Don't Just Bring Them to Church

How important is it for us as Christian men to be daily, proactively nurturing our families on the food of biblical truth? I'll let the Scots preacher of the 19th century, Robert Murray M'Cheyne answer that question:

"[Men], if you do not worship God in your family, you are living in positive sin; you may be quite sure you do not care for the souls of your family. If you neglected to spread a meal for your children to eat, would it not be said that you did not care for their bodies? And if you do not lead your children and servants to the green pastures of God's Word, and to seek the living water, how plain is it that you do not care for their souls? Do it regularly, morning and evening. It is more needful than your daily food - more needful than your work.

- Robert Murray M'Cheyne, The Sermons of M'Cheyne, p. 29

That last line haunts me: "It is more needful than your daily food - more needful than your work." Am I invested and motivated for spiritually training my family MORE than I'm motivated for succeeding in my career? If so, my priorities will reflect that. God help me.

Nurturing Humilty

The more we grow as Christians, the more we realize how prideful we are. Humility doesn't come naturally to any of us. Yet, as James 4:10 and other texts make clear, we can only benefit by growing in humilty. Are there any regular practices we can embrace to nurture humility to the glory of God?

One of the best I recently came across is offered by Roger Merrill, author of First Things First. Its the simple practice of soliciting honest feedback from our family members, truly being willing to hear their concerns about us and make necessary changes. Merrill writes,

"I asked each of our children to write three words on a piece of paper: 'continue,' 'stop' and 'start.' Then I said, 'What are the things I'm now doing you'd like to see me continue to do? What would you like to see me stop doing? What would you like to see me start doing that I'm not doing now?' My childrens' replies amazed me. Their replies were thoughtful, helpful and supportive. They reflected awareness and appreciation. I was astonished at the maturity of their replies." (First Things First, pp. 247-248)

The regular discipline of soliciting feedback can be used not only with our children but with our spouses, co-workers and friends. Though they may occasionally give us feedback out of step with God's will, more often than not their honesty will gently expose our sin and accentuate our need for Christ. When heard, received and responded to with an open heart desirous to change, the discipline of feedback is one of the best means by which to nurture godly humility - and grow in sanctifying grace.

Calvin on the Bible

"To try to establish contact with God without the Scriptures is like trying to behold His face by shutting our eyes or like an almost blind person trying to see without spectacles."

- John Calvin, C.R. 8, p. 427

Should I Visit the 'Holy Land'?

This week I was interviewed by a Christian magazine about the year in college I spent studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel back in 1992-93. The discussion raises issues relevant for Christians who might, themselves, think one day of traveling to Israel.

EFCA Today: Tell me more about your major and why you picked it.

Andy: Six months after I became a Christian at 17, I sensed a distinct call toward pastoral ministry. Therefore, when I matriculated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (a very secular school), I thought, “What could I study which would best equip me for ministry?” The results were to focus on ancient, near eastern history and Hebrew. It was through the Hebrew Department that I discovered the opportunity to study in Jerusalem.

EFCA Today: What were you most looking forward to re the year abroad?

Andy: A combination of deepening my academic studies (Hebrew language – biblical and modern, archaeology, ancient history) and pursuing an ‘experience’ of the ‘Holy Land’.

EFCA Today: What was not as you expected it to be about that year?

Andy: Regarding the two anticipations cited above, the first one (academic) exceeded my expectations and deepened my own scholarship considerably. The second pursuit, though, is a different story. Within my first month in Jerusalem I became very disillusioned with what I found there as a Christian. The Christian presence in Israel seemed either wholly accommodating/idolizing of all things Jewish or ignored the Jewish population, seeking only to ‘use’ them and their land in order to create a kind of Zionistic Disney Land (i.e. the American and European Christian tourists in their buses or winding their way through the Old City in their matching tour hats, buying their olive wood cross souvenirs, taking pictures, walking ‘where Jesus walked’, enjoying the commercialism and individualistic narcissism of it all. Most Christians there failed to care for the Jews or Arabs as people, or seek to build relationships with them or even share the gospel with them. As one who was not a tourist but living in a state run university surrounded by Jews and Arabs, I saw the land and its people from a very different perspective.

Eventually, I realized that my initial approach to Israel (to have a ‘spiritual experience in the Holy Land’) was deeply colored by my Dispensational reading of Scripture which I’d inherited from my Schofield Reference Bible which exalts the Jews and the land of Israel in God’s economy. My years at TEDS after my year in Israel helped me understand the Bible and God’s plan described there as a single, cohesive whole which focused on Israel only for a time in the OT for certain gospel purposes to be carried out through them, but only as types and shadows which point to the ultimate chosen people (the redeemed from every tribe, language, people and nation – Rev. 5:9-10) and the ultimate Promised Land (heaven – Hebrews 3-4).

All that to say, that God used my year of Christian disillusionment in Israel as a means to help me regard the Jews and Israel more clearly and biblically. Though I do believe travel to Israel can be very helpful for our scholarship and in order to visually/geographically place the events of the Bible, I think much harm is done by continuing to see Palestine as ‘the Holy Land’ and regarding the Jews as the concessionaires of our spiritual Disney Land.

EFCA Today: What were the highlights of the year — even if only temporary ones — and in what lifelong ways were you affected/ changed?

Andy: I had many highlights academically, the most memorable doing archaeological research at Caesarea on Pontius Pilate’s promontory palace and giving a presentation on our findings in the ancient Roman theater in that city. Still, the greatest highlight was meeting other Christian students at the Hebrew U., forming them into a weekly small group and discipling one another. We were also taken-in by some Southern Baptist missionaries who ran a Christian bookstore who helped us form a home away from home and with whom we experienced some very rich Christian fellowship.

EFCA Today: What would you say to pastors and other Christian leaders (women as well as men) who are considering taking a trip to Israel? What surprising things would you have to say?

Andy: I would encourage any Christians to visit Israel if they have an interest in doing so. I would say, “Go in order to grow your knowledge of biblical geography, so you can better visualize much of the Bible as you read it.” But I would caution them to leave their expectations of a ‘spiritual experience’ of ‘walking where Jesus walked’ and thinking they’ll get closer to God because they’re in the ‘Holy Land’ – leave those expectations in the states before they board the plane. According to Acts 2, the Holy Spirit lives as truly in their hometown in New Jersey or Florida as He does in Israel because His habitation is now with His redeemed people, not any given ethnic people or place – see I Peter 2.

Is Halloween a Gospel Issue?

Last week's message sought to draw a clear line between the gospel (the only ultimate litmus test for accepting or rejecting someone in the wider church) and the many secondary issues over which we have a host of convictions but which should never compel us to write off another believer.

Convictions of Christians regarding Halloween run the gamut. Is it a gospel issue or a secondary conviction issue? Rick Walston, President of Columbia Seminary, speaks clear-headedly to this often divisive issue in an article you can read here.

Why Focus On Men?

The longer I'm in church leadership, the more convinced I am that the lion's share of ministry focus needs to be directed toward men. With spiritually robust men, the women and children of the church will be taught well and will be protected, provided for and flourish. But when they're absent....

You cannot have a thriving church without a core of men who are true followers of Christ. If men are dead, the church is dead....

If we want to change the world, we must focus on men....

When men are absent and anemic the body withers....

The church and the Titanic have something in common: It's 'women and children first'. The great majority of ministry in Protestant churches is focused on children, next on women....

Men don't follow programs; they follow other men. A woman may choose a church because of the programs it offers, but a man is looking for another man he can follow.

- David Murrow, Why Men Hate Going To Church, pp. 8, 41, 43 & 59

Therefore, in 2010 I'm turning up the volume on equipping men to become biblically valiant leaders. Interested, guys? Ask me about it.

David's God-saturated Perspective

It is one thing to be told to become God-focused people, but usually more impactful is a living example. If you have any doubt that David was such a man, consider his prayer in Psalm 119:88, "In Your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of Your mouth."

What typically drives our prayers? Self-interest. And though John Piper in Desiring God effectively shows us that happiness in God is perfectly compatible with our own happiness, we have to admit that often our prayers fall short of that, boiling down to mere self-interest. Even our prayers for the lost, for many of us, often are not driven by God's glory in Christ's conquering grace but by the deep-seated feeling that if we pray for them, witness to them and lead them to Christ, God will be a bit more pleased with us. Much of our praying, if we're honest, is more about us than about God.

David's prayer in Psalm 119:88 stands out in stark contrast to that. He longs that God, in His love, would give him life. So far his prayer is unremarkable. I've witnessed the prayers of many people in hospitals who prayed desperately for their own lives. Why? Almost without exception for reasons like the following: Because they feared death. Because their families would miss them. Because they wanted to continue experiencing the joys of earthly life. These are natural prayers to pray when our lives are threatened. But David's prayer is supernatural: "In Your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of Your mouth." David wanted life for one reason: that he might have another day on earth in order to say 'no' to his fleshly longings and say 'yes' to pleasing God through obedience. Only one thing could have motivated such a prayer - the conviction that his joy in God's glory through his obedience outweighed his joy in anything else.

Ultimately, every decision we make today will be motivated by the expectation of joy. By God's grace, let's join David in the expectation that our joy will be most fully realized in God's pleasure, making us prayerfully happy to be alive simply so we might obey Him to His glory.

Calvin on Brilliant Unbelievers

We must carefully notice these two things - that a knowledge of all the sciences is mere smoke when the heavenly science of Christ is wanting; and man, with all his acuteness, is as stupid for obtaining of himself a knowledge of the mysteries of God, as an ass is unqualified for understanding musical harmonies.

- John Calvin, Commentary on I Corinthians, commenting on 1:20

For Kids the Gospel is More Caught Than Taught

In Gospel-Powered Parenting William Farley writes, "If you ask parents what is the most important thing they can do to raise children who will follow Christ, some will mention adequate discipline, others enrollment in a Christian school, still others the importance of home-schooling or Bible reading. They rarely mention example. Yet example is the first principle of parenting. This should not surprise us. Parenting is about leadership, and example is the first principle of biblical leadership. When parents practice what they teach, God gives them moral authority in their childrens' eyes. All the teaching in the Bible starts with example."

Farley goes on to show that our marriages are the primary realm where our kids need to see the gospel modeled. He writes, "The message that our marriage preaches either repels or attracts our children. God wants your child to watch your marriage and think, 'I want a marriage like that, and I want the God that produced it.' Or, 'When I think of the beauty of the gospel, I think of my parents' marriage. I want to be a part of a church that is loved by God the way my dad loves my mother. I want to be part of a church that finds its joy in submitting to Christ as my mother joyfully submits to my father.'" (pp. 107 & 111)

Adopted For Life

One of the gospel themes we touched on last Sunday was our adoption into God's family through Christ by grace. In light of that, the actual adoption of orphans becomes for us not only a means to share God's love with those most in need in our world, it becomes a living parable of who we've become to the glory of God's grace.

Russell Moore, theology professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recented wrote a book on that theme called Adopted For Life. Whether you've recently adopted a child, are considering adoption or long to understand and more deeply embrace what it means to be a son or daughter of God adopted by His grace, I would strongly recommend Moore's book. You can hear him explain the purpose of his book here.