Monthly Archive for September, 2011
David Fitch:
I have a six year old. Truth be told, if we would let him, he would sit in front of the television for hours consuming hours of programming about sharks. But we (Rae and I) don’t allow it. “One hour a day!” we say. Why? Because, if we do let him watch that much TV, the child’s brain will turn to mush. He will never learn how to engage the social world. He will be become passive. He will probably gain a lot of weight. He will learn to live life from the vantage point of the remote control.
Most parents know this instinctively. Entertaining television programming about sharks can certainly teach a child a lot of stuff about the sea world. But it can only go so far in terms of real life. The child must learn to read, learn to listen/pay attention to a real human voice, learn to stay focused without screen change every .4 seconds. I’m sure my son has A.D.D. or A. D. H. D. It is the brain patterns most easily developed within our media driven culture. But I must nurture my child into real social existence. Or else he too shall become a statistic. He too will ever lack motivation for anything else but the next immediate titillation. This is why for me, when my son says “but daddy, I just don’t get anything out of the worship service,” I am not the least bit surprised. It is a teaching moment – not the occasion to run to the next mega church Disney service.
These are the reasons I get sad when I hear a parent tell me “my children don’t get anything out of the service . . .
Read the rest here.
HT: Trevin Wax
The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips offers a foundational resource for local churches. It would be an excellent choice for a small group or study group to use for one or even two semesters of study. Individuals would also benefit greatly from reading it on their own.
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In the first place, I don’t get asked to endorse books that often, but when I am asked to look at an advance copy of a book, I find writing endorsements for books to be hard work. To begin with, one needs to carefully read the book. Usually since the book isn’t out yet, this means working with a large stack of loose papers. I find myself highlighting, adding post-its, underlining texts, occasionally emailing an author to say, “Are you sure you wanted to say this,” etc.
Second, when evaluating an endorsement I have to consider, as a pastor accountable to God, do I want to encourage God’s people to spend their time and money on this particular book.
Finally, one has to carefully craft a few sentences that may persuade readers to invest in the book.
Lest you think I am complaining, when I am asked to evaluate a book like Dan Phillips’, The World Tilting Gospel I am humbled that I even get the chance. Throughout the time I was reading this book, I found myself smiling, learning, and being thankful. Here’s the endorsement I wrote:
The World-Tilting Gospel is the sort of foundational resource that will serve everyone from those considering the Christian faith to church leaders. With meticulous attention to the biblical text, Dan Phillips unfolds how the Cross-centered Gospel polishes a crystal clear lens through which the distorted reality of a fallen world can be tilted over and seen upside down, which is the Good News that we can be right side up with God.
Now I gave this considerable thought – - I chose my words carefully. Since I don’t have the space constraints here I had for the endorsement, let me expand that paragraph a bit to explain why I wrote this endorsement.
- “Foundational” – The goal of this book is to show how the Gospel changes everything. Because it’s about the Gospel or the Good News, it serves as a solid introduction to the Christian faith. For someone who wonders what Christianity is all about, this is an excellent choice. It will also be profitbale for someone who has been a believer for many years.
- “Meticulous attention to the biblical text”- Dan is one of the most skilled expositor’s of the biblical text who I read. Whenever I read something he has written, I immediately have the sense that this is a student of the text from who I can learn. Even this week as I prepare to preach from Romans, I am thankful for Dan’s chapter that explains what the Apostle Paul meant when he spoke of the “flesh.”
- “Cross-centered” - The best thing that could be said about any book is that it is passionately centered on the Lord Jesus Christ and this book is . . . In a section that’s worth the price of the book, Dan summarizes:
The world nears to hear the truth about the Jesus who won’t be ignored, tamed, lassoed, or co-opted. It needs to hear about Him in all His raw, rude, gate-crashing, table-bashing power. It needs to hear about his nature, His Cross, His resurrection, His crown, His warnings, His demands, His offer.
If Jesus is real, all the world’s values and plans and tidy little sand castles are doomed.
And He is.
And they are.
This is world-tilting truth.
- “Polishes a crystal clear lens” - The World Tilting Gospel is written in a way that is clear and accessible. It teaches what accords with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).
Glenn Stanton:
There are some curious things going on with cohabitation and marriage that seem to tell two different stories.
First, the folks at Pew recently told us (see p. 36) that young adults have the strongest desire to marry of any generation alive today. Other data supports this. And the unmarried folks in other generations are not, nor have ever been, disinterested in marriage.
But unmarried cohabitation is the fastest growing family/domestic form in the United States as well as most of the Western world. It’s exploding, having increased 15-fold since 1960. And that growth has more than doubled in real numbers since the mid-1990s in the U.S. and by much more than that in other countries. In fact, more than 60 percent of marriages today are preceded by some form of cohabitation.
Young adults are pro-marriage, but cohabitation is sky-rocketing. Is this ironic, or does it make complete sense?
I address this curious question — and many others — in my latest book, The Ring Makes All the Difference: The Hidden Consequences of Cohabitation and the Strong Benefits of Marriage. In preparation for writing this book, I carefully collected and read nearly all the leading published academic studies on cohabitation published over the past 30 years. Yes, I’m a sad research nerd. And my book explains in plain, straightforward language what this impressive body of literature teaches us.
Most people cohabiting today (75%) see their live-in relationship as some kind of step toward marriage, and 62 percent of young adults believe cohabiting before marriage is a good way to avoid divorce. Very few are cohabiting with no eye toward marriage. And these marriage-minded folks are either cohabiting as a test drive of a potential marriage or are cohabiting with Mr. or Mrs. I Don’t Think So as a place holder until Mr. or Mrs. Right comes along.
But how wise of an idea is cohabitation? Is there a track record to examine? These are critical questions to ask because many millions of people are doing it and in dramatically increasing numbers.
Well, the good news is we don’t have to wonder about strong, reliable answers to those questions. An absolute wealth of social science research by leading sociologists and demographers of the family are telling us much about the consequences of living together before marriage. Here are some of the most startling findings: . . .
Read the rest here.
Refreshment and renewal isn’t always instant.
Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy 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.”
So the invitation is to come and abide with Jesus and to learn from Him. But the way of the righteousness isn’t instant brightness. Indeed, at first it may not seem that things are any better. But for those who walk by faith they will see the way will shiner ever brighter until the full light of day (Proverbs 4:18-19).
Frederick Bruner (The Christbook, 540) comments:
After a while, as we listen to Jesus and see to obey his teachings in life, we find that his lessons are a better way to live, his gentleness is relaxing, and his focus is refreshing. We find that deep down in our souls–in our psyches (the actual word used here) – - we feel refreshed and renewed. There are finally no techniques for the renewal of Christians or congregations; there is simply taking Jesus seriously in his Word, especially his forgiveness of sins (Calvin).
Gunny recently pointed out that a Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist has Resigned Over Global Warming and he has additional some additional thoughts on the “conclusions” of modern science.
This Fall, I am preaching from Romans 8. If you don’t understand why the Gospel is such good news, we would invite you to visit the Red Brick Church!
D. Martyn LLoyd-Jones:
If we tell Christians that their past sins, their present and their future sins have already been put away by God, are we not more or less telling them that they are free to go out and sin? If you react in that way to my statements I am most happy, for I am obviously a good and true interpreter of the Apostle Paul. It was because he preached such things that people said, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (chapter 6:1). That is the very charge they were bringing against him, and if we do not preach and represent the gospel in a way that sounds dangerous at first, we are not preaching it truly. The true preaching of the gospel is always liable to be misunderstood by people in that way. The Apostle has already given the answer in chapters 6 and 7, proving that there is no risk at all, but the opposite.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans 7.1-8.4, Banner of Truth, pages 273-273.
I agree with Zach Nielsen that I need to hear this over and over again:
![The Pursuit of Holiness [PURSUIT OF HOLINESS]](http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B001TMBUUM&tag=wwwtakeyourvi-20)
Jerry Bridges
:Evangelicals commonly think today that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Once we’re inside the kingdom’s door, we need the gospel only in order to share it with those who are still outside. Now, as believers, we need to hear the message of discipleship. We need to learn how to live the Christian life and be challenged to go do it. That’s what I believed and practiced in my life and ministry for some time. It is what most Christians seem to believe.
As I see it, the Christian community is largely a performance-based culture today. And the more deeply committed we are to following Jesus, the more deeply ingrained the performance mindset is. We think we earn God’s blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life.
Most Christians have a baseline of acceptable performance by which they gauge their acceptance by God. For many, this baseline is no more than regular church attendance and the avoidance of major sins. Such Christians are often characterized by some degree of self-righteousness. After all, they don’t indulge in the major sins we see happening around us. Such Christians would not think they need the gospel anymore. They would say the gospel is only for sinners.
For committed Christians, the baseline is much higher. It includes regular practice of spiritual disciplines, obedience to God’s Word, and involvement in some form of ministry. Here again, if we focus on outward behavior, many score fairly well. But these Christians are even more vulnerable to self-righteousness, for they can look down their spiritual noses not only at the sinful society around them but even at other believers who are not as committed as they are. These Christians don’t need the gospel either. For them, Christian growth means more discipline and more commitment.
Then there is a third group. The baseline of this group includes more than the outward performance of disciplines, obedience, and ministry. These Christians also recognize the need to deal with sins of the heart like a critical spirit, pride, selfishness,envy,resentment, and anxiety. They see their inconsistency in having their quiet times, their failure to witness at every opportunity, and their frequent failures in dealing with sins of the heart. This group of Christians is far more likely to be plagued by a sense of guilt because group members have not met their own expectations. And because they think God’s acceptance of them is based on their performance, they have little joy in their Christian lives. For them, life is like a treadmill on which they keep slipping farther and farther behind. This group needs the gospel, but they don’t realize it is for them. I know, because I was in this group.
Gradually over time, and from a deep sense of need, I came to realize that the gospel is for believers, too. When I finally realized this, every morning I would pray over a Scripture such as Isaiah 53:6,” All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” and then say, “Lord, I have gone astray. I have turned to my own way, but you have laid all my sin on Christ and because of that I approach you and feel accepted by you.”
I came to see that Paul’s statement in Galatians 2:20, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me,” was made in the context of justification (see vv. 15-21). Yet Paul was speaking in the present tense: “The life I now live ….” Because of the context, I realized Paul was not speaking about his sanctification but about his justification. For Paul, then, justification (being declared righteous by God on the basis of the righteousness of Christ) was not only a past-tense experience but also a present-day reality. Paul lived every day by faith in the shed blood and righteousness of Christ. Every day he looked to Christ alone for his acceptance with the Father. He believed, like Peter (see 1 Pet. 2:4-5), that even our best deeds–our spiritual sacrifices–are acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ. Perhaps no one apart from Jesus himself has ever been as committed a disciple both in life and ministry as the Apostle Paul. Yet he did not look to his own performance but to Christ’s “performance” as the sole basis of his acceptance with God.
So I learned that Christians need to hear the gospel all of their lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin-bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God.
Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude. Yet even when we understand that our acceptance with God is based on Christ’s work, we still naturally tend to drift back into a performance mindset. Consequently, we must continually return to the gospel. To use an expression of the late Jack Miller, we must “preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” For me that means I keep going back to Scriptures such as Isaiah 53:6, Galatians 2:20, and Romans 8:1. It means I frequently repeat the words from an old hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
