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In the Bag
We are half-way into a short series of confession exhortations under the banner of Confession 101. The first two lessons were that one, sin is bad, and two, we all sin. The third reminder is that no one makes us sin.
This is easy to believe right up until we sin. In the heat of disobedience every heart goes looking for the escape hatch. Since we learned that everyone sins, that means that you sin too, in fact, it must be your sin that caused me to sin.
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Changing the World from a Basement
The following post is my address during the inaugural convocation of Evangel Classical School yesterday.
Many school years ago Solomon wrote that the end of a thing is better than the beginning. I did not graduate highly enough in my class to argue with him, but I do know that you can’t get to the end without a beginning. You’ve got to start somewhere. This is our start, a sunny first day of school, an historic beginning for Evangel Classical School.
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Back to School
Our two oldest kids, Maggie and Calvin, head back to school tomorrow. School reentry is always exciting, but this first day is not only the first day back to school for our kids, it is also the first day of school for our school.
On Tuesday morning Evangel Classical School opens its (basement) doors to students. Like I said, we’re not only beginning a new year, we’re beginning a new institution.
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Sheepwalking
I’m reading Tribes by Seth Godin bit by bit. Even though not everything applies to my setting, it’s interesting to read his different perspective. I thought this was particularly provoking:
I define sheepwalking as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them brain-dead jobs and enough fear to keep them in line. (96)
He’s talking about a business, but I believe he’d have no problem recognizing the same issue in a church.
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A Spiritual Advantage
One very significant benefit for us is that all of us who believe are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit has been at work throughout all of history since His hovering over the face of the waters on day one of creation, since Pentecost, He lives in the hearts of all His new creations.
The advantage plays out everywhere, but we should see the application for our Lord’s day worship, for our weekly liturgy, and for our regular celebration of communion.
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Favourable Conditions
If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.
—C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
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Confession Ex Nihilo
Last week we began a short series called Confession 101. Lesson #1 was, and is, that sin is bad. Sin blinds and rots and kills. Sin is bad.
Lesson #2 is: we all sin. Not only is sin destructive, it destroys every son of Adam and daughter of Eve. The apostle Paul wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We sin by transgressing, by crossing lines that God said not to cross.
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That Movie Script We Wrote
We don’t want to diet, we want to diet while winning the $250,000 Jello grand prize for being the biggest loser while confetti drops from the rafters. We don’t want to go for a run, we want to cross the tape under Olympic stadium lights on our way to the gold medal stand. We don’t want to die to bring life, we want to sort of lay down on the soil’s surface and hope that Miracle Grow sized fruit will come anyway.
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Confession 101
It may or may not be obvious to those who attend our church, but the exhortation during the corporate confession part of our Lord’s day liturgy usually connects to some thread or theme from the sermon to follow. Why plow two fields when one field plowed twice might be more fruitful? That said, I have a few ideas for smaller, separate confession “series,” and this past Sunday I started a four-parter titled “Confession 101.
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The Field of Ego
I cannot find any certified definition or doctrine of egology. If theology is the study of theos, God, then egology would be the study of ego, study of “I,” study of self. Though many philosophers have written about the self and though we study e*c*ology, from oikos meaning house or environment, apparently we don’t publish clinical studies in the field of the ego.
As Christians, we know that life is not about our ego; life is not defined according to the self.
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No Crown for Confession
We cannot be great without confessing our sins. True greatness upholds the greatest standard not a lesser one. The greatest standard is God’s law and His law requires perfection. A great man would not affirm an imperfect standard, nor would a great man falsely claim that he had attained perfection. A truly great man must hold a truly great standard and make a true evaluation of himself in light of that standard.
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Not in Their Right Mind
We can take comfort as we observe the communion ordinance that we are probably either doing exactly what God wants us to do or we are absolutely crazy. There is no way that men could come up with this in their right mind.
What marketing group would build their team around an approach like Jesus? Who would erect a cross at the center of a global advertising platform? Who would pretend to eat another man’s flesh and drink his blood and call it spiritual worship?
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Only Perfect People Allowed
The signs were legion a half dozen years ago. There was a campaign to hook people into church by pledging that at First Such-and-such Church: “No purfect people allowed.” Such signs usually included an obvious misspelled word just to punctuate the point.
A few comments are in order. First, duh. There is no church under the sun that only opens the doors for perfect people. How would they know? For that matter, I don’t believe that the signs are meant to be as sympathetic as they’re meant to be sarcastic.
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Chosen for Humility
Even Calvinists need to be humble. I preached all the way through John chapter 6 without using the word Calvinism once, though I most assuredly taught the truths from John 6 that Calvinism seeks to summarize. The Father chose a group of people to give to His Son. The Son gave His life, His flesh, for that group. The Spirit brings that group to life, giving them the desire to come to the Son.
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Strength to Repent
The benediction in Romans 15:5-6 is one way of stating God’s aim for His people.
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6, ESV)
Not only do we see God’s goal for us, but we also see how difficult it is for us to get there.
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In the Flesh
My fork is in the (small) piece of the evangelical pie that cares about words. I mean we really care. We care about the truth and we work to understand the Bible accurately so that we can explain it faithfully. Words are powerful, yay, vital for eternal salvation and sanctification, so phrases and sentences are, you know, important and stuff.
A couple days ago Tim Challies shared a YouTube clip calling attention to “theological understanding and the theological precision in the way we speak.
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Giving a Rip
It may be hard to remember all the things that other people did that enable us to enjoy our time of communion. A team of people arrived early this morning and put the bread into these plates, filled the cups, and carried them upstairs to this table. Before that, someone woke up early, then made, baked, cut, and packed the bread. Before that, the same someone bought all the necessary ingredients and paid the electric bill so she they could turn on the oven.
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Not a Waiting Power Outlet
Weekly worship on the Lord’s day isn’t only hard, it’s impossible for those who aren’t spiritual. In order to worship the true God who is spirit, we must worship in truth and in spirit. We too often assume that we can worship Him in truth and in flesh.
Take confession of sin for an example. We absolutely must acknowledge and confess our sin, as well as seek forgiveness and cleansing from our sin if we would draw near to the holy God.
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Copy and Paste Communion
Those who gather around the Lord’s Table every week as we do face different temptations than those who do it once a year. A plain temptation that we face is that we would get used to it, take it for granted, fail to see it as special. Carrying out communion by copy and paste is a real danger for us.
The really real danger is that our believing might become copy and paste, that our faith might be nothing more than words copied from our Bibles to our notebooks.
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The Bricklayer's Trowel
Are you someone who is easy to edify or someone who is easy to offend? Do you respond like newly mixed mortar to the bricklayer’s trowel or like a bucket of gasoline to a lit match?
Too many church people are too easily offended. It only takes a spark to get a fire going and soon all those around run for cover. It’s almost impossible for an easily offended man to learn anything.