GospelLife

The Gospel Is For Christians

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:00:00 -0500

There is nothing exceptional about Mitch Chase’s book The Gospel Is For Christians, except for the fact that the book itself is exceptional. I have rarely read a book that is so simple yet so comprehensive.

There is nothing unique in Chase’s book. Everything he writes can be found in a number of other books written by great evangelical authors. However, this very fact makes The Gospel Is For Christians unique. The very best of what can be read in a number of books can be found in this one book. Why? Because of the simplicity and comprehensiveness of Chase’s main idea.

Chase explains:

[W]e need to remember that the gospel is not something that we leave behind at the front door of the Christian faith so that we can pursue other things. The gospel is everything for the believer” (9).

The gospel isn’t only for unbelievers. As the title says, the gospel is for Christians because the truth of the gospel affects every area of the Christian’s life.

Chase intentionally imitates the style of Paul’s letters. He begins with an explanation of the gospel and then turns to application of the gospel in the second half. Because the gospel is comprehensive in the second half of the book Chase applies the gospel to several areas of life: personal spiritual growth, the church, church growth, missions, marriage, and parenting. He does not cover each subject as thoroughly as he could, but his task is breadth rather than depth.

For this reason, The Gospel Is For Christians is an ideal book for use with young believers. Whether you are guiding a young believer through one-on-one discipleship, leading a small group, or teaching a class of adults or youth, this book is perfect for founding young believers on a solid understanding of the gospel and for teaching them how the gospel affects many areas of life.

If I was a pastor, college minister, or youth pastor, I would order cases of this book to give out to everyone in my ministry because if every Christian could understand the gospel and its application as clearly as Chase presents it we would see unparalleled transformation. As Chase himself writes, “Remember, we can’t assume that people know the gospel” (270), and likewise we can’t assume that people know how the gospel ought to affect every aspect of life.

Greece 2012: Summary

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:38:00 -0500

[Romanian Class Group Shot]

Thank you once again for your prayers and financial support. I wanted to encourage your faithfulness to God’s mission by sharing with you what God did in Athens this January.

Unfortunately, many mission trips are short-sighted. My two years in Moldova taught me that missions is hard, slow work. I was excited to work with Training Leaders International (TLI) in Athens because they have a long term vision.

TLI has designed a multi-year curriculum that will train church leaders to faithfully preach God’s word. Ryan, a faithful IMB missionary, coordinates the program in Athens in partnership with TLI. Our team began this work among six language groups—Romanian (which I taught), Albanian, Farsi, Arabic, and English (for Africans). For the next several years, the men we taught will continue their training as other TLI teams go to Athens.

God blessed my time with the Romanian-speaking group. Every night we covered two of God’s attributes. The Romanians and Moldovans were eager to study and asked challenging questions. However, their interest was not merely intellectual. We concluded each night with earnest times of prayer and song as we praised God for who he is.

The Romanian-speaking churches are possibly the strongest evangelical churches in Athens and are actively involved in evangelism and church planting throughout Greece. It is my conviction that these classes will make their work more effective and more God-honoring.

God used my knowledge of the Romanian language and culture to solidify the confidence and trust of the Romanian believers in TLI’s program. My time along with your prayers and money were an investment in these men and in the ministries of TLI and IMB missionary Ryan. I am confident that we will receive a good return on our investment by God’s grace. Again, thank you.

Greece 2012: Confidence and Trust

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:38:30 -0500

Our team is slowly waking up and getting ready to head to the airport for the long trip to Europe. Before leaving I wanted to share one item of prayer with you so that you can join me in presenting this before God.

Please pray that we can quickly gain the confidence and trust of those leaders who will be studying. This is critical to good teaching.

There are at least three crucial things we need to gain our students’s confidence and trust:

First, we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Spirit-filled people respond to Spirit-empowered teaching. We have great curriculum, but we must proclaim it with His power rather than depending on our own feeble abilities.

Second, we must be well studied and knowledgable. Pray that God will give us time and that he will bless our preparation for this class.

Third, pray for a humble attitude among these students. There are no superstars on our team and no PhDs. Pray that these students will be willing to learn from a bunch of normal guys who are speaking God’s word with God’s power.

Greece Trip Journal

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:07:03 -0500

Greece Trip Journal:

Tomorrow morning I leave for Minneapolis and then for Athens on Friday. One way you can keep up with the happenings of this trip and pray for our team is by reading our trip journal on the Training Leaders International website. I will do my best to also keep my website, Facebook, and Twitter up to date, but, even if I am not able, you can keep track from this site.

Thank You: Goal Met for Greece Trip 2012

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:11:51 -0500

Thank you to everyone who contributed to my upcoming trip to Greece. My goal has been met, and now I am working to pack everything for when that plane takes off on Wednesday, January 5th.

I also want to say a special thank you to everyone from Hardin Baptist Church for you generous gift.

Whether now or while in Moldova, it has always been amazing to witness God providing for his mission through his people. Please continue to pray that God will be glorified through this trip.

"Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to..."

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:35:58 -0500

“Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to’another due,
Labor to’admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly’I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me,’untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you’enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.”

- John Donne (1572-1631)

Christmas Means Theological Training Is Important

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:41:00 -0500

At Christmas, we take the time to remember the amazing truth about the person of Jesus. “Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.” When he was born in Bethlehem, Jesus remained fully God, but he also, in a mysterious way, became fully man.

By becoming fully man, the eternal Son of God gained the ability to experience every temptation and trial that we face while also gaining the ability to suffer and die. If Jesus was not fully human then he could not have been the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. By remaining fully God, Jesus was able to bear the penalty for the sins of the whole world and able to be the mediator between God and man.

To misunderstand who Jesus is is to misunderstand the Gospel of salvation. Jesus could not be our Savior if he was only half God and half man. He could not be our Savior if he was created, as some heretical groups teach. Our salvation depends on this important yet difficult Gospel truth.

Please lift me up to the throne of grace in preparation for my trip to Athens, Greece from January 5-14. I will be partnering with Training Leaders International to teach the leaders of the Romanian-speaking churches there. Although some of the older pastors have received training in Romania, many of the younger leaders are unable to receive training in their own language.

It is vitally important for these churches to have men who know how to study and proclaim the Bible. Without training, churches easily fall into errors that can keep them from reaching people for Jesus. As we are reminded every Christmas, what we believe that the Bible teaches has eternal significance!

Please partner with me in prayer as I prepare for this trip. I have raised about half of the $2500 that I need for my portion of the trip. Please pray that God will provide the remaining amount. Also, pray that God will provide a skillful translator for the teaching time. Pray that God will prepare all of our hearts as we study about God’s attributes, and pray that God will strengthen the Romanian-speaking churches in Athens and that many people will meet Jesus through their ministry.

If God impresses on your heart a desire to support my trip financially, then you can do so online by following this link.

I hope that all who read this have merry Christmas that draws you closer to your family, to your church, and most importantly to the God-man we worship! What a privilege it is to proclaim the same good news that angels sang about to those bewildered shepherds all those years ago!

A Quest for Godliness

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:16:06 -0500

Many lovers of the Puritans posses the cultural irrelevance and kookiness of hardcore Trekies or Renaissance faire nuts. Going to a church led by a Puritan-obsessed pastor can be a bizarre experience as twenty-first century persons try their best to pretend they are in fact living in the seventeenth century with the exceptions of their clothing, sound system, and electric lights. To many more normal people, such practices seem just as disconnected from real life as learning to speak Elvish.

Although I have long been an admirer of the Puritans from a distance, the bizarre practices of many who emulate Puritan forms as the means to the Puritans’s godliness have long caused me to keep the Puritans at arms length. J.I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life finally proved to me that both my approach and the approach of the Puritan-ophile are wrong.

Both in secular history and Christian history, there is a tendency to portray the Puritans as being “so heavenly minded that they were of no earthly good.” In my public school education, the Puritans were portrayed as the enemies of Shakespeare, the hysterical witch-hunters of Salem, or the hypocritical victimizers of Hester Prynne. The only primary Puritan source that I recall reading in high school was Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” but even in my conservative school, it was derided as uncouth, judgmental, and, well, Puritanical.

Going to Boyce College was quite a different experience when it came to the study of the Puritans. I learned to better appreciate them and respect them, but even there I got the impression that, with a few exceptions, the Puritans were largely irrelevant. I know this was not the intention of my instructors, but this was the perception I received from the Puritans’s own book titles, which are about as long as the books themselves, and the reports that certain Puritan preachers spent decades preaching through books of the Bible. I thought of the Puritans as great men, great theologians, and great men of devotion, but largely irrelevant residents of an ivory tower.

Packer takes great pains to portray the Puritans as truly earthly saints—men of God who wanted to apply God’s truth to every area of their earthly life. Like Roman Catholic monks, Puritans sought a life wholly devoted to God, but, unlike Roman Catholic monasticism, the goal of Puritan “monasticism” was to live out piously in the context of normal human relationships. Rather than pursuing godliness by escaping the world, the Puritans pursued godliness in the world—in their countries, in their communities, in their churches, and in their families.

For the Puritans, no dichotomy between doctrine and godly living existed. The study of, writing about, and preaching of doctrine was important because right doctrine is the means to godly living. Due to this, the Puritans set a great example for us to follow. They were “physicians of the soul,” masters of application. They were not superficial but were penetrating in the way they applied the Word to life. They understood people—their motives, actions, and processes—much better than we do even with all our studies in psychology.

Because of this, the Puritans can aid us today as we attempt to apply the truth of Gospel to our own day and to the lives of people to whom we minister as Christians. Their wisdom should be valued by us today, and it is my hope to read many more Puritan works myself, not because I want to cloister myself away from the modern world but because I want to reach it. Let us imitate the Puritan heart and not merely their forms in a superficial way. Let us not sin against these brothers—these fathers rather—in the faith either by ignoring them or by making of them the Reformed pastor’s equivalent of nerdy, anti-social sci-fi obsession.

Failing and Re-Learning Family Worship

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:10:05 -0500

Consistent, meaningful times of family worship have long been a goal of mine. When Stacy was pregnant with Jude, she obsessed over cloth diapers and baby slings while I spent my time perusing Amazon and bookstores for resources for family worship. I imagined reading and re-reading the Bible storybooks until we all had them practically memorized. I imagined catechizing Jude and hearing him say with a little kid voice that our chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

With this enthusiasm, I started family worship early with Jude. He was barely able to sit in his high chair when every morning after breakfast we began reading a chapter of The Big Picture Story Bible followed by prayer for our day and for an unreached people group. We did this faithfully for almost a year and a half, but over time we became increasingly frustrated with Jude’s lack of engagement. I would swing him in our backyard in Moldova repeatedly asking him the most basic catechetical question: “Jude, who created you? God. Jude, who created this tree? God. Jude, who created Peanut and Heidi (the dogs)? God.” Over and over and over again, I would ask and answer the creation question just hoping that he would attempt to say, “God,” even if it was only because he thought it an amusing sound to make.

Of course, at this same time, we were becoming aware of Jude’s developmental delays, which has only recently been diagnosed as Autism Spectrum Disorder. Feeling defeated by my inability to gain Jude’s interest, I put the story Bible on the bookshelf and left it there. “Some day in the future,” I told myself, “when we overcome these problems, I’ll start family worship again.” After this came our move back to America and the resultant hectic schedule. Any random attempts to revive family worship have been unsuccessful.

When I saw on my syllabus this semester that Dr. Whitney would be teaching on family worship, I thought cynically, “I’m sure he’s never tried to lead a child on the Autism Spectrum in family worship,” and when the day came for his lecture on the subject, I entered the hour with bitterness in my heart. However, my bitterness dissipated as Dr. Whitney made a point that I had never understood before. I had restricted the goal of family worship to engaging children, but Dr. Whitney emphasized that even newlyweds should be worshiping together through Scripture reading, prayer, and song.

Family worship isn’t for children alone. It is for any and every family member capable of being involved. Stacy Leigh and I both need to worship together. As we fight the spiritual battles of discouragement, depression, and despair, we need to strengthen one another through times of worship together, and, as a husband, it is my duty before God to provide such experiences. Previously, my misguided expectations resulted in an unsuccessful practice. With Advent beginning this Sunday, I want to recommit to the practice of leading my family—and more specifically my wife—in worship. I know that doing so will never be easy as Satan desires to keep us from the worship of God and to deprive our family of spiritual food. Yet, I am confident that a clearer, truer expectation for family worship will result in a more profitable experience, and I hope that one day when Jude is capable of joining us, we will have already established a consistent, meaningful family tradition.

Was Judas Iscariot Unique?

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:11:06 -0500

When introducing ourselves in Moldova, people often had difficulty with our foreign-sounding names. To alleviate this difficulty, we would give the Romanian equivalents of our names: Joshua is Iosua, Stacy is a version of Anastasia, and Jude is Iuda. We were surprised, however, when a friend said to us one day, “Don’t tell people that Jude’s name is Iuda.” In English, we have two names, Jude and Judas, that translate the one Greek name Ioudas. Our English-speaking forefathers decided to utilize two different names to avoid confusion between the author of the Letter of Jude and Judas Iscariot who betrayed our Lord. However, in Romanian, there is only one name, Iuda, and this name is most closely associated with Judas Iscariot. We were causing great confusion because people assumed that we had named Jude after Judas Iscariot. I suppose they were asking each other, “What sort of missionaries name their son after the betrayer of the Lord Jesus?”

Even though I did not name my son after him, I think it is important to understand Judas and his actions. If you watch the History Channel specials about Jesus that are always aired around Easter time, you will see liberal theologians trying to analyze Judas and understand his actions. I’ve heard these theologians say things like, “Judas wasn’t really a bad guy. He just became disillusioned with Jesus because Jesus was not taking the action he thought was necessary to establish his kingdom over against the Romans. Judas thought that by getting the Jewish leaders involved Jesus would be forced to act. Judas thought that one day he would be seen as a hero.” Unfortunately, these men treat the gospels like biased news accounts rather than the inspired Word of God.

The Bible affirms that Judas‘ actions were evil. Judas was evil. We should not and cannot justify him and his actions. We do not question the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, we must question the uniqueness of Judas‘ evil. Were Judas‘ actions unique? Was Judas Iscariot unique? The answer to this question is both yes and no. Yes, Judas‘ actions were unique because no one in all of history will be the tool Satan—and God, also, in an inexplicable way—uses to bring about the death of Jesus. However, the answer to the question is also no—Judas is not unique.

Judas received incredible blessing. He witnessed Jesus‘ teaching, miracles, and friendship firsthand. He beheld the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Yet, Judas spurned the blessing of God and sought to achieve his own, personal, monetary blessing by delivering the Son of God to be killed. Following these actions, Judas felt the weight of God’s judgment and sought his own way of atonement by returning the money and committing suicide.

These decisions were a particularly Adamic series of decisions. Where else do we see the same series of events? Genesis 1-3. Adam received incredible blessing from God. He beheld God firsthand. He experienced God’s grace and truth. Yet, Adam spurned the blessing of God and sought to achieve his own, personal blessing by rebelling against God in order to become “like God” himself. But immediately following this, he felt guilt and sought his own way of atonement by making clothes from fig leaves. Just like his son Judas, Adam’s decisions were suicidal in nature. He knew that eating the fruit meant certain death!

Yes, Judas‘ actions are evil, but they are not unique. As equal inheritors of Adam’s nature, apart from God’s grace, we all make this same series of decisions. We all act in this suicidal manner. We have all received incredible benefits from God by the very fact that we are alive. We all, at the very least, see God’s invisible attributes revealed in Creation, but we spurn God’s blessings. In our unrighteousness, we suppress the truth. We seek our own blessing by becoming our own God. We are enemies of God. Our sinful motives, thoughts, words, and deeds are attempts to destroy him. When we do feel guilt over our sin, we seek self-atonement through various methods of religion, psychology, and self-help. But no matter what we do these actions will finally lead to our death. Sin is self-destructive.

Jesus said, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Mark 14:21), and if we do not escape our suicide by God’s grace, we likewise will one day say, “It would have been better for me if I had not been born.” O, But may we not forget that Judas was a disciple! If it was possible for him to fall to such depths, how can I be so prideful to think that I am beyond such self-destructive decisions? “Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love.” Is this not the song of my heart? We must make this our prayer: “Take my heart, Lord; Take and seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above!” One day I will see him, and when I am overcome by his unshielded glory all that I will be able to say is “Grace alone. Grace alone brought me here!”

The Pilgrim's Influence

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:35:00 -0500

Our tears to joy, our fears to faith
Are turned, as we see.

Twice I have read the first part of The Pilgrim’s Progress, but only now have I completed the entire book including the second part.

The first part is the classic story. Christian escapes the City of Destruction by going through the narrow, wicket gate. While taking the King’s Highway, he faces many trials and temptations. He fights and overcomes Appolyon. He remains faithful at Vanity Fair, and he escapes destruction by Giant Despair. In the end, he wades through the River with his friend Hopeful, and the two are escorted into the Celestial City where trials are no more and only joy awaits them. There are few passages in all of un-inspired literature that compare with Christian wading through the River, almost losing sight of the Celestial City, and then crying out in triumph:

Oh, I see him again! And he tells me, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over.

While the second part is about Christian’s wife and sons, it is equally about Christian’s influence. The story of Christian—of his trials, ultimate victory, and glorious state—have become almost legendary in the City of Destruction. These stories bring great guilt to Christian’s wife, who had rejected his pleas for her to join him. Christian’s faithfulness eventually compels Christiana to forsake all for the Celestial City. Christiana and her four sons are joined by their neighbor Mercy. Along the way, the pilgrim party grows to include a number of other characters: Mr. Honest, Mr. Ready-to-Halt, Mr. Feeble-Mind, Mr. Valiant-For-Truth, and Mr. Stand-Fast. The group is led by Mr. Great-Heart who symbolizes the ideal pastor. Mr. Great-Heart guides the group, protects them, slays the giants along their path, and finally encourages them as they pass through the River to the Celestial City.

All along their journey, the little church recounts the story of Christian, and as they arrive at various places they marvel, saying, “This is where Christian did such-and-such.” Were Bunyan not a Puritan Baptist, we might think that he was signifying the importance of pilgrimage to holy sites and veneration of the saints. However, knowing his theology, this cannot be the case. Instead, he is pointing out the incredible influence of a faithful life. The fruit of Christian’s faithfulness ripens in the lives of these people.

In my journey to the Celestial City, I often cannot see beyond my trials. I fight with Appolyon. I must pass between lions. I have been imprisoned by Giant Despair. I must remain faithful at Vanity Fair. While traveling through the pain, the disappointment, the temptations, and even the despair, we must not forget that even in these things we are moving closer to seeing our God face-to-face and also that God uses the faithfulness of his saints to influence others. God uses our faithfulness to convict sinners and to encourage other saints to press on.

As Christiana says, “The bitter must come before the sweet, and that also will make the sweet the sweeter.”

Teaching the Perfections of God's Beauty

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:16:05 -0500

In the midst of a psalm that emphasizes God’s judgment and his desire for genuine worship, Asaph sings this beautiful line—“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Ps 50:2). He imagines the glory of God shining forth into the world from Zion, the holy hill where God is worshiped. I am unsure whether Asaph intended the phrase “the perfection of beauty” to describe Zion or to describe God directly, but perhaps the issue is meaningless because, whatever beauty Zion possesses, it is obviously derived from God’s shining forth from it. In The Treasury of David, Spurgeon makes this point: “She [Zion] is made perfect in beauty by his indwelling.”

So, clearly God is the source of perfect beauty. Beauty is emotional, intoxicating, and exhilarating. Beauty is not something to be coldly studied. We must experience beauty. Whether it is the beauty of a breathtaking natural wonder or the beauty of your spouse, beauty is wasted if it is not enjoyed.

When I go to Greece in a couple of months, I will be teaching a course on the attributes of God. I think our traditional term “attributes” tends to be too scientific. In the past, when learning the attributes of God, I have approached them somewhat coldly. I treated God’s attributes as specimens to be categorized, defined, and examined. Perhaps the older theological term, the perfections of God, or a term derived from this psalm, the beauties of God, would more accurately prepare us for the task. We study the perfection of God’s beauty in order to enjoy God, in order to marvel at him, in order to be speechless before him.

As I teach in January, I pray the God will shine forth from me in the perfection of his beauty. Will you pray with me? Will you pray that God will let us glimpse his glory as the Romanian-speaking leaders and I study God’s word in Athens?

Why Read Books? For People.

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:38:16 -0500

Mega-bookstores are overwhelming. On a date last week, Stacy and I went to Barnes & Noble to drink coffee and browse around, and as we were there, I came away with two conflicting impressions. First, so many books exist that should never have been written and should never be read. I saw so many titles that seemed absolutely worthless—books destined to be in the penny bin of a local used bookstore for the next twenty years. I was saddened by the wasted time of the authors, editors, publishers, and readers of such books.

However, just when I was beginning to get discouraged, I spotted a shelf featuring the Barnes & Noble Classics series. I carefully studied the titles to see which books Barnes & Noble had deemed classics. I saw many books that I had read—Pilgrim’s Progress, The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn to name a few—but I began to covet the many books in the series that I have not had opportunity to read. I began to imagine spending a lifetime reading such classic books—treasuries of human thought. I imagined myself locked away in some ivory tower—or rather some cabin in Kentucky with a fireside chair—devouring all this information and storing it away into my mind for—for what?—for me, just for me, all for me.

When I realized where my thoughts were leading, I became disgusted with my envisioned self—the miser of knowledge. So, I reacted in my mind by fleeing in the complete opposite direction—I want to give my life to God’s word and ministering in Jesus‘ name to people. I don’t want to lock myself away for the selfish pursuit of human knowledge but give my life for the sake of humanity like Christ gave his life.

It was then that the pendulum which I had been riding slowed to the center. I had made enemies of friends. Perhaps my years of study at institutions and under teachers that cherish books had unconsciously preconditioned me to this. In Bible college and seminary, it seems that many students choose fairly early on to be either a book person or a people person. I had tried to walk the line between the two, but finally in Barnes & Noble I reconciled these friends by coming to this conclusion: People are the purpose of reading. Reading the Great Books opens a window into the minds, hearts, and souls of people. Great literature opens our eyes to the emotions, motivations, and values of people. By understanding people better, we are better able to apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to people’s lives.

I was even more encouraged by this thought when I realized that I was proposing for myself nothing less than the practice of the greatest missionary the world has ever seen—the Apostle Paul. The great missionary had read the great books of his time, even though such books were not available as $6 paperback editions at mega-bookstores. On Mars Hill, he quoted Epimenides and Aratus (Acts 17:28). He quotes Menander in 1 Corinthians 15:33. Then, again he quotes Epimenides in Titus 1:12. Paul’s wide-reading did not hinder his pursuit of biblical study or love for people—he excelled in both. Rather, he filtered such authors through his biblical worldview and used them to understand, explain, and reach the Gentiles with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are many, many worthless books, but there are also many that help us understand humanity within their cultural contexts. As any missiologist will tell you, if you want to reach people, you must understand people. Read for the purpose of people. I want to read so that all peoples will worship God in Christ.

Missions and Preserving the Faith

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:31:06 -0500

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 3-4).

“The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” exists. Many people would like to think that we’ve moved beyond such exclusivity into an enlightened age of tolerance. However, if we are going to take the Bible seriously, then we cannot escape the fact that there is one, true, uncompromising faith that has been handed down from Christ through the Apostles in Scripture, and since it exists, it is vitally important that we understand, preserve, and teach it.

However, Jude (the author of the Letter of Jude and brother of Jesus, not to be confused with my son) reminds us just how easily the faith can be lost. These people who have perverted the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, have “crept in unnoticed.” Even though their theological errors and sins are egregious, this church to whom Jude writes has not immediately perceived the threat and have allowed these people to enter their fellowship and propagate their views.

Jesus instructed his sheep to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” because he was sending them out among wolves (Matt 10:16). Unfortunately, we have not followed his advice. All around the world, God’s people and even the leaders of God’s people are ignorant of God’s truth. In the West, we have no excuse for our ignorance because we have access to biblical resources that are unprecedented in human history, but for many Christians around the world, their ignorance is due to a lack of opportunity and resources in their location or in their language. Missions means more than just reaching people with the gospel. Missions means preserving the gospel by teaching able men who can teach others also (2 Tim 2:2), and without the ministry of teaching church leaders, the gospel is quickly lost and perverted.

God has and continues to engrave this need on my heart. I am not certain how God will use me throughout my lifetime—whether as a pastor, professor, or missionary. He will open and close doors to determine my path, but wherever I am and whatever I become, I want to continue to fight for the preservation of God’s truth, especially on behalf of our brothers and sisters who lack the opportunities and resources we have in the English-speaking world. This is why I am going to Greece in January. I pray that God will use me to preserve the faith. Will you pray with me and will you consider supporting me in this effort?

A couple of weeks ago, Stacy attended a meeting at the seminary...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:00:05 -0400

A couple of weeks ago, Stacy attended a meeting at the seminary hosted by Chosen Families, a ministry which focuses on hidden disabilities. At the meeting, someone recommended a sermon by John Piper on John 9:1-4 entitled “Why Was This Child Born Blind?”

When God has something to teach us, he often confronts us with the same truth in a number of different ways. The truth of this passage as expounded by John Piper was right in line with what God had been teaching me already over the past few weeks (which I blogged about last week here). Piper explains that “suffering can only have ultimate meaning in relation to God.”

I understand how people would want to explain away the obvious meaning of Jesus‘ explanation of the man’s blindness—”that the works of God might be displayed in him.” How could God be so selfish as to ordain my suffering or, even worse, my child’s suffering for his own glory? Undoubtedly this is a hard pill to swallow, and it makes no sense apart from a belief that God is our greatest good. As John Piper says in the “cleaned-up” manuscript of the sermon:

[F]or our suffering to have ultimate meaning, God must be supremely valuable to us. More valuable than health and life. Many things in the Bible make no sense until God becomes your supreme value.

I hope that this sermon will be as great an encouragement to your family as it was to our family.

Teaching Romanian-Speakers in Greece

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:58:00 -0400

For the past two years, our family lived and served in the Republic of Moldova because we believe that God wants all peoples to worship him in Christ. There, I taught and trained young people whom I am convinced will be used mightily by God to reach that country for years to come. They have humble hearts enflamed by a passion for the gospel and have received a firm foundation of biblical truth. During my last days with them, I admonished them with words like 1 Timothy 4:16: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Throughout the Bible, and especially in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus, we learn that our salvation—and the salvation of the lost around the world—depends on the purity of biblical teaching. This great truth was one of the reasons that compelled me to leave Moldova and continue my studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I am humbled by the opportunity to study God’s precious Word, especially considering that so many of our brethren around the world do not have such opportunities. Unfortunately, this theological famine is resulting in a growing number of errors and heresies in churches around the world.

My great privilege and the great need of our brethren has compelled me to follow God’s leadership by partnering with Training Leaders International (TLI), a young organization connected to both the Gospel Coalition and Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. TLI desires to send pastors and seminary students to equip and train church leaders around the world.

From January 5-15, I will be traveling with TLI to Athens, Greece. Our team of 6-7 will be teaching church leaders from the substantial immigrant and refugee populations living in that ancient city. Because of my experience in Moldova, I will be teaching the Romanian-speaking church leaders. I am convinced that in order to reach the people of Romania and Moldova, we must reach the Romanian-speaking immigrants throughout the world. Many people estimate that 1/4 of the population of Moldova lives and works outside the country, mostly in the European Union and Russia.

By teaching a course on the attributes of God, I hope that we can help the Romanian-speaking pastors to “keep a close watch on themselves and on the teaching” in order to reach others in their community and even their fellow immigrants who have come from the closed countries of Africa and the Middle East.

I want to first and foremost ask for your prayers. Please pray that God would be glorified by the spirit of our team, that God would use us to encourage and edify the leaders of the immigrant churches in Athens, and that God would provide for the needs of our team according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Secondly, I want to give you the opportunity to become a partner in this work by helping to fund the expenses for this trip. The approximate cost for my portion is $2,500, and, with the trip only a few months away, I am trusting that God will move quickly to meet this need.

You can give online through TLI. All gifts are tax deductible. If you have any questions feel free to email me at josh@gospellife.org.

Continue checking in here to see how God works.

The Bitter Blessing of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:00:06 -0400

No one plans to have a child on the autism spectrum. We review the worlds that we create in our prenatal imaginations and declare, “It is good.” Sure, there are scraped knees and runny noses in those worlds, but we imagine our children to be unhindered by diseases, disorders, or disabilities. In our minds, we create our children in our own image, only better than ourselves. Of course, to some degree or another, we all lose that imaginary world. It just isn’t possible. No child is perfect.

We weren’t surprised when a psychologist diagnosed Jude with Autism Spectrum Disorder earlier this month. The diagnosis was only the culmination of what had been a growing suspicion over the past year. In fact, in many ways, we felt relieved by the diagnosis. We finally knew what was wrong. We finally knew what we were up against. Even so, this knowledge didn’t make life easier. You can never truly appreciate the value of communication until you have a child who cannot communicate. I will never look at words the same after parenting a child who doesn’t know how to use them and only uses whines, screams, and cries in their place. Few things break a parent’s heart more than being unable to give their child words of comfort.

My prenatal imagination was an arrogant act of self-worship, and God, in his kindness, chose to destroy that idolatry. I do not mean that Jude’s autism is God’s punishment for my sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Rather, for the Christian, the trials of this life are means of grace whereby God delivers us from our sin and makes us more like Christ. Paul encouraged the new churches of Galatia with this very thought: “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). God is preparing us for his kingdom. God is taking us down that path, and we know that we are truly on the glorious pilgrimage through the mass of tribulations that we face. Like the newly liberated nation of Israel, he does not take us to the Promised Land via the direct highway because the hard, meandering route through the wilderness displays God’s glory to a greater degree, and only by seeing his all-sufficient, all-satisfying glory in the desert will we be prepared to behold him in the renewed earth where his glory shines like the sun.

I pray that Jude will be healed. I pray that his therapy and diet will be effective, but I don’t question the path of my pilgrimage. I don’t resent the fact that I have a child on the autism spectrum. I am happy and blessed to be Jude’s father. As John Piper has titled a book, this providence is simultaneously sweet and bitter, but I am convinced that God’s world is better than my world. Even though this world is fallen, almighty God continues to direct even the brokenness, in some inexplicable way, for the good of his people and the glory of his name. I praise God for the blessing of Jude. I even praise God for the bitter blessing of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Holy Helplessness

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:00:06 -0400

I’ve never felt as helpless as I do right now. This morning I was praying through Psalm 141, and I clung to verse 8: “But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!” Persons with a simplistic view of faith cannot account for David’s paradoxical words. On the one hand, David proclaims a confident faith in God. He looks toward God because only God can deliver him from his troubles. He proclaims that God is his refuge, but then in the next breath he cries out to God in desperation, “Leave me not defenseless!”

Why does he beg God not to leave him? Does he not believe the words he had just sang? Is he double-minded—trusting and not trusting, believing and doubting—having some sort of split personality? No. I think that David’s faith in God’s protection is real and genuine, and I also believe that David’s cries of desperation are heartfelt. David teaches us—and he is not alone in teaching us this—that a confident faith most often manifests itself in deep desperation. This meeting of faith and desperation creates a holy helplessness that causes us to forsake all other objects of trust and rely on God alone.

I’ve known good people who have been swept up into certain circles of the Charismatic and prosperity gospel movements that act as if true faith operates as perpetual optimism. They view any intrusion of sorrow and discontent into their lives as repudiation of their faith that needs to be overcome by the power of positive thinking. They, therefore, don’t have the freedom to cry out with David, “Leave me not defenseless.” Of course, they are not alone in this simplicity. Many other Christians act this way even without the influence of popular television preachers.

Like I said, I’ve never felt as helpless as I do right now. Every item of daily prayer that I have is absolutely beyond my ability to affect an answer; and these items are no small things. My mind rushes to them day and night, and I am almost constantly thinking of some way—any way—that I can get the answer. Yet, doors have closed repeatedly to the point that I feel like I am in a place with no escape. Here in this place, I finally understand what David means. I am defenseless from the tribulations in my life. I am helpless. That is who I am.

Only the presence of God in my life alters my intrinsic inability. I am helpless, but with him I am not. I am defenseless, but with him I am not. My faith is confident even while my desperation is deep, and it is only faith in God that can give meaning to times of severe sorrow. While I cannot understand fully the reasons why I am shut into these helpless situations, I at least know that becoming more acquainted with my helplessness strengthens my faith in God alone. Strong confidence in God and a realistic assessment of our helplessness motivates the child of God to cry out to God with the desperation of one who genuinely believes that only God can affect the needed change to persevere through and, if he wills, overcome the mounting sorrows of life. As David, we must cry out in holy helplessness, “You are my help. Do not leave me helpless!”

Another Müller?

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:31:05 -0400

For several years now, I’ve desired to read a biography of George Müller. I had heard many stories about this man of prayer, but I did not know the whole story of his life. Finally, through Roger Steer’s George Müller: Delighted in God I’ve fulfilled that desire.

I found that the typical stories which I had heard about George Müller’s extraordinary faith were true. At the time of his death, the Bristol Times (not to be confused with the Bristol Snoop, for all you Veggie Tales fans out there) eulogized Müller as a man who was “raised up for the purpose of showing that the age of miracles is not past, and rebuking the skeptical tendencies of our time” (233). Müller set out to live a life that would prove to the world that God answers prayers. To that end, he was a man of childlike trust in God. Müller once told a poor, overworked man to work less and spend more time with God because, he said, “It is not your work which supports your family, but the Lord” (57). I would be afraid to give such advice thinking that it might blow up in my face, but Müller’s childlike faith was such that it seemed completely natural and biblical.

Despite such an emphasis on childlike faith, Müller was not the forerunner of modern prosperity preachers. The true substance of his faith can be observed in the various trials that he faced throughout his life. His power in prayer did not lead him to a life of ease. Rather, he faced many, many trials and heartaches. When Müller’s fifteen month-old son Elijah died of pneumonia, Müller wrote, “My soul rejoiced, instead of mourning, that my beloved infant was far happier with the Lord, than with me” (51). Similarly, when his first wife died, he wrote, “Yet, without an effort, my inmost soul habitually joys in the joy of that loved departed one. Her happiness gives joy to me…God himself has done it, we are satisfied with him” (165).

Müller’s responses to trials were based completely on his confident faith in the God revealed in the Bible. He believed that God is good. He believed that God knows best and does what is best for his children. In his response to both deaths mentioned above, the common thread is his confidence in who God is. This steadfast faith was certainly developed through a lifetime of study of the Bible. Müller read the Bible systematically. He prayed the Bible. He meditated the Bible, and he preached the Bible by simply exposing the text. He did not base his extraordinary faith on subjective, mystical feelings. His faith was based firmly on the objective truth of who God is, as revealed in the Scriptures.

His confidence in God further displayed itself in a humble lifestyle. Müller handled large controversies with poise and grace. J.N. Darby, the famed Bible-teacher who may have been the first person to teach a pre-tribulational rapture, excommunicated Müller’s entire church for disagreeing with him on certain points of doctrine, but Müller did not panic or fire back. He patiently endured the wrongdoing, and the historical record now justifies him and condemns Darby’s action. However, Müller’s humility was not limited to his public persona. He was the same man at home that he was behind the pulpit or anywhere else for that matter. The following journal entry bears witness to a man who had overcome pride and was able to acknowledge and overcome his sin: “This morning I greatly dishonored the Lord by irritability, manifested toward my dear wife, and that almost immediately after I had been on my knees before God, praising Him for having given me such a wife” (72). I wrote in the margin beside this quote, “I do this everyday! For such humility!”

When we read of a man like Müller, it is easy to grant ourselves excuses. He was exceptional. We are ordinary. However, even in this, Müller corrects us. After reading a biography of George Whitefield, Müller wrote, “What hinders God to make of one, so vile as I am, another Whitefield? Surely God could bestow as much grace upon me, as He did upon him” (73). Let us now ask, “What hinders God to make another Müller?” Müller reminds us that nothing hinders God. Absolutely nothing hinders God! O that he may bestow as much grace upon me, as he did upon Müller!

Food for the Mud-Hole

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:47:06 -0400

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing (Ps 34:8-10).

We can often be too bland and unfeeling in our descriptions of spiritual experience, but the Word of God is not so. Biblical Hebrew does not have a large vocabulary, at least not in comparison with Greek or English. Therefore, the authors of the Old Testament often use tangible language to express abstract ideas. This allows for a vividness that we often lack in our own native expression.

“Taste and see that the LORD is good!” David does not blandly say, “Experience and know the goodness of the LORD.” He uses tangible language that colors and intensifies the point. We do not eat our food with stoic impartiality. The experience of eating is filled with emotion. We love certain foods all the while despising others, and those things that we love, we crave and excitedly consume. Undoubtedly, some of the happiest moments of all of our lives have coincided with the experience of eating food. We fill our holiday celebrations with feasts. We follow our wedding ceremonies with catered receptions, and perhaps some of our fondest memories are simple meals shared around the family table after a long day at school or work.

David confidently believes that anyone who truly experiences—who indulges in—God will conclude that God is good. Furthermore, as we experience God’s goodness fully—taking our refuge in him and fearing him—then God’s goodness will overflow to every area of our lives. We will have “no lack” since in God we will find complete satisfaction.

To further make the point, David contrasts “young lions” with “those who seek the LORD.” By “young lions,” David does not mean lion cubs. Instead, he is thinking of the adolescent lion who is in the prime of his strength and energy. Such powerful lions should be able to get whatever they desire. However, their brute strength fails them. They also “suffer want and hunger.” Spurgeon comments in The Treasury of David:

They are fierce, cunning, strong, in all the vigor of youth, and yet they sometimes howl in their ravenous hunger, and even so crafty, designing, and oppressing men, with all their sagacity and unscrupulousness, often come to want; yet simple minded believers, who dare not act as the greedy lions of earth, are fed with food convenient for them.

Relying on God like we rely on food will result in complete satisfaction. Those who have God lack no good thing for he is himself goodness while those who, like the lions, rely on their own strength will be found wanting.

This psalm irritates me. It irritates me because it convicts me. For some odd reason, I like wallowing in discouragement and self-pity. I like to think of myself as a victim to various needs. However, this psalm does not allow me to remain in my mud-hole of self-pity. Instead, it reminds me that I “lack no good thing.”

I like to make the truth future tense: If I am seeking God, then I will lack no good thing. “So, God,” I say, “give me! Give me!” However, the truth is present tense: “those who fear him have no lack” already and “those who seek the LORD lack no good thing” already. Is our good God and Father capable of withholding anything good from his ever-needy children? Is he a negligent parent? No! So, in the midst of the trial, in the pain of our suffering, in our neediness, we must indulge in God. We must taste his goodness, and when we have consumed him, then we will realize anew that we are completely satisfied by the perfection of his care.