Fight Clubs

Jonathan Dodson just released his booklet on accountability partners entitled Fight Clubs . It is a very gospel-centered, well thought out guide to accountability relationships. These relationships are essential for everyone, but most accountability relationships I have been in focus primarily on law and not grace, on our effort (or failure) and not on Christ's work. To me, this is must reading. You can download it for free here.

Connection Tools

Steve McCoy offers some great advice on how to connect with others. What I like about his advice is that he uses generosity, thoughtfulness, and self-giving as the means to make connections with people. I tend to be introverted like him, so I need avenues of kindness to win people over.

Home Grown Worship Music

Austin City Life, a church plant in Austin, TX and pastored by a friend (Jonathan Dodson) has recently released a worship album. I've known about this album for some time, but I haven't had a chance to check it out. I like to support churches in creating good music, but unfortunately many churches don't do it very well. ACL, however, has created a short but excellent collection of songs, and all but two are originals. The first song "In Your Name" is rare blend of gospel and mission, and local mission at that. You can read Steve McKoy's review or just go listen to it and download yourself.

World Christianity

Challies has an interesting post about Mark Noll's new book The New Shape of World Christianity. Looks like a really interesting read. Here are some interesting facts from the book.

This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called “Christian Europe.” Yet in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China; only in 1971 did the communist regime allow for one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Church to hold public worship services, and this was mostly a concession to visiting Europeans and African students from Tanzania and Zambia.

This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined—and the number of Anglicans in church in Nigeria was several times the umber in those other African countries.

This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland, and more were in congregations of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa than in the United States.

The past Sunday more people attended the Yoido Full Gospel Church pastored by Yongi Cho is Seoul, Korea, than attended all the churches in significant American denominations like the Christian Reformed Church, the Evangelical Covenant Church or the Presbyterian Church in America.

This past Sunday the churches with the largest attendance in England and France had mostly black congregations. About half of the churchgoers in London were African or African-Caribbean. Today, the largest Christian congregation in Europe is in Kiev, and it is pastored by a Nigerian of Pentecostal background.

This past week in Great Britain, at least fifteen thousand Christian foreign missionaries were hard at work evangelizing the locals. most of these missionaries are from Africa and Asia.

For several years the world’s largest chapter of the Jesuit order has been found in India, not in the United States, as it had been for much of the late twentieth century.

Same Old Story

The battle over worship music is nothing new. Hymns were once the contemporary, cutting edge music rejected by many churches. Now they are the tradition, and the wars continue. May God help us to keep the gospel at the center of our churches.

Equal, Yet So Very Different

Mary Farrar offers a very helpful article on understanding male sexuality. It blows me away that a woman could have such an accurate picture of what it is like to be a man. The article is addressed to wives about their husbands, but it is informative and enlightening for men as well. In this day and age, articles like this are must reading.

Rewards: Part 6

Objections (cont.)

2. If we are all perfect, won’t we all be at the same level?
We tend to think that perfection is a static state. Once your perfect, you don’t get any better. Or so we think. But perfection is more flawlessness than being all that we could be. Think back to Eden. Our first human ancestors were created perfect, but were they all that they could be? Apparently not, for God commanded them to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” Following those commands would lead them into whole worlds of new experience like sex, romance, building, creating, etc. Over time they would grow better and better at these tasks and derive more and more joy. They have always loved perfectly, and yet as they grew in their knowledge of one another they came to a deeper understanding of what “love” is. God isn’t “the same yesterday, today, and forever” because he is perfect, but because he is infinitely perfect.

As I said before, our brokenness, both our broken and twisted hearts and our broken bodies, will be gone forever. In that sense, we will be perfect, but we will not be all that we can be. It’s impossible to imagine that with minds no longer clouded by the psychological, social, and emotional effects of sin, with bodies liberated from the weakness and diseases that have hampered them, while living in the presence of the Creator God and of the redeemed from tribes, people groups, and nations from all over the world and history, we would not grow in our knowledge of God, love for others, joy of new experiences, etc. Edwards said, and I quite agree, that eternal life will not be more static but more dynamic than this present life. Freed from all that weighed us down, we will not run slower but faster. And I cannot help but conclude that part of the reward is just how fast we will grow. And when shall we stop growing? God is infinite and infinity alone is where we stop. But we can never reach that infinite level, for we are finite. That means that we shall grow and mature, learn and develop faster than we ever have before, but we will never stop. We will only increase at ever widening paces into eternity.

3. If we can progress in eternal life, why start storing up rewards now?
This objection comes directly on the heels of the last answer. Why get serious about rewards now when we’ll have eternity to make up for lost time? How twisted is the mind that offers such an objection. I don’t say that to condemn, for I entirely sympathize with the question. That doesn’t make it less twisted, because I'm a twisted man.

However, once you take a moments reflection, you will observe the absurdity of this thought. One might as well say, “Why should I start fighting this cancer now, I always have tomorrow” or “Why should I eat my dinner this week. There will be dinner next week everyday, and every week as far I can see.” If you do not cherish the miraculous and indestructible gifts of love, joy, faith, and holiness more than the temporal and fading treasures of this world, I can promise you that you will not like an eternal dwelling with God. In other words, if you are not seeking rewards, than you are not seeking God.

4. Isn’t working for an eternal reward really acting selfishly?
I hope by this point that you can answer this question yourself. But sometimes our minds are slower than our hearts, so I’ll give a brief response. Put simply, to love others to get the reward of a new corvette is selfish. To love others to get the reward of more love for others is not. Seeking God to get a gift is selfish, but seeking God to get more of God, or to get one of his gifts that displays more of Him to you, is not.

I have read a helpful illustration by Randy Alcorn, but I’ll put my own twist on it. Let’s say my son is taking swimming lessons (which he is) and is terrified of water (which he is), and let’s say that I promise to take him out for ice cream (which I did) if he doesn’t scream, cry, and does what he is told during the lesson. Now is my son’s motivation for obeying entirely selfish? Not necessarily. At least I hope not, since I try not to teach my children to be self-centered. We can find out pretty quick what his motive is. If say I take him out for ice cream, and he says, “Dad, I want ice cream, but I really don’t want to eat it with you,” then his motive would have been selfish. But he didn’t do that, and that is because his love for me and his desire for a reward from me are all wrapped up together. To him ice cream is a display of my love for him. God’s rewards are not detached from him; they are displays of him. If you want the gift but not the Giver, then you have a problem. But if you want the gift because it’s from the Giver, then you are living exactly as Jesus commanded.

Rewards: Part 5

Objections

1. How can I be eternally happy knowing that I will be eternally less happy than others? Okay, so maybe I don’t have to spend eternity starring at Billy Graham’s palace from my cramped studio apartment, but I do have to spend eternity in the company of others far more joyful and immersed in God’s glory than me. How can eternity be eternal bliss knowing that I’m second rate?

There are several false assumptions lying behind this objection. First, it fails to take into account the perfect state of holiness we will be in. Why do you assume that another’s greater happiness will you make you less happy? Certainly, in this day when a good friend gets a raise or inherits $100,000 while we can barely afford our next tank of gas, we tend to grumble rather than rejoice over our friend’s good luck. And “good luck” it is, right? He certainly didn’t earn it. It’s not like he is better than me. I’ve probably prayed harder, have been more responsible, and need it more than him, but I suppose I should be happy for him. So our thinking goes. But is this the way we shall see those of greater raptures in the eternal state. Will we really be shaken by our envy of them? Sin and tragedy are the roots of grief. Jesus’ resurrection says that the roots will be pulled and the weeds of unhappiness with them. In a healed land populated by healed people, only happiness is possible. If your heart bursts with nothing but love for another, and that other is better off than you, you do not begrudge their richness. You rejoice in it. The fact that others will be better off than ourselves will not make us less joyful; it will increase our joy. They are our joy, and their betterment is our betterment.

Secondly, we tend to think that less happy means more unhappy, or that experiencing less of God means we receive less of God. These seem logical enough, but it does not necessarily follow that being less happy means being more unhappy. In addition to Scripture, much of my thinking on rewards owes to Jonathan Edwards. Edwards used the example of bowls. Take two bowls of differing sizes. Say one holds 10 oz. and the other holds gallon. Now in the smaller bowl does it follow that holding less water means it is more empty than the larger bowl? Of course not. The smaller bowl my be full to the brim and still hold less water. Think of eternity in a similar vein. All of us will be bowls of joy, but the size of those bowls will vary. Some will be 10 oz. and some 10 gallons. But every bowl will be full to the brim. You will never think, “Oh, I wish I could have so much more.” You will be bursting at your capacity for joy. You will hardly be able to believe that more joy is possible, and yet it will be.

Furthermore, it does not follow that experiencing less of God means we receive less of Him. Theologian Millard Erickson uses the example of attending the performance of a classical orchestra. Depending upon the understanding and love of classical music, two individuals may have very different experiences. One person may be totally engrossed while the other bored to tears. But it is not because they are hearing different things. They are both immersed into the same bath of harmony. In a similar fashion, God’s glory and love will not be more on display for some and less for others. We shall be immersed into the same bath, but like with the music some of us are greater connoisseurs of God. One’s vision will not be at all different from another, and yet it will be very, very different.

Rewards: Part 4

What Are Rewards(continued)
One of the glories of eternal life is to see God. So Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”(Matthew 5:8). John too writes, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is”(1 John 3:2). Now this is something to live for. I’ve been awed by mountain peaks, calmed by the ocean waves, amazed at the brilliance of coral life, but one day I will see the Maker of these and many other glorious visions I have not seen. And this Maker is infinitely more brilliant, awesome, calming, and beautiful than anything he has made. In fact, the vision of him is so powerful that John states that it will transform us: “We will be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Thus, the degree of this sight, this vision, is in some part dependent upon the way we live our lives now.

Or take another example. Again the apostle Paul writes, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming?”(1 Thessalonians 2:19) Paul is asking rhetorically what exactly does he consider his reward? And the answer; “Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” The reward is people! Jesus says something similar: “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life (read eternal rewards), so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together.” The one who sows (i.e. first shares the gospel) and the one who reaps (i.e. has the privilege of leading that person to follow Christ) are gathering fruit for eternal life, and the fruit, it seems, are the people they are gathering. Here again the reward now and the reward future are one and the same. Our eternal joy is the same as our current joy, which in this case is seeing people’s lives transformed and brought into eternal life.

One more example. In Jesus’ parable of the talents, the master says to his faithful servant, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” That last statement is what strikes me. Part of the reward is the “joy of your master.” Certainly, eternal life means joy for all those who enter it, but the degree of joy seems to hinge on the degree of faithfulness. After all, the reward isn’t just joy. It is the “joy of your master.” Experiencing God’s joy in the future will partly depend upon the degree which I enjoy him now.

In James 1:25, he states that in obedience to God we will be “blessed in our doing.” He doesn’t say blessed “for” our doing, but “in” our doing. The obedience itself is a reward. Paul says in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Obeying that command doesn’t just bring us a reward; it is the reward. So eternal rewards are not a bigger house, a fancy crown, or a standing ovation. The reward for seeking joy in God is greater joy in God, and the reward for loving others is more love for others.

Rewards: Part 3

What Are Rewards?
This, to me, is a huge question. I think one of the reasons rewards sound so distasteful is what we view rewards as. For example, suppose the reward is a 34,000 sq. ft. mansion, complete with its own olympic size swimming pool, a private waterfall and river, an indoor golf course, and of course an IMAX theater. It’s heaven, right? Why skimp? At least, that’s Billy Graham’s reward. I’m no Billy Graham, so sadly I have to live with a measly 1,000 sq ft. home and a koi pond. What’s more is that I become Billy’s neighbor, so everyday I walk out of my cramped two bedroom flat, dodge a mosquito from my pond, and see Billy living in luxury. Of course, I have the joy of the Lord, so it’s okay. The moral of the story would then be: Be good now or heaven’s going to be a real let down. Or to rephrase Jesus’ words, “Don’t buy a big house now where time and termites eat it down to rot and decay. Give your money away and store up for yourself a massive palace where there ain’t no termites.” Something seems a little wrong with that picture.

In Romans 2 we get a different picture. In verse 6, another “evaluation” passage, Paul writes, “[God] will render to each one according to his works.” Okay, so this is exactly the kind of passage we are looking for. Paul is arguing that God gives rewards and punishments, so what are they? “To those,” he says, “who by patience and well-doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality.” So he is talking about the good guys here, the ones who seek for eternal rewards, and the rewards they are seeking are “glory and honor and immortality.” And what reward do they get? He finishes, “[God] will give eternal life.” Well, that’s not exactly a detailed description of rewards. Eternal life is what every true Jesus follower receives. But I think this passage unlocks the mystery of these rewards.

Let’s start with what the good guys are seeking. What are “glory and honor and immortality”? “Immortality” seems easy enough. It would be real life, never-ending life, life as it was meant to be lived. But notice that overlaps with “eternal life.” What about “glory and honor”? We tend to immediately think of the applause and praise of others, but that cannot be the idea. The bad guys in this passage, the ones who don’t seek for eternal rewards, are those who are “self-seeking”(2:8). It would make almost no sense, then, for “glory and honor” to be personal recognition. Glory and honor do have that connotation, even in the Greek, but there is a more foundational meaning. Glory and honor are something that we can give, but they are also a quality. In Hebrew the word “glory” means “weighty” or “heavy.” It’s a word that refers to something of extraordinary value. This idea is the more foundational notion of glory and honor. After all, the reason you give a someone glory and honor is because they are glorious and honorable. The value of the person merits the honor or glory given. Therefore, to seek “glory and honor” is to seek that which has immense value, that which is tremendously weighty. All of this, I think, is wrapped up in the simple phrase “eternal life.” Therefore, Paul says that those who seek for the weighty things of eternal life receive them as their reward.

“Yes but again,” you say, “doesn’t every real Christian receive this?” True, but remember we are talking about degrees. We all receive eternal life, but the degree to which we receive that life will be different. This is a huge breakthrough, at least it is for me. Rewards are not additions to eternal life, but the degrees of which we enjoy that life. I'll gives some examples in my next post.

Love Your Enemies

Justin Taylor posted this a couple of days ago, and I thought it worth some reflection.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 118:
Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out.

Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible?

If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything — God and our friends and ourselves included — as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.

Then Taylor offered this observation:

This certainly applies in politics, doesn't it? When George W. Bush was President, he was demonized daily by those who thought virtually everything he did was utterly scandalous and terrible. And now many conservatives--including, ahem, many Christians--are returning the favor with President Obama.

Frankly, I'm embarrassed by half the things that come out of Christians' mouth towards our current president. I didn't vote for Obama and probably never would, but I do get the feeling that many Christians are more interested in rooting for Obama's failure and looking for a fight, then they are in ways they can support him, pray for him, offer constructive and helpful criticism of him, and maybe, just maybe, learn something from him. Oh, that we would love our enemies and not look for reasons to hate them.

Michael Jackson - He died a while ago

Andrew Sullivan provides some thoughts on the pop icon's bizarre and tragic life. This line in particular gripped me: "He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell."

Brian Regan

Just felt like posting a couple of clips of my favorite comedian.

Enjoyment or Idolatry

Just last night in our small group we were considering when wanting a good thing can become a bad thing. John Piper offers a very insightful little article and discerning whether our enjoyment of something is becoming idolatrous. Here is a taste.

Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right. It may be that another person ought to give you this delight. It may be right to tell them this. But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising.

Rewards: Part 2

Why Degrees of Reward Makes Sense (Be sure to read Rewards: Part 1 below)
Degrees of rewards just makes sense. If nothing else, diversity makes this necessary. Let’s say you are part of a building project. Only this project is very unique, because the people carrying it out are totally free from selfishness and sin. The planning, designing, and building is all done by individuals whose concerns and passions are only for Jesus and for his people. So how does a group of perfect people build a building? Perhaps you’re thinking the process would be totally democratic. No need for leadership, authority, organization, etc. After all, aren’t those things only necessary for people who want their own way or tend to be lazy and unproductive. None of that exists with this group. Everybody gets along perfectly and wants what is best for each other.

However, maybe our inclination toward democracy is more due to our Western mindset than it is to necessity. Democracy would work better in a perfect world, but so would a dictatorship or a monarchy. When it comes to human beings, even perfect human beings, leadership and organization will always be necessary. And the reason is diversity. All are not equally gifted at construction or architecture or creativity. Some like to construct a building, others prefer building visions, and still others like to take the vision of the leaders, combine them with skills of the builders, and organize an efficient team.

But let’s take this a step further. Suppose you have half dozen people on the design team. Each has his own vision of the structure and proposes it. Who decides which design is to be implemented? Surely the team will talk and probably combine ideas, but who decides which ideas are used and not used? Who moves the conversation along? And once the design is ready, how do the workers get organized? The biblical vision of our eternal home is billions of people from dramatically diverse cultures and backgrounds building, cultivating, and creating for Jesus and each other. Even in a perfect world, you can’t have those dynamics and not have leadership, authority, and organization. The alternative is that everybody thinks the same way, has the same ideas, and have the same abilities. Does that sound like eternal bliss or eternal torture? One of the reasons the popular idea of heaven is so repulsive is that life in a monochrome world sounds suicidally mundane. But the biblical picture isn't less diversity in eternity but more. Not only will we be from different cultures, nations, and territories, but we will be from different periods of history. Ancient Romans with medieval Britons with 21st century Brazilians and so on. Diversity of people means diversity of station. And it seems to me that our station in the new creation is in some measure determined by our works in this present world.

There's more to come.