Contend Earnestly

Closed Up Shop

2011-09-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

This blog is officially closed. If you want to see a wider glimpse of who I am and what I am about...check out the new blog called, "McBee's Musings"

Rethinking Baptism: Part 2

2011-08-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

So, Why Get Baptized?

Let’s look to the source of Jesus’ command, found in Matthew 28:18-21

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This has been broken down many times before, so I am not going to labor in completely deconstructing this popular passage. It does involve this: Jesus’ power and presence; going (really “as one goes along in life”); making disciples; baptizing, teaching.
I believe that when asking this question of baptism and why we are to do it, it comes directly from this passage and also from Jesus’ baptism found in the gospels.

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,
and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 3:16-4:1

What I want to direct our attention to is those who say, “We get baptized because Jesus did it?” The question comes in “Why was Jesus baptized and how does it relate to our baptism?”
This is the thrust of this paper.

1. We are baptized to show our new identity, as Jesus was

Jesus, from what we can gather from the Scriptures, was known merely as Joseph’s son, the carpenter’s son (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3), few (Luke 2:25-34) knew him to be the coming Messiah, or God’s son. When Jesus came out of the water, God spoke this:

“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

This both speaks to a new, revealed identity (I am not saying Jesus wasn’t God’s Son before this, but this is where he is identified as such) and also to the fulfillment of Scripture that spoke of the coming one, the coming Messiah.

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Psalm 2:7

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen one in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the nations.
Isaiah 42:1

The same is said of us. We are now new creatures with a new identity. Instead of being a son of Adam, we become a son of God. Instead of being a servant of this world, we become a servant of the risen King. Instead of being filled with the power of our flesh being sent to fulfill the kingdom of the world, we are filled with the Spirit and become a sent one of the Kingdom of God.

We see this as we are given a new name in Matthew 28. We have a new Father, we have a new King, who is the Son of God and we have the new Spirit of God with his power abiding within us. So, as we are now disciples of Jesus, we are now sons & daughters, servants and sent ones. Baptism reveals this new identity.

2. We are commissioned to make disciples with this new power, as Jesus was.

Notice what happens in Jesus’ baptism. The Spirit of God descended upon him. We know that Jesus wasn’t “saved” at this point, nor was Jesus now officially deified, but why did the Spirit come down upon Jesus? I believe it is important to note what happened directly after this. After his baptism, the Spirit led him to the wilderness. Jesus’ public ministry started. He was now commissioned to make disciples. It was important for Jesus to start by resisting temptation (although he had been doing this in all the years leading up to this point as well), because he wasn’t making disciples of another, but of himself. So, part of his ministry was perfection for our sake so he could be our perfect high priest. After being led to the wilderness, Luke mentions this:

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:14-21

You could say that he let the cat out of the bag. Luke starts this passage with, “in the power of the Spirit…” For whatever reason, after Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descended and his ministry of making disciples started.

This is what I believe we’ve been missing from the reason we are to be baptized. When one repents and believes and then is baptized, something miraculous happens. It is not that they are saved, because upon belief they are sealed inwardly by the Spirit (Romans 6; Eph 1:13; 4:10) but the commissioning of making disciples under your new name and under your new power is established. Notice that Matthew 28:18-21 is bookended by Jesus’ authority and him always being with us as we go.

One might ask the obvious question, “But I know many who make disciples without ever being baptized, what is the consequence?” I’m not sure that we’ll ever know the consequence of not understanding this commissioning aspect of baptism. It is like asking the question, “If one believes that women shouldn’t be elders, yet the church is growing, where’s the consequence?” Sometimes these questions of disobedience aren’t so quick to reveal the consequences, but might be better understood as what would happen if the command and deeper truth was realized in that person’s life. It’s like one saying they are satisfied in looking at pictures of Hawaii, yet have never stepped foot on her beaches.

What I believe about baptism is that we should do it because:
- We are commanded
- Jesus did it
- It is a proclamation of our new identity

But, I also believe there is a deep connection of the Spirit’s power, because of the authority of Christ, for us to be commissioned to make disciples of our King.

This speaks clearly of why we see every instance of baptism of new disciples happening so quickly after they repent and believe. Those that repent and believe, those that are now followers of Jesus, given a new name, should be now baptized to receive this enormous gift given to us through baptism with water because they now have a new power and a new purpose.
So, yes, we are to be baptized because Jesus was, but if we miss why Jesus was baptized, we miss out on the fullness of us following in the ways and purposes of Jesus.

Rethinking Baptism: Part 1

2011-08-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

Before I start, I should begin by letting the reader know that I have always been a believer of credo baptism, or believer’s baptism. Meaning, I believe that baptism is administered only to those who repent and profess faith in Jesus because of his sinless life, his perfect death and powerful resurrection. So, this paper will not involve the discussions that have led to divisions between the paedo (child) and credo baptism crowd. This paper is to discuss the reasons why someone should be baptized and importance of it.

When growing up and seeking to understand baptism I was told many things about baptism and why we administer it within the church. Some of these reasons were this:

It’s a public proclamation of one’s faith
It’s a picture to show on the outside, what happened on the inside
We do it because Jesus did it and he commanded it and we want to be like Jesus
It’s to bring someone into the Christian community

I guess I want to question some of these and then add something I believe that has been missing from our thoughts on baptism, or at least missing from the communities that I have hung around in the past.

Public Proclamation

Many I know of believe that all baptisms should be done in the public of some sorts. What I find interesting is that it’s not public that they desire, but it actually happens within the church walls, where very little of the unbelieving public gather. What I find to be more consistent in the Scriptures is not that it had to happen in public, but it happened immediately with the one who repented and believed. We aren’t sure how much of the “public” were at some of these places (i.e. households, eunuch by his chariot, Lydia by the river with other women), but the seemingly solid stream of evidence points more to the immediacy of baptism, not the place or those present. So, while it may be a proclamation of sorts (so are many other things we do), I’m not sure this is the fullness of the “why” in getting baptized.

It’s A Picture

Although this might be true, there just isn’t a great deal of evidence that points to this fact. We can try and connect some dots between baptism in water with the baptism of the Spirit shown to us in Romans 6, but the actual evidence of this being the reason for water baptism, seems to be lacking. I believe the two are connected, but as you will see below, I believe they are connected much deeper than a mere picture.

We do it because Jesus did it and commanded us to

I don’t believe this is good enough, and as you speak to a postmodern world, they won’t believe this is good enough either. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do what God tells us to do, but as we explain baptism, we shouldn’t merely say, “Do it because God said so.” Our God is one that usually explains things to us, instead of “because I said so.” Now, I know that our parents have conditioned us to just do things because they said so, but this usually isn’t how God operates. There might be times where we do things God calls us to without knowing fully the “why” but most of the time, God operates as a Father who desires for his children to know the reason why he has a command, not merely “do what I say and deal with it.” Because of this, maybe we should ask the “why” Jesus did it and why he commanded it.

It’s to bring someone into the Christian community

I agree to an extent with this statement, but I believe it to be much fuller than this. Meaning, if one believes that you should be baptized so you can be in a new community, this seems to lack in argument for why someone should desire this. If we are dealing with God and his ways, this has to be larger than a particular culture and a particular time we live in. The reason I say this is the mere fact that most don’t have to be baptized to be in community today and most understand within Protestant circles that baptism doesn’t save you. Because of this, if this is the reason why we get baptized, few will be persuaded. Most will show you the Christian community that they are in and have never been baptized. Although they might be kept from some membership rosters, few will care and actually be glad that they aren't considered members of particular churches, because it gets them out of going to business meetings. Not only that, but the Eunuch in Acts 8 didn’t return with Philip but continued in the life and occupation that God had given him to live. So maybe this is deeper than a mere physical community.

Next time we'll get into, "Then, why get baptized?"

Christians Are a Bunch of Swindlers

2011-06-07T14:15:00.001-07:00

I got the chance to get coffee with one of my buddies and brothers from Soma, Chris Thomas. Chris is a really cool dude that is trying to understand each day what it means to follow Jesus. He brought up this quote today as we were talking...it's money ball.

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand it, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world’? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

- Søren Kierkegaard
Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard
Charles Moore, ed.

Quoted in Keith Giles’ book This Is My Body: Ekklesia As God Intended, p. 60

Principles for Reading the Book of Proverbs

2011-05-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

This is taken straight from the end of the book by Tremper Longman on "How to Read Proverbs", which I highly recommend.

1. Keep in mind the structure of the whole book of Proverbs as you read any part of it. In particular, make sure you read any passage of the book in the light of the imagery concerning the path and the two women that is developed in Proverbs 1-9 and reaches its climax in Proverbs 8-9.

2. Reflect on the parallelism of a proverb by asking how the second colon sharpens or intensifies the thought of the first.

3. Identify the imagery in the passage, then unpack it by asking how the two things compared are similar and how they are different.

4. Think about the source of the wisdom of a passage. Does it come from observation, experience, tradition, revelation or any combination of these sources?

5. Is the passage an observation, a bit of advice, a warning, a reflection, or some other kind of teaching?

6. Since proverbs are not true in any and every circumstance, ask under what circumstances the proverb may or may not apply to a situation. How can you tell?

7. Does the proverb mention or imply a reward or punishment that will result from obedience or disobedience?

8. If the passage is addressed to a young man, ask how it applies to you.

9. Using a commentary, study the Near Eastern background of the passage you are considering.

10. When doing a topical study, read through the book of Proverbs and pinpoint the relevant verses. Group them together, then study each group.

11. Try to identify biblical stories or characters who may illustrate the truthfulness of the proverb(s) you are studying.

12. Does the New Testament address the topic or teaching of the passage you are studying?

13. Think of Christ as the fulfillment of wisdom and how he might illustrate the wisdom of the passage you are reading.

Proverbs: The Way of Wisdom

2011-05-03T09:55:00.001-07:00

We are starting a preaching series through the Proverbs and one of our pastors gave this to us as a topical index for us preachers. It is nice and concise and one that will aid people in after the understanding of the depth and cornerstone of wisdom, namely Christ. I thought it would be helpful to put it here: (If you'd like to hear our sermons on wisdom for the next 10 weeks you can check it out here: Renton; Tacoma; Issaquah)

The Human Heart - Advising the humble versus the fool.

3:11-12; 9:7-9; 12:1, 15; 13:1, 10, 13-14, 18; 15:5, 10, 12, 31, 32, 33; 17:10; 18:2, 15; 19:25, 27; 21:11; 23:9; 24:5-6; 25:12; 26:11; 27:5-6, 22; 28:13, 23; 29:1,9.

Negative influences pulling us away from wisdom - The compound effect of the fool

11:11; 14:34; 16:29; 20:7; 25:4-5; 28:10, 12, 28; 29:2, 8,16

Alcohol (and other drugs) – The danger of heavy drinking

20:1, 21:17; 23:19-21, 29-35; 31:1-9

Emotional Expression (both positive and negative - anger) - Controlling destructive emotions

15:18; 16:14; 19:11, 12, 19; 21:19; 25:23; 27:3-4; 29:8, 22

Words (Rumors, Gossip, Slander, Lies) - The destructive power of words

6:16-19; 9:7; 10:14, 18; 11:12, 13; 12:17-19, 22; 13:3, 16; 14:5, 25; 15:28; 16:28; 17:4, 27, 28; 18:3, 8; 19:1, 5, 9, 28; 20:18-19, 25; 21:6, 28; 24:28-29; 25:8-10, 18, 23; 26:4, 20, 22; 30:7-10.

Business ethics - Dealing with honesty and generosity

6:1-5; 10:2; 11:1, 15, 18, 24-26; 13:11; 14:23; 15:27; 16:8, 11, 13, 26; 17:18; 20:10, 14, 16, 23; 21:5; 22:7, 26-27; 26:10; 27:13, 18; 28:8, 16

Family Relationships (including the role of discipline in raising children) - The locus for instruction

6:16-19; 10:1; 15:20; 17:2, 6, 17, 21; 19:13, 18, 26; 20:7, 20; 22:6; 23:13-14, 22-25; 27:8; 28:7, 24; 29:3, 15, 17; 30:11, 17, 21-23

Conflict (including speaking/listening) - Speaking wisely at the right time

6:16-19; 8:6-9, 12-14; 10:6, 12, 18-21, 31, 32; 11:11-13; 12:6, 13, 14, 25; 13:2, 5, 16; 14:3, 5, 25; 15:1, 2, 4, 7, 18, 23, 28; 16:10, 13, 24, 28; 17:4, 7, 14, 19, 20, 27, 28; 18:4, 6-8, 13, 19-21; 19:5, 9, 11; 20:3, 19; 21:23; 22:10-11; 23:15-16, 29-30; 24:7-9, 26; 25:10-11, 14, 24; 26:17, 20, 21, 28; 27:14; 28:25; 29:5, 20, 22; 30: 5-6, 10, 14; 31:26

Friendship/Neighbors - The value of friendships

3:27-31; 6:1-5; 11:9, 12; 14:20; 16:29; 17:9, 17, 18; 18:17-24; 19:4, 6, 7; 20:6; 21:10; 22:11; 23:10-11; 24:28-19; 25:8, 9-10, 17, 18; 26:18-19; 27:9-10, 14, 17

Planning (including hard work) - Planning and working hard as a way of the wise

1:5; 6:6-11, 18; 10:4, 5, 26; 11:14; 12:5, 11, 20, 24, 27; 13:4; 14:22, 23; 15:19, 22, 26; 16:1-3, 9, 33; 18:9; 19:15, 21, 24; 20:4, 13, 18, 24; 21:5, 25; 22:13, 29; 24:6, 27, 30-34; 26:13-16; 27:1, 23-27; 28:19; 29:18; 31:27

Illness and Health - The relationship between spiritual health and physical health

3:7-8; 12:4; 13:12; 14:30; 15:30; 16:24; 17:22; 18:14

Authority - Leading in godliness and wisdom from God

8:15-16; 14:28, 35; 16:10, 12-15; 17:7; 19:12; 20:2, 8, 26, 28; 21:1; 22:11; 23:1-3; 24:21-22; 25:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; 27:18; 28:2, 15, 16; 29:4, 12, 14, 26; 30:21-23; 31:1-9

Reliable Messengers (and how this directly applies to us speaking the Gospel ) - Delivering messages with accuracy and in a timely manner

10:26; 13:17; 25:13, 25; 26:6

Protecting the Vulnerable - God’s concern for orphans and widows

15:25; 23:10-12

Shame - Praise belongs to the wise and shame to the proud

3:35; 6:32-33; 9:7; 11:2; 12:8; 13:18; 14:35; 18:3; 22:10; 25:8; 28:7; 29:15

Wealth and Poverty - The wealth of the fool is temporal; the wealth of the wise is in wisdom itself

3:9-10; 6:1-5; 8:18-19; 10:2, 3, 4, 15, 16; 11:4, 7, 15, 24, 28; 12:9; 13:7, 8, 11, 22, 23, 25; 14:20, 21, 24, 31; 15:15, 16, 17; 16:8, 19; 17:1, 5, 18; 18:11, 23; 19:4, 7, 10, 14, 17, 22; 20:17, 21; 21:6, 17, 20; 22:2, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 22-23; 23:4-5; 24:3-4; 27:13, 23-27; 28:3, 6, 8, 11, 16, 20, 25, 27; 29:3, 7, 13, 14; 30:7-9

An honorable wife - Avoid woman folly and seek woman wisdom

5:1-23; 6:20-35; 7:1-27; 11:22; 12:4; 14:1; 18:22; 19:13, 14; 21:9, 19; 22:14; 25:24; 27:15-16; 30:18-19, 20; 31:1-9, 10-31

Super True Stories: Best. Conspiracy. Ever. (Ep. 2)

2011-05-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Soma Communities: A Video

2011-04-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Soma Communities - Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

Interview With Pastor Tim Keller

2011-04-26T08:24:00.001-07:00

This interview's climax happens in the last minute. Speaks clearly of what I believe we, as the church, are called to be and do.

Pursuing Discipleship Leads to Death

2011-04-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

If you read my last post on discipleship, understanding that it starts the second you meet someone, the next thing I must warn you is that discipleship leads to death. Well, it leads to death if one does it the way that God has lead us to disciple. The title, "Pursuing Discipleship" is one that doesn't mean that we start trying to disciple, but it means that discipleship must be one that is a pursuing relationship.

The reason we must pursue others, is because it is clearly how God has always been towards, not only us, but towards all of man in all of history. Not only does God pursue, but he shows us the depth that he pursues and the characteristics of true Godly pursuit. Think of it.

God pursued Adam and Eve daily in the cool of the day

After they sinned...God pursued them in the garden asking, "Where are you?"

After kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden, God still pursued their children, Cain and Abel, for relationship

After Cain killed his brother, God pursued Cain and asked, "Where is your brother?"

As the story continues, sin was overflowing, but God pursued Noah.

God then pursued Abram and brought him out of the land filled with pagan gods and promised him a great nation that would glorify his name.

God gives us a clear understanding of how great his pursuit is when he tells the Israelites that he didn't choose them because they were strong, or some sort of great nation. It was merely because he truly loved them.(Deut 7:6-9)

This continues as God's nation is built and decides to leave him and intermarry with pagan countries, etc. When his people find trouble, God pursues them and saves them, but always desiring a relationship with them.

I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts
Isaiah 65:2

After pursuing this nation for hundreds of years through the prophets that weren't listened to (Jer 35:15) God finally showed how far he would go in this pursuing. He sent his Son to us. He literally came down to earth in the flesh to pursue us. This pursuit, the depth of this pursuit, shows us how far we are to go. Jesus died on the cross. He gave up his very life for us, not only that, but he is now "trapped" in the flesh, as an eternal Being, in a human body (although glorified, still flesh of some sort) for eternity. That's the depth of God's pursuit for us. Do you fathom this? That through all of this, all this pursuit, that even as the Christ is hanging on the cross, being spit on, he still pursues by asking the Father to forgive them.

Not only do we see this in the scriptures, but ask the Spirit to show you how much he has pursued you, even while you were yet a sinner. We clearly see that God has always pursued people, even though they rejected him.

So, the question comes, "What does Christ tell us if we turn to him, what is this going to cost us?"

Everything.

Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him. He tells us to be a living sacrifice, that to gain life, we are to lose it. This is the depth of discipleship.

So, now what?

If discipleship starts the second we meet people and begin relationship with them, when are we allowed to stop pursuing them? If we see how God has pursued man, and ultimately us, the answer is never. We are to pursue in love always. No matter the response from the other person. This is why we are to return evil with love. This is why we are to love our neighbor like ourselves.

Christendom has a terrible name of pursuing others like a zit faced teenager pining after the cheer captain that is out of reach. Once rejected, the cowardly teen grovels in self misery and pity. He then either gives up pursuing women entirely, or moves on to another in his pitiful state.

This isn't to be us. We are to pursue others as God pursued us. Not in some sort of annoying way, but in a way out of love for our neighbor to show them what God is like. When we "move on" or give up, we do not show off our God, but we show off what it looks like when we live by our own power with our own motives.

Our goal in discipleship is not to convert people, our goal is to show others what God is like. Period. We water, we plant...God grows. The problem is that we plant the seed and stare at it for a day and see no growth so we move on...leaving the seed feeling unloved and rejected by yet another crappy Christian farmer.

We have the very power of God living inside of us that raised Jesus from the dead. We don't serve some sort of beggar. We serve the King of kings. Lord of lords.

What if we lived like this? What if we lived in light of what Christ has done for us and the depth of pursuit he showed us to others? How would this change our community? How would this change our relationships? How would this change the views of the people of God?

This type of discipleship that pursues because we have been pursued and loved by God is one that will lead to death...death of self. Because as one pursues like this, we pursue those that don't want to be pursued, we pursue those that hate us in return, we pursue those that reject us over and over again. But, if our identity is found in Jesus and not our converts or how people react to us, it is a beautiful thing to die to that self.

Let me ask you. If Jesus told you, "Your neighbor will never turn to me, but will remain in his sin for eternity." Would you pursue him and love him like you love yourself still? Or would you stop the relationship and focus your efforts elsewhere? The answer to that question shows your heart why you are pursuing.

We should always pursue to show off what our God is like, not for the sake of what we'll gain from that pursuit and relationship, knowing that it lead our King to his death...but this death leads to life.

What Does it Mean to Make a Brother Stumble?

2011-04-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

One of the things that always comes up when you speak of tattoos, smoking, drinking, et al is the issue of making a brother stumble to show why one should abstain from doing those things at all. When one proof texts and reads current culture into the passages, they seem to have a great point and one that kept me under a heavy yoke for some time. What actually ended up happening is that this so called "weaker brother" kept me under his yoke of conscience instead of me being able to seek out Christ and his easy yoke and burden that is light. I kept trying to refrain from certain things because I was always worried that I would make a brother stumble and was so consumed by this, my life was more about the weaker brother and his issues than the glorifying of God in my actions and actually loving the weaker brother.

We have extremes here that need to be pointed out. One extreme is like the one mentioned above, where we worry about everything, whether it is sin or not and abstain from it all. The other extreme is we say, "screw the weaker brother" and we do whatever we want without care. Like most orthopraxy, extremes suck and fly in the face of Christ and his cross and, so, we need to find the correct balance and test it to Scripture. I want to do some defining to search out how we should live within the context of the weaker brother and what it means to make him stumble.

First, what is a "weaker brother"?

We find the main passages concerning the weaker brother in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 and also in Romans 14. The weaker brother is the one who wishes to abstain from certain things. They are not the mature in the body, but they are the weak needing care. These people would be those who abstain from things that are not sinful, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, getting tattoos and of course eating meat sacrificed to idols. But, if you know the context of 1 Corinthians 8, 10 and Romans 14 we are not speaking of people who have merely been told that these things were sinful, but have a deep bond that ties the conscience to them. The weaker brother would be someone who has been addicted to smoking or alcohol, or who has a family history of addiction to these things. The weaker brother would be someone who came from a tribe who used to tattoo themselves for the sake of their pagan gods. The weaker brother is one who was in an idolatrous nation that sacrificed meat to gods for worship. These things are deeply entrenched in who they are and what they are about. These things identify them with the "old self."

The weaker brother is NOT someone who has issue with these things because of their culture and how they were brought up. One is not a mere weaker brother because they have always been taught that smoking is a sin or that drinking alcohol is a sin. Paul goes much deeper than this and is found when he uses the term to "destroy" the weaker brother (which we will handle later).

Paul and Jerusalem Council are dealing with a much deeper issue than someone not liking meat sacrificed to idols, they were dealing with an issue that was deeply ingrained in the people that practiced idolatry in a way that was demonic and part of every day life that associated one with the devil. Again, it would be the same as getting a tattoo for the dead in Leviticus 19:28 to worship some pagan deity. This was binding on the conscience, not because it was "odd" to them, or they were uncomfortable with it, but they were dealing with demonic opposition and something that identified them with their old self when their father was the devil.

So, the weaker brother is not merely some nutcase that wants you to abstain from something they don't like, the weaker brother is someone who is coming from an old life in sin, that is dealing with those things associated directly with their sin. Again, think of pagan worship in sacrifices when thinking of 1 Corinthians 8,10 and Romans 14.

Making the Weaker Brother Stumble

Now that we see what is means to be a weaker brother, we need to look at making that brother stumble. This term stumble is used almost synonymously with Paul using the term "destroy". Paul isn't speaking of making someone look at you in a light that is odd. It isn't making someone uncomfortable, but it is literally making them stumble into sin. It would be like you handing someone a beer that you know is an alcoholic and telling them to drink. You, in your freedom, have made the weaker brother stumble or have destroyed them. The thought is putting something (a rock) in the road that they are walking on so that they will trip and severely hurt themselves.

People use this for all sorts of things, as though we must have a swivel on our heads to make sure people don't look at us and think we are sinning. This isn't what Paul is speaking on. If this is the case, then Jesus was a sinner. He did things all the time that made people think he was a sinner, but he didn't make them sin. Think of the Pharisees of those that wear suits to church, don't drink, don't smoke, don't play cards, don't watch certain movies, listen to certain music. They do this so that they "will not make someone stumble", but in reality are showing that your sanctification and righteousness comes in what you don't do instead of whom you trust in. Jesus was not for this. What is interesting is that the term "stumble" can be both positive and negative. You can make someone stumble into sin, or make them stumble into righteousness.

"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame."Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone,"and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

1 Peter 2:6-8

This is the point that no one actually brings up. If someone is trying to be self righteous in their abstention, the best thing you can do is be a stumbling block to them so that they can see that Christ is the corner stone of their faith, not their abstention for self righteousness. This brother, that abstains for the sake of self righteousness (which none of them will admit) is not the weaker brother, but the prideful brother that needs to be shown their sinful acts. This is why Jesus didn't care if he drank in public, ate with the sinners and loved the hookers. He did it partly to show the self righteous Pharisees their stupidity. We find further evidence of this when Peter has his vision and then eats with the Gentiles. Notice what the self righteous Jews do:

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."
Acts 11:2

Did Peter then decide to abstain from eating with them? No, he corrected their self righteous thoughts by telling them the vision of God and using this an opportunity to show the gospel to them. Here is the key. Someone who loves Jesus and not their self righteous deeds will react to this by not condemning the brother living in his freedom but will praise God.

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
Acts 11:18

Could this have been a stone of stumbling for these Jews? Yes. Did Peter refrain, or teach? He taught. Their reaction is an insight to their heart towards the love of God. They reject their self righteousness and cling to their new found Saviour.

So, Now What?

How are we to handle this then? You will notice that Paul has a huge point that he makes when speaking of refraining, and it does not mean that he will refrain always, only when he is knowingly among those whom bears a conscience against meat sacrificed to idols. People like to use Paul's hyperbolic term to bear witness against this when Paul says, "Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble." Paul is using this in speaking to someone he is directly in relationship with at all times, not for the sake of believers out there somewhere who have issues with this. Meaning, if Timothy had issues with this, Paul would never eat meat in fellowship with Timothy. He doesn't mean, he will literally never touch meat again. We see this clearly in the following:

If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake — the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:27-31

Paul states to enjoy your freedom, but to refrain when among someone who has a conscience against something. So, if I am going to a nation of tribes who once used tattoos to worship their god, I will cover up my tattoos. I will do this because this is something that is personal to them and hard for them to take. I will also cover up my tattoos if I go into a home where I know tattoos used to be a way for the person to sin against God in rebellion and they are trying to refrain from such things. I do this with those I KNOWLINGLY have deep issues with certain things that is related and identified to their old life of sin. So is the case with having a vegan over to my house, an alcoholic or someone who was addicted to smoking.

But, it doesn't stop here. You don't just refrain when you see these people, but you take the opportunity to teach them. You must teach the weaker, and not allow them to "turn you" into their weaker conscience. This was huge for the ministry of Christ. He was the one teaching the weaker, the weaker were not teaching him to turn to their ways. So, we should deal with the gospel with these people and love and aid them to the grace and freedom found at the cross.

Refrain out of love and teach out of love so that they may be won to the victory of the cross. There is a balance here. But, to throw out the "you might make a brother stumble" has become another way to control the actions of others to make them think they are more righteous. This is sin and contrary to the gospel. Also, those who freely do whatever they want without taking consideration of the TRUE weaker brother and don't take the opportunity to teach them in word and action what the Gospel is truly about, also sin.

We must live and teach the gospel to others without allowing them to bound up our actions so that we find the gospel as a restrictive gospel instead of a freeing one.

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Matthew 11:29-30

Who is God? A Mere List of Facts?

2011-04-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:31-32

In discipleship we have taken this and flopped it. We start like this:

Know the truth

Be set free

Follow Jesus

because of this, many people have never actually seen what God is like, they only know facts about him. They can list off many things:

He is loving, gracious, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere, infinite, provider, caring, passionate.

Here is the issue... We never fall in love with anyone by a list of things we know of them when it's made like a grocery list. I was speaking to a young woman who said she was struggling with her faith, and very confused on who God was and struggled as well because this confusing God was also the very one she was supposed to tell her friends about, strangers about, neighbors about. She would list off all the things above but for some reason they didn't like her algarhythm of a god.

I then pressed into her.

She has a boyfriend so I asked her: What if I were trying to introduce you to your boyfriend before you guys met and I said:

He has two eyes, two legs, a face, hair, a mouth, he eats, he hugs people and he wears clothes.

Will you be so caught up about him that you'd fall in love with him?

She laughed and said of course not. I said, "how have you fell in love with him?" She responded with: our time in relationship with each other. Exactly. She spent time with and walked in relationship and life with him to see what he was like. So much so, that if I were to tell her, " Your boyfriend is a thief and a liar" you wouldnt believe me, because of your understanding of who he is and what he is like.

This is how it is with God. He has always wanted relationship with us, so we could show off what he is like to the entire world. This is why discipleship starts with the first time we have contact with a person. We show off what God is like as we walk in God's ways. Because we aren't merely memorizing facts about God, but actually experiencing those facts in relationship with him, we can show him clearly to others. So, instead of just saying God provides, we see that he provides as we lean on his provision and wisdom. We don't merely call him comforter, but we have experienced his comfort during our lives. These things are what we then show off to others as we live in community with them. Up close. So, when they begin to trust in Jesus, they've already seen what a disciple does and experienced it. Because of this, they have a relationship with God and not merely head knowledge that was proven to be more believable than the alternative.

Where did we get so off track? We've never had relationships like this. We've never merely known facts about someone and said we were in intimate relationship with them. . But, we can see many people that are living this way. They believe this list of facts, then they work the rest of their lives trying to do things to prove that God is real and true, the same way they know it. In reality, they've never been set free. They are still a slave. Jesus' burden is heavy, not light. And, in the end, the gospel isn't good news and it definitely doesn't bring great joy. Maybe this is the reason why so many pastors and Christians are burnt out...they have a relationship with a spreadsheet of facts instead of walking in the ways of Jesus in real relationship with the Father that sets them free, brings great joy, and who's burden is light.

We need to go back to discipleship that starts with walking with others as we walk with God in the cool of the day, so they'll know the truth and so that truth sets them free as it has set us free.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts

2010-12-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

If you are in a crunch and you need some gifts here are some quick music ideas. I have recently bought all three of these and they are all very well done. I highly recommend you buy them for someone else or treat yourself with a little love this consumerism time of year...I mean Christmas.

The Merry Way: Deput EP is a short 7 track CD that shows off the voice of Brittany Alvis and musical talents of her husband Mark Alvis. These two, although I personally don't know them, are apart of my Soma family in Tacoma.

Grace, by Joe Day from Mars Hill has some fresh songs and some songs I've had for years in my library, but are remixed very well.

The Story: Vol 1 is by far my favorite album of the year. It combines a bunch of talent out of my family in Soma. The skills of Aaron Spiro, Trevor Davis, Brittany Alvis and Holly Campbell are amazingly displayed. I can't recommend this album enough. And, when you buy it, listen to it all the way through without skipping songs or pushing shuffle...just sit back and hear the Story of God displayed through song. Stunning.

The Story: Volume 1

2010-12-21T09:25:00.000-08:00

In Tacoma, a group of musicians and songwriters formed around the Story and wrote songs in response to what they had experienced during their time together. The songs they wrote and shared with each other were beautiful, powerful, and life-changing. They showcased these songs live at a monthly songwriter showcase in Tacoma. These events became an important time each month in our city as crowds gathered to hear these new songs that touched on eternal truths. The songs weren’t preachy or churchy, but were written from the heart—exposing weakness, need, grace, and hope.

This offering represents our first effort to record and share these songs—these stories—with you, your families, and friends. We hope they will encourage you as much as they encourage us. Any money made from the sale of this music will go to fund future recordings and new churches being started. Thanks for helping us continue on this amazing journey. There are more songs where these came from, so keep your eyes and ears open for the future...

creditsreleased 19 December 2010
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Produced by Buddy Ross
Executive Producer: Aaron Spiro

Mastered by Chris Greely at Solid Rock in Portland, OR
Mixed by Buddy Ross except Isaiah 60 mixed by Chris Greely and Good, Right, Perfect mixed by Buddy Ross and Chris Greely.

The Story of God narratives can be found at

www.gcmcollective.com/article/story-formed-way

Stay God and Hell to Pay appear courtesy of The Merry Way. www.themerryway.bandcamp.com

Art direction, design & photography by Mark Alvis www.alvisdesign.com

We would love to see other communities of artists respond to the story though art & music. Please share your excellent work with us - contact us! We would love to collaborate! Send to: Story@somacommunities.org.

www.somacommunities.org
www.trevordavismusic.com
www.aaronspiro.com
www.brittanyalvis.com
buddy.buddyross@gmail.com
holly.campbell@gmail.com

A Social Network Christmas

2010-12-15T15:57:00.001-08:00

What if This Christmas Was Different? What if...

2010-12-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

Go to the Advent Conspiracy to see how you can help

The Advent Conspiracy

2010-12-08T14:12:00.001-08:00

Go to the Advent Conspiracy to see how you can help

The 4 G's

2010-10-26T12:43:00.001-07:00

Hairy Legs and the Kingdom of God

2010-10-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

I was at an event this past weekend called, Jesus in the Quran, and was caught off guard when I heard one verse read from the gospel of Luke. I actually looked it up to make sure he wasn't making it up. Check this out:

The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.
Luke 16:16

This is Jesus speaking here, and he is speaking to the Pharisees. Think about this...the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. This is quite amazing. This idea of "forces" is also seen as someone pushing themselves into the kingdom in a forceful manner...like they can't wait to enter because of what they have heard preached. Now, I am not denying God's sovereign rule here, so don't read that. But, the question has to come, "Why aren't people around you (me) forcing their way into the kingdom?"

Some will say that is because they are like Jeremiah, who brought the oracles of God and it was just God's will for him to be "unsuccesful" in the eyes of the world. But what if it isn't? What if what we are preaching is causing people to be turned off to the gospel? What if we have created our own Gospel, that isn't good news at all? Think of this. Just after this Jesus brings up that not one jot of the law will be destroyed, yet people will force their way into the kingdom. Meaning, the only way the Pharisees were going to keep people out of the kingdom is if they ADD to the law and the prophets, which they did plenty of.

I remember when I was in middle school, or somewhere around there, and I learned that some women around the world didn't shave their legs or arm pits. I was honestly disgusted. I couldn't believe it. How could women not understand that in order to be beautiful, they needed to shave? Not only that, but the dudes didn't mind if their women had hair all over their bodies...seriously?

Throughout my life, the more I learn about other cultures, the more I learn what is truly Western, or cultural, and what is actual truth. As I read something like this in Luke's gospel, I wonder if people aren't pushing, or forcing their way into the kingdom of God because we aren't making Jesus look as glorious as he should be? What if we have created such a Western, consumeristic Jesus that he looks disgusting instead? What if it is more about accepting a certian cultural standard than what the gospels actually speak about?

Not only that, but what if what we preach, we don't live? So, not only do we preach a Western Jesus, but we aren't even willing to follow that Western Jesus? How much of the gospel do we need to bastardize before we wake up and see the lives we are ruining?

Jesus said this:

My yoke is easy, my burden is light.

Seems like we are creating some sort of quasi secret club, where you need to climb the levels of understanding and culture to be redeemed.

What is amazing about this, is that the gospel is so simple that the theif on the cross merely believed and was said that he would see Jesus in paradise.

We have lost our first love...belief in Jesus and his power. Not only that, but we refuse to live like he calls us to. We don't love our neighbors, we don't love, pray for or bless our enemies, we aren't peacemakers, we aren't humble, etc. etc. etc.

Return to the gospel and look to see where you have Westernized the good news and get rid of that as a requirement to enter the kingdom. If it is your conviction, that is fine, but don't put your conviction onto others, or they might never force their way into the kingdom.

Lesson from Butterfly...Sent to Me From a Local Muslim Imam

2010-09-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me from a local Imam who has become very close friends with one of my good friends. He is a very gentle man who very much loves God and desires to worship him in all aspects of his life. I thought you would enjoy this and think about how conversations about the different faiths could spring from a story like this one.

About Struggling...

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Allah's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If Allah allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never "fly"!

I asked for Strength.........
And Allah gave me Difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom.........
And Allah gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity.........
And Allah gave me Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage.........
And Allah gave me Danger to overcome.

I asked for Love..........
And Allah gave me Troubled people to help.

I asked for Favors.........
And Allah gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted .......
I received everything I needed!

Tips on Disciplining Your Children

2010-09-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

I have a read many things on the understanding of disciplining my children and try to be faithful in my love for them. The one thing I know for sure is, disciplining my children is very difficult. The reason is that to discipline them like God calls me to takes more time and more effort than if I were to merely yell at them, give them a time out or spank them. Not only that, but when I discipline them with a gospel intention, it brings my own sin and rebellious heart to the forefront. I have two boys, 7 and 4, so I would rather just wrestle them into submission and make them tap out. Although that would bring some quick satisfaction, the long term affects could be very odd.

On that note, here are some tips to aid you (and remind me) of how to discipline your children.

1. Use Scripture Always, Not Only in Discipline

I have noticed a lot of parents like to use Scripture when disciplining their child. What will happen to that child if every time they hear Scripture it is because they are in trouble? They will come to despise Scripture and see it as a rule book to follow. Completely the wrong message we should be giving them. Scripture should be used like it was intended. Scripture is a way to show us how to achieve our greatest joy for the glory of God. Redemption is at the center of this understanding of joy. It should be "used" as such.

We should be always speaking about the gospel, whether or not the child is in trouble or when the child is showing the love of Jesus to their sibling or friends. Let me give you an example. Ephesians 6:1 says, "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right." I have seen most use this verse only when kids are in trouble. But what about using it when the child DOES obey their parents? What about showing them why it is important to obey their parents? You have to give more than mere commands, you have to show them the truth of why it is God's command. Show them that the reason they should obey you, is because you want them to have the most joy in their lives and create the most joy in those that they are friends with. Show that you desire their joy and that is why you have different rules and such. Instead of seeing this verse as only a "negative" they see the wide truth claim it actually provides and it gives them a chance to see it's goodness. Think of telling them why you want them to look both ways before they cross the road. It isn't because you want to control them and make them stay where you want. You want them to look both ways to keep them safe, so they don't get hurt. When giving commands or using Scripture, you should always think of explaining it to them like you would when telling them to look both ways before crossing the road. With that truth, they see you as loving and not as controlling.

2. Be Just in Your Discipline, Pray About Your Discipline...and Mean It!

Make the punishment fit the crime. Don't under punish and don't over punish. So, if your child punches a kid in the face, don't merely tell him "that's okay, try not to do that." If your child sneaks cookies, don't ground them for three months and spank them every hour on the hour. I would highly recommend that you don't punish right away, unless it is something small. But, take time to tell them you are going to go to God in prayer to seek out his wisdom on what the punishment will be. This isn't just to show your child that you trust in God's wisdom, which it will do, but this is actually for you to seek out God's wisdom on the correct punishment.

Sometimes you won't even have to punish because if your child eats too much cookies, they might have a stomach ache and that is punishment enough...you just need to instruct them in those moments. So, don't always feel like you have to add punishment on top of the natural consequences that come with sin.

When you come to the decision of what the punishment will be, make sure that is the punishment that is carried out. If you say you are going to take away their toys, their blanket or whatever for a month...it better stand. They can see when you are weak, they can see when they can test you. Be careful what you say, but make sure that you mean what you say and carry it out.

Let your yes be yes, and your no be your no. If you say "no" to your child, mean it. Don't count, don't give them another chance, don't continually give in to your child. When you do, you are just showing them that if they keep at something, you will eventually give in. You are teaching them that persistence in sin pays off! If you only "mean it" on the third no, or when you get to the number three when counting...they will then push you to go that far before they stop. Your kids aren't stupid, they just want to know the boundaries.

In regards to this...make sure that you are always praying that God would have you discipline well and like Him and not like your selfish self. Always be praying for wisdom, so that when you need to discipline in haste, it will be godly and not out of a sinful heart that desires to be the authority. Praying about discipline shouldn't only happen at the time of incidents, but should be continual and persistant.

3. Do Not Discipline When You're Angry

No matter what...wait. Do not discipline when you are angry. You will say things you don't mean, you will not be patient, you will be harsher than you intend and you will have a lot of apologizing to do afterwards. My wife and I have an agreement. If either of us can see the other one getting angry in discipline, the other can tell the other one to dismiss themselves. We have agreed that we won't get angry, we won't respond, we won't fight it, but will trust the other one and remove ourselves from the situation. When discplining while angry you will always come off to the child as unloving and self righteous. You will never come off as one who is trying to seek out their joy and comfort. You will not be the one that they can trust, but just a crazy dictator that needs to be obeyed until they can move out.

4. Be Gospel Centered

You should never discipline without bringing it back to the gospel and the heart of the sinner. Always show off Jesus and his forgiveness in discipline. Make sure that your child understands this and sees how much Jesus, AND YOU, love them and forgives them. Don't make this a guilt trip of "look at what you did!" but make it all about the greatness of Jesus.

As an example. My kid got in trouble for throwing a ball inside the house after we told him to stop. We asked, "What is your sin?" He said, "Throwing the ball." We asked, "Is it a sin to throw a ball?" He replied, "No." We said, "So what is your sin?" He responded, "Not obeying you in telling me to not throw the ball." We continued, "So, are you desiring to obey your parents, or doing what you desire?"

Afterwards, we hand down the punishment, show him the cross and then we pray with him and then have him pray to Jesus for forgiveness.

Not only this, but we always include in our discipline the fact that mommy and daddy are sinners and do the exact same things that they do and also are in need of the gospel and the cross of Jesus. We make sure our children understand that mommy and daddy are not their saviour and are not the end all, but we are in as much need as they are of Jesus. BE TRANSPARENT IN THIS. Be real. Be a true sinner in front of your children calling out for grace. Make sure they understand you are in the same boat, and Jesus is the captain, not you.

5. Don't Be Scared to Show Grace

This freaks kids out. Think of it. Do you get physically punished every time you deserve it? There are times where we work everything out and then ask our kids, "How do you think you should be punished?" They'll come up with something and we'll correct where needed, and then we'll tell them we are not going to punish them but show them grace. This gives them a practical understanding of what grace is and the forgiveness shown in the cross. I have found this to be amazing to show off God and His good news. We don't want to raise legalists that think, "If I do good...good things happen, if I do bad...bad things happen...so I will do this, and not that." You want to raise children who obey you because they love you, and when they understand the gospel, they will want to serve God, because they love him, not to get good things from him or out of a thought that God will love them more because of their actions. Showing your kids grace is one of the best things you can do in discipline if you do it correctly with gospel intentions.

6. Speak to Them Literally at Their Level

Do not stand over your children when you discipline. Squat down, or sit down and look them in the eyes. They should never see you as some sort of "higher up" that is screaming down on them. Jesus came down from heaven to show us grace, we should take the time to merely squat down to speak to them eye to eye. This might sound small, but it shows more than you might think.

Discipline can be a very difficult subject to speak on or to approach. These are just a few things that my wife and I are continually trying to accomplish when we discipline. We are definitely not perfect and fail all the time. When we do, we go to our children and seek out their forgiveness, showing that we are not some "super Christian" that is over them and better than them. I know this isn't exhaustive, but these are the things that have really spoken to my wife and I on how to discipline with Jesus and his gospel being the center of it and not peripheral. To make this work, you can't just do this on the fly, but you must be continually in prayer, have open communication with your wife or husband and be ready to be consistent. This is a lifestyle, not something you can just do every once in a while.

I hope that this helps with those who have children and can show you how we have filtered the Scriptures so that the story of redemption is shown every day, including when they are being disciplined.

Materialistic Obsession: A Cartoon

2010-09-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

Atheists Know More About Religion? Not Surprising

2010-09-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

In a new survey it has shown that Atheists and Agnostics know more about religion than the average Protestant. If you want to read a short story on this, check out this news story here. But, if you think about it, they probably should. The reason I say this is that those who have a deep knowledge of religion and see its affects, no doubt will they become unbelievers of religion itself. This isn't surprising, nor is it troubling. When one looks at religion, specifically Christianity as a whole (putting both Catholicism and Protestantism in the same breath), it is pretty grotesque to look at and see any resemblance of Jesus. Why wouldn't those who have done a ton of study on religion become unbelievers? I honestly don't believe that many who call themselves atheists or agnostics have heard the true story of Jesus or those who actually follow him. What they have received is a look at what religion does to a people, instead of seeing those who are actually transformed by the good news of Jesus. One could call me an atheist to this kind of religion as well.

In the movie, The Book of Eli (a movie about a post apocalyptic world), one of the villains desperately wants a copy of the Bible because he desires to control the minds of others. He said, "it's happened once, it can happen again." What we see is that it has nothing to do with the Bible that causes people to sin and reign over people, but the person who uses it for their own gain. It's like a knife. It can either be used for open heart surgery to save a life, or used by a murderer to kill someone. The knife isn't the problem, the person is.

The main character in The Book of Eli, played by Denzel Washington, states this (talking about the Bible):

In all these years I've been carrying it and reading it every day, I got so caught up in keeping it safe that I forgot to live by what I learned from it.

If you have seen this movie, you will notice this is a very profound and timely quote.

When one then reads that atheists know more facts about the Bible than a lot of Protestants, many pastors will use this as sermon material to challenge their people. But, is this the point of the good news? Are we supposed to know facts about the Bible, or are we to be living examples of the Bible and point people to Jesus? The survey shows that some Protestants didn't know basic things like who Martin Luther was, or about what transubstantiation is truly about. Although these things might add to someone's faith, is this the most important things about our faith? Not at all. Our faith in Jesus shouldn't be about merely knowing facts about Jesus (which is important), or facts about the Bible (which is important), but our faith should be in the understanding that no matter how smart or how dumb we are, we are all in the same position of wrath because of our sin. We are in need of a Saviour. We are in need of Jesus.

I would rather see us, who believe in Jesus, show who the real Jesus is by loving our neighbors, by loving, praying for and blessing our enemies, instead of going to war with them. I would rather someone say to me, "your the dumbest person I have ever met, but one thing I know, you are a lot like Jesus." This isn't to show that I am some great person, but that I merely serve the greatest person to ever live, die and live again...the God/Man...Jesus.

This is exactly what the people said of some of the disciples in the days after Jesus ascended to heaven:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus
Acts 4:15

Maybe instead of trying to be the smartest guys in the room, we should desire to merely serve the smartest guys in the room. Maybe instead of trying to do good on a test about facts about Jesus, we could show people up close who Jesus is and what he is about. Maybe instead of being a functional atheist, living like there is no god, we could live like we actually believe what was written to us by our God.

Maybe.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35

The Incomparable Christ

2010-09-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

This comes from John Piper's book, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.

THE INCOMPARABLE CHRIST

Let me try to illustrate what I mean by the self-authenticating message of Christ and His witnesses. The biblical accounts present Jesus as a man of incomparable love for God and man. He became angry when God was dishonored by irreligion (Mark 11:15–17) and when man was destroyed by religion (Mark 3:4–5). He taught us to be poor in spirit, meek, hungry for righteousness, pure in heart, merciful, and peaceable (Matthew 5:3–9). He urged us to honor God from the heart (Matthew 15:8) and to put away all hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). And He practiced what He preached. His life was summed up as “doing good and healing” (Acts 10:38).

He took time for little children and blessed them (Mark 10:13–16). He crossed social barriers to help women (John 4), foreigners (Mark 7:24–30), lepers (Luke 17:11–19), harlots (Luke 7:36–50), tax collectors (Matthew 9:9–13), and beggars (Mark 10:46–52). He washed disciples’ feet like a slave and taught them to serve rather than be served (John 13:1–17). Even when He was exhausted, His heart went out in compassion to the pressing crowds (Mark 6:31–34). Even when His own disciples were fickle and ready to deny Him and forsake Him, He wanted to be with them (Luke 22:15), and He prayed for them (Luke 22:32). He said His life was a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), and as He was being executed at age thirty-three, He prayed for the forgiveness of His murderers (Luke 23:34).

Not only is Jesus portrayed as full of love for God and man; He is also presented as utterly truthful and authentic. He did not act on His own authority to gain worldly praise. He directed men to His Father in heaven: “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood” (John 7:18). He does not have the spirit of an egomaniac or a charlatan. He seems utterly at peace with Himself and God. He is authentic.

This is evident in the way He saw through people’s sham (Matthew 22:18). He was so pure and so perceptive that He could not be tripped up or cornered in debate (Matthew 22:15–22). He was amazingly unsentimental in His demands, even toward those for whom He had a special affection (Mark 10:21). He never softened the message of righteousness to increase His following or curry favor. Even His opponents were stunned by His indifference to human praise: “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God” (Mark 12:14). He never had to back down from a claim and could be convicted of no wrong (John 8:46). He was meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29).

But what made all this so amazing was the unobtrusive yet unmistakable authority that rang through all He did and said. The officers of the Pharisees speak for all of us when they say, “No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46). There was something unmistakably different about Him: “He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:29).

His claims were not the open declaration of worldly power that the Jews expected from the Messiah. But they were unmistakable nonetheless. Though no one understood it at the time, there was no doubt that He had said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19; Matthew 26:61). They thought it was an absurd claim that He would singlehandedly rebuild an edifice that had been forty-six years in the making. But He was claiming in His typically veiled way that He would rise from the dead—and by His own power.

In His last debate with the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41–45), Jesus silenced them with this question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They answered, “The son of David.” In response, Jesus quoted David from Psalm 110:1: “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ ” Then, with only slightly veiled authority, Jesus asked, “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” In other words, for those who have eyes to see, the son of David—and far more than the son—is here.
“The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41–42). This kind of veiled claim runs through all Jesus said and did.

Besides that, He commanded evil spirits and they obeyed Him (Mark 1:27). He issued forgiveness for sins (Mark 2:5). He summoned people to leave all and follow Him to have eternal life and treasure in heaven (Mark 10:17–22; Luke 14:26–33). And He made the astonishing claim that “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32–33).

Piper, John: Desiring God. Sisters, Or. : Multnomah Publishers, 2003, S. 324

Best Sermon Ever Preached

2010-09-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

I believe this is the best sermon ever preached and one that we should truly model our own preaching from. The centrality of the good news and Messiah and the penetration of the hearts of those hearing is quite astonishing...especially since it was about half a minute in length.

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are oppressed,

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ”

And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.

“But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;

and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

“And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;

and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

But passing through their midst, He went His way.

Luke 4:16-30

Are We the Rich Young Ruler?

2010-09-23T08:56:00.001-07:00

I am currently reading the book, Radical by David Platt and was discussing it with a friend of mine yesterday. As we spoke, we brought up the question, "Is the United States, including ourselves, the Rich Young Ruler?" The story is found in all the synoptic gospels, but I will put the version found in Matthew.

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:16-26

As I was sitting with my friend yesterday speaking to him we were speaking about this very issue in Scripture. We were wondering if we, as the United States, were the rich young ruler. We would do anything for the gospel, besides sell all of our belongings. We would speak about the gospel to our friends, we would feed the poor, go to the prisons, visit orphans, travel overseas, but as soon as someone were to tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor, we cry out legalism. But, what if we are actually the rich young ruler? Think about this. The rich young ruler seemingly did many good things, as Jesus didn't refute the ruler's claims on keeping the commandments, etc. But, as soon as the Christ called out the true idol of the ruler's heart, the man went away sorrowful because he had much. Notice that Jesus didn't say, "Go and invade the culture you are in and speak to them about the gospel. Stay rich, and reach your rich friends." That is quite scary when you think of it.

I work in the investment portfolio business. I work with only very rich people. I make a very good living. The question is, "Would I sell everything I have if God called me to do so?" Or, would I make excuses on why I should never do that and go away sorrowful because I have many possessions?

I honestly don't know the answers to these questions that I am asking above, but I wonder about us in the West. I wonder if we truly are the rich young ruler. I also wonder if we are also those that Jesus speaks about in Luke 9:5...

"And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”

I know I have harped on this before, but one of my buddies quoted a missiologist that said that there are only two places in the world that aren't progressing in the gospel:

The United States and Europe

Is this because we have become all about ourselves and not about the true calling of the gospel to make our lives a living sacrifice, to take up our crosses, to deny ourselves? Is this happening because we have become about making larger and nicer buildings, about how much our church is "growing" or should I say stealing members from other churches? Is this because we care more about telling others about our church, than Jesus?

I wonder what would happen if Jesus told a church as a whole to sell their buildings, stop paying pastors, sell all their belongings and give it all to the poor? (don't read that I think paying pastors and having buildings for gatherings are wrong or sin)

Call me a legalist if you want, but that's not the point of the post. The point is to just simply ask some questions in regards to our love of Jesus verses our love for ourselves.

I know that the one thing that everyone will harp on is simply, "but if we sold all these things, especially our buildings and houses, how would God reach the people?" I don't know. But, if God does tell us to do so, don't we think that God is so much in control that he might, he just might, have a plan for his glory? Jesus said he didn't have a place to lay his head...seems like he was still pretty productive...just sayin'

I know this squashes the American Dream, but maybe some of this needs to happen for people to see we are counter cultural and not just another health and wealth Christian hiding in the clothes of a true follower of Jesus.

Church Planter/Pastor Extraordinaire or Total Church?

2010-09-21T08:27:00.001-07:00

I am almost done with the book "Total Church" and have very much enjoyed it...some things I question, but for the most part, it speaks to exactly where I believe God has been moving my family and Soma Communities. I thought I would share something from the book to show how it has resonated with me, especially when thinking about church planting and super hero pastors who become the functional saviours of their churches.

I don't feel pressure to "perform" for two reasons. First, "success" and "failure" are common property. We all share a sense of responsibility for what happens. We use first-person pronouns rather than second-person pronouns: "we could have done better" rather than "you could have done better." If I am negligent or ungodly, then people will challenge me. But I do not have to perform. Second, ministry is not an event that occurs on Sunday. It is a lifestyle of word-centered activity. Success is not judged by a sermon or service. It is judged in terms of growing Christians and gospel opportunities.

I have used the first person, but not to trumpet my experience. The reality is that it is often very messy. I have used the first person to show that what I am describing is not impossible rhetoric or unrealistic idealism. I remember talking over lunch with two church leaders. At first they expressed concern that we did not have an accountability structure over and outside us. But as I talked to them about the day-to-day accountability I enjoy from my congregation and from other congregational leaders with its opportunities to share heart struggles, their attitudes changed. Soon they were saying, "I wish we had something like this. Out accountability is so superficial. I feel alone most of the time." True accountability is more about relationships than about hierarchies. It requires community more than structures. The sad thing was that those two church leaders could not imagine their situation ever changing.

Church without programs, structures, or buildings can make you very vulnerable. Leadership in which your life is open can feel scary. But we should embrace this fragility because it forces us to trust God's sovereign grace.

I often describe our church as a group of messy people led by messy people. That is what happens when you take away performance and pretense. They are replaced by messy pastoral issues. But this is how growth takes place. This is how grace is displayed. To paraphrase the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the broken people, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them" (Matthew 5:3). Ministry as performance does not welcome brokenness because it ruins the veneer. But God's kingdom is for broken people. When pastoral problems emerge, I do not think, "Oh no, here's another problem to solve." I think, "What a privilege to be serving broken people. This is where God's blessing is found."

The real tragedy of leadership as performance is that it devalues the work of Christ. Our identity then is not rooted in grace but in the success of our ministry. And so we feel upbeat when we have performed well, and we feel down when things are not going well. We become enslaved to other's people's approval. We are concerned to prove ourselves, and that is just another way of talking about self-justification. We preach justification by faith on the day of judgment but do not practice justification by faith in the daily routine of our lives. Our practical theology has become disconnected from our confessional theology. Our song becomes:

My hope is built on something less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I trust my skills, I trust my fame,
And maybe sometimes Jesus' name.

But we cannot keep it up. Self-justification is always beyond us. The chorus of Edward Mote's hymn, which I have taken the liberty of inverting, actually goes: "On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand." Leadership as performance is sinking sand.

Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Total Church, pp. 197, 198.

The Modern Church Planter

2010-09-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

Why People Hate Christians.

2010-09-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

I know this is a bit odd to put up this kind of post, especially since I am one that is a Christian, or what I would rather be known for, which is a follower of Jesus. My intent is not to merely beat up those who are my brothers and sisters, but to call them, and myself, to repentance. This post isn't exhaustive as there are many reasons historically and currently why people hate Christians. There are some solid reasons for hating us as a group, and there are some nonsense ones as well. My reason for writing this post is simply for those who call themselves Christians to contemplate what I have to say, pray on it and seek to see if there are some changes that need to take place within each of our hearts.

I believe that one of the main reasons that people hate Christians is simply found in our pride of self and lack of concern to hear other's speak. We love to hear ourselves speak, and we love to be right. We cover this with a facade of "there are absolutes and I am God's messenger." While there are absolutes, let me remind you...your knowledge isn't one. You, and I, are finite in both life span and wisdom. God is the one who is infinite in both time and wisdom. It becomes so bad that when speaking to people about honest concerns over how we show people Jesus, my own brothers and sisters would rather make "sound bytes" and "be right" than try and learn from one another and truly glorify God in our humility. Humbleness and meekness have lost it's luster in the Christian walk and have been hijacked by American pride and self promotion.

Yesterday, I put up a quote that most Christians have heard before and one that always gets a reaction. This time, instead of making any commentary on the quote, I simply put it up to see what kind of reaction I would get.

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -- Mahatma Gandhi

The reactions were mixed, but I knew I would get some of the reactions that we are known for. Instead of being torn up to see that maybe we need to follow Jesus more and love others more than ourselves, people decided to attack the beliefs of Gandhi. What Gandhi had to say about us should make us stumble, should make us a repentant people ready to show of Jesus. Instead, we point the finger back at the accuser. Poorly done friends.

The reality of the quote from Gandhi is just that...it is reality. We, those who follow Jesus, do a poor job of it. We should OWN this, not dismiss this. I, personally, fail so many times it is ridiculous and that is the very reason I should be the most humble, repentant person on this planet crying out for the perfection of Jesus, not the perfection or accusation of the one accusing me. We need to understand that "making a point" or "trying to find loopholes in an argument" or "being right" is not what is important. The important thing is that we need to show off more and more of the one who saved us and is continually saving us, which should cause humility, not boasting or pride.

I also wonder what right we feel like we have in the West to have these thoughts of pride and entitlement. I heard from a missiologist that out of everyone in the world, there are two places where the gospel is not growing among the people...

United States and Europe

Is this really a surprise with our pride and the love of self promotion? People are seeing right through it. One pastor put it like this:

“The Gospel came to the Greeks and the Greeks turned it into a philosophy. The Gospel came to the Romans and the Romans turned it into a system. The Gospel came to the Europeans and the Europeans turned it into a culture. The Gospel came to America and the Americans turned it into a business.”

Even Madonna is seeing through the facade...she is known for saying:

Christianity is becoming more of a currency than a belief

For those of us in business it is very easy to spot the marketing techniques churches use to promote their name, to promote who they are, to build up their followers. I continue to hear pastors brag about how much they are giving away, how much they are serving the community, how much their church is growing, etc. Then during their sermons, they rip other churches apart as though they were trying to put together a trashy political ad campaign.

Why don't we go ahead and promote Jesus, live like he did, be ready to listen first, and when we screw up admit it and ask for forgiveness from those around us?

When Gandhi tells us that he doesn't like Christians because we are nothing like Jesus, we should really take that in. We should contemplate ways in which we can change. We should look for ways in our lives that we are not living more like Jesus, instead of ripping someone else apart. When I read what Gandhi says, I should hear it like this:

I love your Christ, it's you I don't like, you are so unlike your Jesus

Then...I should first repent and look for ways to be more like Jesus and then point people to Him, not me.

When we speak first and don't care to hear the rest of the world, we are a prideful people who doesn't think we need learning. We are to be humble.

So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
Isaiah 5:15

For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:2

Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
Matthew 23:12

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8

You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
1 Peter 5:5

But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
James 4:6

Why Twilight is Popular

2010-09-15T14:57:00.001-07:00

Pursuing Holiness Will Destroy You

2010-09-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

I came from a church that preached personal holiness. They used Scripture to speak of ways to become holy in our actions, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. What they meant was here are some things you should do, some things you should refrain from so that you can be holy in conduct. My pursuit for holiness was caught up in my actions and what I was either pursuing or abstaining from each day. I thought I was pursuing holiness as I didn't watch certain movies, didn't listen to certain music, refrained from using certain words, didn't drink certain drinks, didn't smoke, didn't go to certain places, read my Bible, prayed, was involved in "church", memorized Scripture, etc. If I could just do these things, I was pursuing holiness. The issue was that I kept screwing up and could never pursue these things perfectly. On top of that, as I pursued these things, or abstained from these things, I found myself falling into the worst trap of them all...pride. I was very proud of what I was accomplishing, and it was becoming evident that I didn't need Jesus, because I was becoming such a good saviour for myself.

Here's the real issue in all of this. Every time I pursued my own holiness, I heard from Isaiah saying,

For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Isaiah 64:6

Not only this, but I also found other commands to be pretty empty and I truly didn't believe them. Jesus told us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. I used to laugh at this verse. How was this easy? How was this burden light? I felt like a Jew, hoping my righteous deeds were good enough for, not only my salvation, but also my assurance of salvation. I was hoping my fruit was ripe enough so that Jesus would say, "well done good and faithful servant." I thought that John was full of it when he said, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3). His commands are not burdensome? Yeah, right. What I found as I was pursuing holiness, like it was something to be obtained, was that Jesus' commands were hard, heavy and burdensome...just the opposite of what I was reading in the Bible. Then I thought...maybe it wasn't Jesus that was wrong, but the teachers I was listening to, this fake Gospel I was listening to.

Since leaving this church and pursuing Jesus, every time I hear "pursue holiness" it freaks me out some. Not because I want to "pursue licentiousness" but because I automatically revert back to this idea of sanctification, both positionally and progressive, come by my works for God, as though he needs them.

Yesterday I saw a quote by J.I. Packer that nailed it:

The holiest Christians are those who are fully focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, not on holiness.

This couldn't ring more true. If one pursues holiness, and sees holiness as a thing, instead of a Person, namely Jesus Christ, they will be destroyed, both in this life and the next. Pursuing holiness is a Person. We should be pursuing Jesus, pursuing God, through the work of the Spirit. As we pursue the Messiah, we will be pursuing holiness. As Jesus said, "you can do nothing apart from me," this includes holiness. Holiness isn't found in how much time you spend in the Bible, how much time you spend in prayer, how much time you spend in ministry, how much you abstain from sin, but it is found in how much you pursue the Person and work of Christ and understand that he has already done it for you...he wasn't joking when he said, "it is finished." He is our holiness, both now and forever.

This doesn't mean that we don't pray, read our bibles, minister to others, love our neighbors, etc., this means just the opposite. Because as we pursue more of our Saviour, the more these other things will naturally flow from us and not be a burden. It isn't a burden for me to love my wife, it is natural, because I love her.

Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
Matthew 15:16-20

This is why Jesus spends so much time on the heart. The only thing that can turn us from a sinful people is to circumcise our hearts and replace them from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, which only God can do.

We must trust in his work, not our own. No matter how much we work for holiness, we cannot obtain it. Only God can clothe us in righteousness through replacing our sin, with the righteousness of Jesus. This is why grace is so amazing. This is why the gospel is so simple. This is why Jesus continues to point to the faith of children. Because the harder you try to obtain righteousness through what you do, the farther you are separating yourself from the perfected work on the cross by the Christ. Do you hear that? You aren't getting closer to Jesus the harder you work for righteousness...you actually are growing farther apart. I can't stress this enough.

Don't pursue holiness as though it is a thing to be obtained, but pursue holiness as a Person...Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
John 6:35

Understanding Terms, Instead of Just Using Terms

2010-09-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

What I have found when speaking to Christians is that we love to use big words. Listen to pastors and it seems as though they get some sort of extra credit the more times they use terms ending in "ology". But what is our aim when speaking to others about any subject? Shouldn't our aim be to make sure those that are listening to us actually hear what we are meaning to say? I've talked about this some in other posts when speaking about bible translation or when speaking about terms like "Son of God" with Muslims. I still find these thoughts to be very important and ones that I am not backing down from.

Let me give you some examples. Should I want to keep the term "propitiation" in my reprotoir when preaching, or should I want the hearers to understand that Jesus took away the wrath of God? What is more important? The term, or the understanding of the term? Should I want to keep the term "deacon" or should I want people to understand what it means to be a servant inside community, as the church gathers and scatters? Should I want to keep the term "gospel" or should I want people to hear the "Good News" of what Jesus has done for them specifically?

I bring this up because my wife and I were getting the morning going when my wife brought up the fact that we were going to be starting up our Bible study before the kids went to school each day. My oldest responded, "Doing the bible study in the morning is a waste of time!" Now, at first, I was a little miffed, and so was my wife. But, I then thought, "this is a 7 year old, does he know what he just said?" I then asked my son, "What does that statement mean for you? When you say that, what do you mean?" He responded by saying that they didn't have much time in the morning and doing a bible study makes them rush and could make them late for school.

I then told him, "your understanding of the saying, 'it's a waste of time' is wrong" I then went on to explain what it meant and he could see right away why he shouldn't use that saying for studying the bible.

I think we do this more than we think in everyday life with others and especially in preaching or explaining the gospel to others. We can use terms like Christian, sin, atonement, church, propitiation, and even Jesus without explaing what these terms or Person actually means. If we don't explain these terms, but merely use them, aren't we really just being a cheerleader for those who understand these terms and think you to be highly educated when you use them? I truly believe that there a lot of people out there that haven't rejected the actual good news of Jesus, but have rejected the Western Christianized version of what it means to follow Jesus. I believe there are many right here in America, both citizens and foreigners, who haven't actually heard, meaning understood, the good news of Jesus and rejected it.

I guess it depends on why you speak to people about Jesus and the good news. If you desire to have people actually hear you, you might want to make sure they understand what you are saying. If you want to just "be right" or "sound exegetical" then let's keep using big terms, get pats on the back from our comrads and watch people never come to the faith or reject the actual Good News of Jesus and his death and resurrection.
If you want to continue to read some other posts I have done on this idea check these out:

What is Contextualization?

Contending Well for the Faith by Mike G.

Translating the Bible from an Idiot's Perspective

Evangelicals Extend a Hand to Muslims

2010-09-08T12:20:00.001-07:00

The Seattle Times did a story on a close friend of mine, Michael Ly. Check it out...

Evangelicals extend a hand to Muslims
Some of the latest local efforts to build relationships between Muslims and Christians come from evangelical Christians, led, in particular, by 28-year-old Michael Ly.

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

Even in these days of increased vitriol toward Muslims, and heated rhetoric over whether a mosque should be built near Ground Zero, it's not surprising to find people in the metropolitan Seattle area reaching out to Muslims.

This is the place, after all, where members of various churches stood guard outside a Northgate-area mosque in the days after Sept. 11, watching for any suspicious anti-Muslim activities.

It's the area where, for years, Muslims, Jews and Christians on the Eastside have been building houses for low-income residents through Habitat for Humanity.

And it's the city of The Interfaith Amigos — a pastor, a rabbi and a sheik (who calls himself a Sufi Muslim minister) — whose longtime friendship resulted in a book and a measure of fame. Most of the Christians involved in such efforts have been mainline Protestants or Catholics.

What's unusual about some of the latest efforts to build relationships with local Muslims is that it's coming from evangelical Christians — and led, in particular, by Michael Ly, a young, self-described Chinese Cambodian American evangelical Christian.

Ly, 29, is a pastor at Soma — Renton, a nondenominational church formerly called Harambee Church. An accountant by day, his aim to build better understanding between evangelical Christians and Muslims is purely a grass-roots effort.

And it's an effort he thinks is growing nationwide, especially among those his age and younger.

"There's a part of the evangelical Christian church that believes the rhetoric out there about Muslims is ignorant," he says. That part of the church "is saying: 'This is not the way Jesus would want us to respond to the Muslim community.' "

So far, Ly has organized a panel discussion on who Jesus is, attended by some 150 Muslims and 150 Christians from local evangelical churches. He's led workshops on what Muslims and Christians believe.

At a recent iftar at Redmond's Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS), Ly's manner is open and friendly, talking easily with MAPS members about everything from sports to what Ramadan means to them.

Ly's next big project is to work with the director of the local Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to organize a dinner this fall, inviting 20 imams and other Muslim leaders, and 20 pastors and other Christian leaders mainly from conservative evangelical churches. He's planning to send invitations to individuals at Mars Hill Church, Overlake Christian Church and Westminster Chapel, among others; and to mosques including those in Kent, Redmond and Olympia.

Meeting resistance

"It's the more conservative churches, I'm finding, that tends to be the part [of the Christian community] that doesn't interact with the Muslim community," Ly said.

He's faced some resistance.

There's the theological barrier: Many evangelicals view Muslims as people who have rejected the teachings and messages of Jesus. Some also believe Muhammad was a false prophet and that Islam is therefore based on a false premise. Or they feel Islam is antagonistic toward Christianity.

There's also suspicion about why Muslims would want to take part in such interfaith efforts, or simply fear that something bad might happen if Muslims came to their church, Ly said.

And some churches don't want to be associated publicly with this sort of work.

Pastor Joseph Fuiten, of Cedar Park Assembly of God Church, in Bothell has been outspoken in his hard-line stance against Islam.

He says Ly's efforts are noble. But "I wouldn't personally find it terribly useful," Fuiten said. "If dialogue is knowing more about the other, then it's not the things I don't know about Islam that trouble me. It's the things I do know."

None of that bothers Ly, who says he's not looking for church endorsements but rather, individual changes of heart: to help evangelicals better understand who Muslims are, and to present to Muslims a face of evangelical Christianity that is representative of who Jesus is.

Ly was born in the U.S. to parents who fled Cambodia as refugees. His parents were Buddhists; his mother later converted to Christianity, and Ly grew up attending a big, mostly Caucasian evangelical church.

It's this mix of cultures and identities that led him to explore what people from his own culture were doing in different faiths. He wanted to know more about Southeast Asian Muslims. But in Tempe, Ariz., where he lived, there weren't many of them.

So three years ago, he and his wife, Shannon Ly, director of a faith-based dance company, moved to Seattle simply because he felt called to bring together evangelicals and Muslims.

Neighbors and friends

As it turned out, the first church the couple went to here — Soma — Renton — had been hoping to start doing that sort of work, since its neighborhood included a growing number of Muslims.

"Jesus said to love your enemy, and love your neighbor as yourself," said Lead Pastor John Prince of Soma — Renton. "In this country, Muslims have become our neighbors."

There's definitely suspicion on both sides that each wants to convert the other, Prince said.

Prince says that's not his goal. And Ly believes it's up to God whether people change their faith.

But there's a spectrum of views on conversion among those involved in the effort. Senior Pastor Harvey Drake Jr., of Seattle's Emerald City Bible Fellowship, says he's had conversations with Muslims where each person was absolutely clear he wanted to convert the other.

"We chuckle about it," says Drake, who feels he has a mandate from Jesus to share who Christ is, and to try to get Muslims to see Jesus as he does. "I don't apologize for that."

At the same time, "even if we don't come together on this religion thing, we're still neighbors, still friends."

Some local Muslims say Ly's efforts — including the planned joint dinner this fall — yield concrete results.

"Instead of looking at something theoretical, you're looking at the actual person," said Kabir Jeddy, treasurer of MAPS. "That gives you a different perspective right there.

S. Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the state chapter of CAIR, says he's been linking mosques CAIR works with and churches that Ly works with, resulting in social gatherings and tours of each other's places of worship.

"Locally, we've seen more evangelical Christians interested in this [interfaith work] because of Michael's efforts," he said.

Janet I. Tu:

206-464-2272

jtu@seattletimes.com

New T-Shirt Designs...ES.D.EM Deezin

2010-08-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my new t-shirt designs...you can buy them here: ES.D.EM Deezin

Why Does Your Pastor Wear Shorts When He Preaches?

2010-08-27T13:41:00.001-07:00

Because to save money, we shut off the air conditioning and it's hot in our building. The End.

Church isn't What You Do On Sunday, or a Building You Go To

2010-08-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how much you have to keep saying this. It is amazing how much you have to remind people who claim to follow Jesus that the church isn't an organization, but a people. I have once again been emailed by someone saying that I am spiritually confused because I allowed Muslims to come and pray in our church. Huh? If you actually broke that down, that would mean that I allowed a Muslim to enter into my body and pray inside of me. The term "church" literally means, a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly.

I still remember something that Ravi Zacharias said years ago. He said,

We can thank God, because we are no longer a people who come together at the temple to pray, but, we come as the temples of God to gather together to pray.

Huge difference. There is nothing sacred about the building you go to on Sunday, at least no more than the bedside you pray at before you go to bed. The only thing that makes that place holy is that you are a temple of the living God lifting your voice to the one who created you. You, because of the imputed righteousness of God, are holy, not a place. The only reason that the ground around the burning bush was holy was because God's presence was there.

Church is an interesting cultural term that has been hijacked. If those who followed Jesus understood that church is who you are, not what you go to, our lives would be more of the radiance of the glory of God everyday. The problem is that because the Roman Catholics took the term to mean a religion instead of a people, it has forever confused people and caused people to stumble.

People now, see church as something you go to, a building, a service, a once a week encounter with the living God. Why don't we just be honest...if you believe that, you might as well be Jewish and live in the Old Testament. I am not trying to slight the Jews, I am just saying that they go to the temple, they are awaiting the rebuilding of the temple, they sacrifice at the temple, they worship at the temple, etc. That is a different paradigm altogether than what a follower of Jesus believes, or should believe.

Because of this confusion, Christians have a bad rap for a very good reason. Historically, and today, Christians do what they want 6 days and 22 hours of the week and then they come to worship God and "be holy" for two hours out of the week when they go to church or to Mass. If we believed that Jesus came to live within us, that he sent his Spirit to commune with us and to guide us, then we would understand that our whole life is a life of worship, all the time. If we understood this, we would love people everyday, we would love our families everyday, we would have communion with God everyday, we would seek to worship God everyday.

We wouldn't make bad business deals on Tuesday and then come to worship on Sunday. Instead, we would worship God through that business deal and then come to worship God on Sunday as well as the gathered church.

We wouldn't yell at our wife and kids on Wednesday, and then act like everything is fine when we come to encounter God at church. Instead, we would be repentant when we yelled at our wife and kids and seek to love God through loving them everyday and then come together as the church gathered and seek forgiveness, guidance and truth from our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

I know this sounds pretty basic, but I believe we often look the basic tenets of the faith to try and pursue the "more difficult ones." When in reality, if we focused our efforts on the basic tenets, the more difficult ones would work themselves out.

We will continue to ask our Muslim friends, and any other person seeking to understand Jesus more into our Sunday gatherings or into our building where we meet. We do this because we love our neighbors and seek to bless them. We don't desire to be separated from the world physically, but we seek to infuse the gospel into the world as we await our coming King.

Please know.

You don't go to church, but you are the church if you trust in the work and seek the forgiveness of Jesus.

I just wonder how much people would truly see Jesus if we took our calling to be the church more seriously with our culture. Maybe they aren't denying Jesus, maybe they are denying cultural Christianity that we have so badly misrepresented over the years...To be honest...I desire to deny that as well.

Why I Don't Take My Kids to the Park Alone

2010-08-26T11:09:00.001-07:00

Living in the Dangerous Suburban Jungle

2010-08-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is a journal entry more for myself, so that I don't forget to forsake and fight against the dangers of suburbia.

I live in Maple Valley, Washington. It's almost like admitting that I am a drug addict. I don't want to admit I live here, but I do. I have lived here for the past 6 and half years. My boys know no other place called home, as my oldest was 11 months when we moved in. Maple Valley is a prototypical suburban town. We have grown from 14,000 residents in 2000 to almost 23,130 in 2010, that's a jump of about 65%. Not only that, but we have the highest median incomes ($92,900)in South King County and one of the highest, period, in the entire county. The entirety of Maple Valley is made up of a ton of housing developments, Mexican food, teriyaki, pizza and nail salons. You want culture? Not here. We don't have any. The new blood (that's me) destroyed that long ago, when the area of Maple Valley used to be a coal mining town, and now is a place to live to die. What you will find in Maple Valley is a place to live, but not a place to work, play or eat. We are 30 minutes to Seattle and other large cities (Bellevue, Tacoma) so those are the place people go to have fun and to find work. Maple Valley turns into one big housing development.

So, what is so dangerous about Maple Valley? You ever hear the expression, "Same sh*t, different day"? That's Maple Valley. The dangerous part of Maple Valley is that it is so safe, that you can lose your soul. It can become like living in the movie Groundhog Day. What is so sad is that the city of Maple Valley (on their site) pump up this place like we have a real sense of community out here. Pretty bogus. Just because you have a bunch of events throughout the year, doesn't make people actually know each other. It just makes it easier for families to go to a park with a bunch of other people and not talk to one another. Here are the ways I find this place dangerous.

1. The Schools Are Really Good and Really Safe

What a weird number one, huh? Well think of it. Everyone out here has 2.3 kids, most go to the local public school and no one wants to move because we are top 5 in the state as far as a school system. Based on this, not only do all your decisions become based on your kids, but others move to the area because of how great the schooling is. So, what happens? Your children can become an idol that you give alms to and worship. You hope they get really good grades and play sports really well so you can safely brag about them at the next BBQ and not be one of those parents with the loser kid bringing the stats down for the superior schools and sports.

2. Groundhog Day

Here is 99% of the households day in Maple Valley. Get up, commute, work, commute, water or mow lawn, play outside, watch TV, brush teeth, go to bed...then just push repeat. This is very dangerous. If you blink...you've lost a week. When me and my neighbor see each other, we say the exact same thing, "What up?" answer? Livin' the dream. If you don't break this mold in your daily routine, you can and will lose your soul. Today, this is how sad it can get, to break up my routine I took the scenic route to work (took West Lake Sammamish Pkwy to Bellevue). If you aren't intentional about your days, they can blend together and you can get very lost in routine.

3. No Community, No Culture

We have zero of these two. We look to Seattle, Bellevue or Tacoma for our culture. We have no real community either. Because we are a bunch of housing developments, there is no way to even have culture as we are made up of a bunch of strip malls with nail salons in them. Even our only tattoo shop sits next to a florist and people were all up in arms when it went in, because bad people have tattoos and they might ruin Groundhog's Day for everyone. When you have no culture, you are forced to go to those places that do. This weekend, my wife and I celebrate 11 years of marriage. Are we staying in Maple Valley? Well, I don't want Mexican food and my wife just got her nails done, so there is no reason for us to stick around. So, we're going to Georgetown's Farmer's and Flea Market and spending the day around Seattle.

We also have no community. When I say community, I mean no one really knows each other. We wave, say hello, and complain about the dude who parks his boat in the road (that affects no one, but gives us something to complain about), but we really don't know each other and are affecting no change in our little suburban jungle.

These are the dangers of our community. So, what am I personally doing to change this?

I am trying to start by what I can do. I can affect change of making community. This is where I am starting and would like to have that grow to make change to have some culture as well. But for now, we'll start small.

I don't want Groundhog's Day, I want a place to call home where we live in a community, not a mere housing development where you go to die. There are about five families in my development that are actively pursuing community together. We have put together a huge fourth of July bash, poker tournaments, dinners together, coming up will be a big Halloween Costume Party, and a Christmas progressive dinner, etc. We are trying to see if we can live more closely in community. I am not sure how this is going to look as we pursue this together, but I believe it to be a necessary so that we don't fall into the normal suburban trap. I hope to be able to truly share life with these people and understand their stories better, to become close friends, to be able to help each other spiritually and physically when needs arise. I would like this to grow, so that we could affect some great change in Maple Valley so that we can break the streak of Groundhog's Day.

I feel as though this is important, not only for this kingdom's purposes, but for the Kingdom of God as well. I am not one to push my beliefs on these other families, but will be giving them opportunities to join us in studying the Story of God as a whole if they so desire. But, what I want them to know more than anything is that I want to grow together and pursue community, even if we don't believe the same things about Jesus. I love and follow Jesus, but that is not a prerequisite to be a close friend of mine or to study life's deep groans together in the dangerous suburban jungle of Maple Valley, Washington.

Storyville Live Freedom Tour

2010-08-23T14:54:00.001-07:00

My friends Bryce and Amy Lathrop are putting on a Storyville Concert in their home both August 25th and August 28th. I highly recommend that you attend. Not only will you hear great music and drink great coffee, but you'll be helping out a great cause in the meantime.

To see the invitation, click here: Storyville Live

If you have questions, you can visit Bryce's facebook page here: Bryce Lathrop

White Boy Worship

2010-08-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

I spent this last week on vacation in Suncadia and had some great conversations with a couple of my friends. One of the conversations that we continually had was the problem with Westernized Christianity pressing others to join their club and wear the Members Only Jacket, instead of asking people worldwide to follow Jesus and do it from their own cultural perspective and understanding. One of the things brought up was the fact that God created many different people groups, cultures, languages, contexts, etc. to be a better shadow of the Godhead. They all speak to the person and work of our God. For some reason, it seems as though we Westerners are the ones God truly loves and appreciate because our kids have clothes on, we have concrete floors and our children don't have flies swarming them. I'm calling B.S.

One of the things we must understand is that although the Kingdom of God hasn't yet been totally fulfilled, it has been partially with the coming of our King Jesus. Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Luke 17:20-21

From talking and hearing what is happening around the world, especially in the latest centuries, it seems one of the ways we can see our pompous attitude has come in the way of songs of worship. What has happened is that instead of treating other cultures with respect we have lost the understanding of what it means to sing songs of worship. Check out this verse:

“All the earth will worship You,
And will sing praises to You;
They will sing praises to Your name.”Selah.
Psalm 66:4

And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Revelation 5:9

So, what does this look like today then? How should we be the shadow of the perfect that will come? From what it sounds like and what we see from around the world, Westerners have forced some strange things on other cultures. What some will find is that Western missionaries have merely taken Western hymns and translated them into the cultures language and had them sing them. Westerners have also given instruments that are totally foreign to that culture and taught them how to play them. So, what happens? Worship in these gathered churches are Western, just in a different language. Is this what is supposed to happen? I don't think so.

Worship isn't something that is forced onto a culture, but comes through culture and the people. The people should be able to sing songs and worship in all ways through their daily walk. This would mean that we allow the worldwide church to worship in song in the ways they normally would within culture, yet redeemed. God made everyone in his Image, with unique personalities. When we shove our worship or styles on other cultures we are saying not all is equal, but we are above them and they need to learn from us.

I heard a quote this past month that said that there are only two places in the world where Christianity is not growing...can you guess which pompous places those are?

United States of America and Europe

Maybe we should lend an ear, instead of a voice, to those places where Jesus is working mightily instead of forcing ourselves on them. Maybe we should trust in the Spirit to work in these cultures and to see them worship in the ways that God has made them. Maybe we should look to Jesus, instead of our own culture as a means of worship and adoration. Just maybe.

This doesn't just speak to those people overseas, but it starts when we go to the people groups in our own cities that are from around the world. Allow the Spirit to work through their culture, not apart from it. God created culture and different people groups to show off his diverse depth, when we shove our own on others, we rob, not only others, but also ourselves of seeing the beauty of God and his vastness. Maybe when we enter into other territories or other parts that are foreign to our culture we should sit and listen for a long time instead of lending our voice like they have been waiting with baited breath for us to speak and teach them. Just maybe. This is all part of contextualization to all peoples, to all places.

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:14

The Uniting Church Unites Nothing!

2010-08-16T00:46:00.000-07:00

I'm here in the land down under where the current weekly church population is about 2% of the people. The Aussies are wonderful, hospitable people, but not much for the divine institution. I guess I can't really blame them since many of their mainline churches have opted out of church planting and the gospel, and have chosen to be "Affirming" (Pro Gay) and "Uniting" (Pretty much pro anything), and have tossed away the only redeeming message the church has to offer. This is their response to a culture who has shunned the institution called church. Sounds on the outset like an attempt to reach the marginalized, but it is quite evident that the uniting church has no interest in uniting those that hold to the biblical story of God. I'm all for a good 'ole tweaking of the machine, but mitigating the only thing that makes going to church worth it; Jesus, has neutered it's affect on a culture already skeptical of "Church." They have also alienated many young men who desire to see the gospel of Jesus Christ move into the cities of Oz, and are told that they are "personna non grata." It is no wonder that so many of their beautiful churches have been turned into cafes, and art museums.

It is a reminder that our contextualization always needs to include contending well for the faith, and that religion never saves anyone, but unfortunately many of our own mainline and "Fundamentalist" churches are falling into the same irrelevant condition because they too have attached so much religion and false dogma on to the gospel , mitigating its message and creating a dull theology that no longer moves us to love God and others, which should be the aim of any Christian theology (Matthew 22:37-39). No wonder church attendance has dropped from 64% to 46% in the last 30 years in America, we have become irrelevant and are content to grow churches, but fail to grow the kingdom of God by moving outside of our institutions and engage our culture with the Love of Jesus, and the message that He alone redeems us from the miry clay of our brokenness and sin.

Why Islam is Growing and How Christians Should Respond

2010-08-12T08:15:00.001-07:00

If you read anything about Islam and engage the people at any level, you know two things: Islam is growing rapidly and Christians don't like it and seem to do anything to stop it. I find this odd, especially in light of the fact that the New Testament would never support the hatred and vilifying of a people group the way that I have seen many Christians responding to Islam. The Ground Zero mosque debate is just another in a long line of weird responses from Christian groups. Many have written and come up with badly formulated demographic reasons on why Islam is growing around the world. But, as I continue to have friends that are Muslim and as I continue to engage Muslims at their events and religious venues, I find something totally different on why they are growing so rapidly. Now, what I am going to put out there is why I believe Islam is growing up here in the Seattle area as I have no experience with Islam worldwide, besides what I hear from my friends around the world.

1. Their relenting submission to Allah (God)

Muslim means "one who submits to God" and I cannot come up with a better definition for my friends that are Muslim than this. They have an honor, love and obedient heart when it comes to Allah. One of the things that Westerners always focus on is the radicals within Islam that are terrorists, which we believe about 95% are NON-extremists. But, even if you want to lump the terrorists in with Islam (which I don't think is fair) the reason these people are willing to sacrifice their lives is because they truly believe Allah is calling them to do so. I am not saying this is correct, and neither would my Muslim friends, but the Muslim should be known as someone who is truly submitted to God. It exudes from who they are. They will not waver and even while they are in prayer, they will not even look at you or what is happening around them, because they are so focused on Allah and their time of prayer with Him. The true Muslim is truly submitted to Allah.

2. Their relenting submission to the Qur'an

People want truth in Seattle. People in the Western world desire people with conviction. The people of Islam, the Muslim, doesn't waiver from their love and admiration for what the Qur'an says. They don't care what is popular opinion, they care what Allah has said in the Qur'an. This is a great draw for people who are looking for leadership, looking for conviction, looking for direction. Muslims believe in the Qur'an and will not water it down for Western culture. They do so many things that are counter cultural to the Western world. They wear head coverings, they pray 5 times a day, they give a ton of money away, they help the poor, the are truly a close knit family. This is so much counter to what Westerners think that they are actually drawn to it when they see it lived out.

3. Their relenting love and hospitality

Muslims are known for hospitality and love for a reason...they truly live this out. I am embarrassed how much my Muslim friends show hospitality and love compared to my own life. It is humbling to have people bring you food when you are at their Mosque after they find out you are not Muslim, but a follower of Jesus. It is humbling to have Muslims engage you wherever, whenever and willing to invite you to become a part of their families. I cannot tell you enough how much I feel loved and accepted by my friends who are Muslims. It is easy to get to know them and they truly desire to get to know you, something I cannot say enough about and a way that is far superior to the way that most followers of Jesus live.

4. Take it or leave it

Muslims pray five times a day, they celebrate Ramadan, some wear head coverings, they give to the poor, they're hospitable, etc. etc. etc. They don't ask what the culture believes and then bend their beliefs to look like their culture. They go to the culture and live out their Muslim identity within and they don't bend it for anyone. They know they are bad at contextualization and they don't care. I can't imagine how successful they would be if they were to contextualize their religion. The point is, they have a take it or leave it attitude with their religion. They don't bend over for the culture they are in, but they ask those within the culture to submit to Allah within their religion. They believe that Allah knows best, not the precepts of man.

These are the four reasons I see why Islam is growing. I don't believe they are growing Islam through fear, but through truly living what they preach. So, how should Christians respond? If you look around on the internet, what you'll see is much hatred, fear and lying going on to try and stop Islam. The problem (I say this tongue in cheek) is that Muslims suffer very well and grow from that suffering. Here is how I think we should respond as followers of Jesus.

1. Engage our Muslim friends to learn from them

A lot of the Muslims that I personally know are from a different culture than the West. A lot of them are closer to the culture of Jesus than I am. I can learn a lot about Jesus from learning about their culture and understanding of what they see as a persons rights verses their freedoms because of living in America. We can learn a deeper understanding of our own texts by listening and watching the Muslims up close. We can learn true community, we can learn hospitality, we can learn devotion, we can learn conviction.

2. Engage for Peace

Jesus tells us, blessed are peacemakers. By engaging our Muslims friends for peace, we are helping to restore our world from war and hatred and that is part of the good news of Jesus. Our Muslim friends are vilified and shown so much prejudice that we have no clue on. If we believe that all people have the Imago Dei, we should care when Muslims are treated unfairly. We should care when people lie about them, we should care when people treat them unfairly, we should care when people hate them. We should care, because Jesus cares and loves us and Jesus loves and cares for them. We need to engage our Muslims friends for peace because that is exactly what Jesus calls us to and would be doing if he was living amongst us now.

3. Pray for, Love and Bless our Muslim Friends

I have said this many times on this blog and it needs to continually be said. We are to pray for, love and bless our neighbors. By burning Qur'ans, picketing Mosques, and lying about them we are doing anything but loving them. We need to show Muslims that Christians can actually be like Jesus and love them. We need to show that we aren't like every other bigot, but we are transformed by the love of Jesus.

Islam is growing rapidly. Should we fear? No. Why would we? Should we scare other people because of the "Islamization of America"? Why? What is there to be scared of? Muslims are the nicest people I have run across and have taught me so much. I think there is much to gain if Islam continues to grow. I think there is a better way to engage the Muslim than on a picket line or in a debate. I think the better way is to invite them into our homes and invite them into our lives and to love them, pray for them, bless them and truly engage them as friends.

Jon Stewart on the Ground Zero Mosque...Funny.

2010-08-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

Municipal Land-Use Hearing Update

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Ground Zero Mosque

2010-08-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

This kind of stuff really saddens me to see the kind of fear and hatred that is being spread. To still associate what happened on 9/11 to all of Islam is just plain near sighted and ignorant. I say that we allow the masjid (or mosque) to open and then we open a church right next to it and start the conversation and dialogue through peacemaking initiatives. That would seem more productive and more like Jesus.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

What Part of the Gospel is Optional?

2010-08-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

Voices From the Refuge: Giving the Homeless in Seattle a Voice

2010-08-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this project by a guy from my church who is doing what he can to show the homeless, that they aren't "the homeless" but they are people with a voice, with a name and people that are noticed and loved. Pretty cool what is going on.

Voices from the Refuge

Paul's Prayers for His People

2010-08-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Last night at Soma's MC Leaders Training meeting, we went over the prayers of Paul to see clearly how his prayers were in connection to making disciples. It was a pretty cool night. The one thing that I kept seeing is the depth of God's love that Paul wanted his people to understand, that is unknowable and surpasses understanding, and the fact that we have the God of creation, the power of the God who raised Jesus from the dead living within us. This fullness is amazing when one tries to grasp it. The question that kept coming in my mind was, "why don't I believe that the same God who was all through Acts is the same God who is with me now?" Why don't I expect big things, instead of settling for crappy? Why don't I believe that the harvest is ripe? I think it is because, I don't understand the depths of God's love for us and the power that is present within us. I think I am understanding more and more why Athanasius used terms that sounded crazy when speaking of us and deification. I won't go into it here, but when you read that Paul prays that the Ephesians would be filled with all the fullness of God, you can see why Athanasius used the terms he used.

Anyways...I just wanted to put up the prayers of Paul here so that I could have them for later use, and would encourage you to read through them and pray for the people in your life that you minister to.

15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:15-21

14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21

9And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Colossians 1:9-12

8For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:8-11

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people
1 Timothy 2:1

3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
2 Timothy 1:3

4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
Philippians 1:4-7

Is Jesus the Eternal Son?

2010-08-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is actually a very honest question. I have always thought of Jesus as being the eternal Son of God, but I am just looking to see what this means. I am not doubting that Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity is eternal, or that he is the eternal Word of God, the Logos. What my question comes down to is sonship. I know MacArthur got in some trouble in the 1980's for believing Jesus was only God's Son at the incarnation. My question to anyone who wants to chime in is, "Where can we show that he is the eternal "Son"?" And...Is this heresy if people don't believe in eternal sonship? When I say eternal...I am not speaking of current to future eternal, but eternity past before the incarnation.

I am asking based on some verses such as:

For to which of the angels did He ever say,
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You”?
And again,
“I will be a Father to Him
And He shall be a Son to Me”?
Hebrews 1:5

I guess I mean...what does this verse mean if he is saying that "today I have begotten you"? And then speaking in future sense of the incarnation of "he shall be a Son to Me"?

Please play nice...these are just questions.

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) Annual Banquet...Wanna Come?

2010-08-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

This Friday night, CAIR-WA is having their annual banquet and awards night. Some of my friends and I will be attending to build more friendships with Muslim leaders in the area to promote peace and build bridges between those within Christianity and Islam (around 600 people will be at this event). This particular event is one where we are going to really be there to support some of our Muslim friends. We pray that God blesses this event and that his grace is continually evident amongst both Muslims and Christians. If you would like to attend with us, we still have a few seats left at our tables. Please let me know ASAP if you would like to join us.

The Gospel of Peace?

2010-07-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

I have decided to read through the book of Ephesians for a while…just read it…to see what the Spirit of God wants me to be gripped by. I would usually tear it apart looking for every specific meaning and find those ways to congratulate myself for being right in my current theological bents. What I’ve decided to do this time is actually humble myself to the Scriptures and seek the face of God through them.

When you think of the book of Ephesians, what is the first thing you think of? I would guess if you are a Christian it would be a few things. Maybe that salvation is by grace alone and a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8,9); if you’re a Calvinist you’ll look for ways to prove predestination in the first few chapters; if you’re a charismatic, you might look to the end of the book where Paul tells us to pray in the Spirit always and see it as speaking of tongues (Eph 6:18), some will look at the great debate in both marriage and slaves (some people think these go hand in hand) in Ephesians 5, and some still will look to the armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 6. There are many theological stalwarts in Ephesians, but as I was reading, I was struck by how many times a book, that has been used to divide the Christian church, mentions “peace.”

The term is used 7 times in the book.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:2

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
Ephesians 2:14

by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,
Ephesians 2:15

And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near;
Ephesians 2:17

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:2,3

and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Ephesians 6:15

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 6:23

When one reads Ephesians one will notice that grace, peace and love of God are the overarching themes in the book, as it is in all of the Scriptures. I will focus in on peace for this post, as I find it to be very interesting.

Why are we to be peaceful? And why does Paul bookend this letter with the term “peace” to the Ephesians? I believe it is because this is exactly how Jesus started and ended his earthly ministry.

When Jesus started his earthly ministry, by being dunked by John the Baptist, it is said that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove from heaven, which is no doubt a picture of the dove that was sent out by Noah that returned with an olive leaf. If you look at any major peacemaking effort, what is the symbol of peace? Is it not the dove with an olive leaf? This picture was to show that the wrath of God was now at peace with man, followed up with that the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on the man, Jesus the Christ, who was ushering in the Kingdom of God to bring peace to all nations.

Then when Jesus is raised from the dead, what is the first thing he says to those disciples who are scared for their lives in the upper room, wondering what to do?

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
John 20:19

Why would Jesus say this? Why would Jesus tell us to be peacemakers? Why would Jesus commit the apostles to be peacemakers when he says:

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
John 20:21

I believe it is evident throughout the Scriptures and history. We, as people, are at war, not just with each other, but within ourselves. We continue to see wars and violence and Jesus tells us that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, the life speaks, the man shows his heart. The warring around us, has very little to do our wants on the outside, as they are just evidence of the wants on the inside. The warring around us has EVERYTHING to do with the warring that is happening within our souls. We are a restless people, always desiring something more, something different, something greater. We are always looking for the grass that is greener on the other side. Yet, no matter what we do…that grass is never greener, just more that needs to be mowed.

You see, as a proclaimer of the good news, I have always focused on the greatest peace, the peace that Jesus gives our souls, yet have had little to do with the shadow of that peace, namely, building bridges of peace while here on earth. We are called to do both.

We are called to give food to the poor, to point them to the one who is the bread of life.

We are called to give money to the poor and to the needy, to point them to the one who will give them abundant riches in the next life and is our actual prize

We are called to go to the widows and the orphans, to point them to the one Father and husband who will never abandon them in life or death

We are called to go to the religious, to point to them that Jesus has paid their debts

We are called to the hopeless, to point them to the fact that Jesus is their only hope

We are called to the prisoner, to show them that only Jesus can release them from their bondage.

Why wouldn’t we desire to go to the warring, to show them that there is only peace found in the grace of God for their souls?

I have discarded this for a long time in my life. I am questioned a lot about why I desire to bring reconciliation between Muslims and Christians. The reason is not to show only the grace and reconciliation to the Muslim, but it is also to show this to the Christian.

Those who follow Jesus have peace. We are to bring that peace on this earth, which is a shadow, to point to the true peace that comes by healing our souls from the warring that is happening within.

If you love Jesus and you do not promote and actively seek peace with your enemies, with America’s enemies, or with the enemies of your state…you are in sin.

May we seek peace, for the sake of showing the greatness in the grace of Jesus.

May we see clearly that Paul calls the gospel we love so much, the gospel we desire to proclaim and live so much is called:

…the Gospel of Peace!
Ephesians 6:15

Epipheo Studios

2010-07-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

While my boy Caleb was scarfing down a waffle, I was introduced to Ben Crawford of Epipheo Studios...he does what I love to do on the side...He is a really cool dude that makes very entriguing videos. This past year I put up a video for the Advent Conspiracy, which was made by Epipheo. Anyways...figured I would pub him and his biz some.

Baby High

2010-07-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

Baby High: "Four students of TAPP (Teenage Parenting Program) bring you inside their Kentucky high school specifically tailored for pregnant teens & teen moms."

I watched this last night and found it quite interesting how a school like this could be called "controversial" and also condoning teenage pregnancy...seems like the school gives back some hope for girls that made a mistake...seems like the school shows a lot of forgiveness and love. Seems like this school shows what Jesus would do if he was in the same situation.

Love Your Enemies: Video

2010-07-22T16:06:00.001-07:00

Us Doesn't Equal God is On Our Side

2010-07-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes.

I can't tell the difference between churches and those that are just the normal American leader...just desiring a following and making it us vs them...in which us always equals God's side and them always equals the devil's side. I thought we were to make followers and disciples of Jesus, not us, our church or our program.

Sometimes.

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Joshua 5:13-15

Peace or Piece?

2010-07-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

I fear most of us don't want peace for the world but we want to get our piece of the world.

The Anatomy of A Murder

2010-07-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."

James 4:1-8a

My friend and his brother were murdered by radicals yesterday morning (See accompanying article. Warning the Pakistan Christian Post doesn't soften the blow by failing to tell the truth through pictures like our American press does. The site contains graphic pictures).

Pakistani Christian Post

That alone is enough to cause despair, but it is exacerbated by the reality that this kind of thing happens everyday in the world. As a matter of fact, as I kept perusing the internet for stories in regards to my imprisoned friends, I kept getting the headline story of a girl that was raped and tossed out of the window of her apartment building in Islamabad for being a Christian. My reaction was “That’s horrible; I can’t believe that! Now where is the information about my friends?” I kept wondering why they weren’t “Headline News?” Yesterday they became just that, and it’s all I have been able to think about!

As humans we are guarded with self-preservation mechanisms that allow us to filter the horror of everyday existence, yet ironically, scripture doesn’t let us do that. I have been reading through the horrific battles in the book of Joshua, and the Psalms and Lamentations (To name a few) that continually remind me of the reality of this world, and the suffering that always exists around us; but “Enlightened” thinkers changed all that by “Getting rid” of human suffering by selling us a version of the world that is progressing rather nicely. The funny thing about it is our churches are marching in step with the same sanitized message of “Progress,” because that’s the reality in a world run by humans. Aren’t we progressing? Isn’t the world becoming a better place? I suppose that’s up for debate, but I suggest holding your opinion until you weigh all the facts. Biblically we are told that the gospel is advancing at the same time Satan and sin vie for the hearts and minds of God’s creation. There is a spiritual war being fought rather fiercely, or did our soft sermonettes that espouse a blessed “Christian” life cloud our thinking (See Ephesians 6:10-18). Biblical eschatology dominated by either flying away Christians or victorious warriors ushering in an age of utopia are either too simplistic or were shaped in a post enlightenment idealistic elixir. There is no doubt Jesus is coming back to usher in His kingdom, but until that time there is suffering this side of paradise until that kingdom is realized, and Christians are not exempt from this tribulation.

Oh, of course we can just blame these little glitches in the Truman Show the way Christopher Hitchens and his band of “new Atheists” do; “This is just the work of religion, and once we rid the world of these nut jobs, then the world will be the way it’s supposed to be!” In one sense I firmly agree, religion most often is the bane to humanity, but isn’t this banter just exchanging one human mistake for another? Is humanity really the answer if it was humanity that created religion? Why would we suppose Chris and his boys have it right this time? Sure, we Christians should get on board that blame game and say it’s not “All” religions that are to blame, just those evil ones that don’t fit our ideas of God. "It's those Muslim folk that are really to blame.!" Of course to do so, wouldn’t we need to forget a long lined of inquisitions, burnings at the stake, abortion doctor murders, etc…? Oh, yeah, those weren't really “Christians!?” How convenient!

Or maybe the real anatomy of a murder lies in the heart of every human, who “desires” more than we can have, so our jealousies cause us to participate in a multitude of sins? Isn’t this what our text in James expresses? “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” When do we stop blaming that tribe "Over there" in our attempts to conjure up solutions to the world's "Glitches" and realize this is what sin really looks like 24/7! Maybe it's time to stop trying to make ourselves look better, and realize the problem is within, and that we are all sinners in the need of God’s grace; but when we set up the "us vs. them" mentality that many Christians are as guilty of as Hitchens et al., we mitigate the power of the gospel, and create a hatred that continues this cycle of violence and hate that only the gospel (Both proclaimed and lived) can destroy! Let's stop acting as the world acts, which is a blame game for our world's toughest problems, and stop vilifying cultures that are different, and start living a bit like that Gospel ethic Jesus talked about in Matthew 5-7? Oh yeah, that's an ethic for the future, not now though!!

Is Our God Holy or Loving?

2010-07-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

I have been reading through the book of Joshua, which would to even the devout western reader, cause a series of faith spasms. It is easy to judge the Quran and other religious literature for its violent content, but it would be a case work in cognitive dissonance to deny the violence of the Jewish/Christian text.

Christians seem to have a way to "Forget" the justice of God in the name of His love. Such an imbalance not only distorts the nature of God, but it distorts His story and mitigates its necessity. The other day we were at the ruins in Carthage with a group of young Christians ministering here in Tunisia, and we stopped at a place that had ancient grave-stones of children sacrificed to Baal-Humon, and those with us were commenting on how awful it was to believe in a god who could demand such a thing of his people and I was immediately reminded of Isaiah 53:10, where we are told that God was "Pleased to crush Him (His Son)...as a guilt offering." How easy is it to forget that at the heart of the gospel is an atoning sacrifice. God's love includes these "Dark Passages" that we all try to forget, but lie at the heart of the gospel! The bloodshed of the cross will always be an "Offense" and "Foolishness" to those that are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18, 23), as it is to our contemporaries in the west, and many Muslims in the world who also believe that Allah could never do such a thing to one of His prophets! It appears as senseless as the killings in the Palestinian conquests in ancient Israel as they are in modern Israel.

We struggle to believe this is possible for a loving God, because we have neutered His justice, and denied Him His glory. Our man-centered opinions about God have created a western deity tame enough for us to handle, and now we are paying the penalty of having no answers to a savvy attack on the God of the bible, because our gospel has lost its connection with God's holiness and justice.

I was in a bookstore the other day in Tunis talking to an atheist who had spent 16 years in the church (Not the Mosque), and left because the church had no answers for these questions, and he became incredulous to think that a god had any right to be zealous for His own glory! Unfortunately too many people in the church feel the same way, so we have left the God of Joshua off our flannel graphs, created a god (An idol) that appeases the 21st century western mind, and then put our heads in the sand of ignorance and wonder why our kids are leaving the faith, and how come no one is coming to our churches?

It is not surprising that those churches that are growing are not backing down from the truth of the atonement, and preaching the "Whole Counsel" of God's word, so that people can be exposed to God's holiness and our sin, and turn to the only name under heaven by which man can be saved, by God's great grace and mercy; Jesus the Messiah. This message will always be both a scandalous stumbling block to some, and absolute foolishness to others, "but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). We can't back down from that message, but must be looking for ways that contextualizes that message so it can be heard, which includes knowing God's story, and how it fits into other stories like those we find in the Quran, or in the history of Baal-Humon. They may be appalling, but they provide a great avenue to talk about the one sacrifice that ends all sacrifices!

Below is an excerpt from a press release for an upcoming book called Dark Passages: How Religions Learn to Forget Their Bloody Origins by Phil Jenkins that may be pretty cool on the subject.

"Western observers often express concern about the violent nature of passages within the Quran, and ask whether fanaticism is somehow hard-wired into the faith of Islam. Absent though from such discussions is any sense of the still more violent and unforgiving passages that litter the Hebrew Bible, which is also the Christian Old Testament. To take just one example of many, when God orders the conquest of Canaan, he supposedly commands his followers to exterminate the native inhabitants: “you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy” (Deuteronomy 7.1-2). The book of Joshua offers an abundance of such texts. The most striking fact here is not that such passages exist, but that they have been so utterly forgotten by the vast majority of Christians and Jews, including among devoted Bible-readers. This in itself is a significant comment on the relationship between the scriptures on which a religion is founded and the ways in which that faith develops through history. The fact that such a gap exists constitutes a real challenge to fundamentalist assumptions, and raises profound questions about many prognoses that are currently offered for the future of Islam. It would be easy, if pointless, to assemble these disturbing Biblical texts in order to show the bloody roots of Western religion, and the apparent contradictions within those faiths. Much more significant is understanding the role that these texts play within the holistic reality of the scripture, and how successive generations of believers have come to terms with these difficulties."

What Is Faith? Stripping the Christianese From the Term

2010-07-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

There are certain terms that we use so often in our cultures that they have either been stripped of their meaning or no one really knows how to define the actual term. What usually happens with these terms when someone is asked to define them, they'll either say, "I don't know?" or will try to make up some odd explanation that forces them to talk in circles and making as much sense as Sarah Palin explaining foreign policy.

One of these terms is "faith." In the Christian world we have done a poor job explaining what this term means and have used such terms as "belief" to equate it with faith. People will say, "faith means to believe". What does believe mean? I don't know. So the spiral of confusion continues. Some say we have to just "take a blind leap of faith." What does that mean? And does anyone actually ever take a blind leap of faith?

Hebrews 11:1 gives us a great explanation of faith that tells us what we should expect from God when he tells us to have faith. I am not going to be a complete apologetical theologian and explain in this post who God is, or prove he exists. I am going to assume you believe in some sort of greater power than you that created all things. If God created all things, we should probably take his definition of faith while trying to explain it...especially those who claim to follow Jesus.

Here is how Hebrews 11 defines faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

What this one verse doesn't tell us is what the term meant in all of the Scriptures when spelled out in Greek. The term always related to Jesus or God and their work. So, when we see assurance, or sometimes translated as substance, of things hoped for, what things is it speaking of? The "things" hoped for has to do with the work of Jesus Christ. That because of the work of God in this world that is evidence of who he is we can have hope that what he said will happen in the future will happen. Maybe this doesn't help practically. Let me explain. Everyday, we have faith in other things that we don't feel have anything to do with God. This faith is assurance or substance of things hoped for. Example. We believe that when a woman is pregnant that she'll have a healthy baby. Why? The reason is that based on other experiences of seeing people have babies and the stats we see, the probability of that woman having a healthy baby is really good. Even more so, our faith in this goes way up when the doctor tells us that everything is going as planned in the pregnancy.

So, is this faith blind? Not at all. It is based on something. It is based on other actions and evidence that we have seen to have made our minds up that having a healthy baby is pretty common. Is this a blind jump of faith? No. Is it faith? Yes. You don't know what's going to happen. The doctor has no clue, he's just playing probabilities.

The second part of Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the conviction, or assurance of things not seen. This definitely plays into the last example I gave. But this has to deal with why we can have so much assurance or conviction today for things that have happened in the past. Think about sitting in a chair. You have no idea, usually, who made the chair, where it was made, or if it will hold you up this time. But, based on your knowledge of seeing others sitting in the chair, your experience sitting in chairs without them busting underneath you, your faith is built up that it is okay to sit in chairs even though you never saw it being built. You have a conviction and assurance of something not seen, namely the carpenter building it and the time he put into it to make it sturdy.

Is this faith? Yes. You have faith that the chair will hold you up. The two part process of faith in Hebrews 11 is very hard to separate as they go so much together. So, what do followers of Jesus mean when we speak of faith?

Basically, based on seeing God's providence, power, creation, historical evidences and scientific evidences throughout our lives, the lives of others and through nature we have the assurance that our hope is in the right place (namely the work of God through Jesus by the Holy Spirit) and that we have a true conviction that where we are presently in our faith is the outcome of knowing that we have not seen truly happened and happens.

Our faith in Jesus is not a blind leap of faith. It's based on substance, assurance, conviction and evidence, all given to us by God through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

For those who are Christians who want to know a very practical way to think of your faith, it was spelled out very well in a book I am reading.

A translator was trying to translate a Bible for a tribe, but the tribe had no actual word for the term faith. As I speak to translators, this happens all the time, but what they look for is evidences of a certain word in that culture and then attach biblical terms with those local understandings. This translator went out with the local chief to hunt for the day. They were out all day and were very tired from all the hiking through the forest. As they got back to the village, they both sat down and just rested in the chairs in the front of the chief's home. At that point, it hit the translator clear as day. He asked the chief, what is the term for what we are doing right now? You know resting after working so hard and being tired? The chief told him and that was the term he used for faith.

Faith is resting in Christ and His work.

Jesus said,

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:30

If, as a follower of Jesus it is hard for you to understand this, your faith is probably not on resting in Jesus, but probably toiling in your own works. We are to believe that the works of Jesus are enough and that our work is merely sprung from the love we have in our Saviour who bore our sin on the cross and rose again to show us the victory was won in Him, and nothing about us.

I hope this post helps explain faith in a clearer way to those who ask you.

Contextualizing Loving Your Neighbor for Seattleites

2010-07-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

The infamous passage in the Bible where Jesus speaks about loving our neighbor as ourselves, you know, the good Samaritan story, is one that I think needs some retooling for my place in this world. I am not a pro on all cultures in the world or even in the United States, but one I know very well is my neighborhood and the surrounding areas of Seattle. This is my joint. This is my culture. I used to live in Oklahoma, which has a lot of the same culture of the South and so I know that a lot of people from that area might see this post as a waste of time for them...which is cool. But, I want to really reexamine the Good Samaritan story that Jesus told to the Jews to destroy their paradigm on loving neighbor.

The first time we see this command to love neighbor, comes in Leviticus 19:18

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

You can actually see why the people would be a little confused if they only read this verse and didn't understand that God truly loved all people. Because in this verse it seems to convey the understanding that the "sons of your people" is equated with "neighbor." So, the Jews had always lived, or tried to live, in a way to where they literally loved their own neighbor in proximity and blood line. Outside of that, there was no reason to show love, because that wasn't the command as they read it in Leviticus 19.

What we know about Jesus is that, not only was he the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Sent One, but part of this mission was to destroy the Jews' paradigm of outward actions gains righteousness. The Jews believed that as long as they played by the rules, they would earn the reward. Not only did Jesus destroy this paradigm by actually re-pointing out what God actually had been saying for all of history, but he started to show the worldwide vision of God in redeeming all tribes and peoples.

So, when Jesus comes to show who neighbor is to the lawyer who asked in Luke 10:25-37, he destroys this man's paradigm of neighbor. For the lawyer, if he was a good Jew, he would know that Samaritans were Israeli half breeds, God's damned people and would have so much distaste for them that he would literally walk around Samaria on his journeys to and from Jerusalem. But, in the end of the story, this same lawyer's paradigm was squashed as he was forced to say (you can see his deep racism as he still won't say 'the Samaritan' when answering Jesus) that the one who showed mercy was this man's neighbor. Jesus was getting the Jews to think bigger and more vast. He was awakening them to the facts that God's family was about to be joined up by the Gentiles into the fold.

But, what about today? What has happened today in Seattle? What I have noticed as I look more and more in my life and also in the Christian culture as a whole, we seem to have reversed what the Jews used to do. Instead of us only caring about those directly beside us in our neighborhoods, we show more love and compassion for those "out there" than those who take their garbage out to the curb right next to us. We are willing to go overseas, serve the homeless, give money to poor kids in Africa, take short term mission trips, etc. etc. Now, hear me...I am NOT saying these things are bad nor are they to be put aside. But, what about our neighbors? What about those that live in our actual communities? How are we loving them as we love ourselves?

There are many reasons why people hate Christians, but most of them have to do with us being hypocrites. I am not saying that we are going to be able to be sinless, but what I am saying is: I wonder if we could at least change the understanding of what it looks like to follow Jesus if we were to actually love our neighbors instead of just smiling like a circus clown and waving at them as we get in our cars to drive off to the next ministry...

What if, instead of being so involved with programs at church, we understand that we are the church and our whole life is to be a life of worship of God and loving our neighbors? Isn't this what Jesus said?

Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-31

And are we making this too difficult by all these programs at church that take us out of our neighborhoods? Jesus told us to "Go and make disciples" which means, "as you go..." It gives this idea that as you live your life, as you do those things that God has called you to do, like work, family, fun, hobbies, on your way to work and back...to make disciples. I think we have made this too hard, when that wasn't the point. Jesus wants us to live with Gospel intentionality as we live our lives daily instead of trying to figure out what program we are going sign up for at church so that we can feel good about ourselves.

It seems like we sometimes make the same mistake that the Pharisees did by putting all these rules and regulations of what it looks like to be sanctified. What if instead we believed what Jesus said

“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:30

Not only does this verse speak of salvation by grace, but it also speaks deeply against sanctification of works righteousness.

Maybe we should correct ourselves in trying to live for programs, instead of living for Jesus and loving our actual neighbors. Maybe we should seek out how we can live intentionally every day with those around us. Maybe we should listen to Jesus and "Go, therefore"

Just sayin'...

What Might A "Muslim" Gospel Culture Look LIke

2010-07-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

Since I have been living in a Muslim culture for the last month, I started to think how would the gospel penetrate this place? It had surely penetrated this very culture 2000 years ago, certainly it could do it again. And I am positive that this is a job for the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, but the fact remains, we (The Church) are sent into the culture as Jesus was (John 20:21) to help penetrate every culture with the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14, 15; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8); so what's it take? I have been "Contending" for a gospel that is shaped by the cultural language in order to clearly communicate the message of Jesus Christ. Others of course have vehemently argued that this is an anathema and a compromise of Gospel truth. I will continue to contend though, that every presentation of the gospel is shaped by the cultural paradigm of the messenger. This is why there was a similar vehement argument in the first century, and the reason Paul had to write such glorious works as Romans and Galatians; to correct error, define the gospel, and exhort the church to be gracious in these culturally different movements (Romans 14:13-20).

The Jewish believers struggled greatly with the gentile believers who didn't adhere to their "Religious" traditions (Even traditions commanded by God in scripture), but the gospel spread when it was ripped from Jewish control, and was formed in pagan centers of asia-minor, Rome, North Africa, etc. There is no doubt that some syncretism resulted, but if the gospel is going to continue to move outward, it needs to be released by those that feel they own it, and trust that the Holy Spirit is still on duty (John 16:7-15; 1 John 2:27-29; 1 Corinthians 2:15-16).

Today we face similar challenges from many inside the church who believe they are the gate keepers of "truth," and foist their own culture on the gospel in the guise of gospel purity making missions to those outside their culture nearly impossible. Just the other day I was reading where a man was criticizing Rick Warren for praying to a "Merciful and compassionate God," during a prayer breakfast, because that prayer was Muslim, and catered to Islam; and although he acknowledged (Thankfully) that our God is "Merciful and Compassionate" he said it did not represent the gospel well. This is utter ridiculousness. Apart from apologetic sites trying to deny this reality, there are a plethora of verses in the bible that have been co-opted from pagan texts, and applied to Yahweh, the one true God. Like Psalm 29, which is clearly a Canaanite, or Phonecian ode to Baal. According to theologian H.L. Ginsberg, "This psalm is a Yahwistic adaptation of an older Canaanite hymn to the storm-god Baal...” has been “...corroborated by the subsequent discovery of tablets at Ras Shamra and by progress in the interpretation of these texts” (1966, 1:175). Paul himself indicates in Acts 17:28 that he quoted their poets when he wrote, "For in Him we live and move and exist...for we also are his offspring" (This was written at first about the pagan Greek god Zeus). If something is true, it is true no matter what the source is that says it, which should remind us that the culture's religions, and poets, and artists can and do speak the truth as they perceive it through general revelation. To this Calvin writes:

“In reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us, that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from the creator...Whenever we meet heathen writers, let us learn from the light of truth which is admirably displayed in their works, that the human mind, fallen as it is, and corrupted from its integrity, is yet invested and adorned by God with excellent talents. If we believe that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth itself, we shall not reject or despise the truth itself, wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to insult the Spirit of God.”

It amazes me that many who are quick to quote Calvin, Luther, etc. don't seem to have the intellectual integrity to think like these men. If we continue to ride into culture with our arrogant, white hats to spew our learned doctrine at the poor pagans who know no truth, we will continue to alienate billions of people from the truth of the gospel, all in the name of "Purity!"

It is quite possible that the gospel that transforms Muslim culture is going to do it as it has in any other culture and era, by the power of the Spirit regenerating hearts to respond to Jesus, and then creating the "Church" (Ecclesia) in that culture that will borrow from the sublime in the culture while discarding the chaff.

I heard a story the other day of a Muslim woman who converted to be a follower of Isa Al-Masih (Jesus the Messiah) through a series of dreams she had, and as she was meeting with a local missionary for discipleship, the Muslim woman asked, "What should I think and do about Mohamed?" The missionary woman, thought about it and said nothing, just pray to God, and let Him tell you, so the woman went home and prayed, and had a dream where she saw Mohamed in a coffin, beautifully adorned, and looking restful, and the Muslim woman concluded that God was showing her that Jesus is alive and Mohamed is in the grave. Can we still trust the Spirit of God to defend Himself, and to teach His people (Whom He loves more than we do) the truth about Himself, or are we obligated in wiping out every vestige of culture in order to replace it with our own "learned" thinking? This just makes us 'Functional Saviors" guarding the gates of our tribal god who is too weak to fend for himself.

Maybe a Muslim cultural version of the new believer may include praying five times a day, celebrating Ramadan and giving of alms, etc. but with a renewed sense of grace leading the way. Most Christians celebrate Easter and Christmas, and it is clearly known that those celebrations were very pagan; yet that's ok, since it's what "Christians" do. The way toward penetrating the diverse cultures of this world is through their own cultural stories that align in pointing to the gospel, which is as C.S. Lewis says:

“Now as myth transcends thought, incarnation transcends myth. The heart of Christianity is a myth, which is also fact (emphasis mine). The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from heaven of legend and imagination to earth of history. It happens-at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle."

Our gospel is the meta-narrative, the story of stories; the culmination of all stories which aim at the truth but fall a bit short because they lack the "Word of God" in the flesh, the direct revelation of the one true God, Jesus Christ. I pray that we work hard at presenting Jesus, and leaving the Christian religion where it belongs, in a history book.

Contending Well For The Faith

2010-07-03T23:48:00.000-07:00

"I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith, that was once for all delivered to the saints"
Jude 3

There is no doubt we are to "Contend" for the faith, but the bigger question for those applying this in the field, is what does that look like in a non-believing culture? In Jude 3 we see Jude appealing to believers to contend ("fight" from 'agon' a contest, agonize, etc.) for the "Faith" (The Gospel of Grace v.4) against false teachers who pervert such a doctrine, and have "Crept in" amongst the brethren and have "Perverted the grace of our Lord." But what are the circumstances that force us to contend/fight, and how is this done in a manner that we are articulating God's "Good News" so that those we are contending against can understand it (Contextualization)?

It seems that the circumstances that caused both Jesus and Paul to come out fighting (And arguably here in Jude) are religious hypocrites that work from the inside out, and force moralistic and legalistic doctrines on the people. These are people who want to "wrangle about words," instead of preach the doctrines of grace to those that don't know Christ with love and patience (See 2 Timothy 2:14ff). Paul commends the Elders in Acts 20 to watch out for "Fierce wolves who will come among you" and preach another doctrine (See Acts 20:28-32). Jesus' harshest words were reserved for the Pharisees and Sadducees, while Paul reserved his for the "Judaizers" who perverted the truth of the gospel from the inside. Ostensibly when they spoke to non-believers and pagans, they spoke with grace and tact (John 4; Acts 17:28ff; see too Colossians 4:1-4).

It seems obvious that non-believers and pagans reject the gospel truth, and are definitely in error when they speak about Christ and the church (What else should we expect), but it appears equally clear that many evangelicals have developed a polemic apologetic toward 'outsiders' that takes verses such as Jude 3 and wages war on any 'error' in order to make sure their argument was heard and they had won, rather than effectively communicating the gospel truth so that is understood by a non-believing person(s) (Ala Paul in Acts 17, and other uses of contextualization like John's use of pagan terms such as "Logos" to present Jesus to a pagan audience).

This polemic is never as clear as when someone tries to step out of their culture and contextualize the gospel in another culture. Certain words and phrases become taboo, while others become gospel themselves. All of a sudden we find ourselves 'contending' for words and phrases and not the gospel, and in doing so, we are acting as the Judaizers and Pharisees who demanded that certain traditions and words could or could not be spoken (ie. It was forbidden to use the name of God given to Moses on Sinai).

An interesting tactic of those that disdain this type of contextualization is to call those that contextualize heretics, etc. and then deflect any criticism by saying, "Anyone who holds the 'truth' of the gospel is always labeled legalist and pharisees by the unorthodox liberals." Well if the shoe fits...?

This type of rejection of contextualization has become evident in the effort to bring the gospel to the Muslim world. There is much debate surrounding words and phrases, and much name calling and self-righteousness is becoming more evident in the debate.

One of the phrases that has gotten much attention as of late is the biblical term "Son of God." To the Muslim, this term means that Mary and Allah had physical sexual union and bore a son and called Him Jesus. I don't know of any evangelical that would teach this type of blasphemy to anyone, but when we ignorantly lead with Jesus as God's Son, we are unknowingly doing exactly that. Ironically those that hold that Jude 3 demands that we "Offend" with the gospel, are ironically offending without the gospel, since the gospel isn't being heard by those they are trying to communicate it to. In their effort to 'contend for the faith,' they are unwittingly strengthening a false doctrine based on a misunderstanding of words and concepts. I am in no way denying the use of this phrase, but it may be prudent to lead with Jesus, and begin to define these terms in relationship with Muslims, so we can present the Jesus of the scriptures, and not a Jesus of our culture, or their cultural misunderstanding.

As evangelists and ambassadors of the faith, aren't we supposed to find words and concepts that accurately articulate the truth of the phrase "Son of God," rather than apotheosizing the phrase itself?

All in all, the balance between contending and contextualizing needs to fall in an understanding of what we are contending for and how we can best communicate that to every culture (Which takes some hard work for the missionary, which we all are).

I think 'contending' has to include contextualization, otherwise we are contending for something no one can understand or cares about. So let's begin our contending for the faith within the church (Where contending was intended) and contend' against a rash of moralizing and therapeutic sermons that spew out of our "Seeker Friendly" and fundamentalist pulpits weekly, and then contextualize the gospel to a world that has no idea who or what the 'Son of God' is or what He has done for us!

Caner, Evangelicals, Muslims and the Media: Bearing False Witness

2010-07-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

I have been asked many times on my opinion about the Ergun Caner fiasco. I have decided to not write on it because I don't feel qualified to write on it. But, Rick Love, an international recognized peacemaker between Christians and Muslims has written on the subject. Although Rick is a close friend of one of my close friends, I am just starting to get to know him. I would say this...his articles are very well written and I have had his site linked on my side bar for a while now. I highly recommend you to read his thoughts as he hits major heart issues and gets through cultural Christianity and cultural Islam. Here is his article on Ergun Caner, enjoy.

Caner, Evangelicals, Muslims and the Media: Bearing False Witness
By Rick Love

Liberty University recently demoted Ergun Caner from his role as Dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. “Factual statements that are self-contradictory” regarding his past (especially his purported involvement as a terrorist) were the reasons given for the demotion of this famous Muslim convert to Christ. (See Liberty Univ. Demotes Ergun Caner After Investigation and Liberty U. removing Ergun Caner as seminary dean over contradictory statements)

What are we to make of this fall from grace? I will leave it to others to evaluate the facts of the case. I have two larger concerns: why did Dr. Caner find such a receptive audience? How should followers of Christ relate to Muslims?

The media has bombarded us with sound bites and stereotypes about Muslims. Sometimes we are told that Islam is a religion of peace. Yet the more disturbing and frequent picture painted is of militant Islam. Many articles, books and websites about Muslims and terrorism present an alarmist and fear-inducing approach. These authors focus mainly on negative elements of Islam and the threat posed by radical Islam. They tend to project onto all Muslims a radical agenda espoused by only a few. The result: fear and alienation. (See an excellent critique of this in Why Do You Fear Me? and The Myth of Modern Jihad).

This is the context that made Dr. Caner a celebrity among many fundamentalists and some evangelicals. Here was a man who was the “real deal.” As a former Muslim and terrorist, he was an authority that demanded our attention and deserved our devotion. So now it’s easy to point our finger at Dr. Caner when we realize he has not been truthful about his background.

I am more concerned, however, about pointing the finger at evangelicals (and journalists of all types) who frequently exaggerate or make misstatements about Muslims. While this kind of commentary sells books and appeals to our fears, the Bible calls this bearing false witness. In fact, overstatement, exaggeration and words taken out of context should not be found among followers of Jesus. Scripture calls us to be careful about the words we speak:

•You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16 NASB)

•Every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36 NASB)

•In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12 NASB)

Thus we should strive to speak truthfully about Muslims, to respect Muslims’ own interpretation of themselves, and “not to compare the best of Christianity with the worst of Islam.” The lack of nuance, the negative stereo-typing of Muslims and the spread of Islamophobia among evangelicals is flat out wrong. There are far too many “Christians” who gulp down this potion of error.

How followers of Christ speak about others should be marked by grace and truth (Eph 4:25, 29; Col 4:6; John 1:14). The content of our message is important. But so is our motive and manner. (See “the Grace and Truth Project” for an example of how a large global network of evangelicals seeks to do this).

In addition, Jesus calls us to be peacemakers – to go beyond our comfort zones and outside the walls of our churches (Matthew 5:9, 44-45; Luke 6:27-36). No borders. No boundaries. Everyone. Including Muslims!

•If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18)

•Make every effort to live in peace with all men … (Hebrews 12:14).

Check out the realism of Romans 12:18: “if it is possible.” Peace isn’t always possible. We are called to be peacemakers but we will not always be peace achievers! Note, however, that the onus is on us to do everything in our power to make peace (“as far as it depends on you”). Hebrews 12:14 adds a further dimension. We are commanded to “make every effort” towards peace with everyone, indicating intensity of effort on our part. In a world of conflict, peace just doesn’t happen. It takes work! And a big part of this work is bridge-building communication. (For a good example of this see Yale Center for Faith and Culture).

Does this mean that we cannot engage in serious theological debate or that we cannot say anything negative about Muslims or terrorism? Of course not. Peacemaking and grace-and-truth communication does not imply naiveté or silence about troublesome issues. We are called to speak the truth in love and speaking the truth, even graciously, will offend some people.

But our focus should be on building bridges and positive witness. Lift up Christ, don’t tear down Islam. We should not attack the other. Respectful witness has nothing to do with being politically correct. It is a matter of being biblical: “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV). Anything less than this is bearing false witness!

Dr. Rick Love
President, Peace Catalyst International
ricklove@peace-catalyst.net
http://www.peace-catalyst.net/
http://www.ricklove.net/

A Muslim Writes on Islamic and American Hypocrisy

2010-06-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

'Pandemic of hypocrisy' dominating Muslim faith and American life

By MUQTEDAR KHAN

Yes, we Muslims are hypocritical. We demand equality under the law wherever we live as minorities and practice systematic inequality wherever we are in power. In most Muslim societies men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims, are treated unequally by law. Sometimes culture and sometimes religion is used as cover to privilege the rights of Muslim men over all others. Even in societies where there is no democracy and absence of rights is a chronic condition, Muslim men still suffer less than others.

We thought we could get away with it. But, unfortunately, the age of globalization and its pervasive media has exposed us. In the West, we say Islam is a religion of equality, but in the Muslim lands, we say equality is not justice. Justice is to give (or withhold) rights to others as determined by God. So, in Egypt, Baha'is are denied their religious identity. In Malaysia, men can divorce but women cannot. In Pakistan, Muslims can preach but others cannot. In Saudi Arabia -- the Mecca of Islam -- no one except Muslims can publicly worship.

Today, we are engaged in a battle to define Islam. Islamophobes are trying to paint it as a creed of intolerance and hatred and as an ideology of terror. Muslim extremists are defining it as an exclusivist and narrow ethos that has no tolerance for difference and no appetite for self-criticism. But even in this battle, we are hypocritical.

We talk of rights when we speak for Palestinians, we indeed scream in agony for justice for Gaza, but we are relatively silent -- as if our consciences are dead -- when the houses of worship of Ahmediyas (a Muslim sect) are blown up. We hear of Muslim youth going from New Jersey to Israel to struggle for Gaza, from Virginia to Pakistan to fight against the Americans, from Minnesota to Somalia to fight against God knows who, but no one ever goes to fight against al-Qaeda.

When we talk of Islam, we are quick to assert that God made Muslims the best of communities for the rest of the world (See Quran 3:110). But we live our lives as if we are a community against the rest of the world.
So, that is that. We Muslims are hypocrites, but what about Americans? What about the city on the hill?

Buses in New York City today are carrying hateful advertisements promising to help Muslims who leave Islam. Six hundred residents of Rutherford County in Tennessee came out to object to the proposed construction of a mosque. They want no mosques in their state. A woman in Oklahoma places a yard sign opposing a Muslim neighbor she never met. GOP congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik sees Muslim places of worship as a threat to Tennessee's moral and political fiber. Sen. Jeff Sessions displayed his latent Islamophobia on the Senate floor while criticizing candidate for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan as a Sharia sympathizer. And the state of Oklahoma, where Muslims are less than 1 percent of the population, wants to pass a law forbidding the implementation of Sharia.

This is just a sample of the Islamophobia manifest in the past two weeks in America as Muslims increasingly become targets of rising prejudice in American society.

When Muslims object to mockery of Islamic symbols, we scream freedom of speech. We call it an important institution of our culture and of democracy itself. But when Helen Thomas expresses her opinion, we destroy her career and her legacy.

We preach to Muslims the virtue of democracy and peaceful opposition. But when the Muslim students of the University of California try it by demonstrating at a speech of the Israeli Ambassador, they are promptly punished.

We take pride in our democracy. We are especially proud of our protection of freedom of religion. But when it comes to living up to our values with regards to Muslims, we are falling woefully short.

If we cannot practice our values when Muslims are involved, then we also do not have the moral ground to lecture them. We wage wars abroad to defend "American values" and wage campaigns at home to eviscerate them.

Today, Muslims and Americans stand united as victims of this pandemic of hypocrisy.
Muslims are inheritors of one of the greatest value systems of human civilization, Islam, but we are losing it by not practicing what we preach. Americans have developed one of the greatest systems of governance, democracy, and now we are jeopardizing it by allowing our prejudice to overwhelm our decency.

I would rather we compete in realizing our values in real life than racing to become the champion of hypocrisy.

Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Associate Professor in the department of political science at the University of Delaware and a Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

You Know What Amazes Me Most?

2010-06-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

What amazes me most is how many people are willing to speak out against Islam and they have zero Muslim friends. This is a recipe for straw man arguments and a desire to spread false information that usually breads hatred and racism.

When I look to the Scriptures, it seems as though Jesus befriended people all the time and knew them personally. As he sat with them, that is when he called out their wrong thinking or just plain sin.

I propose that before you write, blog or hand out tracts or Bibles to about 1.5 Billion people...you might want to get to know one first. I say, instead of leading with rhetoric, we lead with a hand of help, a hand of fellowship, a hand of friendship. This is what it means to love your neighbor, to love someone else, before they love you. This is what God did for us. This is how we can follow Christ more fully and exemplify Him to the world, especially Muslims.

I know that is crazy talk...but I figured I might as well go over the edge since some consider me a heretic anyways.

The Great God of Balance

2010-06-28T08:53:00.001-07:00

The more and more I live this life of trying to follow Jesus and do what he calls us from the Scriptures the more I hear "balance" screamed from the pages that give us a glimpse into the mind of God. Have you seen this in your own sanctification? It seems to always come up. Think of it. God seems to always give us some basic rules for our joy, but rarely says, "don't do this or that" but instead asks us to look into our own heart and rely on the Spirit. Sure, he gives us things such as:

Do not hate
Do not murder
Do not lust
Do not commit adultery
Do not be greedy
Do not be drunk
etc., etc., etc.

But, what God doesn't tell us clearly is when my hatred of sin turns into woeful and selfish anger. What God doesn't tell us is when you have turned to merely drinking wine and turning into being drunk. What God doesn't tell us is what lust exactly is, what we can or cannot look at and when we should merely turn our heads. Although leaning on the conservative side of these will most likely be the best, we should be careful to both not judge others or refrain from confronting others when engaging these topics.

It seems as though these carry on to everyday aspects of our lives.

To drink or not to drink?
To make a lot of money or be a pauper?
To give too much, to give too little?
To be an Arminian or a hyper-Calvinist?
To engage culture or to withdrawal from culture?
To live the gospel, or to preach the gospel?

We can go on for days, but the it seems as though the answer never seems to be "always do such and such" in any of these cases. It seems as though there is always a balance. You don't want to become a Pharisee (following laws to such an extent where you rely on your work to gain salvation instead of Jesus'), but you also don't want to become a Nadab and Abihu (ignoring God's laws and doing what you deem to be okay). Like I stated above, there are definitely some things that are just wrong because God says it is. But there are so many gray areas in life it begs the question of "why?" Why doesn't God just lay out for us how we should appropriately follow what he has laid out for us in the Scriptures?

I believe it comes down to the fact that if he did, we would become self-righteous and depend on our own will and our own work of following God perfectly. Instead we are told,

So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Romans 9:16

I believe if God were to give us everything so clearly, then where would faith come in? Where would prayer come in? Where would dependence on the Spirit of God come in? Where would dependence on the body of Christ come in? Where would the hope of a new Kingdom come in? You see, because we don't have all the answers it causes complete humility (or at least it should), and reliance on the Spirit of God. If I already had all the answers I wouldn't need to continually rely on God, His Spirit, or His people.

What I have noticed though, the more and more I work and the more I study, is that God is a God of balance. Usually, it isn't one radical thing over another radical thing, but rather, a balance that involves both sides to come to the middle.

So, it looks like this in a nutshell:

It's not abstinence of alcohol or being drunk, but it's understanding when and how much to drink while relying on the Spirit

It's not abstinence of making money or making as much money as possible, but a balance of making money and understanding how to live sacrificially with it

It's not abstaining from the culture or so immersing in the culture that the gospel is lost, but it is taking the good news to the culture and redeeming it, yet without sin.

It's not drawing up straw men against other religions or becoming syncretic, but it is befriending other people in other religions and engaging in helpful conversations about our differences and similarities for the sake of the Gospel and the glory of God. Will both people of each religion desire the other to "convert" to the other...possibly...but I don't want anyone to convert to Christianity, but desire everyone to follow Jesus instead.

God desires our worship and our devotion. He desires our hearts to be completely His. To do this, we cannot merely make assumptions about others and draw up debates for the sake of winning, or rules for all to follow for all time in all cultures unless they are explicitly made in Scripture. We need to be as balanced as God is and know that we are sinners with a finite understanding. Understanding this will have us pang for the Kingdom of God instead of desiring to make everyone disciples of US, and will in turn have us desire for everyone to be disciples of the only King, the only salvation, the only Son of Man, the only hope...Jesus Christ.

Understanding the great gospel of balance makes me rely on Jesus instead of my own intellect and that is always a good thing.

The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But he who walks wisely will be delivered.
Proverbs 28:26

My Business Model

2010-06-25T09:53:00.001-07:00

If you're curious how I invest, Tom Bradley from TD Ameritrade (whom I use), gives a great explanation of why the way I do business is far superior to how I used to do business when I was with UBS/PaineWebber. Anyways...this has nothing to do with "Contending Earnestly" but figured some might be interested...

Liberal Christians Are Far Superior to Us in Loving Muslims

2010-06-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things I have to deal with, along with my close friends who have Muslim friends, is the backlash we receive from the conservative Christian community. You would not believe what sorts of emails we receive, lies that are spread and just plain ignorance that is put forth in Christian circles about our Muslim friends and our friendships and dialogues that we have with them. What saddens me is that there are almost no voices from the conservative Christian (speaking conservative in theological terms) crowd who are seeking to establish relationships with Muslim communities. What we DO see is many relationships being formed between Muslims and liberal Christianity, whether it be from someone like Brian McLaren, or local Unitarian churches in our area. But, when you think of it, how can our Muslim friends have any idea what the Bible really teaches about Jesus if those they are able to interact with and befriend have very little faith in the words that are spoken in the Bible? What we do see is that because we are conservative in our theology and "run in those circles" we get smashed for even thinking of walking in a Mosque to make friendships with our Muslim neighbors.

People, speaking local leaders/pastors love to throw stones at us from their ivory towers but won't even think about actually meeting with Muslims themselves to reach out in the name of loving our neighbors for the sake of Christ. Why? I really don't understand this. I don't understand why people don't want to reach out to seek reconciliation with those many conceive to be our enemies (which I do not believe...every Muslim I have met has turned into a friend). These same people preach week in and week out, yet show nothing but hatred for their enemies/neighbors. Now, what they do like to say is they are speaking the truth in love. But, just because you say that is what you are doing, doesn't make it true. How does drawing up straw men and spreading fear and lies about another count as love?

What is even more amazing is that if you talk to Muslims, they desire to speak to those who love and follow Jesus and have hard lines about their faiths. They are growing tired of just meeting up with those who don't believe in the virgin birth, the atonement of Jesus and the word of God. They want to meet with people who actually believe that they are correct, but are willing to discuss. I'm getting tired of this kind of Christianity. The attacking of another's belief system for the sake of word play and headlines. One of my favorite pastors recently called Muhammad a "pedophile" just for the sake of saying it. Honestly, what the hell was that for? How does this help? Especially when it isn't true both historically and culturally. Why don't these pastors actually get off their asses and start engaging those they "speak the truth in love about" instead of reaching for local headlines? What if I were to call their next door neighbor out by name a whore, just for the headlines, because I heard something from someone else about them? That would be unloving and unnecessary, but when you say it about Muhammad you are a hero and "standing for the faith." Give me a break.

Let me give you some food for thought: Sometimes, pagans don't hate you because of your holiness, they hate you because you hate them and you have only shown hatred. This post came about because of watching this video below and realizing, again, that most of the time Muslims can only quote liberal Christians, because frankly, those are the only ones who are actually following Jesus in understanding how to love your neighbor. Sad. Those of us who are conservative in theology and trying to live out this understanding only get yelled at from our brothers for doing so. Again, sad.

Giving to the Poor is Cross and Christ Centered

2010-06-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

I was listening to a sermon by Tim Keller called, Blueprint for Survival: Social Concern, and he quoted the great Scottish pastor, Robert Murray McCheyne on giving to the poor and the needy. It is quite Christ and cross centered and I thought I would share it here.

Dear Christians:

Some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true vine; you pray to be made all over in the image of Christ

If so, you must be like him in giving. Though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor.

Objection: My money is my own.

Answer: Hmmm, well, Christ might have said: My blood is my own, my life is my own. Then where should you have been?

Objection: The poor are undeserving

Answer: Well, Christ might have said these are wicked rebels, shall I lay down my life for these? I will give to the good angels, the deserving poor. But no, he left the 99 and came after the lost; he gave his blood for the undeserving.

Objection: Well, but, If I give my charity the poor may abuse it!

Answer: Christ might have said the same thing, yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet, that most would despise it, that many would make it an excuse for sinning more and yet he gave his own blood.

My dear Christians, if you would be like Christ: give much, give often, give freely to the vile and the poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember his own word; it’s more happy, it’s more blessed to give than to receive.

Does John 10:15 Prove Limited Atonement?: Christ Lays Down His Life For His Sheep

2010-06-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

This post is taken from Calvin and Calvinism by David Ponter. David has helped me to understand further the atonement of Jesus. This site is legit. You really need to do some research here on the history of God's love, desire and extent of the atonement here. He has an amazing blog which shows the history of these debates. I want all to understand that this post is not to say we don't believe that the atonement was especially for the elect, but it is to show that it wasn't only for the elect of Christ. We believe in both unlimited and limited atonement. Namely, that Christ died for all, especially his sheep.

Christ Lays His Life Down for His Sheep (John 10:15): An Argument for Limited Atonement
By David Ponter

Part 1: The Critique

This argument for limited atonement works like this in a syllogism:

Major premise:

Christ lays down his life for the Sheep (John 10:15)

Minor premise:

The pharisees are not Christ’s sheep (John 10:26)

Conclusion:

Therefore, Christ did not lay his life down for the Pharisees.

Stated without the prefix comments:

Christ lays down his life for the Sheep
The pharisees are not Christ’s sheep
Therefore, Christ did not lay his life down for the Pharisees

The problem is that its formally invalid.

Lets use an analogy which follows the same form, yet clearly demonstrates the invalidity of the form of the argument.

John loves his children.
Sally is not a child of John.
Therefore, John does not love Sally.

This is an invalid argument. Sally could be John’s wife and mother to his children, and so another person whom John truly and rightly loves.

You can swap out any terms, and the result will be same.

What’s happened, is that the negative inference has been smuggled in, something like this.

The simple positive:

John loves his children

is converted into a simple negative

John only loves his children.

Then the syllogism is followed out:

John only loves his children.
Sally is not a child of John
Therefore, John does not love Sally.

That is now is a valid form of an argument.

And if we bring this back to John 10:15, the syllogism now looks like this with the smuggled in negation:

Christ lays down his life only for the Sheep
The pharisees are not Christ’s sheep
Therefore, Christ did not lay his life down for the Pharisees

Either consciously or unconsciously, many readers have converted “Christ lays down his life for the Sheep” as being identical or as entailing, “Christ lays down his life only for the Sheep.” However, this is is an invalid negative inference.

The problem is, the conversion of the simple positive to a universal negative. This is the negative inference fallacy that Dabney references:

In proof of the general correctness of this theory of the extent of the Atonement, we should attach but partial force to some of the arguments advanced by Symington and others, or even by Turrettin, e.g. that Christ says, He died “for His sheep,” for “His Church,” for “His friends,” is not of itself conclusive. The proof of a proposition does not disprove its converse. All the force which we could properly attach to this class of passages is the probability arising from the frequent and emphatic repetition of this affirmative statement as to a definite object.
Dabney, Lectures, p., 521.

There have been a few attempts by limited atonement advocates to claim that the negative inference fallacy does not apply in this case. These attempts are quite astounding. Imagine a Romanist saying that the proposition, “Justified by faith alone” does not apply here, such that we can make a converse positive inference, that we can be justified by faith and works. We cannot be arbitrary when it comes to enforcing the universal and standard rules of logical inference.

And it should be straightforward that one should never seek to establish a positive argument based on invalid inferences. Such attempts will always and everywhere be invalid. Even repeating the invalid inference ad infinitum will never make it valid.

What is more, with that aside, Scripture declares emphatically,

1 Corinthians 4:6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

No matter how tempting it is, no matter how important it is to one’s system, it is wrong to insert a negation into a verse where it was was originally present. This problematic is further exacerbated if after smuggling in the extra-textual negation, one then tries to sustain the case for limited atonement. This then becomes grounds for a circular argument.

Lastly, one should also keep in mind that readers of John’s Gospel should not jump to the hasty conclusion that because of what Jesus says in John 10, that the Pharisees are goats (in other words, reprobate). Rather, one cannot preclude the possibility that they are rebellious and wayward sheep:

Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

Here Isaiah speaks to the apostate house of Israel, as much as he does to the faithful, who have been, themselves wayward sheep. If this is correct, then the contrast would be between obedient sheep versus disobedient sheep (the Pharisees), but not between the elect and the non-elect.

Part 2: The Affirmation

Whats actually going on in John 10 is more like this:

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
John 10:12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
John 10:13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
John 10:15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10:16: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

The point is not about the extent of Christ’s death at all, but the faithfulness, the loyalty of Christ to the sheep. The pharisees are the hirelings who abandon the sheep. Jesus is saying to them something like this, “I am not like you, who run away, rather I will lay my life down for the sheep, defending them to the end….”

Thus, the real emphasis and attention should be on this verse:

John 10:16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

In this verse alone we have election, Christ’s intent, and the effectual call.

When we put together v15 and v16, we see in the mind of Christ a special intention to gather and faithfully lay his life down for his sheep so that they may be saved to the uttermost. He came to earth, not as a hireling coming to a field, but to gather those given to him. This is the direction we should move in, not in pressing the limited extent of the expiation.

When rightly understood, then, the verse speaks to a special intent of the satisfaction, not to the extent of the satisfaction.

The Spiritual Gift of Criticism, Not Discernment

2010-06-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

I was having coffee with a friend the other day and we were speaking about life and what's going on with our walks with Jesus, etc. He brought up the fact that he, and another one of my friends, had a meeting with someone who disagreed with them highly on how they are serving Jesus in a particular area. This guy started off like this...first thing out of his mouth:

I have the spiritual gift of discernment

My buddy said..."I knew it was going to be a long meeting after that first remark." When my friend was speaking to his pastor about this, his pastor remarked, "This guy doesn't have the spiritual gift of discernment, but the spiritual gift of criticism." I thought that was actually a very good observation and figured I would put out some thoughts on those people who believe they have some magical gift of discernment.

1. You Are Not the Holy Spirit's Bat Phone

The first thing is the fact, unless I am overlooking a verse in the bible, that there is no such thing a special gift given to some for discernment. It is actually given to all believers and Hebrews speaks to those who are "mature" in the faith.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
Hebrews 5:13-14

We are all called to discern. It is not only given to those who have some special gift, so the Holy Spirit can use you to be the bat phone to the world to spew forth what is good and what is evil. It is for all believers, because all believers have the Spirit. Look what Paul says to all the believers in Philippi:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11

One of the marks of an elder is to make sure that he is mature in the faith, so that he can discern and defend the truth (Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 3:6-7), but this doesn't mean that they are the only ones with this understanding of discernment. Maybe you should realize that you are God's gift to the world, but the Holy Spirit actually does guide and direct other saints within the fold on how to serve their culture for the glory of God. You might want to get over yourself, and submit yourself to God's wisdom and glory.

2. Discernment is Grace Filled, Not Spiteful

The one thing that has been blatantly obvious to me with every single person who says that they have this "gift" or are a part of discernment "ministries" is that they all come across very angry and spiteful. Know that when you tell someone you don't agree with how they are living their life, it is always going to be difficult to do, but it shouldn't be with the spirit of hatred. Actually, because of the spirit of hate that comes across with these "ministries", it just shows how much they aren't filled with the Spirit, but with something else.

Discernment should be used in accordance with the idea that Paul brings across in the term "admonishment." This term doesn't mean to yell at people and tell them that they are simply wrong. The term means to walk alongside someone and show them the truth within relationship, not by yelling or provoking someone from afar. The term is closely related to the term "exhort" which literally means to "summons to one's side." Here is how the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament puts it:

His (Paul's) pastoral work in a congregation is retrospectively presented as a special, inwardly motivated cure of souls by means of indefatigable exhortation with a view to correction and amendment (Ac. 20:31). His sharp criticism in letters is simply the corrective word of a father to his children (1 C. 4:14 f.). Similarly a congregation admonishes or corrects whether by its pastors (1 Th. 5:12: τοὺς … νουθετοῦντας ὑμᾶς) or by the reciprocal brotherly ministry of the members exercising pastoral oversight with a sense of congregational obligation (1 Th. 5:14; R. 15:14;16 Col. 3:16).
Kittel, Gerhard (Hrsg.) ; Bromiley, Geoffrey William (Hrsg.) ; Friedrich, Gerhard (Hrsg.): Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. electronic ed. Grand Rapids, MI : Eerdmans, 1964-c1976, S. 4:1022

Paul shows this clearly when he is about to correct the Corinthians. This church in Corinth is jacked, yet look at his opening remarks to this church...it exudes love and grace:

Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

This is how discernment should be handled...in love and grace, not hatred. If you desire to just tear down brothers and sisters in Christ...then you don't have the gift of discernment, but of criticism.

3. The Gospel is What We Are FOR, Not What We Are Against

What defines you? Do more people know what you are for or what you are against? I still remember when a friend was teaching about the dangers of the "Purpose Driven" movement and he started with this:

When in heaven and you are sitting down and speaking to Paul and Rick Warren, you don't want it to go like this:

Paul starts to speak about his ministry to the Gentiles and the ways that he gave up some of his freedoms for their sake, how he journeyed all over for their salvation, and how he was serving the church. He then looks to Rick Warren and asks him to share. Pastor Warren speaks about the different ways he was desiring to see people saved and bringing them in to hear the word of God, how he was trying to take the AIDS epidemic head on and his work overseas and also in his own culture. Then Paul looks to you and asks for you to share how you were desiring to call people to follow Jesus. You simply point at Rick Warren and say, "My ministry was to fight against him."

The Gospel is good news to be given in both word and deed. Followers of Jesus are called followers because this is an action. It is something we do, He is someone we are for...fully. We need to be more about who we follow, not what we disagree on. If you read the New Testament, especially Paul's writings, you'll notice that most of his epistles start with everything he is for and it is mostly about Jesus and his death and resurrection. This should be what defines us, not what we are against. So called "discernment ministries" are defined by what they hate and are against...this is not the Spirit of God, but something totally different. We are told to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) and have the spirit of unity ...I am not sure how any of these discernment ministries defend their actions with these teachings in mind.

　
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3

Notice, what the fruit of the Spirit is:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:22-26

I would hope that when we look to correct each other, we do it with the understanding of how Paul corrected. Let us truly show the gift of discerning what is good and evil and how to come along side each other to show them the truth. Let us trust in the Spirit and the sovereignty of God and not become mere critics, but true family who cares for one another. Also, if you read these discernment websites or ministry newsletters, start to truly discern yourself whether or not they have the Spirit of God, or another spirit...one of hate. Do not give them an ear, but ask that God would unify all of us and that He would make us peacemakers of the truth, instead of divisive.

The Holy Spirit Calls God...Allah

2010-06-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yeah...I know I know...back to my old tricks again. But, check this out. I was emailed this thought and it very much intrigued me. This is in no way to say that followers of Jesus and Muslims have no differences, but what this is an attempt to do is to get rid of basic misunderstandings in regards to each other. The name "Allah" invokes a lot of weird emotions within Western Christians. Most of the time, people speak out of ignorance on basic linguistics. This following thought was sent to me yesterday and I found it very helpful. Wondering what my readers' thoughts are on this.

Question posed:

This is for all of ourcritics who say using the word Allah for God of the Bible is blasphemy or wrong. at Pentecost in Acts, when the apostles and disciples are given the Holy Spirit and are speaking in the native tongues of everyone, the last language is Arabic. So, when these Arabic speaking Jews (or Jewish converts) are hearing Arabic, what words for God and Jesus do they hear?

At this point, one of my friends, who has been a linguist for 25 years added this to this question:

Arabic speaking believers at the time of Pentecost were using the term Allah, which is related to Aramaic Eloi, Jesus' term for God, which originally came from Abraham's use of the Canninite work Il, for pagan god. Of course our English "God" is from a Norse term for their pagan God, so I guess we are all blasphemers.

　
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God." And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
Acts 2:1-12

The Church is Who We Are, Not What We Do

2010-06-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

I asked last week how people would define the term "church." The reason is that I have completely questioned what I thought the church to be in the past year. It continued to be questioned, as I have read books from people in other parts of the world where what they do looks a lot different than what we do here in America. If you were to ask me what the church is a couple of years ago, most of what I would say would focus on the functions of the church instead of the identity of the church. I would have focused in on the invisible, visible distinction. I would have focused in on the preaching of the word, the sacraments and discipline. I would have focused in on evangelism or missions and I would have definitely even put forth that how we do it in the West is more of the correct way, instead of a cultural way. Wow, what a difference a year makes. Since attending Harambee, and consequently Harambee and Soma joining forces, my identity, and my community of believers' identity, has been grippingly clear on this huge distinction.

We need to focus in on our identity as the church, those who have been called out. What is desperately shown is that most people focus in on the church's functions instead of their identity.

But, why is this so important? What do I mean by identity?

First, when I say "identity" it means what makes one part of the church and takes that to understand what exactly the church is. Our identity actually is not what we do, but who we are. This is quite important. Our identity as a church isn't found in missions, it isn't found in Sunday School, it isn't found in what day we meet on, how we take communion and whether we take it weekly or monthly, whether we baptize infants or whether we only dunk believers, what kind of building we meet in, what we wear, how long the sermon is, how many songs we sing, etc. etc. etc. While these things might comprise what the church does, it does not make one a church or part of a church.

Our identity is found in Christ and his work, not in the corporate gathering and its' work. We have to understand this. If we don't, we miss a huge point in understanding what the church is and then we will try to take the functions of the church and demand other cultures and other ages to do it as we believe it to be fitting. Let's see why this is important to truly understand. Why is it so important to focus in on the church's identity?

1. Identity is Cross Cultural and For All Ages

When discussing what the church is, we should know that our identity is most important because this focuses in on the impact of God's people for all time. There is no discussion on whether one is part of the church because they decide to function differently than we do. If we focus in on our identity we can allow ourselves to meet on a Sunday morning in a public meeting space, while allowing followers of Christ in another country to meet on a Friday in a home. It can allow ourselves to preach behind a pulpit while others preach while sitting down and having discussion throughout the sermon. It can allow us to baptize in a public place while others decide to baptize privately. If our identity as "church" isn't found in what we do, but who we are, we can easily allow the gospel and the church to function in the area, culture, and age God has brought them forth in and believe that the Spirit is working. It can allow the fact that the Westminster Confession is great for those who wrote it for their time, but doesn't necessarily dictate how we are going to function in our culture in the 21st Century.

2. Identity Allows Contextualization

I hit on this in the last point, but if the church allows itself to be defined by identity instead of function, it allows for full contextualization. It allows for other cultures to look like their culture and infuse the gospel within their culture. It allows for Muslim followers of Jesus to look like Muslims and their culture, it allows American followers of Jesus to look like Americans and their culture, Buddhist followers of Jesus to look like Buddhists and their culture. We in the West, love to tell people how they are allowed to contextualize, instead of focus in on trusting the Spirit and allowing HIM to work in the cultures he is in. Know that when I mention Muslim or Buddhist followers of Jesus I am speaking about those who fully embrace Jesus and who he is, but still identify with the CULTURE of Muslims and Buddhists, not belief system. We love to sit over here in our comfortable pulpits and yell at those in other countries and cultures and tell them how it should be done. But, if we truly know that those who have been called out by Jesus have the Spirit living within them, we should allow the Spirit to work out their salvation and trust in God's sovereignty and not our ignorance. But, if we focus in on functions as determinate of a church, we'll always have issues with those people who look different than we do as a church.

3. Identity Will Produce Functions

Because we have been identified as the church because of Christ, we will desire to have functions. But, because we are already the church because of who Christ is, and not what we do, we will work out functions differently depending on where God has called us. While preaching, learning, missions, family, servanthood, baptism, communion and discipline will be a part of any church, it might look very different depending on the culture and the people group. We have to allow this! We have to allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through people and we have to be careful, especially in the West, to not make people do it like we do it. This is why the Regulative Principle of Worship baffles me. It takes away from culture to allow it to live out how God wants them to live out the gospel and throws it into some Western style. Do people really think that how they're regulative principle looks is exactly how the church performed it's functions for all time in all cultures? If our identity is found in Christ and God has given, not only each of us a personality, but our whole culture a personality, why wouldn't he desire for us to live this out and use it in a redeeming way?

When we focus in on the identity of the church, these functions will look quite different. Baptism might be done in a bathtub privately, preaching might happen for only 20 minutes sitting on the floor of a living room, communion might be done over a complete meal, instead of a wafer and a shot glass of grape juice or wine, servanthood might be helping a local mosque build a new building. Who knows? If our identity is found in Christ, as a church, we can allow our functions to truly penetrate the cultures we live in.

If not, then our functions will be our identities instead of Christ. We will continually put forth our ideals on other churches to tell them how to be identified as a church. If we believe in Solus Christus in salvation, we must believe this in the church as well. Again, certain overarching functions will be the same in all churches, but they might look far different depending on the culture and the age they are found in.

If we refuse to allow this, we become a lot like Pharisees. We will be like those Pharisees who believed that if you do "this" then God loves you. We will be like a people who believe your salvation depends on what you do, instead of what has been done for you. If our individual salvation is found in our identity in Christ, then so should our gathered peoples called the church. When we start to focus too much on the function of church, and what that looks like, it is like focusing on the works of someone and becoming a Pharisee. Just as preaching to someone grace and showing how their identity is found in Christ produces fruit, so does preaching identity to the church. When the church's identity is found only in Christ, the fruit will come because the Spirit will be at work and be given all glory.

And when this happens, Jesus words are so powerful:

“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Matthew 16:18

I am afraid that if we focus too much on the functions of the church then this is what we find:

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:...I have this against you, that you have left your first love."
Revelation 2:1,4

How Would You Define the Term "Church"?

2010-06-03T07:56:00.001-07:00

For the past year, I have really been asking this question. And the question might be also stated as "Who is the church?" not "What is the church?" Yesterday, I grabbed lunch with one of my pastors at Harambee and we were discussing this very topic. The answer to this question, actually has very large implications. I just wanted to throw out the question to anyone out there, Christian or not.

When you hear the term "church", how would you define it?

Why We Need Forgiveness: Just ask Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga

2010-06-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

This is brutal. Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs. There have only been 20 perfect games in baseball history.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

2010-06-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is simply amazing where this is headed.

Cry Out Fundraiser

2010-06-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

(Click picture to enlarge) Let me know if you want to come. Email me at smcbee at mcbeeadvisors dot com. Should be a great time.

Why I love my Muslim neighbors - Part One

2010-06-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

"25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”"
Luke 10:25-34

Now we all understand that Jesus basically raises the bar on what it means to be ones neighbor. I want to look at the second part of the Great commandment in verse 27. Jesus said:

"Love your neighbor" - I have thousands of neighbors in my city that are American citizens, international students or refugees. They also happen to be Muslims. They pay taxes (even international students pay sales tax when they buy good and services in America), take the bus, work normal jobs, drive cars, have families, and watch television...just to name a few every day things. The same types of things I do on a regular basis. They are my neighbors. Just like the retired couples that live on my street, my coworkers, the grocery store clerk, and the waitress at my favorite restaurant. Muslims are my neighbors. And because they are my neighbors, Jesus commands me to love them.

"As yourself" - This is the part that gets me every time. I definitely love myself, no doubts about that. That comes natural. I wake up every morning, wash myself for the day, eat a good breakfast, drive my comfortable car to my wonderful job, make sure I eat a good lunch, come home to have dinner with my family, spend time throwing my son on the couch and tickling him, and stay up with my wife after we put him to bed...to name a few things I do on a regular basis. Basically, most of these things I mentioned are natural ways I love myself. So Jesus commands that I have this same type of love for my neighbors (including my Muslim neighbors). So this would mean, I actually care for their natural well being. I care about whether or not my neighbor has something to eat or not. Can he/she get to work. Are they happy in general and can I add to that happiness in any way, shape or form. Etc. Etc. Great examples of being a neighbor are my neighbors John and Lois (who are normal, homegrown, Caucasian Americans). John is a delivery driver and drives all day long. We have been their neighbors for about a year now. Every once in a while, John stops by our house with some extra goodies to fill our fridge...things like juice, cheese, tortillas, etc. We are never out of extras in our fridge because of John. One day before winter, John came and dropped off wood for our fireplace. We never asked him to do this, he just did it. He did it because the last winter was rough here in the Seattle area, so John wanted to make sure me, my wife and our young son would have a warm home. WOW! This is one of the very few ways John and Lois has loved us just like they love themselves.

So, before I elaborate on why a specific, focused love for my Muslim neighbors, let me ask you:

1) Who are your neighbors? Focus on a few for the sake of these questions.
2) Are you going out of your way to love them as you love yourself?
3) Why is this so unnatural for us, especially if Jesus commanded it?
4) Who/what can give you the power and ability to accomplish this task?
5) What next steps can you take to love your specific neighbors as yourself?

Loving Osama Bin Laden is For Wimps

2010-05-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing a lot of people speaking about, posting stuff, etc. on loving Osama Bin Laden as an example of who we should love, because he is our enemy. But, when you think of it, if Bin Laden hasn't killed anyone you know, how much do you actually see him as your personal enemy? I understand that the things he does are very evil and he does them on a mass scale. I am not trying to diminish his inexcusable acts of terrorism (nor am I trying to speak to those who have been personally attacked by this glutton for terror), but I just think it's too easy for most of us to talk about loving him. I mean think about it. How many times has he knocked on your door? How many times have you spoken to him? How many times have you had the chance to bless him personally?

We are told many times in the Scriptures to love our enemies, and to love our neighbors. Although I think it is helpful to point to guys like Hitler and Bin Laden to show that we should even love them, we must then take that example and apply it in our personal lives.

Who in your life is your personal enemy? Who in your life "gets under your skin"? Who in your life has hurt you, either physically or spiritually? Who treats you or has treated you wrongly?

When Jesus was dying for our sins on the cross, he was staring the dudes in the eyes who nailed him to the cross. Although he would have, no doubtingly loved those enemies who were far from him, but it's a huge deal that he would say this as he is being mocked and spit upon:

Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him. When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:32-43

It's easy to love some guy living in a cave half way around the world, but what about the enemy that lives in your own neighborhood or works with you every day? How do you show that you love them? How much do you pray for them? How much do you bless them? Maybe we shouldn't stop at loving the caveman terrorist, but continue that thought with the guy that is a thorn in our side.

NASA: Satellites View Growing Gulf Oil Spill

2010-05-27T20:54:00.001-07:00

Contend Earnestly Authorship Changes

2010-05-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed already, there are some other guys starting to post on Contend Earnestly. When Contend Earnestly started 4 years ago, it was originally four of us that were blogging. Because of schedules, etc. I was the only one who stuck it out and it ended up being really, my blog. I have always wanted to make it a multiple authored blog and glad I have guys that I trust and respect that have full reign to write whatever they want. One of the other things I have wanted to do is start a blog with an atheist or agnostic, on culture, etc. to just broaden my horizons and have some fun while doing it. Anyways...that hasn't happened here, but might in the future...who knows.

I wanted to introduce you to the guys that will be writing every once and a while. Being they are very busy, I am not putting up some schedule for them to follow or even topics for them to write on. They will write when they can write, and your job is to read and comment and challenge our notions. Because there will be multiple writers, I am hoping that people will not merely comment on my twitter or facebook pages, but actually come here and comment. Most of my posts generate numerous comments, but, for whatever reason, those comments seem to have migrated away from the actual blog. Although you will see myself and three (possibly four) other authors, I am only going to introduce you to two of the guys as my other buddy wants to stay somewhat anonymous, which I totally understand.

Here are the guys, they are big boys and you can challenge them however you want. But, as usual, bring your "A game."

Mike G.

There is really too much about Mike to put here as it would become long and ridiculous. Plus, it might build up his pride, and we can't have that. Mike is one of the co-founders of Mars Hill Church, alongside Mark Driscoll and Leif Moi, and from there founded Harambee Church, where I currently attend. Mike has literally been all over the map, both planting churches and encouraging pastors. I am not sure all the places he has been, but it seems as though India, Pakistan and Ecuador are his homes away from home. Although Mike has quite the personality, his wife Donna is far funnier, and doesn't mind throwing Mike under the bus every once and while to keep him check. What I mean is that Donna doesn't think Mike is a super hero like some other pastor's wives I've seen. Although, I think that Mike might be a super hero, but that is for another discussion. Mike and Donna are about to leave for a year to find out exactly what the next stage in their life and ministry will be and, although this is exciting, it is also quite the loss for us at Harambee, but God is the Gospel, not Mike. Mike has a clear heart for the unreached and takes this love for them and culture to bring forth the gospel clearly in both his writing and preaching. To be blunt. Mike is one of the best pastors I have ever heard and his understanding of Gospel and Culture rivals anyone. You'll enjoy his posts and I'm excited for my readers to be able to see how Mike can truly split open your heart with the gospel and have your desires be more for God than self.

Pete Williamson

I actually met Pete after the Resurgence Conference when he posted some information on his blog about Tim Smith's Rain City Hymnal. From there, our friendship has really grown and Pete is the reason why I even went to Harambee. Pete told me that Mike G. and Co. would challenge me farther than I will have ever been challenged. Pete is the pastor of Oikos Fellowship up in Bellingham, WA. Oikos was one of the first, if not the first, plants by Mars Hill back in 2003 (or around there). Pete, along with a few others, was instrumental in aiding me while I dealt with serious issues at my last church. So much so, that he wasn't willing to merely tell me to leave, but challenged me to make sure I was making a godly decision and not a man-centered one. Pete's new vision definitely revolves around Zambia. He has been there 3 times in about 13 months preaching at conferences and aiding the local churches. Pete never follows the crowd for the sake of following the crowd. He always questions the movements of churches by the Scriptures, not for the sake of being different, but because of his love for the glory of God and not the glory of movements. Pete will challenge you. He will raise questions you might take for granted. But, Pete does all this because he is truly trying to get to the bottom of what God desires for us and for our generation. I think you'll really enjoy his perspectives on things and how they affect our lives, I know I have.

On the Topic of Missionary Support

2010-05-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

This is another aspect of the whole missions question that I’ve been working on. I’m thinking specifically of how we expect that once we’ve identified and approved our missionary candidate(s), we then expect them to raise their own support before they go. I get that this is part of the cost of the call, but in the final analysis it seems that we have just placed an additional burden on brothers and sisters who are already making sacrifices we won’t make to go where we won’t go. But their calling is not to raise money, but to go and make disciples. What if those of us who send took on more than just giving money, but also participated in the raising of funds? Or what if, when our missionary candidate is finally approved, the money is already raised and all that is needed is to buy the ticket and go?

If you think that’s how it works presently, then I’ve got some missionaries for you to talk to.

One further point, how do we help missionaries raise funds without making them feel guilty for what they’re asking? If we’ve approved them, shouldn’t we be able to trust that what they’re asking for is not extravagant but rather necessary – even if it’s more than what you or I live on back home? What would a helpful and wise approach look like?

Who Is A Missionary?

2010-05-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

I'm writing as a follow up to Pete's question in the previous blog article. And I write this with the reality that I am going to spend my next year overseas, and quite possibly may move permanently outside of the USA.

The question seems easy enough at first; aren't missionaries those folk who go outside the US to share the gospel to the "Pagans?" I think this view dominated the great missionary period of the late 18th and 19th centuries. After all, America was "Christianized" and it was time to share the "Truth" of the gospel with those that had never heard of Jesus. Sounds like a biblical plan, but that same truth was ostensibly amalgamated to "Manifest Destiny" and other American idols, weakening the gospel story, and creating an American version that has hurt the gospel, and darkened the missionary endeavor.

Thanks to men like Leslie Newbigin, we have been "Enlightened" to the imperialistic missionary movement of the 19th century, and have re-focused our efforts on a fledgling America who has lost its gospel moorings (Not a bad effort at all in a post-Christian/postmodern west). This was most certainly a needed adjustment, as a weird dualism was created between missions (Overseas work) and evangelism (The gospel in America) that mitigated the need for fresh new church plants to help renew a dying institution. The church is always in need of a reformation as many of our reformed forefathers reminded us (Semper Reforma).

All of this was fine, except the fact that we have once again (As the church is so good at) thrown the baby out with the bath water. While we badly needed the corrective, many in the so called missional church movement have castigated overseas missions as imperialistic and arrogant. After all, doesn't each culture have the right to their own religion? Is it possible the church has drank the 21st century, enlightened western kool-aid, instead of the clear teaching of the scriptures to "Go into the world and make disciples?" This attitude has helped increase those that have not heard the gospel to close to 40% of the world's population. Only 2.5% of all missionary endeavors and church plants reach the unreached and/or un-evangelized.

So who are the missionaries in the 21st century? Two clear things come to mind when I think of this question; First, all of God's people are missionaries, as we are all called to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) so that we "May proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9b). No doubt that means in our own back yards, and to the "Uttermost parts of the world." Right now though, more believers from Latin America and Asia are crossing cultural boundaries to share Jesus, than there is from the "West."

Secondly, God is a missionary. The Latin term "Missio Dei" was coined I believe by German Missiologist Karl Hartenstein to remind us of God's missionary movement throughout the world to redeem a people to Himself through His church. He is a revealing God that "Sent" us His Son as the ultimate revelation and missionary (Hebrews 1:1-3). John 16 reminds us that when Jesus left, He did not leave us alone, but promised us the Holy Spirit would come to "Convict the world concerning Sin and righteousness and judgment" (v.8), which gives us great comfort that it is God who is at work in the people's heart before God's servant shows on the scene.

It's a wonder that reformed people that believe in the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ have so much problem accepting the fact that our God is a missionary God already working in the religious and political structures of the cultures we enter, and in spite of vast cultural and religious differences, there are similarities and evidence of His grace wherever we go.

Thus we are all missionaries following our missionary master into the world, knowing He has already paved the way; therefore maybe we can enter other cultures with a gospel denuded of Americana and cultural arrogance and present Jesus in a way that allows the Spirit of God who is already working in the culture to sear it into the hearing and hearts of the people we serve. Maybe then we can enter presenting the gospel of redemption in the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit, and not with an heir of superiority, attempting conversions to our religion, ministry or country! Maybe then like 1 Corinthians 3:6 reminds us that we can plant and water, but it is God who creates growth and conversion.

Is it possible to do evangelism trusting in the Spirit of God to prepare the people we share with, and trust that God will do what He desires with His word as we faithfully bare witness to Jesus our savior?

Shouldn't we do this in our back yards, and in nations far away? Isn't the glory of God something that can't be co-opted by cultural, political and national values, and should be shared with men and women in every culture and people group? Sounds biblical?

What Is A Missionary?

2010-05-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a couple weeks in Zambia working alongside some friends who are missionaries with a group called ACTION Zambia. This was my third visit in the past 13 months and it was during this trip that I really began wrestling with how we think about missions and missionaries. In spite of the fact that the Scriptures only describe two church offices in any detail, missionaries have become an unofficial official role in the church along with others like Sunday School superintendent and youth pastor.

The problem is that it leaves us with a vocation that lacks biblical definition. This is a wonderful boon on the one hand because we can launch thousands of missionaries in a short period of time since all we really need are people with the willingness to "go" somewhere, anywhere. No real need for extensive training. No red tape to slow the process down. Here today, gone tomorrow. But what kind of people end up being sent? How many of them should not only be kept home, but be locked away? How many of these will go into the field adding to the already heavy load of the local mission or even disrupt the work there because of unresolved or undetected character or theological issues?

Instead of missionaries, should we instead think of them as elders or deacons that will be sent abroad (like church planters, I suppose) and therefore hold them to the same character and doctrinal standards? Wouldn't it be better for churches at home to strive toward sending over-qualified candidates into the mission field rather than anyone who's "willing"?

What do you think? How does your church do it?

True Life: I Was On a Jury

2010-05-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

I thought I would put some of my thoughts in this post on my time spent at jury duty. This isn't going to be some hyper spiritual post on comparing the court of Kent with the court of God...just simply some of my thoughts on what went on and give people a place to ask questions about the case or experience.

When I was first called to jury duty, I figured it would be a quick process and that I would be in and out in a couple of days. Wow, was I wrong. For the first two days, I never saw the court, but just sat in this room for around 6 hours, including an hour and a half lunch and a couple of 15 minute breaks in between. We were allowed to have computers, books, etc. to use while in the room, so that was good.

After filling out a one page questionnaire asking about whether me, my family or friends have ever been involved with sexual misconduct, we were finally called to the court room to start the choosing of the jury. They used a process called, "Voir Dire", which means "speaking truth." They basically ask questions, you hold up your juror number if you agree, and then they ask you to explain your answer. Some of the questions were, "Can you be fair and impartial in a case involving rape of a child?" "Does anyone believe that the defendant is guilty because he is sitting in the court room and was arrested?" "How can you tell if a child is lying?" etc. etc. This took a couple of days, but only actually involved a total of about 3 hours inside the court room. Again...much of jury duty involves waiting on the court, so you have to be very patient.

When it was time to actually choose a jury, each side got to dismiss 8 jurors for whatever reason they deemed, didn't have to be reasonable, could be because they thought your hair cut was whack. It was pretty obvious why some were excused, some were a little puzzling, but whatever. After hearing that both sides agreed to the jury, and I was juror number 11 out of 14, I believe a word that would make moralists very angry escaped my mouth (don't worry, I didn't lose my salvation, I said it very quietly). What they decided to do in this case was to have 14 jurors, where two would be alternates. Here is what sucks. No one knows the alternates until the very end of the trial. At that time, they choose two jurors out of this old school box and they go home. Brutal. Glad I didn't get chosen to be an alternate, I might have thrown a fit.

After being chosen, we were finally given what the charges were. There were 8 counts. 5 counts of a father raping his daughter, one count of tampering and 2 counts of contacting the alleged victim after being given a no contact order. Being it was a criminal case, we had to come to a unanimous decision on a verdict of guilty or not guilty. Other parts, that you might know or not know is that the burden of proof is completely on the prosecution to show that beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. What we also found out is that we aren't saying he is "innocent" if found not guilty, but just that we weren't given enough evidence to show he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This was very difficult. What I found is that I had to be completely logical and take out emotion or my conscience from this experience. We were asked, "Whether you agree with the law or not, can you listen to the court's instruction on making a judgment?" I said yes to this, meaning, whether I liked it or not, my decision was going to be based on evidence, not on my ability to read people or deduct my thoughts on probabilities.

We were given testimony and evidence for a span of about a week and a half. We were allowed to take notes, but no transcript or reports would be allowed in the deliberation room. Throughout the trial, I knew that the defendant had been raping his daughter since she was 10 years old. This was obvious in my mind. She was now 15 and her testimony, along with her two sisters, made this clear. But, our instructions weren't, "Do you think she did it?" The instructions were very specific on each count, based on evidence and the prosecution's job in delivering his case against the defendant.

After everything was said and done, we went to deliberate. I was the youngest at the age of 32, and there was another woman who was a little older than me, but the rest were all over the age of 40, with one lady over the age of 60. There were 5 women and 7 men. After reading the instructions and seeing the counts, I clearly made my mind up pretty quickly on my thoughts on each. I could only prove that he raped his child twice and he admitted to calling his daughter on Christmas, so that was a given. Even though I wasn't the presiding juror, I was able to walk through each count and argue my points. This took two and half days and we finally came up with the verdicts for each. We found him guilty of raping a child in the third degree (I found it odd that the degree of rape had only to do with age) twice and guilty for contacting the defendant on Christmas. It sucked, because most of us knew he did, not only every count he was charged, but even more than that, but we had to stick to the instructions and the evidence given. There was just a lack. So, most of us had to vote against our consciences, which we all were pretty pissed off about.

We delivered our verdict and then had a chance to talk to the attorneys afterwards. Someone finally asked the question that was on all our minds: how long will he probably go to jail for? The reason is that we were not allowed to know the punishment for each crime because they didn't want that affecting our decision. My thought was that a dad raping his child would end up being a charge of at least 10 years in prison, or around there. What we heard at this point, made me almost throw up (this isn't an overstatement). The prosecution said, "The maximum is between 24 and 36 months, and with time served and good behavior, he'll probably serve around 20 months." My jaw dropped and I told the defense..."If I knew that beforehand, I would have put him away for every count."

Amazing that a dad can rape his child and be put away for less time than a drug dealer. Not only that, but if the mom decides later to accept this man back into the house (which actually is a high probability), he'll be allowed to be with his children again.

Overall, this was an interesting experience. It was much like what you see on TV, not much difference. Now, my job is to pray for this family and for this man. I pray that God would do some amazing work in their lives and that this young woman would be able to see what a true Father looks like in God, and that her father, was a very bad example of what a real dad looks like.