Deo Velonte

Links about my new role as Pastor of Membership and Mission

2011-07-28T23:52:00.003-04:00

I just want to post some links about my new position at The Bridge Church... Meredith and I are loving our new church family and community!

My introduction to the church body!

5 Things my addition to the staff means for the church.

Staff Roles

I have the honor of serving with very gifted, godly men as well... Check them out!

From Rags to Riches

2011-06-09T09:35:00.002-04:00

No, I don't play the lottery and I don't have very much money. Rags to riches is my spiritual transformation. As I start being a "full time pastor" in July it still seems a little surreal. When I think back to who I was before Jesus saved me I can't help but to laugh that God has turned that filthy ragged boy into a pastor.

He can, indeed, do it all. All of my relatives joke that "I was the last one they thought would ever go into the ministry." I have to agree with them. The grace of God does more than make us feel good and does more than "give us stuff."

Titus 2 tells us that it is the "grace of God" that appeared and "trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age," .... Jesus came to "purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." God's grace has appeared in the gospel- it is what trains us for godly lives, makes us like Jesus, and makes us zealous for good works! Titus 2:11-14

The fact that I will start as a Pastor in July is in no way a testament of myself or how well I have done for myself or any of those things... It is a testament to the grace of God. I am thankful.

6 Years in the Making

2011-06-09T09:12:00.002-04:00

As many of you know, I have accepted an offer to be the Pastor of Membership and Mission at The Bridge Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. I am more excited about this than can be expressed on a blog...

This has been 6 years in the making. I absolutely have to believe in the Sovereignty of God as I have seen his providential care and leading throughout my short life in ways that cannot be denied- this is one of those things.

In 2005 I went to a church camp, Jonathan Creek, in Kentucky. My church went to this camp every year(it was my second trip). I was 17 years old, saved, and knew I was going into the ministry. Yet, God had a very big surprise for me at camp. A surprise I didn't realize until some time after the camp was over. Josh Howerton was a camp counselor and I took a leadership course that him and another guy taught. He threw me off the tube and ran on the stage as a lunatic ("Mr. 15") every day of the camp.

For some reason that only the providence of God can explain, Josh and I began to form a relationship. I am going to keep this short so I am not going to go into many details... But for some reason that I don't know about Josh continued to invest in me and communicate with me about Jesus, spiritual growth, the church, and ministry. He was a Youth Pastor near Louisville, KY, where I went to get my undergrad. Through my time there he continued to mentor me and he got married and then I got married and our families started hanging out.

Josh and I have only seen each other twice in the last two and a half years and yet he has chose to take the time to continue investing in me. No one has shaped me more than Josh Howerton... my spiritual growth, theology, approach to ministry, etc. all have Josh's hand print on them and I am forever thankful.

Well, 6 years after meeting at church camp, the elders of The Bridge Church decided to hire me as the Pastor of Membership and Mission.... where Josh Howerton is the Pastor of Preaching and Leadership. It is a dream come true and something that I always thought would be "too good to be true." It should be a dream of everyone to get to have a mentor like I have had and then be able to serve under them in the ministry! I am blessed beyond words.

The Bridge Church is a very healthy, gospel-centered church with great leadership and vision. A young guy like me could not find himself in a better situation to minister and grow. It has indeed, been 6 years in the making.

Carson on the gospel

2011-05-24T11:32:00.001-04:00

I had never seen this before so I wanted to share it in case others havent seen it! At the Gospel Coalition's first conference in May 2007. Carson clarifies the gospel from 1 Cor 15:1–19 with eight summarizing words:

Christological: The gospel centers on the person and work (the life, death, and resurrection) of Jesus Christ.

theological: The gospel tells us that sin is first and foremost an offense against God and that salvation is first to last the action of God, not our own.

biblical: The gospel is essentially the message of the whole Bible.

apostolic: The gospel is passed on to us by Jesus' disciples as authoritative eyewitnesses.

historical: The gospel is not philosophy or advice on how to find God, but rather news of what God has done in history to find and save us.

personal: The gospel must be personally believed and appropriated.

universal: The gospel is for every tongue, tribe, people, and individual.

eschatological: The gospel includes the good news of the final transformation, not just the blessings we enjoy in this age.

Spurgeon: The Need for a Weeping-Cross Salvation

2010-12-08T23:07:00.004-05:00

Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

"A spiritual experience which is thoroughly flavoured with a deep and bitter sense of sin is of great value to him that hath had it. It is terrible in the drinking, but it is most wholesome in the bowels, an in the whole of the after-life. Possibly, much of the flimsy piety of the day arises from the ease with which men attain to peace and joy in these evangelistic days.

We would not judge modern converts, but we certainly prefer that form of spiritual exercise which leads the soul by way of Weeping-cross, and makes it see its blackness before assuring it that it is "clean every whit." Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Saviour. He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope around his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honor of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed."

In his first volume of his autobiography- page 54.

A Great Spurgeon Quote

2010-12-07T00:11:00.004-05:00

I am reading through Spurgeon's massive two volume autobiography... I am guessing that there will be many quotes from these two volumes that make it onto my blog- here is the first:

"It is said by some that children cannot understand the great mysteries of religion. We even know some Sunday school teachers who cautiously avoid mentioning the great doctrines of the gospel because they think the children are not prepared to receive them. Alas! the same mistake has crept into the pulpit; for it is currently believed, among a certain class of preachers, that many of the doctrines of the Word of God, although true, are not fit to be taught to the people, since they would pervert them to their own destruction. Away with such priestcraft!

Whatever God has revealed ought to be preached. Whatever He has revealed, if I am not capable of understanding it, I will still believe and preach it. I do hold that there is no doctrine of the Word of God which a child, if he be able of salvation, is not capable of receiving. I would have children taught all the great doctrines of truth without a solitary exception, that they may in their after days hold fast by them."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Found on pages 45-46 of "C.H. Spurgeon- Autobiography: Volume 1- The Early Years"

The Glory of God in the Life of the Mind

2010-11-12T10:25:00.002-05:00

Albert Mohler has written a great blog on the Glory of God in the Life of the Mind...

I have always appreciated his emphasis on the role the mind has in bringing glory to God. In this article he looks at the necessity of the use of our minds in following Jesus. Mohler also points out that too many Christians ignore the intellectual component of discipleship. I agree wholeheartedly. I have heard pastors say things like, "I'm not theological." How is that even possible? I have also heard pastors say things like, "Discipleship means getting coffee with someone." While I like a good brew there is a lot more to discipleship than that. In my opinion, the neglect of the intellectual component of discipleship is one of the things that has harmed the American church most severely.

Mohler ends his article with this:

The fact that God would command that we love him with our minds indicates in a most profound and unmistakable sense that our Creator has made us to know him in order that we would love him and to seek his glory above all else. Understood in this light, our intellectual capacity and the discipleship of the mind are to culminate in the development of a Christian worldview that begins and ends in the glory of the self-revealing God of the Bible.

To be fair, there are also pastors that think discipleship=education. This is equally wrong to neglecting the intellectual component. We have to engage our minds. One reason why I think that a lot of youth leave the church when they hit college is because their minds haven't been engaged. Most of their faith has been merely experiential and then they hit college and they are mentally engaged- engaged in a way that says leave behind what you thought you knew. With that being very little it is easy to do.

Some people, including pastors, functions from a mindset that says people dont love Jesus more by sitting in a class. I strongly disagree. My faith was growing weary my senior year of high school- I grew up in a seeker sensitive church and had learned very, very little theology. Therefore, my faith was, like most students, merely experiential. Experience without meat is vain. When I went to Boyce College I learned about 10 million more times theology than I had known before. What happened next? I started loving Jesus more. I understood what God was like better. I understood how the Holy Spirit works and the depth of the cross and resurrection. Learning through deep theological study made me desire deeper intimacy with the God of the universe.

If any of you are wanting to study more deeply and understand your Bibles and your God better here is what I recommend:

1) Be at a church that truly values theological study. Dont be at a church where the sermons are pep talks with verses. If you ask your pastor what you can do to study the Bible more deeply with others and he doesnt have anywhere for you to go- leave.

2) Realize that a lot of it is up to you. You cant fully depend on others- you have to do the hard work. You have to open your own Bible and read it- consistently.

3) Start with "According to Plan." I tell you to start with that book because it will help you understand your Bible better. It helps you see how the Old and New Testaments fit together, it helps you understand how Jesus really is the center of the Bible and all that God is doing. In order to really grow in your understanding of God you need to grow in your understanding of His word. According to Plan is the best book for that. Graeme Goldsworthy has had a bigger influence on me than any other authors because he helped me understand the Bible and taught me how to study the Word.

4) Ask tons and tons of questions. Again, you have to be at a church where you have a place to ask these questions!

5) Pray- and understand the goal of all of this... The goal is not to be puffed up with knowledge. The goal is to be a consecrated disciple of Jesus- which includes glorifying God with your mind. You cant love someone more when you arent learning more about them. What makes marriage great is that I learn about my wife as we continue to be together and the more I learn the more I love- it is the same with God. Our hearts and minds cannot be separated.

Think Of Me

2010-11-09T17:16:00.001-05:00

I tear up and am convicted every time I watch this video:

Worry about Substance- not Style

2010-11-08T11:06:00.000-05:00

"While we're arguing about how to give the traditional Baptist church a cosmetic make-over with regard to styles and forms, our people are going out into the world without a mastery of the Bible, without a solid foundation of systematic and biblical theology, and without roots deep enough to withstand the winds of false doctrine that blow their way every day."

Jim Shaddix

Dr. Grant Osborne: Not Your Normal Premillennial

2010-11-01T11:12:00.006-04:00

As most of you know I finished my course with Dr. Grant Osborne on the Book of Revelation this weekend. Dr. Chad Brand's Theology III class was the best course I had in college, but Dr. Osborne's was a definite second. I wrote a couple of posts with some Dr. Osborne quotes that I encourage you to go read. They are great, thought provoking insights from the book of Revelation.

Dr, Osborne showed me how incredibly practical Revelation is and how encouraging it is meant to be for Christians. Definitely not encouraging for non-believers, as you might imagine!

Here are some concluding thoughts:

Dr. Osborne is not your typical Premillennial- at least what I thought was your typical Premillennial. One of the main reasons why I became Amillennial was how outlandish I thought the premillennial millennium was... Well, Dr. Osborne doesn't believe most of what I thought was outlandish. Meaning, Dr. Osborne's premillennial millennium is a lot more believable than your typical Premillennial or Dispensational millennium.

For instance- Dr. Osborne does not believe that Christians will procreate in the millennium. Many premillennials believe this is one way that the earth repopulates in order for another revolt to happen at the end of the millennium. He also said he isn't even sure if non-believers procreate in the millennium. Dr. Osborne also does not believe that their will be animal sacrifices during the millennium. To my relief, he even called that idea "offensive." The third thing that I was thankful to hear was that he does not believe anyone will be getting saved during the millennium. Many premillennials think some non-believers who make it through the Second Coming to the millennium will get saved during that time. As I said and Osborne agreed with- that seems to go against everything in the New Testament.

All in all those three concepts of the Millennium that I couldnt accept as biblical- Dr. Osborne also doesn't accept.
1) Believers procreating in the millennium.
2) People getting saved in the millennium.
3) Animal sacrifices taking place in the millennium.

I think all three of those things are very unbiblical and cannot be accepted. I was relieved to hear a premillennial who rejects all three concepts. As I said before, Osborne showed me a much more believable Premillennial millennium.

Not only did he do that, but I realized that GK Beale and him interpret about 99% of Revelation the same- using the same hermeneutical principles- they really only disagree on Revelation 20:1-10. Osborne rejects the idea of interpreting everything as literal as possible unless the text give you reason to interpret symbolically. He said, "That is assuming that Revelation was meant to be interpreted literally in the first place." He obviously denies that assumption. He also pointed out that all symbols used were understood to 1st century people. He said many Premillennials, especially Dispensationals, do themselves a disservice by reading Revelation as if it was written to their context. First century people would never assume a literal approach to Apocalyptic literature.

What did the class do for me?

1) Well, it has me reconsidering my position(again). Right now I am solidly Amillennial and I don't see that changing... BUT, now I am helped by knowing that even if I change my stance on Revelation 20:1-10- the rest of it stays the same. I was blown away when I realized Dr. Osborne and I interpret 99% of Revelation the same. He accepts recapitulation with the judgements, the symbolic nature of Revelation, etc... Dr. Osborne was very compelling on Revelation 20:1-10. I think it was his honesty that made it compelling. He openly admitted- "Revelation 20:1-3 seems to favor the Premillennial position, but verses 4-6 seem to favor the Amillennial position." He also said that Amillennials best argument is that the battles at the end of chapters 19 and 20 are the same battle. He noted the mention of Gog and Magog being a strong case for Amillennials.

He obvious lands at the Premillennial position, but his honesty of the strong case on both sides was refreshing. He said he lands Premillennial because he thinks the details of the two battles are just too different and that verses 1-3 seem to favor Premillennialism strongly.

2) The class also gave me a greater appreciation for the Book of Revelation and for Jesus. Studying Revelation with Osborne made me love Jesus much more than I did before. The gospel-centered approach to Revelation was good for my soul and encouraging for my life. Outside of the cross, the love and justice of God is seen better in the book of Revelation than anywhere else. Revelation is extremely practical and should be read and studied as an encouragement to believers- not as a puzzle to be solved. Revelation is in "story form" and should be read and interpreted in that way.

3) Helped me see that not all Premillennials have a goofy Millennium. :)

That's enough for now- I might write more later.

A couple more juicy Osborne quotes on Revelation

2010-10-30T19:49:00.001-04:00

A couple more Osborne quotes:

"If you want to see the power of sin over the lives of people- read Revelation."

"We need more sermons like the Puritans. We need more sermons like Jonathan Edwards' 'Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God."
Grant Osborne

That second quote is pretty interesting since Dr. Osborne is a 4-point Arminian.

Revelation with Dr. Grant Osborne

2010-10-30T09:55:00.002-04:00

Some juicy quotes:

‎"A problem with the seeker sensitive movement is it downplays the uncomfortableness of the state of nonbelievers. Revelation is clear- as long as someone is in 'seeker mode' they are looking forward to the winepress of the wrath and fury of God. We should welcome everyone in our churches, but not allow them to be comfortable and complacent with where they stand with God." Grant Osborne

‎"The 144,000 only makes sense if it is understand as representing the entire people of God." Grant Osborne

"The key character in chapter 12 is not the dragon, but the woman. In the first 6 verses the woman is representative of Israel- in verses 7-17 it is then representative of the entire people of God." Grant Osborne

‎"The holiness of God is the clearest thing seen in Revelation. Yet, his love is all throughout(Revelation) as well. Part of his coming is to vindicate his saints and bring them relief. He even does this as an answer to the prayers of his children." Grant Osborne

"When it comes to the seven bowls of God's wrath we don't know how symbolic or how literal it is going to be. We arent supposed too. We should look at these knowing they could happen literally, but they don't have too." Grant Osborne

More to come later...

Why I Am A Calvinist- Kevin DeYoung

2010-10-27T10:04:00.002-04:00

This is a great article by Kevin DeYoung:

Like DeYoung, I think a lot of my own friends are confused about why I am a Calvinist and what it is all about... I agree with every word DeYoung says here so I reposted all of it to help enlighten some of my own friends and family about why I am a "Calvinist."

DeYoungs article:

“Here are the two most important things you need to know about the rise of the New Calvinism: it’s not new and it’s not about Calvin. Of course, some of the conferences are new. The John Piper–packed iPods are new. The neo-reformed blog blitz is new. The ideas, however, are not. “Please God, don’t let the young, restless, and reformed movement be another historically ignorant, self-absorbed, cooler-than-thou fad.”

And while I’m praying: “Please God, don’t let the New Calvinism ever, ever be about the New Calvinism.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m not afraid to be called a Calvinist. I’ve read the Institutes multiple times, most of Calvin’s commentaries, and was voted “Calvin Clone” by my peers at seminary. I thank God for Calvin. But if the New Calvinism is to continue as a work of God, which I think it has been, it must continue to be about God. Young Christians have been drawn to Calvinism not because they were looking for Calvin or an “ism,” but because they were drawn to a vision of a massive, glorious, fall-down-before-Him-as-though-dead kind of God who loves us because He wants to.

The influence of Calvinism is growing because its God is transcendent and its theology is true. In a day when “be better” moralism passes for preaching, self-help banality passes for counseling, and “Jesus is my boyfriend” music passes for worship in some churches, more and more people are finding comfort in a God who is anything but comfortable. The paradox of Calvinism is that we feel better by feeling worse about ourselves, we do more for God by seeing how He’s done everything for us, and we give love away more freely when we discover that we have been saved by free grace.

I’d like to think that we are Calvinists because of what we see in the Bible. We see a God who is holy, independent, and unlike us. We glory in God’s goodness, that He should save miserable offenders, bent toward evil in all our faculties, objects of His just wrath. We rejoice in God’s electing love, which He purposed for us before the ages began. We are grateful for God’s power by which He caused us, without our cooperation, to be born again and enabled us to believe His promises. We take comfort in God’s all-encompassing providence, whereby nothing happens according to chance, but all things—prosperity or poverty, health or sickness, giving or taking away—are sent to us by our loving heavenly Father.

As Calvinists and Christians, we praise God for His mercy, shown to us chiefly on the cross where His Son died, not just to make a way for us to come to Him, but effectually for us such that our sins, our guilt, and our punishment all died in the death of Christ. We find assurance in God’s preserving grace, believing with all our might that nothing—not even ourselves—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We delight in the glory of God and in God’s delight for His own glory, which brings us, on our best days, unspeakable joy, and on all other days, still gives purpose and order to an otherwise confusing and seemingly random world.

What draws people to Reformed theology is the belief that God is the center of the universe and we are not, that we are worse sinners than we imagine and God is a greater Savior than we ever thought possible, that the Lord is our righteousness and the Lord alone is our boast.

The attraction of the New Calvinism is not Calvin, but the God Calvin saw—not some new fad, but something old with new life blowing through it from the Spirit of God.”

Missional Giving

2010-10-20T23:13:00.002-04:00

My friend, Marty Duren, has written a new book called The Generous Soul: An Introduction to Missional Giving. I am going to review it over at SBC Voices in the next couple of weeks, I will be sure to link to it. For now, I want to give his definition of "Missional Giving." I think it best defines what the goal of every Christian should be in terms of stewardship:

Missional Giving is the financial strategy of the missionary manager, purposefully utilizing all the money and possessions God has entrusted to him or her according to His priorities and viewing all financial activity as integral with God's kingdom.

A Great Quote by D.A. Carson

2010-10-04T14:45:00.001-04:00

"Make a mistake in the interpretation of one of Shakespeares's plays, falsely scan a piece of Spenserian verse, and there is unikely to be an entailment of eternal consequence; but we cannot lightly accept a similar laxity in the interpretation of Scripture. We are dealing with God's thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly." -

D.A. Carson from Exegetical Fallacies

An Amillennial dealing with Zechariah 14

2010-09-30T10:16:00.002-04:00

As an Amillennial I have always found Zechariah 14 to be difficult. In my opinion, the Premillennial reading of it cannot be correct because it is contradictory to numerous New Testament passages, but still- I wasn't sure what to do with it. The following post is written by Dr. Kim Riddlebarger. I just found it and I think it is quite helpful. 95% of my readers are Premill so I would love to discuss:

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger:

In answering the basic question, “how does one interpret Zechariah 14?” we need to admit from the outset that this is a very difficult passage, in part, because it is never directly quoted in the New Testament, and given a definitive interpretation--although there are a number of allusions (echoes) to it, especially in the Book of Revelation (see, for example, the Scripture index in Beale’s work, The Book of Revelation, Eerdmans, 1999, 1196-1197).

Dispensationalists believe the prophecy describes Christ’s second coming, and the establishment of the subsequent millennial kingdom on the earth (Walvoord, Major Bible Prophecies, Zondervan, 94.) Walvoord believes that vs. 16-21 specifically refer to the sacrifices made in Jerusalem during the future millennial kingdom (Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom, Zondervan, 310-311). J. D. Pentecost believes that these verses refer to Christ’s rule and punishment of any sin which may break out in the millennial age during Christ’s rule (Pentecost, Things to Come, Zondervan, 503).

Calvin saw the passage as tied to the time of Antichrist (Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, 5:405). The great puritan John Owen saw this passage fulfilled in the end-times glory of the church (see Iain Murray’s The Puritan Hope, Banner of Truth, 1971, 38, where Murray cites Owen’s sermon “The Advantage of the Kingdom of Christ in the Shaking of the Kingdoms of the World”). Gary DeMar, argues that this prophecy is fulfilled by the events of A.D. 70, when Jesus returns in the clouds to judge both Jerusalem and the temple (DeMar, Last Days Madness, American Vision 1999, 437-443).

One very helpful interpretation of this passage is found in Gerard Van Groningen’s Messianic Revelation in the Old Testament (Baker, 1990), 911-913). Van Groningen argues that as we attempt to understand this most difficult passage, there are three very important things to keep in mind.

First, the prophecy is apocalyptic in terms of its structure. The use of dramatic symbols and metaphors (the reference to the Mount of Olives splitting open forming a large valley, “living water,” etc.) tells us that a literal interpretation is not likely, and that the prophecy will remain somewhat mysterious until the coming of the Messiah and the dawn of the messianic age.

Second, there is a fair bit of prophetic perspective throughout the chapter. In other words, in previous chapters of his prophecy (especially chapter 13), Zechariah has been predicting what will happen when the messianic age dawns–the Messiah will be pierced, and a fountain will be opened the cleansing of sin, which is a reference to Christ’s satisfaction for our sins upon the cross. By using images from Israel’s past (i.e., during the days of Uzziah) when YHWH defended his people, Zechariah is now pointing ahead to the fact that although additional trials and tribulation will certainly come, God will continue to deliver his people in the most amazing of ways. Zechariah foretells of how YHWH will defeat his enemies on behalf of his people (v. 3), that he will reign over the entire cosmos (vv. 4-5), and that he will rule over the nations (vv. 12-15), so as to provide freedom for his people to worship (v. 16). He will restrain those who oppose his rule (v. 17-19). Indeed, his Spirit will sanctify all of life (vv. 20-21) which clearly anticipates, and presupposes the out-pouring of the Spirit @ Pentecost.

Third, this is the final chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy and is clearly messianic. The death of the Messiah on behalf of his people (depicted in chapter 13), secures the benefits God’s people will enjoy as enumerated in chapter 14. That YHWH rules and subdues his enemies while protecting his people, is the result of the Shepherd’s death and the cleaning fountain which results. Jesus’ death is dawn of the new creation and establishes the conditions depicted in chapter 14.

To put it simply, Van Groningen sees Zechariah 14 as a prophecy of the messianic age yet to come, using apocalyptic language and symbols which relate the past experience of God’s people (in great tribulation) to their future expectations in the messianic age to come. What comes about in chapter 14, clearly flows out of the Messiah’s death and subsequent rule, ensuring that the messianic kingdom yet to come will completely surpass anything that the theocratic kingdom of Israel could ever bring about or experience.

Meredith Kline takes this same general interpretative approach, but takes the prophecy one step farther (which I think is very helpful). What is inaugurated by the Messiah (all of the blessings secured by the Messiah’s death, and the cleansing and sanctifying power which results) is ultimately brought to realization by the divine warrior (Jesus) who brings judgment to the nations (vv. 3-5), the establishment of the new creation (v. 6 ff). According to Kline, at that time “the saints will possess a holy and blessed world, purged of all of God’s enemies. The consummation of joy and glory typified by the Feast of Tabernacles will be realized. And echoing Zechariah 6:8; 14:9 characterizes that day as the time when Yahweh alone will be king over the whole world” (Kline, Glory in Our Midst: A Biblical-Theological Reading of Zechariah’s Night Visions, Two-Age Press, 2001, 216).

What Zechariah foresees then, is not only that the Messiah inaugurates the messianic age, but that he brings it to final consummation.

Thus the dispensationalists are correct to tie the prophecy, in part, to Christ’s second advent. They err when they ignore the elements of this prophecy to be enjoyed in the present messianic age before Christ returns, and especially by tying this prophecy to a future earthly millennium on a partially redeemed earth, as opposed to Zechariah’s focus upon the prophecy's ultimate fulfillment in the final consummation, upon a new heaven and earth.

It's been awhile

2010-09-30T10:06:00.001-04:00

It has been exactly 4 weeks since I last wrote a blog. A lot has gone on, but I have no desire to cover the last 4 weeks of stuff so I will simply say: Hello.

College Football: Predictions

2010-09-02T14:46:00.002-04:00

As all awesome people know, tonight is the first night of college football for this season! The wait is finally over! Below are some quick though predictions:

1) No team will go undefeated.

2) USC will not win a bowl game.

3) Alabama will finish the season with 2-3 losses.

4) No team from the ACC will finish in the top 5.

5) Penn State will lose 4 games.

6) Wisconsin will be a 2 loss team.

7) Texas will lose 3 games.

8) Oklahoma and Nebraska will meet in the Big 12 championship.

9) Nebraska will win the Big 12.

10) Arizona will surprisingly win the Pac 10.

11) Tim Brewster(Minnesota) will be fired at the end of the season.

12) Les Miles ends up as Michigan's Head Coach after this season.

13) Michigan will start the season either 0-2 or 2-0.

14) Notre Dame won't be good, but they'll win 8 games due to the easy schedule.

15) Arkansas or Auburn will beat Alabama.

16) Tennessee wins 4 games.

17) Nebraska ends the season 13-1.

18) Miami will be hyped as if they are undefeated all year, despite losing 3-4 games.

19) Florida State wins 9 games.

20) Steve Spurrier "retires" after this season.

bonus*
Texas sucks.

Theology Fight Club? Theolatte? Theology at the Cafe?

2010-08-31T16:03:00.004-04:00

I need your help. On the second Tuesday of every month I am starting something(that I can't seem to name) in order to allow for open, civil discussion between anyone who shows up. We are doing it at a cafe/coffeehouse that also serves beer and wine. I think the appeal will mainly be towards college students, but I am going to open it up to all who are interested.

Here is what I need help with:

1) A name:

TheoLatte?
Theology Fight Club?
Theology at the Cafe?

Help me, I clearly need it. Give me some name suggestions that will be appealing. Remember the purpose of this is to have a time where we pick a theme every night and then every has an equal say and opinion after I spend about 5 minutes setting up the theme and the questions that go along with it. My hope is that through this I will be able to build relationships with lost people and connect with them beyond this 2 hours a month and for truth to be discussed in the presence of a lot of lost people. It should be an exciting time of outreach and connecting.

2) Themes... Here are some themes I have so far. The themes can't be to churchy and I dont want them to be too political. I am looking for themes that are important to a WIDE audience of people.

Does God exist? Why does it matter?
Human beings: do we have a soul and what's its calue?
Does religion belong in the public square?
Postmodernism: a bad phase or a needed change?
What has gone wrong in the world?
Religion: a crutch or a crucifix?
Dependency: do we need each other?
Church: Who needs it?
Islam: how do we respond?
Justice: what is out role?
The Bible: is it credible?
Fundamentalism: conviction, crazy, or dangerous?
Does religion promote violence?
God, love, and sex.
Sexual orientation: design or choice?
Environmentalism: responsibility or political correctness?

Those are what I could think of off the top of my head. Help me out. Tell me which ones are good and which ones are not so good. Also, feel free to give some topics that would be good!

Utilizing Sunday School: Biblical Training

2010-08-26T16:45:00.002-04:00

I have been a part of very good and bad Sunday schools... I have greatly enjoyed and benefited from some and others I have forced myself to attend. The thing I noticed about the good ones is that they had 1 primary focus- Discipleship via biblical training.

David Platt said, "Biblical Literacy is a precursor to biblical transformation."

I think he is right and with that in mind I am shaping my churches Sunday School accordingly. I teach Sunday School, as well as preach, and I am very happy to do so. It is a time that if utilized properly can have a great impact on the members of the church.

Soon enough I will probably change the name from Sunday School to Discipleship Class, but the name is really of little importance. The reason why I plan to change the name is because the first thing I want people to think is that they are going in order to partake in Discipleship via Biblical Training. There are some pastors who think of discipleship in a way that says, "You want to disciple someone? Get coffee with them." To that I say, "Okay, sure, but then we will open the Bible and study hard what God's word says about who God is, what it says to us, and how we obey every word of it." My point: You need both sides of discipleship- it is more than getting coffee and it also cant only be done via "education." You need both and the time that we call Sunday School is that time of formal, structured discipleship.

For the last 2 weeks I taught: Why we need to study the Bible/theology.

This coming week I am teaching: How to read and study the Bible: general principles to interpreting the Bible.

The 20+ weeks following that we are going to go through Wayne Grudem's "Christian Beliefs" using Scott Thomas' "Theological Clarity and Application."

Scott Thomas wrote it in order to help equip leaders in Bible Doctrine, but I am tweaking it a little in order to use it for training for every member of my church. Every member needs biblical training and as they are all getting trained I will be able to identify those who show leadership potential. I have other plans to develop leaders beyond this book and curriculum that maybe I will write on later.

I am excited to go through this book and curriculum. My prayer is that the next several months will be a time of good discipleship via biblical training. Hopefully as we study theology it will make them grow in their love for God and spur them on to good works! If it doesn't do those two things they aren't being discipled and I will be needing to re-examine how I teach biblical truths!

What is the Bible really about?

2010-08-26T12:31:00.001-04:00

A Public THANK YOU

2010-08-17T23:45:00.004-04:00

I want to thank a guy publicly real quick, well, maybe not to quickly.

This is the guy God as used in my life waaaaaaaaaay more than anyone else. I own 18 John Piper books and have listened to over 100 of his sermons, but he doesn't have a change against this guy. This guy was the first to ever inspire me by showing me that God uses dopey people like me to advance his Kingdom and lead his church. He did this when I was only 17. When I was 17 and he had barely known me he started making time for me, investing in me, and mentoring me. I am FOREVER grateful for Josh Howerton.

It is cool to me that I can truly say that if it wasn't for Josh I would not be a pastor right now. I would also not love Jesus as much as I do. I would not love the church as much as I do. Josh is not this super-human guy (but if you ever tried to play us in spades it would seem that way). Josh is simply a guy that decided a 17 year old kid was worth investing in. By the way, he was not my Youth Pastor. We lived 9 hours apart when he started investing in me. I have no idea why he chose to do this, but he did.

Josh is an extremely gifted guy. He is an outstanding communicator and while some might not expect it he is very theologically sharp. It took me a lot longer than it should have to realize that when he asked me theological questions he wasn't looking for insight from me. I felt like an idiot when I first realized it. He merely wanted me to search the Scriptures. He then pointed me in the direction of how to do this. This might sound cheesy, really cheesy, but when I realized Josh believed in me- that he believed that God could use me in the ministry because he gifted me and gave me the passion for it- that is when I first believed it as well. He helped me see that through faithfulness God could and would use me to advance his Kingdom. He always stressed, and still does, "neither success or failure matter, it is about faithfulness."

I love Josh. He instilled godly ambition in me and helped equip me for the work (as he still is). This all comes up tonight for three reasons- I just started my first pastorate and all I can think about are the tons and tons of conversations I have had with Josh about Jesus and ministry. God, through Josh, has in fact made me ready for the opportunity I now stand in. I am thankful and could write about it all night, but I will spare you.

The second reason is because God is doing awesome things through Josh with his church. Check it out here.

The third reason is that I want to thank Josh publicly for not looking past the 17 year old kid. For spending A LOT of time investing in me and showing me what it means to love Jesus and his bride. I say it with all my heart; I love you bro.

Why Pray?

2010-08-17T21:17:00.001-04:00

This was originally posted here. It is a great blog and I encourage you to check it out frequently. I just discovered it recently and am glad I did!

I have often heard Arminians claim that Calvinism makes prayer meaningless. I am not interested here of defending the biblical doctrines of prayer and Divine sovereignty. What I wish to point out is the striking fact that Arminianism makes prayer for lost souls meaningless, for much worse reasons than the supposed contradiction of Calvinist prayer.

It is mind-boggling, to say the least, that Arminianism wishes to strip God of His sovereign power over all things, including men’s wills, yet they have no problem ascribing near impenetrable sovereignty to man. They stress over and over again the freedom of man’s will and his need to exercise this free-will in order to be saved, yet they find no contradiction in praying for their lost loved ones! What do they expect God to do? If God is unable to exert his power over men’s free-will, lest He make them robots, what is He supposed to do in answer to prayers for the lost? He is as helpless as we are to move the almighty free-will of man.

Indeed, is there any prayer that doesn’t at some point require some action from another human being? When I pray for some need to be met, doesn’t that involve God impressing the need upon someone else who is capable of helping? But, on the Arminian scheme, how can God violate this person’s volition? When I pray for someone’s safety on a trip, doesn’t that involve other motorists and pedestrians? How can I ask God to violate their autonomy, if indeed they have it?

The sarcasm is intentional. I have heard Arminians ignorantly rant about the robot-producing doctrines of Calvinism. I think it’s high time someone railed against the ear-tickling doctrines of Arminianism and their turning of God into a spineless wimp whose every plan is thwarted by His runaway creatures.

Moreover, the Arminian objections are selective. For as George Smeaton points out, “There is as little interference with human liberty in receiving the work of the Spirit to regenerate us, as in receiving the work of the Son to redeem and justify us.” The Doctrine of The Holy Spirit, 203.

So, the question “Why pray” really looms larger for the Arminian than it does for the Calvinist. As a Calvinist, I can say that God claims to work all things according to His will (Eph. 1:11), yet He also instructs me to pray. If God sees no contradiction in this, where do I get off assuming one? But, for an Arminian, what does he expect God to do when he prays? Virtually every prayer, whether for the salvation of the lost, or for anything else, inevitably runs into a human being from whom the pray-er wishes some action. But how can he with a straight face ask God to cause anyone to do anything? How can one affirm such a high view of man’s autonomy and yet ask God to do anything when it involves a human being’s will? He might as well pray to Baal or Daffy Duck, because they have as much power over man’s supposed autonomous will.

The purpose of art- NT Wright

2010-08-12T22:48:00.002-04:00

The extraordinary ability to bring forth new life, supremely of course through the begetting children but in millions of other ways as well, is central to the mandate the human race receives in Genesis 1 and 2. To make sense of and celebrate a beautiful world through the production of artifacts that are themselves beautiful if part of the call to be stewards of creation, as was Adam's naming of the animals. Genuine art is thus itself a response to the beauty of creation, which itself is a pointer to the beauty of God.

Great NT Wright quotes- Surprised by Hope

2010-08-05T16:51:00.005-04:00

Guess what??? NT Wright is smarter than you.... Yes, me too. Surprised by Hope is one of the best books I have read (I have two chapters left). It is also one of the most needed books for our time. I would put it in the top 5, maybe 3, of books that the church needs most at this time. Yes, in the top 3. Here are a few great quotes.

The whole point of what Jesus was up to[meaning his ministry on earth] was that he was doing, close up, in the present, what he was promising long term, in the future. And what he was promising for that future, and doing in the present, was not saving souls for a disembodied eternity, but rescuing people from the corruption and decay of the way the world presently is so they could enjoy, already in the present, that renewal of creation which is God's ultimate purpose.

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The point of the resurrection, as Paul has been arguing throughout the letter[1 Corinthians(specifically 15)], is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die. God will raise it to new life. What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it. And if this applies to ethics, as in 1 Cor. 6, it also applies to the various vocations to which God's people are called. What you do in the present- painting, preaching, singing, sewing, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, caring for the needy, campaigning for justice, loving you neighbor as yourself- will last into God's future.
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To sum up- the work of salvation, in its full sense, is 1) about whole human beings, not merely souls; 2) about the present, not simply the future; and 3) about what God does through us, not merely what God does in and for us. If we can get this straight, we will discover the historic basis of the full-orbed mission of the church.

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Heaven's rule, God's rule, is thus to be put into practice in the world, resulting in salvation in both the present and the future, a salvation that is both for humans and, through saved humans, for the wider world. This is the solid basis for the mission of the church.

Anne Rice Hasn’t Betrayed You

2010-07-30T12:31:00.000-04:00

Dr. Russell Moore:

Yesterday the Internet was abuzz with news that Anne Rice has renounced Christianity. The best-selling vampire novelist, who professed faith in Christ several years ago and has since written several books about Jesus and her conversion, publicly quit Christianity on her Facebook page. There’s a real opportunity here that hinges on how we respond to this, or, rather, how we respond to her.

Anne said that she was leaving Christianity because she just couldn’t be “anti-gay, anti-feminist” and so forth. The response was immediate, especially on Christian forums and comments on blogs and on various other forms of media.

Anne Rice is, at best, our sister-in-Christ who is going through a dark night of the soul. She is, at the very least, someone who has encountered something of the light of Christ, is drawn to it, and is now “kicking against the goads.” In either case, she is not our enemy.

Go read the rest:

Anne Rice Hasn’t Betrayed You

Jesus' Resurrection Shows Us Where We Should Be Headed

2010-07-27T14:26:00.002-04:00

It is of course through imagery, through metaphor and symbol, that we can imagine a new world that God intends to make. That is right and proper. All our language about the future, as I have said, is like a set of signposts pointing into a bright mist. The signpost doesn't provide a photograph of what we will find when we arrive, but offers instead a true indication of the direction we should be traveling in. What I am proposing is that the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we need or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, decay and death will be done away with and a new creation born, to which the present one will stand as mother to child.

NT Wright- Surprised by Hope. page 107. (emphasis mine)

It is Official!

2010-07-25T21:52:00.003-04:00

56th Street Baptist Church officially voted me in tonight! It was unanimous and Meredith and I are excited to get started! My first day is August 2nd(a week from tomorrow)... Over the next week I will start to move into my office and get things going!

Tonight they also voted on changing some things in the by-laws and they had included me the last few weeks about what should and shouldn't get changed. Most everything was policy and procedure changes, but we did have one theological change... For a long time they had the words "Pretribulational and Premillennial" in their statement of faith and we removed those and added the word "imminent."

This was good due to the fact that I am Amillennial and that it is never wise to put such third tier issues in the statement of faith. Unity in the essentials and charity in the non-essentials, right?

Well, thanks for rejoicing with me!

Gospel, Not Gospel

2010-07-18T23:32:00.002-04:00

Not Gospel- Jesus died so that some people might, just might choose him.

Gospel- At the cross, Jesus accomplished salvation for all whom the Father had given him.

Old Covenant obsolete? Promises given, not to Israel, but Jesus?

2010-07-16T13:47:00.002-04:00

Below I have quoted a comment a made on a post a few days ago... I would like to get some discussion on these two points.

Hebrews 8:13 says that with the establishing of the New Covenant the Old Covenant becomes obsolete. People, don't get mad at me, the Bible says it. I read that as it definitely saying because we are under the New Covenant the old one is obsolete and, therefore, non-binding.

Also, Galatians 3:16 makes it clear that the promises to Abraham were not given to all of Israel(all of Abrahams offsprings), but merely "Abraham's offspring, singular, that is, Christ." Therefore, it is silly to look for "literal" fulfillment of the promises of Abraham in the nation of Israel because the promises were given to Jesus. In Jesus the promises are fulfilled, not in Israel or the church.

If the Old Covenant is obsolete, what are the implications of that? Why would we be bound by an Old Covenant when we have a High Priest of a better covenant?

If we accept, as Galatians teaches, that the promises given to Abraham were not given to all of Israel, but to his offspring(singular), that is, Jesus, what are the implications of that?

Should we still be looking for future fulfillment of the promises given to Abraham in Israel? the Church? Or should we accept that the promises were given and Jesus, himself, fulfilled them and will bring them to completion when he returns?

Graeme Goldsworthy on Gospel rejecting preaching and Legalism

2010-07-15T13:49:00.004-04:00

No denying it, the following is word for word from Timmy Brister's blog. Graeme Goldsworthy is my favorite author and my biggest influence. He taught me proper hermeneutics, biblical theology, the Christ-centeredness of Scripture, Eschatology, and how to preach Christ from every genre of Scripture. All in all, he helped me understand the Bible better than anyone and thus he is my greatest influence.

A very important excerpt from Graeme Goldsworthy on the kind of preaching that rejects the gospel:

” . . . we are all legalists at heart. We all love to be able to say that we have fulfilled all kinds of conditions, be they tarrying, surrendering fully, or getting rid of every known sin, so that God might truly bless us. It is a constant temptation to want to take our spiritual pulse and to apply the sanctification barometer. . . . The preacher can aid and abet this legalistic tendency that is at the heart of the sin within us all. All we have to do is emphasize our humanity: our obedience, our faithfulness, our surrender to God, and so on. The trouble is that these things are all valid biblical truths, but if we get them out of perspective and ignore their relationship to the gospel of grace, they replace grace with law.

If we constantly tell people what they should do in order to get their lives in order, we place a terrible legalistic burden on them. Of course they should obey God; of course we should love him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The Bible tells us so. But if we ever give the impression that it is possible to do this on our own, not only do we make the gospel irrelevant, but we suggest that the law is in fact a lot weaker in its demands than it really is. Legalism demeans the law by reducing its standards to the level of our competence.

[ . . .] In practical terms, if we as preachers lay down the marks of the spiritual Christian, or the mature church, or the godly parent, or the obedient child, or the caring pastor, or the responsible elder, or the wise church leader, and if we do this in a way that implies that conformity is simply a matter of understanding and being obedient, then we are being legalists and we risk undoing the very thing we want to build up. We may achieve the outward semblance of conformity to biblical pattern, but we do it at the expense of the gospel of grace that alone can produce the reality of these desirable goals. To say what we should be or do and not link it with a clear exposition of what God has done about our failure to be or do perfectly as he wills is to reject the grace of God and to lead people to lust after self-help and self-improvement in a way that, to call a spade a spade, is godless.”

– Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 118-19, emphasis mine.

New Poll: Dispy? Covenant Theology? New Covenant Theology?

2010-07-14T12:13:00.002-04:00

I read a great post a few days ago at SBC Impact explaining the high points of New Covenant Theology. I know I land somewhere around NCT, but I don't think I line up point for point... Honestly, I need to study it a lot more.

But, I wanted to do a poll to gauge where my readers are on this issue. The poll is towards the bottom right of the blog!

Dave Miller, you don't need to vote- I already know where you stand! ;)

What led to this new opportunity?

2010-07-12T19:36:00.005-04:00

As most of you read my last post, I will be starting to pastor 56th Street Baptist Church in August. If you all remember, a few months ago I did a series of posts about how God had called me to church planting. During that time God started doing some really cool stuff in my life. I started talking to two guys that are with Acts 29 church plants- Doug Stevens, Executive Pastor of Core Community Church in Omaha, Nebraska and Scott Sterner, Church planter in Madison, Wisconsin. I had spoken to both of them about possibly doing a church planting internship before my wife and I plant our own church.

Throughout this time I was praying about where God might want me to plant. I kept thinking Lincoln, Nebraska and that is still a very real possibility. Yet, throughout that time my heart was burdened for the city I am in, Kearney. I had also spoken with Todd Bumgarner, an Acts 29 planter in Lincoln, and he reminded me that we don't always have to plant "somewhere sexy" and that Kearney may very well be where God would have me plant. Through my conversation with him and the burden I had for my city my wife and I started to pray, "Lord, before we leave Kearney to plant a church please open up a door in which we can at least try SOMETHING here." We prayed that for about a month, that is it, before God opened the door at 56th Street Baptist Church.

I am going to pastor 56th Street Baptist Church in August because God answered our prayers and showed us he gave us the desire to work in Kearney for a reason. We do not know what all the future holds, but we do know that before anything else happens, God has opened a door in which we might help fulfill the Great Commission in the city we currently live and love, Kearney.

I will be doing another post soon that tells you about Kearney, the church, and some of what we hope to do... Which means it will also give you a lot to pray for!

Thank God for answered prayers. My wife and I are extremely grateful that he has opened a door in which we get to serve and reach people with the Gospel right here in Kearney, Nebraska.

Announcement: new opportunity starting on August 8th!

2010-07-09T10:15:00.005-04:00

God has opened a new and exciting opportunity for my wife, Meredith and I. A few months back I was approached by a small, local Baptist church and asked if I would consider being their next pastor. At first I was about 90% hesitant and 10% interested, but I couldn't get it off my mind and God seemed to be moving in that direction. The pastor and leaders of the church wanted to get together with me to discuss what exactly we were looking at.

One thing that made me comfortable with this was the leaderships willingness to admit the weaknesses and struggles of the church. Their humility was refreshing. We have decided to do this as a transition(which is better for me and them). Starting on August 8th I will be put on staff as a part-time pastor and the pastor that has been there will still be on staff. I will be preaching every other week and providing overall leader for many of the churches functions. In January I will start full-time and will be the Senior Pastor. At this point I will take over 90% of the preaching and will start casting vision for the future.

Pray for my time from August to January. It will be a time for me to show the church that my primary concern is biblical faithfulness and that I am there to love and serve them, as well as reach our city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful to have this "transition time" in order to build relationships with the church before we embark on the long, hard road of changing its identity from within.

I met with the pastor of the church I have been interning for and his heart for me, the ministry, and the city were shown powerfully. He is very supportive and encouraging. I asked him if I could ask my small group to join me and he, as I expected, showed no hesitation of allowing me to pursue my small group in order to help my wife and I with the work of our new church home. Most of my small group and a few others we have built relationships with will be joining Meredith and I in August as we start at the church. I was very thankful to see my pastors heart for the Lord and this city. He wants to see the Kingdom of God advance, period. If only all pastors and church goers had the same heart!

Therefore, in August there will be about 20 of us joining 56th Street Baptist Church in Kearney, Nebraska. My wife and I are excited about this opportunity and that, as of now, God has led about 20 other people to join us. I am very grateful for my small group. They are all young families, I don't think we have anyone over 30. Most of the men are leaders in their chosen profession and all of the families are growing spiritually and excited to be a part of a new work. I have a feeling that they will be the biggest help to me as I try to lead this church.

I will do more future posts on what things will look like, goals, church DNA, and probably many posts asking a lot of you for help! Right now I just ask you pray for my wife and I and those joining us as we begin in August. Pray that our hearts want nothing more than to see the Kingdom of God advance in our community and that 56th Street Baptist Church can be a part of it. There is nothing special about me, this church, or anyone who is joining us.... Yet, we serve a big and awesome God and we want to see him work through us in order to bring people in our community to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Why are we doing this? To fulfill the Great Commission. May we reach our community with Jesus Christ, baptize them, and teach them to obey all that we have been commanded! Surely, with all authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus, is with us now and until the end of the age!

Leaders Who Last: Personal Purpose Statement

2010-06-28T15:43:00.004-04:00

I have been reading Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft. I have only read 2 chapters, but so far it has been very good. As I am just beginning in what I hope to be many years in the ministry this book is shaping up to be foundational for me.

The second chapter is on the topic of a "Leader's Purpose." What I like about this book is that it is not just restricted to leaders in the church, but to leaders in any field. Kraft suggests that leaders should have a personal Purpose Statement. He says that the statement should be short enough to put on a t-shirt.

Here is why he says each leader should have a Purpose Statement:

Having a biblically based purpose is like holding a magnet. It motivates, directs, and pulls you around detours and distractions. If your activities flow out of a God-given purpose and are anchored in a Christ-centered power, you will have a reliable road map for your life.

He also quotes Laurie Beth Jones in saying:

A purpose statement is, in essence, a written-down reason for being. Jesus' mission helped him decide how to act, what to do, and even what to say when challenging situations arose. Clarity is power: Once you are clear about what you were put here to do then 'jobs' become only a means toward accomplishing your mission, not an end in themselves.

Kraft also says:

When i speak of a compelling purpose, I am speaking about the spiritual focus of your life. Whatever your career may be- teacher, engineer, pastor, doctor, lawyer, janitor- you have a purpose that is higher and more eternally significant than what you do to put bread on the table.

With those little quotes, I hope you have a taste of what is meant by having a Purpose Statement.

I have been thinking of mine all day, even though it hit me as soon as I started thinking about what mine is.

Here is how I have it worded right now, but I will be praying/thinking about it for the next few days... If I change the wording, I will write another post letting you know what it is!

My personal Purpose Statement:

To produce gospel-centered, reproducing churches and leaders to the ends of the earth.

Powder Puff Pulpits

2010-06-22T12:54:00.003-04:00

This is from Douglas Wilson's blog:

"Is there a place in your preaching for such strong language? . . . In brief, in Scripture such language is designed to elicit from the hearer or reader an emotional reaction -- laughter, revulsion, terror, etc. -- which corresponds to the spiritual nature of the thing being described . . . Such language is used for its shock value. God does not want us to intellectualize sin . . . In the contemporary world, however, a different idea rules. 'Nice' is better than holy. 'Comfortable' is better than dedicated and devoted. Churches have become places for 'support' and flattery, not truth. To be shocked at church is virtually the unpardonable sin" (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 315).

I certainly think he is on to something... We do see very strong language in Scripture and yet in our churches language has become "powder puff." I could be wrong, I am often, but I think the church covers up its legalism in this area in the name of "appropriateness." Or as Wagner says, we think 'comfortable' is better than dedicated and devoted. Nice is better than holy. It also seems that some preachers are simply scared to upset anyone.

Along with my last post it is becoming clearer to me that Preaching Needs Redeemed...

Why Preaching is Suffering in the Church

2010-06-17T10:42:00.001-04:00

Why Preaching is Suffering in the Church

Preaching is central to the missional church worship experience. The Reformers were convinced that the heart of true biblical worship was the preaching of the Word of God. Al Mohler said that preaching is suffering a loss in today’s church due to six factors.[4]

1) Lack of confidence in the power of the [spoken and written] word – failing to realize the transformative power of the word communicated orally and literarily.
2) Infatuation with technology – over-dependence on graphics, images, film clips and technological wizardry.
3) Embarrassment before the biblical text – lacking confidence in the Bible’s authority.
4) Emptying of biblical content – failing to teach the actual text of Scripture and resorting to pithy points.
5) Focus on felt needs – anthrocentric preaching as opposed to theocentric preaching.
6) Absence of the gospel – turning texts into literary articles, practical steps or morals to follow without any clear presentation of sin, redemption and reconciliation.

Preaching of the word has life-transforming power producing repentance, restitution, confession, reconciliation, comfort, joy, encouragement, wisdom as well as indignation, anger and offense by the stubborn hearted person. The missional church seeks to make disciples with Spirit-empowered preaching of God’s truth or as Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “Preaching is theology coming through a man that is on fire.”[5] John Piper described preaching. He said 1) the goal of preaching is the glory of God. 2) The ground of preaching is the cross of Christ and 3) the gift of preaching is the power of the Holy Spirit. [6]

The missional worship gathering additionally incorporates public reading of Scripture, prayer for the glory of God to be expressed through the suffering body and community, and response to the Spirit of God and the word of God expressed demonstrably with undefined regularity through baptism and communion. Although the worship gathering is not primarily for us, the body is instructed how to participate in the diverse liturgy as committed followers of Jesus.

George Mueller: How to Ascertain the Will of God

2010-06-16T17:27:00.001-04:00

From George Muller's Narratives

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever that may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. Next, I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.

6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge; and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving the most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

J.C. Ryle: Seeing Christ in the Old Testament

2010-06-09T09:58:00.000-04:00

Another great J.C. Ryle quote:

Let it be a rule with us, in the reading of our Bibles, to study the types and ordinances of the Mosaic law with prayerful attention. They are all full of Christ. The altar–the scape-goat–the daily burnt-offering–the day of atonement, are all so many sign-posts pointing to the great sacrifice offered by our Lord on Calvary. Those who neglect to study the Jewish ordinances, as dark, dull, and uninteresting parts of the Bible, only show their own ignorance, and miss great advantages. Those who examine them with Christ as the key to their meaning, will find them full of Gospel light and comfortable truth.

~ J.C. Ryle

North Korean Christians Are A Great Example

2010-06-04T20:52:00.005-04:00

This video makes me want to go to North Korea.

Not only do Christians in North Korea risk their lives for merely being Christians... They also risk their lives to sneak over to South Korea in order to have more in depth biblical training. They leave their families for a time and put their own lives and the lives of their family members in greater risk in order to be more fully trained in the Word so that they can go back to North Korea and encourage other believers.

In America, where there is no risk at all, we cannot even get most "christians" to get off their couches for more in depth biblical training. Heck, we even have pastors that say we shouldn't have "formal, educational Bible training." Give me a break.

Yes, we Americans often times miss the mark. Thank God for his mercy because we need a lot of it. If American Christians spent one week in North Korea they would either abandon the faith or start becoming consecrated believers.

What can the church do in order to get Christians off the couch and to start taking biblical training seriously? Biblical literacy is a precursor to biblical transformation.

If it wasn't depressing it would be funny- Christians complain about not being able to commit another night of the week to the church for in depth Bible training(or anything else for that matter) and yet they all have certain shows they watch almost every night. Yes, our freedom and lack of risk and persecution in America has made American believers lazy, ignorant, and completely self-absorbed.

I have been told that I "comment on the bad" a little too much and I should spend more time pointing out the good. Maybe there is some serious legitimacy to those comments... But, in my mind, I feel like we do enough patting ourselves on the back. We are like the New Jersey Nets- we are about as bad as it gets, but the only difference is that the New Jersey Nets know they are bad. I suggest we stop patting ourselves on the back for doing such a crummy job. We can not get better if we don't acknowledge the depth of the problem.

We need to be sounding the alarm. I praise God for the example that the believers in North Korea have set for us. May God continue to grow them, protect them, and use them to reach their country with the gospel! May God also strike the American church as he had to do with the early church in Jerusalem. When we get comfortable we lose our purpose and passion and then the church slowly begins to die. We have been dying for awhile. May God do whatever is necessary to bring us back to life, real life- no more of this superficial junk. The North Korean church is the blessed church of Philadelphia. May God use me, in whatever way he can, to help the American church stop being Laodicea.

Ephesians 4: Why Do We Get It Backwards?

2010-06-02T12:03:00.002-04:00

@JeffVanderstelt tweeted this a day or so ago:

Eph 4 - the few equip the many 4 ministry - not the few do the ministry 4 the many. Which is your church?

It is certainly a good question. I do not think I have ever been to a church that has practiced Ephesians 4 really well. Certainly some churches do this better than others, but it seems that most churches get Ephesians 4 terribly backwards. Of course, churches will say the right thing when it comes to Ephesians 4, but their practices prove that they get it backwards.

This is not a perfect statistic, but most churches I have been in have about 10% of the church doing ministry for the 90% while the 90% are pure consumers that don't do much at all. Ephesians 4 is clear that the few should be equipping the many for the work of the ministry. So, why do we get it backwards? What can we do to turn this around?

I can't even begin to dream what the church in America could do if the 90% we actively involved in ministry with the 10% equipping them. It is almost unimaginable!

Churches shoot themselves in the foot when they are program-driven. When a church is based on programs, and not people, it is impossible for the 90% to be actively involved in ministry. There are only so many programs! Yet, if it a church is a people-driven ministry then the 90% can never fulfill all the work that could be done! The church has to get out of this mindset of "assimilation=plugging them into a program" and start thinking that "assimilation=discovering where they are and then getting them with the right people." This is one reason why I strongly believe in "house church" or "small group" based ministry.

In house churches or small groups their spiritual growth is directly connected with the deep community they are involved with. You don't get this when you just put people into different programs. Programs don't develop community- people do!

We, the church, have got to stop getting Ephesians 4 backwards. If our church practices are causing the 10% to do the ministry for the 90% then we should be able to say with ease- "we must change our practices." Whatever we are doing is perfect for the results we are getting. Therefore, if we want different results, we have to have different practices!

Desiring God Conference: 2010

2010-06-01T11:06:00.003-04:00

I would really like to attend this conference, but it does not look like that will be happening. I love the video above. It is very thought-provoking and creative. I am sure everyone who attends the conference will be greatly blessed!

Sabbath Hymn

2010-05-30T10:11:00.002-04:00

I think this will be a new thing here at Coram Deo... I don't have a "favorite hymn." There are waaaay to many for me to choose one. So, every Sunday I will be posting a "Sabbath Hymn."

I hope you are blessed by todays: "How Deep The Father's Love For Us"

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocing voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that helf Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I knoww that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast inJesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

A Hymn Book published in 1856

2010-05-28T17:07:00.002-04:00

No worries though, it was revised in 1881! Yes, sitting right beside me I have a Hymn Book that was published in 1856, but revised in 1881. Check out the Twitpic!

I was reading through it earlier and I was struck by the sweetness, richness, and depth of the lyrics. The natural rhythm of the hymns are amazing as well. I wish I had the ability, vocabulary, and creativity to write deep, rich hymns.

Here are some verses from numerous different hymns:

Sing without ceasing, sing
The Saviour's present grace.
How all things shine in light divine
For those who've seen his face

------------------------

O God, we see Thee in the Lamb
To be our hope, our joy, our rest;
The glories that compose Thy name
Standing engaged to make us blest

------------------------

Though the restless foe accuses-
Sins recounting like a flood,
Ev'ry charge our God refuses;
Christ has answered with his blood.

------------------------

Grace taught our wandr'ing feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour we meet
While trav'ling home to God.

------------------------

Could not all our sins retain Him,
Prisoned in the guarded cave?
These he blotted out in dying,
By His cross He spoiled the grave:
Lo! He's risen!
Yes, the Lord is risen indeed.

I hope you all have enjoyed some of these as much as I have. I could read this hymn book for hours.

Bob Thune's definition of Church Planting

2010-05-19T08:23:00.003-04:00

Bob Thune, pastor of Coram Deo in Omaha, Nebraska has written a working definition of church planting.

Church Planting is:

Planting the SEED of the gospel in the SOIL of a culture and trusting the SOVEREIGNTY of God to bring forth a THRIVING CHURCH.

We like this definition for a number of reasons: it is organic; it sees a visible church as the end rather than the beginning (people living as missionaries in their culture is the beginning); it involves both hard work and patient, prayerful dependence on God. The definition attempts to capture four important elements of any missional endeavor:

1) gospel proclamation and demonstration (planting seed)
2) contextualization (understanding the soil)
3) prayerful dependence (resting in God’s sovereignty)
4) gospel renewal (goal is a thriving church – Acts 2:41-47 – not just any church)

I had the pleasure of going to a Church Planter's Quarterly Conference in Omaha that was sponsored by Coram Deo and Core Community Church. They are the two Acts 29 churches in Omaha. At the Quarterly I got to meet Bob Thune and many other people from Coram Deo and many other church planters from Nebraska. I have also spent significant time with Doug Stevens, the Executive Pastor of Core Community Church. (I thought this was an appropriate time for a shout out! Hey Doug!) BTW, Doug and his wife are the two most gracious hosts my wife and I have ever met. The hospitality they showed us had Romans 12 all over it.

Now, back to the original intent of the post.

I like Bob Thunes definition. I need to think about it more to have elaborate thoughts on it, but here are some things I like at first glance:

1) The definition has more to do with people than programs or a building.

2) Church planting isn't about the church first and foremost- it is about the gospel.

3) It shows the importance of the Sovereignty of God in church planting.

4) As Thune mentioned, the church is not the start of the process, it is the result.

A lot of times people attempt to church plant by mass advertising and then have one big kick-off. All in all, they start with a church. Maybe I am reading to much into the definition, but it appears Thune doesnt approve or like that "philosophy of church planting." It doesn't start with planting the seed of the gospel in the soil of the culture, it starts with getting a crowd.

Thoughts?

Ambition vs. Selfish Ambition

2010-05-17T17:37:00.002-04:00

Dave Harvey: "Why did you write 'Rescuing Ambition?'" from Crossway on Vimeo.

I just got an email this morning that my copy of "Rescuing Ambition" has been shipped. I should receive it in a few days!

Sermon Prep and Transformation

2010-05-15T19:53:00.003-04:00

All week long I have studied 1 John 3:10-18. I have read it many, many times, almost memorized it, meditated on it, wrote about it, thought about it, looked at my own life in light of it, and I studied it, somewhat extensively.

Tomorrow morning I will be preaching it... Sermon prep has always been the hardest part about preaching for me. I can very easily, naturally get in front of a church or crowd of almost any kind and be comfortable. I don't get real nervous. My problem is getting to the point of being behind the pulpit in order to preach.

This week, God has helped change that... This week I finally went with a new approach to sermon prep. I didn't look at the text as something to be mastered, structured, and taught. I am sorry that I ever did. This week I looked at the text as God's transforming message to his people. This first has to start with me. The best thing about Sermon Prep this week was that I allowed it to transform me before I ever got to the point of finding a "sermon structure."

God has led me to repentance through my sermon prep this week. He used this passage to convict me, exhort, me, warn me, challenge me, and encourage me. I am thankful that God finally got my attention with this whole sermon prep thing. I am young, don't have a ton of preaching under my belt, but this week God gave me a jewel that I will never forget.

Here is my jewel, it is simple: sermon prep is first and foremost about personal transformation. I think before this point I was to worried about saying something untrue theologically, losing my spot, or anything in that realm. This week I was worried about trying to preach a text that hasn't grabbed my heart and changed my life. Before this week I had always preached texts or topics that God had already used to transform me greatly. I was never comfortable teaching passages I wasn't very comfortable with beforehand. Now I know why, I hadn't allowed the text to transform me.

I am very thankful that God gave me this jewel. Hopefully, I will allow it to be at the heart of my sermon prep for all of my years of ministry.

I pray the church will be able to notice that my preaching is a direct result of my repentance and transformation.

Radical Risk; Radical Reward

2010-05-12T15:38:00.000-04:00

FB_David Platt from Ronnie Floyd on Vimeo.

I know, you have had enough of David Platt... Well, I haven't!

David Platt on his new book and Bible Study

2010-05-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

Tim Keller: Characteristics of a Missional Church

2010-05-10T16:14:00.001-04:00

David Platt: Radical

2010-05-07T08:42:00.000-04:00

David Platt has come out with his first book: Radical. Below is a little trailer/intro to the book. Enjoy!

"Secret Church" with David Platt

2010-05-06T11:27:00.003-04:00

Ever since I won a "Twitter giveaway" I have received Christianity Today. I get a one year of free subscription. I received the newest copy and I am simply blown away by a new article. The article is called "Secret Church" and it is highlighting Pastor David Platt of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. I believe about 4,500 people attend his church.

I have had the honor of listening to him preach on a few occasions and thanks to the internet I get to listen to his churches podcast occasionally. He is a young, passionate, deeply theological, and intensely practical in his preaching and pastoral ministry. He is also probably one of the greatest missions-mobilizers in North America.

The point of this article in CT is to highlight what David Platt has started at his church called, "Secret Church." First of all, David Platts sermons are an average of 55 minutes, much longer than the average church. Yet, in his opinion, it seems to short. The article says that Platt was "struck in his travels by underground Asian house churches that study the Bible together, under the threat of persecution, for as long as 12 hours in one sitting." I'm not sure about you, but that would DEFINITELY strike me as well!

Pastor Platt has now imported this practice into a biennial event at his church, they call it "Secret Church." Platt preaches for six hours on a single topic, such as the Atonement, Old Testament survey, spiritual warfare, etc.. He is a quote from Platt in the article, " It's one of my favorite sights as a pastor to look out at 12:30 am and see a room full of 2,500 people, their Bibles open, soaking it in." I can honestly, and sadly say, that I have never seen anything like it. Maybe that will one day change.

This article makes we want to move to Birmingham just to be a part of the things they have going on. Seriously, 2,500 people listening to Scripture be taught for a 6 hour or so time period. It is simply amazing. Pastor David Platt has certainly cultivated a hunger for the word in the hearts of his congregation. By what I know of his ministry he has also cultivated a heart for the lost and missions in the heart of his church.

Here are some more quotes from this article:

Equating serious biblical engagement with seminaries rather than the local church has impoverished both institutions.

The New Testament pattern is churches raising up leaders and missionaries. We have people begging for this. The more they taste the Word, the more they want it, and the more they want to minister. We've had about 1,000 each year go overseas making disciples. The more they go, the more they realize they need to be equipped to be a part of what God is doing around the world.

Disciples of Christ do not merely pursue Bible knowledge for its own sake. It changes the way they live, but not merely offering them tips for parenting or financial freedom. Rather, the Bible gets them in touch with the Holy Spirit, who conforms the to Christ's image.

If we believe the gospel, then our opulent living compared to the rest of the world does not make sense. We need to make major changes.

Biblical literacy is a precursor to biblical transformation.

I feel like I could go on and on about David Platt and his church. Sadly, a lot of churches are afraid of doing serious, deep, long biblical study. Some people wrongly think that we need to stay away from "academic" and "formal" forms of discipleship. The fact is, the only way to get people to live their lives in accordance with the Word is to help them become deeply saturated by the Word.

The last quote says it best, "Biblical literacy is a precursor to biblical transformation." People will not be transformed by the gospel and through the Word of God if they are not deeply saturated in it. When we try to get people to "live like Jesus" apart from serious, deep biblical study, we are chasing our tails.

Love and Serve Your City

2010-04-27T11:38:00.003-04:00

This last Sunday was one of my favorite Biblical Community Group meetings I have ever had. My group has started going through Tim Keller's new curriculum: Gospel in Life. Sunday went great. One thing I love about it is how much Keller emphasizes our need to love and serve the cities in which God has placed us. In the Midwest a lot of people tend to have a "refuge" mentality when it comes to culture. Many of them view the entire Midwest as a refuge from the rest of "liberal America" that is on its way to hell. I don't think anyone would say this out loud, but it is certainly an attitude that churches must deal with.

During this study Keller tackled that as God sent Israel to Babylon he commanded them to "live in the city, but to keep their spiritual identity." With that, God commanded the Israelites to seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon. We need to do the same in our cities. Our cities our unredeemed places that desperately need gospel transformation. We need to get rid of our "refuge" mentality because with that mentality we can not truly love the city in which we live. With that, if we do not love our city we are not going to genuinely seek its peace and prosperity. Thus, we will do very little "serving" in our city.

One thing that was really put on my small groups heart was our need to pray for our city. For those of you who don't know "my city" is currently Kearney, Nebraska. I do love Kearney, but I certainly need to be putting more time into serving and praying for Kearney. I desperately want to see it transformed by the gospel. This won't happen if the church doesn't "drop the guard" and begin to engage our community.

I will probably do a little series on this curriculum we are going through... We just finished week one of eight. Pray for my "small group" as we begin to intentionally pray for, love, and serve the city in which we live. We want to see it tranformed by the gospel.

Here are some specifics to pray for... If you include children we have 23 people in our "small group": 18 adults and 5 kids... Meaning, we have no more room in any of our houses. Something has to be done and we are not sure what. If we are really going to begin to engage our community then people will get saved and it will be our responsibility to disciple them. Pray that God does something and opens whatever door he needs to in order for growth not to be a problem! Admittedly, this is a great problem to have but it is still a problem.

So, pray for space issues and pray for my group as we try to pray for, love, and serve our city. I'm excited for the "gospel growth" that is going to occur in my group and hopefully in the lives of our lost friends.

Why the lack of blogging?

2010-04-24T15:56:00.002-04:00

Because I have increased my blogging at SBC Voices! I'd like to see you run two blogs at full steam! Get off my back!

Okay, no one is on my back, except myself. I just thought I would let all of you know why Coram Deo has been slow this last month... We will continue at full steam ahead! I just don't know when. :)

What good Teen-blogs are out there?

2010-04-21T17:42:00.000-04:00

As some of you know, I am an Executive Director for Youth for Christ… I’m setting up a blog for the ministry and I am trying to find some good blogs that are aimed for Middle and High School students.

The only one I know of is the Rebelution blog…

Do you all know of any others?

Preaching the gospel for the Perishing and the Saved

2010-04-21T17:22:00.001-04:00

Okay, I am a cheating blogger, but I had to post this video as well:

Matt Chandler- Jesus Wants the Rose

2010-04-21T15:56:00.000-04:00

It is possible that I have played this video before... But I love it, so here it is again!

101 with Sojourn Community Church

2010-04-14T08:07:00.004-04:00

When I lived in Louisville and was attending Boyce College I got to spend a little time at Sojourn Community Church. It is one of the healthiest churches I have ever seen first hand. Here are some little intro "101" videos that they did in order to share these key things with their church members in a quick, productive way. I think the videos are great and very helpful. Many churches could use an idea like this one in order to cast vision in a quick, productive way in order to help their congregation get on board with the overall mission and purpose of the church.

Check them out:

Vision 101

Vision 101 from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

Church 101

Church 101 from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

Gospel 101

Gospel 101 from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

Giving 101

Giving 101 from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

Emotionalism on Steroids

2010-04-12T17:38:00.002-04:00

This is sad. It's not funny, it is heartbreaking. This would be a great example of "zeal without knowledge." Morningstar Ministries is one of many ministries that I consider "emotionalism on steroids." Things like this happen when people who love Jesus do not ground their faith in Scripture. Their walk with "Jesus" is based off their experiences and emotions without the grounding of Scripture.

This is personal for me. When I was in High School I was desperately seeking for "more." I had been a Christian for 2 years and my spiritual walk was running of fumes. The "living water" seemed as nothing more than a trickle. I had to do something, I had to turn somewhere. The church I grew up in was seeker-sensitive and their was little to no focus on deep Bible Study. Well, definitely not for the students. I had been a Christian for 2 years and yet I had only recently learned that Jesus was in fact, fully God and fully Man. That should tell you a little bit about how important and practice "deep Bible study" was, or wasn't.

So, without being trained in the Word, not even realizing there was a lot more to know in the Word I turned to the only thing I knew of- "emotionalism." Now, of course, I didn't realize I was wrapped up in "emotionalism." I thought I had just discovered what it REALLY meant to be "full of the Spirit." I started going to a Charismatic prayer meeting. Before I knew it I had been "spirit baptized" and was "speaking in tongues(private prayer language- which is NOT what speaking in tongues is biblically)." Every Tuesday night for about 2 hours I was gathering with about 12 different people.

At first I thought this was the greatest thing that had ever happened to me. I was always happy, my emotions were literally at an all time high. I thought, "this is what I have been looking for." I knew my church had been missing something and this is it! It wasn't it. It wasn't even close. After a few months of the prayer meeting I started realizing that I had no idea what I was doing. I realized that when I was "praying in tongues(private prayer language)" I had no idea what I was saying. Then I thought, "if I don't even know what I am saying, what am I accomplishing with this?"

I started to ask questions. I asked the leader if what we were doing was biblical? He gave this big Santa Claus laugh(I love this man, so I am not making fun of him- he had a big Santa Claus laugh) and gave me a pamphlet as we talked about it being biblical. I went home, read the pamphlet, and began to further study. What's funny is that spiritual gifts, tongues, etc. was the first topics I had ever really tried to study in depth. This was obviously due to me experiences and my desire to be a "true worshipper- in spirit and in truth."

As more time went on I hadn't figured out if it was biblical, but I did realize that the only time I wanted to "pray in tongues" was when I was feeling down. It had nothing, at all, to do with wanting to love Jesus more. It only had to do with me wanting to feel better, to be more happy. It was emotionalism. It was me seeking God, not because I loved him, but because I wanted him to give me an "emotional pick me up." I was using God for selfish reasons.

I knew I wanted to go into the ministry and I felt the Lord leading me to go Boyce College, the undergrad of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. So, why is this video/story personal for me? That prayer group I was involved with were active with "Morningstar Ministries." They encouraged me to not go to Boyce College, but rather to go to Morningstar Ministries for a 2-year program. Thankfully, I ended up at Boyce, but I was one decision away from being the people in that video above. While my friends from that prayer group aren't actually in that video, when they watch this video they are saddened they "missed out" and that is what saddens me.

To me, that video is heart breaking and eye opening. It lets me look back and see God's sovereignty and guidance in my life. It also lets me look back and pray for my friends and the people in the video. Pray that they not fall into emotionalism any longer. Pray that they get well grounded in the Word and start seeking God for God himself. Everyone who has been a part of any type of Charismatic movement knows that Scriptural study is kind of looked at as, "why would you waste your time reading what God has done rather than have new experiences with him?!"

We ought to pray for people when we see videos and ministries like this. We should also make sure our churches are grounded in the Word: not just theoretically, but that they are training people in studying Scripture and digging into its depths. I've never been to a church that didn't teach that the Bible was fully inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient. Yet, I have been to a lot of churches that say that intellectually, but don't really do anything that would make one believe they actually believe what they say.

Maybe if our churches in America were more grounded in the Word people, like me as a teenager, would not look for these pure emotional experiences because their churches would be training them to swim in the depths of the Word.

Revelation with Dr. Grant Osborne

2010-04-10T22:15:00.003-04:00

This weekend I was blessed to get to sit under Dr. Grant Osbornes teaching on the book of Revelation. He has wrote a great commentary and is respected as one of the leading scholars on Revelation that are alive today- this weekend I found out why! He has premillennial understanding of the millennium, but he interprets Revelation with an eclectic style. He accepts different aspects of the futurist, idealist, and preterist approaches of interpretation- in order of what he accepts the most it would be:

1) futurist-typically premillennial
2) idealist- typically amillennial
3) preterist- typically preterist.

What was very interesting is that he interprets all of the seals, trumpets, and bowls as amillennials typically do- and he says a growing number of premillennial are doing this (Dr. Tom Schreiner of SBTS is one of them). With a large bulk of Revelation his interpretations line up 10 times more with Amillennials than Dispensationaly. Yet, with the end of Revelation he takes a classic Historic Premillennial stance. He is a very sharp man and while there were about 20 in the class I find it sadly shocking that more pastors and church members from my church and other churches in the community didn't partake!

Dave Oldham, a pastor at my church, was able to get him here in Kearney, Nebraska to teach his course. This weekend he taught chapters 1-11 and he is coming on a later weekend to teach chapters 12-22. He is great, absolutely great. Not only was he deeply theological, but he was highly practical and pastoral. It was taught how Revelation ought to be taught- personally convicting, challenging, and very encouraging. He had wise words for churches in light of what is written in Revelation and he definitely grasped that Revelation isn't a "solve the problem" book, but a book that is to encourage Christians on how to live throughout the church age and at the time of the end.

We can have great hope because Christ conquered through the cross and resurrection and that will be fully realized at his return.

He are some real spotty notes I took(these are all of my notes, just a few):

Three different types of literature:

1) Epistle- it was a letter written to the seven church specifically and the greater church
2) Prophecy- forth telling, delivered orally.
3) Apocalyptic- Visionary, communicated in written form. Angelic mediators (same as Daniel, Zechariah, etc.-God sends the angels to explain the symbols, like a (hermeneutical guide)

All symbols draw their background from which John was writing.

Overall purpose of Revelation is to call all Christians to faithful living, perseverance, and to grow in their love for Christ.

3 main purposes of Revelation:

1) To encourage Christians that God is sovereign and he will be victorious over their persecutors.
2) To warn the weak Christians and remind them that God requires them to persevere.
3) To tell all unbelievers that there are only two possible destinies for eternity.

Descriptions in the book of Revelation must be taken as symbolic because their reality is something that none of us can conceive, therefore, they were explained to us by symbols.

4 creatures in vs. 7-8 are representative of all of God’s creation. Thus, it is all of God’s creation that never ceases to say, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

The 4 living creatures are covered all around with eyes: Meanings-
1) God is absolutely omniscient: God sees all.
2) God is watching and aware: we are accountable to God.

The cross, the atoning sacrifice is the key to victory in the book of Revelation (and the whole Bible).

“The cross is the core of Revelation.” G. Osborne

The judgments of the trumpets and bowls are primarily judgments in response to the prayers of the saints.

The largest numbers that Greeks could write is the thousands.

Myriad- There word for “ten thousand” largest number they had a word for.

In chapter 6: the seven seals- judgments are not the emphasis, but rather the justice of the judgments.

“Everyone will receive from God exactly what they deserve by their lives.”

“Works cannot produce salvation, but salvation will produce works.”

First 4 seals: the Horsemen of the Apocalypse- all-symbolic.

They picture depravity coming full circle: to self-destruction.

White horse- lust for war and its consequences
Red Horse- bloodshed and slaughter to be wrought upon the world
Black Horse- famine
Pale Green Horse- disease and death

Sword, famine, plague characterize the first 4 seals.

144,000:

symbolize the line of the Messiah
Dan is missing because of his apostasy- Manasseh replaces him
The tribes are symbolic

We are all one people. Gentiles have not replaced the Jews on the Olive Tree, but rather have joined them. Those who trust in Christ, Jews and Gentiles, are of the same people. They belong on the same olive tree (Romans 11).

144,000 is all believing Jews and all believing Gentiles.

Well, that is all of the random notes I am going to post! Feel free to ask any questions about what he said in more detail about anything I posted. I'm looking forward to talking some of this out with people.

My New Role as Executive Director

2010-04-06T10:47:00.002-04:00

The title makes me sound really important. While it could be argued both ways, it is not me that is important, but the task. A few weeks ago I started a new role. I am now an Executive Director for Youth for Christ. The main mission of Youth for Christ is to reach middle school and high school students with the gospel AND get them connected with local churches- both being equally important.

I have never had dreams of working for a Parachurch Organization, at all, but it is the door that God opened and led me through. Honestly, I have even been hesitant and somewhat resistant to some Parachurch Organizations. Why? Because if a Parachurch Organization does things in the wrong way then they take away from the local church. They have the potential to undercut what God wants to do through the local church. God established the local church to be the instrument used to advance His Kingdom. That is also why I took this position in the Parachurch Organization- if it is done right it has the potential to greatly help and edify local churches for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

I ask that you pray for me as I lead Youth for Christ in the Holdrege and greater Phelps county area. There are multiple school systems that we are trying to get plugged into in order to reach more students with the gospel. I will keep you all informed in how my ministry is going. Pray that God will graciously smile upon us and bless our work- if he doesn't, we toil in vain.

Not only do I think God will use me to reach students and help local churches, God will also use this ministry to help me love and depend on him all the more- which excites me most!

I Made The Final Four!

2010-03-29T20:43:00.003-04:00

You are not going to believe it- I made the Final Four!!!

Yes, I am George Mason- I made it. Sadly, I am also George Mason because, by the looks of it, I have no chance of winning.

But, you have a chance to prove me wrong- GO VOTE!

As of now it looks like my Eschatology has been wrong all along- when you look at the votes it is clear that I have been LEFT BEHIND! Go vote!

Should We Support Israel?

2010-03-26T14:14:00.004-04:00

This is a post, at full length, by Dr. Russell Moore: I highlighted a few important parts in the post and following the post I have a few questions...

"Last week I stood over the Valley of Armageddon, with Israeli warjets flying overhead and the sound of the Muslim call to prayer humming all around from the loudspeakers attached to the mosques below. It was a sobering moment, more sobering even than the images of explosions in Gaza seen on television round the clock.

Israel is, as always it seems, at war. So should Christians pray especially for Israel, for the Jewish people?

Dispensationalists have served the church by pointing us to our responsibility to support the Jewish people and the nation of Israel through a century that has seen the most horrific anti-Semitic violence imaginable.

We need not hold to a dispensationalist view of the future restoration of Israel (and I don’t) to agree that such support is a necessary part of a Christian eschatology (and I do).

Novelist Walker Percy pointed to the continuing existence of Jewish people as a sign of God’s presence in the world. There are no Hittites walking about on the streets of New York, he remarked.

There does appear to be a promise of a future conversion of Jewish people to Christ (Rom 9-11). The current secular state of Israel is not the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham; Jesus is.

Nonetheless, the state of Israel is important, indeed critically important. The nation is the guardian of post-Holocaust world Judaism. This does not necessitate that we support every political decision of the Israeli government (and I don’t). It does mean that we stand with Israel against every form of anti-Semitic violence.

We know that these are the kinsmen according to the flesh of our Messiah. There’s a reason, therefore, the Powers rage against them so. A Christian anti-Semite is a contradiction in terms."

My questions:

How supporting the Jewish people and the nation of Israel is a necessary part of Christian eschatology? How would you explain this to a Palestinian Christian?

Why should Christians care to preserve post-Holocaust world Judaism and not, say, postcolonial Indian Hinduism? Both are false religions, right?

Also, here is a comment from another blogger in respond to Dr. Moore's post:

Too often I find Christians automatically backing/supporting Israel regardless of their actions. I think blind support of any country, whether it be Israel or America, tends to make Christians look like uninformed/caustic fools.

What are your thoughts? If the promises of Abraham were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus(which they were), why is supporting Israel necessary?

Neglecting Gospel Invitations

2010-03-25T18:18:00.001-04:00

This is a great quote from one of my favorite books:

“As for the salvation of sinners, ah, my hearers, we can never expect God to bless our ministry for the conversion of sinners unless we preach the gospel as a whole. Let me get but one part of the truth, and always dwell upon it, to the exclusion of every other, and I cannot expect my Master’s blessing. If I preach as he would have me preach, he will certainly own the word; he will never leave it without his own living witness. But let me imagine that I can improve the gospel, that I can make it consistent, that I can dress it up and make it look finer, I shall find that my Master is departed and that Ichabod is written on the walls of the sanctuary. How many there are kept in bondage through neglect of gospel invitations.”

C. H. Spurgeon, quoted in Iain H. Murray, Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism (Edinburgh, 1995), page 157.

Mercy Ministry and Gospel Priority

2010-03-22T17:35:00.002-04:00

***i post this article at length from Timmy Bristers blog- Its very good!

Greg Gilbert recently posted an excerpt of this lengthy discussion of D.A. Carson, John Piper, and Tim Keller where Carson asks them how to safeguard mercy ministry from mistakes in the past. Piper’s and Keller’s responses, transcribed by Gilbert, give good counsel on this important matter of word and deed ministry. Here’s their responses:

John Piper
It might be good not to assume that at least the watchers of this event agree that mercy ministries, deed ministries, ministries to the poor, is a given. You asked us to defend it, or figure out how it doesn’t co-opt the gospel, but I just want to affirm that it exists. The Bible says, Galatians says, “Do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith.” And the parable of the Good Samaritan is designed to get in the face of people who say, “Who is my neighbor?” And the answer comes back not with what was expected but with, “Are you a neighbor?” So just all that to say “yes” to the problem. We have to create it for a lot of people, probably, who aren’t engaged in caring for the poor, especially the poor who haven’t measured up to their expectations of being deserving of their help. So there’s plenty it the NT, it seems to me, that says, “Don’t buy into the argument that’s against helping the poor because they don’t meet the right qualifications.”

Now, having said “amen” to that, we get to the answer to his question of how you keep compassion from sweeping away concern for evangelism. I think—this is the way my old-fashioned fundamentalist, evangelistic Dad affected me—It’s very hard to give up on the gospel if you believe there is hell, that after this life, there is an endless suffering for those who did not believe in the gospel. And therefore, my take on the prioritization of these things is, as I say at Bethlehem, “We exist to relieve all suffering, especially eternal suffering.” And the “especially” there is a prioritization of time and intensity. If I succeed totally in relieving poverty in this age, and didn’t solve the eternal problem, I would prove in the end to be absolutely unloving and un-Christ-like.

So, as far as safeguards go, continue an orthodox grasp on the eternality of the torment of conscious hell. If a person really believes that and preaches that way, then those who are starting to become enamored by a transforming way of doing Christianity that starts to minimize the gospel, they’re just not gonna like that. So if the Gospel Coalition can keep just saying these true, deep, powerful things at the center of the gospel, those who are leaning toward distortion or abandonment or minimization, they’re just not gonna get near this. I think that’s our calling.

When I try to figure out the relative balance and strategy of doing mercy ministries, I get confused, I don’t know what the best strategies are. And so trying to figure out what the strategies are there, I feel is undoable. So I think, “Okay, what can I do?” I can go to the Bible and say, “Here are a few things that if you say them and believe them, they function as ballast in your boat so that the winds of distortion and minimization don’t knock us over.”

Tim Keller
I absolutely agree with John. I mean, nobody should get the impression that when we say you have to give gospel, evangelistic ministry pride of place in the church—some people might say that what you’re really saying is that soul matters and the body doesn’t matter. That’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying the eternal matters more than the temporal. [We would never say that this body is bad or unimportant, and that therefore we don’t take care of people who are suffering.] For John to say, “eternal suffering especially” is exactly right because it’s common sense if there is eternal suffering. So we’re just saying the eternal is more important than the temporary, not that the body is less important than the soul.

But having said that, I think a balance in the way in which a church ministers will come out of this formulation that we’re talking about. If there is an asymmetry, where you’re giving pride of place to evangelism, that doesn’t eat up—at least it hasn’t in my experience—the ministry of caring for the poor. In fact, I think it gives it an impetus. I’m looking forward to churches that actually keep that balance, because they give the gospel priority. There’ll be a balance in the way the ministry goes because they give the gospel the priority. I do think if you don’t give the gospel priority, you actually lose the balance and you end up being a church that’s just trying to improve social conditions.

Put certain letters together and you get sin?

2010-03-19T22:23:00.004-04:00

I am just going to make a statement or two and you can tell me whether you agree or disagree. If you would like to say why then feel free.

Here we go:

There is not any particular word that in and of itself is inherently sinful. Meaning- no word is sin simply because the word itself exists.

Culture does not choose what is right and wrong, God does. Therefore, just because a culture frowns upon a certain word(or several 4 letter words) does not make that particular word sinful.

Just because you put certain letters together you do not get "sinful words." In fact, "sinful words" do not exist. Words only become sinful when they are used sinfully, but are not in and of themselves sinful.

Agree? Disagree? Why or why not?

Calvinism vs. Arminianism: Difference in Emphasis or Content?

2010-03-18T01:13:00.001-04:00

I got this post from Desiring God:

In his introductory essay to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, J. I. Packer writes that Calvinism and Arminianism are “two coherent interpretations of the biblical gospel, which stand in evident opposition to each other. The difference between them is not primarily one of emphasis, but of content.”

Packer continues, (paragraphing added)

One proclaims a God who saves; the other speaks of a God who enables man to save himself.

One view presents the three great acts of the Holy Trinity for the recovering of lost mankind—election by the Father, redemption by the Son, calling by the Spirit—as directed towards the same persons, and as securing their salvation infallibly.

The other view gives each act a different reference (the objects of redemption being all mankind, of calling, those who hear the gospel, and of election, those hearers who respond), and denies that any man’s salvation is secured by any of them.

The two theologies thus conceive the plan of salvation in quite different terms.

One makes salvation depend on the work of God, the other on a work of man; one regards faith as part of God’s gift of salvation, the other as man’s own contribution to salvation; one gives all the glory of saving believers to God, the other divides the praise between God, who, so to speak, built the machinery of salvation, and man, who by believing operated it.

Plainly these differences are important, and the permanent value of the “five points,” as a summary of Calvinism, is that they make clear the points at which, and the extent to which, these two conceptions are at variance.

Cinderella Story?

2010-03-15T22:48:00.004-04:00

Probably not... But if you like Cinderella Stories as much as I do go vote for my blog!

SBC March Madness

If you go to the link above this blog, Coram Deo, is in the Midwest Division! Go to the Midwest Division and vote for my blog! Whoever wins March Madness gets $200 worth of books and you all know how much I love books!!

Also, vote for my friend Mark Lamprecht at Here I Blog- West Division! and Barry Wallace at Who Am I?-Midwest Division!

Breaking New Ground: Christian Fiction

2010-03-01T15:06:00.002-05:00

I am trying to break new ground... I am venturing into Christian Fiction. But I am in some desperate need of your help. I have only read one Christian fiction book in my entire life. I read "Deadline" by Randy Alcorn and was surprisingly theological while still have an intriguing story.

So- what christian fiction books do you suggest? Don't give me mushy crap, don't give me pure thrillers that are void of any solid theological backing. Just because a christian writes it doesn't mean the book itself is theologically accurate. I want a book that is intriguing and thought provoking.

Suggestions?

Birth pains are necessary for New Life

2010-02-27T12:32:00.003-05:00

Matthew 24: 7-8

7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Everyone knows of the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti recently... Well, now it is Chile's turn. Chile got hit with an 8.8 earthquake and it has warranted a tsunami alert as well. You can read about it here.

As Matthew 24:7-8 shows us, these earthquakes, amongst other things, are part of the birth pains... While I have never met a woman that enjoys the birth pains we all know that the birth pains are necessary in order to have new life. The same goes with the birth pains this world has seen since the 1st century... We know that part of Matthew 24 has been fulfilled and the rest of it is either in current fulfillment and/or is still to be fulfilled.

It is heart breaking to see the effects of these earthquakes, famines, etc... We, the church, must respond by being the hands and feet of Jesus to the people effected. At the same time we know that these things will continue until Jesus returns and makes all things new. The birth pains are not fun, but without them we will never get new, complete life.

I ask that you please pray this simple prayer with me- Maranatha!

Interpreting The Book of Revelation

2010-02-21T20:10:00.002-05:00

The book of Revelation has 2 different genres in it: 1) Apocalyptic literature and 2) Historical Narrative. We always interpret narrative literally- Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, etc... Apocalyptic literature is another story. Throughout the whole Bible the biblical authors often times interpret apocalyptic literature symbolically.

All throughout the Bible apocalyptic literature events are described symbolically. In the book of Revelation there is a tension- we have to try and differentiate the apocalyptic literature with the historical narrative literature. It is absurd to interpret all of Revelation as if it were all narrative(as in interpret it all LITERALLY); it is equally absurd when people try to interpret Revelation as if it were all apocalyptic literature(as in interpret it all SYMBOLICALLY)... We have to deal with the tension and appropriately interpret Revelation by taking both genres into account.

We cant go to either extreme and neglect either of the genres in the book of Revelation. Both of those two genres are in the book of Revelation and we must interpret accordingly, by taking both into account. Anyone who interprets every passage in Revelation literally and anyone who interprets every passage symbolically have clearly missed the mark because they have completely neglected the fact that both genres are represented in Revelation.

To illustrate this tension I am going to show some differences in popular Revelation scholars...

1) Dr. Grant Osborne of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School holds a pretty unique view. He holds to a "preteristic" view and interpretation of Revelation until he hits the 2nd Coming and the Millennium- he then holds to a premillennial interpretation. In his case he interprets most of Revelation symbolically(apocalyptic literature), but he then interprets Revelation 19-20 literally(historical narrative).

2) Dr. Schreiner- New Testament scholar at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary holds a pretty unique balance when interpreting Revelation(he also admits he bounces back and forth between Amillennialism and Historic Premillennialism quite often). Schreiner interprets the beginning and end of Revelation as historical narrative, but then believes that most of the bulk of Revelation is apocalyptic literature and should be interpreted symbolically. All in all, I think Schreiner has a good balance of taking both genres into account. He interprets most of Revelation like an Amillennial, but is still a Premillennial because he interprets Revelation 19-20 as historical narrative.

3) Dr. Kim Riddlebarger- Author of "A Case for Amillennialism." Riddlebarger is what I consider a balanced Amillennial. Some in the Amillennial camp interpret everything as symbolically as possible, as well as preterists and partial preterists. Riddlebarger refrains from doing this and continually teaches that we should only interpret passages symbolically when the New Testament writers warrant it. Romans 4:13 is one example he uses: Paul mentions that the promise given to Abraham embraces not only the land of Canaan, but the whole world- in the New Heavens and New Earth. While most historic premills also accept this point about Romans 4:13, Riddlebarger makes the same case in multiple other passages. When it comes to Revelation, Riddlebarger trues to appropriately deal with the tension of the two genres in Revelation.

I have now given three examples of men who I think at least attempt to appropriately deal with the tension of the two genres in Revelation. There are some dispensationals and preterists who don't even acknowledge the two different genres and they either interpret Revelation as if it is all historical narrative or all apocalyptic literature. This is bad exegesis and biblical scholarship. We must deal with this tension. Obviously, not all three of the people I mentioned above can be correct, but they are all doing the necessary, hard work of dealing with the two genres in Revelation.

Again, no matter what side we land on, when we study and try to interpret Revelation we must attempt to distinguish between the two genres in Revelation. They are both represented and in order to appropriately do an exegesis of Revelation we must take both into account.

The Two Age Model of the New Testament

2010-02-17T11:58:00.002-05:00

I believe that the "two age model" below is the grid in which the New Testament teaches and the grid in which the biblical authors themselves used in order to understand Eschatology.

Biblical Texts Which Speak of “This Age”

Matthew 12:32 - There is no forgiveness for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
Matthew 24:3 - The end of the age will be preceded by signs
Matthew 28:20 - Christ will be with us until the end of the age
Luke 18:30 - There are material rewards given to us in this life
Luke 20:34 - The people of this age marry and are given in marriage
Mark 10:30 - The present age is an age of homes, fields, and families
Romans 12:2 - We are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world (age)
I Corinthians 1:20 - Philosophy is the wisdom of this age
I Corinthians 2:6-8 - Wisdom and rulers are of this age
II Corinthians 4:4 - Satan is the god of this age who has blinded the minds of men and women
Galatians 1:4 - The present age is evil
Ephesians 1:21 - Christ reigns in present age
Ephesians 2:2 - The ways of this world (age) are evil
I Timothy 6:17 - Those who are rich in this age, are not to hope in their wealth for the next
Titus 2:12 - We are to live Godly lives in the present age

In every instance the qualities associated with “this age” are temporal in nature. These texts describe the
present course of history before the return of Christ and are things which pass away at his return.

Biblical Texts Which Speak of the “Age to Come”

Matthew 12:32 - No forgiveness for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
Matthew 13:40 - The weeds will be thrown into the fire
Mark 10:30 - Eternal life as a reward
Luke 18:30 - Eternal life as a reward
Luke 20:35 - No marriage or giving in marriage
I Corinthians 6:9-10 - Evil doers will not inherit the kingdom of God
I Corinthians 15:50 - Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God
Galatians 5:21 - Those who live evil lives will not inherit the kingdom
Ephesians 1:21 - Christ will reign in age to come
Ephesians 5:5 - Immoral people will not inherit kingdom of God
I Thessalonians 2:12 - We are encouraged to live lives worthy of the kingdom
II Thessalonians 1:5 - Faith will count you worthy of the kingdom of God
I Timothy 6:19 - The coming age has life that is truly life
II Timothy 4:18 - The Lord will bring us to kingdom of God

In marked contrast to “this age” the qualities assigned to the age to come are all eternal (or non-temporal)
in nature. These references are clearly describing the future eschatological state of believers (and non-
believers if you factor in the references to judgment).

The Line of “Demarcation” Between the Two Ages

Matthew 13:39 - The harvest is the end of the age, and the angels are the harvesters
Matthew 13:40 - The weeds will be burned in the fire at the end of the age (judgment)
Matthew 13:49 - The angels will separate the wicked from the righteous

Any Thoughts?

What do Gospel-Centered Churches look like?

2010-02-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

This post is by Ray Ortlund:

“. . . a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Luke 7:34

What does it mean for a church to be gospel-centered? That’s a popular concept these days. Good. What if we were scrambling to be law-centered? But the difference is not so easy in real terms.

A gospel-centered church holds together two things. One, a gospel-centered church preaches a bold message of grace — so bold that it becomes the end of the law for all who believe. Not our performance but Christ’s performance for us. Not our sacrifices but his sacrifice for us. Not our superiority but only his worth and prestige. The good news of substitution. The good news that our okayness is not in us but exterior to us in Christ alone. Climbing down from the high moral ground, because only Christ belongs up there. That message, that awareness, that clarity. Every Sunday.

Two, a gospel-centered church translates that theology into its sociology. The good news of God’s grace beautifies how we treat one another. In fact, the horizontal reveals the vertical. How we treat one another reveals what we really believe as opposed to what we think we believe. It is possible to say, “We are a gospel-centered church,” and sincerely mean it, while we make our church into a law-centered social environment. We see God above lowering his gun, and we breathe a sigh of relief. But if we are trigger-happy toward one another, we don’t really get it yet.

A gospel-centered church looks something like this album cover — my all-time favorite. A gospel-centered church is a variegated collection of sinners. They come together and stick together because they have nothing to fear from their message or their culture. The theology creates the sociology, and the sociology incarnates the theology.

The one deal-breaker in a gospel-centered church: anyone for any reason turning it into a culture of legal demandingness and negative scrutiny. Few would do that in the theology, of course. But still, a church with a message of grace can stop being gospel-centered in real terms.

A major part of pastoral ministry is preaching the doctrines of grace and managing an environment of grace. The latter is harder to accomplish than the former. It is more intuitive. It requires more humility and self-awareness.

May the Friend of sinners grant beautiful gospel-centricity in all our churches.

Missional Living and Prayer

2010-02-12T10:00:00.002-05:00

As most who read this blog know, I have been engaging in missional living for the first time in my life. Three years ago I "bought into the idea", but it has only been for the last 6 months or so that I have really accepted the challenge to live on mission with God.

I have noticed a great change in my life since I decided to obey the Scriptures and live missionally. My prayer life has been completely awakened. Before this, admittedly, it was a lot like a person who falls in and out of comas. I would go through seasons of powerful, passionate, and joyful prayer and then I would go through times when it seemed like my prayer life was in a coma. This has changed drastically. I have realized that when I live missionally I am at a much greater dependence on God. I am seeking him to make the most out of my daily, redundant interactions with people. The people at my coffee shop are no longer there to just serve me, in my eyes at least... They are people who need to be served and saved with the gospel.

A few nights ago God gripped my heart in such a way that I was completely overwhelmed. I started to weep in my bed. I was sobbing. I arose from my bed and went into my living room in oder to cry, pray, and read some Psalms. God shattered my heart. It was a great time of personal repentance. I wept over my own self-worship, pride, and idolatry. God has also made me quite discontent with some things I see in the church as a whole. In this time of repentance I began begging God for his mercy on my church and my community.

We, as the church, so easily and often fallen into times that we say and even think that we are doing things for God and in his name, but upon closer examination we are building our own kingdoms. I cried out to God for my church: that our motives would always be pure, that all we do would be gospel-centered and saturated in the word.

When I was done repenting from personal sins and repenting/praying for my church and the other churches in my community I started praying for my city. I live in Kearney, Nebraska. I love Kearney. God completely broke my heart for my city. I pleaded with God that he would bring my city to a saving knowledge of him. There is nothing that I want more. I would trade all the church buildings, all the religion, and every dollar the churches in my community waste to see my city come to love and worship Jesus. On this night, I could not stop weeping. I was overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit. Conviction struck me to the core of my being. I don't know how long I will be in Kearney, but while I am hear I plan to do everything I can to see the church reform and the city come to know Jesus. Living missionally has opened my eyes to a lot, but the main thing it has done to me is drop me to my knees.

Fighting Theological and Biblical Ignorance in My Generation

2010-02-10T09:04:00.001-05:00

I don't know if any of you listen to "The White Horse Inn" but it is a great radio program that you should check out. They have a 3 hour program on their website, but I only listen to the 30 minute podcast....

They have started to do a series examining Galatians. To start this new series they went to a conservative, evangelical Bible college and simply asked, "What is the book of Galatians about?"

It was almost jaw dropping to hear some of these responses and how completely wrong they were. One would think they had never read Galatians or that it had been a very, very long time since they had last read it. They gave typical Sunday school answers and answers that people who don't actually read the Bible believe to be in every book of the Bible.

Here are some responses to the question: What is the central message of Galatians?

How the Christian should live their life.
Community in the church.
I'm not familiar with it.
Strengthening others in Christ.
I haven't read it all the way through.
I don't remember.

It was somewhat depressing when I listened to the responses to the question. They asked 12 people and only 2 people gave a half-way right answer. The other 10 simply said, "I don't know" or gave a typical Sunday school answer, like-"how the christians should live their life."

One thing is clear, my generation is very theologically and biblically ignorant.

I separate theologically ignorant and biblically ignorant in this way(you dont have to separate the two):

Theological ignorance- ignorance in some of the key doctrines of the Christian faith(systematic and biblical theology).
Biblically ignorance- ignorance in specific books of the Bible and specific passages.

What can the church do to help turn this around? What can we, as the church, do to help people have a better knowledge and grasp of the Bible and key theological beliefs?

Here are some of my thoughts (I realize that it is not all on the churches shoulders, people do have to take some personal responsibility... But these are things that I think would help):

1) Preach expositionally- I know there are a lot of different opinions when it comes to preaching and that many people think it is merely a matter of preference. While some of it comes down to preference it also comes down to- 1) What is most biblical? 2) What best equips the saints?- I know godly men that disagree with me on this and there are great preachers who do more topical preaching than Expositional. With that being said I think expositional preaching gives people a better understanding of Scripture than any other form of preaching.

Here are some main reasons why I think Expository preaching gives people a fuller, better understanding of Scripture:

a) Expository preaching doesn't allow a preacher to skip over tough passages.
b) Expository preaching dives deeper into specific passages.
c) Expository preaching helps members study the Bibles for themselves.
d) Expository preaching always preaches passages in context of the passages around it and shows the importance of context.
e) Expository preaching makes it easier for people to refer back to things they've learned.
f) Expository preaching avoids "proof-texting"- As many have said before me, "we should preach expositionally because of what Scripture is." Scripture is the word of God and expositional preaching best lets Scripture speak for itself.

2) Don't be soft on Sundays- Many churches have fallen into this thought process that we have to preach as if everyone is as theologically slow as a turtle. But they aren't. If we never move beyond a 5th grade level of biblical depth our congregations won't either. Remember, church is primarily for believers. Colossians 1:9-10 encourages us to grow in the "knowledge of God and to bear fruit in every good work." Sadly, most sermons do not help people grow in the knowledge of God, but rather merely encourages people to "live good christian lives." Our transformation is based in what we know about our great God. We can't grow more intimate with God without growing in our knowledge of him. I can't grow in love for my wife if I don't continue to learn about her.

3) Be fearless, but not foolish- Many pastors and churches fear that deep theological study and discussion will cause division. It can, but if it is done correctly it should build unity and love for the savior. If every Thursday night you hold a debate on Calvinism you are being foolish. At the same time it is important for each church to have some place that members who are interested can have a time in which to ask deep theological questions. There ought to be some place that people can study, learn, and discuss tough theological issues.

Too many times pastors and church avoid theology for "the sake of unity." This is utter garbage that the Apostle Paul knew nothing of. If you disagree with me go read the Pastoral Letters...(1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus). Paul often used language that shows us we need to "promote sound doctrine, guard sound doctrine, give instruction according to sound doctrine, teach sound doctrine, etc..."

Those are the first 3 things that come to my mind:

What are some things that you think the church could do to give its people a better grasp and understanding of Scripture? What can the church do to turn the tide of theological and biblical ignorance?

8 Ways to Live Missionally

2010-02-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

I had never seen this before yesterday, but I thought it was definitely worth sharing...

8 Ways to Live Missionally:

Eat with Non-Christians

We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal, invite a non-Christian friend. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversations. Have cookouts and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

Walk, Don’t Drive

If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to the mailbox or convenience store, walk to get mail or groceries. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog, carrying along a 6-pack to share, bringing the kids. Make friends. Get out of your house! Last night I spent an hour outside gardening with my family. We had good conversations with about four of our neighbors. Take interest in your neighbors. Ask questions. Engage. Pray as you go. Save some gas, the planet, and some people.

Be a Regular

Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places at the same times. Get to know the staff. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. My friends at Starbucks donate a ton of leftover pastries to our church 2-3 times a week. We use them for church gatherings and occasionally give them to the homeless. Build relationships. Be a regular.

Hobby with Non-Christians

Pick a hobby that you can share. Get out and do something you enjoy with others. Try city league sports or local rowing and cycling teams. Share your hobby by teaching lessons, such as sewing, piano, knitting, or tennis lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be yourself.

Talk to Your Co-workers.

How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Go out with your team or task force after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form moms’ groups in your neighborhood and don’t make them exclusively non-Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Work on mission.

Volunteer with Non-Profits.

Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take a Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group. Spend time with your church serving your city. Once a month. You can do it!

Participate in City Events

Instead of playing XBox, watching TV, or surfing the net, participate in city events. Go to fundraisers, festivals, cleanups, summer shows, and concerts. Participate missionally. Strike up conversation. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

Serve Your Neighbors.

Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, or fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Ask your local Police and Fire Stations if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative. Just serve!

Obviously these are not the only ways to be missional... There are a lot of ways... But I do think these 8 are helpful.

In what ways do you live missionally? Have you found any of the above 8 to be especially helpful?

Missional Living and The Pub

2010-02-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

Last night was the first time I have ever walked into a Pub or any type of bar. Before last night the most "barish" place I had been is Old Chicago, which is much more a restaurant than anything.

You might ask be asking why would or should I go into a Pub or bar at all? Answer- It was a step in my journey with missional living. Listen, you do not have to go into a Pub to be missional, I get that. But last night it is exactly what I needed to do and by the end of the night God clearly showed me why that was the case. I have been working at Red Lobster for a year now and I have been engaging my lost coworkers. I have come to really enjoy many of them and God has opened a few doors since my time there. Last night a big door got thrown open.

I have a good friend from Red Lobster that I have spent quite a bit of time with outside of work. Most of the time it is him and I going to Old Chicago(Red Lobster and Old Chicago are right next to each other) after work for a few minutes in order to relax, unwind, and just chat. He is been asking me for months to come out with him one night. By "coming out with him" he is essentially asking me to socialize where he socializes and become a part of his world on a more personal level. Well, last night the opportunity was there for me to finally join him and for some reason I felt like I needed to.

We went to this Pub/Bar in downtown Kearney... We were only there for an hour, which I was thankful because I found it to be pretty boring and a waste of time. Nonetheless, I knew that I couldn't engage my coworker and his girlfriend if I was not willing to step into their world. On the way back to my coworker and his girlfriends house my coworkers girlfriend said, "So you believe in God?" I responded, "Yes." She then responded, "Well we don't believe in God, at least we don't label God." By this she meant that they believe there is a higher power, but they didn't believe it to be Jesus/God revealed in the Bible.

From that point God opened a door and I got to share the gospel with my friend and his girlfriend for over an hour. I didn't expect it, but these two are serious thinkers. They were asking questions I never thought of until I went to Bible college and my professors posed them. In that hour we got to discuss the gospel, the justice and love of God, mans sinfulness, forgiveness, and much more.

God helped open my eyes last night. That conversation would of never happened if I was not willingly to lovingly engage them and become a part of their world. Yet, while I was a part of their world I was not of their world... One thing that got the conversation going was when they asked me why I didn't want more to drink? I had a couple of beers and I was happy to be done. I told them I don't drink very much and that I see no joy in getting drunk. My friend new I was "religious," but his girlfriend had no clue until she was taken back by my unwillingness to drink a lot. As she dug deeper as to why this is, she asked me what I was wanting to do for a career and what I was getting my degree in.

It was neat to see that while I was engaging them in "their world" it was my pursuit of holiness that separated me from them and from there opened a door for the gospel to be shared and Jesus glorified. Sadly, last night I saw many people from my own church and people that I knew went to other churches that seemed to fit in more with "the world" than with Jesus. I don't know, maybe they shared the gospel later that night as well, but their eyes hinted at a different story...

Missional living, as I am learning, does involve engaging the lost in their own worlds, while at the same time staying separate from the world. My friend and his girlfriend did not come to a saving knowledge of Jesus last night... But the text message I received after I had left did tell me that they were very thankful for the conversation and that it "helped them a lot." I'm not sure how it helped them, but my prayer is that it helped them see and understand Jesus more clearly. She grew up in foster homes and was baptized into the Mormonism, 7th Day Adventist, and a few others I can't remember. All in all, she has been told a lot of different things about who Jesus is and what he is about. My prayer is that God will sow the seed that has been planted.

So yes, I walked into a Pub for the first time last night and I am very glad that I did. If we love the lost we must engage them, in their world. We can't ask people to come into our world if we are not willing to step into theirs. It is that simple.

Piper: Plant Churches

2010-02-03T12:34:00.001-05:00

Hitchens puts liberal Christians in their place

2010-02-01T13:52:00.002-05:00

I first read this here... If you follow that link you can read the entire interview between Christopher Hitchens and Marilyn Sewell.

During a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, noted atheist Christopher Hitchens laid down some seriously good theology. Most people recognize Hitchens as the author of the bestselling book God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Since the book's publication in 2007, Hitchens has toured the country debating a series of religious leaders, including some well-known evangelical thinkers. In Portland he was interviewed by Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell. The entire transcript of the interview has been posted online. The following exchange took place near the start of the interview:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Sewell wanted no part of that discussion so her next words are, "Let me go someplace else."

Yes, what you believe about Jesus really does matter! How ironic that this notorious atheist better understands a central tenet of Christianity than some "supposed" Christians.

Church Planting: Praying for the long haul

2010-01-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is my forth post in a row on church planting and it will also be my last for quite some time. It has been exciting because in the last three months God has given me clarity in my desire to church plant, it is in fact what he is calling me too. With that being said, he has made one other thing quite clear: it is going to be awhile.

While I will not stop planning, thinking, and praying about church planting I realize that this is going to be planning, thinking, and praying that is done over the long haul. As far as I can tell, I am about/at least three years away from planting. It could be a little less, but it could also be a couple years more.

Over the next three years I am hoping to accomplish these things:

1) For God to show me where he wants me to plant... And thus, researching that city as much as possible to know as much as I can before I step one foot into that particular city.

2) After God shows me the where I will start(although Ive already done this a little) establishing a core team. This will be made up of people I will want to be paid staff right away along with people that I hope will one day become staff.

3) Recruit as many people as God permits to join me in planting.

4) Learn everything I can from current church planters.

5) Raise support from individuals and churches.

6) Do a year-long church planting internship with an Acts 29 network.

Those 6 things will hopefully be accomplished in the next three years. I ask that you all continue to pray over this "long haul."

As these 6 things begin to take place you will start seeing church planting posts so I can take you all on this journey with me, but I am thinking they will come quite sporadically and there will be some seasons with a lot of church planting talk and some seasons with little to none. If you would ever like a church planting update feel free to shoot me an e-mail. But I do promise to keep you all updated on all the majors: when God shows me the 'where' or even narrows it down to a couple places, when people commit to my core team and it starts to take shape, when I know where and with who my Acts 29 internship will be, etc...

So please add me to your prayer-list and right those 6 things down!

Church Planting: Networking

2010-01-28T14:02:00.000-05:00

Most of my readers are aware of Acts 29. Acts 29 is a church planting network, a network that I would very much like to be a part of. I have been in contact with multiple Acts 29 church planters about doing a church planting internship before I try to plant. This would be very helpful to me as I would get to examine a church planter's life first hand and I would be able to get some training on the areas that I am weak.

The main reason why I would like to learn from and plant with Acts 29 is because I am like-minded. The Acts 29 network is Reformed, Missional, church planting churches. Simply, I am on the same page theologically and missiologically with Acts 29. In e-mails and phone conversations with Acts 29 planters it is looking like a very good possibility that I am going to get to do an internship with an Acts 29 church plant. I am not sure which one(where), when, or what exactly the internship would look like, but I have been told that nothing will be more beneficial in preparing me for church planting.

Getting connected with Acts 29 also has its benefits because to a lot of people it is a trusted network. If you go to almost any city with a major university there will be quite a few people, mainly college students, who would be thrilled about being a part of an Acts 29 church because they know what Acts 29 is about.

I say all this to say that I am thrilled about probably doing an Acts 29 church planting internship and hopefully planting a church within the Acts 29 network.

Church Planting: Where Oh Lord?

2010-01-27T13:42:00.005-05:00

As I laid out in my last post, God has called me to church planting. I have always loved the Midwest, have had a heart to reach the Midwest, and now I plan on planting a church in the Midwest. As you all know, the Midwest is big!

I have been talking with two friends who I am praying God leads to plant with me and we have been praying about the Midwest. A few cities on my list are- Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney(where I am) Nebraska; Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Lawrence-Kansas, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

With that being said the door is still wide open. At this point I do not have a clear enough leading to the Midwest that my heart and mind are still open to anywhere and everywhere. While I do think the Midwest is probably where I am called to plant I am just not sure yet, therefore, I am trying to be as open to the Spirit's leading as I can be.

I certainly ask for you all to pray for me and for clarity in God's leading. Until I get the "where" figured out it is hard to really plan for anything else. For instance, if I were to plant in California my core team would probably look quite different from my core team if I were to plant in the Midwest, West Virginia, or anywhere else. Figuring out the "where" is the next step in this process, at least I think it is. Once I figure out the where I can more easily begin to recruit people to plant with me and start raising awareness and support for the church plant.

So as you all pray for my family and I please pray that God will give us clarity and confidence in his leading, no matter "where" might be. I'm praying to figure out the "where" at least by the next 6 months. It might not happen, but I think it is a realistic goal. This is a big decision because my family could be spending the rest of our lives and ministries wherever "where" might be!

My call to church planting

2010-01-25T08:51:00.003-05:00

It has been a very exciting past 3 months for me... About a year and a half ago God planted the seed of church planting in my heart and in my head. About 3 months ago God really brought those seeds to fruition and confirmed to me that I am indeed called to plant a church.

He confirmed this call in a number of different ways... First, he gave me a desire for church planting. This was more than just a "wouldn't that be cool" desire, but rather the desire of church planting has kept me up very late on numerous nights. Some nights I am up dreaming of what could be and other nights I'm broken before the Lord asking him why he would call me to such a task.

The second way God confirmed my call to church plant was through the experience of hands-on ministry. As some of you know, I lead a "small group" of about 20 people. There are 9 married couples and 1 engaged couple. Through this small group I have gain experienced in teaching, leading, and shepherding. I have also seen great growth in the lives of the people in my small group. I was told once, "If in leading a small group you don't see ANY numerical OR spiritual growth, church planting is probably not your call." After hearing this, it brought me joy to see the group I was leading to have both numerical, but even more so, spiritual growth.

The third way God confirmed my call to church plant was through older godly men around me. I threw my, "church planting idea" to quite a few pastors I know and respect. They unanimously responded that they do believe I have the gifts and desires required to plant a church. This was the "icing on the cake" in terms of seeking God for clarity in this call. Men that have been in the ministry for a long time have the confidence in me to encourage and support me in church planting. It was absolutely humbling to hear those men confirm my gifts and calling.

Yet, there was a time in those three months that I still wasn't sure... I didn't know if I was willing. I always thought that I would just pastor an established church and go from there. Why do the harder task of church planting when I can just pastor an established church? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying pastoring a church is not hard. What I meant by that question is, "Why put myself through fundraising and living off very little with my wife and young child when I could get a salary to be a pastor?"

After some serious self-examination I saw the sin that was leading me to want to lean in the direction of, "Let's just go pastor an established church." I was listening to a sermon on Hebrews 11. I was deeply convicted at the end of Hebrews 11 when it shared the fate of many faithful saints. The fact that many faithful saints were not praised at the end of their life, but rather slaughtered and sawn-in-two. I realized at that moment that in my heart I was saying, "God, I will be faithful and church plant if you can promise me some success." Hopefully, you can see the problem here. Over the next few weeks God brought me low, to the place I needed to be. It wasn't until he brought me to the place of, "Okay God, I will follow your lead to church planting- no matter what that means." It was not until I was willing to completely die to self that I could fully embrace God's calling on my life.

We always hear these great stories of people like Mark Driscoll, Darrin Patrick, and many others who planted churches and a few years later their church has thousands of people. That's what I wanted. When God revealed to me the desires and motives of my heart I was ashamed and had a serious time of repentance.

I write this post now to say, "God has called me to church planting and I am going to follow his lead- no matter what that means." As a christian, I must measure success by faithfulness and nothing else. Thankfully, God has brought me right where I need to be in order to start preparing for church planting with the right motives. I am so thankful that God's will is "our sanctification." I don't want to plant a church, get famous, or anything else if that means losing my own soul. I want to be like Christ and I want my time of preparation to church planting to bring me into deeper intimacy with Jesus.

With that being said, I ask for prayer. Pray for me as I prepare to church plant. Pray that my time of preparation will bring me to a place of humility before God and into deeper intimacy with him.

Eschatology and the Kingdom of God

2010-01-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

One cannot over state the importance of a person's view of the Kingdom of God and how it effects their view of Eschatology. Before a person even attempts to study Eschatology they must first grasp a solid understanding of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament. I would go so far as to say that a person's "Kingdom theology" lays the foundation in which their Eschatology is built upon. A person cannot be confused about the Bible's teaching on the Kingdom of God and yet try to understand the Bible's teaching on the End Times.

With that being said, it is impossible to grasp all that the New Testament has for us when it comes to the Kingdom of God. While we can answer the foundational questions there is a lot to be desired until the consummation.

So, what foundation can we know for certain? This is a question that a high majority of Evangelicalism and even 'greater Christianity' have come to agree upon... The Kingdom of God as declared by Jesus, is a present reality, it is "at hand." Mark 1:15 states, "and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." It is of great importance to understand that when the Promised Messiah came, he brought the Kingdom of God with him. The Kingdom of God is a present reality and God's kingdom advances by saving souls through the preaching of the gospel.

This is also seen in the Great Commission when Jesus states that, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." The Kingdom of God advances as, with the authority of Jesus, the church goes into all nations making disciples. When does this end? At the end of "this age," in which the Kingdom of God is consummated at the Return of King Jesus.

Where does the controversy lie? The difficulty in this is knowing which prophecies have already been fulfilled and which ones are yet to be fulfilled. When we accept, as we should, that the Kingdom of God is a "present reality and yet a future hope" we have to do the hard work of figuring out the details and implications of that truth. Preterists run into a serious problem as they act as if nearly every prophecy has been fulfilled in the past and there is very little left to happen. On the other side of that coin we have a staunch Dispensationalism in which teaches that nothing has been fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is not a present reality and every prophecy is yet to be fulfilled in the future.

There is certainly a tension in the "already/not yet" view of the Kingdom of God, but it is tension we have to work through in a balanced manner. Some teach that yes, Mark 1:15 is true, but when the Jews rejected Jesus he took the Kingdom of God back up to heaven with him. This is a bad misunderstanding of Jesus "bringing the Kingdom of God" at the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God was not "offered" in the sense that it could be accepted or rejected. The Kingdom of God became a reality at the coming of Jesus and it is a reality that people then and now either refuse to acknowledge or accept it as truth. Just because people refuse to acknowledge the Kingdom of God as a present reality doesn't mean it is not there. God's Kingdom is advancing through the preaching of the gospel as souls are saved.

As I said before, the majority of Eschatological positions and a majority of Christians accept the "already/not yet" view of the Kingdom of God as truth. This should be one more reminder to us that there are a lot of similarities between Eschatological positions and that should remind us to be gracious to one another when we disagree.

Before one even approaches Revelation is would be wise to read the Gospels in order to better understand the Kingdom of God. It is also wise to read all of what the New Testament says about the End Times before we read Revelation. The book of Revelation is not the first time John's readers thought about the End Times. The first century readers had the rest of the New Testament books in circulation and they had what the rest of the New Testament taught about the End Times as a back drop to the book of Revelation. On this note, I would argue that a person could come to a solid understand of the End Times before the Book of Revelation is even read. A lot of that has to do with understanding the "already/not yet" Kingdom of God.

Despite Our Differences, We Are Friends

2010-01-22T19:44:00.004-05:00

As I continue this series on Eschatology I thought now is the best time to remind us of something very important.

Amillennialism, Historic Premillennialism, Dispensationalism, Postmillennialism, and Partial Preterism all agree on the main issues. All of these positions are within Orthodoxy and it is nonsense to allow this issue to be a cause of division.

We have gone over the the "presuppositions or emphasis" of the main hermeneutical positions, but now we are going to take a very quick look at what's at the heart of Eschatology.

1) Jesus is coming back in power and in glory.

2) Jesus is coming back to "make all things new." Jesus is going to restore all of creation.

3) When Jesus returns the righteous and unrighteous from the beginning of the world will be raised from the dead.

4) When Jesus returns all people will stand before him and give an account.

5) When Jesus returns he will send the unrighteous to an eternity of punishment and condemnation. He will gather his elect and they will reign with Jesus forever.

I said it was going to be very quick... What I am wanting to emphasize is that every Eschatological position I listed above agrees with these 5 main points. All of those positions are within Christian orthodoxy. It is foolish when Christians divide over the details of the Second Coming when we are all awaiting our "Blessed Hope." We ought to have grace with one another as we discuss and disagree over the "how," while we all remember that we are all getting the "what" right.

As silly as it seems Christians and denominations allow the "third tier issues" of Eschatology to divide one another. Amillennials, Dispensationals, Partial Preterists, and Historic Premillenials all hold to traditional Christian orthodoxy and we need to keep that in mind as we dialogue.

Leadership Training Curriculum

2010-01-20T18:53:00.002-05:00

Recently a pastor friend of mine came up with a "curriculum" in order to train elders... He gave it to me to see what I thought and I really liked it. Below is a lot of what he wrote plus some tweaks and multiple additions by me. Also, for me this training is not just resrticed to elder training, but something I see myself using to train male and female leaders for their respective areas. As an aspiring church planter leadership training is very important and so I would like to get some feedback on this curriculum.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Curriculum:

1) Missional Living: Great Commission Focused

a. Personal Evangelism (practical instruction and show by example)
b. Intentional Evangelism (Often takes place in group settings-small group)

Possible books to be read in this section:
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever
Organic Church by Neil Cole
Tell the Truth by Will Metzger
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by JI Packer
Let the Nations be Glad by John Piper

2) Spiritual Formation

a. Discipleship
b. Spiritual Disciplines
c. Accountability
d. Christian Living

Possible books to be read in this section:
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney
A Praying Life by Paul Miller
The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer
Worldliness by CJ Mahaney
Desiring God by John Piper
How People Change by Timothy Lane

3) Theology

a. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
b. According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy

Possible books to be read in this section:
Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll
The Cross of Christ by John Stott
The Courage to be Protestant by David Wells
Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards
The Attributes of God Vol. 1&2 by AW Tozer

4) Bible Study

a. How to study the Bible
b. Hermeneutics
c. Bible Survey
d. Book Studies

Possible books to be read in this section:
Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics by Graeme Goldsworthy
Grasping God’s Word by Scott Duvall
The Unity of the Bible by Daniel Fuller
Various commentaries…

5) Leadership Training

a. Vision
b. Shepherding
c. Counseling
d. Roles in Church Leadership

Possible books to be read in this section:
Reforming Pastoral Ministry by John Armstrong
Lectures to my Students by Charles Spurgeon
Seeing with New Eyes by David Powlison
Instruments in the Redeemers Hands by Paul Tripp
Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders
Visioneering by Andy Stanley

What would you add or subtract from this "Leadership Training Curriculum?"

John Calvin's Influence on Biblical Counseling

2010-01-20T10:07:00.001-05:00

Calvin's Institutes: Knowing God

2010-01-19T16:32:00.002-05:00

I know I missed a few days, but I caught up today and here are some quotes...

John Calvin:

It is therefore in vain that so many burning lamps shine for us in the workmanship of the universe to show forth the glory of its Author. Although they bathe us wholly in their radiance, yet they can of themselves in no way lead us into the right path.

Here is another one:

Nevertheless, all things will tend to this end, that God, the Artificer of the universe, is made manifest to us in Scripture, and that what we ought to think of him is set forth there, lest we seek some uncertain deity by devious paths.

These two quotes are powerful truths in that nature alone cannot lead us to the right path of repentance and that Scripture alone reveals to us how we ought to think of God. When we abandon Scripture as our final authority in knowing the nature, character, and will of God we easily fall into devious paths.

The basics for studying Eschatology

2010-01-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

First of all, no position of Eschatology is a result of a "clear, obvious, and unbiased reading of the Bible." All positions approach the biblical data with presuppositions. We must understand the presuppositions of each side or we cannot have a productive, Eschatological converstaion.

We need to be able to examine and challenge one another's presuppositions and the implications of those presuppositions. If we can challenge one another and put each others presuppositions to the test then we might actually be able to have productive, edifying biblical discussion.

One reason why this is very important is because it affects how we read our Bibles. At the heart of the Eschatological debate is an issue of hermeneutics.

Here, in my opinion, are the presuppositions for Amillennialism and Dispensationalism...

Presuppositions for Amillennialism:

1) We should interpret Apocalyptic literature in light of its grammatico-historical context, with considerations of genre and other relevant Scripture.

2) The Old Testament should be interpreted in light of the New Testament. The fuller revelation(NT) ought to be the interpreting grid of the lesser revelation(OT).

To be clear, when Amills say, "lesser revelation" they do not mean it is not equally inspired, it merely means that with the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, God has revealed himself and his plan more fully. For example, in many places the New Testament talks about certain peoples faith and gives us more insight into passages in the Old Testament that we would not know if we only read the Old Testament. Thus, we should allow the extra insight of the New Testament to help us interpret the Old Testament. This is about having a "Gospel-Centered Hermeneutic." Amills argue that we should interpret the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, by the gospel itself. This leads one to interpret the Bible according to the person and work of Jesus Christ(NT).

Presuppositions for Dispensationalism:

1) We should have a "Literal" interpretation of the apocalyptic sections of Scripture.

2) We should interpret the New Testament texts in light of the literal reading of the promises in the Old Testament.

Dispensationals make the case that we should never give prophecy a spiritual interpretation. For example, they reject that Jesus fulfilled the promise of a New Temple and they still believe that prophecy is to be fulfilled for Israel. They say, Israel always means Israel and Israel should never be linked to the Gentile church. Dispensationals argue that God has two distinct, different plans for both the nation of Israel and the Gentile church.

Now, in seeing these presuppositions, the question becomes, 'What set of presuppositions interpret the most amount of passages without tweaking, etc. and what set of presuppositions can faithfully follow through on their own claims?'

Each set of presuppositions need to be tested by the other side and by each side itself... As in, Dispensationals should be willing to allow their hermeneutical presuppositions to be put to the test to see if they consistently and rightfully, interpret all apocalyptic sections of Scripture "literally" and Scripture itself warrants such interpretations. Also, Amillennials must be willing to be put to the test to see if they follow through on their hermeneutical claims. Do their presuppositions work? Does Scripture warrant their hermeneutical presuppositions to be used?

Test case: Does the New Testament always interpret Old Testament prophecy with a "literal hermeneutic" or does the New Testament sometimes give a spiritual interpretation to an Old Testament prophecy? This is an important question to answer when testing both sets of presuppositions.

Why do I write all of this? Because in order to rightly, unbiasly study Eschatology we have to understand what presuppositions both sides are functioning out of. When this doesn't happen both sides talk right past each other and we never get anywhere. I know there are more than 2 views to Eschatology, but when it comes to hermeneutical presuppositions, postmills-partial preterists- amills and some historic premills function out of similar "amill" presuppositions, while dispensational premills and some historic premills share similar dispensational presuppositions. So, in order to keep things simple, I have narrowed it down to two main sets of hermeneutical pressupositions.

This is going to be a series on Eschatology in which we will cover, New Testament Eschatology, the Kingdom of God, specific Eschatological passages in the Old and New Testament, and how are Eschatology effects our daily lives.

In this post, I ask both sides before we continue this series- Have I pinned down the presuppositions of both sides correctly? and... Which functioning set of hermeneutical presuppositions do you use and why?

From here on we will put these presuppositions to the test and examine the different Eschatological positions.

A Problem for Preterists

2010-01-14T10:28:00.004-05:00

Below is an excerpt of Dr. Kim Riddlebarger's review of Hank Hanegraaff's "The Apocalpse Code."

Preterists of all stripes are forced to argue for a pre-70 A.D. date for the Book of Revelation. I think the internal evidence points strongly for a date much closer to 95 A.D–although the dating of Revelation ultimately does not effect my overall eschatological position, which is Reformed amillennialism. I get the sense from writers like Hanegraaff (and Ken Gentry), that once you make the leap to some form of preterism, you’ve got to make the case for an early date for Revelation. You now have to “prove” this early date, not objectively examine evidence as to when John might have been given his vision.

Because of this preterist presupposition demanding an early date for the apocalypse, you get all kinds of far-fetched interpretations from Hanegraaff: Babylon (Revelation 17-18) is apostate Israel, not Rome; Nero and the current Roman Caesars fulfill in its entirety the beast motif (Revelation 13); and that the Jerusalem Temple was still standing when John was given his vision (based upon a misinterpretation of Revelation 11:1-3).

Not only does every type of Preterism, whether it be partial or full, have some big exegetical holes to fill, but as Riddlebarger describes preterists, "have to 'prove' this early date, not objectively examine evidence as to when John might have been given his vision."

I had examined Partial Preterism, even read quite a bit of Hanegraaffs book, but ended up coming to the conclusion that not only does preterism have some awkward interpretations, but the dating of Revelation in a real problem for them. I have always said, not to determine your eschatological position due to the dating of Revelation. While the evidence certainly does point to a later date, the early date does have an arguement. With the holes I saw in partial preterism, the early dating was not a deciding factor, but more of "icing on the cake."

Amillennialism and Premillennialism don't run into this problem with the dating of Revelation. I think almost every single Premillennialist dates Revelation around AD 90-100. Amillennialists are more split on the dating, but as Riddlebarger stated, "the dating of Revelation does not effect... Reformed Amillennialism."

This is a real problem for preterists, one that cannot be overlooked. We, as Christians, need to rightly examine what the Bible says and objectively look at outward evidence, not "force the issue" in order for our particular "system" to work.

Calvin's Institutes: God Doesn't Conform to Our Whims

2010-01-13T22:46:00.002-05:00

"For the think that any zeal for religion, however proposterous, is sufficient. But they do not realize that true religion ought to be conformed to God's will as to a universal rule; that God ever remains like himself, and is not a specter or phantasm to be transformed according to anyone's whim." Calvin pg. 49

Calvin is proving day by day that he is much, much smarter than I am. Anyone who has build themselves up thinking they are "well thought" in matters of theology ought to take a dose of humility via John Calvin.

In todays reading Calvin powerfully argues superstition and hypocrisy are two terrible ways in which people show their ignorance of God and true religion. The quote above touches on that very point. One would have to live in a jungle without human contact to not realize that people creating God after their own whims is still a problem.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 10:2, "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge."

This was a problem in the early church, in Calvin's day, and still in our day. It is a sad reality that people do not care for worshipping the one true and living God, but prefer to act as if God conforms to their own whims about his nature.

This truth has me thinking... This reality is another reason why I believe that preachers need to preach expository and/or textually. There are a lot of people sitting in our churches that still worship a "god" that they have created according to their own whims. When the Bible is truly preached, when Scripture is exegetically taught in a manner that makes much of God, people's lives are changed and they are confronted with the truth of God's nature and worth. Pastors are called to "rightly handle the Word" and yet many pastors merely give speeches with proof texts.

I know that people conforming God to their own whims is not all on pastors shoulders. It is the responsibility of each individual to "worship God in spirit and in truth." Yet, Scripture is clear that pastors are held accountable for how they handle the word of truth. Their hearers desperately need to be taught the depths of God's nature and his beauty and worth. Mere speeches and pantings with proof texts does not get that done.

Calvin's Institutes: A Controversial Quote

2010-01-12T16:13:00.002-05:00

Here is just a great quote I wanted to add:

Besides, this mind(speaking of the pious mind) restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone;but, because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores him as Lord. Even if there were no hell, it would still shudder at offending him alone.

I am wanting to get some of your thoughts on this, thought by some, to be a controversial quote:

For the pious mind realizes that the punishment of the impious and wicked and the reward of life eternal for the righteous equally pertain to the glory of God.

Walking Through Calvin's Institutes

2010-01-11T20:44:00.008-05:00

Some of you know that one of my New Years Resolutions this year is to read John Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion." Today was the first day I got into chapter 1. The previous days were the introduction and other things.

I am reading the 2 volume version edited by John T. McNeill. You can find it here- Calvin's Institutes.

I have decided to do a "quote of the day" as I read and study through the Institutes. I am reading through a year-long reading plan and it does give some days to "catch-up" so I won't have a quote every single day, but every day there is a new reading, which is about 95%, I do plan to have something from the Institutes.

Some days, I will only post one quote from Calvin, some days I will post multiple quotes, other days I will quote Calvin and then dialogue about what is quoted, whether I agree or disagree and why.

The theme of today was, "The knowledge of God and that of ourselves are connected." As in, we cannot rightly understand ourselves or God without examining the other.

Here are my day one Calvin "quotes of the day:"

"Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and-what is more-depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves." Page 36-37

"As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods." page 38

For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him- they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him. Page 41

4 Skill Sets Christian Leaders Need

2010-01-02T12:27:00.004-05:00

I read a great blog post today and I quoted some of it below. You can find the original blog post here.

Church leaders need to do the hard work of not only discerning what God is saying about your church’s uniqueness, but to clearly define that uniqueness and then manage (or should I say steward) the resources, time, and people that live out that vision on a daily basis. Most of the time, a leader cast a broad vision and hopes that the people and the church as a whole somehow complete the vision. This simply doesn’t happen. Christian leaders need to develop their skill sets and understanding of best management practices as they continue to deepen their theological beliefs and communication skills.

In essence, a solid Christian leader (especially a lead pastor or executive leadership team at a church) needs these four skill sets:

1) Deep desire to understand theology and theological issues
2) Deep desire to understand the church and other ecclesial issues
3) Deep desire to understand communication and spiritual development
4) Deep desire to understand and apply best management practices to goal setting and execution

When I look at this list and examine my own strengths and weaknesses and think about the pastors that I know well, it seems to me that depending on the pastor most pastors do a couple of those well while neglecting the others. For me, 1-2-and half of 3 come pretty naturally to me, but the communication aspect of 3 and 4 are sometimes neglected in my own life.

I'm the guy that will preach for 50 minutes without an illustration, its not good. I like to speak in the abstract and when I preach expositionally I tend to not illustrate my points with anything concrete that my hearers can relate to. From what I have been told by others it is my greatest weakness as a preacher. I've heard this a lot, "Your content is always great, but sometimes I get lost in the thought because you never make it concrete." Or some variation of that statement.

Also, I would prefer to read things that relate to the first 2 skills listed above before I want to even pick up a book on the 4th skill. That might be good as I am still preparing to pastor/church plant, but I certainly need to learn management practices of goal setting and execution if I want to be a good leader.

All in all, I appreciated the blog post greatly. The author also listed some resources that he recommends. Check it out.

My Resolutions for 2010

2010-01-01T00:59:00.002-05:00

Here is my list of Resolutions for 2010:

1) Learn Greek.

2) Study and complete Calvin's Institutes (both volumes) throughout the year.

3) Have a time of devotion with my wife at least 4 nights a week.

4) Pray for my wife and family daily.

5) Make Scripture memorization a priority- Im starting with Colossians and have the first 8 verses completed. Psalm 73 will be after Colossians.

6) Read 40 books this year.

I believe this is the only 6 I have... Im going to make it this year! I have set up a schedule and have organized in a way that will help me remain disciplined!

What resolutions do you have for 2010?

How Do Pastor's Spend Their Time

2009-12-30T11:45:00.003-05:00

There was a survey done recently by Lifeway that showed how pastors spend their time... The results are quite sad in some regards, but I am thankful the average pastor does give his family at least 20 hours of none sleeping time with his family!

The average pastors watches more hours of tv than they spend in prayer and only spends 4 hours a week in devotional study(study not related to sermon). To me this is very sad and an eye opener for me who is going into full time ministry. I pray that I never watch more hours of television than I spend in personal study and devotion.

What are your thoughts on these findings?

10 Books I plan to Read in 2010

2009-12-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here are my "top 10 Books" that I plan to read in 2010. I'm not trying to predict that they will be the best 10, but rather that these are 10 I am most looking forward to read:

1) Institutes of the Christian Religion: volume 1 AND volume 2 by John Calvin

2) The Unity of the Bible by Daniel Fuller

3) Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards

4) The Meaning of the Pentateuch by John Sailhamer

5) The Gospel Driven Life by Michael Horton

6) We Become What We Worship by GK Beale

7) Pierced For Our Transgressions by Steve Jeffrey, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach

8) Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll

9) Forgotten God by Francis Chan

10) Christ and Culture by DA Carson

Those are my 10... What books are on your list?

I need your help!

2009-12-28T15:31:00.003-05:00

Listen people, this is important... Thanks to Christmas, gift cards, etc.. I have $120 to spend however and wherever I want. To have this type of money to spend freely is quite rare for me so I am asking for your help on how to spend it!

Are there any books that you think are a MUST HAVE?

Any ideas on what, besides books, I could get?

Book Giveaway- We have a Winner!

2009-12-26T15:44:00.002-05:00

As most of you know there has been a book giveaway to win, "The Family God Uses" by Tom and Kim Blackaby. You can find the original post here.

I reviewed the book and had one copy to give away which was given to me by New Hope Publishers.

Well, we have a winner- @mattcummings

Thank you all who participated. This was my first book giveaway(and it was a small one), but I plan on doing a $50 dollar gift card giveaway to Westminster Bookstore at the beginning of the year! So stay tuned and I hope Matt Cummings enjoys the book!

My Top 10 Books of 2009

2009-12-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Here are my top 10 books of 2009. These books made it on the list for different reasons because God used them to transform me in different ways. By the way, don't waste your time reading books that do nothing for your soul. I'm not saying you can't read a book for leisure every once in awhile. But when you read romance novels, sports magazines, or what ever else 90% of the time it is no different then sitting in front of the television for hours upon hours. Be a discerning reader, just as you should be a discerning tv watcher.

Here are my top 10:

1) Romans by Tom Schreiner (okay so I didn't read every single word, but most of them! You try reading every word on 866 intense pages!!!)

2) Preaching and Preachers by Martin Lloyd Jones

3) Mortification of Sin by John Owen

4) The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer (I read this annually)

5) A Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddlebarger

6) Soulwinner by Charles Spurgeon

7) Spectacular Sins by John Piper

8) Prodigal God by Timothy Keller

9) Worldliness by CJ Mahaney

10) The Family God Uses by Tom and Kim Blackaby