What You Win Them With

Here's a guiding proverb with some wisdom, I think:

"What you win them with, you win them to."

Not sure on the source, but I do know I want to "win them to" the gospel.

The Cross and Christian Ministry

I've found a wonderful source of wisdom in D. A. Carson's The Cross and Christian Ministry. From his studies in 1 Corinthians, Carson instructs in the following areas:

1) "The Cross and Christian Preaching"
2) "The Cross and the Holy Spirit"
3) "The Cross and Factionalism"
4) "The Cross and Christian Leadership", and
5) "The Cross and the World Christian"

I'm now in the chapter on leadership. Here are a few thoughts I found penetrating and edifying:

The person who daydreams about being a leader in almost any field imagines what it is like to be the best, or at least to be better than most others - to succeed where others fail, to be stalwart where others stumble, to create where others merely perform, to win adulation and applause, perhaps after some initial hardship and rejection. To be a leader may mean fame, money, and some freedoms from the responsibilities and humdrum existence of ordinary mortals. To be a leader means to win respect. Only rarely do those who dream of leadership, but who have never experienced it, think through the responsibilities, pressures, and temptations leaders face. Almost never do they focus on accountability, service, suffering.

Christian leadership means being entrusted with the mysteries of God...It is not that Paul, Apollos, and other leaders are servants of Christ while other Christians are not, nor is it that they are entrusted with the secret things of God while other believers know nothing of them. Leaders are not in a special, priestly class. Rather, what is required in some sense of all believers is peculiarly required of the leaders of believers. There is a difference of degree. That is why Paul will be able to say, "I urge you to imitate me" (1 Cor. 4.16).

What it means to be a servant of Christ is to be obligated to promote the gospel by word and example, the gospel of the crucified Messiah. That is absolutely fundamental. There is no Christian leadership that does not throb with this mandate. In the West, we must repent of our endless fascination for "leadership" that smacks much more either of hierarchical models (I am the boss, and, for all below me on the ladder, what I say goes) or of democratic models (give the people what they want; take another survey, conduct another poll, and scratch where they itch)...Christian leaders have been entrusted with the gospel, the secret things of God that have been hidden in ages past but that are now proclaimed, by their ministry, to men and women everywhere.

Standing in the Stead of God

Read here for a reminder of the importance of preaching.

The Obama Hermeneutic

The quote of note (look here for more):

"I don't think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state. If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans. That's my view. But we can have a respectful disagreement on that.

Converted

I am now a big fan of (some) rap.

Check this guy out and you will be too.

Here's the lyrics from Shai Linne's "Were You There":

Verse 1

This story starts at the climax, we find that time’s lapsed- don’t mind that
It’s kind of like a night cap filled with divine acts
We zoom in the lens on Christ's agony on the garden
Doomed for His friends- His tragedy for our pardon
Foreseeing the Father’s cup of wrath has Him stifled and weak
He’s sweating blood with His disciples asleep
The Prince of Peace knows the beef shall increase
Since the thief approaches with the soldiers and the chief priests
His arrest is not just- neither is the trial
While Jesus is being treated foul, He sees Peter’s denial
He’s sent to Pilate, to Herod, back to Pilate
The violence of humanity at its finest
So now He stands before the crowd doomed to die
An angry mob who’s yelling out “crucify”
The way they treat the Lord of glory is debased and it’s foul
But you miss the point if you don’t see your face in the crowd

(chorus)

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there? Were you there? (4x)
Man, sometimes it causes me to tremble
Yo, sometimes it causes me to tremble

Verse 2

This story starts at the climax, we find that time’s lapsed- don’t mind that
It’s kind of like a night cap filled with divine acts
We zoom in the lens on Christ's agony in the garden
Doomed for His friends- it had to be for the pardon
And delivery from misery of kids who speak wickedly
Sinfully, inwardly slick with the iniquity
We see disciples sleep and mock today with a lot to say
But we do the same thing when we don’t watch and pray
Like Judas, we sell Christ out to get the treasure
Whether it’s the cheddar or forbidden pleasure
Like the chief priests, we want Christ to surrender
But we want Him out the way when He doesn’t fit our agenda
Like Peter, we have misplaced, fleshly confidence
But we’ll deny the Lord when faced with deadly consequence
Like Herod, we’re curious about Christ because He’s famous
But we quickly get bored with Him when He doesn’t entertain us
Like Pilate, we see Christ and find nothing wrong with Him
But when the world chooses the wicked, we go right along with them
Despite His kindness, we seek to do our Maker violence
The fallenness of humanity at its finest
So now He stands before the crowd doomed to die
An angry mob who’s yelling out “crucify”
The way they treat the Lord of glory is debased and it’s foul
But you miss the point if you don’t see your face in the crowd

(Chorus)

Verse 3

This story starts at the climax, we find that time’s lapsed- don’t mind that
It’s kind of like a night cap filled with divine acts
We zoom in the lens on Christ's agony on the garden
Doomed for His friends- His tragedy for our pardon
Foreseeing the Father’s cup of wrath- it has Him stifled and weak
He’s sweating blood with His disciples asleep
The Prince of Peace knows the beef shall increase
Since the thief approaches with the soldiers and the chief priests
His arrest is not just- neither is the trial
While Jesus is being treated foul, he sees Peter’s denial
He’s sent to Pilate, to Herod, back to Pilate
The violence of humanity at its finest
So now He stands before the crowd doomed to die
An angry mob who’s yelling out “crucify”
The way we treat the Lord of glory is debased and it’s foul
Ashamed, I bow because I see my face in the crowd

(Chorus)

Enjoy the whole album for a passionate systematic on the glory of the Trinity in the work of the Atonement.

Soli deo gloria