Last year me and my buddy Tony got to go to The Gospel Coalition biennial conference in Chicago. Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, John Piper and a whole host of others preached through 2 Timothy, and needless to say, it was quite remarkable. So I was thrilled this morning when I saw that they have just announced their next conference in 2011!
The Conference will be held again in Chicago (Downtown), and this time their will be over 50 speakers from all different denominations being brought in to talk about how to preach Christ from the Old Testament (Professor Soenksen are you interested yet?). The title of the conference is, "They testify about me: Preaching Christ and the Gospel from the Old Testament," and the dates are April 12-14.
Check out the video below as Tim Keller and D.A. Carson talk about what to expect at this year's event:
When a newspaper posed the question "What's Wrong with the World?" G.K. Chesterton wrote a brief letter in response:
"Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely Yours, G.K. Chesterton."
- from Tim Keller's "The Prodigal God"
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was not happy with Lebron James after Thursday night's ego-fest (oops, I mean "announcement") that Lebron would be joining the Miami Heat. In a bit of a ranting letter to Cleveland fans, he shares his contempt for Lebron's disloyalty, laziness, etc. etc.
However, what stuck out to me was Gilbert's picture of the cruciform life. He says of Lebron,
"Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works."
I have no idea who Dan Gilbert is, what his faith is, and what exactly he meant by his statement. But I do know that his point is that this life will inevitably have suffering before our final glory. And Jesus said, "You cannot be my disciple unless you pick up your cross and follow me."
I've been thinking a lot lately about distraction (that is, for as long as I can focus on the subject before getting distracted!) I have noticed in my own life, with the more social media (blogs, facebook, twitter, e-mail, etc., etc.,) that I have never been more busy doing nothing. Now, obviously, I don't think any of these things are sinful or wrong in it of themselves (I'm blogging now!), but oh how good we are at perverting all things, twisting them into something that hurts, rather than helps, ourselves and others.
With this in mind, I came across a quote from Pascal with commentary by Peter Kreeft onJustin Taylor's blog last night. Why do we have so much distraction? That question is answered rather marvelously:
Here is the line from Pascal:
I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.
Kreeft writes in response to this:
We ought to have much more time, more leisure, than our ancestors did, because technology, which is the most obvious and radical difference between their lives and ours, is essentially a series of time-saving devices.
In ancient societies, if you were rich you had slaves to do the menial work so that you could be freed to enjoy your leisure time. Life was like a vacation for the rich because the poor slaves were their machines. . . .
[But] now that everyone has slave-substitutes (machines), why doesn’t everyone enjoy the leisurely, vacationy lifestyle of the ancient rich? Why have we killed time instead of saving it? . . .
We want to complexify our lives. We don’t have to, we want to. We wanted to be harried and hassled and busy. Unconsciously, we want the very things we complain about. For if we had leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great gaping hold in our hearts and be terrified, because that hole is so big that nothing but God can fill it.
So we run around like conscientious little bugs, scared rabbits, dancing attendance on our machines, our slaves, and making them our masters. We think we want peace and silence and freedom and leisure, but deep down we know that this would be unendurable to us, like a dark and empty room without distractions where we would be forced to confront ourselves. . .
If you are typically modern, your life is like a mansion with a terrifying hole right in the middle of the living-room floor. So you paper over the hole with a very busy wallpaper pattern to distract yourself. You find a rhinoceros in the middle of your house. The rhinoceros is wretchedness and death. How in the world can you hide a rhinoceros? Easy: cover it with a million mice. Multiple diversions."
Confirming this thought are the words of Romans 1, that we by nature "suppress the truth in unrighteousness," always looking for something to draw us away from standing naked before a holy God. But it is just there, naked, with all our warts, imperfections, distractions, and sin, that we must stand before God. And it is just there, that in Christ, we hear the precious words of the Gospel: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
The Law would say focus all your mind, all your heart, all your soul and all your strength on loving Me and loving neighbor. Christ says, "You have not, but I have."
Now before faith came, you were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was your guardian until Christ came, in order that you might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, you are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Pastor Mark Driscoll making the point, among others, that we do not actively participate in our salvation. As dead people, dead in or trespasses and sins, we are the passive recipients of new life by God's grace.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:4-10)
Page CXVI has just released there new album, Hymns II - As part of the promotion for the new album Page CXVI is making their first album, Hymns I, available for download free of charge this week only. You can go to their website by clicking here. Once you are their you can also preview the new album and purchase it directly through the site.
The song list for the new album is:
How Great Thou Art
Praise to the Lord
Jesus I Am Resting, Resting
Rock of Ages
Abide With Me
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Doxology
These guys are continuing to try and make these rich hymns more accessible to a modern audience so that these meaningful pieces of music will live on. If you appreciate what they are doing, as I do, then please show them your support.
This weekend, my boys and I took a trip to Hollywood! Before I continue, let me make a few things clear about this place of glamour:
1. Contrary to what's shown on TV, 99.8% of Hollywood is not glamorous, star studded or beautiful at all.
2. Drugs, sex, prostitution and poverty are rampant in Hollywood. It is one of the most spiritually broken cities I've ever been in.
3. The Church has little to no presence there.
That being said, this weekend, I noticed the Church's presence there in a striking way. Driving down Hollywood Blvd., I stumbled upon a big black sign that said in white letters, 'Ecclesia.'Curious, I pulled over to see it closer. The church was meeting in an old, broken down theater (fitting, eh?). Literally, right next door to the theater was a sex shoppe (the little pink building to the left in the photo).
I did a bit of searching around online about their Church, and in general, they were Evangelical! Of course, they were super-hip, all with cool hair, cool clothes, and a love for Indy music. In short, the staff looked like they belonged in Hollywood. They were contextualizing their message ( like missionaries dressing in African garb, they too were dressed in Hollywood garb). An Evangelical presence on Hollywood Blvd.?! I loved the picture: A church proclaiming the Lordship of Christ, right next to a sex shoppe! Isn't this how Christ ministered when He was here in the flesh? Isn't this how He still ministers today: in the midst of tax collectors and sinners (even eating with them!)?
On the other hand, a couple blocks away, I saw a different kind of Church entirely. Oh, they claimed to be Christians, and their building (at first glance) certainly gave testimony to that effect. Towering over the other buildings around it, the old Methodist Church looked much more like a traditional church building then say a theater next to a sex shoppe. Yet, as I got closer to the building, it became very clear that they were anything but traditional. I saw three big banners hanging from their windows and doors. They read:
1. "Reclaiming the Bible for Progressive Christians"
2. "We are different. We believe in Equality."
3. Sermon this Sunday: 'Marriage Equality.'
What struck me was how both Churches were trying to reach their culture. The Evangelical Church changed their dress, music style, and overall aesthetics, yet maintained the central message of Christianity. The Methodist Church, on the other hand, in order to reach the culture, did not give up it's dress, music style, and overall aesthetics, but in order to "be relevant" seems to have given up it's message.
So here's the thoughts I came away with:
1. Contextualization has it's limits. The message cannot be changed. Ever. We cannot tamper with it. The Gospel must remain central. The Methodist Church looks the part, but like so many Church buildings, appears to be full of dead men's bones. Style changes, music changes, what's considered beautiful, or fashionable today, can very quickly look old and antiquated not too much further into the future.
2. Although, I can't be sure of this, I have a pretty strong sense that this particular Methodist church wasn't always the way it is today. I'm sure at one time, even if they were "more progressive," someone once preached the Gospel there. But over time, in a quest to "be relevant" to their culture, they just began to affirm the culture, rather than confront it with Christ's claims. Evangelicalism in some ways, is in danger of heading down this same road. Endless self-help sermons, five step programs, and hipper than thou Pastors all can make for a very shallow Church.
3. What then is the key to staying safe? Contextualizing your message, without losing your message? I think it's found in this tension: 1 Corinthians 9:22- "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." 1 Corinthians 4:6- "Do not go beyond what is written."
May God help us maintain this tension by the Holy Spirit's working in us and through us.
At the end of the sermon I showed a video in which Josh Caterer (lead singer of The Smoking Popes) discusses his own conversion to Christianity. If you make it to the end, play this:
Watching this video I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I firmly believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So I sort of cringed at some of the implications of what Chan is saying. On the other hand, as I watched, I couldn't help but think about this word from Jesus:
Matthew 25:14 “For it (the Kingdom) will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
And then there's this: "Either make the tree good and it's fruit good, or make the tree bad and it's fruits bad, for the tree is known by it's fruit."
What do you think? Is Chan right about the implications of 'living too safe a life?'
When I was a teenager, one of my favorite bands in the known universe was "The Smoking Popes." They were not a Christian band, just a rock band that made great music (name not withstanding). Me and my friends Jeff, Ryan, and Jimmy would listen to them for hours, and then in our own band, would seek to write songs that were similar (ok, maybe exactly alike would be a better way of saying it).
Anyway, as we listened to this band, my friends and I would actually talk and pray about how cool it would be if the Popes became Christians. Lo and behold, not long after, Josh Caterer, their lead singer, did indeed receive Christ as Lord. Here below is a short clip in which he describes how his conversion took place:
“I understand that this is the week for the church collection, and many of you do not want to give a thing. You ungrateful people should be ashamed of yourselves. . . . I am sorry I ever freed you from the tyrants and the papists. You ungrateful beasts, you are not worthy of the treasure of the gospel. If you don’t improve, I will stop preaching rather than cast pearls before swine.”
Martin Luther, exhorting his congregation, according to Roland Bainton, Here I Stand(New York, 1950), pages 351-352.
