With One Voice, Part 2

I'm continuing to work through an interview recently published in Leadership Journal with Keith & Kristyn Getty, who are some of my favorite worship songwriters. Here is another section I'm lifting to give you, along with a few comments of my own. You can find the whole thing here.

LJ: How do you negotiate differing musical tastes in worship when trying to bring the generations together?

Keith: It's not a matter of singing "Here I Am to Worship" immediately before the sermon and "Just As I Am" immediately after.

Kristyn: And it's not running an election—trying to appeal to the youth vote and the middle vote and the senior vote. We're preaching the gospel, which is for all generations, all tribes.

We hear the word "blended" an awful lot—people trying to do the best of the old with the best of the new. Everybody sings the songs they like. And that's a practical effort at trying to do your best in a complicated situation. But there have to be occasions when the whole body is singing the same song together. So we look for songs—not just our own—that create opportunities for an eight year old and an eighty-eight year old to stand together and sing.

Keith: It seems to me that if a church splits up over music that music has become more important than togetherness in itself. Music is merely a servant to the body of believers. I imagine that in Kenya or Eastern Europe or persecuted China, gathering together as a body of believers is more important than the fact that half of you listen to Coldplay and half of you listen to Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, or Bach.

Kristyn: I wonder if approaching things from the two principles we work from, as opposed to drums or no drums or jazz style or rock style, it might erase some of the difficulties. We just over-complicate everything so much.

Keith: When we worship, we're effectively joining with believers all around the world on a Sunday. We're also singing with the generations that have gone before us, and we're singing as a foretaste of what will come after us. So what we're doing now is a representation of that. And if it's a representation of such unity, why are people walking through two separate doors?

LJ: So you're not concerned with writing in a particular style?

Keith: I think less than half a dozen times since we've started has someone come up to me and said, "Your music is my favorite style of music in the world." No kind of music is popular with everyone, so we try to write the kind of music that suits amateur singers. Most of our songs actually can be done in contemporary arrangements, but the goal is to write melodies that are singable rather than songs that sound like ones on the pop charts.

This discussion reflects another challenge of today's worship leading pastor. Style is more important than ever to most people: they feel strongly about it, and they increasingly take their identity from it. If a musical style is identified with a different generation or social group, then others will seek to have nothing to do with it.

This is a problem for churches. Well, apparently not for some who just create separate services for varying styles of music. Ah, but it is a problem, because to be the Church is to be a people who might be varied in gender, race, culture, socio-economic class, or education, but most definitely are united in Christ.

That is why we work to find songs that are congregational, meaning that everyone can join in. Yes, we will sing some songs that stretch older members, but not too far. And we will sing some songs that stretch younger members, but not too far. But we will also try to find songs that are just flat-out singable doctrine that everyone who is willing to set aside their preferred niche can eagerly enter into.

Come, People of the Risen King

In this video, Keith & Kristyn Getty are guest worship leaders-- Keith on piano and Kristyn singing the lead. They are teaching a congregation their song called "Come, People of the Risen King." The host church choir does a nice job backing them up, but you're better off trying not to focus on the robes.

With One Voice

You may have noticed that we sing several songs by Keith & Kristyn Getty in our worship services. If their names don't ring a bell, consider these titles that they have authored or co-authored:

"In Christ Alone"
"O Church, Arise"
"Jesus Is Lord"
"Every Promise"
"The Power of the Cross"
"There Is a Higher Throne"
"Across the Lands"
"Hear the Call of the Kingdom"
"Joy Has Dawned upon the World"

Basically, we teach about six to eight new songs to our congregation each year, and you can just about count on one or two of them being from the Gettys.

Leadership Journal recently held an extensive interview with the Gettys. I thought about just linking you to the article and leaving it at that, but I think I'll post several segments and make some comments on why I am drawn to their work. Here's our first installment (though if you just can't wait, you can read it all here).

LJ: What trends do you see in worship that compel you to write hymns?

Keith: They say that in every culture, the signs of the church on the slide are, first, that the church becomes decreasingly knowledgeable of God. Second, the church becomes increasingly obsessed with itself. Third, the church views every part of the spiritual walk for what they can get out of it—its therapeutic value. We see that happening today. So we want to write songs that address this shallowness by articulating the deep truths of the faith.

In addition, I think the goal of congregational worship is to be congregational.

We look for songs that bring all ages together because singing is an act of unity.

As the church's influence began to slip in Britain, the churches tried to use music to attract people. They moved music to the front, with professional choirs, and held well-developed and well-rehearsed services. In the short-term, it worked. But it ultimately distanced the front from the back, so that churches lost a sense of both community and what real worship is actually about. Worship music changed from something sung by the people to something done from the front by professionals.

Kristyn: That's why we have a lot of empty cathedrals and churches that are being sold as restaurants.

Keith: And although everything is contemporary in style in America, I think the pattern is dangerously similar. So we want to write songs that everyone can sing—songs that are truly congregational.

LJ: You're committed to the hymn. What are the musical and lyrical elements of a hymn?

Keith: There's no scientific difference between a hymn and a song. We just run with "hymn" because we couldn't think of a better word. For us it boils down to those two simple principles: songs that teach the faith and that the whole congregation can sing. So musically, a song has to be easy and inspirational to sing, and lyrically it has to teach the truth of God in a way that is emotionally engaging and poetic.

Kristyn: Not all old hymns have the same desire for content. They're not all singable. So we're not suggesting that a hymn is more sanctified or more holy. But there are creative and theological principles that have been thought through and worked out through the past that are worth considering and applying to a new generation. Every generation needs music in its own vernacular. But the principles of teaching people the faith and then giving them words to declare it are timeless.

Their convictions are clear: to write congregationally singable, doctrinally rich songs, so that the Church (i.e., the congregation) is able to declare, reaffirm, and celebrate the Faith in her singing, and thereby be taught and grow in that Faith.

Many (not all) old hymns are theologically rich, but have archaic words, flowery poetry, and/or stodgy melodies. They might still be good for enjoying as personal devotional reading, but they are not so good for corporate worship.

But many (not all) contemporary worship hits are doctrinally thin, have clumsy poetry and overly syncopated melodies. They might still be good for enjoying on the radio in the car, but they are not so good for corporate worship.

That's why it's always tricky for a worship leading pastor to retain the best of the old, and select the best of what's new. Keeping tabs on the Gettys helps.

Devilish, Human, or Divine

Matthew 5:43-44a

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies..."

"To return evil for good is devilish;
to return good for good is human;
to return good for evil is divine."

- Alfred Plummer, from his 1915 commentary on Matthew,
quoted by D. A. Carson.

Persuasive Speech

Here's a great story about an amazing young girl, via WORLD:

Lia, a 12-year-old girl from Toronto, was assigned to come up with a persuasive speech for her seventh grade class. Teachers told her the topic she chose was “too big,” “too mature,” “too controversial,” and if she went forward with it she would not be allowed to advance to the schoolwide competition or beyond.

Lia, however, would not be swayed, and once her teacher heard her presentation, she declared her the class winner. But when Lia spoke before the entire school she was initially disqualified because of her topic. Later, one of the judges who was offended by the speech stepped down, and the remaining judges reversed their earlier decision and declared Lia the school’s winner and representative in a regional competition.

Follow the link above to read how her speech has already persuaded more than the judges.

Imagine You Are Part of a Church Planting Team

Via the Church Matters blog, here's a portion of the book Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. Though I've listened to several lectures by the pastor-authors, I have yet to get to this book that's been sitting on my long list for a while. This only whets my appetite:

We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part of a church planting team in a cross cultural situation in some other part of the world.

· What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
· How would you approach secular employment?
· What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
· What would you spend your time doing?
· What opportunities would you be looking for?
· What would your prayers be like?
· What would you be trying to do with your new friends?
· What kind of team would you want around you?
· How would you conduct your meetings together?

We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross-cultural team in another part of the world… These are the kinds of questions we should be asking wherever we are.

While I understand the concern of some who believe that we minimize cross-cultural missions by saying "Everyone is a missionary," I still think that these kinds of questions (above) are very helpful and challenging. I would say that the difference between a "regular Christian" and a missionary is one of degree, not category.

Candidate for President of Trinity

This was announced today on the Trinity International University website, which encompasses not only Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, but Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the seminary of the EFCA.

After a long and exhaustive search process, the Trinity Board's Presidential Search Committee presented a final candidate for President of Trinity International University to the Board of Regents at last week's meeting. The candidate is Dr. Craig Williford (PhD '95), most recently President of Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado.

Dr. Williford combines an engaging personality with an outstanding track record of higher education spiritual leadership, growth, and fund-raising. In his eight years at Denver Seminary, God used him in a mighty way to turn the school around and put it on a solid financial footing. In the very difficult economic times that we, and all in our present world, are facing, such strong and experienced leadership is more important than ever. Dr. Williford has a high regard and enthusiasm for Trinity and its potential, born of both his past studies here and his subsequent involvement in the world of Christian higher education and the local church.

Dr. Williford and his wife, Carolyn, have been on campus in Deerfield this week, meeting with faculty and the leadership of the university. The Board will consider the feedback from these meetings as they prepare to vote on his candidacy in the coming days. Should the Board vote to recommend Dr. Williford as the final candidate, the Evangelical Church of America Board of Directors will then vote whether to approve him to be presented to the EFCA for a vote at the annual conference this June in Minnesota.

Please pray for Dr. and Mrs. Williford throughout this process and for the ongoing Kingdom mission and ministry of Trinity International University.

By all means, do pray. I don't know of Dr. Williford enough to make any comment, though I do have confidence in the search committee. This will be a critical appointment for our denomination and its schools.

Really, Really Born Again

From Phil Ryken:

I just received my copy of John Piper's new book Finally Alive: What Happens When We Are Born Again? One of Piper's reasons for making the biblical case for born-again Christianity is to guard the term against its misuse in popular culture, especially in the sociological research of The Barna Group. Piper writes:

"When the Barna Group uses the term 'born again' to describe American church-goers whose lives are indistinguishable from the world, and who sin as much as the world, and sacrifice for others as little as the world, and embrace injustice as readily as the world, and covet things as greedily as the world, and enjoy God-ignoring entertainment as enthusiastically as the world -- when the term 'born again' is used to describe these professing Christians, the Barna Group is making a profound mistake."

They are using the term "born-again," Piper says, "in a way that would make it unrecognizable by Jesus and the biblical writers." What the research shows instead, according to Piper, "is not that born-again people are permeated with worldiness," but "that the church is permeated by people who are not born again."

Or, to put it another way, how can we say that we are born again, if there are no signs of spiritual life in us?

Next Sermon - Matthew 5:38-48 on 03/01/09

This coming Sunday, we will conclude the section of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus presents himself as the new authoritative interpreter of the Law, with the repetition of "You have heard it said... But I say to you."

Matthew 5:38-48

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Helping Make Virtue More "Realistic"

Did you hear all the fuss about Bristol Palin's interview last week? She first gained notoriety last summer shortly after her mother, Sarah Palin, was named the Republican candidate for the vice presidency of the United States. Bristol came under the scrutiny of the press as it was revealed that she was an unwed teenage mother-to-be.

Then this past week on Fox News, Bristol, now having given birth to her child, told the interviewer that sexual abstinence for teens is "not realistic at all." As you might imagine, the media focused on that one juicy tidbit.

At the end of the day, this isn't about Bristol Palin or her famous mother, because there are bigger issues at play in this discussion. Here is Al Mohler's conclusion:

Is sexual abstinence realistic for teenagers and young adults? Well, abstinence is certainly not realistic when teenagers put themselves - or they are put there by others - into a situation where sexual activity is likely. At some point, sexual abstinence becomes very unrealistic indeed.

The real issue for Christian teenagers and their parents is not to debate whether sexual abstinence before marriage is realistic or not. The larger and more important issue is that sexual abstinence until marriage is the biblical expectation and command. Once this is realized, the responsibility for everyone concerned is to ensure that expectations and structures are in place so that abstinence is realistic.

The debate over whether abstinence is realistic or not misses the more important issue -- abstinence must be made realistic.

Parents and teenagers must make certain that adequate protections and expectations are in place so that sexual abstinence is very realistic indeed. Far too many Christian parents allow their teenagers to be part of the "hooking up" scene of teenage culture. In that highly sexualized context, sexual abstinence would appear unrealistic in the extreme.

Premature pair dating and unsupervised liaisons, set within the supercharged culture of teenage sexuality, can put teenagers into very vulnerable situations. Asking whether sexual abstinence in those contexts is realistic can appear almost irrational.

Those who reject the norm of sexual abstinence for teenagers will leap on Bristol Palin's statement as evidence for their cause. But the real issue here is our responsibility to ensure that abstinence is made realistic and stays realistic. Anything short of this is truly "not realistic at all."

This perspective seems to have much wider application. How do my habits and patterns of life, how does the "culture" within my own home, shape my thinking on what virtues are realistic or unrealistic?

The Purity Principle

We're planning an event for men on the topic of sexual purity for Saturday, March 28. Here is another helpful resource on this topic.

Randy Alcorn's brief book called The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails is a good read on this topic. At only 94 pages, it packs plenty of biblical wisdom in a small package. It's been five years or so since I've read it, but I would commend it to you without reservation. Here's an excerpt:

"But we really love each other" has no bearing on the ethics of sexual intimacy. Sex does not become permissible through subjective feelings, but only through the objective, lifelong commitment of marriage. Those are God's rules.
There's nothing we can do to change them. The rules are always enforced. When we break them they always break us.

A smart traveler doesn't curse guardrails. He doesn't whine, "That guardrail dented my fender!" He looks over the cliff, sees demolished autos, and thanks God for guardrails.

God's guardrails are his moral laws. They are there not to punish or deprive us but to protect us. God doesn't forbid us fleeting pleasures out of malice. Rather, he calls us to higher and lasting pleasures out of love. His warnings stand between us and destruction.

Andy Naselli recently compiled several links to resources connected to this book here.

Bonus Features from Matthew 19

If my sermon was a movie, this would be on the DVD release as a bonus feature-- something that didn't make the final edit, but I believe it's still interesting and worthwhile.

Matthew 19:3-5

3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" 4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'?

In the sermon I pointed to the significance of Jesus' phrase "Have you not read" in making the point that the Pharisees needed to re-read the Scriptures with different eyes to discover the answers they were seeking.

But there is another subtle reinforcement of the authority of Scripture as God's Word in these verses. Not that the Pharisees doubted this, but it is certainly a needed reminder for our day.

Note that Jesus' answer is that "he who created them [God]... said, 'Therefore....'" What's the point? Well, in Genesis 2:24, which is the source for the quotation in verse 5, the words are simply those of the narrator/author Moses, but Jesus attributes them to God. Thus, even though written by Moses, they are, as Scripture, just as truly God's words.

Jesus took the Scriptures, written by men, to be the Word of God. Don't you think it would be wise to take the same view?

Settling into Routine

Ray Ortlund, Jr., from When God Comes to Church:

We can settle into a routine of activities at church and in our small groups and Bible studies, with little expectation of anything new. The familiar becomes the predictable, and everything from here on out will be more of the same. We dip our teaspoon into the vast ocean of the living God. Holding that teaspoon in our hand, we say, “This is God.” We pour it out into our lives, and we say, “This is the Christian Experience.”

*****

God is not limited to our past experiences, our traditions, or what we think the church’s next step should be. We must leave room for divine mystery, for surprise. God never acts out of character but he does exceed our expectations.

Source

The Economy of Anger

It seems that there are plenty of people who could compete for the focus of our anger over the mess our economy is in. A certain group of bankers, politicians, and CEOs could be easy targets, but Mark Galli tries to get us to think differently.

But there is an unhealthy anger churning within a lot of us right now. It may be grounded in righteous anger — for there is a lot of blame to share in this sad economy — but it is not leading to anything righteous. Instead, it's an acid eating away at the soul, a quiet rage that is morphing for some into depression and for others into the sweet promise of addiction — to food, to porn, to alcohol.

Like most Americans, I've taken a few serious financial hits in the last few months. As a supervisor, I've had to participate in some hits on others. I'm hardly suggesting that I'm on the other side of anger, living in perfect submission and peace to the providence of God. I look to Jesus in Golgotha and honestly wonder how he could just take it. Take it and say nothing about the incompetence. Take it and do nothing about the raw injustice. Just let it go. That's the big miracle to me. Some days, resurrection from the dead seems like child's play compared to that.

But months into the recession, I find myself weary from bitterness. It's like I'm on a wilderness trek carrying a heavy backpack; at the end of another long day, I look inside for something to feed my exhausted soul, and I find that I've been lugging around chunks of broken concrete.

So I keep praying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," hoping against hope that a new miracle will take place — that someday soon I'll mean it.

Here's the whole article.

Asking for Forgiveness, Seeking Reconciliation

Matthew 5:23-24

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

While it appears that ABC News may have left out most of the religious angle on this story (or at least the most explicitly Christian details), it seems clear that this man's encounter with the gospel prompted his quest for forgiveness and reconciliation.



Source

If Only We Really Were...

Phil Ryken shares an anecdote which gives a Muslim perspective on the Christian view of divorce and muses, "If only we really were..."

Writing for National Review Online, Jay Nordlinger recounts a broadcast from Middle East Media Research Institute in which a Muslim cleric from Egypt defends no fault divorce. What interests me is the last line, which gives Christians more credit than we seem to deserve. The cleric says:

"What's the point of having an animal you can ride, if it drives you nuts? The distance it takes you you could cover in a bus for a quarter of an Egyptian pound, but you have to spend 100 pounds on this animal. Sell it, and get rid of it. Would anyone blame you for selling it? Would anyone say: "Shame on him for selling it"? It's only an animal.

If a man is completely fed up with his apartment, because he has bad neighbors, and the apartment is falling apart, would anyone blame him for selling it and say: "Shame on you, how can you sell it? This is where you were born and raised." This apartment does not suit him anymore. I have bad neighbors, and I don't feel good in it.

The same goes for the woman. If a woman has such bad character that her husband does not feel comfortable with her, there is nothing to prevent him from divorcing her. What are we, Christians?!"

Sadly, the Christian's practice in these matters does not always match the biblical position.

Your Struggle to Overcome, Part 2

Here's a follow up from the previous post, which was an exhortation from one of my former pastors, Colin Smith:

When it comes to your battle with temptation, God does not say "Pray about it." He says "Act against it." The problem with praying about it is that you end up focusing more attention on it, and that can make the problem worse. This is not an issue to passively turn over to God. This is an issue to actively fight.

The language of Scripture when it comes to our struggle with temptation is: "Put to death the misdeeds of the body by the power of the Spirit" (Romans 8:13), and: "The grace of God teaches us to say 'no' to worldly passions and to live self-controlled and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:11-12).

In the summer we sometimes have lunch on the deck in our backyard. The only problem is those pesky wasps that keep flying around. What do you do when a wasp keeps bothering you? You swat it.

That's exactly what the New Testament says: "Put to death the misdeeds of the body." You find a thought buzzing in your mind about that person in the office, or the adult store you could visit on the way home, or the internet site that was advertised on your computer. What should you do? Treat that thought exactly like the wasp: "Put to death the misdeeds of the body."

The most important thing you need to know is that you have the power to do this. Don't listen to the enemy when he tells you that you can't! The struggle for purity is a lifelong struggle, but you can prevail.

Your Struggle to Overcome

Looking back to one of the topics of this past Sunday's sermon, here are some thoughts from Colin Smith:

"How could I do such a wicked thing, and sin against God?" Genesis 39:9

Here is this young guy (Joseph) in a foreign country, and this woman (Potiphar's wife) is trying to entice him! Look at what Joseph did: He called the temptation sin, and he saw the wound that it would bring to the heart of God.

If you are going to overcome the power of temptation, the first step is to see the connection between your sin and the cross of Jesus. You have been redeemed from sin by the blood of Jesus. How then can you do this to Him? That was Joseph's secret. He made it a spiritual issue. It was not just between him and Potiphar's wife. It was a sin against God.

The great American preacher Jonathan Edwards used to speak about "the expulsive power of a new affection." I have found that phrase very helpful. A new love can be stronger than an old habit. And the first step in overcoming the power of temptation is to cultivate your love for Christ.

You can't deal with your struggles in isolation. Your ability to prevail will depend on your love for Christ. When you begin to see what your sin did to Him, you will think about it in a different way. That's why Paul says "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). That's where it begins.

As long as you're saying "This is no big deal!" you will never change. But once you come to the place of saying "This matters to God and so it matters to me!" then you are within sight of victory.

Deeper Proof

Charles H. Spurgeon:

"If you have shallow sorrows you will receive shallow graces. If you have deep afflictions you will obtain deeper proof of God's faithfulness."

Source

Free Study Bible Notes

Here's when you might think it would be nice to have a good study Bible: your pastor is preaching on a controversial topic from a complicated text. You know he's probably not going to be able to answer all your questions in the allotted time, and you wish you could get some further insight.

Well, as you know, I'm preaching from Matthew 5:31-37 on divorce and oaths (two sections from the Sermon on the Mount) as well as a later passage, Matthew 19:1-12, which is also about divorce. And, at risk of stealing my own thunder, I'm more than happy to point you to a good resource on these texts.

A few months ago, I posted on the new ESV Study Bible. There is an online version in which anyone can have complete access to the notes on Matthew. Go here to get started, and you can enter the chapter to go anywhere in Matthew. There are plenty of notes on this week's sermon texts, so read up!

How Emotional Distance Ruins a Marriage

While not explicitly Christian, this article seems to provide a sound assessment of one major cause of marriage problems: the tendency to withdraw. Withdrawal may seem to be a better option than fighting, but avoiding conflict by avoiding the other person and then not ever talking about substantive matters leads to a weak and fragile relationship.

Read "How Emotional Distance Ruins a Marriage"

Recognizing Grace

An excerpt from a Christianity Today interview with Eugene Peterson--

CT: As a pastor, then, you see grace in some unlikely situations.

EP: Yes, and my job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them to see the grace that is operating in their lives. It's hard to do, because our whole culture is going the other direction, saying that if you're smart enough and get the right kind of help, you can solve all your problems. . . . The work of spirituality is to recognize where we are -- the particular circumstances of our lives -- to recognize grace and say, "Do you suppose God wants to be with me in a way that does not involve changing my spouse or getting rid of my spouse or my kids, but in changing me, and doing something in my life that maybe I could never experience without this pain and this suffering?"

Source; originally in Christianity Today, 3 April 1987, pages 25-26.

Memorizing Scripture with Your iPod

From the ESV Bible Blog:

Have you considered using your iPod for Scripture memorization?

Blogger B.C. McWhite walks you through the steps for downloading and transferring passages of the ESV to your iPod or any MP3 player:

1. Open another browser tab so that you can refer back to these instructions as you do what I tell you to do.

2. Go to the ESV Online site.

3. In the top right corner, click on the “Options” tab.

4. Under “Audio Options,” click in one of the buttons for MP3 (I use David Cochran Heath because he has the most “normal” sounding voice).

5. At the bottom left of the page, click the “Save” button (that should open a page that says, “Your preferences have been saved” at the top).

6. Type the passage you want (e.g. Ephesians 4:29 or Matthew 6:25-34) into the search bar and click “search.”

7. When the passage comes up, you should see a link that says “Listen” next to the passage reference. Control-click (silly PC users right-click) on the “Listen” tab. A menu box should come up. Click on “Save Link As…”

8. When the box pops up, you will have to add an extension name on the end of the title if it doesn’t have one. So, for example, if the title of your selection is “49004029″ then you need to add .mp3 on the end, so that it reads “49004029.mp3″. Save the file to your Desktop.

9. Find the file on your desktop and open it with iTunes or Windows Media Player, or whatever you use. You can then load it onto your iPod, MP3 player, or burn it onto a CD for your car.

Read the entire post.

Christian Marriage: Covenantal vs. Contractual

From Russell Moore:

A pastor emailed me recently to say that he’d been in the process of preparing a couple for marriage. In the flow of premarital counseling he learned that the man had insisted that his future wife sign a prenuptial agreement, and that she’d agreed to it. The pastor told the couple they’re not ready to marry, and wondered whether prenuptial agreements have any place in a Christian marriage.

Let me first note that I am sure there are some legal circumstances in which a prenuptial agreement is mandated by law or by insurance policies, say in the case of a widow who remarries and who has minor children from her first marriage receiving an ongoing inheritance.

The typical arrangement of a prenuptial agreement, however, is completely outside the Christian vision of marriage. Here’s why.

First of all, a prenuptial agreement assumes a contractual rather than a covenantal view of marriage. It assumes there are two “partners” in the marriage, each protecting his or her interests and resources.

A Christian marriage, however, is a one-flesh union. What is true of the one is true of the other. A prenuptial agreement in a Christian marriage makes about as much sense as a legal contract between one’s mouth and one’s stomach, in case of a refusal to provide nutrients. The Apostle tells us: “No man hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church” (Eph 5:29).

This one-flesh union is in view in the traditional Christian vows, “with all my worldly goods I thee endow.”

A prenuptial agreement also presupposes divorce. Divorce is a regrettable future possibility, in this scenario, but it is a possibility. A couple that begins preparing for the possibility of divorce is headed toward it. Why not have the couple sign a legal document with arrangements made for the children in the case that she murders him? We wouldn’t think to do so because murder is, or ought to be, unthinkable for a couple preparing for marriage. Sadly, divorce is all too thinkable, even for those marrying in Christian churches.

I’m with my pastor correspondent. This couple is not yet ready to marry, to give themselves to one another completely. If the future groom can’t trust his bride with his money, how can he trust her with his life, his family, his children, his future?

Unconditional Love?

Speed Bump by Dave Coverly, published on February 14, 2009

Next Sermon - Matthew 5:31-37 on 02/22/09

On this coming Sunday, we will cover the next two sections of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus instructs his disciples on divorce and oaths, plus a later passage in which Jesus responds to the Pharisees on the issue of divorce.

Matthew 5:31-37

31 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

33 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 19:1-12

1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" 4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." 7 They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?" 8 He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."

10 The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." 11 But he said to them, "Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it."

Evangelicals as Elder Brothers

In a post last month, I reviewed Tim Keller's book The Prodigal God, in which he focuses much more attention on the older brother than is often given in our treatment of Jesus' well-known parable. His assertion is that most Christians are careful to stay away from the gross sins of the younger brother, yet miss the kind of relationship with the father that we were meant to have because we are operating on the basis of merit: "I deserve my share because I played by the rules." You can tell you're acting this way if you respond to the sins of others with a grumpy attitude instead of compassion and concern.

In an article here, Marvin Olasky notes how our efforts at reaching (or at least influencing) our culture are often self-destructive because the world sees us acting like older brothers. He helpfully describes what he calls a "third brother" approach.

Free Song - "Bless the Lord"

From Laura Story comes a new album called Great God Who Saves. The website Great Worship Songs is offering a free download of the song that serves as the opening track: "Bless the Lord." You'll have to create a free account, then you can do a "save as" of the MP3.

It's a catchy pop song that also has strong lyrics, which should be no surprise coming from Story, the songwriter behind "Indescribable."

Bless the Lord

You give and take away for my good.
For who am I to say what I need?
For You alone see the hidden parts of me
That need to be stripped away.

And as You begin to refine,
I’m learning to let go and rely
On One who walks with me. As hard as it may be,
You’re teaching me all the while to say:

Bless the Lord, O my soul.
All that’s in me bless Your name,
Forget not Your power untold,
Not Your glory or Your fame.
For You came to heal the broken,
To redeem and make me whole.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Though my faith may falter, my strength may fail,
I pray for eyes to see the richness of Your mercy shown to me.
Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord.

Will we sing it in our worship services? It certainly passes the test in terms of biblically rich and theologically sound lyrics. The music is catchy at points and soaring at others-- it makes you want to sing along. However, the vocal range (lowest and highest notes) is very wide, the rhythm/syncopation is pretty complex, and the key change is very tricky. While all this makes for great radio, it's a lot harder to use for congregational worship with simple instrumentation. So, do enjoy listening to this track with me (this falls into the great-worship-songs-for-driving-with-the-car-windows-down category), but know that we might not give it a try on Sunday morning. A solo, maybe?

The Christian Lover

If you have a husband or wife, here's something to get you in the right frame of mind for Valentine's Day. The Christian Lover: The Sweetness of Love and Marriage in the Letters of Believers is a new book by historian Michael Haykin. This brief work is the source from which I've taken the following quotation from Richard Baxter, an English Puritan pastor who lived 1615–1691.

It is a mercy to have a faithful friend, that loveth you entirely, and is as true to you as yourself, to whom you may open your mind and communicate your affairs, and who would be ready to strengthen you, and divide the cares of your affairs and family with you, and help you to bear your burdens, and comfort you in your sorrows, and be the daily companion of your lives, and partaker of your joys and sorrows. And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul; to join with you in prayer and other holy exercises; to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers, and to stir up in you the grace of God, and remember to you of the life to come, and cheerfully accompany you in the ways of holiness.

Click here for the table of contents and a sample chapter from The Christian Lover.

Considering Emotions

From Winston Smith, who, it should be said, is a biblical counselor:

I think emotions have gotten a bum-rap in biblical counseling. Of course, we understand the fluid nature of emotions. They ebb and flow and often tempt us to rash or unwise actions. But I think that often we go beyond exercising wisdom and caution as we address emotions and simply relegate them to nuisance status. As biblical counselors we often treat emotions as if, at best, they serve as a sort of flashing light on the dashboard of our lives warning us that something has gone wrong under the hood. There’s no point in focusing much attention on the light; after all, it’s only the symptom of a much deeper problem. If you really want to help, dive into thoughts and beliefs. That’s where the real action is. Emotions are just the caboose on the train. Change the course of the locomotive and the caboose follows.

There’s some truth to that. Emotions certainly aren’t “free agents” operating independently of our beliefs. But relegating them to the category of “symptom” doesn’t quite do justice to the functions the Bible assigns to emotions. Surely, God’s anger isn’t a simple byproduct of his holiness, but an essential expression of it. Certainly, we wouldn’t consider Jesus’ joy over rescuing one of his lost sheep a welcome but unnecessary expression of his love. Somehow, his elation at finding the lost is part and parcel of love itself.

Consider, for example, Paul’s teaching on how we are to live with one another in Romans 12. In verse 9 he writes, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” The subject heading, so to speak, is sincere love. What does sincere love look like? In verses 15 and 16 Paul writes, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another.” It would seem that part of genuine love means being willing to both express and share in one other’s various experiences. To love someone in their joy means to share in their joy, to feel it. To love someone in their suffering and misery is to share in their misery, to feel it; to stand apart as a clinically informed observer simply isn’t enough.

Doesn’t this understanding naturally follow from understanding the pattern and practice of Jesus’ own love? Jesus certainly knew both our joys and miseries before He united himself to us through the incarnation, but our confidence isn’t just in his divine omniscience, but in being witness to his first hand experiences of joy and suffering. Somehow knowing that he has both laughed and groaned with us reassures us and deepens our understanding of his love. So we, too, must be willing to live in each others’ experiences - to feel them. I would argue that this is just one way in which emotions aren’t simply a worrisome addition to the human psyche but part of the equipment of involvement and love itself.

Virtual Community?

You can use the internet to stay connected with old friends from high school or even your neighbor across the street. You can even deepen your relationship with other believers from your church. But could online relationships replace the need for the face-to-face community within the church?

Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith, explains why "virtual community" is not able to serve completely as the kind of community that the church must be.

[Note: He later comments on Second Life, which is a website where you can create a digital alter ego and live a simulated "life."]

Is Our Church an Institution?

As a younger man, I went through a period where I thought that the worst thing about most churches was that they were too institutional and not enough like extended families. That led me to explore the possibilities of house churches (at least in theory-- I never attended one), but I came to moderate my stance. Institutionalism is still a problem, but not everything can be spontaneous, and not all tradition is bad. Some things are worth establishing as habits, patterns, and, yes, even traditions. Ray Ortlund put it well:

To call anything an "institution" today is its death sentence, including a church. Should we be ashamed of the institutional aspects of our churches?

What is an institution? An institution is a social mechanism where life-giving human activities can be nurtured and protected and sustained. Some aspects of life should be unscheduled, spontaneous, random. But not all of life should be. What an institution does is structure and order a desirable experience, so that it becomes repeatable on a regular basis. Some things deserve better than to be left to chance. Football season is an institution, Valentine's Day is an institution, and so forth.

Institutions are not a problem. The problem is that an institution can become institutionalized. An institution is meant to enrich life. Institutionalization takes that good thing and turns it into death. How? The institutional structure, the mechanism, takes on its own inherent purpose. The structure itself overshadows the experience that is to be nurtured within the structure. When the institutional vehicle intended to facilitate the desirable experience stops being the means and morphs into the end, when running the plays rather than moving the ball down the field and scoring the touchdown becomes the preoccupation, when the instrument of blessing becomes brittle and life-quenching -- that is institutionalization. It's how a vehicle for liberation degenerates into an engine of oppression, but it keeps the sacred aura of the original liberating purpose. The Pharisees were masterful in this way.

Your church is an institution. Don't be embarrassed by that. But guard and improve your institution, so that its gospel purpose -- that people would meet with Christ, go deep, and never stop growing in him -- so that that larger purpose is served.

Reformed, always being further reformed, according to the Word of God, for greater joy in the Lord spreading to more and more people -- that's an institution worthy of our all.

Earth, Observed

Have you ever visited The Big Picture? It's a great spot if you like photography. Since our last post was on creation, here's a recent set of photos that will help you keep in awe of your Creator.

Click here: Earth, Observed

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other. - Isaiah 45:18

Holding Two Truths Together

"What is good and right about this world? What is good and right about me?"

"What is wrong with the world? What is wrong with me?"

It is important to recognize that Christianity has much to say about all these questions. It is also crucial that we hold all these things-- the positive and the negative-- together. If we don't embrace both "created good" and "under the curse" as regards creation as a whole, and both "created in the image of God" and "fallen in sin" as regards humans, then we will either see no need for the redemption, or no point in the resurrection and restoration of all things.

Here are some comments to this effect from Dr. Michael E. Wittmer, who is the author of Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough and Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God. In the clip he discusses what he believes is the next challenge for theologians. This certainly is true to some degree because it is an ongoing challenge for all believers to hold these two truths together.

Facebook Turns Five

Last week, Facebook, the social networking website, turned five years old. Millions of people use Facebook to stay connected with friends, making it one of the most popular sites on the web today.

Justin Taylor summarizes Al Mohler's "suggestions for safeguarding the social networking experience":

1. Never allow social networking to replace or rival personal contact and communication.
2. Set clear parameters for the time devoted to social networking.
3. Never write or post anything on a social networking site that you would not want the world to see, or anything that would compromise your Christian witness.
4. Never allow children and teenagers to have independent social networking access (or Internet access, for that matter).
5. Do not allow children and teens to accept any "friend" unknown to you.
6. Encourage older friends and relatives to sign up and use the technology.
7. Use the social networking technology to bear witness to the Gospel, but never think that this can replace the centrality of face-to-face evangelism, witness, and discipleship.
8. Do all things to the glory of God, and do not allow social networking to become an idol or a display of narcissism.

For further explanation of these eight points, and for more thoughts, read the whole thing.

Of course, we could replace "social networking" in the points above with just about any hobby or interest and apply these principles just as well. Much of this comes down to the practice of moderation in things that are not immoral, and making sure that whatever you do is done for God's glory. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Why It's Good to Spend Time in the Gospels (Like Matthew)

On the reading and study of the Four Gospels-- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:

"...gospel study enables us both to keep our Lord in clear view and to hold before our minds the relational frame of discipleship to him. The doctrines on which our discipleship rests are clearest in the epistles, but the nature of discipleship itself is most vividly portrayed in the gospels. Some Christians seem to prefer the epistles to the gospels and talk of graduating from the gospels to the epistles as if this were a mark of growing up spiritually; but really this attitude is a very bad sign, suggesting that we are more interested in theological notions than in fellowship with the Lord Jesus in person. We should think, rather, of the theology of the epistles as preparing us to understand better the disciple relationship with Christ that is set forth in the gospels, and we should never let ourselves forget that the four gospel are, as has often and rightly been said, the most wonderful books on earth." —J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, page 61

Source

Next Sermon - Matthew 5:17-30 on 02/15/09

Here is the text for this coming Sunday's sermon. The first paragraph is very significant, yet I will not be preaching it as a stand-alone text. It serves as an important preface to the six sections that follow which each contain the familiar "You have heard it said... but I say to you" introductions by Jesus. We will cover two of these six sections each of the next three weeks, and explain the significance of this preface (17-20) along the way.

Matthew 5:17-30

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Profile: Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission

Here's a real case of "salt and light": a largely positive story in The New Yorker about evangelical Christian lawyer Gary Haugen and his organization International Justice Mission.

I first heard of this group through a powerful story related in a column within Christianity Today back in 2004. Now, here's a lengthy profile in The New Yorker that describes Haugen, his organization, and the Christian faith that forms the foundation of their work. You can click the link above for the whole article, but here are a couple of excerpts:

Haugen, who was educated at Harvard and at the University of Chicago Law School, is a forty-five-year-old evangelical Christian who believes that Christians have generally ignored the Biblical injunction to “seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” In 1997, he created the International Justice Mission to offer legal services to the poor in developing countries. Haugen believes that the biggest problem on earth is not too little democracy, or too much poverty, or too few anti-retroviral AIDS medicines, but, rather, an absence of proper law enforcement.

Three hundred Christian lawyers, criminal investigators, social workers, and advocates at Haugen’s mission now work with local law-enforcement officials in twelve countries on behalf of individuals in need: bonded laborers, children who have
been sold into prostitution, widows who have had their land seized, poor people who, like Mutungi, languish in jail for crimes they did not commit. Though Haugen recognizes the inequities of the United States’ justice system, he decided that he could achieve more by working abroad. According to a report released in June by the United Nations Development Programme, four billion people live in places with dysfunctional justice systems—abusive police, entrenched bribery, mismanaged courts. “These people don’t get a sleepy lawyer or a crummy lawyer—they get nada,” Haugen said, after finding a seat in the courtroom. “The colonial powers who built justice systems in the Third World never intended to serve these people. Colonial justice was designed to control these people. Then, in the nineteen-sixties, the colonial powers left, and the justice systems stayed. Nobody, when we started international development, said, ‘Let’s revamp the public justice system. Let’s go into these places, where you either have colonial or pre-modern systems of justice, and bring to bear what we’ve learned about due process.’ No, that part was skipped.”

*****

After law school, he joined the Department of Justice, as a trial attorney in the civil-rights division. He married Jan Larsen, a staff assistant at a law firm. (They now have four children.) In 1994, Haugen took a short leave to direct the United Nations’ investigation of genocide in Rwanda, gathering the preliminary evidence needed in order to set up a war-crimes tribunal. In Rwanda, a predominantly Catholic country, the first visits he made were to pastors and missionary doctors, as he felt that he could quickly establish trust with them. He believed that the Christian network was an untapped resource in the human-rights world, even as he saw how badly some Rwandan clergy had failed their people. He was sickened to come across charred piles of bodies in a church where Tutsi had expected to find sanctuary. He took down the testimony of a father who saw his three small children hacked to death with machetes. At one massacre site, Haugen rolled back the decaying body of a woman and found the corpse of her child beneath her.

Six weeks later, after returning home, Haugen felt disoriented. In church, his mind drifted into calculations of how long it would take a machete-wielding gang to wipe out the congregation. Although the Salvation Army, World Vision, and other Christian organizations fed the hungry and sheltered the homeless, no Christian organization that he knew of had heeded the Bible’s appeals for justice (“Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out”). He resolved that Christians serving God had to do more than pray for the victims of cruelty; they had to use the law to help rescue them. “This is not a God who offers sympathy, best wishes,” he later wrote. “This is a God who wants evildoers brought to account and vulnerable people protected—here and now!”

What Preachers Like to Hear

I'm still growing as a preacher, so I don't have the delusion that I'm a hotshot, superstar speaker. I'm grateful for the days when God seems to use me, and I try not to get too disappointed when I don't do as well as I'd like. That's when I have to trust God for what he can do through an imperfect sermon, and, of course, that is what he always wants-- trust, that is, not a mediocre sermon! I have yet to preach the perfect sermon anyway.

With all that being said, I am human, and I still have to wrestle with pride, as irrational as it may be. It's amazing that God uses imperfect sermons and imperfect preachers!

Here are some helpful comments from a pastor named Derek Thomas on what a preacher should want to hear about his sermon:

Which of these two statements do preachers most like to hear: a) "I didn't understand much of what you said, but I love to hear you preach," or "You know, when I hear you preach I say to myself, 'I could have seen that in the text"?

Pride will dictate that preachers prefer the first response. It flatters and appeals to the ego. It makes us appear learned and profound. It justifies the expense the church has made in employing us. But the biblical servant of God will prefer the second response. Because that response means that those who listen to our sermons are learning to read and understand Scripture for themselves. Truth is, as the doctrine of perspicuity suggests, they are learning to read and understand through our instrumentality as preachers. As the Westminster Confession's opening chapter insists: "those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." One of those "ordinary means", of course, is our preaching. But when the messenger steps into the background enabling the listener to read for themselves, a greater service is done to the church of Christ.

Salt & Light

Here are some links to more interesting information on salt and light, which we looked at this morning as Jesus' images for discipleship in Matthew 5:13-16.

Click on the image above to see a full-size picture of the ways that our "city... cannot be hidden." This shot of Earth's City Lights comes via NASA's Visible Earth site.

The Salt Institute has a great section on "Salt in History." Look for the sidebar menu that covers different eras.

Salt: A World History is a full-length book (nearly 500 pages!) by Mark Kurlansky on salt in history. It was published in 2003.

Going to Be with the Church

Here's a great thought from Jonathan Dodson, a church planting pastor in Austin, Texas:

In trying to communicate the church as community to my two-year-old son, I have changed the way I talk about church. Instead of telling him that we are “going to church,” I tell him that we are going to be with the church, to sing and eat with them. Once Christians repent of reducing church to buildings and programs and begin to cherish the people God has given them to live with, warts and all, community will increase.

Try changing your phraseology with your family this weekend. I'm going to try it out myself.

Fireproof

I'm not one to rush out and watch every "must-see" Christian movie, but I've been hearing good things about the movie Fireproof, which our Mid-Life Fellowship will be showing as part of a Valentine's Dessert & Movie Night on Saturday, August 14.

For me to decide to watch a movie, I need to hear from somebody that I respect who thinks its worth my time. Here is a helpful post from a reputable source who has compiled several reviews and other useful links. I hope you'll come out and join us for this flick.

Sale at the Sovereign Grace Store

I don't make any money off this, but I want to encourage you to take advantage of a crazy sale going on through the month of February at the Sovereign Grace Ministries Store. Here's the deal:

$7 each: 23 Sovereign Grace books (including Living the Cross Centered Life, Humility: True Greatness, and Worldliness)
$6 each: all CDs from Sovereign Grace Music (including Psalms, Come Weary Saints, and Together for the Gospel Live)
$4 each: all books in our Pursuit of Godliness series (including Why Small Groups? and This Great Salvation)

Bonus:
U.S. orders: free shipping, as always (select USPS Library Rate)
International orders: 50% off shipping (select USPS First Class International)

You probably know their resources more than you realize. Many of us read together C.J. Mahaney's The Cross Centered Life, and the expanded version Living the Cross Centered Life is excellent. A few years ago, several of our small groups read Joshua Harris' Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Family of God. They have many other great books you should check out as well.

We also sing several of their songs: "Grace Unmeasured" and "Receive the Glory" (from Worship God Live), "Let Your Kingdom Come" and "O Great God" (from Valley of Vision), "The Gospel Song," "Before the Throne of God Above," and "Alas and Did My Savior Bleed" (from Songs for the Cross Centered Life), "Glory Be to God" and "Salvation Is Born" (from their Christmas album Savior) and others. If you like quality contemporary Christian worship songs, this is a great deal. The link at the top is for the store, but you can go here to listen to more samples of each before you buy.

The Power of Television

If only TV hadn't changed our lives. From The New York Times in 1939:

The problem with television is that people must sit and keep their eyes glued to a screen. The average American family hasn’t time for it ... Television is too confining; the novelty would not hold up for more than an hour.

Of course we can't watch TV for that long (that's why we have commercials), but can't we find better things to do anyway?

Source

Pastors' Conference Audio

I'm sorry for the long hiatus here, but I was without real internet access while in Minneapolis for the Desiring God Conference for Pastors. We had a great time there, and I not only enjoyed the event with our men, but also spent time with one of my brothers and a cousin as well as a former EFCMM church member and his wife, bumped into a roommate from seminary days and a professor I had in seminary, chatted with two pastors that have spoken in our church within the past year, and was newly introduced to a pastor from our area in northern Illinois.

The conference was titled Commending Christ: The Pastor, the Church, and the Perishing. If you'd like to hear some great messages that include both scriptural teaching and inspiring stories of personal evangelism, you can go here to read, listen, watch, or download each of the sessions for free. While Mark Dever, pictured above, was the main speaker, each of the men who spoke gave excellent, thought-provoking, and challenging addresses. Though they are geared for pastors, I believe just about anyone could benefit from these messages.

[So, if all this is available on the web, why go to the conference? I explained that in a previous post.]

Next Sermon - Matthew 5:13-16 on 02/08/09

Here's the text for our next sermon from the book of Matthew.

Matthew 5:13-16

13 "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

R.C. Sproul on the Theme of the Gospel of Matthew

Here are the concluding paragraphs from a brief article on the Gospel of Matthew by R.C. Sproul in his devotional magazine Tabletalk (February 2009 issue):

If we were to look, however, for one single theme that seems to be the most central and most important theme of the entire gospel of Matthew, it would be the theme of the coming of the kingdom. We see in the first instance that the term gospel refers to the gospel of the kingdom — the good news of the announcement of the breakthrough of the kingdom of God. In Matthew’s case, he uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” rather than the terminology “kingdom of God.” He does this not because he has a different view of the meaning or content of the kingdom of God; rather, out of sensitivity to his Jewish readers, he makes common use of what is called periphrasis, a certain type of circumlocution to avoid mentioning the sacred name of God. So for Matthew, the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven is the same kingdom that the other writers speak of as the kingdom of God.

Matthew talks about the breakthrough of the kingdom and the arrival of Jesus in His incarnation. He announces the coming of the kingdom at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and at the end of the book Matthew speaks about the final consummation of the coming of that kingdom in the Olivet Discourse. So from the first page of Matthew to the last page, we see the unifying theme of the coming of the kingdom of God in the appearance of the king Himself, who is the Messiah of Israel and the fulfillment of the kingdom given to Judah.

The gospel of Matthew is rich in detailed information about the teaching of Jesus and particularly in His parables, which are not always included in the other gospels. Again, the central focus of the parables of Jesus is the kingdom, where He introduces parables by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto this…” or “the kingdom of heaven is like unto that….” If we are to understand the significance of the appearance of Jesus in the fullness of time to inaugurate the kingdom and the whole meaning of redemptive history, we see that focus come into clear view in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew.

Video: Creating a Culture of Evangelism in Your Church

Tomorrow morning I leave with a few elders, a deacon, and another EFCA pastor from our region to go to the Desiring God Conference for Pastors in Minneapolis. You can pray for us as we are challenged on the theme of evangelism.

Here's one last video clip of Mark Dever, the main speaker at this year's conference, in which he talks about using testimonies of evangelism experiences to inspire the congregation to further evangelistic efforts. Do you have a story you'd like to share with the rest of the church?

By the way, you might want to take a look at Dever's little book titled The Gospel and Personal Evangelism.

What Repentance Looks Like

Matthew 3:8

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Ted Haggard is back in the news. The former megachurch pastor and president of the National Association of Evangelicals was forced to step down after his drug use and homosexual activity was exposed. Now, while he is on the media circuit to help promote a documentary about his life since his downfall, new allegations have come to light.

Here's some excellent commentary by Rod Dreher, who also quotes extensively from one of Haggard's colleagues:

In a post earlier this week on world-class narcissist Ted Haggard's desperation bid to stay in the limelight (wonder if he and Blago bumped into each other in the green room?), I mentioned that if he was really interested in atonement, he would take a lesson from how the disgraced UK cabinet minister John Profumo redeemed himself: by quietly working in the London slums to help the poor, away from the cameras and the public eye. My Bnet colleague Patton Dodd, who was Haggard's writer and editor for eight years, and who therefore knows the man well, sounds a similar note in a Slate essay today, in which Patton discusses why a pastor has to walk a higher road to redemption. Excerpt:

One place to look is outside religious ministry and inside British politics, to the famous Profumo Affair. When popular politician John Profumo was caught with a prostitute in 1963, he resigned and withdrew completely from public life. For the rest of his days--he lived until 2006--he did the work of atonement, cleaning toilets, washing dishes, and working with alcoholics in London's East End. Profumo never published a memoir or even granted so much as an interview, even though he once acknowledged "deeply distressing inaccuracies" in reports of his affair.

Before his fall, Haggard always claimed he'd do the same. From time to time over the years, from his pulpit, Haggard would say that if anything ever incapacitated his ability to minister, he hoped he'd just continue to come as a member and volunteer at the church--clean floors, scrub bathrooms. Unfortunately, given allegations of inappropriate behavior between Haggard and a church member, he couldn't be allowed within his church at all. But there were plenty of other options. Every town has an East End.

The problem for people like Ted Haggard--the problem that John Profumo intuited--is that he was in a position of public trust. Once fully lost, that trust can never be fully restored. Robert Downey Jr. can become an A-list actor, ruin himself with drugs, sober up, and become an A-list actor all over again. A businessman, a scholar, or a parent can do something similar. Why can't Haggard? Because his very public career was based on the antithesis of his failures. Downey wants only to be a d*** fine actor, and he can be that no matter the content of his character. Haggard wanted to be a minister, a position that makes claims on his behavior--claims that Haggard professed to be equal to. Haggard didn't have to be a big supporter of President Bush, or outspoken against homosexuality, or any of the things that charged his public life. But he did have to have character that was consistent with the values that he so loudly espoused. His life did have to be consistent with what he preached, because preaching is based on public trust within the preacher's community of followers. Integrity is the deal-maker, hypocrisy the deal-breaker.

Very astute point. Every town has an East End. Beautiful line. And a true one.