"Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, `By the grace of God I am what I am.'"
more than any other album. Among the many songs that I love on it, my favorite is probably his ode to marriage, Dancing In the Minefields. Not far behind it though is Fool With A Fancy Guitar, which beautifully explores our identity in Christ Jesus. Here is a video of an acoustic presentation of this great song (with lyrics below).Isn’t this the apologist’s mandate? Be ready . . . to give an answer . . . to everyone . . . who asks you. . . with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). Many of us lack the gentleness and respect part, but I am beginning to think that what we lack even more is the waiting for someone to ask!
Ninety-five percent of the time, people don’t really care what you have to say. It is during this time that we sit, listen, and love the person. If we do, then the five percent of the time that opportunity is truly present, we will be ready.
This is why I tell young theologians who are so passionate about theology to be passionate, yet calm down. Let about ninety-five percent of what you hear roll off your back.Is it any coincidence that on the same day that I am preparing a Sunday school lesson on Jesus' words from Matthew 5:7, ("Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."), I came across this blog entry? Perhaps the Lord is trying to teach me something.
The second chapter of Don't Call It a Comeback
is by Collin Hansen and is entitled The Story of Evangelicalism from the Beginning and Before. It is a sweeping overview of the history of evangelicalism, alerting the reader to the key figures, dates and movements that have formed much of the foundation of today's evangelical church.I recently got my long-awaited copy of Don't Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day. It is published by Crossway Books as part of the Gospel Coalition Series, and includes eighteen chapters by different authors representing a young generation of Christian pastors, theologians and writers. The stated purpose of the book is "to assert the stability, relevance, and necessity of Christian orthodoxy today," while introducing "young, new, and under-discipled Christians to the most essential and basic issues of faith in general and of evangelicalism in particular."Reaching the next generation -- whether they are outside the church or sitting there bored in your church -- is easier and harder than you think. It's easier because you don't have to get a degree in postmodern literary theory or go to a bunch of stupid movies. You don't have to say "sweet" or "bling" or know what LOL or IMHO means. You don't have to listen to...well, whatever people listen to these days. You don't have to be on Twitter, watch The Office, or imbibe fancy coffees. You just have to be like Jesus. That's it. So the easy part is you don't have to be with it. The hard part is you have to be with him. If you walk with God and walk with people, you'll reach the next generation.He goes on to assert,
You can have formal services, so long as you don't have formalism. You can have casual services, so long as you do not approach your faith casually...Our sincerity and earnestness in worship matters ten times more than the style we use to display our sincerity and earnestness.After a great first chapter, I look forward to reading the rest of the book and sharing some of its best insights with you.
Those looking to dig into the Bible and find a political platform are going to be sorely disappointed. It’s not there. That is for the simple reason that it is not a book about politics, but about God, and how He is saving His people through Jesus Christ. This distinguishes Christianity from Old Testament Judaism and modern day Islam, both of which contain detailed political agendas. Well-meaning Christians that want to outline a detailed “Christian” agenda of their own, however, will simply not find one.He goes on to point out that as Christians, we are members of of two kingdoms, as citizens both of heaven (Philippians 3:20) and of the state.
But where Christians go wrong is when they confuse the two kingdoms in which they live, when they think that their politics can bring about the heavenly kingdom they so long for. When they think they are called to take up the weapons of politics and its powers of coercion to advance the gospel or their biblical vision of justice — it stinks to win 49% of the votes. This is one of the oldest and most persistent errors of Christian practice, from Constantine to the Crusades to the Moral Majority. Biblical religion cannot be imposed on a minority and remain biblical.
Ironically, our Pilgrim fathers made just this mistake when they came to America. Fleeing their own religious persecution, they set up another. The 1647 Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts identified 15 capital offenses, including idolatry, blasphemy, and atheism, along with a predictable litany of sexual offenses. Now that’s conservative. Unfortunately, it’s also not the foundation of a just and pluralistic society.You can click here to read the entire article and I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.
1) Whatever self-generated righteousness with which we try to clothe ourselves is really nothing but a polluted garment in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6).
2) Nevertheless, even in the midst of our faithlessness, God is still faithful to those who find their identity and righteousness in Him (2 Timothy 2:13).
Only Jesus’ faithful life and death for our sin and resurrection to guarantee the full redemption and restoration of humanity and the earth IS the point.
Our salvation is God’s doing from first to last through Christ and his Holy Spirit.Watch the video below, and if you'd like, click here to listen to a recent sermon on the topic by The Crossing's pastor, Dave Cover. And may we all be like the man who cried out to Jesus in Mark 9:24, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"
"Preaching is not the business of speculating about God's nature, will, or ways, but is bearing witness to what God has said concerning Himself. Preaching does not consist of speculation but of exposition. The preacher dares to speak the Word of truth to a generation that rejects the very notion of objective, public truth. This is not rooted in the preacher's arrogant claim to have discovered worldly wisdom or to have penetrated the secrets of the universe. To the contrary, the preacher dares to proclaim truth on the basis of God's sovereign self-disclosure. God has spoken, and He has commanded us to speak of Him."Al Mohler
Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?
No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who came from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne — everything — to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that have come true in real life!
You see, the best thing about this story is — it’s true.
There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.
It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every
story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle — the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.
Kevin DeYoung: A holy God sends his righteous Son to die for unrighteous sinners so we can be holy and live happily with God forever.
George Robertson: The Bible is the record of God's promise of and deliverance through Jesus Christ.
Jay Sklar: The first sentence that comes to mind is that of my colleague Michael D. Williams, who describes the Bible's story about the world as follows: God made it, we broke it, Jesus fixes it!
Erik Thoennes: The main message of the Bible is that the one true God is displaying his glory primarily in redeeming and restoring his fallen creation by fulfilling his covenant promises and commands through the glorious person and atoning work of Christ.You can read the whole post here.
Doug Wilson: Scripture tells us the story of how a Garden is transformed into a Garden City, but only after a dragon had turned that Garden into a howling wilderness, a haunt of owls and jackals, which lasted until an appointed warrior came to slay the dragon, giving up his life in the process, but with his blood effecting the transformation of the wilderness into the Garden City.
, page 77.One big reason I believe in Christianity is that there is convincing historical evidence for a real Jesus who lived, did miracles, was crucified, and rose from the dead. I believe the New Testament is not a book of myth, but of historical fact and truthful teaching on the realities I see everyday in the human condition: that sin is destructive, that human beings have souls, that love is better than hate, that evil is real and good is real, that life has meaning and death is foreign to my created instincts.I highly recommend you click here to check it out.
Don't mistake me. Google does make many of us stupid, but only in the same way that libraries have made us stupid for many centuries. Libraries make a handful of people really wise, and provide many others with artificial props for their footnotes.By virtue of the fact that I have a blog and can be found on facebook, you've probably figured out that I agree that we ought not fear "technology" as an evil. We need to be aware that technology can be used for evil purposes and guard against that (David Murray has some great thoughts on this), but we need to realize that the problem ultimately isn't the technology. Wilson puts it this way:
The constant and ever present temptation in the Church is the gnostic temptation of locating sin in the stuff, sin in the matter, sin in the wealth, sin in the technology . . . instead of locating it where it belongs, in the heart of man.A truly "Christian" response to technology is to use that technology (over which Christ is sovereign) to the glory of God...which is exactly the idea behind this blog. You can read Wilson's whole post here.
, p. 281.
If you can't make the conference, check out Kevin's book, Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Impressions, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, Etc. It is a wonderfully helpful work that I have probably shared with more people than any other book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Marriage: Fifteen Years In - By far my favorite post to write, and easily the post that generated the most positive feedback.
Who Invited God to the Ballgame? - For some reason this doesn't show up on Sola Gratia's sidebar under "Most Popular Posts" even though it has had the second most "hits" of any post on the blog.
The Gospel According To Disney Series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 - A fun series to write as I considered some of the lessons I learned during my visit to the Magic Kingdom.
Advent Series: Hark the Herald Angels Sing (with other links listed in it) - Another fun series that helped me to think about the songs I was singing.
