With One Voice, Part 5

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.

I had heard somebody else challenge worship leaders to consider well what words they were daring to put in people's mouths. They need to be true, yes, but more than just consistent with Scripture. If we're going to bother singing this song, it should be worth singing because it puts great truth beautifully and/or powerfully. And it's not worth singing a song that is theologically correct but absolutely cringe-inducing in its corny or clumsy poetry.

May God bless the Gettys' efforts at writing many more excellent songs of singable doctrine.

Questions Answered by the Lord's Prayer

From J. I. Packer's Praying the Lord's Prayer:

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!

By the way, Packer also writes:

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.


Source

The Crazy Idea of Fasting

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.

Piper writes:

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.)

With One Voice, Part 4

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.

Free Audio Book on Spiritual Disciplines

In our tour through the Sermon on the Mount, we are coming to Jesus' discussion of religious practices or "spiritual disciplines." While the most basic of these are prayer and the reading, meditation, and memorization of Scripture, we also know about fasting (which we practice less often), and I've even heard some describe evangelism as a spiritual discipline.

For most of us, our experience in the disciplines is anything but disciplined. We tend to go in spurts-- seasons of faithful practice, but dry times and dead spots turn into periods of near, or perhaps complete, abandonment.

We complain that our world does not give us much time or quiet, which is true, but there is no one else to blame but ourselves for not making time with God a priority.

Though no book that I know of can make you disciplined or actually do your praying for you, one volume that I recommend on this topic is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. I've read several of his books and used a couple for small group studies in years past.

By a delightful providence, I got an email yesterday from christianaudio saying that their free audio book of the month is Whitney's Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Follow this link, select "download," and enter the coupon code MAR2009 at checkout. You can also go here to peruse the print copy and read some reviews.

Next Sermon - Matthew 6:1-18 on 03/08/09

You'll find the text for next Sunday's sermon below. The first verse is what holds it all together.

Matthew 6:1-18

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,
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.

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.

With One Voice, Part 3

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.

[Keith has just said that "the goal is to write melodies that are singable rather than songs that sound like ones on the pop charts."]

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.

You probably have a sense for what they are talking about, even if you don't know a lot about music in the technical sense. Here's a simple test: you know a melody is good if you can hum it, whistle it, or sing it without the radio to back you up. It's no accident that "Amazing Grace," "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," or "What Wondrous Love Is This" are easy to sing. They arose out of folk melodies that people sang as they worked, played, or walked along.

This is not to say that contemporary pop music is bad-- it's just that it doesn't lend itself as well to singing in community, which is what the church is. There are some newer songs that do sing well, like "How Great Is Our God" to use a non-Getty song for example, but we can't assume that something that sounds good on the radio is a good congregational song.

This is all the more important to consider as we work with limited instrumentation. We would be happy to use more instruments as we have the talent available, but we have to choose our music in light of the musical support we can give it. We might be able to pull off more pop-oriented songs if we are able to develop a broader instrumental foundation, but we shall have to wait and see. The nice thing is, as the Gettys noted, you can always spice up a good song, but it's hard to simplify a poor one.

Turning the Other Cheek

Sometimes it’s discouraging to reflect on my own sermons. The Word of God is so profound, so deep, and I have the wonderful privilege to serve God’s people by studying the Word and preaching it, and yet often I feel like my offerings are so meager. It’s not just the listeners who need to have perseverance and faith!

To be sure, some of what I feel about this morning’s message is due to the limitations of the series—trying to do Matthew in 58 sermons, which is long but often feels not long enough—and the fact that I had a short week due to illness in me and among my family.

I am left with nagging things that I wish could have been said, or said better, in the sermon. “Turn the other cheek” and “Love your enemies” are profound and have many implications, some of which are just plain confounding and confusing. And it’s not good when the sermon may have added to the confusion.

I had a brief discussion with a congregant after the service who was wondering when it is appropriate to turn the other cheek. I had said earlier that Jesus’ words did not mean that we were to accept all abuse in every circumstance, and yet the whole point is that there are times that we should suffer abuse rather than strike back or otherwise defend ourselves. How do we know when we should take the hurt that the world dishes out to us?

In America, we are blessed with a strong, albeit imperfect, system of justice and a wonderful legacy of human rights. Thus, we as citizens are very aware of our rights, and we have the ability through our legal system to see that we “get our rights.” It is quite foreign to us to think of relinquishing our rights or foregoing the opportunity to get what is rightfully ours.

Jesus calls us to be ready and willing to let go of our rights for his sake. This has something to do with thinking of others more than ourselves, but, more significantly in the Sermon on the Mount, it also stands as a complete antithesis of the way this world operates after the Fall. Followers of Christ do not enter the power struggle of this world. It’s not how the kingdom of God works, and it’s not the way the kingdom will come.

If we read this wrongly, we could conclude that Jesus calls us not to combat evil, but to capitulate to it. This is not so, as it is perfectly consistent with “turning the other cheek” to stand up for the rights of others. In fact, fighting for the oppressed or defending the widow and orphan may be what brings the world’s fist against you. But here’s a thought experiment: do non-Christians see us more often fighting for the rights of others, or defending our own?

I fear that, whether at a personal level, or that of the national stage, most people think that Christians are trying to defend their own kind, and their own way of life. We might think we are defending morality, but it is seen as scrapping for our piece of the pie. The world sees us as just another special interest group, and the thing we are most interested in is us.

Fundamentally, I believe that in each situation we have to wrestle with our own hearts as to whether or not we are seeking to defend our rights, and then be ready to relinquish them for the sake of stepping outside of the world’s ways of fighting. We may suffer injustice on the way to the only truly just society, the kingdom of God, but that way is indeed the way of the cross.

With One Voice, Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Come, People of the Risen King

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

With One Voice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Devilish, Human, or Divine

Matthew 5:43-44a

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

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

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

Persuasive Speech

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

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

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

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

Imagine You Are Part of a Church Planting Team

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

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

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

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

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

Candidate for President of Trinity

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

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

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

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

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

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

Really, Really Born Again

From Phil Ryken:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matthew 5:38-48

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

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

Helping Make Virtue More "Realistic"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Purity Principle

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus Features from Matthew 19

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

Matthew 19:3-5

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

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

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

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

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

Settling into Routine

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

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

*****

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

Source

The Economy of Anger

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the whole article.

Asking for Forgiveness, Seeking Reconciliation

Matthew 5:23-24

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

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



Source

If Only We Really Were...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your Struggle to Overcome, Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your Struggle to Overcome

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deeper Proof

Charles H. Spurgeon:

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

Source

Free Study Bible Notes

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

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

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

How Emotional Distance Ruins a Marriage

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

Read "How Emotional Distance Ruins a Marriage"

Recognizing Grace

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

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

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

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

Memorizing Scripture with Your iPod

From the ESV Bible Blog:

Have you considered using your iPod for Scripture memorization?

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

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

2. Go to the ESV Online site.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the entire post.

Christian Marriage: Covenantal vs. Contractual

From Russell Moore:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unconditional Love?

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

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

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

Matthew 5:31-37

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

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

Matthew 19:1-12

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

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

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

Evangelicals as Elder Brothers

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

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

Free Song - "Bless the Lord"

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

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

Bless the Lord

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

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

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

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

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

The Christian Lover

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

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

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

Considering Emotions

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

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

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

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

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

Virtual Community?

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

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

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

Is Our Church an Institution?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earth, Observed

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

Click here: Earth, Observed

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

Holding Two Truths Together

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

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

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

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

Facebook Turns Five

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source

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

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

Matthew 5:17-30

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

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

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