Where’s Your Heart At?

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

Where’s your heart at? I have been blogging a bit about what we have been going through with our City Group the last couple weeks and this past week we looked at “Idolatry – The Sin Beneath The Sin.” I was excited to see what God did and is doing among us as we have delved deeper to see why we worship certain things in our lives rather than Him. Tim Keller always stresses Christocentric preaching and this small group series has definitely been Christocentric and gospel-centered.

Idolatry is a huge issue among us humans. We were made to worship. In the very beginning God made man in His own image and man was to worship God and have dominion over the earth. But in Genesis 3 things changed. We decided we had a better plan for our lives than God did and that forever changed the way we lived.

So we all have this inclination to worship someone or something, but being born sinners our objects of worship are usually anything and everything but God. You see, idols don’t necessarily always have to be bad things, they can be good. Pastor Mark Driscoll has said before to “be careful not to worship a good thing as a god thing for that is a bad thing.” We can make family into an idol, money, careers, sex, recreation, and anything else we can think of. It isn’t hard because we were made to worship and if God isn’t in the preeminent place that He should be in our lives, something else will take His place.

So how are we to deal with this problem?

Go deeper into the gospel.

That can’t be it, can it? Whenever we can identify an idol in our lives we try to get rid of it by either focusing more on that idol to take care of it or by looking deeper into ourselves for the answer. A lot of times we do need to look deeper into ourselves to find the root, but that is not where we find the solution to our problem.

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross; His death, burial, and resurrection and how that brings us back into a right relationship with God. That is good news because without Christ we are hopeless. This gospel or good news is outside of us. It is a proclamation of something that has been accomplished for us in history.

So if we look at what Christ has already accomplished for us and keep reminding and preaching the gospel to ourselves, we will not be “navel-gazing” or continuing to look at our idols or into ourselves, but to the cross. The more we do this, the more we are impacted by what was accomplished there for us and the more we will be gripped and captivated by our Savior. And guess what? When that happens He takes that ultimate place in our hearts and the idols just fall away.

There is power in the gospel, don’t be so quick to think you “got it down” or to move from it. Where’s your heart at?

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Love Your City

Posted on February 3, 2012 by

Yesterday, I posted about being “for the city.” I talked about what our City Group started out with studying last week through Tim Keller’s curriculum. It is a real blessing and challenge to think about our Cities more and how we can spread the Gospel in them. We don’t just want to be about Word with no action, but we also don’t want to be all action with no Word (cause-oriented, social gospel etc.). We need to be proclaiming the Gospel in both Word and deed.

Today I came across a cool post with ideas of how to Love Your City. Enjoy!

http://theresurgence.com/2012/02/03/11-gospel-centered-ways-to-love-your-city

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For the City

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

I love small group ministry. I think it is a vital part of any healthy church, but I also think that small groups can sometimes be unhealthy. This is another topic I have heard about and read about lately. Mars Hill pastor and Director of Community, Brad House has written a much needed book that deals in this area entitled “Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support.” I am a lot newer to this whole deal with small groups than he is so I would suggest you give it a read. I have only read a few pages so far, but I like what I see.

But, I will blog more on small groups and mission at a later date. In this blog I would actually like to talk about what we have been studying in our small group.

Last week we began a new study with a new small group with a new mission in mind. We want to be more mission-focused and to kick off this new group we have started a study by Pastor Timothy Keller called “Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything.” The first session was about the City (The World That Is) and we looked at a well-known passage in the Old Testament. Well, maybe not a well-known passage but a passage that contains a well-known verse and a verse that I believe is many times taken out of context.

So, what is this verse you ask? Here it is:

    For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
(Jeremiah 29:11)

That’s right, Jeremiah 29:11. In the words of Matt Chandler, this is one of those coffee cup verses. You probably have a coffee cup with this verse on it, or a plaque, or a bookmark. It’s just one of those verses.

The coolest part of our study was looking at the verses that come before that famous one. These verses put verse 11 into context. The Israelites had been taken captive into a foreign city (Babylon) and they had a few different ways they could go, but God called them to move into the city and to keep their spiritual identity.

Sometimes we see believers get so involved in culture that they lose their spiritual identity and that can lead us to think that we should stay out of culture altogether, but God says we can do both and He actually calls the Israelite captives to do just that. This is why I love verse 7, because verse 11 doesn’t make sense without it. After God tells them to build houses, plant gardens, and start families in verses 5-6, He tells them this through the prophet Jeremiah:

    But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
(Jeremiah 29:7 ESV)

God tells them to seek the “shalom” (peace & prosperity) of the city and to serve and love their new place of residence and He says they can do this without losing their spiritual identity or distinctiveness.

If the gospel has truly transformed our hearts, we need to be people for the city. Keller says as we work the gospel out into the city, we work it into our hearts.

God loves people and God loves cities. We should too!

Some questions Tim Keller poses in the video:

  • Are you living for your City?
  • Are you praying for your City?
  • Are you rooting for your City?
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Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Book Update)

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

20120124-152420.jpgCheck out Jonathan Dodson’s book, coming out in March!

  • You can Pre-Order with Amazon
  • Crossway will publish it as an eBook
  • Those looking for my self-published Fight Clubs will find that material & much more in the new book (8 chapters, 176 pp)
  • Book Samplers have been printed w/ the intro and ch. 2. Keep an eye out for where you can get one soon!
  • Here’s one of the endorsements:

“Refreshingly honest and realistic, Dodson shares from experience the struggles and the blessings of making disciples. He does not give us a rule book, but practical teaching that can help every follower of Christ more effectively live out the gospel and the Great Commission.”

Robert Coleman, Distinguished Professor of Evangelism and Discipleship, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, author The Master Plan of Evangelism

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Heresy and the Internet

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

There are a lot of blogs out there. Google someone’s name and you can find all sorts of information about them. More specifically, type a prominent Pastor of a mega-church’s name into Google and see what happens. I just did this and found out that Rick Warren is leading people to false faith and that Mark Driscoll’s new book on marriage isn’t a book at all, but a “sex-manual.” I could sit on Google all night and find out interesting things about these men or I could address a real problem I see in evangelicalism.

I would say that this problem involves jumping to conclusions too quickly and being very quick not only to judge, but to even call people heretics. Don’t get me wrong there are definitely times when we need to judge and there are definitely people out there who are heretics or hold to heretical beliefs, but I don’t believe we should be so quick on our calls.

To dial this in a bit we should maybe throw out some definitions. For this post I think it would be best to define three key terms: Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Error. (I will define these terms as I was taught in college)

1. Orthodoxy: Straight teaching. A belief or orientation agreeing with the conventional standards of strong Biblical doctrine.

2. Heresy: False teaching which threatens the very substance of Christianity.

  • Material Heresy: Teaching of immature, untrained or ill-informed Christians that is Biblically unsound but not deliberately or consciously so.
  • Formal Heresy: The persistent and stubborn denial of a fundamental doctrine in spite of instruction in the truth.

3. Error: False teaching that does not threaten the very substance of Christianity.

So there we have it, we know that if it is Orthodox, it’s good. If it threatens the substance of Christianity (key doctrine of God, human nature, Christ’s person and work, the Holy Spirit, salvation, etc.) it’s not good. Error is obviously not good either, but can and hopefully will be corrected.

To deal with all of these we can do a couple things. First, look to Scripture. The Bible alone is the written Word of God and is without error. This is where we hold to one of the “5 Solas” – “sola scriptura” (Scripture alone) as our guide.

Second, we look to the historical creeds of the Christian faith. A creed can be defined as a summary of a central Biblical teaching that is held by the worldwide church. The most common would be the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

Another test or set of tests would be the “Seven Doctrinal Tests for Truth” that I learned in my college class “Modern Cults.” I believe these to be extremely helpful:

a. The God Test (Theological Test) – What do they say about God?

b. The Christ Test (Christological Test) – What do they say about Christ? (“Who do men say that I am?”)

c. The Bible Test – What are their views on the Bible?

d. The Salvation Test (Soteriological Test) – What is their view on salvation?

e. The Man Test (Anthropological Test) – What is their view on man?

f. The Last Things Test (Eschatological Test) – What are their views on the last things?

g. The Church Test (Ecclesiastical Test) – Do they consider themselves a continuation of the historic Christian church?

So there are many ways to discern whether someone is Orthodox or not and we should be careful to employ these tests before we hop on the ol’ “jump to conclusions mat.” I say this because I think it happens more often than not. Again, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely false teachers out there and there are definitely wolves in the fold, but we need to be sure before we make those calls and when it comes to a brother who is in material heresy or error we should come alongside in love and not tear them apart, otherwise we can end up like these kinds of people:

Extras:

  • Good series on Heretics you should know: http://theresurgence.com/series/know-your-heretics
  • Joe Thorn’s thoughts on Elephant Room 2: http://www.joethorn.net/2012/01/30/truth-debate-unity-and-the-elephant-room/
  • Mark Driscoll’s reflections on Elephant Room 2: http://pastormark.tv/2012/01/31/10-reflections-on-the-elephant-room
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Jesus and Religion

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

This past month “Jesus and Religion” has been a hot topic on the ol’ interwebs. A poem posted on YouTube by Jefferson Bethke really stirred the pot so to speak and the video now has close to 18 million views on YouTube and has been blogged about and talked about by numerous people and I guess now I am talking about it too. I’m not blogging about this because it’s super popular and I couldn’t think of anything else, I simply love the conversations this video has started and I love to hear about Jesus and be reminded of His grace and how He trumps religion.

I like to talk about Jesus and so does Jefferson Bethke.

I am heavily influenced by guys like Timothy Keller, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll and Tullian Tchvidjian. So is Jefferson Bethke.

I think Jesus > Religion and so does Jefferson Bethke.

With that said, I am not here to dissect his poem or to say he should change how he said it. I just want to say that I appreciate his heart and his desire to make much of Jesus and I am pumped that 17,748,124 people have been exposed to this message that points to the gospel, the good news we have in Christ Jesus.

Christianity is radically different from any other religion or worldview out there. There are people who claim that all religions are virtually the same and that you can just mix Christianity with anything and “it’s all good.” But this is just not true. I was told in a Bible study one time as a 13 or 14 year old that with religion man reaches to God, but with Christianity God reaches to man. It was as simple as that. In fact, I went down into my basement, opened a box of old books and found my “NIV Study Bible for Kids” and found the picture I drew in my Bible from that very Bible study night:

The Bible talks a lot about religion. The Old Testament passage that always comes to my mind is Isaiah 58 where God speaks through the Prophet Isaiah about “True Fasting.” In verses 6 and 7 He says this:

    “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
(Isaiah 58:6-7)

In the New Testament Jesus says this:

    “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
(Matthew 5:17)

And this:

    “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
(Matthew 16:18-19)

So yes, Jesus didn’t come to rid us of the Law, He came to fulfill it. Jesus didn’t come to rid us of the church, He came to establish His Church.

Jesus’ brother James shows us another picture of what true religion looks like (and no it doesn’t involve a fat Buddha on the patch of a $300 pair of jeans):

    “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
(James 1:27)

So, what’s the deal with bashing religion and pitting it against Jesus? A lot of it deals with semantics. If you listen to guys like Keller, Chandler, Driscoll or Tchvidjian preach or read stuff they put out, it’s easy to see what a guy like Bethke means when he says “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.”

Of course we should love the True Fasting we see in Isaiah 58 and of course we should embrace the Law when we see we can’t fulfill it but Christ does for us. Of course we should love and stand up for the church that Christ established and that the gates of Hell can’t stand against and of course we should strive to be people who portray the true, pure and undefiled religion that James speaks of.

But,

When it comes to the religion we see in this world and the religion Luther points to as the default mode of our hearts, Jesus reigns supreme and it is only through Him that we will be set free.

Tim Keller speaks to this issue and the guys at www.theresurgence.com made it into a lovely poster:

ReligionGospel

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My New Page

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

Well, I was blogging over at www.wordup316.blogspot.com but I decided it was time for a change so if you want to see the minimal number of blogs I posted prior to making this new page you can head over there to read them. In the meantime, hopefully I will blog here more and that it will be a blessing to whoever reads it!

Thanks for stopping by!

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