Any writing I do in the future will be specific to my congregation and will be posted at http://www.treasuregod.org/metro-east-blog/.  I will however post things here from time to time as I see necessary. In the future I may return to regularly blogging at YEARN, but for this season, I am taking a break.

Thanks for reading and following YEARN!

GB

The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. As a pastor I don’t want my congregation living in a constant pursuit of emotional and spiritual highs. I want them consistently walking with God and deeply abiding in Jesus. I want the Gospel to motivate them to worship, resist sin, and make Christ known among. I hold out this hope for them and myself.

But I also want to avoid spiritual cruise control. I want to bypass mere emotion and keep the fires of my affections (inner motives, cravings, glories) stoked for Christ and the Gospel. I am currently preaching through 1Peter. In chapter 2 Peter says, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pet. 2:2-3). Many interpret Peter as saying something like “Long for the Word of God the way an infant longs for milk.” Sermons on this text exhort Christians to increase their efforts in morning devotions and their study of the Bible.

But I think Peter is saying different. He is saying to long for Jesus, not simply the Word (of course I would never disconnect those two). He is not saying “Get in the Word.” He is saying “Crave Jesus the way an infant craves and needs milk!” The very next verse, says “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” They have tasted Jesus and Peter is exhorting them to keep on tasting Him (See: Ps. 34).

So how do you discern if you are craving Jesus or just coasting through the Christian life? Here are a few symptoms:

Limiting dialogue with God to a devotional time

You give Him the first part of your day, but rarely seek Him or run to Him for refuge during the day. Just ask yourself: If I related to any other person the way I relate to God, would that relationship be worthwhile?

Boasting in avoiding sins of the flesh

Many measure their spiritual life by how frequent they engage in visible or fleshly sins like lust, drunkenness, sensuality, cursing, fits of anger and rage, splurge spending, overeating, pornography, etc. If they avoid these sins, they assume they are being holy. But they neglect the relational and often hidden sins of unforgiveness, avoidance, bitterness, jealousy, exclusion, and self-promotion.

Passive prayers and reactive prayers

You pray on an as needed basis. There is no preemptive assault on temptation or future needs. I am guilty of this with my children. I tend to pray brief short-range prayers about their safety, health, and growth. But I must also pray long-range and offensive prayers for them.

Performance Spirituality

You’ve been able to mostly dodge visible sins, but the motivation for doing so is to maintain a steady flow of God’s blessings. You are afraid to sin because God might allow a little discomfort in your life, a little pain to creep in. You feel pressured to perform well in order to remain on God’s good side. Many Christians use their morning “quiet time,” or lack of, to determine where they stand with God that day. This is a miserable place to be!

See Others Sins To The Neglect of Your Own

Part of celebrating the Gospel is being aware of your own sinfulness. We should not of course live in a perpetual state of naval gazing and inwardness, but we should be aware of how dark our hearts can be. Unfortunately we too often see the sins of others without examining our own hearts before God.

Evangelistically stagnant

While you cannot control what opportunities arise to share the Gospel, you can guard your heart against being indifferent to a lost world. Christians who never wrestle with how to get the Gospel to a non-believer likely do not have the Gospel coursing through their veins.

The Remedy?

Now that we’ve diagnosed what it might look like to coast through the Christian life, where do we go from here? What might be put in place to help us long for Jesus and crave Him more? To be sure, recognizing these things is half the battle. Being aware of how quickly passivity and apathy sets in is at least a step in the right direction. From here you can ask God to do a work of grace in your heart to want Him, and need Him, more. You can beg the Spirit to awaken you to the beauty and power of the Gospel. You can ask Jesus to stir your affections for who He is and what He is doing in the world. You might consider reading through a particularly weighty book or perhaps spend some extended time in prayer and meditation. Maybe you’ve emotionally checked out during public worship gatherings and you want to make being “there” a priority.

This will certainly look different for anyone depending on schedule, personality, and stage of life. But we must recognize that we always need more of Jesus in our lives. May we taste and see that He is good.

GB

“May all my expectations be frustrated, may all my plans be thwarted, may all my desires be withered into nothingness, that I may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love God who is Father, Son, and Spirit. (Adapted from Abba’s Child, 13)

Metro East Family,

I am grateful to God for 2012 and the many blessings we received as a church. I am also thrilled for 2013 and looking forward to what God might do among us. Allow me to share a few thoughts about what’s in store.

Vision

The elders and staff will be rolling out a document very soon that articulates the direction we believe God is leading Metro East. Much of it should sound familiar as it contains many of the things I’ve preached about for the past two years. But you will also find some new ideas, plans, and dreams for Metro East.  The hope is to challenge all of us to use the gifts and resources we’ve received to further advance the Gospel and make more and more disciples. We want to be as clear as possible about who we are seeking to be as a church. You will find many practical ways to live out this vision as well as information on events and plans for 2013. Our goal is for all of our people to be on the same page and pursuing the same vision as we move forward. We are asking for all of you to prayerfully read through the document, give us feedback, and work with all your might to be the kind of church that magnifies God and blesses our city.

App

We are launching a new iPad/iPhone/iPod/Android app in January. This will give you quick access to sermons, news, blogs, and other important information about our church. We are excited to be able to offer this to you.

Sermons

We will finish the book of 1Peter in February and then we move on to a short series through the book of Jonah. After that we will spend some time preaching topically through our vision and core values. We will spend the summer months in the Psalms. The fall/winter sermon schedule is not yet complete so please pray I get to work quickly!

2013 Devotional Guide

This year we wanted to suggest that the entire church use the same devotional guide and reading plan. We recommend Robert M’Cheyne’s Reading Plan and D.A. Carson’s For The Love of God Vol. 1. Click HERE for all the details.

Sunday Nights

We hope to strengthen our Sunday activity in the coming year. While we like to keep Sunday night open for meetings, family time, small groups, and rest, we do sense a need to gather for more specific teaching and fellowship. You’ll find several planned Sunday night events throughout the year. I am really looking forward to this time.

Thanks

I wish to thank our staff, elders, deacons, and all of the volunteers who serve Metro East and make it what it is. I greatly appreciate you all! It is an honor to be your pastor.

Work and Pray and Watch

I am asking God for a great 2013. Let’s pray for God to do big things in our midst. Let’s pray for more conversions and baptisms, more transformed lives, more Gospel proclamation, more boldness, more sacrifice and giving, more volunteers and leaders, more warmth and compassion, and more unity and love.

May God be glorified and honored among us! May the Gospel be adorned and advanced! 

Happy New Year,

Pastor Greg

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GB

To an assembly of clergy at Augsburg in 1530, Martin Luther explained why he continued to preach despite a nagging desire to quit.

Not that we are so greatly delighted to preach. For, to speak for myself, no message would be more pleasing to my ears than the one deposing me from the office of preaching. I suppose I am so tired of it because of the great ingratitude among the people, but much more because of the intolerable hardships which the devil and world mete out to me. But the poor souls will not let me rest; then too, there is a man whose name is Jesus Christ. He says no. Him I justly follow as One who has deserved more of me.” (What Luther Says, 1132)

For years I have struggled with how best to pray petitionary prayers. I am much more comfortable with prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and exaltation. It’s the prayers for things that I have a hard time praying.

Somewhere over the past few months I began categorizing my requests into particular days. At first it felt a bit mechanical and awkward, but after about two weeks it was really freeing. Here is how I do it. Please note that I offer this as a suggestion, not a rule!

Monday Is For Me

This may sound selfish, but after preaching and attending meetings most of the day before, I need to sync up with the Lord, shake off any pride or despair, and get my mind and heart ready for the week. Here I pray for, among other things, my heart to be stirred for the Gospel, my identity to be buried in Christ, and for my will to be bent toward obedience. Monday is for me in the sense that it’s for God’s glory and His purposes for me.

Tuesday Is For Heather

I have some “stock” prayers that I pray for her as well as things I’ve picked up on or things she’s told me over the week. I also let my Bible reading for the day shape the way I pray for her.

Wednesday Is For The Boys

I’ve written elsewhere about how I pray for them. Here I pray for things current as well as things future. In light of the events in Connecticut on Friday, I am currently praying for them to be tender, sweet, and compassionate, but also courageous, discerning, and brave in the face of evil.

Thursday Is For Church

Here I pray for all things Metro East. This includes our vision, our upcoming services, our staff, elders, deacons, and issues we are currently facing as a church. I also pray for the global spread of the Gospel and unreached people groups.

Friday Is For Friends And Family

I pray for the couples that Heather and I spend the most time with. I pray for the men I am discipling. I pray for my family.

Saturday Is For The Country

I pray for our city, state, nation, and all those in high positions (1 Tim. 2:1-4).

Sunday Is For The Service and Sermon

I bathe the day’s sermon in prayer. I beg for grace and wisdom to preach. I pray for the listeners, especially any non-Christians who will be present. I pray for clarity and boldness. I pray for the Gospel to be heard. I pray for our teachers, worship team, and volunteers. I pray for God’s blessing on the day both in our church and all the churches.

Try It

Of course there is overlap with all of these. If Heather asks me on Friday to pray for something she is struggling with I don’t say, “Can it wait until Tuesday?!” I also pray many other prayers on all these days. But this helps me to pray specific, thoughtful, and focused prayers for all these issues and people. If this sounds helpful, please use it. If it doesn’t, forget all you just read.

GB

What was the first Christmas really like? Many of us have been told something like this:

Since Mary was set to give birth any moment, her and Joseph had to travel quickly to Bethlehem. The only shelter they could find was a inn. However, the inn was booked and the innkeeper would not make provisions for the lonely couple. Fortunately they were able to find a stable behind the inn, where the animals were kept. This is where Mary gave birth to Jesus, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger. The picture above illustrates this nicely. Lots of animals in a stable with Mary, Joseph and Jesus (who is glowing!). But is this all true? Sorta. Here is what Paul Copan says:

“Over the centuries, the Christmas story has been re-cast and romanticized into a kind of Christian “mythology.” But what do the Scriptures really tell us about Jesus’ birth?

1. There would have been no inns in a backwater town like Bethlehem. They would be found along main roads or in cities.

2. The word for inn (katalyma) is the same one as the “guest room (of a private home)” mentioned in Mk. 14:14 and Lk. 22:11—the room where the last supper was eaten.

Mark 14:13-15: “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is My *guest room* (katalyma) in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; prepare for us there.”

Also, this word in Lk. 2:7 (“guest room”) is different from Lk. 10:34 (pandocheion = inn), where the beaten man was taken by the compassionate Samaritan. This inn had an innkeeper (pandocheus), and such inns would unquestionably located on a main thoroughfare between Jerusalem and Jericho. One commentary puts it this way, “The traditional picture of a surly innkeeper refusing admission to the needy couple is somewhat dubious.” (I. Howard Marshall, “Luke,” in *The New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition*, eds. R.T. France, D.A. Carson, et al. [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994], 984).

3. Joseph, no doubt being a considerate husband (cp. Mt. 1:19), would have taken ample time to find Mary a place to give birth, which is what Luke 2:6 indicates: While they were there [in Bethlehem], the days were completed for her to give birth. Mary gave birth after she had “fulfilled her days”—a duration of time. Although people seem to miss this, the passage clearly indicates ample passage of time in Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus.

4. In a culture that so valued hospitality, Joseph would have insulted his relatives by going to an inn. Rather, he would stay with his relations, who would readily have made room for his expectant wife—even if the guest room was crowded and the birth had to take place in the main living area. It would seem ludicrous, given the importance of hospitality in the Middle East, that Joseph would have no place to stay among his relatives—especially if he was “of the house and line of David” and if his wife was expecting. And if Joseph could not find a place for Mary after a few weeks or so, they could have gone back to Mary’s relative Elizabeth, who lived in the same region.

5. In Jesus’ day, animal sheds were typically attached to houses. In Palestine a manger was not normally found in a separate stable; rather, it was “in the main living room of a peasant house, where animals are brought in at night” (R.T. France, *The Evidence for Jesus* [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986], 159). New Testament scholar Kenneth Bailey (from whom I borrow heavily in this blog) notes that the manger Christ was laid in was “built into the floor of the raised terrace of the peasant home” (Kenneth Bailey, “The Manger and the Inn: The Cultural Background of Luke 2:7,” *Evangelical Review of Theology* 4 [1980]: 201-17). This stall-next-to-the-house arrangement is what Luke 13:15 presupposes: “. . . does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him?”

6. When the wise men show up in Bethlehem, they come to a house. Matthew 2:11 states: “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Paul Copan, The First Christmas: Myths and Realities)

Conclusion
So were Mary and Joseph in a hurry to get to Bethlehem? No (see Luke 2:6). Did they go to an inn? No, they went to a house which is where the Magi visited Jesus (Matthew 2:11). Was there an inn keeper present? No. Neither Luke nor Matthew mention one. So where was Jesus born? In Bethlehem, to be sure. In a house, but not in the main living quarters because they were full, but on the floor below or adjacent to the main living area where the animals were kept, hence the manger. Were animals present? The text never says, and they certainly would not have to be since they were often brought in at night.

GB

November 29th marks the eleventy-fourth (114th) year since C.S. Lewis was born. Last year I listed some of my favorite quotes from his writings. This year I thought I would share some of the more interesting facts about his life.

1. He was not English. Though many think and refer to him as such, he was actually born in Belfast, Ireland. So he technically he was British but not English.

2. He changed his name to Jack. In 1902 he announced to his parents that he would, from that day forward, be referred to as “Jacksie.” It was later shortened to “Jacks” and then finally “Jack.” He would be Clive no more.

3. He never learned to drive.

4. His favorite sound was adult male laughter. 

5. His ideal happiness was “to be always convalescent from some small illness and always seated in a window that overlooked the sea, there to read these poems (Renaissance Italian epic) eight hours  of each happy day.”

6. He loved the sea.

7. He failed his Oxford entrance exam, twice. He took the Responsions at least two times and failed the math section. He was allowed entrance into Oxford in 1917 because he served in the military.

8. He had dreams of lions. Prior to writing The Chronicles of Narnia he had strange dreams of lions and pictures in his head of a faun carrying parcels.

9. J.R.R. Tolkien did not like the Narnia stories. Tolkien did not like the Christian allegory, nor did he like the mixing of myths. It appeared he was fond of Aslan though.

10. Aslan is Turkish for “lion.”

11. He often addressed Jesus as Aslan in prayer.

12. Some argue that Tolkien based Treebeard on Lewis. I cannot prove this, but I’ve heard it in more than one place.

13. His conversion to Christianity was not when he wrote in Surprised By Joy: “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, ‘compel them to come in,’ have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

This was simply his conversion to theism from atheism in 1929. It wasn’t until 1931 that he and his brother went to Whipsnade Zoo. Warren drove the motorcycle while Jack sat in the sidecar! He wrote, “When we set out, I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we  reached the zoo, I did.” The evening before this trip, Lewis had a long discussion with Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien about Christianity.

14. He did not affirm the inerrancy of Scripture. To be clear, he highly regarded the Bible and its authority. He read the Bible constantly (Authorized Version). But he would not have used the same language about the Bible as evangelicals do today.

15. He wasn’t a fan of the Reformation. He thought the issues involved could have been handled more appropriately. He referred to it as “farcical.”

16. He smoked . . . a lot!

17. He drank . . . a good bit!

18. He was a shabby dresser.

19. He was extremely generous. Douglas Gresham recalls a story where Jack and a friend were walking to a meeting one day when they were approached by a beggar. The beggar asked them for some spare change whereupon Jack gave him everything he had. Once the beggar had gone, his friend said, “You shouldn’t have given that man all that money Jack, he’ll only spend it on drink.” Jack’s reply – “Well, if I’d kept it, I would have only spent it on drink.”

20. He married Joy Davidman in the hospital. This was about a year after he married her in a secret civil ceremony due to the denial of her residency by the British Home Office. But he wanted a church ceremony, hence the hospital wedding.

21. A Grief Observed was originally published under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk. Lewis wrote this work after Joy died in 1960. Many who read the book sent Lewis copies hoping it would help him in his plight!

22. Mere Christianity never mentions the Resurrection. He did however write on the Resurrection in Miracles and other works.

23. He read every single book from the 16th century. To prepare to write his English Literature in the 16th Century, he read every single volume from the 16th century in Duke Humphrey’s library, the oldest part of the Bodleian Library.

24. The Screwtape Letters was his least favorite to write. He said he never wrote with less enjoyment. Having to “switch sides” was difficult for him.

25. He wrote to Kathy Keller. Kathy Keller is Tim Keller’s wife. She wrote to Lewis when she was 12. There are four letters from him to her in Letters To Children and volume three of Letters of C.S. Lewis.

26. He shared a boat ride to Ireland with Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 1953. The two met before this when Lloyd-Jones attended a lecture by Lewis and afterward had lunch with him.

27. He was not a Calvinist. He said in a letter (3:866) “I’m no Calvinist.”

28. He died on November 22, 1963. This was of course the same day Kennedy was shot as well as when Aldous Huxley died.

29. Walter Hooper referred to him as “the most thoroughly converted man I have ever met.”

30. He said about his writings, “After I’ve been dead five years, no one will read anything I’ve written.” He’s been dead 49 years. Thankfully Mr. Lewis, you were wrong! Happy Birthday!

GB