God has infinitely greater grounds for trusting that I will change: He has begun the work, and He has promised to complete it. No, human feedback is not always reliable, but God's corrections, once welcomed, are certain to bring increased wisdom, greater ability, more knowledge of His Word, more interaction with His Spirit, and more reflection of His character.
"Those whom I love," Jesus says, "I reprove."Read the rest.
“Your people have to have confidence in the gospel. Otherwise, they won’t share it. If they don’t believe it’s the power of God to save because they haven’t experienced it changing them, they’re not going to talk about that.”- Jeff Vanderstelt
There's nothing wrong with shaving your head. . . except maybe for me with my knobby skull. There's nothing wrong with complementing your bald head with a well-manicured goatee. But a few years ago, I noticed that as I would look out over rooms full of youth workers, it appeared that some kind of conspiracy was brewing and I had been left out. There were bald heads and goatees everywhere - on the men in the room that is. I was curious about this phenomena that was making it hard for me to tell people apart. In discussions with observant peers, some of us began to jokingly wonder if this wasn't some kind of attempt on the part of some (certainly not all) to increase their cool factor and somehow become more relevant. What was a initially a joke is in reality - I believe - true for some, not all.
Over the years, I've sometimes referenced these observations as a prelude to talking about cultural relevance. Because I study youth culture for the sake of effective cross-cultural work with kids, many people are surprised to find out that I oftentimes try to squelch our (the church) growing love affair and obsession with relevance. I think we need to stand back and take a long, hard objective look at ourselves and our ministries to see just what this pursuit of relevance might not only be doing to us, but doing to actually hinder the advance of the Gospel message . . . the noble desire and calling that has made us pursue relevance so passionately in the first place. A misdirected passion for relevance has fostered the increased use of the word "reinvent" when it comes to ourselves and our ministries. We run the risk of unintentionally allowing an obsession with style to eclipse what should be a passionate obsession with substance. Sadly, when we fall into it, we don't even know that this is what's happened. Eventually, our lives and ministries become a series of extreme makeovers, with the short time in between each filled not with more and more reflection on the substance of the message, but with trying to keep up with the styles so that we're ready to jump when the next change is need. . . something which is happening with increased frequently as time marches on.Read the rest where he quotes from an article on the same topic that sounds very...uh... relevant.
At a forum on Tuesday night, pro-abortion former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger predicted the Supreme Court will eventually overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed 52 million abortions in the United States and has impacted other nations across the world. Dellinger's comments are surprising as most abortion advocates don't readily admit the day may come that the infamous decision will be struck down and states may be able to offer legal protection for women and unborn children.
“I absolutely believe it,” Dellinger said during the forum cosponsored by the news web site Politico.
Dellinger said he thinks the Supreme Court will overturn Roe once pro-life advocates can find a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sided with the majority of the court in upholding the ban on partial-birth abortions but will not side with the other four conservative jurists on overturning Roe.
He called the decision a "trophy" and said the other justices, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, would love to be able to go back on the 1973 decision.
“For a while I thought that one could simply chip away at a lot more and more regulations that sort of protected access (to abortions) for the most affluent women but really made it impossible for women who were vulnerable to geography, poverty (and) youth,” he added. “But now I think that, actually, it is such a symbol of a kind of jurisprudence that conservatives have set themselves in opposition to.”
Politico interviewed Rachel Brand, the former assistant attorney general under pro-life President George W. Bush, and helped with the confirmation of Justices Roberts and Alito, said the nomination battle over a replacement to Justice Anthony Kennedy will be monstrous.
"I will say that whenever Justice Kennedy retires, if the court looks anything like it does now in terms of makeup, that will be the mother of all confirmation fights. That will be brutal, and I wouldn't’t want to be in my old job for that one," he said.
Over my vacation this past week I took some time to sit out on the beach and think about the awesome task God has given us of seeing His Gospel preached to all nations in the earth.
The sea is often used in Scripture as a metaphor for the lost nations… the 6400 unreached people groups currently on our planet… So, staring at the sea often causes me to dream about seeing God’s glory fill those nations.
The 2 words that kept dominating my thinking as I sat there were “inability” and “opportunity.”Read the rest.
The hikes in Vail, as you can imagine, are breathtaking. Quick-moving rivers, sheer mountain walls, bleach white aspen trees as far as the eye can see, and 13,000 to 14,000 foot peaks rising in the distance all combine for worship to be spontaneous and over-flowing.
And if there was one sense I came away with from these excursions in nature it was that I am not creator — I am creature, part of the creation. I needed the Rocky Mountains to remind me that I am not the focus of life.
But it went deeper than that.
Because I am creation other “creations” are not the focus of my life either. When I look for the recognition of my peers or the adoration of persons as my ultimate end then I am asking “creations” to be for me what only the creator can be. Amidst the sheer majesty of the Rocky mountains my heart saw the vanity of trusting in men.
When my world shrinks to the level of just my desires and worldview than I am usually asking other people to attend to me like a god. But I did not make the trees. I did not sculpt a mountain. I did not make a mountain stream dance. I am MADE not MAKER, and that frees me to neither ask for worship from other people, nor worship anything in creation.
Sometimes the heavens part and simple truths are given the weight they deserve.
Matt Perman:Here are some good questions from Shopping for Time: How to Do It All and Not Be Overwhelmed:
Do you plan ahead to maximize your fruitfulness each day, or do you simply let life happen?
Do you make choices based on Scripture or on what feels good at the moment?
Do you strategize to use your talents to bless your family and church, or do you employ them primarily for your own personal fulfillment?
Do you evaluate every opportunity in light of biblical priorities, or do you do whatever it takes to get ahead?
Do you consider whom God would have you serve, or do you try to please everyone all the time?
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Humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, disapprove of one another, run one another’s lives, confess one another’s sins, intensify one another’s sufferings, point out one another’s failings . . . .
In a soft environment, where we settle for a false peace with present evils, we turn on one another. In a realistic environment, where we are suffering to advance the gospel, our thoughts turn to how we can stick up for one another.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13
Tim Challies:I’ve heard it said that Mark Driscoll put far more work into this book than any of his others. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he put more effort into this book than he put into the rest of them combined. Doctrine: What Christians Should BelieveRead the rest.is probably his best book so far (and I think I’ve read just about all of them). Though it may not be the most exciting to many readers, at least on the face of it, its content is biblical and its way of presenting that content superb. It is a good book to read through and then to keep on-hand for reference purposes.
The sexual relationship is a good barometer for every couple. The character and quality of the marriage relationship will determine the character and quality of their sexual union. You don’t leave disappointment and division at the bedside. You don’t escape misunderstanding and hurt simply because you are in another’s arms. Because, in this most intimate of human relationships, you are actually physically disrobed and in the arms of another to whom you are offering your physical self, most if not all of the layers of self-protection are gone. You are in a place of exposure and vulnerability. This is what makes the sexual relationship so beautiful. You can be exposed and vulnerable in the arms of your lover and be unafraid, because you know he or she will care for you, and you know that the results will be mutual satisfaction.
“You don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”- Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods
, 19.
"The one who doesn’t fall never stands up, It happened that people made me an idol. But everybody loses. I’m just a human being. And if it’s God’s will next fight, I’ll win.... At the very beginning of the round, I hit him and I wanted to finish as soon as possible, at that moment, I made a mistake. I would like to have a rematch with Fabricio if he was to agree. I’d love to do that.... There were several moments when I could escape, but I relied on myself too much and that’s why I paid for it. At the very moment when I had to escape, I stopped, and that moment was used for Fabricio to lock it on. I’m really very sorry and it’s a pity that I disappointed people who believe in me and trusted in me, but everything in this life happens for some reason. If God decided this is what should happen, then it’s the best thing for this very time."
Every summer, Acts 29 lead pastors and their wives from across the country gather in Colorado for 3 days of rest, refreshment, and reconnecting. At these retreats we dive in deeply with each other and often hear “off the record” from some of the key leaders and influencers within the Acts 29 movement. Here are the five best quotes from the teaching time at this year’s retreat:
A headline in The Guardian (London) this morning reads, “Human Foetus Feels No Pain Before 24 Weeks, Study Says.” Then this subtitle, “Finding in major review of scientific evidence strikes blow to those seeking to reduce upper time limit for abortion.”
There is a deeply tragic triumphalism to this headline/subtitle. A scientific study is being invoked to beat back any efforts to reduce the upper time limit in England for an abortion–one currently set at 24 weeks. It’s clear evidence of the fall of mankind into sin when there is celebration for the continued destruction of life in the womb without further limitations.
But this article also perpetuates the commonplace argument that the ethics of abortion are determined by the presence or absence of pain, as if to say, “It’s okay to destroy life in the womb within 24 weeks of conception because the child feels no pain.” (Of course, this argument is used in the physician-assisted suicide debate as well.) But why is degree of pain determinative of right or wrong? Something may be more or less immoral based on certain criteria (e.g., pain). But at the end of the day, it’s still immoral.
Manute Bol, who died last week at the age of 47, is one player who never achieved redemption in the eyes of sports journalists. His life embodied an older, Christian conception of redemption that has been badly obscured by its current usage.
Bol, a Christian Sudanese immigrant, believed his life was a gift from God to be used in the service of others. As he put it to Sports Illustrated in 2004: "God guided me to America and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart so I would look back."
He was not blessed, however, with great athletic gifts. As a center for the Washington Bullets, Bol was more spectacle than superstar. At 7 feet, 7 inches tall and 225 pounds, he was both the tallest and thinnest player in the league. He averaged a mere 2.6 points per game over the course of his career, though he was a successful shot blocker given that he towered over most NBA players.
Bol reportedly gave most of his fortune, estimated at $6 million, to aid Sudanese refugees. As one twitter feed aptly put it: "Most NBA cats go broke on cars, jewelry & groupies. Manute Bol went broke building hospitals."Read the rest.
...this means I approach texts (even head-scratching ones from the OT) with the basic questions of "How does this point us to Jesus?" and how does the Gospel answer the questions that people will be asking around this text/issue? We always end up back where we need to be: At Jesus and what He's done for us, and though we often get to what we need to do as a response, the first thing we always need to do is see how His work on our behalf is enough- how Jesus Christ crucified is the answer that leads to all the other answers.
So that means answering practical questions about things like self-image, success, money, sex with some variation of "Until you are freed from your need for success, a failure you will remain." That is, until we see that in Jesus and His righteous life and sacrificial death imputed to us we have what we need, we will always struggle. As long as we look to other things (in biblical language: idols) to save us and until we put our hope in the only One strong enough to bear it, we'll continue to live lives of either overt unhappiness or, even should we largely get what we are striving for, an undercurrent of "is this all there is"?
And thus change happens, individually and communally, not when we try harder to do better, but when we are able to lay down the need to do for ourselves what God wants to do for us in Christ, all our little self-salvation projects, and lean more and more into and onto Jesus.
The challenge, on an individual level (and speaking personally, it IS a challenge) is to live this. And on a leadership level to creatively move to this through all my counseling, preaching, teaching. To find 100 different ways to say the same thing. Honestly, I think I've got maybe 5 (some who listen to me preach regularly might think that generous). I need more.
But... I think I finally know what Paul meant when he said "I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified." My job isn't to help people understand what God wants them to do. My job is to help them see, understand and be moved by what God has already done. That's the difference between good advice and Good News. Out of that, as they follow the One who has captured their heart, God will speak and I can help them listen, process and respond appropriately- but it all flows first and foremost from the ground of how God is redeeming us and the world through the work of Jesus on our behalf.Read the rest.
All three of these confirmations—heart, head, and skill—must be present in a genuine call. The pentecostal/charismatic camp tends to focus on heart and the supernatural calling from God, the reformed/evangelical camp tends to focus on the head, and the mainline churches often focus on skills—but in a genuine call, all three are present.
Above, I posed some questions the church should ask when considering a candidate’s call. Here are some questions for you to consider as you discern God’s call in your life:
- Do I enjoy learning and communicating the truth about God to people from Scripture? Am I willing to be disciplined in my study habits as a pastor?
- Am I able to lead people effectively toward a goal? Are people able to follow me? Am I willing to take some hits for decisions that I make?Read the rest.
Great interview here with Paul Tripp on marriage by the Crossway blog. You'll want to pick up his book, What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage.Q: So what do we do when this inevitable point of disillusionment collides with our expectations?
Paul David Tripp: Both the problem and the solution can be summed up in one word: worship. I have become more and more persuaded that marriages are fixed vertically before they are ever fixed horizontally. We have to deal with what is driving us before we ever deal with how we are reacting to one another. Every relationship is victimized in some way when we seek to get from the surrounding creation what we were designed to get form God. When God is in his rightful place, then we are on the way to putting people in their rightful place. I am convinced it is only in the worship of God in our marriages that we find reason to continue.
Being a worshiper means that you attach your identity, meaning and purpose, and your inner sense of well-being to something. You either get these things vertically (from the Creator) or you look to get them horizontally (from the creation). This insight has everything to do with how a marriage becomes what it is. No marriage will be unaffected when the people in the marriage are seeking to get from the creation what they were only ever meant to get from the Creator.
Showing and sharing the love of Christ at Two Rivers Church during the flood.
The great challenge for the missional church.
How Christians deal with suffering.
What is the gospel?
The status of the progress of the gospel.
What is so empowering about discipleship?
How is the church doing?
Church planting in Europe.
The need for a church multiplication movement.
What will the church look like in ten years?
It twas the night before iPhone 4,
And in front of the Mac Store hipsters waited
By the front door,
They sat and they waited all of good cheer,
Enjoying an imported or micro-brewed beer,
Talk of new apps filled the night air,
Coffee being pressed with the surest of care,
The anticipation was felt as thick as fog,
Some even forgot to update their blog,
Some talked about Lost, and implications eternal,
They wrote these thoughts in their Moleskine Journal,
Updating of Facebook, Tweeting for others,
But all waited with iPods playing The Avett Brothers,
As sleep took over these hipsters in line,
Steve Jobs could be heard,
“Good night to all, the world is almost all mine!”
I wonder if it struck Saul at that moment, as he found himself sitting in the dirt, exasperated look on his face, holding the hem of Samuel’s torn robe in his clutched fist:
“Has it really come to this?”
And it had. Time after time, Saul had chosen disobedience. Sure, sometimes he’d gone halfway toward doing what God had told him, but he really wasn’t a “follow-through” kind of guy. Now it had finally caught up to him.
Samuel had delivered the crushing blow that God had rejected Saul as the king of Israel. The prophet had turned to leave, and the king had groveled after him, clutching at his robe so fiercely that a piece had torn off in his hand (1 Samuel 15).
But neither Samuel, or the Lord for that matter, was willing to be moved. Saul had broken the law. He had sinned. And despite his pleading, Samuel responded: “The Lord has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. Furthermore, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not man who changes His mind” (1 Samuel 15:28-29).
When we read these words, isn’t there part of us that starts to get nervous? How many times have we been Saul in this story? How many times have we knowingly sinned against God? Broken His law? Forsaken His fellowship? And how many times have we crawled in the dirt?
In those moments, isn’t there a piece of us that thinks we’re going to get the same response that Saul got? “Not this time. The second chances are all used up. And God is not going to change His mind.”
When Saul grabbed the hem of the prophet’s robe, most scholars think that tore off was the symbolic tassel that represented the law, something that went with the prophet everywhere. Ironically, the tassel tore off in Saul’s hand – a souvenir to remind him of his disobedience.
But that won’t happen to us. The robe is not going to tear in our grip. It’s not because we haven’t done worse than Saul; it’s because Jesus has kept the law perfectly in our place. The robe is not going to tear.
Our experience isn’t that of Saul; it’s of the nameless woman in Mark 5 who clung to the robe of Jesus. She wasn’t forsaken; she was healed.
Because of Jesus, the robe isn’t going to tear. We can hang on in faith.
Justin Taylor:Step 1: Recognize that the fear of man is a major theme both in the Bible and in your own life.
Step 2: Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by people in your past.
Step 3: Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by the assumptions of the world.
Step 4: Understand and grow in the fear of the Lord. The person who fears God will fear nothing else.
Step 5: Examine where your desires have been too big. When we fear people, people are big, our desires are even bigger, and God is small.
Step 6: Rejoice that God has covered your shame, protected you from danger, and accepted you. He has filled you with love.
Step 7: Need other people less, love other people more. Out of obedience to Christ, and as a response to his love toward you, pursue others in love.You can read chapter 1 of the book online for free.
What I call the “Daisy Cutter Doctrine” is a lie that I think a lot of us in ministry have fallen into, which is the belief that the larger the impact of our ministry, the more legitimate we are as ministers of the Gospel.
How different would our ministries be, and our souls be, and our joys be, if we disconnected our legitimacy from the outcomes of our ministry and instead rooted our legitimacy and our identity in the fact that we are sons and daughters of our loving Father?
In recent months I have felt a growing desire to preach in person again, even if just one more time. It may not be possible with my health, but I have begun preparing a message should God give me strength and opportunity. Meanwhile today, approaching age 92, my main personal ministry is prayer. The Bible tells us that prayer is “powerful and effective” (James 5:16, NIV), and I invite you to be my co-worker in this.Read the rest.
