Riches come through community, not individualism

God does not reveal the unsearchable riches of Christ to individuals.  Christ is only revealed through his body.  The ministry of one man, for years and years on end will only give a tiny glimpse of God's greatness in Christ.  In contrast, many members, rooted and grounded in love and grace toward one another, will provide a collection of glimpses, resulting in a more full manifestation of Jesus Christ.  This was the prayer of Paul for the Church in Ephesus.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV)

An endless bloodbath in your honor

I stumbled across a website with a program that calculates the number of animal sacrifices necessary under the Old Testament sacrificial system to atone for sin.  You simply input the day of your birth and it shows you how many animals would have been slaughtered over your lifetime to pay for your sins.  As of today I am up to 53,682.  A lot of sin needs a lot of blood.

The blood still runs.  Today it is no longer the blood of bulls and goats that God requires to atone for sin.  In fact, the sheer magnitude and perpetuity of the slaughtered creatures demonstrates that their blood is inadequate.  Praise be to God that Christ died and shed his own perfect blood for our sins.  Now our great high priest, Christ Jesus, has taken a seat because he finished once and for all the necessary bloodshed.

Believers need to remember the blood everyday the same way the Jews looked upon the blood on the alter everyday.  It is this continual reminder of Christ's finished work that keeps us free from guilt and able to walk in righteousness.

So check out the site and tell us how many sacrifices you would have required under the old covenant.

http://crossward.info/bullsandgoats

A review of The Goodness of God

I have finished reading The Goodness of God by Randy Alcorn which was sent to me for free from the blogging for books program for review.

This book is a condensed version of a larger book written by Randy called If God Is Good…: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.  In The Goodness of God Randy does a great job of quoting and unpacking scriptures that give a firm and solid foundation for having the assurance of purpose in the midst of suffering.  The truths he writes will no doubt be stored up in the heart of his readers for a time of need that can be recalled time and time again as life ebbs and flows.  I highly recommend this book.


I have never read anything by this author before so I did not know what to expect from him.  After reading this work I'm sure I will jump at the opportunity to read something else by Randy Alcorn.  He writes in a way that is easily understandable and the book breaks down into 11 chapters that keep the thoughts and topics well organized and easily accessible for future reference.  Randy successfully uses a mere 115 pages to show how we can have joy through our sufferings in life.  It will no doubt be used as a profitable tool for ministers as we walk with one another through the valleys.

Praising my wife at the gates

I tell her all the time that words can't express how I feel.  That doesn't mean I won't try.   I think about my love for my beautiful bride and the best words I can fathom are those written about Christ's love for his.

My love, my reason for being born, I look with joy toward a future of sharing life together.  There is nothing that could take my eyes off you.  Where I am, you are.  Where you are, I am.  We are one, inseparable.

I am determined to have you no matter what.  If you turn from me, I'll follow you.  If you forget about me, I'll still remain near.  If you leave the warmth of my embrace, I'll pursue you.  If you sin against me, I'll forgive you.  Your sins have been covered by the blood there is no longer any guilt or condemnation.  I could be mocked, cursed, spat upon, beaten, hated, neglected, betrayed, and bruised but it would be woth it if it was necessary to have you near me.  I would die for you, lay my own life down for you because you are worth that much to me.

preaching: one another or 1 to all the others?

With all the conversation over at the gospel coalition blogs about the centrality of expository preaching in our gatherings, a re-post by Alan Knox gives some excellent biblical examples of church gatherings where the model is not monologue but dialogue.

So, there certainly may have been instances where only one person spoke during the meeting of the church. But, Scripture does not give us many of these examples. Instead, we primarily have examples of several people either speaking or having the option to speak when the church meets. Similarly, when teaching specifically about the church meeting, we are not instructed that only one person should speak, but that all should have that option. It seems that in general, even when one person primarily spoke during a meeting, and even when that person was an apostle like Paul, there was the possibility and probability that others would take part.

Click above. You want to read the entire post.

LeCrae: piercing the darkness

Go check out LeCrae's blog about his plans for Grammy week.  Join us in prayer for him as God uses him to reach the culture forming unreachable.

Look Who's Talking!

I read a blog today that deeply troubled me. To many it may be old hat, but for me...when I see someone coming to these conclusions and publishing them I am deeply troubled. Especially when that someone is a greatly respected leader of mine. I am talking about a post today from Thabiti Anyabwile entitled God's Doing the Talking.

His post is in response to a review of his recent book What is a Healthy Church Member in which the reviewer noted his concern with Thabiti's term "expositional listening" and how the traditional worship service built around the sermon undermines the priesthood of all believers.  (I wonder if he is referring to Eric's blog post ????)

Here is what Thabiti writes:

The fatal flaw in my reviewer’s comments was his tendency to think that the service at its best is a conversation between man and man, a human dialogue, a gathering of people of rather equal status speaking to one another. But is that really what’s happening in preaching and in the gathered worship of the church?

The very structure reflects a running dialogue–not between the people gathered, though we “speak to one another in songs,” etc.–but fundamentally between God and His people.

When God speaks through the exposition of His word there certainly will be many reactions, but as our Sovereign speaks there should not be an interruption in favor of our pooling our comments and sharing our insights.  Our best wisdom is foolishness before God.  Better to first listen to the One who speaks, then talk with one another about it afterward.

These conclusions imply that God only speaks through a well prepared expositional sermon delivered from a pulpit by a professional pastor.  God speaks beginning with the call to worship and ending with the benediction.  Everything else is just "after" talk.

Brothers and sisters, let me encourage you.  God dwells within his body, the church.  There is no part of the body that is not necessary, not needed, or just an afterthought.  We are all servants of Jesus Christ and we are expected to minister to one another as He leads us to when we gather together.  Ministry is for professionals and we are all in the business of doing His business of advancing the kingdom therefore we are all professionals and our reward is in Heaven with Christ.  There is something very special about faithful preaching that is true to the Word of God and we are ALL called to be preaching that word.  We are not all , apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers but we are something special.  We are members in the body of Christ.  The preeminent, righteous, sinless, soveriegn, benevolent, maker and master of the heavens and earth dwells within you.  Walk by faith in that truth and study God's Word.  God will speak through you.

  

more on introspection versus faith

Dear friends, if any truth has the effect of turning you in upon yourself, making you introspective, self-occupied in a spiritual way, that truth has been wrongly apprehended.  You may assume the position of the most spiritual, but you are all wrong in your apprehension.  This great work which Christ did in His Cross was never intended to make anybody miserable.  Of course, that goes without saying; yet there are multitudes who are miserable after trusting the Lord, miserable over the sin question in their lives; and the number, I am afraid, is increasing...  

I am certain of this, that nothing will ever come to you, however deep, however mighty, however tremendous, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, that will make you miserable.  The revelation of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit—and there is no other revelation—will never make a soul miserable.  There is something wrong if a Christian is miserable on spiritual matters, and it is either failure to apprehend the one great, absolute reality that the victory was God’s and that He won it in Christ, fully and finally, and we are not called to share at all in that battle; or the truth which has come subsequently has been misapprehended and has become something that is a burden grievous to be borne.  The Lord Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

And what was the yoke?  Well, listen again; you will get it in various places in the New Testament where the very word is used.  “They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger” (Matt. 23:4).  What was the yoke, the burden?—the law, ordinances, ‘thou shalt,’ ‘thou shalt not’; the enforcement of this.  “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”  He “despoiled the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in (His Cross).”  How?  He nailed to His Cross the whole list of ordinances against us and took the ground of the enemy’s strength and assurance from him.  You know quite well that the enemy has no abstract power over anybody.  It is always concrete, it is always positive.  The devil must have something to make his power felt.  It does not exist, in effect, unless he has got moral ground, and the thing with which he lashes and drives and harasses is this law of carnal ordinances which was against us, against us, against us!

This is an excerpt from a message I received this morning. I thought I would share with you all. Watchman Nee was the first man I read who God used to reveal this precious truth to me. Now T. Austin-Sparks has joined the chorus of those in praise of the finished work of Christ bringing the end to our self-examination regarding our keeping of he law.

What do you think about what he has written? Agree/disagree?

Gaining wisdom through criticism

I just read a post on CJ Mahaney's blog about how proverbs teaches that we gain wisdom through criticism, reproof and correction.  Here are a few verses:

Proverbs 9:8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

Proverbs 19:25 Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence;
reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom,
but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

This truth is encouraging to me because it means that as I write these blogs I am not only sharing what I am learning with my readers but I am also inviting opportunity to gain more wisdom by putting me thoughts out there to be criticised and corrected.  I rejoice in this.

The trouble is that the only time my comments pile up is when I post something that I already know that many of my readers agree with.  Sometimes I post things hoping to be corrected, criticised, or shepherded in some way and the comments come up empty.

I have not been gracious in every response in the past and I confess, that is a difficult thing for me to do.  I ask forgiveness from anyone whom I have offended previously.  I hope that as you read my blog you would consider how to build up what is good in me and tear down what is not of Christ.  Thank you for reading.  I thank God for you all.

Tim 2:25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Col 3:16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Building up a Spiritual Building

I was reading through my email and I came across a piece with the same subject line as my title above.  It came from one of the pastors I enjoy listening to and given his history of great exposition and exegesis I was excited to read what he had to say along this subject.  I was greatly disappointed.  The entire email conisted of thanks to the many who have been supporting his ministry and then moved into a discussion of their plans to build another structure on their newly aquired property which they plan to begin this year.  He even quoted the verse in which the apostle speaks of the Church being a spiritual building made up of precious stones and then said the "MAIN" way in which this is accomplished is through visiting pastors preaching to the congregation and through the various pastor only conferences that they hold to equip the ministers.

What I hoped for was a testimony of how the assembly of believers was growing and impacting their city.  What I got was more of the same praise for buildings and professionals and a bulwark of the clergy/laity divide.