Monthly Archives: June 2009

Do Your Pictures and Activities Look the Same Now as They Did in High School? (This is a Vouch for Marriage and Fatherhood)

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I commend marriage and fatherhood to my high school friends who currently choose to remain single. I do this for the simple reason that marriage and fatherhood is better than a life of singleness consumed with the same activities that we did in high school. Doing the same things we did 7 years ago (but now with legality) is unfulfilling, if not just freaking ridiculous. I mean, think about it.

Marriage and fatherhood is a challenge. Things change. But it is good. It’s very good. I love how Andrew Peach says it…

Yet, through the exhaustion, financial stress, screaming, and general chaos, there enters in at times, mysteriously and unexpectedly, deep contentment and gratitude. It is not the pleasure or amusement of high school or college but rather the honor and nobility of sacrifice and commitment, like that felt by a soldier. What happens to his children now happens to him; his life, though awhirl with the trivial concerns of children, is more serious than it ever was before. Everything he does, from bringing home a paycheck to painting a bedroom, has a new end and, hence, a greater significance. The joys and sorrows of his children are now his joys and sorrows; the stakes of his life have risen. And if he is faithful to his calling, he might come to find that, against nearly all prior expectations, he never wants to return to the way things used to be.

(From Justin Taylor’s featuring of Andrew Peach’s article “On the Demise of Fatherhood“)


Vanhoozer on the Mission of Theology

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The mission of theology is to enable the people of God to participate in the mission and ministry of the gospel. The gospel is a mission statement in two senses. First, it is a statement of a mission, in the sense of the Latin term missio (sending). The “descent” or entrance of Christ to our world was a missionary journey on which the Father sent his Son (John 17:8, 18). Second, the gospel is a statement of this mission. Both Scripture and theology are caught up in the mission of the Son and Spirit as these come to expression in and through the gospel.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 60.

Actually, Mission Fueled By Eschatology is Best

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…

I don’t meant to say that we should see Acts 1:6-7 as separate from v. 8. Luke is not saying that Jesus is changing the subject. In fact, mission has everything to with eschatology. Mission is wrapped up with ‘where we are.’

Moreover, the theme of witnesses in the Book of Acts has a connection to the messianic mission in Isaiah 55:1-4. The mission of Jesus is continued by Jesus’ people. And that mission has everything to do the final picture. Isaiah 65:17-25 doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Mission As Greater Than Our Eschatological Views

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Luke is not answering a question on that subject in Acts 1, but the implications say something.

Luke gives us the disciples’ question and Jesus response in vv. 6-8 …

“So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

 

121 Church in Winston-Salem

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We got to worship Jesus with 121 Church in downtown Winston-Salem, NC this morning. It’s been great to tag along with Stephen Wagoner and get a closer look into the life of a church planter. 

They let me preach James 4:1-5. I meant for this to be one of the mot important things I said…

The degree of God’s jealousy for us is not measured by the extent of our value, but by how much He is infinitely better than all the stuff that we worship in His place.

A Robust Theology and Gratitude for Inverted Warts that Are Not Cancer

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The pastor opened the floor for a season of testimonies.

I had finished my sermon where I yearned to highlight the glory of God in His superiority over all the good things He gives us. God is infinitely better than His gifts. I’ve said something like that every chance I’ve had to share in this ‘christian culture.’ Mainly because I feel that it is good news that needs to be heard among a people that make such a big deal about God’s ‘blessings.’ Mainly because it was a eureka experience for me when I read Piper and he said that. Primarily because it is so amazingly true–life-changingly true, paradigm-shatteringly true.

So we all sat there waiting for the first person to stand and give testimony to God’s greatness. I admit that I hoped to see some effect from my sermon on the people. I was hoping for a word of gratitude for God’s covenant faithfulness that culminated in Jesus on the cross. Perhaps a word on the gift of the Spirit to set our eyes on Jesus as we hope for the eschaton. Maybe even a quote from Anselm, some type of doxology that grows from the ontological argument– something like God is greater than that which can ever be imagined.

I was waiting for that, hoping for that. Only two people stood up to speak. The first was a sweet senior lady. She thanked God for a spider bite that did not go as bad as it could have. She thanked the church for their prayers and for God’s guidance to prompt the request for prayer. The next lady stood with an array of gratitude. The one that stood out the most was her sincere thanks to God that the spot on her foot was just an “ole inverted wart” and not cancer. She sat down and the service drew to a close.

I felt a little baffled–I was happy and sincerely thankful and also kind of disappointed at the same time. Writing about it now is helping me. I think I wanted to hear something lofty and way up in the sky. I expected something deeply theological. These people just spoke from where they live. They live with spiders and warts and neighbors with problems and everything else that dummies like me forget about when I have my head stuck in a book on the canonical-linguistic approach to Christian theology.

They did something that too many of us actually cannot do. They were not loving God’s gifts more than God. They were seeing God in the mundane. They can see His hand in the details of life that we are too embarrassed to mention. They credit His power in realms of day to day life that we Christian Hedonists can find cute but not really praiseworthy. I want to punch myself in the mouth. Everything they said was theological! More theological than this fatheaded ‘young theologian’ could dream of! I want to see God there, too!

Father, please make us to see You there, too. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Contextualization In Process

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@ Hannah’s Creek Baptist Church…

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?”

(James 4:1-5 KJVS)

 

@ 121 Church…

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?”

(James 4:1-5 ESV)

‘Unconditional Love’– The Point is Love

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Unconditional love. 

I think the important word here is love. To over-stress the adjective is to undermine the noun it modifies. ‘Unconditional’ has parameters. Those parameters are dictated by love. There are degrees of unconditionality where love ceases to exist. This makes sense. Unconditional permits any condition and every circumstance. And there are thousands of conditions and circumstances, whether imposed or self-afflicted, that are very unloving. For it to be love then it must stay away from defeat and guard against those things.

God’s love for His people is unconditional. That means, He doesn’t let them be whores and worship the Baals–He loves them. So He creates in them a new heart. He overcomes their rebellion because they cannot. He loves them enough to change them. He makes a New Covenant. He sends Jesus Christ. 

Unconditional love.

Back in North Carolina

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We are back in North Carolina for a couple of weeks. It feels good to be here already. I like the air. And I like the green trees that make for a scenic route from the airport to Johnston County.

While we look forward to a sweet time with family and friends, we are also excited about visiting two churches where two friends of mine serve as pastors–Hannah’s Creek Baptist Church in Benson and 121 Church in Winston-Salem. I am grateful for the opportunity to preach the Word and worship with the brothers and sisters there.

My hope for these two weeks was articulated best in Marshall’s prayer for us this morning. He asked that God “deliver us to NC for His glory.” Let it be that God brings us back for a ‘summer vacation’ that is primarily about Him–we come as sent by Him for His purposes, whether expounding the biblical text, eating Bojangles, or rooting for the Mudcats. I pray for all our being and doing to proclaim that Christ is better than anything in the world.

Please pray for us. Grace to you all in Jesus Christ!

Epiphany for an Idiot– Sometimes We Learn by Saying, “I Don’t Want to Be that Guy.”

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Hopefully I learned something last night. I was able to spend the day in study at Bethlehem’s downtown campus. Melissa was here at the house with Elizabeth all day. I was hoping to do something special that night. The Twins had an afternoon game, so that was out. So instead I decided to take her to one of her favorite restaurants from NC, Schlotzsky’s, which we recently discovered to have a location in Bloomington. I figured a nice and simple dinner followed by a night together would be sweet. We’d just walk around the mall or something afterwards…

That was the problem. We spent an hour or so walking around the mall. And it sucked. I felt sick about it later last night. I felt like I squandered a good evening with my family. How I could be so stupid to have some of the sweetest gifts that God has given me right there and instead I spent the whole time walking around looking for something “entertaining” to do together.

Being together would be enough. I just want to be with them. We don’t have to necessarily do anything. I reject the culture that has conditioned me to think otherwise. By God’s grace, it took being an idiot last night to get that. I think I learn that way pretty often. I do something and say in assessment, “Wow, I don’t want to be that guy.”