Spend more time in prayer than speculation. Spend more time interceding than choosing sides. Spend more energy loving others than arguing. Get away from the internet, get into the Scripture, go talk with God. Let's ask that he would use this season in our church to make us all more gentle, loving and broken--not more angry, self-righteous and irate. He is in this and he loves everyone involved.
It's a beautiful day outside. I'm going to go take a prayer walk.
1 Peter 3:8-9 "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing."
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Supremacy of Christ by John Piper
“Oh, that the risen, living Christ, therefore, would come to us even now by His Spirit and through His Word and reveal to us:
—the supremacy of His deity, equal with God the Father in all His attributes—the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature, infinite, boundless in all His excellencies;
—the supremacy of His eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was; sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to His all-defining, ever-existing substance;
—the supremacy of His never-changing constancy in all His virtues and all His character and all His commitments—the same yesterday, today, and forever;
—the supremacy of His knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox, and all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940’s farmers almanac, and quantum physics—and everything Stephen Hawking ever dreamed—seem like a first-grade reader;
—the supremacy of His wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled the wisest of men;
—the supremacy of His authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings; does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; so none can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?”
—the supremacy of His providence without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the furthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white;
—the supremacy of His word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic world we have never yet dreamed of;
—the supremacy of His power to walk on water, cleanse lepers and heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise, with a single word, or even a thought;
—the supremacy of His purity never to sin, or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought;
—the supremacy of His trustworthiness never to break His word or let one promise fall to the ground;
—the supremacy of His justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;
—the supremacy of His patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; and to hold back His final judgment on this land and on the world, that many might repent;
—the supremacy of His sovereign, servant obedience to keep His Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;
—the supremacy of His meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick;
—the supremacy of His wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb;
—the supremacy of His grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and wakens faith in hell-bound haters of God, and justifies the ungodly with His own righteousness;
—the supremacy of His love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners and frees us for the ever-increasing joy in making much of Him forever;
—the supremacy of His own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint.”
–John Piper, “Sex and the Supremacy of Christ: Part Two,” in Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), 38-40.
—the supremacy of His deity, equal with God the Father in all His attributes—the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature, infinite, boundless in all His excellencies;
—the supremacy of His eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was; sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to His all-defining, ever-existing substance;
—the supremacy of His never-changing constancy in all His virtues and all His character and all His commitments—the same yesterday, today, and forever;
—the supremacy of His knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox, and all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940’s farmers almanac, and quantum physics—and everything Stephen Hawking ever dreamed—seem like a first-grade reader;
—the supremacy of His wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled the wisest of men;
—the supremacy of His authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings; does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; so none can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?”
—the supremacy of His providence without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the furthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white;
—the supremacy of His word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic world we have never yet dreamed of;
—the supremacy of His power to walk on water, cleanse lepers and heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise, with a single word, or even a thought;
—the supremacy of His purity never to sin, or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought;
—the supremacy of His trustworthiness never to break His word or let one promise fall to the ground;
—the supremacy of His justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;
—the supremacy of His patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; and to hold back His final judgment on this land and on the world, that many might repent;
—the supremacy of His sovereign, servant obedience to keep His Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;
—the supremacy of His meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick;
—the supremacy of His wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb;
—the supremacy of His grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and wakens faith in hell-bound haters of God, and justifies the ungodly with His own righteousness;
—the supremacy of His love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners and frees us for the ever-increasing joy in making much of Him forever;
—the supremacy of His own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint.”
–John Piper, “Sex and the Supremacy of Christ: Part Two,” in Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), 38-40.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
A Desert by Comparison
“In 1952, when I was twenty-one and still an atheist studying philosophy at Yale, I picked up a copy of Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain and began to read about the author’s pilgrimage from secular intellectualism to the Trappist Order. As I read, my mind became enlightened by the reality of the presence of God. It suddenly became clear that behind all the beauty and order in nature and human art there lies a divine creative wisdom, an infinite personality whose beauty is past change. In Merton’s metaphor, it seemed as though a window in the depths of my consciousness, a window I had never seen before, had suddenly been opened, allowing a blazing glimpse of new orders of existence. My mind was suddenly filled with streams of thinking which reordered my understanding around the central fact of God, streams which I knew were not rising from any source within my natural awareness, which now seemed a desert by comparison. Immediately, irrevocably I was no longer an atheist. If someone had spoken to me about a ‘leap of faith,’ I would not have known what they were talking about; for there was no gap to leap. I felt that I was in contact with God.”
Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, 1979), pages 229-230.
Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, 1979), pages 229-230.
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Glorious Exchange
by Tullian Tchividjian
My mom reminds me of Jesus. Not because she always acts likes Jesus. In fact, she would be the first to admit that, in her attempts to behave the way Jesus behaved, she fails more often than she succeeds. She reminds me of Jesus because she birthed me.
Let me explain.
The very process of giving birth is a beautiful picture of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for sinners like me. In his remarkable book Jesus Ascended, author Gerrit Scott Dawson puts it this way:
A child is conceived through the loving communion of husband and wife. The child grows inside the sheltering womb of the mother. But the child cannot live there forever. He is made for another world, a world of daylight and air, starlight and sky. So in the hours of her labor, the mother offers a new and living way. The way to life as a human being into the world passes through the curtain of her flesh. The curtain must be torn that the child might live and reach the daylight world. The mother is the new and living way. By her pain, the child is born.
This is precisely the way the Bible speaks of Christ’s work on the cross. In Isaiah 53, the prophet foretold of a “suffering servant” who would one day bear the sin of many. He tells of a “man of sorrows” who would take on himself the punishment we sinners deserve. He would carry our sickness and swallow our disease. He says in v.6, “All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.” He goes on to say in v.5, “He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed.” Approximately 750 years later, the apostle Peter assures his readers that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (1 Peter 2:22-25). It was Christ who accomplished a glorious exchange: his death brings us life. In the same way that we were brought into this world through the pain and suffering of another, we are brought into fellowship with God through the pain and suffering of Christ.
The way to true everlasting life passes through the curtain of Christ’s flesh. Because of my sin, he had to die so that I might live. He is the one who passed through the “valley of the shadow of death” so that I might enjoy the “still waters” and “green pastures” that friendship with God brings.
So when I think about my mother, I can’t help but think about the suffering she endured to give me life. I was born because, in love, my mom spent herself in pain and agony. Her blood, literally, brought me into this world.
Similarly, Christ’s blood brings sinners into fellowship with God. Jesus is the new and living way (Heb. 10:20). He not only provides passage to God, he is the passage to God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
“By weakness and defeat He won the meed and crown, Trod all our foes beneath His feet, By being trodden down.”
A glorious exchange indeed!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Meet Me in Heaven
“Meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is no coming back again from that abode of misery. Why do you wish to enter the way of death when heaven’s gate is open before you? Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which Jesus grants to all who trust him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have had enough of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now, with full and immediate decision. Take with you words and come unto your Lord this day, even this day. Remember, O soul, it may be now or never with you. Let it be now; it would be horrible that it should be never. Farewell. Again I charge you, meet me in heaven.”
C. H. Spurgeon, All of Grace (London, 1897), page 128.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Cross Saves Completely
“For the cross saves completely, or not at all. Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgement that the cross alone saves, and it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross nor to its healing virtue. It owns the fullness and the sufficiency and the suitableness of the work done there and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see the glorious spectacle of all things done and to accept this completion without misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the “It is finished” of the sin-bearer and says “Amen!” Where faith begins, there labour ends–labour, I mean, for life and for pardon. Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up of all the former weary efforts.”
- Horatius Bonar from The Everlasting Righteousness
Sunday, June 20, 2010
SBC Resolution on the Centrality of the Gospel
WHEREAS, We are, every one of us, sinners against God and, apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, deserving of only condemnation (Romans 3:23; 6:23); and
WHEREAS, The gospel is the good news of salvation that reveals who Jesus is, what He has done, and why it matters (Mark 16:15; Romans 1:16; 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4); and
WHEREAS, Repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ brings believers into right standing with God through the blood and righteousness of Jesus (Mark 1:15; Romans 4:5); and
WHEREAS, The power of the gospel transforms believers (Romans 1:16) so that we are able to put sin to death and to pursue holiness (Romans 6:8-22); and
WHEREAS, The hope of the gospel assures us of life beyond death through the promise of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14); and
WHEREAS, The value of the gospel shows us the relative poverty of the love of money and the pursuit of worldly success (Acts 8:20-22); and
WHEREAS, The stewardship of the gospel has been entrusted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ in His Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Corinthians 9:16-17); and
WHEREAS, The grace of God in the gospel grants salvation to anyone and everyone who believes, regardless of who the person is or what the person has done (Ephesians 2:8-9); and
WHEREAS, Apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation (Acts 4:12); and
WHEREAS, The Great Commission Resurgence conversation has prompted Southern Baptists to a heightened awareness of the vast scope of lostness in our communities, across our nation, and around the world; and
WHEREAS, Any claim to personal self-righteousness or racial supremacy stands in contradiction to the gospel of free grace in Christ alone (Galatians 2:21; 3:27-28); now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Florida, June 15-16, 2010, call on Southern Baptists to reaffirm our commitment to the supremacy and centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our churches; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage pastors to keep the gospel foremost in every sermon they preach, so that the whole of Scripture and every aspect of life can be seen in the context of how every promise of God finds its “Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20) in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage churches in preaching, teaching, and discipleship to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, showing them how to find peace with God, and to proclaim the gospel to believers, that through the renewing of our minds we might continually be transformed by the gospel; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge churches to display the gospel by transcending ethnic, racial, economic, and social barriers due to our unity in Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage our churches to celebrate the gospel through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, teaching our congregations the joy of the gospel therein; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we recommit ourselves to the glory of the gospel by greater faithfulness to the Great Commission both in personal witness and in sending more gospel workers to the unreached peoples of the world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge churches and individual believers to study, identify, and act upon the lostness of their communities, the nation, and the world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage each church to support its pastor as he leads personally in ongoing Great Commission involvement, both locally and globally; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we commit to speak to the outside world as those who are forgiven sinners, who have received mercy as a free gift, and not as those who are morally or ethically superior to anyone (1 Corinthians 1:27-31; 4:2-7); and be it further
RESOLVED, That we seek to live as those who have been rescued by the gospel, evidenced by forgiving our enemies, setting aside personal offenses, crucifying selfish pride, breaking down carnal divisions, and loving one another joyously, counting others as more important than ourselves; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we pray that God would pour out His Spirit to make us truly gospel-centered, gospel-saturated people whose lives and words point the world to our Lord Jesus Christ.
WHEREAS, The gospel is the good news of salvation that reveals who Jesus is, what He has done, and why it matters (Mark 16:15; Romans 1:16; 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4); and
WHEREAS, Repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ brings believers into right standing with God through the blood and righteousness of Jesus (Mark 1:15; Romans 4:5); and
WHEREAS, The power of the gospel transforms believers (Romans 1:16) so that we are able to put sin to death and to pursue holiness (Romans 6:8-22); and
WHEREAS, The hope of the gospel assures us of life beyond death through the promise of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14); and
WHEREAS, The value of the gospel shows us the relative poverty of the love of money and the pursuit of worldly success (Acts 8:20-22); and
WHEREAS, The stewardship of the gospel has been entrusted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ in His Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Corinthians 9:16-17); and
WHEREAS, The grace of God in the gospel grants salvation to anyone and everyone who believes, regardless of who the person is or what the person has done (Ephesians 2:8-9); and
WHEREAS, Apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation (Acts 4:12); and
WHEREAS, The Great Commission Resurgence conversation has prompted Southern Baptists to a heightened awareness of the vast scope of lostness in our communities, across our nation, and around the world; and
WHEREAS, Any claim to personal self-righteousness or racial supremacy stands in contradiction to the gospel of free grace in Christ alone (Galatians 2:21; 3:27-28); now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Florida, June 15-16, 2010, call on Southern Baptists to reaffirm our commitment to the supremacy and centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our churches; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage pastors to keep the gospel foremost in every sermon they preach, so that the whole of Scripture and every aspect of life can be seen in the context of how every promise of God finds its “Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20) in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage churches in preaching, teaching, and discipleship to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, showing them how to find peace with God, and to proclaim the gospel to believers, that through the renewing of our minds we might continually be transformed by the gospel; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge churches to display the gospel by transcending ethnic, racial, economic, and social barriers due to our unity in Christ; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage our churches to celebrate the gospel through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, teaching our congregations the joy of the gospel therein; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we recommit ourselves to the glory of the gospel by greater faithfulness to the Great Commission both in personal witness and in sending more gospel workers to the unreached peoples of the world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge churches and individual believers to study, identify, and act upon the lostness of their communities, the nation, and the world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage each church to support its pastor as he leads personally in ongoing Great Commission involvement, both locally and globally; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we commit to speak to the outside world as those who are forgiven sinners, who have received mercy as a free gift, and not as those who are morally or ethically superior to anyone (1 Corinthians 1:27-31; 4:2-7); and be it further
RESOLVED, That we seek to live as those who have been rescued by the gospel, evidenced by forgiving our enemies, setting aside personal offenses, crucifying selfish pride, breaking down carnal divisions, and loving one another joyously, counting others as more important than ourselves; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we pray that God would pour out His Spirit to make us truly gospel-centered, gospel-saturated people whose lives and words point the world to our Lord Jesus Christ.
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