I am (truly) not ashamed - of the (true) Gospel

I just have to say that I'm amazed at what passes for the Gospel nowadays.

I think the words of Paul in II Cor. 11:1-6 would be instructive to us regarding the "accepting" of a "different gospel". So there is something that can be accepted, that can feel good, that can give you all of the goose bumps but not be the real and true Gospel of Jesus Christ. So I ask you, what would that look like? I'm glad that you asked. A couple of months ago, while being a parasite on my wife's facebook account, I saw a post that was shared by a deacon at a church that said we should see the baptism service that took place. So immediately going to the site, I finally watched 2 months later, but found something disturbing. Here is an excerpt from a testimony given by someone who is now a "Christian":

"I had no where else to go, I was looking for something and this is where it brought me."
"...I just had this feeling and I knew that I had to go up there...I was overwhelmed with what I felt...I knew I needed to change my life."
"There was joy and sadness because I had waited so long...I searched for it...I [had] never really opened up my heart...giving up control is very hard but that is where I needed to go, that is what I needed to be doing."
"I would've never said yes, but before I let myself reason w/ me, I said, YES!"
(emphasis mine)

Okay now, let me give a couple of qualifiers, I'm not doubting that this person had a serious encounter with God. But this is what the Gospel often turns into, an ASSUMPTION, not an actual encounter with God through the work of the Holy Spirit where someone recognizes their sinfulness and God's holiness. God turns into, "something", among other things, faith turns into a "me centered" focus that drives all of God's desires. I mean, when I go and see the Grand Canyon, that is awesome, but I don't want to forget my mirror so I can remember who all of God's affections are on. :) Would the above "testimony" be different from the tax collector in Luke 18:13? Should he have said, "God, be merciful to me/myself and I, I need a change and I'm feeling like you could be the one to do it but I'm not real sure what I need to change, maybe be happier?" Exactly.

As I have discussed recently with a friend, faith is your faith, but it is only operative based on the free gift of the grace of God in your life. I can have "faith" in many things and, operate in that faith, but only faith in God is operational by His work through grace. "But God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved." Eph. 2:4-5

So, back to Paul, I think that what he would say to us today is what he said to the Corinthians, "indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things." v. 6b. What isn't plain is, as I said in my last post, the perspecuity of the Gospel, when someone can give a testimony and never, accept when prompted, use the name of Jesus or see the wickedness of their own standing before God, you don't have the Gospel.

Your boasting friend,

Tim

God reigns through the gospel

I loved what our Pastor, Tim Presson, said yesterday speaking about I Cor. 15:3-4, he said, "This is the gospel regardless of what we say or do." (Tim of Tim paraphrase). I was thinking about it today and thought about the proclamation that songs make so often, "You reign" being one of them. I like the song but my proclamation or realization of it does not 'solidify' the fact that He reigns, he reigns whether I believe it or not. That is what Pastor Tim was saying, you can believe it or not, that doesn't make it any less or more of the gospel, it is the gospel regardless.

Praying you believe.

Your boasting friend,

Tim

Pornification and the gospel call

So I was driving down the road the other day and saw a sign that was advertising a new show. Now I don't want to be one that would disparage everything that the world does and label it as garbage and not worthy of my time. There are many pursuits in the arena of God's common grace over everyone that are worth time and investment. Many of them cannot be found on TV, one reason the family decided to ditch it. That is for another post, I digress.

I saw the advertisement for, Californication, please don't say that you watch it for a better aim at sharing the gospel. All you can see on the billboard is David D.(sp?) and he is in between the girls who are walking up these steps. It is obvious what they are selling and it does sell very well. But the star has already seen the distress that it has placed on his life, after entering a sex rehab in California. Again, I digress. On the way back from work I get Cougar Town and then to top them all off I get the lie that, "The early church welcomed a gay man" also "would Jesus discriminate?" all within a 20 mile ride from Grand Prairie to Dallas on I30.

Why do I bring this up? We are bombarded everyday with the images and ads that titillate the mind. But further, think of it this way, what a society celebrates in the open is only a symptom of a greater sickness. There is no truth but what comes into your desire, if you like it and desire it then it must be good. I think this is where the gospel is counter cultural, it makes you think in opposite of your desires. What desire comes up in my life isn't to be displayed as true and celebrated unless I have made a conscious effort in bringing it in line with the gospel. Is it difficult in our society, YES! That is the whole point! We have instant access to our desires because that is what a society that celebrates these things does.

So the pornification of the society goes on and will continue to go on in a society that celebrates our own desires. Whatever you want you can have because if you desire it it must be good. I hope that attitude never gets into the chur...oops.

Boast in the gospel.

Your boasting friend,

Tim

I was in the bathroom this morning brushing my teeth and I heard this tune playing in Samuel's crib:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don't sing,
Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.
And if that diamond ring turn brass,
Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass...

The tune started going in my head but as the lines kept going over in my head, I was thinking of the church's theology today. There is a "coterminous", if you will, theology or philosophy throughout the church. We're born innocent, like God, and if we can just keep that going, what a good thing it would be. How do we do that? By feeding the desires that we think are innocent, let's make life more comfortable. We think there is nothing in children but an innocence that if we bring it out enough it will blossom and how does this happen, lets make YOU the center of the universe.

We are so decieved that we'll mimick the world's 'creativity' and morph them in every endeavour to market God to the world. We will market the gospel and so create a 'tool' that will work for the circumstance at hand, have halloween? Call it fall festival, get candy, generate a lot of energy, give away things and bring people in. What? Or lets do Christmas and have it all revolve around singing and what the people in the choir can do. I mean, God didn't get it right the first time and so we'll show him how to do it. What would Paul have to say, "...what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?" II Cor. 6:14-16

So, I generate light from darkness?

Man is the golden cow. God, we say, is subject to him and his pithy thoughts, I'm sure they wouldn't want him speaking like he did in the OT. I pray for my son to come to an early knowledge of his sin and his own wickedness but it won't come by 'hush little baby'...it will only come through the truth of the gospel. I am a great sinner but Christ is a great Savior.

Your boasting friend,

Tim

Great stuff - let's not market the gospel...please

"The first week of September (!) I received my first piece of Christmas mail: a holiday subscription offer from Time magazine. This week I received a similar offer from Christianity Today. That's evangelical Christianity for you: a couple of weeks behind the cultural trendsetters, but trying hard to keep up."

Phillip Ryken

Gospel Driven Life

This is from Between two Worlds, Michael Horton's new book The Gospel Driven Life.

See the special offer from the Westminster book store, awesome!

He has the quote that really was the impetus for this blog:

"We can never assume the gospel; it has to be the staple diet not only for the beginning, but for the middle and the end of the Christian pilgrimmage."

Your boasting friend,

Tim

Praying for wisdom

Okay, I'm asking for critique and opinions of how I need to proceed with a further witness of the gospel in a co-workers life. We bounced around emails and this was a response to one that he had sent me back. The conversation started when he wrote an article, in a little email newsletter from our company, about Woodstock and the relative good nature of the event, and if we all just lived in that moment how good the world would be.


Below are the seven things that he pointed out to me of what the 60's really meant and mean in today's culture. These are the things that, if followed, would bring peace and harmony - okay now that I've set that up please read and let me know.


Your boasting friend,


Tim


_______________________________________________


Thank you ________.

I guess my point would be the idea of worldview or the true nature of people. How they generally act, think, create and how those things effect the state of our being and effect the generations down the line. I respect your knowledge here and would not be able in the least to compare with that. I was born in '67 so I couldn't quite catch up to you...:) Although that is true its never stopped me before.

So let me deal thoughtfully point by point:

a) a more mystical consciousness

I think there is little definition of this or there was during that time. Did they define that, or, would that be too 'unmystical' to try and define? I think mystery is very evident within the Ethos of God and so when the Apostle Paul would say, "the mystery of Christ in you the hope of glory" Col 1:27, there was a well defined parameter of Whom he was speaking of. So would defining this take off the edge of what they were trying to say or what you are saying?

b) a heightened awareness of the vital need to take care of our environment

I can agree to a point. I think when we look back on some of the 'greening' we might be a little more than disappointed. And just because some guy loses his job over my own need to be 'green' we might have to rethink some of these techniques that we're using. I would point to the use of DDT in Africa, because of one book they ceased to use this pesticide, as a result a virtual genocide in that country commenced that spread malaria at alarming rates. I agree lets take care of what God has given to us as stewards but lets not deny the fact of what our 'greed for green' causes. Is there even an element of corporate greed on the other end of this? I.e., those who want to squeeze the bigger corporations into actions that are not altogether warranted, basically spreading rumors and talking of doomsday?

c) a renunciation of the mind-numbing corporate state

Cannot say that I don't agree with this, although I want to be thankful where I feel God has placed me, I cannot think in that mindset. I must think people but most importantly God and his global purposes.

d) an effort to live more comunally and to share resources

I think you might like, Acts 2:44 - "And all who believed were together and had all things in common" I think that there was nothing better, then or, today, of having a commonality with others. Kind of like Cheers with Norm and "everybody knows your name." But it wasn't centered on my needs but those 'who believed' came together because they weren't so concentrated on themselves, but they were concentrated on God, they were God centered. In the history of the world I'm sure there was not a people more persecuted for their beliefs than those early Christians but they got together and stayed together because of the One who brought them together. That is a community ethos that cannot be broken.

f) newer forms of expression (particularly in the arts...the goal being to make one completely reexamine "traditional" schools of thought )

Okay, I think I get this. I would only say that it is a respect of those traditions that will lead to greater awareness, hence I cannot just look at God and the created world and how it expresses itself without some type of grasp on Who created and sustains it. I think it would be helpful to insert a quote from a recently read article , " Agassiz died... believing to his dying day that to study nature was to study the works of God. He worked tirelessly to see a zoological museum built at Harvard and when it was finally opened in 1860, Harvard?s President declared it was appropriate that the museum stood face-to-face with the theological school, ?God?s word and God?s works mutually illustrating each other.? I think that it requires digging into the traditions of past generations to see mistakes and triumphs but ultimately to see how God works through it. That is why I'm reading the biography of Andrew Jackson, amazing to see what he lived through to become the 7th president, also what our Union survived through, we would still be speaking with a British accent if it weren't for some of these brave souls. Are the 'newer forms' without any moorings on the past? When you say, 'reexamine', it brings to mind suspiciousness or casting a 'weary eye' toward something. What if there is found to be incompatibility in the newer v. older? What would be the criteria by which it is judged to be copasetic?




e) and lastly, (and perhaps most important of all), an appreciation for the sheer miraculous joy of existence.

What about the person with a disability or those born into starvation? I'm really not trying to bust your chops because I think God has purposes in both of them, if he did not then they would not exist. That is my worldview coming into it. I think it is instructive to see the depression, anxiety, and psychosis that grips our society because of the vacuum that an entertainment driven society requires. We don't want to think about suffering but it is a fact of every living human being. George MacDonald, CS Lewis' pastor, wrote this at the forward of CS Lewis' book The Problem with Pain, "Jesus Christ came into this world, not so that men might not suffer, but that in their suffering they might become like him". See I believe that the world revolves around Truth, not my truth, not your truth but a Truth that is Objective and clear, it provides purpose and ultimately unspeakable, unshakable JOY! So that the parents, caring for their 18 y/o son, who will never make it out of a wheelchair, and will spend all of his life immobile, and unable to speak, can find joy in the process of caring and loving a circumstance that is most unlovable. I'm not saying that it happens overnight, it could take 8-10-12 years or eternity to understand the joy filled purpose which God sent that into our lives. I believe that it is ultimately a joyous thing to find all my treasure in God and live in such a way that every circumstance speaks to His glory. Again this is a juxtaposition of joy but yet an awesome union in the end. What do you say? How do you derive joy from the everyday mundane tasks? How is it that ones existence is a 'joy' even when those circumstances don't pan out?


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Finally, I'll just leave you with another quote that I just recently read:

In the book by Alan Jacobs, Original Sin, "The book included this gem of a quotation from novelist Rebecca West: "If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed like a good idea at the time'."



Take care my friend,



Tim