Tag: Christianity

Google Reader Round-up | August 18, 2012

In this week’s round-up:

Same-Sex Marriage Won’t Be Enough — An interesting article that reveals why the debate regarding same-sex marriage is about more than just marriage. It’s actually about redefining (read destroying) marriage as an institution. The author writes, “Marriage can’t be separated from biological realities. And that’s why this upheaval won’t end when same-sex marriage is accepted.” A must read.

Join or Die?: Addressing the Question of Church Membership — The age-old question regarding the necessity of church membership has remained a lively point of conversation. In this article, a strong and well-articulated case is made that being connected to a local church is a necessary reality for every believer.

The difference between attending and joining a church is analogous to the difference between dating and marriage. The Bible clearly steers us toward the latter.

Celebrating Alone — R. C. Sproul, Jr. speaks of his first anniversary after the death of his wife to cancer. This is a beautiful testimony of what God plans for each of us to experience in matrimony. I am sad for his loss, but rejoice with him in his wife’s eternal gain.

Truth, Grace and My Father’s Conversion at age 84 — Randy Alcorn recounts the details that lead up the eventual conversion of his father. It is a touching tribute to Randy’s love for his father and of God’s grace in redemption.

Naked Pastor1

  1. Link Broken. URL of original: http://www.nakedpastor.com/2012/08/11/hoop-jumping/ [↩]

Word to the Wise | “My Feet Almost Slipped”, Pt. 3

“My Feet Almost Slipped”, Pt. 3

We have been discussing Psalm 73. Psalm 73 is a guide to every believer concerning our walk with Christ. This is the problem. Whenever we pay more attention to what unbelievers are doing or achieving, we will have a distorted view of the world. This is what happens. First, we look at “them” and compare our situation with theirs. Like the psalmist we say, I am trying so hard to live a godly life and I still have so many struggles. But look at unbelievers, they don’t care about God, they enjoy the pleasures of life and nothing happens to them. They are getting away with murder and God doesn’t do anything. And here I am, I just tell a minor lie and God broadcast it all over the world. Man I can’t get away with anything. This is simply not FAIR.

When a Christian thinks like this, he has missed the major (humongous) point of being a Christian. We are not here to compete with the world. We are not here to satisfy the flesh. We are not here to become rich and famous. We are here to be conformed to the image of Christ. At some point in our lives we recognized our sins. Then, we acknowledged our need for salvation. Then, we turned to Christ to be reconciled with God. Okay, if you did this, do not come back crying and complaining that you can no longer enjoy sin like you use. Let me help you with something. Once you cross the Red Sea (back to the exodus here), you CAN’T go back to Egypt unless you can swim across the ocean. We cannot go back to the world because when we accepted Christ as Savior we renounce the citizenship from Satan’s kingdom (the world) and accepted the citizenship of God’s Kingdom (heaven).

So, the Apostle Paul said this to the Colossian church: “If you have become a citizen of heaven, you are no longer free to seek the stuff from earth. Get your act together and start doing heaven’s stuff, because if you don’t the beatings will continue until you get it through your head that we have a spiritual nature that God is not willing to give up” (Colossians 3:1). Okay, okay, I took some liberties with the paraphrasing, but you get my point. Anyway, have a great Friday, enjoy your Saturday, and for goodness sake, go to your church on Sunday and worship the God of heaven who loved you to the point of sending His Son to take your sins away.

Google Reader Round-up | August 11, 2012

* * * I have a Google Reader account that I use to subscribe to a variety of blogs and websites. I have an immense backlog of articles and posts that I need to read. My hope is to share stories, articles, and commentary that might be interesting to you. * * *

Here is this week’s round-up.

How The Heck Do We Pray Without Ceasing? — This admonition by the apostle Paul is not always easy to understand, let alone do. Here is a great way to think about how we can pray more diligently. I found it interesting and helpful.

Some Advice for Youth Ministers — I was very impressed by the advice in this article. As a youth pastor it can be difficult to navigate the never-ending sea of ideas. Principles for ministry are what’s needed, a philosophy of ministry that does not depend on trends or age to work.

Harm’s Way: Men, Abortion & Hemingway — “In truth, despite the feminists’ attempts to silence men on the subject, abortion is, and always will be, a matter that concerns men as much as women. Every unborn child, whether aborted or carried to term, is the offspring of a father as well as a mother, and the mere presence of “it” presents a new “thing” in his life with which he must contend. … Now, at last, the aftereffects on men are beginning to see daylight, too. ”

The Number One Failure of 90 Percent of Pastors — “Pastors are notorious for their lone ranger approach to ministry.” This is a very dangerous philosophy for ministry. No one person can do everything that is needed in a local church. We all need help. It is just not easy asking for it sometimes. If you are a pastor find others in ministry that you can share with. If you are a parishioner, make sure you pastor has these kinds of relationships. It will make all the difference in the world.

The Case for Early Marriage — This is an interesting article discussing the negative effect the purity/abstinence movement has had on marriage and our view of marrying young. The author contends that we have to change our focus from preventing sex before marriage to encouraging marriage as a way of remaining pure and faithful to our convictions.

“While our sexual ideals have remained biblical and thus rooted in marriage, our ideas about marriage have changed significantly. For all the heated talk and contested referendums about defending marriage against attempts to legally redefine it, the church has already ceded plenty of intellectual ground in its marriage-mindedness. Christian practical ethics about marriage—not the ones expounded on in books, but the ones we actually exhibit—have become a nebulous hodgepodge of pragmatic norms and romantic imperatives, few of which resemble anything biblical.”

When The Church Looks Like The World

I came across the following article on Ligonier Ministries, the online home of Dr. R. C. Sproul, Sr. In the article you see some of Michael Horton‘s thoughts from the forward to Sproul’s new book-length critique of Roman Catholicism. Horton outlines four disturbing trends that seem to be infiltrating and becoming the norm with in the evangelical church.

Here are the four trends that Horton identifies in the article:

  1. We are all too confident in our own words
  2. We are all too confident in our own methods
  3. We are all too confident in our own good works
  4. We are all too enamored of our own glory

Horton provides some further explanation of what he means by each of these. While these trends are related and connected they are each detrimental to in and of themselves. Our failure to see, evaluate and fight against these trends is no excuse. As the church, we have a responsibility to guard our hearts with and for the Gospel.

What makes these trends particularly disturbing to me is how easy they have been accepted in the church. At times I wonder if we actually think we are getting the Christian faith correctly, when we might in fact be getting it wrong. That is the most disconcerting reality that these trends reveal. Over the course of the last few years I have come to realize that while there are a few areas that need significant improvement in the church, there is one that is terribly lacking–we no longer see theology as important or necessary. Theology is what academics, theologians and pastors do. That is not for the “lay” person. The study of theology is not about getting degrees or increase ones knowledge. At the heart of theology is God himself. To devout our lives to the studying of the person of God. This should be the desire of every child of God.

This discrepancy was pointed out when I had a conversation with a friend at a recent weekend retreat. He was talking about my tendency to use “church” words when I talked. He was describing how he felt that doing this could potentially be discouraging to young listeners or new believers. However, he had started to tell me that this was changing for him because in every other area of life we have to learn the vocabulary. If you are a doctor, lawyer, engineer, baseball player or online gamer, you have to learn the lingo. Why is the church so afraid to educate her members?

I have some thoughts about why we do this. They tend toward the not so flattering, so I will keep them to myself for the moment. For the time being I’ll just say that part of it is fear in one form or another. Feel free to read the article below and comment your thoughts.

[Source: 4 Disturbing Trends in the Contemporary Church.]

Video Spotlight | The Legacy Of One of God’s Faithful Servants

I came across the story, testimony and life of Aaron Aden Anderson. He was a young man who strove to share the truth of the Gospel and the hope of salvation in Jesus. He did this through personal evangelism and by making Youtube videos. He died tragically from injuries suffered in a car accident in January. He was 20 years old.

My question is this:

How long will we wait to
begin establishing our legacy?

For Aaron it was 13!

Word to the Wise | “My Feet Almost Slipped” Pt. 1 and 2

*EDITORS NOTE: This was originally sent out as two individual devotional thoughts. They have been combined for the sake of continuity.

My Feet Almost Slipped (Psalm 73)

Part 1

There are two reasons Christians’ feet almost slip—or backslide: First, they begin to envy the world. You know like; “Dad, little Johnny gets to stay out until midnight, why can’t I?” Well, son—God would say—because little Johnny is not my son and you have to follow my rules and not little Johnny’s rules. Or, Pastor, is it okay for me to go to the clubs once a week? And I will say, if you want to spend the rest of your life with a broken fellowship with God—sure, go ahead. (2) Christians’ feet begin to slip when they start walking by sight instead of walking by faith. Listen to the psalmist: “My feet almost slipped when I SAW the prosperity of the wicked.”

The Bible tells us that we walk by faith, not by sight. But whenever we put our eyes on the world, we are walking by sight instead of walking by faith.

Part 2

Yesterday we mentioned one reason that makes Christians “almost slip.” There are two aspects that explain the “almost slip” commentary by the psalmist: (1) Christians almost slip when we begin to envy what we perceive are the world’s “blessings.” You know, when we develop the desire to continue enjoying the things of the world after we have made a promise to the Lord that we are dedicated only to Him [something is wrong]. (2) Our feet can slip when we start walking by sight and not by faith. Every time we compare our lives, our successes, our failures, our struggles, etc. with the world, we are walking by sight. Whenever we SEE the world “prospering” we ENVY them. One of the most important lessons we can learn is to realize that the world has NOTHING to offer us—NOTHING.

Our second [way of slipping], following yesterday’s discussion, is that some Christians fail to understand that we are functioning under a different set of rules from the rest of the world. This means that while the world can lie, cheat, and steal, we cannot. The world can blaspheme God, but we cannot. The world can function in hatred and revenge, but we operate in forgiveness and love. Our rules come from God’s Kingdom. Their rules come from Satan’s kingdom. If you belong to God’s Kingdom, you cannot be wishing to live under the rules of Satan’s kingdom.

Example: After God had rescued the people of Israel from the Egyptian bondage they began to desire the “pleasures” of Egypt—which represents the kingdom of Satan. The Bible says that, “After 400 years God heard the cry of the people of Israel in Egypt.” After they received their freedom they began to crave the routine that slavery provided. They were willing to surrender their new freedom for the “safety” of captivity. In freedom they did not always know what was next. In captivity, someone else was making their decisions for them. They did not need to take responsibility for their lives.

This is what is interesting about this—God did not send them back to Egypt, but allowed them to wander in the desert for forty years. It took that long to get their minds away from their slavery mentality. They left Egypt, but Egypt never left them. This is the same with Christians today. They leave the world, but the world never leaves them. Thus, they ask, “Can I be a Christian and still enjoy the temporary pleasures of the world?” You can enjoy the temporary pleasures of the world, if you want to spend the rest of your life wandering in the desert without direction, purpose, or hope of entrance into the Promised Land—that is, without ever finding God’s rest for your life and experiencing the joy of salvation for your life. The Red Sea was not just an event. It was also a metaphor.

This is the metaphor: God saved them from bondage—Jesus has saved us from the bondage of sin. God led them through the Red Sea. Jesus has washed our sins away with His blood. After they had crossed the Red Sea, the water closed back again behind them. We have passed from death unto life. The closing of the Red Sea meant that they could not go back. There was no access back to Egypt. Once we have received Christ we cannot go back because Jesus said: “I did not lose none of the ones you gave me.” Rejoice: you are now in the desert on the way to the Promise Land and Egypt has nothing to offer us.

Why Supporting Chick-Fil-A Does Not Equal Supporting Jesus

Chick-Fil-AOk. So here are my two cents for what it’s worth.

There are a large number of people who have decided to support Chick-Fil-A and Dan Cathy, the CEO of the company, today with a blitz of consumption. I will tell you that I agree with and support Mr. Cathy’s in support of “traditional” marriage. I put the word tradition marriage in quotations because it is ridiculous that we have now qualify what we are talking about!

That being said, let us move on to the purpose of this post. I have been reading some of the comments on Twitter, Facebook and the news and I have come to one very simple and yet profound conclusion. Here it is:

Supporting Chick-Fil-A does NOT equal supporting Jesus.

Some may be saying, “Well that is just ludicrous. Who would ever come to that conclusion?” I’ll tell you who. Every person who looks at the church and at Christian’s and sees this “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” as another example of Christian’s banding together against something. I have already seen some of the insinuations in posts and tweets that I have read. I even jested in a tweet about “Christian Chicken.” What I have realized today is that supporting this company does not mean that we are advancing the cause of Christ. We, the church, has once again fallen for the oldest trick in the book. We are again fighting against everything we know is wrong, rather than standing for the one thing we know to be right–that Jesus is the only answer for a world lost in and to sin.

What this has become is the easy way for some (not for all) of these folks to say, “I did something because of what I believed. I stood up for truth, the bible, Jesus, the church.” Or whatever they think that this is going to accomplish. Let me tell you something, if God wanted Chick-Fil-A to crumble tomorrow, no number of customers would be great enough to save it.

Barnabas Piper called this move by supporters of the restaurant chain a “bold mistake.” He may be right, but for a different reason. Piper doesn’t see how this will help the church reach people who do not find the Gospel appealing or who may be searching. It probably will not. For me however, I think this may be a mistake because by supporting a company we have substituted the King of Kings with the King of chicken sandwiches.

Buy chicken sandwiches does not make (I don’t think) Jesus more beautiful, more rejoiced in, more adored than proclaiming the Gospel. We, as a church, have to get our priorities straight. If Jesus is the reason hearts, minds and souls are changed then let us get busy promoting him to our neighbors!

If people do not want to buy a chicken sandwich because of what the owner believes… that is on them. Just do me a favor, do not make it about Jesus. He’s never had a chicken sandwich and may not even like the Polynesian sauce.

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The Incarnation of Jesus Leads to Worship

This past weekend I not only spent some time with great friends serving college students, but I was once again brought face to face with the greatest truth and mystery of the Christian faith. Over the course of three-and-a-half days I celebrated The Lord’s Supper five times. It would be easy to think that doing something this regularly would have a negative effect in appreciating it. In fact, the opposite effect is felt.

One of the most poignant verses of scripture related to Communion is found in 1 Corinthians 11:26. While the Apostle Paul is trying to correct some of the errors and abuses that were happening in the Corinthian church.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This truly is a wonderful mystery. Every time we participate in communion and celebrate The Lord’s Supper we are able to witness how God can dissolve the concept of time into one moment. Just take the time to consider how Paul does this in this verse.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup (in the present),
you proclaim the Lord’s death (in the past)
until he comes (in the future).

During one of the moments of Communion was struck by the glorious truth of what we as Christian’s call the Incarnation. I do not believe it would be a stretch to say that the without the Incarnation there is no Christianity. This single teaching of the Christian church is so important that without it every hope is lost. The entire prospect of salvation hinges on whether or not God became like one of us. I have included my thoughts below. I offer it as a meditation on how the incarnation of Jesus leads to worship.

The glorious mystery of the incarnation reveals the utter majesty of our great God and King. He who is full of glory and with unquenchable power has entered into a broken world. He has come so that I, a wretched sinner might know the unhindered presence of grace. This is the offer of true grace. Nothing withheld. Nothing denied. Nothing lacking. Complete salvation. Once and for all delivered through the womb of a woman.

Oh mystery of mysteries. How could this be? How could God accomplish so much through what appears to be something so weak–a baby weeping? Only an all powerful God could use one of the weakest images of the human experience and accomplish the redemption of, not just one man or woman, but of all of them. Now and forever. God has come in the flesh.

What great love this is. What a demonstration of unbridled and wasteful grace. God has so much grace to give he gives and gives and is not bothered by the fact that it will not all be consumed.

How could I ever feel unsatisfied by the grace of God? Only if I have accepted a substitute. Only if I have allowed another Gospel, which is no gospel at all, to pollute my heart and mind with lies about Jesus.

The incarnation is a glorious mystery. I don’t understand it. But then again. I don’t really want to.

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RANT WARNING | One Word Describes Sanctions Against Penn State…

That word is Pretentious.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Ok, so I may be all wrong about this. I will admit that right up front. I am not a Penn State or Paterno fan. When I saw the news conference about the sanctions imposed I was incensed.

I think that the actions or in-actions of those in power during the period that Jerry Sandusky was terrorizing and abusing children were despicable. The cover up of these abuses and the failure of the leadership of Penn State to do something as soon as the allegations came to light cannot be accurately described. This entire situation is terrible. There are no winners. Joe Paterno’s name is mud. All that he worked for has been completely dismantled by a failure of moral courage.

Here is where I am mad because of what the NCAA did. Why is the ENTIRE Penn State community getting hit with these stupendous fines and penalties when the people responsible kept them in the dark? How is doing this going to bring about the “intended cultural changes” needed at the school. The culture is changed, people. Penn State will never be the same. Ever.

Trying to make an example of an institution makes about as much sense as trying to kill a ghost. Penn State the institution is not self-aware. It does not run itself. The university is amoral. The problem was the people in charge who lacked any sense of personal honor and were more interested in covering their own behinds. Why is nobody going after them? Why are they not being tried and convicted of their roles. Oh, they got fired. That makes it all right now? The student body, faculty and community surrounding Penn State should not have to pay like this. This is ridiculous.

A few years ago in the political world we were told that there were institutions that were too big to fail. Now, we find out that there are times when something is too big, and it should fail. Give me a brake. Then we are told that the option of completely suspending the program would have unintended harm to people who were not involved. Please! The NCAA has essentially amputated both legs of the Penn State football program. They may never recover from this.

I do not have a problem with the sanctions. I just can not stand all the moralizing that was included in the press conference. The NCAA is just trying to make itself look better because in the end they failed to keep tabs on a member school.

I may be all wrong. But, something about all this does not sit well with me.

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