centralities

Unending Dominion

2009-05-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

WHEN Christ uttered, in the judgment hall of Pilate, the remarkable words?"I am a king," he pronounced a sentiment fraught with unspeakable dignity and power. His enemies might deride his pretensions and express their mockery of his claim, by presenting him with a crown of thorns, a reed and a purple robe, and nailing him to the cross; but in the eyes of unfallen intelligences, he was a king. A higher power presided over that derisive ceremony, and converted it into a real coronation. That crown of thorns was indeed the diadem of empire; that purple robe was the badge of royalty; that fragile reed was the symbol of unbounded power; and that cross the throne of dominion which shall never end.

(J.L. Reynolds, Church Polity or the Kingdom of Christ in its internal and external development, chapter 1)

The Last Few

2009-05-14T05:16:00.001-07:00

A Few More Engagement Photos

2009-05-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

A Few Engagement Pictures

2009-05-13T14:36:00.001-07:00

Biblical Productivtiy

2009-05-13T14:32:00.001-07:00

CJ Mahaney has compiled a great collection of thoughts on what it means to be productive according to God's economy. Check out the PDF by clicking here

CHBC Internship - Week 12

2009-04-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

April Fool's Day finds me sitting in a church history class at the Sovereign Grace Pastor's College. Michael Lawrence is teaching here all week and so today, he brought the interns along to hang out with him. During the lunch break we're going out for lunch with Jeff Purswell, who is one of the faculty members of the PC.

Now for a little update of what's been going on in the past seven weeks...

Lots of reading and writing - I've finished several significant projects since the last time I wrote and a few stick out in my mind as formative. We read Believer's Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ, edited by Schreiner and Wright and wrote a paper on our stance on baptism. This exercise helped me move beyond the tradition of baptism that I've inherited to developing a conviction on how to practice baptism within the church. Further, we read Biblical Foundation for Baptist Churches by John Hammett, which has a great chapter on regenerate church membership. He specifically explicates the relationship between regenerate church membership (which he call the center of baptist ecclesiology) and several other core features or biblical ecclesiology, such as congregationalism, the sacraments, and church discipline.
New plans for the future - I'm engaged! Stacy and I got engaged on Feb 27 and are planning to be married on June 27. We look forward to making our home in Washington, DC, so currently we are both searching for jobs here. I'm excited about continuing to grow at CHBC and hopefully serving alongside one of the associate pastors who focuses on counseling as a "junior counselor" of sorts. I'll keep taking seminary classes as I'm able at the extension campus of Southern Seminary (the extension campus is at CHBC). Stacy will hopefully be able to join in some of the discipleship training at CHBC and settle into life in the church. We can't wait to be married and spend as much time together as we possibly can this summer. If you have any good weekend trip ideas for us, shoot me an email and let me know!

Paul Tripp Seminar

2009-02-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

Fellow-intern Garrett Conner and I with Paul Tripp just before the weekend seminar started. Tripp did a series of lectures at CHBC this past weekend based on his book A Quest for More.

Minnesota Trip

2009-02-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

CHBC Internship - Week 4

2009-02-05T07:05:00.000-08:00

13 of us interns and pastoral assistants returned late last night (Wednesday, Feb 4) from the Desiring God Pastor's Conference in Minneapolis, MN. It was great for us to spend time together and meet many new friends. Nine Marks had an exhibitor's booth that attracted a surprising number of pastor's that had never heard of Nine Marks before. It helped that we were giving away free copies of The Deliberate Church.

Enjoyed seeing numerous old acquaintances at the conference:
Keith Doyle
Tim Weber
Paul Perdue
Joleen Perdue
Seth Voeltner
Josh Wredberg
Ken Brummel
Eric Schumacher
Paul Poppe
Alex Walburg
Heather Walburg
Luke Akins
Rich Akins

For those who haven't heard of the conference, the theme was Commending Christ. You should take the time to listen to Matt Chandlers talk, A Shepherd And His Unregenerate Sheep, as well as Mark's very moving talk, The Church and Evangelism. Both these talks provide excellent encouragement and counsel on sharing the joy of the Gospel with believers and unbelievers alike.

Even in the midst of the conference, the internship moves on. We are currently in the midst of reading 600 pages on the sacraments, specifically baptism (Believer's Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ by Thomas Schreiner and Shawn Wright and Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace by Paul K. Jewett). We have a week to read the material and write a response paper on believer's baptism. The exercise has already proved fruitful in sharpening my thinking on baptism, especially the relationship between the covenants and baptism - special thanks to Dr. Stephen Wellum.

Other highlights from the past couple weeks:

Stacy visited!! We had dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill right across the street from the White House. Then we walked to the World War II memorial before heading back to Union Station on the Metro. On Saturday, we visited Eastern Market, Union Station, and then had dinner with Ken and Kelli at Good Stuff.

Attended the 56th Inauguration. Actually, after several hours of braving the crowds and finally making it onto the front lawn of the capitol (we had great tickets), we were so cold that we left and watched the rest of the even on TV in the warmth of the Bull Moose (just a few blocks from the capitol).

Assisted my friend Ken Barbic with his engagement on Friday, Jan 30.

Still haven't won a game of Settler's, but have come very close several more times. It will happen soon!

Internship Week 2

2009-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon of week 2 on the internship. So let me give you some highlights from the first week.

First, I have now completed 11 papers (a less impressive statistic given that they are only 3-5 pages each). It's been a stretching exercise to think through my responses to each of the books I've read and then articulate those thoughts. I look forward to growing in discernment and thoughtfulness through each of these projects.

I miss my friends and family from Colonial very much. God used my two years in Cary in an amazing way, and the relationships I have there were difficult to move away from. But God is kind to give relationships that are so dear that it hurts to lose them.

I took a tour of the West Wing of the White House with Mike Mannina, one of the guys I live with at the Bull Moose, who has worked at the White House for the past couple years. It's been a difficult time for him and many others as they lose their job and transition out of the White House into other positions.

I have improved in my Settlers of Catan skills. After 7 games in the first week, I still have no victories to my name, but I came very close last night. I had 9 out of the 10 points that I needed. Then just as I was about to score my final point, Ben Wright swooped in and stole the game.

CJ Mahaney spoke in the service this morning. He explained that Psalm 42 depicts the process of a man who is in deep turmoil, yet continues to remind himself of the goodness of his God. The most significant voice in our life is our own because its the one we listen to the most. In light of this, we need to make sure that we are speaking the Gospel to ourselves regularly. You should check out the message online if you get a chance.

Books/Papers I just completed or will be working on this week: Christianity and Race Prejudice (Grimke), Stop Dating the Church (Harris), The Christian Ministry (Bridges), Polity (Dever), Shall the Fundamentalists Win? (Fosdick), Reformation of the Church (Murray), The Bruised Reed (Sibbes)

Capitol Hill Internship

2009-01-10T12:04:00.001-08:00

Its the second official day of the internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and already I have read five books and written four papers. I can tell this is going to be a blast. I'm looking forward to all the reading and writing, but also want to take to heart the advice of my friend Bill King, "You need to look for opportunities to minister to others as well....not just enjoy a "feeding frenzy."

I'm living in the Bull Moose, a large town house across the street from the church which is home to 9 other guys. It used to be a bed and breakfast until the church bought the home and turned it into a sort of glorified dormitory for interns, single guys on church staff, and a few church members. It's a house full of guys who love God and love each other...a great place to live for five months.

So far, I have...

Eaten at three restaurants: Good Stuff Burgers, Cosi, Ben's Chili Bowl
Read five books: Humility (Mahaney), When People are Big and God is Small (Welch), Theology of the Reformers (T. George), A Display of God's Glory (Dever), By Whose Authority: Elders in Baptist Life (Dever), and What is a Heathy Church? (Dever)
Written four papers
Played Settlers of Catan and Seafarers twice (losing both times)
Taken three trips on the Metro
Made two Starbucks runs (not to mentions the three pots of coffee I made in my room)
Unfortunately, taken 0 runs...this stat will hopefully improve soon.

Community Effect of Individual Sin

2008-11-14T08:12:00.000-08:00

I've found the reading of Life Together by Dietich Bonhoeffer to be a very fruitful time. The Spirit has graciously exposed areas of sin in my life that have gone unidentified and un-attacked. In the following quote I find great motivation for personal, private holiness.

"The individual must realize that his hours of aloneness react upon the community. In his solitude he can sunder and besmirch the fellowship, or he can strengthen and hallow it. Every act of self-control of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship. On the other hand, there is no sin in thought, word, or deed, not matter how personal or secret, that does not inflict injury upon the whole fellowship. An element of sickness gets into the body; perhaps nobody knows where it comes from or in what member it has lodged, but the body is infected. This is the proper metaphor for the Christian community. We are members of a body, not only when we choose to be, but in our whole existence. Every member serves the whole body, either to its health or to its destruction. This is no mere theory; it is a spiritual reality. And the Christian community has often experienced its effects with disturbing clarity, sometimes destructively and sometimes fortunately." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together)

Adoption is Greater than the Universe

2008-03-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

Check out this new video that John Piper made for Carolina Hope http://www.carolinahopeadoption.org/

Justification of Gospel Centeredness

2008-02-04T19:12:00.001-08:00

So as we've been encouraging our students to grow in Gospel-centered living and how to do that, I've encountered some pretty foundational questions, like this one, which a student emailed to me yesterday:

Why does the mission-statement [of Colonial Student Ministries] talk about developing "Gospel-Centered" students? Why not Christ centered, or God centered? And if we are to focus on the Gospel, doesn't that make the rest of the Bible to seem of less value?

So here's how I respond to those very sincere and valid questions...

I would say that the rest of the doctrines of Scripture are not of less value than the Gospel, but I would say that the glory of God is revealed most clearly in the Gospel. The clearest expression of God's glory, love, truth, grace, mercy, justice, holiness, etc. is absolutely the cross and Christ.

And if you want to look for a relationship among all the doctrines of Scripture, you would find that all doctrines find their fulfillment in soteriology (the Gospel). So there is this huge debate going on about whether God's ultimate purpose is doxological (bringing glory to God) of soteriological (bringing salvation to men). But I really don't see the conflict here...I mean Paul often uses the phrase "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

And as for living a Gospel-centered lifestyle, I believe this to be clearly Biblical. It's no different than Paul saying, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death." It's no different than the entire book of Hebrews and the entire book of Romans. Also, the writer of Hebrews quotes the OT prolifically and develops the conclusion that the OT (as a whole) was pointing forward, pointing to Christ and specifically to the Gospel.

Concerning the use of "Gospel-centered" in a mission statement, we believe that this is more clear than saying that we are seeking to develop Christ-centered students. In a culture that widely recognizes Christ as a moral example (WWJD), we believe to be very important that we identify what it is about Christ that makes our lives different. The Gospel is the culmination of all that Christ lived for. The cross was the completion of his work. So to say that we are Gospel-centered is not altogether different from saying that we are Christ-centered, it is only more specific: we are Redemption-centered. It is only the cross that frees us from the dominion of sin. It is only the cross that empowers us to walk in newness of life. It is only the cross that guarantees us eternal salvation.

The only means by which I am able to glorify God and understand Scripture is through the work of Christ on the cross on my behalf. It would be impossible for me to move forward in sanctification apart from being Gospel-centered (whether or not I actually refer to it as being "Gospel-centered." the terminology doesn't matter, the point is that I'm recognizing the beauty of the cross).

I hope that begins to answer some of the questions/objections. For further study, you could read God is the Gospel by John Piper, Living the Cross-Centered Life by CJ Mahaney, or The Cross and Salvation by Bruce Demarest. That last one is a pretty heavy theological work, but it’s definitely worth the effort if you’re willing.

By grace and the Gospel.

Unsearchable Riches

2008-01-24T16:31:00.000-08:00

"Only those who understand to some degree the enormity of their spiritual debt can begin to appreciate what Christ did for them on the cross." - Jerry Bridges

Our senior guys' Growth Group has been reading the first chapter of The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges which has been challenging to say the least.

I was reminded this week of the amazing riches of Christ. But as Jerry says, these riches mean so much more to those who understand the "enormity of their spiritual debt." So part of my understanding the beauty of the cross is dependent on my recognizing how awful my sin is. Unfortunately, it's not very often that I think of my sin as "awful." I spend most of my days reminding myself what a good guy I am, how nice I've been lately, and stuff like that.

When I start to hate sin, it's more likely to be someone else's sin that I'm hating because they're frustrating me. Well Mr. Bridges has something to say about that too: "Underlying all the other problem we face, however, is the greatest problem of all--our sin. Not the sins of other people against us, as painful as those may be, but our own sins against God." Wow, that convicting, but so true; the more I recognize sin in my life, the more thankful I am for what Christ has accomplished for me. If I were to think that "I just don't sin that much," then why in the world would I be thankful for the cross?!?

So I used this prayer from Valley of Vision as an aid in confessing my sin and thanking Christ for the cross.

Belonging to Jesus
O Heavenly Father,
Teach me to see that if Christ has pacified thee and satisfied diving justice,
he can also deliver me from my sins;
that Christ does not desire me, now justified,
to life in self-confidence and in my own strength,
but gives me the law of the Spirit of Life,
to enable me to obey thee;
that the Spirit and his power are mine
by resting on Christ's death;
that the Spirit of life within answers to the law without;
that if I sin not I should thank thee for it;
that if I sin I should not be humbled daily under it;
that I should mourn for sin more than other men do,
for when I see I shall die because of sin
that makes me mourn;
when I see how sin strikes at thee,
that makes me mourn;
when I see that sin caused Christ's death,
that makes me mourn;
that sanctification is the evidence of reconciliation,
proving that faith has truly apprehended Christ;
Thou hast taught me
that faith is nothing else than receiving thy kindness;
that it is an adherence to Christ, a resting on him,
love clinging to him as a branch to the tree,
to seek life and vigour from him.
I thank thee for showing me the vast difference
between knowing things by reason,
And knowing them by the spirit of faith.
By reason I see a thing is so;
by faith I know it as it is.
I have seen thee by reason and have not been amazed,
I have seen thee as thou art in the Son and have been ravished to behold thee!
I bless thee that I am thin in my Savior, Jesus.

the veil, the flesh

2008-01-18T19:53:00.000-08:00

“we enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh…” (hebrews 10:19-20)

The temple held a curtain that veiled men from seeing the presence of God. Yhwh was hidden even to the high priest except for once a year. The veil was symbolic then of a distance between God and man, a distance blocked by a fabric barrier that man could not penetrate.

But Christ penetrated that barrier. Christ brings us into the presence of God. And how does he do it? By tearing the veil. When Christ died on the cross, that huge curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom – a super-human feat. But that’s not the only curtain that was torn. The veil in the temple was only symbolic; Christ’s flesh was the actual curtain. Through the tearing of his own flesh, Christ made a way for us to know the presence of God with us…which is exactly what his name means: Emmanuel, God with us.

Further, Christ is the Logos: the point at which God actually touches humanity. And so we have a representation of God to man, but a veiled representation because the flesh is a veil. So in one sense those who saw Christ were looking on the face of God, but in another sense they were only seeing a veil, a veil that would be torn for them.

Thanks to Christ for opening a way to God for us through the tearing of the veil, that is through his flesh.

Does truth matter? Two views

2008-01-11T06:07:00.000-08:00

Only one way to get the job done

2008-01-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Some things can only be accomplished one way. For instance, Hebrews 2:17 tells us that Christ “had to be made like his brothers.” In other words, that was the only way that Christ could accomplish his purpose. But why was that the only way?

The first answer the writer of Hebrews gives to that question is that Christ took on flesh to sympathize with the weak: “…that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God…” (v. 17).

Because Christ has experienced our weaknesses and fought the battles of flesh and temptation that we fight, he is able to demonstrate perfect mercy/pity toward us. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness because he was tempted in every respect as we are.

It might be difficult to imagine how Christ was tempted just like you are. I mean, he was God…you might think of course he would not yield and sin, he wasn’t able to sin, he couldn’t have. But think about it, if Christ experienced temptation, and he did, then temptation must have been far more difficult for him to resist than for us. For two reasons: first, temptation would have been far more distasteful to Christ than it is to us. God’s wrath is upon the world because of sin, and now God in the flesh is being tempted with sin. The very thing he hates most is being dangled in front of his face and what’s worse, he finds in his body a desire for it that he must resist. Second, temptation would have been far more difficult for Christ to resist because he never yielded to it, so he knew its full power. You and I don’t know the full strength of temptation because we constantly yield to it. Christ can sympathize with us because he knew temptation at its worst – something we will never experience. One author described it this way, “Sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the experience of sin bit on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls yields before the last strain.”

You may be struggling with some sin in your life right now and you keep falling. You hate the sin but keep giving in and each time you yield to temptation, you end in a place of self-condemnation; you’re frustrated, discouraged, and even angry with yourself. I encourage you to remind yourself of Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Christ does not stand to condemn you. If anything, he stands in grace, ready to forgive and fully of mercy. Why? Why would he be so compassionate to children who betray him? Because he was one of us! He knows our battle! So when we fall to temptation and repent, he does not stand to condemn us with words of failure, but to comfort us with words of forgiveness.

So in answer to the question why did God have to take on humanity, the author’s first answer is that he had to do it to sympathize with our weakness. The second answer the author gives regarding why Christ became man is that he did so in order to save some from wrath: “…to make propitiation for the sins of the people…” (v. 18).

This is incredible! We were under the wrath of God because of our sin, but God in Christ became sin—the very thing he hated so much, just so that we would be saved from wrath. And God had to become a man in order to do this. We were in need of a representative, someone who would become the representation of our sin, and then bear the punishment for us. And that’s exactly what Christ was for us. Anselm described it in this way, “It could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that, while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could.”

This thought is impossible to illustrate. It’s not a friend taking the punishment for a friend, or the bad grades of a friend. It’s not a kind enemy dying to save the one he has been fighting against. This is the sinless, sin-hating God becoming actually responsible for the sinful acts of the human race as the spiritual representative of all who place faith in him. Just like we have all been declared guilty because of Adam’s sin, now we who are members of Christ are declared righteous because he in his flesh bore our sins. But how ironic that the only man who never sinned, came to know God’s wrath for sin most intensely. This is what it means to “make propitiation.” Propitiation means to deflect wrath and punishment. Through his sacrifice of himself, Christ deflected God’s wrath toward sin, which was targeted right at each of us. We were headed to know God’s wrath. Ephesians 2 says that we were without hope…destined for destruction. God’s wrath was targeted and locked right on us…but then Jesus Christ stepped between God and us and deflected God’s wrath away from us onto himself. Hebrews 5:9 tells us that through what he suffered, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. So “to make propitiation for the sins of the people” means “to experience God’s wrath for the sins of the people so they don’t have to experience that wrath.”

Our response to all this should be awe and humility. We are completely unworthy of the love of a God who would take on weakness and suffering in order to make up for our failings and betrayal. But sadly we are rarely affected emotionally by the extent to which Christ has gone to become our source of salvation. Our lives demonstrate self-interest and indifference. We walk the hallways of life, carrying our daily concerns and thinking little about what Christ has done for us. If you are relying on Christ for salvation, then you are a person who has been rescued! And your response should be to live a life a deep humility and gratitude.

"Increase Our Faith"

2007-12-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

I had lunch with a High School student the other day who told me about some of his struggles with maintaining a consistent prayer life. After our conversation, I sent him this email to follow up on what we had talked about. I hope that you find it helpful.

So you told me the other day that your prayer life was lacking. You aren't praying often, it feels very "dry," and you don't know what to do about it.

Well, I have a primary response and then several practical suggestions.

I think the most important thing you could hear right now is this: don't be legalistic in your prayer life. Don't strive for a certain amount of time in prayer or a certain degree of emotion in prayer. Your goal is not merely more time or deeper emotion, but increased faith.

Think of it in this way: the command to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:18) should be seen as more of a result than as a goal. As we grow in faith and our understanding of dependence, we will find that we pray without ceasing. If I recognize that I am absolutely dependent on the Spirit for internal growth, and absolutely dependent on him also for changed behavior, then I will be praying constantly that He would do this work in me. So "pray without ceasing" is more the result of a goal (increased faith) than being the goal itself.

However, we must also recognize that prayer is an essential means to pursuing increased faith. The disciples prayed, "Lord, increase our faith!" (Luke 15:5). This was a humble expression. They indicated that they had faith, but that it was nearly powerless. They also recognized that they were not able to increase their own faith, but that Christ would have to do this for them. This is evidenced again by Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Eph. 3:17).

So the goal is increased faith. Prayer joins with the other spiritual disciplines as part of the means to increased faith. Prayer is also the result of increased faith.

So now that we know the goal is not "more prayer," but "more faith," what are some practical strategies to pursuing greater faith?

Saturate your prayer life in the Word. "Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ" (Rom 10:17). As you read through passages, pray that the Spirit would apply those things to your heart. Or pray that the commands in that passage would be recognized by your friends. Or pray that the commitment required in this passage would be the commitment of your heart. And so on. The psalms are particularly helpful in deepening your adoration and confession in prayer. The epistles are especially helpful in guiding your supplication.
Designate prayer points. Think of certain points that you walk past or drive past regularly and designate it a “prayer point.” Every time you pass that point, pray in some specific way. For instance, I have certain things that I do every day, and every time I do them, I pray that God would increase my humility. This increases faith by reminding us that throughout the day, at every point we pass, we are dependent on the grace of God to grow in Christ.
Make your prayer life something that parallels your personality. If you’re a very relational person, then commit to praying with people. If you’re a very artistic person, then bring drawing or poetry into your prayers. If you enjoy the outdoors, go on prayer walks around lakes in the area or what not. I love poetic art/imagery, so that’s part of the reason Valley of Vision is so helpful to me. I know you enjoy music, so incorporate that into your prayer life. Sit down with music for intentional times of prayer and pray along with the songs that you hear....get the idea? Making prayer personal/relational in this way increases faith by deepening our affection for a dependent relationship.
Identify “small” sins in your life that are deeply ingrained, and determine to defeat them through humble reliance. At the beginning of the semester, thoughtless sarcasm was a habitual thing for me. It often hurt people close to me. But through the Spirit, I have been growing in this area. Seeing God renew my speech as I trust in him has deepened my confidence/faith in his sin-crushing strength.

Those are just a few ideas. I’d love to hear any other thoughts you have.

You Once Were

2006-11-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

Appreciating the past is the only way to grasp the present, much less the future. Those who have been reconciled to God through Christ must take time to consider their past. Paul commands the believers in Ephesus, “Therefore remember…that you were at that time separated from Christ.”

Have you ever experienced a sort of spiritual amnesia, where you forget that you weren’t redeemed from a “fairly good lifestyle,” from a Christian background, or from a church-going family. You had no need to be redeemed from these things. You were redeemed from a life and body that were formed in sin and bound for unending torture.

Consider for a moment Paul’s description of unbelievers: dead in trespasses and sins (v. 1); walking according to the course of the world (v. 2); sons of disobedience (v. 2); living in the lusts of the flesh (v. 3); indulging in the desires of the flesh and mind (v. 3); children of wrath (v. 3); separate from Christ (v. 12); alienated from the commonwealth of Israel (v. 12); strangers to the covenants of promise (v. 12); without God and without hope in the world (v. 12); walking in death and enmity (implied in v. 16).

Paul says that was you – and don’t forget it. But there is a beautiful implication in the words “you once were.” He means to say that you no longer are. Whatever follows those three words no longer describes you. The death, lusts, wrath, and alienation that once characterized you are no more.

So what happened? What brought you into your present condition? God. God happened. God, being rich in mercy and great in love, stepped towards you even in your sin, and made you alive together with Christ. You who once were far from God and without hope, have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ. In fact, you’ve been given access to God through the Spirit. Access. You wanted access into so many things, but were in dire need of access to the One to whom you had no desire for access. And still he made himself accessible to you in your sin. But the benefits of Christ’s work on your behalf go beyond even life and access.

The final twelve verses of this chapter describe how Christ has brought us into fellowship with God, and also with others who have been reconciled to God. So consider these benefits: you’ve gained eternal life (v. 4-6); potential for good works (v. 10); freedom from the law of commandments, which was abolished through Christ (v. 15); reconciliation to God (v. 16); removal of the hostility that existed between you and other men (v. 16); addition into the body of Christ, which is the dwelling place for God by the Spirit (v. 22).

These meditations are not for pastors and preachers only. These thoughts are commanded to be a part of the mental life of the newly saved student on a secular Christian campus, the mother of three who works part-time for the church, the middle-age businessman who has been growing in Christ since his salvation as a child, and most importantly, these thoughts are for you.

You once were dead in trespasses and were a child of wrath. But God made you alive together with Christ. You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

That’s death then life. I sense centrality in that.

Sanctifying the Ordinary

2006-10-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives his beloved sleep. (Ps. 127:2)

"Excessive devotion to work as a pattern and the neglect of sleep is not admirable, it is arrogant. That which our culture so admires is identified by God as an expression of arrogance. A Christian informed by Scripture views the cessation of work each day..and the devotion to sleep each night as a gift from God." - C.J. Mahaney

This quote come from a series entitled "Sanctifying the Ordinary", which explains in four messages a biblical understanding of the ordinary events of life: sleep, work, leisure, and eating. You can invest in the MP3's of this series for eight dollars by following the Sovereign Grace link on the right.

Failing Forward

2006-07-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recognize the title of this entry from the title of a popular leadership development book by J.C. Maxwell. But please don’t be confused: I’m not talking business here at all. I’m talking about the inner man – hard core. And since I promised a more positive post, I decided to post about the potential positive result of failure.

I’m no stranger to failure. I surrender to the enemy of sinful failure every day. And continue to go back for more. But I’m struggling against sin. It’s not that I see the enemy and immediately surrender every time. It’s more like I’m tempted, then I fight the temptation, but sometimes I lose because I don’t fight, or because I fight with the wrong weapons. So I fight the sins of power-grabbing, lustful thinking, selfish irritation, arrogance, self-confidence, somber attitudes, and a host of other sins.

I lose battles for a number of reasons. Sometimes, I don’t value victory, so when surrender proves to be the easier path, I take it. Why? Certainly not because I desire defeat, but because I don’t value victory as mush as I ought. Another reason I surrender to sin is that I don’t really understand and believe the gravity of my sin. I treat defeat as a trivial issue. It’s like I don’t even realize that my sin blasphemes the power of the gospel. For when a believer sins, his life claims that the power of sin is more gripping than the power of the gospel. Then there are the times when I fight and still lose the battle because I fight with the wrong weapons. I am tempted to implement superficial tactics in my battle strategy. For instance, I try thought-based strategies: “If I could just reform the way I think in the moments of my battle.” Or I might attempt behavior-based strategies: “I just need to be more disciplined in the execution of my plan.” But these tactics don’t go deep enough. I need heart change. Which is where the gospel comes in (now I will begin the more positive portion of the post that I promised previously).

Here’s are some battle strategies that I’ve been learning over the past couple weeks. In my accountability group, we’ve been studying Hebrews 12, which has significantly informed my fight. For instance Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” This is nearly the opposite of how I often respond to spiritual attack. I tend to focus on the sin rather than on the One who is my way of escape. Sin’s attacks ought to lead me to dependence, not desperation. As J.C. Ryle said, “There is not a brick nor stone laid in the work of our sanctification till we go to Christ.”

Then just two verses later, the author of Hebrews writes, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Here is what I call the comparison factor. I’ve noticed that I tend to make a pretty big deal out of relatively insignificant temptations in my life. The point of this verse is that I have certainly never faced any temptation as significant as Christ’s temptation. He was tempted to the point of shedding his own blood, and yet his purity and obedience emerged as the unscathed victor. Maybe next time I face a battle with sin, I should remember that compared to what Christ endured, my temptation is fairly insignificant in scope. The point? Allow Christ to transform you through small battles so that when the really tough battles come, you’ll be ready to endure.

A third truth to realize in the midst of the battle is that my strength comes not from within, but from without. Christians ought to be radically different from the world in this way. The world tells us to look within for strength, but Scripture tells us that if we intend to kill the enemy – the flesh, then we must accomplish this by the Spirit of God. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). Notice the three simple words right after the conjunction, “by the Spirit.” That’s our strength, our hope, our sole tactic for victory. Allow John MacArthur to explain the tension here between the Spirit’s work and man’s responsibility: “The Spirit provides us with the energy and power to continually and gradually be killing our sins, a process never completed in this life. The means the Spirit uses to accomplish this process is our faithful obedience to the simple commands of Scripture.” So while we still must obey, let us move forward in our fight drawing from the energy and power of the Spirit rather than the self.

One final note that has comforted me again and again. Romans 5:20 reminds us that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” The comfort here is that although the law makes us acutely aware of our inability to fulfill God’s righteous standard, grace serves as a tutor that in our moments of failure drives us to Christ. Allow this work to happen. When you fail, determine to move forward in your Christlikeness. Fail forward.

Humility's More Prevalent Enemy

2006-06-09T04:05:00.000-07:00

I hope you don’t get the idea that this blog is overly puritanical, but this post addresses sin just as the last one did. I find my identity in the gospel, not in my sin, but I find that an acute awareness of personal sin magnifies the importance of divine grace.

That said, I think that by disclosing some of what God has been teaching me about sinful manifestations of pride, you may see yourself in my struggle and be encouraged. About three weeks ago, I was sitting at my kitchen table, the sunlight streaming through the window behind me, as I was reading in the book of James. I found myself meditating on how I could apply the truths I was learning to others, quite overlooking how I might apply these verses in my own life. As I prayed over this evidence of pride, I realized how unaware I was of sin in my life. I sat there struggling to come up with even one personal sin struggle. So I did what any Christian should do when they are unaware of sin in their life: I grabbed a book by a Puritan author, in this case, The Saints Everlasting Rest, by Richard Baxter. After reading three convicting pages of questions regarding pride, I had more than enough sin to chew on for quite some time.

Since then, I’ve been learning at least three specific lessons about how pride rears its Hydra heads in my life. The first is that pride is not a spiritual sin. In fact, there is no such thing as a spiritual sin. What I mean is that I often believe that I struggle with few outward and active sins like unspiritual people do, but instead I struggle with pride, which is the only sin that truly spiritual people battle (please understand, I'm being slightly facetious). Therefore, pride must be a more spiritual sin than, say…fornication, gossiping, or getting drunk, right? Or at least that’s what my sin nature deceives me into believing. And of course that thought pattern leads me to greater pride, and thus the vicious cycle begins.

The second lesson is that pride often spurs me to attempt to produce spirituality in order to exceed the spirituality of others. For instance, I just arrived at Northland Camp to serve as a counselor for the next nine weeks, and I’ve spent this week in training with about 150 other staff members. Upon arriving I immediately found myself trying to gauge the spirituality of others with one intent: to compare myself to them and decide if I was ahead of them or behind them. This comparison tendency leads to insecurity, and for me, it also leads to an attempt to beef up my own spirituality in order to exceed theirs. But at that point my attempt at spirituality becomes inevitably fruitless. The pursuit is motivated by pride, sustained by pride, and is bound to end only in a spiral of more pride.

Here's one other way I see pride in my life. In the camp atmosphere, with highly competitive teams and various ad hoc groups organized to complete various tasks around camp, leadership is highly valued. So in a supposedly competitive atmosphere, I’ve found myself inching my way past others in search of positive, public recognition, and hopefully, great prominence and leadership. It may be hard to understand what I’m saying outside of the camp context, but basically, I’ve found myself envying the leadership of others (meaning I crave it so badly that I wish they didn’t even have it). But I get so busy doing mental gymnastics about how to maneuver my way ahead of others that I’m blinded to that fact that it’s not about competition. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. My purpose ought to be to serve them, not to lord over them with the intent of self-exaltation.

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense. I don’t have much time in my busy camp schedule, and I haven’t fully developed these thoughts. But if you see yourself in any of this, and even if you don’t, allow me to commend for your reading a book by C.J. Mahaney entitled Humility: True Greatness.

Exploring depravity in this way is never fun, but here are two consolations. First, where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Viewing sin acutely magnifies the power and effect of the gospel. Second, I promise my next post will be more light-hearted…maybe about grace or license or something (maybe current events in the life of Nik Lingle).

Liar, Liar

2006-05-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

Christians are pretty honest people, right? Think again. Last night I was reading one of the letters that John wrote to the church for the purpose of fighting false teaching. In verse 6, John tells the elders, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” I began to think about this verse and exactly what it means for me. First of all, while I don’t have false teachers in my church going for my soul, I do have a horribly blinding sin nature that deceives me constantly. So when John points out one specific way that false teachers were deceiving the church – denying that sin affects the Christian’s relationship with God – I must become suspicious of whether or not I am buying into the same deception.

My initial response to that suspicion was this: “No of course I’m not walking in darkness!” I mean, what kind of serious, growing Christian wants to admit that he’s walking in darkness?!? And since I feel that my fellowship with God is going well, doesn’t that prove that I’m not just lying to myself?

But let’s define “walking in darkness.” John Stott has a lot to say about this phrase – all very thought provoking – but for the sake of conciseness, we’ll sum up his interpretation in this way: walking in darkness means allowing consciously tolerated sin in our lives. Now I immediately rejected the idea that I might have consciously tolerated sin in my life. Think about it, when we acknowledge sin in our lives, and we’re seriously struggling against that sin, we can speak of the struggle with some degree of honor. Like, “Hey I got this sin, but I’m fighting it Biblically, come on, don’t you wish you were as spiritual as me?” I realize that is sickly twisted thinking, but let’s be honest, you can retain “honor” as long as you’re fighting sin, right. But what about sin that we’re not fighting against? Now that would be dreadful, even depraved. And there’s no way that we would want to admit to God, others, or even ourselves that we are tolerating sin in our lives. So instead we lie to ourselves, pretending that if we ignore tolerated sin, it won’t exist.

Enter First John 1:6. “YOU’RE A LIAR!!” John says that when we hold onto tolerated sin, refusing to practice the truth (something we can do because “God is light” – an anarthrous statement describing God’s revealing power), we are lying and therefore hindering, and possibly foregoing altogether, our relationship with God.

So I decided to be honest. Yes, I do have consciously tolerated patterns of sin in my life. That’s hard to admit, and although I’m not being real specific at this point, it’s true nonetheless.

Now I work backwards from this point, and I have to admit that because I’m hanging on to tolerated sin, that sin must be affecting my fellowship with God. And so I run to two more statements by John for which I am so thankful: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us” and “ If any one does sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Be honest, Stop lying. If there’s consciously tolerated sin, the fellowship is affected. This is serious stuff. In fact, it’s central to our Christian lives.

Be a Centrist

2006-05-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, a group of Watertown citizens protesting the war in Iraq gathered in front of the parking lot at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. This makes so much sense to me because Maranatha has so much to do with deciding what goes on in Iraq and for that matter, politics in general (note the sarcasm).

This reminded me of an unfortunate condition that has developed in the United States. If totalitarianism was the fear of the twentieth century, then so far, it seems that the problem of the twenty-first century is extremism. The political conservatives (dominated by the religious crowd) often forget that government is secular and not an extension of ecclesiastical control. On the other hand, secularists unnecessarily associate conservative policies with religion and then attack religion as a parasite on society. Thus you arrive at the absurdity of a group of anti-war protestors targeting a Bible college in the Midwest with 800 students.

The inane irony almost makes me laugh, if only it weren’t so serious. The misperceptions that result from extremism have been ripping apart our nation from within.

Let me analyze the central issues of this situation:

For the secularists: please realize that while Christian beliefs often lead to conservative policies, the two must not be equated. Most likely you will disagree with the following statement, but our founding fathers instituted conservative policies to guide our nation, and we recognize that the majority of the founding fathers were not committed Christians.

For my religious friends: (If you’re a liberal, you can stop reading here, because this paragraph presumes many things on which you and I disagree). Christ viewed the government as a secular institution; he never sought to use it as a means of imposing the morality of faith on unbelievers. This is instructive for the church today. While government ought to create a society committed to self-evident morality, Christians should never seek to use government as some sort of tool to spread Christianity. This tendency can be very tempting, especially for committed Christians. But please resist the temptation, or you may find that you only succeed in repelling proselyte-potentials even further from Christianity.

This conflict is rooted in the gospel of Christianity. Secularists reject moralism because of indwelling sin (if you’re a liberal and still reading, I don’t apologize for this statement, but I am sorry for your rejection of its truth). Christians like myself accept the absolute morality of Christianity not because of some innate goodness that secularists lack, but because God’s grace and love have been poured into their hearts (Romans 5:5). Armed with this understanding, Christians must pursue humility in evangelism and wisdom in methodology.

So if you’re ever tempted to join either side of political extremism, I would urge you instead to join the growing group of spiritual centrists – centrists who put the gospel in the center, and allow the rest of their life to revolve around it. Centrality.

Keepin it Central

2006-05-09T05:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the point, you might call it the center: Life is all about gospel living. So I want to start developing perspectives on life that "push the peripheralities to the peripheral and keep the centralities in the center." If you want to comment on my developing perspectives or post some perspectives of your own, please take advantage of my blog to do so.