Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Those who lack friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts…This communicating of a man’s self to his friends works two contrary effects; for it redoubles joys and cuts griefs in half.
Nobody doubts (how could one?) that the Christian's creed must shape his life. But we seem not to see that the same is true of his baptism. Yet if baptism really signifies God's grace giving salvation and our faith grasping it, the rite has to be a life-shaper; and Christians knew this yesterday, even if we miss it today. Thus, the Puritans taught folk to "make use of" and "improve" their baptism: that is (whatever their words might suggest to modern readers), to make it fuel for their faith, hope, love, joy, and obedience. This is a lesson we too should learn.
There are seven ways in which I, as a believer, should view my baptism.
First, it was a gospel service, in which "the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith" (Rom. 1:16) was set forth in symbol, and God gave me a personal guarantee that through faith I might experience that power. As surely as I passed under the water then, so surely is the new life in Christ there for my asking now. So my baptism assures me that each day I may know more of supernatural deliverance from evil – guilt, doubt, fear, bitterness, hostility, misery, crippling habits, moral weakness, despairing loneliness (which is not the same as isolation, but is a reaction to it), and so on.
Second, my baptism was a marriage service, in which I was given away to Jesus my Lord to be his person, his covenant-partner, "for better, for worse" – but ultimately for the best (his best!), and forever. So my baptism reminds me whose I am and whom I must serve; who it is that stands pledged to love and cherish me, and share with me eternally all that he has; and what love and loyalty I owe in return.
Third, my baptism was a burial service, a funeral rite committing the man I was by nature, in Adam, to total destruction. "We were buried therefore with him [Christ] by baptism [that is, by the work of God revealed in baptism] ... united with him in a death like his," for "our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body [not just the physical organism, but also the disordered urges that stir it] might be destroyed [rendered powerless]" (Rom. 6:4-6). So my baptism calls upon me not to live "according to the flesh" [that is, self-deifying inclination], but always "by the Spirit [to] put to death the deeds of the body" (Rom. 8:12ff.).
Fourth, my baptism was an Easter festival, proclaiming both Jesus' resurrection and mine, as a believer, in and with his. "In baptism ... you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:12).
Through the indwelling Spirit I am truly risen already, though I must await Christ's return for my raising to be physically complete. Meantime, my baptism requires me to show forth day by day the Christ-life which now courses through me, while at the same time confirming to me that a new and better body will be mine.
Fifth, my baptism was a birthday celebration: I might say, my official "new-birth-day," for new birth is what co-resurrection with Christ effects. As the Queen's official birthday is not her actual anniversary, so the day of the Christian's new birth, when he knowingly committed himself to a known Christ, will not ordinarily have been the day of his baptism (for infants that could hardly be, and for adults a profession of new birth must precede baptism). Yet, as all birthdays are times for delight at life's goodness, so my baptism should teach me constant joy at being spiritually alive in Christ.
Sixth, my baptism was an admission ceremony, bringing me into the family of God's adopted children so that I might share the family life of worship, witness, and work for our Father's glory. So my baptism should give me a sense of oneness, and a call to practical identification, with the people who are the real salt of the earth – those who belong to God's church, and specially that segment of it with which I worship each Sunday.
Seventh, my baptism was a commissioning service, entering me upon a life wholly given to serve Christ and his cause. In his epitaph, written by himself, John Berridge, the eighteenth-century evangelical leader, called himself Christ's errand-boy. That is what my baptism committed me to be.
So brooding, and digesting these conclusions, I shall "improve" my baptism – and the same goes for you, too!
1. Read it repeatedly. Did you know you can memorize Scripture during your morning devotion? Instead of zipping through your reading for the day, pause and camp on one verse for a long time. You won’t regret it.
2. Pay attention. Sounds obvious, but often ignored. Simply forcing yourself to be aware of what you are reading can help you internalize the words. Repetition will make the mind wander. What you have to do is bring it back.
3. Visualize what you are reading. Take Psalm 1:1 for example. “Blessed is the man who does not walk with the wicked nor stand in the way of the sinner nor sit in the seat of the mocker.” Your first tasks is to see the three actions here: walking, standing and sitting. If you can see the three main actions, then you can start to memorize the surrounding words.
4. Create anchor words. In the above example, your anchor words are “walking,” “standing” and “seating.” In Colossians 1:15, my anchor words are image, invisible and firstborn. Whenever I get lost while reciting a passage I look for my anchor words to orient myself.
5. Recognize patterns. In Psalm 1:1, after the first line, the next three sentences follow this pattern: a verb, a noun and a modifier. Think of each of these as a bucket you drop the appropriate word into.
6. Start with the easy. Now, some passages are easier to remember than others. Psalm 1, easy. A page from Romans, hard. On your first effort at memorizing large chunks of Scriptures, don’t tackle Romans. Build some confidence first by memorizing Psalm 1 or the Sermon on the Mount.
7. Stagger. Sorry, not like you were drunk. What I mean is memorize an easy passage then a hard passage then an easy. Give your brain a break. This way you’ll avoid burnout.
8. Build memorable associations. If you want to remember difficult section of scripture like Romans 1:18-20, it helps to imagine God hovering like a brooding mountain over the world to represent all three verses. This is a robust picture hard to forget.
9. Anchor memorable associations in chapters. These rich word pictures can also help you when you’re trying to memorize entire chapters of the Bible. They orient you on a larger scale.
10. Cheat a little. Once you’ve absorbed a hunk of Scripture, don’t be afraid to keep a sheet of paper nearby with keywords or section headings to help you out when you need a reminder.
11. Narrate. Sometimes it helps to describe in your own words what you are trying to memorize. This will also help you build memorable associations, spot keywords and develop anchor words.
12. Stick to a ritual. I find it easier to memorize Scripture in my car–I have a long commute–and before I sleep. Especially early on in the process of memorizing, I can’t remember my passage as easily anywhere else except these places. So, until I gain more confidence, I stick to this ritual.
13. Sing it. Try opera. Or a musical. The point is to be dramatic. As if you were in a play. [This is my favorite trick, by the way.]
14. Try mnemonic devices. Many of us learned ROY G BIV to remember the colors of the rainbow. Make up your own device to memorize anchor words or more. In Psalm 1:1, your device would be WSS, or walk, stand and sit.
15. Enlist your body. If mnemonic devices aren’t your cup of tea, use body parts. Classic example of this is Ephesians 6:10-18, the armor of God. Waist, chest, feet, forearm and head complete the armor and can help you navigate through this lengthy passage.
16. Repeat the alphabet. Say you just can’t remember that big word in 1 John 2:2. Run through your ABCs. When you get to P, it should trigger the word escaping you:
propitiation.
17. Type it. One way to memorize something like John 1:1-3 is to type it into your computer. Not once. Not twice. But ten times. Maybe more. Your call.
18. Hear it. After you’ve typed it, next, read it aloud and record it. Then listen to the recording several times.
3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
"Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble saint is most jealous of himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The spiritually proud person is apt to find fault with other saints. . . and to be quick to notice their deficiencies. But the eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home, and sees so much evil in his own heart, and is so concerned about it, that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. . . . Pure Christian humility disposes a person to take notice of everything that is good in others, and to make the most of it, and to diminish their failings, but to give his eye chiefly on those things that are bad in himself."
- "Thoughts on the Revival," in Works, I:399-400.
24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Definition:
I'm using criticism in a broad sense as referring to any judgment made about you by another, which declares that you fall short of a particular standard. The standard may be God's or man's. The judgment may be true or false. It may be given gently with a view to correction, or harshly and in a condemnatory fashion. It may be given by a friend or by an enemy. But whatever the case, it is a judgment or criticism about you, that you have fallen short of a standard.
Key Point:
"A believer is one who identifies with all that God affirms and condemns in Christ's crucifixion."
In other words, in Christ's cross I agree with God's judgment of me and I agree with God's justification of me. Both have a radical impact on how we take and give criticism.
Application:
Critique yourself.
Ask the Lord to give you a desire to be wise instead of a fool.
Focus on your crucifixion with Christ.
Learn to speak nourishing words to others.
How to give criticism in a godly way:
I see my brother/sister as one for whom Christ died (1 Cor. 8:11; Heb. 13:1)
I come as an equal, who also is a sinner (Rom. 3:9, 23).
I prepare my heart lest I speak out of wrong motives (Prov. 16:2; 15:28; 16:23).
I examine my own life and confess my sin first (Matt. 7:3-5).
I am always patient, in it for the long haul (Eph. 4:2; 1 Cor. 13:4).
My goal is not to condemn by debating points, but to build up through constructive criticism (Eph. 4:29).
I correct and rebuke my brother gently, in the hope that God will grant him the grace of repentance even as I myself repent only through His grace (2 Tim. 2:24-25).
1 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
6 "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Remember the baby boom? No, not the one after World War II. More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any other year in the nation's history — and a wedding band made increasingly little difference in the matter. The 4,317,119 births, reported by federal researchers Wednesday, topped a record first set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom.
Behind the number is both good and bad news. While it shows the U.S. population is more than replacing itself, a healthy trend, the teen birth rate was up for a second year in a row.
The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend that started years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.
4 [Jesus] 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."
On this day in history, in 1789, the English poet and hymnwriter Charlotte Elliott was born. She is best known for her hymn, "Just As I Am, Without One Plea." I was not aware of the personal suffering that this woman endured for much of her life. Watch this dramatization to hear a bit of her story.THE TRINITY IN “ST. PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE”
The doctrine of the Trinity summarizes the greatness of God, partly by reminding us of all that God has done. It encourages us to broaden our vision of God. Above all, it demands that we do not falsely limit God by insisting that he fits into our limited understanding. The Greek philosopher Protagoras argued that “humanity is the measure of all things.” Yet how can we allow God to be limited by the vagaries of a frail and finite human reason?
Patrick, the patron saint of my native Ireland, sets out a vision of God in the great hymn generally known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.” This hymn sets out the richness and the depth of the Christian understanding of God. The hymn begins by surveying the vast panorama of the works of God in creation—one of the great themes of Celtic Christianity. The wonders of nature are reminders that God’s presence and power undergirds the world of nature:
I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the star-lit heaven,
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea,
around the old eternal rocks.
The hymn then turns its attention to the work of God in redemption. It declares that the same God who created the world—the earth, the sea, the sun, moon and stars—acted in Jesus Christ to redeem us:
I bind this day to me for ever,
by power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
his baptism in Jordan river;
his death on Cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb;
his riding up the heavenly way;
his coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.
We are thus invited to reflect upon the history of Jesus Christ: his incarnation, baptism, death, resurrection, ascension and final coming on the last day. These powerful ideas do not displace the belief that God created the world, and may be discerned in its wonders; it supplements this, by focusing on another area of the power and activity of God. All these, Patrick affirms, are the actions of the same God who created us and redeems us through Jesus Christ.
Yet the hymn has not quite finished; there is another aspect of the activity and presence of God to be surveyed. Again, this is not to be seen as an alternative or substitute for what is already believed; it rounds off the full and authentic Christian vision of the character and power of God. The same God who called the universe into being and redeemed us through Jesus Christ is also the God who is present with here and now:
I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.
The hymn thus affirms that the one and the same God created the world, entered into our work and redeemed us in Christ, and is present as a living reality this present moment. No other account of the nature and activity of God is adequate to do justice to the Christian witness to God, and no other doctrine of God can therefore be thought of as “Christian.”
— Alister McGrath, Glimpsing the Face of God: The Search for Meaning in the Universe. “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” is an ancient Gaelic poem, attributed to Saint Patrick of Ireland, c. 430.
About five years ago, I read Randy Alcorn's little book called The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving. It's an engaging and challenging read, and I would commend it to you if you want to think more about your own attitudes toward money and possessions. 19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“God owns everything. I’m His money manager.”
“My heart always goes where I put God’s money.”
“Heaven, not earth, is my home.”
“I should live not for the dot [life on earth] but for the line [eternity in heaven].”
“Giving is the only antidote to materialism.”
“God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.”
Suppose you buy shares of General Motors. What happens? You suddenly develop interest in GM. You check the financial pages. You see a magazine article about GM and read every word, even though a month ago you would have passed right over it.
Suppose you’re giving to help African children with AIDS. When you see an article on the subject, you’re hooked. If you’re sending money to plant churches in India and an earthquake hits India, you watch the news and fervently pray.
As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.
I’ve heard people say, “I want more of a heart for missions.” I always respond, “Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions—and in your church and the poor—and your heart will follow” (p. 44).
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
"In Jesus' name we pray, Amen." Is this just habit, a formal closing in public prayer? Or, is it a powerful declaration that we who pray in that name are in him to whom that name belongs? Well, Christians from the time of Christ onward have prayed in the name of God's Son. But only for the past two-hundred years or so has that name been relegated to the end of every prayer. Even though in many prayers it may be added as an afterthought, a nice closing that informs others in the room the prayer is about to end, the practice itself became popular during this modern era when the deity of the Son was being everywhere challenged. Ending petitions to the Father in the name of Jesus was a way for orthodox Christians to defend his divinity.
Nonetheless, praying in his name -- whether at the beginning, middle, or end of a prayer -- has much scriptural warrant. The apostle John records Jesus saying, "In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (John 16:23). Far from a how-to lesson on "name-it-and-claim-it" prayer, Jesus is preparing his disciples for a time when he would not be present with them in the body. After his ascension, the disciples will not be able to ask Jesus anything at all to his face; but at the same time, after his ascension, they will have the Holy Spirit revealing truth to them. Thus, they will be able to petition the Father directly in the name of the Messiah, that is, in a spirit of full agreement with the will and purposes of Jesus, whose will was, of course, always in accord with his Father's.
Praying in his name, then, simply means that we are privileged to implore the Father boldly through the authority of his Son. In the name of the Logos, our Lord, we express praise and adoration of the sovereign God. In the name of Christ, our Messiah, we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. In the name of the Savior, our Shepherd and Overseer, we give thanks to God for his great goodness and profound love. In the name of the Son of Man, we petition God for ourselves and others, entreating him to show mercy and grace by virtue of our union with the Suffering Servant, who, "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped." Instead, Jesus gave up his power and glory, becoming like one of us (Phil. 2:6-8). So, then, may we become like him, and may our praying in the name of Jesus be more than a mood-setting formal ending.
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Left to our selves, there are many things of which we are capable: we can persuade people intellectually; we can arouse and inspire them emotionally; and we can win them to ourselves psychologically. But the one thing we cannot do is to regenerate them spiritually. That task is exclusively God's. When one of my friends, who had been in the pastorate for many fruitful years, was asked by some seminary students, "What, in your experience, is the best and most effective evangelistic method?" he replied, after some thought, "Prayer--persistent, believing prayer."
Now, if you think about it, that reply does not come from some profound theological insight. Rather, it comes from a foundational truth. If only God can save, then to whom do we turn to see our friends brought to salvation? The logical answer is, "To God!" The awkward question that sometimes follows is: "Then why is it that in most ministries and churches, prayer is supplemental rather than fundamental?" This is the background against which we need to think about evangelistic preaching.
The global economy is being remade before our eyes. Here's what's on the horizon -
Jobs Are the New Assets
Recycling the Suburbs
The New Calvinism
Reinstating the Interstate
Amortality
Africa: Open for Business
The Rent-a-Country
Biobanks
Survival Stores
Ecological Intelligence
Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simply by "glorifying" him. In the 1700s, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards invested Calvinism with a rapturous near mysticism. Yet it was soon overtaken in the U.S. by movements like Methodism that were more impressed with human will. Calvinist-descended liberal bodies like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) discovered other emphases, while Evangelicalism's loss of appetite for rigid doctrine — and the triumph of that friendly, fuzzy Jesus — seemed to relegate hard-core Reformed preaching (Reformed operates as a loose synonym for Calvinist) to a few crotchety Southern churches.
No more. Neo-Calvinist ministers and authors don't operate quite on a Rick Warren scale. But, notes Ted Olsen, a managing editor at Christianity Today, "everyone knows where the energy and the passion are in the Evangelical world" — with the pioneering new-Calvinist John Piper of Minneapolis, Seattle's pugnacious Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Seminary of the huge Southern Baptist Convention. The Calvinist-flavored ESV Study Bible sold out its first printing, and Reformed blogs like Between Two Worlds are among cyber-Christendom's hottest links.
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
Wired.com: What does it mean to be distracted?
Jackson: Literally, it means to be pulled away to something secondary. There's also an a interesting, archaic definition that fell out of favor in the 18th century: being pulled to pieces, being scattered. I think that's a lovely term.
Our society right now is filled with lovely distractions — we have so much portable escapism and mediated fantasy — but that's just one issue. The other is interruption — multitasking, the fragmentation of thought and time. We're living in highly interrupted ways. Studies show that information workers now switch tasks an average of every three minutes throughout the day. Of course that's what we have to do to live in this complicated world.
Wired.com: How do these interruptions affect us?
Jackson: This degree of interruption is correlated with stress and frustration and lowered creativity. That makes sense. When you're scattered and diffuse, you're less creative. When your times of reflection are always punctured, it's hard to go deeply into problem-solving, into relating, into thinking.
These are the problems of attention in our new world. Gadgets and technologies give us extraordinary opportunities, the potential to connect and to learn. At the same time, we've created a culture, and are making choices, that undermine our powers of attention.
But the hard truth is that most Christians don’t pray very much. They pray at meals—unless they’re still stuck in the adolescent stage of calling good habits legalism. They whisper prayers before tough meetings. They say something brief as they crawl into bed. But very few set aside set times to pray alone—and fewer still think it is worth it to meet with others to pray. And we wonder why our faith is weak. And our hope is feeble. And our passion for Christ is small.
And meanwhile the devil is whispering all over this room: “The pastor is getting legalistic now. He’s starting to use guilt now. He’s getting out the law now.” To which I say, “To hell with the devil and all of his destructive lies. Be free!” Is it true that intentional, regular, disciplined, earnest, Christ-dependent, God-glorifying, joyful prayer is a duty? . . . Is it a discipline?
You can call it that.I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.
- It’s a duty the way it’s the duty of a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes underwater.
- It’s a duty the way pilots listen to air traffic controllers.
- It’s a duty the way soldiers in combat clean their rifles and load their guns.
- It’s a duty the way hungry people eat food.
- It’s a duty the way thirsty people drink water.
- It’s a duty the way a deaf man puts in his hearing aid.
- It’s a duty the way a diabetic takes his insulin.
- It’s a duty the way Pooh Bear looks for honey.
- It’s a duty the way pirates look for gold.
God has given us means of grace. If we do not use them to their fullest advantage, our complaints against him will not stick. If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, there spiritual are means of grace. Resist the lies of the devil in 2009, and get a bigger breakthrough in prayer than you’ve ever had.
27. Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. God's providence is His almighty and ever present power,[1] whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures,[2] and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty,[3] indeed, all things, come not by chance[4] but by His fatherly hand.[5]
[1] Jer. 23:23, 24; Acts 17:24-28. [2] Heb. 1:3. [3] Jer. 5:24; Acts 14:15-17; John 9:3; Prov. 22:2. [4] Prov. 16:33. [5] Matt. 10:29.
28. Q. What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by His providence?
A. We can be patient in adversity,[1] thankful in prosperity,[2] and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love;[3] for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.[4]
[1] Job. 1:21, 22; Ps. 39:10; James 1:3. [2] Deut. 8:10; I Thess. 5:18. [3] Ps. 55:22; Rom. 5:3-5; 8:38, 39. [4] Job 1:12; 2:6; Prov. 21:1; Acts 17:24-28.
We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.
Mr. Obama made a big point in his speech of claiming to bring integrity back to science policy, and his desire to remove the previous administration's ideological agenda from scientific decision-making. This claim of taking science out of politics is false and misguided on two counts.
First, the Obama policy is itself blatantly political. It is red meat to his Bush-hating base, yet pays no more than lip service to recent scientific breakthroughs that make possible the production of cells that are biologically equivalent to embryonic stem cells without the need to create or kill human embryos. Inexplicably -- apart from political motivations -- Mr. Obama revoked not only the Bush restrictions on embryo destructive research funding, but also the 2007 executive order that encourages the National Institutes of Health to explore non-embryo-destructive sources of stem cells.
Second and more fundamentally, the claim about taking politics out of science is in the deepest sense antidemocratic. The question of whether to destroy human embryos for research purposes is not fundamentally a scientific question; it is a moral and civic question about the proper uses, ambitions and limits of science. It is a question about how we will treat members of the human family at the very dawn of life; about our willingness to seek alternative paths to medical progress that respect human dignity.
For those who believe in the highest ideals of deliberative democracy, and those who believe we mistreat the most vulnerable human lives at our own moral peril, Mr. Obama's claim of "taking politics out of science" should be lamented, not celebrated.
1. Obama has restored federal policy to what it was prior to Bush’s 2001 stem cell policy announcement.
2. The Bush policy was a ban on embryonic stem cell research.
3. There are no viable scientific alternatives to the destruction of human embryos.
4. The promise of pluripotent stem cells is quite certain.
Think about what's being dismissed here as "politics" and "ideology." You don't have to equate embryos with full-grown human beings—I don't—to appreciate the danger of exploiting them. Embryos are the beginnings of people. They're not parts of people. They're the whole thing, in very early form. Harvesting them, whether for research or medicine, is different from harvesting other kinds of cells. It's the difference between using an object and using a subject. How long can we grow this subject before dismembering it to get useful cells? How far should we strip-mine humanity in order to save it?
Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
In this one verse is summarized the teaching of the entire letter. Christians do not suffer accidentally or because of the irresistible forces of blind fate; rather, they suffer according to God's will. . . . Therein lies the knowledge that there is a limit to the suffering, both in its intensity and in its duration, a limit set and maintained by the God who is our creator, our savior, our sustainer, our Father.
The Dow Jones is down. NASDAQ is down. Housing values are down.
Venture capital is down. Consumer confidence is down. Employment is down. Auto industry is down. Commercial real estate is down. Foreign markets are down.
Is anything going up?
Some things are. The opportunity to serve people in need is going up. The opportunity to trust God when trusting isn't easy is going up. The opportunity to build a faith that will last when the storms of life hit it is going up. The opportunity to help our churches become communities where people actually we get real with each other and love and support each other is going up.
We know this is true because certain truths remain unchanged:
God remains sovereign. The blood of Jesus is still more powerful than the stain of sin. The Holy Spirit still guides confused church leaders. The Bible is still the word of God. The tomb is still empty. Prayers still get answered. Love still beats bigotry. Hope still trumps despair. The church is still marching. The Kingdom is still alive and well, and does not need to be bailed out by a stimulus package.
Here's the whole article.
The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. These groups, whose proportion of the American population shrank from 18.7 percent in 1990 to 17.2 percent in 2001, all experienced sharp numerical declines this decade and now constitute just 12.9 percent.
Most of the growth in the Christian population occurred among those who would identify only as “Christian,” “Evangelical/Born Again,” or “non-denominational Christian.” The last of these, associated with the growth of mega-churches, has increased from less than 200,000 in 1990 to 2.5 million in 2001 to over 8 million today. These groups grew from 5 percent of the population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2001 to 11.8 percent in 2008. Significantly, 38.6 percent of mainline Protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again.
“It looks like the two-party system of American Protestantism—mainline versus evangelical—is collapsing,” said Mark Silk, director of the Public Values Program. “A generic form of evangelicalism is emerging as the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in the United States.”
Other key findings:
• Baptists, who constitute the largest non-Catholic Christian tradition, have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population.
• Mormons have increased in numbers enough to hold their own proportionally, at 1.4 percent of the population.
• The Muslim proportion of the population continues to grow, from .3 percent in 1990 to .5 percent in 2001 to .6 percent in 2008.
• The number of adherents of Eastern Religions, which more than doubled in the 1990s, has declined slightly, from just over two million to just under. Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups.
• Those who identify religiously as Jews continue to decline numerically, from 3.1 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2008—1.2 percent of the population. Defined to include those who identify as Jews by ethnicity alone, the American Jewish population has remained stable over the past two decades.
• Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900,000 to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
• Adherents of New Religious movements, including Wiccans and self-described pagans, have grown faster this decade than in the 1990s.
7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:Matthew 7:7-11
"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Fasting
Fasting is the voluntary act of abstaining from something for the purpose of growing in self-discipline, which is the essence of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the most common form of fasting is from food. This is because, as Paul says, for some people their stomach is their god. By fasting from food, they are learning to enjoy food as a gift from God without allowing it to become an idolatrous functional god that controls them.
Good Things Become Idols
However, there are seemingly innumerable other things that, though they are good, can become bad when they rule over us in a way that only God should. Modern examples include fasting from the internet, email, or cell phone for a period of time if you find yourself compulsively spending too much of your time and energy checking websites, emails, phone calls, and voicemails.
This point was painfully illustrated to me at a recent dinner out with my children. My wife, Grace, was teaching at a women’s event, and so I took the kids to a restaurant. Sitting around us were many other families like us, with one exception. Every single father was either talking on the phone or responding to emails on his BlackBerry throughout the meal, not connecting with his children in any way. Sadly, rather than visiting with their kids and having some fun, these daddies allowed their technological gods to rule over them. Their gods required the sacrificing of their own children, not unlike Molech in the Old Testament.
When You Fast
Jesus Himself exemplified the discipline of fasting for us in His own earthly life. One of the most well-known examples is Jesus’ forty days of fasting in Matthew 4:1–11. When Jesus spoke to His disciples about fasting, He said, “when you fast,” as if it was simply expected to be done (Matthew 6:16–17). As an aside, anyone wanting to practice an extended period of fasting would be wise to first speak with their doctor about how to do so safely.Other Scriptures also include reports of fasting. In Nehemiah 9:1, we are told that the entire nation of Israel fasted. Esther 4:16 likewise records a national three-day fast. In the New Testament, Acts 13:2 reports that a leadership decision regarding who should be sent out from the church at Antioch to plant another church was made after a period of seeking the Lord through fasting and worship. Acts 14:23 reveals that upon appointing new elders for some churches, Paul and Barnabas commissioned the new pastors with prayer and fasting.
"Love your enemies"In the grand scheme of things, this isn't really loving your "enemies." Cheering for your opponent is nowhere near showing kindness to your persecutors, but it is a good illustration of the good that can come from the kind of love that is not practiced-- and completely unexpected-- by the world. It's a wonderful picture of grace.
If you'd like to listen to more from the Gettys, here is a great place to start. In Christ Alone is their first album to feature Keith and Kristyn performing their own music. Click through the title to hear samples from the album. Their myspace page also has some samples of their radio singles.
This post concludes my sampling of the Leadership Journal interview (full text here) with Keith & Kristyn Getty, a young couple from Northern Ireland who have written dozens of excellent worship songs.LJ: The relationship between pastor and music minister is notoriously troubled.
Kristyn: It's a match made in heaven. Are you kidding?
Keith: On paper, the pastor and musician are a great partnership, because one has a bent towards theology and message, and the other is creative and has a bent towards the arts. When the two work well together, like the Wesley brothers or Cliff Barrows and Billy Graham, it's a one plus one equals three.
LJ: So where do things go wrong?
Keith: A lot of pastors are content either not to get involved at all or to be happy with the music as long as it's bringing in the numbers. But the music is more than the PR and marketing department of the church that brings people in for the pastor to preach to. Singing is a holy activity which will go on into heaven long after expositional Bible teaching finishes.
LJ: How can a pastor and music minister work together to help the congregation worship?
Kristyn: When we visit churches Sunday to Sunday, the churches that sing the best seem to be the ones where the pastor is singing. If he's singing, people sing. For the musician or the worship leader at the front, having the pastor singing with you makes all the difference in the world.
Keith: Another thing, the effective pastor-and-worship-leader teams we've seen are totally geared to serving their congregation every week. They continually ask, "What really worked here and what didn't?" It's so easy to make the unimportant things the important things. So the music in itself or the sermon or the production values become the thing.
The best ministers have two goals—to teach the faith and to support the congregation. On Monday morning, they get together and ask, "How well did we achieve these goals?"
Then the pastor and music minister need to look at the words they put in their congregation's mouths and minds.
So we need to print out all the words from Sunday and ask, "Are these true words? Are these words giving people a bigger vision of God?"
Next you have to ask, "Did the congregation sing?" If the congregation can't sing a song, then it doesn't matter how good it is for the choir or the organ or the worship band or the lead singer. Can the congregation sing it?
LJ: I guess you work from pretty basic principles.
Keith: Absolutely. Our primary motivation is the need for twenty-first century hymnody that articulates the truths of the faith and builds up the young, vibrant, and increasingly persecuted church worldwide.
We need to see that the Lord's Pray is offering us model answers to the series of questions God puts to us to shape our conversation with him. Thus:
What do you take me for, and what am I to you?
Our Father in heaven.
That being so, what is it that you really want most?
The hallowing of your name; the coming of your kingdom; to see your will known and done.
So what are you asking for right now, as a means to that end?
Provision, pardon, protection.
How can you be so bold and confident in asking for these things?
Because we know you can do it, and when you do it, it will bring you glory!
Three venerable formulae together add up to Christianity: the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, summarizing respectively the Christian way of believing, behaving, and communing with God.His Praying the Lord's Prayer is also available as part of a larger volume titled Growing in Christ that includes his studies on each of these three foundational statements.
Back on the first day of this year, John Piper posted a brief article on fasting, and I've been saving it to pass on to you this week, when we'll be looking at Jesus' teaching on fasting in Matthew 6:16-18. Jesus did not say, “If you fast...” but “When you fast...” (Matthew 6:16). This will be new (even over the top) for some of you. So do a crazy thing in 2009. It might change your relationship with God. And your life.
Here’s a tiny bit of help. A bit on how. And a bit on why.
How to Fast
Pick a day of the week or a day of the month and plan to fast in 2009. Plan which meal or meals to skip. Skip them entirely, or do it with only juice or only water. There are no rules. There is only spiritual hunger being spoken and stoked with physical hunger.
Take some of the time you would have spent eating and read some scripture and take time to tell God why you are doing this and what you long for.
Why Fast? Here are six biblical aims for fasting.
1. For Jesus to come back
Matthew 9:14-15
Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
2. For help in a new venture in ministry
Matthew 4:1-2
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
Acts 13:3
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
3. To avert some danger or threat
Ezra 8:21
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.
2 Samuel 12:16
David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.
4. To express sorrow and loss
2 Samuel 1:12
They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
1 Chronicles 10:12
All the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh, and they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
5. To express repentance and grief for sin
Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.
6. Not for the praise of men
Matthew 6:16-18
Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
(For more instruction and inspiration in fasting see A Hunger
for God, Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer.)
This continues a series of posts from an extensive interview conducted by Leadership Journal with young worship songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty who hail from Northern Ireland. The complete text is available here.
LJ: So are modern hymns the solution to the "worship wars"?
Keith: Church music fights did not begin twelve months after The Beatles started and the church realized that there was new music. These arguments about what Christians should sing have gone on all of time, from rival monasteries to rival cathedrals. They're not going to end. And so anybody who prescribes a musical solution is blowing smoke.
LJ: Well put.
Keith: There's a reason why the Lord made the church a multigenerational, multiclass, multiethnic, diverse group of people. I doubt that everybody in Acts had the same musical tastes, if they were Jews and Greek and slave and free and Sabean and different things.
LJ: If modern hymns won't end the conflict over musical styles, what makes them relevant?
Kristyn: Well, the truth is always relevant. If the songs are full of truth, they will never be out of date.
Keith: Good art is good art. There's no such thing as good Christian art or good contemporary art. If you can create something that's good, it has lasting value.
I think part of the reason contemporary worship has been so successful is that it has put truth in the current idiom and melodies most can sing. But it's important we don't lose the point. The point isn't to be contemporary for contemporary's sake. If you try to create something that's contemporary, it's got a very limited shelf life because it only lasts as long as those things are considered contemporary. I think that's why everybody's rushing to go backwards to try and find something from the past—because they've totally lost context of where they're at.
LJ: Do modern hymns help re-connect the church with the past?
Keith: Sure. For instance, the hymn "O Church Arise" was a study of Lutheran hymnody. Luther's vision of the church was that it was the only hope for the world we live in, for the lonely person with the lonely eyes we walk past in the street. That's quite relevant today. "Speak, O Lord" was a study of old hymns of illumination that prepare the church for the preaching of the Word.
Kristyn: In America, "new" is a positive word. The positive energy and desire to do new things in America is certainly wonderful. But the truth is life isn't always just a blank page. The Christian life is about remembering, not just all that God has taught us through the Scriptures but also from church history. Every generation must find new expression, new color. But we're the worse off when we disconnect ourselves from the past and are always in pursuit of a blank page. That's true in the church and in society as a whole.
C. S. Lewis says that learning is not so much like a train going from one station to the next, so that we leave something and go on to another. Instead, in the way that a tree grows, you add rings to your understanding without leaving the old behind. We can harness all that is good and should never be forgotten from the past as we move on. We're still moving and ebbing and trying new things, without becoming disconnected from the root.
Keith: The contemporary generation talks a lot about songs having to sound contemporary for the unchurched to listen to. In my experience of having non-Christian friends attend Christian events or church, they're much more warmed when everyone is singing passionately and confidently, rather than somewhere somebody's trying to do something half as well as it might be done on MTV, or where everybody in the congregation is standing around and staring. Nine times out of ten, they're actually quite embarrassed by that.
1 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:"Our Father in heaven,14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
16 "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Here's another segment from the Leadership Journal interview with worship songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty. This part is little more about music, but it does have ministry implications. The complete text of the interview can be found here.LJ: Where do you find your inspiration in that effort?
Keith: Our songwriting style has two main inspirations, both of them equally unchristian. One is Irish folk music, which is very singable and social. It's almost tailor made for congregational singing. The other is the only contemporary popular genre written in a similar style: the 1930s Jewish songwriters of Tin Pan Alley—George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin. Their craft was honing perfect melodies and then putting lyrics to it.
LJ: To clarify, why is the melody so important?
Keith: Because a good melody transcends musical style. For instance, a Gershwin song became a Broadway musical, a number one hit in the pop charts, a jazz standard, and a standard in the classical music cult long before pops orchestras.
Kristyn: Sometimes with modern music, you rely on the groove or the lead singer or the syncopation patterns in order for the congregation to be able to follow along. So if you take out the drum, the song doesn't work. But melodic folk music is quite versatile. You can dress and arrange it in so many different ways. You can sing it with the piano and a leading vocal, or without all those things.
We often cite "Be Thou My Vision" as an example. The lyrics date to around the sixth century, but it's still being sung. And you've heard it with a big rock band, and you've heard it just voices and nothing else. It's incredible what you can do with that folk melody. That's a great example of how a song continues to be relevant. It's not bound by any generation or style.
So we're always chasing that melody that might transcend all those boundaries and just be easy to sing.
LJ: That sounds like a lot of work.
Keith: Since June of this year, I've probably written three hundred melodies, and I'll only use two or three of those.
