What's Your Alibi?

Sleeper arise from the dead
You're wasting your life in the bed
The world is weeping
You're still sleeping
Somehow it's just isn't right
To sleep day and night

It's a sleep paradise à la mode
When you wake up, you'll explode
The world is screamin'
You're still dreamin'
Somehow it's seems like a crime
Sleep all the time

Tell me now sleeper don't lie
What's your alibi?

(Sleeper, DeGarmo and Key)

Evangelistic Lethargy

Any true healing begins with deep repentance, and the first duty of repentance is contrite prayer. If you haven't recently confessed your lack of evangelistic zeal, then the following prayer might be a good place to start. Pray it carefully, and as you pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help you mean what you are praying.



"Father and God, we confess that we have accommodated ourselves to the idea of most people not knowing You. We confess that we have believed what nonbelievers say about themselves, which is that they have a right to remain in their unbelief.

Father, we confess that we live in a nation that believes that it has the right to not come to You, and we confess this sin on their behalf.

We know, Father, that if we in the Church regard iniquity in our own midst, or in our own hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual. Father, we confess that we in the Church have been lethargic in our evangelism. We ask that You would forgive us for this, and that You would stir us up with a zeal for others to come to know You.

And Father, we also confess our own sins to You now—Selah . . . We do this in the majestic name of Jesus our Savior, and amen."

(Pastor Douglas Wilson, Christ Church, Moscow, ID)

The Left-Handed Power of Hospitality

Martin Luther dubbed the power of love and service "left-handed power" compared to the "right-handed power" of physical strength and military might. Below is a recent exhortation from Pastor Douglas Wilson that I encourage you read, heed and apply.



"We gather here as a result of the gospel, and we gather as a means of proclaiming the gospel. The ordained evangelist proclaims the gospel to those outside, and the informal evangelist shares the faith with others as it comes up. But all of us together are evangelical Christians, and we are all to be radiating the gospel (that has gathered us here) in an ongoing way. So we are all evangelists in some sense.

And so here is a two-fold exhortation. And it is just that—an exhortation. Nothing here to bind the conscience, but it is an exhortation to take to heart. Between now and Paschal Sunday, the day of resurrection, I would urge you to share a meal with unbelievers. Whether you take a co-worker to lunch, or have a neighboring family over for your first barbeque of the spring, the task is a simple one. Before Easter, break bread with some unbelievers. The second task is to simply pray that God would use it for their good, and His glory.

Don’t have them over, and then get into a sweat about how will you ever bring up the gospel? Don’t worry about that. Give it to God. You are not selling insurance, and you are not in multi-level marketing. You don’t have to close any deals. We are loving individuals, not dealing with quotas or timelines.

So there it is, a simple exhortation. Invite a non-Christian over. See what happens."

(Pastor Douglas Wilson, Christ Church, Moscow, ID)

Rich and Impure or Chaste and Poor?

Here is a question: What does scripture forbid more strongly, pre-marital sex or marrying while poor?

Here is a second question: Do we evangelicals encourage the biblical priority (see above) with our standards for marriage?

For some intriguing thoughts on this subject please read this.

Two Helmets, One Day

Two helmets, one beautiful day in the Wenatchee Valley. Man, I love this place!

Rapture Pet Care

Don't really know whether to laugh or cry at this one. (HT: Douglas Wilson)

Lewis on Loving Your Spouse Well

"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.

Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all.

When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased."

—C. S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (8 November, 1952) HT: Justin Taylor

To Hell With Hell

Toby Sumpter has "hit another one out of the park" here. All praise to the God who interrupts! (HT: Corey McEachran)

Don't Run With Scissors

"Police in Indiana are searching for a man who robbed a tobacco store with a pair of scissors. They said the guy could be a real danger — unless you have a rock." (Jimmy Fallon)

The Thorn

The Thorn
by Martha Snell Nicholson

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Shack Attack

A very large portion of modern evangelicalism has read William P. Young's The Shack. Here are some very good resources to help you think Biblically about this popular novel. (HT: Justin Taylor)

Work Well Done

"The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

. . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.

The official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work—by which she means ecclesiastical work. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming." (Dorothy Sayers, Chaos or Creed)

HT:Justin Taylor

Critique of Driscoll Sermon: Part I

Recently, a sister-in-the-Lord asked for comments on a sermon preached by Mark Driscoll directly before he baptized his son (and some others) in the River Jordan. Before I weigh in on the sermon I would like to make a couple of prefatory comments.

Firstly, I realize that to disagree with Pastor Driscoll publically is roughly the equivalent of painting a bull’s-eye on my chest and giving the raspberry to an army of English longbow-men. But, as they say, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

Secondly, under the heading of “giving honor where honor is due,” I am greatly indebted to Pastor Driscoll for the many helpful insights that I have gleaned from his books and online sermons. Personally and pastorally Mark has been a huge blessing to “me and mine”, and I praise God for him and for Mars Hill Church.

And now, with that said, on to the comments!

I have to admit that I was a bit envious when I figured out that Pastor Mark was preaching a sermon on baptism, while standing on the shore of (or in) the River Jordan about to baptize his son, mother and father and others who were assembled for that purpose. I mean really. How cool is that? You could even hear some Palestinian geese heckling Mark as he preached (probably Muslim or Jewish birds!)

The bulk of the sermon was very good, especially his comments on repentance and confession. Driscoll’s gift for taking theological concepts and making them understandable and practicable for Joe Average Christian was gloriously evident as he preached on the necessity and practice of true reconciliation. Amen, and amen brother Mark!

My disagreements would fall under two headings: Religion and the proper recipients of baptism.

Pastor Mark regularly disparages “religion” without qualification. If Driscoll would have included the modifier “false” before every usage of “religion” then I could’ve happily agreed with just about everything that he preached. The antithesis in the Bible is between true religion and false religion, not no-religion and religion. For example, we are exhorted to the practice of “pure” religion in James 1:27. James doesn’t insist that the faithful abandon religion. Rather, he calls the faithful to practice religion in humble submission to God’s Word. The Oxford Dictionary defines religion as, “a particular system of faith and worship.” Therefore, religion is inescapable. Mars Hill Church is religious and so is its pastor. The only question is: “What system of faith and practice?” For the record, I agree with Driscoll that we ought to refute, revile and reject all forms of religion that depend, even to the slightest degree, upon man’s supposed goodness, effort and/or merit. But I would also contend that we should embrace the religion (the “particular system of faith and worship”) that insists that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

To illustrate: If someone painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa, it wouldn’t make sense to revile the painting itself. But it would make sense to lovingly and carefully remove whatever paint the vandals had put there, in order to restore, preserve and enjoy the original beauty of DaVinci’s masterpiece.

All this may seem rather petty and picayunish, but God has very strict prohibitions against calling evil that which He has declared to be good (see Isaiah 5:20).

To be continued…

Gossip and Flattery

"Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face. Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back." (R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man)

Adventure Books

Robin Knox-Johnston aboard the Suhaili

There is nothing quite like a real life adventure book to stir the soul and put present distresses in their proper perspective. If you enjoy this genre too, then I would highly recommend two books for your reading pleasure: Endurance, by Alfred Lansing and A Voyage for Madmen, by Peter Nichols.

Wow.

Endurance (subtitle: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage) is an account of the Ernest Shackleton's failed attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1914. A Voyage for Madmen (subtitle: Nine men set out to race each other around the world. Only one made it back.) is the account of the impromptu race sponsored by the London Globe in 1968 to see who could be the first to circumnavigate the globe alone, without stopping or re-provisioning. Both tales portray the lives of men taken to the utter limits of deprivation, fear, physical exhaustion and mental stamina. A-mazing.

Drop me a line if you read either one. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Lectionary Thoughts: Mark 4

Biblical Theology must always drive Systematic Theology. We Christians must be committed to let the Bible say what it says, even (or especially) when a plain reading of a text messes up the neatly coiffed hair of our systematized formulations of doctrine. The parable of the sower in the fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel is a good test of a Reformed Christian's interpretive priorities.

Before I continue I would like to reaffirm my love and admiration for what is known as the Reformed, or Calvinistic way of interpreting the Bible. If you cut me I bleed Westminster and Three Forms of Unity. If there were (as a pastor friend of mine once noted) six points of Calvinism I would happily believe and preach all six. I believe in what the Canons of Dordt called "The Perseverance of the Saints"; the doctrine that the elect of God will persevere in their faith and consequently in their salvation. Yes, and amen.

However, we go too far if we maintain that is is impossible for someone to have the word of God sown in their hearts, for them to receive that word with gladness and then to fall away. For that is exactly what Jesus warns of in verses 14-17.

Some Reformed types, in an effort to protect their system of doctrine maintain that the word was never really sown in, nor received by, the one who falls away. But the problem is that the exact same words (sown and received) are used to describe the person who bears the godly fruit of saving faith in verse 20. It would be more accurate to say that all the sowing/receiving in Mark 4 is genuine sowing/receiving, but not all the sowing/receiving in Mark 4 is unto salvation. I'm just sayin'...

The Birdmen Are Back...

Un-real. (HT: Jon De Jong)

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Lectionary Thoughts: Mark 3

Family is important. Very important. But we go too far if we maintain that "Blood is thicker than water." When Jesus was asked to acknowledge his mother and brothers who had come to see him, he seized the opportunity to establish heaven's hierarchy: "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother." In other words, when determining ultimate loyalties, the water of baptism always trumps the blood of physical descent. Or, to put it more simply, "Water is thicker than blood."

Lectionary Thoughts: Matthew 24

(Matthew 24:37-41) For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.

In sermons and songs about "The Rapture" it is always good to be "taken" and horrible to be "left behind." But according to Jesus, to be "taken" is to be swept away in flood-like judgment. And to be "left behind" is to be spared the wrath of God. I'm just sayin'...

Lectionary Thoughts: Genesis 39

As Joseph notes in verse nine, his master Potiphar had given him everything in his house, except for his wife. This statement reminds us of the first Adam who was told that he could eat of every tree except for one. Joseph, unlike the first Adam, chose gratitude and obedince over ingratitude and rebellion, and having done so, pointed every faithful reader of the Bible to the last Adam (Jesus) who, in the wilderness and on the cross, would do the very same.