Chandler-isms

Some wonderful quips from Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Dallas.

• “When I say I have a love-hate relationship with Dallas…I mean I hate it.”
• “Are you tracking with that?”
• “I know I’m gonna get emails on that one.”
• “I don’t know why I’m doing this, we do not have time for that today!”
• “Let’s me unpack this for you.”
• “A’right?”

And my favorite:

• “And it’s just real, weird…heresy.”

Some Things in Other Cultures Aren’t Just “Different” They are Really Wrong

I have a membership at a gym here in Pretoria.  It’s a fairly nice facility. One thing I’ve noticed, that’s rather odd, is that people workout without shoes on.  People will ride the bikes, run the treadmills, and lift weights barefoot.

I don’t think this is physically safe or hygienically sanitary.  Honestly, it’s disgusting.

Have any of you been overseas and worked out at a gym?  Have you noticed this?  What are your thoughts?

Men, Grab Your Cup…You’ll Need It

Most men don’t know how to be men.  Honestly, most men are boys and they treat women like garbage.  Mark Driscoll preaches on 1 Peter 3:7 and talks about 8 different kinds of men he has observed.  It is particularly intense.  May God spur all of us men to be more conformed to the image of the ultimate Man — Jesus Christ.

I highly encourage you listening to this sermon.

And by the way, grab your cup.  You’re going to need it.

A Muslim Wants to Come to My Church

Last night I hung out with six southern Africans at an apartment near where I live.  It was a motley crew, the kind Jesus would have shared a meal with.  If Pharisees would have been around, surely they would have said, “Why are you with those sinners?”

Everyone smoked constantly (not us, no emails please), we shared a few beers, one of the guys (MJ) quite inebriated, and for the most part, he talked about getting laid all night long.  Rylan and I were there because, I think, Jesus would have been there too.

So when we arrived and introduced ourselves, naturally there was the “Why are you in South Africa?” question.  They asked if we were studying at the University.  I said no.  So they asked again.  I looked at Rylan and then said, “Well, I’m kind of a campus pastor.  I work for a Christian group here in South Africa.”  Lucas, one of the guys, said, “Whoa.  You are drinking a beer.”

And so it started.

We talked about everything you can fit into a two and a half hour conversation.  We discussed the World Cup, politics, South African beer, sex, and of course, Jesus.  The Jesus conversation was riveting, but the best part of the night came when MJ asked Rylan what our thoughts were on sex before marriage.  In a sheer moment of brilliance, Rylan said, “Well, James, I think you can answer that better than I can.”

After a large gulp, I obviously told MJ that sex before marriage is a big no-no.  I told him about the wounds of sexual addiction before marriage.  I told him about the pain it can cause him and the women he sleeps with.  He told me that he has to sleep around to find the woman who “likes the same stuff I do.”  I told him that when a man and women love Jesus first, then fall in love with each other and capture each other’s heart and mind, then when they are married, they will have the best sex.  I said that married couples have total freedom, with no guilt, to experiment and learn with each other and together they will experience excitement, passion, and complete approval from God.

After I was finished, Nash (pronounced “nosh”), looked at me and said, “That makes so much sense.  That’s the way it should be.  I want to come to your church!”  Now, Nash is Muslim.  She openly admitted to sleeping with her boyfriend (who is Catholic).  She told me earlier that she would never leave the Islamic faith.  She quickly caught herself and said, “Well, obviously I can’t because I won’t stop being Muslim.”

I think that there was a small seed planted in Nash’s heart (as well as everyone else in the room).  I openly talked about Jesus and though Nash is very confused about who he is and what he has done for sinners, she heard a small, yet beautiful, truth.  She heard what kind of a change Jesus can make in a person’s life.

There is a different way to do marriage and sex.   It’s completely and wholly good.  It makes sense, but it only makes sense with Jesus, not Islam.  The cross needs to be made glorious to Nash and MJ and their friends so they can experience change.  Lord willing, as time goes on, Jesus will reveal himself to them and they will experience the change and abundant life that he alone gives.

More on Assurance from Edwards

Edwards on how God does not give assurance:

God’s manner is not to bring comfortable texts of Scripture to give men assurance of his love and of future happiness, before they have had a faith of dependence.  And if the Scripture which comes to a person’s mind be not so properly a promise as an invitation; yet if he makes the sudden or unusual manner of the invitation’s coming to his mind the ground on which he believers that he is invited, it is not true faith; because it is built on that which is not the true ground of faith (emphasis added).

This means that some people feel assured of God’s saving love for them before they have faith and thereby think that God is securing salvation for them.  This is impossible, because if someone does not have faith in God, they cannot please him (Heb. 11:6) and therefore cannot be justified before him (Rom. 3:28; 5:1).

It is not enough to know facts about God.  The Bible is not about information; it is about transformation.  If the words of God do not, by his miraculous grace, transform someone from death to life and move them past knowing facts to true, believing faith, there will be no salvation.  Edwards puts it this way: “The external idea a man has now of Christ hanging on the cross, and shedding his blood, is no better in itself than the external idea that the Jews His enemies had, who stood round His cross, and saw this with their bodily eyes.”

What we need is a new set of spiritual eyes.  The eyes we are born with are blinded.  Only God can give these new eyes.  And when these new eyes are received, full assurance of love and future happiness will most certainly come.

The Gospel According to Isaiah

Some have called Isaiah the “fifth gospel” because it is so blatantly clear about the coming Messiah.  It was written before the gospel narratives in the New Testament, so perhaps it’s not “fifth” in order.  Perhaps a better name could have been given.  Nevertheless, Isaiah preaches the gospel of Jesus, and it couldn’t be more clear.

Isaiah speaks of a day that is coming Jacob shall take root and Israel will fill the whole world with its fruit.  He speaks of a day when Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for.  He speaks of a day when people from all over the world will worship Jehovah in Jerusalem.  Here’s what he writes in 27:6-9, 13:

In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.  Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.  Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing…And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

“Jacob” is going to take root and “Israel” is going to bear fruit in the whole world.  We know that all those who are of Christ are the true Israel.  What will this taking root and bearing fruit be?  Colossians 1:6 says, “[The gospel] which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing — as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.”  This fruit of Jacob is truth of God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus.  This fruit is gospel fruit which God works in us, and it is the only fruit that will last forever (John 15:16).

In verses 7-9, the main idea is that God uses affliction to purge his people. Even during exile (v. 8), God’s discipline of his people was carefully considered. Everything that happened to them was done for their good (Rom. 8:28). Isaiah tells us that God’s people (“Jacob”) will be atoned for through suffering so that “no…altars will remain standing” (v. 9). God wants to bring his people to idol-free worship of himself. The great fulfillment of this is seen in Jesus, as he atoned for our guilt through suffering and death. He was stricken and crushed by God (Isa. 53:10) so that his people’s sin would be removed. Atonement for sin requires death (cf. Isa. 22:14), and Jesus made the final atonement on the cross.  This great atonement gives God’s people the ability and access to come to God’s altar instead and worship him instead of worshiping at the altar of idols.

The chapter closes with a beautiful picture of God’s people worshiping him “on the holy mountain at Jerusalem” (v. 13).  Everyone who was lost in Assyria or driven out of Egypt will come and sing praises to God. These people are the people of Israel — everyone who worships Jesus as God and Savior. This is God’s chief end for the world — that people should be gathered together to glorify and worship him.

The story of the planet earth is that God is making one people for himself and his Son is the one shepherd who provides atonement for these people.  God’s Son is the one king who leads these people.  This grand story is working toward a climactic ending where the people of God will come to worship him in his holy city.  This is the story of earth.

And it couldn’t be more clear.

Follow-Up Post to ‘Confessions’

In my post Confessions of a Campus Pastor, I talked about evidences of true conversion and assurance.  My intention was not to criticize any method of evangelism, to say that there are never true conversions, or to say that there is never rejoicing in ministry. Methods can be good; there are many true conversions; and we are always sorrowful, yet rejoicing.  My intention was simply to work through thoughts on how ministers of the gospel (i.e. all true Christians) deal with people who do not truly desire Jesus, holiness, to kill sin, etc., but seem to profess faith nevertheless.

I felt that Jonathan Edwards’ counsel was very wise in practicing discernment with this — since he lived and preached during a time in our nation’s history that was filled with true and false conversions (the Great Awakening).

Edwards wrote Religious Affections as a response to those who were critical of the Great Awakening and the emotions that people were showing — whether true or false.  Not all were genuine.  But emotions weren’t the problem.  Emotionalism was.  The other extreme?  Intellectualism, that is, knowing a lot of facts about Jesus instead of truly loving him with your whole being.

In the book, Edwards argues that affections (emotions that serve as catalysts for true love for God, and hence spiritual disciplines) are essential to true religion, but they need to be tested.  That is essentially what I said when I wrote, “If someone doesn’t hate their sin, if they are not growing in experiencing God as the supreme Treasure of their life, one has to wonder if they ever truly met Jesus at all.”

Some things I didn’t mention that affect this whole issue (because the post would been too long), is first that we ministers do not follow up well after someone professes faith and the person therefore does not grow.  Second, and I think more common, is that we assume that people are always genuine and we treat them as such (some people are truly genuine!).  We start to feed them follow up material and theology, when in fact, they give no evidence for true transformation, only a knowledge of facts or a love for a genie Jesus who gives them good gifts.

The latter happens often in cultures where the prosperity gospel has really taken root (e.g. South Africa).  When this happens, we need to go back to the core of the gospel.  When this happens, we need to tell them that God gave himself, not just benefits.  When this happens, we have to be bold and ask the hard questions (“Do you love Jesus or just the benefits?”) and show them the hard truths in Scripture (“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it,” Mark 8:35).

Finally, I was not saying that people get saved and then can’t hack it so they are lost.  That’s unbiblical, and I’ve addressed that elsewhere.  Neither is Edwards saying that.  The issue at hand for Evangelicalism all over the world, not just campus ministries, is not whether the seed that was preached fell on good soil and got uprooted.  It’s whether or not the seed fell on good soil at all.

Among all the other things we must be concerned with as ministers, perhaps one of the most urgent is the warning that the author of Hebrews gives us in his letter:

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you maybe hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end (3:12-14).

Later on in the letter (6:4-6), the author even says that there are some people who “have been enlightened…tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come” yet are not saved.  That’s pretty scary.  The people he is writing to, however, have “things that belong to salvation” (v. 9).  Those things include loving the saints and being imitators of men and women who went before them (vv. 11-12).  It also includes taking care to not be hardened by sin (3:12-14) and regarding Jesus as supreme in all the universe (1:1-4).

I want to come alongside people to help them “make their calling and election sure” (2 Pet. 1:10).  My heart is to lead those to Jesus who are not truly with him, but think they are.  That means continuing to preach the gospel to them and ask the hard questions.  And that means doing the same thing to myself as well (2 Cor. 13:5).

Jesus Lover of My Soul

By Charles Wesley, 1740

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
Oh, receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.

Wilt Thou not regard my call?
Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall-
Lo! on Thee I cast my care.
Reach me out Thy gracious hand!
While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand,
Dying, and behold, I live.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name,
Source of all true righteousness;
Thou art evermore the same,
Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart;
Rise to all eternity.

Which U.S. City Has the Highest Murder Rate Per Capita?

The answer is surprising.

Jesus is the Blazing Center of Social Justice

Last night here in Pretoria, I went to a showing of the newest Invisible Children movie.  Before the movie was played, I was in the main building where there were dozens of Christian ministries and non-profits represented.  I didn’t know everything would be so “Christian” because I knew that Invisible Children has never made any kind of profession to be religious.  So, I was hopeful that this night would be about Jesus.

The program started out with an Afrikaans girl who prayed.  Her first word was “Jesus…”  She prayed that God would open our hearts to the injustice in the world.  She prayed that we would be empowered to do something.  She prayed, “In your Name, Amen.”

That was the last time I heard Jesus’ name.

There were other people who spoke after the film.  They talked about how South Africa could help.  They said they “had meetings…and thought and prayed about” how to be involved.   They said this is an “interdenominational” movement.  They said that we “cannot turn a blind eye toward this.”

And you know what?  I would be all for it — if it had to do with Jesus.

By my guess, I’d say there were about 3,000 people at the program, and as always in a group that size, most probably do not follow Jesus.  As I sat there, I said to my friend Rylan, “They missed a huge opportunity to share the gospel tonight.”

Then you might say, “Well, James, this isn’t about the gospel.  It’s social justice.  It’s a non-religious movement.  It’s about people working together to make a difference.”

And I would reply that if that’s all it is, it’s a problem.  It’s a problem because there are thousands of people who may be fooled into believing that if you give a couple bucks, write a few letters, spend a night on the streets, and buy some merchandise you will have done your duty.  Even greater than that, it’s a problem because there are possibly thousands of people who will not understand the greatest injustice ever committed: we have sinned, and continue to sin, against Almighty God.

We will not properly understand injustice in our world until we understand the injustice of sin that lives in our hearts.   We have highly offended God.  We have trampled upon his glory.  We have committed awful crimes against the Creator.  We deserve to die because of our evils.

But God sent Jesus to earth.  The God-man came down to live and work and teach and bring us back to God.  He lived without any injustice in his heart, because he was God.  Even so, we couldn’t overcome our own injustice.  In fact, we are so unjust that we did the unthinkable.

We killed God.

But it wasn’t for nothing.  God used his own death to justify all those who come to him.  No one understands injustice more than God does.  Jesus was innocent, and he was murdered.  No one has been sinned against more than he has.    Because of this, we will not be rightly passionate about social justice until we understand the justice that God satisfied when Jesus’ died on the cross.  Therefore, if any social cause is not grounded in Christ, it is meaningless.

Invisible Children is neither a good nor a bad thing.  It depends on who you are in it for.  If the blazing center is Jesus, then it is good.  If it is for any other reason — noble as it may be — it’s bad.

The sad fact is that anything not done for Jesus — for the glory of God — is a sin.  As great as it seems for someone to rescue children from being slaves of a crazed terrorist, it doesn’t justify anyone before God.  If anything doesn’t bring glory to Jesus and  lead people to him so they might be rescued from bondage — physically and spiritually — it simply draws attention away from Christ and toward something else.

The prophet Isaiah puts it this way.  “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (64:6).  The phrase “polluted garment” in Hebrew means “bloodied rag.”  I know this is gross, but in our day, this is akin to a bloodied tampon.  You say that’s disgusting.  You say that’s vile.  It’s in your Bible.  Disgusting is the point Isaiah is making.  Anything “righteous” that is not done to the glory of God is like a bloodied tampon.  That’s how disgusting social justice is to God if it is void of Jesus.

Know that I’m not bashing Invisible Children. I don’t hate social justice campaigns.  This blog isn’t about that.  It’s about you and me.  It’s about our wrongs.  It’s about our injustices.  It’s about our hatred, resentment, bitterness, greed, envy, jealously, lust, malice, harshness, lying, cheating, stealing, mocking, jeering, and a thousand other sins that we commit daily.

It’s all injustice.  Against God.   Against his glory.  Against his perfection.  And it’s ugly.  So ugly that God had to die to forgive us.

My plea is that you examine yourself and repent so you don’t stand before God and show him a bloody towel and say, “Look at my good deeds.”  I pray that you stand before God and point to Jesus and say, “There’s my righteousness.  There’s my goodness.  There’s my justice.”