Are you feeling down? Things not going your way? Reeling from some bad choices?
Well, I don’t have any words of wisdom today. But a picture is worth a thousand words.
This week is super busy. 2 sermons, 1 seminary paper, first week of Greek, 2 Greek quizzes, another sermon to write, Acts 29 Bootcamp, and two Church Planter assessments. So, yeah. I won’t be blogging this week.
But I’ll be posting photos from the Acts 29 Bootcamp. See ya around.
The Apostle Paul is a stud. No doubt.
The dude had no quit in him (Acts 20:24). Paul was always in beast-mode. Beat him with rods—ok, that wont’ stop him. Pelt him with rocks? He’ll get back up. Chain him to a wall? An Angel will bust him out.
Church Planters, we look up to Paul. We admire him—but for the right reasons?
Church planters often develop their own perspective own Paul. One that is a little wonky. It’s a view of Paul from only one side. Not even a profile, sideline picture, but one that is more like a sketch of his chin. Their own carnival charcoal sketch.
Paul was more than a hard-hitting, take-no-mess, put-up-or-shut-up, steam-roller leader. Guys, Paul didn’t give himself a Cool Runnings pep-talk.
And without question, that is the predominant view of Paul’s leadership in the sparkling eyes of the fresh church planter.
“Paul didn’t take anybody’s mess. He stood up for the truth. He told people off. He was serious about the mission.”
Well, yeah, kind of. (We’ll get to the truth in a second).
The problem with that Pauline view of leadership, other than it being wrong, is that it poisons your leadership.
“We don’t have time to take people’s mess. Listen, we stand for the truth. We have a vision, we have a mission. If people don’t get it, well, ‘Bye! They can go to another church.’”
That sure doesn’t smell too Spirit-fruited.
Paul was more than skull cracker. Continue Reading…
High school students are all singing, “I’ll put on my cap and gown, cap and gown.” They are dunzo with high school. And your mailbox will soon summon you to a few graduation parties. If you are stuck on what to get a graduate, there’s one thing I’d suggest.
Books. Books. Books.
Cash is cool. They’ll love it I’m sure. But how often do we give high school students wads of cash and expect them to do smart things with it? My point exactly.
Now, I always give books. Why? Well, books are awesome. They last a lifetime, and then some.
The grad is done with high school—not learning. If anything, the training wheels are coming off. He is going to start learning for real. And personally, my love for reading didn’t spawn till I was out of high school; it was sparked by some powerful Christian books. Two things happen for me after high school; my love for reading and my love for Jesus both skyrocketed. And if I can help get the launchpad setup, I’m all in.
Five books to consider:
Find out if they have a good study bible. This will be an immensely helpful tool as they move out of the house, and maybe away from their home church for their first time. If they haven’t already, they’ll learn to feed themselves on God’s word, and begin study the word with the help of some of the best scholars in the world. The ESV Study Bible stands head and shoulders above other study bibles on the shelves.
John Piper has been a wrecking ball in my life. God has used him to flatten wrong thinking on many topics. The main destruction: My view of God. It used to be embarrassingly small, and I had a man-centered view of God. But this book helped crystallize my view of God, as God being the chief rewarded of the Christian, a God that loves sinners, and is a God-centered God. That changed me. Big time.
I grew up loving the Bible, doctrine, and church-life—but my love and zeal for Jesus was running on fumes. In college, the gospel became real to me (again). Jesus became more than some ethereal Savior, I began to see him as my reward, my life, my all, my friend. I was awakened to a gospel that not only saved me back in elementary school, but a gospel that is power for me today. Jared’s book is the best book I’ve read on having a love for Jesus and a passion for a gospel-centered life. Get this one for yourself too.
A lot of Christians, especially college students, get hung up on on the will of God. “What does God want me to do? Where should I go? What classes should I take? What cereal should I have!?” We’ve been taught to look for the “open doors.” But what if God wants us to sit and wait for a closed door? DeYoung’s book is a powerful, short and simple approach to decision making and the will of God.
This is an essential reference book. You can open Systematic Theology and find answers to all kinds of questions, explanations of view points—and this book is infected with Scripture. Bible is all over this book. This is one the grad will sit on the shelf, but will open again and again to find answers they are looking for. This book was (and is) instrumental to my growth in Christ.
Hey, they are going to be studying—and reading the awesome book you got them, some good study music can’t hurt. Coffee, headphones, nice pens, a nice notebook—these are all great gifts too.
What gifts, or books, do you give graduates?
That is a picture of Jonathan Edwards’s bible. He added full page margins all around it. He did this for every page. Wow.
He loved the bible. Studying, savoring, meditating. He loved God—he loved God’s word.
I’m inspired. You?
Passivity is one of the main enemies of biblical masculinity and it’s most obvious where it’s needed most. It’s a pattern of waiting on the sidelines until you’re specifically asked to step in. Even worse than that, it can be a pattern of trying to duck out of responsibilities or to run away from challenges.
- Randy Stinson & Dan Dumans, A Guide to Biblical Manhood.
With Mother’s Day around the corner, if you are father–-do you have a game plan for this weekend? How will you honor your baby’s mama?
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood ran another post from me: 3 Things Fathers Can Do On Mother’s Day. Here’s snippet.
Whether your wife is Cajun-small-town-kinda-girl (like mine) or she grew up at the Ritz, she wants to be lavished by her husband. And here’s why. Love is the soil of giving.
Give her awesome gifts. Thoughtful, memorable, special, (practical, if that’s her thing — like a vacuum cleaner, just tread carefully so mama doesn’t knock you out) — and if you can swing it, maybe something that’s more than she expected you would spend. You know your budget and your family. And being a student of your wife, diamonds may not speak to her; but a nice dinner prepared by you may be more valuable than precious jewels.
Our gift giving should have a gospel-impetus. ‘Love’ and ‘give’ are never far apart. “For God so loved… he gave.” The gospel is our model, and charge for gift giving. Fathers, let’s be like our gift-giving Father (James 1:17) who extravagantly lavishes his beloved.
You could give the perfect present, but if you don’t have love, it’s nothing. You could give up your body to do all the honey-dos, but if you don’t have love, it’s lame. You could give her an iPhone, but if love is missing, it’s a clanging cymbal.
Love never ceases. Lavish her with love. Flowers die, chocolate runs out, the mani-pedi wears off, but love doesn’t. This weekend, love your children’s mama. Crank it to eleven. Love isn’t just the ooey-gooey romantic comedy love (though, you may have to watch a few); I’m talking about something greater. Eternal virtue. Godly love. The 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love.
“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.
GOD
What do you think of when you see those three letters crammed together? Whatever pops into your head at the sight of those consonants says scores about you, your life, values, dreams, visions, expectations, hopes, fears, and how you will spend all your years.
What about these four letters…
YHWH
Anything? Any pop or sizzle? Any fear or feelings of grandness? Bigness? Yahweh, the personal name of God, is so massive (and so personal) we are in big danger if we domesticate him.
The domestication of Deity is silly. We can’t break God of the things we don’t like. God cannot be altered, conditioned, or trained to obey our thoughts, wishes, and commands.
That’s a big no-no.
Sadly, the prosperity “gospel” does this to God. (Or tries to anyway). They potty train their version of God to release the blessings on their command, at their words—and to keep the metaphor, a potty-trained anything, well, they aren’t releasing blessings.
The million dollar question about eternity:
Will we play football in Heaven? What about baseball? Soccer? Fishing? Dance Dance Revolution? (Oh, I hope not)
People love Heaven—and they are, honestly, a little nervous about it. “So, uhm, we are going to sing all of the time?” When it comes to the after-life, a lot of Christians don’t know what to think.
And it’s not their fault. We perpetuate this idea in our church culture.
We are confused about the after-life because we are wrong about this life.
We equate our heavenly home as a choir den because we think singing is all worship is. Wrong answer. Worship is more than a song. Way more.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)
There is a whateverness to our worship. True worship is glorifying God in all of life—to the perimeters and edges of life. Sunday hymns aren’t the only means of glorifying God. The Risen Christ demands that our whole self be devoted to him. Food, leisure, money, work—are aligned to glorifying Jesus Christ.
I’m positive we don’t fully obey Romans 12:1–2, the laying down of our bodies as a living sacrifice—which is our spiritual worship, by singing on Sunday. Now, that’s a part of it, but it ain’t all of it. Worship is the transforming and renewal of our minds, evidence in not living (more than singing) like the world.
God is glorified by football—when done in a God-exalting way. God is glorified when you enjoy a perfect steak and thank him. He made it. He made the cow. Yummy.
Worship is a life. Is that how Jesus lived? That’s how Jesus worshipped the Father.
Don’t be nervous about eternity. It’s going to be way cooler than what we have now. As Lewis says, the joys are going to be more solid. Sure, we will sing—and it will be like we’ve never sung before because you will see King Jesus. You won’t be able to contain yourself.
And remember, what is Jesus like? What do we see Jesus doing after his resurrection?
The Glorified Jesus, after his resurrection, was he in a 24/7-singing-mode? Nah. He walked, talked, grilled fish. If we are going to be made like Jesus, we are also going to act like Jesus. We will be glorified men and women, who actually fulfill 1 Cor. 10:31. In the heavenly home, all of our eating, drinking, and whatever God lets us do, will glorify him.
I’m sure we will throw a pigskin around. We will walk, maybe fly (that’d be cool), around the New Jerusalem. We will worship God on Earth.
We aren’t going to be in a never-ending music festival.
Why have streets of gold if we are never going to walk on them? I’m sure the old ladies at the mall will get in some sweet walking time.
Christians need courage. It’s not natural. By Adam’s sin, we are weenies (see him hightailing it in Eden, hiding behind some shrubs). But Jesus gives us boldness. Jesus is courageous. Jesus is a Lion. He is the King. And we are his people.
We need the right kind of boldness.
As our culture becomes more twisted, calling things marriage that aren’t marriage—it won’t be long before people advocate and raise funds, for the right to say that 2+2=5. Hey, you can say whatever you want, but it doesn’t make it true. The church of Jesus Christ, is the pillar of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), and he is The Truth (John 14:6). So, we do have that going for us.
But as our nation (and world) continue to deceive themselves, and love every second of it, we are going to need an extraterrestrial boldness. The right kind of boldness. Bad boldness is hardwired into us. It’s easy to be a punk, a jerk, or an arrogant proclaimer of truth. We need a lot less of that going around on Facebook.
It does take a dash of boldness to call a spade a spade. It’s no small matter to say that homosexuality is a sin.
And it takes Holy Spirit style boldness to call a sin a sin, and then invite people to repent of their sin, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, and receive a new and eternal life—all in the same love that Jesus displays in the gospels.
That’s what we need.
We do need to stand for truth.
And we must point people to The Truth.
We need to be more than spade-callers. We call people to follow Jesus.
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