I Repent...
Most always the music portion of the worship service at my church is
the highlight of my week. I find the words aided by the music allowing
me to express my praise and love for God in my loud, out-of-tune
fashion. However, sometimes I find myself "unable to worship" or
"distracted" or "just not feeling it" especially when somethings a
little bit off: Perhaps the projector for the PowerPoint is broken or
maybe there is a new song or a song whose style I don't particularly
like. Maybe I do better when so-and-so leads instead of that-guy. Or
maybe I find that a full band rather than just acoustic is a little
better. Maybe I just had a busy week. Whatever the reason, Bob Kauflin
just forever changed the way that I will pray before Sunday service
with his post, "
Idolatry on Sunday Mornings, pt 2."
...idolatry can be active in my heart even as I’m outwardly worshipping
God. That’s a sobering thought. Whenever I think I can’t worship God
unless “X” is present, I’m making a profound statement. If “X” is
anything other than Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, I’ve moved into
idolatrous territory.
That's just a sampling from the excellent post that is part of an
ongoing series. Please check back. I pray that you will be as affected
by the simply truth behind that profound statement as I was, and we can
repent together. Yet another tactic of the flesh has been revealed.
Thanks, Bob, for helping me to mortify sin more effectively and praise
God, not idols.
Open but Cautious -> Charismatic
Mark Lauterbach, one of my favorite bloggers, posted a
followup to his very helpful, personal post "
How Did I Become a Reformed Continuationist?"
on his journey from cessationist, to open-but-cautious, and finally
ending up being a reformed continuationist. Very helpful stuff. This is
the kind of stuff that helps us figure out what this
whole debate in the Reformed blogosphere is about (my two previous posts referencing this
here and
here). I think that cessationists over-react, thinking that the
Reformed Charismatics are slaying people in the Spirit, dancing around,
spouting false prophecy, and speaking in tongues in a big confused
mess. Likewise, cessationists may be characterized as unfeeling,
Spirit-diminishing, joyless, fundamentalists. Mark has given in
his first post
a very personal look at his journey to Sovereign Grace and the
continuationism, now in
post two he gives a little more explanation
with some of the biblical basis for his position, and now I am asking
him to complete the series giving examples of where this journey has
brought him both personally and pastorally:
Can you follow up with a part 3 now of what physical
manifestations of the Spirit now that you have moved from open but
cautious to desirous? I'm following you completely so far and am
thirsting to see how this change has manifested itself (specific
examples) in your pastoral and personal life? (ie Do you pray in
tongues? Do you prophecy? Do you heal? Do you have people in your flock
who do these things? How does it look?). Give us a day in the life of
Reformed, Charismatic, Gospel-Driven Mark Lauterbach. [From my comments
at his post]
Anybody else who would like to jump in on this would be welcome.
Informed by Black Friday?
I asked myself the following question regarding my participation in
Black Friday's early-morning shopping and hope it may be
faith-refining, repentance-producting, and discipline-enducing for you
as well:
If you had no difficulty waking up before dawn on Black
Friday to save a few dollars on stuff you didn't need, yet daily it's a
struggle to wake up to pray and read the Word in the early morning,
what does this say about the relative importance that you place on
money & possessions compared to God?
Thankful Rememberings
A meditation for the celebration of the Lord's Supper on Sunday 11/27/05:
As we near the end of Thanksgiving weekend,
consider with me what we have just celebrated. In Thanksgiving we have a
holiday, much like communion, designed to set aside a period of time, a
celebration and a feast to remember God and proclaim our thankfulness to him.
We pause, remember, and say to God that everything that we have is not from us,
but is from him. As Abraham Lincoln said it on his Thanksgiving Proclamation of
1863:
"...No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked
out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who,
while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American
People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United
States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign
lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November...a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the
Heavens...1"
(read more...) Keywords: Thanksgiving,Communion
Boycott Costco?
Over Thanksgiving, I heard from a number of friends and family members
that I should be boycotting a few of my favorite stores, such as
Costco, Home Depot, and Target because they have removed the word
Christmas from their advertising and employees' greetings and replaced it with
holidays.
My initial response was one of frustration, but rather than
unthinkingly share them at the time, I listened and said that I'd blog on
it. Well here's that post:
(read more...) Keywords: boycott,christmas,holidays,gospel
Blogging: Controversy or Edification?
Tim Irvin, commenting on the "The Soap Opera Called 'Blogging'," writes,
The goal of blogging seems to have turned from posting something of
practical benefit and edification, like Bible Studies, Sermons and
Theological Essays to posting something that attracts the most response
and attention from readers. It's kind of a shame that so many gifted
and talented writers are devoting so much of their energy to the
trivial and mundane.
The fact of the matter is that my controversial stuff is the stuff
driving traffic to my site; I suspect that's how it is with everybody.
Almost nobody hands out trackbacks for a pastoral, edifying blog posts.
I want to be clear that pastoral and edifying posts can be, at the same
time, controversial. But their end must be God's glory not winning a
fight, and their tone must be gracious and humble, while even at the
same time defending truth (Pyromaniac has an
excellent warning
for me against a postmodernist perspective on internet
controversy). So while once again, renewing my commitment to
blogging consistent with the title of my blog, I would like to refer
you to a few of my favorite blogs that are consistently godlike in
their tone, manner, and content*:
*Not an exhaustive list. Limited to those that popped into my mind as I
wrote this. I would love to have readers help point us to other
God-ward blogging
Free Seminary OnLine
Many already know about this, but if you don't go on over and check out
biblicaltraining.org.
The site offers recorded lectures, copies of syllabi, overhead slides,
and some homework assignments (all depending on the class) from some of
the best conservative evangelical leaders today. I have taken all of
Piper's courses, am working through Mounce's Greek class, and I often
use topical classes as I have need. They offer classes to brand new
believers as well as leaders in the church. Excellent resource;
probably one of the best on the web.
Date a Mormon for Free Narnia Tickets
StandingTogether.org
is providing free Narnia tickets in groups of two. To get these tickets
however, one member of the couple must be an evangelical Christian and
a second a Mormon (official rules here).
Do not get me wrong in the purpose of this post, I do not think that
Christians and Mormons should not be friends - in fact, many of my
nonChristian friends are Mormon. The purpose of this post is so that
those friends and others out there may realize that the claims like those made in recent books like A Different Jesus
and common when "Mormons and Christians are just trying to be friends"
are extremely dangerous. My understanding of the basic claims from what
I have read (I am just now starting A Different Jesus
so you can expect a review sometime this Christmas) is that they are
claiming that the Jesus we serve is pretty much the same and we stand
for many of the same moral and political ideals, so let's stand
together under the name Jesus.
I really respect that StandingTogether.org is attempting to reach out
to the Mormon community in Utah, building relationships between
Christians and Mormons, and the fact that they are able to do it while
maintaining the following statement encourages me that they may be
successful in their goalst:
While Standing Together is
actively promoting interaction, relationship, and dialogue with the Mormon
culture, we believe it makes clear the distinction between Mormon theology and
that of the historic Christian Church.
However - and this is likely not the fault of the organization, just
a by product of dialog where little has existed before - I have had
mormons cite interaction with the mormon community by people like Ravi
Zacharias and Richard Mouw as evidence that there really isn't that
much difference between us, saying that I'm making a big deal out of
nothing or that I am simply being divisive. There is often much common
ground between Mormons and evangelicals regarding political and moral
views; however when it comes to the God, Jesus (God), man, sin,
salvation, there is literally no common ground.
(read more...)
James, the Gospel-Driven Epistle?
Mark Lauterbach's blog, GospelDrivenLife,
is one of my favorite new blogs on the net. He is blogging
on the book of James now, and in his post
today he begins with the following:
if the Gospel is the
center of all the NT then how do we understand the book of James? In it there
is no mention of the atoning death of Jesus. There is no reference to
justification by faith. Luther was right - it is a straw epistle!
James does not mention "justification by faith", in fact he
mentions "justification by works" two times (2:21 and 2:24). The name
Jesus appears only twice (1:1 and 2:1).
Faith is mentioned twelve times, but it is only salvific when
coupled with works (2:14-26).
I have heard some say that James is "a New Testament
Proverbs, lots of rules and good ideas for Christian living."
After spending much time studying James, James looms large in my Biblical
theology as one of the most Gospel-centric books of the Bible, as it takes my
understanding of the Gospel and challenges me to believe it, to have faith in
it.
I believe that the Gospel in James is seen most clearly
in the white space between 2:11 and
2:12:
11bIf you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a
transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of
liberty.
(read more...) Keywords: Gospel,James
No More Blogspotting
This post is in response to the BlogSpotting
entry that I had created on Saturday night. Excited that there were
finally enough links to this blog to create a BlogSpotting post, without
thinking and motivated by pride, I began compiling a list of my favorite links
to this blog and the list of blogrolls on which my name is found. Basically
BlogSpotting is a practice that has become popular lately in the blogosphere,
wherein a blog's auther cites various blogs which have noticed and linked to his
or her blog. I do not and cannot project my motivation on everybody who
BlogSpots, I can say that for me the function was to demonstrate and proclaim my
own wisdom and to make that wisdom known. The BlogSpotting icon that I created
is a perfect illustration of the sin that I was allowing to take root in my
heart as I searched: Binoculars peering out for any evidence of me in
cyberspace, seeking to magnify my glory. A BlogSpotting post gave the appearance
that the point of this blog is to demonstrate my own wisdom, and as I chronicled
all the links and blogrolls, I began to believe it even though compared to
people like Warnock, Challies, Pyromaniac, or James White, I'm a no-one.
Neverthless, 10 links in 5 months is enough to trick me into being
proud.
This blog is not a place to proclaim my greatness or
wisdom; it is a place to proclaim God's. And one place where "the depth of the
riches and wisdom and knowledge of God" (Rom 11:33) is best seen the person of
Christ. Christ, God come to earth as a man to save men and bring them to God, is
described in 1 Corinthians 1:24 as the power of God and the wisdom of God. It is
Christ and him crucified that I want to proclaim on this blog (1 Corinthians
2:2). And if I boast let me only boast in the cross (Gal 6:14). So you will see
no more BlogSpotting from me. I pray that God would give me the desire and the
diligence to mortify pride and cultivate humility by spending my blogging time -
time I would have spent searching technorati for any signs of linkage to my site
and analyzing my traffic patterns - on preaching the gospel to myself in my
writing and then letting you all get a glimpse of it.
Too much time on her hands...
75,000 legos, a little dedication, and a year and a half and what do
you get? A church building with seating for 1372 little lego people.
Read about it
here.
Resolved: Conference
I am now officially signed up to attend the
Resolved: Conference.
This conference served as a tremendous blessing for my smallgroup last
year, and I am looking forward to it again this year. The main purpose
of this post is to encourage any readers who might stumble upon this
blog to register for the conference. It runs January 13-16, 2005. If
you
register before December 15 the cost will $145 per person. The
speakers will
be Rick Holland, CJ Mahaney and Carolyn Mahaney, John MacArthur, and
Steve Lawson. The conference description is as follows:
(read more...)
Saturday Blogspotting 11/19/05
My first exercise in
blogspotting: I've never done this before so please forgive me if
I
missed something. Just
email me and I'll be sure to include it next
time. Here goes:
First, blogroll-spotted at:
Blogspotted at:
Mormon In Disguise?
Mark Lauterbach gives another
excellent post
calling specifically all Christian pastors that in what we say, we must
make Christ and His love, holiness, and salvation made available and
made known at the Cross the highlight of every sermon. If we preach or
blog principles for living that are consistent with a Christian world
view, we are only different from the culture in the same way a mormon
would be. But if we share Christ and Him crucified as the power behind
and the motive for our obedience, then we are giving a God-glorifying
message. The message of the cross is that God stepped out of eternity,
off of His throne in the person Jesus Christ. The Creator died for his
rebellious creatures,
God the Father killing God the Son
as a sacrifice for our sin that we might enjoy Him and give Him glory
forever. A message of morality will offend few, the message of the
Gospel will offend some, and to those who are being saved it is the
power (and wisdom) of God (
1 Cor 1:18-24):. I believe this has great application for the blogosphere.
Toilet Books
"If it wasn't for the toilet, there would be no books."
Hinn or MacArthur - Inappropriateness at Purgatorio
I know he was just having fun, but Purgatorio's recent "
Take Your Pick"
post having the readers select who they would pick to come pray for
your sick friend, Benny Hinn or John MacArthur, reflects the problem
with the recent debate.
ScottyB
points this out well. The real debate going on in the blogosphere
should not be between John MacArthur and Benny Hinn. To the majority of
those participating, it takes no convincing to believe that Benny Hinn
is a false prophet. The debate, if it is to be fruitful, must be
between Reformed Cessationists (
Pyromaniac &
Grace LA) and Reformed Continuationists (
Sovereign Grace)
Derek Webb Didn't Answer My Question
In anticipation of the release of
Mockingbird. I was so excited when Tim Challies told me that he was going to ask
Derek Webb the question that I submitted for his interview (
part 1 here, and
part 2 here). My question was
In your opinion, what is the most underappreciated of your songs and why?
The sweet thing about Derek Webb's music is that some of the coolest
and most thoughtful concepts which he communicates, which really show
that he is writing from his heart, come out in some of the most
non-catchy of his music. So much of people's (like mine) favorite songs
are their favorite because the tune sticks in their head. My two
personal favorite Derek Webb songs are "The Church" (from
She Must and Shall Go Free) and "Ballad
in Plain Red" (from
I See Things Upside Down). So I was excited to hear how he'd answer. Well guess
what?
He totally avoided the question. I
guess that it was a hard question to answer thoughtfully on the spur of
the moment, so Derek, if you stumble upon this post, now that you've
had time to think about it, I'd love to hear your answer.
Mexico Ministry
My mother in law, Debbie Mellberg, learned to blog and she has been posting the exciting things that God is doing in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico and among the Huichols there. Within just a few short years, the population of believers among the Huichols has gone from 4 to thousands. I have a lot to learn from these Huichol brothers and sisters who, in the midst of persecution, turned their world upside-down for Christ. I am so honored to be able to watch God work through them, and I hope that our knowledge of God and His love for all peoples will be enlarged as get to watch as spectators His sovereign hand bringing salvation to an entire tribe in the enterior of Mexico. So blogroll her blog and check back for her updates: http://mexicoministry.blogspot.com/
Go to Church for the Gospel?
Eric Costa of
Reformation Theology blog points out
that since the Gospel is not only what saves us but what sustains us,
we should go to church every week in order that we might hear the
gospel preached to us. I agree wholeheartedly with those sentiments. I
want to take it one step further though. I find very little mention of
motives for church "attendance" in the Bible. I do find that the Gospel
must be preached. I think we need to go one step further in our
understanding and motive for church "attendance" or "going to church".
We when go to church, not only must the words be Gospel-centered, but
our lives must demonstrate the Gospel.
If we truly believed the words that the Cross-centered preacher is
preaching, then we would not be content to come, come, sit, listen, and
leave. We would not be content to come, sit with our group of friends,
go out to eat with our group of friends, and go on with our week,
having our souls filled with the Gospel message. As a church, we must
live in community and within the greater community where we are located
as those who feel the weight of grace, as those who know that we have
been forgiven the largest debt imaginable and given an even greater
gift. If we are truly going to church to hear the gospel AND live the
gospel, we won't make distinctions among ourselves, creating strata
based on socioeconomic status, intelligence, or position on the
ecclesiastical hierarchy. We won't squabble over worship styles or hold
grudges. We will be quick to cover over sin and to gently restore those
who are in sin. We will look for the poor, the outcasts of society and
invite them, treat them like kings, and introduce them to the King of
kings.
Gospel preaching is necessary, but it is not sufficient without every
member of the church living it out among each other and out in the
world. O God, I pray that you give me the faith to believe the content
of the Gospel in such a way that every single action I do is done in
light of that faith.
(See my message, The Gospel in Radical Hospitality, on this point)
Scripture: Our Only Protection
I just read a post by Mark Lauterbach at his excellent blog,
GospelDrivenLife.
Having heard a sermon mentioning a verse he knew well but had not read
in years, he was forced to rethink his position that it is Scripture
and not systematic theology that is protecting him from error. Once we
"exegete a passage" we are not done with it, so we can move on. No, we
are simply better able to understand it in its context the next time
around. I must guard myself from the temptation to make my conclusions
about Scripture the infallible truth by which I live instead of
Scripture itself. One might then argue, "How can you know what
Scripture says apart from your exegesis of it." I can't. I must read it
(observation), I must seek to understand it, then I must make
conclusions about it (or conclude that I cannot make any conclusion -
interpretation), and finally I must live according to what I have been
taught by the Spirit (application). However, my tendency is then to
take my interpretation, and like Lauterbach says, and "read it back
into Scripture." I spent two years working through the book of
Galatians. My tendency, therefore, is to use my understanding of the
book of Galatians to help interpret the rest of the Bible and I find
application from the book in literally every facet of life. That's
good. The bad is that my tendency is also to not return from the book,
having been informed by new understanding of God and His Word, to
further refine or even challenge my understanding of that epistle. If
that happens with a New Testament book which I find myself reading
often for pleasure (and because it's short), how much more for an Old
Testament book that does not get near as much coverage and is harder to
understand!
(read more...)
Another Challies giveaway
I tiptoe Gingerly into Pyro's debate
After accidentally
shaking up the whole blogosphere,
Pyromaniac points out that he hasn't even blogged on his stance in the cessationism v continuationism debate.
His blog actually does a great deal to clear the air after many of the
knee-jerk responses that have flown from both sides of the debate after
he mentioned it. He points out that his comments were directed
toward the "prophetic-utterances-gone-bad" group (on this point I
must link to videos that I personally find very hilarious and an
illustration of what can happen when prophetic utterances go bad:
Robert Tilton).
He even makes the point (which I think is an understatement), "I
think I have much more in common with my 'Reformed non-cessationist'
brethren than I have with liberal cessationists." He summarizes what he
has said into four statements:
(read more...)
Pat Robertson's Dover Comments
Pat Robertson's recent comments regarding the
Dover, PA vote against
Intelligent Design have created a stir in the
mainstream media and the
blogosphere. Two of my favorite blogs,
Justin Taylor's Between Two Worlds and
James White's Pro Appologian, have both weighed in on it and have come down on opposite sides.
Please keep reading to get my take on it and then leave your own thoughts in the comments.
(read more...) Keywords: Pat,Robertson,Dover,Intelligent,Design,gospel
My Name is John Daker...
I just had to share, I think that
this is one of the randomest,
funniest videos I have ever seen. According this site,
John Daker's
performance was first seen on public access television.
Any attempt to
describe
the video will not do it justice. You can get all of the
individual clips at
getupoutmy.biz, but check out the
little clip
first. This goes down in my all-time favorite internet phenomena list along with
Peanut Butter Jelly Time and
All Your Base Are Belong to Us.
The Gospel in Radical Hospitality
In my second experience ever teaching the Bible publicly, I was given
the privilege of teaching on the unenviable topic of hospitality. God
graciously blew all of my preconceived notions of hospitality out of
the water as I studied His Word. Hospitality is never removed from
brotherly love, and brotherly love is motivated and empowered by God's
love for us best shown in the cross. I discovered the God's love
towards us was the ultimate show of hospitality: To invite an enemy,
not only into the house, but into His family adopting us as His
children (
Gal 3:23-4:6)
at great cost to Him so that we could enjoy Him forever. Rather than
being a burden, hospitality becomes a response to the gospel imitating
and revealing God's love toward us in the Gospel.
I would be honored if you would listen to the
mp3 recording
of the message. As you listen it may be helpful to know the context.
The message was given at
East Valley Bible Church Tempe at a BUILD
(Becoming United In Leadership Disciplines: one of the first levels of
leadership development, identification, and training at
my church)
class. BUILD is focussed around 6 disciplines. We begin with the first
3:
- D1: Shepherding your heart
- D2: Shepherding your home
- D3: Shepherding your ministry
This message was given focussing on D2 but seeking to show the
continuity between the three disciplines. Understanding these labels
will help you understand what I am referring to when I mention them.
Use the following links to download the resources:
In order to supplement your study, I recommend you purchase the
following books related to the topic in order of descending priority:
- Cross-Centered Life (Mahaney)
- Hospitality Commands (Strauch)
- Agape Leadership (Strauch)
- Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Piper)
- Face to Face (Wilkins)
Keywords: hospitality
Funny! Russert Nails Kennedy
This is one of the funniest things that I've read in a while. Great Job, and many thanks to Tim Russert.
Check out this post at "Just One Minute"
(thanks to
Justin Taylor for the heads-up)
"The God, Jesus Christ"
James White (
read his post here), right in the middle of his very helpful historical debunking of Dan Brown and the
Da Vinci Code, stumbles across
a very cool story
of an archaeological find of a Pre-Constantine church proclaiming the
deity of God with the inscription, "of the God, Jesus Christ." So Dan
Brown's claims about Constantine making up the deity of Christ are done
away with. And the story mentions that some believe that no churches
existed prior to the 4th century. I could never do archaeology, but I'm
thankful for those who do.
(read more...)
Blogging and Homosexuality
I have not yet completely gathered my thoughts to the point to where I
am ready for a full-fledged post regarding how insincere we are when we
say "love the sinner; hate the sin" especially when it comes to
homosexuality. Therefore, I will keep my comments short. Check
back--probably sometime during in January when I'll have more time to
write--for an expanded post. Basically, this is a challenge for myself
and for all Christians to see people who's sin is of a homosexual
nature as possible recipients of God's saving grace. Yes, they are
enemies of God, but so was I (
Rom 5:10),
and I am proud of I think otherwise. I challenge us not to judge
homosexuals by a standard which we would not want to be judged by
ourselves. They are in sin, yes! It is a horrific sin, yes. But I am a
sinner who, if the truth of my inner thoughts and desires were
revealed, is far more depraved than the most hedonistic homosexual I
have ever met.
(read more...) Keywords: homosexuality,grace
Great Site for Greek Practice.
I stumbled upon Zach Hubert's,
zhubert.com's Bible.
It is an amazing web-based interface that really helps for those like
me are still new in the Greek. It's nothing like the powerful tool of
Libronix,
but for me I think I will be using it often just as a handy, very
smooth interface to read the Greek Bible side-by-side with the English
to help me learn and cement the Greek into my memory. As you drag over
each Greek word, the definition along with the a simple parsing of the
grammatical function of the word. The site also has
Greek flashcards
for very effective vocabulary quizzing. I suspect that even with almost
no Greek knowledge at all the site would still be at least slightly to
refer to when the English is ambiguous on number (you plural vs you
singular), gender on pronouns (what is the antecedant), and other stuff
like that. Besides, this site is just plain cool and looks like tons of
work. It
looks like
they are about to undertake the Hebrew Old Testament. Bookmark this
site. Looks like they'll be turning out some very functional and
easy-to-use tools.
Church Buying Strip Club
I just stumbled upon
this AP Story in the "
odd" stack entitled, "
Strip Club Owner Weighs Offer from Church".
I'm not sure what to think of it, but what I do know is this seems like
a lucrative business model that the strip club owner has discovered:
This will be the second start-up club that the church has bought. The
owner is "not sure" if he will start another or not. I applaud the
efforts, but perhaps this is not the most effective strip-club control
methods:
(read more...)
My favorite software site: Journeyed.com
I always like passing on helpful information, and if you are a student
or a teacher, this will most likely prove to save you significant
money.
JourneyEd
is a site that sells student and teacher versions
of popular software, many times at over 90% discount. I have personally
saved hundreds of dollars from
this site and as long as I am a student
hope to save much more. This is will be a post you'll want to bookmark
so you can get back to the site often (Support my blog by clicking
the
link below)
(read more...)
Hijacking the Courts?
There is something very consistent among the
reports in the mainstream media about the Alito nomination. It reveals the
disconnect between liberal academia, politics, and media and many in America.
Abortion, what I believe is murder, and what the constitution designates a
state-decided issue was legalized--no, not just legalized but made a right
available to all--by a non-legislative, unelected, and unaccountable branch of
government. Any judge nominated will either ultimately decide that a woman has
the right to terminate the life of her unborn child or the judge will decide
that that right is not able to be granted arbitrarily by the court. The
constitution is mute on that point.
(read more...) Keywords: abortion,Alito,judicial
