The most provoking quote I’ve read all year is by an avowed atheist.  I want to read it regularly to stir me to evangelism.

“… I’ve always said, you know, that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there is a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that…” — Penn Gillette, (of Penn and Teller), atheist, quoted in Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine

May this quote stir us all to pray for boldness and opportunities to share the gospel in any way we can with our friends and families.

photo by teresia

Please supply a caption!

Wanted: Perfect church. A small, tight-knit community of believers. Close friendships a must.

Sometimes we talk about the early New Testament church as if it were a small, quaint country church with about one hundred intimate relationships, and killer pot providence (not luck) dinners. And that’s exactly what it was. For about a month.

Then Pentecost happened (Acts 2) and everything went crazy. The Spirit fell. People talked in foreign languages. Tongues of fire danced over people’s heads. And 3,000 people were added to the church in one day. In one day the church went from intimate small group to giant mega church.

Suddenly things weren’t so intimate. Everybody couldn’t be friends with everybody. The leaders were less accessible. The worship service didn’t have the close, sing around the campfire, feel. Everyone was required to sacrifice and serve in new ways.

But that’s what happens when the gospel is being preached. Sinners are saved. The church grows. New friendships are formed, new small groups are formed, new services are added to accommodate all the people that God is saving. If the gospel is preached, people will be added to the church. For people to be added to the church, sacrifice is required.

It takes sacrifice to welcome people with messy lives into the church. It takes sacrifice to reach out to people you don’t know. It takes sacrifice to figure out who is going to be in what small group. It takes sacrifice to see a church grow from small to big. But it’s glorious sacrifice. Sinners are being saved. God’s kingdom is going forth. People are being pulled from darkness into the kingdom of God. Lives are being rearranged and transformed.

To be a part of this sacrifice is to be a part of something beautiful.

If the gospel is going to spread, and the church is going to grow, sacrifice and serving must happen. Sacrifice and serving are hard, but the result is beautiful.

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I don’t like to humble myself.

I love myself too much.  That’s why I so need the Lord’s grace to serve and lay down my life for others.  Apart from the Spirit’s power, I would only seek to be admired and served, to live for my own comfort and pleasure.   I’d never associate with the lowly nor look to the interests of others.

How I need to contemplate the immeasurable humility of Jesus.

Before Jesus took on flesh he existed as God from all eternity, infinite in glory, power and majesty.  All he had to do was give the word and the host of heaven would fly to do his will.  Myriads and myriads of angels worshiped and served him.  He had no needs, existing in perfect joyous fellowship with his Father and the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus “emptied himself” of his glory and took on a human nature.  This self-humbling was the ultimate comedown.

For Jesus to tread the mud of this earth and suffer hunger and weakness and associate with sinners was a greater humiliation than if I became a cockroach, for Jesus is infinitely exalted above his creation, and I am certainly not infinitely exalted above cockroaches.  Even the most radiant angels in heaven are only finite creatures, separated by an infinite chasm from the unfathomable greatness and glory of Jesus.  Angels are closer to garden slugs in their being than they are to God.  The highest order of creatures, seraphim, must cover their faces with their wings because they cannot bear the sight of Jesus’ blazing holiness.

Never has there been so deep a humiliation as Christ’s incarnation.  But on the cross his humiliation reached incalculable depths when he “became sin” in God’s sight.  Jesus, the sinless One, in bearing our crimes, became the most abhorrent, despicable thing that exists in his Father’s eyes.

And he did all this to purchase our salvation, to bring us to God, and clothe us with his own beauty.

That’s what Christmas is all about – the glorious Son of God, willingly embracing infinite humiliation to rescue and exalt vile sinners.

photo by kunkelstein

Favorite Worship Album – Over the Grave by Sojourn Music

This album is simply incredible. I’ve included my favorite track, “Warrior”, below (RSS readers need to click through):

Favorite Song for Corporate Worship – “Completely Done” from Sovereign Grace Music: Sons and Daughters

This song is excellent both musically and lyrically. Listen below (RSS readers need to click through):

Favorite Non-Worship Album – Armistice by MuteMath

These guys blow me out of my fanny pack. They are some of the most musically creative guys I’ve ever listened to. I’ve included my favorite track from the album:

Favorite Books

I read a lot of books, so I can’t select just one favorite. Here’s a few of my favorites from this year:

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman – by Jon Krakauer

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures – by Malcolm Gladwell

Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everyone Else – by Geoff Colvin

Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion - by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

Favorite Website – Grooveshark.com

You can listen to any music you want whenever you want. I love the World Wide Internet.

Favorite YouTube Video – “David After Dentist” (watch below)

Favorite Snack: Salami

It’s something my body needs anyway, and I like that in a snack.

Okay, you’re turn. Give me a few favorites. I want some sweet recommendations from you guys.

I once heard a well-known national news anchor describe his first job in a radio station.

One of his daily responsibilities was to broadcast a preacher’s message. The message came on a “record.” (Records, the dinosaur ancestors of CDs, were flat, vinyl discs the size of  small pizzas with grooves of microscopic etchings of musical or vocal sounds detected by “needles” on the arms of  “record players”, then transmitted through speakers, which in turn whipped teenagers into a frenzy, causing seizure-like gyrations with names like “The Shing-a-ling,” “The Frug,” “The Philly,” and “The Boogaloo”).

Anyway, it was the young deejay’s habit to introduce the preacher’s message, start the record, then leave the station for a cup of coffee at a nearby diner. One day as he was sipping his Maxwell House, the phone rang.  When the waitress handed it to him, he heard his boss screaming, “Get back to the station NOW!”

Sprinting to his car, he tuned the radio to his station. To his horror the needle had gotten “stuck” on the record and kept replaying the same phrase over and over again — “Go to hell, go to hell, go to hell…”

Sometimes we can feel like the Lord is “out of the station.”  Maybe he stepped out for a minute or dozed off. Maybe he’s forgotten us completely.

The truth is Jesus never takes a break.  He never slumbers nor sleeps but watches over us day and night.  His ears are ever open to our cry.  He never leaves us nor forsakes us.

“He holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Heb 7.24-25).

Jesus has conquered death and is alive forevermore to intercede for his children.  Day and night, he lifts you before the Father, praying almighty, perfect and effective prayers, that he might save you to the uttermost.  He never takes a break, never grows weary, never faints and will never cease to pray for you.

I’d be thrilled to know that a friend was praying for me even once a day.  But to know that Christ himself, the Lord of hosts, is interceding for me every minute of the day gives me incredible confidence, hope and joy.

Praise him today for his steadfast love and faithfulness!

photo by Roadsidepictures

I like books, and I like winners. And I like to give away books to winners. So, over the next eight months, I’m going to be giving away eight new books. Those books are:

December – Romans: The Righteous Shall Live By Faith (by R.C. Sproul)

January – A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God (by John Piper)

February – The Kingdom of God (by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

March – Mighty Acts of God : A Family Bible Story Book (by Starr Meade, Tim O’Connor)

April – Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus (by D. A. Carson)

May – What Does God Want of Us Anyway?: A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible (by Mark Dever)

June – Rescuing Ambition (by Dave Harvey)

July – Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels (by Tullian Tchividjian)

This is what I’ve lined up so far. By July I’ll have six additional books lined up.

So how can you win one of these books? It’s real simple.

• Subscribe to the blog by (RSS or Email)

• Follow me on Twitter

• Become my friend on Facebook

For each of these things you do, leave a separate comment. If you do all three, leave three comments, etc. Each month I’ll select a winner. YOU ONLY NEED TO ENTER ONCE for the entire year.

Okay, let’s give away some books.

As an art major in college, I was required to take two semesters of ceramics. So the biblical illustration about the Potter and clay is very real to me.  But another illustration I heard speaks powerfully to me about the need to rejoice in all things.

A potter was giving a man a tour of his studio.  He explained that most of the time after clay has been formed into bottles, cups, or dishes he sets them aside to dry, then puts them into a kiln and “fires” them at very high heat, to harden the clay.  After a set period of time, the kiln is turned off.  At some point the visitor noticed the artist placed some particular pots into a kiln but did not set the timer.  Curious, he asked, “How will you know when they’re done?”  To which the potter replied, “When they sing.”  When this particular clay reached a certain temperature, it would emit a whistling sound – it would “sing.”  When the potter heard the pots “singing” he’d know the fire had finished it’s work and he’d turn off the kiln.

How often does God have to take us around the mountain one more time because we’ve failed to learn the lesson of rejoicing in all things?

I can imagine angels watching as Jesus takes me through some trial.   “How will you know when he’s done?” they ask.  And I can hear the Lord answer like the potter,  “When he sings.”

We can know God has done an incredible work in our lives when we can worship him in the midst of trials,  when our mouth is filled praise though our eyes are filled with tears.  How that brings glory to God.  It’s easy to praise him when everything’s going great.  But when we offer a costly sacrifice of praise while suffering,  it shows our confidence in his sovereignty, goodness and wisdom.  It brings our Father great pleasure when we sing of his goodness when everything about our situation would call his goodness into question.  It brings him deep joy when we sing that he’s  in control when our circumstances scream there is no one at the wheel.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Conversely, faith greatly pleases God.  And what could please God more than our faith expressed by singing?

I’m not saying that God will end our trials if we start to sing.  But worship will lift our eyes from our affliction onto our Savior.  Anybody want to be a singing pot?

Photo by Senor Lebowski

You’re a missionary to your neighbors, and maybe God will use an earthquake to save them.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were in Philippian lock down. They had been busted for illegally sharing the gospel, beaten with rods, and then thrown in jail.

In prison, they sang. They sang hymns and prayed to their faithful God. It probably hurt to sing. It probably hurt to breathe.

But the prisoners were listening, and so was the jailer. Two bloody-mouthed guys singing to Jesus in a jail cell. Unusual.

Then things started shaking. The ground rocked and reeled, iron bars snapped, and chains broke loose from the wall. Finally the world stopped falling and the jailer picked himself up off the ground. All the prison doors were open.

This meant death for the jailer. When prisoners escape, jailers die. And so the jailer prepared to take his own life.

Then he heard a voice calling out, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The prisoners were still there. All of them.

The earthquake did more than rip apart the jail. It ripped open the jailer’s heart. He knew that God was after him. “What must I do to be saved?”, he asked Paul and Silas.

Our neighbors are watching us too, and at some point, they will encounter a life earthquake. A terminal illness, or a car crash, or the death of a child. In those moments, I want to be able to introduce them to Jesus. I want to have lived in such a way that they come to me, knowing they’ll find both compassion and Jesus.

God uses all kinds of circumstances to draw people to himself. Let’s be ready to share the gospel with earthquake survivors.

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+photo by PhillipC