I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of . . . leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. - Charles Spurgeon
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Does a decision for Christ = salvation?
I recently heard of a local church who had over 400 decisions for Christ within a month. My question to those reading this blog site is this: "Does a decision for Christ equate to salvation?" Maybe another way to ask the question is this: "Does the Bible speak of conversion in terms of making a decision for Christ?" For some people this may be splitting hairs but I think it is important to understand the background of what has been called "decisional regeneration."
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Lone Ranger Christians - No way!
This is an excellent article from Old Truth blog site. The modern church is filled with Lone Ranger Christians who often have no intention of ever joining a local in church in any formal way. Their supposed liberty, is desired over service to the body of Christ and submission to scripturally ordained authority. They would have the benefits of hearing the preacher and partaking of the Lord's Supper without commitment to the local church. Church membership is regarded as an unnecessary option. Membership in a local church is something that is taught in scripture and no Christian can be excused for not working to find a church to join and serve in (granted it's not always an easy thing). It is his duty to serve the church and be in submission to those in authority. Church membership is not an outdated tradition for stuffy Christians nor is it an optional practice.
Church membership is a necessary consequence when all the teachings regarding what a local church is and how it is to conduct itself are considered. Indeed a Christian cannot carry out his scriptural responsibilities to the body of Christ without joining himself to a local body of believers. The scripture commands Christians; "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you" (Heb 13:17). Christians are plainly and in no uncertain terms commanded to submit to their spiritual leaders. Such a command can only be properly understood as having context within the local church. We also see that Christians who are engaged in open and unrepentant sin are to be put out of fellowship and removed from the local church. Such a person is to be handed over to Satan maintain the purity of the church and to spurn the offender on to repentance that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus(1Cor 5:5). These circumstances would be quite impossible to obey were the subjects not joined to a local body of believers. Henceforth 'membership' of some form is simply implied by such texts.
In the book of Acts, upon salvation people were joining themselves to the church by identifying with a local body and worshiping corporately and attending to the needs of the saints. Acts 2:47 records; "And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." The text does not say that the Lord added to the body of Christ those that were being saved, but rather that the Lord added to their (the local church headed by the apostles) number those that were being saved. Christians were identifying themselves officially with a local body of believers. These were no mere visitors simply kicking the tires of a near by church, they were fully committed to the local church and it's work going so far as to sell their property in order to support the saints in need. While joined to that local body such persons were under the discipline of the rulers of that body. Christians who sinned were subject to appropriate censures and those who had need were aided by the local church's benevolence. They were also responsible for electing elders and deacons to carryout the preaching of the Word and the serving of tables. The believers in these congregations were fully committed to all aspects of the life of the church at the local level.
It is indeed a concept unknown in scripture that a Christian would ever maintain an uncommitted relationship with a local church. The scriptures have no knowledge of Lon Ranger Christians. The universal testimony of scripture is such that when sinners are converted they join themselves to a local church in order to worship with the saints of God and contribute to the work of spreading the gospel. The local church is the very place where the intimacy of the body of Christ is nurtured. It is ordained by God that pastors be placed over these congregations to govern them and to equip them that they may be fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. No Christian who maintains a casual relationship with the church, who will not identify and participate in vital union with other believers can expect to grow in grace or be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ.
Theological deconstruction
The 21st Century American culture has permeated the church at many levels. Therefore one of the key strategies that I will employ this fall is first helping people to "unlearn what they have learned incorrectly." The basic thinking here is wrong thinking about the Bible leads to wrong application of the Bible. One of the "hot topics" for me personally over the years has been in the area of salvation. In this particular discussion with many Christians, the issue of conversation centers around when a person "got saved" or what happen when they "were saved." It may be that the preacher, teacher or evangelist said for the person to write the date of conversion in their Bible and refer back to it if they ever had doubts because of their flesh, world or the devil. The framing of their salvation in this regard becomes a past tense event, almost like purchasing a ticket that you can keep all the way to heaven. This person may have responded to an altar call in which they made a decision for Jesus and then prayed a prayer. But have you looked around and observed the fact that so many "Christians" today do not think, look, act or sound in any way different than the world. There doesn't appear to be a radical Christ centered living that is the preoccupation of their lives. However if you ask them if they are "Christians" the answer would be yes, and they may even take you back to the date when they wrote in their Bible. So what's the problem? What do we need to help folks unlearn that they have learned incorrectly? In the book of Romans, which is the epistle written on the doctrine of salvation, the apostle Paul writes these words in Romans 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Allow me to paraphrase this verse with an understanding of the word "believes" which, in the Greek, is a verb that occurs in the present tense. My paraphrase would read "the gospel is the power of salvation to everyone who continues on a daily basis to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." Do we get the significance of that statement? If there is no present believing then there is no present salvation and it doesn't matter if you walked the aisle, raised a hand, signed a card, made a decision or even prayed a prayer! Leadership team my question is not did you get saved, but are you being saved every day! Please understand the word salvation that Paul is using in Romans is much broader than justification by faith, but also includes our sanctification and glorification. We in the church better re-read Romans 1:16 and understand the full significance of who Paul is talking to in this verse and what he is saying. I am vexed like you can not imagine on this subject, regarding the number of people who sit in church each Sunday thinking they are saved and yet are headed straight to hell. Why? Because someone convinced them if they made a decision and prayed a prayer that they would be saved and that would settle the issue. But when you see this person's life there is no passion for Christ, or His word, or anything in regard to the church or serving in the kingdom. Yet, at one point in their life they walked the aisle and recited a prayer. Do you see why we need to help people learn what the Bible actually says about salvation, and not just what they have culturally absorbed about salvation? Because if there is no present day holiness and obedience in the life of a person then there has been no past tense salvation, I don't care what they said or what they did.
In our class on "Learning and Living the God-centered Life" we will spend a good bit of time understanding the word "salvation" as the Bible teaches it. We live in a culture of numbers and statistics. Therefore it becomes prominent in American evangelism that we figure out a way to get people to walk the aisle, sign a card or pray a prayer. Unfortunately this is the way we have come to think and practice, but this is not how the Bible speaks when it comes to a persons conversion to Christ. What could be more important than someones eternal salvation? We desperately need to understand what the Bible teaches about this subject so that we can accurately apply it to our lives and those in our ministry sphere of influence.
In our class on "Learning and Living the God-centered Life" we will spend a good bit of time understanding the word "salvation" as the Bible teaches it. We live in a culture of numbers and statistics. Therefore it becomes prominent in American evangelism that we figure out a way to get people to walk the aisle, sign a card or pray a prayer. Unfortunately this is the way we have come to think and practice, but this is not how the Bible speaks when it comes to a persons conversion to Christ. What could be more important than someones eternal salvation? We desperately need to understand what the Bible teaches about this subject so that we can accurately apply it to our lives and those in our ministry sphere of influence.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Scenes from the Lowcountry 2008
Check out the photos of our time on Sullivan's Island and cruising down the intra-coastal near the Isle of Palms.
Friday, July 4, 2008
The deceptive nature of sin
From the Between Two Worlds blog site:
Here's another excerpt from Paul Tripp's book, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy. Again, I found this both deeply convicting and hopeful at the same time.
Sin lives in a costume, that's why it's so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party.
Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth.
Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty.
Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer.
Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership.
Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart.
The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom.
Evil simply doesn't present itself as evil, which is part of its draw.
You'll never understand sin's slight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. I say all the time to people that no one is more influential in their own lives than they are because no one talks to themselves more than they do. We're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We're all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We're all very good at being intolerant of others of the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us to not hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but to compound matters, we tend to be blind to our blindness.
What does all of this mean? It means that accurate-self assessment is the product of grace. It is only in the mirror of God's Word and with the sight-giving help of the Holy Spirit, that I am able to see myself as I actually am. In those painful moments of accurate self-sight, we may not feel as if we are being loved, but that is exactly what is happening. The God, who loves us enough to sacrifice his Son for our redemption, works so that we would see ourselves clearly, so that we would not buy into the delusion of our own righteousness, and with a humble sense of personal need, seek the resources of grace that can only be found in him.
Here's another excerpt from Paul Tripp's book, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy. Again, I found this both deeply convicting and hopeful at the same time.
Sin lives in a costume, that's why it's so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party.
Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth.
Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty.
Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer.
Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership.
Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart.
The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom.
Evil simply doesn't present itself as evil, which is part of its draw.
You'll never understand sin's slight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. I say all the time to people that no one is more influential in their own lives than they are because no one talks to themselves more than they do. We're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We're all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We're all very good at being intolerant of others of the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us to not hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but to compound matters, we tend to be blind to our blindness.
What does all of this mean? It means that accurate-self assessment is the product of grace. It is only in the mirror of God's Word and with the sight-giving help of the Holy Spirit, that I am able to see myself as I actually am. In those painful moments of accurate self-sight, we may not feel as if we are being loved, but that is exactly what is happening. The God, who loves us enough to sacrifice his Son for our redemption, works so that we would see ourselves clearly, so that we would not buy into the delusion of our own righteousness, and with a humble sense of personal need, seek the resources of grace that can only be found in him.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Learning and Living the God-centered Life
I am privileged and honored to teach at Carmel Baptist starting this fall a foundational course on Christian living. This blog will be an opportunity to post class lessons as we move through this one year curriculum of study.
Here is a note this week to the leadership team.
Hope all is well in Charlotte and that you are having a great summer. This has been a time for me to study, reflect and process through the realities of God's word. In our time of study over the past years we have discussed that the Bible is inspired, revealed, inerrant and infallible. However I fear that we as Christians in America have lost our moorings as it relates to making the Bible the plumb line of our lives. My attention this summer has been focused on the following theme of study "Learning and Living the God-centered life." Unfortunately we have many in the church who hold to one of the extremes. Those who want to just learn about the Bible, these folks after years tend to just "show up", and those who want to talk about the experience of the Christian life and these folks tend to "blow up." In my study and teaching this fall and beyond I am proposing to bring these two tensions together to help those in the body of Christ "grow up." I would like to bring Biblical clarity to the practical way of living a God-centered life, as we come to see and savor Christ. In the study of Philippians which has been called the epistle of joy, we studied Philippians 2:12-13 - So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. We can see in these two verses a summary of the Christian life, one is what we are to do and the other is what God is to do.
Maybe it could be summarized by the following:
1 Grace comes down
2. Joy rises
3. Love overflows
Each year I have the privilege to study I am more and more convinced of the following:
- learning to living
- root to fruit
- doctrine to delighting
- seeing to savoring
- believing to behaving
In other words right thinking leads to right thinking in the Christian life. Unfortunately in the 20th Century, which will be known as the century of self, many Christians have tried to bypass the right thinking and go to right living. And for many people that means unlearning what they have learned incorrectly. The air of American culture that we breathe everyday is so dangerous to our learning and living the God-centered life. If you can picture a river with a strong current that is flowing swiftly in one direction. Now drop some Christians in that river in which the current is made up of corruption, demonic influences, sin nature, and the world. There is no way you can put your life in neutral because the current will simply sweep you away. Therefore the apostle Paul writes things like "fight the good fight." He uses metaphors for the Christian life of a builder, boxer, a runner and a solider. I have lots of conversations with people in the church as I have taught over the years. There is too little reading of the Bible, meditating, wrestling and discussing of God-centered principles of Christian living. We have delegated those things to Sunday morning and Wednesday nights in Charlotte. But I am proposing a God-centered saturation of learning and living of the Bible to the point that when you bump up against someone or something then you bleed Jesus.
It must start with a learning and knowing the God of the Bible. The best way to do this is to study the whole Bible in which God has graciously revealed Himself to us. Of course we understand the Bible to be everything that we need to know in order to have a personal and intimate relationship with God, but it does not contain everything that is known about God. Christians need to get back to a learning of the basic attributes of God such as:
- sovereignty
- self-sufficiency
- mercy
- grace
- holiness
- justice
- wrath
- love
- omniscience (all knowing)
- omnipresence (all present)
- omnipotence (all powerful)
- immutability (non-changing)
Again the living for God in to produce fruit follows the learning of God as it is the root. This is simplicity through tremendous complexity, as we study what it really means to be the Christian that one says they have become. By this I mean there are hard verses and hard things that we must come to learn about the God of this universe. We must let Scripture stand even when it appears that there are tensions that seem in our minds to be mutually exclusive. One prime example is how the sovereignty of God and the free will of man can co-exist at the same time. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he every hoped to reconcile sovereignty and free will, to which Spurgeon quickly replied "I never try to reconcile friends." American Christians have spent far too little time with the Bibles in hand and far too much time with the TV remote in hand. The Christian life is war, and not a vacation of comfort and convenience at Club Med. Go to this LINK for a quick update.
I am going to be sending out some emails that will give an introductory breakdown in these three phases of study:
1. A delighting in the supremacy of God
2. An enthusiasm and joy that results from us being satisfied in all that God is in Jesus
3. The overflow of love that manifests in holiness and obedience as we live out the Christian life
The teaching overview will begin with the end in mind. Therefore I will present what it looks like to live out the Christian life (stage 3). But as we start our teaching this fall it will begin with knowing the God of the Bible. Hopefully by beginning at the end, it will encourage those to hang in for a one to two year period of teaching, that I am praying will not be informational, but rather transformational in producing radical Christians for Christ!
Blessings,
Here is a note this week to the leadership team.
Hope all is well in Charlotte and that you are having a great summer. This has been a time for me to study, reflect and process through the realities of God's word. In our time of study over the past years we have discussed that the Bible is inspired, revealed, inerrant and infallible. However I fear that we as Christians in America have lost our moorings as it relates to making the Bible the plumb line of our lives. My attention this summer has been focused on the following theme of study "Learning and Living the God-centered life." Unfortunately we have many in the church who hold to one of the extremes. Those who want to just learn about the Bible, these folks after years tend to just "show up", and those who want to talk about the experience of the Christian life and these folks tend to "blow up." In my study and teaching this fall and beyond I am proposing to bring these two tensions together to help those in the body of Christ "grow up." I would like to bring Biblical clarity to the practical way of living a God-centered life, as we come to see and savor Christ. In the study of Philippians which has been called the epistle of joy, we studied Philippians 2:12-13 - So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. We can see in these two verses a summary of the Christian life, one is what we are to do and the other is what God is to do.
Maybe it could be summarized by the following:
1 Grace comes down
2. Joy rises
3. Love overflows
Each year I have the privilege to study I am more and more convinced of the following:
- learning to living
- root to fruit
- doctrine to delighting
- seeing to savoring
- believing to behaving
In other words right thinking leads to right thinking in the Christian life. Unfortunately in the 20th Century, which will be known as the century of self, many Christians have tried to bypass the right thinking and go to right living. And for many people that means unlearning what they have learned incorrectly. The air of American culture that we breathe everyday is so dangerous to our learning and living the God-centered life. If you can picture a river with a strong current that is flowing swiftly in one direction. Now drop some Christians in that river in which the current is made up of corruption, demonic influences, sin nature, and the world. There is no way you can put your life in neutral because the current will simply sweep you away. Therefore the apostle Paul writes things like "fight the good fight." He uses metaphors for the Christian life of a builder, boxer, a runner and a solider. I have lots of conversations with people in the church as I have taught over the years. There is too little reading of the Bible, meditating, wrestling and discussing of God-centered principles of Christian living. We have delegated those things to Sunday morning and Wednesday nights in Charlotte. But I am proposing a God-centered saturation of learning and living of the Bible to the point that when you bump up against someone or something then you bleed Jesus.
It must start with a learning and knowing the God of the Bible. The best way to do this is to study the whole Bible in which God has graciously revealed Himself to us. Of course we understand the Bible to be everything that we need to know in order to have a personal and intimate relationship with God, but it does not contain everything that is known about God. Christians need to get back to a learning of the basic attributes of God such as:
- sovereignty
- self-sufficiency
- mercy
- grace
- holiness
- justice
- wrath
- love
- omniscience (all knowing)
- omnipresence (all present)
- omnipotence (all powerful)
- immutability (non-changing)
Again the living for God in to produce fruit follows the learning of God as it is the root. This is simplicity through tremendous complexity, as we study what it really means to be the Christian that one says they have become. By this I mean there are hard verses and hard things that we must come to learn about the God of this universe. We must let Scripture stand even when it appears that there are tensions that seem in our minds to be mutually exclusive. One prime example is how the sovereignty of God and the free will of man can co-exist at the same time. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he every hoped to reconcile sovereignty and free will, to which Spurgeon quickly replied "I never try to reconcile friends." American Christians have spent far too little time with the Bibles in hand and far too much time with the TV remote in hand. The Christian life is war, and not a vacation of comfort and convenience at Club Med. Go to this LINK for a quick update.
I am going to be sending out some emails that will give an introductory breakdown in these three phases of study:
1. A delighting in the supremacy of God
2. An enthusiasm and joy that results from us being satisfied in all that God is in Jesus
3. The overflow of love that manifests in holiness and obedience as we live out the Christian life
The teaching overview will begin with the end in mind. Therefore I will present what it looks like to live out the Christian life (stage 3). But as we start our teaching this fall it will begin with knowing the God of the Bible. Hopefully by beginning at the end, it will encourage those to hang in for a one to two year period of teaching, that I am praying will not be informational, but rather transformational in producing radical Christians for Christ!
Blessings,
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Quote for the day
“A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved.” - Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Philadelphia, PA: P&R Publishing, 1965), 101.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
