Nova Goes to Final Four

Just had to get this up here for my own enjoyment....what a game!

Another Reminder to Groan

I have a continual need to be reminded that this world is not as it's supposed to be. Sometimes a photo really is worth more than a thousand words:

Here, some children are recovering their belongings from their flooded home in Caldas, Colombia. Hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes after heavy rains caused the river Mandalay to overflow its banks early Friday in Caldas, northwestern Colombia.

Thank God, one day the entire cosmos will be set free from its bondage to decay, and enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God!

Joni Eareckson-Tada: Strength in Suffering

This morning I had the privilege of sharing a biographical message with some of the home-schooled children in our church on one of my heroes of the faith, Joni Eareckson-Tada. It has been more than 40 years since she was paralyzed from the neck down because of a diving accident, yet she speaks of God's goodness, sovereignty and love with a joy and vitality that far surpass most of us who have never suffered like her.

If you've never heard Joni speak, you can watch this video below from a recent talk she did at Dallas Theological Seminary. Also, you can listen to or watch her talk from the 2005 Desiring God National Conference, which was outstanding.

RSS Reminder

My recent blogging lull over the weekend and into the beginning of this week reminded me of the value of RSS feed readers. I know this blog does not receive a ton of traffic, but for the faithful few, an RSS reader will make your blog surfing a lot easier. Instead of checking one blog at a time, RSS allows you to keep track of all the blogs you visit, and automatically notifies you when the blogs you've subscribed to are updated. That way you don’t have to keep going back to them only to find nothing has been updated.

It has been a big time-saver for me. If you've never understood what that funky orange thing was and want to get the RSS reader set up, this tutorial from Abraham Piper will get you going in minutes.

Cold Stone and the Image of God

A few weeks ago I went to Cold Stone Creamery and saw the image of God on display. Nobody was preaching a sermon or leading a Bible Study, nor was there any earth-shattering event like a bolt of lightning or a burning bush. But for a few minutes I watched one young woman reflecting the image of our Maker before my very own eyes.

When God created the universe, we're told in Genesis 1:2 that the world was formless and empty. The rest of Genesis 1 explains how God brought order out of the disorder and chaos to fashion a world in which man and woman could flourish. God took the raw materials of creation and, figuratively speaking, got His hands dirty making something of the material world.

Then, after creating Adam in His image, 'The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it' (Genesis 2:15). Being made in God's image means being made to create; not out of nothing, like God did, but by making something of the world which God has given to us. Genesis 1 depicts God bringing order out of chaos, and then He tells the man, 'Now you do in the Garden what I have done throughout the world.'

To work is to take the raw materials of a particular domain and to draw out its potential, molding those raw materials into something which enables the human society to flourish. Over the centuries, many commentators have taken this charge to work and keep the garden as dealing with more than just agriculture, but the formation of human culture and civil society.

Which brings me back to Cold Stone on that Wednesday night a few weeks ago. The young woman making my cup of Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate chip is bearing the image of our Creator God, whether she knows it or not. What has she done in making me that sundae? She's taken some raw materials (mint cream, one chocolate brownie, and chocolate chips), she picks up her tools and begins to make something out of those raw materials.

She cultivates them, digging and molding and fashioning them into something more than was there to start with. Mint cream is good, and so is a brownie and chocolate chips. But in molding them together, she's brought out some of the potential of those raw materials. She's made a little bit of culture. She is doing in her domain what God had called Adam to do in the Garden of Eden thousands of years before her.

If the girl who 'dug up' my dessert happened to be a Christian, then surely she would also want to lovingly share the Gospel with her co-workers and customers, and to work with integrity and faithfulness as a way of adorning the teaching of Christ as her Savior. But even in the simple act of making my delicious dessert, she has reflected the glory of God. Her job is, therefore, full of dignity and value in God's sight. She should experience joy in the awesome privilege of imaging forth her Maker in the domain He has called her to, whether she had any opportunities to share the Gospel that day or not. For God is a lavish Creator, and He created us to be creators.

I used to go to Cold Stone just to fill my belly; but now I also admire the God who is being reflected in our most 'ordinary' acts of making something of His world.

Is anyone else getting hungry?

Staying Near the Center

D.A. Carson, from his talk at the 2007 Gospel Coalition conference:

[There is a tendency today] to assume the Gospel, while devoting creative energy and passion to other issues: marriage, happiness, prosperity, evangelism, the poor, bioethics. The list is endless. But this overlooks the fact that our hearers inevitably are drawn toward that which we are most passionate. My students are unlikely to learn all that I teach them. They're most likely to learn what I am excited about. If the Gospel is merely assumed, while relatively peripheral issues ignite our passion, we'll train a new generation to downplay the Gospel and focus on the periphery. It is easy to sound prophetic from the margins; what is urgently needed is to be prophetic from the center.

You can download the whole talk here.

The Great Enemy of Gospel-Centeredness

Yesterday, thanks to the wise words of a friend of mine, I was reminded of something I had written last year on the Seeking Him blog. As I have searched my own heart, this seems to me to be such a great danger that it is worth being reminded of again and again. Here's what I wrote (a year ago yesterday, oddly enough):

Beware of being a Pharisee about the Gospel.

I know these two things appear contradictory, and they are. A Pharisee is by nature not gospel-centered, and truly embracing the Gospel crushes the roots of a Pharisee. Yet I have seen in my own heart the subtle way that a genuine desire to promote the glory of the Gospel can turn into a cold-hearted, arrogant condemnation of those who don’t meet my standards of gospel-centeredness.

When I say beware of being a Pharisee about the Gospel, I mean beware of looking down upon others and casting judgment upon those people who you think are not as gospel-centered as they should be. In reality, none of us are as gospel-centered as we should be. But I’ve sensed in me a tendency toward pride, an attitude that we have now ‘arrived’ because we know the centrality of the gospel for all of life. We hear sermons and grumble that they are not gospel-centered enough. We look down on certain church leaders or authors or small-group members because ‘they just don’t make the gospel central enough.’

The Gospel tells us that there is absolutely nothing we can do to merit the favor of a holy and just God…and even passion for the gospel can be something we use to try to win God’s approval and make ourselves feel superior to others. Nothing is farther from the true spirit of the gospel than to use the gospel to elevate yourself or your knowledge above those of other people.

In the same way that many ‘Calvinists’ turn off other Christians to those doctrines because of their condescending attitude toward those who don’t believe like them, so also can genuine lovers of the gospel distort the gospel by being condescending toward those who aren’t as ‘gospel-centered’ as they think they are. Few things will make the gospel as unattractive as a person who uses it to feel superior to others who they regard as ‘unenlightened’.

So beware of this, brothers and sisters. I have been placing a high emphasis on the centrality of the gospel lately, urging others to make the main thing the main thing. With all my heart, I believe that is right, and should be contended for at all costs. Yet I have seen in my own soul this tendency toward becoming a Pharisee about it. It is ugly, and it is an awful distortion of true gospel-centeredness. It will only hinder the spread of the gospel we so long to see cherished.

For the sake of the gospel, let’s resist it at all costs!

Love and Free Will

In Paul Young's The Shack, the author puts these words in the mouth of Jesus:

"To force my will on you," Jesus replied, "is exactly what love does not do. Genuine relationships are marked by submission even when your choices are not helpful or healthy."

This is a common argument among theologians and scholars, who claim that in order for God to genuinely love His created people, He must never impose His will on them but must always preserve their freedom to either embrace or reject His love. But this seems to me untrue, both on the grounds of Scripture (John 6:44, for instance) and common sense.

Imagine you are this child's parent. You have expressly told him NEVER to go near the street without an adult, but there he is. How do you respond? What does real love and a genuine relationship with your son compel you to do in this moment? Do you say, 'Well, since love must allow you freedom of will even when your choices are not helpful or healthy, I guess I must let you venture out in front of that car coming to end your life.'

No loving parent would do such a thing. If this were your child, you would impose your will on that child and forcibly remove him from the road, so as to save his life. That is what genuine love does with rebellious children.

I am glad that is how God has loved me. Instead of allowing me to destroy myself for the sake of preserving my autonomy, He sovereignly, decisively moved upon my will and drew me to Himself, opening my eyes to see glory in the face of Jesus Christ, when once He looked foolish and ugly.

O how precious is the sovereign, omnipotent love of Jesus Christ! Without it there would be only everlasting torment and misery.

Well, I do Agree with Obama on Some Things...

I disagree with our president on some significant issues, but we do have some things in common:

Our picks for the Final Four. Like me, Obama has Louisville, Memphis, Carolina and Pitt. I think I'd rather agree with him about the rights of the unborn.

Anyway, could someone explain why ESPN cares about how Obama fills out his tournament bracket? Is he the next Dick Vitale or something?

What is the Gospel?

If you had 90 seconds, how would you explain the Gospel?

Mark Dever takes a stab at it in this video (If you can't see or view the video, click here):



What I particularly like about the way Dever presents this is how he begins and ends with the big picture of cosmic renewal and redemption, but also clearly communicates the heart of the Gospel as Christ's substitionary life and death as the only way to become an heir of that cosmic redemption.

It seems that many Christians in this day and age can't seem to strike that balance as well as Dever does. They either focus on the cosmic scope of redemption to the exclusion of personal faith in Christ, or they so emphasize personal faith that one would never know that the Gospel is about something bigger than their own personal salvation story.

What do you think?

Why Bother with Stem-Cells?

So why should Christians bother themselves with a social issue like stem cells? Won't this distract us from the Lord's work of preaching the Gospel and saving souls?

I want to look at these questions in some detail tomorrow, but for now here is an insightful quote from Richard Mouw in his excellent book, When the Kings Come Marching In:

"Recently I heard a very pious man say, 'I don't mean to suggest that it is wrong to pay attention to some of these social issues -- but I do wish we would spend more time talking about the things of the Lord!'

"Of course it is of the utmost importance that we talk about the things of the Lord. But the important question is this: what are the Lord's things? Doesn't Jesus agonize over attacks on the dignity of those persons for whom He spilled His blood? Doesn't He grieve over men and women who have been imprisoned because they witnessed for justice and righteousness? Isn't the Son of God angered by the oppression of widows and orphans [and unborn babies, I might add!], and by the schemes of those who plot destruction of all that the Creator has called good?

"If so, then many so-called 'social issues' are 'the things of the Lord'."

Thoughts?

A Primer on Stem Cells

The Crossway blog has an interview with Scott Klusendorf, the president of Life Training Institute. He trains pro-life advocates to persuasively defend their views and has just written a book called The Case for Life, in which he aims to equip those committed to life to engage our culture regarding these challenging issues. This book is especially timely in light of President Obama’s executive order repealing the policy that limited federal tax dollars for stem cell research.

Especially disheartening in Obama's announcement was his statement of the need to separate science from ideology, a statement that would lead to complete anarchy if followed to its logical conclusion. In in his interview, Klusendorf answers this question about Obama's statement:

6. President Obama said that ideology should not interfere with science. What do you make of that claim?

Well, the claim that ideology should not get in the way of science is itself an ideological claim, and a highly controversial one at that. I found this the most troubling part of his speech. If he is correct that scientific progress trumps morality, one can hardly condemn Hitler for grisly medical experiments on Jews. Nor can one criticize the Tuskegee experiments of the 1940s in which black men suffering from syphilis were promised treatment, only to have it denied so scientists could study the disease. Pro-life advocates are not anti-science. We are not anti-cures. We just insist that scientific progress must be tied to moral truth.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Gospel-Grounded Obedience

This past Sunday my good friend Anthony preached an outstanding sermon on Acts 5:12-42. He made the point that much opposition to the gospel that happens in our country happens within the walls of the church, not outside of it. And he said that one of the ways this resistance to the gospel has been spread is through preaching that is more focused on application than on doctrine and theology.

He then shared four simple steps to show that the way to help people become more practically obedient is to help them see God's love revealed in the Gospel:

1. We want people to become obedient and live God-pleasing lives in every sphere.

2. Jesus says, 'If you love me, you will obey my commandments.' Obedience in the practical issues of life is the fruit of loving God.

3. The Apostle John says that we love God because He first loved us.

4. The love of God is most clearly seen and revealed in the events of the Gospel: Christ's perfect life, substitutionary death and resurrection.

Therefore, if we want people to become obedient, we must saturate them with the gospel in our sermons week after week after week. I was thankful for the exhortation, and thought I would add to Anthony's words by showing some specific places in the New Testament where we see the writers of Scripture doing the very thing that Anthony said we all must do:

• To stir them up to generosity with their finances, Paul says, "⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8)
  
• To help them overcome pride and arrogance he tells the Philippians, "⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2)
  
• To help them overcome anger, Paul told the Colossians, "¹²Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." (Colossians 3)
  
• To help them handle mistreatment and suffering, Peter encouraged the suffering saints, "²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ²²He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." (1 Peter 2)
  
• When admonishing the believers for their indifference to the poor, John reminded them of true love, "¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3)
  

More examples could be given, but that should suffice. All that to say, I think Anthony is onto something!

Piper on the Imprisonment of Madoff

Over the weekend John Piper wrote a little reflection on the imprisonment of disgraced billionaire Bernard Madoff. It begins with these words:

A few months ago he was worth over $800 million. Now, at age 70, he sits in this prison cell, 7.5 by 8 feet, with a sink, a toilet, and a bunk. Bernard Madoff went there last Thursday after being under house arrest in his $7 million penthouse since December.

This, Piper says, is a great demonstration of God's mercy to Madoff and you and me. Read the rest here.

The Church in the World

While Monday is a day of rest for me, it signals the beginning of the work week for most. This quote from Michael Horton, in his book Where in the World is the Church?, was a good one to get the week started:

"While the midieval and, to a large extent, pietistic tendency is to call the believer out of the world and into church-related activities, the Reformation approach is to view all church-related activities as 'refueling' stations for their real service in the world. We should not put people who work diligently at their calling on a guilt trip for failing to attend every church-related activity or volunteering for church-related tasks. It is the church that serves the Christian so that the Christian can serve God in the world...

"Even if a church is feeding the sheep with God's promises, a further question must be asked: If the church itself is healthy internally, are individual Christians fulfilling their calling in the world with excellence? That is not the same question as, Are they winning souls? Rather, Do individual believers sense that it is their Christian duty to transcend mediocrity in their daily routines and link their service in the world to their service of an all-knowing God of glory?

"A Christian does not go to work on Monday morning in order to convert people to Christ, but to pursue his or her calling, for which he or she was designed by divine creation."

I am curious to know what those people who went to work at a 'secular' job today think of this quote. Leave a comment and let me know!

What Cesspits and Perfume Have in Common

Last week I decided to take the plunge...I am finally reading through Augustine's City of God. At 1,085 pages, this is a bit of an endeavor, because Augustine is not the easiest person to read. But I'm hoping to be done by March of 2010.

Anyway, I was struck by this quote early on in the book, dealing with how both the righteous and the wicked suffer in this world:

When the good and the wicked suffer alike, the identity of their sufferings does not mean that there is no difference between them. Though the sufferings are the same, the sufferers remain different...The fire which makes gold shine makes chaff smoke...In the same way, the violence which assails good men to test them, to cleanse and purify them, effects in the wicked their condemnation, ruin and annihilation. Thus the wicked, under affliction, execrate God and blaspheme; the good, in the same affliction, offer up prayers and praises. This shows that what matters is the nature of the sufferer, not the nature of the sufferings. Stir a cesspit, and a foul stench arises; stir a perfume, and a delightful fragrance ascends. But the movement is identical.

See why it's going to take a year to read through?

A Test in Discernment

William Paul Young's book The Shack has had mega-success since it was released, selling millions of copies around the world. Some Christians have celebrated the book as life-changing in the way it has helped them to understand God. Other Christians have simultaneously condemned it as heresy and destructive to the Church.

In this interview, Paul Young frankly discusses some of his theological perspectives that fueled the writing of his book. The questions he answers cover the Fatherhood of God, universal redemption and penal substitution, to name a few.

Christians who have read the Shack or not will profit from listening to and thinking through Young's remarks in this interview. As you listen I would encourage you to ask yourself how you would respond to some of the things Young says. As Christians we ought to know why we believe what we do, and ought to be able to give evidence from the Scriptures to support our beliefs. And in my opinion, Young says some things in this interview that seem to attack doctrines that are at the very heart of Christianity. Doctrines that need to be defended with both compassion and conviction.

So listening to this interview is, then, a valuable exercise in using biblical discernment. It is somewhat lengthy, but I believe it is a worthwhile investment of time.

A World without Happy Endings

Last night Michelle and I watched a movie called The Visitor (a few instances of foul language toward the beginning of the movie, but otherwise no objectionable content). I enjoyed this movie mainly because of how much I did not enjoy the ending of the movie.

The movie is about a college professor in Connecticut who goes to New York for a conference. When he arrives at the apartment that he still owns despite almost never returning to the city, he finds a foreign couple who have been illegally subletting the apartment (You can watch the trailer here). The movie was appealing to me because of its focus on life in the city and racial relations.

Without spoiling the rest of the movie, I would just say that I found the ending very unsatisfying. When the credits began to roll, I thought to myself, 'That was a lousy movie.' But in hindsight, I found great value in watching a movie that did not end the way I wanted it to end. It was a reminder that we live in a broken, fallen world, where pain and heartache are the norm.

Happy endings are rare in this world, and I am grateful for how The Visitor reminded me of that. Such reminders whet my appetite for the exceedingly joyful ending that awaits this world because of the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ. Our vapor of a life in this world may be full of unsatisfying endings, but for those whose hope is in Christ, all the groaning is a prelude to glory.