John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

This Big

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation’s revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

You are amazing God

Weak Worship

(An excert from The Thinklings blog).

The true diagnosis of weak worship is not that our people are coming to get and not to give. Not a few pastors scold their people that the worship services would be lively if people came to give instead of to get.

There is a better diagnosis. People ought to come to corporate worship services to get. They ought to come starved for God. They ought to come saying, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God" (Psalm 42:1). God is profoundly honored when people know that they will die of hunger and thirst unless they have God. And it is my job as a preacher to spread a banquet for them. I must show them from Scripture what they are really starving for -- God -- and then feed them well until they say, "Ahhh." That is worship.

-- John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight

A Really Big God

Scientists have learned more about the expanding universe, thanks to many things, including Hubble. They have come to the conclusion that the universe is indeed expanding, as Einstein has proved, and at an ever increasing speed. In fact, the galaxies out at the edges of the universe have now passed the speed of light. We will never see them, we just know they are there. And what's so wonderfully magnificent, is that it is only the space between galaxies that is expanding. Any object that is interacting with another object through gravity is completely excused from the very principal of an expanding universe. Our planets are not expanding from the sun, our stars in our galaxy are not expanding away from each other in anyway other then the normal centrifugal or gravitation forces which are called for in the normal realm of science. If galaxies are being attracted to or repelled from each other in clusters, as many are, those normal laws of physics still apply. But as the universe expands, in galaxies that are no longer interacting with each other, the space between them expands. And at an ever increasing speed.

So here on earth we know that if a spaceship is racing ever faster towards another star, time slows as it approaches the speed of light, and Einstein has concluded that at the speed of light, time stops, and the craft will cease to exist; therefore faster then light travel is impossible. But on the galaxies at the fringes of the universe that travel faster than the speed of light, as if in a wave, were an astronaut to have hopped on a planet before it were across the light speed barrier, he would find on that planet that everything was normal. Time would be normal, apples would still fall to ground, the sun would still rise and set, there would be no notice that one was speeding through the universe beyond the speed of light, an unfathomable speed. Total and complete empty space moving it along, pushing it, pulling it, safely guiding it along through the fabrics of space, at a speed we can't even comprehend. It's happening right now out there in the universe, and it's the "still accelerating" that blows my mind.

I've no doubt scientists will zero in on the physics and mathematical formulas that make this possible, and try to replicate faster than light travel. They are trying now, even as we speak, and don't seemed to notice the enormity of what is happening. I'm sure the formula will read something like: G=O=D. The big bang theory brought them closer, but "the God" notion in that theory really irked Einstein. Maybe this next new equation will make it obvious even to a scientific thinker.

How Big Is Your God?

Francis Chan in 2 minutes explains so much. Check out the Crazy Love web site.

God's Grace In All It's Truth

In Paul's greeting to the Colossians he tells them (from vs 3-5) that he thanks God for them, and thanks God that the gospel is spreading; and among them too, ( from vs 6) "since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all it's truth."

I will remember forever my first encounter with God's grace, five children and 25 years ago. I'd been churched as a kid, but like so many, carried teenage rebellion to the sinful max, finally settling down to married life. I debated several years about going to church, even after my wife had begun taking our firstborn on a weekly pilgrimage to the local evangelical establishment. I enjoyed the quiet of them gone on Sundays, too. After limited involvement, including pot-lucks, singing in the cantata, etc., I responded to the repeated invitation (and prayers, I later found out) of a fellow I now love, and I began attending.

A year or so passed. I certainly felt "churched" again. If believing in Jesus meant he had paid for my sins so I could go to heaven, I was all for it. I like plans, and this seemed like a real good plan. He does all the work, and I get all the gain. Plus I really felt it was good for the kids, and we were becoming a respectable part of the community. Life made sense, and things were going pretty good for me.

Well, one day at church, we were singing a kind of simple song, but a tear fell from my eye, and it surprised me! And for about 30 seconds I was actually crying! I composed myself, rather embarrassed that I was attracting attention, but only a few people noticed.

After we got home, I told my wife that a felt really weird, and I was going to go back in the bedroom for a while and sit down. I went and picked up my bible, which had been a gift, and opened it up to Matthew, intent on taking a look at it. But I couldn't. The tears were falling all over the pages, as I cried my heart out. What a fool I'd been! The Lord of the universe was pouring his grace all over me, opening my eyes. The only real exact words I remember thinking were, "O my God, I can't believe you chose me." I had never known humility until that moment, I knew there was so much more to learn, but now I saw the world upside down the way Christ saw it, knew he would help me change my life and my way of thinking, and I knew I would never be the same again. I was awake reading my bible for nearly 2 nights in a row, too excited to sleep, knowing that the God of the universe had touched me in such an awesome way.

The pastor and associate pastor had invited me to stop by the church on Wednesday, wanted to "check-in with me, they do that," they had said. I was so glad! I wanted to tell someone who would understand what had happened to me! I was like a kid after a winning a home game as I told them all about it. It was an incredible story and they were so happy for me! I know I was in tears through some of it, too. We laughed and prayed together, I real "pastoral" moment. And when I asked them what they wanted to talk about, having invited me in the first place, they said that they were starting up a worship team, and actually just wanted to make sure I was a born-again believer before they invited me! We laughed some more... God was in control.

Does Doctrine Matter? Aka, Promise Keepers Tries Again

Is church structure really that important? Is "what we believe", our differing doctrines, really that important? Aren't we all united in Christ by trusting Him for His righteousness; that it is indeed "finished?"

Paul very carefully set up the church to survive into the 21st century by encouraging preacher Timothy to "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1 Tim 4:16) and again to the leaders of the Ephesians church before setting off for Jerusalem, "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." (Acts 20:28)

In other words, keep watch over 1) yourselves and your own doctrine, and keep watch over 2) your flock and their doctrine. This seems to be the smallest common denominator that Paul set up. A pastor and his flock united in doctrine, as Paul taught that doctrine. Outside of a public family church, there is no consideration. Read the passages before and after these verses, and it only reinforces this thinking. "Believe my teaching, and make sure your whole flock believes the same thing," is what Paul seems to be telling us.

So now, the big denominations and theologies come into play. Churches will split over doctrine. That would be biblical, if then each new flock and pastor (or groups) were again united in their understanding of Paul's (Jesus') teachings. Are the different understandings still blessed by God? Of course, when they are both biblical in a God approved "gospel" sense. There's not only one true denomination to which all must conform, thanks to the Reformation. Paul didn't set up a universal church with ONE interpretation of his (Jesus') teachings that we all must conform to or perish. (The pope didn't necessarily have a lock on it.) Paul set up churches that met for his teaching (doctrine) publicly, and house to house, (Acts 20:20). Everything above and beyond that, or less then that, we seem to have set up.

So within denominations, each church conforms to what the greater group believes, or splits and forms it's own denomination. That's biblical, as mentioned above. God has set up a family church where he can reach all within that family church by inspiring the leadership of that family church. Everyone stays on the same page. It seems a most efficient system to me. They can be part of a larger denomination of like-minded believers, or not. There seems to be no smaller unit then the 'public' unit, though. We are in it together, at the least as a single church united in doctrine.

Case in point: Look what happened to Promise Keepers in 10 years (though they are not a church). All sorts of different doctrines uniting to build up the faith just doesn't work, regardless of where their hearts are, how good their intentions are. It's not biblical, just a movement, and not blessed for the building up of the church and the saving of souls. This year they will have one conference, women are invited, so the original purpose of the movement has died, they are inviting all to come whether they can afford it or not "We'll let you in for free, we'll feed you for free, just get registered." says co-founder coach Bill "Mac" McCartney. Don't they hear the shot across their bow? If they are going to try and build faith with no agreement on doctrine, then this latest effort will fail, too. Faith building and spreading the gospel is done amongst like-minded Christians. Otherwise you have pea soup. McCartney doesn't get it. He promises an experience with God at the conference, as if God will be coerced into showing up. He would be more honest to just promise an experience. An "experience" can easily be delivered.

Just ask Joel Osteen, who is Lakewood Church. Osteen says he doesn't like talking about sin because it makes people uncomfortable. I imagine "uncomfortable" interferes with experience building as he sees it. All righty then. If all inclusive faith-building is not biblical, and it's not, then Joel, a remarkable man, and sadly, his church, will get their comeuppance soon enough. I await the day. It will encourage the true church, as set up by the apostles.

In the mean time; believers, unite around the doctrine of your church and leaders. Or go where you can do that. And leaders, listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you- as your faith and doctrine goes, so goes your flock "which He bought with His own blood." (Acts 20:28) That's an awesome responsibility. God blesses and moves churches that are united in beliefs, regardless of where they fall on the Calvin/Arminian scale, and only if the beliefs of those churches through their leadership is acceptable to Him. That's actually pretty inclusive. The bible and Holy Spirit, using great scholars, have given us the apostles' teachings, whom seem to have settled on just a few main theologies, that are acceptable to God. We all fall somewhere within them, if it's the true apostles teachings, and not our own, as in Osteen. Having a shallow understanding of the teaching / doctrine in order to be "all inclusive" is the aforementioned pea-soup, and doomed by default. Movements will fail, churches will fail, but God is in charge, doesn't change, and He won't fail.

And I hate to say it, but it's not the bible's teaching interpreted by me that unites us and launches an Acts 2 church. It was the devotion to the apostles' teaching and the peoples response to that true gospel in Acts 2:42 that launched the church, and puts us on the "apostles" page, not our own. Let's unite around their understandings, and keep our own understandings submissive, and we'll be out of God's way. Picking out our own doctrine leads to just another movement of man, and that leads nowhere. Just watch TBN and you'll see what I mean. They've added a lot to, and taken a lot away from the gospel, and they will eventually pay for the damage to the church. It affects us all, tempts us all to compromise, and who is the tempter? Have mercy on your church, O Lord.

Thank God We Have Christ

Thank God we have Christ.

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23)

We all agree with this, in that because we've sinned, we aren't worthy to be with God, apart from Christ- and that IS very true. But that's not all it's telling us. It tells us what sin is. Usually we read the text and at the word "and" we break the sentence into two separate thoughts, but they are one. "For all (that's me...) have sinned (what's sin?) and fall short (lack) of the glory of God." (I have sinned, I lack the glory of God). We lack the glory of God. Then what is sin? Sin is anything that isn't the glory of God. That's the whole world we live in. Is this too much of a leap? Consider this-

"...and everything that does not come from faith is sin." (Rom 14:23)

We glorify God, and don't sin, when what we do gives Him the glory, from the greatest tasks to the least tasks. That means a humility to the 'nth degree. Complete utter reliance on God for all things (faith), so He gets the credit. If it comes through faith, it isn't sin. If it comes through US, it is sin. So,

"...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Cor 10:31)

Doing something in faith means all the excellence we can muster on our own, and in faith completely relying on God for the results (humility), so all the credit goes to God, and He gets the glory. Whether we are washing dishes, digging a ditch, raising children, governing a country, or working in ministry, it's all the excellence we can muster, in faith relying on God so He gets the glory, not us. That's God's way. Any other way is sin. So we can sin when we wash the dishes. (Or work in ministry). Whew.

Thank God we have Christ.