Upward Calling

Where is God in your "Christianity"?

2009-06-08T12:09:00.003-05:00

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death...”

-The Apostle Paul, Philippians 3:7-10 (ESV)

There are many biblical scholars and theologians that have graced human history. One need not look much further than to simply Google John Calvin or Thomas Aquinas or anyone else you can think of to come up with a large quantity of their historical writings that have long influenced various Christian groups. Yet there is something to Christianity than merely knowing cold, hard facts about the Bible or God or doctrine; there must also be a relationship with the One who is the subject and author of the Bible. Now many Biblical scholars and theologians are/were great men who had an intimate relationship with God but this not always the case.

I once took an Old Testament history class under a man who had a robust knowledge of the Bible, with many prestigious degrees and knew far more about Biblical scholarship than I could ever know. But sadly, Christianity was nothing more than an academic discipline for him. And on the other side, one can have a great relationship with God and be a house wife or a plumber or a lawyer or anything else you can imagine. Intellectual knowledge of Christian thought does not equal a great relationship with God. Now don’t get me wrong, one must read God’s Word intently to have this deeper understanding but just “facts” about the Bible does not equal a relationship with God.

A few years ago I picked up a copy of J.I. Packer’s Knowing God. Every once in awhile I pick this book up and skim over a section or two of it and it always reminds of the above point that Christianity is about a relationship rather than just facts. It is so easy for Christians to fall into the trap that we can treat Christianity as merely an academic exercise much like a history buff would of facts about particular war or time era. But this is not what God intended!

Recently I was working with a group of teens, talking about a specific biblical passage and relating it to a situation in their lives. One of the teens piped up and said, “Yeah, but that isn’t really relevant for my life like it was for people during Bible times.” This just a sampling of the predicament in our thinking that we can fall prey to in regards to biblical truth. These teens all knew the passage which I referred to but, as they all agreed with this teen's statement, but saw it as nothing more than a nice story that does not apply to contemporary society. By and large, we as Christians, can easily lose the luster of our relationship with God that Paul had in writing Philippians 3:7-10. Paul saw his relationship with God as something that defined him, something he poured time and effort into, and something that transformed him. Can you say that or has Christianity become cold and sterile in your life? Are your devotions just something you do and get through with then set aside God for the day? What does your prayer life consist of? How about times of corporate and private worship? How about your interaction with others? This is something we all need to be challenged with from time to time: Where is God in your “Christianity”?

The Lost Generation

2009-03-24T23:55:00.002-05:00

Due to a heavy school and internship load, I’ve had a rather lengthy hiatus from keeping up this blog. Hopefully, that will change some. Also, due to the non color-blindness of my seminary friend Dave, I’ve decided to change the color of my blog page. Thus, this blog color is dedicated to you Dave, may you never go blind.

Recently I picked up a book that had some rather earth shattering statistics: 8 (almost 9) of every 10 children that grow up in a Christian environment abandons the faith by the end of their freshmen year of college. Wow! Immediately this caught my attention. There is truly a problem in the Church. But what can be done?

This question has troubled me enormously over the past few years. I look at the teens that I grew up with in church and few are there (or in any church) now. Also, I look at those I went to school with (I went to a Christian school) and few are serving God either. Is this problem just in my circles? No, it’s an epidemic that seems to be sweeping the nation...possibly the world! But what can be done?

I wish there was a simple answer to this question. Should we look to pastors, churches, Christian educators, para-church organizations, etc. and blame them for this? I don’t think that’s necessarily the answer. Here’s what I think have happened: In the late 1970’s through the 1980’s, there was a big push in the formation of youth groups, the raising up of youth pastors, the beginnings of Christian schools, youth outreaches, etc. across the country. Huge amounts of time, money, and resources were put into reaching that generation for Christ. But of all generations, we saw the worst results of reaching a generation for Christ. Many behind this push had good intentions...so then what happened?

When this huge outreach to this generation occurred, it was assumed that “specialists” and “professionals” with the latest and most innovative techniques were needed to reach teens and disciple them in Christ. Unknowingly, youth pastors and Christian educators began to supplant the role of the parent discipling teens. The family unit was largely abandoning things such as family worship, teaching of the Bible at home, and largely the parents relinquished their role in the spiritual formation of their children and teens. But how can these “specialists” and “professionals” (some who have never raised children themselves and may not stay at a church or school for more than a few years and have to keep track of numerous teens) disciple teens in a few hours a week? It didn’t get done!

Thus, the answer to the epidemic of teens and young adults abandoning the faith in mass numbers is not going to come in some new gimmick or a charismatic teen leader, but in the parents being involved in the lives of their children and teens. Even today, I often hear people with preteens and teens say something like, “I’ve got to find a good youth group for my teen. That’s what will make them turn out well.” News flash: you could have the best youth group in the world with all the activities you could possibly think of, the best teaching, the best of everything....and that probably won’t be the key. This does not mean that the church and, if you choose to send a child there the Christian school cannot be an excellent resource in helping you. But what this does mean is that just a few hours a week is not going to get the job done. Parents have to be actively involved in discipling their children and teens.

And parents, discipling means more than academic and sports success. If these things are the most important concern in raising your children and spiritual matters are abandoned or neglected, your priorities need to be reassessed. Frankly, what I’ve often seen is that parents leave this job of spiritual discipleship to the Church and/or Christian school and never check up to see if their children are growing spiritually, just assuming it’s being done. Before God, you have a responsibility to be raising your children spiritually. And if you think it doesn't matter if you personally teach them, I challenge you to read the book of Judges. See what happened in the past when parents abdicated their discipleship responsibilities.

So I encourage the Church to think about their approach to ministry and the family. I encourage parents to think about how they are raising their children and teens. And I encourage teens to “buck the current trend” and not become another statistic. And on that note, I recommend Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God by Voddie Baucham, with some reservations.

Family Based Faith raises some very important issues regarding the family. I think Baucham also gives some very good insight into how current trends can be broken. Frankly, I hope I can be half the father and husband that Voddie Baucham is...he seems like a man that truly is striving to do what it takes to raise his children in a biblical fashion. But I do think that the analysis of Baucham goes too far in a few areas, especially the idea of the family integrated church...but maybe you will disagree with me as you read it. I would be more of an advocate of moderate family based church ministries (If you read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about). But overall I recommend this book and think it has some great points and insights. He will give you a real sense of how you can truly disciple your children and teens.

Conference for Teens

2009-01-23T14:15:00.004-06:00

The Rebelution has recently announced their conference tour for 2009. If you are a youth worker, parent of a teen (or an upcoming teen), or a teen yourself, this is a worthwhile conference.

This conference (and the book Do Hard Things) teaches teens to buck the cultural trend of unbiblical teen years. The teenage years were meant to be so much more than barely getting by, aboslute boredome, and rebellion. The group, the Rebelutionaries, are teens that are trying to redefine those years to be meaningful. Twin brothers Alex and Brett Harris (also brother of well-known pastor and author Josh Harris) are the masterminds behind this movement. I highly recommend their book, Do Hard Things, their website, and their conference. I've already got plans to take my teen ministry to this event.

Book Recommendation: "When Sinners Say I Do" by Dave Harvey

2008-12-16T13:31:00.004-06:00

I recently had the opportunity to read an excellent book which examines the marriage relationship in light of " discovering the power of the Gospel for marriage" (the subtitle to the book). This book takes principles of biblical theology and applies them very well to the marriage relationship. Dave Harvey is a very gifted writing who has gotten to the heart of the marriage relationship. I believe this book attempts to deal with heart issues in marriage in a way no other marriage book before it's time has done. This book is a great help for those starting out or engaged to those who have been married for years to those who may be having troubles in their marriage....in other words, it is highly applicable to all stages of a Christian marriage. Therefore, I would highly recommend "When Sinners Say I Do" to all.

I would also recommend as a nice compliment to this book, "Christian Living in the Home" by Jay Adams or "Sweethearts for A Lifetime" by Wayne Mack ("Sweethearts for a Lifetime" makes a nice devotional for married couples as well). "When Sinners Say I Do" looks at the larger picture of the marriage relationship and these other two books give biblical principles relating to the roles of husbands and wives in the marriage relationship. I will be using the compliment of these two book with "When Sinners Say I Do" in my ministry and marriage for many years to come.

Abundance Leading to Ungratefulness?

2008-11-29T01:06:00.004-06:00

We've got so much in post-industrial societies that it's amazing. We can have so much in one trip to a store or even a quick search on the web. Most don't have to worry about going hungry in their entire life but can go to a kitchen and get what they want at any moment. We've got so much entertainment it's ridiculous and that's just the tip of the iceberg of the blessings we have. Yet, sadly, it seems that much of this blessing has become an expectation. You meet so many people that rarely seem to be happy or content with what they have and are always looking for more. And rarely do people thank God for the blessings in their life but show a spirit of ungratefulness towards Him with so much in their lives. That is unacceptable!

Sadly all of this is very prevalent in Christian circles as well. And rarely do they truly thank God for the blessings in their life, aside for superficially in passing, but show a spirit of ungratefulness towards Him with so much in their lives. That is unacceptable!

Religious freedoms have been taken for granted as well. Many never truly calculate the cost of following Christ and, to date, have faced rarely any ridicule and almost no one in the U.S. faces persecution. Christianity to many is nothing more than a tradition of their family, a social club, or a "fire-escape" for eternity. And sadly, I think many have fooled themselves into thinking they have a relationship with Christ when they have nothing more than a self-seeking moralism that they label as "Christianity".

I challenge all Christians to think about how thankful we should be for what God has given them in their lives. For those in countries that they have much material wealth and religious freedom, I challenge you t make yourself aware of what is happening to Christians around the globe and pray for them often. There is a great website that will keep you updated on persecution that Christians are currently facing around the globe that may be a help to you as well called Voice of the Martyrs.

Crisis in Christianity: The Problem of Busyness

2008-11-24T14:10:00.004-06:00

I've noticed a trend in Christianity that is having devastating effects on individuals and Christianity as a whole...the busyness of people. I've attended the same church for nearly all my life and over the past ten years I've noticed that more and more people don't have the time to serve in the church. No doubt this is the same for deepening one's individual relationship with God as well. People are just plain busy. It seems in churches across the country, individuals don't have the time to be involved or the time to study their Bibles, pray, and a whole host of other things. This is a serious problem and, if left unattended, will utterly destroy the church within a few generations. I found a survey recently and was staggered by how far reaching this trend is around the world. What in the world is going on? I think it's just that Christians have assimilated into various cultures that value the busyness of life...I think many Christian's priorities are in the wrong place.

As I've thought about this, I was reminded of Mary and Martha in the Luke 10:38-42 (ESV):

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

As we look at this passage (and I recommend to begin looking at Luke 10:25-42 to see problems people have in wrong priorities of loving God and loving other people) we see two individuals, Martha and Mary. Martha was a work horse; she's the kind of women many people would like to have in their church. Now I think Martha loved Jesus but her priorities were misplaced. The text says she was continually being pulled away from the teaching of Jesus...she became preoccupied with this meal and it took her away from being taught by the Master. Her priorities were to misplaced that she told Jesus her sister should be helping her prepare things as well. But, to Martha's surprise, Jesus told her that Mary had chosen the right portion, that is sitting at his feet and being taught. Now was it wrong for Martha to work? No. But the problem became that she allowed her work to get in the way of something that was more important, being taught by Jesus.

I looked at this passage and thought, how many of us have wrong priorities and that pulls us away from being feed from the Word of God either by skipping teaching in church or by skipping out on being fed daily in our individual lives? We've allowed the busyness of our culture to shift our priorities away from that right portion of developing our relationship with God! Something has got to change.

I challenge you to think about your own life. Are your priorities misplaced? Are you allowing the culture to dictate your relationship with God? Are you living a life that is centered on your family or spouse or friends or job or sports or leisure activities or tv watching or ministry (yes, that can hamper our relationship with God if it makes us too busy) or anything else you can think of, to the point that it is hampering your relationship with God? If so, something needs to change.

Book Review: Exegetical Fallacies by D.A. Carson

2008-11-17T12:09:00.004-06:00

Typically, I don't review books I have to read for school. But this (and another one I may review later) are the exception. The reason: this book is pretty standard and helpful to anyone studying and/or teaching the Word of God.

Exegetical Fallacies by D.A. Carson is a fairly easy read that provides insight into many traps those studying the Scriptures can often fall into...the seasoned pastor to the layman. The point of this book is to point out common fallacies people may employ in their study of God's Word and that are often in published writing. This book has, and hopefully in the future, will continue to provide students of God's Word with a tool that they may use to help them sharpen their studying habits. I myself will no doubt refer back to this book as I begin and continue my ministry to ensure I am a good steward of handling the Word of God. This book is not all-encompassing and does not present a thorough process of how to correct common fallacies but points them out with the intention of helping the reader think more deeply about the process of studying God's Word.

I think Carson's first chapter is especially helpful to those who have a small amount of ability in using the Greek and Hebrew (such as a seminary student as myself), to ensure that they do not fall into the trap of poorly using the biblical languages. Carson also talks about common practices used in interpreting the Word of God that were used in past generations that have been largely abandoned in scholarship but may still abound in churches due to the use of older helps and commentaries. Chapter 3 is especially helpful for both the pastor and the layman, as it deals with the issue of logical fallacies. Too often we construct an idea in our minds of how a particular pattern or argument may flow, only to be committing typical fallacies that may lead us and others to illogical and false conclusions.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who teaches the Word of God regularly. Those who may have a little further training may find this book especially helpful. But I also believe those who may have little to no training, and often may rely more on the work of others, may find this book helpful as well, as they evaluate the sources they use.

The "Magic Pill"

2008-11-10T12:06:00.004-06:00

We live in a society that is very driven by "self-help" books and focus upon bettering ourselves. So often you will see some new "guru" that claims to have some "secret" no one else does and for 3 small payments of $39.95 he will give you the 7 easy steps to help you attain that "secret". Alright, maybe that's a bit crazy...but it's not far off from what people are looking for. If one goes into your local book store, you will notice how big the book section on this is...and it's not because those books don't sell. It seems as though everyone is looking for something and they want it fast. These idea have also have crept into the church as well.

The College and Career Sunday School class at my church is currently going through Paul Tripp's A Quest For More. (I highly recommend this book, by the way.)In it he is examining what we truly live for. He's exposing that so many of us are living for ourselves than the higher purpose of living for God. In the chapter we examined over the past 2 weeks, he talks about the fact that so many of seem to be living for the Kingdom of God but too often we are masquerading things as being done for the kingdom of God when it's really all about our own little kingdom of self. Anyways, a quote by Vinoth Ramachrandra in this chapter brought about quite a discussion:

The Good News is packaged and marketed (using, uncritically, all the techniques of modern advertising) as a religious product; offering "peace of mind", "how to get to heaven", "health and prosperity", "inner healing", "the answer to all your problems", etc. What is promoted as "faith in God" often turns out to be a means for obtaining emotional security or material blessing in this life and an insurance policy in the next. This kind of preaching leaves the status quo untouched. It does not raise fundamental and disturbing questions about the assumptions upon which people build their lives. It does not threaten the false gods in whose name the creation of God has been taken over; indeed it actually reinforces their hold on their worshippers. This kind of '"gospel" is essentially escapist, the direct descendant of the pseudo-gospels of the false prophets of the Old Testament. It is simply a religious image of the secular consumerist culture in which modern men and women live. (A Quest for More, by Paul David Tripp, page 74)

This side-question arose, "The Bible mentions quite a bit about blessings as the motive for living for God; essentially if I do x, y, & z then the consequences will be good. So, how should we examine the blessings of God?" As I thought about this question, I thought about 2 passages, Psalm 73 and Ecclesiastes 2:12-17. In both of these passages, the author notices that he's doing everything right, and those who aren't have the same blessings in material possessions, success, etc. But if you notice the conclusion that both came to (the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, the Ecclesiates 2:12-17 passage) they realized God is sovereign and they should be eternity focused. Things may not make sense now but judgement will come in eternity and those who live for God will be blessed and those who live for self will be punished.

But there's something greater at stake than that. The person who is "living for God" for the blessing is really living for self. They appear to be living for God when they are really trying to manipulate God for their purposes...and that's the point of this chapter. We need to be living for God and not worried about the material blessings of this life. That's what this culture of "self-help" in the church is doing. They are using God, with no concern for His Kingdom, to gain what they can from Him. And in that many distort the Gospel, leading others and themselves astray. Others distort Scripture manipulating it to push their agenda.

So what should we do with all that?

1. Let Scripture interpret your life rather than imposing your ideas on the Scriptures. We need to be committed to studying it and applying it to our lives....for the sake of pleasing God, not "helping" our image. Our primary focus should be on God not ourselves.

2. Not take an approach to Scripture that it's a self-help book that's written like an encyclopedia. The Scriptures are about God and His sovereign and redemptive work throughout history. We need to know them well...at the passage level. It is out of those passages as a whole that we form a theology. When we try to form a theology without understanding what the Scriptures say, we're headed for a world of trouble.

3. Remember change in any area of our lives does not happen overnight. No where does God promise that we will no longer struggle with sin in this life...frankly, we will struggle with sin our entire lives. ( We can't expect "microwave holiness." The process of growing and changing is lifelong and will not be complete this side of eternity. Look at your walk with God as lifelong.

4. This entire process is built upon the fact that we know Christ and the power of His resurrection. We can do nothing aside from Him. In the Scriptures, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6, ESV) (If you need further information on what is means to know Christ, contact me.)

This is not an encompassing list by any means, it is just the start. I challenge you to look deeper at yourself and your approach to Christianity. Dig much, much deeper...and the place to do that is in the Scriptures.

Christianities Response to the Election: How Should We Proceed?

2008-11-05T10:00:00.005-06:00

As we all know, Barack Obama is to be President of the United States for at least the next four years. Maybe you're excited about change and were not a big supporter of the policies of George W. Bush. Maybe you're worried and angry by the new choice for President. But regardless of whether you like this choice for President or not, whether you like your Senator, Congressman, Governor, etc., how is a Christian to respond to elected officials? Let's examine what the Bible says as to how a Christian should respond...let's begin with Romans 13:1-7 (ESV):

"1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."

Setting of This Text

Let's think a little bit about the background of this text. Paul is writing to Christians living in the first century under the governing powers of the Roman Empire. Paul had some encounters with this government that make this paragraph even more interesting. First, Paul had been brought to Rome as a prisoner. He probably wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome while imprisoned, awaiting extradition to Rome to be tried by Caesar. And, although it happened a little later than when this book was written, history tells us the Apostle Paul died under the authority of a Roman Emperor, probably Nero. Nero was a man that set fire to Rome to "deal with" the problem of the poor. He was sick and tired of dealing with the poor and wanted to get rid of them...and chose the method of murder by burning down the city. Then, he knew the Jews and a few other groups didn't like this new religious sect know as "The Way", or what we know as Christianity, and blamed them for burning down Rome. Thus began the persecution of the early church with such horrendous modes of death such as crucifixion [which is the mode by which Jesus Christ, was put to death by!], to the feeding of Christians to the lions, and a variety of other methods of execution. But that's not the end. On and off, Christians in the early church were persecuted for the first 300 years of Christianity's existence! It wasn't until the reign of Constantine that things changed for Christians. Yet throughout all that God commanded Christians, through the writing of Paul, to be subject to ruling authorities. Surely you're thinking, if Paul knew what his fate would be and the fate of so many Christians after him he would have written, "Revolt against heathen pagans who rule over you!" But God knew what would happen and is the ultimate author of Scripture yet He still commanded this. The question is why?

God's Sovereignty in Government

Let me point out in this text what Paul says about God's sovereignty, "For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (Romans 12:1b-2, ESV) Hmm, God's ultimately in control. He's sovereignly the one who placed those who govern over the early Church and continues to place ruling authorities over us today. He's ultimately in control...and we have our responsibility, to submit to ruling authorities. Now when a government tell us to go against what God has told us as individuals, we ultimately have a responsibility before God to serve Him rather than man(examples of this abound in the book of Daniel.) But this does not give us the right to fly off the deep end and go crazy with opposing those in authority for reasons that are not in opposition to God's will for us. Honestly, as individuals in the United States we are so blessed with the freedom to worship God that we have and this really is not an issue for us at all at this point. The early Christians did not revolt against governing authorities and look at the circumstances they faced!

Our Response to Government

So you may be asking, "Alright, God's in control...what's that mean for me, as a Christian?" Well first off, as citizens we can have part in trying to shape this country...and we did by casting votes at the polls. But now, we have new authorities over us. If you didn't get what you wanted in elected officials, that doesn't mean you can now complain about it and resist their authority...because ultimately that grumbling and complaining is against God and His sovereign control of the situation. But instead, pray for our leaders. And as Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:13-17, "Honor your leaders." If we choose to sin by complaining and resisting authority, we've made politics, and not getting our way, an idol of our hearts. Therefore, respond in a manner that is pleasing to God.

Conclusion

Now I'm not going to tell you what I think about the elected officials because, frankly it doesn't matter. The election is over with, I voted, and now I have a responsibility to please God. I will pray for and strive to honor our new President, Barack Obama, just as I have for President George W. Bush. I encourage you to do the same.

And remember this as well: political change is not what has made an eternal difference in the past nor will it in the future. This change is merely surface level (and yes, to a certain degree we should be concerned with this as citizen and we can by voting on social issues, etc. that need our attention...but these things should not "drive" us and they are not the end goal.) But as Christians we should seek to make a difference with the power of God and the authority of His Word. People need us to reach out to them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be discipled more than anything in this world.

For further study of this issue, check out the below passages:
-Isaiah 36-37
-The Book of Daniel
-John 18:1-10
-Acts 4 & 5
-Romans 13
-1 Peter 2:13-17

Two Years, Many More to Come

2008-11-04T15:17:00.012-06:00

Proverbs 31:10-31 (ESV)

10 An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
13She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
14She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
15She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
16She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
18She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
20She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
22She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
24She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
26She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29"Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.

Today I celebrate my second year of marriage with my wife Jen. I am so thankful for her and the wife that she is...the love she has for God and the growth I've seen in her life, the friendship we have, the sacrifices she's made for me to go to seminary, and so many other wonderful things about her. It seems as though we've been married very little time (and in all reality, we've been married a very short time!) but I have enjoyed my life with her so far and look forward to many more wonderful years with her and having a family with her. This past weekend we took a trip to Turkey Run State Park in Central Indiana to celebrate the occasion. We had wonderful weather and spent our time hiking there. We planned on canoeing as well, but there were so many trails and time didn't allow for it. Sadly, I only have some of the photos (my digital camera's memory card was full and I didn't realize it). Anyways, I thought I would share a sampling of the sights from our trip:

Book Review: Reading the Bible With Heart and Mind by Tremper Longman III

2008-10-07T15:32:00.004-05:00

I recently finished Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind by Tremper Longman III and recommend it highly for anyone looking for a basic refresher on the overall content of the Bible or for new believers.

The first section of this book lays down some excellent basic principles regarding reading the Bible that I think are applicable to all. This section greatly challenged me in thinking about my approach to Scriptures.

The second half of the book was more basic in nature yet still helpful. Dr. Longman had some great discussion on various genres of literature, in particular I found his two chapters on Apocalyptic writings very helpful (mainly Daniel and Revelations). So often too many people look for secret meanings hidden in the Scripture regarding the end times rather than reading these books with the background knowledge the original audience would have had. It seems like every year we have someone out there reading crazy number schemes into the Bible and making some wild prediction of when Christ will return....totally disregarding Christ's statement that no one except the Father knows the time of His return.

Overall, I recommend this book; the first half for all and the second half of it for those looking to do some basic reading on books of the Bible. Also, the last chapter gives some helpful questions regarding everyone's reading of the Bible as well.

Financial Crisis: Finding Happiness v. Finding Joy

2008-10-01T10:31:00.007-05:00

There is a serious financial crisis looming in the United States that could have devastating effects both in the U.S. and abroad. How should we respond? Should be just give into this impending doom of financial disaster? Should we resolve to be unhappy by fortunes lost? I think there is a real answer that lies in the Bible...it is a command to be joyful. You might be reading this and thinking, "you're nuts, how can I have joy in such dire circumstances?" I believe it is possible, but before we get there, we have to look at the definition of joy, as it is so wrongly used synonymously with happiness.

I talk to many people who have no apparent joy because they are in tough or uncomfortable circumstances. I meet others who feel if they could just change their circumstance, then they could be happy. But nowhere in the Bible are you going to find God calling Christians to be happy people...but He has called us to be joyful. How is that possible? Let's examine these two terms and see how that is.

Happiness

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, happiness is defined as, "a state of well-being and contentment" and "a pleasurable or satisfying experience." Interestingly, this dictionary also lists joy as a synonym. But if you notice in both of these definitions, happiness has to deal with one's state. Essentially if someone is in a particular state or experience which they find desirable, then they can be happy. But one cannot be happy if they are in a state they do not find desirable. Happiness is seen as something that causes a momentary emotion. The causes of it are largely environmental ranging from "luck to fortune to other self pleasures."

Joy

Sadly, Merriam-Webster defines joy almost identical as happiness, "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires." Again, this definition is rooted in environmental causes. But if one were to examine the causes of joy, that ranges from "pleasures caused by over all contentment to soul satisfying incidents. " Yet I think there is a significant nuance that is missed regarding how these terms have been used historically. Joy is rooted in one's being rather than one's circumstance.

Historical Differences in Terms

Etymologically, happiness means "lucky," from hap "chance, fortune". In most settings, this term first meant "lucky." Joy, on the other hand, meant ""feeling of pleasure and delight." Nowhere does this say that joy necessarily has to be rooted in one circumstance...although it can potentially be found there but is not limited to just that usage. Thus, I think historically this nuance has been captured. Now I am not going to make a huge deal over how we use this word today, because our language has transformed to make this word mean something different. But I think it is important to make the distinction between these two words in regards to this discussion because it does make a difference in the fact that the Bible calls Christians to be be joyful.

Application of Discussion

Let's look at a few examples. In the Bible, James 1:2 says this, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." (ESV) Now, how is this possible if we use the term that is so often associated with circumstances? This verse is not calling us to deny the situation we are in and it will undoubtedly at times make us unhappy. But the joyful person will realize something greater is happening here. James 1:3-4 tell us what, "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (ESV) The joyful person has the proper mindset realizing that something greater than being happy in their immediate circumstance . This circumstance is working on them, helping them to become more Christlike (or what God intends for them to be like) and will matter much greater in the light of eternity rather than having a narrow view of problems.

If we look at the book of Philippians, here we see the Apostle Paul exhorting others to rejoice (a word that truly is synonymous with joy) numerous times. Yet understanding the historical background of the book, one would come to find that Paul was sitting in jail and that his jail sentence could potentially end in death by execution. Now how in world is it that Paul can make such an exhortation rotting away in prison? It is because he had a focus that extended beyond his immediate circumstance to eternity....he even mentions he had peace in this situation.

What Should I do with this?

The point of this post is to remind you of the fact that Christians are not called to be emotion driven but to think through the lens of Scripture about a situation and keep in mind the bigger picture. Can you imagine if Christ would have only looked at the immediate context of his impending sacrificial death upon our behalf and acted upon His emotions? He had real joy by looking beyond His immediate situation and knowing what lied ahead, both that He was accomplishing God's will (seeking to bring glory to God the Father and bringing redemption to fallen humanity) and that this would not be the ultimate end (He had hope rooted in eternity). I challenge you to think about your life, whether you have real joy or whether you are living by emotions, driven by a quest for quick-fixes of happiness. No doubt happiness can come from having real joy...but as a by-product, it is not the primary goal.

Maybe you are searching for real joy and don't know Christ. You can have it in Him. I encourage you to seek for true happiness in Him. If you don't know how, contact me, I would consider it a privilege to show you.

Resources for further study:

When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy by John Piper
Various Resources by John Piper on Joy
Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture by David Powlison

To Sing Or Not to Sing-That is the Question

2008-09-24T08:26:00.004-05:00

Note: This post was written by Pastor Rick Oliver, Senior Pastor of Portage Avenue Baptist Church in Portage, IN.

“It’ll never work!”

“We tried it and nobody was happy!”

“All you’ll do is make every body angry!”

Those were some of the dire predictions that our leadership was given if we tried to incorporate hymns and contemporary music in our worship services. We were counseled to either have one or the other but definitely not both! I have to admit that I was kind of perplexed in which way to lead. I was in the process of studying worship and music and had people pulling me in both directions. As I talked with many others about this subject, it seemed as though God did not provide any clear answers for His people about this. Other pastors and other churches were struggling also. Arguments have erupted. Divisions have formed. Church splits have occurred. But, me thinks that He has given us answers. The problem is that we have mouths to speak, fingers to point, and feet to walk out but we don’t have ears to hear.

Jesus clarified it for me. No, He didn’t give me a vision or a dream. He didn’t even appear to me when I was shaving. In fact, it was something that He said about 2,000 years ago.

“You mean Jesus gave us some plain instructions about blended services?” you ask. “Did He tell us whether to sing hymns or praise songs?” You want to know. Well, I believe that He did give us the answers we’re looking for.

In Matthew 22:35-40, I believe that Jesus gave us the answer to blended worship services. He told us to love God and love others. No, He did specifically mention music but I believe that He covered it. Please, understand, this article is not about whether hymns are sacred and contemporary music is worldly. That is another question for another article. This discussion is about churches that do not believe that contemporary music is of the devil and therefore have no problem using them in their worship services. The question is more about do we sing all contemporary praise songs or all hymns or both.

I am convinced that worship is about loving God. When we come together to worship our God it should primarily be about showing our love for Him. In loving the Lord we should strive to obey Him. Jesus states in John 14:15 that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. So there is the answer. Our worship services ought to be about loving God and loving others.

We all have preferences in worship music. But worship should not be first and foremost about me. It should be about God and others. Those who prefer hymns must learn to sing praise songs and those who prefer to sing praise songs must be willing to sing hymns. It’s about worshipping in spirit and in truth. It’s about expressing our love - it’s not about getting our way! So I have become convinced that we need to sing both. I challenge our worshippers to sing in worship to God no matter which type of songs we’re singing. Make a joyful noise!

In Ephesians 4:1-3 we are told to act like Christians, be humble and love each other. We are also admonished to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Are you eager to show your love to Christ in this area by maintaining the unity of the Spirit. Do you sing…no matter which songs are being sung? Or do you shut down your worship for the Lord during that time? Do you refuse to love others at that time? If you do, then you’re not loving God either.

I have my preferences and I’m sure that you do to. But as far as I’m concerned, we will continue to sing hymns and praise songs at our church because I see it as a matter of worship to our Lord. I see the blended music service as an opportunity to truly worship God by loving Him and loving others. I am convinced that pleases the Lord. But you know, blended services can also reveal a selfish, self-serving heart! Do you have to have music your way before you can joyfully sing and cheerfully worship God? Do your facial expressions and body language reveal your preferences during the song time? When your church is singing a song that you don’t prefer and someone glances your way does your demeanor express worship or agitation? Be eager to maintain unity and be eager to love others.

By the way, have you ever thought about what type of music we’ll be singing in heaven? It may all be new songs. Uh, oh, I may have just ruined heaven for some. I hope not!

I can't....because I'm a Christian

2008-09-18T11:21:00.004-05:00

No doubt there are many things that Christians should abstain from....we are sinners living in a sinful world, trying to live in a manner that is pleasing to a holy God. It's evident that we are going to run into things that we should not do because it would be sin. But why do we have to promote ourselves as, "I'm a Christian so I don't do this or that." There's so much more to Christianity than that. Do we really think Christianity is going to be enticing to others if they just see it as a list of rules no one can do that they want to do? (I'm not just talking about a certain group of Christians, I am talking about Christianity as a whole.) Why don't we emphasize the things we can do? Do we really believe that life in Christ is liberating from the power of sin to live a meaningful life before God or do we just believe that we have the power to not do a bunch of things we want to do?

For an exegesis class this year in seminary I've had to do some work in the book of Titus and I think this book really captures this point well. In this book we see Paul writing to a fellow laborer in Christ, Titus. Paul left Titus in Crete so that he could appoint pastors over the churches in the area and take care of some false teaching that is going on there. Then Paul instructs Titus what he should teach the people....he calls these things "sound doctrine." When we think of doctrine we think of a bunch of book stuff that people labored over to understand things regarding the Bible (like, "who is God?"; "How was Christ fully God and fully man?"; "How does the Trinity work?"; etc.). These things no doubt are of importance...but doctrine is so much more than knowing a bunch of stuff. Doctrine is to be lived out in our lives. We are to live in a certain way because of biblical doctrine. And in Titus 2:2-10 Paul tells Titus that sound doctrine is teaching the people how they should live. This explanation Paul gives of how people should live is not a list of just don't do this and don't do that but gives many things that a Christian can and should do. So why do we as Christians spend so much time thinking about what we can't do and not do what we should do? In verse 10 Paul tells Titus that Christians should live these things out in their life so that they will make the doctrine of God our Savior appealing to non-Christians. Then in Titus 2:11-15 Paul gives Titus as to why we should live in a way that makes the doctrine of God our Savior appealing.

All of that to say, we as Christians need to think more about how we can be pro-active in our Christianity rather than just abstaining from doing things. I believe if we focused on what we can do, our lives would seem more meaningful and Christianity would be more enticing to others. A friend of mine likes to joke about how when he was in school, at a fairly conservative Christian school, they had a saying, "I don't smoke, I don't chew, and I don't go with girls that do." Now in dating, one shouldn't want to have a girlfriend/boyfriend that does these things. But as I was thinking about Titus, I couldn't help but think about that statement and that wouldn't it have been better to emphasize the things they do look for in a girlfriend/boyfriend instead of just what they don't do?

Let me leave you with this, Christianity should be so much more than a list of restrictions. What's it going to take to have a pro-active approach to Christianity in your life emphasizing what you can do rather than just being bitter/frustrated because you can't do a bunch of things?

Sacred Music: Lyrics versus Style

2008-09-16T09:53:00.012-05:00

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, 'See, this is new'? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after."
-Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 (ESV)

The other day I had a conversation with a friend and we were talking about the subject of music and the church. As I was thinking about this issue of divisiveness music potentially can cause in church I had to wonder, is this some new phenomenon of how people perceive music or is this something that has been with humanity a long time and will continue to be with us? This is not going to be an all-encompassing post talking about every facet of music (you can look at one of my earlier posts for further resources on doing a study on music), but to examine mainly lyrics versus style of music. Then I will look to apply what I have said.

Lyrics

[Disclaimer: I do realize that there are some out there who could care less about the content of lyrics that are being used in worship music. This could be due to ignorance or maybe the worship service is really about worshiping themselves and having a happy feeling than it is about raising praise and adoration to God. This can happen both in traditional and contemporary churches and I am not going to blanket label anyone on either side of this issue as such. I think there are many conservative and contemporary churches that really have a love for God and are trying their best to serve Him...but there are those who really are serving the kingdom of self rather than seeking to serve the kingdom of God. Therefore, my post is going to come with the presupposition that there are those who truly seeking to worship God well and are concerned with the content of the lyrics that they are using in a worship service.]

Whether one were to look at churches that use conservative music or contemporary music, you would probably most notably find that they are both concerned with the content of the music. These churches would want to sing hymns and songs that are doctrinally accurate, biblical sound, and directed in some way at bringing praise to God. Now you or I may have a preference as to what type of song writing we prefer, but the basic tennet is the same in what we would look for in the lyrical content of the song. (For example: I personally am not big on the song-writing of men such as Ira Sankey which tells more of a testimony than it does lifting praise to God...but I do not necessarily have a problem with that style of song-writing. I think it has the components to be considered biblical, just not my preference.)

No doubt this is realized in many circles and as I will show shortly, many times the contemporary songs of previous generations will later be picked up by nearly all conservative churches. But let us look at style, this seems to be more where the issue lies.

Style of Music

Styles of music can be one of the most polarizing aspects of the music debate. For example, I could take a tame song such as "Before the Throne of God Above" [the Vicki Cook version] sing it in a conservative manner and no one would have a problem with it. Now if I take that same song and sing with a more contemporary accompaniment, that is where the real problem for some will come in. Let's think this through biblically and see if there is a biblical precedent or mandate that we can follow to understand these measures.

Biblical Data

[Disclaimer: I am not going to do an all-encompassing treatment of biblical passages dealing with music. For that I recommend seeing an earlier post on Resources for Study of Music. Also, I will not do a comprehensive study of history of Christian music either.]

If we were to look at the New Testament, very little is said about music. We do see that as the early church gathered together, they would sing psalms and spiritual songs. We have very little idea of what these songs may have been (although it is believed there may be portions of them in Paul's writings in the epistles) and we have no data as to what style of music they were put to.

If we were to look at the Old Testament, we do know that the Psalms were sung in synagogue and at certain Jewish events. Now if we were to look at what the style, we find very little data as well. First, let's look at 1 Chronicle 23-25. Here we see God's instruction to those working in the Temple. No doubt things are much different in the New Testament era (since we don't worship in the Temple or have a series of priests from the tribes of Israel working there) but we do notice a few things.

I am not going to quote the entire section here but we do see that there were 38,000 Levites asssigned to Temple service. Of those 38,000, 4,000 were assigned to being musicians. There were 3 large families that served this role and from these families there were 288 skilled musicians who instructed the remaining 3,712 Levites. So we can see that God placed a great emphasis upon worship. We also see that these men had training in the theology of the Old Testament. Thus I think we can conclude that God saw music as an important aspect of worship, he wanted it done well, and he wanted it to be biblical in content.

The next section we want to look at deals with instruments that were used at one point in worship. Again we do not know the style that was used, but we can draw a few things from this text. Let's look at Psalm 150:

"Praise the LORD!Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!"

Looking here we see the fact that Psalmist is calling the people to praise God with some ways that many in churches may not feel too comfortable with today. Just imagine with me for a minute that someone is using tambourine and dance in a worship service. Some of us would shun such a service...but God had this recorded in Scripture. We also see that strings, pipe, and cymbals were used...these are some other instruments some of us may not feel that comfortable with either. But he even goes so far as to say loud clashing cymbals. These are things recorded in God's Word that were used in the Old Testament to worship God. So if we were to go solely by biblical mandate as to what we can use to worship, we're in trouble. Chances are most churches today aren't busting out the tambourine and dance in conservative circles. And also, there is not piano and organ listed, so those things are out.

But we can't try impose things from God's Word on our life without thinking about how they apply. I think that simply this section tells us that many instruments can be used to praise God. No doubt many people have used these instruments to praise themselves or desecrate the name of God...but people have done that without instruments or with the "traditional" instruments of the piano and organ. The instruments in and of themselves cannot be construed as unbiblical. We should be seeking to praise God with the instruments He has given man the ability to create and use.

Historical Data of Music

Well, maybe the Bible mentions some instruments that I don't like, but surely I can look at the history of song writing in the church see that a conservative style of music we use today has always been used. Think about this for a minute: men such as Isaac Watts, Ira Sankey, John Calvin, and John Peterson were criticized by some in their day for the music they wrote and some considered it to be blasphemy. Hmm, those are people rarely anyone today will contend as being "unbiblical" in their words or their style of music.

Let me share a few examples of how music was perceived in the past:

John Calvin
-Calvin hired two secular song writers to put theology to music. This was preposterous to some and the Queen of England said that these were vulgar tunes and mocked Calvin by referring to them as "Geneva jigs."

16oos-Pastor Benjamin Keech
-Keech was a Baptist minister that introduced hymn singing to English Baptist churches. He began teaching the children and they loved it. But then the parents heard about it. The parents were convinced that singing was foreign to evangelical worship. Finally Keech convinced his people to sing when Communion was taken because of Mark 14:26. Then 6 years later they agreed to sing on public days of Thanksgiving. Then it took another 14 years before the people agreed to sing hymns regularly and 22 people left the church over it.

1700s-Jonathan Edwards
-During the time of Edwards, men in churches sang without any reference to pitch or time. The women were not permitted to sing at all. The churches began to introduce a new way of singing in which the entire congregation arrived at the same point in the hymn at the same time in approximately the same key. This caused all sorts of controversy with churches bickering over this issue.

This list could go on and on. Many song writers and song that no one thinks about today as being worldly and unbiblical were condemned in their day. Even when the piano and organ were first introduced into the church, there was great controversy and they were shunned by some. I will leave you with a quote opposing new music in the church:

"It's too new. It's often worldly, even seems blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style. Because there are so many new songs, you can't learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrument music rather than on godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances, making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It's a money making scheme. Some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose." -Worship....Rediscovering the Missing Jewel by Allen and Borror

You may look at the above statement and think, that sounds like so and so's book or a statement they made the other day. Would you be surprised if I told you this statement was made by a pastor in 1723 regarding hymn singing?

All this to say that we can see a trend that has happened in church music over the years. We have no biblical precedence as to the style of music that can be used and rather than uniting Christians, this has become an issue whether we can fellowship with one another.

(For further basic information on music history.)

Application

Let's think through a few songs on this issue. First is a song taken from Psalm 139, here are the lyrics:

O Lord You have searched me
And You know my ways
You perceive all my thoughts from afar
Your hand is upon me wherever I go
Before I form each word
You already know

If I rise on the wings of the dawn You are there
If I rest on the far side of the sea
Your love hems me in both behind and before
You have laid Your hand upon me
You have laid Your hand upon me

Where can I flee from Your presence, O Lord
If I sleep in the depths You are there
Your day will consume all the shadows of night
The dark cannot hide
From Your brilliant light

That looks like a pretty good song to be sung in a traditional service. The content is very biblical and doctrinally sound. Yet if I took this song and put it to a contemporary style, some would shun me. (This is a conservative contemporary song, by the way. You can listen to it online as well.)

As this song shows, the issue is not about content of the words but about the style that is used. Well, surely we can find a biblical reason why we can't use this style. But where? But we've been using the same songs for 2,000 years in churches, why change now? As I showed before, that's not true at all.

Let's look at another song entitle, "How Great Is Our God":
The splendor of the King
Clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light
And darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice,
And trembles at His voice

Chorus:
How great is our God
Sing with me
How great is our God
And all will see
How great, how great is our God

Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the End,
Beginning and the End
The Godhead, Three in One
Father, Spirit, Son
The Lion and the Lamb, Lion and the Lamb

We can look at this song and see that there seems to be nothing unbiblical about the lyrics here either. But what if I told you this was a song written by a very well-known contemporary Christian musician today? Chris Tomlin wrote this song and performs it in a contemporary style. Once again, the content is not the issue, the style in which it is presented is the issue for some.

Now let's examine a well-known hymn in many hymnals called "Faith of our Fathers":

Faith of our fathers, living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whenever we hear that glorious Word!

Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers, we will strive
To win all nations unto Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
We all shall then be truly free.

Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife;
And preach Thee, too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.

Well that looks like a pretty good song. I don't see anything in that song that I have a problem with biblically in the lyrics. What if I told you this song was written by Frederick Faber, an Anglican clergyman who converted to Catholicism and ran a Catholic diocese in England? This song was originally written talking about the Catholic faith in opposition to the Protestants in England. Look at the original last verse not included in our hymnals:

Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
Shall win our country back to Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
England shall then indeed be free.

Now, this song has been changed and although I personally prefer not to sing it, I'm not going to break fellowship with others who do and I would even sing it in a worship service choosing to love those who do like this song. I wanted to point from this song that many do not know it's historical background and yet we sing it without any realization as to where it has come from, whole-heartily accepting it in many circles.

I believe the key to the music issue is with style. I also believe that this issue is largely driven by preference. Why does this issue have to divide churches like it has for generations in the past? Why not make this the generation that changes the historical trend of churches? What a great opportunity to bring unity to the body of Christ!

I am not saying that you cannot have preferences come out in ministering the Word of God with either contemporary or traditional music..but preferences in music cannot be put on the level of Scripture either. But what I am saying is, rethink this issue. Don't take my word for it either, research it yourself...but don't research it with a bias that you are right, everyone else is wrong, and you are going to put your ideas in the Bible that may not be there. Let God's Word be your guide, don't super-impose yourself on God's Word.

Being More Christ-like

2008-09-03T12:16:00.004-05:00

I am currently reading an excellent book by Tremper Longman III called Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind. This book is extremely challenging and I will give a thorough review at a later time, but I wanted to leave you with a portion of a paragraph he wrote that should challenge us all:

"Becoming like Jesus is the goal of our existence, and the simple truth is that Jesus studied the Bible. He knew the Bible. He often settled controversies with His religious opponents by the Bible (see Matthew 22:29). His life was guided by the Bible (John 13:18). He shared the great teachings of the Bible concerning Himself with His disciples (Luke 24:32). He expected all of God's people to be diligent students of the Bible, so much so that when they displayed insufficient biblical understanding, He reprimanded them harshly: 'Haven't you read this Scripture?' (Mark 12:10).

We are called to imitate Christ, and His own actions stir us to follow Him. If we desire to be like Him, we will become diligent students of the Bible. But let's take this further: if we desire to be like Christ and are growing to be more like Him, we must practice being intimate with Him on a daily basis." (Reading the Bible With Heart and Mind, page 67).

What a statement. I wonder how many of us, myself included,waste our time even on things we consider to be helping us grow yet neglect the basics of reading the Bible, knowing it, and applying as we should? Do we shame our Lord with our sad understanding of His Word He gave us to guide our live?

Christians and Politics

2008-08-18T11:52:00.005-05:00

This past weekend, John McCain and Barack Obama had a discussion on faith with Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in Southern California. Although I have been thinking about it for quite some time, this got me thinking once again about the relationship of Christians and politics. First off let me say, I think the Bible is sufficient for all of life and Christians should look for vote on political issues through the lens of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I think a Christian has every right to vote as well. I also think that Christians should support some issues of morality but I also think politics have become a hindrance of the ability to Christians to minister in some cases. Also Christians ought to think about the ways in which they support moral issues and whether that is Biblical or not. Let give you a few thoughts as to why I think this is the case.

One doesn't have to look very far to see some nut-job somewhere who claims to be a Christian viciously protesting some cause. I think wackos like that give Christians a bad name and many think that's what being a Christian is about. They see Christianity as nothing more than some back-water mystic belief system that doesn't make any logical sense and you have to be a lunatic to be part of this group. Now maybe that's a little extreme but I think we as Christians have to change the perception people have of Christians...and believe me, in some places that's not far off. The Bible calls us to live in a manner that we incarnate the love of Christ. Do you think someone like the person I described above incarnates the love of Christ? Absolutely not. They are more like an extreme version of the Pharisees of Jesus' day. I think many supposed Christians (I say supposed because chances are some of these people claiming to be Christians giving us a bad name are not Christians at all) are no different than anyone around them and sadly sometimes it is their political views, or other selfish ambitions that drive them, not a love for Christ that drives them. (As a side-note, if you are wondering, the working definition I am using of love that I believe is Biblical says this: doing good for someone else's benefit, not expecting anything in return, whether you feel like it or not.)

So you might be thinking, you've bashed some people that claim to be Christians and talked about what a warped view the world has of what Christians should be but what should I do with that? Look to change perceptions people have of Christianity. You know Christ calls us to be so much more than people who have a Christian label and look to be self-serving. He calls us to glorify God in the way that we live (1 Cor. 10:31 and 2 Cor. 5:9). He calls us to love those who are around us and share the good news of what hope they can have in Him. This doesn't mean that we should look to convert everyone with your political ideas but meet them where they are, show them love, and then show them hope they can have in Jesus. Is anyone really going to respond to some harsh person that has no interest in incarnating the love of Christ but showing you how much better they are than you?

If we look at Jesus life in the Gospels, we see an individual who showed love and compassion to prostitutes, beggars, thieves, and a whole host of other people who most of us would look at and say I don't want anything to do with them and I certainly don't want them at my church. Now Jesus was also very aware of their sin, just like He is of anyone else, and that is whole reason He came to die...to offer us deliverance from the horrible consequences of sin. Now if as Christians our main goal is political reform (especially on issues that there is some preference in, such as gun-control, taking care of the environment, economic models, foreign policy, or taxes) I think we have missed the whole point of Christianity, to love God and love others (according to how the Bible has prescribed, not our own ideas.)

Another example we could look at is the life of Paul. Here was a man that was not concerned with his own rights but with furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had all sorts of things happen to him and he was willing to go through those things....joyfully at that! Many of us, if we were thrown into prison on a bogus charge that all we did was tell others about Christ, we would have a fit and our goal would be to get out no matter what it took. We would probably have no interest in reaching out to the other prisoners, the guards, and those who put us in there. Frankly we might even hate some of those people and tell them off any chance we get. But Paul didn't do that. Instead he used those opportunities to further the gospel of Christ and he saw that God was in control of his circumstance. What is that would cause him to do that?

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:43-48, ESV) We might look at that and say, that's some pretty radical living Jesus is talking about...but that's what He's called us who are Christians to do. This is how we meet those who have a need for the Gospel, and Paul realized that.

What controls our motives and actions? If we give all our time to political causes, or even other things such as sports, our house, our career, or a whole host of other things we consider to be important, what does that say about us? I think it says what we are truly living for and that something other than God has taken preeminence in our hearts. Jesus also said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not breaks in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matt. 6:19-21, ESV)

So let me just leave you with this challenge, think about what controls your heart. That is the key to changing what the world thinks of Christians. If we are guided by trying to please God, I don't think that politics or anything else than living for God will ultimately guide us. This will look different for different people since we all are not called to do the same thing or are gifted in the same way but it all has the same Biblical basis for it.

The Music Issue: Resources for Further Study

2008-08-14T14:04:00.011-05:00

I have had a few people as of late ask me to provide them with a list of resources regarding the issue of music, so I thought I would compile them in a post. I will group them into a few categories and say a few preliminary remarks at the beginning of each category. Hopefully this will be a help to those thinking through issues of music in your walk with God.

I know each of us are at different stages of thinking through some of these issues (some much, much further along than me) so I am going to start at what I consider the basics and go from there. Also, there will be quite a few resources listed, because I know some maybe looking for something while others are looking for something entirely different.

Worship

I think an excellent starting point to the issue of music in general is with worship. We need to have the right mindset, no matter where we may come down on this music issue. We need to have hearts that are truly seeking to worship God. We need to come to church ready to worship God, asking the question, "what can I give to God today?" We need to not come to church as critics and view those leading the worship (whether it be singing, teaching, preaching or any other facet of the worship) as people there to entertain us. We should be actively engaging our minds (or hearts, if you prefer that term) in the process of worship. It is amazing to think that one can go to church on a regular basis and never truly worship God, they are worshiping themselves. Read Isaiah 1 and see what God had to say about this issue of worship with Israel.

Second, don't get caught in thinking that worship is just something you do at church. Our lives should be lived in an act of worship to God. When we go to work or school, when we eat, when we are relaxing at home pr ever when we are on vacation we should have a mentality of worship to God. This means seeking to live by His commandments, loving and acknowledging Him in whatever action we may take part in.

Enough preliminary remarks, now let me give you some resources to start in thinking about these issues:

Here is a few basic books, but by no means an exhaustive list

The Ultimate Priority by John MacArthur (Easy read, very small basic book)

Engaging with God by David Peterson (Little bit weightier read but excellent)

Real Worship by Warren Wiersbe (Easy read but excellent)

What Ever Happened to Worship? A Call to True Worship by A.W. Tozer (A classic on worship)

When I Don't Desire God by John Piper (Another small yet excellent work)

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem (His systematic theology is an excellent in "the basics" of Christianity but has a helpful chapter on worship too)

Web Resources:

John Piper on Worship (He has much to say and says it well)

Various Articles on Worship

Christian Liberty

I think one other thing that we as Christians need to understand is the idea of Christian liberty. Paul had much to say on this issue in various epistles and I think a study on this subject alone is worthwhile. I believe the Bible is sufficient for all things in this life but it is not an encyclopedia, telling us how we should live in every moment of everyday in every situation. We need to think critically about things we learn from the Bible and apply them to our lives. And sometimes, there will be areas when one person may have a particular convictions another person may not. We need to be discerning, applying the truths of God's Word to specific areas of our lives. We need to understand that as Christians, God has allowed us to have preferences and some of us may even have different convictions about things. I am not talking about a pluralistic, existential approach to God because His Word is truth and should be our final authority. I will say nothing further but let you investigate it more for yourself.

Here are the Resources:

Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians by James C. Petty (Particularly chapters 6 &7-but also an excellent work on looking at guidance overall as well)

Steve Viars Sermon Series on Christian Liberty (Excellent introductory overview of this topic)

Music

Music is an issue that has become a hot topic in many churches. There are those that are totally against certain types or styles of music. There are others that have a "everything goes" approach to music. There are others that are afraid of this topic and won't talk about it. But what do we do as Christians? Does the Bible say anything on the topic of music? Does one have to have a special understanding of music and a degree in music to make Biblical decisions regarding it? Historically, can we gain any understanding of how churches have approached music? These are just the very tip of the iceberg of questions people have regarding music. I believe that music is no different than any other topic, the Bible has alot to say about it. I don't think one has to have a music degree or very much understanding of how music works to have a Biblical approach to music either. I think more what is needed is a Biblical approach to the Scriptures on this topic. I also don't think that a church has to have traditional or contemporary music in order to worship God well. If a church decides to use solely traditional music to minister and has a Biblical approach to it, then I think that is great. If a church decides to use contemporary music and has a Biblical approach to that, I think that is great as well. Let me give you some resources for further study on this topic and then give you some specific resources.

Worship and Music by Steve Viars (good basic, balanced overview on this topic)
-Or the Booklet on the series

Ministry of Music by Milo Thomspon (available only through email to Dr. Thomspon at milothompson@aol.com-a very good overview with many references to basic historical information on music in the church)

Worship in Spirit and Truth by John Frame

Contemporary Worship Music: A Biblical Defense by John Frame

Music Through the Eyes of Faith by Harold Best (Disclaimer: Recommended to me, not fully familiar with this title)

Worship by the Book Edited by D.A. Carson (Interesting approach to worship and that is why I put it in this category)

Free Resources Online:

Institute for Christian Worship at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Much information on Worship in general as well but much found on music and history of Christian music)

Specifics to Those Leading Worship or Overseeing Worship:

Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

Sovereign Grace Worship Resources

Various Issue in the Music Debate

Closing Thoughts

The church where I intern has an approach to music that we want it to 1) be biblical in content and 2) have a blended service of types of music. We are concerned with the fact that we all do have preferences and we see great value in the hymns and songs of the past. But we also recognize that there is value to song writing that goes on today. We see this issue of music and preferences as an opportunity for those in our congregation to love one another. Maybe you prefer contemporary music, what a great opportunity to show you love for God and those who prefer they hymns by taking part in singing them. And the same would be true of those who prefer the hymns. Our pastors are committed to pleasing God in our worship service and we agree with the philosophy of worship at Bethlehem Baptist Church.

I hope you find the above resources helpful. Maybe after all your searching and thinking through issues biblically you still prefer hymns. That is great, if your approach is God-centered and Biblical. Maybe you will prefer contemporary music. If your approach is God-centered and Biblical, that is great as well. Or maybe you will fall in a variety of spots along the spectrum. I believer we have Christian liberty in this issue ad need to be Biblical in our approach rather than taking another's word for these issues or following tradition even when it may not be Biblical.

Let me also leave you with a few resources that I like to use for finding music that you may not be familiar with which our church has used in our blended music:

Sovereign Grace Ministries

Reformed Praise

Let me just say, after this long post, this is not a comprehensive list but some of the resources I've found more helpful. If you know of others, please share them.

Reflections on Year One

2008-08-08T15:20:00.006-05:00

It was about a year ago that my wife and I loaded up our car and moved to Indiana to start our new life. We weren't totally sure what to expect, with my wife starting a new job, me going to school and interning at the church I grew up at, and living at my parent's house. This year has been a year of growth and some excitement. My wife began the time working for a group home but the hours were too demanding. Then she ended up working for a forensic lab which was a good job for her but she desired to do something more challenging and wanted to work with children. God provided an excellent opportunity she is looking forward....In the next few weeks she will be starting a job working with a local elementary school in their reading resource center.
I had an excellent opportunity this past year to lay a very good foundation for studying God's Word for throughout my lifetime. Although it seemed crazy at the time, I've completed a full year's worth of studying Greek and Hebrew at the same time, have a taken a few classes in counseling, have taken some classes in systematic theology, and a course in church history. I feel that God has blessed me with an opportunity to learn in an excellent environment that is not just concerned with academics but with spiritual growth and ministering to others. I have had opportunities to learn with some of the best evangelicals in their fields, but my favorite had to be the week I spent learning from Dr. Paul Tripp. I also have to say I greatly appreciate all the guys at school as well. They have been an encouragement on this journey we all started together. Faith Bible Seminary has done well in it's first year and I believe it will minister to many through the years.

In my internship I have had some excellent opportunities as well. Right before moving from Massachusetts, the church where I minister went through some tough times. There were some disagreements in the leadership that sadly weren't able to be resolved. There is no ill-will wished upon those who left but the best for them both physically and spiritually. But I am very excited about what God has accomplished even out of this conflict. We have been able to reevaluate our ministry and create what we see is some more spiritually based criteria for leadership and refocused the paradigm of our ministry. We are concerned with helping our people grow and reaching out to the community around us with the gospel; this is nothing new but we have been able to approach it in new and innovative ways.

This year we were able to move forward in analyzing what true worship to God means, examining in particular our worship service. We also were able to switch primary preaching and teaching Bible translations to the English Standard Version. Plus we have had some great opportunities for outreach. Then we also examined our constitution and are in the process of making what we see as some much needed changes to be more biblical in our approach to spiritual leadership. I have had the opportunities to lead an adult bible study, start a college and career ministry, do a variety of things with planning for our worship service, be part of the leadership that plans the future for our church, and the opportunity to minister to a variety of individuals in many ways. I feel I can't include all the opportunities God has given me the privilege to take part in but others include: teaching in the Family Conference, being part of Vacation Bible School, teaching on Sunday Evenings, working on a variety of large and small maintenance projects and doing whatever else may be needed. The church has seen growth both spiritually and numerically this past year and I know it is because of God's goodness and I believe we have honored Him with how we have tried to focus on what He would have for His church.

God has really blessed this past year and I look forward to year two for seminary and the internship at my church. My wife will have the opportunity to work with children at the school and will be running a children's ministry at our church. I will be working with the youth at our church, with the college and career age, and in a variety of ways in the church. I will also be starting exegesis classes in Greek and Hebrew with a few other classes as well. I am excited to begin things. But for now, I am spending the next few days vacationing on the beautiful shores of Maine with my wife's family at the Anchorage Inn in York Beach followed by a few days with friends and family in the great Boston area (I will post pictures of the trip at a later time) .

Who Stole My Church? A Book Review

2008-07-17T21:23:00.002-05:00

I recently had the opportunity to read Who Stole My Church? by Gordon MacDonald. I was pleasantly surprised by the unique approach that MacDonald took in this book; instead of a “how-to” in change within the church, this book is a fictional novel that deals with issues that churches face in today’s culture.

It was a very easy read that I could not put down, yet it also spurred me to think deeper on a variety of issues. But I have to say, the great feat of this book was the overall message which looked at the big picture of the goal of the church, rather than focusing on minor petty issues. Some in this book got the message while others did not. I believe it is an accurate description of the struggles that churches in general are facing in today’s society.

For fear of ruining your reading experience, I will say nothing further on this book but that I highly recommend Who Stole My Church? By Gordon MacDonald to everyone. Believe me, it will draw you in and keep your interest.

Greatness for God

2008-06-12T15:55:00.002-05:00

What is Greatness for God?

My father and I were talking a few months ago about what it means to do great things for God. I am so thankful for the many men and women who have labored to have some form of a ministry that is very successful; that maybe a pastor who has a large church and is effecting the lives of many, it could be a woman who is running a counseling facility for battered and abused women, it could be scholar who has put tools into the hands of those studying the Scriptures, or it could be a wide host of others as well. There is no doubt that God uses some men and women for great things. But the question is, are only those who are successful (by physical standards) the only ones who do great things for God? What does it really mean to do something great for God? Does it take a great natural ability as a leader? Or how about understanding of the Word of God? How about a person who has a keen business sense and is able to really make a ministry flourish?

Bible Character to Ponder: The Weak

There are some Biblical examples we have of people that we given extraordinary strength to do things for God…but not all of them used it wisely. Think about Samson for a minute with me. In the book of Judges we are told that Samson was a man of amazing physical strength. In Judges 15 were told of one account where Samson killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. Wow! I can’t even imagine someone being able to take down 2 men coming at him with a donkey jawbone, let alone 1,000. But if you look at Samson’s overall life, he didn’t really have this great love of God. Sure he did a few huge things….and they were largely selfish. He was in Israel for a short amount of time and when his life ended, he did relatively very little. This is just one example of someone who had great abilities but did very little for God. Now don’t get me wrong, I think there are many men and women who have had great abilities and talents who have not wasted them. But the question remains what is greatness for God? I think Samson could have done so much more with what God had given him.

Biblical Character to Ponder: The Strong

As I think over a few men who did great things of God (Enoch, Daniel, Ezra, Samuel, David, Moses, Joseph, Paul), these men did have some gifts and abilities. Yet the thing that sticks out about them to me is that they truly loved God and faithfully served Him. They lived day in and day out, sometimes as a leader other times not, but with faithfulness and a love for God; I think that is what makes someone great for God. Think about Enoch for a minute. The Bible doesn’t tell us that Enoch was a man who built civilizations or was a mighty warrior? The Bible tells us that he walked with God. Maybe you’re asking yourself, what am I getting at in all this?

True Greatness for God

I think we have to stop looking according to human standards of greatness and look to God’s standards. He tells us that we all have the opportunity to win a full reward…how is that possible when all of us will not be a Paul or a David or a Moses? It is possible by living for God wherever He has placed you, in your life. I think it’s 40, 50 or even 90 years of consistent living for God. Sure there will be ups and downs but staying close to Him for the duration of your life is what greatness is.

Modern Examples

At my church we recently honored an older couple who have been a part of the church since it was founded…and they were part of another church before that. This man worked at a brickyard and his wife stayed at home. They serve God where He has them. They taught children’s Sunday school for years, hosted backyard bible clubs years ago, he mowed the grass, they brought children to church and continue to have a spirit of wanting to grow to be more pleasing to God. Recently the man made a statement that he hopes he’s never too old to change…and he’s in his 80’s. That’s what I think greatness is for God. It doesn’t have to be something phenomenon that will rock civilization as we know it. It may not even be working fulltime in ministry somewhere. I think it is consistently being faithful in your service and love for God.

I recently read a story by Paul Tripp in his book War of Words which I though fit well what I am talking about. Let me share it with you:

“My father-in-law was taken to the hospital with an advanced case of bone cancer. He lay in bed in severe pain, yet he was not angry. He did not complain or ask, ‘Why me?’ My wife stood at the end of his bed watching this once-strong man lie frail and broken. At the end of our visit he asked if he could pray. It was a prayer we will never forget. The first thing he did was to thank God for his circumstances. He said that he knew that God was good and that everything he did in his children’s lives was good even when we don’t understand it. Then he asked God to help him be a good father and a good example to his children during his suffering. He finally thanked God for the rich life of blessings he had been given. This man was not a theologian. There had been a time when I struggled to respect him because he did not seem to understand truths I thought I had mastered in seminary. I have since come to realize that his life demonstrated a grasp of God’s sovereignty that I do not have. I long to have such rest in the middle of trouble! I long for my talk to be as wholesome, edifying, and worshipful as his was. I no longer struggle to respect my father-in-law. I would be very thankful if my sons turned out to be like him….In the moment of his great suffering, his talked encouraged and strengthened the people around him and brought glory to God. Why? Because he really did believe, when the rubber met the road, that God has a perfect plan and is in complete control. He really did want everything he did and said to bring God glory, and he did not think that personal suffering excused him from that high calling.”

So I challenge you, whoever you may be, to think about what it means for you to do something great for God. And let me leave with this final passage from the Bible as an exhortation and an encouragement: Do not be deceived:

“God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:7-9, ESV)

College and Career Age Hiking Expedition 2008

2008-05-20T12:01:00.016-05:00

The College and Career Group at Portage Avenue Baptist Church spent this past week at Potato Creek in North Liberty, Indiana. I thought I would share some of the pictures from that trip. We spent the day hiking and out on the water, enjoying the amazing outdoors which God created.

The Amazing Mind: Part 3: Disciplining the Mind Towards Godliness

2008-05-20T11:02:00.005-05:00

As I said in the last post, the mind is geared towards evil due to our sinful nature. Yet as I also said, there is hope in Jesus Christ, if we know Him and are a child of God. Let's look at one particular text that tells us how we should discipline our minds.

Philippians 4:8: Background

Philippians 4:8 is part of a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Philippi while he was in jail. If any of us were sitting in jail, our first inclination would be to a letter complaining and telling the recipient to do everything in their power to get us out of jail. Yet Paul's letter is unique; in it we find different forms of the word "joy" used 16 times.

Paul recognized that God was sovereignly in control of this situation. Paul also wrote the book of Romans and in it he said, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (Romans 8:28,29, ESV) Paul knew the concept of these verses and put them into practice in his own life and that is how he was able to write so much about joy while being held in prison.

Philippians 4:8: The Passage

Philippians 4, Paul is giving some closing instructions to the people in Philippi. In verse 4 he tells them to rejoice in things that go on; in verse 5 he tells them to be forebearing; in verse 6 he tells them not to be anxious but thankful and devoted to prayer; and then in verse 7 he tells them that God gives peace (which I think probably greatly comforted Paul in his plight, he says that God gives peace twice in this chapter). Then we come to verse 8, which says, "finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8, ESV) Here Paul is telling them how they ought discipline their thinking. In a moment we will get to some specifics of what we can do. I am not going to exegete this texts in thos small amount of time. And I am not going to give very narrow specific applications of this verse either, because they could be applied differently to a different person's circumstance depending upon what they are dealing with. But I do want to look at the general concept that we learn here. The general idea of this verse was nicely summed up by William Hendricksen in The New Testament Commentary of Philippians, "Anything all that is a matter of moral and spiritual excellence, so that it is the proper object of praise, is the right pasture for the Christian mind to graze in. Nothing that is of a contrary nature is the right food for thought." So now what do we do with this concise phrase?

Philippians 4:8: The Application

I think looking at the general concept of this verse, we could say that we should us this verse as a filter. Let's think for a moment of how a filter works: a filter may have a variety of things that are "poured" in it. Now not everything that is "poured" in it is worthwhile. Thus those things that are not worthwhile are filtered out and we are left with a purer product. This can be done with the mind as well. The filter should be the Word of God. In here we can find those things that are true, just, honorable, pure, lovely and commendable. Those are the things that we should think about. We need to know the Scriptures and look to apply it to situations of our life. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the Word of God says that it is useful in all areas of life to help mold us into what we should be. Now let me give you are few basic priniciples that, loosely applied, could be useful as well.

1. What do you put into your mind?

On a daily basis, what are things that you allow into your mind? Essentially, anything we come in contact with by our senses is brought into our mind. That means the things we watch on tv, look at on the internet, listen to on the radio or your ipod or other mobile device, things that we hear others talk about, the places that we go and the things we read all have an impact upon our mind. What are you allowing into your mind? Do you work at pleasing God in any of these areas? Or are you even thinking about the things that you allow in? Are seeking your own pleasure and that may mean things that are immoral, crude or violent? All of these things have an impact upon us. What we need to do is to discipline the things that we allow in. That may mean getting rid of some things in our lives. That may mean choosing not to go to particular places.

But it doesn't just stop with getting rid of these things. We need to replace them with something. We need to replace it with those things that are true, honorable, pure, lovely, just and commendable. I'm not going to give you a list of things that you must do, all circumstances are different. But what I can tell you is that the Bible gives us instruction on what we should allow into our mind. Maybe you have a hard time deciferring those things, talk to your pastor or a mature Christian friend and seek their advice. But what we do put into our minds has an effect on what we think upon.

2. What do you keep in your mind?

Things will come into our mind. This may happen due to what we see or hear. You can't live in an isolated environment where sin does not exist. But what do you do in those situations? Do you dwell on those things or do you make a choice to cast them from your mind and not dwell on them? When circumstances come up that allow you mind to wander, maybe into worrying, how do you respond? Do you dwell on those things or do you turn to God and remember what he says about such circumstances. What we keep in our mind will also have an impact upon our thinking.

3. What comes out of your mind?

Another great ability that God has given us is to allow our minds to be a buffer as to what comes out. As we stated in the last post, the Scriptures tell us that a person is sinful. We don't have to look outside of our own being to find means of sinning. Thus, we need to think about what comes out as well. That could be in what we say or in body language. Maybe someone is complaining. You could feed their complaining by joining in with them, or you could choose to remind them of the promises of God and think about the positive in that circumstance.

The mind is an amazing thing. This is just a very, very rough overview of thinking about how we can discipline our minds to be more pleasing to God. The key is biblical change and it is a lifelong process. Hopefully this gave you some things to think about and to delve further into understanding the mind. I would point you to the sermons I did on this subject but, sadly, we had technical difficulties that day and the sermon was not recorded well. But I do recommend the resources I pointed out in post number 2 on the mind. Those are a great starting place.

The Mind Part 2: The State of the Mind

2008-04-22T13:42:00.005-05:00

As mentions in Part 1 of the mind, God has truly blessed us with an amazing gift, the mind. Yet because of our sinful tendencies, the mind can be used for good or for evil. Let me explain what I mean a little further

Example of the Mind Being Used For Evil

No doubt each of us could name some sinister individual who has used their mind for evil. Many people in our society would look to someone such as a serial killer, Like Charles Manson, or a tyrant, such as Kim Jong in North Korea, as those who are have used their mind for evil. Each of us may have a different take on who we see as evil. And while most of us would not be prone to have minds that are so given to evil as a serial killer or Kim Jong, I don't think we have to look far to see the mind being use for evil...all we have to do is evaluate ourselves.

Let's think for a moment about something that seems so subtle, and sometimes innocent, yet really shows humanity's ability to use the mind of evil. That which I am referring to is motives. How many of us have done something, seeming to have pure and innocent motives, yet our intentions have been to gain something for our own benefit? Maybe sometimes our motives are driven by what we can gain or sometimes by issues of being prideful or even a fear of what others may think of us...whatever the issue of our motives, we can see that the mind has been used for an intention other than what is seen by others in our actions. I would also say that this is a simple example of the evil of the mind. There are many more examples of the mind being used in such subtle ways for evil. This is something we have to grapple with; our minds, when allowed to drift to our own pleasures, can lead us to evil thoughts, motives, etc.

Biblical Basis for This Conclusion

Now might be saying to yourself, where I am getting this from? Is this some idea that I've just observed that has led me to this conclusion? Is it based upon a study of philosophical ideas? Actually, the Bible speaks to this issue of the mind. (The Bible uses a few different terms, including "the heart", which I believe refers to the mind.) In a few key passages, we see what we are told about this evil that is in the mind of a human: The prophet Jeremiah said that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all else. (Jeremiah 17:9) James, the half brother of Jesus and early church leader, said "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" (James 4:1, ESV) Every person has this inborn inclination towards using the mind for evil intentions. We are born sinners and live in sin cursed bodies.

What Do We Do About This?

Although I will address this further in the next post on the mind, we have hope in Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that those who make Christ Lord and Savior of their life, they are a new creation in Him. Now that does not mean that we no longer live in sin-cursed bodies but we now have help in this battle. That help comes from God. We still have to work at changing our minds but there is hope. In the next post on the mind I will deal more with some of these issues.

Recommended Further Resource:
In the Arena of the Mind by John Vandegriff and the study guide

The Mind Part 1: How Amazing The Mind Is!

2008-04-15T16:25:00.005-05:00

During my church's Sunday evening teaching time, we are currently going through a series on disciplining ourselves towards godliness. (We use our Sunday evenings as a time for challenging one another to apply God's Word to specific areas of our lives. It may include teaching but also we have a "small-group" style discussion and look at how we can apply what we have learned throughout the week.) Anyways, currently we are dealing with a variety of areas of our lives where we can be more disciplined and grow in Christ-likeness. I had the privilege of doing a two-part study on the discipline of the mind and thought I would share a few thoughts on the mind with you.

The mind is an amazing thing. When I was a student at Valparaiso University, I had the opportunity to take a few classes that very briefly dealt with issues of scientific study of the mind. (I am by no means a scientist in dealing with such issues. This was merely a liberal arts class dealing with some of these issues.) It was astounding, all the scientific research that has yielded remarkable advancements in our understanding of so much of the human, yet so little is known about the mind. Most scientists today would agree that the mind is somehow located in the brain and that it functions as a "control center" of a person yet they have no idea how and relatively no way to truly test it.

I found one study we looked at especially interesting. The issue was whether chemical reactions taking place in the brain caused certain emotional reactions or are they are by-product of the emotions. All that could be done was to test various instances when this occurs yet very few scientists agreed or could find conclusive evidence to say what exactly was going on. We know the reactions occur but, as some scientists would agree, I saw this data to show that the chemical reactions were a form of a "by-product" of the emotion itself...the mind triggered the reaction in the brain.

I think study on the disciplining the mind toward godliness showed me how remarkable the true, living God really is. In one book that I consulted has this to say,

"The complex capacity of the human brain is the subject of ever-widening scientific wonder. Its twelve to fourteen billion cells are only a shadow of its complexity...These twelve to fourteen billion brain cells make the human mind an unparalleled computer. The mind's activity has been compared to 1,000 switchboards, each big enough to serve New York City, all running at full speed as they receive and send questions and orders."
-Disciplines of a Godly Man, Kent Hughes

All I can say is, wow! To think about the fact that God created one of these is amazing. But the fact that he has created billions upon billions of these over human history and that he is continuing to create many new ones on a daily basis is incredible...not to mention that God knows every thought, every action, literally everything that happens in each of these minds as well. This astounds me.

Think about what you are able to do on a daily basis because of your mind. First, you're conscious because of it. Second, let's look at just your morning routine: Maybe your stumble out of bed, get in the shower, get out and dry off, you brush your teeth, maybe you shave, get dressed, make yourself some breakfast, some of us have to take care of others (whether it's a child or a number of children, or an elderly parent), then you get in your car, drive to school/work/where ever else you may go. This is a very brief list of what a person does in the morning. Can you imagine if you had to relearn how to do each of these items on a daily basis? Or what if you couldn't remember what you had to do (those you take care of probably wouldn't be too appreciative when you forget them)? Maybe you have a list, maybe things don't get done that day. But God has given us the ability to form habits to do these things, many times without thinking about them and sometimes doing two or more of these things at once. Again, all I can say is wow!

Now let's think about another aspect of the human mind...the memory. What if we couldn't remember who people are (children, spouse, parent, boss, etc.)? What if we couldn't retain things we learned in the past? What if we couldn't remember how to tell our hand to move (which we do without even thinking about it)? That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what our mind is capable of remembering. It is not the norm, and it is sad, when we meet someone who is not able to do these things. Can you imagine if all of us were like that? No one would be able to survive. But God has blessed us with such an immense ability to remember things. Not only do we remember crucial tasks like these I've mentioned but we remember childhood memories (and for some of us that has been quite awhile ago), we remember silly things like what channel is found on a television by a certain number, or where we have left things, or what we read in a book, a magazine or on a road sign. Again, all I can say is wow!

God has been so good to us and we have taken for granted so much of what he has given freely to us all. I haven't even scratched the surface of what the mind is able to do and it is already staggering to me. We should all praise God for His goodness to us...just looking around our world, it screams at us, God created this!!! And He has been so kind to us. I want to close by leaving you with a Psalm praising God:

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

-Psalm 8 (ESV)

Lessons from Those Who Went Before Us

2008-03-28T22:46:00.005-05:00

I greatly enjoy history...that is no doubt why I majored in history in school. This semester for seminary I have the privilege of taking a survey course in Church History through distance education. Dr. Garth Rosell from Gordon-Conwell is the lecturer. He has really helped me to expand my thinking regarding various areas of Church History.

A few weeks ago I listened to a lecture dealing with Martin Luther. Luther was an interesting man who helped to in the reevaluation the theology of the Roman Catholic Church and one who greatly benefited the Reformation. Luther also married an ex-nun and started a family with her as well.

Yet the thing that really struck me about Luther was the time that he spent with his family. Dr. Rosell painted a picture of Luther as he would sit down for a meal with his family and quiz them on a series of catechisms he put together for the children. He went to great strides to ensure his children were grounded in God's Word. Rosell went on to say Luther was a man who was extremely busy as well yet took the time to spend with his family and that should be a challenge for all of us.

I've read other stories of people, sadly even many men in ministry, who have very much neglected their family...I have to wonder why. I do not believe that was God's intention for the family or a man in ministry. I know that at my home church, my father under who I intern and the seminary where I attend all go to great strides to emphasize not neglecting our families. That is something I do not want to happen in my own life. Anyways, just a few thoughts I wanted to share.

The Sovereign Hand of God

2008-03-13T00:19:00.005-05:00

I am always amazed and awestruck by the ways in which God works. I absolutely believe that God is sovereign in all matters. When I think about how vast this world is and how He knows every little detail that happens to any "thing" (not just humanity) at anytime I am amazed. But when I see God work around me, it amazes me even more. To think I am this person with little significance in the grand scheme of the universe and eternity, yet God still knows my actions and watches over me.

I wanted to take this opportunity to praise God for the ways He has worked in the church where I serve. God has really blessed us already this year and there is much excitement here. We've tried to continually evaluate ourselves and be as biblical as we possibly can and I believe that God has blessed our efforts in a variety of ways.

Anyways, to my story. A few weeks ago I came over to the church and noticed that our church van had been rear-ended by another vehicle. The damage seemed pretty extensive. Apparently, while parked in the driveway of one of our pastors that picks up people for church, it had been hit. Whoever hit it drove through his yard, struck the van, drove onto his neighbor's lawn, scraped a light pole and drove off. No one was hurt and no other damage. It was as if the driver was aiming for the van (or at least God was aiming this driver towards the van). The police, at this point, have no leads as to who damaged the vehicle. Well, our insurance company totaled vehicle.

We have a large segment of people that we pick up in this vehicle. We may not necessarily have or want a far reaching "bring them in for numbers sake" ministry (not that all large van/bus ministries may be that way). We try to invest ourselves in the lives of those who truly want to grow in Christ and that involves, at times, picking others up for church. As this ministry grew, we needed a larger vehicle. Our dear pastor who runs this ministry was making 3/4 trips for our services. We had been praying God would provide us with another vehicle for quite a while and on a small church budget buying a new one is a large task.

Well when all this occurred with the van, I know a few of us at the church looked and wondered, what did God have in store. We strongly remind/exhort each other often with the words of Paul in Romans 8:28 and 29. We believe that this applied to this situation as well and God was at work. This evening we were able to purchase a van that is newer and in better shape with a greater seating capacity at a great price. Between the money that we received for the totaled van and a little we had set in a van fund, we were able purchase this vehicle.

Praise God for his awesome work in this matter! I believe this small event at a small church in the middle of Indiana shows the active sovereignty of God at work in the world and the lives of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Theology and Salvation

2008-02-29T15:42:00.008-06:00

I wanted to take the time to write a series of posts on some really great teaching I received this past week. The seminary where I attend tries to make sure we get an excellent education and I very thankful for the heart they have for ministry. T past week we had a week of Systematic Theology classes with an amazing man, Dr. George Zemek. God has used Dr. Zemek for many years to train men for various areas of the ministry and I had the great privilege of learning from him. During class, we talked about issues of humanity, sin and salvation in what he calls an "exegetical approach to systematic theology." His concern is not so much what others have said over the years, although he is very aware of what others have said over the years, but what the Scriptures say on particular areas of theology.

Eventually, it is my intention to make this the first of a few posts dealing with salvation. This will be a great exercise for me and also hopefully a help to those who may read it. Since I am pretty busy with school, it may be a little while before these posts start appearing. But stay tuned.

Misconceptions About Love

2008-02-18T23:39:00.005-06:00

It amazes me all the different ideas of what love means to different people. The church where I serve is getting ready for our Family Conference this Saturday and I have the great opportunity of serving God by teaching 2 classes. One of the classes is on a biblical perspective of love. I wanted to start my lesson by giving different people's concepts of love in the world. One of the quotes I found is really kind of amusing and thought provoking (although I don't know the full context of what the author is talking about though. ) The quote is from Goethe and he wrote, "Love is ideal, marriage is real." I think so often we have a poor view of love and when we have a relationship such as marriage where we have this misconception of love, it really can become quite a strained relationship.

Just a few thoughts. Once the audio files from the Family Conference become available on podcast, I will post them.

Worship and the World...Dealing with poor prooftexting

2008-02-15T13:14:00.010-06:00

The Bible gives us instruction for every area of our lives. Yet it fascinates me how people may take the Bible out of context using proof texts from various passages to promote their perception of how God's Word functions in life, having no idea what the context of the larger passage means or how the author intended the text be used. I 've seen it used most recently with a style of worship in a corporate setting and that is the perspective from which I will write. The verse that is so often used to support this idea comes from Romans 12:2, "And do not be conformed to this world."

No doubt I agree with the above statement from Romans 12:2. But the question is, what does the "world" refer to? Does that mean anything that doesn't fit a specific traditional value of the past or a value system that you have created in your mind, even though it may not be mentioned in the Bible is part of being in the world? Well that is what so often is sadly said. It is not the point of this post to do an full analysis of this text but to point you in the direction of studying it for yourself. In order to do that, I think a quote is in place. Dr. John MacArthur took this text to mean this,

“Do not be conformed to this world... It literally means to be stamped like metal, or to be molded. We could translate it stop allowing yourselves to be molded by the world. You cannot allow your mind to be molded by the world. What is the world? The world is simply fallen thinking...fallen ideas, ideas that belong to the kingdom of darkness. It is the floating mass of ungodly ideas and behaviors that are separated from and hostile to the will of God. You will never worship the way you should worship if you are being conformed, molded to, stamped with the image of the world. John said, 'If anybody loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' If your whole affection and love is toward the world, you’re not a believer. But as believers, we can allow ourselves to be influenced by the world, even though we love Christ. Do not let the world mold you into its kind of thought and behavior. Don’t think like the world and don’t act like the world." [You can read the full transcript of this sermon of Romans 12:1, 2 as well.]

Okay, that sheds a little more light on the subject. Anything which molds you into thinking in an unbiblical fashion, like the world. It doesn't necessarily mean something new that you're not familiar with or something old that I think is out of date. That should not be the issue. It is about a mindset that should be driven by biblical principles not your idea of how the world should work.

The next question comes in, how should we view that phrase in regards to what should be accepted? Does it mean that anything that is not the way a certain culture doesn't worship should be considered wrong? Or how about a specific style of music? Or what about a certain Bible version? Or what about a certain style of clothes? Should we become like the Amish, grasping some time era as being the time that should dictate our lives? Should we discard everything from the past? The list can go on and on and on. None of those things necessarily has to be connected with the "world". For example, what about a African culture's Christian church service in which they worship God, as prescribed by the Scriptures, but uses different instruments and different means of worship than us in a largely Anglo-Saxon tradition may be used to? Should we stop their services and tell them that they must do it a certain way or it's wrong? (If that's the case, the great missionary of the past Hudson Taylor was dead wrong in his approach to missions. But I personally think the man is a great Christian who loved God, not men or himself.) Or how about the person who is okay with different ideas of worship and that leads them to have distain upon those who worship in what they see is an "old-fashioned" manner?

As I see it, it boils down to a few things. First, you should be looking to show your love for God in your worship, both corporately and individually. If you are a confronted with the fact that the way you may be viewing things is wrong, be open to letting God's Word guide you even if it means your principles may need to be altered. There is room for liberty in the way we may worship God. The key is to make sure that we worship God in a way that He wants...from the heart which is driven by biblical priniciples and a love for God.

Second, you have to love those around you!!! Sometimes that means letting love cover sins and sometimes that means having to lovingly confront a person. There is no way around this either. Do you think God is pleased with the person who views the way some other Christian does things, even though it may not be sin, and looks down upon them because it not they way they are used to doing things? Or how about a Christian who comes to church and is unable to worship God and does nothing but gripe because they can't have their way (whether that may be a more traditional service, a more contemporary service or just about other facet of corporate gathering that you can think of) and that stops them from worshiping God?

We need to be concerned with what God's Word says and what it does NOT say as well. When we bring some idea to God's Word and pass it as biblical truth, we commit a form of heresy, whether we realize it or not. It's okay to have "house rules" but that's all they are, house rules. And when those rules are placed on the same level of biblical truth (or sometimes a higher level) they've gone too far.

All of this is a danger of allowing your own mind to dictate what God's Word says, rather than letting God's Word dictate your thinking. But those who let your mind do the dictating of God's Word I'm sure won't agree.

Hopefully this will spur you on to further exploration of what worship and not being conformed to this world really means.

Here are some resources to help you:
Worship
Worship Series at Portage Avenue Baptist Church
Worshiping in Spirit and Truth by John Piper
Worship and Music by Steve Viars (or for those who like to read the book version)

Romans 12:1, 2
All of Life as Worship by John Piper
Giving your Life to God by J. Ligon Duncan III
Christian Conduct by D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones (Old school yet one of my favorite expositors)

Is Docrtine Important Today?

2008-01-29T11:34:00.001-06:00

I recently have heard many people from many walks of life saying that they believe doctrine is not needed. They want to gain what they see as the "practical" from the Bible without the doctrine behind it. They say that the doctrine is important for those such as pastors today but don't see how it effects them in their lives. Why is that? Is doctrine really a thing of the past? Is doctrine separate from practical application? How should doctrine be viewed by the church?

I believe doctrine is the core for Christianity and, if viewed correctly, should be the basis for all application. I don't think it's any mistake that God moved men such as the Apostle Paul to write their epistles with such a heavy immersion into doctrine. When doctrine is used and viewed correctly it is highly practical as well.

Think about it for a minute, is there really any basis for application outside of doctrine? If we look solely at application without doctrine, one of a few things may happen.:First, the church will become a harbor for many weak Christians. Second, the church may become a place for the unregenerate soul to go and look for self-improvement without all the "Christian stuff" behind it. Third, the church gets completely off course and goes the way of post-modern thought where there is no absolute truth (or thinking that the Bible is not truth). Any of those scenarios creates a very weak church and sometimes a very deceptive church. No doubt application is important but the basis of ALL application is doctrine. There's ultimately no basis for godly behavior for the Christian apart from the truth of God's Word.

In an article I read awhile back, Dr. John MacArthur had this to say about doctrine and application,

"Practical insights, gimmicks, and illustrations mean little if they are divorced from divine principle. Before the preacher asks anyone to perform a certain duty, he must first deal with doctrine. He must develop his message around theological themes and draw out the principles of the texts. Then the truth can be applied."

So I challenge you, if you view doctrine as dry, old and nothing of use to you, dig deep within your heart and examine why that is. Maybe doctrine is the key that will help you to find the answer you've been looking for and spur you to a greater understanding and relationship with God. I believe doctrine is key to spiritual growth and discernment.

Let me leave you with one closing remark made by Sinclair Ferguson, "The conviction that Christian doctrine matters for Christian living is one of the most important growth points of the Christian life."

Here are a few sights I recommend that will give you some basics for understanding doctrine:
www.mongerism.com
Free Systematic Theology Class

There such a vast amount of information out there, let me know if you would like links to others sites or more specific information.

The Difference Between Simply Knowing and Doing

2008-01-01T14:17:00.001-06:00

In Matthew 7:24-27 we have the words of Jesus,
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (ESV)

In this passage we find such a simple truth that is taught to even very young children in Sunday School: Whether you choose to follow Christ's command or choose not to follow them, there will be consequences, whether good or bad. Yet why is it that so often we go through our lives and never grasp this truth? How many people go through life, learn the truths of the Bible yet there is such a disconnect between the head knowledge of these truths and actually applying them to life.

This past week, I had the opportunity to teach in the Sunday evening service at my church on this topic of knowing and doing. It is the intention of our church leadership to lead our members into better application of truth this upcoming year and this message a means of introducing the intention for greater application into our lives. The church should be more burdened about making this connection between simply knowing and applying God's Word.

David Martyn-Lloyd Jones said this about knowing and doing,
"In many ways the greatest danger confronting all of us, is the danger of being content with merely intellectual knowledge and apprehension of spiritual things. Such knowledge is most valuable but if it stops at that it can be quite useless, and indeed, positively harmful, because it may drug us into a condition in which we feel that nothing further is necessary."

So I challenge you, as I did the church on Sunday evening, go beyond just knowing in this New Year. Make this year, or whenever you may be reflecting this post, a time of going beyond merely intellectual knowledge but look for personal application in your life. The first step could simply be taking an inventory of your life and see your strengths and weaknesses. Set yourself some goals and move forward in becoming more pleasing to God.

Church is More Than a Building

2007-12-20T14:43:00.002-06:00

How many times have we heard people talk about the sanctity of the church but they are referring to the building? It is such a sad state that in our Christian circles so often people look to a building as being the most important element of the church. Yeah I said it, the church building...not helping others to grow or reaching out to those who do not know Christ and not even reaching out to the community...is what many think is most important to the church. That type of thinking will kill the church! If our main goal as Christians is to maintain a building, we've missed the entire point of the church. If the building burnt down tomorrow, would the church still exist? Of course it would!

Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology defined the church as such,

"The church is the community of all true believers for all time. This definition understands the church to be made of all those who are truly saved. Paul says, 'Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her' (Eph. 5:25)....So great is God's plan for the church that He has exalted Christ to a position of highest authority for the sake of the church: 'He has put all things under His feet and has made Him the head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fulness of him who fills all in all' (Eph. 1:22-23)." (page 854)

As you will notice, there is no mention of a church building. In fact, the church is really more than just a single local New Testament church. The church is comprised of all those who are truly in Christ both in the past and in the future. Now today we meet in buildings but that church is the people who use a building as a means to bring about a greater goal...the church building is not an end in and of itself!

What does that mean for us? There are a few things I think we can glean from this:

1. Just because someone attends a church does not mean they are part of Christ's church. 2 Timothy 2:19 tells us that "the Lord knows those who are His." Grudem went on to say this, "Even in our own churches and our own neighborhoods, only God knows who are true believers with certainty and without error. In speaking of the church as invisible, the author of Hebrews speaks of the 'assembly' (literally 'church') of the first-born who are in heaven" (Heb. 12:23), and says that present-day Christians join with assembly in worship... the invisible church [or the church made up of all those who are in Christ] is the church as God sees it."

2. The church building is nothing sacred in and of itself. Now don't get me wrong, God has greatly blessed many local church bodies with wonderful facilities to help carry out their ministries as a group but the building is NOT the point of a church. When a building is the main focus of an individual or a group, it becomes an idol.

3. If the church is not just a building but a group of believers, how can one most effectively serve God as an individual in a church? Remember you are part of the church. The church is more than just begin in a building on Sunday. 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that a true believer in Christ is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That means that we should be striving to please and worship God and be more like His Son Jesus Christ with our lives all the time. This is not to only happen when we enter the church building. It happens on a daily basis in your life at work, at school or even in your home.

I challenge whoever may read this to dig further and think about what the church really is all about. Here are some resources to begin that journey:

John Piper on the Church
John MacArthur on the Church
(For the full transcripts of messages on the church by MacArthur, scroll down on this page until you come to the label "church.')

Revival

2007-12-14T15:24:00.001-06:00

I remember as a child once having an "old fashioned tent revival" at my church. I remember we set up a large tent, had bales of hay for everyone to sit on and brought in an evangelist. There were many people there but to this day I could not tell you if anyone was impacted spiritually by the events that happened. I talked to one individual much later who was drawn to the event because it was so unique but got nothing out of it spiritually.

Recently I have been contemplating, what is true revival? Does it look anything like what I remember as a child? Or is it something completely different? David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in Puritan's: Their Origin and Successors, gave this simple definition:

"It is an experience in the life of the church when the Holy Spirit does an unusual work. He does that work, primarily, amongst the members of the church; it is a reviving of the believers. You cannot revive something that has never had life, so revival, by definition, is first of all an enlivening and quickening and awakening of lethargic, sleeping, almost morbund church members. Suddenly the power of the Spirit comes upon them and they are brought into a new and more profound awareness of the truth that they had previously held intellectually, and perhaps at a deeper level too. They are humbled, they are convicted of sin, they are terrified at themselves. Many of them feel that they have never been Christians. And then they come to see the great power of God in all its glory and to feels its power. Then, as the result of their quickening and enlivening, they begin to pray. New power comes into the preaching of the ministers, and the result of this is that large numbers who were previously outside the church are converted and brought in. So the two main characteristics of revival are, first, this extraordinary enlivening of the members of the church, and, second, the conversion of masses of people who hitherto have been outside in indifference and in sin. (There are many other consequences which I do not stay to mention, such as the needed provision of larger church buildings, the establishing of new causes, larger numbers of men offering themselves for the ministry and beginning to train, and so on.) Here, then, in its essence is a definition of what we mean by revival."

Revival, as defined by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, seems to be something more than a meeting like the one I remembered during my childhood. What I saw as a child would be better defined as an evangelistic campaign. The influence of Charles G. Finney and his work Revivals of Religion led to many churches using this approach to "revival." Finney's system of "revival" is very flawed and takes the work of revival from the hand of God and tries to manipulate revival through man-made pushes in these evangelistic campaign. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones went on to say this about Finney's influence on revival:

"People now, instead of thinking instinctively about turning to God and praying for revival when they see that the church is languishing, decide rather to call a committee, to organize an evangelistic campaign , and work out and plan an advertising programme to 'launch' it, as they say. The whole outlook and mentality has entirely changed."

Where does all this leave us? Too often we have looked to revival as a man-made experience based on poor theology, largely from Finney, and do not look for the Holy Spirit to work in a spiritually stagnant church. These "revival" services of the past were not the proper way to go about revival, although I can't say, people's hearts may have been in the right place. We need to redefine "revival" and then put this into practice. There is no doubt that revival is a unique working of the Spirit but we should turn to Him to work in the hearts and lives of people, not our man-made notions of how things should work.

Hopefully this short article will spur you on to an evaluation, as I am doing, of the concept of revival. For further information on Revival as defined by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, here are some resources:
-His book, Revival
-A series of articles, by various writers, on Revival
-An audio series by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Revival

Generations in Christianity

2007-12-07T14:21:00.001-06:00

Why is it we often can meet people that are serving regularly in churches yet their children or teens want nothing to do with God when they get older? Is it because they are no longer made to go to church? Or is there some thing happening in these homes not apparent on the surface? This has something that has baffled me greatly.

Josh McDowell, in his book Right from Wrong, has some pretty staggering numbers regarding young people in Christian homes. He surveyed 3,700 in North America that came from thousands of Bible-believing churches: 84% of them go to Sunday school, youth meeting, and Bible studies faithfully on a weekly basis. By all accounts, these could be the kids of anyone who is committed to serving God in the church, including pastors, deacons, and other church leaders. But look at what this survey found:

-74% say they are morally and spiritually confused

-55% have engaged in sexual activity of some kind by the time they turn 18.
-55% say they are looking for answers.
-66% lied to a parent, teacher, or other adult.
-59% lied to their peers.
-45% Watch MTV once a week.
-36% cheated on an exam.
-23% used tobacco products.
-20% intentionally tried to physically hurt someone.
-12% had gotten drunk.
-8% had used illegal, nonprescription drugs.
-65% said they prayed daily.

Numbers like these should not add up! How did this happen? But more importantly, what can be do about this?

First, parents need to actively be looking to influence their children. Ephesians 6:4 tells us that parents are to train their children. Any amount of teaching from the church or school is not going to make a difference if the parents don't look to teach them. It is biblically the role of parents to train their children. And God holds parents accountable for how their children are raised...not the schools, not baby sitters, and even more surprising, not the church! All of these elements can be a benefit to the parent but the parent is the one responsible for raising their child.

Second, historically I wonder if parents have not had a large role in discouraging their children with hypocrisy. Children are not only taught by what parents say but also by their parents actions. The old phrase, "actions speak louder than words" really is true. Think about the 20th century with me for a minute. After World War 2, there was a huge in push for "perfect" families. One of the things that made a perfect family was going to church. But people in that time were not usually more spiritual, just more moral. Church became merely being religious and not about a relationship with God. And I believe that many children saw through this hypocrisy in their parents. And guess what happened...these post-war families that flocked to church gave birth to the children that held so heavily to the 60's values of rebellion.

You might thinking, what can be done? I think it boils down to a few things:
1.) STOP BEING A HYPOCRITE! Make you personal relationship with God something real. Don't be a Sunday morning pew warmer, or even a servant in the church, who is a big phony. I personally know so many adults who grew up in homes with hypocritical parents and now they are bitter and jaded towards Christianity...often not their parents, just Christianity.

2.) Spend time with your children. And not just what you think is "quality" time, make it quantity driven as well. I know from my own experiences sometimes the things my parents didn't even think about as quality meant the most to me. I will never forget one summer when I was young some older neighborhood kids were picking on me. My mom lovingly spent the afternoon with me and made me a milk shake. I will never forget that yet she doesn't really remember it.

3.) Actively look to teach your children. I have heard it said and seen that a parent is a child's best counselor. In day to day things, your child needs to be taught about God. Again, in my life, I remember one time when I was really young my dad and I went to a sand pit to pick up a load of sand for our house. We filled the truck up and tried to leave...but all the sand in the back of the truck caused the truck to sink almost to the bumper. So my dad, instead of getting mad and frustrated stepped back from the situation and said, "Let's pray and ask God for help in this situation." We eventually got out but that wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that my father modeled a heart that should look to God in situations instead of just getting angry and upset and then sinning. And a word of warning on teaching. If you don't teach your children, they will learn either your bad patterns or by some other means.

4.) Make worship a part of your family life. Worship is not just about being in a service on Sunday mornings. That should be an overflow from our hearts of our week where we sought to worship God. (Worship is a whole other section in itself, but let me recommend John MacArthur's The Ultimate Priority, if you are interested in this subject and want an overview of it.) Teach children about worship. Help them find ways to worship God. That could include devotions, counseling and whole variety of other things. Teach them it should be their goal (and yours) in life to be pleasing to God and to grow to be more like Christ. And help them find ways in everyday life this is possible. Don't make them into modern day Pharisees but into people who are motivated by a love to be pleasing to God.

These are just a few ways we can reverse the trend that is happening in Christian circles today. One final word, an individual is ultimately responsible to God. If a child did not grow up in a home that did these things, they are still responsible to God. And even if a parent does these things, it does not mean a child will automatically follow Christ throughout their entire life. The same rule as above applies, they are individually responsible to God. And that means they have a choice to make whether to follow God or not. What this list of things does is provide tools that will set up children for living spiritually successful lives.

Here are a few resources for further study on how to raise children:
Christian Living in the Home by Jay Adams
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp
Anchorman: How a Father Can Anchor His Family in Christ for the Next 100 Years
by Steve Farrar

Growing Weary in Christianity

2007-11-30T10:04:00.002-06:00

Have you ever wondered why as humans we can get frustrated so easily? We never seem to be satisfied. And, yes, in some things it is good to want variety and to push forward to better things. One example I can think of where this can be a good thing is in our spiritual lives. If we were always satisfied with where we are spiritually and never pursued a deeper relationship with God that would be horrible. But so often we are get bored and frustrated in ways that are not pleasing to God either. Consider what John Piper said in one of his sermons:

"Probably the worst enemy of enthusiasm is time. Human beings have a remarkable and sad capacity for getting tired of wonderful things. Almost every one of you can think of something you were enthusiastic about recently, but now the joy is faded. Your first day of vacation on the coast the sunset was breathtaking and made you so happy you could sing. But by the end of your stay you hardly noticed it any more. Vacationers get tired of sunsets, millionaires get tired of money, kids gets tired of toys, and Christians get tired of doing good. At first the excitement of teaching that Sunday School class was strong, but now you have grown weary of well-doing. The thrill is gone. At first you felt clean and strong in the Holy Spirit as you drove the van, taught the Lao English, led the small group, visited the newcomers, started reading the Bible, worked in the emergency shelter . . . but now you have grown weary in well-doing. The inner power and joy have seeped away. It's a chore. You've lost heart." ("Don't Grow Weary in Well Doing", August 1983)

Pipers words are very true, we do grow tired of things. Sadly, time can and does work against a Christian. Many people who have a long personal relationship with Christ lose their fervor for serving Him. I love to see the enthusiasm in an adult who has recently accepted Christ and is striving to serve Him. It is such an amazing thing. They are like a child in some ways and it gives a new innocence to them when they really try to serve Christ. But then you meet someone who was raised in church and has had a personal relationship with Him for years and, sadly, that enthusiasm is many times lost. Why is that? We should be more excited about the things of our Lord as time goes by!

I was recently challenged in this area, especially in regards to efforts made by churches in ministry. In the church where I serve, we have had many evangelistic outreaches to our community. Yet it seems we have seen very little fruit through these outreaches. Some ideas for outreach may have been better than others and we have definitely seen the community respond in some ways. Yet why isn't our church seeing any return in this? It's because God has chosen not to bless us in that area at that time. Consider the Apostle Paul's words in the book of Galatians:

"Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches it. Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith." (Galatians 6:6-10, NET) (Compare this text in other versions)

What an exhortation and encouragement Paul has given us. Now the questions comes back to the Christian, are you going to accept this exhortation or shun it? This may be an excellent opportunity for growth in the life of a Christian to have in trust God! The Word of God claims to be truth. If this is true, our efforts in ministry are not in vain....even when we don't see the results we would like. But it also should be a warning to us. Whatever you sow, that you will reap. This is a term everyone knows...even those who aren't Christians may say, "what goes around comes around." This is observable. So, whatever a church puts into it's ministries, that it will also reap. But it always doesn't seem that way. That because, thankfully, God's standard is not our standard and he will reward godly efforts even though they may look like a finite human failure.

Let me a share a story with you that was part of this challenge to not grow weary. Many years ago there was a huge evangelistic event held in India. Many people labored to reach out to the people in this country. No doubt missionaries, who had dedicated their lives to reaching out to the lost people of India, were greatly involved in this. Out of all their works and labors, only one 10 year old boy accepted Christ. No doubt, many people would have been frustrated by results of their efforts...possibly even considering their work a failure and stepping out of the ministry. What kind of an impact would be made by one little boy being saved? Maybe a little, but not much.

That little boy immigrated with his family to Canada when he was twenty. He went on to seminary and even further academic training. Today he is one of the most influential and well-known teachers of apologetics in the world, Ravi Zacharias.

All that to say, just keep growing spiritually and doing what God would have you to do. Don't worry about the results, there is nothing in your own doing that can bring about anything greater. Galatians 6 tells us, "God gives the increase." Take opportunities when frustration and weariness may be growing to turn to God. Although you may not see the impact of your efforts, God is still at work.

Reason for This Name

2007-11-24T22:07:00.001-06:00

But I wanted to give a brief explanation for the reason I have chosen "Upward Calling" as the name for this site. It is because of some challenges that have come before me in my life. I am not talking about physical challenges but spiritual challenges. There are two places these challenges came for recently: biblical counseling training at Faith Bible Seminary and Bob Kauflin's cd "Upward: the Bob Kauflin Hymns Project."

First, as I've sat in on counseling sessions at Faith Counseling Ministries, I've heard stories from various people that are looking for help because their lives are in shambles. Their lives are in shambles because they've lost their focus. Their focus should be on God....and in God there is hope for them! Their goal should be to glorify God and to grow to be more like His Son (Romans 8:28,29, 2 Cor. 5:9, and 1 Cor. 10:31). Wow, such a simple truth....yet I have never consciously looked to live this truth on a daily basis in my own life. Here I was sitting in counseling sessions and convicted in my own life. Only by the grace of God was I not in the seat of the counselee!

Second, Bob Kauflin's cd "Upward: the Bob Kauflin Hymn's Project" is an excellent work. I bought it for my father for his birthday and find myself listening to it very often . But anyways, there's one song, a classic with new music by Vicki Cook, "Before the Throne of God." That has to be one of my favorite songs. Just look at the words:

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I am,
King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

Such powerful words. And such a great promise to me because of "Christ my Saviour and my God!"

All of this to say, I want my goal in life to daily be to glorify and an to grow to be more like His Son and my Lord, Jesus Christ. Thus, I am daily looking to the Upward Calling of "Christ my Saviour and my God!" I will regularly be writing about my life and how God has challenged me or worked in my life to better fulfill this goal.