I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the Cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of this world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from the thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered into our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.
~ John Stott
Month: March 2013
Good Friday: The Cup & The Crucifixion
Cultural Argument Against Gay Marriage
by Randy Hicks
Not many years ago it was unutterable, except perhaps as a schoolyard can-you-top-this, or as urban legend. Yet it is one of the most sensational issues of our time, and an almost-impossible topic to avoid. And, from what I’m hearing, it’s not always easy for people like you and me to articulate the reasons we oppose it. It’s called “same-sex marriage.”
“I know why same-sex marriage is wrong,” I often hear, “but I’m not sure how to articulate its dangers.” Christian friends are looking for a way to relate to those who may not hold the same views, and that’s wise.
To be clear, our religious beliefs do offer legitimate reasons to oppose same-sex marriage. But if we’re to win this important debate and win hearts and minds, we must be able to articulate our convictions in culturally relevant ways.
I’ve had the opportunity to take this debate into the university setting many times, this is what I hear from aggressive proponents of gay marriage:
• They’ve argued that denying them marriage is denying them the ability to have a loving commitment with another person. Frankly, that’s just not true. People love others and commit to others all the time—we just don’t always call it “marriage.”
Continue reading24 Tips for Preachers
My friend and once-upon-a-time informal mentor, Randy Nabors, has posted a score of tips for preachers on his blog, Randy’s Rag. I learned a lot from Randy just by hanging out and watching when I was a young pastor living and serving in the Chattanooga area. I post Randy’s Tips here because they are worthy of consideration by anyone who preaches. If you are a pastor, enjoy. If you are not, feel free to share them with your pastor – as long as you do it out of loving encouragement, and not just because you think you should try to improve him. That motivation will tank almost every time.
Anyway, here are Randy’s Tips for Preachers, gleaned during decades of transformational pastoral ministry and active mission engagement:
- Your aim is to have people see more of Christ and less of you.
- Make sure you love Christ more than you love preaching. You should love to preach, but it is only a means to talk about the One worth loving.
- Try to make sure your life is at all times qualified to represent God, your character worthy to stand at the holy desk at a sudden moment. It is better to give the responsibility to someone else, even for the moment, than to hurt your conscience by pretending to be something you are not.
- Don’t wait for perfection before you preach. The only perfect man who preached was also God. Holiness is a covering we have of the righteousness of Christ as well as the faith to pursue it, along with an honest and broken heart.
- Prepare to preach by marinating in the Word of God. Beware the pale substitute of commentaries.
- Read the text, translate the text, think through the text, dream the text, read the text.
- Pray for the text to minister to your own heart, hear the sermon for yourself, but remember your task is more important than waiting for your own blessing before you preach.
- While you are preaching, if you feel you are failing, pray in your heart for God to uphold you. If you feel you are doing well, pray that you will not preach in your own strength. Pray even as you speak.
- Beware of ruts, hobby horses, and anything that seems to regularly appear in your preaching that is in competition with the Gospel of grace and the glory of God. Anything, especially good things, can be a poor substitute for preaching Jesus. We are not called to preach theology but Christ, and all good theology leads to Him.
- If you preach the Old Testament without seeing Jesus or grace in it you don’t yet understand it.
- You have not been called to be intellectually esoteric, erudite, funny, or even comprehensive in your explanation of the text. All of those things have their place, but if people can’t see Christ you have failed.
- Illustrations should lead to something, don’t presume on abstract reasoning from the congregation, connect the dots.
- Be careful with your introduction. Don’t let it be too long, raise the issue (the main direction, question, or argument of your sermon) fairly soon. Don’t wander too far from your text, or simply read it at the beginning and fail to preach it. To not preach the text which you yourself have chosen is like telling the people that your ideas are more important than the Bible.
- Application is essential, simply reading and even explaining the text is not preaching.
- Self-disclose, confess your own faults, and use your life as an illustration with wisdom and a measure of restraint. Too little and you are hiding, too much and you are an exhibitionist.
- If you make a mistake in preaching (misinterpret, forgot the balance, were too flippant, too angry, insulted someone(s)), apologize publicly the next time you are up. Humility will win you favor.
- Never belittle, ridicule, or embarrass your wife and children as illustrations in your sermons. The congregation will take their side and miss the spiritual point you were trying to make. Once your daughter(s) reach middle school avoid mentioning them like the plague.
- Listen to your wife’s reactions, watch her face, she is probably the most loyal critic you will have.
- Sermon criticism is a good thing if you seek it from those who want to help you but don’t indulge in it immediately after you preach; let your ego heal from its vulnerability.
- Avoid arguments or being defensive right after a sermon, give yourself and others time to think things over.
- Don’t believe all the compliments nor all the complaints, though it is impossible to ignore them. So, try to learn from them in order to do better and not simply use them for your pride or your self-pity. Preaching is and ought to be a spiritual event, but it is also a craft that can be improved with skill.
- Get over it quickly, both euphoria and despair. Fire and forget, leave the results to God, and remount the horse to ride again.
- Attribute, cite, and give credit where you can or at least admit it is not original with you if it isn’t. Borrow and steal ideas ruthlessly, just admit it.
- As to the length of sermons, as my friend John Perkins said, (and he was quoting from someone else); “when you are done preaching, stop talking!”
Regeneration: A Puritan Prayer
O God of the highest heaven,
occupy the throne of my heart,
take full possession and reign supreme,
lay low every rebel lust,
let no vile passion resist thy holy war;
manifest thy mighty power,
and make me thine forever.
Thou art worthy to be
praised with my every breath,
loved with my every faculty of soul,
served with my every act of life.
Thou hast loved me, espoused me, received me,
purchased, washed, favored, clothed, adorned me,
when I was a worthless, vile soiled, polluted.
I was dead in iniquities,
having no eyes to see thee,
no ears to hear thee,
no taste to relish thy joys,
no intelligence to know thee;
But thy Spirit has quickened me,
has brought me into a new world as a new creature,
has given me spiritual perception,
has opened to me thy Word as light, guide, solace, joy.
Thy presence is to me a treasure of unending peace;
No provocation can part me from thy sympathy,
for thou hast drawn me with cords of love,
and dost forgive me daily, hourly.
O help me then to walk worthy of thy love,
of my hopes, and my vocation.
Keep me, for I cannot keep myself;
Protect me that no evil befall me;
Let me lay aside every sin admired of many;
Help me to walk by thy side, lean on thy arm,
hold converse with thee,
That I may be salt of the earth
and a blessing to all.
~ from Valley of Vision
O Great God
10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health
How are you doing, Spiritually?
That is an important question. God repeatedly encourages us to examine our hearts. And while many are aware that it ought to be our regular practice to take a spiritual pulse, I suspect that relatively few know how to read the gauges even if we were to try.
Consequently, if we are not sure what we are looking for, it follows that we are not always quite sure how to answer my initial question.
Don Whitney, of The Center for Biblical Spirituality, provides us with a helpful tool for use in measuring our spiritual health. The 10 questions below are excerpted from his short book 10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health.
Immediately below is a brief Introduction written by Don Whitney. At the bottom of this post are the 10 Questions Whitney asks, each with a link to a brief post devoted to the particular question.
Let’s see how we are doing… And let’s ask ourselves – and each other – these questions often.
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One of the early explorers to the North Pole charted his journey hourly to ensure that he stayed on course through the white wasteland. At one point a strange phenomenon began to occur. As he checked his position, his instruments indicated that even though he had been moving northward, he was actually farther south than he had been an hour before. Regardless of the speed at which he walked in the direction of the Pole, he continued to get farther from it. Finally he discovered that he had ventured onto an enormous iceberg that was drifting in one direction as he was walking in the other.
There is a world of difference between activity and progress. That is as true on a Christian’s journey toward the Celestial City of heaven as it is on a North Pole expedition. The Christian life is meant to be one of growth and progress. We are even commanded in 2 Pet. 3:18 , “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
How can we know that we are growing in grace—that we are making real progress and not merely deceiving ourselves with activity?
It’s often hard to recognize spiritual advance over a week’s time or maybe even a month’s time. Trying to determine the progress of a soul is like looking at the growth of an oak—you can’t actually see it growing at the moment, but you can compare it to where it was some time ago and see that there has indeed been growth. The following 10 questions can help you discern whether you are maturing spiritually. Use them to evaluate the past six to 12 months.
- Are you more thirsty for God than ever before?
- Are you more and more loving?
- Are you more sensitive to and aware of God than ever before?
- Are you governed more and more by God’s Word?
- Are you concerned more and more with the physical and spiritual needs of others?
- Are you more and more concerned with the Church and the Kingdom of God?
- Are the disciplines of the Christian life more and more important to you?
- Are you more and more aware of your sin?
- Are you more and more willing to forgive others?
- Are you thinking more and more of heaven and of being with the Lord Jesus?
10 Building Blocks for On-going Discipleship
I went away with our elders for a time apart to re-examine our priorities as a church. The word “discipleship” started as one of many things on a “to do” list, and the more we talked and prayed, the more that word pushed its way to the top of the list.
That was all well and good, but almost immediately the discussion turned into a program — how could the elders begin “discipling” people, and how could that, in turn, multiply discipling throughout the congregation? Before we got too far down that road, I encouraged the group to substitute the phrase “making disciples,” from the Great Commission, for the word “discipleship.” That makes us stop and think biblically and comprehensively about just what Jesus’ mandate should mean in the life of our congregations.
A disciple of Jesus is a person who has heard the call of Jesus and has responded by repenting, believing the gospel, and following Him.
The positive reaction of our elders to the call to “make disciples” is part of a healthy refocus by many PCA churches. The importance of discipleship as a core activity of church life is certainly not new, but it doesn’t hurt to ask ourselves whether this clear biblical mandate has been relegated to a Wednesday-night men’s group, or some such program. Several months ago Presbyterian & Reformed (P&R) Publishing invited me to speak to this question in a booklet for its “Basics of the Faith” series. Here is a brief summary of what I wrote, trying to form a list of key issues to be included in a discussion of “making disciples” in our churches. I hope this serves as a conversation starter that leads to reflection and action on the part of ministry leaders.
1. True believers must think of themselves as disciples of Jesus.
Living Dangerously
One of the dangers of [obedience based Christianity] is that it can lead people to think God owes them a reward for their obedience. Their perspective in life is:
- ‘If I do certain things, I expect God to come through for me’. And when He doesn’t, they think: What’s wrong? Why isn’t He doing something to help me, and what can I do?
- In the opposite direction, some people live in fear that because of their sin, God will punish them…This is a trap.
If we think we earn God’s favor by our obedience or disfavor by our disobedience, we will expect God to come through for us or, at the other extreme, will always be living in fear that ‘the other shoe will eventually drop’.
He-Man Woman Haters Club
There was a time when I wondered if at least some in my denomination ought to start wearing t-shirs with a picture bearing the image of Alfafa from the old Our Gang/Little Rascals’ shorts from the ’30’s & ’40’s. Alfalfa was a founder and president of the He-Man Woman Haters Club. Now, I know that this was an unfair characterization of most – the clear majority – of my fellow churchmen. But when discussing the role of women in the church, in the home, and in the world at large, sometimes statements were offered up that made me pause – and cringe.
I believe in the inherent equality of men and women. But I am no feminist. In fact, I would not even qualify as an Egalitarian. Instead, I am more aligned among the Complimentarians. But much to my chagrin, sometimes those of us in the Complimentarian camp are mistaken for being among the initiates of the He-Man Woman Haters Club.
Some time ago Rachel Miller, on her blog A Daughter of the Reformation, wrote a very insightful piece, titled What’s Wrong With Biblical Patriarchy?. In her post she distinguishes us Complimentarians from the more chauvinistic Modern Patriarchy movement, with whom we Complimentarians are often lumped. (Rachel notes that proponents of this patriarchal position like to refer to themselves as “Biblical Patriarchy”, but I don’t want to equate them as being biblical. As the article astutely observes and notes, those folks base their positions on some biblical principles but then mix them up with some very Victorian notions.)
While I know throwing around such terms as Complimentarian, Egalitarian, etc., is not likely to excite many readers, nevertheless, I think what Rachel Miller has to say is worth considering as you think biblically about this polarizing issue; and maybe just a little less important, to distinguish guys like me from the ecclesiastical Alfalfas.
***
Reblogged from A Daughter of the Reformation:
As a homeschooling family, we come in contact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and beliefs. One of the groups that is fairly common within the homeschooling community is the modern patriarchy movement, or as they refer to it “Biblical Patriarchy.” Some of the big names in this group include, R.C. Sproul, Jr., Doug Phillips of Vision Forum, and Doug Wilson of Credenda Agenda magazine.
7 Principles for Conduct
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
C.J. Mahaney has compiled the following questions and relevant scripture passages to help in determining whether or not a particular activity is glorifying to God. I find these to be very helpful questions.
1. Does it present a temptation to sin?
Romans 13.14 -“Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
2 Timothy 2.22 -“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
2. Is it beneficial?
1 Corinthians 6.12a -“‘Everything is permissible for me’—but not everything is beneficial.”
1 Corinthians 10.23 -“‘Everything is permissible’—but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’- but not everything is constructive.”
3. Is it enslaving?
1 Corinthians 6.12b – “‘Everything is permissible for me’—but I will not be mastered by anything.”
4. Does it honor and glorify God?
1 Corinthians 10.31 – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
5. Does it promote the good of others?
1 Corinthians 10.33 – “even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”
6. Does it cause anyone to stumble?
1 Corinthians 10.32 – “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God”
7. Does it arise from a pure motive?
Jeremiah 17.9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
A Season of Miracles
Check out the trailer for a soon-to-be-released movie, taken from a novel written by my good friend, Rusty Whitener.
The book and movie are titled A Season of Miracles. Set in the early 1970’s Deep South, A Season of Miracles in an engaging, feel good story, about baseball, autism, coming of age, faith, and baseball.
I read the book when it first came out a couple years ago, and recommended it to a number of others. Now I am looking forward to seeing the story come to life in movie form.
Here AND There
We don’t just go to church, we ARE the church …sent out by the power of the Spirit to BE the church.
This illustration above represents two aspects of being a faithful church:
Attractional – those elements of a particular congregation that draw people into the church community. Among these would be the quality of music, the substance and winsomeness of the teaching, the variety and sufficiency of programs offered, and the friendliness of the members.
Missional – this is the sending of the church members into the community, and to the Nations, in order to make a positive and kingdom impact. While this is often neglected, missional is not optional.
- The mission of the church, and her members, is rooted in the nature of God who seeks and sends. (Isaiah 55.5; Isaiah 60.3; John 4.23; John 20.21)
- Intentionally serving the community is faithfulness to the Covenant God cut with Abraham. (i.e. Genesis 12.2) If you look carefully at the Covenants of Scripture you will notice that there are always two dimensions, what I call a Top Line and Bottom Line. the top line is God’s promise to bless those with whom he has entered into Covenant, evidenced by such promises as “I will be your God and you will be my people”. The Bottom Line is is consistent with such expectant promises as “You will be a blessing”. Both dimensions are reflected in every covenant. Therefore, intentional mission to our community and world is not optional, or part of some deluxe package of being a Christian. If one follows Jesus, he or she does not have the option to choose the arrangement that does not require mission.
- Mission is a is a clear mandate. (Matthew 28.18-20; Luke 24.46-49; John 20.21; Acts 1.8; Jeremiah 29.7)
BOTH Attractional and Missional are necessary to be a healthy church. If we are not going, we are not faithful. And if no one is coming, well… the implications are pretty obvious.
You Might Be Reformed If…
As one who dwells firmly within the Reformed wing of Evangelical Christianity, I found the following to be astute, accurate, and a little bit amusing:
You might be Reformed …
- If you think prayer is more than just trying to manipulate God into giving you what you want …
- If you think that there are things more important to God than your comfort …
- If you think the Bible has more to say about the Church than just what is found in the second chapter of Acts …
- If you suspect that how you “think” about God might be at least as important as how you “feel” about God …
- If you believe that the fact that a doctrine is described in the Bible supersedes your personal feelings about that doctrine…
- If you feel that nagging suspicion that something isn’t right when the pastor can preach an entire sermon series without ever opening a Bible…
- If you think that all of those letters that Paul, Peter, James and John wrote to the churches have something to do with how the Church should look today…
- If you think that there has to be more to the Christian life than just being nice…
- If you have always suspected that the pick-and-choose belief buffet can’t really reflect Christianity as it is expressed in Scripture…
- If the theology of, “God has a plan, and it’s all about you!” makes you suspicious…
- If you like the hymns unrelated to “tradition,” but because they are meaningful and true; in contrast with the mindless drivel of many “modern worship” songs…
- If you accept God’s election because you find the doctrine clearly stated in Romans, even if you don’t necessarily “like it” …
- If you get a little creeped-out when someone stands up in church and declares: “I’ve had a revelation from God” …
- If a “worship service” comprised of 45 minutes of near meaningless, highly repetitive songs leaves you hungering and thirsting for something real and meaningful…
- If you’ve secretly abandoned Dispensationalism for not making sense, and gone searching for an eschatology that actually reflects what is taught in Scripture.
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Thanks to Timothy J. Hammon. This post originally appeared on his blog: The Things That Matter
5 Gospel Perspectives That Shape Lives
Tim Lane & Paul Tripp, in their helpful book How People Change, suggest that there are 5 Gospel Perspectives that shape lives. In other words when we understand these principles, and regularly consider our own lives in relation to them, we see change. These principles, considered collectively, cultivate the best conditions to see fruitful sanctification.
- The need to recognize that God calls for ongoing and continual growth and change in all of us.
- The need to understand the extent and gravity of our sin.
- The need to understand that the heart is central; that behavior and attitude is a reflection of the heart.
- The need to understand the present benefits of Christ.
- The need to live a Lifestyle of Repentance & Faith
If you are curious, you might want to check out an interview with Lane & Tripp, where they describe their motivation for writing the book, and explain how to apply the gospel to real life to bring about real change: Interview
GRACE & PEACE 