What Are You Coming To Church For?

Are you coming to church out of obligation?  Maybe you're coming out of habit, even if it's a godly habit.  Or perhaps you're coming to find things wrong with the service or the worshipers?  I assure you, my friend, the Lord did not appoint you to be the corrector of the pastor, the worship team, or your other brothers and sisters.  He wants you there so you can be encouraged and challenged.  He wants you there to be a blessing to Him!

Following Christ

Did you ever wonder what it would be like if you had Judgment Day perspective today?  How would your attitudes and choices change is you could look at your present life with benefit of knowing what you will know when you finally see Jesus face-to-face?

John Piper, the dean of to-the-heart’s-core spirituality, spoke to this a few years ago.

It is possible to waste your life. Few things make me tremble more than the possibility of taking this onetime gift of life and wasting it. Every morning when I walked into the kitchen as a boy I saw hanging on the wall the plaque that now hangs in my living room: “Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” And now I am almost 58, and the river of life is spilling over the falls of my days with tremendous speed. More and more I smell eternity. And oh, how I want to use my life well. It is so short and so fragile and so final. You get one chance to live your life. And then the judgment. I speak as a father who has children your age, and I am jealous with Jesus that they and you not waste your life. ("Don't Waste Your Life," from December 29, 2003)

It occurs to me that two things will keep us from pursuing the quest of a Christ-focused life.

The first is settling for the average “good” Christian’s lifestyle.  We humans have an inbred need to be part of larger cohort.  While we want to respected and admired, and we certainly want to have self respect, we seem content with doing what the rest of the people are doing.  Average, good, middle class, heartland of America styled Christianity is admirable to a degree.  Except that it takes the sharp edges out of the Gospel.  It seeks to smooth and re-route the path that was meant to be sometimes rocky and steep, at other times muddy and overgrown, and only occasionally smooth and straight.  In other words, it takes the need for faith and daily dependence on Christ out of discipleship.

The second is indulging ourselves too much and disciplining ourselves too little.  Following Jesus is not easy.  It is simple.  But it is not easy.  Anyone who tells you differently is engaging in sophistry.  “Take up your cross and follow me.”  “The servant is not above his master.”  “In the world you will have tribulation.”  “Any man having set his hand to the plough and looking back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God.”  Those are Jesus’ words!  It takes desire and disciple, passion and persistence to follow Christ.  Following Christ cannot be done on a never-give-it-a-second-thought or follow-when-it’s-convenient basis.  It must be done with forethought and fortitude.  It must be done by bringing our flesh into submission daily, winning the war against self and determining to do the small things that are necessary to advance on the path after Jesus today.

Get your eternal perspective established.  Fix your eyes on Christ.  and move out!

God's Sovereignty and His Plan

It's with not a little trepidation that I submit my first video blog.  When you have a face made for radio, it makes for more misgivings! But while I was listening to Jayson Hoagland preach on Acts 12 this past Lord's Day, the Lord really struck me with the thought that I need to be okay with His having a different plan for me than He does for another of His servants.  If I will simply embrace His plan and rest in His providence, I will find joy.

Thoughts on Forgiveness

Why do you forgive someone who has sinned against you?  Why would you even consider it?


Let's remember what forgiveness is.  Forgiveness is releasing someone who has sinned against me their sin debt to me and agreeing to live with the unchangeable consequences of that act.  We're talking about sins of significance, not small or petty offences.  The small things we're supposed to overlook anyway.  Proverbs 19:11 says that it's the glory of a man to overlook an offence. Literally, it's his crowning honor to overlook it.  As we begin to mature in Christ, the small stuff should roll off us like water off a duck's back.  If small slights or inconveniences really bother us and upset us, we have a pride problem that we need to deal with before the Lord.  (See Proverbs 13:10.)


Many of us would immediately think of the command and example of Jesus.   He commanded through prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, "forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."  And He commanded it through precept in Matthew 18:21-22,35:  ²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times...So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.


Remember Jesus on the cross?  "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  We have command and example.

Often we hear that we should forgive others because of its benefits to us.  And we are benefited when we forgive!  We no longer carry the weight of the grudge.  Our hearts are clear and unburdened.  The root of bitterness that can so easily poison our entire outlook and spill over to other relationships is removed. My vertical relationship with the Father is open and unobstructed.  These are all real benefits to granting forgiveness!  But are these worthy of being my motive to forgive?

Look again at Jesus' example.  Do we really think that He was asking the Father to forgive those who were crucifying Him so that He could feel better?!  No!  Jesus' forgiveness of His martyrers was based on love and was focused on them, not on Himself.

Forgiveness is divine.  It's a supernatural move of the Holy Spirit in us, empowering us.  Forgiving is an act of the will rather than a simple emotional response.  When love for Christ and the love from Christ abounds in our hearts, we can forgive from the heart.  The challenge we have in our growth as disciples is to ferret out the motives of our hearts and to submit our hearts and wills to the ongoing work of repentance so that we can become like our Lord Jesus.  Offences are opportunities for change and growth if we will respond in Christlikeness rather than react in the flesh.

Together For the Gospel

I wish I were in Louisville at this week's Together For The Gospel.  Here are links to audio from the conference as found on Desiring God:

The audio of Tuesday's messages at Together for the Gospel is now available for streaming and download on their site:

• C. J. Mahaney, The Sustaining Power of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4)
• Al Mohler, The Power of the Articulated Gospel (Romans 10)
• Mark Dever, False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church

Check out the full schedule of the conference speakers, and what it might look like if this were a baseball team.

Burkean Conservatism

Through my friend @Markjakubik, I became aware of Professor Stephen Bainbridge of UCLA Law School.  I'm enjoying and benefiting from reading his blog.  He has a particularly good excerpt that distinguishes a conservative from a libertarian.

Indeed, the irony is that left-liberals who use terms like "wingnuts" and the Objectivists who want to "Go Galt" both want to free the individual from the alleged shackles  imposed by those platoons. The latter prefer a society in which the autonomous individual stands naked in the market. The former prefer a nanny state in which the individual is dependent upon the state (except when it comes to abortion and sex, oddly enough). Because the little platoons--family, church, workplaces, and civic organizations--provide alternate centers of power within society that insulate the individual from the raw power of both Leviathan and the market, they don't fit into either camp's vision of the ideal society. In my view, however, they are essential if we are to resist the crushing of civil society beneath the mission-creep of the state and the raw force of the market.

This is the kind of writing we need to help provide the intellectual firepower to counter the ascendancy of what I consider a libertarianism on steroids.

Basketball Dawgs Drawing A Crowd

UGA is a known as a emphatically football school.  But the hardwood Dawgs are drawing fans with their much improved play.  My brother and nephew got to see them play in person on Saturday.  I'm jealous!

Read all about the Dawgs at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Mike Pence Stands For The Unborn

Mike Pence may not be a household name.  And he may not be the bandwagon choice for the GOP 2012 nomination.  But he's my choice.

Read his words at today's March For Life:

“We gather to mark the 38th anniversary of the worst Supreme Court decision since Dred Scott.  And we gather today in the shadow of a new pro-life majority on Capitol Hill.  And we will keep gathering until Roe v. Wade is sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs.

“These are trying times in the life of this nation.

“Our economy is struggling and our national government is awash in a sea of debt.

“Amidst these struggles, some would have us focus our energies on jobs and spending.

"We must not remain silent when great moral battles are being waged. Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life have forgotten the lessons of history. As in the days of a house divided, America's darkest moments have come when economic arguments trumped moral principles.

“A nation that will not stand for life will not stand for long.

“You know there can be no lasting prosperity without a moral foundation in law.

“And as to focusing on spending, I agree.

“Let’s start by denying all federal funding for abortion at home and abroad.

“The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X.

“The time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America.

“Thank you for braving the cold one more time and saying to the heart of our national government, ‘We will fight on for life. We will fight on for the unborn and the brokenhearted.’

“And we will fight on because we know, as Jefferson said, ‘God who gave us life gave us liberty…and God is just and his justice cannot sleep forever.’

“And we know this:  We will win this fight because the deepest desire of every mother and father is to protect their child, at any cost, even with the own lives and that truth cannot be erased.

“The American people will make this right.  We will restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law.  Because every American knows in their heart, this is the greatest nation on earth because we acknowledge the God-given right to liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the unalienable right to life.”

See the story at The Weekly Standard.

Explanation of Legalism and Worldliness

In this interview, Phil Johnson gives the clearest, most succinct explanation of legalism that I've heard.  He also discribes worldliness as the heart matter that it is, slaughtering a few sacred cows along the way.

What Shapes Your Faith?

A story from USA Today caught my eye. Sunday's article in the Faith & Reason section by Cathy Lynn Grossman reports on the book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by political scientists Robert Putnam of Harvard and David Campbell of Notre Dame. Their research concludes that American evangelicals believe that most good people will make it Heaven regardless of what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to the Father.

Grossman says:

They found that on the ultimate religious tolerance questions -- who is saved -- Americans overwhelmingly believe "a good person who is of another religion (than your own) can go to heaven. The group that scored lowest, evangelicals, were still greatly in favor of a wide and generous grace with 83% saying yes to this.

But did they really mean non-Christians, or was this Methodists saying, sure, Lutherans are saved, too? They asked again,adding "even if they are not Christian" and 54% of evangelical protestants on up to 98% of Mormons agreed.

This is a particularly disturbing opinion, if true. One of the things a pastor must continually repeat is the simple premise of the Gospel: Humans are alienated from God by sin. The exclusive cure for sin is the payment made by Christ, His shedding His blood on the cross. The only hope any person has of eternal life is repenting of their sin and coming to Christ by faith alone.


It is particularly frustrating that Christians don't get the fact that God will not "grade on the curve" for their loved one or friend. Just because we love them and see lovable qualities in them doesn't mean the Father will give them a mulligan on the Gospel at the judgment. They will be judged based on their righteousness, or on the imputed righteousness of Christ. If they don't have Christ, they will not gain eternal life. That is why it is critical for every Christian to share the Gospel with those he loves. No Gospel, no Heaven.


Our church's theme is "First Baptist Church Loves Robinson!". The way this church or any individual Christian can best show love is by showing people the way to Christ. Anything less is simply kind-hearted wishful thinking.

There's A Conservative Christian Running For President

There's a real conservative who is making noises about running for President in 2012.  He's visiting Iowa and staying active in the media.  This past week, he was one of the keynote speakers at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit.  His name is Mike Pence.  He's a leader in the House and is a member from Indiana.  He states that he's "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican...in that order."  He deserves a good look by everyone interested in conservatism and by every politically active Christian.

The time to fight for our values is in the primaries.  Remember Rush's rule: vote for the most conservative Republican in the primaries.  We have to pay attention early this cycle and get behind and work for our preferred candidate.  The cycle for 2012 begins on November 3rd this year.

Listen to his speech at the Value Voters Summit:

Back In Action and Two Quick Hits

After neglecting the blog for too many months, I'm back in action. I must admit that my inclination to update and inform didn't go away. But I was seduced by Twitter and Facebook, using those platforms for lots of quick hits. After some time, reflection, and encouragement, I'm going to try to merge all three venues.

Two articles from my morning reading deserve mention. The first is from Dan Burrell. He posted a new article titled Paying The Price When You Take a Stand. Using the recent case of the family who objected to overly-sexual cheers on their six year old's cheer squad, he makes the following observation:

But let’s make something clear — taking a stand will often require you to pay a price and that’s a good thing. Dead leaves and dead fish go with the flow. Taking a stand causes ripples and waves. Turn on a light and watch the cockroaches run for the shadows. Put some salt on ice and watch things start changing. Taking a stand on matters of propriety, morality, philosophy, ethics, values and conduct is going to exact some sort of price at the hands of those whose values are different than yours.

We should expect nothing less.

The entire article is worthy of reading and considering. He makes powerful points of living biblically holy lives without being legalistic prudes.

The other article is on a blog new to me called Sola Sisters. It's a revealing and discerning article on Glenn Beck.

And okay, sure, I knew you were a Mormon. But maybe, I said to myself, he's really a Christian. Maybe he's one of those "cultural Mormons," a Mormon in name only, who doesn't even know about all that kooky Mormon theology. After all, he talks about God and Jesus and salvation and atonement.... Looking back, I'm so ashamed of myself: I should have known better! After all, a large part of what I do is write about cults, and how they use the same terminology that Christians do, only with redefined meanings. Oh, how I wanted to believe.

The rest of the article details the deviant and false gospel beliefs of Mormonism.

A Testimony To God's Terrible and Wonderful Sovereignty

Patrick Hughes is a living example of God's terrible and wonderful sovereignty. This young man was born blind and crippled. Yet God gifted him with an amazing native musical talent. Watch the report on him and his dad.

New Sermons, MLK, Odds & Ends

The last two weeks worth of audio have been uploaded to my podcast. There's a player here on the blog that you can use to listen, if you like.

My message last night was on the Christian and racism. I don't think I "nailed" the subject. In fact, I just began to scratch the surface of it. But this has been a journey that started for me ten years or so ago. And it's one that has unfortunately not started for many white Christians. I've been particularly challenged by John Piper's writing on the subject and by his example. Even though most of us have not engaged in overt or conscious hatred of other ethnic groups, the very facts that we have eschewed much consideration of race relations in our churches and that we unconsciously and unwittingly consider "minorities" as other are damning indictments. May God give us the grace to live out our oneness with all our brothers in Christ. I include the link to MLK's Letter From A Birmingham Jail and a video of his I Have A Dream Speech below.

Also, I unashamedly borrow from Dan Phillips' blog the video of Wintley Phipps singing "Amazing Grace". What a blessing this man is to the Church!

Resolved: To Make An Impact For Christ This Year

I believe in evaluating myself and in setting goals. It’s a healthy practice everyone should cultivate from the beginning of adolescence until their last breath. The New Year is a traditional time to do this. Many people start the off the year with a set of resolutions. “I’m going to lose weight.” “I’m going to learn a new language.” “I’m going to manage my finances better.” All of those are good resolutions.

But what if your resolutions this year included things that were greater than that? What if your resolutions weren’t just about self-actualization and life enhancement? What if your resolutions were God-centered? Let me share three questions with you to get you started. And then let the Lord guide your thinking and praying as you resolve to serve Him this year.

1. How can I serve the family I live with so they will see God’s glory this year?
2. How can I serve through my church so that my brothers and sisters enjoy the presence of Christ and the Gospel advances in our community?
3. How can I surrender my will to God this year so that Christ’s glory blazes brightly to everyone around me?

A Powerful, Poignant Pro-Life Video

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Get Acquainted With Rand Paul

Rand Paul is a candidate worthy of your support. Even if, like me, you don't live in Kentucky, you can support him. He will be a great voice for liberty and good sense in the U.S. Senate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2rqCOFtacE&feature=player_embedded

Huckabee on Israel

Piper on the Value of Literal Translations

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Sunday Morning Prayer for August 16, 2009

Prayer for August 16, 2009


Dear Lover, Redeemer, and Friend,

We know that in You dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything that God is, all His glory, all His majesty, all His beauty, all His perfection, is displayed in You, Lord Jesus. We worship and prize You above everything and everyone else. We delight in Your presence. We long for Your fellowship.

Father, if we’ve come here for anything else today, please forgive us and correct us.

If we’ve come to be entertained by good music, forgive us and help our souls to be enraptured in You.

If we’ve come to be pleased or to think better of ourselves through a well-presented talk, forgive us and give light to our minds to know You better.

If we’ve come to see and be seen, forgive us and help us to see only Christ and Him crucified.

Give us more of You today, Lord Jesus.

In Your precious name I pray,

Amen.

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