The Foremost

What Happens to Infants Who Die?

2010-03-10T08:38:00.000-06:00

From John Piper:

Renewing Your Mind Offer: Roman Catholicism Primer

2010-03-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

Give a gift of any amount and receive a copy of A Primer on Roman Catholicism by John Gerstner. Offer ends on Sunday.

How Could God Kill Women and Children?

2010-02-27T09:56:00.000-06:00

From John Piper:

Renewing Your Mind Offer: In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson

2010-02-26T08:24:00.001-06:00

Make a donation of any amount and receive a copy of In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson. Offer Expires Sunday.

New Book by D. A. Carson.

2010-02-25T19:54:00.003-06:00

Don Carson has a new book, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. Here is the publisher's description:

"How are Christians to approach the central gospel teachings concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus? The Bible firmly establishes the historicity of these events and doesn't leave their meanings ambiguous or open to interpretation. Even so, there is an irony and surprising strangeness to the cross. Carson shows that this strange irony has deep implications for our lives as he examines the history and theology of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection.

"Scandalous is the latest addition to the Re:Lit series, which highlights important theological truths in accessible and applicable ways. Both amateur theologians and general readers will appreciate how Carson deftly preserves weighty theology while simultaneously noting the broader themes of Jesus' death and resurrection. Through exposition of five primary passages of Scripture, Carson helps us to more fully understand and appreciate the scandal of the cross."

The True Vine and the Sanctifying Knife of God.

2010-02-21T17:58:00.005-06:00

This is the manuscript of a Sunday school lesson that I taught this past Sunday.

The True Vine and the Sanctifying Knife of God

John 15:1-11

Introduction to Chapters 13-17: Chapters 13 through 17 constitute what is known as the “Upper Room” discourse in Jesus’ life and ministry. It is called this because it details for us those moments that Jesus and his disciples spent in the upper room of a house where they celebrated the Passover feast. The other gospels use this time to focus on the institution of the Lord’s Supper, but John makes no mention of this. Rather, he focuses on the teaching that occurred during this time. The Lord’s Supper would have only taken a few minutes, and John tells us what they spent the rest of their evening talking about.

From a literary perspective, scholars identify the literary subgenre of chapters 13-17 as being that of a farewell discourse. These chapters capture what will be the last major body of teaching in Jesus’ life. John does a masterful job of creating an ominous sense of foreboding, and many commentators have likened chapters 13-17 as Jesus’ last will and testament. This is truly one of the most intense and sobering portions of scripture. Jesus’ laser like intensity during this time must have been unnerving for the disciples. It is certainly unnerving for me.

Introduction to Chapter 15: As we come to the end of Chapter 14, Jesus says, “Rise, let us go from here.” The ESV Study bible points out that, “The transition from 14:31 to 15:1 is at times viewed as a “literary seam” (i.e., an indication that John's Gospel is pieced together from different sources). More likely, John is implying that Jesus and his followers are leaving the upper room, making their way to the Kidron Valley, and arriving in the Garden of Gethsemane (18:1).” So, perhaps Jesus and the disciples have left the house and are making their way to the Gethsemane. Perhaps while they are walking Jesus sees a vine growing on a wall, and he stops and says,

I am the true vine, and my Father is s the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:1-11).

The True Vine

15:1a – I am the true vine

Jesus says claims that he is the true vine. The vine metaphor is one that was commonly utilized in the Old Testament to represent Israel. Interestingly, it is always used to illustrate Israel’s fruitlessness (cf. Psalm 80:8-9, Isa. 5:1-7, Jer. 2:21). It is very important that, when we look back at the failures of Israel, we don’t take the attitude of “well they didn’t work very hard”, but rather that we see Israel’s weaknesses and failures in ourselves. Israel did not have the power within them to accomplishing its mission, illustrating the need for divine assistance.

Jesus, however, claims that he is the Vine that produces infinite fruit. He is the one that accomplishes the task for which he was sent, as opposed to Israel, which demonstrated its inability and insufficiency to accomplish its mission. Jesus is claiming that he is the true Israel. He is the vine that is faithful and true. He claims that he is the vine that bears much fruit, and that all who produce fruit only do so only through dwelling in him.

The Work of the Vinedresser

15:1b-2 – my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Jesus states that his Father is the vinedresser. What does the vinedresser do? He takes away the branches that bear no fruit, and he prunes the branches to do bear fire, that they may bear more fruit.

Is Jesus implying that one can lose their salvation? He plainly says that there are certain branches that are “in him” that are cut off, and ultimately thrown into the fire (v. 6). This is particularly confusing because elsewhere the phrase “in Christ” is used specifically to designate those who are joined to Christ through saving faith.

One tool to remember when reading the Bible is to let the Bible interpret itself, and to interpret the parts of scripture that are unclear by the parts that are clear. In this case, the overwhelming testimony of scripture is that a Christian can never lose their salvation. For example, Jesus says in John 10:28-29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” This is but one of several passages that affirms that those whom God has chosen unto salvation are preserved to the end.

So, in response to the question of whether or not Jesus is teaching that one can lose one’s salvation, I would respond that given the clarity of the scriptures on this matter elsewhere, we can deduce that Jesus is not using the phrase “in me” to denote regeneration, but is simply staying within the confines of the vine metaphor, which is designed to illustrate a different point altogether.

The question still remains, though, who is Jesus referring to here? The larger context seems to indicate that Jesus is probably referring to what theologians call the “visible church”, that is, those who make a profession of faith and are, in some degree, participants of churches. Not everyone in the visible church is authentically saved, however. It is not a profession of faith that saves, but a possession of faith. Jesus may well have the same group of people in mind when, in Luke 8:13, he describes, “those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.”

Given this context, we have a better vantage point to understand what, exactly, it is that the Father does. We see that the father cuts off certain branches and discards them, but we also see that the father prunes other branches so that they may become more fruitful.

Now, we know from other scriptures that the true mark of regeneration is that of bearing fruit, which is a metaphor for becoming more like Jesus in your attitudes, actions, character, desires and your affections (cf. 1 Jno. 3:9, Gal 5:16-25, Col 3). I make this point because, within the context of the vine metaphor, the branch that bears fruit is to be understood as a regenerate person, and the branch that does not bear fruit is to be understood as an unregenerate person.

The Father’s Sanctifying Blade

I want to make a point that is not explicitly made here in this metaphor, but it is certainly true nonetheless. We see how the Father cuts off the unregenerate branch, but cuts out impurities from regenerate branch. The point I’d like to make is this: The Father uses the same tool to cut off one branch that he uses to purify the other branch.

Allow me to explain. Lets zoom out for a minute and consider this within the larger context of human existence. To start off, and to be blunt, we live in a God dammed universe. We read in Genesis chapter 3 that God cursed all of creation. Much can be said about the Curse, but one of the main elements of the curse is the horrifying futility that it imposes on mankind. In Genesis 3, man declared his independence from God, and in a sense, God let him have it. The curse of God is designed to illustrate the futility of our existence apart from God.

The Curse brought in death, cancer, unemployment, poverty, earthquakes and sickness. We are born in suffering, spend our whole lives laboring for something that won’t satisfy, while combating sickness, rebellious children, economic recession, then we die and lose everything that we labored for, and finally we face the justice of the God whom we replaced with ourselves and our stuff. The Curse is the utter futility of our existence apart from God.

Enter the Gospel

However, one of the deepest veins of the Gospel is that Jesus absorbed the Curse on our behalf. Galatians 3:10-14 says, For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

So what does this mean? Does it mean that Christians don’t get cancer, don’t experience hardship, tragedy, unemployment or disappointment? Does it mean that, if you are a Christian, and you experience these things that God is unhappy with you? No! What it does mean is that God has stripped those things of their futility, of their ability to condemn and destroy, and has instead infused them with the power to make you more like Jesus (cf. Col 2:13-15). What had once been a means of deformity is now a means of conformity.

So, what had once been a tool of God’s judgment and wrath is now used as a tool for our sanctification. This is exactly what Paul means when he says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:28-29a).”

There is much teaching today that proclaims that God wants to give you your best life now, which usually has something to do with getting a bunch of possessions having a pain-free life. But which scenario makes God look more glorious? God giving you a pain-free life and a lot of stuff or God using the pain to demonstrate to the world that He is more valuable than the stuff?

This is truly one of the most deepest mine shafts in the Gospel. That in all things, not just sufferings, God prunes us into the likeness of Jesus. Also, notice that Jesus says, without qualification, that the Father prunes all those branches that produce fruit. Meaning, if you are a believer, you will experience the sanctifying knife of God.

Clean Already, and Being Cleaned

15:3 - Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

So we see more clearly now that the point of this extended metaphor is our sanctification. But before Jesus elaborates more on the nature of sanctification, he pauses, and I am so thankful that he does, to remind his disciples of their justification. He says, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” This word “clean” in verse 3 is the adjective form of the word that is translated “prune”, which is a verb, in verse 2. The root of this word in the Greek is the word from which we get our work “catharsis”. So in verse 2 Jesus says that his Father will “clean” you, and in verse 3 he says that you are already clean. So we are already clean, but we are being cleaned.

Martin Luther captured tension wonderfully in the Latin phrase, “simul iustus et peccator”, which means "At the same time righteous and a sinner". When we place our faith in Christ, God reckons, accounts and imputes Jesus' righteousness to us, in legal sense. That is to say, for all legal purposes, God counts Jesus’ obedience as if it were our own. And its not just Jesus’ sinlessness that we get, we also get his perfect active obedience added to our account as well. Jesus didn’t just not do the negatives, but he did all of the positives. The Father doesn’t just give us new clothes, he give us clean clothes. So, those who are united to Christ in faith acquire his righteousness, and in that sense we are clean. But, after we are justified though Christ, after God has given us an alien righteousness, God begins to create in us a native righteousness. This process is called sanctification.

Jonathan Edwards said it like this, “It is in and by Christ that we have righteousness. It is by being in him that we are justified, have our sins pardoned, and are received as righteous into God’s favor. It is by Christ that we have sanctification: we have in him true excellency of heart as well as of understanding; and he is made unto us inherent, as well as imputed righteousness. It is by Christ that we have redemption, or actual deliverance from all misery, and the bestowment of all happiness and glory. Thus we have all our good by Christ, who is God (God Glorified in Man’s Dependence, July 8, 1731).”

I said that I loved how Jesus pauses here and deals with justification first, before elaborating on sanctification. One of the most lethal mistakes that is made in the Christian faith is confusing sanctification with justification, or focusing on sanctification to the neglect of justification. It is so imperative that, as Christians, when we talk about becoming more like God, that we do so in the context of our existing righteousness before God. If you lose sight of your justification, your sanctification will become self-salvation project that will ultimately cause you to despair, because will always fall short of the righteousness of God.

Abiding in the Source of Life

15:4-5 - Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

This phrase, “Abide in me, and I in you” is a bit tricky, in that in there is not an explicit verb. So it is unclear if Jesus is giving an imperative, “Make sure that you abide in me and that I abide in you” or is making a conditional statement “if you abide in me, then I will abide in you.” For a number of reason, I favor the latter, as it seems it to flow with the text, and with the concept of sanctification, a bit better than the former.

If you’re like me, you’re a bit unclear on what the word “abide” means. We don’t really use this word in common parlance, and I wish the ESV had chosen a more relevant word. I like the NIV and TNIV’s choice of “remain” in me. The idea behind this word is that of dwelling, of actively residing in Jesus, his work and his words. In other words, it’s not a passive affirming of Jesus from a distance, but an actively living in Jesus at all times and in all things. Jesus is not meant to be a summer home that we only visit on Sunday mornings or during our quiet times. Jesus tells us to make him our homestead, to actively reside in his person, his work and his words.

This is the heart of this metaphor. Don’t just come to God about the big meta-problems. It is easy, in a sense, to pray about the big things that are plainly out of our control, like the economy or the price of oil. Jesus says in Matthew 28:18 that, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And Jesus desires that we be ever mindful of our dependence on him at all times for all things, for apart from him we can do nothing.

The Effects of Becoming More Like Jesus

Fruitful Prayer

15:7 - If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Jesus says in verse 6 that whoever abides in him produces much fruit, and here in verse 7 he says that those who abide in him will ask whatever they wish, and it will be done for them. Again, the metaphor of bearing fruit illustrates our progressive conformity to Jesus in our attitude, actions, character, desires and affections. Jesus is saying here that one of the main side effects of your sanctification is a fruitful prayer life. How does this work? In the process of becoming more like him through abiding in him, we come to a place where we are simply thinking and praying God’s thoughts after him, causing him to always grant the desires of our hearts because they are the desires of his heart.

God’s Glory, Our Joy

15:8-11 - By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

One of the truths that we exalt and exult in here at Christian Life Center is that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. We believe that the chief end of man is not only to glorify God and enjoy him forever, but also to glorify God by enjoying him forever. These truths are crystallized so clearly here in these closing statements. Jesus says that his Father is shown to be glorious in the lives of his Saints when they look like and desire the things that he desires. God gives us commandments to obey not to be arbitrary, but because those rules flow forth from his own character, and since God is perfectly and delightfully satisfied in himself because he is perfectly and delightfully satisfying, then the more conformed we are to his perfection the more delighted and satisfied we will become in him. This is why Jesus, on his way to the cross says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

All scripture is taken from the English Standard Version, copyright 2001.

Swallowed Up By Life: Everlee Hooks, a Portrait of the Gospel.

2009-12-03T22:35:00.044-06:00

For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

-2 Corinthians 5:4-5

My wife's Grandmother, Everlee, opened her eyes this morning to the sight of Jesus Christ. She beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Watch this video, which was recorded about two months go. They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words. The words in this video are worth a thousand photographs.

Here are a few portraits that I saw as I listened to her talk:

1. A portrait of the victory of Jesus: For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

-1 Corinthians 15:53-58

2. A portrait of adoption and heirship: So then, brothers,we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

-Romans 8:12-17.

3. A portrait of future glory: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

-Romans 8:18-30

4. A portrait of hope in the Gospel: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

"For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-Romans 8:31-39

5. A portrait of a sure calling and election: Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

-2 Peter 1:10-11

6. A portrait of joy: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

-Psalm 16:11

Lauren's family is obviously grieving. Death is the most sobering force in the Universe. For the Christian, though, Death is a reminder of what, among other thing, Christ has rescued us from. In their heart of hearts, though, they are rejoicing. They can rejoice because they know that God makes death to serve the overcoming of death. Consider this:

The apex of the glory of Christ is the glory of his grace—treating people infinitely better than they deserve—giving himself for the everlasting joy of the worst of sinners who will have him as their highest Treasure. And the apex of this grace is the murder of the God-man outside Jerusalem around a.d. 33. The death of Jesus Christ was murder. It was the most spectacular sin ever committed.

At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That’s the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display—the very glory that they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace.

John Piper, Spectacular Sins (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books), 11.

Every time a Christian dies, Jesus demonstrates his victory over death by bringing them to himself.

All life comes from You Lord to both great and small 

In all life you live Lord, the true life of all

We blossom and flourish, but quickly grow frail 

We wither and perish, but You never fail

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light 

Your angels adore you all veiling their sight

All praise we will render oh Father of grace 

Till one day in splendor we see face to face

-Your Great Name We Praise, Sovereign Grace Music

Behold Him there! The risen Lamb

My perfect, spotless, Righteousness 

The Great unchangeable I AM 

The King of Glory and of Grace 

One with Himself I cannot die

My soul is purchased by His blood 

My life is hid with Christ on high 

With Christ my Savior and my God

-Before the Throne of God Above, Sovereign Grace Music.

There are many, many more portraits that she painted with her words, and with her life. What portraits did you see?

Adoption is Greater Than The Universe.

2009-11-23T21:46:00.002-06:00

Win A Free J.C. Ryle Commentary.

2009-11-23T10:21:00.001-06:00

Click here for details.

Resources: Crucial Questions by R. C. Sproul.

2009-11-20T09:37:00.000-06:00

Give a gift of any amount and receive the Crucial Questions Booklet Series by R. C. Sproul. Offer ends November 22.

The series includes:

Who Is Jesus?
Does Prayer Change Things?
Can I Know God's Will?
How Should I Live in This World?
Can I Trust the Bible?

A Bunch of Crap Called Gospel.

2009-11-17T07:28:00.000-06:00

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him in the midst of loss, not prosperity.

Favorite Sermons: A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep by Matt Chandler.

2009-11-17T07:22:00.004-06:00

You've probably seen this by now, but it is worth watching again. This is an excerpt of a sermon that Matt Chandler preached at the Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors. The message is entitled "A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep".

Favorite Sermons: C. S. Lewis.

2009-11-13T14:43:00.002-06:00

From "Learning in War-Time" by C. S. Lewis, a sermon preached in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, Autumn, 1939.

A University is a society for the pursuit of learning. As students, you will be expected to make yourselves, or to start making yourselves, in to what the Middle Ages called clerks: into philosophers, scientists, scholars, critics, or historians. And at first sight this seems to be an odd thing to do during a great war. What is the use of beginning a task which we have so little chance of finishing? Or, even if we ourselves should happen not to be interrupted by death or military service, why should we -- indeed how can we -- continue to take an interest in these placid occupations when the lives of our friends and the liberties of Europe are in the balance? Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?

Now it seems to me that we shall not be able to answer these questions until we have put them by the side of certain other questions which every Christian ought to have asked himself in peace-time. I spoke just now of fiddling while Rome burns. But to a Christian the true tragedy of Nero must be not that he fiddles while the city was on fire but that he fiddles on the brink of hell.

Read the whole sermon here.

Give a gift, get a resource.

2009-11-12T13:38:00.003-06:00

Give a donation of any amount and receive the Drama of Redemption CD Collection from R. C. Sproul. Offer expires November 17. Here is the item description:

From Adam to Abraham to the promise of the coming Davidic King who would deliver His people from their sin and God’s wrath, God revealed Himself and His plan of redemption by establishing covenants with His people.

Fifteen 23-minute messages:

The Eternal Drama
Creation: The Opening Act
The Intrusion of Sin
Adam, Our Representative
The Gospel First Announced
A Flood of Evil
The Redemption of Noah
Redemption Promised to Abraham
The Ancient Contract
The Broken Contract
The Coming of the Kingdom
Redemption Secured
Covenant Renewals

Red, White and You.

2009-11-11T17:25:00.006-06:00

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment...Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."

Romans 13:1-2, 7

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor."

1 Peter 2:13-17

These were both written during Nero's reign. Stop and think about that for a minute.

Nero is regarded by many as one of the greatest tyrants in the history of the universe, and Peter and Paul tell their readers to be subject to him, and to honor him as one placed there by God.

How then should we as American Christians act toward our nation's current leaders?

What message does it send to your family, friends, neighbors, church and congregation when you make snide comments about the President, about "where our country is heading", or express veiled consternation about the "radical agenda"?

I will tell you how it comes across: It sounds like you are afraid, and that you are surprised that sinful human beings have elected sinful human beings into public office.

Check your attitude: Does your attitude about the President cause people to see and treasure the sovereign God who put him there, or does it make them wonder and hope that God knows what he is doing?

It will be a tragedy when a conservative is elected back into office and everyone who was worried about "where our country is heading" stops worrying, simply because their guy won.

America needs Jesus, not limited government, lower taxes or legislated morality.

I encourage everyone to read and meditate on this passage:

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

whose right hand I have grasped,

to subdue nations before him

and to loose the belts of kings,

to open doors before him

that gates may not be closed:

“I will go before you

and level the exalted places,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze

and cut through the bars of iron,

I will give you the treasures of darkness

and the hoards in secret places,

that you may know that it is I, the Lord,

the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

For the sake of my servant Jacob,

and Israel my chosen,

I call you by your name,

I name you, though you do not know me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

besides me there is no God;

I equip you, though you do not know me,

that people may know, from the rising of the sun

and from the west, that there is none besides me;

I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness,

I make well-being and a create calamity,

I am the Lord, who does all these things.

“Shower, O heavens, from above,

and let the clouds rain down righteousness;

let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;

let the earth cause them both to sprout;

I the Lord have created it.

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,

a pot among earthen pots!

Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’

or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’

or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

Thus says the Lord,

the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:

“Ask me of things to come;

will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?

I made the earth

and created man on it;

it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,

and I commanded all their host.

I have stirred him up in righteousness,

and I will make all his ways level;

he shall build my city

and set my exiles free,

not for price or reward,”

says the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah 45:1-13

God reigns. Let us all help each other to live like it and to demonstrate this reality with our lives and especially our words.

Rend my Heart.

2009-11-10T08:15:00.001-06:00

Joel 2:12-14

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Return to the Lord your God,

for he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;

and he relents over disaster.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,

and leave a blessing behind him,

a grain offering and a drink offering

for the Lord your God?

New Don Carson Videos.

2009-11-10T07:18:00.001-06:00

Here are three new videos from Don Carson. These videos were produced by 'A Passion For Life'.

How do I know God exists? from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

How can God be loving yet send people to hell? from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

How can God allow suffering and evil in the world? from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

Rocks My Face Off: R. C. Sproul Sits Down With Mark Driscoll.

2009-11-09T14:48:00.001-06:00

Mark Driscoll interviews R. C. Sproul in part 1 of a 10 part series. Awesome (for a lot of reasons).

A Word to Young Preachers: A Response.

2009-11-09T14:30:00.003-06:00

Dr. Russell Moore had a post on his blog the other day entitled "A Word to Young Preachers". Whereas I found the post be essentially true, helpful counsel, I felt that it needed a bit of qualifying. If you have a minute, read through his post (link above).

I posted a response on Dr. Moore's blog, and since then I've been able to develop a few more thoughts on the matter. What follows is my response:

I am not a preacher, nor am I in any kind of vocational ministry. My only concern is that this mentality seems to place too much emphasis on preaching as a skill/technique in a homiletical sense and not enough emphasis on preaching as a spiritual gift from God. I think it is important that we do not confuse the two.

I’m not sure how helpful it is for a new preacher to step behind the pulpit with the mentality that his preaching, at least for a while, will be categorically bad. Granted, his skills may not be as honed as they could be, but there is also a sense in which, if he has indeed been called into the ministry, he has been equipped and gifted by God to engage in preaching.

Having said that, I certainly encourage preachers to actively submit themselves to critique. There is a bit of a temptation, I think, particularly in Reformed sectors, to assume that if you simply affirm and attempt to engage in the expository model of preaching, that everything else in the church will work itself out. Consequently, the art of communication is neglected and even denounced as "seeker-friendly", as all that really matters is staying “faithful to the text”.

I love and applaud you preachers who desire to submit yourself and your pulpits to the text. Keep it up! However, be careful that you are not functionally elevating yourself above the responsibility of taking practical steps to sharpen your skills, especially as a communicator. The primary way you can do this is to not only submit yourself to the text, but submit yourself to critique.

I am not advocating a suggestion box at the back of the church, where anyone and everyone can drop in a card describing what they do and do not like about your preaching. One has to be careful when seeking counsel. At the same time, it is better to err on the side of seeking too much counsel than to err on the side of not seeking enough counsel.

This is what scripture says: "Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel." Proverbs 27:9

One of the tests of true friendship is the presence of earnest counsel. Think of your closest friends within your congregation, someone who listens to you preach day-in and day-out. Is there earnest counsel exchanged between you? As a preacher/pastor, you have the joyful burden of people constantly seeking your counsel. Who's counsel do you seek? Your friends and colleagues in the ministry, your seminary classmates, your old professors will only be able to help you so much in regard to your practical preaching and teaching skills.

Actively seek, and labor to subject yourself to the counsel of a friend(s) within your church. This goes for laypersons as well. Be surrounded by iron.

I recently wrote a post about a similar topic at my own blog titled “Reformed Churches: Preaching as the “Magic Bullet” and the Neglect of Pastoral Care.”

Something to think about: What is the difference between a gifting and a skill? What happens when the two are confused? In the case of preaching and teaching, what happens when preaching and teaching as a skill is confused with preaching and teaching as a spiritual gift.

Something else to think about: How are you responding to this post?

How Willingly Do People Go to Hell?

2009-11-09T14:06:00.005-06:00

I recently listened to Tim Keller's sermon entitled "Hell: Isn't the God of Christianity an angry Judge?". Wherein he explains and defends the biblical doctrine of eternal conscious punishment more commonly known as "Hell". It is an awesome sermon. Listening to this sermon made me love Jesus more.

However...

Even though I found the sermon to be very helpful, I felt like Keller's (and C. S. Lewis') definition of Hell was a bit incomplete. I found another blog that, I think, summarized Lewis' and Keller's thesis fairly, which is that "hell is merely the inevitable outworking of sin on the human psyche, and thus completely self-chosen".

John Piper responds to this view here.

This reminds of a James Montgomery Boice quote: "God's judgement in the end will be so absolutely perfect that the damned will agree with the rightness of their damnation."

That haunts me.

Think of it!

2009-11-03T17:18:00.002-06:00

"Think of it! This means that it was God’s love that sent his Son to bear God’s just penalty and to take away God’s just wrath. The greatest manifestation of the love of God is God’s unilateral action to satisfy his own wrath."

-John Piper, Finally Alive (Scotland: Christian Focus Publications Ltd.), 155.

Renewing Your Mind Offer

2009-11-03T16:33:00.001-06:00

Get this CD gift for a donation of any amount:

Scenes From the Life of Christ.

This recording of original chamber orchestra pieces is a survey of musical landscapes through selected biblical accounts. For composer Tom Howard, the music emerged after meditating on the Scriptures, where the emotional impact of each passage inspired themes, melodies, and textures. Hear the composer’s heart for these timeless stories expressed in vivid and dramatic musical settings. Our hope is that the combination of beautiful interpretive music and the plain reading of the Word will engage the listener in a devotional way.

Offer expires November 11.

Free Audio Book: Desiring God by John Piper

2009-11-02T14:17:00.003-06:00

This month you can download the Desiring God audio book for free from Christian Audio. The servers are reportedly overwhelmed, so you may want to try again in a few days. The offer is good for the entire month of November.

Don't Waste Your Relationships, Part 1.

2009-10-31T14:30:00.014-05:00

Jesus started his ministry when he was 30 years old, knowing that he was going to die in 3 years.

When you know that you will be leaving a place soon, it is easy to never seriously invest yourself in the lives of people around you, and to never place yourself in a position where they can seriously invest in your life. We say, "I'm not here to stay", "I'm just passing through", "Why put down roots?", "Why get committed?" and "It will just make it that much more difficult when we leave."

I am glad that Jesus did not have this attitude.

Jesus knew the second he came out of the water that he would be gone in 3 years. Consequently, he purposefully lived every minute with intention and resolve, knowing that the clock was ticking. Rather than live a relationally detached life and never really investing himself in the people around him, he treated every personal interchange with an unnerving seriousness.

Think about it: Even in the briefest of exchanges, Jesus, while certainly not minimizing the immediate circumstances, puts those circumstances in their proper perspective by viewing them through the lens of eternity.

Consider John chapter 4, and the circumstances surrounding that of a thirsty Jewish man, asking a sinful Samaritan woman for a drink of water.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Jesus was tired and thirsty. If ever there was a time when he could have justified making small talk, this was it.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

Clearly his words went right over her head, and on some level she tries to change the subject (are you greater than our father Jacob?). Jesus is not discouraged by her confusion, nor is he frustrated with her misguided spiritual attention span.

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

She still does recognize the deeper meaning of Jesus' words.

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

I love this next part. Notice how at this point, Jesus makes a beeline for her heart.

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.

The text doesn't say it, but there had to be a bit of an awkward silence there. This awkwardness may account for what seems like an attempt on her part to change the subject. But notice how Jesus not only gently answers her question, he redirects the conversation toward the Gospel and the affections of her heart (worship).

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Now, the moment of supreme truth.

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

How often do we get right up to this point, and then out of fear, stop? Maybe you've been talking with an unbeliever about religious things but you never can quite bring yourself to articulate who, exactly, Jesus is. Look at her incredible reaction.

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

The disciple are shocked and perplexed by Jesus' actions. Here Jesus gives one of the clearest insights into his relational mission.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

The fields are white with harvest. Your job, your children, your parents, your siblings, your friends, your real estate agent, your aerobics class, your check-out line at the grocery store, your carpool line, even your church...are white with harvest. Jesus sends us to reap for that which we did not labor, to enter into another's labor.

This has another application. Notice how intense and intentional Jesus is in his conversation with his believing disciples. Serious, vulnerable spiritual conversations are not just meant to take place between believers and unbelievers, but between believers as well.

Jesus knew when he was leaving earth. How much more purposeful and intense should we be in our relationships since we do not know when we, or anyone else, is leaving? Let the eternal implications of that reality weigh heavily upon us all. There will come a time when a relationship with (fill in the bank) will no longer be an option. More than likely, it will not be at a time of our choosing.

In all of our interactions with people, we must strive at every moment to be telescopes for Jesus, and not microscopes.

Magnify him, but not like a microscope. You know the difference between two kinds of magnification, don't you? There's telescope magnification and microscope magnification, and it's blasphemy to magnify God like a microscope. To magnifiy God like a microscope is to take something tiny and make it look bigger than it is. If you try to do that to God you blaspheme. But a telescope puts its lense on unimaginable expanses of greatness and tries to just help them look like what they are. That's what a telescope is for.
- John Piper, Passion for the Supremacy of God, Part 1, 1997

We must be faithful in the moment to point people to Jesus, whether it is our believing friends at church, or the waitress who keeps forgetting to get our refill.

How the story ends:

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Scripture is taken from John 4: 7-26, 28-42. All scripture is taken from the English Stander Version.

I think I'm Important.

2009-10-29T09:34:00.002-05:00

"Whenever a Christian layman, minister, writer, teacher, or whoever it might be, gets to thinking that there is something important about him, he or she will always cease to be effective as Christ's witness."

-James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids, Mich.:Baker Books 1999), 1:53.

Cosmic Sugar Daddy.

2009-10-28T10:02:00.024-05:00

An excerpt from Finally Alive by John Piper:

We are able to love God and love others because in the new birth we have conquered the world. “Everyone who has been born of God conquers the world.” This must mean that there are forces in the world that work to make us not love God and not love each other. And in the new birth these forces have been overcome.

What would those forces be? Let’s go to 1 John 2:15–17 for the clearest answer in this letter:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Here are the forces in the world that have to be overcome (v. 16): “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions.” That could be summed up as desires for what we don’t have, and pride in what we do have. When we don’t have what we want, the world corrupts us with covetousness. And when we do have what we want the world corrupts us with pride.

This is what keeps us from loving God and loving each other. We love stuff. And when we don’t have it, we crave it. And when we do have it, we love to talk about it incessantly, and waste time on it. And where is God in all that? At best, he’s there as the cosmic Sugar Daddy. We may even thank him for all our stuff. But there is a kind of gratitude that proves that the gift, and not the Giver, is our god.

The main reason we don’t love God and find it burdensome to love people is that our cravings are for the things of the world. They may be good things. They may be bad things. They may be material things. They may be relational. Whatever their form, they are not God. And when we crave them above God, they are idols. They replace love for God and love for people. That’s the universal problem of the world. What’s the solution?

John’s answer is in 1 John 5:3–4. He says that the reason loving God and loving people is not burdensome (v. 3) is that we have been born again, and this new birth conquers the world: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” Now we can see what that means. It means that the new birth severs the root of those cravings for the world. Overcoming the world means that the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions don’t rule us anymore. Their power is broken.

-John Piper, Finally Alive (Scotland: Christian Focus Publications Ltd.), 136.

You can download Finally Alive for free here.

Anything can be an idol. An idol is a good thing that has been turned into an ultimate thing. Your spouse. Your self. Your ministry. Your doctrine. Your ideas. Your opinion. Your dreams. Your fears. Your past. Your future. Anything. There will come a time when everything that you treasure other than Christ will be removed. The gods will always let you down.

What are some of the idols in your life, your family and your culture? This may be a good litmus test: where are you demonstrating the "kind of gratitude that proves that the gift, and not the Giver, is our god"?

New Books from R. C. Sproul

2009-10-27T12:33:00.041-05:00

R. C. Sproul's expository commentary on Romans arrived in the mail yesterday. This is the first volume in the St. Andrews Expositional Commentary Series. It is essentially a collection of his expository sermons on Romans from St. Andrews Chapel in Sanford, Florida, where he serves as Minister of Preaching and Teaching. It was published by Crossway on October 31, 2009 and weighs in at 520 pages. I am sure that it will rock my face off.

I believe that R. C.'s sermons on John are to be next in this series. Look for a November release.

I'm also glad to see that some of R. C.'s older books are being republished. I suspect that this is owing in part to what seems to be a bit of a resurgence of interest in historic reformation theology, particularly among twenty-somethings.

A few of R. C.'s recent and forthcoming releases are:

The Prayer of the Lord. Reformation Trust, May 31, 2009.

The Crucial Questions Booklet Series. Reformation Trust, September 2009.

Proclaiming a Cross-centered Theology. Crossway Book, October 31, 2009.

John (St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary). Crossway, November 2009.

Surprised by Suffering, 2nd edition, revised and expanded. Reformation Trust, November 2009.

The Mystery of the Holy Spirit. Christian Focus, November 11, 2009.

Sola Scriptura: The Protestant Position on the Bible. Reformation Trust, November 16, 2009.

Classic Teachings on the Nature of God: The Holiness of God; Chosen by God; Pleasing God—Three Books in One. Hendrickson Publishers, March 2010.

Justified by Faith Alone. Crossway, April 2010.

Reformed Churches: Preaching as the "Magic Bullet" and the Neglect of Pastoral Care.

2009-10-26T18:28:00.035-05:00

You should read this blog post from Tim Keller. I think it is very insightful, and certainly something that I am inclined to agree with.

Here is the key point:

I have often seen many men spend a great amount of time on preparing and preaching lengthy, dense, expository messages, while giving far less time and energy to the learning of leadership and pastoral nurture. It takes lots of experience and effort to help a body of people make a unified decision, or to regularly raise up new lay leaders, or to motivate and engage your people in evangelism, or to think strategically about the stewardship of your people's spiritual gifts, or even to discern what they are. It takes lots of experience and effort to know how to help a sufferer without being either too passive or too directive, or to know when to confront a doubter and when to just listen patiently. Pastors in many of our Reformed churches do not seem to be as energized to learn to be great leaders and shepherds, but rather have more of an eye to being great teachers and preachers.

Theologically Reformed churches highly (and rightly) esteem the role and value of the Bible in corporate worship, at least in a ideological sense. This manifests itself most plainly in that many Reformed churches are devoutly committed to the systematic and sequential (verse-by-verse) expository model of preaching and teaching, above any other method of preaching.

It is certainly true that this philosophy and method of preaching and teaching is the safest way to handle God's word. However, I would submit that simply being committed to this model in an ideological sense does not ensure that all of the other aspects of church/body life will simply take care of themselves.

Contrasting different Church philosophies, Keller points out in a previous post that,

The Willow Creek style churches have a 'kingly' emphasis on leadership, strategic thinking, and wise administration. The danger there is that the mechanical obscures how organic and spontaneous church life can be. The Reformed churches have a 'prophetic' emphasis on preaching, teaching, and doctrine. The danger there is that we can have a naïve and unBiblical view that, if we just expound the Word faithfully, everything else in the church -- leader development, community building, stewardship of resources, unified vision -- will just happen by themselves. The emerging churches have a 'priestly' emphasis on community, liturgy and sacraments, service and justice. The danger there is to view 'community' as the magic bullet in the same way Reformed people view preaching.

It is both dangerous and short sighted to assume that as long as the Preacher is "faithful to the text" in an exegetical sense that the emotional and spiritual needs of the church body will simply "fall into place", with preaching acting as the "magic bullet" that started the chain reaction.

Granted, if the Preacher is faithful to the text over a long period time, many of these emotional and spiritual needs will be addressed by the text. But it is a mistake to assume that attempting to explain something (even accurately!) from the pulpit ensures its practical inauguration into the life of the body and into the hearts of the people.

Conlusion: relationally disconnected and aloof Pastors result in disconnected and aloof Preaching.

So then, what is the (primary) missing component?

Pastoral Care. Pastoring. Pastors.

There is a temptation, I think, for reformed preachers, to spend far too much time laboring in the study (or the internet), and far too little time laboring among the flock. The place that that disconnect will manifest itself most plainly is in the Preaching.

Solution: If you are a Preacher/Pastor, I implore you - know your people.

You must know them. You must know them. You must know them. You must know them. You must. Know them.

I encourage you to read those sentences out loud, placing the emphasis on the italicized words. Each word in that sentence carries a unique burden that must not be minimized.

I don't simply mean that you need to know where they work, where they went to school, what books they like to read, etc. Those things are important. In fact, they are crucial. If you've known someone for 5 years and you still do not know their kid's names, that can communicate a severe lack of interest. In addition to those things, and more importantly, get to know their hearts.

Understand what their burdens are. What their joys are. What their scars are. What their wounds are. Understand what causes their hearts to beat, and what causes their hearts to sink.

How, you might ask, is a person to do this? "I cannot force anyone to open their hearts to me," you say. You are right. You can, however, open your heart to them.

Transparency is attractive. When my wife shows me her guts, it makes me want to show her my guts. Transparency is contagious.

Meditate on this:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness ofmen. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:1-8 (ESV)

This attitude, this heart toward people, towards each other, is ours in Christ. Let us cultivate it in ourselves, in our own hearts, and pray that it will compel others to do the same.

First: See it in Christ, crystalized in the Gospel. Second: Cultivate it in yourself, through prayer and personal accountability. Third: Capture and be captured by the hearts of your people.

Us Reformed types pride ourselves (ironically) on rightly appraising the condition of the human heart. However, it is not sufficient just to know the human heart, you must also know humans' hearts. Preacher, the more you know your people's hearts, the more you will be able to tailor the application of your preaching directly into their hearts.

Preachers and Pastors: I love you. Keep up the hard work. It is my hope to labor for you, not against you.

Laypersons: This is not for Preachers and Pastors only. All of us fall are bound by Philippians 2:1-8. If your preacher (or small group leader, parent, brother-in-law, brother-in-Christ) is relationally disconnected and aloof, try and demonstrate to him the kind relational quality that you desire them to have. If they are hard to get to know, then make yourself known. Be vulnerable. Remember, lay aside your interests and pursue theirs.

See it in Christ, crystalized in the Gospel. Cultivate it in yourself, through prayer and personal accountability. Capture and be captured by the hearts of people.

P.S. I thank God for my Pastor/Preacher, who pastors my heart every time he preaches, and preaches to my heart every time he pastors me.