Tag: Tim Keller
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Ways of Grace
We will never find God unless he first seeks us, but we should remember that he can do so in very different ways. Sometimes, God jumps on us dramatically, as he does with the younger son, and we have a sharp sense of his love. Sometimes he quietly and patiently argues with us even though…
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Kingdom-Centered Prayer
Tim Keller writes: Throughout the Old and New Testaments and church history, every spiritual awakening was founded on corporate, prevailing, intensive kingdom-centered prayer. We cannot create spiritual renewal by ourselves, but we can “prepare the altar” and ask God to send his Holy Spirit to change our hearts, our churches, and our communities. Read Tim’s…
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Disinfecting Ourselves of Spiritual Malware
In his masterful work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin observed: “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” That may seem to be a peculiar notion. Some will, no doubt, simply chalk it up to “O, that Calvin guy had a lot of strange ideas”. Some, being a bit more…
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The Advent of Humility
The following article, by Tim Keller, first appeared in the December 2008 edition of Christianity Today Magazine. In this article Keller explains why the Advent of Jesus gives us reason to stop concentrating on ourselves. *** Innumerable Christmas devotionals point out the humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth—among shepherds, in a crude stable, with a feed…
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Deconstructing the Twin Enemies of the Gospel
Perhaps the two of the most effective enemies of the gospel within the Church in North America are the twins: Moralism and Legalism. While there are other enemies at work, such as Relativism and Licentiousness, these are far more obvious in their opposition to the gospel. Moralism and Legalism, however, are so potent, especially among…
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Traditional Conservative & Missional Values
One of the fundamental principles of being missional is contextualization. In short, contextualization simply means to take into consideration the context where one lives and serves. With all the noteriety that missional practitioners serving in clearly post-Christian areas have gained, it seems some, desiring to follow the example of these leaders, all too readily foresake the principle of contextualization. It is…
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Practical Importance of Doctrine
If there was one thing I could impart to the members of our church, or to other pastors, it would be an appreciation for the practical importance of doctrine. I think it was R.C. Sproul who pointed out: “We are all theologians… the question is whether we are good theologians.” Sprouls’ point is valid. Everything…
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Hellacious Discussions
I am coming to the dance late, but it appears the party is not yet over. So late may not be too late. What party? Well, the “Hell-acious” party that has been going on in the blogosphere. Apparently the debate was kicked off by Rob Bell and his new book titled: Love Wins. Apparently the video…
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Counterfeit Gods
In his reletively recent book, Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller explains what a counterfeit god is and describes how to make one – as we are so prone to do: A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. And idol has such…
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Gospel-Centered Church
Gospel-centeredness is a vital strategic principle for ministry in the 21st (and the 1st!) century. I do not simply mean by ‘gospel-centered’ that ministry is to be doctrinally orthodox. Of course it must certainly be that. I am speaking more specifically. (1.) The gospel is “I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey” while every other…
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God’s Workmanship
One of the glories of Christianity is the assurance that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2.10). This statement by Paul that we are “created” does not simply refer to our physical formation, as God has, of course, created all…
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Living Missionally in the Mountain Empire
In this video Tim Keller offers some insights about ministry in areas that still largely hold to traditional conservative values. This is helpful to me because the place where I live and serve is still largely characterized this way. While I embrace a missional mindset, how our church lives that out in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia…
