Church Reflections from a 22-Year-Old by Chuck Lawless

This past weekend, I had the chance to hang out with a 22-year-old for three days. George has been raised in a Christian home. He is a believer. He wants to follow the Lord. He is creative and introspective. His mind races in multiple directions at once, and yet he somehow listens and thinks deeply at the same time. He is not a ministry student; in fact, he’s not yet certain where he’ll land when he finishes college.

God has blessed me to pour into George’s life—but I’m the one who is learning. On the spur of the moment, I asked George what ten things he would like in a church if he could design it. Within minutes, he gave me his response—so quickly, in fact, that I suspect he’s thought about these topics before. Compare George’s responses to the young adults you know.

1. Sound doctrine that is not watered down – George knows he needs the truth, and he wants the truth. He’s young, but he has so many other options for investing his time that he’s not interested in a church that sugarcoats the gospel.
2. Genuine opportunities to get involved – Doing insignificant assignments does not grab George’s attention. While he may not yet fully understand the importance of proving his faithfulness while doing the “little things” first, I get his point. Young adults want to make a real difference.
3. A community for “hanging out” – George recognizes his need to have a community of believers to push him, challenge him – and simply spend time with him. He realizes the importance of Bible study groups, but he sees a need for friends beyond that task. Sometimes believers need friends who gather off the church campus.
4. A strong commitment to evangelism, particularly locally – He has served on the international mission field – and he’s committed to that responsibility – but George doesn’t want his church to miss the needs in their immediate area. He wants to be sharing the gospel locally, connecting with and influencing the community for God.
5. Services that are “unrehearsed, naturally flowing, and Spirit-led” – George is a musician, and he knows that preparation and order matter. He simply wants what so many other young adults want: authenticity that validates the message and structure that follows the Lord’s leading.
6. Hospitality that welcomes complete strangers – The world George has grown up in is much different than my world. The nations live among us. Increasing percentages of non-believers live around us. George would welcome a church that warmly welcomes others – a church that does not cocoon itself around each other.
7. Bold preaching – This point relates to #1 above. George, like many other young adults I’ve met, wants preaching that “gets in his face” when necessary. He understands his own need to be called to repentance, and he is willing to risk being offended to hear the truth.
8. A strong worship leader – George’s family is musically inclined, so his background may influence his thoughts here. He wants an effective worship leader who leads the congregation to focus on God – but who also understands that music is not the only component of worship. The worship leader should be strong, yet team-focused.
9. Variety in worship – Frankly, George admits he is bored easily. Variety (in set up, speakers, worship bands, etc.) would be important to him, if for no other reason than the fact that changes catch his attention. On the other hand, his perspective would also offer opportunities for more believers to be genuinely involved (#2).
10. Humility and flexibility in facility – Where the church meets would matter little to George; what matters is that the church truly be the church. His ideal church could meet under a tree as long as they truly know God.

George’s responses remind me that I need to have more conversations like this one.

Tell us what you’ve heard from young adults. Better yet, direct some young adults to this site to give their input. Help us all learn.

Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary. You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both Twitter and Facebook.

Your Joy Rests on Jesus’s Righteousness by David Mathis

What if you really believed that God is 100% for you? That he not only accepts you, but accepts you fully, because of the perfect person and work of his Son? That your best successes can’t earn you any more access, and your worst failures can’t take any of it away? If you did — really did — it might change everything for the pursuit of joy in your life.

The Christian doctrine that deals with God’s acceptance of us into right relationship with him is called justification. It’s the long j-word that has so much to do with the short j-word that we’re all seeking in our own way: joy.

Justification by Faith Alone

Justification deals with how we get right with God. Here the setting is the law court. There’s a defendant (you), and there’s a Judge (God). And we’re all rightly charged with unrighteousness — a treasonous offense against the Judge himself.

To be justified means that the Judge declares you righteous, rather than guilty. It means to be cleared of any wrongdoing. The remarkable thing, according to the Christian gospel, is that even though we truly are guilty, God “justifies the ungodly” through faith (Romans 4:5).

On what basis, though, does God declare us righteous? It’s been a major controversy for nearly 500 years. Some have claimed that our full acceptance by God is based not only on the work of Christ outside of us, but also on the Holy Spirit’s work in us. God infuses us with righteousness and declares us righteous with that in view.

Others have claimed — more in line with the New Testament — that God’s full acceptance of us is owing to the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1). We are declared righteous, and fully accepted by God, not on the basis of any righteousness in us, but only through faith, looking outside ourselves and joining us to a righteousness not of our own doing — Jesus who is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30; Romans 5:19; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

This justification by faith alone is at the very heart of the gospel. Martin Luther called it the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. And those who most deeply hold to justification by faith alone become the world’s freest people, truest lovers, and greatest doers, all because they have found a greater and deeper capacity and potential for joy.

His Righteousness, Our Rejoicing

One key biblical passage for why justification by faith alone is essential for true joy in God is Philippians 3:1 and the verses that follow.

In chapter 2, Paul stressed that it is joy that keeps him going in the ministry, and joy that he hopes inspires the Philippians to pursue unity and humility. He returns to that theme of joy a few verses later as he turns to address the orientation of the church toward her enemies.

“Rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 3:1) is not only the connection to what has come before, but it is a banner that flies over the section that follows. This is no simple segue. This is the very thing that will separate true believers from religious posers. Paul focuses in on what binds the church together, and gives her the wherewithal to stand firm in the face of opposition: joy in Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord.

The main contrast Paul makes here between the church and her opponents is the varying sources of their confidence. The opponents’ confidence, for right-standing with God, is in their own performance, but the true people of God “put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). Not some confidence in the flesh, but no confidence in the flesh. In other words, they embrace justification by faith alone. Whatever grounds they might have for confidence in self, they have pushed that aside to “glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:3). God’s acceptance of them is totally based on Christ.

We cannot be truly happy unless God’s acceptance of us is totally based on Christ.

Not Your Pedigree or Performance

Paul embraced this reality with humility and boldness. If he was tempted to lean on his own pedigree and performance, he had just about anyone imaginable outdone (Philippians 3:4–6). But rather than trusting in his record of right-doing, Paul has been given life and liberty in the gospel for the surpassing pursuit of happiness. All his impressive gains he has counted as loss,

in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. (Philippians 3:8–9)

Joy in God, then, is inextricably linked to justification by faith alone. “The surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” will not be fully enjoyed apart from being joined to Jesus by faith and having his righteousness, which far surpasses our own, as the only grounds of God’s acceptance of us. A robust, solid embrace of justification by faith alone is essential for the life of Christian joy.

To the degree that we believe God’s acceptance of us rises or falls by our own merit, our joy is compromised.

“Now Did My Chains Fall Off”

John Bunyan (1628–1688), the persecuted baptist pastor and author of Pilgrim’s Progressrecalled the day, walking through a field, when the Spirit opened to him the glory of justification by faith alone — and with it opened for him the floodgates for the pursuit of joy. After much distress and anguish of heart, he says, he finally saw

that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, “The same yesterday, today, and forever.” Heb. 13:8. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. . . . Now I went also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.

Such has been the testimony of many, among the dead and the living. As John Piper writes,

The great gospel weapon in the fight for joy is the rock-solid reality that we are counted righteous in Christ by faith alone. . . . That gospel weapon is powerful only to the degree we keep the basis of our justification free from our own performances. God accepts us on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not ours. . . . Oh, what a difference it makes to be assured, in the discouraging darkness of our own imperfection, that we have a perfect righteousness — namely, Christ’s. (When I Don’t Desire God, 85)

So also Bunyan and Piper have experienced, with the apostle Paul, that the full acceptance of God, by faith alone, on the basis of Christ’s righteousness alone, is essential to the unencumbered and uncompromised pursuit of joy.

The Joy of Acceptance

Have you tasted the joy that comes when justification by faith alone sheds its light into your darkened soul? There are many causes of joylessness in Christians, but one that too often has been overlooked is this: If we are weak on justification, we will be weak in joy.

True Christian joy is inconsistent with any theology that compromises justification by faith alone. If professing Christians can’t believe that they have been fully accepted now by God — not waiting for some decisive, future verdict — their pursuit of joy in God will inevitably stall, sputter, and shrivel.

Those who are strongest in justification by faith alone will be freest in their pursuit of joy.

Should Sheep Shop? by James Emery White

Vol. 11, No. 20

I was recently asked by another pastor how he should feel about all of the sheep swapping going around in his city.

In the Bible, those in Christ are often referred to as “sheep,” and pastors as “shepherds.” From this, there have come all kinds of catchphrases in regard to church life, most notably “sheep swapping,” which is when people move from one local church to another.

Or probably more to the point, “sheep shopping.”

So, is that ever a good thing? 

Always a bad thing?

Something in between?

Yes.

Five good reasons to shop around:

1.   Teaching veers away from historic orthodoxy.

2.   Leadership consistently lacks integrity.

3.   Community is infected with habitual disunity.

4.   Mission has no focus or clarity.

5.   Finances lack necessary accountability.

These are good for one reason: they are substantive issues.

Five bad reasons to shop around:

1.   You don’t like long check-in lines and parking/exit hassles.

2.   You don’t like capital campaigns for buildings.

3.   You don’t like the influx of new faces and new staff.

4.   You don’t like finding your favorite seat taken.

5.   You don’t like having limited personal access to the pastor.

These are bad for one reason: they are all about not liking growth.

Five really bad reasons to shop around:

1.   You want to gravitate to the “next, next” thing out of spiritual insecurity.

      And then the “next, next” thing after that…and after that….

2.   You are fleeing the community after being exposed and admonished for serious, unrepentant sin.

3.   You voted on a non-doctrinal, non-substantive matter and it didn’t go your way.

4.   Your toes were stepped on in regard to a lifestyle or obedience matter that, in truth, the Bible is clear on.

5.   You got “offended” by someone, but never practiced Matthew 18:15 to try and resolve the offense.

These are “really bad” for one reason: they are rooted in sin, or at least immaturity.

Five “gray” reasons to shop around:

1.   Your new address makes it too far to drive.

2.   Your teenager wants to go somewhere else.

3.   Your age group or “stage of life” group is under-represented.

4.   Your philosophy of ministry is different, or has changed.

5.   Your passion in ministry isn’t offered or enabled.

These are gray for one reason: sometimes they are legit, sometimes they are not. Sometimes they should be “catered” to, sometimes they should not. In truth, most of the time “not.”

Five reasons used most often for shopping around:

1.   I’m not being “fed.”

2.   I’m not being “fed.”

3.   I’m not being “fed.”

4.   I’m not being “fed.”

5.   I’m not being “fed.”

So is being “fed” good, bad or gray?

Yes.

In most cases, it’s bad. The apostle Paul talks about those who still want to be “fed” as akin to a middle-age man sucking on a baby bottle. Most of us already know more at this moment than we will ever act on. We don’t need to be fed more – we need to live more. And if anything, feed others.

Being “fed” is often a euphemism for any and all disagreements that desire a spiritual smokescreen for departure. The irony is that I have dialogued with many of the leading teachers of our day – those who write books, have radio programs, have hundreds of thousands of podcasts downloaded (the teachers of the teachers) – and even with their qualifications the #1 reason people give for leaving their church is “I’m not being fed.”

Go figure.

The bottom line is that continually shopping around as a sheep, as a rule, is not best. What is best is to find a church home, be loyal and committed to it, and to work to make it all that it isn’t with a servant’s heart.

There will always be more

…convenient churches

…hotter churches

…newer churches

…better stage-of-life churches

…hipper churches

…larger churches

…smaller churches

But there will only be one that is your church.

Like a marriage that goes the marathon, there is a depth and sweetness to staying in a community year after year, decade after decade.

Knowing the stories, the people, the milestones.

There are people at Meck who have been with us since the earliest of days. Some since the very first year. Some since the very first service.

To a person, they would tell you that it is among their most precious investments and realities.

Why? It’s their church.

The one that God called them to.

That’s not something you shop for and buy.

It’s something you make.

James Emery White

  

Editor’s Note   

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated, is now available on Amazon. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church and Culture blog, visit www.churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. You can also find out more information about the upcoming 2015 Church and Culture Conference. Follow Dr. White on twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.

22 Benefits of Meditating on Scripture by Justin Taylor

Joel Beeke, in his essay on “The Puritan Practice of Meditation,” writes that “The Puritans devoted scores of pages to the benefits, excellencies, usefulness, advantages, or improvements of meditation.” Dr. Beeke lists some of the benefits as follows:

1. Meditation helps us focus on the Triune God, to love and to enjoy Him in all His persons (1 John 4:8)—intellectually, spiritually, aesthetically.
2. Meditation helps increase knowledge of sacred truth. It “takes the veil from the face of truth” (Prov. 4:2).
3. Meditation is the “nurse of wisdom,” for it promotes the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:8).
4. Meditation enlarges our faith by helping us to trust the God of promises in all our spiritual troubles and the God of providence in all our outward troubles.
5. Meditation augments one’s affections. Watson called meditation “the bellows of the affections.” He said, “Meditation hatcheth good affections, as the hen her young ones by sitting on them; we light affection at this fire of meditation” (Ps. 39:3).
6. Meditation fosters repentance and reformation of life (Ps. 119:59; Ez. 36:31).
7. Meditation is a great friend to memory.
8. Meditation helps us view worship as a discipline to be cultivated. It makes us prefer God’s house to our own.
9. Meditation transfuses Scripture through the texture of the soul.
10. Meditation is a great aid to prayer (Ps. 5:1). It tunes the instrument of prayer before prayer.
11. Meditation helps us to hear and read the Word with real benefit. It makes the Word “full of life and energy to our souls.” William Bates wrote, “Hearing the word is like ingestion, and when we meditate upon the word that is digestion; and this digestion of the word by meditation produceth warm affections, zealous resolutions, and holy actions.”
12. Meditation on the sacraments helps our “graces to be better and stronger.” It helps faith, hope, love, humility, and numerous spiritual comforts thrive in the soul.
13. Meditation stresses the heinousness of sin. It “musters up all weapons, and gathers all forces of arguments for to presse our sins, and lay them heavy upon the heart,” wrote Fenner. Thomas Hooker said, “Meditation sharpens the sting and strength of corruption, that it pierceth more prevailingly.” It is a “strong antidote against sin” and “a cure of covetousness.”
14. Meditation enables us to “discharge religious duties, because it conveys to the soul the lively sense and feeling of God’s goodness; so the soul is encouraged to duty.”
15. Meditation helps prevent vain and sinful thoughts (Jer. 4:14; Matt. 12:35). It helps wean us from this present evil age.
16. Meditation provides inner resources on which to draw (Ps. 77:10-12), including direction for daily life (Prov. 6:21-22).
17. Meditation helps us persevere in faith; it keeps our hearts “savoury and spiritual in the midst of all our outward and worldly employments,” wrote William Bridge.
18. Meditation is a mighty weapon to ward off Satan and temptation (Ps. 119:11,15; 1 John 2:14).
19. Meditation provides relief in afflictions (Is. 49:15-17; Heb. 12:5).
20. Meditation helps us benefit others with our spiritual fellowship and counsel (Ps. 66:16; 77:12; 145:7).
21. Meditation promotes gratitude for all the blessings showered upon us by God through His Son.
22. Meditation glorifies God (Ps. 49:3).

You can read the whole essay here.

Saved to sin no more by Brad Whitt

Saved to sin no more God not only saves us from the penalty of sin; He also saves us from the power of sin. Once we are saved, we no longer have to sin. As the old hymn writer put it, we are “saved to sin no more.” Before you are saved, you don’t have a choice; you are a slave to sin. But, once you are saved, you no longer have to sin.  Not that we will ever lay hold of this perfectly and become sinless, but the fact remains, we no longer have to sin. If we are truly saved, we will sin less than we did before. If we don’t sin less than we did before, it calls into question whether we were truly saved. We are saved by grace through faith alone. But, faith that saves is never alone. Buddy Robinson was a tongue-tied preacher who used to say, “Before I was saved, I used to drink and cuss and run around with wild women. Since I have been saved and sanctified, I have just about cut out all that.” We will never be completely sinless. The day we are sinless is the day the mortician is getting our name right for the newspaper. You can sin. You can sin and enjoy it. But you cannot sin and enjoy it for long. The heavenly Father disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12). Eventually, we will be saved from the presence of sin. 1 John 3:2 says that when we see Him, we will be like Him. One of these days the trumpet will sound and the sky will split open. He will take us away from this world of wickedness and sorrow and tears and shame. The first time He came to redeem me. The second time He will come to receive me. The first time He came to give me a new heart. The second time He will come to give me a new home. The first time He came to give me His grace. The second time He will come to give me His glory. F.F. Bruce once said, “Sanctification is glory begun. Glorification is sanctification complete.” I have been saved. I am being saved. One day, I will be saved. Bruce, F. F. Romans: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 6. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.

(This was taken from the book Rooted by Brad Whitt)

A Return to the Medieval by James Emery White

Vol. 11, No. 19

A Return to the Medieval

The first temple to the Norse gods to be built in a thousand years is being constructed in Iceland. The worship of Thor, Odin and Frigg gave way to the Christian faith toward the end of the Viking age, but a modern version of Norse paganism has become increasingly popular in Iceland. Membership in ‘Asatruarfelagid’, an association that promotes faith in the Norse gods, has tripled over the last decade.

George Eliot once opined that “history, we know, is apt to repeat itself.”

So are we returning to the medieval?

Yes, I believe in many respects, we are.

The Middle Ages, at almost a thousand years in length, was not a single unit. Historians tend to divide it up into three eras: the early Middle Ages, which was from 400 to 1000; the high Middle Ages, which was from 1000 to 1300; and the late Middle Ages, which was from 1300 to 1500.

It is the early Middle Ages that come closest to earning the nickname “dark.” After the fall of Rome to the barbarian Alaric in 410, there was a loss of learning, a loss of cultural cohesion and a loss of order. It was a world that mixed Christianity with paganism.

But make no mistake - it was a deeply spiritual world. In fact, the supernatural was everywhere, in places and days, people and events, filling people’s lives with images, symbols and rituals.

In places such as Ireland, the earth and all in it was considered sacred. Gods and goddesses roamed the landscape and the world of magic was embraced. But there was no God who sat in Heaven, and no knowledge of a Christ who had come to earth.

As the Middle Ages went forward, particularly by the time of the high Middle Ages, we can say that the medieval world had become a profoundly Christian world. This was because missionaries re-founded Western civilization and essentially reconverted the West back to Christianity from paganism; what Thomas Cahill referred to in the title of his book How the Irish Saved Civilization.

Then came the Renaissance. As the word itself means, the Renaissance was a “rebirth,” for it was seen as a return to the learning and knowledge reflected in ancient Greece and Rome.

From the Renaissance came the creation of what many have called “humanism.” As the name implies, much of this was simply a celebration of the humanities, and humanity itself. At first, this was a Christian, or “sacred,” humanism. Only when humanism was ripped from its Christian moorings and became a secular humanism – when humanism became “autonomous,” to use Francis Schaeffer’s term, meaning divorced from the anchor of biblical revelation and a Christian worldview – did it became destructive. Instead of studying man in light of the Creator, there was a return to Protagoras’s idea that “Man is the measure of all things.”

This was a radical reversal of medieval understandings.

With man as the measure of all things, as opposed to God, what kind of world would there be? Many would claim it to be “enlightened,” and in fact it was the Enlightenment that sprang from the Renaissance.

To properly understand the Enlightenment, it must be seen as more than an age – it must be understood as a spirit. Rather than turning to revelation, there was a turn to reason as the surest and best guide for humanity. The motto of Immanuel Kant, one of the most significant thinkers of the time, was “Dare to use your own reason” - or simply “Dare to know”. The fundamental idea was that we could begin with ourselves and gain the means by which to judge all things. And not only that we could, but should. The issue was not about the Enlightenment’s relationship to religion, but rather about the Enlightenment as a religion. So much so that many historians refer to the Enlightenment as the “rise of modern paganism.”

The speed by which Enlightenment thinking took hold was breathtaking. By the end of the era, the church had been marginalized, theology dethroned as the queen of the sciences, and the Christian worldview reduced to a fading memory. For the first time since the fourth century, the church would once again face persecution.

But then something began to happen. Many believed the Enlightenment era would be the last, greatest summit humanity needed to ascend. Yet people begin to slip down the side of the mountain, finding Enlightenment thinking hard to grip. At first, it was called postmodernism. There was much talk about what that meant, because no one was really quite sure. What we did know was that there was a changing view of reality, a new definition of truth, and a renewed openness to the spiritual.

It wasn’t very “enlightenment-ish” at all.

But calling it postmodern, which simply means that which comes after modernity, didn’t seem quite right. It didn’t seem to capture what was going on. So perhaps an easier thesis would be this: we’re returning to the Middle Ages.

The early Middle Ages, to be exact.

Just as the fall of Rome threw us into a medieval world with its accompanying spirituality the first time, the fall of modernity and the waning of Christianity leading to our post-Christian state are throwing us into it again.

Some would suggest that it may even be part of a larger cycle.

The founder of Harvard University’s department of sociology, Pitirim Sorokin, noted that civilization tends to swing in one of two directions: toward the material or the spiritual. One is rational or scientific, the other is more theological and aesthetic.

The medieval world was a spiritual world. Pagan, often mixed with Christianity, but spiritual. From the Enlightenment forward, we have lived in a rational, scientific world. Our current shift is clearly back toward the spiritual.

But if we are entering a new era that is similar to the earlier medieval era, what does that mean? If we follow the medieval pattern, there will be at least five dynamics: widespread spiritual illiteracy, indiscriminate spiritual openness, a deep need for visual communication, an attraction to spiritual experience, and a widespread ethos of amorality.

Sound familiar?

Which is why the term “neomedieval,” first offered by Umberto Eco in regard to Western society, seems appropriate.

And with the neomedieval, the neopagan.

James Emery White

Sources

George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life.

James Emery White, The Church In An Age of Crisis (Baker).

James Emery White, Serious Times (InterVarsity Press).

Reuters Staff, “Iceland to build its first temple to the Norse gods in 1,000 years,” Reuters, February 2, 2015, read online.

Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization. Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper Reality: Essays, trans. William Weaver.

    

Editor’s Note

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated, is now available on Amazon. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church and Culture blog, visit www.churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. You can also find out more information about the upcoming 2015 Church and Culture Conference. Follow Dr. White on twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PROTECT YOUR MARRIAGE? by Michael Hyatt

The lead story in the news a little more than a year ago was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s infidelity. Apparently, he has fathered at least one child out-of-wedlock. There are likely more.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/dsteller

To be honest, this whole thing made me angry, especially when I consider the impact this had on his wife and children. He is also one more negative example for our own children and grandchildren.

After hearing about this story, my wife Gail asked, “How does someone like Schwarzenegger engage in this behavior?” Great question. Off the top of my head, I offered this:

• He had numerous opportunities.
• He evidently thinks he is special—and entitled.
• He is using his blood supply to power an organ other than his brain at the moment-of-temptation. (Yes, I really did say that.)

However, I don’t intend for this post to be a rant against Gov. Schwarzenegger. I am not his judge. He will give an account of his choices—as I will mine.

But I want to go on the record and say this: Adultery is not normal. It certainly isn’t inevitable. It is not the way God created us. We were made for monogamy and fidelity.

When we are loyal, we reflect the faithfulness of our Creator. When we are disloyal, we reflect the betrayal of both Satan and Adam. It is no wonder that the Bible often speaks of sin as “spiritual adultery.” Betrayal is the original sin.

However, we live in a fallen world—one that is increasingly indifferent to sexual sin. If we want to live and lead with intention, we can’t be naive. We must recognize the temptation adultery poses and protect ourselves accordingly. Nothing will destroy our influence and legacy faster than an affair.

If we are going to avoid becoming casualties, we must have a strategy. Here are three actions I take in order to protect my marriage:

1. I invest in my relationship with Gail. It is amazing to me that so many men are willing to invest such enormous spiritual, emotional, and financial resources in relationships other than the one they have. This doesn’t make economic sense. If you want your marriage to grow and flourish, you must invest in it. This means investing time—dreaming, laughing, listening, and crying together.
2. I set specific boundaries. This may sound old-fashioned, perhaps even legalistic. So be it. I think our world could use a little old-fashioned common sense. Therefore:
   • I will not go out to eat alone with someone of the opposite sex.
   • I will not travel alone with someone of the opposite sex.
   • I will not flirt with someone of the opposite sex.
   • I will speak often and lovingly of my wife. (This is the best adultery repellantknown to man.)
3. I consider what is at stake. What story do I want my grandchildren to tell? This puts it all in perspective for me. Do I want them to be proud of my life’s story or embarrassed? Do I want to be remembered as a person who loves his wife and is faithful to her? Or do I want to be the one who squandered his legacy in a moment of indiscretion?

It is time for real leaders to lead—not only in their professional lives but in their personal ones as well. If we can’t lead ourselves, we are not qualified to lead others. Character matters. We must take responsibility for our own actions. Our grandchildren are counting on it.

Guardrails by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: 

This may sound a little blunt, but it’s true. I’ll never become so “spiritual” that I’ll be immune to sexual sin. The same is true for you.

I’ve watched many, many people get trapped in sexual sin. That’s why I’ve chosen to establish some boundaries in my life to help guard my heart. For example, if I’m meeting alone with a married man, we make sure to leave the door cracked. I don’t travel or have meals alone with married men. And if I send a personal email to a man, I make sure to copy his wife.

Now that may sound a bit extreme to you, but those habits form a guardrail to keep me from getting too close to the edge of temptation. The apostle Paul tells us to “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Are there any boundaries you need to put in place to help protect you from sin?

With Seeking Him , I'm Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Fifteen Reasons Our Churches Are Less Evangelistic Today by Thom Rainer

By almost any metric, the churches in our nation are much less evangelistic today than they were in the recent past. In my own denomination, we are reaching non-Christians only half as effectively as we were 50 years ago (we measure membership to annual baptisms). The trend is disturbing.

We certainly see the pattern in the early church where “every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). In too many of our churches today, the congregations are reaching no one for Christ in the course of an entire year.

The Poll

I conducted an unscientific Twitter poll recently to see what church leaders and church members thought of this trend, My specific question was: “Why do you think many churches aren’t as evangelistic as they once were?”

The responses arrived quickly and in great numbers, both in public tweets and in direct messages to me. Indeed, I was still receiving responses four days after I sent my Twitter question.

The Results

The response was highly informative for me. Here are the top fifteen responses listed in order of frequency:

1. Christians have no sense of urgency to reach lost people.
2. Many Christians and church members do not befriend and spend time with lost persons.
3. Many Christians and church members are lazy and apathetic.
4. We are more known for what we are against than what we are for.
5. Our churches have an ineffective evangelistic strategy of “you come” rather than “we go.”
6. Many church members think that evangelism is the role of the pastor and paid staff.
7. Church membership today is more about getting my needs met rather than reaching the lost.
8. Church members are in a retreat mode as culture becomes more worldly and unbiblical.
9. Many church members don’t really believe that Christ is the only way of salvation.
10. Our churches are no longer houses of prayer equipped to reach the lost.
11. Churches have lost their focus on making disciples who will thus be equipped and motivated to reach the lost.
12. Christians do not want to share the truth of the gospel for fear they will offend others. Political correctness is too commonplace even among Christians.
13. Most churches have unregenerate members who have not received Christ themselves.
14. Some churches have theological systems that do not encourage evangelism.
15. Our churches have too many activities; they are too busy to do the things that really matter.

So What Is the Solution?

I received hundreds of responses to this poll. There is obviously widespread concern about the lack of evangelism in our churches and among Christians.

First, let me hear what you think of these responses. Second, and more importantly, offer some solutions to the challenges. Make certain those solutions include what you can do as much as what they should do. I look forward to hearing from you.

photo credit: people talking in paris via photopin (license)

The post Fifteen Reasons Our Churches Are Less Evangelistic Today appeared first onThomRainer.com.

Give Me Jesus - by Anna Graham Lotz

I mentioned at the close of the sermon yesterday I wished I had time to read this, but I am posting it here.  This is from Anna Graham Lotz's book "Give Me Jesus."  

★ He is enduringly strong
★ He is entirely sincere
★ He is eternally steadfast
★ He is immortally gracious
★ He is imperially powerful
★ He is impartially merciful
★ He is the greatest phenomenon who has ever crossed the horizons of the globe
★ He is God’s Son
★ He is the sinners savior
★ He is the captives ransom
★ He is the breath of life
★ He is the centerpiece of civilization
★ He stands in the solitude of Himself
★ He is august
★ He is unique
★ He is unparalleled
★ He is unprecedented
★ He is undesputed and He is undefiled
★ He is unsurpassed and He is unshakable
★ He is the lofty idea in philosophy
★ He is the highest personality in psychology
★ He is the supreme subject in literature
★ He is the unavoidable problem in higher criticism
★ He is the fundamental doctrine of theology
★ He is the cornerstone, the capstone and stumbling stone of all religion.
★ He is the miracle of the ages.

♥ No means of measure can define His limitless love
♥ No far seeing telescope can bring Him to visibility, the coastline of His shroreless supply
♥ No Barrier can hinder Him for pouring out His blessings
♥ He forgives and He forgets. He creates and He cleanses.
♥ He restores and He rebuilds.
♥ He heals and He helps. He reconciles and He redeems. He comforts and He carries. He lifts and He loves.
♥ He is the God of the second chance, the fat chance, the slim chance, and the no chance.
♥ He discharges debtors
♥ He delivers the captives
♥ He defends the feeble
♥ He blesses the young
♥ He serves the unfortunate
♥ He regards the ages
♥ He beautifies the meek
♥ He is enduringly strong.
♥ He is entirely sincere.
♥ He is eternally steadfast.
♥ He is immortally gracious.
♥ He is imperially powerful.
♥ He is unparalleled and He is unprecedented.
♥ He is impartially merciful.
♥ He is the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizons of the globe.
♥ He is the sinner’s Savior.
♥ He is the captive’s Ransom.
♥ He is the Breath of Life.

★ He supplies strength to the weary.
★ He increases power to the faint.
★ He offers escape to the tempted.
★ He sympathizes with the hurting.
★ He saves the hopeless.
★ He shields the helpless.
★ He sustains the homeless.
★ He gives purpose to the aimless.
★ He gives reason to the meaningless.
★ He gives fulfillment to our emptiness.
★ He gives light in the darkness.
★ He gives comfort in our loneliness.
★ He gives fruit in the barrenness.
★ He gives future to the Hopeless.
★ He gives Heaven to the hopeless.
★ He gives life to the lifeless.
★ He finds the lost.
★ He gives life to the lifeless.
★ He heals the sick.
★ He guards the young.
★ He seeks the stray.
★ He guides the faithful.
★ He rights the wrong.
★ He avenges the abused.
★ He defends the weak.
★ He cleanses the dirty.
★ He mends the broken.
★ He blesses the poor.
★ He fills the empty.
★ He clothes the naked.
★ He satisfies the hungry.
★ He raises the dead.

♥ He is indestructible.

♥ He is invincible.

♥ He is irresistible.

♥ He makes change possible.

♥ He makes happiness attainable.

♥ He makes resources ample, and suffering understandable.

♥ He makes sin forgivable, and Heaven available.

♥ He makes God visible.

♥ His life is matchless, and His goodness is limitless.

♥ His mercy is enough, and His grace sufficient.

♥ His reign is righteous.

♥ His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

♥ The Pharisees couldn’t stand Him but they found they couldn’t stop Him.

♥ Satan tried to tempt Him but found he couldn’t trip Him.

♥ Pilot examined Him on trail but found he couldn’t fault Him.

♥ The Romans crucified Him but found they couldn’t take His life.

♥ Death couldn’t handle Him, and the grave couldn’t hold Him.

★ He had no predecessor, and He will have no successor.

★ He is a Lion and He is a Lamb.

★ He is God and He is man

★ He is the seven-way King.

★ He is the King of the Jews – that’s a racial King

★ The King of Israel – that’s a national King

★ The King of righteousness – that’s a moral King

★ He is the King of the ages – that’s an eternal King

★ the King of Heaven – that’s a universal King

★ The King of glory – that’s a celestial King

★ He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!