Young, restless and reformed

There is a movement at hand in the life of the church across the world, and I believe that in many ways we're part of this movement here in South Africa. We're a number of years behind the US and England, and in fact many other parts of the world. I believe that this video will be a helpful tool...so sit back, grab a pen and paper and kill some bandwidth :) it's worth watching.

Sola Gracia

We continue our look at the 5 Sola's of the protestant reformation. The five things that stand alone as key truths of our faith.

Sola Gracia means that we're saved by God's grace alone.

We live in a society that values the individual and calls us to think well of ourselves. The self-help thinking that is commonly held by people tells you that you have the power within you to change yourself, the power within you to affect the world and the power within to find peace and meaning.

But the Bible never allows us to say that. We see in Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? and God, looking at the creation shortly after he had created humankind did not think well of us. The Bible records these tragic words: Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Wow, that does not bode well for us does it? And perhaps the greatest challenge is that in this age of self-confidence those kinds of texts are really jarring. People don't like to hear they are not worthy of God's love or that they can bring nothing to God that is of any worth.

The point of these texts is that we cannot save ourselves. We simply don't have it in us. We may desire to be saved and we may even desire to be good, but anyone who has tried to hold fast to a simple New Year's resolution knows that it is almost impossible to even get that right!

And so the gospel is the good news that God the Father achieved everything necessary through Jesus death, burial and resurrection to get us in good standing with him and to free us from everything that holds us in slavery including our default desire for sin.

God has done it all. God is the actor in human salvation and we only respond. It's called grace.

Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Did you hear that? He has perfected...Jesus does the work in making us perfect before God in heaven!

Colossians 1:20 ...and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Jesus death is powerful enough to reconcile all things to God the father, that means he will save you too.

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Grace is the life changing truth that God does the work required in saving us and that there is nothing inherently good in us that merits us being saved. And for those of us who through the work of the Holy Spirit recognize our severe shortcomings in the sight of a holy God, this is good news indeed!

It is this truth that we must continue to apply to people's lives in every way that we can. For God does not love good people, but because of his perfect Son, he loves bad bad people, of whom we are of the worst, and that is good news and all world need to hear it!

It reminds me of the words of a song: 'Only by grace can we enter, only by grace can we stand, not by hour human endeavour, but by the blood of the lamb!'

Sola Christos

We are a reformed church and when the Reformation happened the Reformers came up with the 5 solas, sola being Latin for 'alone'.

1. Sola Christos - Christ alone, no saints, Mary or others are need to get to God
2. Sola gracia - grace alone not good works is the means of salvation
3. Sola fidei - faith alone is the way to access all the promises of God not religious rituals
4. Sola scriptura - scripture alone is the final rule of faith and life for the church
5. Soli Deo gloria - For God's glory alone

I thought it would be helpful to blog through these over the next weeks to remind you of the great truths to which we adhere.

Sola Christos - Christ alone

In this day and age we have an obsession with ‘lite’ things that look like the real deal but have half the calories. ‘lite’ beer, ‘lite’ chips there is an obsession with low calorie foods that don’t have real substance so that we can still fit into last year’s jeans and look good on the beach for summer!

Sadly the church has often become Jesus-lite. It may still look like the real thing, but the one person who should be the centre of everything is often conspicuously absent. In fact at a recent service in a mainline church that I attended, I heard Jesus spoken of just twice: once in a scripture reading the other at the end of a prayer. A church without Jesus is NOT a church at all.

Scripture teaches that Jesus is the centre of all things and the fullness of God as Paul reminds the Colossian church Colossians 1:15–17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

This means that everything we do revolves around Christ. Whether it is preaching up front, teaching children, spending time in rest or working a 9 to 5 job. Jesus is the centre of the life of a disciple.

Jesus is the head of the church and anything that does not point to the head, Christ, needs to be cut out or reshaped into something that is Jesus-full! Too often the church clouds Jesus in all sorts of other things to the point where he is often almost completely hidden. When Jesus is hidden we've lost everything. The Reformation was a reaction against the church taking Jesus out of his role as the only mediator between God and humanity and placing other things or people alongside or sometimes even above Jesus.

We have nothing else to proclaim and nor do we need anything else to proclaim other than Jesus crucified for sin: 1 Corinthians 1:23–24 We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Those looking for truth need us to preach and teach about Jesus. This narcissistic world needs Jesus, not self-serving religion. The hurting need Jesus power and healing, not self-help. The sinner needs Jesus and not do-good moralism. The lost need the Truth and not feel good story telling. Those who are despondent need the work of the Spirit of Christ and not a pep-talk.

Everything we do needs to point people to Jesus and so the writer of Hebrews reminds us Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our job as Jesus leaders, full of the Holy Spirit is to point people to Jesus as John the baptizer did, and we must become less that He might become more. Jesus is everything. He is a treasure of greater worth than anything and when we’re all for Jesus everything else pales into insignificance! Perhaps we might also get to the point that Paul did when wrote Philippians 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Jesus leaders should have that kind of passion and priority so that they might lead people to Him!

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

Here is a great talk on how leaders inspire action. Sinek's big theme is that if we lead people well we need to give them a 'why' then a 'how' then a 'what' and his argument makes a lot of sense. Much of what he says is very relevant for us as the church. Most organizations and leaders work from 'what' back towards the 'why' and that does not get us very far. Martin Luther King jr. did not say "I have a plan..." King said "I have a dream!"

The great news is that the church has the greatest 'why' in the world. Perhaps the challenge for us as Jesus church is to sharpen up our 'why' - our 'why' is that Jesus died in our place taking upon himself the punishment that was due to us. Undeserved grace is the great 'why' that empowers the church and it is the single big truth that we need to get people to understand.

Church leaders often lament that many of those who claim to follow Jesus don't live as he calls them to live, they live immoral lives or they don't serve or they don't live generously. Perhaps, in line with what Sinek is saying, we need to keep reminding people of the 'why' in powerful ways. Many outside the church, and too many inside the church believe that right action is what following Jesus means (I spent some time debating with a person like this just last week). But they are wrong, it is right belief that causes right action , it is when we're sold out for Jesus that we can actually do what he calls us to do.

If we want to inspire people to greater action give them a cause to live for, and there is no more worthy cause than Jesus and his gospel. The 'how' and the 'what' of following Jesus changes in every location and generation. It will look different in every household and in each individual, but the driving truth is the same: Ephesians 4:5–6 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Is church membership biblical?

By Matt Chandler“The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterous; she is uncorrupted and pure. She knows one home; she guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one couch. She keeps us for God. She appoints the sons whom she has born for the kingdom. Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.”

— Cyprian, Treatise on the Unity of the Church, 6.

I was 28 when I became the pastor of Highland Village First Baptist Church (now known as The Village Church). I had had a rough go early on in my church experience, and at that time I was not fully out of my “disenchanted with the local church” phase.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure at the time that church membership was biblical. Despite that, the Spirit had made it all too clear that I was going to be pastoring this small church in the suburbs of Dallas. That was one of the many ironies of my life in those days.

Highland Village First Baptist Church was a “seeker-sensitive” church in the Willow Creek mold and had no formal membership process, although they were actively working on one and wanted the new pastor’s input. I had a strong understanding of the church universal but wasn’t well versed—and, as I said, somewhat skeptical—about the church local. We started growing quickly with young and oftentimes disenchanted 20-somethings who usually had no church background, or bad church backgrounds. They liked The Village because we were “different.” This always struck me as strange because we weren’t doing anything but preaching and singing.

In conversations with these men and women I began to hear things like “The church is corrupt; it’s just about money and a pastor’s ego,” or “I love Jesus, it’s the church I have a problem with.” My favorite one was, “When you organize the church it loses its power.” Although something occasionally resonated in me with these comments (I, along with most of my generation, have authority and commitment issues), I found them confusing since they were being made to me by people who were attending the church where I was the pastor.

A Tool for Accountability in a Pornified Culture

Pornography is a huge issue and the statistics prove it. And for those who belong to Jesus it is as much a challenge as it is for everyone else, if not more so. The evil one will fight and he fights dirty (if you'll excuse the pun) here is a link to a video with Keller, Carson and Piper who make some helpful comments about porn in relation to the gospel, and they give a link to a on-line tool to assist you in facing this common temptation.

A Tool for Accountability in a Pornified Culture

Reading the Bible

I've been thinking a bit about interpreting the Bible as I've been wrestling with some difficult passages over the last while.

What I am finding challenging these says is people who make biblical interpretation complicated. They push us to get back to the original texts. We've got to look at the context of the passage. What would Jewish listeners at the time have thought? Etc.etc

I believe these are all important and helpful and I would encourage every believer to study and be able to understand the times in which the Bible was written as much as possible.

But what concerns me is that we're making it very hard for the average person to really understand the text and we're using these things to undermine the plain and literal reading of the biblical text.

We use context to ignore passages that call us to live differently from how we currently live...either to do what we don't or to stop what we do.

I just wonder how we would live if we read the bible plainly and just did what it said....

Might be an interesting experiment...anyone care to join me?

How to Land Your Kid in Therapy - The Atlantic

Parenting in the modern age is a hugely difficult thing to do. There are no perfect answers or perfect parents. Whilst we might not make the same mistakes our parents made, we'll make our own and our children as adults will make theirs. One of the concerning things that parenting is moving towards is how we make our children the centre of the universe. In many households in our area children are the focus of the majority of the families activities. We believe that we're teaching our kids to be successful and happy with well developed self esteems and bright futures. But I am concerned that we're teaching our children to be prideful and arrogant and in many families I am concerned that the 'god' of the house is the child, because everything revolves around their needs.

In the last two weeks here are three of the conservations I've heard or had:

"why is your kid not tied into their car seat" "because she does not like having the seatbelt on" - this from one of our mothers who arrives a a local shop with her kid standing on the front seat.

"Why don't you get your kid involved in KidsChurch and worshipping Jesus?" "He does not want to go, he'd rather stay at home and watch Cartoon Network, so that is why we don't often come to church either"

"Why don;t you come join our home group, you'll really grow in your faith and love for Jesus" "We can't, our kids wont sleep in other peoples beds and we really don't want to upset their routine"

What concerns me is that the parents are not parenting and the kids are in the controlling position. What concerns me most is that people's children are defining how they live their faith and not the other way round! Deuteronomy calls us to lead our children in faith and yet we're allowing children to rather watch TV or be comfortable in their beds to the detriment of their faith life - and our own! Where are the godly parents! I believe it's time we stood up and regained the rightful place in the home, to be God's representatives for our children teaching them to love Jesus, showering them in his life-changing grace and helping them to follow him.

But there may also be more to it than just their faith (and ours) in the example I mentioned above we've even allowed our toddlers to make decisions about their safety, surely we're the ones who are supposed to be protecting our kids! In a recent article How to Land Your Kid in Therapy - The Atlantic Lori Gottlieb, mother and psychologist makes a convincing argument that all our attempts at making our kids happy are making them more prone to depression, less able to deal with real world things like hardship and failure and as a rule, making them less happy and secure than ever before. The article is fairly long but she makes some compelling arguments that ring true for me. It seems that on many fronts modern parenting is not all it is cut out to be.

Perhaps it is time we started asking ourselves what is Jesus calling us to do as parents?

I'd like to make just one suggestion: our primary aim is to encourage our kids to grow up as disciples of Jesus who are salt and light in the world. Everything else that undermines that goal needs to be chucked! It's not about creating religious nutters who hate everything and are judgemental and hypocritical. Instead what we need to prayerfully and biblical reflect on what it would mean for our children to integrate their faith into their school work, their classroom environment, the sports field and their friendships. May God in his grace help us to be great parents who bring up godly children above all else!

Bono speaks really eloquently on the Gospel

In a recent book length interview “Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas" Bono made some very succinct observations about Christian faith, whatever Bono's flaws may be he is pretty sharp on the biggest truth of all!

Q: As I told you, I think I am beginning to understand religion because I have started acting and thinking like a father. What do you make of that?

Bono: Yes, I think that’s normal. It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.

Q: I haven’t heard you talk about that.

Bono: I really believe we’ve moved out of the realm of Karma and into one of Grace.

Q: Well, that doesn’t make it any clearer for me.

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal and opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the Universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so will you sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

Q: I’d be interested to hear that.

Bono: That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep shit. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.

Q: The son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: “Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there’s mortality as part of your very sinful nature and, let’s face it, you’re not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions.” The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humble… It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.

Unreached people

On Sunday I preached about the church being less of a church that it should be if we're not part of it. The local church needs every part of the body to be working in sync to serve each other and then to serve the world for Jesus glory.

In the same way that we need to think beyond ourselves as individuals, the church needs to think beyond itself corporately. Someone once quipped that the church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of others. And all churches should be thinking beyond their boundaries to those in their community and wider afield who have not heard the incredible gospel - Jesus dying in our place to liberate us from slavery and death.

Here is an interesting website with some statistics on South Africa, what I found particularly interesting is that 2% of the population are considered un-reached. That means that more than a million people have not even heard about Jesus! Perhaps God uses this statistic to begin his call in your life. Maybe you are one of those who he will influence to get involved on the battle front of drawing people into the kingdom.

If nothing else would you pray for these groups of people and for those who re trying to influence them for Jesus, pray for open hearts, faithful ministry, continuing passion and endless, Spirit-filled love. And  it would be great for you to ask Jesus who you should be reaching out to. This is a job for everyone!

Essentials and non-essentials of the faith

A great piece on essentials and non essentials of the faith and how we can look at them and defend them biblically...useful reading!

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2011/06/essentials-and-non-essentials-in-a-nutshell/#more-7976

John Calvin on the gospel

Follow this link to an amazing piece from John Calvin
Gospel Gold From John Calvin

What does a gospel centred Church look like?

Steve Timmis and Tim Chester in Total Church write this about a biblical, gospel-centred church  and some of the things that churches need to get right to be effective for Jesus in the world. I think this list is a brilliant starting point for all ministries to thing and reflect over. The book is in our church library and is worth reading. It's also refreshing to read something out of the UK instead of the US as it give s a slightly different feel and flavour.

• seeing church as an identity instead of a responsibility to be juggled alongside other commitments
• celebrating ordinary life as the context in which the word of God is proclaimed with "God-talk" as a normal feature of everyday conversation
• running fewer evangelistic events, youth clubs, and social projects and spending more time sharing our lives with unbelievers
• starting new congregations instead of growing existing ones
• preparing Bible talks with other people instead of just studying alone at a desk
• adopting a 24-7 approach to mission and pastoral care instead of starting ministry programs
• switching the emphasis from Bible teaching to Bible learning and action
• spending more time with people on the margins of society
• learning to disciple one another—and to be discipled—day by day
• having churches that are messy instead of churches that pretend

12 Ways to Glorify God at Work

We often battle to believe that all our work can be glorifying to God, irrelevant of the industry or field in which we are employed. Josh Etter over at DesiringGod.org wrote the following about glorifying God in our daily jobs and I really think it's worth looking at. He writes:

Mark Twain once said, "Work is a necessary evil to be avoided." Although there may be days when we feel like he got it right, we know God has ordained work as a stewardship of his created world (Genesis 1:28; 2:15). He has designed work for his glory and our good. But how might we glorify God at work? This list is not exhaustive, but here's at least 12 ways —

1. Believe that all legitimate work is holy or unholy before God based on our faith, not the nature of the work itself.

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

2. Be just and honest in all your dealings with money.

A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight (Proverbs 11:1)

3. Be prayerfully dependent upon God, pouring contempt on self-sufficiency.

Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain (Psalms 127:1).

4. Use the wages earned by your work to provide for and bless others.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1Timothy 5:8).

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need (Ephesians 4:28).

5. Grow in your skill-set, work hard, and strive for excellence.

Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men (Proverbs 22:29).

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty (Proverbs 14:23).

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

6. Exemplify love for your neighbor in how you interact with your colleagues.

Let all that you do be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14).

7. Plan ahead and sincerely preface future tasks with "if God wills."

Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house (Proverbs 24:27).

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15)

8. Speak the gospel to your colleagues.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).

9. Work as unto the Lord and as unto men.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24).

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust (1 Peter 2:18 ).

10. Focus on the work you've been given.

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty (Proverbs 28:19).

11. Speak words of grace.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29)

12. Rest in your justification by faith alone in Christ alone.

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16).

original at 12 Ways to Glorify God at Work