So says Tim Keller:

(watch)

New post over at my writing blog:

Freedom is Found in Submission, Authority is Found in Sacrifice

Every time the word “authority” is mentioned some people shudder at the implications. Some know authority as an abusive father, overly controlling church members or a teacher that used to pick on them. Authority is often seen as a tool to be used for the betterment of one’s own life. In contrast to this, godly authority is something you are given as a responsibility to make the life of another better… (keep reading)

Except maybe for maybe “Own A Weapon” (see Luke 22:36-38), I agree.

As a Christian, if Muslims were being attacked by a violent radical sect of Christianity, would you act as a human shield between that sect and a group of Muslims?

The reverse is happening in Egypt, as reported by the National Post:

Muslims offered themselves as “human shields” on Friday to protect Coptic Christians celebrating their Christmas in Egypt just a week after a church bombing that killed 21 people.

Egypt’s Ahramonline reported that droves of Muslims had turned up at Coptic churches to act as “human shields.”

It quoted Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon credited with first floating the “human shield” idea, as saying, “We either live together, or we die together.”

“This is not about us and them,” Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly, told Ahramonline.

“We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”

Read the rest here.

Doug Wilson in a post called “Calvinism, Eschatology, and the New Media“:

Jesus is the Lord of history, and this is why we don’t need to be afraid of Twitter. Or Facebook. Or teenagers typing with their thumbs. Jesus is the Lord of history, which is why we don’t need to worry about Google making us stupid.

***

We also need to remember that the eschatological future promised by the prophet Isaiah, and the future that was shaped by industrial revolution, and will continue to be shaped by the digital revolution, are the same future. I don’t believe in an invisible spiritual future, shaped by the Holy Spirit, full of sweetness and light, and an actual historical future shaped by the Devil, Halliburton, the Illuminati, and Murphy’s law. The world, this world, is presently going where Jesus is taking it.

***

And so here is my central thesis: technology in all its forms is a type of wealth. The Bible contains no warnings about technology as such, but is crammed with warnings about the bias of wealth. Which way does wealth set us up? The Bible says that the wealthy are tempted to hubris, self-sufficiency, lack of concern for the poor, oppression, and the rest of that sorry lot. Wealth is a good thing, but it brings temptations. A lot of wealth is a lot of a good thing, but it brings with it a lot of temptations.

***

A good example of an erudite worrier would be Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death. But for every book like that, given the propensity of Calvinists to worry needlessly, I would recommend that you read three like Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You, Postrel’s The Future and Its Enemies, and Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. Why should Calvinists worry? In the collision between the sovereignty of Jesus in history, and the influence of sin in history, sin is the certain loser.

Now some will object that the books I have cited are not by believers. And I will point out in reply that things have gotten really bad when unbelievers can see what Jesus is doing more accurately than believers can. When unbelievers by common grace are reading history right side up, why should we reject that in favor of believers who are reading their Bible upside down?

***

The constant and ever present temptation in the Church is the gnostic temptation of locating sin in the stuff, sin in the matter, sin in the wealth, sin in the technology . . . instead of locating it where it belongs, in the heart of man.

Read the rest here.

Internal of External Focus?
For some churches, making an effort to be more “externally focused” means, “We’ve been too internally focused and we need balance.” This is probably an accurate diagnosis for most churches and, if followed with a balanced correction, a good way forward.

For other churches, making an effort to be more “externally focused” means, “We’ve been too internally focused so now we’re going to stop that and be externally focused.” Again, it’s probably an accurate diagnosis but it’s a bad way to make a correction. One end of the pendulum is not better than the other, no matter how long you’ve been stuck at one end.

It’s not about one or the other – it’s about both.

The Law of Christ
Everyone has burdens and in Galatians 6:2 Paul tells us that by helping each other along we “fulfill the law of Christ”. What is the “Law of Christ”? In John 13:34-35 Jesus says:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other!

Love As Evangelism
So when Paul later says that we are to do good to all, especially those in our community of faith he’s not saying, “Don’t worry about the people outside.” He’s saying that loving each other is one way to be a witness to a watching world. Loving each other can be an evangelistic act!

We need to be demonstrating our love for each other both within the community of faith and in more public places where it can be seen by the broader community.

The “How-To” Part
One way to do this is to reduce church-based activities in order to increase members’ involvement in the community outside the church. But this alone will not ensure loving activity.

Asking the following question might help: What activities are people encouraged to attend “at church” that could easily take place somewhere else and be just as – or more – effective?

- Could we do the 30-hr Famine event at the local high school and invite all students there to take part?

- Could the College and Career group meet in a public park to learn and discuss and pray?

- Could the new believer class be taught in town somewhere with an open invitation?

- Could the Cradle Roll team welcome new babies and provide support to single mothers who don’t attend our church?

- Could the Father-Son Camp and Mother-Daughter Camp integrate the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization into it somehow?

- Could we have our hymn sing nights at a nursing home among the house-bound residents rather than require them to come to the church building?

- Could our marriage and parenting seminars be offered in a public space and opened to all?

- Could the baseball teams play in the city league rather than the church league?

What else can you add to the above list?

Highlights from an interview with Kevin DeYoung, the full text of which can be found here:

What is justice and what does it mean to do justice?

Doing justice means giving people their due. On the one hand that means restraining and punishing wrongdoers. On the other hand it means giving people what we owe them as beings in the image of God… Doing justice, then, includes everything from law enforcement to being generous to the poor.

Any cautions you would give to Christians who are eager to transform the world or make the shalom of the city their church’s mission?

I believe that making disciples and doing justice relate (not exactly) but somewhat in the same way that faith and works relate to one another.

We would say that faith alone is the basis for salvation, and yet true faith will always result in good works. We must not “load in” works as if they are an equal with faith as a salvation-base, but neither can we “detach” works and say that they are optional for a believer.

Similarly, I would say that the first thing I need to tell people when they come to church is “believe in Jesus,” not “do justice.” Why? Because first, believing in Jesus meets a more radical need and second, because if they don’t believe in Jesus they won’t have that gospel-motivation to do justice that I talk about in the book.

So there’s a priority there. On the other hand, for a church to not constantly disciple its people to “do justice” would be utterly wrong, because it is an important part of God’s will. I’m calling for an ‘asymmetrical balance’ here.

It seems to me that some churches try to “load in” doing justice as if it is equally important as believing in Jesus, but others, in fear of falling into the social gospel, do not preach or disciple their people to do justice at all. Both are wrong. A Biblical church should be highly evangelistic yet known for its commitment to the poor of the city.

Before I was a pastor I wouldn’t have known where to purchase cocaine. Now, access is just a phone call away.

(For the record, there has been no accessing of this substance on my part.)

What I’ve discovered since becoming a pastor a couple of years ago is that there is more of a drug culture, even in our small towns, than we think. This has led me into some dark places to be with the kinds of people that it turns out Jesus was keen on reaching out to.

They’ve brought their friends to meet me too. These meetings – the initial ones and the subsequent ones – never have fairy tale endings. The friends I’ve met, even the ones who have decided to follow Jesus, still struggle with their addictions. They struggle with their addictions, with their ongoing social strife, with the poor start they were given in life, and with their inability to avoid a daily existence involving the worst kinds of drama.

You know, all of the stuff that most of the rest of us don’t need to worry about.

Walking with someone through all of this is frustrating, draining, and difficult… but it’s not boring, I can tell you that, and it is ultimately rewarding.

Sick Physicians
It’s the sick, Jesus tells us that are in need of the physician. Unfortunately too many physicians are happy to gather together weekly for mutual affirmation while ignoring the sick.

Many of these physicians are just as sick in other ways, but it’s really hard to tell that when you’re surrounded by a bunch of other people with the same sickness. More mutual affirmation…

We Need Each Other
The sick and the healthy – we need each other. Those who are sick with addictions need those who are not and those who are sick with pride need those who have none.

I was in a meeting on Saturday night when a thought occurred to me. I was sitting with three very good friends talking about where the ideal place would be to plant a church amongst the homeless, drug addicted, and sex-trade workers.

What’s important at the outset, we all agreed, is to let people know that WE are not there to change THEM. We are there to change WITH them, since WE are not complete in our perfection.

When you meet someone who struggles with addiction, they are changed but you are too. Sometimes, you change more than they do!

Connections
Do you have the right connections to make a call right now and have the ability to purchase cocaine? If not, you probably don’t know enough of the types of people Jesus did.

I can help you find these people if you’re interested. Let me know.

(Of course there are a couple of cautions to throw in here. Don’t do this if you’ve struggled with this type of substance abuse in the past. Don’t walk into an area of weakness and tempt yourself beyond your limits, etc.)

But for most of the rest of you, you really need someone you can look in the face and say:

“I’m not here to change you; I’m here to change WITH you.”

I’ll be honest – I haven’t been a fan of Derek Webb’s work apart from Caedmon’s Call. For some reason though it’s starting to grow on me. Check out the video below… which is serves as a nice visual aid for a sermon on Galatians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr4DBnB7aNQ&feature=player_embedded

A New Law

(Derek Webb)
Don’t teach me about politics and Government
Just tell me who to vote for
Don’t teach me about truth and beauty
Just label my music

Don’t teach me how to live like a free man
Just give me a new law

I don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy
So just bring it down from the mountain to me

I want a new law
I want a new law
Gimme that new law

Don’t teach me about moderation and liberty
I prefer a shot of grape juice

Don’t teach me about loving my enemies

Don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit
Just give me a new law

I don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy
So just bring it down from the mountain to me

I want a new law
I want a new law
Gimme that new law

What’s the use in trading a law you can never keep
For one you can that cannot get you anything

Do not be afraid
Do not be afraid
Do not be afraid

© Derek Webb Music

Here’s a Christmas song I wrote last year around this time (with a bit of help from Madeleine). Feel free to make use of it in any way you see fit.

Listen here:
Download audio file (Glory%20To%20God%20On%20High.mp3)

Download the MP3 by right-clicking here.

Below are the lyrics. If you’d like to learn to play and sing the song for yourself, click here to download the chord sheet.

Glory To God On High
© Michael Krahn (2009)

Songs in the heavens from angels that shine
Glory to God on high
One tiny baby, the angels proclaim
That man no more may die

Born in a stable with oxen and lamb
Hear the Savior cry
Mary will comfort and Joseph will love
Now sound asleep he lies

REFRAIN
Glory to God on high
Glory to God on high

Kings come to see him, the gifts that they bring
Shine in that great starlight
Herod will seek him but he will not find
No, not on this silent night

Laid in a manger, in humble estate
Already the cross in sight
He would be willing to lay down his life
Forsaking his great might

REFRAIN
Glory to God on high
Glory to God on high

To Mary the favored did Gabriel come
And “Yes!” was her reply
And from that moment the Spirit of God
Dwelt with her inside

REFRAIN
Glory to God on high
Glory to God on high
One tiny baby, the angels proclaim
That man no more may die
Glory to God on high

In “Blessed Are The Unoffended” Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today writes in the context of Christians’ relationship to Muslims and Jews, but the principles of offense can be more generally applied. It’s tough to summarize an article this good, but here are some highlights:

In reference to Jesus’ healing of the man with the withered hand in Mark 3:1-5, he says:

This is a most interesting moment in Jesus’ ministry if we’re looking for lessons in peacemaking. Jesus recognizes that these religious leaders, the Pharisees, are playing “Gotcha,” trying to catch him breaking the Sabbath so they might have grounds to accuse him. And surely Jesus is aware of the simplest way to diffuse this volatile situation: Just wait until the sun sets, when the Sabbath is officially over, and then heal the man.

It isn’t as if the man with the withered hand needed to be healed immediately. There was nothing life threatening about his condition. He’d been living with his disability for decades. It’s not going to kill him to wait another few hours before getting healed. Just wait until sunset: The man gets healed, the Pharisees are not provoked, and God gets the glory—a win-win-win!

…Jesus clearly is exploiting the moment to humiliate the Pharisees… A simple reading of this story, and a few others, suggests that the gentle Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, could have used a few lessons in how to communicate without being denigrating or inflammatory!

The point is this:

There were moments in Jesus’ ministry when he denigrated—that is, according to the dictionary definition, “attacked the reputation of another”—and inflamed—”excited to excessive or uncontrollable actions or feelings.” What we find in the Gospels is an uncomfortable reality: There is something about Jesus that makes some people want to kill him…

Those of us who follow Jesus, if we’re faithful to him, are occasionally going to find ourselves in the same troubled waters…

Sometimes “playing nice” and truth-telling are incompatible. Not every problem has a peaceful solution.

…as followers of Jesus, we recognize that the ultimate goal is not to cover over deep-seated feelings and beliefs, to pretend that there is always a peaceful solution to every problem, to end our meetings with hugs and cheers. No, the goal of all conversation is for people to meet Jesus Christ…

Sometimes we have no choice but to begin our peacemaking with some troublemaking—speaking the truth to the point of risking offense…

The New Testament spends relatively little ink instructing us on how to speak without offending. Speak the truth in love, yes, but when Jesus and Peter and Paul actually modeled that, it often led to hostility! All three had decidedly unpeaceful relationships with their co-religionists.

These are the highlights. The entire article is worth reading here.

The purpose of the spiritual disciplines is to promote the spiritual growth that will allow us to go from the surface to the depths. This in turn will lead the ultimate purpose: godliness. In 1 Tim. 4:7 we are instructed to discipline ourselves “for the purpose of godliness.”

We know what a lack of regular exercise will do to the physical body – that it can become lethargic and weak. We know the same thing can happen to us spiritually. As physical exercise promotes strength so spiritual exercise promotes godliness.

Since the end goal of the disciplines is holiness and since God requires us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16), the spiritual disciplines cannot be seen as optional. When a difficult time or decision was upon him, Jesus often withdrew into solitude, fasting, and prayer.

There are three primary catalysts for changing us and conforming us to Christlikeness

1. People
This happens by way of “iron sharpening iron” (Prov. 27:17), where spiritual “equals” hone one other with their complimentary strengths. This can also happen in a mentoring relationship where someone of greater spiritual depth mentors someone seeking to go deeper. In some cases God will even use our enemies to change us for good

2. Circumstances
Circumstances offer opportunities to respond and to step out in faith keeping in mind the assurance in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good for those that love God.

3. The Spiritual Disciplines
This catalyst differs from the first two in that it works from the inside out. There is also a greater opportunity for choice that is missing in the other two methods.

Do you regularly practice any spiritual disciplines?

Have a look here:

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/Religion.swf

Billy handles himself superbly. Returns wit for wit without compromise. Have a look:

Part 2

Who are the prominent pastor-preachers today that can go head-to-head with a top-notch comedian/social satirist and not come out with two black eyes and a bloody nose?

Forget those other “discernment” websites, always looking for groundless and specious accusations against popular teachers.

Here, Kevin DeYoung carefully articulates and then deconstructs an argument made by Miroslav Volf based on a section of writing by Augustine. He begins with this “Never forget this: sometimes even very smart people make very bad arguments.” Indeed.

“Clearly,” Volf maintains, “Augustine believed, it is worse for concrete deeds toward neighbor to be misaligned with the character of God than for thoughts about God to be misaligned with the character of God” (147). Actually, though, the line from Augustine never prioritized deeds over thoughts. In the quote he simply states that right thoughts, devoid of the right deeds, are not pleasing to God.

Volf goes on to use this bad argument to make an even worse argument: “If Augustine is correct in his assessment, the consequence for Christians’ relation to non-Christians are astounding: non-believers or adherents of another religion, if they love, can be closer to God than Christians notwithstanding Christians’ formally correct beliefs about God or even explicit, outward faith in Jesus Christ! The elevation of deeds above beliefs is the consequence of the claim that God is love” (147). The path from Augustine’s homily on 1 John 4:7 to Volf’s logic is far from obvious. Augustine said faith without works is dead; Volf concludes that works without faith is a sign of spiritual life. The one does not imply the other.

What’s more, the real Augustine clearly disagrees with Volf’s version of Augustine. In Homily 10 the Bishop of Hippo argues that works apart from belief, though “they seemed good, were nothing worth.” When the non-Christian does good deeds it is like running, but not in the right direction. “[B]y running aside from the way thou wentest astray instead of coming to the goal…He that runs aside from the way, runs to no purpose, or rather runs but to toil.” And “What is the way by which we run?” Augustine asks. “Christ hath told us, ‘I am the Way.’” In other words, the only deeds that please God are the ones done through faith in Christ. Deeds apart from creeds are nothing and worse than nothing. For, “He goes the more astray, the more he runs aside from the way [Christ].”

It’s well worth your time to read the entire flow of DeYoung’s deconstruction here.

Also from the “very smart people who sometimes make very bad arguments” files,  I heard similar reasoning from Brian McLaren at a conference I attended a few years back at which he said, referring to a young Muslim who also spoke at the conference:

And I think that Fatmire [Muslim peace activist] working for peace, is an agent for peace, and I’d much rather her be working for peace being who she is than… becoming a person in a church worrying about the list over there on that wall.

You can read the full text (and hear the audio) of that post here.

Discuss?

Developing the “Jesus-Pencils, Knock-Off Logos and Crappy Music” idea a bit further… One rebuttal to that post was the idea that marketing to a subculture of “religion”  is fine if people are asking for it. If it’s too cheesy, it’s still our decision to buy or not to.

That’s one way of thinking about it. The other is to consider whether these things are doing damage to the body of Christ. I think they are. It’s not ALL totally evil, but as an industry it has become more evil than not. So while we can call in the odd exception it’s time to acknowledge that it’s gone on long enough and something needs to be done.

The other idea used as a rebuttal is that these are small tools that create opportunities to witness. Again, I’m sure there is the odd opportunity created by a t-shirt or the much-maligned “Chick Tract” but not many and the occasional instance of success cannot becomes a license to produce more such products en masse.

At best with this thinking, you play a good numbers game and make a convert via the t-shirt/pencil/tract. It’s all worth it then, right? Someone got saved – scale up production!

At worst over the last decades, this parallel culture thinking and “knock-offs-for-Jesus” mentality has induced a type of group psychosis that lulls people into a sense of boredom and dullness that masquerades as safety.

Say the pitchman comes to Jesus. He says,

“Hey Jesus, see that Subway logo? I was thinking of drawing a logo that looks exactly like that but says ‘Hisway’ as a way of spreading the good news of your birth, life, death, and resurrection. Oh, here’s another one. It’s a rip-off of the Budweiser logo and instead of ‘This Bud’s For You’ it says ‘The Blood’s For You.’”

Jesus returns a look of _____________. (Fill in the blank here for me)

“No, Jesus? Ok, how about this one… I’ll create an entire line of products based on the acronym WWJD. The ‘J’ means you, my man – JESUS! When people look at their WWJD bracelet they’ll think of you and know what to do!”

“No? Ok, ok, so you’re not a big fan of the logo-emblazoned consumer goods, but here’s the thing Jesus – people WANT these things… Oh, and I forgot to mention… I’ll also make a lot of money from selling them, you know, since I own a store that puts your name on stuff and then sells it at a higher price to your followers.”

Do you see where I’m going with this? For too many store-owners, booksellers, and music makers, the Gospel has become a never-ending adventure in profiteering. Yes, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 those spend the bulk of their time serving the body of Christ should receive their financial due for doing so, but most of what happens in the Christian consumer goods culture is a far cry from the kind of caring, invested, incarnational ministry that Paul was talking about.

Imagine I told you I was thinking of starting a business. I want to open a store. This store will sell the same items a lot of stores sell – books, games, greeting cards, t-shirts, music, pens, pencils, nice pictures, etc.

But here’s my big idea: I’m going to sell all those items, but I’m going to put the word “Jesus” on them somewhere and then sell them at a higher price than every other store. Whaddaya think? Am I onto something?

Oddly enough, an entire thriving industry – possibly more than one – has been created on this business idea.

The pencils are not better quality; the t-shirt designs flirt with trademark fraud; certain books by pastors with glowing white smiles veer dangerously close to heresy. Aside from the odd exception, the music sold in these stores is sub-par at best, a blatant knock-off of its “secular” counterpart at worst.

Recently I heard someone use the term “cutting edge Christian music”. When I heard this I thought it was like telling someone they’re wearing the nicest one-piece, bell-bottom leisure suit you’ve ever seen: It may look absolutely awful, but you’ve seen worse.

Somewhere along the way we exchanged the idea of faithful witness and active presence for Jesus-pencils, knock-off logos and crappy music. How does that verse go again – “They will know we are Christians by our Jesus-logo consumer goods”?

In Matthew 28 Jesus tells his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Disciples making disciples – this is what Jesus has sent us to do.

But this is more than a one-trick assignment. We are not called merely to bring people to the front door of faith, usher them through it, and then circle back to gather more recruits.

The task of disciple-making is at least threefold and is accomplished not just in getting new people “into the fold”, but also caring for them while they are there, and retrieving them when they wander off – leaving the other 99 in relative safety, depending on the terrain and prevalence of predators.

Focusing on getting people into the fold is what we’ve tended toward -  a remnant of “sign on the line and get saved” Evangelicalism perhaps.  And while new community is formed with the making of new disciples,  deeper community is found only as we pursue the other two aspects of disciple-making.

These other two – care for and retrieval of – are by far the more difficult and time-consuming, and for that reason they are more often neglected.

My favorite weeks are the ones when I’m preparing to preach. Last week was one of those weeks.

During the week Darryl Dash posted a “preaching cheat sheet” based on Haddon Robinson’s book “Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages”

I have two of my own that I, like Darryl, have posted beside my desk. One is based on John Piper’s article The Marks of a Spiritual Leader, the other is from a section of John Stott’s book “Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today“. You can view these three resources either by blog post or PDF by using the links below posted below.

Haddon Robinson (blog post | PDF | order the book)
John Piper (blog post | PDF)
John Stott (blog post | order the book)

Now, go work on a sermon… my next one is in two weeks. The passage is Galatians 6.

Below are some excerpts from an excellent book that was recently published (2007) and not widely read. Can you identify the author? (If you can, please just leave the name as a guess – PLEASE DO NOT TELL EVERYONE WHICH BOOK AND WHAT PAGES THE QUOTES ARE FROM)

If you can’t, can you guess what denomination or line of theological thinking the author subscribes to? Leave your guesses and observations in the comments section below.

I have a free copy of Kevin Abell’s book “The Edge of His Cloak” for the first 2 people who correctly identify the author of the following excerpts:

“The church must organize itself in such a way as to express its understanding of itself… The most common fault is for the church to be structured for ‘holiness’ rather than ‘worldliness,’ for worship and fellowship rather than mission… Further, our static, inflexible, self-centered structures are ‘heretical structures’ because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church…

Some zealous churches organize an overfull program of church-based activities… Such churches give the impression that their main goal is to keep their members out of mischief!

[This abundance of programs] inhibits church members from getting involved in the local community because they are preoccupied with the local church.”

How, then, should the local church organize itself?

“Every five to ten years each church should conduct a survey in order to evaluate itself and especially to discover how far its structures reflect its identity. In fact, it should conduct two surveys, one of the local community and the other of the local church, in order to learn how far the church is penetrating the community for Christ…

Is the church in reality organized only for itself, for its own survival and convenience, and for the preservation of its privileges? Is it organized to serve itself, or to serve God and the community? What are its cherished traditions and conventions which unnecessarily separate it from the community?”

On church members and leaders:

“Do we imprison our members in the church? Or do we deliberately release at least some of them (including leaders) from church commitments in order to encourage them to be active for Christ in the community, and then support them with our interest and prayers as they do so?

For example, a group of committed young people could adopt a local nightclub, not in order to make occasional evangelistic raids into it, but between them (in pairs) to visit it regularly over a long period, in order to make friends with the other young people who congregate there.”

Have at it…