∞
A Meal of Triumph
The sacrifice of Christ was voluntary and compulsory. It was voluntary in that no law required it of Him, no external source coerced Him into it. And yet His sacrifice was motivated by love and He could not not love. God is love. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. The Son loved the world and laid down His life so that we could have life. Love compelled Him to give up His life so that His people could live.
∞
Moves Like Jagger
I know how to party, regardless of what my friends say.
Here I am at the 2012 Faith Bible Church student summer camp. In the video, watch for some of my moves like Jagger including: Charlie’s Angels, washing machine, Sonic the Hedgehog, and serpentine. All of this was in order to avoid paintballs, while minimally wrapped in bubble wrap and duct tape. Headgear included more bubble wrap and some broken sunglasses.
∞
Mud Pies in Our Pockets
The prophet Jeremiah wrote that the universe gasps at the evils of men who seek satisfaction in hand-dug, dirty, broken cisterns that can hold no water when the fountain of living waters is not only full and fresh, it is available.
C.S. Lewis wrote that God does not find our desires too strong but rather too weak. We are far too easily pleased. Like kids making mud pies in the slum we miss a vacation at the sea.
∞
Why Is This So Hard?
Why Is This So Hard? ➔ We’re working hard over here in our small part of the Pacific Northwest to get a classical and Christian school up and running this fall. Our headmaster1 returned from the ACCS Annual Conference last week with some thoughts about the challenges of getting going.
Just like anything else with a gargantuan upside, this is going to be hard. It’s going to be hard because it’s supposed to be.
∞
Glorious Day
Not only did Jesus pray that we would be one as He and the Father are one, He also provided a meal to unite us. He Himself is the meal, His body the bread, His blood the wine, broken and poured out all for love. He gave His flesh so that we could enjoy familial fellowship as part of His household.
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
∞
MVPs at Confessing
One of the reasons that confession of sin seems so odd, even distasteful, is that we have little to no sense of togetherness.
Sin creates space between persons, whether to opposite sides of the bed, the room, the city, or the country. Adam and Eve died when they disobeyed in the garden of Eden just as God warned them. Their immediate death was a spiritual death, and that death was a loss of fellowship.
∞
Imaging Creatures
God has made humans to reflect him, but if they do not commit themselves to him, they will not reflect him but something else in creation. At the core of our beings we are imaging creatures. It is not possible to be neutral on this issue: we either reflect the Creator or something in creation.
—G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship, 16
∞
Initiated without Our Interest
We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We live because He lives and we have eternal life because His Spirit breathed life into our souls. We rejoice in response to His initiating and effective grace.
Gospel is a one-word name for the New Covenant which is a two-word name for God’s eternal, Triune love story. From the first chapter to the last, the story is all about how He goes first.
∞
Überlingen Panorama
I returned home from Germany last night. Jesse and Maggie are married (twice actually, once by the city registrar in a 15th century courtroom and once by a preacher on a beautiful country farm). I stayed in Überlingen and below is a panorama of the view from our balcony that Jesse took with Autostitch. Click on the image for the full effect.
∞
Again I Will Say, Grumble
Listening to many of us talk, you’d swear that Philippians 4:4 said, “Grumble always before the Lord, again I will say, Grumble.” Church people don’t have a monopoly on whining, but that’s largely because we like to whine so much that we just give it away for free.
Grumbling kicks humility in the shins. The two don’t like each other, though grumbling usually does most of the smack talk. Grumbling prefers to perch above the situation, to take the judges chair, and to pronounce all his unfulfilled expectations about schedules and traffic and disobedient kids and work hours and weather and Bible teachers.
∞
The Same God
Many who love to profess their love of God’s sovereignty struggle to profess their love of God’s love. Perhaps that’s because it is easier to be proud about knowing that He’s sovereign, which is quite an ugly cacophony if you think about it. Nevertheless, if He acts for His own name (and He does), if He seeks His own glory (and He does), then how could He be for us? How can we know He loves us?
∞
They Have Empires There
They Have Empires There ➔ Here is Mo’s first blog offering of 2012. The only reason she posted the story is that it was too long for her to tweet. The story is in a league by itself.
∞
Telephone Poles
We image-bearers are always telling the other image-bearers around us what God is like. If we were likened to a delivery company, we might say that our trucks are always loaded and on the road. There are no weekends off, no holiday breaks. We deliver non-stop information about God even if our trucks regularly run into telephone poles.
In Nehemiah 8:10, Ezra and some of the Levites called Israel to celebrate that “the joy of the LORD is your strength.
∞
If Only
There are many sign seekers today. “If only God would show something miraculous to me, then I would believe. If only He would prove the truth to me, then I would trust Him. If only He would answer all my questions, then I would follow Christ.”
The first problem with sign-seeking is that it makes doubting men those who administer a test that God must take. But God did not enroll in our lab class so that we could grade His performance and believability.
∞
Dispensable to Replaceable
Our government continues marching towards a legal redefinition of marriage. Last week our President pandered to the homosexual crowd and offered up his “evolved” support for same sex marriage. I realize that there are many factors that have led our country to this edge and that no one response will counteract it. We must certainly proclaim the gospel, starting with God’s good and righteous standards and then His gracious offer of forgiveness in Christ to all who repent and believe.
∞
Broken Glass
One Wednesday afternoon in the spring of 2000 I arrived at my basement office in the student ministries department at Grace Community Church. I had recently taken the reigns as the Junior High Pastor and one of the students, desiring to encourage me, gifted me with a chilled Mocha Frappuccino bottle from Starbucks. I talked a lot about Starbucks in those days, especially my affection for venti caramel macchiatos. A friend of mine, Doug Main, the previous Junior High Pastor, discipled me in the ways and I followed the calorie laden path.
∞
Punching Entitlement in the Face
The more I think about it the more I believe that the most powerful weapon God gives His people to fight dualism, entitlement, and hypocrisy is thanks.
Consider the apostle John’s transition from the story of Jesus feeding the five-thousand (John 6:1-15) to Jesus’ offer of Himself as the bread of life (John 6:22-34). Tucked into John’s description of the crowd’s movement from the “other side of the sea” back to Capernaum is a key repetition.
∞
Complaining Like Americans
If you’re like me, as you’ve read the Old Testament, you’ve probably wondered why the Israelites blew it so often. How did they miss the point that obedience brought God’s gracious blessing and that disobedience brought God’s gracious, usually painful discipline? What kept them from trusting God? Take just one instance: their deliverance from Egypt by miraculous plagues and the Passover and crossing the Red Sea. Within months they were complaining like Americans.
∞
A Meal to Soften Hearts
Observing the Lord’s Supper softens the hearts for all those with faith. For those without faith, their participation will harden their hearts more. They eat and drink judgment on themselves (see 1 Corinthians 11:27-28). “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Believers in Christ meet with God over a meal He’s provided. We commune with the Father and the Son by the Spirit. We fellowship in God’s presence, we fellowship with the Triune God.
∞
A Glorious Day
Last Monday night we held an Informational Meeting for Evangel Classical School. Not everyone made it in time for my welcome and I thought I’d share my excitement here anyway.
Announcement day was a glorious day. It was glorious not because the school is big and every detail is set and every ideal has been made possible. It was a glorious day by faith. We are trusting that God is going to take our investment of dollars and minutes and multiply them by His grace into a community of students and teachers and families who see all of life with His Son as the center and Sustainer.