Shai Linne: Atonement Q&A lyrical theology

Awesome.  Simply awesome.  Listen (and learn).

[HT: Vitamin Z]

No Comments »

Forget About God’s Will For Your Life

Tim Chester (quoting Francis Chan in his book, Forgotten God):

“I think a lot of us need to forget about God’s will for my life. God cares more about our response to his Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions. It is easy to use the phrase ‘God’s will for my life’ as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It’s safer to commit to following him someday instead of this day. To be honest I believe part of the desire to ‘know God’s will for my life’ is birthed in fear and results in paralysis.” (120)

“God wants us to listen to his Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day, as difficult and as stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane. My hope is that instead of searching for ‘God’s will for my life,’ each of us would learn to seek hard after ‘the Spirit’s leading in my life today.’” (120)

“The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives. Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow him to the cross, to true Life.” (122)

In what areas of your life right now is it evident that you are not obeying His Spirit?  I would encourage us all to write them down and repent and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of those sins, and then asking God to supply you with the strength that only He can supply “in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11).

No Comments »

11 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Doing Something the Bible Doesn’t Explicitly Call Out as Sin

Just listened to a sermon by Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church, titled Slowing the Pendulum Swing.  In it, he unpacks what it means to “walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time” (Colossians 4:5).  He makes the point that, oftentimes, the Bible does not say much with regards to how Christians are to practically engage the culture that we are in (e.g. school, family, friends, etc.) with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

• “Am I to be just like my non-Christian friends and do whatever they do so that they don’t think I’m some kind of religious freak?”
• “Am I to hang out with them, but just not do the ‘bad stuff’?  If that’s the case, then what exactly are the ‘bad stuff’?”
• “Am I to not hang out with my non-Christian friends at all?  But then, if I do that, how can I reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”

These are a few questions that may or may not arise when we start thinking about exactly how we, as sinners saved by grace, are to relate to non-Christians whom the Bible clear commands us to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with.

To help us out, Matt Chandler referenced in his sermon a list of 11 questions to ask ourselves before we decide to engage culture – especially when it involves doing something the Bible doesn’t explicitly call out as sin.

This list of 11 questions comes from Mark Driscoll‘s book titled, Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out – a book I would highly recommend to all thoughtful Christians on how we are to – well… reach out without selling out.  Below is the list of 11 questions:

1. Is it beneficial to me personally and to the gospel generally? (1 Cor. 6:12)
2. Will I lose self-control and be mastered by what I participate in? (1 Cor. 6:12)
3. Will I be doing this in the presence of someone who I know will fall into sin as a result? (1 Cor. 8:9-10)
4. Is it a violation of the laws of my city, state, or nation? (Rom. 13:1-7)
5. If I fail to do this, will I lose opportunities to share the gospel? (1 Cor. 10:27-30)
6. Can I do this with a clear conscience? (Acts 24:16)
7. Am I convinced that this is what God desires for me to do? (Rom. 13:5)
8. Does my participation proceed from my faith in Jesus Christ? (Rom. 14:23)
9. Am I doing this to help other people, or am I just being selfish? (1 Cor. 10:24)
10. Can I do this in a way that glorifies God? (1 Cor. 10:31-33)
11. Am I following the example of Jesus Christ to help save sinners? (1 Cor. 10:33-11:1)

No Comments »

A Challenge to Ekklesia521 (Especially the Boys)

(image from www.marshillchurch.org)

Last month, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, put out a bunch of short blogposts on what the Bible says regarding biblical manhood.

From what I’ve noticed not only in my own life, but also through the lives of other men (and I would say especially so in Korean-American men), most guys fall into either one of two categories: (1) cowardly, whereby they constantly passively abdicate their responsibility to even take responsibility (you know who you are) or (2) chauvinistic, always trying to prove their masculinity by being an oppressive meathead (you know who you are).

The Bible defines biblical masculinity (or manhood) as embodying neither of these two options, but rather, it is one in which, in view of what Christ did for us – namely, taking responsibility for our sins – we take on responsibility not only for ourselves, but also for those we love.  In the words of Mark Driscoll:

The key is to understand the Gospel. The perfect man is Jesus. The man who we were supposed to be like is Jesus. Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, comes into human history to live life as the perfect man—God-man to be sure, but perfect man nonetheless.

Men, you and I need to take our cue for masculinity from Jesus. The key to masculinity is this: Jesus takes responsibility for himself (he works a job), and he also takes responsibility for me. The cross is where Jesus substituted himself and died in my place for my sins. My sins are my fault—not Jesus’ fault—but Jesus has made them his responsibility.

This is the essence of the Gospel. If you understand this, it will change how you view masculinity.

Here is a list of links to the 29 short blog posts on the subject.  My challenge to all of those in Ekklesia521 – guys (in particular) and girls (in order that you may know what to look for in a future husband) – is to read and reflect on one blogpost a day for the next month.

• We opened with The Identity of a Biblical Man, from Pastor Mark’s Trial sermon series.
• We next spent some quality times with the Four Chauvinists (No Sissy Stuff Sam, Success and Status Stewart, Give ‘em Hell Hank, and I’m the Boss Bob) and the Four Cowards (Little Boy Larry, Sturdy Oak Owen, Hyper-Active Henry, and Good Time Gary) from the Marriage & Men sermon.
• A lot of people wanted to know Why Men Are Cultivators, Warriors, and Sages, from Pastor Mark’s Proverbs series.
• Men I’ve Learned From: Joshua, Pastor Bill Simmonds showed us that what God asked of Joshua is analogous to what he asks of men today.
• What Women Think of Mars Hill Men, Part 1 and Part 2. (Hint: they think very highly of them.)
• Men I’ve Learned From: George Whitefield, Pastor Samuel, who also helpfully added what not to learn from the storied colonial preacher.
• A story about guys who have questions about Jesus, sex, and dinosaurs: What It’s Like Being “the Christian Guy” on the Job Site.
• Then, we talked about sex Curt and Luke.
• Esquire magazine subtitled one issue “How to be a Man”, and then proceeded to say that there were in fact no guides to manhood. Subsequently, Deacon Nick didn’t learn much about manhood from Esquire.
• Pastor James wrote about 4 Inadvertent Examples of a Man in Pop Culture, and Tom Cruise was mentioned twice on the MH blog in a span of four days.
• Balancing Christ and Confucius, plus the follow-up, 10 Questions for the Asian Christian Man, both by Pastor Samuel
• The Rise of the Omega Male, Deacon Nick. True, no one was arguing that characters in Judd Apatow movies were any paragons of manhood in the first place.
• How Andy dates Naomi.
• Song Against Sex Outside of Marriage. Deacon Anthony on why sex with your spouse is glorious and why you, inherently, are not.
• There was one tongue-in-cheek post we tagged with biblical manhood that confused some people. Word to the wise: Cupcakes are not mentioned in the Bible, so any mention of them on the blog would necessarily not be serious.
• How to Partner with a Woman. In which Deacon Dustin puts down the Xbox controller and serves his wife.
• Pastor Dave grew up in a home “filled with guns and smelling like bacon.” Now he’s a father to four girls. Here’s what he’s learned.
• I found my pants. Now what? by Deacon Preston. This piece was semi-autobiographical.
• The world is filled with boys who can shave, Pastor Mark. And men are the glory of God.
• What I’ve Learned About Being a Man in Christ. The West Seattle men are all about identity, community, submitting to authority, riding bikes to tell people about Jesus in the late ’60s, and Bible stories about fish.

Again, here’s the link to the page of all the links.

No Comments »

Prayer for Ekklesia521

For those interested in praying with me that God would be gracious in bringing a spiritual awakening to our group (individually and corporately), here’s the prayer that I adapted from the prayer that John Piper promised to pray for his church while he goes on his 8-month sabbatical.  I adapted it to be more fitting for our group.  Here it is:

Prayer for an Awakening at Ekklesia521

O Lord, as you are often accustomed to do, show your great power in this group. Send a remarkable awakening that results in:

• hundreds of people coming to Christ
• old animosities being removed
• wayward children coming home
• long-standing slavery to sin being conquered
• spiritual dullness being replaced by vibrant joy
• weak faith being replaced by bold witness
• disinterest in prayer being replaced by fervent intercession
• boring Bible reading being replaced by passion for the Word
• disinterest in global missions being replaced by energy for Christ’s name among the nations
• and lukewarm worship being replaced by zeal for the greatness of God’s glory

Lord, when Gideon had thousands of men you said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judges 7:2). You stripped his army to 300, and with that you conquered the peoples of the East who covered the ground like locusts and whose camels were like the sand of sea (Judges 7:12).

O Lord, take the mighty “300” of Ekklesia521 and bless this church beyond anything we have ever dreamed. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pray with me as I will pray this (or a form of it) everyday.

1 Comment »