2 kinds of repentance

Anyone who is married can understand that you get a nice life long lesson on forgiveness and repentance (both being forgiven and forgiving). I read a book recently that caused me to reflect on the topic of repentance. I recently wrote on my twitter page: there are two kinds of repentance: gospel driven (driven by the love and nature of Christ) and merely legal driven (simply driven by fear). Which do you do?

Gospel Driven Repentance:
To help make clear the distinctions between the two I will first focus on Gospel driven repentance. First repentance comes from the Greek metanoia which means a change of mind. The 22 uses of metanoia in the New Testament indicate that it is much more than simply a change of ones mind but a change in attitude, character and interest. A good picture I have used many times is that we turn our backs on sin and walk away pursuing Christ (See Acts 3:19 below). Here are two passages with metanoia for examples:

Luke 5:32-"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Acts 3:19-"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Romans 2:4-"Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?


All of these passages illustrate the wonderful message of Gospel Driven repentance. We know that through Christ' death and resurrection we have the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). This beautiful act of love leads us to repentance. Paul is asking the question in Romans 2:4, would the Romans really show contempt because God is rich in mercy and kindness, His tolerance and patience which is rooted is love leads us to repentance, to change our attitude, our interests so that we now want His attitudes and His interests!

What is most important is that God's expression of kindness is rooted in what Christ has done for us:

"And God raised us up with Christ...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."

This richness in love, mercy and kindness rooted in Christ' death leads sinners (depraved, broken people who fall short of God's glory-Romans 3:10-11; 23) to repentance.

Our aim is love Christ through a transformed heart and through bearing fruit that will last (John 15:16). The problem is we do not always bear good fruit. So when we do not live this way then we must repent. Not because we did something bad or we fear that God will leave us but because of the gospel. This probably why so many people distort Scripture passages because they devoid them of what they point to: the gospel! This kind of repentance doesn't merely say sorry but recognizes that there is something wrong. They seek godly counsel, they seek accountability, they pour over God's word and most importantly they recognize they are free, redeemed, forgiven and loved.
The motivation of repentance is love which is manifested perfectly in the gospel.

Legal Driven Repentance:
Legal driven repentance is pretty self explanatory and yet I can admit find myself and others falling into this category way too often. This kind of repentance beats the person up. You feel remorse for the sin you have done, but you are more scared than sorrowful. You dwell on it so much that you shut out those who love you and in the process compound the sin you've committed. You spend hours mulling over it and this kind of repentance can incite emotions to. You can cry, feel terrible, say I never want to do this again because your afraid of what God will do not because of what He's done. It is driven by legalism, and fear. None of the 22 biblical uses of metanioa have this kind of repentance in mind.

The motivation for repentance is simply fear, not love.

I leave you with an example as I believe marriage is the one of the clearest pictures of the gospel and Christ:
Just imagine if I sinned against my wife and repented simply because I was motivated by fear of what she might do rather than because I loved her. She may get the result (or not) but she doesn't get my heart.

Be Blessed.

My Bride

I waited nervously but with such excitement I couldn't help but smile. I had a grin on my face that would not go away and I cherished every minute. When she arrived the smile (or stupid look) on my face only got bigger. My mind ran through the past 5 years: the good, the rough, the laughter, the prayers, everything that it took to get us to this point. Finally before friends, family and those closets to us, we stood before God and made vows and promises to look like Christ. This picture in my mind is of me waiting for my bride to come down the aisle at my wedding. It is probably one of the clearest and most amazing pictures I have of that day. I have read several books about Christ and his bride, I have heard many sermons on the bride of Christ, but it never really came full circle until I got married.

The wonderful thing about marriage is that it truly models our Lord ( or it should). It is the best picture to Christ that I have experienced to date.

Marriage and wedding were a vital picture in Scripture:

Matthew 25:1-10 Jesus uses a parable of 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to return.

Ephesians 5:22-31-Model of husband and wife with Jesus' love.

Revelation 19:7--Where the wedding of the lamb and his bride (the church) is beginning.

Revealation 21:2--Where the new city of Jerusalem is described as the bride.

I would like to focus my excitement described earlier through John 3:29:

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom...... He must become greater and I must become less."

Now (and this is important) contextually John is speaking about the role that he plays, as many thought that he was the coming Messiah. John refutes this claim by stating it clearly in 3:28, then using a picture of a wedding as his example. Here he wants to illustrate that he is not the Messiah (bridegroom) but rather the best man (or friend). He finishes this up by stating that "He (Jesus) must become greater and I must become less."

But I also love this verse in terms of my own wedding because of the picture it creates:

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom."

The bride (the church) belongs to Christ and to Him alone. No one else can claim the bride as she belongs to her groom. I couldn't imagine my bride belonging to someone else. It would seem absurd (and I would have to pull out the old guns from the gun show--guns being my arms--yes I know) and she would know it. The joy that my heart felt seeing my bride was not simply "oh she looks pretty"(though she did), but that soon she would be mine. I would belong to her and she would belong to me. We are united as one (Hebrew echad).

"He must become greater and I must become less." Now in no way is my wife greater than me (though she may think so) but I find the more I walk with Christ I also have noticed that being a good, godly husband requires a lot of death to self (Eph. 5:22-25). A continuous death to the selfishness that I naturally run to and to where I can no longer stand alone, nor be the center of attention. Marriage requires a lot of adjustments and sacrifices as you fully incorporate a person in to your life. The way you sleep, what you eat, sometimes how you eat it, when you go out, how your day looks, your thoughts about your future, where you will move and giving up who you are so that you may love that person better.

Our walk with Christ is no different: we give up our old self, which Christ crucified with his life, to live the new regenerated self. (Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 5:24; 2 Cor. 5;17). Similar to John's statement about Jesus can be said of the marriage: I must become less....my thoughts, my wants, my desires, become less in terms of not being the center of everything (or atleast I ask my wife first) so that I can love her and lift her up to Christ and vice versa.

This is why the picture of marriage to me is so beautiful. It exudes the gospel, it overflows with the pictures of Christ being married to his bride, caring for her, loving her, and dying for her. My biggest prayer since being engaged is that my marriage will look like Christ, and be a sweet aroma and example to believers and non-believers. (2 Cor. 2:15)

Be Blessed

Common Phrases

It has been awhile since I have had the ability to write here. Many things have happened and naturally I have been trying to keep up with all the things that occur in life. I was married to my best friend about a month ago, had a wonderful honeymoon and currently learning a lot through married life. I will write something on this soon, but today I want to cover something I think that as a Christian I have come into contact more frequently than people who blatantly hate the church or Jesus. I am speaking about common phrases that we hear and I want to choose one of them today.
As a pastor I talk to many people, but sometimes I talk to people who tell me they believe in God or Jesus but they simply: "don't believe in organized religion." How many of you have heard this before? I hear this phrase more often then others. This phrase bewilders me because there usually is never an actual explanation as to what they mean by that statement.

Is it I don't like worship services?
Is it I don't like people who worship?
Is it I don't like organized bodies of people singing, hearing God's word, and fellowship?
Is it I don't like those hypocrites in the building singing and praising?

Whatever it is it has never been clearly defined and every person has their own take on what "organized religion" is. Either way they don't like it.

Here are some insights to consider:
1. Defining organized religion:
If by organized religion you mean church then you must understand that the church is one body. If you do not like worship services, which are designed to put our hearts and minds focused on Christ as a collective local body, then you do not have a problem with religion you have a problem with worship.

2. We are called to meet together corporately.
I wrote about this a while ago so for the sake of not repeating myself the author of Hebrews encourages the body of people to" not neglect meeting together as some people do..."(Hebrews 10:25). Here the author has laid out for the community to motivate one another to love, to good acts, to affirmation in Christ as the whole context of the passage is to persevere especially as the "day of his return draws near."(NLT) Some people had already abandoned the community and stopped meeting corporately. There is strength in numbers, and fellowship is vital for a community to grow. The early church set this standard--Read Acts 2:42-47, 5:32-36.

3. Finally this statement is a mask for idolatry:
If someone loves Christ, serves Christ, worships Christ, wants to see Christ exalted, wants to grow in Christ they will not make a statement like this. It doesn't say your church is perfect but that you want to worship corporately with believers, and work to bring people into the kingdom through coporate missions, tithing, discipleship, etc. It is a group effort through the power of One God: Jesus Christ. But this statement also reveals that the problem again isn't the church but something deeper: our idols.

The idol of experience: "Well I had a bad experience about 15 years ago and I haven't been back!"

The idol of mismanaged time: "We stayed up really late on Saturday hanging out with friends and so it just would have been too hard to get up."

The idol of sleep/laziness: "I just wanted to sleep in today. I stayed out late, or was up watching a movie or I just wanted to have a "me" day Ten in the morning is just too early."

The idol of work: "I decided to go into work today so I could get some overtime or time and a half or just to get extra hours."

The idol of sports: "I didn't want to miss the Redskins play today! Its football season!

The point is we make room for a lot of things that we know "moth and rust will destroy" (Matt. 6:19) yet we make excuses for worship, fellowship and growth.

4. A church must be organized:
Lastly, we are an organized church body because, "God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people (1 Cor. 14:33---keep in mind this is used in context about the disorder and lack of organization of the church's use of tongues). Paul encourages organization by selecting leaders (elders, overseers--1 Tim. 2, 1 Peter. 5:1-3; Titus 1:1-5) to run things along with deacons to help get ministries and people cared for. So organization is a good thing for the church body. If they have a problem with simply religious stuff, well then so do we. Come join us for worship of our Creator, our Savior, Our Lord in whom we have a relationship beyond anything religion could ever give you. Folks someone who loves Jesus, serves Him and worships Him will want to be around people like Him, and in a place that worships Him.

Be Blessed.

Tempted and Tried

I read a lot of books. Sometimes I think I have too many--my wife would agree! But there are certain books you read that not only impact you from an intellectual level but from an emotional and spiritually one too. Professor and pastor Russell D. Moore's book Tempted and Tried is that kind of book. I recently finished this book and was convicted, encouraged and pointed toward the cross. Moore write about how temptation is a dangerous aspect of the Christian life that Satan loves to use as he used it against Christ. Moore uses the interaction of Jesus and Satan in Matthew 4:1-11, to illustrate how we have a Savior who knows what it is to be tempted and to triumph over them. (See Hebrews 4:15)

For example Moore says of the three temptations that Satan uses on Jesus:

"Satan in all three temptations is assuming the role of a father--first in provision, then in protection, and now in the granting of an inheritance. Satan didn't just want to be Jesus' lord; he wanted to be his father."

Moore uses great illustrations and funny stories (even at his own expense) to make his points and questions clear: Why does temptation matter? Why do we pursue sin rather than take joy in the comfort of our Father? Why we'd rather be right than rescued? (All chapter titles).

There is a ton of biblical passages used but the book doesn't have a theological or technical feel. It is very well written and anyone who reads this will benefit from it. This book is great for those who are struggling with sin, are in a spiritual drought, are feeling defeated, who need encouragement in regards to struggles or struggling, and for those who want to understand what exactly Christ experienced and how it relates to us as His children.

I strongly recommend this book. You can find it here at Amazon.

Be Blessed.

Would you invite me to your church?

This is a question I think that requires immense reflection. I sat and thought about this the other day whenever I people watch and ask : Would you like to come to my church? This got me thinking would you really want people to come to your church?
Disclaimer--this is with the understanding you know what a church is supposed to be. If not read Acts 2:42, 4:32-37, 5:12-16.

I see churches and the invitation in 3 ways:

1. You are the kid who didn't have sleepovers cause you didn't want other kids to see how dysfunctional and broken your family was.

These are the people who have churches that are broken, in decline spiritually and numerically, have no accountability, no church discipline, they have small cliques keeping the church alive, hardly any transformation...they look similar to the Corinthian church but worse---they have lost influence and their focus. They do not want to change, nor be relevant to today's culture. Most people do not want to invite people to this church. These people want to but realize that there just isn't anything healthy at their church and have even visited other churches to find a possible new home. They have no vision, no mission, therefore they cannot carry it out. They are coasting until every member either leaves or dies.


2. You were the kid who was excited to have everyone over cause your parents or family was fun, open, loving, relevant and you wanted people to see the atmosphere was exciting and there were many things to do.

This group loves to invite people to their church. They can't wait to invite people....why? Because the people are growing in Christ, they are meeting together for the biblical fellowship of praising God, not fulfilling their religious attendance. They have small groups meeting for intimate time with each other and God, they have missions (local and global) taking part for their members, they have outreach to meet with the local community and meet various needs (economic, social, fiscal,. They love people, they greet people, they preach God's word, they have facilities to meet the various needs of various demographics. Their members feel more like a family than a person attending a meeting because they can share, love and worship Christ freely. This does not exempt them from having problems as they have church discipline, and their leadership authority established in their church because they have a clear vision and mission, and it is executed through its various ministries, and everyone in the church knows it.

3. You were the kid who didn't invite others because you didn't have any video game systems, board games, or a yard bigger than 4ft by 4ft or just anything to do. (Don't joke I lived in a townhouse like this).

These people have a church, and it could have good people who love Jesus. They could preach the Word, but they simply do not have anything else. I call these churches One Hit Wonders because they try to do all they can only on Sunday. These churches do not have what is essential to growing: small group ministries, community outreach, evangelism, and local and glo bal missions. They simply cannot retain people as they are a Sunday only kind of church. Growth is either plateaued or is declining. You could invite people here but they can't grow. Its like buying a plant and watering it but once a week. Or imagine eating as much as you could on Sundays and then not eating again until the following Sunday. You simply can't grow. This church has nothing outside of its occasional special events. They have a vision (or not) but do not convey it to their church (cause they dont have one), they may or may not have church discipline and no one really knows who is leading the church (congregation, individuals, Jesus, the leadership??) or who has authority. The thing that these churches most is a lack of discipleship ministries and outreach ministries. So you could get people in, but do nothing with them.

So my question is posed for those to think and answer in the comment section: Would you really want to invite someone to your church and why? If not then should you really be at that church that is not growing, not feeding you, and where you do not get intimate time and fellowship with other members ?

Be Blessed

Working......with the wrong mindset

Now if you are Protestant you have heard it said a million times that grace is through faith (alone). Got it! That isn't the hard part. The hard part for me is the sanctification part. I get that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8), I know His grace is completely sufficient (2 Cor. 12:1-4) and I get that my Facebook status in life has changed from guilty to forgiven by his blood.

I can admit that I find myself getting in a mentality that I think many Christians find themselves: if I work harder at not sinning that means I will sin less in life. Let me elaborate.
Jim is a believer, he loves Jesus, serves at his church and does what good Christians do: pray, read, serve. He struggles with sin in his life, just as any Christian does, some more than others are consistent, so he decides to work harder at not "doing" those sins anymore.

See the problem? Tom's focus is not a matter of obedience to Christ, it isn't a matter of him being a bad Christian, rather his focus is more on him working harder (self-oriented) to eliminate his consistent sin.

Read any Paul book and you are going to get a list of exhortations. For examples read: Eph. 4:25-5:3-21; Colossians 3:5-17.

Through the Holy Spirit, Paul makes exhortations to "put to death....kill...or put away various sins and falsehoods (sexual immorality, gossip, slander, etc...). Sin that kills your joy, alters your mood or steals our focus. Stop doing these things.

But this is only half of the battle.

In no way am I saying that we shouldn't combat sin through the Spirit, God's word, prayer and petition. That's biblical. But I do find that we become very works oriented with our struggles and self help and self combat becomes our solution. I am saying that to work harder at not sinning is going to leave you feeling lonely and defeated. Rather than spending so much of our time trying "not to sin" I propose another and I believe biblical approach.

What do we know? Using Ephesians 4:22-24: That our old self (unregenerate, sin destroyed life) is over. It died with Christ,(Gal. 5:24) and that life was corrupted through desires that were deceitful (as part of our unregenerate nature). Now our call is to renew. To renew is to restore, to begin again in our minds and our thinking. Similar to Jesus conversation with Nicodemus about being born again, our new life our sanctification is a product of new creation that took place through Christ working on the hearts of his people through the cross.

Look at 2 Cor. 5:17--"We are a new creation...the old has gone the new has come"
Ephesians 4:22-24-" put off the old self....put on the new self"

Rather than trying to NOT sin, we should be busy with pursuing the things of Christ. Read Galatians 5:16-"I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Paul tells us in 5:17 that these two natures are opposed, they are in combat, war with each other.

What Paul is getting at here is if you are so focused and busy with living or walking by the Spirit, then you will not have time to gratify the flesh desires! What a profound concept.

The Greek word for walk is (peripateo) which means to physically and literally walk, but is used in the metaphorical sense to conduct one's life, to behave, to live in a way that glorifies God. This is the context Paul uses it: live (walk) in a way that is characterized the Spirit, which is shown by the fruits (outward signs) of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, gentleness. Pursue these!

What Paul doesn't say is expel so much energy in working harder and focusing NOT to sin. I recently read a psychological article about how a person can tell themselves over and over not to do something, and because of it being a constant reminder on the brain, they are actually more prone to do whatever it is they told themselves NOT to do. They have defeated themselves already. Translate this to the Christian life: we have sins we struggle with, and we cannot have victory apart from Christ. We cannot hope to achieve a Spirit-filled life by simply trying harder. We need Christ to help us, forgive us, heal us of the sins that "so easily entangle" us (Heb. 12:1-2) and we need to put effort in working out our salvation (Phil 2:10) which is supplied by Christ' power. We do this by setting our hearts and minds to pursuing Christ, and the fruits of the spirit (mentioned above).

Finally another great example of pursuing the things of Christ is Paul's letter to Timothy in 1 Tim. 6:11-12 where he tells him to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness." Chase after those things, so that you won't have time or a desire for the things of the flesh.

Be Blessed

Character Should Matter

Recently if you have not read any newspapers, online journals, TV, internet sites, etc... you may have noticed that several high profile politicians have been caught cheating, fathering a child (not from their wife). Rep. Anthony Wiener, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the indictment of John Edwards for using funds to help, etc...

I would love to sit back and say that the church is doing better, but it isn't.
_Anyone remember the Jim Baker Scandal of the 80's?
-Or who can forget the Ted Haggard sex scandal?
-Eddie Long's sexual encounters with young men

I am saddened constantly when reading about another pastor involved in a sexual scandal, or some sort of moral failure. Or some family that now is torn apart because of the moral misgivings of a father, a husband, and a pastor. We are called to live differently!

Character should matter. Now of course, we are taking into account that all of these people could confess and repent of their sin and be forgiven. In no way are we to sit back and judge as we have all been in the same predicament (maybe not the same situation) but we all know what it feels like to be in a place where you have dishonored and sinned against God. (Remember we ALL fall short of God's glory). The point I am making is that we seem to in our society honor appearance, impressive accomplishments and competency OVER character. Character should matter a lot more to us.

The Bible addresses character from cover to cover. One of the main evidences of actually know Jesus as Lord and Savior is that your character is different from that of the world. Meaning that you do not pursue the things of the world, you choose to be "set apart" (hagios=holy) in your life, marriages, jobs, families, to your children in regards to your character.

Scripture tells us that "we are to be imitators of God...(Eph. 5:1). It goes even further for leaders, laying out an extensive list not of accomplishments, or gifts or talents but a list of characteristics a leader should have: to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (1 Tim. 3:2-5)
The only competency listed is that a leader must be, "able to teach". This same notion goes for deacons and deaconesses---character is from the top down.

I have always heard it said that accomplishments, success, and organizations gets you to the top, but character keeps you there. I believe this in ministry, as I have worked with several different people and found the ones I loved were competent (we need competent people or else we would never get anything done) but their character made me want to follow them.
Dave Kraft wrote a wise book for leaders and makes this statement that has resonated with me:

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

Be Blessed

Clearing Up Misconceptions Part II

Every year around this time we all look forward to ruining our diets by eating hamburgers, hot dogs, soda, coleslaw, and other assorted foods to celebrate Memorial Day. And with July 4th coming quickly, patriotism pours out of every home and American (esp the more south you go). Now some will read this and get all holy on me and start to bash this, but let me give you some background.

My grandfather served as a Master Sargent in the Army. He fought in WWII, later to fight in Korea and then fought in Vietnam where he was awarded the bronze star medal (which when awarded for bravery is the 4th highest award you can receive in the Armed Forces). My dad was a Sargent in the U.S. Army working on helicopters (mainly Chinooks) for 19 years and did a tour trying to capture Manuel Noriega in Panama (if you even remember that). Finally my uncle fought in the first Desert Storm as a U.S. Marine. Numerous close friends have been and are in the military today. So the military runs through my blood, and I grew up as a military brat for what is now the larger part of my life. I am not writing about whether I love or do not love this country (cause I do love it), nor am I arguing about whether we should or should not celebrate nor recognize those who fought to give us our freedom. (we should!). What I am concerned about is how much involvement the church has in enabling an idolotry of patriotism and tying it to the kingdom, Jesus, and Christianity. As put in this article by Greg Boyd last year during July 4th--There is a real danger for the church in the idol of patriotism.

Here's where I feel we go astray:
First Websters defines patriotism as love, loyal and zealous support of one's country.

1. First, "we find Christians buying the age-old pagan lie that God uniquely favors their country, and their national enemies are God’s enemies." (taken from the article)

Now I am taking into account that God HAS blessed America greatly. We are one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. We have an abundance of food, we have a great military, we have running, CLEAN water, electricity, the internet. Believe it or not if you live in the United States and make $15,000 a year, you are richer than 80.1% of the rest of the world. (They live on average $2 a day).

So the question that begs to be asked is does God only bless us simply so that we can gloat, or consume all we want? Is that a biblical attitude? Are we not blessed so that we make God's glory known? So that we can share the blessing (whether it is monetary, materialistic, or simply our knowledge) with every tribe, tongue and nation? Are we not called to go and make disciples of all nations with every bit of resources we have? Are we not called to serve the least of these and not ourselves? Or as I heard at a concert did God place America at the front of the line to help itself or to help those in the back of the line? Just something to think about and please this has NOTHING to do with politics. This line of thinking just simply is not biblical and I have heard and seen people take passages WAY out of context to make this line of reasoning fit. It is wrong.

This sentiment I think does great damage to the church and its vision, which is not to be American, but to display the Kingdom within America.

2. We frequently and quickly forget that we are first citizens of the kingdom.

Phil. 3:20-"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ..."

So as not to do utter damage to the context of this passage, Paul has been describing two kinds of people:
You (the Philippians church) should consider all things a loss except for simply knowing Christ
You should consider everything now a loss compared to knowing Christ
You should gain Christ, by knowing him deeper, and living for him.
Things that are in your way of this leave them behind and strive toward what is ahead.

"There are those who live as enemies of the cross...they will be destroyed...their mind is set on the earthly kingdom. BUT our citizenship is in heaven..."

That's a big butt (I had to say it, makes me laugh every time I hear it). Paul states there are two people: those who are enemies, those whose kingdom is the earth, but YOUR primary citizenship, the one you should be concerned first and foremost about is NOT the kingdom of earth but the kingdom of heaven which will be made manifested when Christ returns! In no way am I saying to disregard anything here on earth (that would be far from my point and this isn't Fox News), but rather that we have duel citizenship first to the kingdom then as an outflow of our allegiance and dedication to the kingdom by our King Jesus, and in some ways making it manifested by submitting to our governing authorities (Romans 13:1-6; 1 Peter 2:13). It is easy to get wrapped up in our citizenship here and forget our kingdom citizenship.

3. Becoming too much like Israel (nationalistic rather than evangelistic).

Jesus told us to Go and make disciples of all nations....not just our nation or select nations. It is easy to fall so in love with this country that we become nationalistic. As stated earlier I love this country, and believe that God put me here to do his Kingdom work, and hopefully go beyond to reach more for the gospel of Christ. One of the main issues with Israel is that they were too nationalistic that in order to become part of the club you must perform certain things: by attaching extra works to salvation like circumcision, diet, and keeping the Sabbath. This kept their attention rather than being evangelistic. We seem to replace the joy and excitement of being American and associate it with the kingdom. Hence why churches (and I have seen this firsthand) sing God Bless America, America the Beautiful and other patriotic songs within a church service and can confuse a person emotionally and even spiritually. Its like an confusing interchange of nation and church. Pastor and Professor Russell Moore wrote in regards to this said,

“Scripture calls us into what the Bible tells us is a colony of heaven of the kingdom in the church, we ought to beware of any kind of nationalism, any kind of equating of the church with the nation, or the nation with the church. This is why American civil religion is so dangerous because it does that. It takes the experience, that transcendent experience of being a part of those from every tribe, tongue and nation around the throne and equates it with our experience as Americans. It takes the Deuteronomy blessings, goes right around Jesus and applies it to the United States of America.” “We have to give thanks, while not equating the country with the kingdom of God.”

I agree on his point. My prayer is that the church will keep its focus and praise God for those who have given their lives for us to be free, and be proud to be an American while keeping their feet grounded in that they are: citizens of the Kingdom.

I pray that similar to the end of the article mentioned earlier by Greg Boyd, that we, "make sure your patriotism pales in comparison to your sacrifice, commitment and allegiance to the Kingdom of God."

Be Blessed

Does Love Really Win?

If you have been holed up in a cave somewhere then you may not have heard that there is a book out called “Love Wins” by Rob Bell. It has had a lot of media attention, controversy and debate on the subject of hell. At first I really did not care, but as the volume of debate and discussion grew louder, I felt as a pastor and a believer I needed to read this for myself. If you are looking for a deep theological discussion or debate then check out Mark Driscoll’s resurgence page to what so many theologians and pastors are saying about the book. (For the more theological heart read Robert Gundry take on it). My aim is merely to give you a summary and clarity of the book, areas that of great encouragement, along with areas of great concern and positions Bell takes.

Bell begins his book with a WWII Blitzkrieg of questions about God, hell, love, etc… I mean really there are a lot of questions, it was like an ADD festival of questions. I understand that one of his purposes was to get us to question, to think about the things that we are “told” to believe. I totally agree with Bell, Scripture indicates that we should, “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) Why should we question and test the things people spout out? Because there are false teachers and false teaching in our midst and we must be careful (Just turn the TV on and listen to some of these televangelist!). Bell asks the question: Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal tormet for things they did in their few finite years of life? (pg 2) In Bell’s words, “Are millions of people going to Hell over tens of thousands of years the best that God can do? Within this framework he not only addresses the issues with an eternal punishment type of hell but the issues he has with the biblical doctrines of predestination and election. (He present an Arminian position----also you can watch his trailer here) For the sake of keeping this condensed I will not cover those doctrines in this summary.

So let’s jump into the two main subjects:

Heaven:

Bell describes heaven as: “Here is the New there” arguing that the gospel was never about just “getting to heaven”. The misconception of leaving earth and getting out of here was the goal for so many Christians. He asks the question, "why would God create us simply to GO somewhere else?" I ask myself the same question when people are eager to get out of here like a That heaven is full of floating babies in diapers, and harps strumming with giant Donald Trump like mansions on every corner is really absurd. He cites OT passages to indicate that they were awaiting a kingdom or age to come, to arrive HERE! Thy kingdom come, not thy kingdom leave! He says, “When the gospel is diminished to a question of whether or not a person will “get to heaven” that reduces the gospel to a ticket, a way to get past the bouncer and into the club.” (pg 178) Keeping us grounded on the fact that so many people focus on leaving rather than cultivating and sowing the Kingdom here and now. I really enjoyed this as I feel many believers (esp. in the traditional church) are still stuck on this type of thought process. If you want an read on heaven and the kingdom read N.T. Wrights “Surprised by Hope”.

Hell:

This is my greatest area of concern in the whole book. This is obviously where all the controversy and debate is focused on. Let me stop and say that there are many areas in the book that I agreed with and enjoyed. Many visions that Bell has that had me thinking: yes this is a problem and yes this needs to change in the hearts of God’s people (i.e. the arrogance of the “inness” of churches, the gospel being reduced to just going to heaven, or Jesus merely saves sinners). When it came to his view on hell, I completely disagree with him. He sums his point up by stating, “At the heart of this perspective [God reaches all people] is the belief that, given enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God’s presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most “depraved sinners” will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God.”

Bell uses passages that to him indicate his overall point that everyone will be saved or reconciled:

1. 1 Timothy 2:3-4-“ This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

2. Acts 3:21-“…God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

3. Colossians 1:19-“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven…”

He also cites OT verses that indicate that God is more interested in restoration not destruction. (Ezekiel 16; Jeremiah 32; Jeremiah 5)

With these passages in place, he asks then "Does God get what He wants?"

Greek and Context:

Bell also has a problem identifying his Greek verbs and using passages within context. I cannot tell you how important it is to know the context of a passage. This seems to be the most common mistake believers do when pulling verses from all over the place to make their point (Unbelievers also when they want to throw the Bible back in the faces of believers). Most are more worried about making their point (or interpretation)that they want to make will fit the verse they are using. We call that (for you seminary peeps) eisegesis. Bell does this with the above passages and several others which is very disappointing but not new.

In regards to Greek, Bell uses Matthew 25:31-46 as an example to illustrate his point that hell is NOT a forever ,eternal type of torment or punishment. He says that the Greek word for eternal is “aion”. Aion has many meanings but he states that it can mean a period of time, with a beginning and end. It is commonly translated “age” in NIV, ESV and pretty much any English bible. So when you read in Matthew 25:41 where Jesus says the goats, “Depart from me…into the eternal fire prepared for you…” he means that it will only be for a period of time, NOT forever. The fire will not last forever; it will only be a period of time. He states that to the biblical writers, the notion of forever would be foreign to them. He writes more than what I am giving you about and sounds much more convincing but I do not want this to be a research paper. Again in Matthew 25:46, Jesus says, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” So that I do not write an entire thesis, here is an excellent link that describes the fallacy in Bell’s treatment of the Greek word aion.

He finally argues towards the back of the book that to teach that God would send someone to an eternal torment indicates that God "in essence becomes fundamentally a different being to them in that moment of death, a different being to them forever. A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them...in the blink of an eye become a cruel, mean viscous tormentor..."(pg 173). Do we really want a God like that?

To give some clarity on what Bell advocates I am including the position taken by Evangelical Arminian (based on his book, which in my opinion is what Bell seems to be) Clark Pinnock who said:

1. that God's attributes are subservient to his love and that his purpose is to save everyone. (Love does win)

2. Salvation is dependent on the free will of individuals and is grounded in a notion that God's making grace universally accessible to those who respond to the offer of it even apart from explicit faith in Christ (Read Bell's pg. 157-159)

Bell is crafty, and he is smart. He knows how to write, to get you to think. The book has some areas that I am passionate to see the church be a part of. He tugs on the emotional heart strings and at times I can openly admit that I felt my heart break thinking about people I know being punished forever. But I was not called to submit to mere emotions, my guide, my instruction, my correction and my standard comes from God's word.

I know that I was not able to cover everything and that's okay. You may disagree with my analysis which is also okay. We forget that as believers we can still love each other even in the midst of not agreeing with one another. I did not write up a defense for everything because it is a summary and again I feel like there are plenty of better resources that deal with this. If you really want to know how I feel read this excellent article by Carl Trueman about theological controversies (I know there is a lot of reading!). I hope this helps.

Be Blessed

Our Obesessed Traditions

Recently I have been thinking about the things that we do during Sunday morning worship. Most of us have been to different churches and have seen different types of practices performed. So I sat one day and wondered what worship looked like or sounded like in the early church and OT. Did they have altar calls? A program for Sunday (or Saturday) morning? Did they have a worship band? Stain glass? Carpet? Pews or chairs? What traditions are a part of a worship service are rooted in history or rooted in Scripture?

Let's knock out some of these easy things first:

For one thing we know that they didn't have bulletins giving you a play by play of everything that was happening in the service: (That would have wasted way too much papyrus and scroll space.) Nor were stain glass windows and depictions of Christ as these were not prevalent till around the 9th century and then flourished greatly in the French, German and English churches of the 12th century. And finally church pews were not a product of the church for the first 1,000 years of its existence, and did not become a real staple of church until the 13th-15th centuries. Now we know projectors, cameras, carpet, and all the other fancy stuff wouldn't have been there either. Another aspect closer to the heart of most churches is the altar call. This is yet another aspect of church tradition that just simply is no where to be found in Scripture. The way some churches treat them you would think Jesus himself had them, but it simply was not part of the church until the 1700 and 1800's. My point is we hold to some traditions that are not biblical, but just have been such a huge part of the Christian culture (primarily the traditional), so we continue to do it. In no way am I bashing any church that has these traditions (as my church has them), but I want you begin thinking about what we do in regards to corporate worship and even question some of the things we hold to.

Scripture:
So I could spend about 30 pages describing this (now I seem to come up with a fun topic for what I could have written about in my religion thesis--too little too late). But I want to examine 3 passages that gives us a tiny glimpse of what a worship had and looked like:

Nehemiah 8 gives us a small window into an assembling of believers in a worship ceremonial service. This part of Scripture has been described as a ceremony or revival of the people to renewal and reformation. The Israelite have now settled in the land, and are going to have a worship service dedicated to God. Let's see what it entailed:

-All the people assembled in one place (8:1)
-Ezra (the senior pastor) comes out (8:1)
-He has the Law of the Lord (what we would equivocate to God's Word) (8:1)
-He reads God's word aloud for about 6 hours! (Read this when you complain your pastor went too long!) (8:3)
-The people listened attentively. (They didn't just sit there, they were engaged in this preaching) (8:3)
-He preached from a stage or platform, as he was elevated above everyone else so they could see. (8:4-5)
-The people responded by throwing their hands in the air and saying "Amen" and bowing low to the ground in worship. (8:6)
-Then the Levites (other priests or leaders) read it to the people instructed them and gave it meaning so that they could understand it. (8:7-8)

That is a lot of stuff. Reminds me of a story told to me about a man in our church (who has passed away) who, when the preacher or service went too long, would throw his arm straight in the air and stare at his watch. (For this service he would be waiting a looong time)

Nehemiah 8 gives us immense clarity on what some of their services looked like and how they are found in what we do today. Churches today do many of these things, and they add to this as well: with prayer, silence, reflection, Lord's Supper and other sacraments performed within Scripture. BUt there are other traditions that have left churches divided, angry, and elevating certain aspects that really are no where to be found in Scripture.

Worship no matter what kind, is a state of the heart and body (Romans 12:1-2). Bob Deffenbach has a great link to an article describing different variations of worship and what should be in a worship service. My aim was to take a look at some of the church traditions we hold, and how some of them are only recent inventions of man not God. Next week we will examine some passages from the NT, that give us more perspective on what worship looked like then and how we can learn to not get obsessed or caught up in some of our "tradition".

Be Blessed.

A disease runs through...

When I became a Christian at 21 years old I had a lot to learn. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever envision becoming a pastor. I was never that person that said that I was going to lead people to Jesus, and in fact I rarely had the desire to speak in front of people. I was more skeptical about pastors more than any other group of people (they reminded me more of used car salesman or door to door salesman). But when the call came, I reluctantly answered. It took me three to four years to walk out on real faith and trust this calling God seemed to think I was made for. The rest is history and I have been in full-time ministry for 3 years with 6 years of various ministry/leadership experiences. As much as I was a skeptic of pastors I had a pastor that began to grow on me. He could preach the word with excitement, and passion. He was always willing to answer biblical questions or difficulties people had and shepherded the flock of our church (2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Peter 5:2-5).
As good as this pastor was something deeper was brewing: many members began to get their Messiah complexes mixed up This disease runs in many churches including yours. Let me explain.

Many people love Christ, many people love their pastors, but sometimes there is an unnoticed disease where the church thinks that if they hire this pastor he will solve all the problems, issues, breaks, and cracks within their church. (insert the not my church here). Obviously not everyone does this, but it does creep in a subtle way. The end result can be an overworked, sometimes underpaid, stressed, ineffective pastor who either stays or leaves because of it.

One thing congregants (members) must understand is that pastors are people too. (sounds like a bad infomercial for PETA).

1. We fail just as much as you do.
Just ask their wives, or family. We fail constantly. We let preaching get to our head sometimes, we get so wrapped up in our knowledge that we think we are better than others, or that a bible study isn't up to our intellectual snuff. We get angry, say stupid things, and exclude people, and compare ourselves to other pastors. We can be a very insecure bunch!

2. Sometimes we just don't know how to interact with people.
You would think that being a pastor one would be socially adept to having conversations and talking openly and freely. Unfortunately this has not been my experience. Those who can flow from the pulpit or from behind a makeshift music stand, seem to be quiet, and reserved and act like its the first day of school. They can be awkward, timid and down right weird in social situations. This is something as pastors we must overcome through His Spirit

3. We get tired and need time away.
An important aspect of my ministry has always been rooted in quantity does not always equate quality. Many pastors are tempted with the feeling to take or lead too many ministries (esp. if they are not good ministries or being led well). They feel the need to have several events, trips schedule their lives up, and leave very little time for themselves by using a pious thought of I am doing it all for the kingdom. I do not deny that various events, trips, and ministries help our members but we are not only commanded to rest, and reflect (Gen.2:1-4) but in the end we will be more effective by doing this. It can also lead us to a deception of the more I "do": which quickly puts a emphasis and focus on us and OUR labor.

It is easy to schedule time up and spend too much time at the office, or more time with congregants than filling up on Christ and His Spirit. Any engaged or married pastor will have to understand that God comes first then his wife, then his family. If we neglect tending to our families, how can we be effective with our spiritual family? (1 Tim. 3:4-5) This verse also can become a good model for single pastors.
This aspect begins the downward spiral of fatigue, being burned out, and let's be honest when dealing with people they frustrate you. Pastors need a retreat, to get away, and to manage their time wisely. I understand that most pastors are understaffed or no staffed, with no help from parents, no support, its a lone ranger type of ministry. But as leaders we must take care of ourselves (see my blog on empty tanks)through nourishment of the word, rest and time off.

1. Now pastors are called to a list of character/teaching qualifications that set him apart as it is a calling. (1 Tim. 3:1-7)
2. Pastors are also called not to take the call of leadership lightly (James 3:1)

Both lists could be endless of the things pastors endure,(and are called to) but I just wanted to remind people that pastors are people. We are called to a position unlike any other. A position very similar to a quote I saw on an article made by Ernest Shakelton used in an advertisement for his expedition to Antarctica in 1914:

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful...."

Be Blessed