Archive for January, 2009

Friday Is For Fun

2009
01/30
CATEGORY
Friday
Fun
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Holiness By Withdrawal

For many years I believed that the way to really walk with God was to spend lots of time in solitude and silence and meditation and the more earnest I could be in those times, the more I would know God. But is that biblical? 


Should we really measure our spiritual lives by how much we pray alone and read alone and study alone and worship alone? I would argue that this is unbiblical and that to teach this kind of spirituality presents an elitism that the average person cannot maintain. 

Furthermore, the Bible never measures how spiritual someone is by how long their quite time is. In fact Jesus constantly blasted the Pharisees for this. Biblically speaking, your love for God and for others and your engagement in a lost world is what defines your spirituality. Jesus saved us to send us into a world in need of light and grace and truth. 

We cannot separate growth from engagement. In fact I would argue that the more the church has withdrawn from the culture and taken on a bomb-shelter mentality, the less Christians have grown in character and holiness. Holiness does not come from withdrawal from the world. It happens as you engage it. 

Churches dont need basketball courts to draw in lost people. They need Christians who will go downtown and get in line for a pickup game and engage those who would never come to their church. If this happened more, holiness would happen more!

One of the major problems I see among Christians is a constant focus on the individual and not on the community. Jesus came to save a people, not just persons. Though our walk with God is personal, its not private. Though God saved you as an individual, you are not to be individualistic. 

You do not become a Christian and then decide to join a church. You were saved into the body of Christ and it is your duty and delight to do life with a local community. When you see the word “you” in the Bible, it rarely means “you” as an individual. It usually means “you” as a people. Or as we say: “ya’ll.”

My point is that we must labor to engage each other, to pray together as much as, or more, than we pray in private, to do life together all the time, not just for a few hours on Sunday, and to engage a world that is lost and dying. This is the measure true spirituality, not how many rounds you can last in your quiet time.

GB
2009
01/29
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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O Sovereign Lord

This is how the disciples prayed in Acts 4:24-31. Rarely do I address God in this fashion. Praying this way reminds us that God is over all things. He alone is our authority, judge, king, savior, sustainer and father. 


He alone is mighty to save and has power over the nations, over government, over the economy, over weather, over kings and all who are in authority. He is our Sovereign Lord. 

What is interesting in Acts 4 is that the disciples acknowledged the suffering they were enduring and even the suffering Christ endured as being part of Gods predetermined plan. Yet they did not pray for relief. They prayed for boldness; boldness to speak and witness to the power of Christ!

This is why we call out to a sovereign God, not to increase our comfort, but to increase our boldness and our capacity to live with Gospel intentionality. After this prayer, the place was shaken and they continued to witness to the Resurrection of Christ! Dont forget that you pray to a sovereign Lord whose plan will be accomplished and whose will, will be done.

GB
2009
01/29
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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Calvin The Hedonist


For the pious mind realizes that the punishment of the impious and wicked and the reward of life eternal for the righteous equally pertain to God’s glory. Besides, this mind restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone; but because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores Him as Lord. Even if there were no hell, it would still shudder at offending him alone.” (John Calvin The Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.2.2)

OK, I dont think Calvin is arguing for Christian Hedonism, but at least he points out two things I love to talk about; Gods glory and pleasure in God. 


Gods Glory
Many have argued that God exists to glorify God. He is not an idolater! And Calvin here argues that God is glorified in the punishment of the wicked and the redemption of the righteous. We dont think of God being glorified in punishing someone, but since He is holy and just, everything he does promotes His name and renown.

Pleasure in God
Did you see the motivation for obedience for Calvin? “Even if there were no hell, it would still shudder at offending him.” He wants to obey God out of love and adoration for Him, not out of fear of hell. It is not holy to simply fear hell, even criminals hate prison! But the reason to obey God is because we have a deep love and affection for Him. We obey not so He will love us, but because He has loved us in Christ.

GB
2009
01/28
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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Of First Importance

I often wrestle in practice, not in profession, with what truly is of first importance. When Paul dealt with this issue he asserted that the Gospel was of first importance (1 Corinthians 15:1-3).


I am often convinced that my schedule and my ministry and my day and my sermon and my vision for the church is of first importance. This is the great lie I believe when I fail to treasure Christ over all things.

I often ask where God fits into the story of my life when I should be asking where I fit into His. I often wonder how God wants to use my ministry when I should be wondering what God wants to do in me. I think of how the Bible applies to my life when I should be applying my life to the Bible. 

I debate as to how to make the Gospel relevant to the world when I should be asking how I can make the world relevant to the Gospel. I think about how to expose the sins of others in an instructive, encouraging way when I probably should be laboring to overcome the sins in my own life. 

I often think that God exists for me when in fact I exist for God. I I am deceived into believing that I was made for earth, when Scripture reminds me that I am made for Heaven (Philippians 3:19-20). When I seek to find my life I lose it, but when I lose my life for Christ and the Gospel, I truly find it.

GB
2009
01/27
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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How David Killed Goliath!

Not sure how this stirs an affection for Christ, but it somehow does!

2009
01/24
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
1 comment

Humble Orthodoxy

CT: Christ is Deeper Still

2009
01/24
CATEGORY
humility
theology
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Friday Is For Fun

2009
01/23
CATEGORY
Friday
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How Shall We Read

Reading the Bible can be one of the most difficult things for us as Christians. What is meant to change and shape us often simply discourages us. We begin the year with a fresh passion to read through the Bible or be in the Word everyday and by March we are burnt out. Or, we read something early in the morning and forget it by noon! How can we get the most out of the Bible?


I think we must be sure what kind of reading we are doing. I have found three ways that I read the Bible on a weekly basis that helps me to better know God and have communion with Him. Here they are:

Devotional Reading
Time: First thing in the morning
Text: Each day is a different text. At the most one chapter, though I am careful to find the context. One day I choose a text in Genesis and the next day in Matthew and the next day in Exodus and the next in Mark…you get the idea. 
Goal: To read the text as slowly as possible, praying through each word at times, stopping often to meditate, drinking in the text, seeing how it exposes my sin and my hearts intentions. I often circle words, write in the margins, write the text over and over.
Questions: How does this expose me? What is God saying to me? Am I living this? What does this say about me? How does it interpret me? Where is the Gospel in this?
Danger: To not see the big picture of the Bible. To not read entire books.
Strength: You hear from God. You memorize much of the text. You read the Bible like a love letter.

Informational Reading
Time: 3 or 4 times a week for 30 minutes to an hour.
Text: Bible reading plan from the ESV Journaling Bible.
Goal: To get information. I want to refresh myself on key stories, characters, outline of the books, see where events occurred. This is a way to skim the Bible, though I dont want to rush, but I still see the value of knowing where things are and who said what and what happened when. 
Questions: Where did David fight Goliath? How many baskets of fish were leftover after the feeding of the 4000?
Danger: To not hear God in the text. To read it like a newspaper. To only know information.
Strength: You get through the Bible quickly, maybe even less than a year. You spend lots of time in the Bible.

Exegetical Reading
Time: several hours a week for sermon preparation.
Text: What I am preaching or teaching on.
Goal: To find out what the text meant. I look at commentaries, the Greek and Hebrew, and other Bible study tools. I want to know the historical background, how the passage fits into the larger scheme of the chapter, the book and eventually the Bible.
Questions: What did Paul mean here? Where was Jesus when this occurred? Why did Solomon use cedars from Lebanon? 
Danger: To see the Bible as merely an academic textbook. Not everyone has the resources for this. 
Strength: You are able to dig into a text deeper. 

I would encourage you to experiment with these ways of reading and see what works best for you or find your own way of reading that maybe even combines all of these in some way. Whatever you do, fight for the kind of desire the Psalmist in Psalm 19:7-11 had. 

GB
2009
01/22
CATEGORY
Bibles
reading
study
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You Need The Gospel

I am convinced that those who proclaim the Gospel are the ones who need it the most! A daily feeding on the Bread of Life through the Gospel is the only way to live. We must preach the Gospel to ourselves at all times. Only then will we be able to share it with others.  

We must start our day with the Gospel, reminding ourselves that we were sinners bound to hell and that we deserved justice, condemnation, judgment and eternal separation from God, but that Christ has become the Curse for us, has imputed His righteousness to us, prepared a place for us in Heaven and intercedes for us to the Father. 

Milton Vincent says, “There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.” (A Gospel Primer For Christians, 14)

You and I who were saved by the Gospel, still need the Gospel. 

When we think God does not love us,
When we think God does not forgive us, 
When we think sin offers more joy than God,
When we fail to open our lips to share Christ with someone,
When when lack the courage to confront someone, 
When we lack the tenderness to embrace someone, 
When we fail to own up to our sin,
When we listen to the lies of the world, the flesh and the Devil, 
When we are reluctant to sacrificially give due to future uncertainty,
And most of all, when we fail to feed on the Gospel, we need the Gospel!

The date of our lives is inevitable; we need the Gospel more than we need food, air, and water. It is our life! Only as we allow the Gospel to make us recognize our sin, admit our flaws, reveal our weaknesses and confess our need for Christ, will we truly magnify the beauty of the Gospel to a lost world in need of grace.

GB
2009
01/21
CATEGORY
The Gospel
1 comment
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