What I, and Everyone Around Me, Need Most

In my life, I find that it’s more important to treasure Jesus and pursue holiness than to increase knowledge, skill sets, strategies, and methods.  If I follow Jesus and become more like him, God will take care of those other things.

Church Tour Stop #3

Southern Baptist Convention
Congregation Size: 400-500

Our third Sunday brought a trip to an affluent suburban church here in Lincoln.  I had actually never visited a Southern Baptist church before, and after this Sunday, it doesn’t feel like I had ever visited one.  I assume that this church is affiliated with the Southern Baptists in name only (no doubt in practice as well, in some cases), but there was nothing distinctively “Baptist” about the service.

When Rylan and I walked into the church, it didn’t seem very welcoming.  There were lots of booths for ministries and Bible studies.  Then again, I didn’t go out of my way to talk to people and get into conversation.  We were here for the service.  So we went into the worship center as the singing began.

The service started out with singing.  A seven-member band played, with the leader being a male and playing guitar.  I noticed was that the only black person in the room was on stage playing saxophone.  I thought that was funny.  The first song they sang was “All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises.”  The song last for a while — like 8 minutes.  Throughout the service, as the band played, I couldn’t help but notice how happy (and fluffy) the music sounded.  It was very, how do I say this gently…chickified.  There, I said it.  What didn’t help was the feminine designs on the PowerPoint behind the song lyrics.  I was distracted by the moving colors and figures.  After a few announcements, the band played a few more songs: “Friend of God,” “Too Wonderful,” and “Better is One Day.”  When I looked around the room to see whether or not men were singing, my heart grew sad.  Not a lot of men were singing.  Perhaps this was due to the fact that the music was kind of girlie or the fact that dudes just don’t like to sing.  I don’t know.  I should have asked.

The pastor walked on to the stage after the music finished.  He was speaking on Romans 7.  I’ve listened to some really good sermons and commentaries on Romans 7, so I was excited.  The title of the sermon was “Free in Christ.”  The church is working their way through Romans and the series title is called “Foundations.”  I noticed when I walked into the worship center that they had brick-like panels on the walls of the sanctuary, as if to give some substance to a “foundation.”  Some people are more visual, but I thought it was a little gimmicky.  There were also two doors on the stage that the person would not allude to until the end of the sermon.  Again, they seemed unnecessary, but maybe for someone they were edifying.

During the sermon, the pastor talked a lot about Jesus.  I loved that.  He talked about killing sin (though he didn’t use that vocabulary).  I loved that.  You probably know what Romans 7 is about, but his main idea was that our sin and the world compete for our lives even after we are saved by Jesus.  A helpful thing he pointed out was that so often Christians refer to “Jesus coming into my heart.”  He said that biblically, we should say, “I am in Christ.”  That changes our identity.  It makes our perspective shift from us toward Christ.  So I give huge pluses for talking about Jesus, sin, repentance, and being in Christ.  One thing that was less than stellar was that he preached from The Message.  I don’t think that’s an adequate version of Scripture.  It was written by one man as a commentary.  Further, I think The Message can be awkward and confusing anyway.  Still, I don’t think it took away from the point of the sermon.

When they announced that it was time for tithes and offerings, the congregation cheered.  How awesome is that!  That encouraged me.  I think this church is a good church.  It’s not one of those that should be shut down.   There are a lot of people who love Jesus here.  I can’t speak for the church as a whole, but after seeing one service I got the feeling that the depth of teaching and learning could increase a bit.  Perhaps this is the case only in the sermons and the home community groups go very deep — relationally and theologically.  I hope so.

After you read this post, remember to pray for this local body.  Pray for masculine men who engage during the church service and are bold for truth and affection for Jesus.  Pray that this church would continue to give lots of money to missions and justice.  Pray that their heart for truth would grow and that they would dive deep into the whole counsel of God, longing to know him more and more.

I’m Thankful for Toilet Paper, Coffee Cake, and God’s Love for Himself

Here are some things I’m thankful for that don’t usually find a place in your average Sunday praise song:

• A quiet, dark morning with an open Bible
• A turned-off television
• Coffee cake
• Toilet paper
• Cars
• Enemies who hate me
• International vaccinations
• Notebook computers
• Sunshine reflecting off the frost
• Headphones
• Socks
• A God who loves himself and is committed to fulfilling his purpose in me

You probably read the last one and said, “We sing about that!”  Really?  Do you really sing about God loving himself?  If God is committed to me, that’s fine and dandy, but if he fails to ever be committed to himself, he would no longer God because he would put something (namely me!) above himself.   Here’s how David says it in Psalm 138:

I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Before God exalts me or you or the church or anything else, he has lifted up high his name and his word.  His name is synonymous with his glory (Isa. 42:8; 43:7).  His word is Jesus, the perfect manifestation of who God is, because Jesus is God (John 1:1-14; Heb. 1:1-3).

There’s much to be thankful for today, even little things like cars and toilet paper and travel vaccinations.  But the greatest thing to be thankful for is that God loves himself, because if that weren’t true then we would have a God who isn’t supreme and sovereign and holy and unstained and preeminent.  He’d be like us.  And that would be no God at all.

Don’t Pass Gas in School, Kids. You Might Go to Jail!

This kid might be regretting some meal choices he’s made in the cafeteria line lately.

Election is for Humility

How shall those who are the subjects of divine election sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for boasting, for sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The Lord’s will alone is glorified, and the very notion of human merit is cast out to everlasting contempt. There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly rejoice in it.

- Charles Spurgeon

Why Sexual Immorality Corrupts Differently Than Other Sins

Every sin is bad. Every sin corrupts. Saying a little white lie will send you to hell just as equally as a fornicating sin will. However, sexual immorality goes a bit deeper. Sexual immorality cuts to the core of humans in a way that other sins do not. The reason is simple: it’s intertwined with the heart and soul and mind, as well as with the body.  Not every sin is like that.  That’s what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 6:18 when he says that every other sin is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body.  To sin sexually, Paul might say today, means you are practically going to ruin your life (here on earth, not just in eternity).

John Calvin explains it like this: “[Paul] does not altogether deny that there are other vices, in like manner, by which our body is dishonored and disgraced, but that his meaning is simply this — that defilement does not attach itself to our body from other vices in the same way as it does from fornication. My hand, it is true, is defiled by theft or murder, my tongue by evil speaking, or perjury, and the whole body by drunkenness; but fornication leaves a stain impressed upon the body, such as is not impressed upon it from other sins.”

Sexual immorality has a way of tearing apart lives and relationships in a way that other sins do not. This doesn’t excuse other sins.  This doesn’t mean that obscene pride and outrageous lifestyles will not ruin a life.  O, they will!  But a plain reading of Scripture reveals this truth especially about sexual immorality.  Proverbs 5:8-11 teaches us, “Keep your way far from her [that is, the forbidden woman, v. 3], and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed.”

There is hope amidst this dismal picture.  The good news of the gospel is that Christ’s blood has redeemed you.  Your sexual purity is a blood-bought gift that was purchased on Calvary.  Know that God owns your body, and he has made it for himself, for holiness.  What better incentive is there to kill sexual sin (as well as every sin)!

Sexual immorality will consume your flesh and your body and your heart and your mind in an all-together differently destructive way than every other sin.  Paul teaches that.  Proverbs does, too.  It’s all over Scripture.   Every other sin is outside your body.  Sexual sin is against your own body.  Flee sexual immorality.  Please, it will save you from ruining your life.

Social Deviancy in Church: Does Appearance Matter?

I have just posted a new article by my sister, Amy, on social deviancy in church.  In the article, Amy talks about how she dressed up in Goth attire and went to an Evangelical Lutheran church as well as a Roman Catholic church.  It’s worth the read.

Church Tour Stop #2

Assemblies of God
Congregation Size: 600-700

I’ll begin with a confession: I have been very critical of Pentecostals, in particular the Assemblies of God, for the better part of my life.  There’s a lot of deep wounds created from friends and family (and personally experiencing their services) that have not left a good taste in my mouth.  So, in an effort to repent and reconcile and look for God’s grace in their life, Rylan and I decided to attend the largest Pentecostal church in our area.

We walked into church as the service was beginning.  We stood by our seats and started singing with the congregation.  One thing I do love about Pentecostals is the way they get into singing.  They raise their hands and sing loud — even if they sound awful.  The first song was the popular worship hit, “Rescue.”  After that, they sang 6 other songs and I’ll be completely honest: I did not know one of them.  I can’t even remember their titles.  So, Rylan and I tried to sing.  It was difficult, but we were able to pray and take joy in the fact that other people were worshiping Jesus.

After the music ended, they prayed and took an offering and followed that up with announcements  This week at the church was mission’s week, but the head pastor didn’t speak.  There was a regional pastor who came to share about what the denomination wants to see happen around the world.  I had a gut feeling about what we’d hear about since it was mission’s week.  Rylan and I, both missionaries ourselves, just sat there half-smiling, thinking, “We would come on this Sunday!”  I was still intrigued to hear the sermon.  After all, missions sermons can be very biblical and convicting.

My gut was right.  I didn’t hear a convicting sermon.  I didn’t hear about Christ’s supremacy around the world and about the power of the Word in missions.  I heard, “If Coke can [that is, be everywhere in the world], we can.”  That was the title of the sermon.  I thought that was gimmicky.  Actually, I thought it was kind of unnecessary.  The sermon text was Mark 16:15-20.  Before I go on, I wanted to make it clear that I’m not bagging on Pentecostals — I’m simply telling you my experience at this particular church on one particular Sunday during one particular year.  Okay.  That sermon text is very peculiar to use for missions because Jesus said, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues” (v. 17).  I know that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  But this seems, to me, to be a narrow focus of missions.  Is not missions the proclamation of gospel word and the act of gospel deed so that others might know and believe in Jesus?  Granted, this was not a focus of the sermon, thankfully, but it still seems a bit peculiar to use this passage rather than, say, Matthew 28:19-20.  Perhaps I’m being too critical.  You can let me know what you think if you have thoughts.

The regional pastor spoke for about 25-30 minutes.  During that time, he said some things that I simply did not agree with.  He said, “We want to tell people about the gospel because we believe that everyone deserves to hear about Jesus before they die.”  Though that is a great desire to have — and we should all have the desire that everyone hear — it is not biblical.  The fact of the matter is that nobody deserves to hear about Jesus.  We all deserve death and condemnation.  The grace of God provides us with the beautiful redemption found in Christ.  We do not deserve it.  Missions is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to go to find bread.  Beggars don’t deserve anything.  Still, God gives freely, so we should give freely as well.

After this pastor spoke, one of church elders came to talk about the “gift pledge” in our worship bulletin.  This was the time during the service where I heard a lot of pleas to give financially — which is good and right and I believe we should give (after all, I ask people to provide financially for my ministry!).  You all know what this is like if you’ve been to church, so that’s all I’ll say about that.

That concluded the church service.  It wasn’t a bad experience, for there wasn’t any charismaniancs shouting out tongues and dancing in the aisle.  That would have been uncomfortable for Rylan and me — two conservative Charismatics, or as Driscoll would say, “Charismatics with a seat-belt.”  However, we left  wishing we had not come on mission’s week, but God directed us there for a reason.  Perhaps it was to understand how to better pray for this congregation.  After you read this blog, could you pray that this church would be more Bible-saturated in their preaching and worship?  Pray that the truths of Scripture would illumine their hearts to make Jesus the focus of every sermon and song.  Pray also that their affections for Jesus would be matched by their mind for Jesus.  Pray that emotionalism would not drive their walk with God.  At the same time, praise God for their enthusiasm and willingness to give money and spread the gospel around the world.

New Audio Available

I now have the message audio uploaded for “Jesus Saves from the American Dream.”  It’ll run streaming on this site.

Thanks for reading (and listening).  Don’t be too harsh. :)

“Make Time” for Everything Else, Not the Bible

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say, “I don’t make time to spend in the Word every day.”

God’s Word doesn’t go on a to-do list each day.  It is the list.  Perhaps we should “make time” for everything else we do on a daily basis instead of trying to make time for the most important thing.