Monthly Archives: April 2011

FORGIVEN

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Tim Challies shares comments from a book by Lou Priolo that I have not read. I am now planning on getting the book. This excerpt is right on and very helpful.

I was thinking today about being a people pleaser—a tendency all of us having to varying degrees. Lou Priolo has written a book on the subject and one that made quite an impression on me when I read it several years ago. In one of the chapters, Priolo looks at clothing ourselves in humility and he offers some wisdom on the subject of forgiveness.

As the father of three young children, and as the owner of a proud and sinful heart, I have endless opportunities to teach about forgiveness and to practice both forgiveness and repentance in my own life. I’ve had to tell my children that true repentance doesn’t involve the word “but” (“I’m sorry I smacked you but you shouldn’t have said that to me…”). But then I’ve seen that I can fall into the same sin. I’ve had to tell my children that true repentance doesn’t drag up the past and use forgiven sin against others. But then I’ve seen that I can do the same thing. Though I’m many years older than they are, I’m still learning lessons about forgiveness.

In Pleasing People Priolo portrays the heart of forgiveness as being a promise. Here is what he says: “Forgiveness is fundamentally a promise. As God promises to not hold our sins against us, so we also must promise not to hold the sins of those we’ve forgiven against them.” This is, of course, the foundation of the forgiveness God promises to us: that he will never hold our sins against us. On the day of judgment we can have confidence that he will not suddenly charge us with sins that have been forgiven us through the blood of Jesus. We have faith in God and trust in this promise. Without this promise our faith is hopeless. Praise God that he offers us this manner of forgiveness! And I mean that. Praise him!

The promise of forgiveness, says Priolo, can be broken into three parts. First, you promise not to bring up the offense to the forgiven person so as to use it against him. Second, you promise not to discuss with others the sin you have forgiven. Third, you promise not to dwell on the forgiven offense but to remind yourself that you have forgiven the offender in the same way that God has forgiven you for a multitude of far greater sins. Thus when you ask forgiveness you secure these promises for yourself.

According to Priolo, true forgiveness looks something like this:

1.Acknowledge that you have sinned. Let the party you’ve offended know that you acknowledge wrongdoing. This is humbling but necessary. Acknowledge not only that you sin and are a sinner but that you have actually sinned against this person.
2.Identify your sin by its specific biblical name. Do not simply acknowledge generic sin but acknowledge specific sin and call it by its biblical name (which keeps you from acknowledging something society may label as sin but the Bible does not). This ensures that you have thought deeply about your sin and have seen how it fits into what the Bible calls sin.
3.Acknowledge the harm your offense caused. This is also humbling. You must acknowledge that your sin has had consequences and that you are owning up not only to the sin but also to the harmful consequences your sin brought about.
4.Demonstrate repentance by identifying an alternative biblical behavior. Show that you have truly considered your sin by explaining what you should have done instead. Show what the appropriate alternative behavior would have been.
5.Ask for forgiveness. This puts the onus on the offended party to accept your repentance and to extend forgiveness to you. It completes the reconciliation between the offender and the one who has been offended.
These are simple steps, to be sure, and even obvious ones, but ones that serve to display and prove true humility and true repentance. They bring about true and lasting reconciliation—the kind of reconciliation we experience with our God despite far greater, far more grave, offenses.

Maybe there is someone you need to talk to right now, to extend just that kind of forgiveness, or to seek that kind of forgiveness.

Police in Beijing Detain Christians

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Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ in China. The Wall Street Journal reports: “Police in Beijing detained more than 30 evangelical Christians as they attempted to gather outdoors for Easter services and confined about 500 to their homes, continuing a broad crackdown on dissent that has also targeted lawyers, bloggers and human-rights activists.”

The article goes on to state that while technically illegal, in recent years house churches have been largely tolerated by authorities. Now that seems to be changing. The growth of Christianity in China is staggering. A Pew Research Center report is cited that says that between 50 million and 70 million Chinese worship in house churches, and more than 25 million worship in state-sanctioned Catholic and Protestant churches. By comparison, the Communist Party has around 60 million members.

In Whom (Jesus) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge…”

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A few years back, I spent a couple of years reading a lot of John Flavel. He was (is) one of my favorite puritan authors. I haven’t read any of Flavel, to speak of, for the past 10 years but when I ran across this quote on Justin Taylor’s blog I was reminded of why I always loved reading Flavel. He always brought me to think much about Jesus.

John Flavel:

Christ [is] the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is congregation or meeting-place of all waters in the world: so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet. . . .

His excellencies are pure and unmixed; he is a sea of sweetness without one drop of gall.

—The Method of Grace, from Sermon XII.

Scarlet Worm

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I preached through Psalm 22 at Secret Church Saturday night and at one point talked about the phrase in verse 6 “I am a worm.” The Hebrew word for “worm” is translated “scarlet” other places in the Bible. In studying this I ran across an interesting article that I shared from in my message. Several people have asked for the article, so I am posting it here. What a Creator! What a Savior! Glory to His Name!

The Scarlet Worm – The truth that spiritual, eternal life can only be attained on the basis of the suffering and death of the Creator of life is symbolized everywhere in the world of nature by the fact that even the birth of a new physical life must always be preceded by a time of travail and willingness to die on the part of the mother.
One of the most poignant illustrations of this truth is found in Psalm 22:6. This psalm, of course, is the great portrait of the sufferings of Christ on the cross, written a thousand years before they were actually fulfilled. At the height of His sufferings, He cried out: “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.”
This particular word translated “worm” is the Hebrew ~toleah~. It refers to an insect like the cochineal, the females of which produced a substance from which a bright scarlet dye could be extracted. This “scarlet worm.” in fact, was the chief source of the scarlet and crimson dyes of antiquity. It was so closely identified with the coloring which was produced from it, that the same word (~toleah~, or its variants, ~tola~ and ~tolaath~) are commonly translated in the Old Testament to read “scarlet” or “crimson.”
It may be that the only reason the Lord prophetically identified Himself with this insect was in order to emphasize the extreme humiliation to which He subjected Himself in suffering as our Savior. More likely, however, He was thinking also of the sacrificial death to which the mother worm submitted herself in order to provide life for the young which she brought forth.
For the mother ~toleah~, the “scarlet worm.” affixes her body firmly to the trunk of a tree or to a post or similar wooden object so firmly that she can never leave again. After the young are born, her body provides protection for them until they can leave and provide for themselves. And in the process, the mother worm dies, with the scarlet coloring from her dried body imparted to the baby worms and to the tree on which she died.
Although the Lord Jesus was the Son of man, it is by Him that men are born to spiritual life. “For it became him, for whom are all things. and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10). He is the antitype, the perfect fulfillment of the type represented by the mother worm, and indeed by every mother in the animal kingdom, and in, the human family, willing to enter into the suffering of travail, and even death if need be, in order that the child might be born. “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa 53:11).
Looking at the lifeless form of the mother worm impaled on the tree, stained blood-red in token of her suffering and death, we see a host of newborn creatures emerging from the scene of sacrifice, vibrant with life and, hopefully, filled with gratitude to the one who thus laid down her life that they might live. It is peculiarly appropriate that the twenty-second Psalm ends with a prophetic testimony: “A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to [better, “of”] the Lord for a generation They shall come, and declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.”
HENRY MORRIS, Director Creation Science Research Center San Diego, California

A Common Temptation

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I found George Mueller’s words today to be packed with benefit.

Praying that we will always be a people marked by God’s Word and prayer.

Brother Joe

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.

The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.

- George Mueller

Radical Sacrifice – what should that look like?

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Please take the time to read this entire blog by Trevin Wax and may more of God’s people labor through these thoughts on money/stuff and come out with lives that adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every way.

James MacDonald, David Platt, and the Question of Radical Sacrifice
via Kingdom People by Trevin Wax on 4/6/11

Last Thursday, James MacDonald gathered a group of mega-church pastors for a conference called “The Elephant Room.” The sessions featured lively discussion and friendly debate regarding a number of controversial methodological, theological, and practical issues related to church ministry. (See notes here.) One of the most interesting sessions was David Platt and James MacDonald’s conversation on sacrifice and generosity.

David Platt made the case that wealth and money, though not inherently sinful, are dangerous in the hands of sinful people. Our current context of self-indulgence needs to be challenged. Spiritual transformation leads to material transformation. The gospel gives us generous hearts that overflow into radical sacrifice for God’s eternal purposes. When God blesses us financially, He intends us to give to others.

James MacDonald warned that a distorted version of Platt’s teaching equates “poverty” and “spirituality.” Instead, MacDonald believes we need a full-orbed theology of joy in God that includes joy in the good gifts God has given us. Emphasizing radical sacrifice can lead to poverty theology that is all about the immediate divesting of money rather than the multiplication of money that will lead to greater involvement in mission.

The Points of Agreement

The MacDonald/Platt discussion was tense at times, perhaps because the practical ramifications of how we think about money always hit close to home. Still, there are three major points on which Platt and MacDonald agree:

1. Money and possessions are a good gift from God.
2. Money and possessions can become idolatrous.
3. We are called to exercise stewardship of our finances in a way that pleases the Lord and furthers the spread of His name.

The Debate

Even though Platt and MacDonald would “Amen” each of these points, they have diverging views on the particulars of how these truths should be applied. MacDonald believes we need a theology of joy that reiterates point #1. Platt believes we are underestimating the idolatrous pull of point #2. Then, because MacDonald emphasizes #1 and Platt focuses on #2, they have radically different notions about how to apply #3.

I feel the tension of this discussion at a deeply personal level. When I lived in Romania, I wrestled daily with the tension of being one of the “haves” in a world of “have-nots.” Over the course of my years overseas, all my categories were shattered, so that I was confused, challenged, content, frustrated, joyful, and well-meaning at different moments and in different ways. Here are the cycles of my personal journey:

1. Culture Shock at Poverty

When I first began ministry overseas, I was deeply moved by the poverty I noticed. Early on, I wrote an email to family and friends:

You know I am not one to dwell on the bad things or poverty, but sometimes, the situations here can really get to me… Every now and then I wish to be home to just have a good long cry about all the things that happen here. Here, it’s impossible, because it’s almost like you’re in a bubble, and you have to separate your heart from your mind somewhat, just to make it through emotionally. Your mind can see something, but you have to keep it from getting to your heart until you have time to really process what you’ve seen and carry with you the emotional baggage that comes with it.

The longer I was in Romania, the more I realized that even poor Romanian villages would be considered “rich” by the standards of third-world countries. Poverty is defined in so many different ways, and the way we define poverty impinges on how we spread the gospel. Many times, I have asked David Platt’s question: “How do we proclaim the gospel in a world in which utter poverty (no drinking water, starving people, enormous economic needs) is so prevalent?”

2. Culture Shock at Wealth

Upon returning to the U.S. after spending a year away, I was surprised by our wealth. I remember arriving back in Nashville, and asking – in the fog of jet lag – “When did they put a new car lot near the airport?” Dad answered: “That’s just the parking lot, Trevin.” Strange, but after so much time away, my mind couldn’t conceive of the fact that all the new, shiny cars were owned by average citizens. Even now, I remember the feeling I had when I noticed how easy it was to walk downstairs and get a glass of water. After having lived in a village with no indoor plumbing, water from the refrigerator seemed like a luxury.

3. Frustration with Materialism

The longer I looked at the U.S. from the outside in, the more I noticed our excess wealth. Closets stuffed full of junk… credit card debt racked up on frivolities… churches budgeting thousands of dollars to activities that seemed designed more for the comfort of church members than God’s mission in the world… Our priorities seemed so out of line!

And then there was the day I received an email invitation to take a pastor-led cruise with a number of famous preachers. I remember the odd feeling of walking from the computer to the window where I could see homeless Gypsies scavenging through the dumpster outside our apartment complex. The jarring juxtaposition of wealth and poverty frustrated me.

4. Repentance for my Patronizing Attitude

After the period of frustration, the Lord convicted my heart for my superior attitude toward my Romanian brothers and sisters. My initial mindset had been: “I’m the rich American here to help the poor Romanians.” That attitude was unhealthy, anti-gospel, and ultimately untrue.

God opened my eyes to see the problem of dividing people into categories of “rich and poor.” I had the opportunity to serve alongside “poor” Romanians who were doing mercy ministry to poorer people. We prayed as Romanian missionaries went to third-world countries to spread the gospel. Over time, my categories were shattered. Christians are poor in spirit, called to be generous. Forget the categories. Quit patronizing our brothers and sisters, many of whom are richer spiritually than we’ll ever be. We’re united in our service by the cross, not the size of our wallets.

5. Repentance for my Judgmental Attitude

Then, God started in on me from another angle. He exposed my judgmental attitude toward “wealthy Americans.” Though I had looked with disgust at the idea of a “pastor’s cruise,” I eventually realized that this type of vacation was attractive to many pastors – not because they were idolatrous materialists, but because being “inaccessible” on a cruise is one of the only ways they can feel truly “off”. A pastor-led cruise may, for some, lead to rest and spiritual renewal in a way I had not considered. Whatever the reasons, I needed to repent of my patronizing attitude to the poor and my superior attitude to the rich.

Where Do We Go from Here?

One of the most helpful books I have read on the subject of wealth is Neither Poverty nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions by Craig Blomberg. The points that Platt and MacDonald agree on are declared loudly and clearly in Blomberg’s work. We can gratefully enjoy God’s gifts. We must beware of the idolization of wealth. We must give where we want our heart to be.

I don’t claim to have figured out the debate about radical generosity and stewardship. But there are places where I think both emphases could lead to unhealthy extremes.

MacDonald is right that there is nothing inherently spiritual about poverty. But I’m cautious about his statement that financial blessing flows to fruitfulness. Sometimes. Maybe often. But not all the time. I’ve served alongside many pastors who didn’t reap financial rewards, even though they had very fruitful ministries. Conflating financial blessing with fruitfulness can lead to unwarranted appreciation of prosperity-gospel teachers who confuse the two (just as the ancient world did). Christ has set us free from the shackles of “success” defined by the world.

Platt is right that we live in a culture that seeks joy in more and more things. His focus on “radical sacrifice” as the outworking of gospel generosity should be commended. But I’m cautious that Platt’s teaching could be turned into a legalistic, obligatory exercise that leaves little room for the full-orbed theology of joy that MacDonald talks about.

A couple months ago, Platt tweeted: About to coach my first T-ball practice. Scared. Really scared. The next tweet was: Exhausted. Stressed. Filthy. Sore. Glad to be coach. Grateful to be dad. I chuckled when I read those tweets, and I was glad to see them. Why? Because that image of joy-filled leisure and recreation can easily get lost in the “radical” image that comes through Platt’s books, conference messages, and the branding machine of the publishing industry.

Conclusion

The more I think about those three points, the more I am convinced that it’s not a “balance between the three” that is necessary, but a radical, unshakeable commitment to all three.

* We need to pursue joy in the God who gives us good gifts, intentionally basking in His goodness to us, growing in gratitude for His provision, and enjoying His gifts as the good things they are.
* We also need to be radical in our realization of how idolatrous good things can become when they take the throne of our lives. Our commitment to enjoying the good things of life should be matched by our ruthless efforts to root out idols from our lives, to find our satisfaction in God alone, and not just the gifts He gives us.
* In the end, radical stewardship will look different from person to person, from church to church, – but we are all called to be good stewards, to prioritize rightly, to sacrifice for the King out of gospel-soaked generous hearts. Radical sacrifice must always overflow from a heart that is gripped by the gospel; otherwise, it becomes a joyless and fruitless effort of self-righteousness.

BIG DAYS

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SATURDAY, April 2nd – ONE HOPE ACADEMY CAR WASH – Our One Hope Academy students and staff will be at Food Pyramid at 51st and Memorial from 9:00-3:00 this Saturday to raise money for their educational reward trip to California. Come by and get your car washed!

Sunday, April 3rd – SPECIAL SUNDAY – Sunday is a special day in the life of our church as we will be talking about who God has called us to be as a church and why it matters so much! As a part of this special day we will be asking you to make (or renew) a commitment to pray for God to bring laborers to join us in this ministry. No doubt there are good churches around but there are many churches across our city who have true believers that are just filling up a seat, hearing a sermon, and doing a little something to keep their church going. The opportunities and real need for people to come and help us in loving the people God has given us to love are enormous! When I think about all the people we love who need believers to come and make real significant investments of time and energy and prayer and love – sometimes I want to stop at the churches whose parking lots are full and scream – “if you love the Lord, could you ask if the Lord wants you to come help us?” Please join me in making a commitment Sunday to pray for the Lord to bring laborers to this ministry. Also, we will be taking an offering to cover our summer ministry where we hope to bring in 20-30 interns who will serve with us and be trained in God-centered, biblically-saturated, love intensive, church based urban ministry. We are asking the Lord to provide $35,000. Give only if the Lord leads you to give.

Sunday, April 3rd – FELLOWSHIP MEAL – Following the morning service we will have a fellowship meal. Please plan on joining us.

Saturday, April 16th, 6:00-10:00 PM – SECRET CHURCH – Come and pray with us as we look at the cross and the Hope for our city and the world.