You Can Change #8 (Chapter 1)

Romans 8:28-30

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

In You Can Change, Tim Chester cites the above passage, then states:

In Romans 8, Paul says that God uses everything that happens to us to make us like Jesus, both the good and the bad. Indeed, the bad things become in some sense good for us because they make us like Jesus. In themselves they may be evil, but God uses them for the good of those who love him, and that good is that we become more like Jesus. [...] The secret of gospel change is being convinced that Jesus is the good life and the fountain of all joy. Any alternative we might choose would be the letdown. (14-15)

Have you understood this very famous Romans 8:28 verse in this way before? Part of our problem is that we too often quote verse 28 but no further. In the verses that come after, Paul explains what he meant by "purpose" in 28, and when we understand God's purpose, we can start to see how he could work for good through the many confusing events in our lives. The opposite is also true: when we don't understand his purpose, we won't have any category for things like suffering and pain.

What is God's purpose? It is taking us who were to be his image (Genesis 1:26-27), who were not "imaging" him because of sin (Romans 3:23), and conforming us to the image of Christ. How will he do this? It will be by calling, justifying, and ultimately glorifying those whom he had foreknown and predestined.

Many of us tend to read these verses and head straight for a debate on the nature of foreknowledge and predestination, but that misses the point. It seems clear that Paul meant for his readers to take away a strong sense of confidence and assurance that God was for them in spite of all that happened to them because he has a greater purpose for his people-- and his purpose will most definitely be fulfilled.

How should this change the way I think of the difficult and/or confusing circumstances of my life, and my response to them?

When I am struggling with the stuff of life, do I take comfort in the sure and certain purpose of God for me?

Do I want to be conformed to the image of Christ more than I want a problem-free life?

Note: Check out the video in the next post (above) for more on applying Romans 8.

Vision Problem

John Ortberg:

Vision is fundamental to the health of your church, but I'll tell you right now it's probably not the kind of vision you're thinking about.

Dallas Willard was asked by Gordon Cosby of Church of the Savior why so many churches and movements end badly, and his answer was so brilliant they made it into a little booklet.

It all begins with a vision. A Francis of Assisi or a John Wesley is gripped by a vision that will not let them go. But it is not a vision of what they're going to do. It is not a vision of a preferred future. It is not a vision of human activity. It is a vision of what already is. It is a vision of God, and how good he is, and how wonderful it is to be alive and a friend of such a Being.

Out of this vision flows a desire to do good things for such a God. And sometimes these activities may lead to results that look quite remarkable or impressive. And then other people may gather, and some decide they'd like to be involved in such activities because it might give them a sense of significance. People begin to pay more attention to what they are doing than to the reality of God.

At this point the mission replaces the vision as the dominant feature in peoples' consciousness. Once this happens, descent is inevitable. For now people are living under the tyranny of Producing Impressive Results.

The number one "vision problem" with churches today is not (as is widely held) leaders who "lack a vision." The real problem is when our primary focus shifts from who God is (a vision that alone can lead to "the peace of Christ reigning in our hearts") to what we are doing.

You Can Change #7 (Chapter 1)

You Can Change, from the end of the first full paragraph on page 13:

For Jesus, holiness meant being set apart from, or different from, our sinful ways. It didn't mean being set apart from the world, but being consecrated to God in the world. He was God's glory in and for the world.

Some of our confusion on this point arises naturally from the fact that the Bible uses "the world" in a few different ways. For example, we have John 3:16 which says, "For God so loved the world..." and 1 John 2:15, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Yes, as in the second verse, holiness is the antithesis of worldliness. We are set apart for God in distinction from the way most people have set themselves against him. We must reject these wicked ways, and certainly not love them.

However, we must also see the point that author Tim Chester is trying to make. The world-- that is, the lost people in this fallen world-- desperately needs to see the glory of God in Jesus Christ through us. If that's going to happen, we need to be in the process of becoming more and more like his true image of God and less and less like our broken one.

This helps us understand the point of his little story on page 15 about his daughter's friend who said, "Be a good Jesus today." Of course, we mustn't emphasize Jesus-as-example in a way that marginalizes his unique and exclusive work in dying for us, but it is essential that we live our lives according to his example, being conformed to his image.

Do you have an everyday awareness of living like Jesus?

Do you see how this Christ-likeness must be in the world, not cloistered off from it?

Can you explain how it is both against the world and for the world?

Delight in God's Creation

Go here to this picture and dozens more from our solar system.

Charles Darwin, from his Autobiography:

Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds . . . gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare. . . .

Formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight.

But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music. . . .

I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did. . . .

My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive. . . .

The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

It's true-- there is no genuine pleasure in a world that is not understood to have been created by God.

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You Can Change #6 (Chapter 1)

In You Can Change, the second and third sections of Chapter 1 are "Broken Image" and "True Image."

The author says that we do not function as the image of God we were made to be because of sin, citing Romans 3:23 ("All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God") and then quoting Sinclair Ferguson:

Paul's language here is loaded with the biblical motif of the divine image. In Scripture, image and glory are interrelated ideas. As the image of God, man was created to reflect, express, and participate in the glory of God, in miniature, creaturely form.

As I began to read the very next section, where Chester points to Jesus Christ as the true image, I could see in one of the verses this relationship between image and glory. This is Hebrews 1:3:

He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

It's worth considering how sin is not just breaking God's laws, and the damage of sin is not just the "natural" consequences of breaking those laws. It goes much further than that! I sin when I do not reflect the glory of God, and my sinful actions keep me from being a faithful representation of his glorious character.

How becoming it is when I am godly! How unbecoming it is when I am not! I fail to point to God, and I become disfigured myself.

Holiness and Love

Francis Schaeffer:

If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation. All too often young people have not been wrong in saying that the church is ugly. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we are called upon to show to a watching world and to our own young people that the church is something beautiful.

Several years ago I wrestled with the question of what was wrong with much of the church that stood for purity. I came to the conclusion that in the flesh we can stress purity without love or we can stress the love of God without purity, but that in the flesh we cannot stress both simultaneously. In order to exhibit both simultaneously, we must look moment by moment to the work of Christ, to the work of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality begins to have real meaning in our moment-by-moment lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God.

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You Can Change #5 (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 of You Can Change is one of the longer chapters of the book, but don't let that discourage you. While we broke up some of the other chapters, this one seemed important to keep together. It's a lot of doctrine, but it serves as an essential foundation.

It might be good just to see the section headings of this chapter all at once in order to get the flow:

Created in God's Image

Broken Image

True Image

Re-created in God's Image

Seeing Glory and Reflecting Glory

The first section goes right along with the sermon for this coming Sunday. We'll be looking at the latter part of Genesis 1 as well as Genesis 2, focusing on what it means to be created in God's image.

Commenting on Genesis 1:27, Tim Chester explains,

We were made to be God's image on the earth: to know him, to share his rule over the world, to reflect his glory. The idea is probably that of a statue of a god that represents the authority and glory of that god. But we're not to make images of the living God precisely because we are his image. We're God's representatives on earth. We're God's glory, displaying his likeness.

If we don't understand this as the core of our identity, we won't realize how wonderful it is to be human, and how tragic it is that we fall so far short. Before we consider that aspect, let's think some more about the positive dimension of our creation.

How does being created in the image of God change your thoughts about yourself?

How does it change your estimation of other people?

How should it affect your attitudes and actions in everyday life?

What would be some examples of living your life as God's image in the world?

"My God" by Stuart Townend

You Can Change #4 (Chapter 1)

We will discuss Chapter 1 of You Can Change at our small group meeting on September 26. Since this is a longer chapter, I'll be blogging frequently over the next week and a half.

Chapter 1 begins with a question that also serves as its title: "What would you like to change?" This illustrates one reason why I really liked this book: it's practical because it forces us to think and act specifically. That's all fine and good, but now I have to answer the question!

One paragraph later, the author writes, "We all want to change in some way." Do you have a list of things spring immediately to mind? That's an important step, but the rest of this post might not be for you.

What if you don't know how to answer the question? You might think, "I know I'm supposed to be growing as a Christian, but what should I focus on? I just don't know."

I think the problem with me is worse than ignorance. It could be that I'm really good at looking away from my weaknesses, failures, and sin. Maybe I've gotten comfortable with complacency. It's one thing to say "I wish I wasn't spiritually apathetic" and another thing to pursue life in Christ.

If I don't know what needs to change in my life, it's a good idea to begin by asking for God to expose these areas in my life. Can you pray this prayer over the next few days?

Lord, show me where I need to change, where I need to grow. Be merciful in exposing my sin, because it is uglier than I want to admit. Even more, remind me of your grace in Christ that shows I can trust you to do me good in all this process of transformation.

Not the Only Goal

From an interview with Joni Eareckson Tada in TIME magazine:

So when you work with people in great pain, do you encourage them to let go of the desire to be healed?

We can certainly ask to be healed. Even I ask for healing regarding this pain, regarding this cancer. Anyone who takes the Bible seriously agrees that God hates suffering. Jesus spent most of his time relieving it. But when being healed becomes the only goal — "I'm not letting go until I get what I want" — it's a problem. There comes a point at which if you don't start living, your whole life is spent jumping from one healing crusade to the next. And I believe I have been healed — just not in the way that others expect.

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You Can Change #3 (Introduction)

If you are a part of our small group ministry, we discussed the Introduction this past Sunday night. So shouldn't I be blogging on Chapter 1? I'll start that tomorrow, but I had to note one more item from the Intro that came up in our group.

Chester writes:

This book is about hope. It's about the hope we have in Jesus, hope for forgiveness, but also about hope for change. (9)

What's the significance in this statement? Why is it important that we have hope for both forgiveness and change?

We understand that we have hope for the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ in his death on the cross. That is the center of our faith, but it is not the only thing. God is doing more than taking away our guilt and punishment in salvation-- he's also giving us new life and transforming us into his image (see chapter 1).

Doctrinally speaking, in Christ we have both hope for justification and hope for sanctification, but the key is that, even though there is more of an element of our involvement and activity and effort in sanctification, it too is rooted in Christ. That makes all the difference between hopelessness (it's all up to me) and hopefulness (because of Christ, I can).

Rational Laws Mean a Personal God

This is related to part of yesterday's sermon on Genesis 1, where we contrasted the biblical view of creation from that of scientists who believe impersonal laws of nature explain the existence of the universe.

Vern Poythress:

The atheist also uses assumptions about God’s laws for the world, but they differ from Christian assumptions. Typically, the atheist says that the laws are impersonal. What effect does this have on his thinking about the future of the universe? It typically means that an atheist thinks of the present system as going on indefinitely, without interruption.

But if the laws actually were impersonal, they would not be laws at all. They might be anything. Irrationality lies at the bottom of this assumption. If “laws” come out of the void, why should we have any hope that they will in any respect match what the human mind can think or imagine? It is as if a plant on earth tried to grasp the thinking of a human being, or worse, the thinking of a martian. Why should we expect that the sun will rise tomorrow, just because we have seen it rise before? Maybe the laws governing human memory are changing on us, and our memory of the past is completely off base. Or, if our memory is okay, maybe the laws will change tomorrow. Maybe light will never return, or the face of a jack-o’-lantern will replace the sun! Once we abandon the idea of a personal, trustworthy God, little prevents our wildest nightmares from taking his place.

The atheist must ignore this difficulty, and believe in spite of himself that he can grasp the laws.

From Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach, page 164 (book here, free pdf here)

You Can Change #2 (Introduction)

NOTE: If you are participating in one of our small group discussions around the book You Can Change, you need only read the Introduction for the first meeting this coming Sunday evening. Also, this will be the last post on YCC for this week.

Tim Chester writes:

One of our problems is that we think of holiness as giving up things we enjoy out of a vague sense of obligation. But I'm convinced that holiness is always good news. God calls us to the good life. He's always bigger and better than anything sin offers. The key is to realize why change is good news in your struggles with sin. (9-10)

How about you? Do you see yourself-- your own attitudes and assumptions-- in that first sentence? Can you think of some specific examples in your life?

It's all too true. We enjoy sin, whether it be a grudge or lust. Then we are confronted with the truth of God's opinion of such things, as revealed in his Word. We may admit that we were wrong, even commit to try to do what's right, but deep inside we feel cheated for losing that cherished sinful behavior.

We need a very different perspective and a radical change of heart. We have to not only believe correctly what is right and wrong, but to love what is good and hate what is evil. We have to believe it is true that God's refining work in our life is better than anything else.

Change is uncomfortable and unfamiliar, but when we believe that "holiness is always good news," we can trust him for the change that is necessary. We need to believe in the goodness of God and his gospel-- his characteristic mercy and grace, given in Christ, to stubborn sinners like you and me.

What helps you to remember that holiness really is "always good news"? Are there Scripture passages, songs, personal experiences, etc. that remind and reassure you that this is true?

Worship and Hope

Marva Dawn:

Worship dare not be glib or superficial, ought not to dispense false assurances or manipulate emotions. Instead, genuine worship always offers the true hope of the Gospel—neither entertainment nor escapism, neither diversion nor another sort of consumerism, but the terrible truth about sin and evil and the even greater truth (in all its glory) that on the cross and through the empty tomb Christ has been victorious over iniquity, injury, and death. Worship will then enfold all of us who search for hope in God’s present cosmic reign and challenge us to engage in God’s sovereign purposes of ministry to the world. Finally, worship’s celebration of God’s governance will equip us with patience and endurance to endure the hardships of this life as we await the culmination of God’s kingdom. This is all, indeed, good news for us each and together to tell our neighbors. Our goal is to bring the world to worship our God with us.

From How Shall We Worship?

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Five Marks of True Conversion

Via Owen Strachan, here are Jonathan Edwards' five marks of true conversion:

1. You love Jesus.

2. You hate sin.

3. You love God's Word.

4. You love truth.

5. You love believers.

Click here for the full article, explaining each point.

Worship There

Charles Spurgeon:

My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.

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Deep Things

Here are two quotations from one book-- The Deep Things of God by Fred Sanders-- that go along rather well with recent topics discussed within our ministry.

This one, which I just ran across today, corresponds to my Lesson for Children from our worship service on August 29:

Such divine freedom is one of the things meant by grace. Notice how deeply imprinted this aspect of grace is, even into our language: When something is gratuitous (from gratia, grace) and given to us gratis (for free), the appropriate response is gratitude (responding to gratia) or gratefulness.

Sometimes when a person gets a surprise gift, he blurts out, “You didn’t have to do that!” Well, of course. That sentiment, too obvious to need saying, is a tiny meditation on the nature of the freedom that lies behind a true gift.

So is the redundancy of describing something as a “free gift,” as if there were any other kind of gift. Grace calls forth gratitude, and we answer with “thank you.”

This is also, by the way, why we say the word please when we ask for something. It is a shortened form of the expression, “If it pleases you,” which is a way of recognizing that the person you are asking a favor from is not your servant but a free person who isn’t required to do your bidding.

Good manners are good theology.

This one corresponds to a portion of the adult Sunday School class led by Jonathan Pennington this past Sunday, though I first read it a couple of weeks ago:

For example, the cross of Christ occupies its central role in salvation history precisely because it has Christ’s preexistence, incarnation, and earthly ministry on one side and his resurrection and ascension on the other. Without these, Christ’s work on the cross would not accomplish our salvation. But flanked by them, it is the cross that needs to be the focus of attention in order to explain the gospel. The same could be said for the Bible within the total field of revelation, for conversion within the realm of religious experience, and for heaven as one of the benefits of being in Christ. Each of these is the right strategic emphasis but only stands out properly when it has something to stand out from.

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Instead of teaching the full counsel of God (incarnation, ministry of healing and teaching, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second coming), anemic evangelicalism simply shouts its one point of emphasis louder and louder (the cross! the cross! the cross!). But in isolation from the total matrix of Christian truth, the cross doesn’t make the right kind of sense. A message about nothing but the cross is not emphatic. It is reductionist. The rest of the matrix matters: the death of Jesus is salvation partly because of the life he lived before it, and certainly because of the new life he lived after it, and above all because of the eternal background in which he is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. You do not need to say all of those things at all times, but you need to have a felt sense of their force behind the things you do say. When that felt sense is not present, or is not somehow communicated to the next generation, emphatic evangelicalism becomes reductionist evangelicalism.

It looks like I may need to read this book.

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Burning Religious Books

Tony Reinke:

The Bible, as far as I can tell, mentions one account where religious texts are thrown to the flames (Acts 19:11-20). On the heels of the great work of God in Ephesus, the people had come to fear God and to trust in the Savior. As a result, “a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver” (v. 19). In modern terms they ignited a bonfire using very expensive magic books.

What were these books? According to Eckhard Schnabel, they were occultist documents that described how to make amulets to protect against demons and how to make love charms (Early Christian Mission, 1221). The books gave directions for casting spells on others, either for good or ill, and they would have been quite expensive, which highlights the effect of the gospel upon the wealthy inhabitants of Ephesus. That Paul went toe-to-toe with the owners of documents, which later led to a book burning, tells me they qualify as religious texts, and probubly comprised the pop religion of the day.

From this account here are six points to ponder:

1. The Ephesian people burned their own books. These new believers renounced their past. This was not an act of Christians barging into homes to ransack libraries for kindling, or weeding out the public library, or buying up all available copies from the local bookshop. They gathered the valuable books from their own houses.

2. No Christian leader encouraged the book burning. At least the text doesn’t say it. Or would have been better for the books to be sold and the money given to the Apostolic ministry? Perish the thought. There there is no indication that Paul advised the people to burn (or sell) their occultist books.

3. The books posed no threat to the gospel. The gospel overcame the magic power of the books. The gospel is like a hurricane and nothing will stop its wind, certainly not a book of demonic spells.

4. God’s display of power convinced the people that their books were worthless. There was no need to address the value of the magic books directly. Once God’s power and his gospel were seen in the city, the matter was settled.

5. The book burning was a display of godly sorrow. The recently converted Christians wanted to confess their sin before “all.” The high value of the books (50,000 days wages worth!) made a strong statement. It was an act of personal sorrow for their own sin.

6. The burning illustrated the victory of the gospel. The magic books were burned because the gospel was spreading like wildfire: “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (v. 20).

These six points should make us very hesitant about burning other people’s religious books.

May God give the Church open doors to preach the gospel, and may he bless his Word with self-authenticating gospel fruit. If we take our eyes off the priority of the gospel, we will be tempted to settle for the sparks of a small bonfire in a church parking lot, a miniature replica of what happened in Ephesus. The true gospel spreads like a wildfire, if we are faithful to lovingly and boldly proclaim it.

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Only Supernaturalists

C. S. Lewis:

As long as one is a Naturalist, “Nature” is only a word for “everything”—And Everything is not a subject about which anything very interesting can be said or (save by illusion) felt...

But everything becomes different when we recognize that Nature is a creature, a created thing, with its own particular tang or flavour...

The Englishness of English is audible only to those who know some other language well. In the same way and for the same reason, only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn round, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature’s current.

From Lewis' Miracles

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You Can Change #1 (Introduction)

This is my first post in blogging through the book You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions, by Tim Chester. We are reading this together as a congregation, and while many of you will be discussing it as part of a small group, I am also posting some thoughts here for discussion online or as fodder for those groups.

As there will be many of these posts, I will put the book title at the beginning of each one and number them, with the chapter in parentheses. You should be able to scan/search more easily for this series of posts within the blog that way.

Tim Chester begins the introduction to the book with several stories of people, all with different life and faith experiences, and varying temptations and weaknesses (pp. 7-8). What I appreciate here is that not all the stories are about some big, bad sin. Some of us have those in our past (or even as a current secret struggle), but this book is not just for that kind of person. It's also for the Christian who may be plugging away, but has no joy.

You'd think Carla was a respectable Christian. She doesn't swear, steal, get drunk, commit adultery, or commit any of the sins by which we measure one another's godliness. But her Christian service has little joy. Often she's irritable, often complaining. (7)

Is the lack of joy a sin? Not exactly-- but joy is a fruit of the Spirit, isn't it? That means a lack of love, joy, peace, etc. is a lack of growth and life in the Spirit. If we're not seeing fruit-- signs and products of life-- then we should be concerned. We want to be alive to God, and God's life to be blossoming in us.

Are there things, like the fruit of the Spirit, that you are not experiencing, even though you are a believer? When you think of the "change" that needs to take place in your life, don't just think of what needs to be removed, but what needs to be added. How would you like God to change you for the better?

Feel free to interact with any of these posts by replying in the comments section.

God's Encore

As we anticipate this coming Sunday's sermon from Genesis 1, it seems like a good time to consider this from G. K. Chesterton, as he responds to those who see the "unnecessary" or "wasteful" in nature ("too many" stars, etc.) as an argument against creation by God:

A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE.

From Chesterton's Orthodoxy

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You Can Change - Video

Here's a video intro to the book You Can Change.

Cool-- Tim Chester and I both drive black Ford Focuses (or Foci).

Slow Growth

Ray Ortlund comments on Archibald Alexander's Thoughts on Religious Experience (1844):

Archibald Alexander asked why we grow so slowly as Christians. First, he rounded up the usual suspects: “The influence of worldly relatives and companions, embarking too deeply in business, devoting too much time to amusements, immoderate attachment to a worldly object,” etc. But then he drilled down further and asked why these things get such a hold on us, “why Christians commonly are of so diminutive a stature and of such feeble strength in their religion.” He proposed three reasons:

1. “There is a defect in our belief in the freeness of divine grace.” Even when the gospel is acknowledged in theory, he wrote, Christians depend on their moods and performances rather than on Christ alone. Then, in our inevitable failure, we become discouraged, and worldliness creeps in with nothing to counteract it. “The covenant of grace must be more clearly and repeatedly expounded in all its rich plentitude of mercy, and in all its absolute freeness.”

2. “Christians do not make their obedience to Christ comprehend every other object of pursuit.” We compartmentalize our lives, and Jesus becomes a sidebar to the really compelling things of every day, like making money. “The secular employments and pursuits of the pious should all be consecrated and become a part of their religion.” That way, our work Monday through Friday is no distraction from Christ but more activity for Christ.

3. “We make general resolutions of improvement but neglect to extend our efforts to particulars.” So, how is the sermon tomorrow going to change us tomorrow? How specifically? Rather than be satisfied that we haven’t sinned hugely on any given day and therefore we must be doing okay as Christians, we should be strategizing for specific, actionable, new steps of obedience on a daily basis.

Free Audio Book - Spiritual Leadership

Here's another free audio book download from christianaudio.com. This month is a classic: Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. You can download it here, using the code SEP2010 to get it for free.

By the way, our short term missions team took a case of these books to Zambia for those students in Action Pastors College. This title was specifically requested by our missionaries to give to them.

Godly Hatred of Sin

J. C. Ryle:

How marvelous it is [that is, something to be marveled at] that we do not hate sin more than we do! Sin is the cause of all the pain and disease in the world. God did not create man to be an ailing and suffering creature. It was sin, and nothing but sin, which brought in all the ills that flesh is heir to. It was sin to which we owe every racking pain, and every loathsome infirmity, and every humbling weakness to which our poor bodies are liable. Let us keep this ever in mind. Let us hate sin with a godly hatred.

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The Process that Produces

Jerry Bridges:

Endurance and perseverance are qualities we would all like to possess, but we are loath to go through the process that produces them.

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Thinking about "Revival"

As a pastor, I'm pretty careful about making political statements, but since Glenn Beck himself described his rally on the Washington Mall this past Saturday as "apolitical"-- that is, not about politics-- then I figure that I should be able to comment on the religious angle without it being taken politically.

Conveniently, Russell Moore has already done the job for me, and, not surprisingly, much better that I could have. Go read his "God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck."

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The Bible Is About Jesus

This video goes along with a portion of this morning's sermon.

The audio is part of a message from Tim Keller, which can be downloaded via this link.

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Called to Be Here

Francis Chan:

A lot of people in my church and in my travels tell me, “I believe that God has called me to Simi Valley.” Or Wichita. Or New York. Or Greenville. Or wherever. And that very well may be the case, but it could also be a cop out because you like where you live. You have a good job. The school district is safe and has high ratings. Your family lives close by (or perhaps far away, depending on your relationship with them). It makes sense that you are “called” to be there, right?

And maybe you are called to be called to where you live, but if you say you are called to be in the place where you are a few questions need to be consider. For example, how would you be missed if you left this place? What would change? Basically what difference does your presence here make? Or as my youth pastor once asked me, what would your church (and the worldwide church) look like if everyone was as committed as you are? If everyone gave and served and prayed exactly like you, would the church be healthy and empowered? Or would it be weak and listless? …

It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But it’s absolutely vital to grasp that he didn’t call there to settle in and live out your life in comfort and superficial peace. His purposes are not random or arbitrary. If you are still alive on this planet, it’s because he has something for you to do. He placed us on this earth for purposes that he orchestrated long before we were born (Ephesians 2:8-10) Do you believe you exist not for your own pleasure but to help people know the love of Jesus and to come fully alive in him? If so, then that will shape how you live your life in the place where you are.

*****

We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things. It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and acts in and through us in ways that on our own we are not capable of.

From Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

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A Definition of Evangelism

J. I. Packer defines evangelism:

To bear witness to Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that people may come to put their trust in God, through Christ; to acknowledge Him as their Savior; and to serve Him as their King, in the fellowship of His Church.

Do you see how this is more than just "getting people saved"?

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Priorities in Prayer

Jonathan Edwards:

If we look through the whole Bible and observe all the examples of prayer that we find there recorded, we shall not find so many prayers for any other mercy as for the deliverance, restoration and prosperity of the church and the advancement of God’s glory and kingdom of grace in the world...

The Scripture does not only abundantly manifest it to be the duty of God’s people to be much in prayer for this great mercy, but it also abounds with manifold considerations to encourage them in it and animate them with hopes of success. There is perhaps no one thing that the Bible so much promises, in order the encourage the faith, hope and prayers of the saints, as this...

For undoubtedly that which God abundantly makes the subject of his promises, God’s people should abundantly make the subject of their prayers. It also affords them the strongest assurances that their prayers shall be successful.

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You Can Change - Sample Chapter

This morning we announced that we will be encouraging our entire congregation to read the book You Can Change by Tim Chester, beginning in September.

To encourage you to consider this, here is a link to a sample of the book:

Introduction and Chapter 2

Here are some of the descriptions from the publisher:

A practical, interactive, and solidly biblical book designed to help Christians in all stages of life to find victory over sin by focusing on what God has already done in us.

*****

It's about heart change, not behavior change. That's the conviction of Tim Chester as he seeks to help everyday Christians "connect the truth about God with our Monday-morning struggles." This interactive book, laid out in workbook fashion, is for newer Christians struggling with sin and for more mature Christians who have plateaued in their faith as they seek to find victory over sin in their lives.

With a conviction that sanctification is God's work and the journey to holiness is joyful, Chester guides readers through a "change project"-beginning with the selection of one area of life they would like to modify. Each chapter includes a question (e.g., Why would you like to change? What truths do you need to turn to?) to guide readers as they deal with a specific sin or struggle, truths from God's word, and a reflection guide to help readers through their change project.

And an endorsement by Paul Tripp:

There are few books that are shockingly honest, carefully theological, and gloriously hopeful all at the same time. Tim Chester’s book You Can Change is all of these and more. He skillfully uses the deepest insights of the theology of the Word as a lens to help you understand yourself and the way of change and, in so doing, helps you to experience practically what you thought you already knew. The carefully crafted personal ‘reflection’ and ‘change project’ sections are worth the price of the book by themselves. It is wonderful to be reminded that you and I are not stuck, and it’s comforting to be guided by someone who knows well the road from where we are to where we need to be.

The books will be available on Sunday, August 29, and thereafter. I'll be blogging my way through the book right here, so stay tuned.

No Adjective

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, preaching on John 3:18, 17 February 1861.

The gate of Mercy is opened, and over the door it is written, ‘This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.‘ Between that word ‘save’ and the next word ‘sinners,’ there is no adjective. It does not say, ‘penitent sinners,’ ‘awakened sinners,’ ‘sensible sinners,’ ‘grieving sinners’ or ‘alarmed sinners.’ No, it only says, ‘sinners.’ And I know this, that when I come, I come to Christ today, for I feel it is as much a necessity of my life to come to the cross of Christ today as it was to come ten years ago—when I come to him, I dare not come as a conscious sinner or an awakened sinner, but I have to come still as a sinner with nothing in my hands.

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How to Receive Rebuke

Kevin DeYoung:

How to Receive Rebuke

1. Consider the source. If you are any kind of public figure there will always be complaints. Ditto if you spend any time on the internet. So it’s imperative we know what to do with criticism. Ask yourself: is this rebuke coming from someone I trust and respect? Is it from someone I know and someone who knows me? Is this person someone to whom I am accountable–a spouse, an elder board, an employer? We can’t take every rebuke to heart. But ignoring every unflattering assessment is foolish too.

2. Consider the substance. Pray about the hard word spoken to you. Ask others what they think. Maybe this rebuke needs your blind eye and deaf ear. Jesus was rebuked by Peter, so not every correction hits the mark. If you take an honest, humble look at the rebuke and it doesn’t seem to fit. Don’t wear it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4 “My conscience is clean.” That didn’t mean he was necessarily acquitted before God, but as far as he could tell, he had not sinned. So he moved on.

But sometimes we do screw up. Even the best of men are men at best. I doubt many of us are over-rebuked. Most of us, myself included, would probably do well to receive more specific correction. So consider the source, consider the substance, and be prepared to grow.

3. Consider the sin. We will never benefit from rebuke (and our friends will be scared to tell us the truth) if we are never open to the possibility that we might have sin that needs rebuking. There are few things more necessary in a child of God than being teachable. “A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool” (Prov. 17:10). Or more to the point: “He who hates reproof is stupid” (Prov. 12:1).

4. Consider the Savior. Jesus sees all your sins right now. Why not see them for yourself? The way of godliness is the way of confession, cleansing, and change. One of the reasons we aren’t really changing, is because we aren’t really confessing. And we aren’t really confessing because we aren’t really seeing. And we aren’t really seeing because few of us love enough to give a rebuke and very few are humble enough to receive one.

But in the end, we have a lot to gain with rebuke–a restored brother, a conquered sin, a greater sense of the Savior’s love–and we’ve got nothing to lose but our pride.

This is from a series of posts on giving and receiving rebuke: 1, 2, 3

Glancing and Gazing

Joni Eareckson Tada:

I want to stay in the habit of 'glancing' at my problems and 'gazing' at my Lord.

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A God-Bathed Universe

Frank Sheed:

The test of anyone’s mind is what is in his mental landscape. And it is not even enough that we should see the same things as other people plus the things the Church teaches. Even the things that we and they both see will not look the same or be the same. . . .

It is like a physical landscape at sunrise: it is not that you see the same things that you saw before and now find yourself seeing the sun as well. You see everything sun-bathed. Similarly it is not a case of seeing the same universe as other people and then seeing God over and above. For God is at the center of the being of everything whatsoever. If we would see the Universe aright, we must see it God-bathed.

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Bearing No Burdens

Galatians 6:2

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Jonathan Edwards (language updated):

In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be obliged to give to others when we cannot do it without suffering ourselves. . . . We should be willing to suffer with our neighbor and to take part of his burden on ourselves. Otherwise, how is that rule of ‘bearing one another’s burdens’ fulfilled? If we are never obliged to relieve others’ burdens except when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens when we bear no burden at all?

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Hipster Christianity

Brett McCracken is the author of Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide, and according to the book, he considers himself a Hipster Christian (or would that be a Christian Hipster?). But this week in a guest column for the Wall Street Journal, he writes:

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same.

The Glory of God

We've been working through our church mission statement in our sermons this month. We say:

Our Passion Is the Glory of God in Jesus Christ

Savored through Worship

Strengthened through Discipleship

Spread through Witness

If you'd like to learn more about the concept of the glory of God in the Bible, check out this chapter "Toward a Theology of the Glory of God" from a new book titled The Glory of God.

Here's a section that gets at the interesting, intersecting ways the word/idea of glory is used in Scripture.

It is important to notice that these multiple meanings are distinct but

related. We might think of it this way: the triune God who is glorious displays

his glory, largely through his creation, image-bearers, providence, and

redemptive acts. God’s people respond by glorifying him. God receives glory

and, through uniting his people to Christ, shares his glory with them—all to

his glory.

Faith Is...

J. I. Packer:

Faith is...

knowing the facts of the gospel (the person, place and work of Jesus Christ),

welcoming the terms of the gospel (salvation from sin and a new life with God) and

receiving the Christ of the gospel (setting oneself to live as his follower, by self-denial, cross-bearing, and sacrificial service).

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Free Audio Book - Ministries of Mercy

For the rest of this month, you can download Tim Keller's book Ministries of Mercy for free at ChristianAudio.com with the coupon code AUG2010.

Here's how the publisher describes the book:

Like the wounded man on the Jericho road, there are needy people in our path - the widow next door, the family strapped with medical bills, the homeless man outside our place of worship. God calls us to be ministers of mercy to people in need of shelter, assistance, medical care, or just friendships.

Here Timothy J. Keller demonstrates that caring for needy people is the job of every believer - not just church deacons - as fundamental to Christian living as evangelism, nurture, and worship. But Keller doesn't stop there. He shows how we can carry out this vital ministry as individuals, families, and churches. Along the way, he deals perspectively with many thorny issues, such as the costs of meeting needs versus the limits of time and resources, giving material aid versus teaching responsibility, and meeting needs within the church versus those outside.

Commitment

Chuck Colson:

The basic building blocks of society simply erode without commitment. Any sensible society must address this problem by educating people that commitment is the very essence of human relationships.

At the least, we need to teach this in our churches. How can you begin as a Christian without death to self and total commitment to Jesus Christ?

But beyond the ramifications for society as a whole, beyond even the obvious necessity of Christian commitment, when we refuse to commit, we miss out on one of the great joys of life. When we obsess over ourselves, we lose the meaning of life, which is to know and serve God and love and serve our neighbors.

The rest of the article, titled "The Lost Art of Commitment," is here.

Everyday Sacrifices

Elisabeth Elliot:

We are not often called to great sacrifice, but daily we are presented with the chance to make small ones — a chance to make someone cheerful, a chance to do some small thing to make someone comfortable or contented, a chance to lay down our petty preferences or cherished plans. This probably requires us to relinquish something — our own convenience or comfort, our own free evening, our warm fireside, or even our habitual shyness or reserve or pride. My liberty must be curtailed, bound down, ignored (oh, how the world hates this sort of thing! how our own sinful natures hate it!) — for the sake of the liberation of others.

From A Path Through Suffering

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Virtual Temple

Here's what a team from UCLA developed as a simulation of what the Temple Mount would have looked like in Jesus day, before it was destroyed in A.D. 70.

Mark 13:1-2

¹ And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” ² And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

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A Different Attitude toward Suffering

Charles Spurgeon on suffering:

I have learned to kiss the wave that strikes me against the Rock of Ages.

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A Dynamic Church

Jason Helopoulos:

I tell every one of our new member classes, “If we all walked into church each week and had a list of people we were going to try and ‘touch,’ encourage, or minister to, do you know how dynamic this church would be? Just on Sunday mornings, let alone if we did it during the week. If we each were concerned about the other person and walked in each Sunday with that in the forefront of our mind instead of, “Why didn’t he talk to me?,” “Why doesn’t anyone care about me?,” “Why isn’t anyone ministering to me?” Start ministering to others and you will find that you are being ministered to.

What Do We Depend On?

Colin Smith:

"Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction."

1 Thessalonians 1:5

When Paul went to Thessalonica, amazing things happened. Then he moved on to Athens and to Corinth. You'd think that after his great success in Thessalonica, Paul would have arrived in Corinth full of confidence, but he says the opposite: "I came to you, in weakness and fear and with much trembling."(1 Corinthians 2:3)

Why does Paul say that? Because the power does not reside in him. He knows that it comes from above, and every time he stands up to speak, he's absolutely dependent on God. When the Holy Spirit moves, the word Paul preaches is the means of bringing blessing and transformation to many lives. But apart from the Spirit of God, he knows that he's only a man talking, and nobody's life is changed by that. So, he prays.

If you think one life can be set free from the power of darkness by my preaching or by your parenting, you're greatly mistaken. It is God who opens blind eyes, and softens hard hearts. It is God who drives back the dark powers that keep people bound. It is God who brings new birth, sends new power and grows new fruit. When you see that you will pray-not out of duty, but out of sheer gratitude and joy that we have the privilege.

This means we need to be praying if we want these things to happen among us!

That's What the Promise Is For

Today is the anniversary of my wedding to Katie. Here's a song that captures the perilous wonder of marriage.

From Andrew Peterson's album Counting Stars

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Jesus Was... Modest?

Elyse Fitzpatrick:

Hebrews 4:15 informs me that my Savior has been tempted in “every respect” as I have, yet without sin. Could this possibly mean that Jesus was tempted to immodesty but didn’t sin? Because we don’t usually think in these terms about Jesus, perhaps at this juncture it might be helpful for me to define what I mean by “modesty.” Christian modesty is simply a refusal to show off out of love for God and one’s neighbor. Jesus refused to show off His power. For instance, when tempted by Satan, He refused to show off His ability to turn stones into bread or cast Himself off a high tower (Matt 4:1f). When attacked by His accusers, He “opened not His mouth” (Isa 53:7). When facing the humiliation and excruciating pain of the cross, He refrained from appealing to His Father for legions of angels who were waiting to bring Him deliverance (Matt 26:53). Jesus didn’t show off His power or authority because He loved His neighbor, His bride. Jesus was modest because He loved the church.

Conversely, immodesty flows out of the heart of a show off. Maybe we’ve worked hard at the gym or purchased an expensive new pair of jeans. Maybe we want to prove how free we are to dress in any way we choose, no matter how scandalous. When we show-off we’re failing to love our brother (and sisters) who may be tempted to lust or covetousness or sinful imitation. Showing off is a fruit of pride and love of self. Immodesty demonstrates a cold unconcern for the church.

The beauty of the gospel, however, is that it informs us about who we are and what Jesus has already done. While it convicts us that we’re all unloving show-offs (in some way), it also assures us that we’ve been loved and that we no longer need to show off to get other people’s approval because (here’s the best news of all!) the record of our Modest Redeemer is ours! Our identity isn’t wrapped up in the approval or envy or lust of others. Our identity is found in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Christ is our life. He loved us and refrained from showing off so that we could be His and freed from the need to prove that we’ve got a great body or wardrobe or … because we’ve been lavished with His love instead.

Supernatural Revival

Ray Ortlund:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Acts 1:8

In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit does come upon them, revealing four things about revival:

One, revival is miraculous (verses 1-4). Humanly uncaused. “Suddenly there came from heaven . . .” (verse 2).

Two, revival is mysterious (verses 5-13). Humanly inexplicable. “What does this mean?” (verse 12).

Three, revival is meaningful (verses 14-36). Humanly undeniable. “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth” (verse 22).

Four, revival is mighty (verses 37-41). Humanly irresistible. “There were added that day about three thousand souls” (verse 41).

God grant it.

Training Your Children to Manage Money

Going along with the Proverbs series that concluded this past week, here are some tips from Randy Alcorn on teaching your children about money. You can go here to see how he explains each point.

1. Give your children something greater than money—your time.

2. Use life’s teachable moments to train your children.

3. Take a field trip to a junkyard.

4. Teach your children to link money with labor.

5. Teach your children how to save.

6. Get your children started on the lifetime adventure of giving.

7. Provide your children with financial planning tools.

8. Teach your children how to say “No.”

9. Show your children how family finances work.

10. Never underestimate the power of your example.

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How Love Comes from Hope

Ed Welch:

A little while ago my wife left for a week—nothing personal, she was visiting her parents on their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Within two hours of me dropping her off at the airport, our typically tidy house looked like something from Animal House or at least a combo of a men’s dorm and a smelly locker room. I had reverted back to my feral state. My wife, on the other hand, enjoys visual order and cleanliness when they are possible. She is flexible. She can go to Africa and stay in less sanitary conditions, but her natural state is one of ordered beauty and cleanliness.

During the first few days that she was gone, I was a bit sad and occupied myself with what I though were useful projects. With two days left, hope kicked in. I was looking forward to picking her up, thinking about our reunion, imagining how she would be pleased with my projects, and just seeing her again.

With twenty-four hours left before I had to pick her up, hope took on a different form. Whereas the previous form of hope was limited to random imaginations, this kind of hope felt urgent and was decidedly active. First, I made the outside of the house as nice as possible. Nothing too new there in that I usually do that, but I definitely added some flourishes I thought would catch her eye. Then on to the inside. Cleaning is not my passion, but, with this new version of hope, I suddenly became borderline compulsive and was loving it. Dish washer empty, everything vacuumed, dust bunnies vanquished, candles lit in order to overpower the locker room smell, and cut flowers. I was becoming civilized again. I was becoming…. my wife.

This is real hope.

You know the person well.

You can’t wait to see the person.

You create an environment suitable for the person so that, when he or she comes, everything will be just right. You work to bring the agenda, character and interests of the other person into the present.

You begin to take on some of the characteristics of that person.

So, real hope means that as you wait expectantly for Jesus, you find yourself wanting to bring heaven to earth. You are not content to simply wait, patiently imagining what is to come. Real hope wants to embody, right now, the character of the coming King. That character, of course, is love. Real hope in Christ compels us to love today. To paraphrase Paul, the only thing that matters is hope expressing itself in love.

What a lovely way to be sanctified: look forward to knowing the love of Jesus in person, dream about what it will be like to love him with a pure, sinless heart, and then head back to today and see if you are inspired to love.

The apostle John reiterates this approach.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

The New ESV Online

You may find this helpful-- an online Bible that allows you to bookmark passages, save your own notes, track your reading schedule, etc.-- and it's free. Take a look below. Oh, and here's the link to the site.

The ESV Online (30 Sec) from Crossway on Vimeo.

Making a Difference in Your Church

Kevin DeYoung gives a list of suggestions on how to be a difference maker in a local church:

• Find a good local church.
• Get involved.
• Become a member.
• Stay there as long as you can.
• Put away thoughts of a revolution for a while.
• Join the plodding visionaries.
• Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.
• Be patient with your leaders.
• Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.
• Bear with those who hurt you.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Say “hi” to the teenager that no one notices.
• Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.
• Volunteer for the nursery.
• Attend the congregational meeting.
• Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.
• Invite a friend.
• Take a new couple out for coffee.
• Give to the Christmas offering.
• Sing like you mean it.
• Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.
• Enjoy the Sundays that “click.”
• Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t.
• And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).

This list comes at the conclusion of his conference message titled simply, "The Church" (audio available here). I think I'll try to listen to this on the road next week.

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Broken or Triumphant?

Dane Ortlund:

“He has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” –Hosea 6:1

Are Christians to be broken or triumphant?

Both. But—let’s be clear what we mean.

Are Christians to be broken? If by broken we mean downcast, long-faced, perpetually discouraged, hand-wringing, abject, ever grieving over sins—no. If by broken we mean contrite, low before the Lord, poignantly aware of personal weakness, self-divesting, able to laugh at ourselves, of sober judgment, sensitive to the depths of sin within us—yes.

Are Christians to be triumphant? If by triumphant we mean self-assured, superficial, obtuse to personal weakness, beyond correction, self-confident, quick to diagnose others’ weaknesses and our strengths, showy, triumphalistic—no. If by triumphant we mean confident of God’s unconquerable purposes in the world through faltering disciples, bold with a boldness that accords with the outrageous promises of the Bible, quietly abandoning ourselves to God in light of Christ’s irrepressible victory, relentless in reminding the enemy of Christ’s emptying of the power of Satan’s accusations, risk-taking fueled not by reputation-seeking but God-fixated faith—yes.

*****

In the gospel are we liberated to experience simultaneously fall and redemption, crucifixion and resurrection, brokenness and triumph. Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily (Matt. 16:24) while Paul tells us we have been raised and are seated in heaven (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1). How can both be true? Because the only person who was ever in himself triumphant-without-brokenness switched places with those who are only in themselves broken-without-triumph so that now the greatest triumph—restored sonship to God—is freely ours, even as brokenness remains. As any seasoned saint will attest, the strange way God brings us to treasure this triumph is through, not by circumventing, present brokenness. But brokenness is never an end, only a means. There is no brokenness in the first two chapters of the Bible and none in the final two chapters.

Think Theologically

True Liberty

W. G. T. Shedd:

Liberty within the immeasurable bounds and limits of God’s truth, is the only true liberty. All else is license.

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