Around The Web-May 17, 2013

This past week, I posted my first book review with my friends over at Servants of Grace with talking about Con Campbell's book, Outreach And The Artist

The popular mobile/computer game, Angry Birds, is set to be a 3D movie

9 Things You Should Know About Human Cloning by Joe Carter

Justin Taylor would like for us to meet Douglas Karpen: The New Kermit Gosnell

Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal in More Than 1 in 5 States from Christianity Today

The Gospel Forms The Church

Without a proper understanding of the gospel, people will miss the big biblical picture and all the joyful freedom that comes from living it. They will run from God in shame at their failures instead of running toward Him because of His mercy.

Just as a river forms distributaries, the gospel forms the Church. The distributaries do not form the river, just as the Church does not form the gospel. When a church confuses the order, she loses her true effectiveness. When a church chooses something other than the river of the gospel as the driving force behind her teaching, programming, staffing, and decisions, she empties herself of all power. Instead of becoming a distributor of life, she becomes a distributary of death. She doesn't really have anything to offer...Although the gospel does impact everything, everything is not the gospel. If everything about Jesus and the Bible becomes "the gospel" to us, then we end up being gospel-confused rather than gospel-centered...The gospel centers us on Jesus' person and work or it isn't the gospel...Ultimately, the gospel is not a nebulous or ethereal concept, but Jesus Himself.

The gospel. What is it, really? In its simplest form, the gospel is God's reconciling work in Christ-that through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, God is making all things new both personally for those who repent and believe, and cosmically as He redeems culture and creation from its subjection to futility...The gospel also forms the church. Scripture says Jesus "gave himself up" for the Church (Eph. 5:25 ESV), buying the church "with his own blood" (Acts 20:28 ESV), in order "to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14 ESV).

Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson, and Eric Geiger - Creature of the Word

Vision Behind "Why Cities Matter"

Last month, I reviewed Why Cities Matter by Justin Buzzard and Stephen Um. This video gives you a more understanding on why they wrote the book.

Do You "Enjoy" A Worship Service?

Pastors, how many times has your congregation come up to you and say how they enjoyed the worship service or enjoyed your sermon? I know I hear that from time when I have preached. It amazes me how people in the church enjoy the worship service more than worshiping God.

When was the last time we challenged our people to enjoy the worship of God Himself and not how we do it? To be honest, I can never remember any pastor of any service I have been apart challenging the church to do that. We have this tendency to think that a worship service is something we are to enjoy and energizes us as the week begins. In the reality, the worship service should be a service where we worship God not our styles, the songs we love (how many Chris Tomlin songs are you singing per service?), or if your favorite soloist comes up to sing.

The fact is our worship should declare the worth of God by saying how worthy of all our praise is and thanking Him for His gift of salvation through Jesus. The psalmist wrote:

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth! (Psalm 96:7-9)

The church is called to give God glory and enjoy worshiping Him not to enjoy a service. My prayer for every worship service is the congregation will leave declaring we serve a great God not how much we enjoy a worship service.

Around The Web-May 10, 2013

Missing the Mission: Looking for the Right Results While Loving the Wrong Things by Ed Stetzer

Rob Bell and Andrew Wilson Discuss Homosexuality by Trevin Wax

Five Questions to Discern Ministry Idolatry by Eric Geiger

A Judge in Texas rules that a school's cheerleaders can have banners with Bible verses

The Texas Legislature passed the "Merry Christmas" Bill

Jesus Died, Rose, and Ascended

Have you ever noticed that most churches teach on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, which is the gospel, but leave out the part about Him ascending into heaven? It seems we have put Christ's ascension on the back burner because it has not implication regarding our salvation. The fact is that Christ's ascension is a very important theological truth that must be preached in churches and studied by all Christians.

Chuck Colson wrote three important reasons why Jesus' ascension into heaven is important:

First, Jesus' exaltation to God's right hand brings the gospel story full circle.

Second, Jesus' exaltation to God's right hand means that gospel preaching proclaims a royal reality, not strictly a system of salvation's mechanics.

Third, we share in Jesus' exaltation to God's right hand where we experience the riches of God's grace.

Click here to read the post in its entirety.

Also check out Why the Ascension of Jesus Matters by Tony Reinke

Crossway Needs Our Help

Crossway:



Dear Friends of Crossway,

As you may have heard, a flood swept through Crossway’s headquarters on April 18. About two feet of water poured into our 32 first-floor offices due to unrelenting rains. The damage was extensive and repairs and rebuilding will take five or six months. You can see the damage in the above video.

More important, however, is the impact this could have on major ministry projects that we have planned.

As a not-for-profit ministry, Crossway is not only committed to publishing the ESV Bible and gospel-centered content, but also to providing God’s Word to hundreds of thousands of people overseas, either free or at a substantially reduced cost. Because of the recent flood, however, some of these international ministry efforts are now at risk.

That’s why I’m writing today — first, to ask for your prayers at this critical moment; and, second, to ask (if the Lord should lead you) for a gift of support. Your gift will help us cover three things:(1) the portion of the damage not covered by insurance, and (2) the installation of new safeguards to flood-proof our building. But most importantly (3) your gift will help ensure that crucial Bible ministry projects can continue to advance.

I would be deeply grateful to you if you are able to help us at this critical time.

Specifically, we need your help to raise $360,000 by the end of our fiscal year, May 31st. Your support will make it possible especially for us to continue moving forward with the following priority projects:

Translation costs for the ESV Chinese Study Bible, to be published in Mainland China

Printing costs for 60,000 copies of the Chinese-English ESV bilingual Bible, also for publication and distribution in Mainland China

Completion and global distribution of the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible this fall

Development of the Knowing the Bible studies, to be offered free digitally worldwide

Though we don’t know exactly how the Lord will use these events for his kingdom and for his glory, we are confident in his grace and mercy and in his gracious provision for the work he has called us to do – trusting his words in Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”

With my great appreciation for your prayers and support,

Lane T. Dennis, PhD
President

If you can help out Crossway, please go to this site.

Born Again Christians?

Check out these books by David Platt:

Radical

Radical Together

Follow Me

I Wish Selah Was Put Here

74 times in the Psalms, the word "Selah" appears. Selah refers to a musical pause where those listening have a time to pause and reflect on what they heard. Selah does not appears in every Psalm, but there is one verse I wished it did appear:

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities (Psalm 103:8-10).

I wished Selah was put after verse 10 because these verses in Psalms reflect God's love for His people. Now I am not saying the Biblically inspired writers were wrong for not putting it there because all scripture has been "breathed out by God" (2 Timothy 3:16) nor am I questioning God why this is not in the Bible. If that were the case, then I would be addressing bigger issues.

I want you to reflect on the fact that God, even though He was angry because of His holiness throughout the Old Testament, is a God who is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger. When we approach God, he will not do it in a way that will make us feel like we are being punished because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. We can approach God without fearing Him being angry at us because of our sin thanks to Jesus being our advocate (see 1 John 2:1-2). Hebrews 10:22 says, we can approach God "in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience."

Verse 10 is where the Selah needs to be. God will not deal with us according to our sins. For a child of God who possess faith in Christ and is clothed in the righteousness of Christ can rest in the grace of God knowing that God will treat us as if were we were without sin, which is justification. God has dealt with the full wrath of God for our sin when Jesus died in our place while being nailed to the cross.

The last part of verse 10 says, God will not "repay us according to our iniquities." What amazes me about some people inside the church is this idea that God will repay us back for all our sins even though they have confessed their sin and repented. I know in my life there are times I have confessed my sins, repented of that sin, and then find myself repeating that sin. I know that I can come to God and confess that sin even if its the 100th time I committed that sin, and receive forgiveness and grace. Some Christians think that God will one day say to them, "I had enough. To Hell with you." Because of Jesus, Christians do not need to be afraid that God will repay us because of our sin. Does God discipline His children? Yes, Hebrews 12 teaches that but only to reap holiness, but the punishment for our sins were put on Jesus. God will not deal with us because of our sins nor pay us back for it. That should cause us to pause and reflect on the gospel. The gospel shows us the love of God toward sinners. Verse 10 is where I wish Selah was written there because it should allow us to pause and meditate on God's gift of redemption through the work of Christ on the cross.

Music Monday: Confessions by Lecrae

Book Review: Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris

Joshua Harris writes, "The word orthodoxy refers to right thinking about God. It's about teaching and belief based on the established, proven, cherished truths of the faith" (pgs. 1-2). Harris' latest book, Humble Orthodoxy is about coming to back to the healthy teachings that have defined Christianity but not in a way that is proud and arrogant like the Pharisees understood the Law. This book is an expanded edition of the final chapter in another book by Harris called Dug Down Deep.

The phrase, "humble orthodoxy," came from a friend of Harris' who told him this is what Christians need today. Harris goes on to write, "Christians need to have strong commitment to sound doctrine. We need to be courageous in our stand for biblical truth. But we also need to be gracious in our words and interaction with other people. Whether our theological knowledge is great or small, we all need to ask a vital question: What will we do with the knowledge of God we have?" (pgs. 3-4)

Having a humble orthodoxy is not about being right and everyone else is wrong, which leads to pride. It is about being humbled at the fact that we were all sinners and God has redeemed us through the finished work of Christ on the cross, therefore, we are now his servants. Servants of God strive to study the Word and getting right beliefs about God which does not lead us to pride but humble us. The point of getting a right theology about God is to worship God. Harris writes, "If being right becomes more important to us than worshiping God, then our theology is not really about God anymore. It's about us" (pg. 26). Harris goes on to write that when we get a right theology about God, it leads us to repentance and when we come to knowledge of the truth, it should leads us to faithful practice.

The final chapter of the book, which there are only four, talks about living for God's approval which can be misleading at first because when one puts their faith in Christ they are approved by God. Salvation is not what Harris is talking about. He is talking about what Paul wrote in Timothy in his second letter, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). We are to live as one who correctly handles the Bible to show as one who has been approved by God.

This book was a short one but it is a good read for all who are not familiar with Joshua Harris' writings especially those who still think of his as the I Kissed Dating Goodbye guy, which he did write the book, but that is all you know him as. I recommend you read this book, then read the book this book was taken from, Dug Down Deep

Thanks Multinomah for letting me review this book.

How Is The Atonement Applied to Old Testament Saints?

This has been one question that has perplexed a lot of Christians. We know the New Testament teaches that when one puts their faith and truth in Christ alone they are saved. What about the saints in the Old Testament like Abraham, Issac, Joseph, Moses, and David? How does the atonement apply to them since they died before the coming of Christ? R.C. Sproul addresses this issue in his book, The Truth of the Cross:

The answer to this question is clear from Scripture. The people who lived in Old Testament times had the sacrificial system, but the blood of bulls and goats didn't atone for anyone. These things pointed the people of Israel beyond themselves to an atonement that would satisfy the righteousness of God. The Old Testament person who trusted the promise of the work of the Messiah, even though that work had not yet been accomplished in space and time, was saved. The ground of that salvation was the work of Christ that was yet to come. Old Testament believers were saved by a faith that looked forward, while we are saved by a faith that looks backward. The objective ground for salvation of both groups is the same - the atonement of Christ.

Matt Chandler Sermon Jam-The Gospel

Around The Web-May 3, 2013

Here is an open letter to President Obama from a mother who talked to her children about abortion

May We Use Commentaries Written by Women? by Jared C Wilson

A Summary of the Gospel

6 Discontinuities between the Old and New Covenants by Andy Naselli

On What Grounds Did God Make The World?

The world is not necessary for God's being or happiness. He could live without us-does live without us in the ultimate sense, but chooses not to live without us. It is not because God is related to (dependent on) the world that the world is related to him, but because he has related the world to himself, especially in a covenantal relationship, by the act of his own free speech. This means that love is the ground of God's creation of a world that is different from himself yet valuable as the work of his hands.

Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology