Guest User 12/10/12 Guest User 12/10/12

Being Ministers of Reconciliation

The ministry of reconciliation acknowledges two truths: humans are sinful and we need a savior. The message of reconciliation is that God dealt with sin himself and saved humanity. This is the Christian's message.

In a world of subjective truths, tolerance, and acceptance, Christianity has become nothing more than ‘another’ religion in the eyes of many. Western culture, in particular, is grievously enamored with the idea of self-reliance, self-dependence, and self-worth. Christianity is extremely counter-cultural because it teaches the actuality of human depravity, the necessity for a savior, and an eternal focus for our temporal lives. For unbelievers at-large, this can be something that can seem intolerant and outdated, a tradition steeped in rigid tradition, and a stumbling block to the progress of the society and the world. For Christians, however, depraved humanity in need of a savior is true reality. This is life for the human race. As we consider our calling to be “ministers of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-20), we must understand the people we are living around, their view of the world, and the journey they are on. Likewise, we have to continually allow the Spirit to draw us to repentance in areas of life where we fail to “let the love of Christ control us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Though loving others is often difficult and even scary, the pressure is not on us to change hearts, for only God can save through the transforming power of the gospel (Acts 4:12). As a friend of mine says often, “We do the ministry, God does the miracles.” The ministry of reconciliation acknowledges two truths: humans are sinful and we need a savior. The message of reconciliation is that God dealt with sin himself and saved humanity. This is the Christian's message.

How Can this Message be Rejected?

Perhaps a substantial reason for the negative view of Christianity is the attitude and actions of Christians themselves. As a world religion, the stigma of dependence on something outside ourselves is already a built-in excuse to reject believers. In addition, Christians have a tendency to mistake their salvation as license to be self-righteous and judgmental, wondering why unbelievers are not intelligent enough to “figure it out.” Like the Pharisee in Luke 18, we often look at the people around us exclaiming, “Thank you God that I’m not like these tax collectors!” As the story goes, the Pharisee has much to learn from the tax collector whose only justification is in the mercy of God and not in his righteous (or unrighteous) works. I have encountered many non-Christians and de-churched Christians who use Christian hypocrisy as the chief reason for their unbelief. Often times there is a deeper issue at hand, but just as often this objection is simply as real to them as Jesus is to us.

For Christians to be catalysts for change in the world, we must first wear his name with humility, dignity, and fervor. As Jesus so clearly states in Luke 19, even if we do not worship him, creation itself will cry out his name. He doesn’t need us to change the world but, nonetheless, he uses us as ministers of reconciliation. It is our duty and obligation to speak truth into the lives of others (Matt. 28:18-20), and there is no “out clause” for the Christian. We are to be salt and light (Matt. 5:13-16), loving God and others because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). There is a story going on all around us, a story that God has been writing since before the foundation of the world. Acts 17 tells us that God has appointed to every person the time and boundaries in which they live so that they will find him. So, for the Christian, this means that not only are you in the time and place that you are to find God, but those around you are in a similar position. Again, you cannot save anyone, but it is your burden as a Christian to treat everyone as though they will turn to Christ in that instance. As Charles Spurgeon once said (and I paraphrase), “I believe that God will save his elect and I also believe that if I do not preach the gospel, he will lay the blood of the lost at my doorstep.”

Hope

In the end, we do not know the answers to every question about how and why God saves anyone, but his Word is very clear that the proclamation of the gospel is a key component to transformation (Romans 10). People’s hearts cannot be ultimately changed for the better by new legislature, war, personal enlightenment, or secret philosophies; it can only be changed by the sin-stomping, life-altering life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through him and by him (John 6:44; 14:6).

This is our hope, and this is hope for those who are far from God. God is reconciling all things to himself and as reconciled people, Christians are to reflect Christ in a way that is not self-righteous and proud, but rather humble and sacrificial. Perhaps one of the most telling verses in the entire New Testament comes in Acts 2. After hearing the preaching of the Word, the early Christians went about their daily lives following the apostles’ teaching, sacrificing for one another, and spending genuine time in community. The result? They were loved by those around them and “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (2:47). People were being saved through the Spirit of God just by watching these Christians live their lives! This is the gospel at work, changing lives through lives that love God and love others. The Word being preached is extremely important, as seen earlier in Acts 2, but there is so much more to it. Christians can make an eternal impact by obeying and worshiping God the way these early believers did. The truth, and only the truth, sets hearts free (John 8:32).

Toward Being Ministers of Reconciliation

As someone who is in constant prayer and repentance about my own selfishness and propensity to avoid serving others, there are a few ways that I personally seek to love my neighbors as Christ calls me to:

Pray, Pray, Pray – Nothing of this magnitude can be accomplished without the Spirit’s work (1 Cor. 2:12). When you share the gospel and when someone receives it, there is supernatural power weaved throughout the entire process. Knowing that I need – and have – God’s help encourages me to worry less about my own fear of man.
Remember Christ – Though WWJD? bracelets have largely come and gone, this slogan is actually highly missional. When speaking with others, praying for others, and serving others, I have the perfect model in Jesus. When I don’t feel like being generous, I am reminded of how generous Christ is to me on a daily basis. When I don’t feel like serving, I am reminded that God himself stepped into human history and suffered the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2).
Go – Loving and reaching my neighbors is frequently a better idea than action. Upon relying on the Spirit and remembering how Christ lived, I am finally reminded of the Great Commission’s call to literally take this good news to the lost (Matt. 28:18-20). This may be the hardest part, but an understanding of who Christ is, what he’s done, and what he calls me to propels me into his mission. May we all trust him with this responsibility.

Originally published at Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Bethany Jenkins 12/10/12 Bethany Jenkins 12/10/12

Incarnation in the City

If we do not understand the weight of the miracle of the incarnation of Christ, it is because we do not understand the weight of the holiness of God. The incarnation is shocking. It is outrageous to think that an infinite and holy God would voluntarily become finite to live with unholy sinners. In fact, the incarnation is so appalling that it is the thing that separates Christianity from Islam and Judaism. The Jerusalem Talmud says, “If man claims to be God, he is a liar” (Ta’anit 2:1), while the Quran says, “Allah begets not and was not begotten.” (Sura al-Ikhlas 112). Jews and Muslims understand how ludicrous it is to think that a holy God would humiliate himself by becoming human.

The Dreadful Holiness of God

The holiness of God is fearful. But if we want to know God and ourselves, we must begin by seeing how much God loves his holiness and cherishes his purity. If we do not start here, the gospel will become cheap to us. As A.W. Tozer wrote,

“Unless the weight of the burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them”. The Knowledge of the Holy

Under the old covenant, people responded to the holiness of God with awe and reverence. When Moses met the Lord, he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:6). Then, years later, when he begged to see God’s glory, God said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). When the ark of the Lord was being brought back to Israel, some men looked inside of it and, as a result, the Lord struck down fifty thousand men. The people despaired, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Samuel 6:20). When David was bringing the ark to Jerusalem, one man merely touched it, and God struck him down immediately, “And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come to me?’” (2 Samuel 6:9). The nearer Ezekiel approached the throne of the Lord, the less sure his words became: “Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face” (Ezekiel 1:28).

Not only did people tremble at his holiness, the Lord himself frequently spoke about it. Through Isaiah, he said, “Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel … All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isaiah 40:13, 17). When Job finished calling his character into question, the Lord answered from the whirlwind, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? … Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:2, 4).

The Incarnation of that Dreadful Holiness

Jesus embodies the holiness of God because he is God and has been with God from the beginning. This means that, when God acted under the old covenant, Jesus – as part of the Godhead – was right there with him. This is why the incarnation is a shocking miracle. In Christ, God has effected self-disclosure. Our holy God, who told Moses, “for man shall not see me and live”, became incarnate. People saw him and lived. Our holy God, who struck down a man for touching the ark and another fifty thousand for looking inside of it, became incarnate. People spit upon him and lived. Our holy God, whose throne was so magnificent that Ezekiel failed to find words to describe it, became incarnate. He was born as a baby in a manger, not a throne. Our holy God, who demanded blood sacrifices to atone for sin, became incarnate. He allowed himself to be butchered on a cross. Our holy God, who asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”, became incarnate. He was born in an insignificant little town and worked as a mere carpenter in Nazareth.

Incarnation in Our Cities

What does the incarnation mean for us today? First, the incarnation means that we live in the world, but not of it. As Jesus prayed for his disciples, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world”. In other words, we pursue holy lives of obedience and sacrifice even as we engage in our cities.

Second, the incarnation means that we seek opportunities to deny ourselves. Self-denial is not a popular topic in our culture, but it is the starting point for Christian growth in the mind of Christ. When Jesus became incarnate, he voluntarily denied himself the privileges of being God in order to be mocked and killed. He did this because he longed to redeem us and knew that, in order to accomplish our salvation, the demands of his holiness had to be met. We could not meet them, so he met them for us. We, in turn, are to have the same mind, “do[ing] nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count[ing] others more significant than [our]selves” (Philippians 3:3). We deny ourselves to love others.

Third, the incarnation means that we do not love money. God is the richest being in the universe. Everything is made by him, through him and for him. Yet as he looked upon the world and decided into what family he would come, he chose the poorest of the poor. When Mary and Joseph went to the temple after the birth of Jesus, Luke records, “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord … and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons’” (Luke 2:22-24). Under the Law, the regular sacrifice was a lamb, but there was a provision for poor mothers: “If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons” (Leviticus 12:8). This is what Mary brought. Jesus, who had all the riches of the world at his disposal, chose to be incarnate into a family that could not even afford a regular sacrifice. Let us not love riches.

Fourth, the incarnation means that we should not overvalue physical beauty. Our culture loves external appearances, but the incarnate Christ chose to come as someone who had no physical beauty or majesty. He is the most glorious person who has ever lived, but we did not recognize his glory. Thousands saw him with their eyes, but they saw nothing with their hearts. We, in turn, must look for beauty in our world with the eyes of our heart. What will we see when we look at the world this way? We will see that, today, the Lord lives in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. As Jesus taught, when we care for such people, we do this unto him.

Finally, the incarnation means that God is for us. Paul was not merely referring to the crucifixion when he wrote, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32). He was also referring to the incarnation, when Jesus left the side of the Father to become man and accomplish our salvation. The incarnation means that God is for us. Jesus left the Godhead and all the privileges thereof to die. He lived a humiliating and self-denying life to bring us to God, where there are pleasures forevermore. He veiled his awful and fearful holiness so that we could touch him, see him, know him and love him. No longer does he say, “No man can see my face and live”. Today, he says, “See my face and be satisfied” (Psalm 17:15).

When we live in light of the incarnation of Christ, our lives will be shocking to others. Although we are sons and daughters of the King, we will humiliate ourselves by serving others. All things may be permissible, but we will deny ourselves certain things or activities so that we can grow in our love for God and others. We will earn money, but we will strategize how to give it away for the sake of the kingdom. Living in a physical world, we will spend more effort on cultivating our inner beauty than our outer beauty. We will trust in the promises of God more than our circumstances because we know he is for us. When we live like this, people will think we are ludicrous. They will find our choices shocking. Yet we will point to the miracle of the incarnation of Christ. Our lives will testify to the great news of Advent. That news is this: Christ has come, God is with us.

Bethany Jenkins is the founder of The Park Forum, a New York City based nonprofit that seeks to encourage urban professionals to read the Word daily. Prior to founding The Park Forum, Bethany worked at the New York Stock Exchange, the State Department and in Congress. She received her B.A. from Baylor University, M.A. from George Washington University and J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she served on the editorial board of theJournal of Law & Social Problems, worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and summered at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Bethany lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and loves running in Central Park and eating french fries. Twitter: @BethanyJenkins

Read similar articles: The Object of Our Hope by Jonathan Dodson and Mission is Where You Live by Jeremy Writebol.

Download the free Advent devotional, Come Lord Jesus Come by Will Walker and Nathan Sherman.

Micah Fries 12/7/12 Micah Fries 12/7/12

Unconscionable

I’ll be honest. I’ve known for a while that sex trafficking exists, and that it is becoming a growing problem. However, when I read this article at Forbes, it took my breath away, hacked me off, and made me want to cry all at the same time. The very idea that 100,000 American children are being abducted and enslaved in sex slavery each year, and that there are only 100 shelter beds available – in the entire country – for these children, blows my mind. Even worse is the reality that in 40 of our states, children who are caught by the authorities are incarcerated and treated like criminals, rather than being cared for and treated like the victims that they are. This is unconscionable. It is immoral. Consider a few more statistical realities about the state of child sex trafficking in the U.S.:

Human trafficking is the 2nd fastest growing criminal enterprise, behind only drug trafficking.
On average, trafficking begins when the child is 13-years old.
The average child who is trafficked for sex is expected to see 10-15 clients PER DAY.
This means that the average child will be raped 6,000 times during their victimization.

The article goes on to provide much more detail. I hope you will read it.

What Can We Do?

So the question then becomes, what can the church do? What can a follower of Christ do? I am no expert – I hope I’ve already made that clear – but it seems to me that there are two immediate needs that we could work toward.

First, we have to put pressure on the legislative authorities of our various states to decriminalize underage victims of sexual exploitation. If we would simply stand up, contact our state senators and congressman, write the governor, etc., maybe they would begin to act on behalf of these exploited children. I’m planning on writing my first letter today.

Secondly, particularly for those who live in urban areas, the lack of shelter beds for children who are being exploited seems tragic. I don’t know what it would have to look like, but it seems to me that we could create opportunities and places to provide shelter to victims of exploitation. Whether it be an actual home, or a network of homes, those of us who love Christ and love children should be the most likely to step up and help facilitate this kind of care.

May God have mercy on these children, and may the church step up and be their advocates.

Cross-posted from Micah's personal blog.

Jonathan Dodson 12/7/12 Jonathan Dodson 12/7/12

The Object of our Hope

In the coming weeks, many churches will touch on the themes of Advent: hope, faith, joy, and peace. But our world is riddled with despair, unbelief, sadness, and violence. There seems to be all too many reasons not to have hope, faith, joy, or peace. How does the gospel make sense of this apparent contradiction of Jesus’s birth? Why is the hope of the gospel still relevant even (especially) in this apparently hopeless world? I encourage you to read through the first two chapters of Luke on your own or with your family to contemplate these important questions before reading further.

The Nature of Hope

What is hope? Hope is human—rocks don’t hope. Birds don’t hope. Fish don’t hope. Humans hope. And if we lose hope, we can’t go on living. Hell is a kind of hopelessness, which is why at the entrance to Dante’s Inferno stand the words: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” Hope makes all the difference in the world. Hope is not only human; it’s forward-looking, future-oriented. Hope is belief that the future can change the present.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. - Proverbs 13:12

Temporal hopes will wax and wane. This very fact shows us that hope is the beat of the human heart. Hope makes all the difference in the world.

The Tension of Hopelessness

First, a word about the word “hope.” In English it possesses a degree of uncertainty. “I hope to make it home by 5.” Uncertain but hopeful.

In the Bible, hope possesses certainty. “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Rom 8:24-25) or the “full assurance of hope” (Heb 6:11). Biblical hope looks forward in certain anticipation.

If we're honest, we often lack this biblical hope. Perhaps, we even lack normal uncertain hope. Although hope is the heartbeat of every human, our hearts are beating slowly, strangled by the tension of hopelessness. Josef Pieper, a German theologian, wrote a book in the middle of the 20^th century called On Hope, and in it he argued that we all tend toward hopelessness, in one of two directions. Hopelessness, he says, has two forms—despair and presumption—and we all bend one way or the other.

Presumption

Presumption, Pieper writes, “is a premature, self-willed anticipation of the fulfillment of what we hope for from God.” Presumption is a leap into the future, an insistence that the future be the present. It bypasses hope, insisting we have heaven on earth now.

In an edition of Atlantic Monthly a few years ago, the cover article read: Did Christianity Cause the Crash? The article pinned the blame for the housing market crash on Christians who preach and live a prosperity theology. God wants you to be wealthy and healthy. The article was getting at this presumption, this bypassing of Christian hope to insist on the future in the present. So take your house, your car, your clothes, your possessions by faith (whether you can afford it or not)!

The presumption of prosperity theology is that it insists Christians are entitled to the future heavenly blessings of security and prosperity now. They refuse to hope and endure, and tell those who lack security and prosperity that they lack faith. Get that house, regardless of your present income. When the wife of a prosperity preacher was pressed about this as irresponsible, she responded by saying: “But if the Lord is telling you to ‘take that first step and I will provide,’ then you have to believe.” This isn’t a matter of belief, it’s a matter of greed, of inordinate desire for more stuff or more security. So they, we, get into mortgages we can’t afford. How presumptuous.

Now, it’s easy to point the finger, to prosperity presumption, but what about our presumption? Are we insisting on the future in the present? A little heaven on earth? Are you stockpiling assets for your own security? Insisting on a standard of living that is supported, not by hope, but by irresponsible debt? Driving cars we can’t really afford, renting where we don’t belong, paying bills and buying Christmas gifts on the credit card? We try to eliminate hope in our quest for security and wealth.

Presumption refuses hope. It rejects the persevering nature of hope, which makes it so admirable, and as a result, becomes “the fraudulent imitation of hope.” (Pieper) But Christian hope forgoes present joys for the greater future joy. It sacrifices present comfort for the sake of others. It goes not into irresponsible debt but into deliberate generosity. It goes through the cross before entering the new creation. Do our lifestyles reflect hope or presumption? What could you do this Christmas to express true Christian hope?

Pieper notes: “In the sin of presumption, man’s desire for security is so exaggerated that it excels the bounds of reality.” (67). Our material desires are exaggerated beyond reality and beyond God’s promise. God never guaranteed a mansion this side of glory. Somehow we forget that Jesus was a homeless Messiah, who told us that no disciple is above his master (Luk 6:40). Some of us bend toward presumption, a sinful distortion of hope.

Despair

Others of us bend toward despair. Pieper describes despair as “a premature, arbitrary anticipation of the non-fulfillment of what we hope for from God.” Presumption anticipates fulfillment, despair anticipates non-fulfillment. Presumption is overconfident; despair is under-confident. Instead of making a leap into the future, despair sits down in the present, sulking, depressed, and gives up on God. It abandons hope. Instead of bypassing it; despair rejects hope altogether. There is no hope. We spiral down, so far down we can’t look up.

Hope makes all the difference in the world. Without it we can tumble into despair, where we would rather sulk in self-loathing than lift a finger for change. Despair says: “It doesn’t matter what I do, nothing will ever change. I will never succeed.” It’s self-centered, not others-centered. It insists on self. It is a parasite of hope. Despair cannot exist without hope, but it ever remains the cynic, refusing to trust in God’s promises, to look up instead of down. Instead of choosing the persevering, arduous path of hope in the midst of trial, it surrenders to become the antitype of hope. It exaggerates self in the face of God. When it comes to hope, we all fall toward presumption or despair, leaping into the future or settling down in the present. We bypass hope or reject it. Overconfidence or under-confidence. So how do we reclaim biblical hope, enduring confidence in the future that affects the present?

The Story of Hope

Luke 1:67-80 tells a story of hope about a people of hope, the Jews. A people of unparalleled resilience—exodus, exile, holocaust. Of course, Israel swayed between presumption and despair like any people, but there was always a remnant that endured, embracing the difficult path of hope in God. We come upon a faithful Israelite, Zechariah the priest, who is met by an angel and promised a son. He and his wife Elizabeth have been unable to bear a child, a scandal in Jewish society. No doubt they struggled with despair, but God would restore their standing in society with the birth of John the Baptist.

It has been 400 years since the last prophet, Malachi, who prophesied about John. John was the appointed prophet of the 1st century. Now, since Malachi a lot had happened to Israel. Although they lived in their Promised Land, it was not their land. It had been occupied by pagans for centuries. Israel was subject to a series of foreign powers: Persian, Greek, and now Roman. Over the centuries leading up to John’s birth, various Jewish leaders rose up to overthrow the occupying powers. Some of them claimed to be the messiah. Can you imagine what this did to Israel? Up and down, presumption and despair, their hope battered and bolstered over and over again.

Over time, splinter Jewish groups formed. The sectarian Jews withdrew from society, radically conservative and presumptuous, believing they were God’s special elect people. His new covenant people appointed to usher in the kingdom of God. They were called the Essenes, led by the messianic pretender, the Teacher of Righteousness, whose authority could not be contested. Convinced they were to usher in the Kingdom of God, they prepared for holy war. They were presumptuous. Leaping into the future, they bypassed hope claiming heaven on earth. They were overconfident, disengaged from society. They did not contribute to the social needs of Israel nor did they love their neighbors.

Then there were the secularist Jews, who abandoned faith and integrated into Greek and Roman society, so much that they were indiscernible from the pagans. Non-practicing we might call them. They gave up on God and hope, disillusioned and despairing of any messianic rescue from their enemies. They were under-confident and settled despairingly down into the present, jettisoning hope.

It’s in this context that the prophet, John the Baptist, is born. We are told that when his name was announced the news travelled throughout the hill country of Judea, “and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying, ‘What then will this child be?’” A spark of hope rising in the Jewish heart. We die without it. Israel was beginning to come back to life. John’s father, Zechariah, who had despaired and been struck mute for not believing the promise of his son, stands up and, filled with the Holy Spirit, makes a prophecy of hope.

The Object of Hope

Zechariah proclaims, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us…” (Luke 1:68-71)

The object of hope. Zechariah declares the visitation and redemption of his people, a time referred to by the prophets as the Day of the Lord. And then regarding his son he says: "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins." (Luke 1:76-77)

Zechariah is so taken with this newfound hope, that he almost neglects his son! Why was John born? To prepare Israel for the Day of the Lord, by giving the “knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.” Israel had been lingering in unbelief and hopelessness, splintering into presumptuous groups and despairing groups, into sectarian and secularized Jews who either bypassed or rejected hope in God. They found themselves in a predicament with God. Guilty of sinful presumption and despair. How does God respond? Salvation in the forgiveness of sins!

God extends forgiveness for their hopeless presumption. For jumping ahead of him, for pimping him out for security, wealth, and power. For the hopeless, overconfident, self-reliant American who has an exaggerated, idolatrous desire for security and cash, God mercifully extends forgiveness. Forgiveness the person who rids himself of hope in God, and hopes in self-wrought security and happiness. Forgiveness for the person who holds onto his goods or money - refusing to give it away.

If we will turn away from greedy presumption in repentance, we can turn to faith in God’s promise of forgiveness. Then we can hope. We must bank on God, not on his gifts or power. To the hopeless despairing ones, God extends forgiveness for not believing in his promises, if we will unseat ourselves from despair and step into hope.

Wherever you are this Advent season -- despair or presumption -- God in Christ is extending you hope, hope for forgiveness and for healing. Hope in the Son of righteousness, who has risen with healing in his wings. Hope makes all the difference in the world.

Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others. Twitter: @Jonathan_Dodson

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For a free Advent devotional ebook, check out Come Lord Jesus Come by Will Walker & Nathan Sherman.

For more on the gospel & Christmas, read: Taking in Christmas by Timothy Keller.

Guest User 12/3/12 Guest User 12/3/12

Jovan Belcher, Bob Costas, and Jesus

Jovan Belcher didn't need a law telling him not to own a gun; he needed to see that God was and is the only solution to whatever deep anguish he was experiencing.

The sports world was rocked this weekend when Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend Saturday morning, then proceeded to fatally shoot himself in the head at the Chiefs' practice facility. Though no motive has been declared, it is safe to assume that Belcher was a very troubled man (if even during the short time frame of the incident). Prompted by this event, NBC anchor Bob Costas used his "Sunday Night Football" platform last night to give a speech on gun control at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles game. This led to immediate reaction from fans and news outlets (search "#Costas" on Twitter for reference). Though much of the fallout was politically- and emotionally-charged, the fundamental concern regarding Costas's advocacy of gun control appeared to be his timing. Many asked, "Is this the right time to pontificate about your personal beliefs on gun control?" Still others argued that such a time was the perfect opportunity to speak on this matter.

Regardless of whether or not Costas was "right" or "wrong" to voice his opinion in that venue (and a consensus is not on the horizon, of course), there are a two general issues with his thesis.

1. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Overused phrase? Yes. True? Yep. Costas's argument that Belcher and his girlfriend "would still be alive" if he was unable to obtain a gun is a stretch. Sure, it could theoretically be true if Belcher only wanted to use a gun, but that's unlikely. Over recent decades, Chicago learned that banning guns did not lower homicide rates. In fact, they increased. And John Lott argues that this isn't isolated to Chicago or any other specific area. Additionally, anyone who has been a parent or in some sort of ministry to teenagers knows that making a child come home by 10 p.m. every night does not guarantee his or her chastity.

Abortion restrictions, for example, statistically show potential in saving lives while homicides and suicides play out differently. Obama's endorsements led to 300,000 more abortions through Planned Parenthood. That's raw data in support of such restrictions, so I don't want to demonize law. However, homicide and suicides are conducted through a myriad of means. Guns are one of many weapons of death. Though stats may vary in different contexts, the statistics - at the very least - call for much more debate than was allowed in last night's broadcast. Costas might have been able to save face if he used more conditional language like "might" or "who knows if...?" Instead, he matter-of-factly pounded the gong.

2. Only God changes hearts. It cannot be stated enough that laws do not transform sinful hearts. The void that was clearly in Belcher's heart would not be filled by tighter regulations, but by the life-transforming power of the gospel. It must be said that we should always fight to legislate godly virtues in our society, but we must also remember that Jesus Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension bring the only true hope to mankind (John 14:6-7; 1 Cor. 12:12-16). Christians have the propensity to either hate law and government or idolize it; instead, let us support legislation where it helps society but let nothing replace the foundational human need for the gospel.

Jovan Belcher didn't need a law telling him not to own a gun (assuming that he did, in fact, own it legally); he needed to see that God was and is the only solution to whatever deep anguish he was experiencing.

This post was the topic of discussion when I co-hosted "For Christ and Culture" on 90.9 KCBI in Dallas. LISTEN HERE

Scott Sauls 12/3/12 Scott Sauls 12/3/12

A JESUS-LIKE CHURCH CULTURE

In a very real sense, the work of Jesus is complete. When it comes to our standing as beloved, forgiven, delighted-in children of God, “It is finished,” just as Christ said. His sinless life secured for us a new and irrevocable status—holy and blameless in God’s sight. His death fulfilled the requirements of God’s justice toward our sins. Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and he died the death we should have died. Therefore, we are free. What a wonderful and humbling reality in which we now live—God does not treat us as our sins deserve, because on the cross, he has already treated Jesus as our sins deserve. This being true, there is still much work that Jesus intends to do! Acts 1:1 indicates that the work of Jesus on earth was not completed with His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of God. Luke writes, “In the first book (the Gospel of Luke), O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” Began to do and teach? How could there be more for Jesus to do than he what has already done? That’s where we, as Christ’s “ambassadors,” come into the picture. We are sent into the world, filled with his Spirit and enriched by his grace and truth, to represent him. In short, the work of Jesus continues through Christians.

WHAT ARE CHURCHES SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT?

As Jesus’ ambassadors, Christians have been set apart to faithfully mirror him in our neighborhoods, our places of work and play, and our realms of influence. Therefore, our calling is to labor in every way possible to model our ministry and message after his. We are to live as those who are “full of grace and truth,” whose churches and ministries, because we are walking in the path of Jesus, will attract the types of people who were attracted to him, and, by unfortunate necessity, will draw criticism from the types of people who criticized him.

The purpose of this article, then, is to consider what constitutes a ministry that is full of both grace and truth. In other words, our task is to align our collective life and ministry to the life and ministry of Jesus.

CULTIVATing an Atmosphere that is “Full of Grace”

What does it mean to have a ministry atmosphere that is “full of grace” (John 1:14)? We will consider this question from a few different angles.

First, we must address the barriers created by Christians—barriers that have hidden the real Jesus from the world.

Gandhi was once asked why He never became a Christian. His answer was, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi had an admiration for Jesus, but could not reconcile how Christians were such poor representatives of their master. In his mind, this is what kept him from becoming a follower of Jesus.

If we are serious about being Jesus’ ambassadors, we need to listen very carefully to statements like this one. We must examine the most common barriers that stand between the real Jesus and people’s false impressions of him—impressions which, unfortunately, have been projected to a watching world by many sincere yet misguided Christians. These barriers include:

Condemnation. Philip Yancey often asks people he meets what they think of Christians. The answer he hears, with very little exception, is that Christians are judgmental, intolerant, and holier-than-thou. When the September 11 terrorist attacks took place on the World Trade Center, one very well-known Christian leader confirmed this stance by saying on national television, “If you are a homosexual, a member of the ACLU, in favor of abortion, or part of the People of the American Way, then I point my finger in your face and say you did this. You made this happen.” A Christian friend of mine who is an actor once invited a gay friend over to have dinner with him and his wife. Their guest soon realized (from the Bible on the coffee table) that they were Christians. He then said to my friend, “You are a Christian, and you actually like me?” This is tragic, yet all too common.

If we are serious about being Christ’s ambassadors, we must humbly own the fact that many people believe that Christians dislike them. Whether this is actually true or not, it is our starting point in the minds of most non-Christian people. If we are not guilty ourselves, then we are at the very least guilty by association with believers who have misrepresented the biblical Jesus to our culture. So we must take personal responsibility, as far as it depends on us, to reorient people’s perception of Christians, and especially of Christ himself.

Separation. In a day when many Christians want to separate themselves and their children from people and things that are considered secular, Christ’s ambassadors must resist this “us against them” mindset. We must do everything in our power to become friends with as many non-Christians as we can—no conditions attached. This must be a central value of our Christian communities. It is helpful to look at the life of Jesus in this regard. Luke 15:1-2 says plainly that all of the “sinners” made a habit of hanging around Jesus. They wanted to be near him, and they wanted to hear what he had to say. Meanwhile, religious folk were accusing Jesus of being a glutton, a drunk, and a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34). We know that these accusations were false—Jesus was tempted in every way. However, he was unapologetically a true friend to the lost, to all who were alien to the religious communities of his day. He seemed to welcome parting ways with religious folks if that was necessary to get close to sinners. The one who “welcomed sinners and ate with them” now insists that his followers assume the same posture. “God’s grace is for real sinners” must be more than a statement on our church websites. It must characterize the life and practice of our ministries.

Reputation. There is a price to pay if we get serious about cultivating atmospheres that are full of grace. In becoming a friend of sinners, as Jesus did, we should expect some resistance. When we pursue friendship with those who are outside the faith, some fellow believers will be suspicious of us. Consider Luke 7, for example, when a “sinful woman” enters the home of Simon the Pharisee. In the name of love, and in the spirit of demonstrable grace, Jesus received her very un-orthodox display of affection toward him. He breaks with religious customs, allowing the woman to touch his feet (feet were considered unclean—one could not even ask a slave to touch them for this reason). He breaks with social customs also, receiving her as his disciple. It was scandalous in Jesus’ day for a rabbi to receive a woman as a disciple, much less a woman with a scandalous history. Most scandalous, however, is the way that Jesus breaks with moral customs. The woman lets down her hair (this was grounds for divorce in that culture—a woman could do this only in the presence of her immediate family). She touches him with the tool of her trade, a prostitute’s perfume, and kiss him with a prostitute’s lips…and he allows it! Of course we know the rest of the story—Jesus was shunned as a man of ill repute. Giving positive attention to this woman, who to them was clearly “a sinner,” was evidence enough of moral compromise.

This has serious ramifications for those who wish to follow Jesus in a modern context. We must come to terms with the fact that if Jesus were a 21^st century American, he would not associate godliness with membership in a political party. He would not tell a lesbian she was outside of God’s will without also offering her a personal, no-strings-attached friendship. He would not talk about how smoking destroys God’s temple while simultaneously devouring his third piece of fried chicken at a church potluck. He would not condemn adultery as being any worse than studying the Bible for the wrong reasons. If we are accustomed to setting up our own Mishnah, our own set of “clean laws” that define one’s worthiness to be received into Jesus’ company, we need to give serious re-evaluation to our methods and priorities!

Pride. Becoming a friend of sinners begins with the understanding that we are much more like the “chief of sinners” than we are like Jesus Christ. Our approach with all people, no matter who they are or what their history, must assume the posture of “fellow beggars humbly telling others where to find the bread” (Steve Brown). If we really want people to be impacted by the Gospel and to enjoy the riches of God’s grace, they must first see in us the humility of those who have been, and continue to be, genuinely impacted by grace ourselves. Our humility must be authentic and not just an act. Paul was not above humbling himself. In Romans 7 he gives us a window into his personal struggle with the sin of coveting—a sin nobody would see unless he told them—and the ways in which the Gospel heals that sin. In 1 Timothy Paul identifies himself as the chief of all sinners. If we intend to be the aroma of Jesus in our ministries and our messages, we need to move past our love for reputation and image. Without realizing it, we can begin to build our identities on how good we look—on being “model Christians” that people are supposed to admire because of how put-together we appear to be. This is a trap and it will rob our ministries of power. If people in our midst are going to be changed by the grace of Jesus, they must regularly witness the Gospel working effectively in our lives—healing us of our sins and deepest wounds and fears.

our communities must be sinner-safe

There was a reason why all the sinners ran to Jesus on a regular basis (Luke 15:1-2). Though they knew he was against their sin—he never watered down the law’s demands—they wanted to be around him because they knew the reason why he was against their sin—because he was for their flourishing! If we want to be his ambassadors, therefore, several commitments must characterize us, our ministries, and our message.

Respecting and valuing all people. People must sense us relating to them on the basis of their God-given dignity, not on the basis of their shortcomings. If we are not careful, we can easily fall into the trap of diminishing the worth of a human being by thinking first of the ways they need to be fixed versus valuing them as bearers of the divine image, made for glory. The following quote from CS Lewis offers helpful perspective:

It is maybe possible to think too much of your own potential glory hereafter. But it is impossible to think too often or too deeply about that of your neighbors. The weight of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back. So heavy a weight it is that only humility can carry it. It’s a serious thing to live in a society of immortals. To remember that millions of years from now, the dullest and most uninteresting person you meet may one day be an incredible creature, who if you saw him now you would be strongly tempted to worship. - CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

A biblical view of sin. Treating people with dignity does not imply a reluctance to challenge sin. If we are going to love people as Jesus does, we will be committed to their flourishing, which means we will deeply desire that they be obedient to God! So, the question is not, “Will we challenge sin?” but rather “How will we challenge sin, and with what motivation will we challenge it?” We must be on God’s agenda here. God is vehemently opposed to sin both for his own glory and very much for the person. God’s desire is that we live by his design, which is life to us.

A grace-filled posture toward sinners like ourselves. Whenever we challenge sin of any kind, our motivation must be because we care so deeply for those, like ourselves, who sin. Otherwise, we shouldn’t say anything at all about sin. You are no doubt familiar with the group from Topeka, Kansas who picketed the funeral of Mathew Sheppard, a young gay man who was beaten to death by some of his peers, with signs that read “God hates fags” and “Thank God for AIDS,” among other horrible, evil things. This example is certainly extreme. However, there are going to be seeds in our own hearts that are prone to look down on those to whom we feel superior. It is an evil thing to desire or celebrate someone’s harm instead of his or her well-being. As Jesus stood over Jerusalem, which had rejected his love, he wept for them. Do people, especially people who are “not like us,” sense this kind of love from us? Jesus did much more than merely tolerate sinful people in his midst. He cherished them and pursued their hearts that they might become free indeed. We have no option but to do the same.

we must keep first things first

Jesus, and nothing else, must be our “main thing” at all times. Our main emphasis must always be on the person and work of Christ. We must follow the example of the Apostle Paul who decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Therefore, everything else takes a back seat to Jesus. Often, we will equate “outreach” to converting others to the norms of our particular tribe (our political views, our theological tradition, our dress code, our ethics, our parenting philosophy, etc.) instead of converting them to a love and adoration of Jesus. But the norms of our tribe must always be secondary to, and in many cases discarded because of, a greater vision for people to see Jesus and know him for who he really is. Additionally, in all things we must lead with the grace of God versus with the law of God. When we require people to “get their act together” before we give them access to Jesus and his grace, we fail to follow the methods of the Lord, who welcomed and “graced” people before he called them to change (Luke 7:36-50, Luke 15:1-2, John 8:1-11, etc.). A cosmetic, outside-in, second-things-first approach to change contradicts the inside-out, first-things-first approach of the gospel.

Cultivate a Ministry of Grace

In cultivating a “full of grace” ministry atmosphere, we must carefully consider how we are presenting Christ to people who are either not Christian or somewhere along the journey of overcoming sin. That’s all of us, isn’t it?

Scott Sauls, a graduate of Furman University and Covenant Seminary, is foremost a son of God and the husband of one beautiful wife (Patti), the father of two fabulous daughters (Abby and Ellie), and the primary source of love and affection for a small dog (Lulu). Professionally, Scott serves as the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Nashville, Scott was a Lead and Preaching Pastor, as well as the writer of small group studies, for Redeemer Presbyterian of New York City. Twitter: @scottsauls

Editor’s Note: This is a repost of A Jesus-Like Church Culture by Scott Sauls. It appears here with the author’s permission. Website: cpcblogs.blogspot.com.

Other helpful writings on this topic are: An Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson and Religion-less Spirituality by Timothy Keller.

Ben Roberts 11/30/12 Ben Roberts 11/30/12

An Advent Story

I grew up in evangelical megachurch smack dab on the golden buckle of the Bible Belt. As a kid, I was a little foggy on the meaning of Advent. Like, I knew it meant my friends at evangelical mega-private school would start rehearsing their caroling chops for the Singing Christmas Tree, a perplexing spectacle oddly similar to watching the Star Wars Holiday Special only with extra manger. Then my parents got divorced, and Christmas became a fairly miserable balancing act, which involved dressing up like Norman Rockwell and driving to one house or the other listening to Twisted Sister’s A Twisted Christmas at maximum volume, dead to all the presents and noise and decorations. When I was old enough, I moved out to the mountains, and Christmas just kinda dropped off the radar. It was a good day for snowboarding. The lifts were empty until after lunch.

I’ve gone full circle on a lot of things in my life, but it’s only been by the grace of God that Christmas has been redeemed from out of the morass of consumerism, politics, and nihilism into which it has fallen. Why is Advent important? What changed Christmas for me? I’ll be the first to say my change was a gradual process that began with authentic gospel-centered fellowship, scriptural preaching, and a whole lot of prayer. Which isn’t to say I’m some kinda Grinch. Well, maybe a little. But in more recent years, as I’ve discipled folks in the gospel during the holidays, I’ve come to see a different side of Christmas, one that they don’t make into Hallmark movies, and at the heart of it all is the importance of Advent.

Adventus

Derived from the Latin word adventus, “coming,” Advent marks the beginning of the Western Liturgical Year and commences on Advent Sunday (generally the fourth Sunday before December 25^th). All important stuff to know if you’re writing that Wikipedia article in your bucket list, but here’s where it gets cool. Adventus is the Latin translation of the Greek word parousia –typically used in reference to the Second Coming of Christ.

For as the lightening comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. – Matthew 24:27

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:22-23

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. – 1 John 2:28

Related terms from the Greek include epiphany variously translated “appearing” or “glorious manifestation” and apocalypse, that oft misunderstood word meaning “revelation” or “to disclose what is invisible.”

So, here’s the thing, forget everything you thought you knew about Advent candles and the local live nativity play and reading Luke 2 at your kids… Wait. Rewind. Don’t forget that stuff, it’s actually important, too. But it’s equally important that we engage with what scripture is saying about the meaning of Christ’s expectation and appearance to us. If we simply focus on the history of Christmas, we are inviting the same host of problems that attended the Pharisees—myopically pouring over dusty scrolls, refusing to see the living God right there in front of them.

Said another way, during Advent we are not simply remembering some fateful event in the past, we’re celebrating a Messiah who was and is and is to come. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). There is a special significance in this mystery as we approach the celebration of God’s incarnation. Advent is the time to shout hallelujah for his coming return, to pray to hasten the day that we might see our Redeemer with our own eyes, to fast for revival in our cities, churches, and families.

So, I ask you: how does Advent change if you are the one who’s going to see the Son of God? Can you imagine the wonder such a sight will inspire?—the Christ born of the Spirit, one with God, the hope of the nations? Emmanuel. God is with us. Who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

On that coming day my eyes will see something sweeter than honey, more precious than gold! Until then, I keep my eyes fixed on that goal—it's a struggle, sure—but all the mall Santa pomp and circumstance goes mute before it.

A Light for Revelation

Luke 2 takes on a new light when I read it with a mindset that it isn’t just some old traditional tale. The story of the Birth of Christ teaches us how to await our own future encounter with Christ. Like Simeon, we look for God’s consolation to this sick and hurting world, we hope in a Living Redeemer, and we too can seek Christ in the Spirit. We, too, can praise him like Simeon, singing, “You are a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:32)

Likewise, Advent is an invitation to enter into the story of Christ’s coming, and Christmas is a wonderful time to bear witness to what Christ has done in your life by entering into the excitement of the celebration with your family, friends, neighbors, and fellow disciples.

OK, maybe I was initially a little too hasty to knock the Singing Christmas Thing. Over and over in the gospels we read about folks singing and bearing witness to the Messiah— prophets, prophetesses, priests, shepherds, kings, folks from every segment and class of society—and not just people, angels too. They bring gifts. They sing songs. They celebrate. So, if a Singing Tree is your idea of a party, rock on. I’ll be down at the local children’s shelter tearing up some Guns N’ Roses on the karaoke.

Whatever we wind-up doing during the Christmas season, remember we do it to magnify the King of Kings. We’re also bearing witness to the world about just how deeply the light of God’s love has changed our lives. So while Christmas pickles and mistletoe are fun… it might be time to rethink some of the worn-out ways we wade through the holiday madness. I’m reminded of Simeon’s final words to Mary and Joseph: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)

Bad example, but I got asked to pray at the office thanksgiving potluck the other day. I remember thinking, ‘I can do this, right? I mean I won’t get arrested?’ And so far the Prayer Police haven’t come for me yet. What I’m saying is Christ pierces right to the heart of things. The Spirit has an absolutely timeless way of revealing the thoughts of many hearts. So, during Advent, pray for the Spirit to guide you to Christ this Christmas. Pray for a revelation of how best to proclaim Christ to your friends, family, fellow believers, and neighbors during this celebratory time of year. The Spirit wanted me to write Christmas poems for my church. So I’m working on that, and yeah, I’m wearing a Santa hat.

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Ben Roberts is follower of Christ & an Editor at both Gospel Centered Discipleship & the speculative literary journal, Unstuck. A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers, he lives in Austin with his wife, Jessica & son, Solomon. They fellowship and worship at Austin City Life.

For more free article read: Redeeming Worship by Matt Oakes or Rethinking Devotion by Matt Manry.

Guest User 11/29/12 Guest User 11/29/12

Crossway Book Giveaway

Well, well, well... another book giveaway.

It's that time again! Thanks to our continued partnership with Crossway, we will be giving away the following books:

How to Enter:

Follow us on Twitter and Retweet our giveaway tweet OR
Like us on Facebook and Share our giveaway post
EXTRA CREDIT: Do all of the above!

*There will be five winners (each winner will get one of the five books).

**Giveaway ends December 2, 2012 at 11:59 CST.

May the odds be ever in your favor...........

GCD Editors 11/28/12 GCD Editors 11/28/12

The Importance of the Pastoral "I Don't Know"

by Jared Wilson.

Jared Wilson pastors Middletown Springs Community Church and has authored several books including Gospel Wakefulness and Gospel Deeps. He is the husband of Becky and father of Macy and Grace. He blogs regularly at The Gospel Coalition.

*Editor's Note: This was #12 on our Top Posts of 2012.

___

“My happy conviction is that pastors ought not to be experts on everything.” - John Piper

One of the most valuable sentences in a pastor’s arsenal is “I don’t know.” The pressure to know and be everything everybody expects us to know and be can be pride-puffing. I once worked at a bookstore where we were told never to say “I don’t know” to a customer. We must give them some answer, any answer, even if it was a guess or a likely wrong answer. Customers don’t want to hear “I don’t know” from service people, but even a wrong answer makes them feel helped. I confess the temptation to “satisfy the customer” has persisted through my ministry days, for a variety of reasons. I want people to feel helped. And I also don’t like looking like a rube.

Why is it important for pastors (and Christians in general!) to say “I don’t know” when they don’t know? 1. Because it’s the truth. First and foremost, if you don’t know the answer to something, say you don’t know the answer. Making up stuff up is not our calling. We all know some folks who seem pathologically unable to admit ignorance in any area. I don’t trust those people, and neither should you. Better a disappointing truth than a manipulative or misleading fabrication.

2. Because it impresses the right people. I’ve done more than a few Q&A’s after preaching or on panels at speaking engagements before, and the desire to impress with wisdom and insight can be nerve-wracking. Once during a Q&A after a sermon at our church in Nashville, I got real honest when a question stumped me. I don’t remember what it was, but I remember realizing I had no information available to my brain to even begin formulating a halfway intelligent response. So I just said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know the answer to that.” Afterwards a young lady approached me to thank me for saying “I don’t know.” She said she wished more “religious people” could say it too. The reality is that acting like you know everything impresses shallow, naive, or otherwise easily impressed people. But saying “I don’t know” impresses people who value honesty and appreciate their pastor admitting weakness, ignorance, or just general fallibility.

3. Because it trains others not to be know-it-alls. A few weeks ago a fellow came up to me after our service to ask about the Old Testament figure Ahimelech. I recognized the name but could not recall his biblical importance or the narrative where he was found. My inquirer expected that, as a pastor, I would know all about this figure and even the references where he would be found. I blanked. When I looked him up later, of course, I “remembered” who Ahimelech was, but in the moment, despite losing face with a relatively new Christian, I said, “Brother, I don’t remember. I just don’t know.” This led to a great talk about so-called “Bible trivia,” knowledge, learning, wisdom, and righteousness and the like. I think it was a teachable moment for both of us, but I walked away believing that when a leader is open about the gaps in his knowledge it trains others to be okay with not knowing everything. Of course, we want to know our Bibles as well as we possibly can, but we want to remember that knowledge puffs up and that the Scriptures and the doctrines they teach are meant to make us full-hearted with Christ not big-headed with minutiae.

4. Because it cultivates humility. It is good for a pastor’s heart — no matter the reception — to make his “I don’t know”‘s public.

Cross-posted from Jared's blog.

Guest User 11/28/12 Guest User 11/28/12

Being Ministers of Reconciliation

In a world of subjective truths, tolerance, and acceptance, Christianity has become nothing more than 'another' religion in the eyes of many. Western culture, in particular, is grievously enamored with the idea of self-reliance, self-dependence, and self-worth. Christianity is extremely counter-cultural because it teaches the actuality of human depravity, the necessity for a savior, and an eternal focus for our temporal lives. For unbelievers at-large, this can be something that can seem intolerant and outdated, a tradition steeped in rigid tradition, and a stumbling block to the progress of the society and the world. For Christians, however, depraved humanity in need of a savior is true reality. This is life for the human race. As we consider our calling to be “ministers of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-20), we must understand the people we are living around, their view of the world, and the journey they are on. Likewise, we have to continually allow the Spirit to draw us to repentance in areas of life where we fail to “let the love of Christ control us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Though loving others is often difficult and even scary, the pressure is not on us to change hearts, for only God can save through the transforming power of the gospel (Acts 4:12). As a friend of mine says often, “We do the ministry, God does the miracles.” The ministry of reconciliation acknowledges two truths: humans are sinful and we need a savior. The message of reconciliation is God dealt with sin himself and saved humanity. This is the Christian's message.

How Can this Message be Rejected?

Hope

Toward Being Ministers of Reconciliation

Pray, Pray, Pray – Nothing of this magnitude can be accomplished without the Spirit’s work (1 Cor. 2:12). When you share the gospel and when someone receives it, there is supernatural power weaved throughout the entire process. Knowing that I need – and have – God’s help encourages me to worry less about my own fear of man.
Remember Christ – Though WWJD? bracelets have largely come and gone, this slogan is actually highly missional. When speaking with others, praying for others, and serving others, I have the perfect model in Jesus. When I don’t feel like being generous, I am reminded of how generous Christ is to me on a daily basis. When I don’t feel like serving, I am reminded that God himself stepped into human history and suffered the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2).
Go – Loving and reaching my neighbors is frequently a better idea than action. Upon relying on the Spirit and remembering how Christ lived, I am finally reminded of the Great Commission’s call to literally take this good news to the lost (Matt. 28:18-20). This may be the hardest part, but an understanding of who Christ is, what he’s done, and what he calls me to propels me into his mission. May we all trust him with this responsibility.

Brandon Smith is Editor of Project TGM and Pastoral Resident at CityView Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Connect with him on Twitter @BrandonSmith85.

To read more about how sharing the message of reconciliation read Jonathan Dodson's book, Unbelievable Gospel.

Lance Humphreys 11/26/12 Lance Humphreys 11/26/12

The Question of Discipleship

The path of discipleship is not short or easy. But it is a road well worn by the many faithful saints that have gone before us. As disciples, and as disciple-makers, there is no other better guide than looking at the first disciples of Jesus. The Bible gives us precious peeks into both the way Jesus made disciples and the way the disciples responded and grew as they followed him. Their journey of seeking to know and obey Jesus was filled with success in understanding the gospel at times and forgetting it later. Their time with Jesus was marked by faithfulness to the good news and failure to apply it. They forgot the good news of Jesus and they struggled to understand what Jesus was doing. And yet, Jesus walked with them patiently and didn’t give up on them. We have everything to learn from Jesus, and we have every right to place ourselves in the story as his disciples. In the Gospel of Matthew we find a powerful moment that we all must enter, a conversation we must all have. This moment is the turning point in Matthew’s story. It isn't the call to discipleship, though that is fundamental. In this case it is not a command but a question. A question we must answer for ourselves. A question we must continually ask as we make disciples of Jesus.

Within the Rhythm of Life

Before we get to the question and the key moment, we must understand the context. Because discipleship happens life-on-life and not in a vacuum, we can’t become over zealous and just skip to the short moment. What was going on in their lives? What had the disciples seen in Jesus? Leading up to this question, Jesus began his ministry. He called 12 men into his inner circle and they spent their days with him. They saw Jesus perform miracles and run into opposition from the religious rule keepers.

They saw Jesus teach with authority. They saw his compassion for people. A compassion not based on dire circumstances but based on the condition of the people's hearts. He grieved because he saw how exhausted they were, trying to earn God’s love by keeping an overwhelming set of added-religious rules. Jesus' message was different from rules, he said, “Come! Come to me if you are worn out from trying to be good enough for God. Come connect with me and you will enter into a new life where we walk together in a way that gives freedom and life and peace - because my way of life isn’t heavy, it’s free." (personal paraphrase of Matthew 11:28). Jesus poured his heart out in teaching about what life was meant to be like. He told parables, made claims about the Kingdom of God and did miraculous things.

Jesus' words and ministry were drawing huge crowds. Matthew tells us many in the audience wondered out loud the greatest question that has ever been or ever will be: “Could it be that Jesus is really the savior that God has promised to us?” The more people witnessed Jesus, the more this question about his identity grew. I know for me, the more I saw Jesus in the lives of others, the more I saw his handiwork, the more I asked, "Is this Jesus, the thing I've been looking for?"

The Question in a Place of Fear and Lust

This was daily life for the first disciples’ when Jesus asks his discipleship question in the town of Caesarea Phillipi, a pagan town outside jewish territory. A place famous for the worship of the greek god Pan, the god of fertility and the god of fear. Though it was a pagan place, it was a beautiful city nestled at the foot of a huge rock. And from this place of fear and false life Jesus stood up and asked his closest friends and followers the question, the most important question in history, the dominate question facing humanity: “Who is Jesus?”

Jesus began the conversation, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples collaborated and answered with things they had heard, “Well most people think you are a prophet like Elijah or John the Baptist or one of the other guys.” How often do we speak more to what others say about Jesus than to what we know and believe to be true about Jesus ourselves?

And this is where we stop and place ourselves in the story--as we have every right to do and in fact should. Because in this story, you are just like the disciples--you are a follower of Jesus. You aren’t fully aware of it, but the reality is you have left everything to follow Jesus, you’ve seen him perform miracles, you’ve heard his words and your heart still leaps every time he speaks. However, the reality is on most days you struggle to get it. You don’t understand who he really is and what that means for you and for the whole world.

Like the disciples, you are probably in both a beautiful and sinful context. You stand in a place that is full of false hope for life--fertility through lust, lust for things and lust for people and lust for some fake version of real life, i.e. the American dream. You stand in a place of fear--fear that controls, fear that paralyzes, fear of what people will think, fear that you can’t really cut it, fear that you’ll be found out for who you really are, fear that at the end of your life there will be nothing to hope for.

Who Do You Say I Am?

Then Jesus looks at you specifically and asks the question: “Who do you say I am?”

And for all the times you’ve screwed it up, this time you get it right and you don’t even know where it came from. You’ve never thought it before, but as you say it you know it’s the most true thing you’ve ever said and you believe it: “You are the Messiah - the anointed savior and deliverer - you are the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus says, “Bless you, because you didn’t get that from any book or any teacher or any friend, but God himself, my Father, has revealed that to you.” (Matthew 16:15-17).

We have to know who Jesus is. Everything rests on who he is and who you believe he is. When the glamour fades, the pain kicks in, and you really don't have anything left, the disciple will have an answer for that question: "Who is Jesus?"

Who Jesus is and what he has done has everything to do with who you are and how you live:

If Jesus is the savior, you are saved and can rest in his work.
If Jesus is king, he is ruling and you are not. His reign is coming and yours is ceasing.
If Jesus is the Lamb of God, then your sin, fear, insecurity and iniquity has all been dealt with. You are delivered.
If Jesus is the Son, then his life, death, and resurrection is sufficient. Nothing else can be added! So you can stop trying to be good enough for others and God.
If Jesus is Lord, he is bringing everything under his authority, we can trust him with unwavering hope. All of our lives are submitted to him.

Lance Humphreys is an entrepreneur, executive coach and a mentor to young leaders. He is an encouragement and friend to many church planters throughout North America and beyond. He lives and makes disciples in Oklahoma City along with his wife and their two teenage kids. Follow Lance on twitter: @LanceHumphreys.

For more free articles on discipleship process of Jesus read: How Jesus Made Disciples by Winfield Bevins and The Gospel and the Great Commandment by Abe Mysenburg.

Guest User 11/26/12 Guest User 11/26/12

Advice to Young Pastors

Being in ministry at a young age can be daunting. The fact is, ministry is never as it seems. Your bad days are sometimes the days that you grow the most (unknowingly), and the good times are always sweeter than expected.

Being in ministry at a young age can be daunting. Often times, young men dive head first into a ministry role (typically working with youth is an entry point for any wet-behind-the-ears pastor) with a swagger and confidence that screams, “I’m gonna change this church MY way!” At least, that was my mindset. Successes and failures come, heartache makes you want to quit, growth makes you want to pat yourself on the back, and everyone in the church has “advice.” The fact is, ministry is never as it seems. Your bad days are sometimes the days that you grow the most (unknowingly), and the good times are always sweeter than expected. The hardest part for me was the disadvantage that comes with being the youngest guy on the staff. No matter how much you read or how much experience you have (I served in four significant vocational ministry positions by 25), many of the staff and congregants will not take you as seriously as you’d like. As an elder and multi-functional pastor at several churches, there were times where I felt hesitant to speak into meetings or general conversation because I wasn't sure that anyone would heed my opinion. Fortunately, the other leaders respected my voice but, trust me, it’s difficult to tell a 40-year old pastor, “I told ya so.” When I get the opportunity to preach and/or teach, I have to try and use the experience that I do have as the backbone for my message so that people don't tune me out. As much as I’ve read about and would love to teach on parenting, I’m not a parent and would be ignored even if my sermon is spot on. And on and on it goes.

All this to say, there is hope for the young pastor. Here is some advice to young pastors from a young pastor:

Trust the Lord – For whatever reason, God has placed you in this position. Whether you are a youth pastor, single’s pastor, or the lead preaching pastor, God has allowed you to do so. Pray, pray, pray. You will be looked at sideways and tuned out at times, but God will place his Word on the hearts of those it is intended for.
Heed Paul’s Words in 1 Timothy 4:12 – “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” Regardless of detractions, set an example to even the older crowd in your church. Do not be defensive or arrogant, simply teach and live doctrine and love. Be a Christian first and a pastor last; this order of things will work itself out beautifully. If you’re loving Jesus and living for him, your life will outflow into your ministry. People will notice.
Listen to Advice – You won’t always take it or put it to use, but advice from older men, more seasoned ministers, and (gasp) even the little old ladies that storm your office all week is invaluable. You cannot learn everything from books or podcasts and the best teacher is almost always experience. Take full advantage of any criticism or counsel you can get your hands on.
Persevere – Ministry at any level can and will crush you at times. You can have strong theology and talent, but you are an emotional human being who will take a beating regardless of how strong you are. As Matt Chandler once reminded me, pastors spend all week dealing with other people’s sins and it can absolutely wear you out. Young pastor, grab ahold of Jesus’s grace and immerse yourself in it. Your greatest weapon is the endless grace of God and a great salvation that only he can provide.

This is an adaptation of something that I previously wrote for SBC Voices.

Jonathan Dodson 11/21/12 Jonathan Dodson 11/21/12

Why Give Thanks?

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble. - Psalm 107:1-2

Psalm 107 doesn’t begin by marshaling reasons to thank God. Rather, the worshipper leads off with gratitude: “Oh give thanks to the LORD!” Bubbling over before the Lord, he enjoins us to worship with him. Sometimes we find it difficult to be spontaneously grateful to God. Complaining comes more naturally. Fortunately, the Psalmist gives us specific reasons we should give thanks to God. Two big reasons we should be grateful to God are: 1) Because he is good and 2) Because his goodness overflows.

Give Thanks Because He is Good

The first reason for giving thanks to God is because he is good. You might be thinking, "You don’t know how much bad I've experienced this year." Hold on. Notice the writer doesn’t say give thanks because of what God has done. Rather, we are to give thanks because God, in his essence, is good. We have to get our attention off of ourselves to see it. What does it mean for God to be good? His goodness can refer to his moral excellence, an inherent goodness. We thank him because he is the origin and fountain of goodness. In fact, apart from God being the source of good, we wouldn’t know and experience the good. We would have no basis for delighting in the good done by our children or praising the character of a public servant saying, “That was good.” God gives us a reason for goodness—himself—and as a result we have a moral compass. We can discern between good and bad and delight in what is good.

Goodness can also refer to God’s beauty. This meaning of goodness refers to the superior quality of his goodness. When a mountain top view of moving film is particularly striking, we will say: “That was very good" or perhaps "Awesome.” Beauty calls out awe. God’s innate goodness isn’t just morally laudable; it’s aesthetically provoking. His glory furnishes us with a sense of beauty, an aesthetic witness that says, yes, there are things that are truly beautiful because there is a God of beauty. Elsewhere the psalmist tells us: “Out of Zion the perfection of beauty, God, has shone forth” (50:1). We should thank God because He is morally good and aesthetically good, both virtuous and beautiful. He has left us a moral compass and an aesthetic witness.

Give Thanks Because His Goodness Overflows

With God's goodness in view, why can we give thanks for his goodness? Because God’s goodness overflows. God is so good he can’t contain himself. He has to overflow his goodness in an expression of everlasting love. Not only do we get morality and beauty from his goodness, but we also receive love. Through his love he imparts his goodness to us. We know he is good because he is good to us. So, we thank him, not just because he is good in abstract glory, but also because he is good to us in concrete ways. How is he good to us? Through his never-ending love. His goodness isn’t a side hug or a splash of affection. It is a continual, never-stopping, never-giving up, always and forever love (thanks, Sally-Lloyd Jones). A never-ending fountain. He loves you. He loves us, with love inexhaustible. Now you may think you are unlovable, but the goodness of God transcends the mess of your life. You may say, "Oh, you don’t know my life. God can’t really love me." Or, "You don’t know how many mistakes I made this year." It simply isn't true, his steadfast love endures forever; it extends beyond anything you’ve ever done. Instead of asking: "Can he love me?" We should ask: "How can I get under his love?"

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble. - Psalm 107:2

It’s the redeemed that can sing of God’s goodness and love. How can we get under his fountain of love? We become one of the redeemed. How are we redeemed? Not by being moral, not by being good. We get redeemed and loved by actually giving our badness to God. Like the Israelites, we return from exile. We open up honestly and say to him: “I’m bad, I’m actually worse than I really know, and I’m an offense to you in your never-ending goodness. Forgive me and take my badness. Take it in exchange for your goodness, the goodness that overflows to me in Jesus.” We get under the fountain of God’s love by walking under it with Jesus. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus. Romans 8:38 says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How do we get under God’s goodness? By faith in Jesus, God becomes good for us. He is good, and he overflows in never-ending love for all who hope in Jesus. So, we give thanks to God because he is good. And he is good, not just as a basis for morality or an object of spiritual adoration, but in the gift of his goodness through the gospel, through the good news that God takes our badness in exchange for his goodness, our deformity for his beauty, our imperfection for his perfection in Jesus.

The Redemption of Thanksgiving

Why should we be filled with gratitude to God? Because he redeems us from trouble. The redemption here isn’t individualistic with God redeeming little individuals from little troubles all over the world. No, his redemption is corporate. God is redeeming a people, a community. He says: “And gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south” (Psalm 107:3). Historically, this is a reference to God rescuing Israel from exile. And yet, he’s continuing this gathering through Jesus, people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language (Rev 5:9) and this people is the church. When God redeems; he gathers. He redeems us into a community. He converts us not just to the Head but to the Body. God redeems, not individuals but a people, a community that joyfully shares in their redemption, giving thanks for their Redeemer. He redeems us from trouble into a new community. As you consider God's goodness, don't forget to see it overflowing in the community around you. The church is his gift to us, and though awkward at times (because we are awkward at times), God's people remind us of God's redeeming grace. Pause to look back and look around you to consider the ways he has redeemed you and others from trouble. Often we see him redeem us from our trouble by sending us a community who reveals God’s goodness to us by buying us groceries when we cannot afford them, being supported through grief, pointed to Jesus in our sin, encouraged about our growth, prayed for and loved.

Gratitude is not complete until it is expressed. I can be grateful for my wife in my heart, but if she never hears it, she never benefits. Express your gratitude with words. Like a fountain, like God, gratitude for goodness should overflow. Take some time to call, email, or text someone today to point out the goodness of God in their lives. Thank or encourage a friend, someone from your church family, or a relative. Most of all, pause and give thanks to God. Give thanks to God because he is good--morally, aesthetically, and redemptively. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

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For more work from Jonathan on thinking through the implications of the gospel in our everyday lives, check out Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson. It is now also available in print.

For more free articles on the gospel and holidays, read: Against Transactional Sanctification by Bill Streger and 8 Ways to Fight Consumerism by Hugh Halter.

Seth McBee 11/19/12 Seth McBee 11/19/12

"Go and Take" vs. "Come and See"

I was recently asked to give a quick thought on why I believed the structure of missional community (MC) life was better than traditional church structures. I really wouldn’t start by saying, “MC’s are the only way.”

*Editor's Note: This was #11 on our Top Posts of 2012. _

I was recently asked to give a quick thought on why I believe that the structure of missional community (MC) life is better than traditional church structures. I really wouldn’t start by saying, “MC’s are the only way.”

Instead, I’d start with the fact that making disciples of Jesus, that make disciples of Jesus, with the power and authority of Jesus, is the mission of the church. Based on Matthew 28:18-20, we are called to baptize these new disciples in a new identity with a new mission. This identity is found in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. So, we are now to live this out as family because we have the same Father. We are servants because our King, the Son of God, came down to show us how to be servants as he was and to serve and not be served. And we are missionaries because the Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, now lives in us to make us his witnesses (Acts 1) to the ends of the earth.

We are now a family of missionary servants with a new mission – making disciples of Jesus, who make disciples of Jesus, instead of making disciples of self, who make disciples of self.

God's Family

When we look to the very beginning of time, God was always looking for a community, a family, that would show off who he was to the world. From Adam and Eve who were to be fruitful and multiply, to Abraham who was going to be a great nation, to Paul saying the church is the body of Jesus to the world, and of course Jesus saying that he was bringing in other sheep that were not of the fold, creating one flock under one shepherd. Again, the purpose is showing off Jesus (Acts 1). The whole story is about God’s pursuit of a people to show off who he is and what he’s done.

With all this said – that we are to be a family of missionary servants on the mission of God of making disciples – we now look to see how can that functionally happen. In Acts, we see this happening in all spheres of life: house to house, sharing all things, and being in each other’s lives continually. We see this happening in smaller oikos’ and then seemingly larger gatherings as well. Paul also continues to call us to share each other’s burdens and speaking truth in each other’s lives.

How Does This Happen?

We have to ask: How do we ensure that this holistic life-on-life with one another is happening? (The passages about loving one another and bearing each other's burdens are numerous.)

If we look to see how Jesus discipled, we have find that he discipled his apostles approximately 80-85% of the time while in the midst of unbelievers. So, Jesus discipled, or made disciples, by being on the mission of God, on the mission field with those he was discipling. Not only that, but these people were normal people sacrificing anything and everything to ensure that they made disciples of Jesus. Normal people with an abnormal calling.

How do we do this? The traditional church has historically (I am speaking of the time from the 1940’s to 1950’s until now, so maybe I should say “recently”) have said “come and see.” They’ve acted more like Israel and created a subculture of religious activities for people to come to. Whether a program or an event at a church building, they’ve invited people to “come and see what we do and what we’re about and become one of us.” This has gone through good times and bad in the past 70 years. It was good when postmodernism was just beginning; it became bad more recently as postmodernism and post-Christendom has taken root in the West.

The MC "model" is pondering what it would look like to add an element rather than simply saying "come and see." We don't want to rid ourselves of the “come and see,” which we would keep in the form of public worship, but what if we added a huge emphasis of living normal lives, in normal rhythms among normal people? How would it look if we added “go and make” by the power of the Spirit and authority of Jesus? Not only this, but what if we got rid of anything that isn’t aiding in the making of fully formed disciples of Jesus and added or emphasized those things that would help create an environment of disciple making? This means putting everything on the table, including how many times a week/month/year we gather together for meetings, because there is no mandate Scripturally on how often to get together for meeting. Hebrews 10:25 does say that we need to be together as often as it takes to ensure that we can stir up one another to love and good works. This can include a traditional worship service but we don’t buy into the fact that this is the only, or even the primary, way we can stir up one other to love and good works.

Many might be doing this right now in the traditional churches and not calling it “missional communities” and that’s totally fine. It’s not about a model, or about what it’s called; it’s about living everyday lives, in everyday rhythms, with everyday people, with an extraordinary message of redemption.

Questions I Try and Ask

How can we emulate the way Jesus discipled? Where and how do we see him discipling?
How can we live out the understanding of our new identity with our new commissioning to make disciples?
How can we best see the ways in which our hearts, our church people’s hearts, and our neighbors’ hearts need the good news?
How can we make sure that ANYONE can make disciples, not only a select few?
Are there ways we can change our structures to aid an environment of disciple making? Meaning, are there ways our churches are using a fork to eat soup? (It might work, but not as well as it could work if we merely changed the how, not the foundation.)

Guest User 11/19/12 Guest User 11/19/12

The Daily Gospel

The idea of discipling yourself may sound odd. In my church experience, I often saw discipleship as two people meeting together to talk about God. This approach to discipleship is so ingrained in our church culture that when I was talking about getting together with a guy from church for discipleship, my wife immediately asked “What book are you guys reading through together?” One on one discipleship is wonderful. I enjoy the iron-sharpening-iron effects of this kind of discipleship. But we shouldn’t limit discipleship to this methodology alone.

All of Christian life is discipleship. The gospel weaves throughout every fiber of our life. The gospel isn’t just skeleton truth that we acknowledge and say amen to. No, the gospel is truth. Who we are in Christ is massively important. It’s our foundation for living and dying well. The Belgic Confession of Faith captures this tension when it says,

These works, as they proceed from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the sight of God, forasmuch as they are all sanctified by His grace. Nevertheless they are of no account towards our justification, for it is by faith in Christ that we are justified, even before we do good works; otherwise they could not be good works, any more than the fruit of a tree can be good before the tree itself is good (BC, Art. 24).

Foundations are meant to be built upon. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ and its necessary consequences will change the way you live. If this is the truth of your life, you will find yourself building upon the only sure foundation. And when the rains falls, and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat against your house, it will not fall (Matthew 7:24-27). Because you built your house on the only sure foundation, Jesus Christ. Who is the architect of our faith and who empowers us to build a life of godliness through the Spirit.

Discipleship is following Jesus by learning more about the gospel and how it changes every area of our life.

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself

You must know how to apply the gospel to your own life. Martyn Lloyd-Jones sums up this skill well,

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you . . ."

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: "Why art thou cast down" -– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: "Hope thou in God" -– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”

I’ve struggled with depression for my entire life. No lesson was longer in the learning but more beneficial than preaching the gospel to myself. I recall sitting in my room during high school struggling with my faith. Struggling with life. I allowed everything but God to define who I was. So, I was tossed about with every wave of life. Until one day, the Spirit opened my eyes to the significance of Christ’s life, death, & resurrection for me. He shifted my doubts and fears to Christ. So, you can listen to lies, like me, or you can preach the good news of Jesus to yourself.

You may ask: How do I know I’m listening to lies?

You may find yourself loathing your current state in life.
You may find yourself rehearsing the lies instead of the gospel.
You may find yourself speaking against the promises that are yours in Christ.
Or, like me, many times you may find yourself desiring the return of the darkness.

These are the times you must fully rest in Christ. Fully trust in his promises. You must believe the words of God’s promises above the lies. You must learn to interrupt yourself with the truth of the gospel. Upbraid yourself with the blood of Christ.

That’s why I chuckle when people deride doctrine. There’s nothing more practical than doctrine. Doctrine, grounded in Christ, saved me. It was the foundational truth of the gospel that transformed my life. Without tangible gospel truth; there is no life transformation. The truth of the gospel breaks through the darks cloud of our suffering and sin speaking when our eyes are blinded. For instance, when I doubted God’s promise of love for me in Christ, the Scripture told me “Nothing can separate you from his love” (Romans 8). That’s doctrine. Doctrine isn’t dead. Doctrine is alive and sharp like a sword. We must fight lies with truth; truth applied to life.

The Heidleberg Catechism is a wonderful example for those who wonder what rich doctrine looks like when mixed with practical living impetus. Tim Keller has condensed The Heidelberg Catechism Q/A #1 for his New City Catechsim Q/A #1:

Question: What is our only hope in life and death?

Answer: That we are not our own but belong to God.

Life and death represent the entirety of life. Is anything more comforting and more practical than knowing without a shadow of doubt, “We are not our own but belong to God”? Not for me. It is truths like these we must preach to ourselves.

Recognizing Parseltongue

You must not only learn to accost yourself but also preach and apply the gospel to your own life. You must learn to recognize parseltongue (that’s the language of serpents in Harry Potter). You aren’t the only one who desires to speak into your heart. The Devil is called the Father of Lies (John 8:44) and the Accuser. You must learn to recognize his voice and his tactics. Paul mastered this and forcefully argues against the Accuser’s lies in Romans:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. - Romans 8:31-34

Paul asks “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” Yet, how many times does the Accuser seek to bring a charge against you? How often does he speak subtly in your ear:

Did Jesus really die for you?
Can the death of Jesus cover your sins?
Is the cross really enough? You must die.
You must earn God’s approval.
Is Jesus really interceding for you?
Your wife, friend, and boss know your sinfulness and condemn you. God also condemns you!

Yet, hear these words of truth again, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?”

This passage contains individual application to various sin issues, but the beauty lies with the corporate nature of our union with Christ. We must know more of our union with Christ because all of our new life is tied up in the truth of our union with Christ. When you were saved, you were baptized into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Your old self is here no more. You are a new creature. Dr. Tom Holland expounds this truth in relations to Romans 8.

Paul already dealt the possibility of an accusation of guilt being brought against the church for entering into another marriage relationship (Rom 6:7; 7:1-4). Satan will accuse Christ and the church that their union is not lawful. Should the call go out: “if anyone can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together in matrimony, let him now declare it, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace” he is read to cry out: “She is mine. She is already married.” It is into this awful scene that Paul confidently declares: “It is God who justifies!” The judge of the whole earth will accept there is a charge to answer, and Paul states why this is so in the next verse [i.e., we have died with Christ and have risen to new life]. Of course, if Satan cannot persuade believers that it was unlawful for Christ to take his people as his bride then he will find other means to charge them. The answer to all charges, whatever they may be, is: “Christ has died and is rise! Hallelujah!”

So stand firm Christian. Battle those accusations with the blood of Christ shed on your behalf.

The Daily Gospel: Feeding on Christ

For you to be able to preach the gospel to yourself and for you to be able to recognize parseltongue, you must know the truth. You cannot fight with something you are unfamiliar. If you’re unfamiliar with a sword, would you expect to handle it expertly in combat?

Yet, how many of us are journeying through life without any familiarity with the gospel story found in scripture? How many of us desire the Spirit’s daily transforming power to kill sin but aren’t using the scripture inspired by the Spirit?

The Christian life is a journey. We are “sojourners and exiles” but in order “to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11) you must have an offensive strategy.

That offensive strategy is feeding on Christ. The more you feed on Christ. The more you will have of the Spirit. The more you have of the Spirit the more you will recognize lie from truth.

First, you must engage God in Scripture. Scripture is our sole authority and will equip us to live in light of the gospel.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

How can the author of Hebrews say the word of God is living? It lives because the Scripture is breathed out by God and his Spirit changes us through the truth of the gospel found within its pages. Therefore, to do discipleship without a heavy daily dose of the gospel is folly. This dose comes through reading, meditating, and sharing the word.

Second, you must engage the Gospel word with others. This requires intentionally growing relationships with other Christians who you can share life and the gospel with. The death of Christ builds community so to disciple yourself without involving others is also folly.

Be actively involved in a local church. Give others permission to speak lovingly into your heart. Humbly accept criticism and rebuke from others. That’s hard. Community is hard! It is in community that we see the redemptive power of God working in and through us. We cannot fight the lies of the enemy on our own. We need one another and we also need to own our discipleship journey. We preach the gospel to others and ourselves. This is the journey of discipleship in all of life.

Mathew B. Sims is the Editor-in-Chief at Exercise.com and has authored, edited, and contributed to several books including A Household Gospel, We Believe: Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms for Worship, A Guide for Advent, Make, Mature, Multiply, and A Guide for Holy Week. Mathew, LeAnn (his wife), and his daughters Claire, Maddy, and Adele live in Taylors, SC at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with their Airdale Terrier. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA). Visit MathewBryanSims.com!

Jonathan Dodson 11/16/12 Jonathan Dodson 11/16/12

The Podcast Church: A Plea for Spiritual Fathers, Not Just Guides

Editor's Note: This is a repost of Discipling: More than a Podcast Preacher by Jonathan Dodson. It appears here with the author's permission. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org. Toll Free: (888) 543-1030. © 9Marks ---

Preaching and hearing the gospel is not enough.

Jesus didn’t just preach the gospel—he mediated it. As he taught and modeled the gospel of grace, it was mediated through his flesh and blood relationships. He didn’t rely on mountain top airwaves alone. He always came down the mountain, right into the mess of everyday sinners. Jesus was attached to disciples who were attached to one another. The gospel went viral through flesh and blood not silicon and megabytes. He mediated the gospel of the Father, Son, and Spirit through father-son-like relationships with others. His incarnation was not only to bear the cross but also to become a person his disciples could imitate.

Paul, too, brought the gospel down to earth when he faced factions and over-realized eschatology in Corinth. The church was more oriented toward personalities than actual persons, guided by personas rather than “fathered” by mentors they could imitate. Writing to the church, Paul contrasts guides with fathers: “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor. 4:14-15). Guides were hired tutors bound to their students by money. But fathers are relational leaders bound to their children by love. Paul also called the church to mediate the gospel through close, imitable relationships.

Therefore, it is not enough to identify with a gospel guide. Favorite authors, preachers, and teachers are not sufficient for discipleship. Relationally detached, hired teachers cannot replace attached, loving fathers. In the tradition of Jesus and Paul, the church desperately needs to recover a relationally mediated gospel. We need fathers, not just guides.

WHO’S TO BLAME: PODCASTS OR PASTORS?

Today, many Christians identify themselves with specific preachers through podcasts or online sermons. Listening to these sermons can be a tremendous benefit to Christian growth and spreading the gospel. However, in the hands of sinners, podcasting can also become a detriment to growth. Listeners can be so beholden to a preacher outside their church that they identify less with those inside their church. They possess a technologically mediated gospel, not a relationally mediated one.

When this happens, disciples stunt their growth and the mission of the church. They settle for doctrine over life instead of “watching their life and doctrine closely” (1 Tim. 4:16). When discipleship is doctrine-dominated, it tempting to act like an armchair quarterback. Disciples try to call the shots, criticizing local pastors for not being like other “celebrity” preachers or for not “doing church” like certain practitioners. Podcasting comparison (not podcasting) undermines the centrality of the local church. Instead of actively pursuing local leaders for discipleship, church members passively listen to other preachers’ sermons. While “countless guides” are assembled in podcast playlists, local discipleship declines. This “podcasting comparison” compromises the discipling impulse of the gospel. It produces more guides and groupies than fathers and sons. Worst of all, it misrepresents the gospel of the discipling God.

Who is to blame for this famine? Technology? Media mogul General David Sarnoff remarked: “We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them.” Podcasts are not to blame. We are. Technological blame-shifting will not help our churches raise up spiritual fathers to disciple others. Pastors and non-pastors mistake a diet of theological information for whole-life discipleship. As a result, we face a disciple-making famine amidst a homiletical feast.

Both pastors and churches will need to repent.

REPENTANCE FOR CHURCHES

There are disciples in local churches who need to repent of celebrity-leader comparison. Some will need to confess to their leaders. Others will simply need to change. Setting a new course, they should turn to affirm the leadership of their local pastors and look for ways to join the disciple-making mission of the church. Recognizing God has appointed elders and leaders for their good, disciples should search for a local father, or fathers, in the gospel. These gospel fathers will help them grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. Look for a “father” among those older in the faith, small group or ministry leaders, or pastors.

Instead of looking to countless guides for information, disciples should seek out (and eventually become) fathers who disciple for imitation.

Although technology itself is not to blame, “I” technology certainly caters to the individual consumer. Ken Myers notes that, in the West, the identity of “disciple of Jesus” has been replaced with “sovereign consumer.” As sovereign consumers, we select our influences without regard to God’s sovereignly appointed influences. We seek podcast theology over pastoral discipleship. We prefer isolated information instead of relational transformation. While the sins of individualistic consumerism and evangelical comparison are ours, the podcasting medium, relied on excessively, does carry a message: “All I need is informational discipleship.”

REPENTANCE FOR PASTORS

Pastors who offer theological information at the expense of genuine relationships also need to repent.

Fellow pastors, our theology should disciple. It must express itself in intentional, mentoring relationships. Our calling is to shepherd not only through preaching but also with people. Our flocks hear our countless sermons, but do they have many fathers? Are we favoring theological information over fatherly imitation?

Jesus could have transmitted the gospel by dropping a Bible from the sky, launching an infallible podcast, gathering Twitter followers, or projecting holograms of himself in every village and city. But he didn’t. He chose flesh, human touch, sight, smell, and presence. The Son of God became a spiritual father to twelve disciples in order to transmit the gospel through flesh and blood. He calls us to do the same. Technologically mediated preaching—and even preaching in person—isn’t enough. People need to see the gospel live and hear it in relational stereo. They need our bodily presence, faults and all. Disciples need encouragement that breathes and correction that has a heartbeat. We all need gospel fathers to help us imitate Jesus.

WHO TO IMITATE: GOSPEL FATHERS

You’re probably wondering: “What is a gospel father?” Paul viewed himself as one: “I became a father to you in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:14). A gospel father (or mother) is someone who takes spiritual responsibility for a disciple’s growth (Thes. 2:7-14). This relationship happens by relating to someone through the gospel. It does not begin because the father is morally, experientially, or spiritually superior. It begins by a common, joyful commitment to the superiority of Jesus and his unmatched grace towards us. The gospel connects father to son, mother to daughter in a shared identity in Christ Jesus.

When we repent and believe in Jesus, we are converted not only to his lordship but also into his family. This family is like interconnected circuits, rewired into a new network of relationships energized by grace. When grace is absent, the network drags and gets disconnected. Fathers are separated from sons, mothers from daughters. Guides dominate. Family dysfunction creeps in. The gospel, however, offers an endless power supply of grace to strengthen family relationships. This is why we need not just fathers, but gospel fathers.

Gospel Fathers are Templates of Christ

Gospel fathers take responsibility for others by giving their disciples a template to imitate. As a gospel father, Paul exhorted his disciples: “I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor. 4:15; cf. 2 Thes. 3:7, 9). The author of Hebrews reminded the church: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7).

Imitation is hardwired into family. My one year-old daughter bends her lip in like I do when I’m thinking. My seven year old son loves to explain things like I do, using hands and all. As gospel fathers, we have a responsibility to show the church what it is like to follow Jesus. We are to be templates of Christ. In order for people to imitate us, we must spend time with them. An occasional meeting won’t do. People need to share our life as well as our faith. They need to see our struggles as well as hear our sermons.

As a pastor, the people with whom I spend most of my informal time often go on to become gospel fathers, leaders, and pastors. Why? Because shared time exposes them to a template of Christ that, by God’s grace, they can confidently imitate. They see through the template into Christ. They observe how desperately I need the gospel of grace to reflect the image of Jesus. They see me frustrated and full of faith, discouraged and confident.

When gospel fathers share their lives with others, the template becomes tangible and attainable.

Tell the Gospel Truth & Offer a Template

Fathers also tell their disciples the gospel truth. They instruct their children and give them something to imitate. Guides cannot offer imitation, but fathers can. Fathers who are present are fathers we want to hear from. When we are present, our words have more meaning. Gospel fathers get deep into people’s lives to struggle with and for them in life. Our experience and example is not enough. They need the gospel of grace applied in concrete, practical areas of struggle.

One of the men I spend regular time with is a professional in the tech field. In his new position, he found himself continually frustrated. As we peeled back the layers through shared meals, prayer, and life, we discerned that he was most frustrated when his boss disapproved of his work. This demanding boss made it difficult for him to work in peace. As a result, he oscillated between a sense of overconfidence or under-confidence depending on how his boss related to him. I shared how my confidence in preaching sometimes rises and falls depending on how the church responds. He was surprised. I also shared how I have found great confidence in Christ because Scripture reminds me that, though I am inadequate for preaching, the Spirit of God has made me more than adequate (2 Cor. 2:4-6). He reminds me that my approval comes through Christ not the church. Similarly, his approval is secure in the gospel, which frees him to work from approval in Christ not for approval from his boss. As a result, our confidence doesn’t rise and fall with what people think but rests securely in what Christ thinks. Working through 1 Corinthians together we seized upon this promise: “all is yours, you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor. 3:23). We have everything we need wrapped up in the love and approval of the Father and the Son! Now we encourage one another regularly with this gospel truth. Sharing my life as a template along with telling him the gospel truth, my “spiritual son” has since weathered unemployment remarkably well, drawing from deeper confidence in Christ.

When discipling others, we must be present enough to provide a template but truthful enough to point them to Christ. As good fathers, we must assure our disciples they are loved and accepted regardless of their success in imitating us. Through these kinds of relationships, others can see that the gospel of grace is enough to get us through both failure and success.

WHAT WE NEED

If the church is to grow, fathers must be present to be imitated. Disciples must seek them out. We must find time with men and women who can mediate the gospel to us. Pastors and church leaders must move beyond dispensing truth to offering a template. The church needs gospel truth and relational templates. We need the gospel mediated through fathers, not just guides.

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For more information on cultivating fresh faith in the gospel, check out Jonathan Dodson’s Unbelievable Gospel. Now available in print.

For more free articles on missional living read: Invite & Invest to Make Disciples by Greg Gibson, Theology is for Everyone by David Fairchild, and The Gospel & Our Neighbors by Alvin Reid.

Guest User 11/15/12 Guest User 11/15/12

The 8 Best Post-Election Responses

Soon after Obama's re-election, many evangelicals had provocative and thoughtful responses. I've aggregated my eight favorite articles here.

Soon after Obama's re-election, many evangelicals had provocative and thoughtful responses. I've aggregated my eight favorite articles here (in no particular order): > Jonathan Merritt believes that "American Christians may be on the cusp of a healthier engagement in the public square."

> Albert Mohler is concerned that the 2012 election represents "a new moral landscape in America, and huge challenge to those of us who care passionately about these issues."

> Thomas Kidd charges us to focus on "the little cultural spheres we inhabit on a daily basis."

> Denny Burk contends that Christians owe President Obama "our loyal opposition."

> Russell Moore also wants Christians to remember that "honor doesn't mean blanket endorsement."

> Anthony Bradley proposes that the exit polls reveal that "for black voters, entitlement programs trump moral-social issues every time."

> Owen Strachan to young evangelicals: "God is sovereign ... But even as Jeremiah wept for Israel, so we weep for what America is becoming."

> Ed Stetzer exhorts Christians "to do better next time by not calling pollsters liars and not believing the unbelievable."

Jonathan Parnell 11/14/12 Jonathan Parnell 11/14/12

What to Do with a Told Gospel

Editor's Note: This is a repost of What to Do with a Told Gospel from the Desiring God blog. It appears here with the author's permission. ---

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, the kind nobody in Minnesota takes for granted. The sun was running strong, the air was happy, the sky had never been more blue. My family and I were finishing up breakfast outside when I opened the Bible for some kid-friendly devotional thoughts.

On this particular morning our four-year-old was digging it. Maybe it was the change of scenery, or maybe the Fruit Loops, but something had her leaning forward, all ears. I was sharing about what it means to be messengers for Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5:20–21. The reason we had moved here, I explained, is because God wants our neighbors to know him. Plain and simple. We have good news, really good news — the kind of news that compels us to tell it. Amen then, and breakfast was over.

Within ten minutes we closed down the cereal and laced up our shoes for a stroll around the block.

Elizabeth (our four-year-old) took one step out the front door and gladly bellowed, "Neighbors! Hey, neighbors! Come out! We're here to tell you about God!"

People heard her.

I've sat on this scene for months because, to be honest, I've not been sure what to do with it. What was she thinking? Was she street-preaching? Doesn't she get the value of relationships? Was she trying to give attractional ministry one last hooray? I've mulled that picture over several times and tried to stamp it as cute but misguided. Admirable, but not serious. Deconstructing the zeal of a four-year-old — I know, it's embarrassing.

But here we are now. I think I get it. The fact of the matter, blaring the loudest that morning, is that a little girl bridged the most necessary application from what I said to how she takes walks. That is, she connected what the Bible teaches to how she really lives (and her dad has a lot to learn).

Believing & Telling

Every Christian knows there is something about the gospel that drives us to tell it. There is some indivisible connection between believing it and making it known. It is good news, after all, and news is just that — news. Perhaps it would help, then, to re-highlight this simplest, most fundamental reason why we speak the gospel to others: because the gospel is essentially a told gospel.

There is good theological rationale here. One could start with what it means that God is a communicative agent. That he speaks and has always spoken in the intra-Trinitarian majesty of the Father and the Son by the Spirit. The knowledge of God's identity has always diffused itself. And undoubtedly, if this principle is found in his eternal essence, it will be detected in the preeminent word of who he is. More could be said here, but let's get to the Bible. Consider two texts.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. - 1 Timothy 3:16 (emphasis added)

This is a succinct dose of doctrine, perhaps a creedal formulation from the early church, maybe even a hymn. But whether that's the case or not, it's at least a memorable Pauline expression that distills the identity of Jesus into doxological prose. And essential to this confession of Jesus is that he is proclaimed among the nations. He is a spoken Jesus. A heralded King. One, in fact, who is heard and believed.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. - Colossians 1:21–23 (emphasis added)

Look closely at that phrase "the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven." Here’s one of those rare exceptions where it helps to take a peak at the original language. John Piper explains:

The Greek for the phrase “which has been proclaimed” is tou kēruchthentos). This is a substantival participle which we could render “the proclaimed one” in English. It is in apposition with “the gospel” (tou euangeliou . . . tou kēruchthentos) — “the gospel . . . the proclaimed one.” (Has the Gospel Been Preached to the Whole Creation Already?)

Basically, Paul calls the gospel the "proclaimed-in-all-creation gospel." He refers to the gospel as what it is. The gospel is proclaimed. It is told. We don't get to opt out for a more myopic brand. There’s no less expensive version without that feature. There's not a gospel for social butterflies and then another for introverts. Everyone of us has only ever believed the told gospel, if we’ve believed the real gospel at all.

And the simplest, most natural implication of believing this gospel is that we ourselves tell it. We tell the good news in which we hope because hoping in told good news inevitably compels our telling it, too.

But There's a Problem

So then why don't we? According to a recent survey from Lifeway Research, we Christians don't seem to be telling people about Jesus very much. If we believe a "proclaimed-in-all-creation gospel," but we don’t proclaim it ourselves, what gives?

Training, resources, equipping, examples — all of these are good and important. And we've seen a fair share of them the last twenty years. But what if it's simpler that that? (I’m speaking as a poor evangelist here.) Might it be that we don't tell the gospel because we're missing something in how we understand it? Maybe the lack of our telling it points to a deficiency in our grasp of its inherent toldness? Maybe we've skimmed over the gospel's built-in compulsion to not just believe, but believe and speak. Maybe the real need is not additional components of training, but deeper wonders to mine, depths by which to be overcome — so that the step from gospel to mission is not a moving beyond but a moving further in.

Do you know what God has done?

Remember the story of the sinful woman who washed Jesus's feet with her tears. She fell before him in awe, bewildered by his presence and mercy. And no one else got it. "This man isn't a prophet," the Pharisee criticized, "he doesn't know who this woman is!" The disciples may have been baffled, too, until Jesus tells a story.

Two men owed debts, one debt was a day's wage, the other a year's income. The debt of both men were cancelled, and Jesus asks which of these men would love the lender more. Simon responds, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt" (Luke 7:43). Then we begin to see. . . The cluelessness of those bystanders corresponds to their ignorance of mercy. The crowd didn't understand the woman's devotion because they didn't understand what it means to be forgiven. That's why they responded so dumbly, so critical, so jaw-dropped and confused. Here was a reality — a beautiful, holy reality — that they could not wrap their heads around because they haven't tasted the depths of Jesus's grace.

And maybe that's our problem with evangelism. We don't tell the told gospel because we've loss sight of what it means to be forgiven. All this talk of mission might as well be a broken prostitute washing Jesus's feet. It is nonsense to us unless we remember our debt. Unless we're flooded again with the news that it's cancelled — the news that it's cancelled, which we heard, which we were told.

The news that makes us step out the front doors of comfort and civility, and say, "Neighbor! Hey, neighbor! I’m here to tell you about God!"

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Jonathan Parnell is a content strategist at Desiring God. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Melissa, and their three children: Elizabeth, Hannah, and Micah. Twitter: @jonathanparnell

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For more resources on spreading the good news of Christ's renewing work in our lives, check out Proclaiming Jesus by Tony Merida.

For more free articles on discipleship, read Justification & Hope in the Gospel by Jason Garwood and How to Cultivate Fresh Faith in the Gospel by Jonathan Dodson.

Guest User 11/12/12 Guest User 11/12/12

Are You a Glory Thief?

Two weeks ago, Pastor Jake Ledet from CityView Church preached a powerful message entitled "Glory Thieves" from Judges 6-8. He focused particularly on our propensity to want glory for ourselves rather than to give glory to God.

Two weeks ago, Jake Ledet of CityView Church preached a powerful message entitled "Glory Thieves" from Judges 6-8. He focused particularly on our propensity to want glory for ourselves rather than to give glory to God. The sermon is well worth a listen, but here are some provocative questions (via Paul Tripp) that Jake asked near the end:

Where do you attempt to control things that you do not need to control?
Where do you fail to listen when you should?
Where are you tempted to speak more than you should?
Where do you fail to recognize and esteem the gifts of others?
Where are you unwilling to examine your weaknesses and to admit your failures?
Where are you tempted to think of yourself as more essential than you actually are?
Where do you care too much about people's respect, esteem, and appreciation?
Where do you find it easier to confront than to receive confrontation?
Where are you less than thankful for the people whom God has connected you to?
Where are you too confident of your own strength and wisdom?

Seth McBee 11/12/12 Seth McBee 11/12/12

From Moralism to Evangelism

When people hear the story of my family and how God has rescued us from the American Dream into a sacrificial calling of discipleship, after spending almost 6 years in my neighborhood doing nothing for our neighbors besides condemning them, they often ask “Why?” What was it that caused me to change from a self-centered life to one that seeks to show off who Jesus is and what he has done? This question has to be asked. Not only asked but answered. If we just give the “how tos” of discipleship, we'll only help foster moralists who can follow the new “rules of discipleship.” If we express an understanding of why we're called to discipleship, then we'll move the discussion away from moralism and dispel the myth that the church is only an institution, another corporation in need of investors. By boldly offering our reasons for following Christ on mission, we can inspire movement, multiplication, and joy - a genuine dialogue with the Holy Spirit.

Basically, we need to ask, “Why does the gospel change us from inward love of self to outward love of God and neighbor?”

Kill Moralism Or It Will Kill You

When I moved to my neighborhood almost 9 years ago now, I was involved with a local church and became a champion of moralism. I seriously won the gold medal of moralism. I could have easily battled the best of them and come out on top as I built up my Ebeneezer of pride, thumbing my nose at those who weren’t as holy as I.

Then I woke up one morning at around 3am and asked myself, “If I died tonight, would I go to heaven?”

I thought through my works of righteousness and knew that all my best works on this earth were simply fodder for sermon illustrations. All my righteousness pointed to how great I was and how lacking the hearers were. Basically, my works were to create disciples of Seth who would be ready and willing to follow me and parrot my every word. Realizing this early that morning, I was no longer sure if I would go to heaven. In fact, the more I thought about heaven, the more I was sure I wasn’t going. All my best works were muddied with self.

Then I read a verse that made me angry with God. I mean not so angry that I’d swear because my holy tongue would never utter such disgrace. Anyways, here was God's word to me that morning:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Matthew 11:28

I had to laugh. For me, being a Christian was anything but easy. It was a burden. My life was so heavy, so difficult. Maybe Jesus died for my sins, but it was my job to “get to it” so I could be sanctified. Whether it was praying more, reading my bible more, using people as a checklist/project to feel better about myself, or serving the church more... whatever these things were, they weren’t easy or light.

I took holiness to mean that it was us versus them. Saints versus Sinners. God's people versus the World. Me versus Them.

The only reason I interacted with neighbors was to knock on their door, give them a bible, tell them they were going to hell, and be glad I did my work. I was sure they'd never repent because the road is narrow. I was the only one on it. Lonely. Hurting. Weary. Heavy-laden.

Be Rescued, Rest, & Then Work

My good friends weren’t taking super-holy lifestyle to kindly. Praise God for them. They asked me to listen to some preachers they knew were godly and gospel centered.

Then, one of them asked me: How do you know you are saved and one of God’s children?

I responded: By testing my works

He asked: How is that going? Do you ever pass that test?

I somberly answered: I’ve never passed that test

He then showed me this from Calvin:

If we have been chosen in him, we shall not find assurance of our election in ourselves; and not even in God the Father, if we conceive him as severed from his Son. Christ, then, is the mirror wherein we must, and without self-deception may, contemplate our own election. For since it is into his body that the Father has destined those to be engrafted whom he has willed from eternity to be his own, that he may hold as sons all whom he acknowledges to be among his members, we have a sufficiently clear and firm testimony that we have been inscribed in the book of life (cf. Rev. 21:27) if we are in communion with Christ - John Calvin - Inst. III.xxiv.5

My friend asked me: What if your works weren’t the barometer of assurance of salvation but the works of Jesus were?

I exclaimed: That would change everything!

What ended up happening throughout this conversation and throughout my journey out of legalism is the word of God became powerful to my heart.

Jesus says in Matthew that those who hear his words and put them into practice are wise, and those who listen to his words and do not put them into practice are fools. That passage rings true in every aspect of missional living.

I thought back to the words of Jesus when he said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light. Either Jesus was a liar or I wasn’t understanding the gospel and didn’t understand that it was actually good news.

If I lived in light Jesus as the mirror of my election, then the gospel would be very good news. The yoke of missional living would be easy and the burden would be light. God rescues moralists. So rest... then work with his power.

Old Hearts Die Hard

God took me and my family out of that church and landed us with Soma Communities. This was like being taken out of slavery into not only freedom but a palace. It wasn't the old church’s fault, it was completely my heart's fault for desiring self more than God.

As we moved to another church family and Soma started to speak what it looked like to live on mission, all my wife and I heard was "do this, do that." We again felt as though moralism was being piled on. We were still hearing what we wanted to hear instead of what was actually being said. Moralism doesn’t die quickly. The gospel must be applied by the Spirit over and over again.

At this point in our journey, we were just sitting back and taking everything in. We were asked to lead in certain ways, but I still didn't trust the moralist living inside me. I didn’t want to open up the cage to let him out quite yet. He needed to be slaughtered by the sword of the Spirit.

One day, we finally heard what our brothers Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski were actually saying. Jeff was preaching and he said the following:

When Jesus was at his baptism, the Spirit descended like a dove and God said, “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” Do you know that if you trust in the works of Jesus that God says the same thing about you because of his Son?! God is well pleased with you! Not because of anything you have done or will do but because of Jesus. You can do nothing to gain his acceptance. You can do nothing to please him any more. You can do nothing so that the Father will love you more. Jesus has done everything on your behalf so that you are accepted and loved.

When I heard this, the scales off my moralistic eyes were shattered. I was now starting to understand what God meant when he said his Spirit would replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19).

It wasn’t just this one time but every week. The good news was being preached to my heart and to my wife’s heart. The gospel wasn’t just a term, but it was now good news. We saw that the gospel wasn't something that happened 2000 years ago. It is for us today. It gives us hope for tomorrow:

We have been saved from the penalty of sin (justification)
We are being saved from the power of sin (sanctification) and...
We will be saved from the presence of sin.

Our justification (by Christ) leads to our sanctification (by the Spirit). That’s glorification.

It is all by the work of God. It is nothing we do! This is good news. In Christ, the yoke of discipleship is easy. Support by the Spirit, the burden of missional living is light. I could do nothing for the rest of my life, and God would love me the same. This freedom gripped my heart and caused me to finally worship God in Spirit and truth (and stop worshiping myself).

Discipleship Models Collapse Without the Gospel

The “Why?” of changing from internal living to sacrificial living came about because the gospel was finally good news to my heart. When this happened, my wife and I couldn’t resist… our natural reaction, our natural inclination, our natural conclusion was this: People need to hear and experience this gospel.

We had no idea where to start, so we went to my now close friend, Caesar Kalinowski, and asked him, “We want to make disciples of Jesus, how do we start?”

He said, “Go home and ask the Spirit, ‘What’s Next?' It’s his mission and it’s by his power, so he’ll let you know.”

The rest is history. (To get a better idea of where I’m coming from, you can read this article: A Story of Gospel Community.)

When we are so gripped by good news, we don’t need an evangelism class, we naturally desire to share it. The reason people don’t want to share the gospel is because it’s not good news to them. It’s not today’s news. It's like telling folks we landed on the moon, old hat, distant.

But, when you preach, teach, live, and disciple others how the gospel is good news for them today, they become instant evangelists.

Caesar didn’t give me some model to follow, some class to attend, or some pre-written conversation to follow. He, along with my brothers, gave me the gospel. The water that never runs dry. The bread of life. The Alpha and the Omega. When a thirty soul receives water, he’ll go and tell the other thirsty souls where to find life.

Here are some questions to consider asking yourself and of your community:

Do you believe you were saved by God's work and not your own?
Do you still believe you have to do more to be saved from God’s wrath and loved as God’s child?
Do you work hard at religious activity to be accepted and loved by God?
Do you work tirelessly at your job in order to gain significance and security?
What happens when you disobey God? Do you live with guilt and shame? Do you beat yourself up endlessly?
Or do you go to the cross and receive the grace of the gospel?
How's your "yoke" feeling these days?

May we believe the wisdom of God when he says: My yoke is easy and my burden is light!

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Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade Seth is an Investment Portfolio Manager, serving as president of McBee Advisors, Inc as well as a missional community leader, preaching elder with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington, and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Twitter @sdmcbee

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To go more in depth into the gospel centered life, read Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson. Now available in print.

For more free articles about missional living, read Mission is Where You Live by Jeremy Writebol and Revival: Ways & Means by Tim Keller.

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