Sunday, December 21, 2008

Music

I thought I'd just post a couple of songs that I really enjoy. I'm not much of an Andrew Peterson fan, though he is growing on me, but I like his use of the biblical story line in "So Long Moses" The second song is my favorite song by Derek Webb and one of my favorite contemporary songs period. For those who were at our service this morning, I think this song compliments well the message. There are a couple great lyric but my favorite is his last verse:
"Oh I dont know the sufferings of people outside my front door.
and I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore.
I'm trading comfort for human life
And that's not just murder, it's suicide.
And this too shall be made right.




Saturday, December 20, 2008

C.J. Mahaney's Testimony

C.J. Mahaney's testimony is quite remarkable. Here it is if you have never heard it.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Romans 2:6-11

He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking [1] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. (Romans 2:6-11)
One of the best ways to study the Scriptures is to ask hard questions about what you read. And one of the best ways to be deeply affected by the text is to think deeply about it. So instead of just providing some comments, Im going to raise a couple of questions that this text provokes in me. I look forward to your thoughts on them. Here are my two basic questions.

1) Being self-seeking leads to God’s wrath, but isn’t doing good to gain glory, honor, and immortality self-seeking? Isn’t doing good for an eternal gain self-seeking?

2) Aren’t you granted immortality based on grace and not on works? If bad works leads to God’s wrath and good works leads to honor, peace, etc. then isn’t that getting eternal life through good works and not through God’s grace?

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Wimpy Christians

Click here to watch John Piper answer a question about wimpy Christian worldviews. The question is related to one of his latest books called Spectacular Sins in which he seeks to demonstrate God's sovereignty over and gracious intentions in the worst of human evil. I have not read the book, but this is a good little clip. I would encourage you to watch the video and not just read the manuscript.

Romans 2:1-5: Indulgence and Judgmentalism

As I said in my last post, in this passage Paul levels both indulgence (“God will forgive me no matter what I do, that’s His job”) and judgmentalism (“God needs to judge those people”). I want to look at each.

Indulgence - I have been reading George MacDonald’s The Princess and Curdie to my daughter. At one point, Curdie, the hero, is given a gift by which with the touch of his hand he can discern which people are descending into animals and which are becoming more human. No literal mutation actually takes place, but MacDonald’s point is that the descent into evil is a descent from being human. Sin isn't just a violation against God's law, though it is that, is also becoming enslaved to subhuman passions and instincts (cf. Philippians 3:19). Each move in our life is a move toward true humanity or beastdom. This brings us to a question. What good would God be doing if he just turns a blind eye to your sin? What kind of love has little care to save you from your descent to beastdom? “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” All he does, including his patience, is meant as a rescue operation. And the rescue is not only from what judgment you are facing, but also what subhuman you are becoming.

Judgmentalism - This is Paul’s primary focus. It is often the focus of Old and New Testament, for it is the most insidious of sins. As Paul demonstrates, judgmentalism holds together two seemingly contrary ideas in a volatile combination. In order to be judgmental you have to 1) see a God who judges, and 2) see a God who forgives. Of course, the Bible presents God as both, but what makes the combination volatile is the location assigned to judgment and mercy. Judgment is for others, but mercy is for me. That’s a hard sell to make, but a sell you must make if you are going to have any peace in your life. This is why judgmental people tend to act like they are in desperate need of a fiber supplement. Indulgence in one sense is much easier to live; God doesn’t care, so I don’t care. But in judgmentalism, you know God cares. He does not tolerate evil, so you spend most of your time justifying your sin (blame-shifting, excuse making, etc.), paying for your sin, and magnifying the sins of others (you need a reason why God is judging them and not you). Your view of God is closer to the truth. So that’s good, right. Wrong. “You are storing up wrath for yourself . . . when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” Doesn’t sound good. The more truth you have, the more you have to deceive yourself. Loose morals or self-righteousness, which is the greater sin?

R.C. Sproul on Christmas

Sproul has written an interesting article defending the practice of Christmas. Here is an excerpt:
Christmas is a holiday, indeed the world's most joyous holiday. It is called a "holiday" because the day is holy. It is a day when businesses close, when families gather, when churches are filled, and when soldiers put down their guns for a 24-hour truce. It is a day that differs from every other day.

Every generation has its abundance of Scrooges. The church is full of them. We hear endless complaints of commercialism. We are constantly told to put Christ back into Christmas. We hear that the tradition of Santa Claus is a sacrilege. We listen to those acquainted with history murmur that Christmas isn't biblical. The Church invented Christmas to compete with the ancient Roman festival honoring the bull-god Mithras, the nay-sayers complain. Christmas? A mere capitulation to paganism.

And so we rain on Jesus' parade and assume an Olympian detachment from the joyous holiday. All this carping is but a modern dose of Scroogeism, our own sanctimonious profanation of the holy.
Read the rest

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Parenting Tips

Matt and Elizabeth Schmucker of 9 Marks provide a very helpful list of things to do, know, and not do to your children. Here is the list of ways to provoke your children.


1. Make it a habit to discipline your child while angry.
2. Make it a point to scold your child – especially in public. Mockery and ridicule work well.
3. Deliberately embarrass your child in front of his/her friends. Name calling really gets their attention.
4. Create double standards so that the child never knows who or what to follow.
5. Preach and hold the child to a gospel of self-discipline instead of a gospel of grace. (Note: the Bible presents Pharisees as very unhappy people.)
6. Never admit you're wrong and never ask your children for forgiveness.
7. Inspect your child until you find something wrong. Holding them to an unreachable standard makes this task easier.
8. Judge a fight between your children before you've listened to them.
9. Compare your child to others.
10. Promise your children things early in the day and then don't fulfill the promise.

I found these deeply convicting and very true. Click here for the rest.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Romans 2:1-5

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.(Romans 2:1-5)
Verse 1 of Romans 2 is perhaps the biggest gotcha verse in the Bible. It turns out that Romans 1:18-32 was a kind of set up. Paul is writing to a mixed congregation in Rome, partly Jew partly Gentile. The Jews, along with most Jews of Paul’s day, would have read the last part of chapter 1 with some relish. “Get’em Paul,” would have been their thought. “Idolatry, homosexuality, a total decline in moral standards, those Gentiles justly reap the repercussions of their sin.” Then comes chapter 2:1, “Therefore you have no excuse.” “No excuse” like the pagan who suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. Only this time it is not the pagan Paul is addressing: “You have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges.” If you happened to be reading verses 1:18-32 and thinking certain groups of people (i.e. American culture, western society as a whole, Hollywood, the gay community, etc.) justly deserve God’s retribution, that is you were cooly judging them, then you too have no excuse. You too stand condemned before God.

In fact, you are the very one who condemns yourself, for you condemn what you practice. Envy, strife, deceit, gossip, slander, boasting, disobedient to parents, faithless, heartless, are you innocent of these? We hold that God rightly judges such practices, so does he not also judge you? Paul’s logic here is devastating. There is really no escape.

But there is one more path to possibly get us off the hook, the path of God’s mercy. Jews could easily conclude, “Yes, well we are God’s chosen, and he is a God of mercy and compassion.” They even had some historical precedence for such a hope. God did put up with a lot of garbage from Israel. Of course, this objection comes to us today in various forms. It is the “God is love” objection. If God is a loving God will he really judge us severely? We too have some historical, biblical, and theological precedence for the belief. God is declared by and demonstrated in Scripture to be gracious, patient, and long-suffering. But there are two ways to look at God’s patience. One is to say that God is just over-looking our disobedience. Most assume this option. The alternative is what Paul agues: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” Mercy is meant merely to give you more time to repent. God is passing over your sin. He is just delaying your judgment. Therefore, the longer you fail to repent the more wrath you “store up” for yourself. Thus, in this small passage Paul has leveled the paths of self-righteousness (“those people over there deserve God’s judgment) and indulgence (“God will tolerate my failures because He is a God of love”). But more on that later.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Christmas Gift Ideas



The Reason For God - This is a great book for those more intellectually minded. Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC. He is known for his ability to reach those of a more secular, yuppy, and liberal culture. This books is both for the unbeliever and the believer. In the first part of the book Keller answers some of the toughest questions that people are asking about Christianity (e.g. "Does science contradict the Bible," "Aren't all religions equal," etc.). The second half is devoted to a sort of new spin on the gospel. It's all very orthodox, but Keller has a way of describing the gospel to modern people that both deeply convicts and excites.



The Prodigal God - Yes, another Keller book. I first heard his sermon upon which this little book is based and it opened up the gospel in a whole new way for me. For those of you in our church's small groups, know that we will be doing this book next.



ESV Study Bible - See the post below



To The Golden Shore - A rich, lively biography. Judson's story is truly amazing, and this book is very hard to put down. It reads almost like a novel, only it really happened.



Sir Gibbie - For kids and adults alike. George MacDonald's classic is delightful and convicting. My daughter and I couldn't stop reading it. The chapters are extremely short, which makes it more accessible for those lacking in attention span.



Keeping Holiday - Another great book to read with your children. Star Meade is able to weave an allegory of the gospel into this intriguing story in vein similar to that of C.S. Lewis.



Do Hard Things - Written by teenagers, but the Harris brothers are not your typical teenagers. The subtitle pretty much sums up the book: "A teenage rebellion against low expectations." Young or old, you'll find yourself wanting to do hard things after reading this book.




When Sinners Say, "I Do" - My wife and I have used this book in marriage counseling. This is not merely some good advice on relationships, nor a manual for marriage. This book does what most Christian and non-Christian books fail to do, point to the gospel. It is a book filled with hope and grace.



Humility - Written by a very humble guy, at least comparatively, Mahaney has written another deeply convicting book. His thesis is that pride is the root of all sin, so if you nip pride you getting the whole gamut. A very small and easy to read book.



Culture Making - If you are struggling as to how you can glorify God in your "secular" employment or hobbies, this book will be a great help. Culture making is what humans are meant to do, and Andy Crouch provides some deep insight on how we can do it better.

ESV Study Bible

The ESV Study Bible has been out for some time now, but I thought I would post this introduction as well as a few thoughts about it. I'm not typically a big fan of study Bibles. My man beef with them is that they tend to become a sort of Bible answer book. As a teacher and preacher, I've gotten quite tired of pouring in hours to study a text only for someone to comment, "That's not what my study Bible says." Perhaps, this notion goes back to the Schofield Study Bible, perhaps even further back. What often seems to happen, though, is that the study Bible becomes the interpretative key of Scripture. Rich, deep, complex themes are reduced to a few lines in a footnote, and the reader takes no more effort than that. Of course, there are many who use their study Bibles well, but the message sent by the various study Bibles as a whole is, "This is clearly what this text means. You need to look no further." What I have always dreamed about is a study Bible that gives cultural, geographical, and theological background to texts in order to aid interpretation and not provide all the interpretation. In other words, a Bible that gives the reader the tools to understand the text for themselves. The ESV does just this. I've been using it for a couple of months now, and it is everything that I hoped it would be. So for all of those seeking to dig deeper into Scripture, this would be a great Christmas gift.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Romans 1:24-32

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:24-32)
Up to this point, Paul had been describing why exactly God has cast his wrath upon mankind, but this section describes what that wrath is, what God’s judgment looks like. The theme of these verses, repeated three times, is “God gave them over.” God’s wrath is coming against humanity, and what that means is this giving over. Three things God has given humanity over to: “the lust of their hearts . . . and dishonoring of their bodies(1:24),” “dishonorable passions(1:26),” and “to a debased mind(1:28).” Here are some of my observations.

First, sin is the judgment. You constantly hear Christians talking about the judgment that is going to come against America because of its perversion and evil. God is going to condemn us because of homosexuality, abortion, pornography, etc. But Paul is saying that these are the judgement. Homosexuality is the judgment. God is giving men and women over to unnatural and unhealthy patterns of life that separates them now and forever from everlasting joy. Pornography is not going to bring more judgment in the sense of terrorists attacks or more natural disasters. It’s going to breed more sexual addiction, degrade more women, ruin marriages, incapacitate men from being productive, permeate the society with sexual abuse, and so on. The sin is the judgment. You can translate this principle, I think, into eternal condemnation as well. Hell is when God abandons you to the “lust of your flesh” and to a “debased mind.”

Second, there seems to be an escalation of judgment. First God abandons men to themselves to exchange the truth of him for “the lie”(that’s the way it read in Greek). That in turn leads to unnatural and dishonorable passions, which then leads to a debased mind and the whole gamut of evil that follows (i.e. the list in 1:29-32). A good and helpful meditation might be on how this all plays out on an individual level and a societal level, because I think it is applicable to both. What is striking about this escalation is that those sins with the greatest stigma, at least in our society, like sins of lust or homosexuality are lower level judgments than more socially acceptable sins. For example, Paul seems to consider “gossips,” the “boastful,” the “disobedient to parents,” the “heartless,” etc. as deeper entrenched in evil than a man who gives in to “unnatural relations.” For many Christians this is quite radical. Let me say that none of these sins are acceptable, and all are examples of God’s wrath. Nevertheless, if we take this text seriously, and if you believe that the Bible is God’s Word then you have to, there are patterns of sin in our own lives and churches just as destructive as say homosexuality, if not more so. Paul presents sins of lust, like pornography, homosexuality, etc., as stepping stones on the humanities moral decline. But it makes us no better people if we skip step one and two and jump immediately to step three. Unbridled lust does lead to further sins of deceit, strife, gossiping, boasting, heartlessness, etc., but you cannot be too proud if you didn’t need the sins of lust to ease you into the sins of envy and deceit. You’ve simply chosen not to mess around with the marijuana and went straight for the heroin. I often hear Christians complain about the greater acceptance of gay and lesbian lifestyle when the Scriptures are so clear in condemning it. But is God less clear about our pride, judgmentalism, unforgiveness, gossip, deceit, anger, lack of mercy, sins which we are too often more than willing to tolerate in our own life? It’s something to think about.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Romans 1:21-23

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things (Romans 1:21-23).

“Although they knew God.” Many of the leading minds over the last several decades have predicted that as modern people get a better grasp of the world through science and technology that belief in God will dwindle. The obvious assumption behind this claim is that belief in God is a mere crutch to make sense of the unpredictable and unknowable. Once those unknowables are explained by science and harnessed by technology, there will be no need for the crutch. But the theory has not panned out. In fact, many scholars have noted that this is one of the most “spiritual” generations in American history. Poles indicate that the vast majority of Americans have faith in some god. So why is belief in God so difficult to budge? In this verse, Paul offers a different theory, a much more radical theory. Belief in the divine lingers on because it is deeply woven into the consciousness of all people.

They did not honor him or give thanks to him.” The problem with humanity, says Paul, is not an information problem. It is a heart problem. I remember having a conversation once with a friend who at the time was uncertain about the existence of God. We had some pretty deep discussions, and one day I was asking him about the reality of death. “How would you feel if you found out you were going to die tomorrow,” I asked. He responded, “I think I would be thankful for my life.” I interrupted, “Thankful to who." I wasn't trying to be smart, but the question begged answering. We all walk through our days either thankful or not so thankful. But in either case, the question is same. “Thankful to who?” “Angry with who?” “Treated unfairly by whom?” You can’t escape the sensus divinitatis(sense of the divine). So why aren’t we asking that question? The problem isn’t the head. It’s the heart.

“They became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Failure to give God his rightful position has massive systemic effects upon humanity. You cannot understand your life, your meaning, your responsibilities, your value, your purpose, nor the value, meaning, purpose of the world around you. Belief in God or lack of it is the rock upon which your entire life is built.

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” Enter into almost any higher education institution and suggest that you believe in the supernatural, and you are certain to be greeted with snickers if not outright guffaws. The “wise,” the “informed,” the “intelligent” would never give themselves over to a belief in God anymore than they would to belief in the tooth fairy. Proponents of this position often think themselves to have a very new approach to the question of God. Paul, writing two thousand years ago, says this is always the way. Men believe rejecting the true God is the wise and informed thing to do. If there is no God, they are indeed wise. But if they are wrong, there cannot be bigger fools.