Christianity powerfully explained

I have recently come across the clearest, most compelling article explaining the gospel and its transforming, liberating power for sinners I have ever read. It is worth not only pondering deeply but sharing with our yet unbelieving friends. Read it here.

HT: Dawn Talley

The goal of evangelism

I recently attended a promotional event for a Christian camp. According to the various speakers, the camp is a successful ministry and is being mightily used by God because such and such a number of campers 'made decisions' to follow Christ. That's a predictable scenario at Christian fundraising events, but we need to ask ourselves if this is a good and biblical measure of ministry success. More to the point, are 'decisions' the goal of Christian evangelism? Tim Keller helpfully answers this question as follows:

"The 'Great Commission' is not just a call to 'make disciples' but to 'baptize'. In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism means incorporation into a worshipping community with accountability and boundaries (cf. Acts 2:41ff.). Much traditional evangelism aims to get a 'decision' for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these 'decisions' disappear and never result in changed lives. Why? Many, many decisions are not really conversions, but often only the beginning of a journey of seeking God. (Other decisions are very definitely the moment of a 'new birth,' but this differs from person to person.) Only a person who is being evangelized in the context of an on-going worshipping and shepherding community can be sure of finally coming home into vital, saving faith." (source unknown)

Only one on-going, worshipping and shepherding community is presented in the Bible: the local church. Therefore, even if a person comes to faith in Christ outside of the local church, they should be quickly and deeply integrated for their dicipleship and maturation. The Bible simply offers no category for a believer (new or old) who is disconnected from the local church.

Remembering who we are

"I am not what I ought to be;
I am not what I want to be;
I am not what I hope to be in another world;
but still I am not what I used to be;
by the grace of God I am what I am."

- John Newton

The logic of election

"I can choose to eat whatever food I prefer. I cannot, however, choose my preferences. In the spiritual birth, we are given new 'taste buds' so that for the very first time we can choose to do good things [including responding to the gospel with faith and repentance] because we have been given new desires, or preferences, for the good."

- Rod Takata, Ruling elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church

Dating's Downfall

In recent years some strong critique against traditional dating has been marshalled by conservative Christians in favor of a more old-world, courtship model. I won't dispute the many benefits of replacing dating with courtship. At the same time, unless courtship faces up to the fundamental sinfulness of both parties and their desperate need for the gospel, courtship, as much as dating, may add up to a form of false advertising and portend future heartache on both sides. Paul Tripp agrees:

"Honestly, most dating [or courtship] is only about half a step from used-car sales. Stay with me here! To put it bluntly but accurately, the idea in Western culture dating is to sell yourself [or, in courtship to sell your son or daughter]. The last thing you want is for the other person to really get to know you. Consequently, a man who doesn't like to shop will suddenly be saying things like, 'Sure honey, I would love to go to another twelve stores to look for those special shoes you have in mind.' A woman who doesn't appreciate sports will find herself volunteering to watch sports with her date and his buddies for hour upon endless, grueling hour.

Having presented one another with only their best behavior, the man and woman each convince themselves that they have found a nearly perfect person. As they move toward that day when they will actually begin living together in the world's most comprehensive relationship, they do not factor into their expectations the difficulties of life in this broken-down house of a world. Then, when the marriage takes an unexpected turn they are shocked, saddened, and utterly unprepared. Six months after the wedding, the wife is crying and saying, 'This is not the man I married!' But, of course, he is. He is precisely the man she married. It's the guy she dated who was the fake."

- Paul David Tripp, Broken-Down House, pp. 27-28

Job's key to unlock Philippians 2:3-4

We're all wired to 'think more highly of ourselves than we ought' (Rom. 12:3) and consider others' needs/desires primarily when its to our advantage or convenient. Therefore, Philippians 2:3-4 is one of the most challenging texts in the Bible:

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

We only need to keep reading to discover the primary, theological key to winning this war against selfishness as Paul, in vv. 5-11, holds up the ultimate 'exhibit A' of other-centered sacrificial service: Christ's incarnation and death on the Cross in our place.

This morning as I was studying my Bible I came across a second key to unlock selflessness toward others in Job 31. Verse 15 reads, "Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?" In the process of defending his fair treatment toward others, Job bases his pattern of selfless, other-centered service on the fact that the people in his life were made by God every bit as much as he was. They have hopes, dreams and a mission in life from God as much as he does. They were made in the image of God as much as he was. Therefore, it would be wrong to put his agenda ahead of theirs or act like they exist to serve his desires. No, their lives were every bit as valuable as his. Consequently, he devoted his life not only to serving God (see Job 1:1) but to serving others.

Who in your world are you tempted to marginalize or manipulate to serve your agenda today? All of us have someone we generally take for granted or treat more like a possession than a person. Let's not only use Paul's picture of Christ the Servant in Philippians 2 to fight our naturally selfish instincts today, let's use Job's example of remembering that the people in our lives are every bit as important as we are. They, too, were made by God.

The danger of going too far

For decades the debate over our interpretation of the creation account in Genesis 1 & 2 has been lively, not only in American culture but within conservative Christian circles. A number of hermeneutical issues are at play, including debates over genre, language, literary context and theological intent.

While there may be room for differences of opinion regarding some of these interpretive elements, we must be careful to hold with an indefatigable grip to the historicity of the account and the reality of Adam, Eve and the serpent. Considering the fact that Paul grounds our justification in Romans 5 and our glorification in I Corinthians 15 by assuming a literal Adam (our federal head in death) failing God's test in a literal garden, setting the stage for our salvation in a literal Jesus (our federal head in life), the historicity of the persons and events of Genesis 1 & 2 must be maintained.

In light of that, I am saddened and concerned by recent comments made on this subject by one of my scholar-heros. Watch and consider carefully if he is not giving away too much in his pursuit of scholarship:

A model from the mountains

Are you enjoying a regular feast of God's Word in your diet of daily disciplines? Personally, I find a reading plan or structure of some kind helpful as a guide to set my study on a given course to give me direction. Sometimes, the most enriching way to study the Bible is to choose a single book and soak in its pages long and deep. That doesn't have to involve reading commentaries (though it could). It might just involve reading and re-reading until the message of the book is part of you. Our good friend and Colorado church planter, Vince Black, recently let me know what his current study of God's Word looks like:

"I took the month of March to read and study through the book of Galatians in my personal reading. I don't have a schedule to get through a certain amount of reading but I try to read through the entire letter in one sitting. I've done that now for 31 days. It has been extremely helpful in my understanding of the argument of the letter. I think I will start in on the Minor Prophets in April in much the same way."

Intricate study of the book of the Bible using outside sources is helpful in many ways, but it's hard to beat simply reading and re-reading and then reading again a book all the way through to get a clear sense of how its entire message hangs together. May Vince's example inspire us to take up the Book and read, re-read and then read again.

Faith Isn't Just Fire Insurance

True saving faith is not simply a matter of believing in Christ because you are afraid of going to hell; faith is not simply a matter of avoiding punishment where you do not have any desire to love and enjoy Christ. Rather, true saving faith means that you come to a deep, heartfelt conviction of how precious Christ is, and 'account all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord' (Philippians 3:8). You come to see Christ as all your salvation and happiness (Colossians 3:1).

True saving faith also means that you love every part of Christ's salvation - holiness as well as forgiveness of sins. It means that you earnestly desire God to 'create in you a clean heart and a right spirit' as well as 'hide his face from your sins' (Psalm 51:9-10). Do not be like those who care nothing about Christ at all, except to be delivered from hell. 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.' (Matthew 5:6)

- Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, p. 51

Sudan Prayer Request

I just got word today from our ReachGlobal contacts in Africa that AIM, the missionary aviation ministry we typically use to fly into Sudan, has announced plans to pull all of their workers out of Sudan at the present time in preparation for the election of officials in Southern Sudan. AIM has made this decision based on the fact that things in Sudan could get violent depending on the outcome of the vote.

Where does that leave us regarding the one or two remaining 2010 trips we had planned to return to Sudan to continue our Community Health Evangelism training? We're not sure. Lord willing, the elections will be peacable and Southern Sudan will remaina peaceful place to send our missionaries. So please pray that our God might give us wisdom to assess the unfolding situation well and make decisions which are both biblically wise and most helpful to our brothers and sisters in Labone Payam.