16 Nov '05

Glossary needed for Pyro's Debate

Jeff McFadden is right on. This would probably bring clarity to my foray into this topic.

Jeff, thanks for the link and the complement in this post as well.

Mexico Ministry

My mother in law, Debbie Mellberg, learned to blog and she has been posting the exciting things that God is doing in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico and among the Huichols there. Within just a few short years, the population of believers among the Huichols has gone from 4 to thousands. I have a lot to learn from these Huichol brothers and sisters who, in the midst of persecution, turned their world upside-down for Christ. I am so honored to be able to watch God work through them, and I hope that our knowledge of God and His love for all peoples will be enlarged as get to watch as spectators His sovereign hand bringing salvation to an entire tribe in the enterior of Mexico. So blogroll her blog and check back for her updates: http://mexicoministry.blogspot.com/

Go to Church for the Gospel?

Eric Costa of Reformation Theology blog points out that since the Gospel is not only what saves us but what sustains us, we should go to church every week in order that we might hear the gospel preached to us. I agree wholeheartedly with those sentiments. I want to take it one step further though. I find very little mention of motives for church "attendance" in the Bible. I do find that the Gospel must be preached. I think we need to go one step further in our understanding and motive for church "attendance" or "going to church". We when go to church, not only must the words be Gospel-centered, but our lives must demonstrate the Gospel.

If we truly believed the words that the Cross-centered preacher is preaching, then we would not be content to come, come, sit, listen, and leave. We would not be content to come, sit with our group of friends, go out to eat with our group of friends, and go on with our week, having our souls filled with the Gospel message. As a church, we must live in community and within the greater community where we are located as those who feel the weight of grace, as those who know that we have been forgiven the largest debt imaginable and given an even greater gift. If we are truly going to church to hear the gospel AND live the gospel, we won't make distinctions among ourselves, creating strata based on socioeconomic status, intelligence, or position on the ecclesiastical hierarchy. We won't squabble over worship styles or hold grudges. We will be quick to cover over sin and to gently restore those who are in sin. We will look for the poor, the outcasts of society and invite them, treat them like kings, and introduce them to the King of kings.

Gospel preaching is necessary, but it is not sufficient without every member of the church living it out among each other and out in the world. O God, I pray that you give me the faith to believe the content of the Gospel in such a way that every single action I do is done in light of that faith.

(See my message, The Gospel in Radical Hospitality, on this point)

Pleasurable Prayer

Speaking of Ben Patterson,

"I can admire a person who gets up in the early morning hours because prayer is important, but I hardly know what to make of a man who gets out of bed in the dark because the act of prayer is so pleasurable. Clearly, I have something to learn.

"In order to learn to love to pray, as opposed to loving the idea of praying, one must experience the feeling while praying that you are at the center of reality. This runs contrary to common notions—that prayer, for instance, is a retreat from the real world, that prayer is a kind of luxury that we hope someday to be able to afford"

Dr. Daniel Taylor
Deepening Your Conversation With God
Preface

Scripture: Our Only Protection

I just read a post by Mark Lauterbach at his excellent blog, GospelDrivenLife. Having heard a sermon mentioning a verse he knew well but had not read in years, he was forced to rethink his position that it is Scripture and not systematic theology that is protecting him from error. Once we "exegete a passage" we are not done with it, so we can move on. No, we are simply better able to understand it in its context the next time around. I must guard myself from the temptation to make my conclusions about Scripture the infallible truth by which I live instead of Scripture itself. One might then argue, "How can you know what Scripture says apart from your exegesis of it." I can't. I must read it (observation), I must seek to understand it, then I must make conclusions about it (or conclude that I cannot make any conclusion - interpretation), and finally I must live according to what I have been taught by the Spirit (application). However, my tendency is then to take my interpretation, and like Lauterbach says, and "read it back into Scripture." I spent two years working through the book of Galatians. My tendency, therefore, is to use my understanding of the book of Galatians to help interpret the rest of the Bible and I find application from the book in literally every facet of life. That's good. The bad is that my tendency is also to not return from the book, having been informed by new understanding of God and His Word, to further refine or even challenge my understanding of that epistle. If that happens with a New Testament book which I find myself reading often for pleasure (and because it's short), how much more for an Old Testament book that does not get near as much coverage and is harder to understand!

Another Challies giveaway

Gotta Love RC's Ears: Hall of Contemporary Reformers

Check out Monergism's Hall of Contemporary Reformers. Great collection of links.