WE MUST STOP TRYING TO EARN OUR WAY INTO A CLOSE WALK WITH CHRIST (ie Sanctification). By living this way we are acting as if Christ death DID NOT MATTER.

Gal 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

So lets ask ourselves some questions:

• If you make a resolution & or vow with God, what are you trusting in?
• If you commit to a spiritual discipline, and vow to hold to it, what are you trusting in?

Some Principles

• There is nothing we can do or devote to Christ to help us grow spiritually.
• There is nothing we can do or devote to Christ to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

What is essential to a Spirit-Filled devotional walk? Not I, but Christ, simply resting and abiding in His work and grace.

It is interesting, because I was challenged in this not too long ago, when I received an email asking me to prayerfully consider joining Light in Action, a ministry in Brazil which close friends of mine started some years back. To be honest I did not even want to consider changing my plans…I was excited to head into NTM training in Durham, ON, with my sister Gina, to be stretched, challenged, and grown during the two years of training there, then head out to start striving toward the goal of a Tribal church plant! I knew I had to pray about it, but I didn’t want to. I was scared God my change my course…I sat in bed wrestling with genuinely considering and praying about it, but finally began to be open with God and consider if He would have me partner with Light in Action (LIA).

Light in Action was started by former New Tribers who saw a need for chronological bible resources in video format to be used to reach people groups globally. Why chronologically? Because a firm foundation is necessary to understand the Gospel properly (see my blog post on this). So LIA set out to professionally direct and film Tetelestai, a 12 episode series of dynamic teaching videos explaining the Gospel from Creation and the Fall, to the event of the Cross, all the way through weaving the truth of the promised Messiah, the character of God, and the history of man throughout the teaching.

And so?

So, through time in prayer and seeking input from friends, church, and family, I fully believe God is leading me to

1. Partner with LIA to aid in the production, editing, and marketing of this Bible resource
   1. I have experience in photography & web design so I will be using these skills and learning more about video production
   2. Engaging contacts, churches, and missionaries worldwide who we can partner with to use these resources to get the Gospel heard & understood
2. Partner with my home church and the local church in Natal Brazil to see Christ & His word spread & understood
   1. First of all, we as a team want to be personally kept accountable before eachother & God. When I join with them I am excited to be challenged and to grow with the team as we sharpen eachother and dive into the truths of scripture and see how our lives line up with it
   2. Secondly, LIA is heavily involved with local churches and the community through ministries to lower income families, bible studies with various groups, and discipleship with local believers. I am excited to get involved here to better learn portuguese and to be able to express my heart & teach Brazilians, and also grow and learn from my Brazilian brothers & sisters.

My long-term vision still includes New Tribes Mission, however for the next few years I am excited to partner with LIA in Natal, Brazil. The ultimate goal? Christ. That I  might know Him more. That He might me glorified. I press on toward the goal of His calling.

Please, pray.

James explains that the effectual fervent prayer avails much! I know personally I tend to doubt my own prayers…if they have effect. But we have a GREAT HIGH PRIEST, who takes our prayers, INTERCEDES for us, and presents them perfect & holy before the Father! Yes! PRAY! I need your prayers!

How?

• Pray I will maintain priority on my personal relationship with Christ, in my prayer life, and daily Bible study. It is so easy to slack.
• Pray that I will be able to find a way to get all the equipment I am bringing down to Brazil (a new camera, computers, etc). I am limited in my baggage, and the cost to ship it is bordering insanity.

This rock house will double as a set piece and a real house for one of our couples on the team!

The driveway at Light in Action. We are headquartered just minutes outside of Natal on a former coconut farm!

This is the team at LIA. I will be joining them on October 5th, and another couple is joining us Lord willing in 2011.

Daniel recounts:

“The message I had stakes my life and career on did not fit their life and culture. They did not feel lost, so they did not feel a need to be saved later.”

He goes on to explain how their rejection of the Gospel led him to reject his own faith.

“have shown me that there is dignity and deep satisfaction in facing life and death without the comfort of heaven or the feer of hell, and in sailing toward the great abyss with a smile”

Watch/listen to this video of his testimony:

Tribal Missionary Deconverted by Tribe

Why or how does this happen?

Daniel’s foundational problem lies in the fact that he preached a Gospel that neither he, nor the Pirahã truly understood. The problem is that he had a Gospel with no foundation. This problem is seen in missions globally. Take for example, Africa. Christianity is the predominate religion across most of the southern half of the continent. Very widespread. However, though it be thousands of miles wide, it may only be a couple inches deep in most areas. Why is this? Because we messed up. Well meaning missionaries came in to animistic cultures and preached Christ crucified, died, and risen, believe and have eternal life. Great! But that is not the beginning of the story! That is the culmination of a story! What happened? Culture groups either accepted Christ as one of their Gods, accepted Christ as a good luck charm, or rejected Him because they did not truly understand Who He was, Why He came, and why they needed Him. They didnt get the big picture, they were missing the beginning of the story. The FOUNDATION for the Gospel.

What is the solution?

In order to to have a proper understanding of scripture, one must start in the beginning. Laying a foundation of Who the Creator God is. What is his character? What is sin? How did it get here? Why does it need to be paid for? Why does God love us? How can one man’s death take away another man’s sin? Why would a loving God kill his own son? In order to have a proper understanding of the Gospel, we must understand God’s purpose for Creation, His plan of reconciling the world back to himself after the Fall of Man, how man has tried and failed (The Law), how he desperately lost and in need of grace, and how a loving God accomplished that plan through Christ fulfilling it.

What is the result?

Grounded mature believers who understand who God is, and their desperate need for Grace. Hope-filled believers who no longer live in fear of the spirits or death, but find fulfillment and peace in Christ. A mature church.

New Tribes Mission is committed to laying a solid biblical foundation in the unreached people groups of the world. When NTM enters a people group, they desire to not simply dump the New Testament Gospel on them, but to train and disciple people in the solid foundations of the Bible, beginning in Genesis, and culminating in the Gospels. They desire not to plant a denomination, but to see indigenous believers gather together and form their own local church, have their own local leadership, and eventually send out their own local missionaries.

Watch this testimony of Wayumi, who now has a True understanding of the Gospel

Visit www.ntm.org for more information on their philosophy of missions and commitment to laying firm foundations.

It seems like Piper is all the rage nowadays in “conservative” evangelicalism, some people love him, others can’t stand him and his 5-pointedness. This is the first book I read by piper (it was a Christmas gift from my sister). I really enjoyed this book, and it challenged me! Even though some of his 5-point calvinist and reformed beliefs that I do not agree with did come through (see end). Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most of Calvins theology, especially about salvation. This book is very clear and explains in very clear theology exactly what happened to a believe at Salvation. Very foundational…truths about our positional and progressive sanctification.

Each chapter is 2-pages, short and to the point. Here are some things I highlighted during my read:

Chapter 1, Christ suffered and died to Absorb the wrath of God

…Therefore sin is not small, because it is not agains a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial – it is treason.

…The substitute, Jesus Christ does not just cancel the wrath, he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. Gods wrath is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.

Chapter 10, Christ suffered and died to provide the basis for our Justification

…To be justified in a courtroom is not the same as being forgiven. Being forgiven implies that I am guilty and my crime is not counted. Being justified implies that I have been tried and found innocent.

…[Justification] is only the removal of guilt. That does not declare us righteous. Cancelling our failures to keep the law is not the same as declaring us a law-keeper. When a teacher cancels a from the record an exam that got an F, it’s not the same as declaring it an A. If the bank were to forgive the debts on my account, that would not be the same as declaring me rich. So also, cancelling our sins is not the same as declaring us righteous. The cancellation is essential to justification. But there is more.

Chapter 12: Christ suffered and died to take away our condemnation

…Faith is not the ground of our acceptance with God. Christ alone is. Faith unites us to Christ so that his righteousness is counted as ours

Chapter 22: Christ suffered and died to bring us to God

…Christianity is not first theology, but news.

…Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God….It doesn’t take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God’s wrath, or the inheritance of God’s world. All these things are understandable without any spiritual change. You don’t need to be born again to want these things. The devil wants them. It is not wrong to want them. Indeed it is folly not to. But the evidence that we have been change is that we want these things because they bring us to the enjoyment of God.

Chapter 27: Christ suffered and died to become a sympathetic and helpful priest

…On the way to the cross for thirty years, Christ was tempted like every human was tempted. True, he never sinned. But wise people have pointed out that this means his temptations were stronger than ours, not weaker. If a person gives in to a temptation it never reaches its fullest and longest assault.

Chapter 29: Christ suffered and died to free us from the slavery of sin

[regarding sin]…we must be liberate by God’s power, not by our willpower.

Chapter 30: Christ suffered and died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness

…The old self that loved sin died with Jesus. Sin is like a prostitute that no longer looks beautiful. She is the murderer of my King and myself. Therefore the believer is dead to sin, no longer dominated by her attractions. Sin, the prostitute who killed my friend, has no appeal. She has become an enemy.

Chapter 31: Christ died so that we would die to the law and bear fruit for God

…the new way of obedience is fruit-bearing, not law-keeping.

Chapter 37:  Christ died to call us to follow his example of lowliness and costly love

Imitation is not salvation. But salvation brings imitation. Christ is not first given to use as model, but as Saviour

Chapter 43: Christ suffered and died to unleash the power of God in the Gospel

Gospel means good news. It’s news before it’s theology.

…We must see it [The Gospel] as true and good before we believe it. So the question is, why do some people see it as good, and others don’t?

Conclusion:

I highly recommend this book with reservation. I think it is valuable for every believer, especially those who have not though about the theological implications of what Salvation is and does. I would recommend it as foundational to a new believer, and would be a great book to give to a Catholic friend.

1. Chapter  42: Piper says regarding Revelation 12:10 “Look at what happened when Christ died…..This is the defeat and disarming of rulers and authorities“. This would be a standard reformed interpretation, however I disagree, I believe that Rev 12:10 is is referring to a future event when Satan will be disarmed.

2. Chapter 46: Pipers belief in limited atonement slips in: “By His blood he bought the mercy that makes His voice unmistakable to His own. Pray that God would apply that mercy to you”

You can buy it on Amazon.ca

Other than that I have been keeping busy out here with work, right now working with Smart Photography.

Note, today many churches have names that may be in this list and may believe something completely different regarding sign gifts, but this would reflect the average church under the listed names.

Hard-Cessationist
Supernatural gifts (such as healing, tongues, prophecy) were only active in the early church, for the purpose of authoritating the message of the apostles and have completely ceased from purpose of use today. They should not be practice and cannot happen in todays age.

Traditions: Very few mainline churches. Some conservative independent fundamentalist churches.

People: Some would say John MacArthur, though I don’t know if he would be this hard any more.

Soft-Cessationist

Supernatural gifts (e.g., tongues and prophecy, healing) functioned only in the early church for specific purposes of authenticating the apostles’ message, and ceased as the church became founded and the apostles died out. A soft cessationist would believe that these gifts have ceased in the sense of a person being “gifted” with it, and would not encourage their use, however a soft-cessationist would realize that God is sovereign and could so choose to have a person excercise a supernatural phenomena such as tongues or healing if he so willed. However this would be considered a miracle, not the norm, and a soft-cessationist would not expect or promote such gifts.

Traditions: Many Southern Baptists, Fellowship Baptists,  Brethren, Reformed Churches, and many conservative Evangelical churches.

People: James MacDonald, John Piper, Mark Driscoll

Charismatic (Continuationist)

Supernatural gifts are available to people today, and can be practiced so long as they follow the guidelines in scripture. Many Charismatic churches might simply be open to it, or not take a stand on it but would not practice them at all or downplay their importance, and some might encourage individuals to see if they possess the gifts.

Traditions: Church of God (Anderson, IN), Missionary Alliance Church, Church of the Nazarene, often many “Full Gospel” churches, Word of Faith, some Lutherans, some Anglicans, some Baptists, many Wesleyan churches, some Reformed churches.

People: Wayne Grudem, J.P. Moreland

Charismaniac (Continuationist)

Supernatural gifts are available to every generation and all people. Contemporary revelations are, in effect, equal to Scripture, and should be encouraged/promoted.

Traditions: no mainline traditions, some independant pentecostal churches.

People: Benny Hinn, Kathryn Kuhlman?

Pentecostal (Continuationist)

Essentially the same as the charismatic position, but as a proof of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a Christian WILL speak in tongues, just as the believers did in Acts 2. Tongues are NOT necessary for salvation, but they WILL result. Some Pentecostals might not hold to the requirement of tongues after salvation, but most do. The line between pentecostal and charismatic is often blurred, but all pentecostal churches are charismatic, not all charismatic churches are pentecostal.

Traditions: Pentecostal Churches, Vineyard Church, Open Bible Churches, many “Gospel Temples/Tabernacles”, some Wesleyan “Holiness” Churches, Church of God in Christ, Hillsong Church

People: Rex Humgard, George Jeffreys, William Seymore

For more information & research see bible.org.

The following is notes taken by Abraham Piper at Kempton Turner’s session yesterday at the Children Desiring God conference. Great principles to practice when developing any program in a Christian context. Word of Life has a similar philosphy of ministry, starting with biblical principles, building biblical people, and lastly coming up with a biblical program on top on the foundation of the principles and people. All of WOL’s ministry resources and youth programs are developed with this philosophy.

1. Be a truth-drenched example.

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.

The example of your life is the hammer that drives your message home. If your life doesn’t exemplify what you expect, your message will not be believable.

2. Have a truth-drenched marriage and family life.

1 Timothy 3:4-5

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?

We shouldn’t see if someone is fit for the ministry by how they do in seemingly less important ministries. Rather, we should see what kind of husband and father he is. If he leads his family well, then maybe he’s fit for the ministry.

Paul assumes that a church leader first leads his family. A truth-drenched youth ministry will get the overflow of the youth minister’s leadership of his wife and kids.

3. Cultivate a truth-drenched staff.

Acts 13:2-3

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Gather as a staff mainly to go vertical. Meet with God and see what strategy comes from this worship.

4. Preach and teach truth-drenched messages and lessons.

Hebrews 13:7

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

The main thing your youth should think about when they remember you is how you spoke God’s word to them.

Don’t replace teaching truth with games, media, skits, etc.

5. Develop and implement a truth-drenched vision and philosophy of youth ministry.

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Picture youth ministry as a mountain. Develop a plan that puts the cross at the top with all the other good (but less important) things below. Then the truth of the gospel will flow down that mountain over everything you do, drenching your ministry.

See original post at the desiringGod blog.