Confronting for the Gospel

How do you convince someone in your church leadership the importance of sharing the Gospel at every available opportunity? I'm not saying that we have to end every paragraph with the Gospel, but no matter the environment the Gospel should be paramount.: Sunday sermon, Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, Service projects, Mission trips, Youth lock-ins, etc. Each provides an opportunity to point to the Glory of Christ and His amazing sacrifice. Its not an afterthought to those activities, its the entire reason for the activities.

The Gospel is the foundational, bedrock, in fact the entire point of being a Christian and being with other Christians. The Gospel is even in our name: Christian -> Christ -> Messiah -> One who was to be slain that others might be restored to God.

God loved us so much, but retained his full justice and therefore there had to be payment for sin. God understands how horrible hell is. He knows that we're going to be so much more miserable than we think we will be. So He provided His Son to pay our penalty, that if we believe in the effectiveness in that payment, we'll be with Him in Eternity, enjoying the total bliss and amazement of finally understanding how truly great and awesome He really is.

So if we have even the slightest inkling of the Gospel, wouldn't we want our church leaders to lead us to Christ and the Gospel at all times and in all venues? The Gospel beautifully applies to the saved and the unsaved. It points us to worship and recognize our own lack of self worth. I don't know how to convince the leader I'm talking with tomorrow of the desperate need I have for the Gospel, let alone the unbeliever. I'm praying that the Spirit will intercede for me.

Please join me as I pray for my church leaders, you pray for yours, that they would remember the Gospel and its centrality to everything a church should be involved in. Please honor and confront your church leaders with love and humility and call them to the Gospel. Remind them that their attendees are perishing without the Gospel.

Got a chance to share the Gospel this weekend

I was at a family get together in north-Philadelphia. It was cold and rainy, but there was some excellent Belgian wheat beer and the discussion got really interesting. It's all my wife's family so I'm not related to any of them, but they're great people and mostly catholic, since they're of Polish decent from Long Island. We were talking about interpreting the constitution, and I mentioned that I'm an originalist because I view the Bible in the same terms.

Basically I believe that the Bible should be interpreted based on what the original authors intent was in communicating to their original audience. Then the challenge left to us is understanding how that intent applies to 21st century people. This of course led us to a discussion of textual-criticism. I summarized the key points of the discussion to: (1) A real God who was really powerful would ensure that the words He wanted to communicate, would be. (2) We have so many copies that are so close to when the original manuscripts were written, that to say we don't have accurate translations today is ridiculous.

Then my wife's 15 year-old 2nd cousin pointed out that 'all religions are really the same thing' as he's learning in his world history class that recently covered Islam, & Hinduism. I mentioned in response that those other world religions may appear in the externals to be similar, but on the internals are radically different. I then asked him to describe the 'heaven entry requirements' for those faiths and Christianity. When he got to Christianity, he said following the 10 commandments was how you got in.

I then got to share that, actually the Bible teaches that all men, including us, had sinned against God and that He was righteously angry as a result, and that the only way His wrath could be averted was via the sacrifice of His Son on the cross to pay for our sins. Our response is merely faith in that effective salvation and not a list of works. This is what separates a relationship with Christ from all other 'faiths.' We do nothing to come to God, He graciously does it all. In all other systems, the human has to do all the work.

Sadly we weren't able to get to any other conclusions during the evening as the hour was so late. But I thank God that He used me to share His amazing truth, and I pray that the seed planted in the hearers would grow to full-blown faith.

To Him be the Glory!

Caught my bad Exegesis

Tonight in Bible study we were looking at Isaiah 5:1-4. The fourth verse in NKJV reads:
4 Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, And they shall fall among the slain.
For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

My gut reaction to anything in the Bible that says 'But' is to assume that God is being merciful to someone, even me (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor 2:10, 10:13; Gal. 3:18; Eph. 2:4, Phil. 2:27, etc..). I assumed the verse was saying that God was holding back His full hand of wrath. So the group talked for a few minutes about God's mercy to sinners even though they deserve worse. And that is very true doctrine.

But in the middle of Bible study, I felt the Spirit nudge me and say "that isn't right read it again." Reading vs 4 again and looking at some of the cross-references, its clear that the verse is not about mercy but is actually a warning: Unrighteous - wealthy people, who think they've gotten away with oppressing the poor and wasting money, are still under God's righteous wrath. They think they've escaped 'But' God's hand is still raised above them and is about to fall, like smashing a fly on the table.

We all scurried through our cross-references together and read the verse in a couple different translations that people had, and came to the proper interpretation. It was a cool moment in the study to teach how to properly interpret a scripture. God was gracious to turn my mistake into something positive. Isn't He cool?

Here's the verse rendered this time by the ESV. Its a little clearer:
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain.
For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

Just a reminder to myself and to the other journy-men exegetes out there. When you're interpreting the Word, don't be afraid to fix your mistakes mid-teaching. Especially if you're prompted to by the Spirit.

Fasting changes attitudes

I'm struggling with how to deal with someone lately. I dearly want to communicate my concern with this person and I have a tendency to get bitter about their lack of response to my concerns. I decided to fast today to help clarify my next steps in pursuing a resolution.

At the beginning of the day my prayers mostly sounded like: "God, how can I change this person's mind?" By about mid-day the Spirit had moved my prayers more towards: "God, help this brother in his vocation to glorify you."

Its amazing how the Spirit can slowly change my heart. Its one of the things that 'proves' to me that I have authentic faith when I'm doubting it. Praise to the Lord for His great mercies.

Proud or Broken?

Got this from a sermon by Phil Smuland I think he says that he got this from someplace else.

Which do you identify with? I started bold-ing the ones that I feel most guilty of and realized I'd bolded three-fourths of the list. If you don't have time to read the whole list read the first 4 pairs and the last 4 pairs.

Praise the Lord He is able to sanctify me and move me closer to the broken. I know I'm not capable to move myself....

proud - focus on the failures of others
broken - overwhelmed by their own spiritual need
proud - self righteous they have critical spirit. look at own faults with telescope, others' faults with microscope
broken - forgiving spirit. they look for good in others.
proud - look down on others
broken - esteem all others above themselves
proud - independent. self sufficient
broken - dependent. recognize and seek needs of others.
proud - seek to maintain control, must have agenda their own way
broken - surrender control
proud - prove they are right, need to be right
broken - willing to yield the right to be right.
proud - claim their rights.
broken - yield their rights
proud - demanding spirit
broken - giving spirit.
proud - self protective of time, rights, reputation
broken - self denied
proud - desire to be served
broken - motivated to serve others.
proud - long to be successful
broken - desire to be faithful, to make others a success
proud - desire self-advancement
broken - long to promote others
proud - driven to be recognized and appreciated.
broken - sense of unworthiness, thrilled to be used at all.
proud - wounded when others are promoted and they are overlooked
broken - rejoice when others are lifted up.
proud - think the ministry is privileged to have them.
broken - think they don't deserve to serve in this ministry
proud - think what they can do for God
broken - know they have nothing to give to God
proud - confident in how much they know
broken - humble at how much they have to learn
proud - self-conscience
broken - no concern for self view
proud - keep others at arms length
broken - risk getting close to others. willing to take risk to know others.
proud - quick to blame.
broken - accept personal responsibility
proud - unapproachable
broken - easily approached
proud - defensive when criticized
broken - receive criticism with humble, open heart
proud - concerned with being respectable.
broken - concerned with being real
proud - concerned with what others think.
broken - know that all that matters is what God thinks.
proud - work to maintain an image and protect their reputation
broken - die to their own reputation
proud - find it difficult to share their own spiritual needs.
broken - willing to be transparent
proud - want to be sure no one finds out about their sin
broken - willing to be exposed, and realize after confession have nothing to loose
proud - hard to say "I was wrong, will you forgive me"
broken - quick to admit their faults and seek forgiveness
proud - concerned about consequences of sin.
broken - grieved over the root of their sin
proud - remorseful for being caught
broken - repent over sin
proud - wait for other party to come to resolve a conflict
broken - take initiative to be reconciled. They get their first and apologize
proud - compare with others and feel they deserve honor.
broken - compare with Holy God and feel desperate for mercy
proud - blind to true condition
broken - walk in the light.
proud - don't think they have anything to repent of
broken - never stop repenting the deeds of the flesh
proud - think they don't need revival, though they think everyone else does
broken - continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God

Life is short, Come to Christ

Another friend of mine has died.

I'm sad. I'm sad for my friend's wife. He wasn't a believer. Or at least I don't think he was. He didn't claim to be. In fact he claimed the opposite. My friend's wife is a baby Christian. I'm praying that this tragedy drives her to the Lord, to rely on His strength, and not on her own. I hope I can respond to the Spirit's prompting and help her in any way I can.

I visited my friend in the hospital a couple of times. The last time, I shared the Gospel with him. I tried to call him to believe in Christ and not in his own efforts. I am sad that I did not try harder to convince him that he needed Jesus now, because he might not make it through the next series of surgeries. Instead I joined him in his assumption that he would return from surgery and have more opportunity to study Christianity and make a decision later.

We were both wrong, and now he's gone.

Since I found out about his passing I've been pleading with the Lord in hopes that He saved my friend before he died. But thus far I have no expectation of an 11th hour reprieve. I'm not God so I don't know for sure though.

Please, if you're reading this post, come to Christ. Don't depend on your good works to earn your way into heaven. Its not what you do that pays your debt. It's the blood of Jesus who died for our sins that is the only acceptable currency to God. Of course true faith will result in "..Good works that God has prepared for us." But these works testify to your love of Jesus. They don't make Him love you.

Please, don't wait. Time is slipping away every moment. This night of sleep could be your last. Don't risk your eternity.

Re-Energized

Sometimes I feel like I'm not attending the right church. And maybe just that sentence is enough to point out the problem. Church isn't just some building I show up at on Sunday mornings. Church should be something I live out every day through fellowship with believers in my community. Church should be sharing Jesus' love through serving others that can't return my service. Church should be about discipling others. Church should be loving and caring for my family.

Its so easy for me to be critical of the Sunday service. I feel like its in my gift to point out where people can improve. (Of course I rarely point that gift at myself ;). I've been feeling pretty negative about the sermons in particular for the last year or so, and I've realized that I'm even getting bitter about them. I know Jesus is not interested in me being bitter towards my brothers who are working hard to preach.

God kicked me in the pants this week when an old friend of mine preached at my church. He spoke about Matthew 28:19,20, aka "The Great Commission." He said we should be studying Jesus' life and learning how He discipled His followers with stories, miracles, and formal doctrinal instruction. I need to be intentional to share stories of my life that witness to God's Grace. I want to serve others who can't repay my service as a demonstration of the miracle of the Spirit's leading and prompting in my life. I want to teach others the amazing depth and glory of the Theology of God.

I feel excited to get back in the game and disciple people, and to give up being bitter. God has called me where I am, and I will serve Him.