goodbye Mondragons.

 

We are excited and in prayer with the Chad & Melody {Juliana, Adeline, and Breckenridge} Mondragon as they embark in starting a church plant in Denver, Colorado. We will miss them dearly.

 

Theology Thursday – Roland Allen

This Thursday I would like to point you to two posts from J. D. Payne, my good friend and professor, on the missionary and author Roland Allen. The posts provide a brief introduction to an individual that has had more influence upon modern missions and church planting than most people realize. I hope they encourage you and I would love to hear you thoughts on how Allen’s theology should impact our lives as individuals and as a church.

Roland Allen: Part 1, The Man

Roland Allen: Part 2, His Missiology

 

Tidbits Tuesday (9 March 2010)

 

Feasting on Gospel Truth

Yesterday, I asked our church body to take time to meditate on the incredible and marvelous gospel truth of Acts 20:28 – “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.”

As we were praying yesterday morning before the service, one of our men asked God to flood him with the joy of the gospel so that all he would be able to do was shout praise to God!   What an awesome request!  That is why it is so wonderful to feast on gospel truth – there is nothing sweeter or more precious.  The following paragraph was written by one of our members, Anthony Diehl, and posted on facebook.   It is his thoughts prompted by the Holy Spirit as he feasted on this gospel truth.  I was greatly blessed by it.  Please take time to read it and to add your meditation thoughts and praise to his throughout the week...

“Acts 20:28 has been on my mind for some time now. This past Sunday one of our elders asked the church body to meditate on this text this week. As I have meditated on the text it has become even more abundantly clear to my heart and mind that those who make up the church are loved by God with a specific kind of love that God has set on His elect. The overwhelming reality that for no merit inherent in man, God set his love on His church has been a rush of joy to my soul so as to lose all care for the things of this world and has set my heart on fire for the cause of missions. Jesus Christ has purchased the church with his own blood!

There are so many implications from a sentence like this. Sadly, many Christians do not see the wonderful realities present in this text. Texts like this have caused conflict for centuries. It is not my desire to stir up controversy but rather to stir the affections of my fellow believers towards Jesus Christ. I would like to list several implications from this text that ought to cause floods of joy to the soul and radical Christian living.

1. There is a specific love with which God loves the church that is distinct from his general love of the world. To put it another way, God’s specific love for the church results in the salvation of His church while God’s love for the world is evidenced by his kindness, patience, and forbearance. (see Rom 2)

a. God has purposed to redeem certain people and not others. This is due not to the inherent goodness in man, since there is no inherent goodness (Rom 3:10) but to His grace. I Peter 2:8-9 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumbled because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Eph 1:5 he predestined us (believers) for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. Rom 11:5-7 So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by Grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened… I Th 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 10:20 The Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” Rom 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy!

b. It is for His elect that Christ lived, died, and intercedes. Mat 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins John 10:3-4 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all His own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice…John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep… Heb 9:15 Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgression committed under the first covenant. John 17:20-21 “I do not ask for these only (speaking of His disciples), but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:24-26 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world…

2. What Jesus Christ paid for, He has obtained. I have listed merely a sampling of scriptures that point to a special distinct kind of love God has for His people. Now notice with me the tense of the verbs in Acts 20:28….”which He obtained” It is an aorist middle indicative which denotes a past time event done for oneself. So at the cross, Jesus set out to obtain something. That something is the church. Jesus elsewhere speaks of those he obtained as, “all whom the Father has given me.” No doubt this includes you and I. But we were not even born, and had done neither good or evil (sound familiar…Rom 9:11-13). This means our salvation was guaranteed at the cross. The cross actually saves, it does not merely make salvation possible but it actually saves all for whom it was intended to save. If the intention of Jesus Christ was to obtain to salvation of the whole world then what happened because Scripture says that the plans of God cannot be thwarted. Obviously since what God plans He accomplishes, He did not plan the redemption of every individual person. Is 53 says that in the travail of His soul He sees his offspring and is satisfied…..why would Jesus be satisfied if His intended goal of the redemption of every individual did not even come close to fruition? But Jesus is satisfied! Jesus said He would not lose even one of those who the Father had given Him…If the Father gave every individual to Jesus and His death did not prevent many from the fire of hell then He is a liar. Since God cannot lie we are left with the only possible answer, “Jesus died for His Sheep.” Our Sovereign Lord has saved everyone whom he intended. This is why missions cannot fail.

3. What does this mean for us? Well it does not mean we proudly turn our noses up at those who do not yet understand the marvels of God’s love. It means we pray earnestly that the same grace given to us may be given to them as well that they may understand the length, and height, and breadth, and depth of the love of God. It does not mean that we try to figure out who is elect. That does not matter. We have been commissioned to take the gospel to every nation! The quickest route to the return of Jesus is the evangelization of the world! We have been given all authority over this planet. Since He has obtained to church with His own blood , out cause cannot fail. There are many out there will believe, but how shall they hear without a preacher? God does not need us to accomplish his mission. If we will not obey He will send someone else. But why would we refuse the joy of taken part in building a kingdom that cannot fall. The gates of Hell cannot prevail against our task! (Matt 20) He has obtained the church with his own blood, missions cannot fail!”

May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His sufferings,

Anthony Rev 21:7

 

Proud Father

The newest baby at Providence with her proud Daddy.
Lily Kate May,8 lbs 3 oz, 20 inches, born at 12:21 pm on February 27, 2010.
Congrats to Gine & Ryan!

 

Reason for God

Special thanks to Colby for giving me the link this week. I encourage all of you reading this posting to click on the link I have provided. It will take you to a youtube video of Tim Keller speaking at Google Authors on his book “Reason for God”. It is an excellent video for many reasons. The question I would desire for each of you to consider may be different than what you would think. Keller certainly does a wonderful job describing his method and reasoning for God… but the question I would like for everyone to consider is, “Is our primary task as Christians to be seeking a reason or a way to reason to God?” Keller certainly represents his school of apologetics well but is it the correct school? Is there a correct school? Does it matter? Is his line of argument helpful for those who do not know Jesus? I will not answer any of these questions now. I want to hear what you all think. Let me know on here or as you see me. Enjoy your weekend.

 

Reviewers respond to McLaren’s “New” Christianity

(My apologies for the delayed post …)

A not-quite-new villain for Biblical Christianity is getting newer criticisms because of his newest book, A New Kind of Christianity. And though I haven’t read that book, by Brian McLaren, myself, that criticism seems well-deserved.

Tim Challies, the sort-of “spokesperson” for “young, restless and Reformed” bloggers, was among the first online critics. His review is not as detailed as others, and I wish he had rebutted McLaren’s ideas and mostly his likely basis of thought (though other reviewers have done this well). But Challies does summarized his thoughts most effectively:

It wasn’t too long ago that I wrote about Brian McLaren and got in trouble. Reflecting on seeing him speak at a nearby church, I suggested that he appears to love Jesus but hate God. Based on immediate and furious reaction, I quickly retracted that statement. I should not have done so. I believed it then and I believe it now. And if it was true then, how much more true is it upon the release of his latest tome A New Kind of Christianity. In this book we finally see where McLaren’s journey has taken him; it has taken him into outright, rank, unapologetic apostasy. He hates God. Period.

[. . . ] And swarms of Christians are looking at him with admiration and saying, “See how that guy loves God?” I don’t know what McLaren could do to make the situation more clear. In fact, his book is nearly indistinguishable from many of the de-conversion narratives that are all the rage today.

Author and pastor Kevin DeYoung runs down McLaren’s work in a more-gentle, yet certainly not less critical style. He split his reviews into two parts, an introduction and a much lengthier rebuttal of each chapter. He concluded there isn’t much “new” about this kind of Christianity. It’s been-there-done-that liberalism, not well defended, and not Biblical.

The message of McLarenism is pretty simple: God is love and wants everyone to be kind and inclusive and care for the poor and the environment. This is what Jesus was like, and we should be like Jesus. This is, of course, not wrong in so far as it goes. The Liberal/McLaren emphasis on the kingdom is right, their concern for the “other” is right, much of their ethics is right. But McLarenism, like liberalism, cannot be right. It has its emphases all out of proportion, its right statements thrown out of whack by all that is missing. In McLarenism there is no original sin, no wrath, no hell, no creation-fall-redemption, no definite future, no second coming that I can see, no clear statement on the deity of Christ, no mention of vicarious substitution or God’s holiness or divine sovereignty, no ethical demands except as they relate to being kind to others, no God-offendedness, no doctrine of justification, no unchanging apostolic deposit of truth, no absolute submission to the word of God, nary a mention of faith and worship, no doctrine of regeneration, no evangelistic impulse to save the lost, and nothing about God’s passion for his glory. This is surely a lot to leave out.

Professor Mike Wittmer (author of Don’t Stop Believing) also took McLaren to task for leaving out essential doctrines of the Gospel, and, like many before him, substituting liberal moralism in its place while claiming to be persecuted.

[T]his debate about the Christian faith—which he and his friends started—is not a personality contest.  You can’t dismiss what Christians have always believed and then expect a free pass because you’re likeable.  And just below the surface of Brian’s humble, can’t-we-all-just-get-along vibe is an accusatory tone that repeatedly compares his critics to a religious Gestapo whose leaders defend their conservative beliefs because they don’t want to lose their jobs.

That doesn’t sound like me.  I am an easy-going guy who just wants to love Jesus.  But to love Jesus, I have to know and believe something about him.  Jesus is not an elastic symbol for whatever we happen to value (e.g., inclusive love), but is an actual person who can be known, trusted, and loved.

Perhaps sometime I will read the book myself. But mostly I do prefer reading books that seek Biblical balance.

McLaren’s rejection of not just church traditions, but Biblical truth, prevents him from falling in that category. The Biblical truths he rejects are things as central to Christianity as Christ dying for sinners, and the fact that God is moving His universe, and redemptive history, to a conclusion: the New Heavens and New Earth for God’s people.

What is truly loving and humble is proclaiming this message and acting accordingly. And unfortunately, it is so unloving and arrogant to proclaim that some “new” Christianity must replace this.

What I’ve found most sad is this: from all the material online that I have read from him, and especially his defenders, there would be nothing for this “new” Christianity to do once all the bad guys are gone. McLaren and other “emergent” advocates rant a lot about how intolerant Christians have been before. What would they do in a perfect After-world (assuming they make it there) when God has already dealt with all the real-life villains on Earth, and there’s no longer any Social Justice to do?

Perhaps the best reaction of God’s people is not to be outraged at McLaren and others, but to pity them. They have no positive delight in the God of truth and Grace to live for and love. They have only villains to shoot at. We shoot back, of course, but for the glory of God and the truth of His Word and His future world in view.

I hope to Heaven we can always live in that light and never base all our actions on Beating the Bad Guys — whether it’s the Devil himself, or a legalist somewhere, or Brian McLaren, or anyone else.

 

Tidbits Tuesday (2 March 2010)

 

photo credit- anne swanson

 

Praying & Prayers

Keeping with the theme of prayer, the text of 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 is another helpfully worded prayer by the Apostle Paul. In particular, the language emphasizes the interconnectedness of the church. This interconnectedness is seen in several elements among which is the call to “increase and abound in love for one another.”

The end purpose is not merely to create some feeling or mere emotion of love, but rather the purpose centers around God – that they would be established before him. In verse 13, the ESV reads “so that he may establish…” in which it is God who establishes peoples’ hearts in holiness.

Here is where the community of believers and their love for one another comes into play. Living the Christian life “without blame in holiness” is not just a private matter for an individual to pursue on one’s own. Rather, the Christian life is a matter that is tied to the whole, the church. All of us are to increase and abound in love for one another and all of us are to be established without blame in holiness before God. How do believers within the church display the kind of love that God commands us to have for one another? Part of the answer is prayer. We all are to pray similarly for one another and also to expect and covet the prayers of those who might pray for us within the church.

O the challenge for the church to increase and abound in such prayerful love for one another!