Kingdom Friends

I wanted to put a short post up to share an unbelievable experience that happened to Ondria and I last week. I had the opportunity to speak at a youth event in Florida and while we were gone, some very good friends of ours stole our car keys and car and did some much needed repairs to our it. When we returned, we found a car that was not run well when we left, but now is running great! We could not believe it! God is so good to give us such good friends who look after us and take care of us. These friends enabled us to understand Jesus' gift of himself by them giving of themselves for us.

Redefining the Social Gospel

Let me start by saying that I have enjoyed my break from blogging. I have not had much interest in it over the past several months, but my zeal is back and I am ready give all of you such deep insights to life and Gospel.

I have been on a difficult journey through the past several years on how to live for the Kingdom. I believe that when Jesus ascended into heaven, He took seat on His throne and began reigning as King. As such, the Kingdom was instituted and we are now living with Jesus as our King in His Kingdom.

With all that said, I have done several posts on this blog called "Kingdom Living=Kingdom Giving." I have been so moved by the Lord to try and give "everything." Ondria and I by God’s grace have been trying to give to those who need things more than we do. As we have embarked on this difficult task, we have seen the hand of the Lord on our life - blessing us and always meeting our needs (just as He said he would in Matthew 6 if we meet the needs of the poor).

With this way of life in mind, I have been thinking lately about the Social Gospel and what its intentions were/are. I can say that the theology behind the Social Gospel is something I am certainly not comfortable with (Theologically, the Social Gospel leaders were overwhelmingly post-millenialists. That is because they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort. Wikipedia). Each time I hear of the Social Gospel, it is always being used as a tool to fix the broken social/political structure and bring poor people into a better financial standing. I would love to see another definition given to the Social Gospel - a definition that meets the needs of the poor, but does so for another reason other than fighting injustice and feeding the hungry. When I look around at my church's current cultural context in the Deep Creek Community I see surrounding it a multitude of homeless and hungry people. My heart brakes for them and I want them to be fed. But what food do they need? These hungry and homeless people need bread to eat. Bread that will feed their starving stomachs and Bread that will fill their starving souls.

In John 6 Jesus sees the needs of the hungry and meets their physical hunger. After he draws away from them that night they go looking for him. They find Him and Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you." Boy, have I felt this way almost every time we have reached out to the needy. They always come back looking for the physical food and not the spiritual food I was also trying to give them; yet Jesus uses the physical food as a tool to offer the spiritual food. He tells them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

If we think of the Social Gospel as a tool to give the true Gospel through social means, than we must use the Social Gospel. The term needs redefining based on a Biblical understanding of the Gospel - Jesus giving all of Himself to a group of hungry, dirty, smelly people who think that all they need is get fed through physical bread and then hoard what they have. Jesus gave all of Himself to give us real Bread! We must find a way to use physical bread to offer spiritual bread. I would like to call this as the real Social Gospel!

I have so many more thoughts on this issue, but these will do for some introduction…

MacArthur on Driscoll

Here is an interesting article by MacArthur on "Grunge Christianity." If you are wondering what MacArthur thinks about Driscoll, you will want to read this. MacArthur also makes some interesting comments on how we should and should not engage our culture. I was disappointed in the article overall. Your thoughts???

If You Don't Know the Word - Just Shut Up!

If any of you knew me in college (my sincere apologies if you did), you would remember a kid who knew nothing of the Word and promoted controversy everywhere I went because of it. I was one of those kids that spoke so confidently about what I knew nothing about. As I think back on those days, college seemed to be a breeding ground for such things. It seemed to be the cool thing to do - yell at those around you that didn't agree with your 100% accurate interpretation of a text that you had not studied.

As I think of the bigger picture in each of our current contexts, it does seem alarming that many men are still doing the same thing. This could be through preaching, teaching, writing, blogging, and such. This is harming our churches! Our people are not benefiting from such things.

I was reading in I Timothy 1 and was interested in this section:

3As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work—which is by faith. 5The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

Men is Ephesus are trying to talk about the law, but have no real understanding of it. This promotes what? Paul says, "These promote controversies rather than God's work—which is by faith." These men wanted to be teachers of the Word, but did not know what they were talking about. Paul's charge to Timothy was to stay in Ephesus and command these men to shut up!

Don't miss-understand what I am saying, talking about the Word is good. Talking about the Word, stirring up controversies, standing dogmatic on something you may not know everything about, is bad. If you want to teach and preach - study the Word and know the Word. Otherwise, just shut up!

Sovereign Grace Radio

I was reading some articles on Sovereign Grace website today and I came across a cool resource. On their home page in the top right hand corner is a link that says "Sovereign Grace Radio." Click on the link and you will be linked to wide verity of their CD's being played. You can pick and choose which songs you want to hear or just let it play randomly. If you love their music as much as I do or you are interested in hearing it, check it out here!

A Short Interview with Marc Driscoll

Christianity Today did a short interview with Marc Driscoll. Read it here. It is probably nothing you have not heard about him before, but I thought it was good and helps me further understand someone I really respect and support.

"Dulling" Iron (What is also known as Sharper Iron)

I was given the website to Sharper Iron by a friend lately to read some thoughts on Joe Zichterman. I went to the website to hear what all the fuss was about. As I read the thoughts of Fundamentalist after Fundamentalist, my stomach became upset. I truly felt sick after reading what many of these angry people were saying about a man that left their camp for another. Now, I do believe that if you were to ask any of these men they would tell you "we saying this out of love for the truth" or "were angry with sin. Not angry with Joe." After reading their thoughts on Angry Iron, I am not so sure.

Read the opening to who Sharper Iron says that they are and what they are trying to do. This is from their web page: "Welcome to SharperIron! SI is a blog and forum whose mission is to edify Christian brothers and sisters by providing a place to publish and discuss news and ideas from a Christian, Biblical, Fundamentalist worldview. Our burden is to bring fundamentalist Christian brothers and sisters together for the cause of edification."

They clearly state that their goal is to edify Fundamentalists! Clearly from their website and its content they are only concerned with edifying Fundamentalists! There seems to be no concern for the larger body of Christ. Which is why you read article after article about the sin of Joe Zichterman for leaving the realm of Fundamentalism. Does Christ call us to love the Fundamentalists or to love His body? Does Christ call us to reach out to the Fundamentalists or to reach out to His body? If we do not agree with someone's position or where they are headed, is the answer to put up a blog to rake them across the coals? It is no wonder people are leaving their movement. The thing I find the funniest is they hold conferences and discussions all the time asking, "Why are people leaving Fundamentalism?" Stop hating people! Stop separating over nonsense! (ok, I drifted from talking about SI into the broader discussion of Fundamentalism. I don't want to go there.)

I will post more on the specific subject of Joe Zichterman later, but I wanted to share some thoughts on this website.

***Disclaimers:

1. I prayed for grace to say the things I said in love. It is always hard to criticize a group of people for criticizing others.
2. I do not want to have discussion on this blog about Fundamentalism. Please do not post comments about it. I prefer comments about specifically Sharper Iron and what they are posting about Joe.

Particular Redemption

It seems that my last few posts have centered around, "you all need to read this" or "you all need to hear this." Set all of that aside for a moment because you all need to hear this! I just listened to John Piper and Bruce Ware debate the topic of Particular Redemption. Listen to it here. Bruce Ware says that Christ had "multiple intentions" at the cross. Piper says Christ had "single intention" at the cross. Piper tells Bruce, "I don't want you to be a 4 point Calvinist."

What a great debate this is. I encourage you to listen to the debate!

How To Train Your Elders and Deacons

9Marks has a link to their newsletter on their web site. In the March/April edition, Ligon Duncan senior minister of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi to share how he trains his Elders and Deacons. He gives his 20 page or so document on what the curriculum looks like. This is an excellent resource for all of us church-men out there. Here is the Link:

For 9Marks
www.ninemarks.com

You Need To Download This CD

John Waller is newest thing out in good Christ exalting music. I recommend you get into iTunes and listen to what he has out. Make sure you listen to "Ancient Words." Great stuff!

My Man, Rick Warren Taking A Stand

I encourage all of you to read an interview done by Newsweek Magazine with Rick Warren and Sam Harris. Sam Harris is an atheist and is debating Rick Warren on the issue of the existence of God.
I am certain that I could have thought of a few people I would have liked to see in his place debating a man such as Sam Harris, but I thought Rick Warren did a great job and stood for the truth.
This is just another reason to love Rick Warren as much as I do (there is no sarcasm in that. I am not like all you haters out there!)

A link to the article and overview can be found on Justin Taylor's blog. Or you can go directly to the written article and an audio overview at

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889147/site/newsweek/page/6/

I have Converted!

The new blog is bigger and better than ever. Considering the last one sucked, that does not say much!

What Is a Deacon Anyway?

In trying to better understand my role as a deacon at our church, I have been studying about what a deacon is, what a deacon does, and what a deacon should be doing in our current cultural context. I have to say I have been surprised in my finding in the text of Scripture. Here are some general thoughts to start with....

I have been asking people as of late what their understanding is, of the office of a deacon? To no surprise they answer something like "To take care of the widows and poor people in the church" "To help lead the church" "To pass the offering plates." These few answers sum up what I believe is most peoples understanding is of the office. I guess if I were to be honest, I thought the same thing myself up until recently.

Let's look at Acts 6 for a closer look at the earliest form of the office.

1In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

The question I kept asking myself from this passage is "Why were these men selected?" I also kept answering it in the context of the widows, but upon further study it becomes clear that these men were not selected just to feed widows, these men were selected to take pressure off of the Elders so they could better devote themselves to the Word and Prayer. Yes, the immediate context of what was taking the Elders away from the Word and Prayer was the feeding of the widows. It is important though to realize that these men were not created with the purpose of waiting on tables. These men were selected to give more time for the Elders to be in the Word. I believe this is a very important distinction, because it lays out cross-culturally what the deacons are to be doing in each generation and in each culture.

One reason I wrestled so much with the issue is due to our lack of "widows" in the modern day US church. The original church did not have medicine like we have. Men were working far more than women. If and when the man died, the women had nothing to support them (especially if they had no family. (I Timothy 5:16 If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.). These widows were not remarrying like our widows do in our culture. With all of that said, it is easy to see why widows were such a focus to the early church. Now as i look at our churches, we don't have the same issue (as much). The office cannot be centered around the widows. There is clearly more to the office.