Category: Uncategorized

As Christ set his face toward Calvary, he steps forward in faithfulness to the will of the Father. Unwilling to allow himself to flinch as the moment of sacrifice stands but a week away, the Lord’s love pervades every interaction in which He will engage. Love for the Father. Love for His people. Love for those not-yet His people. The psalmist reflected on the expanse of this love and faithfulness:

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heaven, your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, you justice like the great deep.

O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.

How priceless is your unfailing love!

Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 36:5-7

As God had delivered Israel from their bondage, Jesus would faithfully deliver the world from its bondage to sin. Would there be limitations to this salvation? Would Jesus falter in his steps toward The Cross. Impossible! The height and breadth of love, the depth of righteousness and faithfulness cannot be measured any more than we can calculate the ends of the universe.

Does your faith reflect even a fraction of these unfathomable heights and widths? As we walk with the Lord toward His death, we have a pointed opportunity this week to allow previously reserved parts of self to die as well. Hang them on the cross. Send them to the tomb and know a greater sense of new life that is yours in belief. Know it in full.

One Big Thing by Phil Cooke

Millions of people spend their lives in the pursuit of nothing, but you have chosen the great adventure.

Will that be true of you? Will you come to your final breath confident that you lived in full, that you discovered, nurtured and unleashed on the world the benefits of the one big thing that you were uniquely created to do or be? If history be our guide then the vast majority of humanity will answer no. We will endure lives, as Thoreau wrote, of quiet desperation. Our lives in this world will pass leaving little wake to even remind others that we were here.

That is not who you and I were created to be says author, filmmaker and media guru Phil Cooke. In his latest book, Cooke cheerleads, guides and pokes the reader in the side at every opportunity to get off the couch, put down the cookies and find out the one great thing that the Creator has endowed Brand You to be or do. The OBT is within us, peaking out every so often but generally muted or crushed by the day-to-day process of making our way through life.

It doesn’t need to be this way and Cooke dismisses every excuse that tends to arise during a discussion of this sort. The book has example after example of others who faced down the twin dragons of justification and remorse and put aside the excuses of age, opportunity, finances and on and on to put in the hard of work of bringing that OBT to life. You cannot close the book and not be motivated –even in the smallest way- to make passion a reality.

Cooke outlines a process by which you can discover what your OBT might be but the book is not a how-to guide. It is a volume that you will return to, thumbing through the pages and snatching one of the pull quotes for encouragement or trying to find your doppelganger in the dozens of lives that he highlights proving that it can be done. This is a book you will keep close at hand.

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I’m grateful to Thomas Nelson who provided this book for review.

No sooner did your song begin before it stopped. Replaced by whistles, your rattling ck-ck-ck-ck-ck was silenced. Did your moment pass?

The whistlers were symphonic, each contributing their assigned tonal range to the racket. One by one, each entered the music… first bar, fourth bar, coda.

But you were alone.

The volume of your voice was more than adequate but still no reply came. The Snake continued silently passing by, Geese resting at its edge but still no sound. Who were you trying to communicate with at this early hour?

Now the quiet returns.

Individual chirps have replaced the cacophony with another hour remaining until the sun begins to crown, birthing a new day. Each camouflaged singer has its moment in the awakening, ceding the silence to the next at just the right time. Soon, the sun will heat the air and silence will return as you blend into the brown of the Idaho desert.

Until tomorrow at 4:47.

image mademoiselle lavender

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. 1 Cor 13:12

Where the Cessationist takes the view that certain of the spiritual gifts-specifically those of a miraculous nature-have ceased to be given to modern believers, a mediating position grants that they may be seen again. This position is often labeled open but cautious, indicating a recognition of God’s sovereign ability to once again visit believers with spiritual gifts of a miraculous nature. If He were to do so however, their receipt and use would align with the experiences recorded in Scripture in both purpose and practice.

Arriving at this theological position follows many of the threads that establish the cessationist position. Though the Holy Spirit distributes gifts to believers as He sees fit to edify and build the church of Christ, certain of the gifts —tongues, prophesy and healing-– were given for an earlier time in church history. Their purpose was to establish the authenticity of the Apostles and to aid in establishing the Church in the world. In the broader scope of all Scripture, the bible records miraculous events and happenings being clustered around three eras in history: Moses-Exodus, Elija-Elisha and the Christ-Apostolic era. (This does not diminish or dismiss other singular manifestations; it simply recognizes a concentration of activity around these points in history.) This review also establishes that nowhere does scripture indicate that the miraculous gifts are to be considered a normal condition of the Church era experience.

Complicating all theological discussion of the spiritual gifts is the lack of any explicit biblical statement with regard to the cessation of specific gifts. The cessationist position hinges upon the statement made in 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 as evidence for the discontinuation of the miraculous gifts. Contained within this pericope is the reference to that time “when completeness (cf: perfection) comes (1 Cor 13:10)” which is read as pointing to the time of the Lord’s return. This schedule thus leaves open the possibility of continuation for these gifts.

Limited openness to the continuation of the miraculous is encouraged by further examination of the New Testament record. First, the silence of the scriptures on the matter of cessation must cause us to expand the scope of our consideration. Second, the scriptures do not testify to the state of the Church in a post-Apostolic era. For this reason, we must rely upon recorded history since that century in evaluating what is to be normative, and this history includes limited manifestations of the miraculous. Finally, as God elected to utilize the signs of the miraculous for specific purposes in His unfolding of history, we must always be cognizant of His sovereign ability to do so again.

Though an openness is encouraged in this theological position, it is intertwined with the belief that nowhere does scripture support  the apprehension of the miraculous gifts as a normal part of the Christian’s experience. Since every manifestation in the scriptures is given by God for a ‘sign’ purpose or an exercise of His grace, this precludes the use of these gifts as a test of salvation. Nor does scripture support the giving of the spiritual gifts at the request of an individual for their personal use.

Any purported manifestations of the miraculous gifts must be joined with the Apostle’s exhortation to “test everything” (1 Thes 5:21). Any instance of these gifts should align with the historical purposes of their past application (purpose, use, etc.) and their manifestation in the Bible. Prophecy will be for the edification of the church, rather than individuals. The expression of tongues will be languages which express thought, not gibberish that cannot be interpreted by others present. Healings that are a part of a campaign are foreign to the scriptures and will likely remain so. In all things God is sovereign but He is also a God of order and verification.

Marana Tha …

image mustafa khayat

Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman

As a fan of the Colorado Rockies, I’ve learned to live with the feast and famine cycle of the team. When things are going well for the team, as they do for varying lengths of time, there’s nothing better than a game on the radio while working in the garden. On the other hand, as the Rox endure one of their all-too-frequent slumps, the ease with which I can go days without a thought about the team makes me wonder why I invested so much time in them in the first place. Fans come and go.

When author Kyle Idleman throws down the challenge-fan or follower-he sets our sights on something much more significant, Jesus Christ. One who defines the relationship with Him as one of being a fan finds that Jesus is great when things are going well. When life turns difficult, the relationship becomes much more tenuous. For the fan, turning to other sources for answers, comfort and guidance is easy. They’ll get back to Him when everything turns around.

For the follower, there is no option.

The follower sees the relationship in a much different way than the fan. Good times or bad, Jesus is their shepherd and all of their trust is vested in Him. Follower, Idleman rightly teaches, is the only correct attitude when it comes to Jesus, though he acknowledges that our churches are filled with fans. Through the pages of Not a Fan, he walks the reader through the nature of a biblical relationship with Christ, one in which He is Lord more than friend, Shepherd more than guidance counselor.

Idleman does an excellent job of providing the necessary reflective tools to enable the reader to judge the nature of their relationship with Christ. In chapters dealing with legalism, lack of personal relationship, commitment or the lack thereof, etc., he brings the reader face to face with the areas which tend to plague modern Christianity. Throughout, you are encouraged to DTR (define the relationship). Only when you have done so can you effectively understand the invitation to become a follower and all that that means that follows.

Not a Fan is a much-needed book in the Church today. Though there is a small-group or Sunday school curriculum associated with the book, I encourage individual believers to approach the book on their own first. Allow the Spirit to illuminate the specifics of your relationship with Christ in the quiet, free from the distraction of how He is influencing others in the group or class.

I’m grateful to Zondervan who provided this copy for review.

Not a Fan – Zondervan

www.notafan.com

Damaris Zehner, carrying on Michael Spencer’s Internet Monk blog, wrote this about new mission opportunities…

Have you ever thought you might have a calling to missions?  I have a suggestion for you.

I won’t try to convince you that this new field is more deserving or better or more desperate than a hundred others.  All mission fields are important.  People might get competitive about missions, but how can God compete with himself?  He calls different people to different jobs, and it could be that one of you might find your calling here.

“Here” is in rural and small-town America.  But don’t come to do vacation Bible school or build a picnic shelter or even start a church.

Most small towns have a church and VBS, and we can build our own picnic shelter.  What we need is a grocery store.  A doctor’s office.  A hardware store.  A co-op to package and sell locally grown produce.  We need the necessities of life and meaningful employment in a place that feels like home.

 

My family and I live outside a town of a thousand people in western Indiana.  A hundred years ago our town still had a thousand people, but it also had a theater, a grocery store, a general store, two hotels, a high school, an elementary school, a grain terminal, a Carnegie library, and a hardware store.  The last four remain.  A few years ago the state tried to shut down the little library, but our petition drive was at least temporarily effective.  The grain terminal will stay in business, I guess, and so will the elementary school – although several nearby have shut and some children now spend an hour each way on the bus.  But our wonderful hardware store, that smells of old wood and nails and oil and paint, with the window display of 19^th-century implements and the mannequin legs sticking out of the claw-footed bathtub – it may close when the proprietor gets old.

Read the entire post..

My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.

But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations. Ps 102:11-12

Contrast; an easy concept to define and understand. Placing one thing aside another so that the differences become apparent. As the psalter continually reminds us, no greater contrast exists than the gulf between God and man.

Man…created in the very image of God, privileged to be imbued with His Spirit and yet starkly different. Given domain over the Earth as caretakers of creation, humanity aspires to go beyond, to grasp the divinity that belongs only to the Creator. Brokenness of character marks our souls forever.

In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. (vv 25-26)

We lament our condition, fragile and brief as it is in contrast to the eternal nature of God. Life passes by in an instant, sometimes filled with joy while other moments are marked by despair. Permanence is sought and found only in one place, at the base of the throne of God. Our quest for eternity is satisfied only here, hand and hand with the Creator of all.

Grace and peace to you.

image .indigo.