A Christmas Prayer

We so enjoy this season, Lord. We thrill at the sights and sounds of Christmas. We love the glitter, the tinsel and the lights. But Father, the lights can, if we're not careful, blind us to the One True Light of Christmas. And as much as we love the Christmas carols and holiday songs, we confess that they are too capable of drowning out your gentle call to us to faithfully come and worship. And Father, we love the decorations and the wreaths and the Christmas trees... But oh how easily they can obscure that other tree of Christmas - the one that stands in the shadows of the manger - the tree of Calvary.

So God, would you persistently point us this Christmas to the manger - and then on to the Cross to recognize Your consummate gift of love. Help us look to the Babe of Bethlehem as the Light of the World; let us see Him born and laid in a humble manger, yet destined to die and be laid in a borrowed tomb – the One born King was "enthroned" on a cross! All because of His great love for us! And Lord, let us do more than just sing songs that tell the story; let us come and joyfully, triumphantly worship.

"I praise You 24/7!!!" - Oh really?!

Reading the first line you might be encouraged. "I praise You 24/7!!!!..." So Tweeted Steve Johnson, the Buffalo Bills wide receiver who dropped what would have been the game winning touchdown pass in overtime of last Sunday's game against the Steelers. He was wide open in the end zone and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick did what he needed to do and laid the ball right into his hands.

Now I don't know if Johnson claims to be a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, but one might have read that and thought he would continue along the lines of, "...And I continue to praise You. My identity and security do not come from my profession as a football player. I dropped the ball and let my teammates down, but You never drop me..." That would have been awesome. But instead, here's the full edition of Johnson's Tweet:

"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO...,"

I'm taking the time to briefly blog about this because it bears on at least two very important issues. First and foremost, it has to do with taking responsibility for our actions. May we all learn from this negative example to not pass the blame for our failures - both our sinful actions, but also our honest mistakes & shortcomings - onto someone else, least of all God! Whether it's sinful behavior that is exposed or failing to fulfill a responsibility that affects others on our team (at work or play), may we be quick to admit, "It's on my shoulders alone."

The second of the obvious issues this raises is how we see God and the reason why we follow Him. Do we really believe the cliche, overused and yet true, "God is good all the time"? Or is God only good when He's good... to me? And then, do I follow Him because He's good to me? ...because of His (material) blessings He bestows? Or do I follow Him because He is God, worthy of my praise, adoration, and obedience, regardless of what I may (or may not) receive from His hand?

Steve Johnson begins saying he praises God "24/7," and yet by his comments reveals that he knows nothing of the nature of true praise. Justifying himself by his own righteousness and then castigating God is in fact blasphemy. A far cry from praise.

There's so much more that I want to say about this, but I don't have time. I need to take responsibility for my work and get to it!

Soli Deo gloria!

Broken Crystal

It may be the statement from Robert Schuller that comes the closest to the truth:  "No church has a money problem; churches only have idea problems." (From his 1986 book, "Your Church Has a Fantastic Future".) And in the wake of the Crystal Cathedral's filing for bankruptcy last month (with well over $50 million in debt to its creditors!), it may also be his most ironic statement, let alone prophetic.

Any good start that he may have had (he was ordained in the Reformed Church in America), was quickly torpedoed, indicated with this comment from his autobiography in 2001, "My Journey":  I realized that every sermon I preached (whether formally from the pulpit, or casually at the coffee shop) should be designed, not to 'teach' or 'convert' people, but rather to encourage them, to give them a lift. I decided to adopt the spirit, style, strategy, and substance of a 'therapist' in the pulpit.

There's an old gag about preaching that actually contains a lot of truth, which, if Schuller had taken to heart may have steered him in a better, more God-honoring direction. The joke is that the role of the preacher is "to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted." As it is, it seems to me that Schuller's own words condemn him, as they seem to very much echo Paul's warning to Timothy:  For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (1 Tim. 4:3)

I agree whole-heartedly with Al Mohler on this issue who assesses the situation this way: The most significant problem at the Crystal Cathedral is not financial, but theological. The issue is not money, but this ministry's message. The "gospel of success" is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, therapy is no substitute for theology, and "Possibility Thinking" is not the message of the Bible. (See http://twe.ly/uHl)

We can only pray that the leadership of the Crystal Cathedral will repent of its errors, and correct its "idea problems." God may yet redeem the situation for His greater glory.

My Singular Passion

While I know that one's heart is deceitful, even to the point that we cannot even be fully confident of our own motives (Jeremiah 17:9), I believe I can honestly say that in my sanest moments my following paraphrase of Paul's passion reflects my own passionate pursuit...

All my past accomplishments, present credentials, future ambitions - all the things I once thought were so important and significant in my life are as nothing to me when compared to the far-surpassing, greater value of knowing Jesus Christ. In fact, I will even abandon them altogether if they keep me in any way from embracing Christ and being embraced by Him. Whether I experience His resurrection power, or become a partner with Him in His suffering, I want to know Him!

This will be my constant pursuit. I have not yet arrived, and I will at times stumble, but my gaze is set on my glorious Savior. I am determined to press forward through any obstacle and renounce any distracting pleasure, reaching out to Christ who first took the initiative to reach out to me with His love mercy and grace. I will extol the supremacy of His power, the sufficiency of His presence, and the satisfaction of His Person alone. I have a singular pursuit. My vision is clear. I've burned my bridges. There's no turning back. This is what I was made for and I will continue to run the race God has set before me until I cross the finish line and enter His glorious presence and hear His welcome. Until then, I will make much of Jesus, for His glory is my delight. (Personal paraphrase of Philippians 3:7-16)

And now, dear reader, I urge you with Paul's next words in verse 17, "...join in following my example". (See also 1 Cor. 11:1.)

"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" - Amazing video!

The Endowment for Human Development, rooted in promoting the science of health from prenatal development through all of life, and not a pro-life organization, has inadvertently provided the pro-life cause tremendous support with its research and phenomenal imagery.

Take a look at just one of the many, many samples! (Then check out their web site at www.ehd.org)...

T4G Quotables

I attended the T4G ("Together for the Gospel") conference in Louisville, KY this week. It was, as I anticipated, truly exceptional. I encourage you to check out the T4G resource page to listen to or watch the messages, all FREE. (Audio is available for download.) Go to:  http://www.t4g.org/resources/

One of the things I've decided is that for any future conferences I deem of enough value to expend the time, energy, and money to attend, I want to (if possible) plan into the time and travel an extra day to linger on in order to reflect, pray, assimilate, and plan some concrete action steps based on what God taught me. It is just so hard to do any of that when you immediately leave and then return to hit the ground running in ministry again.

So anyway, having said that, I wanted to quickly get some key points and quotes down here... both for some of my own review and reflection and to also share with any who may happen by my blog.

Please note that the following are not necessarily quotes (yet). They are close, but taken from my notes I took on the fly. Perhaps I'll come back and edit this blog after I review the messages again and get more accurate quotes. So bear all this in mind as you reflect on the following "[near] quotables" from T4G 2010...

Mark Dever - Message: "The Church is the Gospel Made Visible"

• You can "lose the Gospel" by failing to proclaim it in its purity; but you can also lose it (for your community) by failing to have it lived out and manifest in the congregation.
• Our lives are to make clear what God is like.
• Our culture treats casualness as the epitome of intimacy.
• When exercised appropriately, authority creates a thirst in others.
• What kind of Gospel is your church making visible?

Al Mohler - Message: "How Does It Happen? Trajectories Toward An Adjusted Gospel"

• The Cross is beautiful but it isn't pretty.
• We'd rather think of ourselves as "sick" than "evil".

Thabiti Anyabwile - Message: "Fine-sounding Arguments - How Wrongly 'Engaging the Culture' Adjusts the Gospel

• Some strategies can sound so right, but in reality be wrong and lead to mission-drift and adjust the Gospel.
• (Definitely NOT a quote...) We need to make the culture in the church the alternative to the culture at large.
• The church is multi-ethnic, but it is not multi-cultural; it is mono-cultural! (Chew on that one for a while. You'll have to hear/see the message to get the context and support for that comment! ~ Thabiti, by the way, is a black man!)

John MacArthur - Message: "The Theology of Sleep" (In my opinion, a very poorly titled message, though I understand what he meant. It really had nothing to do with sleep!)

• ...the Good News is not miracles, free food, (etc.)... It is the Cross!
• Usefulness in evangelism is directly proportional to the seed sown and leads to eternal reward.

C. J. Mahaney - Message: "Expository Faithfulness"

• Others may be able to witness better to the Gospel, but no one can witness to a better Gospel!

Josh Harris - Message: "Dug Down Deep: Helping Others Build Their Lives on Christ-centered Doctrine"

• Jesus loves to save religious hypocrites.
• "Truth" and "devotion to Jesus" are not two separate things!
• The issue is not whether you know doctrine; it's whether you are doing it!

A Quote to Chew On

(No, I'm not trying to "catch up" from almost 3 weeks of not posting!)

How would you complete the statement, "The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is..."? There are probably many good ways one could complete that statement, and it could be fun to sit around a table and banter some possibilities around. But here's how David Wells puts it, in God in the Wasteland... (Tell me what you think!)

"The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, His grace too ordinary, His judgment is too benign, His gospel too easy, and His Christ too common."

"Purpose" = "Plan"

Clearly, over the last few weeks I've been out of sync with my goal of blogging once a week. My apologies. But here's to trying to get back into gear...

Very rarely, if ever, do I remember my dreams. And last night was no exception. (That's not what you expected me to say, right? You thought I'd say something more like, "But last night I dreamed..." But bear with me...)

Last night, however, I did wake up in the middle of the night, roused out of my dream (and I do remember that I had been dreaming, though I don't remember about what; weird, I know) by... something; I don't really know what woke me, which is also very unusual as I am a very sound sleeper. (Just ask my wife!) What was very clearly on my mind, however, was... a thought. An idea. An idea that somehow I knew was directly related in some way to the dream. It seemed fairly significant to me at the time, and I almost got up to write myself a note on my phone so I could think more about it in the morning, but I brushed the thought off in favor of going back to sleep. (In other words, I was too lazy!) I thought to myself, If it was really a worthwhile thought, I'll remember it in the morning, then silently prayed, Lord, help me remember, all the while knowing that it was highly unlikely, as this kind of thing has happened a couple times before, and I've almost always racked my brain - unsuccessfully! - in the morning trying to remember.

Well, by now you're probably realizing that this time I did indeed remember, or else I wouldn't have taken the time to write this account of something that I didn't remember! So let me finally get to the point after this far-too-lengthy introduction!

Two words were successively on my mind last night in that brief moment of consciousness. The first word was purpose, and the second very quickly on its heels was plan. And then my mind very quickly inserted an "equals" sign in between. Purpose = Plan. If there is a purpose, there must be a plan. Purpose requires plans.

Those who know me well may be chuckling right now, for "planner" is not usually a word people think of associating with me. By nature I am a visioner, a dreamer, I see the big picture and how the parts are supposed to fit to make the whole. I have struggled most of my life with taking initiative and being intentional Though I believe I am better than I used to be, I still have a long way to go. So now perhaps you see why this little early morning equation seemed significant to me.

Let me finally get to the nuts and bolts of this post... I have a purpose. You have a purpose. And I'm not talking about a subjective purpose... to be happy, to make money, to provide for my family, to make a difference, to raise good kids, to save enough money to retire, etc. I'm talking about our objective purpose. Our raison d'etre - our reason for being. That is, why God has created us. It's true, we could identify multiple purposes which should drive our lives. I still uphold the five purposes of Worship, Community, Maturity, Service, and Mission as a very helpful way of articulating them, but really there is only one at the very core of them all. That one is God's own purpose, what He is most determined to do, and the very reason you and I are here: "As surely as I live," declares the Lord, "all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord" (Num. 14:21; see also Isa. 43:7). Paul's words to the Corinthians articulates our purpose well: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31); or again, You have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body (1 Cor. 6:20); or to the Romans, Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (Rom. 12:1).

So what's your plan? God is a planning God. His purpose is being worked out according to His plan. Jesus came to do the work of His Father (to be read, to carry out His Father's plan). He planned creation, and He planned our redemption, and He has planned the culmination of all of human history to accomplish His desired ends, His purpose and plan. What's your plan?

Here's part of mine, to learn to better align myself with God's purpose. I have written out three questions that I plan to ask myself every day as soon as I get out of bed. These will be entered into my phone for me to read, perhaps even before I leave the side of my bed in the morning. But more importantly, I will come up with some concrete answers to these questions over the course of the morning before 9 a.m. (This is not meant to be a theoretical or simply devotional exercise!) They may be modified over the course of the next few weeks, but here are my questions. (Notice the common element in each is the word, "today"!) Feel free to adopt or adapt them for yourself!

1. What will I do today that will intentionally express the infinite worth of God?
2. How will my choices today reflect that I prefer God over any other thing? (I suppose this one really is just another way of phrasing question #1.)
3. What plans will I take action on today in order to accomplish God's purposes? (Both for me, and for the world through me.)