Francis Chan: “Think Hard, Stay Humble”
Continue reading ‘I wonder if some of you need to watch this much as I needed to watch it’
Archive for the 'Missions' Category
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In what sense is the United States a Christian nation?
In what sense isn’t the United States a Christian nation?
Collin Hansen reflects on working on Capitol Hill and a sermon by Mark Dever in which he considers the role of Christians in the United States of America.
Enjoying a sunny fall day, I walked around the National Mall on Saturday afternoon. Before visiting any other favorite sites, I ascended the temple steps where Father Abraham presides on his throne over American civil religion. Designed to recall the Greek Parthenon, this memorial secures Lincoln’s place in the American pantheon. If you champion a social cause and want to leave your mark on America, you must at some point make the pilgrimage to this hallowed ground. All the better if you can deliver a speech that incorporates elements of Lincoln’s famed Gettysburg Address.
Only three weeks earlier self-appointed political prophet Glenn Beck claimed Lincoln’s imprimatur by packing these same steps for a rally. But religious nationalists who invoke America’s greatest president never seem to understand the irony of his memory. The man who saved the Union understood that God transcends and judges it. God’s ways often surpass our understanding. We cannot manipulate him to baptize our pet causes. Read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, a stunningly moving model of public theology written by a man whose true beliefs elude historians still today. No, actually read the speech and marvel at this man’s magnanimity after four years of shockingly bloody killing. He captured in this speech a mature political philosophy that shamed the many warmongers masquerading as pastors in both the North and South. Even today, the church cries out to God for him to raise up more pastors and theologians who can help the evangelical public understand that for all this nation’s blessings, Jesus Christ didn’t robe himself in an American flag.
My concern stems from experience working on Capitol Hill in partisan roles. . .
The rest here.
Denny Burk points to Dr. Mohler’s thoughts on whether or not it is a good idea to pile up copies of the Koran and burn them.
Click here.
God’s people need the “spine” and character to shine the light of Christ in controversies that arise in the public square. Doug Wilson effectively points this out in a post regarding the mosque controversy.
Previously, I pointed to a column by Ross Douthat on the building of a mosque at Ground Zero. Now, Doug Wilson begins a post on the mosque by noticing:
The proposed Ground Zero mosque provides us with a wonderful case study of public square issues, and of the great need for a new Christendom. And since the opportunities in this situation to gain wisdom are enormous, it is not surprising that just about everybody is refusing to do so. . .
He concludes:
Someone really does need to tell secularist America that her gods are genuinely pathetic. And currently, the Muslims are doing this because the Christians won’t. And the Christians who won’t do this are not so much in need of a different kind of theology as they are in need of a different kind of spine.
Here to read the whole thing.
HT: Tim Challies
Ross Douthat’s thoughts on the NYC mosque/Ground Zero controversy are the most insightful I have heard thus far.
There’s an America where it doesn’t matter what language you speak, what god you worship, or how deep your New World roots run. An America where allegiance to the Constitution trumps ethnic differences, language barriers and religious divides. An America where the newest arrival to our shores is no less American than the ever-so-great granddaughter of the Pilgrims.
But there’s another America as well, one that understands itself as a distinctive culture, rather than just a set of political propositions. This America speaks English, not Spanish or Chinese or Arabic. It looks back to a particular religious heritage: Protestantism originally, and then a Judeo-Christian consensus that accommodated Jews and Catholics as well. It draws its social norms from the mores of the Anglo-Saxon diaspora — and it expects new arrivals to assimilate themselves to these norms, and quickly.
HT: Mike Wittmer
Scott Moore points to what one professor says is the number one threat to America. I suspect he is correct.
I will never forget the serious look on Dr. Richard Pratt’s face one Monday night as he was expressing his number one fear for the next generation. It was not alcoholism, or disease. It was not liberalism, or the church’s view on women being ordained (or not) in ministry. He looked across the classroom and called all of us to take heed to the Islamic growth in America. One statistic I remember is that the census reported that by year 2025, one major metropolitan city, in America, will be predominately . . .
HT: Z
A recent NPR article surveys the rapid spread of Christianity in China. It concludes:
China’s Christians are pushing back the boundaries, and the authorities don’t seem to know how to respond. Recent reports say some leaders of larger unofficial churches are harassed and persecuted and their congregations are prevented from meeting in their previous places of worship.
But in this rural part of China, these young missionaries are operating without hindrance.
After their performance, they climb into a trailer pulled by a tractor, which will take them to their next destination. They are intent on saving souls, one village at a time.
China’s youth once trundled across the countryside spreading communism. Now, they’re spreading God’s word.
Psalms are a wonderful place to get your soul into a “happy state.” This summer, I have been memorizing Psalm 65. The Psalm shows us how we can experience joy when we meditate on how both the power of God and the goodness of God are seen in His creation.
George Mueller was a 19th century pastor who had a great passion for orphans. You can read more about George Mueller on the Desiring God site.
Below is one of his most famous quotes in which he describes the first priority of his daily routine.
I saw more clearly than ever, that the first and great primary business to which I ought to attend every day, was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might sere the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished . . . I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it. George Mueller of Bristol
The picture to the right is of Jamie and me in the Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland. One cannot look at too many village landscapes in Western Europe, without seeing a steeple.
I recall once reading that Calvin said when Paul received the Macedonian call it was the most fortuitous moment in history. It meant that the Gospel traveled west rather than east – - initially to Europe rather than Asia. Given the boundaries of the Roman Empire, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel soon blazed all the way to England and in God’s Providence, to the New World. (This post will help you better understand the point).
By circa 200, Tertullian was able to say:
We are but of yesterday, but we have filled every place among you cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.
Traveling about Europe, it is mind boggling to see churches dotted across the landscape and to consider how the entire culture was shaped by the cause of Christ.
Yet, it is also tragic to reflect on the reality that much of the spiritual soil here is as tillable as concrete. We so need to pray for the West!
Last night after having dinner in Salzburg, our family reflected together on the Great Commission and the call to go into all the world and make disciples. We awoke to the Salzburg church bells ringing, reminding us that nearly 2000 years ago, God directed Paul to spread the Gospel West.
See also, The Miracle that was Paul
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) encourages us to multiply what has been entrusted to us – - rather than playing it safe. To multiply talents requires hard work, risk, and creativity.
Examples like the one below (of how the Allies helped POW’s escape in WWII), remind me that human beings faced with desperate circumstances and a clear goal can be amazingly creative. Read the below example and consider the challenge to multiply what has been entrusted to you with this sort of resourcefulness.
The board game Monopoly served allied prisoners as a real-life tool to get out of jail during World War II, says Brian McMahon in Mental Floss, a magazine devoted to intellectual esoterica.
In 1941, the British Secret Service asked the game’s British licensee John Waddington Ltd. to add secret extras to some sets, which had become standard elements of the aid packages that the Red Cross delivered to allied prisoners of war. Along with the usual dog, top hat and and thimble, the sets had a metal file, compass, and silk maps of safe houses (silk, because it folds into small spaces and unfolds silently). Even better, real French, German and Italian currency was hidden underneath the game’s fake money. Departing allied soldiers and pilots were told that if they were captured they should look out for the special editions, identified by a red dot in the Free Parking space.
HT: Challies
