"[I]n the modern situation ... we are sometimes told: 'All you need is love.'  Such advice is meaningless if the nature of love is not defined and unfolded.  Love expresses itself in following divine guidelines.  At the same time, merely to keep the commands out of a sense of duty or constraint or fear of punishment is not true love.  Love means obedience from the heart and true concern for the good of others."

- I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, page 68

Recently, someone asked me if the Young Adult Care Group was a discipleship ministry or an outreach ministry.  I think the Lord wants us to be both.  Ultimately, we exist to "build the kingdom through training leaders".  Sometimes this means helping someone trust Christ, other times we are helping people become elders or deacons, or encouraging people to stop dating non-Christians (or other things).  We need to be ready to be a disciple by making others into a disciple.

 

God wants us to pursue Christ with all of our hearts.  He wants us to be established in the faith.  Colossians 2:6-7 says:

 

"Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."

 

But God also teaches us this, just a few sentences later:

"Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." - Colossians 4:5-6

 

Recently, God has brought into our presence a number of "outsiders".  If you have been at Care Group this summer, you have seen that we have developed an "international look".  We have young adults joining us from Kazakhstan (link), from Ecuador (link), as well as from other walks of life in America.  Realize that many of these visitors are not Christians.  Some are Muslim.  Some are nominal Christians (nominal means "by name only", not by conviction of the heart).  Others may truly trust Christ.  All of them are outsiders, not just to our country but also to our faith.  We have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with them.  Happily, I must say I have been encouraged by the way our group has responded to our visitors.

 

I must admit that I myself have been surprised and barely prepared to deal with some of the recent changes to the dynamics of the Young Adult Care Group.  Frankly, when I heard we were going to have six non-Christians from another country join us I was ashamed to see how little I had planned to speak to a non-Christian visitor through our Care Group material.  I had assumed that everyone that would join us would be a Christian who wanted to grow in Christ.  The Lord woke me up through the arrival of our new friends.

 

I want to share a few reflections based off of Colossians 4:5-6 and our present situation:

 

First, be wise in the way you speak.  Listen to their statements.  Try not to be culturally insensitive (I am embarrassed how I pointed the bottom of my feet to our Kazakhstani guests - a major insult in their country). 

 

Second, season your conversation with grace.  Be ready to speak to them about the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Be normal and friendly.  Go out of your way to get to know them and invite them to activities.  Ask them questions about their faith.  Don't use Christian clichés.  Graciously disagree if they say something that is contrary to the Bible's clear teaching.  Research their country with the links above. They are looking to practice their English with you and would be open to friendly conversation.

 

Third, let your conversation be seasoned with salt.  Tell them how Jesus has changed your life.  Tell them why you believe.  Stress that the Bible says we cannot save ourselves but we need a Savior to make us right with God.  Show how faith in Christ makes people more godly people who are ready to obey Christ.  Challenge their thinking and encourage them to read the Bible.  Do not compromise core convictions.  Think about blessing them… Could we buy them presents before they go back to their country?

 

Fourth, be ready to answer them.  You may need to bone up on your Bible knowledge and the reasons you believe.  Will you be ready to help them understand your faith in a clear and compelling way?

 

Realize this - these international students are some of the best students in their countries.  They are the future leaders of foreign lands.  They are coming here to learn something about America so they can go back and make their country better.  Some day you may even be working with them (or for them) in an international business as American business may be eclipsed by foreign companies.

 

But we can send them home with one thing - a new conviction about Jesus Christ.  You have a great opportunity to make an eternal difference in somebody's life.  In many countries, young people have no interest in Jesus Christ, even if they are "Christians".  In some communities it is illegal to be a Christian.  When you gather together to study God's Word and sing His praises, you leave a valuable witness.  The Muslims learn the love of Jesus Christ when you invite them to your homes and to visit Virginia and the amusement parks.  Alejandro and I took two Kazakhstani's to the Fredericksburg Battlefield and they had the time of their lives!

 

Maybe some will trust Christ.  Maybe some will trust Christ later.  Maybe some will never trust Christ.  But if we show them that we are people that love "outsiders", if we are people who pursue godliness that comes from the heart, if we are people who are industrious with our time, they may see that Jesus Christ is the one who will make a difference in their lives and in their country.  In these things, Jesus Christ receives the glory and we have fun making some of the easiest friends we will ever make! 

As this article shows, there is a startling lack of mention about hell in thinking through modern missions to other countries.  It is so offensive to post-modern thinking that we don't want to speak about it openly.  But what else will sustain a lasting missions movement?  A desire to help countries socially will not sustain missions as liberally minded denominations have proven over the past century, and especially today.  The thing that has historically sustained US mission emphasis is the idea that each human soul has an eternal destiny in heaven and hell.  It seems to me that us evangelicals are headed into the liberalism of the 1900's without even a clue that we are headed that way.  Baxck then, they knew it and fought it.  Is anybody fighting it this time?

 

And you, are you helping people escape the eternal judgment to come?

 

Article: Lost Missions: Whatever happened to the idea of rescuing people from hell?

Do you ever have one of those moments that God speaks to you in a profound way?  Maybe you have a profound moment of self-reflection and insight?  I just had one of those 5 minutes ago.

 

Julie and I have a young friend named Hunter Johnson who lives in Colorado Springs.  We became friends with Hunter and his parents (Branon and Heather) and his siblings (Parker and Madelyn) while we attended church with them before we moved to Fredericksburg.  Hunter was diagnosed with aplastic anemia when he was 2 years old, right when we joined the church.  He has been receiving treatment on and off for the last seven years of his life.  Recently, the family discovered that Hunter had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant to fight the aplastic anemia and the cancer. 

 

We pray for Hunter every day. Liam and Grace, especially, mention "Hunter Johnson" every time they pray.

 

I was just watching a recent news story on Hunter (click here) that highlighted some of the help the Johnson family received during the bone marrow transplant for Hunter. 

 

The received help from the Brent Eley foundation (web site).  The connection here, in my life, is that Brent Eley was supposed to graduate high school with me.  I remember Brent as the boy who was in my Junior High Social Studies class who was diagnosed with leukemia, removed from school, and lost the battle against cancer in 1988.  I can still visualize him sitting across from me in my Deer Creek Junior High classroom.  I was not a close friend to Brent, I think I played basketball with him at some point, but I was such a self-conscious junior high student that I didn't feel comfortable speaking to him about his cancer.  He was a very popular kid and I was not so popular, so I felt weird even attending his funeral, which was right before I started my freshman year in high school.

 

Although I heard of the Brent Eley Foundation, I never gave that much attention to it...  I signed up to receive something from my 10-year high school reunion in 2002 (but I don't remember receiving a call or mail package).  I didn't go out of my way to find the organization.  Sometimes you wonder if these organizations accomplish much good.  Boy was I humbled when I heard about the Johnson family.

 

I am inspired to see how God uses evil for good (Gen. 50:20) and can bring tragedy into blessing for others.  I am amazed to see how God has connected these two periods of my life with such vivid reality - that a kid I love and pray for daily would be assisted through the death of a kid I was too nervous to approach.  I am thankful for the vision of loving parents who loved their son so much that they do not want to see others suffer their same tragedy.  I am inspired to see that others were able to jump in to help a family in a way I was not able to help.  It is a wonderful connection for me.

 

It makes me want to go start something and see how God will use it to help those that others love.

Taken from the Pastor's Weekly Briefing, July 21, 2006. Copyright © 2006, Focus on the Family.

A recent survey - conducted by Weekly Reader Research for the American Bible Society - found that a majority of teens feel there are correlations between the message of the Bible and the way they apply those messages to their lives.

The survey gleaned the following information:

• More than half the teens read the Bible daily, weekly on Sunday or sometimes. Of that, an estimated six percent of 12 to 18-year-olds in the U.S. read the Bible daily. There are approximately 30.2 million 12 to 18-year-olds in the U.S., according to the American Bible Society.
• While a large percentage of teens claim to be reading the Bible at least sometimes, the young group lags far behind the older crowd. An earlier survey by The Barna Group found that Bible reading declines with age. While 58 percent of elders and 47 percent of Boomers read the Bible, only 32 percent of "Mosaics" - Generation Y - do so in a typical week.
• Parents were found to be a major influence, with 51 percent of teens being introduced to the Bible by their parents. Eighteen percent of teens claim a pastor or a priest introduced them to the Bible and 12.5 percent were introduced by a youth leader.
• Introducing the Bible at a young age parallels to regularly reading the Bible as teens. Roughly 56 percent of respondents were introduced to Bible messages before age 10 and children who read the Bible before age 10 were more likely to read the Bible regularly as teenagers.

Information on the survey was reported by Audrey Barrick of the Christian Post Reporter.

"The starting line is getting saved.  We did not want Christians graduating [from New Testament Christian School in Boston, Mass], we wanted warriors graduating.  The goal was not having someone saved by twelfth grade, the goal was to have them adopt a Christian worldview by twelfth grade so they are dangerous to the demonic kingdom." - Paul Jehle, pastor of New Testament Christian Church and founder of New Testament Christian School in Boston, Massachusetts on why they started the school the way they did.

 

 

Yay Bush!

A lot of pastors (especially youngers ones like me) make a lot of time to blog.  I just don't understand how they have time after preaching, praying, counseling, and planning.  Maybe it is part of those other things, but I still don't see how it happens.  I heard of one pastor (of a 800-member church) blogs over 20 hours a week.   That's a lot of blogging.

 

I think I know the difference - talent.

"I proceed, in the next place, to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of youth; ... the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this, there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. [...] [T]he religion I mean to recommend in this place is the religion of Jesus Christ." Benjamin Rush (1786)

I have the opportunity to study my "Philosophy of Education" through a Wednesday night course at our church.  Most nights I lead a Young Adult Care Group, but I have been able to sneak away twice to think about education.

 

I am like a bucket in rainstorm in this class.  The first drops of knowledge are starting to land in the bucket.  I have little to offer.  One author said that traditionally pastors have had the moral duty placed upon them to speak about education.  This pastor (me) has very little to draw from, but I am learning some things from my Bible and from the course.  This quote is a good example.

 

God, God's Law, God's Will, and God's World are the four foundational subjects in education (see for example Deuteronomy 6:4f; Genesis 1:31ff).

 

But see what Rush says here - if we don't have religion we will have no virtue.  This is one of the biggest challenges in education today - that religious principles (of any kind) are stripped out of education and we are creating people without any knowledge of what is right or wrong.  Everything seems to be "right" or "moral" in today's educational system.  Everyone does what is right in his own eyes - there is a total ignorance of what God would have us to do.  Thus the moral chaos of lying, cheating, sexual immorality, drugs, and alcohol.

 

If we lose virtue we lose liberty.  Liberty is the ability to serve God according to the convinctions of the human conscience.  If we have no virtue the liberty to serve God will be taken away because people will not want to bother with guilt.  If we have no virtue, people will not be able to retain their property but others will steal the production of their lands (maybe through legal means).  If we have not virtue, we will lose the liberty of our government if things get so chaotic that we ask a larger body to help rule us, even if it means giving up some of our freedoms.

 

If we lose liberty, we have lost a republican government since a Republican government is given us for the purpose of promoting religion, virtue, and liberty.

 

"Genuine assurance naturally leads to a legitimate and abiding peace and joy, and to love and thankfulness to God; and these, from the very laws of our being, to greater buoyancy, strength, and cheerfulness in the practice of obedience in every department of duty. It hence follows that every principle of self–interest and every obligation resting upon us as Christians conspire to induce us to use all diligence in seeking the full attainment and the abiding enjoyment of this grace." - A. A. Hodge

"[E]ncourage the young men to be self-controlled..." - Titus 2

 

If anything can be said about John Winthrop, it is that he was an excellent leader and governor for the Massachusetts Bay colony.  Like or dislike his beliefs and practices, he led Boston and the surrounding townships into a controlled and sucessful beginning.

 

How did he learn to be an excellent governor and, what I hear that a modern author calls him, the most fogotten founding father?  The principle that he learned that lead to his founding and successfully governing the colony through many trials was the self-control he learned as a young married man.

 

I learn a principle from this - if a young person learns to control our own desires and appetites we will be able to lead other people.  The biggest problem young people have is submitting their desires to the Lordship of Christ.  If they can learn to do this they will have a successful future since these self-controlled young people will understand the wild beast that rages inside every person.  They will understand what it means to have unity when people want to fight and break up into a hundred different groups.

 

Listen to Winthrop as a young adult, "O Lord, crucify the world to me, that thorugh I cannot avoid to live amoung the baits and snares of it, yet it may be so truely dead to me and I do it, as I may not otherwise love, use or delight in any the most pleasant, profitable, etc, earthly comforts of this life, than I do the air which I continually draw in, or the earth which I ever tread upon, or the sky which I ever behold" (11).

 

This is what the author of The Puritan Dilemma writes about him, "No one could have been better equipped for the task [of dealing with separtism in the colony], for Winthrop was obliged to do for Masschusetts precisely what he had already done for himself.  He had learned not to avoid but to face temptations, not to spurn the good things that God had given him; even so he must restrain the overgodliness that would deny the hamanityof human beings.  He had learned not to expect perfection in this world, and to march in comparny with ohter sinners, for sin, though it must be punished, could not be stamped out" (76).

 

So one lesson from the Bible seen in Winthrops life is that if a young person wants to live a life full of purpose, learn to manage the things you like (especially the good things - TV, sports, running, campings, etc.), taking stewardship of your time and talents.  Self-control is the key to your future.

I have just finished my slow read through a biography on John Winthrop (the founder of the Massachusetts Bay colony) written by Edmund S. Morgan and published by Harper Collins in 1958.  It is part of the Library of American Biography series.

 

John Winthrop was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, elected before they departed from England to the new world.  Early American history is replete with men that had a significant impact on the formation of our country and John Winthrop is one of them.  I would like to draw out a few things I learned from the book.

 

The book is called The Puritan Dilemma (a reprint is available through Amazon.com I notice).  The dilemma, according to Morgan, that the Puritans faced when they came to establish new colonies in the new world was how to bring a colony composed of sinful human being together corporately to glorify God.  "The central Puritan dilemma, the problem of doing right in a workd that does wrong" (203). 

 

The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company came together to establish the colony in America for the purpose of building a church that would continue to exist once God judged the Church of England.  Winthrop, like all Puritans did not want to separate from the Church of England but saw that so much was wrong in England that God was certain to judge the colony very soon (40).  Tensions between king Charles I and English parliment seemed to be indicating that judgment was immanent.  Once God had judged the nation and the church was in tatters, the churches in Massachusetts would play a critical role in reestaiblishing the church in England, but this time under the biblical grounds of the Reformation, making a total break with Roman Catholicism. 

 

So Winthrop and others secured a charter from the king allowing them to establish a colony in the American continent.

 

Winthrop knew his Bible.  He knew the human condition - that all men were fallen human, bent against God and apart from God's grace, unable to do anything good.  He knew that even as Christian men and women that the "flesh" (old sinful nature) was still strong within them.  Perfection could not be attained, but yet godliness was the aim of the colony.  The book wonderfully expresses how he navigated through this dilemma during his years as governor and Massachusetts Bay colonist.

 

The principle though is clear - the original colonists to America envisioned themselves building a nation that would have it's chief focus on glorifying God.  Is this a Christian nation?  The colonial founders desired that their colonies would be.

 

They saw every nation as being under covenant to God.  Winthrop said, "It is the nature and essence of every society to be knit together by some Covenant, either expressed or implied."  A covenant is a relationship that God establishes with a people and governs according to His Word through appointed rulers.  If a nation was unfaithful to the covenant then that covenant provided for God to destroy the nation and build up a more godly nation.  If they were faithful then they would receive the blessings of the covenant (93).  It was the express purpose of Massachusetts Bay to be a godly colony that would honor God and receive His blessings.  T

 

That is why Winthrop famously said,

"For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if wee shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world." (from Wikisource)

 

These are the very foundations of our nation.  Overall, we have much to gain by looking to our founders for the purposes they established these colonies, especially in a day where we have lost our purpose and foundation.  Today we live for the "pursuit of happiness" - the pursuit of individualistic selfish satisfaction and pleasure.  In the establishment of our nation they pursued happiness by working as a corporate body to honor God by establishing just and godly communities.  We don't pursue godliness according to the Bible in any way.  It is a shame and our nation is worse of for it.  We don't know where we are going or why we are going downhill.

 

Hopefully, more to come on the life of John Winthrop - including self-government and the government of a nation, the purpose of New England's existance, and separtism in the church.

Especially in Paul's writing, the New Testament speaks of God in full terms - in terms of wealth.  COnsider some of the ways that the Bible speaks about God being rich -

 

Rich in kindness and tolerance - Romans 2:4

Rich in glory - Romans 9:23; Ephesians 3:16; Philipians 4:19

Rich in wisdom and knowledge - Romans 11:23

Rich in grace - Ephesians 1:7

Rich in grace through kindness - Ephesians 2:7

 

If we want true riches then we know following Jesus is the best route to wealth.

 

Through God's generosity He then makes His people spiritually rich:

God makes us rich when he saves people no matter their nationality (Romans 11:12)

God makes us riches in glory of the inheritance of the saints (Ephesians 1:18)

God makes us rich in Christ - the wisdom of God was given to the church and we were given access to God(Ephesians 3:8-12)

God makes us rich my giving us the hope that we shall have glory with God (Colossians 1:27)

God makes us rich in knowing Christ - and having the treasures of understanding and wisdom (Colossians 2:2-3)

In this short excerpt from his book Mark Galli helps us see the idolatry that we form in our perception of church.  We so often exalt large churches as being the only possessors of God's favor and ignore the faithful and regular ministry of God's Word in a messy community.

 

Excerpt: Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God (link)

 

Pastor Doug, myself, and the NLIC session and ministry leaders are often dreaming and discussing how we can effectively worship, disciple, and outreach at New Life in Christ church.  This article presents some considerations for us as we think through the issues involved.  I hope it is helpful for you too.  Often pastors feel pressure from their congregations to be like that "big church over there", forgetting the context of our own congregation, the people that are here, and our desire to be faithful to what God has called us to be.

 

It has been said that what attracts a person to a church is what is required to keep them there.  If the only way we can attract people is in our clothing, relevancy, and our entertainment then we will constantly be on the treadmill, running a constant circus-show, and forgetting our true calling.

 

However, if we are a community of people seeking to faithful glorify our King Jesus with our worship, obedience and joy in the humdrum of life, then our mission (which would be a godly one) will attract similarly minded people. 

 

Yes, it means that we will need to always be changing so we can glorify God in the context of our world, but it means that the change will be one that develops a passion for something that matters - Jesus.

During Christianity Explored, one of the group members asked if we could summarize the things that keep people from God in three categories:

 

"O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord From this time forth and forever." - Psalm 131

I know a lot about weaned and un-weaned children, though not as much as my wife.  Madeleine, our youngest child is now three months old.  She is the sweetest thing in the world, she barely makes a sound and is quick to shine a smile.  Unless, that is, she is hungry.  At that point the whole house knows until she gets the food she wants.  She squirms in mommy's lap until she is fed.  Her empty stomach gives her such discomfort that she will not relax until we satisfy the demand of her hungry tummy.

My other kids are quite different.  When they sit in mommy's or daddy's lap they don't want anything.  This especially happens in the groggy moments that come after a nap.  They just want to snuggle up and find the reassurance that comes from a parents hug.  They do not beg for food (usually) because they ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner is a couple hours away.

My older two kids are weaned children - A weaned child can rest next to his mother without squirming, without constantly desiring his source of food. (The demands from these two come when they are not in their mother's lap.  "Mommy, can I have a cookie" "Can I watch a movie", and "can I color?" are some of their favorites).

How would you describe your Christian life?  Do you have satisfaction and contentment in the presence of God or is do you have a constant lack of satisfaction?  Are you satisfied with your life or are you making many demands upon God to satisfy your wants?  Is worship a joy or do you enter church or prayer with a laundry list of reminders that God hasn't given you what you want?

As the psalmist writes in Psalm 131, God settles our over stimulated hearts.  If you have a relationship with God, if you know that He wisely, sovereignly, and lovingly directs your steps, then you can rest as content as a weaned child.

We squirm because we do not trust or know the good hand of God towards those He loves.  Sometimes this lack of trust make us perpetrators of sin – we want something and are unsatisfied with the gifts God has given us.  So we lash out to grab things God has not given to us.  We become like the toddler who grabs a toy from her baby brother.  Other times we are victims - we receive hurt from the sin of others.  Still, this leads us into sin as we don’t want to wait upon God but demand Him to feed us, to nurse us, to take the pain or loneliness away.  Yet the person who trusts in God can rest peacefully in the lap of God and rest in His love and wisdom. 

We don’t need to squirm restlessly with a “proud heart”, “haughty eyes”, or concerning ourselves with ways that are too complex.  The "proud heart" in verse one is the person who makes constant demands of God.  The "great matters" are concerns over God's sovereignty - like, "Why did you bring this problem into my life?" or "When will I get married?"  Again, only those who have been gripped with God's grace can rest as a weaned child in the midst of a chaotic and unsatisfied world.

How do we rest as nursing children in the lap of God's control?  By reading and trusting His promises.  Read the Bible.  Write down what He says about Himself.  Write down what He says about You.  Write down the commands He has given to you that you will know what your calling is and what to avoid.  Through His Word He will settle your heart.

And the destruction of the world's weakest goes on...

Investment guru, Warren Buffett, disclosed plans this week to give 85 percent of his shares in his company (Berkshire Hathaway, worth $44 billion) to five foundations over time. The majority of his donation, valued at $37 billion, will be going to the world's largest charitable organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, stated The Washington Post.

The Gates Foundation has given the Planned Parenthood Federation of America almost $12.5 million since 1998, including funds to persuade teens to support abortion. The foundation also has given nearly $21 million to International Planned Parenthood over the last seven years. Funds are used to promote abortions in third-world nations and to set up pro-abortion family planning centers in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada has received more than $1.3 million from the Gates Foundation.

The Gates Foundation's activities are also focused on world health - fighting such diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and acute diarrhea - and on improving U.S. libraries and high schools.

In the 1990s, the Buffett Foundation gave $2-3 million dollars to fund research and clinical trials needed to bring RU-486, the abortion pill, to market, reports Family Research Council. As a result of this, approximately 500,000 American unbabies have been killed with RU-486 and at least six American women have died following the use of RU-486.

The Buffett Foundation has mainly focused on reproductive health, family planning, pro-choice causes and on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, says Fortune magazine.

"Population control is quite literally destroying much of the Third World," says Joseph D'Agostino of the Population Research Institute. Birth rates have been dropping dramatically in the Third World where populations are already facing dramatic aging, and they don't have the financial resources to take care of the elderly, says D'Agostino.

 

Taken from the Pastor's Weekly Briefing, June 30,2006. Copyright © 2006, Focus on the Family