Friday, August 1, 2014
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
The Ordinary Christian Life
by Michael Horton
Radical. Epic. Revolutionary. Transformative. Impactful. Life-changing. Ultimate. Extreme. Awesome. Emergent. Alternative. Innovative. On the edge. The next big thing. Explosive breakthrough.
You can probably add to the list of modifiers that have become, ironically, part of the ordinary conversations in society and in today's church. Most of us have heard expressions like these so often that they've become background noise. Although we might be a little jaded by the ads, we're eager to take things to "a whole new level."
Ordinary has to be one of the loneliest words in our vocabulary today. Who wants a bumper sticker that announces to the neighborhood, "My child is an ordinary student at Bubbling Brook Elemntary"? Who wants to be that ordinary person who lives in an ordinary town, is a member of an ordinary church, has ordinary friends, and works an ordinary job? Our life has to count. We have to leave our mark, have a legacy, and make a difference. We need to be radical disciples, taking our faith to a whole new level. And all of this should be something that can be managed, measured, and maintained. We have to live up to our Facebook profile.
And yet, I sense a growing restlessness with this restlessness. Some have grown tired of the constant calls to radical change through new improved schemes. They are less sure they want to jump on the next bandwagon or blaze new paths to greatness. Rod Dreher observes:
Everydayness is my problem. It's easy to think about what you would do in wartime, or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery or bought that thing you really wanted. It's a lot more difficult to figure out how you're going to get through today without despair.
In his book about his sister, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher signals a growing sense of weariness with the cult of extraordinariness.
RESTLESS FOR THE NEXT BIG THING
I'm convinced that one reason for our obsession with being extraordinary is the culture of revivalism that has shaped American Protestantism. Especially through the evangelist Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), revivalism embraced a human-centered theology and found methods suited to it. Placing salvation in the hands of the rugged individual, the evangelist needed "new measures sufficient to induce repentance." As Richard Hofstadter observed, "The star system was not born in Hollywood but on the sawdust trail." The focus was not as much on the gospel and God's appointed means of grace, but on the evangelist and his methods for producing revival.
The thinking goes that the message and methods instituted by Christ were too weak -- too ordinary. It's not what happens in church and at home throughout the week that really matters. It's the day when the revival came to town and you were "gloriously saved," as my grandmother used to put it.
A contemporary of Finney's, the Reformed pastor and theologian John W. Nevin, contrasted "the system of the bench" (the Precursor of the altar call) and "the system of the catechism":
The old Presbyterian faith, into which I was born, was based throughout on the idea of covenant family religion, church membership by God's holy act in baptism, and following this a regular catechetical training of the young, with direct reference to their coming to the Lord's table. In one word, all proceeded on the theory of sacramental, educational religion.
The two systems, Nevin concluded, "involve at the bottom two different theories of religion." Nevin's conclusion has been justified by subsequent developments.
Toward the end of his ministry, as he considered the condition of many who had experienced his revivals, Finney himself wondered if this endless craving for ever-greater experiences might lead to spiritual exhaustion. His worries were well-founded. The area where Finney's revivals were especially dominant is now referred to by historians as the "burned-over district," a seedbed of both disillusionment and the proliferation of esoteric sects. This has been the vicious cycle of evangelical revivalism ever since: a pendulum swinging between enthusiasm and disillusionment rather than steady maturation in Christ through participation in the ordinary life of the covenant community.
If gradual growth in Christ is exchanged for a radical experience, it is not surprising that many begin looking for the Next Big Thing as the latest crisis experience wears off. Even in my own lifetime, I've witnessed -- and participated in -- a parade of radical movements. And now, according to Time magazine, the "new Calvinism" is one of the top trends changing the world. This movement has also been identified as "Young, Restless, Reformed." But as long as it is defined by youthful restlessness, it may tend to warp what it means to be Reformed.
When they were younger fishermen, my children couldn't leave their line in the water long enough to catch a living thing. They were always reeling in the line to see if they had caught anything. Then, when they wanted to plant strawberries with my wife, their initial excitement turned quickly to boredom when, after only a few days, they didn't see any fruit.
To be young is to be restless. We're lost in impatient wonder and selfish impulses. But we are called repeatedly in the New Testament to grow up, to mature, to put away our childish ways. We are called to submit to our elders, to appreciate the wisdom that spans not only years but generations, and to realize that we do not have all the answers. We are not the stars in our own movie. If the whole apparatus of church life is designed by and for a youth culture, then we never grow up.
So in some ways, at least, our restless impatience with the ordinary is not just the influence of our culture, but the influence of unsound views of Christian discipleship that have shaped that culture over generations.
RENEWING RESPECT FOR THE ORDINARY
First and foremost, any renewed appreciation for the ordinary begins with God. Of course, God is hardly ordinary, but He delights in working in ordinary ways. Our triune God could do everything Himself, directly and immediately. After all, He said, "Let there be light" -- and light appeared (Gen. 1:3). Yet, He also said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation." And "the earth brought forth vegetation" (v.12). God is no less the ultimate source of reality when He is working within creation to "bring forth" His purposes than He is in directly calling things into existence.
In providence, God's ordinary way of working should surprise us with wonder. What could be more ordinary than the birth of a child? We do not have to call it a miracle to be astonished at God's handiwork. Even God's normal ways of working is stupendous. Though the prophets and Apostles were called to an extraordinary office, they were ordinary people who communicated God's Word in ordinary language.
We see the diversity even in the incarnation. God's assumption of our flesh in the womb of a virgin is nothing short of a direct and miraculous intervention in history. And yet He assumed His humanity from Mary in ordinary way, through an ordinary nine-month pregnancy. Her delivery of the incarnate God was not miraculous, either. He even grew in ordinary ways, through ordinary means: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52).
In addition, the extraordinary miracle of new birth comes to us from above, but we are united to Christ through the ordinary preaching of the gospel. Some conversions are radical; others are gradual. In either case, it is God's miraculous work through the ordinary means of grace.
In all of these ways, God is the actor, even when he acts through creaturely means. We do not rise up to God, but He descends to us and communicates His grace to us through words and actions that we can understand.
Ordinary does not mean mediocre. Athletes, architects, humanitarians, and artist can vouch for the importance of everyday faithfulness to mundane tasks that lead to excellence. But even if we are not headliners in our various callings, it is enough to know that we are called there by God to maintain a faithful presence in His world. We look up in faith toward God and out toward our neighbors in love and good works. You don't have to transform the world to be a faithful mom or dad, sibling, church member, or neighbor.
And who knows? Maybe if we discover the opportunities of the ordinary, a fondness for the familiar, and a wonder for the mundane, we will end up being radical after all.
Tabletalk; August 2014
Radical. Epic. Revolutionary. Transformative. Impactful. Life-changing. Ultimate. Extreme. Awesome. Emergent. Alternative. Innovative. On the edge. The next big thing. Explosive breakthrough.
You can probably add to the list of modifiers that have become, ironically, part of the ordinary conversations in society and in today's church. Most of us have heard expressions like these so often that they've become background noise. Although we might be a little jaded by the ads, we're eager to take things to "a whole new level."
Ordinary has to be one of the loneliest words in our vocabulary today. Who wants a bumper sticker that announces to the neighborhood, "My child is an ordinary student at Bubbling Brook Elemntary"? Who wants to be that ordinary person who lives in an ordinary town, is a member of an ordinary church, has ordinary friends, and works an ordinary job? Our life has to count. We have to leave our mark, have a legacy, and make a difference. We need to be radical disciples, taking our faith to a whole new level. And all of this should be something that can be managed, measured, and maintained. We have to live up to our Facebook profile.
And yet, I sense a growing restlessness with this restlessness. Some have grown tired of the constant calls to radical change through new improved schemes. They are less sure they want to jump on the next bandwagon or blaze new paths to greatness. Rod Dreher observes:
Everydayness is my problem. It's easy to think about what you would do in wartime, or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery or bought that thing you really wanted. It's a lot more difficult to figure out how you're going to get through today without despair.
In his book about his sister, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher signals a growing sense of weariness with the cult of extraordinariness.
RESTLESS FOR THE NEXT BIG THING
I'm convinced that one reason for our obsession with being extraordinary is the culture of revivalism that has shaped American Protestantism. Especially through the evangelist Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), revivalism embraced a human-centered theology and found methods suited to it. Placing salvation in the hands of the rugged individual, the evangelist needed "new measures sufficient to induce repentance." As Richard Hofstadter observed, "The star system was not born in Hollywood but on the sawdust trail." The focus was not as much on the gospel and God's appointed means of grace, but on the evangelist and his methods for producing revival.
The thinking goes that the message and methods instituted by Christ were too weak -- too ordinary. It's not what happens in church and at home throughout the week that really matters. It's the day when the revival came to town and you were "gloriously saved," as my grandmother used to put it.
A contemporary of Finney's, the Reformed pastor and theologian John W. Nevin, contrasted "the system of the bench" (the Precursor of the altar call) and "the system of the catechism":
The old Presbyterian faith, into which I was born, was based throughout on the idea of covenant family religion, church membership by God's holy act in baptism, and following this a regular catechetical training of the young, with direct reference to their coming to the Lord's table. In one word, all proceeded on the theory of sacramental, educational religion.
The two systems, Nevin concluded, "involve at the bottom two different theories of religion." Nevin's conclusion has been justified by subsequent developments.
Toward the end of his ministry, as he considered the condition of many who had experienced his revivals, Finney himself wondered if this endless craving for ever-greater experiences might lead to spiritual exhaustion. His worries were well-founded. The area where Finney's revivals were especially dominant is now referred to by historians as the "burned-over district," a seedbed of both disillusionment and the proliferation of esoteric sects. This has been the vicious cycle of evangelical revivalism ever since: a pendulum swinging between enthusiasm and disillusionment rather than steady maturation in Christ through participation in the ordinary life of the covenant community.
If gradual growth in Christ is exchanged for a radical experience, it is not surprising that many begin looking for the Next Big Thing as the latest crisis experience wears off. Even in my own lifetime, I've witnessed -- and participated in -- a parade of radical movements. And now, according to Time magazine, the "new Calvinism" is one of the top trends changing the world. This movement has also been identified as "Young, Restless, Reformed." But as long as it is defined by youthful restlessness, it may tend to warp what it means to be Reformed.
When they were younger fishermen, my children couldn't leave their line in the water long enough to catch a living thing. They were always reeling in the line to see if they had caught anything. Then, when they wanted to plant strawberries with my wife, their initial excitement turned quickly to boredom when, after only a few days, they didn't see any fruit.
To be young is to be restless. We're lost in impatient wonder and selfish impulses. But we are called repeatedly in the New Testament to grow up, to mature, to put away our childish ways. We are called to submit to our elders, to appreciate the wisdom that spans not only years but generations, and to realize that we do not have all the answers. We are not the stars in our own movie. If the whole apparatus of church life is designed by and for a youth culture, then we never grow up.
So in some ways, at least, our restless impatience with the ordinary is not just the influence of our culture, but the influence of unsound views of Christian discipleship that have shaped that culture over generations.
RENEWING RESPECT FOR THE ORDINARY
First and foremost, any renewed appreciation for the ordinary begins with God. Of course, God is hardly ordinary, but He delights in working in ordinary ways. Our triune God could do everything Himself, directly and immediately. After all, He said, "Let there be light" -- and light appeared (Gen. 1:3). Yet, He also said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation." And "the earth brought forth vegetation" (v.12). God is no less the ultimate source of reality when He is working within creation to "bring forth" His purposes than He is in directly calling things into existence.
In providence, God's ordinary way of working should surprise us with wonder. What could be more ordinary than the birth of a child? We do not have to call it a miracle to be astonished at God's handiwork. Even God's normal ways of working is stupendous. Though the prophets and Apostles were called to an extraordinary office, they were ordinary people who communicated God's Word in ordinary language.
We see the diversity even in the incarnation. God's assumption of our flesh in the womb of a virgin is nothing short of a direct and miraculous intervention in history. And yet He assumed His humanity from Mary in ordinary way, through an ordinary nine-month pregnancy. Her delivery of the incarnate God was not miraculous, either. He even grew in ordinary ways, through ordinary means: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52).
In addition, the extraordinary miracle of new birth comes to us from above, but we are united to Christ through the ordinary preaching of the gospel. Some conversions are radical; others are gradual. In either case, it is God's miraculous work through the ordinary means of grace.
In all of these ways, God is the actor, even when he acts through creaturely means. We do not rise up to God, but He descends to us and communicates His grace to us through words and actions that we can understand.
Ordinary does not mean mediocre. Athletes, architects, humanitarians, and artist can vouch for the importance of everyday faithfulness to mundane tasks that lead to excellence. But even if we are not headliners in our various callings, it is enough to know that we are called there by God to maintain a faithful presence in His world. We look up in faith toward God and out toward our neighbors in love and good works. You don't have to transform the world to be a faithful mom or dad, sibling, church member, or neighbor.
And who knows? Maybe if we discover the opportunities of the ordinary, a fondness for the familiar, and a wonder for the mundane, we will end up being radical after all.
Tabletalk; August 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Interesting...
- Previous: 5. Scientific Accuracy
- Next: 7. Life-Changing Power
6. Archaeological Finds
Seven Compelling Evidences
by Scott Lanser
March 20, 2011
Archaeologists once boasted that the Bible was full of errors because no independent, historic evidence had been found to confirm the Bible’s claims. But a slew of astounding discoveries has put a damper on their boasting.
Archaeology provides us with fascinating and amazing affirmations of Scripture’s accuracy and trustworthiness. Indeed, it is one of the most effective ways to open a conversation with your friends about the Bible.
After two hundred years of archaeological excavation and discovery, we have a powerful arsenal of important finds that will leave the most adamant skeptics of the Bible pondering! As you talk to people about these discoveries, help them to clear away their doubts and the lies they have heard—and maybe even come to believe—about the Bible.
Here are a series of astounding discoveries that you can share with those who question the Bible’s veracity. This list covers approximately one thousand years of biblical history from the time of King David down to the time of Jesus. As you read this list, note how the accounts of so many key events and people of the Bible are confirmed by these amazing archaeological finds. It would be well worth your time to study and memorize these important findings.
The Tel Dan Stele (900–850 BC)
A stele is an upright stone that is inscribed and used as a monument of an important event or achievement. Rulers and peoples from Egypt, Israel, and across Mesopotamia used these steles to commemorate great victories and accomplishments. This particular stele is extraordinary because carved on its stone face is the expression, “House of David.” This stele affirms that the United Monarchy under King David existed in history and flatly contradicts the long-held opinions of skeptics who denied that David ever existed.
©2011 Zev Radovan, www.BibleLandPictures.com
The Meesha Stele (846 BC)
Popularly known as the Moabite Stone, it records the revolt of Meesha, King of Moab, against Israel. This incredible stele mentions Omri, King of Israel, and David of the United Monarchy. It even refers to Yahweh, the unique name of the God of Israel! Together with the testimony from the Tel Dan Stele, we have a powerful external witness that the Bible records the true history of the kings of Israel and their interactions with foreign kings.
BiblePlaces.com/Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
The Nabonidus Cylinder (550 BC)
King Nabonidus of Babylonia left a magnificent cuneiform cylinder (wedge-shaped letters inscribed on a clay cylinder) mentioning his elder son, Belshazzar by name. Critics of the Bible had claimed for many years that the account in the book of Daniel was wrong; they said Belshazzar was never a king in Babylon and that Nabonidus was not his father. The discovery of this cylinder clearly showed that these scholars were dead wrong. Indeed, we can now understand the meaning of Daniel 5:16 more precisely where it says, “Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom” (italics added for emphasis).
This text now makes perfect sense because Nabonidus was in a coregency with his son Belshazzar, who was the crown prince of Babylon. So that would make Daniel the “third ruler in the kingdom.”
©2011 The British Museum
Caiaphas Ossuary
An ossuary was a box constructed to hold the bones of the dead after decomposition. In 1990 a startling discovery was made that shook biblical scholars and archaeologists alike. In the Peace Forest section of Jerusalem was discovered a burial cave containing twelve ossuaries, one of them being none other than that of Caiaphas, the high priest who presided at the trial of Jesus. This amazing discovery provides us with a powerful historical connection to the events described in the Gospels.
©2011 Zev Radovan, www.BibleLandPictures.com
Pilate Dedication Stone
In June 1961 an inscription on a limestone block, found at a Roman amphitheater in Caesarea Maritima, rocked the scholarly world. The block, which was once used as a dedication stone of a nearby temple and now reused for seating at the local amphitheater, had an extraordinary inscription. It read: “Tiberieum, (Pon)tius Pilatus, (Praef)ectus Iuda(eae).” Those scholars who questioned Pilate’s existence (and the gospel accounts generally) were silenced with this amazing discovery!
©2011 Zev Radovan, www.BibleLandPictures.com
Many more archaeological discoveries wait to be uncovered and shared with your friends. If someone raises a question about some biblical claim that has not been independently verified, you can share some of these examples to show that “silence” is not evidence against Scripture.
I also hope that this brief list will inspire you to dig deeper and use archaeology as a powerful tool in contending for the Word of God and the faith that has been entrusted to us!
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Authentic Faith is Eager for Christ
Soon by Hillsong is a new song that we, the praise team, introduced in Sunday worship today. We will most likely sing it again next Sunday, but here is an excerpt from "What Christ Will Do at Second Coming" by John Piper that goes along with this song. As Christians, we have hope of eternal communion with our Lord and as we eagerly await for Christ, let us continue to love our Lord with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).
By: John Piper
By: John Piper
Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.(Hebrews 9:28)
What must you do so that you may know that your sins are taken away by the blood of Christ, and that, when he comes, he will shield you from the wrath of God and bring me into eternal life? The answer is this: trust Christ in a way that makes you eager for him to come.
He is coming to save those who are “eagerly waiting for him.” So how do you get ready? How do you experience the forgiveness of God in Christ and prepare to meet him? By trusting him in a way that makes you eager for him to come.
This eager expectation for Christ is simply a sign that we love him and believe in him authentically.
There is a phony faith that wants only escape from hell, but has no desire for Christ. That does not save. And it does not produces an eager expectation for Christ to come. It would rather that Christ not come for as long as possible so that it can have as much of this world as possible.
But the faith that really holds on to Christ as treasure and hope and joy is the faith that makes us long for Christ to come, and that is the faith that saves.
So I urge you, turn from the world and from sin and to Christ. Take him not just as your fire insurance policy, but as your eagerly awaited bridegroom and friend and Lord.
SDG,
GGCEM Worship Team
GGCEM Worship Team
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