Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Origins of Left Behind Eschatology
As the so-called "end of the world" approaches, I thought I'd post this book review of the end-times theology of the Left Behind series, by David Malcolm Bennett. It is important that the church understands that the theology of the Left Behind series is not a historical position. No one knows the day or hour of Christ's return (not Harold Camping, and not the Mayans), but we do know that one day he will return. When should not be our concern, but rather our readiness for it whenever it does happen. http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/left_hehind_eschatology.html
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Re-Post: A New Year’s Message to Ricky Gervais: Why Your Argument for Atheism Is Wrong
While studying late one night, I took a break and flipped on the TV to Ricky Gervais' latest HBO special... where the major portion of his show was shredding a children's story of Noah, and saying God was homosexual. People are free to have their opinions, but outright mockery bothers me. Precisely because this is what the world asks of Christians: tolerance. Yet the world itself is not willing to give to Christians what it asks of Christians. It has become fashionable today to bash Christianity while defending the rights of some other religions from that same bashing. I call that hipocrisy. (And it's even more ironic that hypocrisy is the very same "sin" Christians are accused of). Here's a great repost from Lawrence Meyers who feels similarly. I may not necessarily agree 100% with the proof of God thing, but he's on the right track.
A New Year’s Message to Ricky Gervais: Why Your Argument for Atheism Is Wrong by Lawrence Meyers
I think Ricky Gervais’s television shows are hilarious, but he really should leave theology to other people. He said in a recent article, A Holiday Message From Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist:
The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.
This statement, and several other things about his article, dismayed me. However, his article was also instructive for those who want to look beyond its text. I’ll get to that in a moment.
But first, why did Mr. Gervais and the media choose to release this article right before Christmas? Nice timing. Very respectful. Why is it that Joy Behar storms off her own show because Bill O’Reilly makes a statement about Muslims and everyone cheers her, yet nobody has a problem with Mr. Gervais insulting Christians? Mind you, it doesn’t bother me that his statement bothers people. In fact, those who believe in God (regardless of religious affiliation) should welcome such a challenge. It’s the timing that is disrespectful.
Second, there’s an arrogance that oozes throughout the piece. Mr. Gervais is so insistent that he is right – a trait often exuded by those on the Left — that he subsequently relies on faulty logic and a few bad childhood experiences to bolster his case.
Third, this is just more of the same from Hollywood: the constant denigration of those who believe in God. Don’t believe me? Name ten films out of the thousands produced since 1980 that presented a positive theme about faith in God — not faith in general, or a feel-good spirituality, but the G-word. Now name ten films in which a person who believed in God was cast as a villain. Then take it to television. It’s even worse there.
This is done despite the fact that on any given Sunday morning, you will find over 100 million Christians in the same type of building — a church. The vast majority of people in this country identify themselves as Christian. Yet Hollywood does not seem interested in making more money and generating higher ratings by actually delivering content that reflects the values of the majority of this country.
There’s one more item regarding Mr. Gervais’s article that is instructive for all of us. He’s just wrong. God’s existence cannot be proven or disproved via objective means. Therefore, His existence (or lack thereof) is a strictly subjective determination.
To decide whether I was right or Mr. Gervais is right, I took our statements to a friend from college who happens to be a Christian scholar. I handed him both statements without attribution. Here is his reply:
This is what irritated me about Mr. Gervais’s statement. We can have knowledge but not 100% certitude about something. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t test our knowledge, however, to see how certain we are about something.
A lot of people tromp around all day making illogical statements, having built a subjective reality based upon “knowledge” that has not been tested. In my experience, Conservatives, more often than not, do their best to test their knowledge with logic prior to forming an opinion. Liberals are fueled by emotion, resulting in more questionable knowledge from which they form their opinions.
Ironic, isn’t it, that they are the ones who rely more on faith in their knowledge?
Happy New Year, and remember, a closed mouth catches no flies.
Full Article: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lmeyers/2011/01/04/why-ricky-gervais-is-wrong/
A New Year’s Message to Ricky Gervais: Why Your Argument for Atheism Is Wrong by Lawrence Meyers
I think Ricky Gervais’s television shows are hilarious, but he really should leave theology to other people. He said in a recent article, A Holiday Message From Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist:
The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.
This statement, and several other things about his article, dismayed me. However, his article was also instructive for those who want to look beyond its text. I’ll get to that in a moment.
But first, why did Mr. Gervais and the media choose to release this article right before Christmas? Nice timing. Very respectful. Why is it that Joy Behar storms off her own show because Bill O’Reilly makes a statement about Muslims and everyone cheers her, yet nobody has a problem with Mr. Gervais insulting Christians? Mind you, it doesn’t bother me that his statement bothers people. In fact, those who believe in God (regardless of religious affiliation) should welcome such a challenge. It’s the timing that is disrespectful.
Second, there’s an arrogance that oozes throughout the piece. Mr. Gervais is so insistent that he is right – a trait often exuded by those on the Left — that he subsequently relies on faulty logic and a few bad childhood experiences to bolster his case.
Third, this is just more of the same from Hollywood: the constant denigration of those who believe in God. Don’t believe me? Name ten films out of the thousands produced since 1980 that presented a positive theme about faith in God — not faith in general, or a feel-good spirituality, but the G-word. Now name ten films in which a person who believed in God was cast as a villain. Then take it to television. It’s even worse there.
This is done despite the fact that on any given Sunday morning, you will find over 100 million Christians in the same type of building — a church. The vast majority of people in this country identify themselves as Christian. Yet Hollywood does not seem interested in making more money and generating higher ratings by actually delivering content that reflects the values of the majority of this country.
There’s one more item regarding Mr. Gervais’s article that is instructive for all of us. He’s just wrong. God’s existence cannot be proven or disproved via objective means. Therefore, His existence (or lack thereof) is a strictly subjective determination.
To decide whether I was right or Mr. Gervais is right, I took our statements to a friend from college who happens to be a Christian scholar. I handed him both statements without attribution. Here is his reply:
There are very few matters that are truly “objective”. The only ones would be mathematical truths, but everything else is evidential in nature. For instance, how do we know that George Washington was the first president? This cannot be determined “objectively” because we have to depend on written documents handed down to us from many sources. There is ample good evidence that he was first president, so I believe it wholeheartedly, but it cannot be proved in a theoretical, absolute sense, only evidentially. Indeed, this is how our court system works.We must make a judgment. In other words, God’s existence is indeed a strictly subjective determination. Argument resolved.
We don’t have to have 100% certitude to have knowledge.
So, what is the evidence for God? What evidences for or against God do you find compelling? Some say an absolute good being cannot exist because there is evil in the world. There is archeological evidence surrounding the Old Testament and Jesus Christ, so how does one interpret all of that? We should each go through all the evidence and make a judgment. Many will not do it because they find it too threatening to their way of life, because let’s face it, if God exists, it has enormous implications for this life and the next.
This is what irritated me about Mr. Gervais’s statement. We can have knowledge but not 100% certitude about something. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t test our knowledge, however, to see how certain we are about something.
A lot of people tromp around all day making illogical statements, having built a subjective reality based upon “knowledge” that has not been tested. In my experience, Conservatives, more often than not, do their best to test their knowledge with logic prior to forming an opinion. Liberals are fueled by emotion, resulting in more questionable knowledge from which they form their opinions.
Ironic, isn’t it, that they are the ones who rely more on faith in their knowledge?
Happy New Year, and remember, a closed mouth catches no flies.
Full Article: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lmeyers/2011/01/04/why-ricky-gervais-is-wrong/
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Trading One Dramatic Resolution for 10,000 Little Ones
This is very poignant. It's something I share often with people in counsel I give, but Paul Tripp expounds it in a better way than I've ever shared it. Be daily transformed!
via Desiring God Blog by Paul Tripp on 12/31/10:
I've told the story many times of talking impatiently with my wife one Sunday morning and having my nine year old son interject—
Daddy, is this the way a Christian man should be talking to his wife?
Rather sarcastically I said, What do you think?
And he replied, It doesn't make any difference what I think, what does God think?
I went to my bedroom and two thoughts immediately hit me. First, my pride reared up. I want to be a hero to my son and I was embarrassed that he had been troubled by my attitude and words. But that didn't last very long. I soon thought, "How could it be that God could love me so much that he would give a twit of care about this mundane little moment in the Tripp bathroom?"
That's love at a level of magnificence that I am unable to capture with words. This was but one moment in one room in one house of one family, on one block on one street in one neighhborhood, in one city in one state in one country on one continent, in one hemishpere on one globe in the universe. Yet God was in that moment, working to continue his moment-by-moment work of transforming the heart of this man.
Rethinking the Annual Ritual
Why am I telling you this story? Well, it's that season once again. It's the fodder for blogs, newspaper articles, TV magazine shows and way too many Twitter posts. It is the time for the annual ritual of dramatic New Year's resolutions fueled by the hope of immediate and significant personal life change.
But the reality is that few smokers actually quit because of a single moment of resolve, few obese people have become slim and healthy because of one dramatic moment of commitment, few people who were deeply in debt have changed their financial lifestyle because they resolved to do so as the old year gave way to the new, and few marriages have been changed by the means of one dramatic resolution.
Is change important? Yes, it is for all of us in some way. Is commitment essential? Of course! There is a way in which all of our lives are shaped by the commitments we make. But biblical Christianity—which has the gospel of Jesus Christ at its heart—simply doesn't rest its hope in big, dramatic moments of change.
Living in the Utterly Mundane
The fact of the matter is that the transforming work of grace is more of a mundane process than it is a series of a few dramatic events. Personal heart and life change is always a process. And where does that process take place? It takes place where you and I live everyday. And where do we live? Well, we all have the same address. Our lives don't careen from big moment to big moment. No, we all live in the utterly mundane.
Most of us won't be written up in history books. Most of us only make three or four momentous decisions in our lives, and several decades after we die, the people we leave behind will struggle to remember the event of our lives. You and I live in little moments, and if God doesn't rule our little moments and doesn't work to recreate us in the middle of them, then there is no hope for us, because that is where you and I live.
The little moments of life are profoundly important precisely because they are the little moments that we live in and that form us. This is where I think "Big Drama Christianity" gets us into trouble. It can cause us to devalue the significance of the little moments of life and the "small-change" grace that meets us there. And because we devalue the little moments where we live, we don't tend to notice the sin that gets exposed there. We fail to seek the grace that is offered to us.
The 10,000 Little Moments
You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life.
What leads to significant personal change?
• 10,000 moments of personal insight and conviction
• 10,000 moments of humble submission
• 10,000 moments of foolishness exposed and wisdom gained
• 10,000 moments of sin confessed and sin forsaken
• 10,000 moments of courageous faith
• 10,000 choice points of obedience
• 10,000 times of forsaking the kingdom of self and running toward the kingdom of God
• 10,000 moments where we abandon worship of the creation and give ourselves to worship of the Creator.
And what makes all of this possible? Relentless, transforming, little-moment grace. You see, Jesus is Emmanuel not just because he came to earth, but because he makes you the place where he dwells. This means he is present and active in all the mundane moments of your daily life.
His Work to Rescue and Transform
And what is he doing? In these small moments he is delivering every redemptive promise he has made to you. In these unremarkable moments, he is working to rescue you from you and transform you into his likeness. By sovereign grace he places you in daily little moments that are designed to take you beyond your character, wisdom and grace so that you will seek the help and hope that can only be found in him. In a lifelong process of change, he is undoing you and rebuilding you again—exactly what each one of us needs!
Yes, you and I need to be committed to change, but not in a way that hopes for a big event of transformation, but in a way that finds joy in and is faithful to a day-by-day, step-by-step process of insight, confession, repentance and faith. And in those little moments we commit ourselves to remember the words of Paul in Romans 8:32—
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us, how will he not also with him freely give us all things.
So, we wake up each day committed to live in the small moments of our daily lives with open eyes and humbly expectant hearts.
via Desiring God Blog by Paul Tripp on 12/31/10:
I've told the story many times of talking impatiently with my wife one Sunday morning and having my nine year old son interject—
Daddy, is this the way a Christian man should be talking to his wife?
Rather sarcastically I said, What do you think?
And he replied, It doesn't make any difference what I think, what does God think?
I went to my bedroom and two thoughts immediately hit me. First, my pride reared up. I want to be a hero to my son and I was embarrassed that he had been troubled by my attitude and words. But that didn't last very long. I soon thought, "How could it be that God could love me so much that he would give a twit of care about this mundane little moment in the Tripp bathroom?"
That's love at a level of magnificence that I am unable to capture with words. This was but one moment in one room in one house of one family, on one block on one street in one neighhborhood, in one city in one state in one country on one continent, in one hemishpere on one globe in the universe. Yet God was in that moment, working to continue his moment-by-moment work of transforming the heart of this man.
Rethinking the Annual Ritual
Why am I telling you this story? Well, it's that season once again. It's the fodder for blogs, newspaper articles, TV magazine shows and way too many Twitter posts. It is the time for the annual ritual of dramatic New Year's resolutions fueled by the hope of immediate and significant personal life change.
But the reality is that few smokers actually quit because of a single moment of resolve, few obese people have become slim and healthy because of one dramatic moment of commitment, few people who were deeply in debt have changed their financial lifestyle because they resolved to do so as the old year gave way to the new, and few marriages have been changed by the means of one dramatic resolution.
Is change important? Yes, it is for all of us in some way. Is commitment essential? Of course! There is a way in which all of our lives are shaped by the commitments we make. But biblical Christianity—which has the gospel of Jesus Christ at its heart—simply doesn't rest its hope in big, dramatic moments of change.
Living in the Utterly Mundane
The fact of the matter is that the transforming work of grace is more of a mundane process than it is a series of a few dramatic events. Personal heart and life change is always a process. And where does that process take place? It takes place where you and I live everyday. And where do we live? Well, we all have the same address. Our lives don't careen from big moment to big moment. No, we all live in the utterly mundane.
Most of us won't be written up in history books. Most of us only make three or four momentous decisions in our lives, and several decades after we die, the people we leave behind will struggle to remember the event of our lives. You and I live in little moments, and if God doesn't rule our little moments and doesn't work to recreate us in the middle of them, then there is no hope for us, because that is where you and I live.
The little moments of life are profoundly important precisely because they are the little moments that we live in and that form us. This is where I think "Big Drama Christianity" gets us into trouble. It can cause us to devalue the significance of the little moments of life and the "small-change" grace that meets us there. And because we devalue the little moments where we live, we don't tend to notice the sin that gets exposed there. We fail to seek the grace that is offered to us.
The 10,000 Little Moments
You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life.
What leads to significant personal change?
• 10,000 moments of personal insight and conviction
• 10,000 moments of humble submission
• 10,000 moments of foolishness exposed and wisdom gained
• 10,000 moments of sin confessed and sin forsaken
• 10,000 moments of courageous faith
• 10,000 choice points of obedience
• 10,000 times of forsaking the kingdom of self and running toward the kingdom of God
• 10,000 moments where we abandon worship of the creation and give ourselves to worship of the Creator.
And what makes all of this possible? Relentless, transforming, little-moment grace. You see, Jesus is Emmanuel not just because he came to earth, but because he makes you the place where he dwells. This means he is present and active in all the mundane moments of your daily life.
His Work to Rescue and Transform
And what is he doing? In these small moments he is delivering every redemptive promise he has made to you. In these unremarkable moments, he is working to rescue you from you and transform you into his likeness. By sovereign grace he places you in daily little moments that are designed to take you beyond your character, wisdom and grace so that you will seek the help and hope that can only be found in him. In a lifelong process of change, he is undoing you and rebuilding you again—exactly what each one of us needs!
Yes, you and I need to be committed to change, but not in a way that hopes for a big event of transformation, but in a way that finds joy in and is faithful to a day-by-day, step-by-step process of insight, confession, repentance and faith. And in those little moments we commit ourselves to remember the words of Paul in Romans 8:32—
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us, how will he not also with him freely give us all things.
So, we wake up each day committed to live in the small moments of our daily lives with open eyes and humbly expectant hearts.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Gracious Rescue of Surprise (Repost)
via Desiring God Blog by Paul Tripp on 9/21/10:
When you scan the biblical story you can’t help concluding that following God brings a life of surprises. Whatever plans God’s people made and however they tried to figure out God’s plans, they were constantly greeted with surprises. They faced turns in the story that they never would have anticipated. God’s plan again and again included things that would not have been included in the story if his people had been doing the planning.
One of the reasons for this is that we human beings tend to focus on outcomes. We simply want things to go well and turn out right. God surely does care about the end of all things, but he is graciously at work in the process as well.
The surprises along the way are God’s surprises. He is never caught off guard or unprepared. He calls us to follow him beyond the boundaries of our wisdom, strength and character. The waiting we have to do and the surprises that we face are meant by him to be tools of grace. They are designed to release us from our self-reliance and the hold our dreams for our lives have on us.
In those moments of surprise, it is important to remember that you may be confused, but God isn’t. In this moment when you are not sure what is going on, you haven’t been abandoned. No, the opposite is true: you are being rescued. But living this way is hard for us.
As pseudo-sovereigns, we hate waiting, disappointment, obstacles, and failure. We struggle to accept the fact that these things exist in a world that is under the wisest and most benevolent rule possible. C. S. Lewis comments that a hardy belief in the truths of Christianity actually makes your experience of pain more painful. It is bad enough to have to endure pain, but as a believer you must say that it was not an accident and that it was sent by a God who declares himself to be good!
To us, often God's order looks like disorder, and his wisdom looks like foolishness. God's lovingkindness often seems to be anything but loving, and definitely not kind. All of this has to do with one humbling thing that we all have to admit: as sinners, we want our own way. We want life to work according to our plan. We don’t want to have to face the unexpected or deal with disappointment. We want life to be smooth and predictable. And we want all of this because we are more concerned about our comfort and ease than we are about the processes of grace that are at work in us.
It is hard to rest in the rulership of the King when our hearts and minds are so preoccupied with the success of our own little kingdoms.
Life surprises us with the reality of who is king and how different his will and way are from ours. We have lived day after day, month after month and year after year in the world of our needs, our wants, and our dreams. We have nurtured the illusion that if God really does love us, he will give the things that we have determined are good to us.
We have convinced ourselves that if we obey, God will keep his part of the bargain and send “the good life” our way. We thought that if we parented well, then all of our children would turn out the way we hoped. We thought that if we worked faithfully then we would harvest the seeds of our investments in our later years. We thought that if we kept our bodies under subjection then the Lord would bless us with good health. We thought that if we followed the Lord in personal devotion and public worship and ministry, then our lives would be spiritually rich.
Remember, you are not alone, God's people have always struggled with the shock of his rule. The kingdom of darkness is being destroyed by the kingdom of light, and none of us can escape being affected by the carnage.
Deep beneath every struggle of doubt and confusion is a collision of kingdoms. The theology of God’s unshakable sovereignty is easier to verbalize than it is to live. The truth that a God of relentless grace is after the total transformation of our hearts, is easier to conceptualize than it is to rest in at street level.
Require yourself to be brutally honest in this moment. What is it that you really want out of life? What is it that you want from God’s hand? What is the true dream for which you have been working? What are the joys that captivate your eyes and control your heart? What is your, "If I only had , then I would be happy?"
How much have your dreams been personal, earthbound, physical, and here-and-now? Have you been motivated by your kingdom more than God's Kingdom? How is your present discouragement, disappointment, confusion or grief a window on what has actually captured your heart? Have you really wanted God to be your wise and loving Father who brings into your life what he considers best, or have you wanted him to be a divine waiter, the all-powerful deliverer of your dreams?
Could it be that you have prayed for grace, but that you don’t really like the grace that you have been given? Divine grace doesn’t always make your life simple or your pathway clear. God’s grace doesn’t always provide you with release or relief. God’s grace often brings you hardship, confusion, and surprises. These things are sent to you, not by a God who is messing with you because he’s more powerful than you, but from the hand of a God a glorious grace, who is exercising his power for the purpose of your transformation.
So, the next time God surprises you, don’t doubt his goodness, faithfulness, and love. No, lift your hands to the heavens and celebrate. You are being rescued. You are being loved. You are being delivered. You are being transformed. And be thankful that since nothing can separate you from his love, there are more gracious surprises to come!
When you scan the biblical story you can’t help concluding that following God brings a life of surprises. Whatever plans God’s people made and however they tried to figure out God’s plans, they were constantly greeted with surprises. They faced turns in the story that they never would have anticipated. God’s plan again and again included things that would not have been included in the story if his people had been doing the planning.
One of the reasons for this is that we human beings tend to focus on outcomes. We simply want things to go well and turn out right. God surely does care about the end of all things, but he is graciously at work in the process as well.
The surprises along the way are God’s surprises. He is never caught off guard or unprepared. He calls us to follow him beyond the boundaries of our wisdom, strength and character. The waiting we have to do and the surprises that we face are meant by him to be tools of grace. They are designed to release us from our self-reliance and the hold our dreams for our lives have on us.
In those moments of surprise, it is important to remember that you may be confused, but God isn’t. In this moment when you are not sure what is going on, you haven’t been abandoned. No, the opposite is true: you are being rescued. But living this way is hard for us.
As pseudo-sovereigns, we hate waiting, disappointment, obstacles, and failure. We struggle to accept the fact that these things exist in a world that is under the wisest and most benevolent rule possible. C. S. Lewis comments that a hardy belief in the truths of Christianity actually makes your experience of pain more painful. It is bad enough to have to endure pain, but as a believer you must say that it was not an accident and that it was sent by a God who declares himself to be good!
To us, often God's order looks like disorder, and his wisdom looks like foolishness. God's lovingkindness often seems to be anything but loving, and definitely not kind. All of this has to do with one humbling thing that we all have to admit: as sinners, we want our own way. We want life to work according to our plan. We don’t want to have to face the unexpected or deal with disappointment. We want life to be smooth and predictable. And we want all of this because we are more concerned about our comfort and ease than we are about the processes of grace that are at work in us.
It is hard to rest in the rulership of the King when our hearts and minds are so preoccupied with the success of our own little kingdoms.
Life surprises us with the reality of who is king and how different his will and way are from ours. We have lived day after day, month after month and year after year in the world of our needs, our wants, and our dreams. We have nurtured the illusion that if God really does love us, he will give the things that we have determined are good to us.
We have convinced ourselves that if we obey, God will keep his part of the bargain and send “the good life” our way. We thought that if we parented well, then all of our children would turn out the way we hoped. We thought that if we worked faithfully then we would harvest the seeds of our investments in our later years. We thought that if we kept our bodies under subjection then the Lord would bless us with good health. We thought that if we followed the Lord in personal devotion and public worship and ministry, then our lives would be spiritually rich.
Remember, you are not alone, God's people have always struggled with the shock of his rule. The kingdom of darkness is being destroyed by the kingdom of light, and none of us can escape being affected by the carnage.
Deep beneath every struggle of doubt and confusion is a collision of kingdoms. The theology of God’s unshakable sovereignty is easier to verbalize than it is to live. The truth that a God of relentless grace is after the total transformation of our hearts, is easier to conceptualize than it is to rest in at street level.
Require yourself to be brutally honest in this moment. What is it that you really want out of life? What is it that you want from God’s hand? What is the true dream for which you have been working? What are the joys that captivate your eyes and control your heart? What is your, "If I only had , then I would be happy?"
How much have your dreams been personal, earthbound, physical, and here-and-now? Have you been motivated by your kingdom more than God's Kingdom? How is your present discouragement, disappointment, confusion or grief a window on what has actually captured your heart? Have you really wanted God to be your wise and loving Father who brings into your life what he considers best, or have you wanted him to be a divine waiter, the all-powerful deliverer of your dreams?
Could it be that you have prayed for grace, but that you don’t really like the grace that you have been given? Divine grace doesn’t always make your life simple or your pathway clear. God’s grace doesn’t always provide you with release or relief. God’s grace often brings you hardship, confusion, and surprises. These things are sent to you, not by a God who is messing with you because he’s more powerful than you, but from the hand of a God a glorious grace, who is exercising his power for the purpose of your transformation.
So, the next time God surprises you, don’t doubt his goodness, faithfulness, and love. No, lift your hands to the heavens and celebrate. You are being rescued. You are being loved. You are being delivered. You are being transformed. And be thankful that since nothing can separate you from his love, there are more gracious surprises to come!
Monday, June 14, 2010
The New Man
This is a repost of a devotional by David Wilkerson. I am always emphasizing the main point he makes with regards to the Gospel and salvation: salvation is a work of God alone; our only contribution is to respond and receive. This is the very meaning of grace! You would be surprised how many people believe that they are going to heaven by virtue of their own efforts (I go to church, I read my Bible, I try to be the best husband/father I can be, I help little old ladies across the street...). In order to qualify for heaven, it's not something we do, rather, something must be done to us. We must become a "new man," and not by my efforts, but by the Spirit of God. Read on and enjoy...
THE NEW MAN
As followers of Christ, we are to take God at his Word and accept as true what he says we are. This means our "old man" represents a man who still seeks to please God in the flesh. Such a man hates sin, he doesn't want to offend God, and yet his conscience continually brings him under guilt. So he pledges to overcome his sin problem: "I'm going to change! I'll start today to fight my besetting sin, no matter what the cost. I want God to see how hard I am trying."
Such a man brings to the Lord much sweat and many tears. He prays and fasts to prove to God that he has a good heart. He's able to resist sin for days at a time, and so he tells himself, "If I can go for two days, then why not four, why not a week?" By the end of the month he feels good about himself, convinced he's working himself free. But then his old sin surfaces, and down he goes, deep into despair. And that starts the cycle all over again. Such a man is on a treadmill that will never end, one he can't get off.
May it never be! His man-in-flesh was crucified along with Christ, killed in the eyes of God. Indeed, Paul tells us that the old man was pronounced dead at the cross. Jesus took that old man into the grave with him, where he was left for dead and forgotten. Just as the prodigal's father ignored the "old man" in his son, the Lord says of our old man, "I won't recognize or deal with such a one. There is only one man I recognize now, one with whom I'll deal. That is my Son, Jesus, and all who are in him by faith."
The new man is the one who has given up all hope of pleasing God by any effort of the flesh [emphasis mine - DC]. He has died to the old ways of the flesh. And by faith he has come to know there is only one way to please God, one way to delight him: Christ must become all. He knows that there is but One whom the Father recognizes: Christ and all who are in him.
This new man lives by faith alone: "The just shall live by faith." He believes God's Word so completely he leans on nothing else. He has found his source of everything in Christ, who is all sufficient. And he believes what God says of him: "Your old man is dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." He may not feel it, or comprehend it fully, but he won't argue with his loving Father's Word. He accepts it on faith, believing the Lord is faithful to his Word.
Read this devotion online at: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/8387
THE NEW MAN
As followers of Christ, we are to take God at his Word and accept as true what he says we are. This means our "old man" represents a man who still seeks to please God in the flesh. Such a man hates sin, he doesn't want to offend God, and yet his conscience continually brings him under guilt. So he pledges to overcome his sin problem: "I'm going to change! I'll start today to fight my besetting sin, no matter what the cost. I want God to see how hard I am trying."
Such a man brings to the Lord much sweat and many tears. He prays and fasts to prove to God that he has a good heart. He's able to resist sin for days at a time, and so he tells himself, "If I can go for two days, then why not four, why not a week?" By the end of the month he feels good about himself, convinced he's working himself free. But then his old sin surfaces, and down he goes, deep into despair. And that starts the cycle all over again. Such a man is on a treadmill that will never end, one he can't get off.
May it never be! His man-in-flesh was crucified along with Christ, killed in the eyes of God. Indeed, Paul tells us that the old man was pronounced dead at the cross. Jesus took that old man into the grave with him, where he was left for dead and forgotten. Just as the prodigal's father ignored the "old man" in his son, the Lord says of our old man, "I won't recognize or deal with such a one. There is only one man I recognize now, one with whom I'll deal. That is my Son, Jesus, and all who are in him by faith."
The new man is the one who has given up all hope of pleasing God by any effort of the flesh [emphasis mine - DC]. He has died to the old ways of the flesh. And by faith he has come to know there is only one way to please God, one way to delight him: Christ must become all. He knows that there is but One whom the Father recognizes: Christ and all who are in him.
This new man lives by faith alone: "The just shall live by faith." He believes God's Word so completely he leans on nothing else. He has found his source of everything in Christ, who is all sufficient. And he believes what God says of him: "Your old man is dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." He may not feel it, or comprehend it fully, but he won't argue with his loving Father's Word. He accepts it on faith, believing the Lord is faithful to his Word.
Read this devotion online at: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/8387
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A Challenge for You!
(Re-posted from Michael Shannon's blog):
Holy week is upon us and Christians all around the world are preparing their hearts and minds to celebrate the crucifixion burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. I want to use this forum to offer a challenge to everyone who reads my blog. I want to challenge you to do several things...
1. Resolve all know conflict you have with someone in your personal life if it exists. After all this week does look forward with great focus on how God will forgive those in Christ Jesus.
2. Spend some time each night praying for a revival in your local church. Pray for your Elders and Deacons. Pray for unity, vision and focus.
3. Set aside any personal agendas you have within the faith and spend the week focusing on Christ and His work done on the cross for those who believe. In other words, preach the gospel to yourself!
4. Begin preparing yourself to come to worship on Resurrection Sunday like never before! Come to the Lords table in a way you never have before! A broken heart, a contrite spirit. Seeking the absolution offered by His body and blood!
Amen!
Holy week is upon us and Christians all around the world are preparing their hearts and minds to celebrate the crucifixion burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. I want to use this forum to offer a challenge to everyone who reads my blog. I want to challenge you to do several things...
1. Resolve all know conflict you have with someone in your personal life if it exists. After all this week does look forward with great focus on how God will forgive those in Christ Jesus.
2. Spend some time each night praying for a revival in your local church. Pray for your Elders and Deacons. Pray for unity, vision and focus.
3. Set aside any personal agendas you have within the faith and spend the week focusing on Christ and His work done on the cross for those who believe. In other words, preach the gospel to yourself!
4. Begin preparing yourself to come to worship on Resurrection Sunday like never before! Come to the Lords table in a way you never have before! A broken heart, a contrite spirit. Seeking the absolution offered by His body and blood!
Amen!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
CenterPoint Update
First, I want to report that we had our biggest Sunday with attendance last week: 68 people! Two were visitors and said they’d never heard worship like that in a church before and would definitely come back. We have started our own live worship team as of December and have gotten nothing but positive feedback. Of course, we’re still maturing as a team, but the quality improves each week.
Regarding the building, last night we attended the official vote of the Regional Planning Commission to grant us “Conditional Use” of the building we are in. To review, there was a mix-up of paperwork years ago when we first occupied the building, which was zoned only for retail use, not assembly. This meant that for years we have been using the building without the proper permit. Kent County was gracious and allowed us to continue meeting there, provided we were moving to correct the problem. But this also meant that they would not give us a building permit to complete the proposed renovations until the Conditional Use permit was settled. This is why construction on our building has been at a standstill for the last few months.
Over those months, we were told that before we got approved for Conditional Use of the building as an assembly, the entire site (not just our portion, but the owner’s entire property) had to be brought into compliance by today’s County standards. This meant a sidewalk on two sides of the property, and planting of 30 trees. Larson Engineering did some great work and made the case to the County that since we were only one client in the building, we should not be responsible for bringing the entire site into compliance.
So last night the RPC voted and accepted the waivers on the sidewalk and trees, unanimously approving our Conditional Use of the building! This means all we are responsible for is planting four trees on the property now instead of 30. This was a huge victory and we’re very excited.
All that remains is the Levy Court vote on 1/26, but we do not anticipate any problems. Once that is done, then we can finally submit our renovation plans to the County for approval. Pending no issues, we should be able to begin construction again in the weeks thereafter.
It will really be beautiful when it’s finally complete. I encourage everyone from Glasgow Church to plan a visit one Sunday morning and see the finished project.
Regarding the building, last night we attended the official vote of the Regional Planning Commission to grant us “Conditional Use” of the building we are in. To review, there was a mix-up of paperwork years ago when we first occupied the building, which was zoned only for retail use, not assembly. This meant that for years we have been using the building without the proper permit. Kent County was gracious and allowed us to continue meeting there, provided we were moving to correct the problem. But this also meant that they would not give us a building permit to complete the proposed renovations until the Conditional Use permit was settled. This is why construction on our building has been at a standstill for the last few months.
Over those months, we were told that before we got approved for Conditional Use of the building as an assembly, the entire site (not just our portion, but the owner’s entire property) had to be brought into compliance by today’s County standards. This meant a sidewalk on two sides of the property, and planting of 30 trees. Larson Engineering did some great work and made the case to the County that since we were only one client in the building, we should not be responsible for bringing the entire site into compliance.
So last night the RPC voted and accepted the waivers on the sidewalk and trees, unanimously approving our Conditional Use of the building! This means all we are responsible for is planting four trees on the property now instead of 30. This was a huge victory and we’re very excited.
All that remains is the Levy Court vote on 1/26, but we do not anticipate any problems. Once that is done, then we can finally submit our renovation plans to the County for approval. Pending no issues, we should be able to begin construction again in the weeks thereafter.
It will really be beautiful when it’s finally complete. I encourage everyone from Glasgow Church to plan a visit one Sunday morning and see the finished project.
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