Imitate God

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ loved us and gave himself on our behalf, an offering and sacrifice as a soothing aroma to God.
But sexual immorality, or impurity, or greed must not even be mentioned among you as is fitting among holy ones, neither obscenity, or foolish talk, or course jesting, which are not proper, but rather thanksgiving.
For know this for certain, that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (being an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no one deceive you with baseless arguments, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon all those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were formally darkness, but now you are children of light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
(a translation of Ephesians 5:1-10)

“I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher”

I heard this quote from a Piper sermon on the life of George Whitefield.  It is regarding the accusation that Whitefield was an “actor” in the pulpit.  But more than that, it speaks much to how we should all handle the Word of God.

This is a quote from one of Whitefield’s sermons:

“I’ll tell you a story.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in the last age, was acquainted with Betterton, the player.  You all have heard of Betterton.  One day the Archbishop of Canterbury said to Betterton the player, ‘Pray inform me, Mr. Betterton, what is the reason you actors on the stage can affect your congregation with things imaginary as if they were real, while we of the church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why, my Lord Archbishop (says Betterton the player), the reason is very plain.  We actors on the stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real, and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.’

Therefore, I will bawl.  I will bawl.  I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher.”

SOURCE: http://books.google.com

“I’ll tell you a story.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in the last age, was acquainted with Betterton, the player. You all have heard of Betterton. One day the Archbishop of Canterbury said to Betterton the player, ‘Pray inform me, Mr. Betterton, what is the reason you actors on the stage can affect your congregation with things imaginary as if they were real, while we of the church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why, my Lord Archbishop (says Betterton the player), the reason is very plain. We actors on the stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real, and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.’

Therefore, I will bawl. I will bawl. I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher.”

Quote for the Day

Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false.  Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever.  Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse–so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable.  But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be.  And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy.  If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual.  But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment.

from: C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity: A Revised and Amplified Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books, Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001, 74-75.

Psalm 21 Devotional

Psalm 20 and 21 come as a unit, and I thought it would be beneficial if we just looked at some of the contrasts between the two psalms so that we can learn more of the amazing blessing of coming before the Lord in prayer

Both psalms concern King David, and are setup so that the people of Israel pray them concerning the king.

Psalm 20 seems to take place in the midst of a war, asking that God would deliver the king, that they would win the battle

V1 “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble”

V2 “May He send you help from the sanctuary”

They express their hope in God’s help looking to the return of the king

V5 “We will sing for joy over your victory”

V6 “I know that the Lord saves His anointed”

But in psalm 21 the war is over, the king has returned and the people offer thanksgiving to the Lord and affirm their hope in God along with the king

In psalm 20 they prayed that God would give the king his heart’s desire (v4), and in Psalm 21 they praise God because He granted the king the desire of his heart (v2).  They asked that God would preserve their king from death, and He did.

God met the king with blessings of good things.

Psalm 21 is full of rejoicing, full of thanksgiving and hope – why?

Because of psalm 20

Requests were made of God, and God answered.

If there had been no prayer before entering the war, the joy of seeing God answer His people would not be experienced.

So let us come before God – the God who hears and answers His people’s prayers – let us come before Him placing our full trust in His power, so that in the future we might experience the joy of seeing His mighty power at work in our midst, so that we too can join in exalting the Lord, singing and praising His power.

Psalm 21 Translation

1 For the music director.  A psalm of David.

2  O Yahweh, in your protection the king rejoices
In Your salvation how greatly he rejoices

3 You have given him his heart’s longing

And you have not withheld the desire of his lips

4 For you have met him with blessings of good things

You have placed a crown of pure gold on his head

5 He asked for life from You; You gave it to him

Length of days forever and ever

6 His glory is great through your salvation

Majesty and splendor You place on him

7 For you grant him lasting blessings

You make him glad in the joy of Your presence

8 For the king trusts in Yahweh

And through the covenant love of the Most High he will not be made to falter

9 Your hand finds all your enemies

Your right hand finds those who hate You

10 You make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger

Yahweh will swallow them and fire consume them in His anger

11 You will destroy their offspring from the earth

Their descendents from mankind

12 Though they intend to do you harm

They devise an evil plan

They will not succeed

13 For you make them retreat when you load your bowstring to shoot at them

14 Be exulted, Yahweh, in your strength

We will sing and praise Your power

Review of Bob Kauflin’s Worship Matters

Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

I was given a copy of Bob Kauflin’s Worship Matters and was really impressed with his material.  Kauflin wrote the book specifically for worship leaders that they might be more effective and more skillfully lead worship at their church (p. 17) and I really think he succeeds in this goal. While I don’t agree with everything (especially in regard to his view of miraculous gifts in everyday life), it is a really good resource for those who are looking to dial in their understanding both practically and doctrinally of the place of singing in our worship of the Lord.

Kauflin’s discussion on skill begins a little shaky, but as the book progresses it really firms up and he has a lot of good input.  He beings citing some Old Testament passages in regard to skill without explaining some of the problems of making direct application to “playing skillfully on the strings” to our day, on the other side of the cross (p. 34).  He later amends this oversight (p. 52) making it clear that we should not just copy Old Testament temple worship.  But in this section on skill he makes it very clear that “skill doesn’t make worship more acceptable before God” (p. 35), which I think is a key statement, especially in the media and entertainment driven society that we live in today.  It is not about always sounding perfect or having the best guitarist on your team, in fact placing too much emphasis on skill can have some ugly fruit (p. 36), but we must balance skill as a tool to help others worship the Lord in song (it can be distracting if everyone is out of key!).  The principle here is “serve one another” (1 Pet. 4:10).  “Nothing against skill, practice, complexity, nuance, musicianship, or sincerity, but only the finished work of Christ makes our offerings of worship acceptable in God’s eyes.  What a relief!” (p. 75).

Quote of the Day

From John Bunyan’s “Prayer”

“If men did see their sins, yet without the help of the Spirit they would not pray.  For they would run away from God, with Cain and Judas, and utterly despair of mercy, were it not for the Spirit.  When a man is indeed sensible of his sin, and God’s curse, then it is a hard thing to persuade him to pray; for, says his heart, ‘There is no hope,’ it is in vain to seek God (Jer. 2.25; 18.12).  I am so vile, so wretched, and so cursed a creature that I shall never be regarded!  Now here comes the Spirit, and stays the soul, helps it to hold up its face to God, by letting into the heart some small sense of mercy to encourage it to go to God, and hence he is called ‘the Comforter’ (John 14.26).

Reverence or Relevance?

A good read: Reverence or Relevance? by Greg Laurie

Church Planting: Lessons from Antioch and Beyond

Introduction

In 1992 a great church planting vision was cast in England.[1] 20,000 new churches by 2000.  But by the end of three years, one denomination involved in the project had a net gain of only 20 churches out of 200 attempted church plants including the closure of 30 historical churches.  Obviously church planting is not an easy task and therefore should not be taken lightly.  If we are looking to church plant we ought to follow the Lord of the Church (Eph. 1:22; 5:23-24; Col. 1:18).[2] For in the end, whether or not our efforts fail numerically, we do not want them to be a failure before our Lord.

The amount of material in this day and age available on church-planting is quite overwhelming.  And as one embarks on sifting through the many different books and articles, many different opinions begin to surface.  Everyone has an opinion, and at times their opinions are in direct contradiction with each other.  There are those who believe that churches should be planted without any regard to the current existence of churches in the area,[3] and still others who believe extensive surveying must be done before any location is chosen.[4] Some believe new churches should be consistently planted on the basis that it is “easier to have a baby than raise the dead,”[5] while others think that struggling churches should be “renewed” rather than abandoned and the focus of church planting should only be on those without a church.[6] Trumpeted by some is the idea that church planting is “the single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven,”[7] while others view it as the result of evangelism rather than the cause.[8]

The need to evaluate church planting methodology on the basis of God’s Word is essential if we are going to gain approval and blessing from the Lord of the Church.  It is not as if He left us here without instructions as to what we are to be doing!  The Lord Himself said, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18), therefore let us sit at His feet and learn what He wants for His Church, specifically in regard to church planting and how we fit into that plan.  For our purposes this study will be narrowed to focus on finding principles from the beginnings of Paul and Barnabas’ missions and their involvement with the church at Antioch.

A Defense of Textual Updating

It might be that the idea of textual updating is inherently distasteful to many conservative evangelicals, and not without reason, for it shares some similarities with Source Criticism and other such liberal scholarship.  It is claimed that the only reason for ideas such as textual updating is the inroads of human ideas, specifically evolution into the study of the biblical text[1] and therefore to have any concepts that are shared by liberal scholars in such theories as the Documentary Hypothesis[2] is to buy into secular humanistic ideas.[3] But while it is true that many scholarly theories do have their roots in a non-miraculous worldview, it does not follow that textual updating is founded upon such presuppositions.  Just because someone agrees in part with a liberal scholar it does not mean that he has bought into the entire system that the liberal holds to.  For example, the whole concept of Source Criticism is that sources were used in the composition of the Old and New Testament.  But this does not mean that the idea of sources behind Scripture is wholly false, for Scripture itself clearly testifies that sources were actually used in some instances (ex. Num. 21:14; 1 Kings 11:42; 1 Chron. 29:29).[4] It would therefore be foolish for someone to come in contact with the notion of textual updating and then just brush it off as liberal agenda.[5] One does not need to have a bias towards the non-miraculous in order to seek an answer to questions that arise from a simple reading of Scripture.  In fact, one who believes the Bible is the Word of God has that much more reason to seek out an answer!