A Reformed Free Church Pastor

Regret-Free Living – a book review

2010-02-02T02:09:00.007-06:00

About the book –

Regret-Free Living takes the focus from what was and what might have been and shines a bright light onto the path of what is and what is to be. Christian counselor Stephen Arterburn speaks honestly and forthrightly about what it takes to build strong, healthy relationships. Drawing on his own positive and negative experiences, he offers specific steps to rid yourself of relationship regrets, open your heart to healing, and move forward in love.

Arterburn's practical counsel shows you how to recognize the signs and qualities of both happy and unhappy relationships, admit guilt and accept responsibility, find and give forgiveness, set boundaries, love and give out of fullness, and much more.

This is your invitation to, with God's help, rid yourself of relationship regrets and begin building healthy, guilt-free relationships. Will you accept it? The choice is yours.

About the Author –

Stephen Arterburn is founder and chairman of New Life Ministries and host of the nationally syndicated New Life Live! daily radio broadcast. A nationally known speaker, he's been featured on Oprah, USA Today, US News & World Report, the New York Times and many other media outlets. Steve founded the Women of Faith conferences and is a bestselling author of more than 70 books including the multi-million selling EVERY MAN'S BATTLE series. Steve and his family live in Laguna Beach, California. Visit www.newlife.com

My Review –

Very practical. Very understandable. I'm sure this will prove to be a helpful book to many, especially those within the target audience: those who have made bad decisions, most pointedly, in their relationships, and need some good advice to help them dig their way out.

I found this book very easy to read, a trend that seems to be more and more popular in self-help/relational living/counseling books for the everyday person. the chapters are well-titled; you can look at each in the table of contents and have a pretty good idea what that chapter will be about. Within each chapter are helpful descriptions of the areas of concern and the steps to take to deal with that area.

If I have any reservations about this book, they would be two-fold. First, as I began to read, I had a hard time knowing who the target audience would be, other than "just about everybody who has regrets." I felt like more like a listener to the radio program Arterburn has, and that each day is self-contained, and not necessarily connected to the previous.

Second, and this is a concern I always bring to the table whenever I read a "therapeutic" type book, is this: Does this book have me laying it down and looking to my Savior, Jesus Christ, for everything it's just suggested? I have to admit, I just never sensed this to be the case here. Don't get me wrong. Arterburn frequently directs us to look to God for help and forgiveness. Yet I couldn't help but wonder how much better it could have been had the cross of Jesus Christ been far more central. Coming to Christ, knowing what the cross has accomplished, preaching the gospel to myself everyday is the only true way of living daily life in all its facets without regret.

Regret-free Living may be purchased here: Bethany House Publishers.

Disclaimer –

This book was provided for review purposes only by Bethany House Publishers.

Technorati Tags:
Steve Arterburn, Bethany House Publishers, Christian Living, Self-help books, Relationships, Counseling

Friday Five

2010-02-02T02:09:00.005-06:00

How do I miss these things? Why wasn't I notified? Where are the CNN headlines? (Or at least dozens of those little scrolling thingies that consume nearly 1/4 of your TV screen and prove to be so obnoxious.) I'm really bummed that I have to celebrate this a few days late, but better late than never, I guess.

January 21 was National Squirrel Day. And I missed it.

However, as providence would, uhm, er-r-r, yes – provide, October 2010 is National Squirrel Awareness Month, and the second week of October has been designated National Squirrel Awareness Week. I'm not sure why National Squirrel Day isn't in the middle of that week, but I'm guessing it's because a squirrel is in charge here!

Well, to honor our little furry geeks, here are five, short video clips:

Thanks to Abraham Piper for bringing up this grand celebration.

PETA disclaimer: No squirrels were harmed in the posting of this blog.

Technorati Tags:
Friday Five, Squirrel, Humor, Squirrel Launchers, YouTube, National Squirrel Day, National Squirrel Awareness Month, National Squirrel Awareness Week, animals

I Am Unworthy

2010-02-02T02:09:00.003-06:00

Now, I realize that this post's title would be something a lot of my regular readers would heartily agree with. However, After watching this video of Al Mohler's personal library, I walk into my very humble little space of study at Cornerstone EFC and am humbled even more. I could wallow in self-pity merely out of the grandeur of Mohler's digs. I could be saturated with envy over the sheer numbers of books, let alone the beauty of how it's all arranged. Or I could find myself despairing because I will never have that many books, never read that many books, nor having read them, be able to, at a moment's notice, have someone grab a random book off any shelf and give you a several sentence synopsis of that book (Mohler did this in one of Together for the Gospel's earlier videos a couple of years ago).

No, I'm unworthy because the books I have at present are a sign of God's grace. Had Christ not died on the cross for me, had God the Father not chosen me before the foundation of the world to be one of His adopted children, had not the Holy Spirit re-birthed me spiritually, giving me a heart of flesh instead of the crusty old heart of stone I once had, I would not only not have the books I have, I wouldn't have read them nor understood any of them. So, yes, I'm unworthy and yet, but by God's good grace & mercy, I have my books. Most of them have proven very helpful. I'd thought of creating a short video of my library, but what's the point of a three second video?

Let me know what you think of Mohler's place.

Al Mohler - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags:
Pride, Books, Library, Al Mohler, Together for the Gospel, T4G.org, vimeo

Some Thoughts on Prayer

2010-02-02T02:09:00.001-06:00

Kay, over at Musings of an English Muffin, wrote this the other day:

I struggle with prayer. When you're a mother of young children, it's quite difficult to carve devotional time out of the day. Early mornings don't work because as soon as my mattress creaks because of me sitting up, at least one, maybe two of the little ones hears it and comes in.

I've settled into a habit of evening prayers, and that's no bad thing, but I find myself afflicted with a reluctance to pray, and it happens every single time. Yet without fail, once I start to pray, I carry on for a reasonable amount of time and it's a great blessing.

Prayer being a blessing is no surprise, of course. But am I alone in the wrestle beforehand, be it shopping lists springing to mind or sudden doubts about my standing before God?

No, Kay, you're not the only one. You are joined by many, many brothers and sisters who struggle in "focusing" our minds during a time of prayer.

I have no doubt that we ought to be able to focus our minds some of the time, But I don't think it's always going to be possible. First, our minds are often prone to wander in their thoughts, even when praying. You start praying about work and that reminds you of the project that's due and your part of it isn't ready yet and if only your co-worker would have gotten his part done earlier and then there was that special staff meeting they called and o-o-h that manager, he makes me so mad sometimes. Oh, sorry Lord, I forgot where I was.

Second, there are just so many distractions: radios, TVs, iPhones, cell phones, home phones, chat rooms, Facebook and Twitter and the newspaper and ... well, you get the hint. And I didn't even mention spouses or children or other people.

Third, the devil knows what we're up to and he will try to nail us to the wall while we pray. He'll whisper in your ear how unworthy you are to be trying to approach God. Why you can't even let your mind focus for 60 seconds; who do you think you are? And what must God think of you? Pathetic!

I've been reading, A Praying Life, by Paul E. Miller. It's a wonderful book and is helping me a great deal. In the opening portion, Miller teaches that when we pray, we should become like a child. This means, that in our prayers, we ought to remember how to play. Little children, when they play don't sit for hours with just one toy. More often, they're here, there and everywhere, playing with all kinds of toys. When we pray, we should come, but not fret if our mind wanders. Instead, we should follow our minds, letting those "distractions" and other thoughts become our prayer requests before the Lord.

This isn't easy for me. I like organization. I like to focus. I'm not good at multi-tasking. However, I'm learning that it's okay, from time to time, to take a long, wandering prayer walk.

How about you? What "style" works better for you when you pray?

Technorati Tags:
Christian Living, Prayer, Spiritual Maturity, Spirituality, Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life, Musings of an English Muffin

Sunday's Hymn

2010-02-02T02:08:00.001-06:00

This past Lord's Day we sang a song right out of the Scottish Psalter, 1650. It was actually in our hymnal, but the tune was from that Psalter. I was thrilled about this. I wish we'd do more psalms from the psalter... and try them a capella. That's how the Scots would have done it.

Bless the Lord, O My Soul

Words: Scottish Psalter, 1650
Music: Hugh Wilson, 1764-1824

O thou my soul, bless God the Lord
And all that in me is
Be stirred up His holy name
To magnify and bless.

Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God,
And not forgetful be
Of all His gracious benefits
He hath bestowed on thee:

All thine iniquities who doth
Most graciously forgive,
Who thy diseases and and pains
Doth heal, and thee relieve:

Who doth redeem thy life, that thou
To death may not go down,
Who thee with loving kindess doth
and tender mercies crown

Who with abundance of good things
Doth satisfy thy mouth;
So that, even as the eagle's age,
Renewed is thy youth.

This is the hymn tune, "Martyrdom," to which we sang this marvelous psalm:

Martyrdom (also, "Alas, And Did My Savior Bleed?"

Technorati Tags:
Sunday Hymn, Psalms, Psalter, Worship, Cornerstone EFC

Spiritual Maturity: The Road to Wonderland – a book review

2010-01-25T06:45:00.001-06:00

About the Book –

For decades, Chafer's He That is Spiritual guided the Christian in spiritual growth, but it remains out of reach for many modern believers who struggle with the 1918 text or no longer have the general Bible knowledge that the book assumes.

Now, Spiritual Maturity: The Road to Wonderland brings those same critical lessons prefaced by quotes and illustrations from Lewis Carroll's timeless tales. Interwoven throughout the text is Christine, a fictional character, whose life and questions mirror those of today's reader.

We need to be sure we are walking in the direction and in the manner God would choose. And on any journey, a map-correctly understood-can be enormously helpful. Thankfully, God has provided us one. Designed for individual or classroom use.

About the Author –

Bruce Baker is Senior Pastor of Jenison Bible Church, Hudsonville, MI. Before he entered the ministry he served in the Navy for over 11 years. He then moved on to work at a Christian television station as an engineer. It was during this he felt the call of God to enter the ministry. He enrolled at Calvary Bible College graduating with a BS in Christian Ministries. He continued on to Calvary Theological Seminary, where he graduated with a Master's of Divinity (Pastoral Studies) degree with highest honors. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Baptist Bible Seminary.

Before accepting the call to his current church, he was Senior Pastor of Open Door Bible Church in Belton, MO, and Adjunct Professor of Bible and Theology at Calvary Bible College.

Pastor Baker has no hobbies because his life is one pathetic cycle of trying to complete overdue projects while accepting new ones. He seldom sleeps. He has been acquitted of all charges for which he as ever been indicted.

He is the author of numerous journal and magazine articles, and a contributing author to the book Progressive Dispensationalism. Spiritual Maturity is his first full-length book. Pastor Baker and his wife, Bonnie, have been married 27 years and have three grown children. They are praying that their married children get a clue, get down to business and give them grandchildren before they die.

Sample from the book –

Of all my memories, though, it is the hours we spent in the car, with Dad as the pilot and me as the navigator, that I remember most. Before we left, Dad provided a quick education on how to read a map. I remember his instruction on the importance of knowing where we were, where we were going, and how we were going to get there. "If we keep our eye on those three things on the map," Dad explained, "we won't get lost."

It felt very grown-up to be entrusted with such an important responsibility. As we clicked off the miles, I kept my finger on that maze of colored lines, solemnly announcing the next town we should see or how far it was to the next rest area.

It sounds so simple now, but knowing where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there is still essential for any journey. Yet, it is this basic information, particularly in the realm of a spiritual journey (a journey that seeks and requires spiritual truth), that sometimes seems the hardest to find. It is clear (or at least it should be to anyone who has even a casual understanding of the Bible) that God wants us to grow spiritually-but how is that accomplished? What is the goal? How do we determine how far along we are now? How do we know when we have arrived? This assumes, of course, that one can arrive (and by the way, what exactly does "arriving" mean?). Why is it that some people seem to intuitively understand God's will when others of us seem to struggle so much?

This book isn't intended to be our map. Only God's inspired Word can fulfill that function. Instead, this book is meant to help us discover, by reading the map, where we are now, where God wants us to go, and how we get there.

My Review –

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I was reading this book and enjoying it a great deal. I've completed the book and did enjoy it, but there was a huge bump in the road of this journey (to use Baker's own analogy) and I hit my head on the ceiling of the car so hard, it took a bit for the swelling to go down. More on that later.

Baker is seeking to help us read the "map" of God's Word in order to get to the destination "Spiritual Maturity." He readily admits that we'll never arrive until God the Father sends Christ the Son to bring us to our final rest in His presence. However, on the way there, we need help and encouragement and this is what he seeks to offer.

He does so using three means: 1) a "story" of a Christian woman whose faith has been rocked hard, and thus starts her journey of recognition and realization that she was so spiritually immature at first and has great need to grow; 2) short excerpts from Lewis Carroll's tale, Alice in Wonderland, by which Baker sets the stage for each chapter; and 3) each chapter which seeks to help us recognize where we are, where we need to go, and how to start taking the steps necessary to make the journey toward spiritual maturity.

The story, I think, adds some touch of realism to the direct teaching mode of the various chapters. Entitled, "Living in Canaan," the author follows a portion of the life of Christine, a believer who learns that the path to maturity can be very harsh, very grueling, yet very rewarding also. Segments of this story occur over seven different places, each showing the progress and trials of the maturing process. I found this part of the book helpful, kind of like a mini-novel in the middle of a "technical book" on Christian living.

Using some of the old line art drawing templates and snippets from Carroll's classic, Baker introduces each chapter and seeks to make us think about life as a follower of Christ. He does not attempt to spiritualize Alice and her adventures. Thank goodness for that. Yet each piece does help you realize where he might be headed with each chapter. For instance, there is the classic dialogue between Alice and the Cheshire Cat:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where," said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you walk," said the Cat.

From there, Baker's chapter helps us understand that there is a destination in our Christian life, that there is direction and purpose. We don't just wander through this world until we get to heaven. I enjoyed these little forays a great deal.

Overall, I found this book a good read, full of good reminders of things I've learned in the past and need prodding on once in a while in order to stay the course. I think just about any Christian, from relatively new believer to a more experienced Christian would find this helpful. I could recommend it to anyone from my congregation with only one proviso: skip chapters 5, 6 & 7, then be careful with chapters 8 & 9. Before and after this major section, you'll be fine. Baker is right in introducing the "Jabberwock" here, but for reasons that I strongly disagreed with.

I should have seen it coming, when a partial description of the book informs me that Baker is seeking to put Lewis Sperry Chafer's He That Is Spiritual on a lower, more accessible shelf for Christian's, alarms should have gone off. Chafer, and hence, Baker, takes a passage from 1 Corinthians 2.14–3.3 and makes this the cornerstone of their understanding for spiritual maturity. That's fine, except they introduce a teaching that, I'm convinced undermines the very process they hope to enhance: "the carnal Christian." I'll need to post more on this through the course of the next two weeks, but suffice it for now that this is a dangerous teaching. I believe it opens the "antinomian door" for far too many "professing, but unbelieving" people of faith. That is to say, it allows for a person to say, "Yes, I'm a Christian" and then never mature, never move off "Square One" and basically live an unconverted life, yet still enter heaven.

I realize Baker is seeking to loving and graciously "push" these "carnal" people toward greater maturity. And through the beginning and remainder of his book, he does a fine job of that. However, I disagree with this teaching so much, it did make the final portion of the book a far greater chore to read than I initially thought. I usually try to exercise discernment whenever I read, but this was a "cardio workout" like I haven't had in a while.

Again, I'm favorable to this book. It could actually have been written without chapters 5-9 and still have been coherent and very helpful. If you'd like to purchase this book, you may do so through Grace Acres Press. Just make sure you put a binder around those middle chapters and then continue on.

This book was provided for review purposes by Grace Acres Press.

Technorati Tags:
Bruce Baker, Carnal Christian, Christian Growth, Grace Acres Press, Spiritual Christian, Spiritual Maturity, Spiritual Transformation, Spirituality

Friday Five

2010-01-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome everyone. I hope you found your way here all right. Please forgive the clutter here as well. It's just a different site... not a different mind!

Every year, a dear saintly woman in our church gives us a calendar. It's a small, trifold variety with a spiral binder for flipping the pages over. It's full of all sorts of fun quotes, jokes, and silly stories. In other words, it's right up my alley!

Here are the top five items from the calendar so far this year:

1. First things first! But not necessarily in that order.

2. A boy, frustrated with all the rules he had to follow, asked his father, "Dad, when will I be old enough to do as I please?" The father answered immediately, "I don't know, son. Nobody has lived that long yet."

3. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

4. There are moments when everything goes well, but don't be frightened. It won't last. – Jules Renard

5. Incompetence. When you earnestly believe you can make up for a lack of skill by doubling your effort, there's no end to what you can't do.

Got any of your own? Let me know.

Technorati Tags:
Calendar, Quotes, Jokes, Wit, Friday Five

Sanctity of Human Life

2010-01-21T12:37:00.001-06:00

We're recognizing/celebrating "Sanctity of Human Life" this Sunday at Cornerstone EFC. Our local crisis pregnancy center, New Life Family Services, will have a representative here, giving us an update on their services/ministry. They've been able to add a second ultrasound machine during the course of the last year. These two machines have made a huge difference when pregnant girls/women come in and are thinking about an abortion.

Read this post by Kevin DeYoung and the connected article. Then pray that the Lord of life will work mightily in His people, to raise us up with one voice, crying, "Stop the violence."

Like An Electric Current – Kevin DeYoung: ""

(Via .)

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Sanctity of Human Life, Anti-abortion, Pro-life, Cornerstone EFC, Kevin DeYoung

Getting Closer to a "New Launch"

2010-01-21T12:18:00.001-06:00

I've been working diligently this week to set up shop here at Blogger.com in order to make the switch from my other blog site. I've realized that I'll never be a HTML wiz, so the flexibility that comes with having your own site just wasn't paying off for me. Besides, Blogger has changed a lot since I was last here: Google owns them and they've brought in a lot of the creativity that makes Google click.

I'm also going to try out different templates over the course of the next few months. I'll be taking a poll or asking for your input, so please let me know what you think of the format of the blog (as always, I'm hoping you'll let me know what you think of the content).

For now, here's this month's them: Coffee Cup.

Cry of the Hawk – a book review

2009-12-01T16:55:00.001-06:00

Cry of the Hawk by Terry Johnston

About the Book – Western potboiler that will stain the reader with grease, blood, and smoke. Jonah Hook, Confederate soldier, gains an early release from a befouled Union prison by signing up for a year as a ""galvanized Yankee"" to fight Indians on the frontier. Meanwhile, his wife and three children, waiting for him at home in backwoods Missouri, are abducted by the ""Avenging Angels"" of Brigham Young, out ...
More sweeping the land to rid it of threatening ""Gentiles"" but showing much more aptitude for raping, killing, and looting. The angels sell Hook's boys to Comancheros and save Hattie, the daughter, for future deflowering by a wealthy Mormon buyer. The crazed leader of the pack, Jubilee Usher, takes Gritta, the wife, as a concubine. While she and Hattie, both kept on a steady dose of laudanum, tour the countryside with the depraved Mormons, the depraved white men fight the depraved Indians, allowing Jonah to meet famous scouts and soldiers like Jim Bridger and George Custer. The Indians and soldiers skirmish, graphically slashing and scalping and creatively mutilating each other. Jonah finally gets his release, only to return home and find a vacant ruined homestead. He and cousin Artus set off to search for the family. Along the way, Jonah kills buffalo for the railroad, fights Indians again, and falls for Grass Singing, an Indian prostitute. He finally locates the Mormon angels and...some issues won't be resolved until the sequel. In his fast-paced but uneven latest, Johnston (Carry the Wind, 1982, etc.) magnifies the violence and stench of the Old West.

About the Author – Terry C. Johnston was born on the plains of Kansas and immersed himself in the history of the early West. His first novel, Carry the Wind, won the Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award from the Western Writers of America, and his subsequent books, among them Cry of the Hawk, Dream Catcher, Buffalo Palace, Crack in the Sky, and the Son of the Plains trilogy, have appeared on bestseller lists throughout the country.

Terry C. Johnston lives and writes in Big Sky country near Billings, Montana.

My Review –

Having read many of Johnston’s other novels, I knew what I might be getting as I picked this book up off the library shelf. Johnston captures life in the western frontier during the mid-1800s, right after the Civil War. He’s done a tremendous amount of research on this area, it’s history, it’s people and characters, it’s geography and life in general on the frontier. I think these novels would be classified as historical fiction since he works in historical characters – “Wild Bill” Hicock, General George Armstrong Custer, Roman Nose, and a host of others – historical places and battles, alongside his key fictional characters of Shad Sweete and Jonah Hook.

The action moves along steadily, especially during any of Johnston’s fight scenes. As in all of Johnston’s novels, the violence is graphic. He holds nothing back in showing either the mutilation which the Indians inflicted upon the white man or the brutality with which the whites exerted against the Indians. It’s not pretty and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Jonah’s plight is a pitiable one. Having been released from a Civil War prison camp to serve in the army in fighting and establishing the western frontier, he longs for home and family. When he is finally able to go home (about half way through this tome), he finds Gritta, his wife, and his children have been taken (he suspects this right from the start, although he entertains doubts about her simply leaving to go back east to her family). The remainder of the story follows his efforts to search for them. There are times that I grew impatient as it seemed his searching got put on the side burner while he continued working for the army. But I have to remember, they had no phones, no electronic means of searching at all. They barely had the telegraph (and the lines for these were continually cut by the Indians). So travel was slow (much of the first year was spent getting about by foot) and the searching even slower. The ending leaves you hanging for a sequel.

If you’re a fan of historical fiction of the American frontier during the Indian Wars of the mid- to late-1800s, this might just be the book for you. If you have a queasy stomach over vividly descriptive depictions of violence, I’d leave this one on the shelf.

New Blog Site

2006-09-06T12:46:00.000-05:00

...at least for a time.

Blogger has been causing me no end of headaches recently. When I try to post a new update, it'll tell me it "Timed Out" (my kids used to go running for the hills at those words) and won't post. But when I check the blog site later, there's the post. When I go to log in to Blogger, similar ominous warnings come up. So, until further notice, I'm trying my hand at WordPress. Hope to see you there.

Tags: Trouble, Blogger, WordPress

Cornerstone Prayer Time Meditations

2006-09-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

Improper Prayer

James 4.3 (ESV) reads: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."

Look at those first two words: "you ask." Does that not sound like what we're supposed to do when we pray? Matthew 7.7 tells us, "Ask and it will be given to you..." So why the heading, Improper Prayer, if we're supposed to be about asking when we pray?

Don't stop with the first two words. Oh, that none would ever take verses from God's Word out of context ever again. Lord, guard us from this sin. If we do not go on in this verse, then we miss the entire problem: you ask and do not receive. Why? "...because you ask wrongly..." KJV reads: "...because ye ask amiss..." Our prayers aren't answered because they're inappropriate. Our prayers don't achieve their purpose because they miss the mark. Unanswered prayers result; our voices don't go any higher than the ceiling. They go no further than the person's ears next to you. You do not receive because you ask wrongly.

Something is wrong with the heart: it's not right; the attitude is wrong. You see, you can still go into your secret prayer closet (see the previous post) and still not pray aright if your heart is not right. Spurgeon once prayed (and I apologize for not being able to supply the information regarding the source of this idea/quote, so if someone out there can help, I'd be greatly indebted): "Lord, show me my worst (within my heart)" We need to ask the Lord of all to search our hearts, "...and see if there be any grievous way in me..." The "if" here is not really hypothetical; trust me, there will be grievous ways in me (and in you).

Here, in James 4, we have the improper attitude in prayer. This attitude seeks to spend whatever it receives upon itself; upon its own passions. This is what is causing the problems within this little church, as well. Their passions are at war with one another. Your passions are at war within you, within me. And then we wonder why our prayers sound like hitting tin.

This group's prayer sounded good; they thought they were good. Yet their lives weren't matching up to their profession (there's another post for another time); their lives weren't really changed; they're faith appeared dead. "If any one says, 'I love God' and hates his brother, he is a liar." (1 John 4.20, ESV) What pain this ought to bring to our hearts: pain of conviciton; pain of its truth in us and in others who profess Christ. This group prayed; prayerlessness was not their trouble. Selfishness was their trouble, for they prayed out of self-interest, out of concern for their own self-esteem or to contribute, somehow, to their own self-importance.

Think of Esau as an example. You see him in Genesis 27.30ff. His birthright has been cheated away from him by his conniving little (little only by a few moments in birth) brother, Jacob. And when he finds out, he starts whining and crying all over his father, but not because his father had been deceived. No, Esau's concern was for himself. He wanted the benefits more than he wanted the benefactor to receive glory. How often do we simply want the gift and not the Giver? We put "I" on the throne, as it were, and seek to make God our servant.

Back to James 4: you desire, you covet, you do not have, you ask wrongly. Who is the "you" here? They are adulterers for they have considered friendship with the world more vital and necessary to their well-being than friendship with God.

But we may think of people who act like this (of course, not us; by all means, never us). They appear to get what they ask for. Their prayers are obviously being answered. Ah yes, but God may indeed give with His left hand, holding His right hand of judgment for another day. Would it not be better to get nothing at all than this?

We need the Holy Spirit to uncover us, to lay us naked before the One with whom we have to do. Ask the Spirit to help us see that even in our secret closet, Satan may still come in disguised as an angel of light, deceiving, tempting, destroying. If we were aware of our own selfish desires, we'd never dare approach God in such a manner. Spirit, come; show us our worst.

True prayer is concerned about God first and foremost. He is first. His cause is to be uppermost in our hearts and minds and voices. Then we can move on to concentrate upon our neighbor and his needs. What we need is the haert of a disciple that says, "Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me to die to self. Teach me to take my (Your) cross each day."

"O God, be merciful to me, a sinner." This is one of those prayers that never goes unanswered. And don't think you can pray this prayer too often, for this is a proper prayer.

May the Spirit of God cleanse our hearts: as individuals here, as a church gathered and scattered; as a people who would humble themselves before the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.

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Good thing there was a holiday in there somewhere!

2006-09-05T14:31:00.000-05:00

Labor Day. Good name, 'cuz that's what mine held for me. Labor at home and at my study. I don't usually "work" on a holiday in which we're to rest from our labors in order to "celebrate the laborer", however, my schedule this week necessitated this.

I don't like weeks with schedules that seem almost out of my control. It's not because I'm a control freak; it's because I'd rather follow my convictions on a more simplified lifestyle. Busy schedules do nothing toward this, but they happen. And when they do, my sinful tendencies toward procrastination rise up all the more.

With this confession laid out before you, I'll need to postpone my next entry on pride for a couple more days. At least I have my next Cornerstone Meditations on Prayer completed and set to upload on Wednesday. Thanks to those of you who have been such an encouragement through your comments having read these posts.

May God give us strength to face all that lies before us, patience to do what He gives us and the love of Christ to oversee all tendencies toward impatience!

Tags: busy schedules, simple life, procrastination, patience

I love my Mac computer!

2006-08-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

I just love my Mac. I've had one since late 1987 (an old Mac Plus, with no internal hard drive, just a floppy disc slot; I bought a 20MB external hard drive for over $300!). Now I have a G4 in my pastor's study, an iMac 17" flat panel at home, and a white iBook I take inbetween and everywhere else. In just a few days, both my youngest kids, Jonathan and Elizabeth will get a used iMac (both the old G3s) to use for school projects. This list isn't even including the long-since discarded Quadra 605, the Mac Classis II, the old Performa from my brother, the given-as-ministry Wallstreet PowerBook. By the way, did I say, "I just love my Macintosh computers"?

Anyway, one of the reasons I enjoy them so much is because of Widgets. Since Apple is just the-absolutely-most-fun-you-can-have-with-a-computer computer, I use lots of widgets. You can find them all (well, nearly all of them) here. One I use daily allows uploads of pictures from NASA's astronomy site. The other day, I had this pop up on my screen:

Imagine Abraham, who's just heard this from the Lord: "And he brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'" (Genesis 15.5, ESV). Then he looks up into the night sky and sees that!

Imagine Job seeing something like this in his misery and "debating" with his "friends." Is it any wonder he would say this: "Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!"

And God, in His gracious rebuke of Job in 38.4 & 8: "Where were you... when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Reminds me of the old gospel chorus :

"In the stars His handiwork I see...
He's everything to me!"

Tags: stars, God, Creator, astronomy, NASA, Macintosh, Apple Computers

Cornerstone Prayer Time Meditations

2006-08-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

Tonight we look to Matthew 15.21-28 (I’ll not take the space on this blog to give the entire text; just go here and you’ll be able to view it if you don’t have a Bible handy). This text is one of the rather “difficult” ones at first glance. If you just read it on the surface, you’d be inclined to think that Jesus had just hardened His heart toward this Canaanite woman. But read it through 2-3 times and you’ll see that Jesus had a very clear intent all along (and it wasn’t just to test the woman’s faith, although He did do that; and it wasn’t to grant her request eventually, although He did do that; this passage comes in the context of Jesus teaching His disciples several lessons in dealing with the scribes & Pharisees, in performing miracles and in direct teaching times, so I believe He’s also trying to get the disciples to learn a very important lesson for the future).

I don’t want to get sidetracked by lot’s good things in this passage. I’d like to simply have us see what this passage teaches us in regards to our prayer life. So pray, let’s see just that.

How often have you found yourself wondering why, it seems, God isn’t answering your prayers. You’ve come to Him time and time again with a serious request. You’ve sought to make certain it is in accordance with His will (1 John 5.14-15). You’ve approached the throne of grace in Christ’s name and even with confidence (John 14.13-14; Hebrews 4.16). Yet there seems to be no answer and the need is still great & pressing.

This is where we find this Canaanite woman: in great need (actually her daughter has the immediate need, but she & her daughter’s need are one in the same, as it were; she readily identifies with this pressing matter – and should it not be so in our prayers for others? When we intercede on behalf of another, what impact does it make at the gates of heaven if we really care not one whit for the person or their need?). She also recognizes who Jesus is: Lord – there is faith already at work in this woman’s heart; Son of David – faith that is saving, for she knows that Jesus is also God’s Messiah, sent to save from sin & wrath.

We’re not told if the woman had tried any other means in order to rid her daughter of this demon. It might seem apparent to us, especially if we are parents, that she would have done so. No matter now; she comes and with great zeal and earnestness pours out her heart to the Lord.

And He seems, at first glance, to be indifferent! There is silence. Have you felt this silence from heaven before? It’s painful to cry out to heaven and then hear nothing in reply. You pray, but see no light. You ask, but hear no answer. You knock and it’s as if the door is bolted and will never open. And the disciples, even while trying to help, really don’t offer much. I think they’re just hoping Jesus would do something so she’ll go away. Oh Lord, forgive for the times we’ve turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to a need, even while praying for it, just so it will go away.

But the woman doesn’t stop. She keeps at it and Jesus answers, but not what she was hoping for. “I’m only here for the house of Israel.” And yet she continues: Lord, help me! There are some, at this point, who claim she is humbling herself, begging, as it were. Others say she’s worshipping the Lord by calling Him by that title. I say: she’s doing both. Does it not mean humbling ourselves when we worship God and not self? And is it not worshipping God when we humbly come with our needs, even if it is through pleading and begging? And so here she is, praying with great urgency to the Lord.

He answers yet again but not quite how we’d expect yet. In essence, Jesus just called this woman a dog! I cannot do it, He says. You’ll have to settle for the crumbs. And this, I believe, is where Jesus meant to go all along: leave the door open for this woman and see where she goes with this answer. Also, let the disciples have a glance at what they will really need to know for the future (the kingdom of heaven is not only for the Jews; Jews first, yes, but not for them alone!).

The woman could have done one of two things here: 1) retorted with pride and anger “How dare you call me a dog!” and that would be the end of the matter; or, 2) respond as she did (which showed her humility – the exact condition needed to get a gracious response; and showed her faith – the complementary condition needed to receive the answer). She took hold of Christ. She saw the door ajar and walked through in faith. She persevered in her request and the Lord overwhelming answered her in grace.

So often we think we can pray for something/someone once, the Lord will hear and answer and that’s that… all because WE prayed. We were the ones praying. We were the ones praying in the right formula: in accordance with God’s will, in Jesus’ name, and so on. How worthy are our prayers. How worthy and deserving are we to be heard. But this woman knew she was nothing and had nothing. She knew where she needed to go; to the One who has everything. We are all unworthy sinners, even the redeemed. We now have access to the Father on the merits of Christ, but that doesn’t make US worthy. It’s Christ who is worthy. And so instead of answering because of our worthiness and our prayers, God answers because of His name’s sake, because of Christ.

Christ knew the silence of heaven. When He hung on that cross, bering the sin and the shame of our sins, being overwhelmed with the fullness of the wrath of His own Heavenly Father, mocked and scorned by the world around Him, He knew the silence of heaven. Yet, He also knew His Father well and He persevered and obeyed and died and lived again! And now, for you and for me, it is this drawing love of Christ for His Father and for you and me that we come to His throne in prayer.

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Pride

2006-08-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

“Humble yourselves... under the mighty hand of God...” 1 Peter 5.6

Pride is a turning away from God specifically to take satisfication in self.

John Piper, Future Grace, p. 87

I’m convinced that unbelief is the root of every single sin you & I commit. Romans 14.23 (ESV) tells us: “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” If faith is being satisfied in all that God promises to be and do for us in Christ Jesus, then our turning to anything or anyone else for satisfaction is not from faith, and God tells us this is sin.

I also believe that if unbelief is the root of all sin, then pride is the main trunk of the tree of sin. I’m not sure I can point to a specific chapter & verse from Scripture to verify this conviction, but think of it this way: if pride is indeed a turning from God and a turning to self, then all other sins flow from that. Lust is turning from God’s design to have a wide variety of physical desires met in accordance with His Word to meeting our flesh’s desires according to our own wishes. Impatience is turning from God’s perfect timing in all things to our own action and plans. Greed is not being satisfied that God promises to give you all good things through Christ Jesus. Instead, you long for more than He has said He will give you (think about that for a second; how silly, since “...He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing the heavenly places...” Eph. 1.3, ESV).

Ultimately, these sins (and many others) branch out from this trunk of pride, bear their fruit in our lives, steal our joy in Christ, and weaken our faith in God.

“ Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches...” (Jeremiah 9.23, ESV) This is just one passage in which God commans us not to boast, be proud, turn from Him to self-sufficiency. In other words, it’s not ALL ABOUT ME!

So, how do I recognize pride in myself? I’ll look at this a bit more in another post, but for now, try on these two question s:

Are you driven to receive the approval, praise, or acceptance from others?

Do you have a hard time confessing your sin to God or others (not just in generalities, but specifics)?

For now, pray for humility, seek the mind of Christ & put off foolish pride. Look to Christ!

Run by Macintosh
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Cornerstone Prayer Time Meditations

2006-08-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

Every Wednesday evening at Cornerstone EFC, a faithful handful of God's people meet for a short time in the Word and an extended time in prayer. I thought I'd attempt to post the brief thoughts/meditations/devotions/studies we do here for anyone's benefit who swings by. Here is the first installment, last Wednesday's meditation:

Secret Prayer

In Matt 6.5-6, Jesus is warning against ostentation in our lives as Christians, especially when it comes to prayer. The hypocrites (note, He's not condemning just Pharisees here, for more than just the Pharisees can be hypocritical in their prayer lives) love to make a grand show of how pious they seem in their prayers. These are the types who will pray long, flowery prayers. At first listen, we think to ourselves, "My, what a wonderful pray-er this person is. He must surely have the very ear of God when he speaks." But after a few more lines or phrases, we soon are thinking, "What's this guy doing? What's he talking about? He's lost me completely and I wonder if God even knows what he's talking about." Well, says Jesus, they have their reward: there are some who pat them on the back, thank them for their grand prayer and then move on.

To His true followers, Jesus has other counsel: "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matt. 6.6, ESV)

First off, where is this room of which He speaks? NASB renders this "inner room", as does the NIV. KJV calls it our "closet" from which many then speak about their "prayer closet." The NLT has, "go away by yourself" which is perhaps closest to what Jesus is getting at: go somewhere you'll not be seen except by God alone. CEV does much the same with "go into a room alone." And finally, our "old friend" E. Peterson, over at The Message starts well, but as is often the case in this pseudo-paraphrase takes it way past where it should go: "...find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God." (Matt. 6.6, The Message). I thought the role-playing was before men, but that's beside the point for now. What Jesus is advocating here, in order to avoid simply getting your reward from man and not from God, go off alone for certain times of prayer. This does not preclude public prayers, such as those offered during our Sunday morning worship service. It does rule out doing those prayers, or any other type of public praying, with the motive to impress those who might be listening. Instead, Jesus says, you should go off in private, have some serious conversations with Your Father in heaven, that He alone will hear & judge as truly from your heart. Then, your reward will be that He hears you.

Jesus Himself sets a good example of this for us. Matthew 14.23, ESV says, "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone..." In Mark 6, upon feeding the 5,000, Jesus goes up on the mountain to pray. Prior to the final selection of the 12 disciples, Jesus spent the night alone in prayer (Luke 6.12). Even though, on the night of His agony & passion, there were a few of His closest disciples nearby, Jesus nevertheless prayed alone in the Garden (Luke 22.41).

Note too, that Jesus gives no specific instructions about what we are to be praying about when we go off in this private, secret place. But are these not the times when we can receive God's chastening the best? Is this not the time for the confession of sin from a heart that is filled with contrition? And I have found, these are the sweetest times of communion with my Heavenly Father. The continuation of my spiritual life is fed by these times.

Which brings me to a closing thought: if we are sustained by, fed by, filled with grace by these times of secret prayer, would the tremendous absence of these times of secret prayer be the cause of the church's great weakness to make an impact upon the world around us? Oh, that more and more Christians would give themselves over to extended times of private, fervent prayer before the Father. I know that our church, Cornerstone EFC, has no business expecting great things of God if we will not give ourselves over to much prayer, privately or corporately. God, forgive us for our presumption that You would work mightily through us and for us without seeking Your face in prayer.

Tags: prayer, secret, contrition, confession, meditation

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Several Random & Unrelated Thoughts

2006-08-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

...but isn't that what this blog is all about anyway?

I've had a few people ask me why we do certain things during our Lord's Day worship services. "Why do you do it this way?" "Why don't you do that?" You know the type of questions.

Why don't you have a "seamless" worship service: one where everything flows right into the next bit, one where the people who are to lead the singing are right up there, ready to sing when they're supposed to, where the person praying or reading Scripture is ready on the spot, where there are no long pauses of silence?

Because we need times of silence. Because we need those pauses to catch our breath, to let us think, to allow us to sense God's presence and working among us. We're so accustomed to the constant noise around us (come on, you know who you are: first thing up in the morning, the radio's on or the TV's blaring; you can't walk or sit or drive without the stereo or iPod on; there has to be noise all the time). Give someone ten seconds of silence, especially in a worship service and they start to get nervous. Pause for 30 seconds of silent prayer and pretty soon, eyes begin to peek around to see what happened and what others are doing.

"Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46.10, ESV)

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him..." (Psalm 37.7, ESV)

The next time it gets quiet during one of your worship services, recite these two verses to yourself, bask in the silence and let God be God to you for those few moments.

Misery Loves Company

Ever noticed how true this little truism is? If you're miserable, you want others to know that you're miserable. It's just no fun being miserable alone. Either you want them to, at the very least, acknowledge your misery; or, you want them to become miserable with you.

Another word for this type of behavior is "self-pity." Self-pity is a form of pride.

"Pride? How can that be?" you may well ask.

Pride is the sin of unbelief in thinking that God knows what's best, that He is in charge accompanied by the belief that you can do better because, well, you're you and you ought to know what's best for yourself. Even in self-pity, we see this. You're feeling sorry for yourself. Things have not gone your way. You're desires have been stepped on or set aside by others and now you're angry. So, you sulk off to a corner, thinking, "Fine, let them have their way. They'll soon realize how right I was, how excellent my plan was, how cool it would have been to do what I wanted to do. And while they're waiting for that to happen, someone, anyone better come along and see how much I hurt because they didn't take my idea. They'd better come and sit with, flood me with their pity and sympathy, try to console me, because after all, I'm, well, me!"

It's not just children or teenagers who do this. I've seen and know adults who are masters at it. Some might call it "playing the martry", but if you see it for what it really is, it's just another form of the sin of pride. May God be gracious and grant repentance to me, er, uhm, I mean, "THEM" repentance for this sin.

Vacations & Blogging

I'm a week and a half back from vacation and I still can't seem to get the discipline of blogging regularly into my schedule. And then, there's Tim Challies, who ever while on vacation, just can't seem to give it a rest. I'd love to sit down with him and discuss not only how he does this so consistently, but why he does this so consistently, when true rest means setting aside some of the things you regularly do in order to ease your mind about other things. Very few might agree with that idea of rest, but I realized that even while traveling with Ann a few weeks ago and attempting to blog 1-2 times, I was not only cheating her of time, but myself as well.

But now I'm back and I've blogged one time. Time to get at it. I have a theme I'd like to try to follow tomorrow, deo volente, and we'll see how that goes.

Tags: worship, silence, noise, self-pity, pride, rest, blogging

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Back & Well Rested, but Still an Anachronism at Times

2006-08-15T10:59:00.000-05:00

Well, now that I'm back in my study and feeling well-rested from two weeks of vacation, I think I'm ready to get back to some consistent blogging. This is only the second time in over 20 years of ministry that I've taken two weeks together... and I'm finding it a great source of rest, refreshment and it helps me greatly be ready to re-enter my study and the ministry to which I'm called. God be praised for the rest He grants.

While we were away, we attended two different churches on two subsequent Sundays. I won't mention names or denominations, but I do want to make a couple of observations about them. Sunday #1 found us attending a church in a nearby community which we had never visited before (the church, that is). Upon arriving, we quickly found out the senior pastor would not be preaching for it was "Missionary Sunday." Disappointing, for I truly wanted to hear this man open the Word. I've known him for a while and was looking forward to this. Oh well.

The worship through music was a bit disappointing as well (perhaps my entire mood had fallen off from the start; a sinful tendency that still needs some self-mortification work done upon it). We (family) knew half the songs (all choruses, no hymns - mind you, I'm not opposed to choruses at all; I just like to see a good mix of both for it helps teach doctrine as well as the praise of God). The sanctuary had been transformed the day previous for their VBS kick-off that evening. In the middle of the entryway, was a cross-section of the bow of a ship. In front of this was pseudo-water, a beach/desert-island complete with palm tree to the ceiling. This forced the seating to be scrunched quite tightly and made entering/exiting quite cumbersome.

When the missionary was introduced, he spent the first five minutes talking about the joy of golfing with 1-2 of the men from the church... that very Lord's Day morning. This enabled them to complete the "mini-tournament" they'd begun on Saturday. After describing his ministry in another country, his wife came up. I thought she would also share some about her ministry there, but no, she opened the Word and began to preach. Later on, my two youngest kids would tell me that she wasn't preaching because she said she was only going to demonstrate how she taught among the women of said country. But trust me, she preached/teached (sorry, taught! Isn't English a screwy language!). The problem (besides flying in the face of 1 Timothy 2.11-15) was there was not point. Oh she tried to make a couple of points numerically, but they were not related directly to the text, but more to her experience of the text. Needless to say, upon leaving this worship service, I was really wondering where we could go to worship and hear the Word.

I don't blame the pastor of Church #1 on Sunday #1, except to say I would that he could have previewed the missionary's presentation style/form. If he had done this, I think he would have found out that the husband was simply the tech-savvy, hands-on kind of administrator-missionary and his wife, while appearing to submit to his God-given headship, was really the one who sought to preach & teach.

Sunday #2. Church #2. Another church I had desired to visit on a Sunday off because Pastor #2 was somewhat new there. I had met this man a few months prior, knew he would be coming to this church and looked forward to a time to hear him open God's Word.

This was a much better experience musically (we new 50% of the songs and the rest, while new in word, were familiar hymn-tunes). One of the songs was "Days of Elijah", a peppy little ditty of which I'm still trying to work out the theology. Not quite sure how it fits with Scripture and the Kingdom, but still a catchy tune.

Pastor #2 opened the Word and truly exposited a passage (Acts 13.1-5 to be precise). A couple from this church was being commissioned that Sunday to go to the Dominican Republic, so this was not only an appropriate text for that couple, but for the church. I believe the pastor, being new to this congregation, was doing what many do these days, upon arriving: preach several messages about the church, what it is and what it should be about. Good message and encouraging to hear the Word faithfully opened.

Quick word of summary: Church #1 made me wonder if I'm not an anachronism ... just in the wrong time zone. I don't want to appear to be a curmudgeon, but there are so many times upon seeing or hearing of churches similar to this one that I feel so out of touch. Not out of touch with the Word or God or anything; just out of touch with what they think worship is and how important and central the proper preaching of the Word is to be in the life of a church.

Church #2 on Sunday #2 helped tremendously to reassure me that churches that I might be a bit more skeptical of for other reasons, still have hope and foundation because the centrality of the Word appeared to be vital.

My prayer is this:

A MINISTER'S PREACHING

MY MASTER GOD,

I am desired to preach today, but go weak and needy to my task;

Yet I long that people might be edified with divine truth, that an honest testimony might be borne for thee;

Give me assistance in preaching and prayer, with heart uplifted for grace and unction.

Present to my view things pertinent to my subject, with fullness of matter and clarity of thought, proper expressions, fluency, fervency, a feeling sense of the things I preach, and grace to apply them to men's consciences.

Keep me conscious all the while of my defects, and let me not gloat in pride over my performance.

Help me to offer a testimony for thyself, and to leave sinners inexcusable in neglecting thy mercy.

Give me freedom to open the sorrows of thy people, and to set before them comforting considerations.

Attend with power the truth preached, and awaken the attention of my slothful audience.

May thy people be refreshed, melted, convicted, comforted, and help me to use the strongest arguments drawn from Christ's incarnation and sufferings, that men might be made holy.

I myself need thy support, comfort, strength, holiness, that I might be a pure channel of thy grace, and be able to do something for thee;

Give me then refreshment among thy people, and help me not to treat excellent matter in a defective way, or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a redeemer, or be harsh in treating of Christ's death, its design and end from lack of warmth and fervency.

And keep me in tune with thee as I do this work.
(from Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth Trust, page 191.)

Vacation... ah-h-h-h, sweet restful times

2006-08-02T17:02:00.000-05:00

Rest. We need it. God made us to have it and need it. He even set the example for us. It brings glory to God when we rest because we faithfully acknowledge that He is God and we are not; He never slumbers or sleeps, we do and need to.

Vacations for pastors are a great form of rest... if they don't spend their entire time running around the countryside, trying to placate culturally mandated expectations in our own family members and/or church members. This is not to say that a pastor & family cannot travel or should not travel. It's just my conviction that one of the week's of vacation ought not to involve such intensive travels that you return home more exhausted than when you left ("But it's a good form of tired" Wrong - it's called road-weary and it's just not good in the long run).

This week is my 25th wedding aniversary to Ann. Our youngest daughter is at Bible camp, our oldest came home to hang out with our middle son. Ann & I traveled... just a little ways to Park Rapids, MN. We didn't do much. We didn't go canoing or tubing on the river. We didn't go rock climbing (not sure where you'd go in that neck fo the woods) or para-sailing. We rode bikes for a bit over 10 miles one day. We took a scenic cruise on Lake Itasca one afternoon. We shopped in Dorset and in other shops north of Park Rapids. And we rested a lot. Ann and I love a good nap. Few things beat a good nap when you're tired, have a headache, irritable with the world or just need some peace & quiet.

That's it. Well, on the way home, we stopped in Plymouth MN. One of the people we clean house for gave us tickets to see "The Church Basement Ladies." We're going to see that tonight and share some good, restful laughter.

Just to get in some time with the whole family before college, school and football starts in mid-August, we'll travel to Des Moines, IA. It's only about a three-hour drive. While there, we'll take in the Living History Farms. I have a cousin who works there (knowing Leo, probably in the 1850s pioneer house or something), there will be an Old Time Baseball game and lots of other great things to see.

I'm also taking next week off. We're not traveling anywhere that week. But I have lots of small projects to do around the house, both indoors and out. So I'll do these, do some fun things with my kids, maybe take in a Rochester Honkers baseball game or go up to Minneapolis and see a Twins game.

There are some who think, "That's a vacation?" Others think, "Here, let me give you some great ideas on where to go and what to do?" or others still, "I could keep you busy for the whole week." Great. I'm sure you could. But I don't want that kind of busy-ness the whole week. Vacation is one of those few times in my life as a pastor where I get to do what I want to do... well, mostly (after the family pow-wows and ideas and voting on locations). And it's way more restful for the Sorensen family when we get to "take it easy" and not run raggedly all over the creation.

So, until next week, or maybe even a bit later, you take a good nap too.

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2006-07-24T13:28:00.000-05:00

More Thoughts on the Purpose Driven Movement in general

(and in specific cases, such as my parents church)

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!

Jeremiah 23.1 (ESV)

On our Wednesday evening times of Scripture and prayer (yes, we still do that at Cornerstone; I know, it's not seeker-friendly, purpose-driven, marketable or anything else for that matter... except dear to us few saints who gather for it and precious in the eyes of the Lord as we look to Him to feed us and hear us), we spent most of the summer weeks in Isaiah 66.2. Our meditations have focused on just one phrase from this verse:

But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.

And more pointedly, we've considered the final phrase for several weeks: "the one... who... trembles at my word." What does it mean to tremble at God's Word? Why should we tremble at His Word? It is necessary for a Christian to tremble at all before God? After all, doesn't He love us with an everlasting love? So, there should be no cause for trembling, right?

Well, not from what we can see in Scripture. In fact, the Christian, among all peoples, should tremble at God's Word more than any.

But that's not why I was blogging this time around. But it does have to do with why I open with the words from Jeremiah 23.1. These words cause me to tremble at God's Word. As a pastor/shepherd, I fear & tremble, lest I fail in my calling to honor my Lord in this great task of shepherding His flock. I fear I will fall short of His glory in proclaiming His Word to these dear, precious sheep who need to be fed this life-giving and life-sustaining word more than anything else. I fear that I will fall prey to the temptation to pursue man's methods of producing a church rather than trust in God's ordained means for living as a church. I fear and I tremble for myself.

But I also fear and tremble for others who have already failed, already fallen short, already succumbed to the pressure and allurement of growth and success and material prosperity and worldly acclaim and great numbers of worldly sinners lining the pews (oops, sorry, theater seats) of their churches. I fear and tremble that they have forsaken the gospel and the simple (read: "foolish") preaching of the cross for the more alluring wisdom of this world and it's desires and methods. I tremble when I think of what Jesus will say to them on that Day. I fear for the precious saints in these churches who fail to get fed the true meat of God's Word because the pablum of the world and the therapeutic notions of secular psychology are vomited forth from the mouths of those who would dare to call themselves preachers.

The words of God in Jeremiah 23 cry out to be heard:"Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: 'You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD.'" (ESV) These poor sheep who get forsaken, scattered (some even chased out of their congregations because they would dare to ask the preacher to preach from the Bible) will be the downfall of so many who have pursued this Purpose-Driven movement (and the other methodologies of the same ilk as Warrenism). And God says these so-called pastors will be attended to by God. All the while they think they'll hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant"; however, imagine their surprise when many of them will hear Him say, "You scattered my sheep and pursued wolves who barely even wore sheep's clothing. You chased after goats and they liked you and thought you were marvelous because you preached messages they liked and you entertained them. They came to you in droves. They padded the budgets of your churches so you could build bigger and greater kingdoms with your name all over them. Depart from Me, for I never knew you." How sad. How awful. How fearful; it makes me tremble.

But there is hope and promise here in Jeremiah 23: "Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD." (ESV) The sheep will be cared for, if by no one else, then at the least, by God Himself. He will not let any of His true sheep escape His care. And He will raise up true shepherds, who will offer true pastoral ministry, not the latest business management techniques. The sheep will have no need of fear or of dismay, for there will be true pastoral care and counsel offered, not the next best thing from the spiritually therapeutic pens of Dobson or Minrith-Meier or whoever else comes along next. And joy of all joys, not one of the sheep will ever go missing! Not a one. Oh, they'll be missing from the seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, positive-thinking, be-all-you-can-be-in-this-your-best-life churches. They'll be missing because they'll find the few true churches who actually preach the gospel and open God's Word and exposit it faithfully and powerfully because the Spirit of the Lord anoints the preaching of His Word.

This is written, not from some heart filled with braggadocio or pride, but from one that has been humbled by God's grace and mercy, by His fathomless love for me and by His merciful calling of me into the pastorate. It is my heart's prayer that God would keep me close to Himself through His Word; that He would not let me depart from it; that He would honor the preaching of His Word with power and working and transforming mercy. God may it be so!

Renew Your Church

Words: Kenneth L. Cober

Renew Your Church, her ministries restore, both to serve and adore.
Make her again as salt throughout the land, and as light from a stand.
'Mid somber shadows of the night, where greed and hatreds spread their blight, O send us forth with power endued, help us Lord, be renewed.

Teach us Your Word, reveal its truth divine, on our path let it shine.
Tell of Your works, Your mighty acts of grace, from each page show Your face. As you have loved us, sent Your Son, and our salvation now is won,
O, let our hearts with love be stirred, help us Lord, know Your Word.

Teach us to pray, for You are ever near, Your still voice let us hear.
Our souls are restless till they rest in You, this the goal we pursue.
Before Your presence keep us still that we may find for us Your will,
And seek Your guidance every day, teach us Lord, how to pray.

Teach us to love, with strength of heart and mind, each and all, humankind.
Break down old walls of prejudice and hate, leave us not to our fate.
As You have loved and given Your life to end hostility and strife,
O, share Your grace from heaven above, teach us Lord, how to love.

Very Random Thoughts

2006-07-11T15:25:00.000-05:00

This man

and his book

are destroying my parents church.

The pastor at my parents church has gone through the "church-in-a-box" at least twice, perhaps even a third time. He has very seldom preached an expositional message from any text; usually only a verse or a phrase. My parents have kept much of their grief and frustration to themselves. Dad went to the pastor a few times to express concerns about the lack of biblical preaching as opposed to topical preaching. That hit a blank wall (and, if their pastor was anything like a few others I know who use the same "church-in-a-box" approach and preach the same vacuous messages, then a blank stare accompanied the wall). Dad's expressed his concern at deacons meetings, all to no avail. He's now off the deacon board and other new men are on the board, who all pretty much say "Yes sir" to the pastor's semi-biblical whims. This church once had a pastor who gave sound, expositional preaching every Sunday. The church grew and thrived, but no longer. Since his departure the church has seen one devastating split and now is experiencing "great unity" (well, at least among the half of the church who are part of the "community"; as for those on the outside, well, "too bad, so sad").

In light of all this mess, I've ordered and begun to read this book

by this man.

I didn't have much interest in reading it prior to this. I agree with all DeWaay teaches on the Purpose Driven Life. I think it's really bad for the church and it will continue to lead churches into devastation, splits, and apostasy. But now I have good reason to read it. I once thought of ordering enough copies and sending them to this pastor and his deacon board, but that would be throwing pearls before swine, as it were. So far, it's been a great encouragement to me.

Next up... Repent!

I began a sermon series through the book of Luke (an expositional series... like you should ahve known!). After the John Baptist passage, I longed to do a short series on repentance. That would help us understand that John's message was no different than the rest of the OT before him and Jesus' message after him. Plus it would help us get ready to truly see the Christ of the Scriptures, not just the culturally-anointed Jesus put forth by so many today.

The first Sunday, I'm trusting that the response was truly of God's Spirit (I pray that my message on counterfeit repentance didn't produce any of the same sort!). Yes, I left several people hanging in regards to what real repentance is, but I trusted God to be sovereign and reign over their hearts, ministering comfort where needed and conviction where necessary. My prayer is, that over the next two Sundays remaining, the second-half of Genuine Repentance and What Repentance Looks Like Afterward will bring glory to God.

If God were to be so gracious to us as to begin a working of His Spirit to convict us of all our sins, seeing confession of those sins breaking out in homes and at church, repentance would become so real, that when we hear Jesus' first "sermon" proclaimed, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here." we'd all be falling to our knees, lives would be radically changed, sins forsaken, reconciliation brought about and God's glory shining out so brightly that it would be unparalleled in my life as a pastor. Oh, Lord, let it be so for Your glory's sake.

Last... for now. I'll try to remember to include a few entries over the next several weeks about "Why don't we... in our church?" or "Why do we do ... in our church?" These ramblings might include such things as: clap during songs or after songs; give the announcements right away instead of in the middle of the service; or, have a worship team; or, have women read Scripture.... Well, you can see the list can go on and on. So, if you're reading this blog and you begin to wonder what we do and why we do or don't do it at Cornerstone, let me know. Include something in the comment section or just email me.

Pastor's Treasure Hunt

2006-06-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

Why am I not surprised by stuff like this?

Oh, by the way, “Hi. I’m back.” Yeah, I know. It’s like been forever since I was here (back in February, I think). I took a break for several reasons: 1.) I was getting way too stressed out trying to come up with stuff every week or twice a week (I’m not sure who was expecting me to keep up to that level of blogging, but it was there in my head somehow); 2) all the good stuff gets blogged about by all the good bloggers. So what does that make me and my blog? Well, that’s up to you to decide.

Anyway, back on topic: Why am I not surprised when I hear that an Evangelical Free Church pastor and his family are competing on the television show, “Treasure Hunt”; and, that they’ve become the most despised group on the show by other contestants and viewers? First of all, I’ve never seen the show and don’t plan on watching it even now. Second, since I don’t watch, this topic came to my attention through my Christian Macintosh Users Group. As I warned all the people in that group: don’t judge pastors, other Christians and the EFCA by what you’re observing here. It seems that this family, the Fogals, have back-stabbed, cheated, lied and been caught on camera as saying, “It’s okay to fib a little; we’ll ask for forgiveness later.” The other contestants are now asking one another if they’ve been “fogal-ed” by the Fogal family.

Several questions arose in my mind when I heard about this:

First, what’s pastor doing applying to a TV-unreality show in the first place. Obviously, he doesn’t have enough to do in his own church. To which I would reply: you think you don’t have enough to do now, wait’ll you get back from the TV show. You’ll have an empty church waiting for you.

Secondly, where was the discernment of the leadership of the church when Pastor Fogal came with this request? Or did he even mention it? Perhaps he simply said, “I’m going to be taking about two months of vacation all at the same time, don’t ask where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing ‘cuz it’s none of your business as the elders of this church!” Apparently none of the elders are aware of 2 Timothy 2.4-7 (ESV): “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-woring farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” I could think of other passages, but this one pretty much does the trick.

Thirdly, will there be any kind of discipline exercised by the church leaders upon his return? Or will any be exercised by the EFCA district in which he serves? I doubt it, for a couple of reasons: if the elders of the church would let their pastor do something so distracting and removed from the gospel in the first place, they’ll hardly be biblically prepared to handle such a disciplinary measure; and, the EFCA is so loose in areas of discipline along these lines that there’s really not much they can do (at least that I’m aware of, and I’ve been a part of the EFCA all my life; as a pastor, for 20+ years). If the reformers were right, that church discipline is one of the key marks of a true church, what does this say about the church of this pastor?

Richard Baxter, in his classic, The Reformed Pastor, speaks to matters such as this for pastors (no, not whether they should be on TV programs or not! Whether the pastor is exercising the work of grace in his life or not.) I’ll not quote from the book other than to direct my good readers (all two of you) to Chapter 1, Section 1, The oversight of ourselves: the nature of this oversight: see that the work of grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls (are you even a Christian?) and see that you be not only in a state of grace, but that your graces are in vigorous and lively exercise, and, see that your example contradict not your doctrine; and see that you live not in those sins against which you preach in others (hard to see how this pastor will be able to come back and do much good preaching on the sins of lying, cheating and backstabbing).

I’ll not provide the church’s information/website where this pastor serves(-ed?). You can find that on the web with a simple google search. Over the past couple of days, their “Contact Us” link has either been too busy to work or just turned off for a period of time. Huh, imagine that.

Now my prayer is: Lord, prevent me form such foolishness. Keep me from sin in my own life. Allow the grace which you lavish upon me daily flood my soul by the working of Your Holy Spirit in such a way that only glory is brought to Your name through me and not shame.

2006-02-28T16:33:00.000-06:00

More on the Universalists

After just a bit of checking some of the sites mentioned in today's earlier post, I'm finding a bit more of what I expected.

The often frustrating part about stereotypes is that most people fit into the stereotypes they're trying to avoid. Such has been the case so far in my findings at www.tentmaker.org, one of the sites given to me so I could become convinced of the "clear teaching of a literal Bible that hell doesn't exist and that all will be saved." One of the testimonies provided is quite sad; it's heart-breaking in many ways. One of the ways it pulled at my heart was not because of "Kevin's" (I know, ironic isn't it?) life of sin and explorations with Christianity, but because there didn't seem to be a stable church presence in any of his testimony. From the UCC (which, despite his portrait of being hated by conservative evangelicals for their stance on gay marriage, has far more problems at the root of their apostasy than just gay marriage) to Pat Robertson's 700 Club and more.

But the testimony does nothing to substantiate the truth of universalism. It's existentialist clap-trap based upon one man's experience, rather than upon any exegesis of Scripture. But when you toss Scripture out the window, what are you left to base any rational, Christian thought upon, other than your own experience. And as I said earlier, if you're going to judge yourself by yourself, then you'll come off looking pretty good and hope for the best for all others as well.

I'll keep digging a bit more and seek to provide exegetical arguments for why hell does indeed exist (and no, it's not at the bottom of some earthly chasm in the heart of Russia), why not all will be saved, why there will be many cast into hell to suffer eternal conscious punishment.

2006-02-28T15:06:00.000-06:00

Where Do They Come From?

I received this email today; I don’t know how (cyberspace, yes, but I meant that it was unsolicited). This obviously isn’t the first time I’ve ever received unsolicited emails. However, I’m just not sure how this particular fellow got a hold of my name/address other than doing a vast search of the Internet. Here’s the body of the email:

To the church secretary. Please print off and give (or email) my testimony to your pastor, and also to your youth leader.
Thanks from Rodger Tutt!
MY TESTIMONY
The idea that God lets any creature suffer endlessly has caused me more suffering than all other problems of my life combined. By the time I had reached the mission field I had hoped to have found a satisfactory answer that would justify God allowing this to happen. I didn't find such an answer. Surrounded by thousands of people, dozens of whom were dying every day and beginning an eternity of suffering in hell was too much for me.

In 1966, at age 28, it caused me to have a nervous breakdown. For several weeks I was confined to my bed in a state of terror night and day. The terror was caused by the fear of what a God I could not love or respect would do to me after I died. It took me twelve years to fully recover from the breakdown. I quickly became agnostic, for the Christian gospel and the Bible were no longer any comfort to me at all. Many evangelical friends tried to help me. They meant well, but in the end they all had only words of condemnation towards me. This added more suffering to my already intense suffering.

Gradually I began to learn that there have been, in centuries past, and still are today, a few people in the world that see a different kind of God in the Bible. They see a God who will not let any creature suffer forever. They see a God in the Bible who will change every second of everyone's suffering into something better that it happened, including the sufferings of Satan. I learned that a correctly (literally) translated Bible teaches universal transformation, not endless suffering in hell, or even annihilation. I read dozens of books, and listened to hundreds of tapes by men who believe this way and I gradually became converted to believing this way myself.
Since 1981, through my newspaper ads and my telephone ministry, I have sent out many hundreds of packets of literature explaining why I believe as I do. I have also sent this evidence to hundreds of pastors and Bible school teachers. None of them have told me that they are able to refute it. I have also read eight books that were supposed to refute the evidence in favour of universalism, but none of them do. Because of this evidence, my panic attacks became less frequent until twelve years after my breakdown they ceased altogether. Now nothing gives me greater pleasure than to make this evidence available to others who have suffered because of the same problem I had, and I use a substantial amount of my money and time to this end.

Because of the enormous amount of suffering the idea of "endless hell" causes in this world, I am asking you to consider the possibility that you should stop endorsing the idea that the Bible teaches it. Or, at least, let others know that there are (and have been in centuries past) people who do not think the Bible teaches it.

Many of the responses from pastors and teachers range from a mild: "The majority don't agree with you so you must be wrong", to the vicious "For every week you leave your ad in the papers, God will increase the temperature of the fires of hell for you personally".

Most are somewhere in between these remarks. But none have told me they are able to refute the evidence. And, until they can, they will not be able to stop me from sharing the good news that a correctly (literally) translated Bible teaches universal transformation, not endless suffering in hell, or even annihilation.

My website is http://greater-emmanuel.org/Hope4You/
A website that answers all the arguments that seem to support the idea that the Bible teaches endless suffering in hell is http://www.what-the-hell-is-hell.com/

It is linked to the tentmaker site http://www.tentmaker.org/ where the “scholar’s corner” in the right hand column under “research” deals with every aspect of the subject. The search engine at the top of this same tentmaker page is very comprehensive regarding this subject.

May God's blessing rest with your spirit!

From Rodger Tutt in Toronto, Canada
“That God may be All in all” 1Cor.15:28

What I’m wondering first of all: Have any of you ever heard of this man? The teaching, well, this heresy has been around for centuries. In fact, man has been denying the full righteousness and justice of God ever since Cain. It’s our sin nature that wants us to figure out a way around God’s pronouncement of spiritual death and condemnation because of our Adam’s sin.

I sent a very short reply, simply stating I would pray 2 Timothy 2.24-26 for him and others he’s influenced away from the truth of the gospel: And the Lord’s servant* must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

I received an almost immediate response that listed several sites which could be used to refute the teaching of eternal conscious punishment, hell and God’s righteous condemnation of unbelieving sinners for eternity. I’ll need to do a bit of digging, thinking and considering if it’s even worthy of further response. In part, my heart & mind seem to say strongly “Avoid this altogether. After all, weren’t you going to pray 2 Timothy 2.24-26 for this man? And if so, then make sure you also pay attention to 2 Timothy 2.23 while you’re at it - “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.” Plus, I’ll most likely never be able to refute him to his face; it will definitely need to be God who may, if He wills it, grant him repentance of his folly and deception. I can only pray that this man may avoid the extreme weight of judgment that aweights him, if he does not repent and recant these false teachings, for he is leading many astray, to their doom.

More on this later. If any who read this blog have heard of this man or these sites listed, please contact me. Also, if you’ve ever heard of the Concordant Literal New Testament, please let me know this also. Funny how they claim this is the best, literal translation out there (why? it supports their views, of course) and yet, it hasn’t changed what Revelation 21.16 or 22.15 say about those who get cast into the lake of fire. Hmmm, funny how we can simply avoid or ignore those tricky passsages that tend to destroy the false teaching of man.

Tigger or Eeyore

2006-02-21T11:21:00.000-06:00

I have a tendancy to be a bit like Tigger at times: bouncy, flouncy, full of fun, fun, fun! Positive, upbeat, and loving to be around people.

Then there's yesterday and today: call it a case of the pastoral Monday blues carried over into Tuesday, I think. Sunday appeared to be a grand day for the Lord's sake. Solid teaching, uplifting worship, Christ-exalted preaching, spirited Bible study, good fellowship with God's people. But Monday morning rolled around, a cloud was hovering and a couple of emails seemed to allow that cloud to settle in much more and reading a couple of blog sites brought on the rain and dismal blues. And this morning, Tuesday, after doing further reading, especially related to the Granger Community Church billboard campaign, it is so difficult to have any hope at all for the church of Christ in this country.

Don't get me wrong. I firmly believe in the Church. I think my convictions regarding the church go way past most people I know, even many EFCA pastors. I am thoroughly convinced of the truth of Matthew 16.18, "...and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (ESV) Christ is the foundation of the church and, as His bride, He is preparing her for that grand celebration, the marriage supper of the Lamb.

However, that does not mean that there will be much of a remnant left in this land. The church is growing strong in other countries, but I see the deplorable condition she is in in the U.S. of A. and I can't help but think that our lampstand is about to be snuffed out. Thanks be unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ, even the most dire warning to the churches, that made to Laodicea, had a measure of hope left in it: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3. 19-20, ESV) May He find many yet who truly love Him and not simply the blessings that seem to come with successful marketing gimmicks, profitable gamesmanship, and earthly antics.

If there is any hope to be found for the true remnant of Christ's people in this land, it will come from those who see and prize the glory of God in the face of Christ with the eye of faith in this life now. Cherishing the glory of Christ only for what it offers in heaven and not loving it (and Him who shines forth this glory) with a white hot passion now bodes ill for one who professes to be a Christian. Do you want heaven because it will offer many things you've looked forward to all your life, but not for Christ? Then you'll most likely never see heaven unless you repent of your fleshly desires and seek Christ. Are you a pastor that holds forth a gospel that offers peace and joy and happiness in this life only? Do you preach a gospel message that seeks to make much of each person, how special they are, how worthy they are of God's love without preaching the reality of sin and depravity and hell and everlasting conscious punishment enough to evoke a true "fear of God"? Then the gospel is deprived of much of it's glory for you preach a shallow gospel, nearly devoid of God Himself.

We must learn to see Christ as all-glorious, both now and for our eternal futures. "He is none other than the Son of God made man. He who was in heaven, above all, Lord of all, lived in the world, having no earthly glory or reputation, obliged to obey the whole law of God perfectly. he, to whom all the angels of heaven and all creatures worshipped, fulfilled all the duties which the worship of God required. he who was Lord and master of the house became the lowliest servant in the house, performing all menial duties. He that made all men in whose hand they are all as clay is in the hand of the potter, observed among them the strictest rules of justice, in ginving to everyone his due, and out of love giving good things to the undeserving. This is what makes ... Christ so ... glorious." (from The Treasures of John Own for Today's Readers: The Glory of Christ, abridged and made easy to read by R.J.K. Law, Banner of Truth Trust, page 59.)

Glory to His Name!

2006-02-14T11:05:00.000-06:00

Valentine’s Day & Loving Christ
Not Necessarily (and even most highly unlikely) the Same Kind of Love

I detect a theme!

I’ve already gone on record that I’m a curmudgeon; at least when it comes to just about any holiday that not simply supported by, but clearly driven by Hallmark and the nations jewelry industry. An example: Kay Jewelers’ latest TV commercial has a young couple sitting in a restaurant, being observed by an older (middle-aged) couple. The older of the two men comments on the younger’s rookie attempts to impress his date on Valentine’s Day, but quickly withdraws his critique when he sees the young man hand his girl a box from Kay’s with diamonds in it (earrings, I think). To which, the elder wife says, “We were like that once..” and her husband says, “We still are” and he’s getting ready to pull a Kay’s jewelry box out from under the table. Thank you, Kay’s! I don’t stand a chance now.

Another example: The girls over at girltalk are heaping the burning coals of guilt and inadequacy and they’ve been doing it for several days (let me quickly say, I subscribe to their news feed and appreciate much of what they have to say, especially when it’s coming form one of their husbands). There have been a few suggestions for us Valentinian-challenged males to try to emulate and romance our wives, sweeping them off their feet and truly putting “love” back into our relationships because it was clearly missing/lacking/absent,decaying/dead&buried prior to this special holiday. My grief over many of the suggestions comes because of the outrageous cost (I’m a small church pastor with a working wife and also do part-time work as well) involved, all for the simple sake of letting your wife know you love her. Well, ladies, I can’t brag. I can’t boast. I will not call myself a romantic. I did get my wife exactly what she wanted (she asked for it) and she’s very content about it (either that, or she’s got me buffaloed like crazy): I got her a dozen hot-pink roses for under $25. There in a vase on the table and she loves them. I’m letting her fix a marvelous dinner tonight (I wanted to take the family out, but she loves to cook these special kind of meals). The menu includes a new recipe for shrimp scampi and a mocha almond cheesecake, specialty coffee (I’m buying that today, and no, Ann won’t find out because she barely knows how to turn the computer on let alone get to this blog!) and our children! So there. (And just so everyone doesn’t think I’m hopeless: last year I hid about 100 heart-shaped post-it notes with I Love You written on them in all the most remote spots in our house. Some where in boxes that she would only open 1-2x a year; some were in the coffee jar; others were in cracker boxes. You name it, they were there and she was finding them throughout the year. So there, once again).

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let me get to the rest of what I wanted to post today:

There’s a theme running around out there in the blogosphere. I don’t think it’s intentional, but it is wonderful.

Betsy Childs, at Slice of Infinity, posted something delightful today: “To Be Where He Is” Here’s a snippet:

But when the Scriptures speak of the desirability of eternity, they do not emphasize the fact that we will be able to eat whatever we want or that we will be able to buy whatever we want. They tell us that eternity will be good because we will be in the presence of God.

Take the promise from the book of Revelation that one day a voice from the throne will announce, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God" (Revelation 21:3). When Jesus talked about heaven, he said, "I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am"(John 14:2-3). You see, the "prize" is not a heavenly mansion or a crown, but getting to be with the one who loves us.

Yes, and Amen to that!

Then, Jim at OldTruth, posted a message from Thomas Vincent, a Puritan (had to be a Puritan; you’d never hear this from Saddleback or Willowcreek or from Hallmark or ..., well, you get my point). Title? How Much Do You Love Christ? Oh, how my heart was stung by my lack of love for my Savior. How my heart did burn, though at His love for me and the glory that radiates from Him as the Son of God, the Savior & Deliverer of sinners. You simply must read the whole thing, then break forth in prayers of praise and confession. The words from Jerome ring clear:

"If my father were weeping on his knees before me, my mother hanging on my neck behind me, my brethren, sisters, and kinsfolk - howling on every side to retain me in a sinful course, I would fling my mother to the ground, run over my father, despise all of my kindred and tread them under my feet, that I might run unto Christ"

I’ve also been reading from Piper’s “God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself” He wastes no time getting right to the point in the Introduction (page 15 to be exact):

The critical question for our generation - and for every generation - is this: if you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the good you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

Do I believe this? Do I teach this way? Do I preach this way? I trust that it is so and that I be found faithful of preaching the Gospel which is Christ and God Himself. I’m currently going through a 12-part series based on John Owen’s “The Glory of Christ.” Owen contends that beholding the glory of Christ is one of the greatest privileges that believers are capable of in this world, or even in that which is to come. He then lays this out with such clarity and such conviction that I’ve take as my guiding proposition for this entire series: Only those who gaze on Christ by faith while in this world will ever see His glory by sight in the world to come.

My prayer is that I see the glory of Christ and love it as much as I am possibly able to do in this life. And that I am granted by God to proclaim this Christ and His glory with every ounce of my being, at all times, but especially when in the pulpit before the largest crowd I get the privilege of addressing each week: the flock at Cornerstone EFC in Rochester. And (my grade school grammar teacher would have fits with all the “ands” but she’s not here to critique this is she!)... and, my hope-filled prayer is that each one of them falls so passionately in love with the glory of God in the face of Christ that our little world right here is changed. Make it so, Lord Jesus, make it so.

2006-02-13T11:26:00.000-06:00

Sunny days on Mondays really get me...

... up for the day! When you live in Minnesota, you really need to learn to just live with the weather. Knock off all the complainin' about the weather. It makes no difference. It's Minnesota. It's February. It's going to be cold (most of the time). We're quite likely to have snow ("Oh, I thought winter was over" comment overheard at a gas station on Feb. 3 while it was trying hard to snow, but couldn't even generate an inch of the white fluffy stuff). And when the sun does shine, bask in it; not outside on your lawn chair (that's under snow!), but sit in your favorite chair right in front of a south window and let the warmth put you to sleep. Ah-h-h-h!

Now that I'm up from my morning nap, sitting in the sun, let's get on with some Monday Morning ramblin's:

Marc at purgatorio got me laughing so hard I had to set my coffee down for fear of spilling or shooting it out my nose! How up-to-the-minute is this conneciton with the weekend doin's done in Texas with our VP? Great job, Marc. And by the way, Marc, it’s never fair to put a picture of Benny Hinn up next to anyone with a receding hairline. That’s actually why I’ve never become a tele-evangelist. Not a matter of calling, but of hair. Besides, who could afford the hair-spray bills. Yikes!

I’ve greatly appreciated Dan Philips post on TeamPyro about the Proverbs. Cornerstone is currently using a DesiringGod Curriculum study - The Way of the Wise: a Study on Wisdom and Foolishness. His posts on how to interpret Proverbs is proving quite helpful for me, as the teacher of our Adult Bible Class.

For those of you who have commented on some of the appearance difficulties at Random Thoughts, I did some checking this morning to see what might be the problem and what, if anything, can be done to rectify this situation. I used several browsers first off because just about everyone who spoke with me is using a different browser. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer brings up my site, but with a much different font than posted and much smaller than what I posted. What can I say: it’s a Microsoft product (yeah, I know, spoken like a true Mac-Addict diehard; no apologies offered!).

Then I tried Netscape and it’s opensource sister, Mozilla. Netscape brought up the site, but also used a much different font and size. It was also, as usual for Netscape, amazingly slow! Mozilla brought up the most recent posts images, but you couldn’t see text.. I selected all of what should have been on the post for last Saturday, copied & pasted into MS Word and what should I see, but all the text! I tried to edit the post’s HTML, changing font color & size to see how this would work. Absolutely nothing! It wouldn’t allow the site to view the text (and yes, i hit refresh several times during this process to clear the cache). So, again, my recommendation: use Netscape if you must and if you have a really fast connection (dial-up with this is murder).

Firefox, another open-source browser that I kinda like on my Mac at times brought up the site okay, and when I went to log-in to Blogger.com and edit the post it allowed that also. Is there a version of this for Windoze machines? Might be; if so, get it. Anything is better than a M$ product.

Camino, a Mac-based browser wouldn’t allow the text to be seen either, just like Mozilla (surprise, since I think there’s some of the Mozilla code in Camino). Blogger’s help site talked about some of the various browser’s abilities and compatibility with Blogger.

Finally, Safari, which is the standard Apple browser brought up the site in quite timely fashion, images & text could be seen, but when I go to edit any portion of a post, much of the Edit Posts page is missing buttons & links (especially for HTML editing).

All this is to say: I’m working on it, everyone. Please be patient with me. I want this site to be fun for me and helpful/edifying for you who come here to check it out.

2006-02-11T07:11:00.000-06:00

A little about a lot of things...

Well, okay, this may turn out to only be a few things, but after the “mega-blogging” of last week, it was nice to hold to my commitment of earlier in the year: 2-3 entries a week. I’d like not to become consumed by this blog. I’ve watched a few others, far more prolific than I ever hope to be, need to scale back dramatically, then moderation is the key. So here goes:

Phil Johnson talked about John MacArthur’s arrest record from some years back. This was such a clear reminder of things heard at last week’s Bethlehem Conference for Pastors: How a Pastor Must Die - The Price of Caring Like Christ. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,”
(Col. 1.24, ESV)

My sister is facing a bit of trouble where she works. Seems her supervisor wants the women to wear Mardi Gras beads during the Mardi Gras season. The work place is a restaurant, so seasonal themes are probably a big deal (menus, food items, apparel). Her convictions have led her (and two other female employees) to protest this. The beads represent an activity quite reprehensible, degrading to women and the idea of Mardi Gras is quite sad for one who has been saved by grace. Why celebrate decadence, works of the law and the flesh, flaunt the grace of God and abuse it? I pray she suffers no ill effects from this stand; so far she’s standing strong and others support her.

More curmudgeon sitings in my life: Valentine’s Day is coming up. The vast conspiracy by those evil minions of Hallmark put such a bast amount of stress upon men that’s it’s nearly impossible to do it “right”. And I think their almost single-handedly responsible for the high volume of marriage counselors! The conflicts that face me for about two weeks prior are a major distraction. Don’t get me wrong; I love my wife tremendously and she loves me. Just this morning (at 5.57 am) she sat on my lap for a cuddle session before the day began, the children were awake and the cat started being naughty (com’on; he’s a cat, it’s just his nature as a personification - or is that animal-ification - of evil). And I appreciate C.J. Mahaney & his ministry, as well as that of his wife (and daughters/daughters-in-law), but I have yet to find any of their ideas helpful for “pulling off” the truly romantic Valentine’s Day Special. It’s hopeless and I probably am as well!

On the third Sunday evening of each month we have a Qu.A.K.E. at Cornerstone (Questions & Answers with Kevin & the Elders - okay, please hold off on all the comments regarding the corny acronym). Next Sunday we’ll be answering some questions that have come in regarding predestination (stirred up by comments in a recent sermon), the fear of God (do we as Christians need to be concerned about fearing God in the same way OT saints/prophets seemed to) and perhaps a few others as they come in. Any insights on either of these two? No seminary lectures here, just about 25-30 minutes on the two topics.

Derek, at reformation21, has a good thought/question on harmonization. I thought he was going to deal with worship, singing from words projected on a wall screen and how we’re raising a generation who will never know the beauty of singing 2-, 3- or even 4-part harmony during a worship service. Come to find out, he’s talking gospel harmonization with the account in Mark 14 & an ear getting cut off. Hey, Derek, wouldn’t the loss of an ear make it harder to harmonize?

Well, turns out to be more than I thought or planned (I don’t plan these entries very often; after all, it is the random wanderings through my mind).

Calvinist Curmudgeon

2006-02-08T21:50:00.000-06:00

Am I a Calvinist Curmudgeon?

I know that Alan is the proclaimed “Calvinist Gadfly” (now multi-authored by other gadflies). I personally don’t find him/them irritating at all; I rather enjoy their pieces.

But I’ve been wondering lately, if I’m not becoming a Calvinistic Curmudgeon (maybe I’ll need to change the name of my blog). Here’s what a curmudgeon is:

Noun
curmudgeon
1 An ill-tempered (and frequently old) person full of stubborn ideas or opinions.
There's an old curmudgeon living next door who knocks every time he hears any noise

Here’s an example: Saturday evening Ann & I were invited to a dinner at a downtown hotel, featuring a “clean” comedian (they’re afraid to use the moniker “Christian” because that doesn’t get them gigs... there, see what I mean?). This event was sponsored by a local church and that’s all I knew with the invitation.

Now first, let me say, as a pastor, I’m not wild about Saturday evening events. I need a good night’s sleep in order to be ready for the Lord’s Day. And I want my congregation to not have to come dragging themselves in on Sunday mornings because some church-related event kept them out late the night before. So, strike one.

Our youngest daughter, Elizabeth, came down with a severe case of strep throat early Saturday morning; cancel Ann’s plans for the day and evening. She told me to just go on my own, I’d be with friends, I could have a good dinner and a laugh or two. So, off I trek, all alone, a single guy... who shows up at this other church’s sponsored “Sweetheart’s Banquet”! A guy, all alone, at a Sweetheart’s Banquet! Talk about your sore thumbs, ingrown toenails, festering boil on the bottom... well, you get the picture. I can’t tell you how awkward I felt, but if it hadn’t have been these friends waiting for my arrival, I would have immediately turned around and walked out. I really dislike these kinds of things when sponsored by Christians/churches. I have yet to attend one where they don’t mock the marital relationship as it should be in Scripture by some silly little skit (they did this Saturday night). They promote their separate men’s and women’s ministry functions (about 12 of them for the men in this church and at least that many for the women, none of them ever together). And they’ll have a speaker who does one of two things:

1) give a stirring, motivating message that has barely any connection to anything in Scripture (well, okay, they’ll read Ephesians 5 just to get things started), with glowing illustrations of how wonderful their marriage has become by following the 12 step program they just come through, or disastrous examples of couples who failed to follow their 23 steps to a successful marriage, and generally make you feel like you and your wife are schleps because you’re not in their program;

2) or have very little to say about marriage and real, biblical love, but they’re well-known throughout the broader Christian community and they’d sure be a good drawing card, so let’s invite him/her and let them talk about anything they’d like to discuss.

Strike two.

The featured guest for the evening was a “clean” comedian (see above comments for the curmudgeon report). He did have some funny bits. There were several times I laughed out loud. There were also some very uncomfortable moments (Jesus is only going to meet His people in the air when He returns because we treated Him so badly the last time He actually came all the way down to earth; this got many laughs from the audience, but a pastoral friend sitting next to me looked mighty uncomfortable and I know I wasn’t laughing). This put my mind into “curmudgeon” mode even more. I wondered, “Why am I here on a Saturday evening when I could be reviewing my teaching note, my sermon notes, getting myself better prepared for the Lord’s Day to come? And why are all these people here doing the same thing, when they too could have been better prepared for better relationships/marriages by better preparing for the Lord’s Day?” Harumph. Harumph. Hey, I didn’t get a “harumph” outta you!

Strike three.

I’d like to say that this was an isolated incident that sparked the curmudgeon in me, but it wasn’t. But since my return from the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors last week, it seems this curmudgeon wants to operate more and more in me: at least the part of me that says, “Why are you all laughing and taking Christ so lightly, when He’s just asked you to be like a kernel of wheat, falling & dying in the ground in order for a harvest to be produced?” Am I becoming a curmudgeon? Am I a person with stubborn opinions? If a “stubborn opinion” is that Christ has called me to take up my cross and follow Him, even laying down my life for His sake, then yeah, I guess that might be considered a “stubborn opinion” and therefore, a curmudgeon.

For now, this will be my prayer (taken from “The Pastor in Prayer: A collection of the Sunday Morning Prayers of C.H. Spurgeon, Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA, 1893/2004, pg. 118-119):

Our Father, blessed be Thy name for ever and ever. Oh, that we praised Thee more! We must confess we never bless Thee as we ought, and our life is far too full of murmuring, or at the best too full of self-seeking, for even in prayer we may do this; and there is too little of lauding, and adoring, and praising, and magnifying, and singing the high praises of Jehovah.

O God, wilt Thou teach us to begin the music of heaven! Grant us grace to have many rehearsals of the eternal Hallelujah. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.” Grant us grace that we may not bring Thee blessings merely because Thou dost feed us, and clothe us, and because we receive so many mercies at Thy hand; but may we learn to praise Thee even when Thou dost put us under the rod, and when the heart is heavy, and when mercies seem but scant. Oh, that when the flocks are cut off from the stall, and there is no harvest, we may nevertheless rejoice in God.

O Lord, teach us this very morning the art of praise. Let our soul take fire, and like a censer full of frankincense, may our whole nature send forth a delicious perfume of praiseful gratitude unto the ever blessed One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Comment Replies and Worship Music

2006-02-04T07:41:00.000-06:00

I received a comment on a blog entry from January. In that entry, I'd mentioned a chorus sung at a church I visited. The chorus: Jesus, Be the Center (I hope that was the clear title) left me quite a bit foggy in the head about what it was trying to say. A anonymous commenter thought I needed to "open up my theological boundaries" a bit since it was clear to him or her that "you are the wind in my sails" was pointing to God empowering everything I do.

Well, that was the problem... it wasn't clear. When Bette Midler sings, "You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings" I think I get it, but not being a student of poetry, I have to work a bit harder at these things. Plus, in this kind of secular pop song, if I miss the intended meaning, so what? But if I'm worshiping my Creator, I'm convinced from Scripture that not just any old thing will do.

I have three main criteria I use in choosing hymns, choruses and songs at our church:

1. Direct Scriptural quotations: always the best; can't go wrong using God's Word directly.

Example: I've begun introducing Psalm singing to our church. Using the Trinity Psalter, we'll sing directly the words of Scripture. Other examples might include, "The Lord Is My Shepherd" from Psalm 23; Greater Is He That Is In Me from 1 JOhn 4.4; 1 Peter 5.8 and Acts 2.2; or, "Worthy is the Lamb, directly from Revelation 5.12.

2. Strong Scriptural allusions: not a direct quote, but the reference is so strong, if you're familiar with Scripture, you know where the thought is from

Example: In the Christmas hymn, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" there are strong allusions, pointing us right to Scripture without directly quoting from Scripture: "glory to the newborn kind (Luke 2.14); "late in time" (Galatians 4.4, the fullness of time); "offspring of a virgin's womb" (Isaiah 7.14; Matthew 1.23)

Bad example: using the same genre, Christmas hymns, here's a bad example - "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear". Beautiful phrases, heart-warming story, but no clear allusions to Scripture. Some will take exception to this, but I think it's because this is a Christmas song that we'll work even harder to make the connections that really aren't there without all this hard work.

3. Scriptural formulations: doctrinal expressions, or personal experiences based upon Scripture, not simply personal warm fuzzy feelings.

Example: "Rock of Ages", "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"

Bad example: "In the Garden" which seems to be a tremendous evangelical favorite, but is so sappy, syrupy sweet with no quotation or allusion that I marvel at it's popularity, except we're driven far too much by our experiences and not by God's Word. I only allow this song to be sung at the request of a family for a funeral.

Here are just a few other examples from each category:

Scripture Quotations: "Seek Ye First" (Matt. 6.33; 7.7; Deut. 8.3b); "Behold, What Manner of Love" (John 15.15); "The Cares Chorus" (1 Peter 5.7); and "Create In Me a Clean Heart" (Psalm 51.10-11).

Scriptural Allusions: "His Name is Wonderful"; "Jesus, Name Above All Names"; bad examples - "Cause Me to Come" and "Isn't He?"

Scriptural Formulations: good examples - "Lord, I Life Your Name on High" and "Thou, O Lord, Art Exalted"; bad examples - "Spirit Song" and "Praise You, Father"

I won't get into the music end of this matter; my one driving criterium there is that it be singable (okay, perhaps also that you find yourself singing it later or humming it to yourself later and knowing how to put most of the words to it; there are becoming way too many choruses that are simply unsingable by a congregation and that, I fear, is part of the cost of our churches losing their hymnody).

I don't know if this will stir things up; that's not my intent. I simply wanted to reply to one brother's/sister's comments.

2006-02-02T05:41:00.000-06:00

The three days of living dangerously...
(the following is presented with tongue greatly in cheek)

These are dangerous men.
Ajith Fernando is a dangerous man. Anyone who will stand before you with the Word of God open, keep his finger in the text and faithfully expound that Word is dangerous. Anyone who will stand there and tell you to “rejoice in suffering”, to be “sorrowful, yet rejoicing”, to “count it all joy when you meet trials fo various kinds” is dangerous. If some one came up to me and told me, from the Scriptures, that church growth, as it is described so clearly in the book of Acts, came about as the result of suffering and persecution, I’d look upon them as a dangerous man. And then, to have the courage to tell me, as a pastor, how I must die in order to care like Christ... well, that’s dangerous stuff.

Michael Campbell is a dangerous man. Avoid him if you want a comfortable life, free from trials and hardships. Stay away from him if you long for quiet nights in your family room in front of the TV. Because if you don’t avoid him, you’ll strat getting wild notions of becoming black when with blacks and becoming hispanic when with hispanics and becoming asian when with asians. You get crazy ideas like becoming weak when with the weak. All for the sake of winning some to Christ. How dangerous an idea is that? I mean really, who ever wanted to become weak. That’s just silly. Everyone knows if you’re an American, that you’re strong and rich and powerful and self-sufficient and don’t need anybody. Becoming like these kind of people just flies in the face of all the wonderful advice we get from people like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels and C. Peter Wagner and other well-educated experts on how to grow a church. You’re supposed to find all these people around you who are just like you and invite them to your church. You’re supposed to make your church just like them so they’ll like it and be happy there and bring their friends who look just like them. Come on, be real. You can’t grow a church by being multi-ethnic. Whoever heard of such nonsense. Besides, the blessings of the gospel (1 Cor. 9.23) are being healthy, wealthy, and prosperous aren’t they? Suffering, hardship, loss of prestige, churches of less than 1,000, or 500 or 100 can’t be biblical ideas, can they? This Michael Campbell is a dangerous man.

David Sitton... well he’s not just dnagerous: he’s a fool. Anyone who would buy a one-way ticket to Papua New Guinea to do missionary work without any training is just flat out dangerous and foolish. You’re to have years of training, cultural indoctrination, language development. You need to have the proper theological development before you go to these ignorant people groups. That way, they’ll really appreciate your efforts to come all the way over to their land for three weeks during a summer trip in order to help them build a hut or a driveway. This is what shows Christ to the world, is it not? Sitton’s ideas, though, well, as I’ve been saying: they’re just crazy. Walking into a village, without knowing the language, sitting around a fire and listening, picking up words and then sharing the Gospel with those words can’t possibly work. And about this buying one way tickets; who ever heard of that. Okay, so he mentioned the Fijian missionaries who went to New Guinea with coffins they had built for themselves, knowing that in all likelihood they would never return, which, while being true is still crazy, foolish and dangerous. And as for standing before a cannibalistic tribe of people who are calling up spirits and demons from the spirit world to help them, confronting and rebuking them in the name of Jesus Christ; there’s only one word for that - dangerous. I need to talk to those who sponsored this conference because it was a dangerous thing for them to invite this man to speak. He actually had the audacity to challenge the nearly 1,400 pastors there to considering laying down their life for the cause of taking the Gospel to people in this world who have never actually heard the Gospel. He and his supporters have been praying since last August for this conference, that God would raise up a tithe of the attenders (let’s see, math is not my strong suit, but I think that comes out to around 140) to lay down their cushy, comfortable pastorates and go to New Guinea or Mexico. That’s silly. That’s crazy. He’s a dangerous man. You’d better avoid him.

And nobody needs to tell me that John Piper’s dangerous. Any man who will, for years, tell you that if you desire to live a godly life that you’d better be prepared to suffer for it is dangerous. Any one who will tell you stories about great saints from history that God has raised up only to see them get killed because they wanted to translate the Bible is dangerous in my book. William Tyndale must have been some wild-eyed fanatic. He could have lived out his days in ease and comfort, reading his Greek NT and his Hebrew OT and just telling people what it said instead of being forced to leave his home and native soil for the last 12 years of his life. There was simply no need for him to travel all over Europe, fleeing those who would arrest him because he wanted some poor ploughboy to have an English Bible. You can travel Europe without all that stress. Besides, it’s really not worth it to come to the realization from reading that Heberw & Greek Bible that we are made just and right in God’s eyes by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. That doctrinal stuff just divides; Christ unites! Words. It seems it’s all about words. That’s old fashioned stuff and this next generation emerging around us is so visual. We ought to be laying down our lives for videos and movies and video games about God and about loving one another and having good conversations over Starbucks and Samuel Adams. ‘Cause if you start clinging to doctrinal ideas like they actually mean something, you’re gonna live on the dangerous side of life. People will mock you. They’ll oppose you. They’ll call you narrow and exclusionary. And they’ll point out men like William Tyndale (who I’m sure they will know had something to do with Tyndale publishing house, like maybe the former CEO or something like that) who was just foolish for clinging to ideas like that. He could have lived a long life and pastored his church so much longer and had a purpose-driven ministry fulfilling his five main purposes in life without all that secrecy and suffering and hardship. And growing a successful church won’t cost you your life! It might cost you 40 days out of your year, but it couldn’t possibly cost you your life.
So let’s avoid these dangerous men. You start hanging around them and your life will be changed and never be the same. You’ll get the same notions in your mind and heart that God is calling you to actually suffer for His sake and the sake of His gospel and the sake of His church. You’ll get strange thoughts running through your head at night like, “Lord, are you possibly thinking that I should leave 20 years of ministry as a pastor just to consider going to some hot, humid, backwater country like New Guinea; to travel by foot for miles and miles to search out a group of people that there are only rumors of actually existing, who have never heard of God or Christ or salvation by grace alone; Lord, are you really making me think that? And while I’m at it, if you’re not calling me to that, then I know you can’t be calling me to consider how the church I pastor can start reaching out to people who are different than us, like Somalians or Hispanics or Bosnians, even though they live all around the area closest to our church. Good, I was hoping not. Now I can get back to sleep. Don’t let me have any more of those dangerous dreams like that.”
So, stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay warm.

Missionary Martyrs: Fools for Jesus... for the nations

2006-02-01T12:49:00.000-06:00

Missionary Martyrs: Fools for Jesus... for the nations

David Sitton, Every Tribe Missions

Missionary Martyrs: Fools for Jesus... for the nations.

Malachi 1.11 - For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. (ESV)

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life simply talking about the past history of God's people who have given their lives for Christ's sake. I want to live in the now. What about you?"

David Sitton closed his message with this question. He wasn't denigrating history; not at all. In fact, he cited a good deal of it regarding missions, the furtherance of the gospel and the death of God's people who took that gospel to lost and dying nations. But he challenged us from God's Word to think hard, pray hard, search the Scriptures hard and see if God would be willing to grant that perhaps up to 140 (a tithe of the conferees) would give their very lives for the sake of God's glory and the gospel in going to the unreached nations.

At first, I wasn't sure I would be able to see to enter this blog just moments following this session, my eyes were filled with tears; tears of sorrow for my sin, tears of weeping for the lost nations yet unreached; tears that I have lived for self and comfort and ease in this life. We'll see what God will do in the days, weeks, months to come in me, in the many He will raise up.

Sitton spring-boarded off Malachi 1.11 to get us into God's Word to see the glory of God in the martyrdom - the blood witnessing of HIs people. In the words of one man he cited, "They may kill us, but Jesus is worth it!" The Fijians in 1871, after seeing the outpouring of God's grace & Spirit upon them, loaded up their canoes and headed for New Guinea to take the gospel to the cannibalistic people there. They didn't take suitcases; they packed in coffins which they built themselves. They fully expected to die; they fully expected not to return. And it came true; wave after wave of them, 'til God, in His free and sovereign grace poured out His Spirit and lives were converted to Christ.

"...My name will be great among the nations..." Not might be, but will be. God is not in heaven wringing His hands, just hoping beyond hope that somehow the nations would get reached. He is the Lord and He reigns over the nations and they will praise His name. Martrydom is not a setback to this global cause of missions. Rather, it's an incentive for more missions. Jesus calls us (Sitton cited passage after passage after passage). Paul's experience lent itself to this incentive (again, passage after passage). Martyrdom is a divine strategy intentionally employed by God to advance the fame of His name to every tribe and people and nation and language. Suffering will be one of the key means used to bring more into the kingdom. Christ's cross did it (redemption accomplished); our crosses will prove that that Cross carries the power of salvation.

One practical question posed to us: Why is this so hard for Americans? it may be hard for any human... who wants to die? But especially for us American Christians? Sitton's response: we've been seduced by our culture that God's will for us is to be healthy, wealthy, safe and live a long life serving ourselves and those closest to us. But that's not God's call. We don't have to die in the cause for world missions; we get to! That's the difference.

So what about me? And what about you? Much to dwell on in the drive home this afternoon.

The Q & A time with each man was quite helpful in many respects, but it would be impossible for me to have taken adequate notes on all that was said since it covered so much territory rather than zeroing in on a specific theme. Sorry, but I’ll have the CDs when they come out. Ask about borrowing!

Ajith's Final Session

2006-02-01T01:51:00.000-06:00

It's been a long day and I'm sure my mind wasn't as sharp of this evening's session as it could have been. Yet, Ajith was sharp and clear and the Spirit used him to speak to me, and I trust He worked in others' hearts as well. Dr. Fernando completed his 3-part series on "How Must a Pastor Die?" and here are just a few highlights:

1. Colossians 1.24-29 has given us three keys to knowing how we must die as a pastor, as well as why we must die:
1) rejoicing & suffering go hand in hand; the more we experience both, the more like Christ we become
2) we are called to suffering on behalf of the church, i.e., the church will be blessed by our suffering
3) from v. 25a, as a pastor, I am called to be a minister, a diakonos, a deacon, a lowly term of usage

2. Problem today - there's been a lop-sided teaching on the spiritual gifts so that people "can't" serve anymore because it simply isn't their gift. We have over-specialized which produces a great deal of frustration in just about all involved in a church. Instead, we need generalizers: those who are involved in many areas and have just a little time to dedicate to using their gifts.

3. Our day has great difficulty with this idea of serving, especially where it involves humility. We live in a culture of celebrities who don't like to serve; it takes them out of the spotlight. But, according to the Scriptures, we are servants. And servants must die to self.

4. This calling is a stewardship from God. And is there any higher calling than to that of being a minister/servant of the glorious gospel? No, we are ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5.20).

5. Our task is to make the Word of God fully known; the whole counsel of God is to be proclaimed. In declaring the whole counsel, we'll proclaim many things which our culture has deemed beneath it. They are too sophisticated for such things as judgment and hell. But our culture (and Christians who have absorbed it into themselves) hangs this judgment upon Christ as well. "Oh Jesus, you and all that talk about hell. You know that's not a reality; let's talk about some other things that will be much more positive, more helpful and boost our self-esteem." But this is like having a special device that would tell you ahead of time when a tsunami is coming but failing to tell anyone about it. It's foolishness! How dare we ever think we're too sophisticated to talk about hell. This is like criminal negligence. We need from Bible-teaching, not less in our day and age because people are so ignorant of the Scriptures.

6. Never lose your wonder over the gospel. It's like a romance: sweeter than honey to my lips. The thrill of contemplating the calling to proclaim the gospel should never grow old in our hearing.

Ajith concluded with many illustrations for practical application.

One final session in the morning, then the Q & A and then... head for home!

Bethlehem Conference for Pastors Update #2

2006-01-31T16:23:00.000-06:00

Bethlehem Conference for Pastors Update #2

Michael Campbell—Sacrificing Self: the Multi-Ethnic Church and the Mandate of the Gospel

We need to think about the church the way God thinks about the church
• this means for pastors to give of self toward the goal of a multi-ethnic church

1 Corinthians 9.19-23: all for the sake of the gospel

Campbell is the pastor of a “growing multi-ethnic congregation in Jackson, MS. The part that should surprise us is this is happening in Jackson, MS. Surprising because church growth experts like to tell us that in order to grow a church you’ll need to find your niche market and pursue that level of homogeneity or sameness. This raises an obvious question: can a multi-ethnic church even exist let alone thrive? Campbell’s answer was a resounding “Yes!” it can and does.

Pastor Campbell then gave us some glimpses into his background as an African-American growing up in southwestern Virginia and how that brings real experience to bear for him in this matter.

In speaking from 1 Corinthians 9, we saw that Paul, too had a strong ethnic heritage as a Jew, a Hebrew of Hebrews (Philippians 3.3-6). This identity is what distinguishes as well as isolates or is used to isolate. In Acts, after Paul’s conversion, it is this identity and the radically proposed change to that identity, not Christ even, that nearly got Paul killed (Acts 22).

Paul’s world had been turned upside down by Christ. Our world should be turned upside down by Christ, but sadly, it’s not. Paul, once a Hebrew of Hebrews, is now a “free slave”. He is a slave to Christ and to all these Christians, but he is, at the same time free from them: free from their financial control, from the political control, from whatever other bondage they might try to impose upon him. He is free in Christ and now he is free indeed. He is even free of his ethnicity: not to deny it or ignore it or move away from it, but free from the bondage to only be a certain way because of this identity.

I appreciated this message a great deal. I agree with it wholeheartedly. I am greatly convicted that I am, most likely unwittingly, a slave of my cultural/ethnic heritage as a white American. I want to repent of that. And in repenting, seek to have Cornerstone EFC in Rochester embrace others, not because it would be good to have blacks or Hispanics or Asians in our congregation, but because they are lost sinners headed to an eternity under the terrible and fearsome wrath of God. I want to live the gospel for the sake of Christ and His body.

My big problem is this: I simply don’t know how. If there are one or two books that might give me and my congregation some good, solid, biblical practical help in this, please recommend away. I want to look like Christ. I want our congregation to look like Christ to the praise of His glory.

Ajith Fernando: How Must a Pastor Die? Part 2

Later this morning, Ajith Fernando came to the pulpit again to address more teaching from Colossians 1.24-29. This morning we moved on to the phrase “…for the sake of His body…” We saw that we, as pastors must die, so that the church would be blessed.

Suffering. What a foreign concept to most church “stuff” put out today, at least in almost any church growth materials I’ve seen or in the emergent church writings/bloggings/ramblings I’ve read. Ajith continued to give example after example of those who have died and suffered for the glory of God, the cause of Christ and the blessing of His church.

Then, five points were given how suffering spurs on church growth. Here they are without much else included (I fear I’ll never do justice to the full text of his message. The mp3 discs will be made available through the Desiring God web store at some point in the future):

Suffering spurs on true, biblical church growth…
By creating situations for the church to out
• see how this happened throughout the book of Acts: because the church was persecuted, they were scattered and the Gospel spread to the known world
• persecution opened the door for the gospel

by helping to demonstrate the gospel
• John’s gospel uses this word of Christ’s death: glory!
• suffering shows the heart of the gospel; martyrdom does this like nothing else
• in today’s pluralistic culture absent of “absolute truth” people are craving that which is truly real and martyrdom is eminently real!

By helping us to identify with people, thus having a more effective ministry among them
• this is the incarnational aspect to the gospel: we become Christ to them, just as Christ became man to us
• perhaps the greatest need of the church today is found in this 1 Corinthians. 9 passage: to the weak I became weak. When was the last book title on growing a church and doing evangelism with that line in it?
• the key to incarnational ministry is learning to live with frustration, suffering and pain because we’re going to be living & serving people

By helping us through spiritual turmoil in our hearts as we face failure
• Jesus seemed to face failure frequently, as seen most poignantly in the Garden of Gethsemane (Could you not pray for one hour?)
• most important lessons learned from failure
• most of the epistles are written because of failure and problems in the churches and yet these churches grew through these struggles

Finally, by giving us credibility
• Ephesians 4.1 exhorts us to walk in a worthy manner
• this will involve passion: commitment to Christ
• we’ve lost this in today’s churches; instead we give people what they like and then marvel with incredulity that they leave for bigger churches with more programs to offer

Can we avoid suffering? Yes, if we avoid commitment, passionate commitment to the gospel
• Dr. Fernando highlighted the biggest pain in his ministry has not come from Sri Lankan wars or revolutions, nor from tsunamis or political opposition, but from within the church itself!
• why? Because I care and love them and have strong commitments to Christ & his gospel for them
• we live in an aspirin generation—we don’t like pain and discomfort, so we avoid commitments of all kinds when they demand more than we’re willing to give to be comfortable
• so be committed, be prepared to suffer, be expecting to see the church blessed because of this.

John Piper: "Always Singing One Not... a Vernacular Bible - Why William Tyndale Live and Died"

Fortunately, we were given about an hour and a half to feed our physical bodies and rest our minds for just a bit before John Piper spoke to us about the life of William Tyndale. My goodness, I couldn’t write fast enough to take good notes. This being my 15th year at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors I usually wait for the manuscript to be handed out following this Tuesday afternoon session (they haven’t done this for 2-3 years now; sometimes it’s made available online). Since that isn’t happening and since I couldn’t take copious enough notes, let me once again highlight and dwell on one tremendously significant and timely, relevant bit touched on by Dr. Piper.

Piper said there were three things he hoped and expected for us in this time together:
• to see that justification by grace alone through faith alone is at the heart of the Bible
• to see that vague doctrinal minimalizing language is not new; it’s not post-modern, it’s pre-modern because it’s perpetual! (more on this bit in a moment)
• to see that God’s Word is worth suffering and dying for

The key source for Piper’s lecture was from David Daniell’s William Tyndale: A Biography published by Yale University Press, New Haven, 1994 (one of the my first purchases upon arriving Monday afternoon!). So, if you want to know more, you’ll have to wait for the mp3 disc or get the book.

Tyndale, an ordained Catholic priest had some similarities with his contemporary, Erasmus: one must think hard and work hard in order to achieve spiritual growth. This was applied to their desire to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular of the people. Many great examples given here, e.g., one classroom assignment was to give 150 different ways to say, “Your letter has delighted me very much.” Yikes! So much for dull, boring, repetitive offertory prayers!

Where they parted company was that one must die to the notion that our thinking hard and diligent work are the keys to spiritual growth. Tyndale was Catholic, but was a reformer also, for he came to passionately believe that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone. And this, along with his tremendous desire to see the Bible translated into English so all could know this glorious truth, cost him his life.

Powerful, powerful stuff. Dangerous stuff for pastors, if we’ve grown comfortable and complacent and cushy.

In all this, we saw clearly that the Emergent Church and the New Perspective and other slithery talk like them are not new. The concepts that drive them to play their word games, to remain foggy on truth, to have no corners of conviction or commitment, to proudly display their pretentious superiority of ambiguity is not only Erasmus-like; it’s also Arian-like (see last year’s conference bio sketch). McLaren (I name him, not Piper), Wright and others just ape Arius and Erasmus. There really is nothing new under the sun. The problem with this is they are misleading 1,000s of 20-somthings who can’ see past 1975.

Oh that we would die to self and live to Christ. Oh that we would die to our wishy-washy notions with no corners and live to the four-cornered edginess of the gospel of Christ for His glory’s sake.

Thankfully, we’ll have about a 4 hour break before our minds are filled once more from Ajith Fernando this evening.

Some quick thoughts on the EFCA's proposed revision to our Statement of Faith

2006-01-31T07:37:00.000-06:00

For the handful of you who ever think about landing here to wandering around in my mind, I want to direct you to some thoughts divergent from the stream of the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, just for a moment.

When last I blogged (previous to this conference) I was making some observations about the Evangelical Free Church of America's proposal to revise our Statement of Faith. I think to many within the EFCA, this was a bad move. It must have appeared that the EFCA was now going liberal, throwing out all that was sacred and good, dashing it upon the shoals of contemporary relevancy.

I beg to differ, however. While there are minor aspects of the draft revision proposal I hope to see improved, overall I am pleased with what the Spiritual Heritage Committee has put forth. In my humble opinion, the new statement keeps what was good about the original and shores that up with a bit more detail, such as the atoning work of Christ (old Statement #6; proposal #4 & 5).

Phil Johnson, formally the "Lone Pyromaniac" now more recently of the group Pryomaniacs, provides a marvelous glimpse from C.H. spurgeon once again. Monday's entry addresses what is probably of concern to some brethren within the EFCA. I think, however, that if they'd think wisely about the proposal, they'll find it more in line with Spurgeon's convictions of keeping everyone & everything we hold dear in the wagon, letting nothing fall to the wolves nipping at our heels. I trust this revision will keep us from falling prey to whatever "Downgrade" is current.

2006-01-31T00:51:00.000-06:00

Highlights from the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors

Here are some of the notes from the portions of the the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors attended so far:

Pre-conference meeting featuring John Piper
This pre-conference session focused on Piper's book, God Is the Gospel. John Piper spoke for about 30-40 minutes, simply giving some "bullet points" about how this book came to be written. Then the floor was opened up for questions for Pastor John regarding his book.

Our time began with a prayerful reading of 2 Corinthians 4.5-12:
For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

A couple of the points which Pastor John shared behind the writing of the book:

1. Most recently, his daughter-in-law was returning from Scotland with her 5-year-old daughter (Carsten's there studying at St. Andrews) to see her mother, who was near death from a stroke. As they were flying through the clouds, the sun shone on the tops and the mother said to her 5-year-old: "That looks like heaven where Grandma will be soon." And her young daughter replied: "No, Mommy. That can't be heaven. Jesus isn't there."

In, God Is the Gospel, Piper asks the question: If you could have heaven with all the joys & pleasures & delights we usually associate with heaven and not have Jesus there, would you still want it? Sadly, most of us, as evangelical Christians, would be scared to answer for fear that our shallow desires would be found out.

2. 37 years ago, John & Noel got married. The primary text read as a "banner" over their marriage was Habbakuk 3.17-18:

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

Again, note the clear statement that even if all else is taken from them, they will still exult in the Lord and rejoice in God. During John's first year at Bethlehem Baptist Church, he would frequently go to Psalm 42 to calm his anxieties. What held him through these times was verse 5:

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.

Once again, God is clearly central, no matter what is left in this life.

3. Finally, and this comes from the book, "Nobody goes to the Grand Canyon in order to increase his self-esteem. They go to marvel in the sight of the Grand Canyon." In this analogy, God is the Grand Canyon: we don't come to God to increase our self-esteem. We come in order to marvel at God and see His glory. In other words, we don't go to the mirror of the gospel to see how wonderful we are; we go to see how wonderful God is for us in Jesus Christ. Our society/culture loves self-esteem and most evangelical churches have built their version of the Gospel around this love of self: God makes much of us; this, instead of the far more biblical gospel, "God makes much of Himself in Christ Jesus so we'll long for Him."

These notes are sparse. We were told this gathering will appear on the Web at some time in the near future. If it comes up as a web-video, I hope you all can get a hold of it. But even more, just get the book!

Then came the opening session of the Pastor's Conference featuring Ajith Fernando. Seldom do I take notes during these sessions (this is my 15th conference in a row; missing only the first four conferences); I like to soak up the message at the time, receive the CDs later and go over them more slowly to absorb it better. However, now that I've taken up blogging, I thought I'd better get my rusty pen out and try to take a few notes, so here are some highlights from Ajith's message:

Our passage for the evening was Colossians 1.24-27:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

Ajith focused at the beginning of this passage: "rejoicing in suffering..." He pointed out that in Scripture, it would be difficult find places where suffering and the blessing of suffering aren't linked together. And one of the chief blessings of suffering is joy. However, it's ironic in our day that so many have lost the taste for joy; they'd rather have success or pleasure or any number of other things, but not joy. In fact, most Christians would be willing to sacrifice joy for something else - the satisfaction of getting what they want instead of the joy that comes as a gift/blessing from God, especially in times of suffering.

Our joy is often a response to the great truths that undergird our lives, e.g., God is gracious, Christ is the Son of God, etc. This joy opens the way for a love relationship with God through Christ Jesus. It is this joy that comes in the hardest, bluest of times that increases this relationship rather than decreasing it. A friend, quite ill, once was told he must have hit rock bottom. His response? If I've hit rock bottom, then I've found that the Rock is solid!

The problem is that so many have substituted this joy for a shallow cake of pleasure. But as another acquaintance of Fernando's once said, "I discovered that without Christ, I was a fish out of water; with Christ, I could swim in an ocean of His love." Apart from this, apart from this kind of joy in the Lord, any other pleasure simply has a hollow ring to it.

In Scripture, we also see that often, one has to mourn before they can rejoice. In the Psalms, 50-60 of the Psalms that are classified as lament psalms still end with joy... joy in the Lord. Yes, we lament our trials and sufferings, but we lament to God, a God who loves us and gives us Himself. It can then be seen that God loves to give us a comfort greater than the pain He allows (or causes) in our lives. The big challenge for those of us in ministry is to find out how to help people see that God cares in the midst of their pain.

Then Ajith went on to detail this point from Col. 1.24: "...filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions..." He gave a brief description of various options offered to explain this. I'll simply give you his explanation of it: Paul was speaking of filling up what was lacking in his own experience of Christ's suffering so that the gospel might be all the more powerfully delivered. In order to become like Jesus, we must know suffering. We must suffer with Him if we hope to be glorified with Him. If we desire to be close to Christ, to have Christ near, then suffering will be part of this fellowship, this nearness. And while it seems odd to say, this fellowship of suffering will make us happy - filled with joy. Scripture affirms this elsewhere (suffering brings joy, cf. James 1.2). This suffering & testing purifies us and proves the genuineness of our faith in Christ. So, to be identifies with Christ is to know the truth of Hebrews 13.13, bearing His reproach and suffering outside the camp.

The conclusion of the matter is this: this solidarity with Christ in His sufferings brings us strength and this strength prepares us for suffering. it's a symbiotic relationship building upon itself. As we suffer, we're united more closely to Christ and as we're united more closely with Christ, we will suffer.

The evening ended and I found myself thinking hard on these things. The theme is, once again, How Must a Pastor Die? The Price of Caring Like Christ. And now I'm left asking myself, "Am I willing to die for Christ's sake? Am I willing to suffer? Can I know what it means to be truly sorrowful, yet rejoicing?" Big questions. Hard questions. God will provide His answers by His grace.

On the Road Again!

2006-01-28T16:36:00.000-06:00

I'm basically a home-body; I don't mind traveling a bit, but for the most part, I could just stay home and be content.

Last week, at this time, I had just come off three days at the EFCA Mid-Winter Ministerial (Wed - Fri.). Then on Monday, I turned around and headed back to the Twin Cities for our district's Council on Ministerial Standing meeting. This coming Monday, I leave again for three days.

I'll be attending (for the 14th years in a row) the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. This year's theme is: How Must a Pastor Die? The Price of Caring Like Jesus. Looking forward to it would be a bit of an understatement; having gone so many years in a row, this is obviously an important gathering for me personally. It's the one conference I'll do just about anything short of selling my kids to get there (although there have been days... just kidding, Jonathan!). And it's the one conference I attend each year where if I were unable to attend any others, I know I would be ministered to and fed spiritually enough to sustain me for the year.

However, this theme "frightens" me just a bit. I have convinced myself that I seek to care like Jesus. Yet asking if I would be willing to die, to lay my life on the line for what and for whom I believe pushes that envelope further... a lot further. So, I'm going, and I'm going with the prayer that God would do a work in my life to bring me to that point. Whether He ever asks me to give my life for His sake, I don't know. But my willingness to follow Christ, taking up His cross (the truest sign of death there is for a Christian) and serving Him for the rest of the days He allots me is my heart's desire and my heart's prayer. I'll try doing some blog updates from there, if there's wireless access close enough and I'm not spending the in-between times visiting with other pastors I only see at this conference.

May God be glorified in all we do for Him.

2006-01-24T10:59:00.000-06:00

A Few Observations About Many Things

Phew!

Last week had me in the Twin Cities area for three days while attending the EFCA's Mid-Winter Ministerial. Sunday was it's usual day: Adult Bible Class, Worship Service and Evening Bible Study. Monday had me back in the Cities for our North Central District's C.O.M.S.' meeting (Council on Ministerial Standing). Tuesday... hey, that's today! I get to "stay" home for a change. At last, an opportunity to get caught up on many things, this blog being one of them.

Mid-Winter Ministerial Observations (continued)

The EFCA has tried to present itself as being fairly inclusive to believers of all sorts, as long as they can ascribe to our doctrinal statement. This makes for a rather diverse group of people, especially pastors, when it comes to some "finer" points of doctrine. For example, our existing statement claims to be somewhat "neutral" when it comes to the differences between Arminians and Calvinists (depending upon which field of that spectrum you drop your plow will have you agreeing/disagreeing with that statement, as we heard last week). Dr. Grant Osborne, professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School made a claim about this openness of the EFCA at a moment when attitudes were getting a bit tense regarding this difference. Dr. Osborne has always been a defender of Arminianism, but loves his Calvinists brothers & sisters in Christ. To quote him: "It was predestined that I be an Arminian; and, you Calvinists have to work at your Calvinism!" Touché! And I hope my less-humorous arminian brothers get the joke and laugh at that!

Men I'm very thankful for...

Dr. Osborne is one of those. I didn't realize it at the time I was at T.E.D.S. but he was a gift to us then and continues to be now. May God grant him strength for more years at Trinity.

Dr. John Woodbridge, professor of church history at T.E.D.S. (for both of these men, I'm pretty sure there are a lot more words, letters and titles that ought to go behind their names, but neither one is pretentious enough to ever make a big deal of my forgetting what they are). I had Dr. Woodbridge 2 or 3 times and greatly appreciated him then. At the Ministerial, he gave 3 or 4 5-minute encapsulations of the history of the church's understanding and development of pre-millennialism, including some portion of the EFCA's formulation of this doctrine. And he did it so everyone could understand every word, even me! How I thank God he's "one of us" (ordained in the EFCA since 1987, I believe).

Changes in the Blogosphere

There are changes taking place out there in the blogosphere to which I've just entered all too recently. the Calvinist Gadfly (http://calvinistgadfly.com/) announced a couple of weeks ago that he'd no longer be able to keep his blog up. Then just a few days ago, Steve Camp came to his rescue and announced that the Calvinist Gadfly would soon be coming back... as a group-led blog. This will be fun to watch (seriously).

Today, just this morning, Phil Johnson started out with similarly ominous tones (http://phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/) and as I start to get all misty-eyed thinking, "First it was Gary Larson retiring from drawing 'The Far Side'; then, it was Bill Waterson retiring from drawing 'Calvin & Hobbes' ; and now, Phil Johnson is going to stop blogging on 'The Pyromaniac'. Will it ever stop?!" But, after wiping tears from my eyes (actually, I think I spilled hot coffee over my hand at that point and it really hurt!), I read on and see where Phil is also going the route of a partnered blog (http://teampyro.blogspot.com/). Well, as least that corner of the theological blogosphere is still safe and I can travel there with great comfort and delight. Now, if Doug (www.coffeeswirls.com) ever gives up his Caribou Coffee habit and quits CoffeeSwirls, I think I'm doomed!

Anniversaries

Yearly remembrances are to be looked upon with great delight... most of the time. And today is no different (except that my lovely wife, Ann, heaped burning coals upon my head - no, that didn't bring the tears to my eyes earlier - by giving me a card when I've prepared nothing for her). It was 30 years ago this very day, January 24, 1976, that I stepped up to her front door, rang the doorbell with butterflies playing dodgeball in my stomach and waited for her to open the door. I quickly asked, "Are you ready to go?" She said, "Yes; bye Mom & Dad!" and out to my parents' car we walked.

This was our first date! 30 years ago (gladly, she's changed very little in beauty and radiance; sadly, I have). We drove to Cedar Falls, Iowa, making our way to the University of Northern Iowa, stopping at Bob's Big Boy for supper. She had the fried chicken basket and I had the fish dinner. We watched Jim Goodrich and the boys from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, whoop up on the UNI Panthers that night (Jim graduated from my high school five years previously, was a phenomenal basketball player and home town hero - about 50-60 of us drove there just to watch him play). On the way home, I had the audacity to sneak our first kiss! Seems like only yesterday.

Reports from the EFCA Mid-Winter Ministerial

2006-01-20T16:11:00.000-06:00

Changing

EFCA Mid-Winter Ministerial & Proposed Statement of Faith Revisions

It’s always going to be interesting when you throw about 400+ pastors together from a “denomination” (I’ll explain the parentheses later) and let them discuss the merits of revising a Statement of Faith that has been the founding statement since the groups formal inception in 1950. It’s informative. It’s intellectually challenging. Some of the presenters are very stimulating (good thing or we’d fall asleep all too quickly). And then there are the pastors themselves who have opportunity to either ask questions, make comments on the document or the process or the committee that’s been charged with presenting this proposal.

It would be wrong to say that this doesn’t get emotional. It would be wrong to say that it shouldn’t involve emotions. However, there have been some… just a few… who have let their emotions get the better of their good sense and their tongues. It’s a good thing we still believe in the “laying on of hands!” Actually, it’s just as well that they didn’t put me in charge of helping moderate these kinds of things. I’d get Fizick as part of my “Goon Squad” and do some serious laying on of hands!

This has been a good process, however. I think, no matter what the long-range outcome may be, it’s been good because it’s forced us to take a good, hard, biblical look at our existing EFCA Statement of Faith. It’s made us see what we truly believe as EFCA-ers. It’s made us say, with the forefathers of the EFCA, “Where stands it written?” It’s given us good opportunity to dialogue and discuss the absolute essentials of what we believe and what might be a “non-essential” to keep at heart, but not make a dividing distinctive in our EFCA heritage of “all believers, only believers.”

I’m still not certain whether I can “publish” on this blog any of the proposed draft without getting my credentials being placed in serious jeopardy. I’ll check on the possibility of that and let you know as time moves on. This much I can say: I think what has been proposed is good and even necessary given many of the changes in our culture and in the evangelical culture itself. Our statement , in its existent form, is about as simple as it can get. But this lends itself to “weakness” in the day in which we live, where truth is under assault. So, we’ve been seeing how we can strengthen our Statement of Faith by expanding just a bit, changing just a bit, and coming out, in the long run, with a much more definitive and more inclusive statement.

One quick example, without a word-for-word citation: we believe that while we cannot know God’s truth exhaustively, we can know it truly. It helps to keep us humble: we don’t know everything; we can’t know everything. Scripture very plainly says, “…the hidden things belong to God…” (Deuteronomy 29.29). However, God has made Himself known and spoken to us in many and various ways (Heb 1.1). These things, what He has made known, “…belong to us, and our sons forever…” These things we can know and will stand for, believe in and yes, even get a bit feisty about. So, let’s put on the gloves and love one another.

Getting Called Hagar

It's been a fascinating experience, being at the EFCA Mid-Winter Ministerial. I haven't been at one of these meetings, for a variety of reasons, for a very long time. Time for that to change now.

However, it's hard to be present at a meeting that's discussing a draft proposal for revisions in our EFCA's Statement of Faith and have another pastor essentially call all Calvinists "Hagar." Now for those not there (all of you, I'm pretty sure), the comments came from a young pastor in an EFCA who has very clearly made it known that he's strongly opposed to the proposal as well as the process. And, his most recent/last/hopefully final comments, he compared the idea of even looking to think about revising our SoF like our culture's fascination with faddish notions. This looking and chasing after fads was then paralleled with Abraham and his choice of a second wife in Hagar. Surrounding this, in context of his statements, was the clear desire to have the Committee remove, from the revised proposal, "all this Calvinist language," for this is like leaving what we've been given and pursuing that which is new and faddish.

As I sat there hearing this preposterous notion, I looked to one of my dear pastoral friends, who is even more reformed in his calvinism than me, and asked, "Did he just call us 'Hagar'?" To which Randy replied, "I think so; it's pretty clear that we are." (To show his humor at all this, in talking during a break, we laughed at the notion of changing all our children's names to Ishmael, just so there wouldn't be any confusion in where we stood doctrinally to this ewak brother.) Now that may not have been his intent, so I'll not judge his intent. However, with that said, all his other comments have been bathed in unbridled foolishness, accusations impugning the character of those on the committee, and using Scripture oft times out of context to stress his points.

This is the EFCA. And in some ways, just like being an American, I strongly disagree with this fellow pastor and I will defend his given right, in this country at least, to be wrong and to reveal that with his own mouth. If I were to answer him in the way in which my flesh kept shouting at me to respond, I would have been, to use Proverbs right back at him, answering a fool with his own folly. That being said (I said that before didn't I; I apologize for redundancy in phraseology), he's a Free Church pastor and I'll love him and pray for him.

Calling It a Day

Closing Session of EFCA Mid-Winter Ministerial

Bill Hamel, president of the EFCA

I’d like to end our time together by simply sharing three points:

1. I’m proud to be the President of the EFCA

I’ve found our interaction over these days to be good, rich, and stimulating. There’s been a high level of theological reflection taking place on both sides of the issues presented these past days. And we haven’t had to agree; no one’s forced you to agree 100% with them, but that’s been a good thing and an honor to the Free Church’s heritage.

I think we’ve seen a moving past what many saw as a forced process; that has been changing over the past days, I trust. It was never intended to be a “top-down” process and I hope you’ve come to see that truth. Over the past nine years, our mid-winter ministerials have taken a direction that allows us to look hard at some of our core doctrinal beliefs. This kind of dialogue is healthy for the EFCA. It helps promote a community of theological thinkers.

2. I’m pleased with the process.

The need was recognized as a part of the role of leadership. You, as pastors, do much the same thing with your own leaders in your own churches when you have a vision for direction and ministry: you think hard on it, present it to the group of leadership, come with more of the idea in shape to your congregations, gather ideas from there and move forward. We’ve brought this document to you; We’ve not communicated as perfectly as some thought we ought; but think about how imperfect your own communication back home is also. We’ve brought this to you for your consideration, your input.

We need to address these matters given some of the ordinations papers over that past years. We need to help our people know what we believe.

The next step is very important: this proposal will get presented to your district conferences, to pastors gatherings, and special sessions. Pastors – bring your elders. Some have said this document is too heady for them…then you’d better get them there! They need to be at this level; it reflects upon you as a pastor is they’re not.

3. Prayer must be a vital part.

Prayer must be a tremendous part of this. We’d better be on our knees; it’s far too important not to be on our knees.

2006-01-18T09:13:00.000-06:00

vijournal
Wednesday, January 18

I’ve just begun using vijournal (v. 1.5) for my blogging. It should prove a real time saver: it acts just like a journal/diary on my Macs, can auto-set the HTML code for those like me who don’t know/don’t care to know HTML, and it will upload directly to Blogger and LiveJournal sites. How easy is that!

Today, I head off the the EFCA’s Mid-Winter Ministerial gathering in Apple Valley, MN. Big doings for three days... all about a proposed revision to the EFCA’s Statement of Faith (our 12-point doctrinal statement). Not sure what the process for all this will be, but I’m sure it will take at least another two years before any significant proposals are approved as a denomination. The discussion/explanation times should prove quite helpful.

I’ve read the draft proposal. At first glance, I was concerned about the need to “upgrade” our SoF (Statement of Faith). However, once I read through the explanations for each point, I thought that much was indeed fitting to the purpose of the Spiritual Heritage Committee’s task: to revise, refresh and strengthen our existing SoF. I won’t include any of that here in this blog... for the present. Uncertainty regarding propriety of revealing too much before its time prevents me. Perhaps I’ll learn what might be proper at the meetings this week.

Until then, keep on blogging!

2006-01-17T14:47:00.000-06:00

Web Sites & Blogs

We’re working on getting our church web site up and running. Yikes! I didn’t realize how much work that could actually be. It takes design talent, layout abilities, coming up with content, images, pictures, possibly even a logo for our church; all so we can have a decent looking site on the internet.
In some ways, it’s a bit similar to blogging (not the design work, etc., but the effort to put something down in print or cyber-print that people will see). Starting up this blog was terribly intimidating for me personally. I mean, if I write something down and put it out there for “the world” to see, they might take exception or disagree or be offended or not like me (I’m way too much like Sally Fields... “You like me. You really, really like me.”). It’s a big step; a huge commitment. Oh sure, I have thoughts and opinions, but does anyone really want to read them? Does anyone really care? Does anyone really know what time it is? (let’s see how many get this trivial reference thrown in just for good measure.)
It’s the same with a web site for our church: will anyone visit it? (I’m almost reluctant to have us put up a counter.) Will anyone read it? Will anyone care? And yet, that is indeed our hope and reason for getting one up in working order: the belief that someone will stop in, someone will read what’s there, and someone will care enough to inquire more or actually visit us some Sunday morning, worship with us or, praise the Lord, come to faith in Christ through the preaching of His Word.
One of the concerns about both a blog site and our church’s web site is will the content be substantive. If a blog site just talks about a person’s daily routine: “Here’s what I did today”; well, I don’t much care really, at least not enought to take any more of my valuable time to read that you got up, ate eggs & spam for breakfast, had a lousy day at the office, came home and watched “24” then went to bed. However, if you make something of what you did, then that’s better. Making observations, especially biblical, relevant observations about certains events in your life that day will draw me a bit more.
Some examples of blogs like this:
1. Doug McHone’s CoffeeSwirls http://www.coffeeswirls.com/. Doug writes about some of the daily events in his life, but usually ties in how God’s working through these kind of things to teach him,shape him, bring glory to Himself through his life. But when I’m really drawn into CoffeeSwirls is when there are the meaty entries of church life, preaching/teaching, discussion of doctrine or Scripture, etc. So, Doug, if you ever read this... keep up the excellent work.

2. Tiffany Roberson’s blog at http://tymelia.blogdrive.com/ . I made the mistake of telling Tiffany I didn’t care what people did during their days and especially didn’t want to read about it on their blog site. But then I went to Tiffany’s blog and read it and needed to confess, repent and ask her forgiveness. She does a really good job of writing about “every day” happenings, but reflects upon them also. Plus, Tiffany is one of my parishoners, so it’s always cool seeing someone you know personally on the web.

3. Phil Johnson (http://phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/) would have to be another exception to this. Most often, Phil is writing on meaty, weighty, doctrinal, biblical stuff (cessationism and whether he’s ever declared what position he takes!! Come on, Phil, take a stand! [just kidding]). But even when he gives bits and pieces of his trips and the people he meets, I read most of it, because he’s bound to connect it to something he’s written earlier. Seldom is it just daily drivel for daily drivel’s sake.
Well, I hope you get the point. I want Cornerstone EFC’s site to grow into a site that is informative, substantive, ehlpful and challenging. And ultimately, I want to be able to steal Bach’s signature line and apply it to our site: Soli Deo Gloria.

Leaders... they just might be "everything"

2006-01-14T19:37:00.000-06:00

Leaders... they just might be "everything"

I've been the pastor at Cornerstone EFC in Rochester, MN for over 8 years now. There are many things for which I can give thanks to the Lord: wonderful people who love the Lord, absence of divisions and factions of any kind whatsoever, no worship wars, a growing awareness and invovlement in the effort to see the Gospel taken to the unreached parts of the world... the list can go on.

However, one of the gifts from God I really am most thankful for as a pastor is my leadership. I had a discussion with Tom Mouw, the North Central District of the EFCA's superintendent this past week. During that time, one of the topics was leadership, the quality of leadership and the level of troubles within a church. After so many hours involved in helping churches resolve conflicts, he's found that one of the first things he'll look for is whether 1 Timothy 3 has been violated in the choice of leaders for that church. He has yet to see one of the compromised, dysfunctional, chronically sick churches keeping 1 Timothy 3 and still having the problems they are having. In other words, have godly leaders, spiritually qualified leaders, leaders with Christ-like character and you're far more likely to avoid major problems.

For this, I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Cornerstone has been blessed by seeking to follow 1 Timothy 3 in its selection and maintenance of its Elders and Deacons. We've not always seen eye to eye on every issue we've dealt with over eight years; but because we love our Lord, each other and the unity of the Spirit He's given us, we'll either work out the disagreements or agree to love each other more than the individual issues we're working with.

This hasn't always been the case in churches where I've served. One church had a system of electing a church chairman (not a elder or a deacon, but a chairman; I've wondered about this practice... nothing particularly biblical about it, is there?). This man could serve for a term of 2-3 years, I don't recall right now. After serving for this term, he needed to, according to by-laws, step down for at least one year. This church had the practice of allowing the vice-chairman to step into the chair's position for the one year necessary to then allow the previous chairman to return to his position. If either of these men (and I'm not doubting their salvation, their sincerity or desire to serve) had been qualified according to Scripture, this church might have avoided many of its problems (some of which are still lingering today).

Another church served had by-laws that called for a nomination committee to provide a list of candidates for available positions. Problem:
1) the by-laws required multiple names per position; in other words, this was a run-off type of election, forcing the committee to provide competition for each position
2) the by-laws also negated almost any work the nominating committee did by allowing "from the floor nominations" from the congregation without any approval from the committee or other church leadership
3) the nominating committee would read 1 Timothy 3 each year when they first met, then promptly say, "No one can actually meet these qualifications, so let's see who we have available for service."
Is it any wonder that this church still has on-going difficulties and has had a pastor turnover rate of one pastor for every four years or less?

But here, at Cornerstone, God has been exceedingly gracious. He's given us wise leaders, godly leaders who were not only qualified when they became elders or deacons, but have continued to grow into these positions. There are many benefits of this process, not least of which is the wonderful absence of major conflict. One is the tremendous confidence I have as the pastor of this church, knowing that the elders/deacons will consider all things well and with prayer. Another is the great level of trust the congregation gives to these men. When you have men who seek the Lord in their decisions, who show their care for the people, who are committed to the Word of God, the people of God trust them and follow them willingly.

Oh, how I wish more and more churches would follow 1 Timothy 3 in their selection of leaders. Oh how I pray that God will continue to bless us, keep us humble, grant us His grace and lead us onward. And may He continue to bring us men who prove themselves through serving and then become well-qualified leaders.

2006-01-11T20:32:00.000-06:00

2006
Wednesday, January 11

The Battle Against Unbelief

I saw on the Jollyblogger's site http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/ where Rick Warren's gone off again. First off, I'm not certain why big name personalities within Christendom have all decided to start making outrageous comments in the media. Pat Robertson's time to step down and turn his ministry over to someone less likely to continue to shame the name of Christ through so-called prophecies has come. (see Phil Johnson's arguments http://phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/2005/11/rubber-prophecies.html Phil's theological and philosophical arguments make a good case for holding to cessasionism.)

Second, in light of Warren's comments, I agree strongly with the Jollyblogger: the greater battle by far is unbelief. All who are Christians are involved in the fight for faith. "This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight..." (1 Timothy 1.18, NASB95). "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6.12, NASB95). And, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith..." (2 Timothy 4.7, NASB95). Faith is being satisfied in all that God has promised to be and do for us in Christ Jesus. So, we're all fighting for our greatest delight: God's glory. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

According to Romans 14.23, "...whatever is not from faith is sin." Doing anything, if it's not done out of faith in God and His abilities and His promises is sin. It is my conviction that unbelief is the true root of all sin. John Piper, in his book, "Future Grace" discusses this at great length and gives many examples of various sins. Each of these sins has, at its root, unbelief. For example, anxiety is unbelief that God can really fulfill His promises to care for me (cf. Matthew 6.25-30). Pride is unbelief that God is sovereign and I am not (in other words, I think I have a great deal more control that I really do). I'd go on, but I'llm simply refer you to Piper's book.

If unbelief is at the root of all sins, then the fight for faith and against unbelief really is the ultimate battle for the believer. Asaph wrestled mightily with unbelief in Psalm 77. In verses 3-9, he's struggling, battling with unbelief. However, Asaph knows where to go in the midst of this fight: God. In vv. 11-12, he uses a mighty and powerful weapon in this battle: remembering; seeing how God has acted in the past, trusting a God who does not change and believing that His promises are still real. Asaph ends up banking evertying upon God and His promises and ends up resting satisfied in them. God is greatly glorified, unbelief is defeated for the day and Asaph finds great joy in His God.

Fighting for faith and battling unbelief is the great battle. All others are secondary to this one. I find this true nearly everyday of my life in Christ. I wake up each morning knowing that I will fight for faith in Christ, but unbelief is going to rear its ugly head in many different ways: lust, greed, pride, covetousness... the list goes on. I feel so much like the father of the possessed boy in Mark 9, who, while having faith in Christ's ability to exorcise the demons from his son, yet confesses that there is still unbelief to be confessed and battled.

May God help me in this fight. May God help you in this fight.

By His Grace For His Glory.

My Sermon Notes

2006-01-09T10:23:00.000-06:00

Someone once asked me what I preach from during my sermons: manuscript, notes, outline? I use a form of extended outline, but I will vary from this while preaching (but not very often!). Here's a sample of what goes into the pulpit with me (imagine a letter size sheet of paper in landscape mode folded in half; like a small booklet).

Sermon Notes January 8, 2006

“WALK IN A WORTHY MANNER”

Text: Ephesians 4.1-3
Theme:

Introduction – Are we credible?
• if people come into CEFC, observe & listen, are we credible?
• would they have reason to believe what we say based on the way we live?

Observing Christianity & what passes for the church in U.S., not sure
• Pat Robertson is at it again: Ariel Sharon, judgment of God
• a new church plant in Missouri is giving away brand new Xbox 360s and iPods when you fill out visitor cards
• imagine what the apostles could have done if they’d have had all this neat stuff to give away
• Sister Paula is a prophetess in a church in California (why does that not surprise me)
• gender-transformation from being a man into a woman
• feels like she can reach a segment of society normal Xns can’t

There’s so much more out there
• sad, embarrassing, shame on the glory of the gospel of Christ
• and world is watching, shaking its head, thinking we’re all nuts

Remedy for all this craziness?
• many parts, but chief among them is genuineness
• if we would live in such a way that people all around us would see Christ and not us, see Christ and not the world-absorbing foolishness of so many, God would be glorified
• challenge as still in beginning of this New Year:

I. WALKING, V. 1
• God, in His Word, often uses this word picture to speak to us about our way of living
• “walk the walk” is a popular way of talking about the way you live
• God gives Paul this word to use here for good reason

1. a worthy manner
• that sounds like a noble cause
• would make a good New Years resolution
• get this kind of advice from Dear Abby or Ann Landers
• just do a better job, okay?

2. a certain kind of manner
• worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called
• we’ve been called: tells us this is something we didn’t choose on our own
• tells us this is something that’s been placed upon us and within us
• this calling is described for us in the preceding three chapters
• Ephesians 1.3-6, 11-12; 2.4-6, 8-10
• the first three chapters are all about the One who called us, what the call was and why we were called
• now, God wants us to know what to do with this calling: walk
• live your life in such a way that others see it is Christ who has changed you, not just some exertion of your will in making New Years Resolutions
• and God gives us the way to walk in this worthy manner

I. HUMILITY & GENTLENESS, V. 2
• Greeks & Romans despised humility
• considered it worthy of slaves
• instead, admired the great-souled man, self-sufficient, in control

1. Paul extols humility and joins it with gentleness or meekness
• this is not weakness, as many would think
• it is strength under control; having great strength & knowing how to use it

2. Jesus said he was gentle & humble in heart, Matthew 11.29
• He showed He had power NOT to retaliate, the ability to forgive
• and yet Christ was fierce in His defense of others & the truth

3. Charles Simeon, great preacher at Kings’ College & Holy Trinity in Cambridge, England was like this
• after 40+ years of ministry, health broke down, spent 8 months recovering
• young vicar, Thomason, to fill in, preaching up to 5x on Sundays
• developed excellent preaching ability, but Simeon rejoiced
• He must increase, but I must decrease. Now I see why I have been laid aside. I bless God for it

4. take up humility & gentleness this year
• it means laying aside all your perceived rights
• it means setting aside pride & self-sufficiency
• it means asking others to help you in a particular ministry
• it means not retaliating with your tongue when someone hurts your feelings
• it means holding back that snappy answer & thinking of a gentle answer instead
• it means thinking on Christ so much that His humility & gentleness start to become your own
• that would put all of us walking in a worthy manner of the One who called us to Himself

II. PATIENCE, V. 3
• walking worthy of Christ’s calling involves loving one another in such a manner that it garners attention
• patience, shown by bearing with one another in love, does this
• J. Dwight Pentecost tells of church split so serious, each side sued
• sought to dispossess other side from church building
• civil court threw it out, but church court picked it up
• ruled in favor of one side
• losers in suit formed own church across town
• court findings of start of dispute: elder received smaller piece of ham than a child sitting next to him
• absolutely no patience or forbearance

1. patient: not short-tempered
• literally, long-tempered
• joined w/ injunction to bear w/ one another makes this a powerful trait
• to be tolerant or to forebear with another is to simply put up with other’s fault and peculiar idiosyncrasies
• what makes this possible?
• continue to call to mind Christ’s calling: Him who called you
• then, remember your own faults
• if your pride blinds you to your own faults, we’ll lay aside our forbearance just long enough to help you out!
• when you see your own faults, you’ll be more patient in helping others to grow in Christ-likeness

2. Apostle Peter knew the truth of being patience, bearing with one another in love
• proud, rough, impatient
• yet, Christ called him & it changed him
• 1 Peter 1.22
• 1 Peter 2.17
• 1 Peter 3.8
• 1 Peter 4.8

III. DILIGENTLY PRESERVING THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT, V. 3
• God is always keen on reminding us that none of these qualities begins with our sheer determination to live them out
• these aren’t external structures; they’re internal characteristics
• and God reminds us clearly of their divine origin: unity of the Spirit
• not one of us would have these qualities apart from God’s Spirit
• oh, we might work them out for a short time
• we might grunt it out from burden of duty
• but it is by God’s Holy Spirit working in us that we can see these characteristics grow

• be diligent to preserve
• it’s our natural tendency to neglect these qualities
• our sinful nature doesn’t want to
• Satan will tempt us to let them slide, knowing if we let them grow lax, the church suffers, the glory of Christ is shamed
• it would seem that every day we come across people that would bug us, put us off, anger us, create impatience with them
• it’s hard work; the word God gives Paul here suggests a strong resolution to overcome the tendency to forget
• so we need to be diligent, keeping the unity of peace that God has worked in us through Christ & His Spirit

Conclusion – Sally Fields & winning an Oscar: You like me
• sometimes think this is the goal of the church to world: You like me!
• what I read each day about the church & her efforts to be liked saddens me
• but I know it doesn’t have to be that way
• doesn’t have to be that way here at Cornerstone
• God longs for us to walk in a manner that is worthy of the high price paid by His Son
• He calls us to live a life that reflects the great grace & love He’s poured out upon us
• and this is what you & I pray to committing ourselves to: walking in a way that shines the joy that is in Jesus Christ to all around us
• this will bring glory to God our Father

Grace Upon Grace

2006-01-06T04:54:00.000-06:00

My bride of 24 years!

Today is Ann's birthday. Discretion and the better part of self-preservation causes me to forget how old she is today.

In most name books, her name means "grace." It's 100% spot-on right. I don't deserve her.

She's terribly loving of me and all my quirks. She shows incredible forebearance of my short-comings. Her patience seems to know no end. The care she provides for me and our family is almost tireless. Gentle, kind and good; that's my wife.

Ann and I have known each other for 30 years now. I don't know if it was "love at first sight," but it's hung in there for that long: over five years of dating/engagement and nearly 25 years of marriage.

I do not deserve her.

And yet, God, who is immensely more gracious than even my wife, has given her to me. To me! It is truly remarkable.

May we be blessed with another 25 years (at least!).

Happy birthday, dear one.

Hoping to Worship Well in the New Year

2006-01-04T11:19:00.000-06:00

On the first Sunday of this new year, we (my family & I) attended another church. For some, this would seem an unusual way to begin, but for me, the pastor of a church, it’s a very infrequent occurrence. Since I take the week off between Christmas and New Years, I always have opportunity to check out other churches on that first Sunday of a new year.

One of the choruses sung during the service was “Be The Center.” Michael Frye is the author; Vineyard is the publisher. Here are the lyrics:

Jesus, be the center, be the source, be my light, Jesus.
Chorus: Be the fire in my heart, be the wind in my sails, be the reason I live, Jesus, Jesus.
Jesus, be the center, be my hope, be my song, Jesus.
Jesus, be my vision, be my path, be my guide.
Chorus: Be the fire in my heart, be the wind in my sails, be the reason I live, Jesus, Jesus.

This song was new to me, so I simply listened while the worship team sang (I think the congregation of over 1,000 was singing, but the amplification was so loud in this auditorium you could not hear others singing, even those immediately behind me). The tune was nondescript, kind of a lilting melody that would never stick in one’s mind to find yourself humming unconsciously later on in the day.

Some of the phrases don’t bother me. I mean, Jesus Himself calls Himself the light of the world. However, I’m really wondering what was going on in the writer’s mind when he wrote, “be the wind in my sails”? I mean really! Where in Scripture would you ever find such a romanticized piece of pap? I was almost expecting Bette Midler to jump out from behind the curtain and sing, “You Are the Wind Beneath Me Wings.”

This particular church has two services: the early service has a full orchestra and features “traditional” music, while the second service is called a “celebration” service featuring contemporary worship music, a full-size praise band and all the trimmings. The thing I wonder about is this: if the second service’s intent is to reach out to the unchurched and the formerly churched, then how in the world are you going to help them see the real Jesus of Scripture with songs such as “Be The Center”? But wait, I think I just answered my own question: “…how in the world are they going to do this…?” In the world, it’s all possible: just name your target, claim a method and gain an audience.

How much better, and worthy, it would be to offer the world a more godly version of hymnody, such as I found on Slice of Laodicea (http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/) today:

Word of God the most high, our sole hope,
eternal day of the earth and heavens
as we break the silence of the peaceful night
divine saviour, look down upon us.

Imbue us with the fire of thy great mercy
so that hell itself will flee at the sound of your voice
disperse the sleep which leads our languishing souls
to stray from the path of righteousness.

O Christ show your favour to your faithful people
who have come together to worship you
receive the praises that they offer up to your immortal glory
and may they come back laden with the gift of your grace.

May God grant me the grace to worship Him in spirit and in truth this new year.

Have a Blessed New Year

2006-01-02T11:17:00.000-06:00

Beginning a New Year
Well, happy new year, to any who may bop in and read this. I have, for the past 20 years, taken the week between Christmas and New Years as vacation. This year was no exception... except this year we didn't travel (first time in over 12 years). We just stayed put and let them (family) come to us this time. Very peaceful... I highly recommend it.

The big question on Sunday morning was where to go to church. As a pastor, I have always found it terribly uncomfortable to take time off, yet worship at my own church. I've tried this twice in 20 years and it's not "vacation." It seems that even if you announce you're "off", everyone sees you and comes to you with questions/problems/requests. So, we knew we'd be worshipping elsewhere this morning. One of the larger churches in town just moved into their brand new multi-million dollar building, so we thought we'd go and check it out. The sanctuary seats at least 1,000 and it was quite full for the second service (being New Years Day, the early service was probably quite sparse).

Now, it is also very difficult for me to worship in another church, at least, that's what I've found. It's not that the service might not be worshipful; it's that I'm too busy trying to fight off the attitude of being critical about everything: music, songs, people, sermon, etc. I ask the Lord to help with my attitude and He's doing His part. However, my end needs holding up (okay, I can hear the jokes already).

This morning was no different. I entered with a desire to truly worship the One True God. But the first three songs were so "me" centered - what I'm going to do to make Jesus great this year, what I'm going to do to be worshipful, how much I love Jesus - well, needless to say, I was put off right from the very get go. It wasn't until 3-4 choruses into the service that we sang, "Before the Throne of God" and I was able to get my eyes off all my good efforts/filthy rags.

Sermon listening is also difficult for me as a pastor: too busy taking notes for my use later, critiquing style & delivery, did the man stay in the text or just use it as a jumping off point. Once again, I was in the thick of it today. Actually, the message stayed true to the text for the most part: Hebrews 8.1-13 and the new covenant. Communion was to follow and this served as a good tie in to the "blood of the new covenant." However, one illustration and the connecting thought hit me as "dangerously Gnostic." The new covenant is written on our hearts. Excellent. Illustration: pastor was once in the Air Force and flight training in the classroom was boring. It didn't become real until sitting in the cockpit and holding the stick and actually flying. I would have been satisfied with just that explanation. However, the pastor said, "...it was fact because it was part of my experience..." In other words, the new covenant is just a bunch of "dry as dust" information, but it becomes a fact when it becomes a part of my experience. I wanted to stand up and say, "No, I don't think so. The New Covenant is a fact whether I experience it or not. My experience only lets me know that I have believed in His name and received Him."

There was also a point, during the observance of the Lord's Supper, where he went on and on and on in introducing the cup. He wanted to stress the point of the sign of the new covenant, but he went off on their new building and our new year and the new opportunities for service and ministry and new beginnings for those who have had troubles, difficulties and such throughout the past year. I think I know what he's trying to do, but next time, do it during the sermon, not during communion. And next time, simply let the new covenant and its sign in the cup be the new covenant and its sign in the cup.

One other reason (among dozens and dozens) why I'm glad I pastor a smaller church: three people out of 1,000+ greeted us. No one knew if we were guests or even asked. The personal touch was magnificently absent. Praise the Lord for churches less than 100 that greet, welcome, visit with and invite new-comers home for Sunday dinner! Well, these are things for my checklist of things to avoid at my own church. Someone hold me accountable and God grant me grace to glorify Him in all things.

The 100-Minute Bible

2005-10-12T11:42:00.000-05:00

By revkev

I got into a discussion yesterday with an acquaintance regarding the recent publication of The 100-Minute Bible. This is the fruit of one man's efforts to trim down the Bible to about 1 hour and 40 minutes worth of reading. I've not seen this work yet. I've only read release articles and reviews/comments from others.

The discussion was primarily focused upon the "usefulness" of such a tool to reach out to those who would "never" read the Bible on their own. Conversation turned a bit heated when one piped up and accused me of simply needing to have all my correct theological boxes ticked in order to be appeased. I wasn't looking to have all my boxes of theological correctness ticked. And, while the 100-minute Bible may be "a gate" to some to read the Bible, one of my concerns is that mostly church-goers will pick it up and hope they can settle in for this version instead of taking the time to dig a bit deeper.

Not having seen a copy of this condensed version of Holy Writ, I can't make any comments about it specifically. I would want to know: who were the editors, what portions did they leave in (and why) and what portions did they leave out (and why). My initial digging (about 5 minutes worth of time through Google) turns up that the bulk are selected stories about the life of Jesus. Fine as it stands if the person reading knows absolutely nothing about who Jesus is. Maybe that works better in England where Jesus is more a swear word than anything else, I don't know (forgive me, all my English brothers/sisters). But here in America, Jesus is still recognized for who He is at the center of Christianity. And people all over this country can profess to "know" Jesus and to believe "Jesus". But if, in this encapsulated presentation, significant portions of Romans or Galatians or Ephesians or 1 John are left out, then the full gospel is not getting presented.

I'll hold off further comments until I see more of this publication. I fear that many will consider this to be enough, unless pursued by those who give this book to them. Personally, my sinful nature tells me I would love a 100-minute Christianity. It would be so much easier, so much more trouble-free and hassle-free without all those commands and requirements. But Jesus Himself tells each one to "count the cost" of following him (was this part included in the 100-minute Bible?). Taking up the cross surely involves more than this and it's my understanding that even the unbelieving one is to take this into consideration.

The argument from the "opposing side" took the turn toward "Well, non-christians simply aren't going to read the whole Bible, so why not just give them a portion of it? It's better than nothing or than them reading The DaVinci Code." I realize that in this "choice" my critique-er was merely citing examples, not leaving these as the only three choices remaining to an unbeliever. At least, I hope this is what he intended. If not, then I fear he had become needlessly reductionistic in the opposite direction. I'm not sure where one gets the idea they have to read the entire Bible for it to count (at least in this sense, the publishers of the 100-minute Bible got it right). The Gideons International (www.gideons.org) could provide you countless examples of men & women all over the world who have only read a portion of Scripture and come to Christ as the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin and regeneration to them. But I at least give great credit to the Gideons in giving out the Scriptures, in many cases, simply the New Testament.

Another turn in the road of this discussion came with the "weight of the Engels Scale." Well, I'm not familiar with the Engels Scale so I can't really comment. But, given the context (now there's an important word in this dialog: "context" - I'd like to see what the editors do with context in this publication), I'm assuming it's a study/scale done to show how certain "in-roads" are made by offering smaller hurdles or barriers to the main goal/object. Forgive me if I'm wrong in that assumption. Again, however, it seems like some have made this an all or nothing consideration: "You must read the whole Bible or nothing at all! This 100-Minute thingy just won't cut it here!" I already stated, this simply isn't the case.

Near the end, the dialogue went the route of "lifestyle evangelism." "Being who we are and living the life is the most powerful witness of all" is the banner that flies over this "paper fortress." Those of us who are reserving praise or even daring to criticize this release are accused of being hastily judgmental. I mean, really, who are we to judge? (Problem here with this attitude is that the ones resorting to this accusation fail to think through what Scripture means when it tells us not to judge others. Scripture is not telling us to throw discernment out the window; it's telling us that we cannot judge a person's heart - only God can do that. But when it comes to many external matters, we are to judge... use discernment.) I, for one, am all for living the life, but I must take Biblical exception that it's the most powerful witness of all. I would like to see biblical references for this.

On the "most powerful" side of things, I think Paul tells us where the power is: Rom. 1.16 — For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [Paul doesn't add anything here about our personal testimony or life's example, although I think he would say that supplements the gospel if it's a positive example and a detriment if negative] Rom. 10.13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” Rom. 10.14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” Rom. 10.16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

It is very clear here that faith, if & when it comes to each unbeliever will come as the Gospel is declared from the Word of God. My biggest concern with the "lifestyle evangelism" of today is that in most areas of, at least America, it's not working because we think that our actions will be enough when God Himself tells us that the gospel must be preached/told. The church in this country (I can't speak for England; I'll let the English brothers/sisters speak up here) has failed miserably at this and I think it is in large part, due to our willy-nilly pursuit of the pragmatic over the holy, the methodology over the message. We think if we "dumb it down enough" then people will come flooding through our church doors. Jesus spoke as plainly as anyone could ever have spoken about the gospel... to multitudes... and not that many followed. It really is in the hands of God's free sovereign grace.

Anyway, I apologize for this lengthy "rant" but I wanted to be clear on thoughts/opinions/facts... at least the ones I put out there in cyber-space.

By His Grace For His Glory,

Kevin Pastor, Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church Rochester, MN

Assurance

2005-09-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

"Assurance is not of the essence of a Christian. It is required to the bene esse (the well-being), to the comfortable and joyful being of a Christian; but it is not requried to the esse, to the being of a Christian."

Thomas Brooks, Heaven On Earth, p.15

Most evangelical Christians race to get a "new convert" convinced of the assurance of his or her salvation.

"You admit that you're a sinner?"
"Yes, I do."
"And you believe that Christ died for your sins?"
"Yes, yes, I believe."
"So you want to pray this little prayer? I'll lead you and your just repeat the words after me... okay?"
"Okay."
After the prayer...
"Now you're a Christian."
"I guess, but I don't feel any different."
"But you prayed that prayer, right?"
"Right."
"Then you're a Christian and you can now have the assurance of your salvation."
"What's that?"
"It's the confidence that no matter what happens from this point on, you're a Christian and will always be a Christian and that you'll go to heaven."
"No matter what?"
"That's right, no matter what; no matter how you live or whether you go to church or whether you love & cherish Christ's glory here on earth or............"

Well, now you're starting to see my point, aren't you. There are forms of evangelical Christianity that want to get as many saved as possible and get them their assurance, but are they offering an empty gift box? Is there anything of substance to what they offer? And is this assurance something they can offer in the first place.

All this is not to say that we can’t have assurance here on earth, prior to heaven, of our salvation and our future hope in glory. We can. Much of the purpose of Scripture is to help us obtain this assurance. The example of thousands of believers would tell us this is so. Even God has promised us assurance: John 14.21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. We, as Christians, are exhorted to “make our calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1.10). So, obviously, we can have assurance in this life.

But, as Brooks so wonderfully points out, there are many who fail to achieve it in this lifetime and for good reason. There are hindrances and barriers that keep so many from it. There are times when God Himself withholds the comforting joy of assurance from His people. Perhaps He’s testing the true motive of the heart: “Do I want the assurance of my salvation so I won’t ever have to ‘work at it’ again?” Or, “Do I want assurance because I’ve spent myself zeroing in on Christ and His words, yet I just don’t seem to have the sense that all is as it should be?”

May the knowledge of God’s truth, accompanied with faith, evidenced through repentance and obedience, saturated with love, bathed in prayer and lived out in perseverance guide you to, as Brooks calls it, “heaven on earth.”

Pastor Kevin

My Pride and Asking For Forgiveness

2005-09-08T14:29:00.000-05:00

Pride. If unbelief is the root of the tree of all sin in my heart, then pride is the great trunk growing upward from those roots. And from this trunk come all branches, twigs, leaves and fruit of that sin of unbelief. Pride. It's what gets hurt when I'm confronted with a sin I've committed. Even seemingly "little sins" like using badly phrased comments in trying to motivate people to rejuvenate existing ministries within the church. I'll so often speak without a great deal of forethought to my words and their affect upon those serving. Pride. It's what must get put to death within me. Take the axe and lay it to the root; slay the beast within that seeks to raise it's ugly head; hammer & tong, axe & saw, torch & flame... get rid of it. Oh Lord, forgive me my pride and my unbelief. I confess that I rely upon my own "quick-on-my-feet" abilities rather than trustful reliance upon You, Your Spirit and Your Word. Forgive me. And may those I've hurt forgive also in Your time.

By His Grace For His Glory,
Pastor Kevin

My Pride and Asking For Forgiveness

2005-09-08T13:08:00.000-05:00

Walking Like Enoch

2005-09-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

Genesis 5.21-24 (NASB95): 21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. 22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

There's a wonderful promise in Isaiah 40.31:
Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Waiting upon the Lord: trusting Him, looking to Him by faith in Christ Jesus, clinging to all He promises to be and do for us in Christ Jesus. This is a glorious promise.

Enoch, long before this promise was ever given, was a faithful believer in the God of this promise. Enoch lived during a time in which darkness was encroaching fast upon man. In just 3 generations, God would be so "put out" with the sin of mankind that He would bring a terrible judgment upon the earth (Gen. 6.1-6). But Enoch was not like this. So different was he than the rest of mankind that God blessed him with not having to die a physical death. The curse of Adam was lifted off this one man. And all because he walked with God.

Walking clearly implies a continual process. And throughout Scripture, life is to be found in walking with God. By faith, we walk... we fulfill our covenant obligations which we have with God in Christ Jesus. May we find the way to walk in a pleasing manner (Hebrews 11.5) and be so unlike the world around us that Christ is glorified, God is pleased and others can see the testimony in our life.

By His Grace For His Glory,

Pastor Kevin

My first blog!

2005-09-07T13:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I've finally come of age in the 21st century. Here I am, a 47-year-old man who's used computers since 1987 and been internet savvy for almost as long and I'm just now getting to blogging. As you can tell from the title, this will be random thoughts from a cluttered mind. Maybe, just maybe, by putting some of those random thoughts down here, I'll un-clutter my mind just a bit! We'll see.