current spouse to try and go backwards…repent, make restitution and move forward in obedience by God’s grace).

What I can’t stand in this is the endorsement of the under-shepherd, the pastor, who then puts on display that the oldest and greatest image of God’s church (marriage) is nothing more than an ongoing management of sin instead of the pursuit of biblical purity.  Pastors who believe it to be okay to compromise scripture and endorse continual sin all for the sake of being able to have some possible future influence, believe that they have a greater voice than the voice of scripture, and God Himself.

Can you tell I’m miffed?  Well, I fail enough at sin in my own life.  I don’t need on my head the fact that I become complicit in ongoing adultery (by marrying divorced people who have not had biblically conceded divorces…not to even mention the “unequally yoked” issue) should I endorse and marry people who have made said decision.

This line of thinking by such pastors can apply to use of secular images and sounds in worship.  Dependence on technology to “wow” instead of the “boring” proclamation of the Word.  As well, this philosophy can extend to re-defining “mission” to be something so social and benevolent that service becomes the “new” gospel instead of the gospel itself.

We must guard the truth.  Pastors should guard the truth!  If the pastor doesn’t, why would he be surprised when the people don’t in their own homes and marriages and workplace.  God help me to live this out in the context of the church…

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

2 Timothy 4:1-5

We have had so many wonderful volunteers help in the development of this floor.  As well, we have been able to faithfully finish the construction and furnishings on a cash contribution basis.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our elementary age kids and their teachers / leaders to expand the teaching ministry.  As well, this will afford some expansion for other classes and nursery as well.

We will begin @ 6pm in the sanctuary for a time of sharing and then head down to the 2nd floor for a tour and time of prayer.  I look forward to you being with us this Wednesday evening.

Mike

“Jesus said unto them, If ye seek Me, let these go their way.“—John 18:8.

ARK, my soul, the care which Jesus manifested even in His hour of trial, towards the sheep of His hand! The ruling passion is strong in death. He resigns Himself to the enemy, but He interposes a word of power to set His disciples free. As to Himself, like a sheep before her shearers He is dumb and opened not His mouth, but for His disciples’ sake He speaks with Almighty energy. Herein is love, constant, self-forgetting, faithful love. But is there not far more here than is to be found upon the surface? Have we not the very soul and spirit of the atonement in these words? The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, and pleads that they must therefore go free. The Surety is bound, and justice demands that those for whom He stands a substitute should go their way. In the midst of Egypt’s bondage, that voice rings as a word of power, “Let these go their way.” Out of slavery of sin and Satan the redeemed must come. In every cell of the dungeons of Despair, the sound is echoed, “Let these go their way,” and forth come Despondency and Much-afraid. Satan hears the well-known voice, and lifts his foot from the neck of the fallen; and Death hears it, and the grave opens her gates to let the dead arise. Their way is one of progress, holiness, triumph, glory, and none shall dare to stay them in it. No lion shall be on their way, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. “The hind of the morning” has drawn the cruel hunters upon himself, and now the most timid roes and hinds of the field may graze at perfect peace among the lilies of his loves. The thunder-cloud has burst over the Cross of Calvary, and the pilgrims of Zion shall never be smitten by the bolts of vengeance. Come, my heart, rejoice in the immunity which thy Redeemer has secured thee, and bless His name all the day, and every day.

In one of my classes at Southern I recall Dr. Moore sharing his view of the atonement and why he does not hold to limited atonement in the traditional reformed sense of the phrase.  His viewpoint is very compelling and reminds me of why it’s one of the most challenging doctrines to reconcile.  While I hold to a bit more “particular” view of the totality of the redemptive work of God in Christ’s atoning work, Moore gives the theological perspective that Southern Baptists (I believe) should hold to if they believe in Christ’s atoning work being unlimited in scope (but still limited in application – i.e. we are NOT universalists).  Read the piece HERE.

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I really can’t say all that I would like to say about the ACLU, mainly because I don’t trust my heart and am fairly certain my tone would not remain in the “godly” realm.  Suffice it to say that the ACLU is arguably the most discriminatory agency on the face of the planet, because they do not defend the “civil liberties” of all equally.  They have decided to take those whom they believe are the most discriminated against and super-impose more rights in their favor to the discrimination of other American citizens.

I’m all for equal rights.  Those rights should be defended for those of various races and backgrounds.  I cannot stomach racism to any degree (so, please do not make racial jokes in my presence).  But that is just what the ACLU is proposing.  They say that those who practice homosexuality are actually a race, as if their lifestyle is no choice but genetic and inarguable.  I would add that this has to include those of the heterosexual variety who are cohabitating.  I do not believe that ANYONE unmarried has the right or the responsible behavior to adopt or provide foster care for children.

Now, even in our own state the argument is that there is essentially “crowding” in our foster care system, meaning that there are many more children in need of adoption and foster care than there are adoptive / foster parents available.  So, we can (and should) battle legislation that would put children in unmarried (including homosexual) homes, but we also must be willing to be part of the solution.  This means the church should become much more proactive in promoting adoption and foster care.  Is this not a biblical image?  Is this not a great opportunity to deal with racism (by adopting children of other races and ethnic backgrounds)?  Is this not (ultimately) a great opportunity for evangelism and raising up a godly generation?

Think about it.  Pray about it.  Take action.

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[Dislike of dogma] is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young people…. It produces what I must venture to call…a “jelly-fish” Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish…is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation.

Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, “No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine.” We have hundreds of “jelly-fish” clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions; they belong to no school or party; they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all. We have thousands of “jelly-fish” sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint. We have Legions of “jelly-fish” young men annually turned out from our Universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth.

They live apparently in a state of suspense, like Mohamet’s fabled coffin, hanging between heaven and earth…and last, and worst of all, we have myriads of “jelly-fish” worshippers-respectable Church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors. They think everybody is right and nobody wrong, everything is true and nothing is false, all sermons are good and none are bad, every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine”; often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to “render a reason of the hope that is in them.” …Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to “enunciate dogma” very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.

In World History: Continuity and Change (published by Houghton-Mifflin), it says of the 10 Commandments, ”moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God” while the entry for the Koran contains no qualifier in saying it is the “Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God.”

So, one is speculative and the other assumed truth?  No, I don’t believe that Houghton-Mifflin is trying to endorse Islam as a primary religion, but given that they also say Jesus was Palestinian it is clear they are continually giving into the pressures of some sort of religious / political correctness, which is at the heart of secular humanism.  The world’s aim, under Satan’s control (not a freakish statement – Acts 26:12-18), is to bring the weak-minded church to a point of pluralism, believing that Jesus is one of many ways to God.

I’m going to stop right here, because my “rant sirens” are going off in my head and I want to remain more even in my statements (I’m writing while having a bit of a fever and don’t trust my fingers).  I will say that you need to know what your kids are learning and be active in their learning.  Remember (homeschoolers aside), your kids’ teachers have them for many more hours a day than you do.  Guard their life and doctrine, or their doctrine will look more like the world’s than your own home’s.

Just a reminder that you can get your tickets ($10 in advance / $15 at the door) in the church office during the week, or at Christian Book Outlet in Fayetteville, or online at http://www.evangelismtickets.com.

We will also be selling them outside the fellowship hall on Wednesday evenings for the next three Wednesdays. Feel free to also find Ryan Martin after the service on Sundays for more information.

Childcare will be provided for the concert and can be reserved in the church office when you buy your tickets, or you can call the office to reserve (479) 442-5312.

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God, from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass and perpetuates, upholds, directs and governs all creatures and all events through His providence, yet He is not the author or approver of sin.  He does not in any way destroy the free will and responsibility of any who will stand before God in judgment.

When God’s sovereignty and man’s will appear at odds, it’s our problem not God’s.  So, when there’s mystery I default to Paul’s statement in Romans 11:33-36 (closing out the whole section of Romans 9-11):

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

So, when we face mystery let’s fall on a Godward view of mystery…trusting Him.  A man-centered view of mystery says, “That cannot be true because I don’t understand!”

Church Unity…

Currently we have been studying the day of Christ’s crucifixion in John 18-19.  Regularly I have referenced the wonderful corporate prayer of the early church in Acts 4:23-31 because they so beautifully choose to articulate God’s sovereign work and goodness in the death of His own Son for the good of His people.

Now, I’d like for us to look at the context of that passage.  Consider the passage itself…

23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

This prayer in the early church follows the release of Peter and John from the authorities, namely Annas, Caiaphas and a few others (familiar?).  Peter and John were in trouble for the healing of a man in his forties (next week, I’ll feel the need for some healing as I hit my “40′s”).  The above prayer is the immediate response of Peter and John’s testimony of the account.  I believe that the text speaks for itself especially understanding the context of the trying of Peter and John.

What I want you to notice today is what’s comes next…

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Interesting isn’t it?  The affirmation of God’s sovereign work is the prayerful framework for the unity of the early church.  That is consistent because what unifies us is what we focus on.  This truth has been lived out negatively throughout church history in charting liberalism.  As soon as we believe that the gospel is solely a human event and that the greatest change agent in the world are humans banning together, we have given into liberalism, therefore ineffectiveness in the gospel.

Haven’t you seen this before?  Even in conservative evangelical churches we can just like ourselves too much and the “machine” that the church is.  Before you know it, God’s work has faded into the background.

I believe this is one reason we can be thankful for financial hard times.  It WILL NOT BE the collective good nature of people who sustain the church, it will be God at work in and through His people.  I believe that as we see that God is in control and we are graciously dealt with by Him, we will love the world less, sell some stuff, hate debt and yet still faithfully give to the church for the purpose of the gospel.  Sure, that sounds easy coming from the pastor whose salary depends on your giving, but that doesn’t change that my salary means nothing if I’m not faithful to God first.  In fact, I hope I preach as if you do not hold the “purse strings.”  Hopefully, I proclaim truth in love in a way that does not fear man on any level.  Hopefully, that is the kind of Christian you are as well in your management of your homes and finances.  Don’t let the world give you her twisted logic (like don’t give an offering until you’re out of debt, etc…).  Realize that God is sovereign and sovereignly gracious and we are called to be good stewards of His perfect will, especially in the caring for one another.

“O Sovereign Lord, help the followers of Christ of UBC speak boldly your testimony and may we trust your provision as we faithfully care for one another and proclaim boldly the resurrection of Jesus Christ!”

After having the snow stick around a lot longer than expected yesterday, we have inspected the roads and lots around the church and have decided to move ahead with our regular schedule this morning.  PLEASE BE CAREFUL  as there are some slick spots in the parking lots.

I look forward to gathering with the body this morning.

- Mike

FYI – I grew up watching The Bob Newhart Show, so that may tell you a bit about the early formations of my sense of humor.

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What (who) do we depend on to reach people and grow the church?  What does evangelism look like?  Have we confused means and methods with reality?  These are questions we should be asking as western, American evangelicals.

Following that, where do we go to find the answers?  Conferences?  Online websites & blogs (remember, you’re reading one)? New Release sections at bookstores?  Lifeway.com?  Church innovation magazines?  The Bible?

Sources outside of Scripture are not bad as long as they lead us back to the Scriptures.  One thing we must observe in our church culture is, while we will defend that scripture is without error, we just don’t believe it is sufficient.  If we did (even historically) would the church…

• Emphasize sinners’ prayers more than repentance & faith?
• Teach more on evangelistic methods than the true gospel gripping the hearts of true believers?
• Plead more with people to raise hands and walk aisles than to contemplate these truths deep in their hearts and choose to associate with Christ through baptism and His church?
• Depend on church gatherings to reach the lost than reaching out to the lost next door?

 The truth is, the Bible gives no record of sinners’ prayers, canned evangelistic methods, aisle-walking or corporate worship being treated as an evangelistic crusade (regularly).  We have taken the command to “Go” and said “Ya’ll come.”  We have based our evangelism, not on the authority of Christ (Mt.28:18), but on the credence (numerically speaking) of a particular method or event.  Instead of “teaching to observe” we’ve just given them pizza and asked them to fill out a card.

What are we doing?

What happens when the people of God are so smitten with God’s glory?  They become like Jeremiah and Isaiah who simply say “I’ll go” even before they know the details.  Reluctant? Certainly at times.  Faulty? Always.  God’s design?  According to 2 Corinthians 5, absolutely. 

Our problem with a lack of evangelism is NOT our methodology, it is disobedience.  The solution is not being beaten over the head with guilt (even through this blog).  Rather, the answer is to see the Gospel afresh and remember the God of our salvation (2 Peter 1:9, Rev.2:5).  We need to remember that God is enough, that fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:11-13), and find our sole satisfaction in Him.  When you have tasted of the Lord and seen that He is good, you will speak, live and teach until others have found their satisfaction in Him as well.

Let us pray for each other in this regard.  May we become those who exhort and encourage one another to drink deeply of the Lord and His Word, rejoicing together as we pray, sing and proclaim the gospel to one another when we gather, and to our neighbors and co-workers all along the way!

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On the Family and Grace

by Dr. Jonathan Edwards

‘We have had great disputes how the church ought to be regulated; and indeed the subject of these disputes was of great importance: but the due regulation of your families is of no less, and, in some respects, of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove in effectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful.

Let me now therefore, once more, before I finally cease to speak to this congregation, repeat, and earnestly press the counsel which I have often urged on the heads of families, while I was their pastor, to great painfulness in teaching, warning, and directing their children; bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord; beginning early, where there is yet opportunity, and maintaining constant diligence in labors of this kind.

Remember that, as you would not have all your instructions and counsels ineffectual, there must be government as well as instructions, which must be maintained with an even hand, and steady resolution, as a guard to the religion and morals of your family, and the support of its good order. Take heed that it not be with any of you as it was with Eli of old, who reproved his children, but restrained them not; and that, by this means, you do not bring the like curse on your families as he did on his.’

The disputes at Northampton were more centered on the administration of the Lord’s Supper.  How significant is it that in his final message he once again preaches the necessity of the home to be gospel-centered and for heads of households to take up that mantle and rightly administer it?!

Christians need not fear such things, the world will hate the message of Christ.  Now, atheists may not always be responding to the true gospel message.  They could be responding to many who claim Christ that are more antagonistic in their methodology.  Regardless, the scriptures say clearly…

14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

Psalm 14:1-3

This is the Psalm that Paul quotes in Romans 3.  When you combine that with Romans 1:18, we understand that sin and Satan blind the eyes of the lost and unrighteousness suppresses the truth in us that says there is a God.  So, there is a sense that we should not revile atheists because they are sinners just like all of us were (who are now in Christ) and apart from God’s grace, we could have lingered long enough in our darkness for truth to be suppressed so far that we too could have said, and even promoted, that there is no God.

But God…

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6