The post earlier today brought this to mind. Haven’t had the privilege of attending any of the Gospel Coalition Conferences, but was able to recently catch this message by Tim Keller on sharing the gospel and consequently confronting idolatry.

Thoughts?

Update: Don’t do much updating to my posts but I was just listening to Michael Spencer’s weekly podcast #162 (aka imonk) and something he said kind of summed up in a sense the following post I wrote earlier this afternoon.  He was speaking about meeting an educated young man this past week and discussing evolution and how refreshing the conversation was and then stated, “…not going to change the minds of people, don’t even want to try. Because the cost would be too high to my ability to share the gospel, and the gospel is what puts all of these things into perspective. You’ll never know why we can have a different attitude about science than fundamentalists have if you don’t understand that the gospel is what adds the value to everything we do or takes away the value from what is not valuable.”  Bingo bango, Spencer is right on.   

Much of what I encounter in the “Christian” blogosphere seems to suggest that we can almost argue, reason, or push people into the Kingdom with a barrage of the most impressive explanations and the right combination of the slickest words and terms in the English language.  It’s as if the particular kind of bloggers I have in mind assume that in our interacting and conversing with unbelievers—if our theological acumen and scientific knowledge is only weighty and persuasive enough—we will render the unbeliever/skeptic speechless and bring him to his intellectual knees (and subsequently, to the place of genuine faith).    

Well, I beg to differ.

Some are quick to point to Paul conversing with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Acts 17.  But even there “Paul’s evangelism again follows the pattern of ‘reasoning’ about Jesus and the resurrection (IVP New Testament Commentaries).”  When Peter writes “…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”, I get the feeling that he isn’t saying anything close to “Be ready to list 15 irrefutable reasons you believe in intelligent design”, ”Be ready to shoot down Darwinism without a minute’s notice”, or, “Be ready to fire off 10 points that prove the superiority of your ‘Judeo-Christian’ political views.”  No, that’s not what the apostle says.  We are to be “prepared to make a defense for a reason for the hope…” and the most uneducated among us can do that.  In other words, the gospel is good news not only among the poor but also among the ill-educated (I’d further point out that the poor and ill-educated aren’t always one in the same.  Ill-educated folks aren’t always poor and all poor folks aren’t always ill-educated). 

The late Malcom Muggeridge had the following to say in 1969 and I think the issue he raises applies today.

I have also received a very large number of letters, many of them of quite overwhelming sweetness and charity. I venture to quote from one which I opened as I was writing these words. The writer is a monk who had done me the high honour of reading some words of mine, which, he was kind enough to say in his letter, ‘the gentle Saviour used to give me a better understanding and appreciation of our Christian heritage, and a more fervent determination to stand loyal come what may.’ He goes on:

‘Every morning at 5 a.m. before I go to offer the Holy Sacrifice, as a small token of my gratitude to you, I ask our beloved Saviour to be good to you and to those dear to you. I will continue to do that for whatever short time remains before I meet Him face to face.’

No one human being could possibly do another a more precious favour than this; such gestures flood the whole universe with light. I have put all these letters some thousands of them in a large metal box in the hope that after I am dead someone may go through them. They reveal, I think more fully than any public opinion poll or other so-called scientific investigation, the extraordinary spiritual hunger which prevails today among all classes and conditions of people, from the most illiterate to the most educated, from the most lowly to the most eminent. The various moral and theological and sociological disputes of the day, however progressively resolved with ecclesiastical connivance, have nothing to say to this spiritual hunger, which is not assuaged by legalized abortion and homosexuality, solaced by contraception, or relieved by majority rule. Nor will it take comfort in the thought that God is dead, or that mankind has come of age, or even in ecumenical negotiations for writing off Papal Infallibility against the validity of Anglican Orders. The only means of satisfying it remains that bread of life which Jesus offered, with the promise that those who are of it should never hunger again. The promise stands. ~Malcolm Muggeridge, “Jesus Rediscovered” (from the forward).

I propose that we: 1). Focus our energies on ever exposing and addressing man’s grim spiritual condition and crisis (i.e., broken fellowship with his Creator due to his own rebellion)…  2). Appeal to those who just may be hungry, and share the “bread of life” with them…  and 3). Lay off our countless efforts and near addiction to “winning” the arguments. 

Thoughts?

…a Driscoll favorite out of my video archives, worth your time.

Thoughts?

There’s no story within the entire bible that is more gospel rich if you ask me, and this story is personal for me, as it should be for all of us who know Christ.   I posted this a couple months back on another blog I do.  If you didn’t see it grab some Kleenex…

It’s for those of us who find ourselves wandering away from our loving heavenly Father in our every day lives from time to time.

Thoughts?

Not sure how serious or accurate my friend and blogging mentor Michael Spencer (aka imonk) was when he said recently that “About 98% of the Christian blogosphere is written by preachers about preaching,” …but I do know that I don’t weigh in on the matter all that much (which I surely have my opinions about).  It could be that its been almost 15 years since I stepped into a pulpit.  Or simply—although Spencer is exagerating—there is some truth to what he says and I figure there’s no need to add my 3 cents worth since I don’t preach anymore (from the pulpit at least, but would surely consider). 

So I’m not turning a new leaf over just yet—just gonna pass on some wise advice that showed up in my inbox today.

A man may be called to preach the gospel in the same place for years, and he may, at times, feel burdened by the thought of having to address the same audience, on the same theme, week after week, month after month, year after year.  He may feel at times at a loss for something new, something fresh, some variety. …It will greatly help such to remember that the one grand theme of the preacher is Christ.  The power to handle that theme is the Holy Ghost; and the one to whom that theme is to be unfolded is the poor lost sinner.  Now Christ is ever new; the power of the Spirit is ever fresh; the soul’s condition and destiny ever intensely interesting. Furthermore, it is well for the preacher to bear in mind, on every fresh occasion to rising to preach, that those to whom he preaches are really ignorant of the gospel, and hence he should preach as though it were the very first time his audience had ever heard the message, and the first time he had ever delivered it. …To preach the gospel is really to unfold the heart of God, the person and work of Christ; and all this by the present energy of the Holy Ghost, from the exhaustless treasury of holy Scripture.  ~C.H. McIntosh, Notes on Numbers, 1869

I couldn’t have said it that well if I had tried.

Thoughts?

HT: Tom Wood

…this is a little dated I know (older than a year—ancient).  Mark Driscoll clearly and powerfully lays out a case against religion that deserves your consideration.  

Thoughts?

Tim Brister has been blogging about the lost habit of repentance the last several days and I have benefited from his doing so.  A couple weeks ago I ran across the following clip from Spurgeon (although I can’t seem to reference it) and the words came back to mind this evening thanks to Tim’s reminders. 

His compassions are new every morning, because every morning I commit fresh sins.  Strange creature that I am, I can scarcely open my eyes to the light ere my complex nature begins to display the darkness that still lingers within me.  Miserable mass of humanity that I am by nature, I can hardly breathe without offending in the thoughts and imaginations of my heart; and even though I may watch my eyes, and guard my tongue, and keep the members of my body pure, yet my heart still goes wandering, and my tongue before long speaks idle words.  Yet the mercy is that, with the new sin, there always comes new pardon, for ‘His compassions are new every morning’… We have been washed in the precious blood of Jesus, and we are clean in the sight of God, but we need to be daily cleansed from our daily defilements, and every morning brings us grace.  ~C.H. Spurgeon

Thoughts?

One of the issues I go to lengths to address in the book I have been laboring away on is self-righteousness.  I call it old fashioned religion (and have titled a chapter as such).  Oddly, while writing, I have become increasingly aware of the Pharisee within myself, and not just how I “used to be” one, but how I continue to struggle to date.  When I began to write about the topic I was pretty much unaware of how often I fall into the role (and I will go as far as to say that I personally think it is the most unidentified sin).  Coming to grips with my tendency to play the Pharisee while feeling spiritually superior to others (as Tim Keller explains)—say a child molester or even my brother in Christ who does something “I’d never do”—has been eye opening as well as painful, and surprisingly freeing at the same time. 

It’s imperative if we would follow Jesus that we identify self-righteousness and assess the damage we do others—as well as ourselves—when we fall into the familiar trap. 

Tim Keller makes some great points on the subject here.

Thoughts?

HT: Tim Brister