6 Tips for God’s People in Response to a Culture Changed by Court Decree

/ Dennis Griffith / 6 Comments
Rainbow Sunset

While I do not want to become one of those guys who perpetually toots out only one tune, and I certainly do not want to make gay marriage or homosexuality the priamary notes of that tune, I do want to follow up yesterdays post with another reflecting on appropriate responses to the Supreme Court rulings yesterday.  This one is from an acquaintance, John Freeman, President of Harvest USA.

***

As the Supreme Court struck down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and the referendum of Proposition 8 in California, it certainly seems that the tide of our culture will continue to steadily move in the direction of the acceptance of gay marriage. So, what now? How are followers of Jesus Christ, and the church, to think about and respond to the recent decision by the Supreme Court? It is crucial that the church as an institution, and individual believers, respond well. John Freeman, president of Harvest USA, a ministry devoted to those struggling with sexual sin, thinks that the best response of the church now is to do the following six things:

1. We should not lash out in anger or be afraid

A fight or flight response is normal when cataclysmic events occur. But both these instinctual responses are unhelpful and unproductive. My wife has often told me, “John, when you speak or react out of fear or anger . . . bad things come out of your mouth.” She is usually right. Admittedly, we may legitimately fear where this decision will next take our nation; and we may legitimately be angry over how God’s design for the institution and function of marriage as it has historically benefited society is being hijacked. But we need to keep this in mind: As believers, our true citizenship is in heaven. We must think and act like those whose world has been impacted but not devastated.

I think a more productive response would be that of grief. We need to be grieved at what happened, grieved at the state of the culture, and grieved at how blind people are to the truth. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and her refusal to turn to him as their shepherd, and the Old Testament displayed a similar common response to tragic national events, where the people grieved in sackcloth and ashes.

Just grieve? Doesn’t seem very productive or helpful. It feels so powerless! Yes, but we need to remind ourselves that the “weakness” of the church is how the power of God is best displayed. The reason we don’t have to be angry or afraid is because . . .

2. We need to remind ourselves that God is still on the throne . . . neither slumbering nor sleeping

Although decided in the private chambers of the Supreme Court, this has not happened out of God’s sight. He is the God who knows all and sees all. This is beyond our rational understanding, but by faith we believe that God remains in control over all things, even over the decisions made by man and society that veer away from his wisdom. To respond with anger or abject fear is to forget this

Why God has allowed the acceptance of homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage to be so prominent today will remain a mystery at some level. Why he has allowed it to split churches, denominations and families must also be trusted to his providence. We only know what Scripture does tell us: that this is a broken world, a world where his image-bearers are in rebellion against him and his intentional design for creation. Nothing really new here.

We must, as his followers, trust in Him at all times, especially when it seems that ungodliness has the upper hand. This is the courage of faith, and that courage must also move us to . . .

3. Boldly and gently proclaim the ultimate destructiveness of ungodly actions

While many will celebrate this decision as the advancement of an enlightened society and a triumph of inclusiveness and tolerance, the reality is that actions made in opposition to God’s design carry with them significant consequences. Several years ago noted pastor, teacher and author, James Boice, said, “It’s God’s world, not our world. Although we may want to rewrite the rules, we can’t, because it’s God’s world. And sin is destructive, whether or not we admit or agree, it’s still destructive.” By removing the definition of marriage from its historical and God-designed nature as being between one man and one woman, how long will it be before other forms of “marriage” will be legal (such as polygamy and polyamory)? What will be the effect on children and families as we move into territory that is completely new to human society?

These kind of ungodly decisions serve to remind us that the world in which we live is hostile to things of God. It reminds us that we live here as “aliens and strangers,” that we’re temporary residents of a foreign land. But it still remains a world that God so loved that he sent his only Son, so . . .

4. We must not avoid our calling: to engage the culture and all people with the truth and mercy of the gospel.

Even as culture goes off the rails, and we may seem powerless to stop it, we’re not off the hook from engaging the culture and actively loving people. Although we may want to retreat and go into self-protective mode, we must not. The church did not do so as the Roman culture descended into greater ungodliness and injustice. The downward spiral of our society and the increasing celebration of what is explicitly forbidden in God’s word make our sharing the gospel more important than ever! The gospel is the only hope for a broken world and fallen hearts. For this reason the church must not attack and demean gays and lesbians because of this issue. The gospel is a message of hope for everyone; not a platform for condemnation and ridicule. The gospel is heard through the words and deeds of His people. Another way to put this is our need too . . . .

5. “Keep calm and carry on” as God’s people and his church.

During World War II, people in Britain, during the bombing, felt that the world was falling apart. “Keep calm and carry on,” became a common phrase on billboards and posters as a way to encourage the British people. We need to follow this advice as well. How do we “keep calm and carry on” when we see everything around us in a downward spiral and decay? We lean on and trust in the Rock of our salvation, who is still with his people while we continue to carry out his Kingdom work.

We must not let these things have more power over us than they really do. And, thankfully, we still live in a country that allows our views to be heard and we should make our concerns known, about the reality of unintended consequences making further trouble and about the future of religious liberty, two major issues embedded in this controversy. But, again, we should not place our faith in any human political or legal structure as our ultimate protector or savior. Jesus said that his kingdom was “not of this world”—neither is ours. The mission of the church continues. The church cannot be either dismissed or destroyed. It remains God’s vehicle of redemption, worked out through his people. That mission will endure until he returns. And in the meantime, the church—and especially the next generation inside her doors— needs to be strengthened by. . .

6. Relevant and effective preaching and teaching about sex.

The silence of the church on many issues has contributed to the emergence of movements that have been detrimental to mankind (see Germany and the rise of Nazism). It can be argued that the church’s failure to preach and teach about why God’s design for sexuality is good, relevant and functional (even in a broken world) has created a vacuum for the acceptance of same-sex relationships. The church has said “No!” for too long as its main message on sexuality and now needs to say “Here’s how,” or here’s how God’s design for sexuality remains the best venue for people and society to flourish.

***

On a more personal note, I am looking forward to having John Freeman at our church this coming Fall.  On November 9 of this year, John will be leading a seminar, Finding Sexual Sanity in Sex-Crazed Society, at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Chuch in Williamsburg.

If you are interested, check out the Harvest USA blog.  You will find a number of excellent, thoughtful articles on a wide range of matters related to sexual brokenness: Harvest USA Blog

Prop 8, DOMA, and the Unchanging God

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment
Astonished

In light of the two U.S. Supreme Court decisions today, I was reminded of something my friend Mike Milton wrote that is pertinent to the issues related to these rulings.  Here is what Mike wrote:

When the rats begin to scramble on board the ship, it is a sure sign that the boat is sinking.

Self-described freedom-loving libertarians, and now Karl Rove, believe that Conservatives can embrace same sex marriage, or just leave it to the State as it is a personal “liberty” matter. The defense seems to be “Let the State allow whoever wants to be married to be married. It is a legal contract, not a religious ceremony, for goodness sake.”

Nonsense.

The nation we live in is grounded in “inalienable rights” that come from God, not from government. Our government was designed to guard and defend these rights, not dispense or arbitrate them, because they are based upon “inviolable” laws which must not be transgressed, dishonored, or broken.

This is not a so-called “religious” matter, but a matter of “natural law” that transcends government and social trends and attitudes. One of those inviolable laws is the law of marriage. It is a “Creation Ordinance” in that it extends to the very beginning of humankind. It is embedded in our species as surely as murdering another person is or stealing from another is.

Jesus, when questioned about divorce, appealed to this Creation ordinance when he said, “It was not so in the beginning.” He went on to describe marriage as between a man and a woman and in that union, spiritually, physically, and socially, they become one. Biology itself defends the arrangement, and without ever appealing to St. Paul, I could appeal the universal law that is placed in man’s heart to defend heterosexual marriage.

The Church did not invent marriage; however, the Church (and the Synagogue) must seek to bless what God has placed in the very nature of mankind and the order of His universe.

To give in to libertarian or muddleheaded notions and cries for transforming what is encoded into the very law of life is to not only go down with the ship, but share in the culpability of destroying it.

Marriage between a man and a woman is an inviolable law that cannot be tampered with by man. It is lunacy and suicidal to think and act otherwise. And that is just what the Republicans are doing if they join the ranks of conscience-seared and sadly mistaken people who so cavalierly dislodge the veritable cornerstone of human civilization.

Be certain of this: a nation which denies the inalienable rights of nature and of nature’s God cannot stand and will eventually perish. Freedom cannot be shackled in the human soul.

I wholeheartedly agree with what Mike wrote.  And I am disappointed with the decisions of the Supreme Court.

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Easy Chairs & Hard Words

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Easy Chairs

Some time ago I posted a series of fictional discussions between a young man from a Broadly Evangelical background and a seasoned minister in a more historical theological tradition.  The series is titled Easy Chairs & Hard Words. It was penned by Douglas Wilson of Christ Church of Moscow, Idaho, and first appeared in Credenda Agenda.

These engaging instructive narratives have come to mind in a few discussions over the past couple weeks, so I decided it might be good to republish the links to each of the six chapters:


Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 1

Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 2

Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 3

Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 4

Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 5

Easy Chairs & Hard Words – Part 6

Qualities of Christian Community

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Quality Community

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic book, Life Together, makes this observation that should be pondered by many in the church, especially those discontented with the relational dynamic in their particular congregation:

“The people most in love with community are in danger of destroying community.”

In other words, there are people who have made such an ideal of “Christian Community” that they are easily dissatisfied with the real thing.

No doubt there is much room for relational improvement in many churches – perhaps even most of them.  But Bonhoeffer’s point is still valid.  Sometimes it may be a “You” problem, or a “Me” problem, more than it is a “Them” problem.

Yet, as Brad Watson points out in an excellent short article for Gospel-Centered Discipleship, titled Our Hunger For Community:

“Broken families, broken relationships, and an epidemic of loneliness has created a ravenous hunger for community in this generation.”

This is true.  And our churches and Christian communities must be aware of this hunger, and need to be prepared to provide such a haven for all who are seeking it.  But Watson also points out a problem common to both those hungering for community and those who are anxious to provide it:

 “But our flesh can seek our idea of community more than we seek Jesus. Our souls, it seems, are ready to settle for a sit-com style of friendship instead of striving for the spirit-led family of God purchased and created by his son’s death and resurrection.”

I think this is a very real issue. And I suspect this mindst feeds the discontent that Bonhoeffer warned about.  When we put so too much weight on friendships, when our expectations of others is as heavy as what we should only expect of God, stress fractures are almost certain to eventually occur – and with them, emotional pain, and senses of disappointment and alienation, which often leads to difficulty of trusting others, with the ultimate consequence of inability to cultivate and sustain healthy relationships.

Bonhoeffer warns:

Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community. They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community that were denied them elsewhere…Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial…Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

In response to this common concern about Christian community, Watson has noted 6 Misunderstanding of Community and suggests 7 Components of Gospel-centered Community.

6 Misunderstadnings of Commuinity

  1. Community is NOT “Everyone is My Best Friend”
  2. Community is NOY a Spiritual/Morality Club
  3. Community is NOT a Book Club
  4. Community is NOT a Meeting or Event
  5. Community is NOT Easy
  6. Community is NOT “Everyone Gets Along”

7 Components of Gospel-centered Community

  1. Generous Hospitality
  2. Influence Earned thru Serving
  3. Accountable & Repentant
  4. Led by Qualified Leaders
  5. On Mission
  6. Active in Culture
  7. Diverse

Whether you are one who is hungering for community that seems lacking, or one who is committed to cultivating community within your group or church, I hope you will give some thought to these premises; and benefit from Watson’s article:  Our Hunger for Community

Oklahoma On My Mind – and Heart

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Heart of Oklahoma

It has been way too long since I have written here. But this morning, as I think and pray about the devastation that has hit Oklahoma… It is only appropriate to post.  Yet, what can I say?  As a former Oklahoman (I spent my Freshman & Sophomore years of high school, and my first two college Summer Breaks, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma) this tragedy that has struck, particularly hard on the town of Moore, OK, is heartbreaking.  The videos of the Category 4  tornado (that may yet still be upgraded to Cat 5) that ripped through the town, the hospital, and the elementary school seems surreal.  It brings back to memory all the tornado drills we went through as students – events I must confess I never took too seriously, though clearly I should have.  So I write, but what can I say?

There are many reporting and commenting on this disaster. But two have struck me as offering especially proper perspective and prayer:

Sam Storms, a pastor from Oklahoma City, whom I have never met, but whom I truly appreciate, offers the simple yet importantly profound perspective, in a post he titled: Tornadoes, Tsunamis, and the Mystery of Suffering & Sovereignty.  Storms begins his post hesitantly and with seeming resignation:

I’m inclined to think the best way to respond to the tragedy that struck our community today is simply to say nothing. I have little patience for those who feel the need to theologize about such events, as if anyone possessed sufficient wisdom to discern God’s purpose. On the other hand, people will inevitably ask questions and are looking for encouragement and comfort.

But then he thoughtfully posits a handful of truths essential for us all to build a foundation capable to sustain us through such tragedies – be they our own, or vicarious ones, such as this event is for the most of us.

Mike Milton, former Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, and a man I am thankful to know and appreciate, composed a prayer – a prayer I find worthy to be shared by the many who, like me, may not be able to find the words from within ourselves that we would like to offer to God and on behalf of those effected: A Prayer for the Disaster in Oklahoma

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

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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

Cultural Argument Against Gay Marriage

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Abstract Wedding

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.”

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24 Tips for Preachers

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

Walnut Street Bridge - Chattanooga

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:

  1. Your aim is to have people see more of Christ and less of you.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Prepare to preach by marinating in the Word of God.  Beware the pale substitute of commentaries.
  6. Read the text, translate the text, think through the text, dream the text, read the text.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. If you preach the Old Testament without seeing Jesus or grace in it you don’t yet understand it.
  11. 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.
  12. Illustrations should lead to something, don’t presume on abstract reasoning from the congregation, connect the dots.
  13. 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.
  14. Application is essential, simply reading and even explaining the text is not preaching.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. Listen to your wife’s reactions, watch her face, she is probably the most loyal critic you will have.
  19. 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.
  20. Avoid arguments or being defensive right after a sermon, give yourself and others time to think things over.
  21. 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.
  22. Get over it quickly, both euphoria and despair.  Fire and forget, leave the results to God, and remount the horse to ride again.
  23. 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.
  24. 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

/ Dennis Griffith / 7 Comments

Smoky Mountain Sunrise

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

10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Da Vinci Anatomy (Red)

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.

********

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.

  1. Are you more thirsty for God than ever before?
  2. Are you more and more loving? 
  3. Are you more sensitive to and aware of God than ever before?
  4. Are you governed more and more by God’s Word?
  5. Are you concerned more and more with the physical and spiritual needs of others? 
  6. Are you more and more concerned with the Church and the Kingdom of God?
  7. Are the disciplines of the Christian life more and more important to you?
  8. Are you more and more aware of your sin? 
  9. Are you more and more willing to forgive others? 
  10. Are you thinking more and more of heaven and of being with the Lord Jesus?

10 Building Blocks for On-going Discipleship

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Following Footsteps

by Stephen Smallman

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.

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Living Dangerously

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Danger Sign (Black)

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’.

~ Jerry Bridges, from The Transforming Power of the Gospel