New (Original?) Kind of Tract

from Desiring God.

The Apple of Christ's Eye; The Apple of Mine

In an interview, pastor Bill Kittrell had this answer:

I remember the story you tell, C.J., of someone asking you after your daughter Nicole was born, “I bet Nicole is the apple of your eye?” And C.J. you responded by saying, “No, my wife Carolyn is the apple of my eye.”

I learned from this counsel (20+ years ago) how to lead my home with an emphasis on my relationship with Cheri. Now that my kids are growing up, getting married, and dumping me like a bad habit, I am grateful that Cheri is my best friend. I am grateful for all the times we have invested in our relationship over all other relationships.

C.J. you have also said that most men fail in cultivating romance with their wives because they fail to put their plans for romance in the calendar (which is required to make sure the above happen).

I want to be more like this with my wife...

And in that I'll be more like Jesus.

Is This For Real? Is It This Easy?

Rick Warren, whom I respect, looks loony with this one.

Two thousand years ago - the Day of Pentecost was the first day of the Christian Church. Acts 2:41 tells us, "About 3,000 people were baptized and joined the church that day."  If you'll join us this weekend, history could be repeated at Saddleback!  Want to make history?

 

Which of these requirements do you need to complete this Saturday?

1.  Open your heart to Jesus Christ. Click here to learn more.

2.  Attend Class 101: Discovering Your Church Family. Sign up.

3.  Sign our membership covenant (explained in class).

4.  Be baptized the way Jesus commanded and modeled for us.

 

YOU CAN FINISH ALL 4 REQUIREMENTS IN ONE DAY - THIS SATURDAY! 

 

EIGHT REASONS TO JOIN THIS SATURDAY & NOT PROCRASTINATE:

 

1.  I'm personally teaching Class 101 for the first time in ten years.

 

2.  I'm personally baptizing after Class and you'll receive a photo & baptism certificate.

 

3. You'll get a free one year subscription to Purpose Driven Connection magazine.  (Never offered before)

 

4. You'll get free copy of The Purpose Driven Church book.

 

5. Your name will be included in the historical list of Saddleback Pioneer Members who joined in our first 30 years.  (This Easter is our 30th Easter and I want you included in this list.)

         

6. The class is 1 hour shorter than normal. You can watch session 3 here online now.

 

7. You'll be a part of making Christian history!  The largest membership class ever!

 

8. We love you & want you in our family. There is no good reason to procrastinate.

Should conversions happen because people "want to make history" or because "Rick is teaching the class and baptizing and you can get a free photo and book"?  Can conversions happen like this?  Conversions to Jesus Christ, that is?

Where's the Gospel in this invitation?  We can hope it's in the class I suppose...

I can't help but think of 2 Corinthians 4.

2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

True conversion is (and this obviously is not the only way to say it) when the Holy Spirit of God regenerates the unbelieving heart so that, according to Biblical truth, that heart sees, turns towards, and trusts in the glory of Jesus and His cross and turns away from the wretchedness of sin.  That certainly could, by God's grace happen with Warren's efforts.  But it cannot be manufactured by them.  To me, Warren's invite seems to be missing gospel truth, gospel power, and gospel motivation.

Dumb As The Tattoo On My Neck

So this dude lied to the cops about his name...with his real name tattooed on his neck.

We deny our sin...but there's a book:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.  - Revelation 20.11-15

Let's not foolishly pretend we're good.  Let's confess we're bad and receive Jesus' goodness on our behalf.  He'll have our sin written on Him (2 Cor. 5.21). And have our names written in the book of life.  

Obama's Faith - In His Own Words

Here's the interview:

FALSANI:
Who's Jesus to you? (He laughs nervously)

OBAMA:
Right.

Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.  And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

HT: Justin Taylor, with comments

What Would You Say If Your Daughter Was Murdered?

Here's the sermon Pastor Terry Stauffer gave at the funeral for his 14-year-old daughter who was murdered when she went for a walk.  Wow.

When Emily’s death was confirmed on Saturday night, I was shocked and bewildered. All I could pray was, “O Lord, Help! Help! Help!” As I was on my knees, a thought came to me: “If all my talk about the Gospel and God’s goodness is not true now, then it was never true.”

HT: Tim Challies

New Bible for a New Gospel?

Time Magazine announces the Green Bible.

Now there is a Bible trying to make gardeners of us all. On Oct. 7, HarperCollins is releasing The Green Bible, a Scripture for the Prius age that calls attention to more than 1,000 verses related to nature by printing them in a pleasant shade of forest green, much as red-letter editions of the Bible encrimson the words of Jesus. The new version's message, states an introduction by Evangelical eco-activist J. Matthew Sleeth, is that "creation care"--the Christian catchphrase for nature conservancy--"is at the very core of our Christian walk."

Using recycled paper with soy-based ink, The Green Bible includes supplementary writings by, among others, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope John Paul II, Desmond Tutu and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright. Several of these essays cite the Genesis verse in which God gives humanity "dominion" over the earth, a charge most religious greens read to mean "stewardship." Others assert that eco-neglect violates Jesus' call to care for the least among us: it is the poor who inhabit the floodplains.

I like the environment.  I really do.  But I love the gospel, and that is what the Bible is about.

Wrong Answer

Prominent emergent-church leader Brian Mclaren was recently asked the question, "What is the good news?" As Michael Krahn reports, this was his answer: 

I think this is where it gets interesting because one of the ways that what we do becomes colonization, when we’re going to represent a religion and trying to make converts to a religion… but the good news isn’t the good news of Christianity, it’s the good news of the Kingdom of God.  And I think that Fatmire [Muslim peace activist also present at conference and sitting next to him on the panel] working for peace, is an agent for peace, and I’d much rather her be working for peace being who she is than… becoming a person in a church worrying about the list over there on that wall.  [on “the list” are things non-essentials like speaking in tongues, etc.)

So, to me there’s something we really have to grapple with about whether the border of a religion is the border of the kingdom of God.  And I think that’s a question we’d be wise to raise.  I liked what you said about there not being despair when you’re among the extremely needy people.   Wouldn’t it be interesting if we found out that God is present wherever there’s suffering because God is there bringing healing and God is really present wherever people are working against injustice because that’s the work of God, wherever people are working for peace. And then the we find that the place that God isn’t is where you have a bunch of affluent people who are self-absorbed… and that wouldn’t surprise me why they would get depressed, because, in some way, it’s not that God isn’t present but they’re snoring through the presence of God.”

In answering, Mclaren did expose certain things that are not the gospel.  But his answer is horribly wrong (It didn't include the person and work of Jesus!).  Here's a better one.  Compare the difference:

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Cor. 15.1-8; emphasis mine)

HT: Tim Challies

The Way it [Really] Is

From Tony Reinke

The Gospel In A Sentence

Here's Piper's effort (from "The Gospel in 6 Minutes):

The Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy.

Undermine Both Swaggering and Sniveling

I couldn't resist. Here's another gospel nugget from Of First Importance:

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to died for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

- Timothy Keller, The Reason For God (New York, NY: Dutton, 2008), 181.

The Gospel Everyday

Visit Of First Importance, where you'll get wisdom from wise men of old every day on the matter of first importance: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's one my dear wife sent me from a few days ago:

That Christian who has free grace, who has free justification, who has the mediatorial righteousness of Christ, who has the satisfaction of Christ, who has the covenant of grace most constantly in his sight, and most frequently warm upon his heart—that Christian, of all Christians in the world, is most free from a world of fears, and doubts, and scruples which do sadden, sink, perplex, and press down a world of other Christians, who daily eye more what Christ is a-doing in them, and what they are a-doing for Christ, than they do eye either his active or passive obedience.

Christ has done great things for his people, and he has suffered great things for his people, and he has purchased great things for his people, and he has prepared great things for his people; yet many of his own dear people are so taken up with their own hearts, and with their own duties and graces, that Christ is little eyed by them or minded by them!

This is the great reason why so many Christians, who will certainly go to heaven—do walk in darkness, and lie down in sorrow.”

- Thomas Brooks, A Cabinet of Choice Jewels

Look at Jesus!

Three-Dollar Gospel

Ray Van Neste has this satirical quote from D. A. Carson's Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians:

Enjoy...and be convicted...

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.”