Just Ask!!!

I read this interesting statistic here. I don't know how true it is, but thought I would share it with you:

"According to the Church of England, 6 percent of the adult population, or 3 million people, would come back to church if they received a personal invitation."

Put it to the test and see what happens -- 3 out of every 50 people you ask to church will say "Yes."

RonaldWright.org

Five months ago I blogged here about a very precious man named Rev. Ronald Wright who turned me upside down with his passion for Christ and His Word. He has had a larger impact on my life for Christ than anyone else (save the biblical authors themselves). In that post I spoke about digitizing the tapes from his classes, making them mp3s, and hoping one day to start a website in his honor.

Well, I am posting today about my dear professor because through a series of providential events (also something I must post about later) I met a man, Jim Milligan, who happened to be president of blueletterbible.org and a close friend of a former student of Ron's.

Well, this blessed man has just put the finishing touches on the initial stages of ronaldwright.org, a memorial website dedicated to the life and teaching of Prof. Wright (I'm getting choked up as I type). As of last night, he has uploaded here for free mp3 download the first two classes -- the Prison Epistles of Paul (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians & Philemon) and Theology 1 (God, Man, Sin, Christ, Salvation).

If you're tired of the sappy, sentimental, man-centered teaching and preaching that is so rampant in our day, you will do yourself a great disservice if you decide not to listen to the rich, God-centered, Christ-exalting teachings of this wonderful, relatively unknown but eminently faithful servant of God.

What's in it for God?

I came across this quote from Dr. Michael Horton's book Made in America, and had to share it here:

"The older theology tended to produce character. By the end of the twentieth century, we have become God's demanding little brats. In church, we must be entertained. Our emotions must be charged. We must be offered amusing programs. We give up a lot to become Christians and what little teaching we do get must cater to our pragmatic, self-centered interests. Preaching must be filled with clever anecdotes and colorful illustrations with nothing more than passing references to doctrine. I want to know what this means for me in my daily experience. Have we forgotten that God is a monarch? He is the king, by whom and for whom all things were made and by whose sovereign power they are sustained. We exist for his pleasure, not he for ours. We are on this earth to entertain him, please him, adore him, bring him satisfaction, excitement and joy. Any gospel that seeks to answer the question, "What's in this for me?" has it all backwards. The question is, "What's in it for God?"

I have nothing to say in response except I think he's dead right.

When Was...?

When was...

• Jonathan Edwards named president of Princeton?
• The Peace at Augsberg signed, giving Lutheranism official recognition in Germany?
• George Mueller born?
• The U.S. Constitution amended so as to allow the free exercise of religion and prohibit the government establishment of a state church?
  

These significant events, and many others, happened in 1757, 1555, 1805, and 1789 respectively--all during THIS week in church history.

Christians & Orange Juice

Find out here from John Piper how to drink orange juice to the glory of God.

Churches, Culture & David Wells

If you're familiar at all with this blog than you know how much I admire Dr. David Wells. I wanted to make you aware of this quote from a recent interview he gave with Mark Dever and 9Marks (which you can listen to here). I think he is right on when he says...

"In our time, understanding our culture takes on an urgency because this culture is so intrusive and so powerful in its capacity to shape our souls and minds that if we are not pushing back from an explicitly biblical, Christian point of view – we are going to get swallowed up."

I could not agree more. The evidence of our getting swallowed up by the culture is all around us -- to our obsession from the business and marketing world with numbers = success, to our idea that excellence = state of the art with no errors, to faithfulness in ministry = productivity, on and on and on!

Like Jonah many of us have been swallowed, and I just pray that we repent so that the grace seen in Jonah 3:1 will be seen in our lives and churches as well.

Homosexuals in Iran

I happened to be listening yesterday to the question and answer session at Columbia University with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he said "We do not have homosexuals like in your country."

Here's why. To all you "open-minded" and "tolerant" students at Columbia who gave him a standing ovation--and to all of you who agreed with them--here is what you were cheering.

For the article and more pictures about the execution of these TEENAGERS, click here.

Cults Are Invading Russia!!!

I spent my evening at a fund raiser for the Russian arm of the Centers for Apologetics Research (CFAR). We heard about the dozens and dozens of western and eastern cults (many of which were "born" here in the U.S., which the founder, Paul Cardin, called the greatest exporter of error on the planet today) that are flooding the former Soviet Union.

Having come home from Ukraine two months ago, I was truly moved, even to tears, when Mr. Cardin told us about this invasion and then told us that CFAR is the first and ONLY evangelical countercults ministry in the former Soviet Union. And, I spoke with the Russian brother Pasha who heads up the ministry in St. Petersburg who told me that the cults are MORE active in Ukraine than Russia because Ukraine has more freedom (for instance, the Mormons are building their first temple in the former USSR in Kiev, Ukraine's capital city).

Ron Rhodes, noted author, scholar and countercult evangelist, was the keynote speaker who gave us "10 Keys to Witnessing to the Cults," and I want to share them with you here. These keys come from his many years of evangelism to cultists:

1. Don't Assume All Cultists Believe Exactly the Same Thing -- for example, all Jehovah's Witnesses don't agree so instead of telling them what they believe and why you disagree (which I've done), ask them what they believe and THEN dialogue.
2. Know Your Bible -- and, keep taking them back to it over and over again
3. Know that Cultists Are Trained to Answer Your Objections
4. Always Check Their Scripture References -- and NEVER take their interpretation of a passage as true
5. Always Define Your Terms -- because they use the same words we do, but with totally different meanings
6. Ask Strategic Questions -- force them to think (just like Jesus did with His questions)
7. Be Loving -- Arrogence always undermines your right answers, and make sure you love the cultist after God saves them because they'll likely loose all community
8. Demonstrate Jesus' Deity -- know what the Bible teaches on this (e.g., Isa 43:11 --> Titus 2:13-14 = Jesus is Savior and God)
9. Emphasize God's Awesome Gospel of Grace -- in a works-righteousness religious systems where people are earning their salvation, they are often overcome with guilt, frustration & despair, and need to hear of the grace only found in the biblical Gospel
   
10. Give Your Testimony -- and focus on God's specific grace to you
    

As I sat there, my heart was further breaking for the church I went to in Zhitomir, and knowing what I do about the conditions in that church, I know it is just ripe to be decimated by a cult.

Ministries like CFAR, and there aren't ANY in the former USSR but CFAR, need our help. Please, please, please think about supporting them by clicking here.

Author Spends 1 Year Obeying Bible

Author A.J. Jacobs just finished a year-long quest to obey every rule in the Bible--over 700--for his new book The Year of Living Biblically.

Here are some things I found interesting:

"I miss my sin-free life, but I guess I was never sin free. I was able to cut down on my coveting maybe 40 percent, but I was still a coveter" -- sounds a lot like Romans 7.

"...during the experiment I wore a lot of white clothes, because Ecclesiastes says let your garments always be white, and I loved it, so I look like Tom Wolfe now. Wearing white just made me happier."

"I also really liked what one of my spiritual advisers said, which was that you can view life as a series of rights and entitlements, or a series of responsibilities. I like seeing my life as a series of responsibilities. It’s sort of, "Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God"--nothing like works-righteousness.

"I started the year as an agnostic, and now I am a reverent agnostic. Whether or not there is a God, I believe in sacredness"--the "sacred" without God? Only in our self-centered, create-your-own-religion age.

"I went in really curious, I didn’t go in to mock religion. It was much more a journey to understand."

"One of the lessons of the book is, there is some picking and choosing in following the Bible, and I think that’s OK. Some people call that cafeteria religion, which is supposed to be a disparaging term, but I think there’s nothing wrong with cafeterias, I’ve had some delicious meals in cafeterias. I’ve also had some terrible meals in cafeterias. It’s all about picking the right parts. You want to take a heaping serving of the parts about compassion, mercy and gratefulness—instead of the parts about hatred and intolerance."

To a question about the restrictions of living Biblically, Mr. Jacobs responds "We all talk about freedom of choice, but there’s something very attractive about freedom from choice. Religion provides structure, mooring, anchoring. Should you covet? No. Should you give 10 percent to the needy? Yes. It really structures your life. After my year I felt unmoored, overwhelmed by choice. I have adjusted, but I’m still overwhelmed by choice, as we all are in America."

To read the article in its entirety, click here. My prayer after reading it is that he will be overcome by his inability to be "sin-free" by "keeping the rules" so that his exposure to God's Law will bring him to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ ("the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified [that is, pronounced "Innocent" by God for our sins against Him] by faith" Gal 3:24).

What Makes A Ministry Successful?

Find out here.

Generation Me

I don't remember where I heard about it, but I just purchased and will start reading Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge.

Thanks to David Wells and Os Guinness, I have a growing fascination with sociology and how it's insights can help pastors who are seeking to connect the ancient text of the Bible to the modern people of today. I'm really looking forward to this read.

iTunes University

I know so many men who would love to go to seminary, but can't afford it or can't take the time away from their jobs or families.

Well, thanks to the people at Apple and affiliated seminaries like Concordia and Reformed Theology Seminary you can watch videos and/or listen to the audio of such classes as Elementary Greek & Hebrew from Concordia Seminary, and Old and New Testament, Theology, Church History and Practical Theology from RTS.

Hopefully, more schools will see this and catch on (like Trinity and Master's, two of my alma mater), and take full advantage of this free program like Duke, Stanford, Penn State and UC Berkeley have--Wow!!! The possibilities are endless.

This is more than just online seminary. This is online undergraduate university. Find out more here. Download iTunes here, and when you open the iTunes Music Store, look at the small box on the left hand side that says iTunes STORE for the iTunes U link.

U.S. Senator Suing God

Read the article here. Only a U.S. government official would do something like this.

Thoughts from the Valley

I wanted to share this part of a prayer called "Spiritual Growth" in The Valley of Vision:

"Give me a tender, wakeful conscience
that can smite and torment me when I sin.
May I be consistent in conversation and conduct,
the same alone as in company,
in prosperity and adversity,
accepting all thy commandments as right,
and hating every false way.
May I never be satisfied with my present spiritual progress..."

Obsession THE Movie

I don't buy many movies (maybe one every 2 years), but I purchased and watched Obsession, the movie about radical Islam, and I have to tell you it was absolutely riveting. I think I'm going to watch it again right now.

If you don't buy it, I'm sure you can rent it--but either way, you HAVE TO see it. For you own good, you HAVE TO see it.

Pray for This Church

I wanted to make you aware of this new and growing church in India that needs our prayers.

The Evangelism Linebacker

If you need a good laugh, click on the first video here and meet the Evangelism Linebacker.

Two More 9/11's?

John Piper's weekly Taste & See is about Three 9/11's We Need to Know.

It is thought-provoking and utterly challenging, especially for us fat, happy, lethargic and apathetic American Christians.

Obsession the Movie

I've tried to keep this a purely religious blog, but when geo-politics and religion are colliding like they are in our day I cannot help but recommend that you go here and watch the trailer for the award-winning Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West.

You can also watch short clips of the movie here:

• Jihad in the Classroom (clip)
• Jihad and the Media (clip)
• Jihad and Hitler (clip)
• Jihad and the West (clip)

If you do nothing else, you should watch this 12-minute version of the documentary.

God Trending Away from the West

This article, as well as books like Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom and David Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs make it clear that vibrant, biblical Christianity is leaving the West and showing up in the East and the southern hemisphere.

My favorite line from the article:

"Serious missionary work began in Nigeria in 1842, conducted by a Church Mission Society dedicated to promoting 'the knowledge of the Gospel among the heathen.' In 2007, the Nigerian outreach to America officially began, on the fertile mission fields of Northern Virginia."

For those of us in the West, I can't help but think this trend is evidence of God's judgment upon us. I don't see times getting any easier for us--both from within and from outside the church.

Actress Censored

Actress Kathy Griffin will have her Emmy Award acceptance speech edited (if you don't like what she said) / censored (if you do like what she said) when it airs this weekend.

What did she say? "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus." She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "This award is my god now!"

I guess she got the press and attention she craves. Little does she know that no one had more to do with her award than the sovereign King of the Universe, Jesus Himself (Eph 1:11; Col 1:17). And, He is so gracious to those who do things like this to Him, isn't He?

Read the rest of the article here, if you want.

What Hell Would Be Like...

I was captured by the blurb of this article where it said the writer was going to vent about our celebrity obsessed culture (which he didn't, it came across more like he was venting about how celebrity obsessed he is). However, he did have this one interesting line:

"Watching the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards must be like what hell would be like. I can picture Satan chaining me down to a chair in a fiery pit, facing a 108-inch HDTV with surround sound, playing a loop of Britney's [MTV VMA] performance."

It is SO sad that people caricature such a horrible place. Hell will be worse than anything we can possibly imagine. It reminds me of something I heard a speaker say once. I don't remember where I heard it, but it's true:

"For those who repent of their sins and trust Jesus alone to save them, this life is the worst it's ever going to be. For those who hold onto their sins and reject the salvation found only in Christ, this life is the best it's ever going to be."

9Marks Interviews David Wells

I've had this 9Marks interview of David Wells, one of my favorite living authors, on my desktop to read for weeks now, and I'm so glad I waited until now to do so.

I've interviewed many college and young adults' pastors about their ministries with my new job. Time after time all I hear about from them is that I need to make a group where people will connect with each other. Connecting, making friends, fellowship is the most important thing to someone in their 20s or 30s, they say, so this is the main goal of your ministry and the main thing that should fill up your time.

David Wells, thankfully, says

"we have replaced the pulpit not even by a barstool, but by a cup of Starbucks coffee, which speaks of 'human connecting.' And human connecting has become more important to us than our hearing from God."

I felt strange and out of place as I talked with these man because I always saw preaching as the most important aspect of my job (loving people = connecting with them is second), but so many disagreed.

Dr. Wells also says this, which turns conventional ministry "wisdom" upside down too:

"...the results of some important research among formerly unchurched people who then came to church are shocking. When these individuals were asked what they liked about the church, ninety-odd percent said that what was preached was important to them. And almost 90 percent said that they wanted to know what the church believed. They wanted to hear its doctrine. Now that is just the reverse of what the common outreach approach assumes. It assumes people don’t want to know. In actual fact, those who want to come into the church do want to know."

Finally, I loved this line from the interviewer:

"for the local church preacher, 'Show sensitivity to the alienation, the inner angst, the emotional turmoil people feel; yet use all these to segue to the Word of God and the more fundamental measurement of their relationship to him.'"

Transgender Pastors

The United Methodist Church, not the bastion of orthodoxy in ANY way whatsoever, now gets to decide whether Rev. Drew Phoenix, formerly the Rev. Ann Gordon, can remain a pastor in their denomination.

There are some interesting political ramifications to this story too. Read it here.

Premoderns, Moderns & Evangelism

David Wells, in his excellent book Above All Earthly Pow'rs, writes insightfully about the difference between premodern and modern societies and their relationship to God:

"In premodern societies, the sacred was a matter-of-fact part of life; in modern societies, God has been excluded from public life, pushed to the margins of relevance, and made to live out his life, as it were, underground and out of sight" (27).

Why mention this seemingly academic difference? Because when you're witnessing or speaking to a poorly discipled Christian, and they don't understand your Christian commitment, it may be because you're coming across as a premodern to a modern or postmodern person.

For example, if you see the hand of God in every event of your life and you see living a life that is pleasing to Him as most important than you're thinking and acting and interpreting the world as a premodern (which I'd add is closer to the biblical view of life).

However, if God is a kind of after thought in your life, and your personal history as well as world history is interpreted without any thought of God that's more modern and postmodern--and far less biblical, I might add.

Often times, our miscommunication comes from the fact that we're approaching all of life from different eras. We need to know this if we're going to communicate the premodern gospel to modern and postmodern people effectively.

Cults in Ukraine & Russian

If you're Russian or Ukrainian, please take note of the Centers For Apologetics Research. I met the executive director of this ministry a few years ago though very good mutual friends, and he is a solid brother.

The reason I bring them to your attention is because anti-Christian cults, like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, are infiltrating your country in LARGE amounts and having a devastating effect. You need materials that will train you and others to fight them off your family, friends, neighbors and maybe even yourself.

Bookmark their page here. Now, I tried to link all their separate pages on their Eastern European ministry on this blog, but their website was not done well. So, to find out what they're doing in Ukraine, you'll have to search around their site a little bit. I did find this Russian language page though, which I'm sure will be helpful.

Edwards on Demonic Faith

I'm preaching a couple hours on lies people believe about salvation to our junior high group here at Compass. The sermon has been done for a while, but for last minute input I just finished reading Jonathan Edwards', True Grace Distinguished from the Experience of Devils, a sermon he preached in 1752 on James 2:19 "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."

It was a very good sermon that contrasts false marks of saving faith that a person can have from true ones. While there is a lot I want to reproduce here, I'll just leave you this gem:

"[Seeing the beauty of Christ] is a special gift of God, which he gives only to his special favorites. Gold, silver, diamonds, and earthly kingdoms are given by God to people who the Bible calls dogs and pigs. But this great gift of beholding Christ's beauty, is the special blessing of God to His dearest children. Flesh and blood cannot give this gift: only God can bestow it. This was the special gift which Christ died to obtain for his elect. It is the highest token of his everlasting love, the best fruit of his labours, and the most precious purchase of his blood."

Seeing the beauty of Christ is what Edwards gives as the main mark of true conversion (cf. 2 Cor 4:3-6). If you liked this quote and would like to read the whole sermon, click here.

Did You Know...?

Did you know all of this happened this week in church history?

• 101 colonists and 48 crew members board the Mayflower to settle in America (1620)
• Massachusetts Puritans found Harvard to train ministers (1636)
  
• Robert Morrison becomes the first Protestant missionary to China (1807)--see what John Piper blogged today about this momentous event here.
• Mother Theresa died (1997)

Thoughts from The Valley

I read this in a collection of Puritan prayers calledThe Valley of Vision today and had to share it here:

"Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know ... Grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to thee, that all else is trifling" (235)

I need these reminders constantly, daily. That is why I thank God for this book, and the riches compiled therein.

A Real Hero

Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was a youth pastor who led the group of 22 South Korean aid volunteers to Afghanistan that got captured by the Taliban.

Eventually, he was one of two who were murdered, and it came out recently that he was murdered because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert to Islam.

I pray that if I'm ever in that kind of situation that God would give me the grace to have the same character and courage as Pastor Hyung-kyu.

Read about this hero here.

D. James Kennedy (1930-2007)

Dr. D. James Kennedy passed away this morning in his sleep. If you don't know who this man is, you should do some internet searching and get to know him.

See a tribute website from the ministry of this wonderful man here with a video and time line of his life here. Also, Dr. Al Mohler eulogizes him here.

I loved these words from him on the front page of the tribute site:

"Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people will cry. But I have told them not to do that because I don’t want them to cry. I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has known before."

I remember taking a trip to Florida with my sister and step-grandmother in the summer of 2000. We went for a drive one night around Ft. Lauderdale, and in the distance I noticed this massive steeple. I drove towards it and stopped in front of a massive white church building. It seemed to glow. I parked the car and said "Wait here. I want to see if I know who the pastor is." My sister laughed at me, but I got out anyway.

When I walked up to a sign that said "Dr. D. James Kennedy." I walked around for a little while, found some materials about the church and then got back in the car. My sister piped up sarcastically "So, did you know him?" to which I replied "Yes" and that was it.

We are quickly loosing a very significant, and God-blessed generation of godly men. Oh, that God would raise up another generation of men like Dr. Kennedy.

Read The Deliberate Church

I know I posted on this about two months ago, but if you still have not read The Deliberate Church by Dever and Alexander, what are you waiting for?

This book is so good, but if you don't believe me, click here to read the endorsements it has received.

And, if you like Mark Dever's preaching and/or writing (personally, I like his writing more than his preaching) I saw that he has a new book coming out this month called The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, which was written "to encourage readers to understand the fundamentals of evangelism and to challenge them to develop a culture of evangelism in their lives and their local churches."