After the Rapture Pet Care
No matter what your beliefs regarding eschatology this should make you laugh and then cry…this is absolutely crazy on so many different levels. After the Rapture Pet Care…seriously? This is precisely the kind of stuff that makes all of us look bad – we are now enlisting non-believers to care for our animals after we get seized off the earth. If dispensational eschatology is correct our pets will have much bigger problems after the rapture than who is going to dole out the kibbles and bits and fancy feast.
At first I thought this was a Lark News joke, and if it wasn’t so sad it would be hilarious…well one thing is for sure, somebody is laughing all the way to the bank.
What say you?
The Pastor Scholar
This article written by Dr. Philip Ryken, senior minister at the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, is a brief history of John Calvin and his amazing ministry. (more…)
A Worldly Christianity?
I wanted to pass along the latest entry in The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal, written by Dr. Art Azurdia
It’s called “A Worldly Christianity?” and it’s very good.
“The title of this issue of The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal—even posed as a question—may arouse a bit of consternation in some. In truth, it is not my intention to be provocative. It is my intention to capture a dialectic that defines the essence of authentic Christianity.
What do I mean? On the one hand, as followers of Jesus Christ we are exhorted to keep ourselves “unstained from the world” (Ja 1:27). Moreover, we are informed that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (Ja 4:4). On the other hand, none of us can deny that God Himself loves the world (Jn 3:16). Nor can we ignore Jesus’ repeated self-identification as the one whom the Father has “sent into the world” (Jn 10:36, et al).
Do these statements seem a bit antithetical? Contradictory, perhaps? The apparent contradiction becomes even more glaring when one considers the various expressions of the Great Commission (each of which—it would do us well to remember—was uttered by the resurrected Christ):
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Ma 28:19)
Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mar 16:15)
. . . the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations . . . you are witnesses of these things (Lu 24:46-48)
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you (Jn 20:21)
. . . you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)
At the risk of seeming pedantic, I draw these obvious references to your attention to establish the basis for a clear and simple assertion: the commission of Jesus Christ is to a worldly Christianity. In His mind, at least, these are not mutually exclusive concepts. To the contrary, as His followers we cannot hope to be authentically Christian without being meaningfully worldly. Acknowledging this, however, requires us to recognize that evangelicals in nearly every generation (including ours!) have repeatedly succumbed to two practical distortions that have severely undercut our influence in the world.
The first distortion is cultural gluttony. It is sinful compromise with the world—the consequence of being missional without being theological. Often masked in the guise of desiring to win the world, we rabidly pursue likeness to the world. Over time, unfortunately, the world’s values, objectives, and desires, become our values, objectives, and desires. Cultural gluttony is the act of consuming the culture until it forms us. The present condition of American evangelicalism serves to handily prove our susceptibility to this distortion.
The second distortion is cultural anorexia. It takes the form of a radical and decided withdrawal from the world—the consequence of being theological without being missional. Since we are determined not to let the world shape us, we isolate, insulate, and withdraw. Before long the Church evolves into a kind of enclave, a ghetto, an island of irrelevant piety, and eventually we lose the ability to speak to non-Christians. Worse yet, our hearts become filled with a compassionless indifference toward such people. Arrogance eventually emerges. Missionary endeavor finally disappears.
Can you identify with this experience? To succumb to such a distortion is an amazingly simple and subtle phenomenon. It often occurs unintentionally in the life of a pastor who, over time, becomes consumed exclusively with church ministry. The tyrannous demands of the pastorate allow him no time for meaningful engagement with unbelievers. Not uncommonly, this replicates itself in his congregation, which sadly comes to exist as a haven from the world rather than as leaven within the world.
Allow me to remind you, dear brothers, just as I must remind myself: The sphere of our mission is the world. At the very least this must mean that our reaction to cultural gluttony must never take the form of cultural anorexia, precisely because Jesus Himself commissions us for the world. It is, then, our great task as pastors to persuade our people away from fear; to convince them that it is a great day to be a Christian. We are alive at a time when people are being destroyed by sin as never before, and the truth belongs to us—the truth that can conquer any perplexity modernity or postmodernity may set before us. We have the gospel. We have the promise God made to Abraham that in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. We have the fulfillment of that promise in Revelation 5, where we read that Jesus purchased human beings for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Consequently, we must seek to inculcate into our people the biblically-informed confidence of the hymn-writer:
This is my Father’s world;
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world;
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
and heaven and earth be one.1
At this critical moment in history we must not allow our congregations to lose their nerve and flee the culture, justifying themselves in expressions of pseudo-piety. We must convince them that it is Jesus Himself who sends us into the culture; not in service to the culture—in the sense of helping it achieve its own ends—but in a divinely subversive way, infiltrating the culture with the kingdom of God and the gospel.
As you are about to discover, all the features contained in this issue of TSFJ (articles, sermon, interview, historical reflection, quotes, book reviews) seek in some way to address this exceedingly complicated responsibility facing the church of Jesus Christ. Its conclusions/suggestions may not prove comprehensively satisfying. It is my prayerful hope, however, that they will stimulate your own critical thinking regarding this important matter . . . for the glory of God, the reformation of the church, and the good of the world.
So bear with the title—“Worldly Christianity.” Why? To imitate Jesus means a commitment to be authentically Christian and meaningfully worldly.”
You can read more of the Spurgeon Fellowship Journal here.
For a more developed look at this topic I recommend the book Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian
Weekend Services
We had a great weekend of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On Friday night we gathered for a time of worship, testimony, communion, and contemplation of the fact that our sins killed Jesus. Besides the nasty buzz we were getting from our sound system and some other logistical issues (lights going on and off when I wanted it dark the whole time) we had an awesome service that left us thinking about how wicked we are but how perfectly God loves us and how thankful we should be that we don’t have to face this righteous wrath.
On Sunday we had two services and both of them were really full. We began the services with this video and then incorporated a one man drama (the life of Peter) into worship. The drama written by our worship leader, Stewart White, and performed by a man named Blaine Jensen, from church, was abosolutely phenomenal. I then taught a very pointed and direct message from Acts 2…I probably offended some people but I cannot stand in front of all of those unbelievers and not deliver a candid call for salvation.
I know of at least one lady, who was previously a Mormon, who received Jesus yesterday. I didn’t do a formal altar call yesterday but I did clearly call people to respond to the gospel and I hope that many did.
If you would like to listen to either or both of these messages they are available for download or streaming in the media player on the home page of this blog.
Piper on Death
I read this blog post from John Piper and I thought I would pass it along.
“CHRISTIAN:
Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me?
I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. Let me ask you a question, Death.
Where is your sting?
DEATH, sneeringly:
My sting is your sin.
CHRISTIAN:
I know that, Death. But that’s not what I asked you. I asked, where is your sting? I know what it is. But tell me where it is.
Why are you fidgeting, Death? Why are you looking away? Why are you turning to go? Wait, Death, you have not answered my question. Where is your sting?
Where is, my sin?
What? You have no answer? But, Death, why do you have no answer? How will you terrify me, if you have no answer?
O Death, I will tell you the answer. Where is your sting? Where is my sin? It is hanging on that tree. God made Christ to be sin—my sin. When he died, the penalty of my sin was paid. The power of it was broken. I bear it no more.
Farewell, Death. You need not show up here again to frighten me. God will tell you when to come next time. And when you come, you will be his servant. For me, you will have no sting.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)”
Darrell Bock on studying the gospels
The Resurgence caught up with Darrell Bock at the recent Christian Book Expo. In this video he gives a quick synopsis of how to study Matthew-Luke as opposed to John.
[vimeo 3852520]
Dwight on Theology
Why are we so afraid of questions?
Well it’s really not the questions so much as the possibility that we may not have the answers that really scares the crap out of Christians. Maybe it’s because we know Jesus is the truth (John 14:6) and that brings us to the conclusion that any lack of knowledge or doubt is an affront to our faith. Therefore we avoid any skepticism at all costs…including taking the gospel to the lost.
I personally think this refusal to wrestle with tough questions and admit our ignorance about some issues of Scripture or theology has lead unbelievers to tune us out.
I was reading Joe Thorn’s blog and he was talking about a ministry they’ve begun called Theology Pub. He meets with people at a local pub and they discuss matters of theology and faith. It’s an open forum where people can ask questions and he answers them in a loving and engaging manner.
I really like that idea. It’s time for us to lay down our need to have all the answers and to embrace the concept of dialoging with people instead shouting at them with a bull horn.
Plus Dwight from The Office thinks it’s a good idea and anything he says goes.
[youtube HV2cK0MsKMc]
Is Satan Real? ABC Nightline Debate
Here is a link to an ABC Nightline debate with Pastor Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert (hookers for Jesus) versus Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson. The debate is regarding the existence of Satan.
Healing
I like to pose questions on blogs…questions that stir discussion. Here is one that has been rolling around in my head for a few days. It actually comes as a result of one of the more hurtful things I’ve experienced in ministry but I won’t go into that story because it will get me fired up.
So to the question… (more…)