Book Review: Christ+City (Dennis)

The trend of writing about the city has just begun to catch fire. Books like Tim Keller’s Center Church and Stephen Um and Justin Buzzard’s Why Cities Matter are just a couple of the growing collection of books being written today addressing the trends of the city, significant of cities, and what it means for the Christian church today. Jon Dennis, too, puts his ideas into the growing conversation with his book Christ+City: Why the Greatest Need f the City is the Greatest News of All.

Unlike the other books which try to address the city from many different angles, this book seems to take a particular vantage point on behalf of Christians. Jon Dennis described this in a recent Interview with Um & Buzzard from The Gospel Coalition; he was/is looking to equip his people with a healthier, more biblically-based understanding of the city. Essentially, this book is written with the intention of equipping his believers (and whoever else would care to listen) with a theology of cities and a hope for cities being renewed by the Gospel.

He speaks a lot about the potential for city renewal and building the expectancy for God to do something in their midst. He speaks a lot on the unique opportunities we have with this growing trend and that we ought to be adapting to it to remain effective in the future.

While there are many books on cities & Christianity being published, I think this one is useful and will help keep a particular eye on how the Gospel is the answer to many of the issues unique to cities (and all the issues we ought to be addressing). Take some time to pick it up, read through it, and pray to God what your involvement ought to be; people are headed to the cities in record masses, the Gospel ought to be in their midst as they do so.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes by Crossway Publishing. I was not required to post a positive review and the views expressed in this review are my own.

Session Three: Preaching as Worship [For Those Speaking and Listening] (Leonce Crump)

[These are Session 3 Notes from the Preach The Word 2013 Acts 29 West Regional Conference in Reno, NV]

[ UPDATE: VIDEO FROM SESSION THREE IS NOW AVAILABLE HERE ]

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I’m going to address 3 questions:

-1) (preacher) – Why do you preach? (What are you trying to accomplish; what do you think about when you approach the text; what do you think about your people)

-2) (listener) – Why do you listen? (There for instruction? Relief? To be entertained?)

-3) How do you view God?

We have to ask these in seeing preaching as worship

Most people think of “worship” as singing and preaching as our “teaching time”

When the preacher gets up to preach there is an unspoken conversation happening:

Preacher – “What am I going to say to move your life, to get you to respond, that will help?”

Listener – “what do I need to hear that will actually mean something? What will make me care about my life? Why does this even matter?”

Preacher: do you preach to impress? Do you want people to know that you’re learned?

You listen to podcasts and try to mimic the popular people your people listen to rather than using your voice in your context to your people that God has sent you to!

Listener – instead of listening to your pastor you listen to pastors across the country.

You say “be my Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, Eric Mason” and the pastor can do nothing else but say “I’ll try to be”

Pastor: do you preach to inspire?

(If so, it’ll fizz out; likely by Monday afternoon, sometimes as quick as the moment they leave)

Listener: do you listen to BE inspired?

**Preaching as worship starts with your preparation in the word (what is it doing to you before you try to communicate it to others)

You must examine yourself: What is it doing in your heart before you ever step up to communicate it to someone else?

Listener: what is the word doing to your heart when you put an unfair expectation on an infallible man?

What’re you doing to prepare your heart before you listen to a sermon? (If we’re honest, it’s NOTHING) or go to work?

Life’s rough, trying, demanding. [The week is murderous and puts us at the end of ourselves] and we come on Sunday and say “give me something preacher. I need something to hold on to”

A lot of times a pastor’s week doesn’t look all that different than the listeners:

“Preaching hangover – a mixture of confusion and depressions like you’ve been drinking all night but can’t taste the liquor”

Monday preaching hangover,

Tuesday staff meeting and sports with the kids,

Wednesday you haven’t even cracked open the text you’re gunna preach on

Friday’s your day off (and if we’re honest that ends up being from God, too)

Saturday’s family day

Then you crack open your bible at 930 Saturday night and say “God give me something”

-Berkhoff and CK Barret aren’t providing any clarity,

-Chandler hasn’t preached it yet, Mason’s preaching it in 2 weeks so you can’t steal from them

-Harvey preached it but the podcast’s broke!

I’m to blame because I need you to like me

You’re to blame because you rely on me to give a 30 minute sermon (50 minutes if the guy is really really good) to save your life.

-If you take an honest look: You rely on the pastor to make you be gripped by the text and to only know God through his experience and not your own.

Preacher – Why. Do. You. Preach?

To see the word of God LIVING AND ACTIVE and to change lives in the very seat they are sitting in? Or to see them laugh and enjoy you?

Listener – why do you listen?

Let’s look at Romans 16:25

“Doxology” = “word of praise” or “WORSHIP”

After a theologically DENSE book of hitting so many concepts, Paul ends with WORSHIP.

The way preaching becomes worship (for the hearer and the preacher) is when what we are waiting for and longing for is a big view of a big God.

When I get you to turn your eyes away from your problems and to the King of Glory!

This world is not ultimate reality. God is the ultimate reality and we have access to Him through the resurrected Jesus.

Worship = worth shaped (your worth is shaped no longer around your employment, ability, abuse, but THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR)

Preaching becomes worship when our worth is shaped by the view of our great God encompassing our view of reality.

Is that why you preach?

Is that why you listen?

V25 – “now to Him who is able!”

(Big view of God, small view of my reality; that creates worship)

Do you see God as ABLE?

Are you preaching Him as able?

Do you listen with expectancy that God is ABLE? (Not your preacher or leader, not the church, but the GOD OF THE CHURCH)

V25 – to strengthen you (not give you seven steps)

From what? — a world trying to tear you down [and apart] in every direction

“Is your worth shaped around God’s ABLEness to do ALL things?”

“I cannot fix your life. I cannot teach you your best life now or create your better future. I don’t have 5 ways your wife will make love to you whenever you want to to… What we give our people, preachers, is a big view of God”

Of course you want it to be help, to apply it, but not for the sake of man made schemes to fix their lives.

Fix their heads away from their temporal reality and towards The One.

It reroutes their worship (to the source, not all the other crap the world tells us will satisfy and never does)

V27 – to the only wise God

Paul ends the book (rich in theology, rich in instruction) with a big view of God; eyes up to heaven, heart inclined to eternity, his mind/will shaped and formed by the mystery of the Gospel (god came, died, rose, delivered that we may identify to the King of Glory)

Why. Do. You. Preach?

To impress and be impressive? To inspire, entice, and engage?

•Or do you preach for God to get you out of the way so people can show up with hands filled with baggage from a week of hell, sit it at the feet of Jesus, and see God as their everything.•

Why. Do. You. Listen?

To backhand the other friend down the road about how much better your pastor is?

They don’t need that. They need to see God as ABLE

Do you listen so that the Holy Spirit will form your worth around the word of God?

Or to hear the next principle and truth that will allow you to use your own ingenuity to try and fix your own life?

•And finally: How do you see God?

Uninterested, distant, ashamed, and disconnected? A “Prime Mover” of sorts?

Or do you see Him as Paul summarizes Him?

The encompassing of ultimate reality. The overwhelming, never overstated, God of the universe

Those 3 questions will shape, every time, preacher or hearer, whether this time will be worship, or another form of exaltation to self that God is ultimately not pleased with.

“All I can think about is how great God is”

Moses couldn’t even look at Him — “get in the rock and I’ll show you my back”

Isaiah can’t say anything but “I am unclean!”

In Revelation 21 all He is described as is LIGHT

And after all of that God kneels down and says “I want to know you and be known by you”

We all address the Gospel with 3 things: Identity, idolatry, and need.

And God says “I can fulfill them all”

A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer

As we look out at the church today, there is so much that encourages us and fills us with gratitude. There is renewed zeal among God’s people for the spread of God’s glory across the earth. Like never before we hear brothers and sisters in different circles and different streams of contemporary Christianity talking about the gospel and mission, about transforming cities and reaching unreached people groups. These conversations are essential, and we hope they will continue with even greater intensity and intentionality in the days ahead.

But sometimes what we are not hearing can be as illuminating as what we do hear. It reminds us of an exchange in an old Sherlock Holmes mystery, where Holmes refers to “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” during a robbery. A fellow detective, confused at Holmes’s comment, responds that “the dog did nothing in the nighttime” — to which Holmes responds: “That was the curious incident.” Despite the proliferation of Christian publishing and Christian conferences, J. I. Packer’s observation of our own curious incident still rings true:

When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology — but rarely of their daily experience of God.

Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service — but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God.

Our sermons contain much sound doctrine — but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour.

We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters.

Thus we make it plain that communion with God is a small thing to us.

Think about it. Where are the passionate conversations today about communing with God through fasting and prayer? We seem to find it easier to talk much of plans and principles for proclaiming the gospel and planting churches, and to talk little of the power of God that is necessary for this gospel to be proclaimed and the church to be planted.

If we really want to be a part of seeing disciples made and churches multiplied throughout North America and to the ends of the earth, we would be wise to begin on our knees.

It is for this reason that we gladly commend the new edition of John Piper’s Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer. If you have read or heard anything from Piper, you know that he is rightly and biblically passionate about the spread of God’s glory. But at the same time, he is acutely and biblically aware of our need for God’s grace. He knows that apart from dependence on and desperation for God, we will not only miss the ultimate point of our mission, but we will also neglect the ultimate need of our souls.

We were made to feast on God. In the words of the psalmist, we were created to cry:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. (Psalm 63:1–5)

We have read the sad statistics about the number of young people who turn away from the church once they are out of their parents’ home. We have heard people explain that they have “tried God” when they were young but that it didn’t work for them. But we have to wonder: did they “earnestly” seek him with their whole hearts? Did they cry out to him in fasting and prayer? Sometimes we “earnestly seek” after things from God rather than God himself. It is hard for us to imagine anyone leaving the presence of the living God — the maker and sustainer of heaven and earth — and looking for something better!

There is spiritual delight to be found in God that far supersedes the physical diet of this world, and fasting is the means by which we say to God, “More than our stomachs want food, our souls want you.” Once we “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8), the things of the world no longer appeal to us in the same way.

As Piper says in the opening pages of this book, “Beware of books on fasting.” This is not a book of legalism. It’s not a book of technique. It does not contain a twelve-step plan. At the end of the day, it’s a book more about our hearts than about our stomachs. Abstaining from food (or other things) for a period of time is not an end in itself but a means to cause us to learn about and increase our love for Christ. As Piper explains in this book, the Bible gives us many reasons to fast:

• We fast because we’re hungry for God’s Word and God’s Spirit in our lives.
• We fast because we long for God’s glory to resound in the church and God’s praise to resound among the nations.
• We fast because we yearn for God’s Son to return and God’s kingdom to come.
• Ultimately we fast simply because we want God more than we want anything this world has to offer us.

Few things are as frustrating as trying to convince our loved ones of the greatness and grandeur of God. We are jealous for our neighbors and our faith family and the nations to find satisfaction in God alone. As we recently reread the book you hold in your hands, we have tried to imagine what it would be like if our churches were filled with believers fasting regularly and biblically. What might God be pleased to do if his church rises up to say, “This much, O God, we want you!”? We encourage you to read this book, asking great things from God, “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think!” (Ephesians 3:20).

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For a free pdf of the book, as well as options to purchase paperback or Kindle versions, see Desiring God’s updated resource page for a Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer.

This post is transcribed from DesiringGod.org with permission

Book Review: Leaders Who Last (Kraft)

To start off, the necessity of this book cannot be overstated. Statistically speaking only 30 percent of leaders finish well (for more on this, see Bobby Clinton’s landmark book The Making of a Leader), and only 1 out of 10 seminary graduates will finish in the ministry (let alone finishing it well, loving the Lord, etc.). So with pressures such as burnout being more and more a statistical probability than a far-off danger, what can we do to cultivate leaders who last?

Dave Kraft gives us a book that is to the point, extremely helpful, and one of the books next to the Bible that a leader should be extremely well acquainted with. Kraft approaches the writing of this book not with academic theories to implement, but practical life lessons to learn from.

One way in which Kraft presents this is through examining how the role and dynamic of a leader has changed over time (for instance, leaders in the past were organizational and characterized by command and control whereas today leaders tend to be more relational and permission-giving). One final (key!) area in which Kraft examines elements of leaders who last is by looking at the “areas” in which leaders ought to live:

With Jesus Christ in the center as their power,

With Jesus Christ as they develop a purpose,

With Jesus Christ as they develop a passion,

With Jesus Christ as they set priorities,

(and) With Jesus Christ as they develop pacing for how much they accomplish and how fast to do it.

This book is a book widely needed, especially within the church, and I am thankful to have the opportunity to read it on the front end of my ministry journey to safeguard against burn out, becoming a (negative) statistic, and further harming the perception of Jesus. This book is a necessity for all church leaders and is a quick, pointed, and necessary read.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes by the Crossway Publishing. I was not required to post a positive review and the views expressed in this review are my own.

Book Review: A Dangerous Calling (Tripp)

In my local church context we are passionate about church planting and raising up leaders. With that vision we tend to attract and raise up many men who desire to become preaching and teaching pastors who lead the church. While this calling is a noble one (1 Tim 3:1), I feel like we run the danger today of sensationalizing the pastorate. The Bible declares this calling a burden, tells us to count the cost, and commands that leaders will have a greater responsibility for those he shepherds. I, myself, am guilty of this sensationalization and I am thankful that a book like Dangerous Calling has made it out onto bookshelves.

Now to the review:

In this book, Paul Tripp takes a turn from his focuses on marriage and family to pastoral leadership, and I am thankful he wrote on this topic. Through reading this book I get a sense that each one of these chapters could be expanded into much larger sections, even books, perhaps, but I deeply respect the fact that Tripp handled them in the way he did. I believe this book is meant to be crawled through and reflected upon personally, not just used for informational attainment.

With such a high calling, much is on the line, and the church needs leaders who can step up and step out, knowing their calling and the temptations and struggles that come with it, and become equipped and surround themselves with leaders who can provide insight and wisdom through the growing pains that are certain to come.

I believe Dangerous Calling sets the stage for just that. Taking an excerpt from his introduction, I believe Tripp lays out a book that provides a sobering look at the complications and joy available at the pastorate, and I certainly was left better understanding the weight of what it means to pastor others. May we not shy away from such a calling, but more fully understand it as we pursue God’s kingdom advancement.

This is a book of warning that calls you to humble self-reflection and change. It is written to make you uncomfortable, to motivate you towards change. At points it may make you angry, but I am convinced that the content of this book is a reflection of what God has called me to do. Perhaps we have become too comfortable. Perhaps we have quite examining ourselves and the culture that surrounds those of us who have been called to ministry in the local church… [May we] break the silence, walk out into the light [be exposed], and face the things that God is calling us to face.     [Page 12]

I strongly recommend this book for those interested in stepping into the pastorate and leading a congregation–in any capacity.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes by Crossway Publishing. I was not required to post a positive review and the views expressed in this review are my own.

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

At the heart of the word “courage” are ideas of boldness, fortitude and resolve. These three closely related words together provide a robust understanding of courage. Boldness is the confidence to take a risk – initial courage. Fortitude is the firmness of the mind without retreat – sustaining courage. Resolve is the determination to reach the end goal – persevering courage.

Courage is often expressed in word pictures of battle, conflict or crisis (insert a William Wallace freedom cry here) so that a “courageous” person will face an opponent even if victory looks bleak. But what about the courage to speak truth in love though it may cut to the heart (Acts 2:37; John 6:60)? It requires courage to call out friends for living lives that do not resemble the faith they profess.

When lacking the courage to speak plainly and with conviction, we often say nothing, call it mercy and let the opportunity pass. Passivity counterfeits for patience. Cowardice masquerades as grace.

Instead of recognizing that our fear of man cripples us to silence, we convince ourselves that we are gracious people. But the problem is that leaving someone in sin is not grace or love; it is consent, indifference and, quite honestly, unloving.

Grace is frequently misunderstood to mean overlooking wrong, when true grace could not be further removed from this misconception. Grace is not rejecting someone when they sin or overlooking sin in a person’s life. It’s having the courage of conviction to call someone out when they sin and to do so in love. Grace is a commitment to bring to light what is in darkness (1 John 1:5-10).

There have been many times in the past where I have overlooked sin in a brother and called it grace. Instead of leading them out of sin, I let them stay in their sin, which corrupts and decays. This is not an act of love but an act of cowardice.

Genuine grace transforms. True grace never overlooks. It is remarkable, and when you see it, you know it. Grace never leaves you the same.

If we quench the voice of the Spirit long enough, we can become numb to His leadings and thereby render our selves useless to our brothers and sisters in the church. We must regain our sense of conviction and be bold, strong and resolved to stand courageously with other believers when we see sin in their lives (Heb. 3:13). This is true love.

It is time to leave coward ways behind and become mature men and women marked by conviction and courage. Are we willing to be bold and initiate conversations with our brothers and sisters who are not living out the faith they profess? Are we willing to show fortitude and to pursue those who are unwilling to change? Are we committed to not letting one in the flock go astray?

After the infamous fratricide in Genesis 4, the Lord comes to Cain asking where his brother is. Cain projects his guilt in his response to the Lord: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The reality is this: He was his brother’s keeper. And I am my brother’s keeper. You are your brother’s keeper. You are your sister’s keeper. We are to look after one another, speaking truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We are to shine the light of Christ into the dark places, especially if that dark place is your brother or sister.

Scriptures for Further Reading

• 1 Samuel 15:1-35 (Samuel and Saul)
• 2 Samuel 12:1-31 (Nathan Rebukes David)
• Ephesians 4:25
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14-15
• Galatians 6:1-2
• Hebrews 3:7-15
• Hebrews 10:24
• James 5:16
• 2 Corinthians 7:1-13

Originally posted on The Village Church’s blog by Clint Patronella here: http://ow.ly/cvCnI

The Fire Shall Be Ever Burning

“The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”

Keep the altar of private prayer burning. This is the very life of all piety. The sanctuary and family altars borrow their fires here, therefore let this burn well. Secret devotion is the very essence, evidence, and barometer, of vital and experimental religion.

Burn here the fat of your sacrifices. Let your closet seasons be, if possible, regular, frequent, and undisturbed. Effectual prayer availeth much. Have you nothing to pray for? Let us suggest the Church, the ministry, your own soul, your children, your relations, your neighbors, your country, and the cause of God and truth throughout the world. Let us examine ourselves on this important matter.

Do we engage with lukewarmness in private devotion? Is the fire of devotion burning dimly in our hearts? Do the chariot wheels drag heavily? If so, let us be alarmed at this sign of decay. Let us go with weeping, and ask for the Spirit of grace and of supplications. Let us set apart special seasons for extraordinary prayer. For if this fire should be smothered beneath the ashes of a worldly conformity, it will dim the fire on the family altar, and lessen our influence both in the Church and in the world.

The text will also apply to the altar of the heart. This is a golden altar indeed. God loves to see the hearts of His people glowing towards Himself. Let us give to God our hearts, all blazing with love, and seek His grace, that the fire may never be quenched; for it will not burn if the Lord does not keep it burning. Many foes will attempt to extinguish it; but if the unseen hand behind the wall pour thereon the sacred oil, it will blaze higher and higher.

Let us use texts of Scripture as fuel for our heart’s fire, they are live coals; let us attend sermons, but above all, let us be much alone with Jesus.

~C.H. Spurgeon (From Morning and Evening, a daily devotional; 7/15).

Genesis to Revelation: God’s Heart for the World

What verses come to mind when you think of the word, “MISSIONS”? Most of us are hard pressed to name more than the old faithful Great Commission. For years our church culture has singled out this passage to be the theme of our missions conferences and the motivation for those who go. It’s no wonder that our obedience is slow – who wants to hang their future on one verse? The Bible has a lot more to say on this subject then just the Great Commission. We need to understand the concept of a Biblical basis for missions. Maybe you’re saying, “The Biblical basis, is there one?” YES! And not only that, but missions permeates every book of the Bible. It is in fact the theme of the Bible. If you don’t believe that all 66 books can be reduced to one theme, keep reading. You will see that missions is not your pastor’s idea, or your campus minister’s idea, or even your idea…it is God’s. Since creation, God has been interested in redeeming all peoples to Himself. As Christians, it is vital that we see the world as He sees it.

Let’s look at the Bible in light of God’s heart for the world, and we will see that from Genesis to the Revelation He is beckoning you and I and all of His people to join Him in bringing every people group to His throne. The Bible is not a collection of separate books with no common theme or story. It is one book with an

Introduction: Genesis 1-11, a Plot: Genesis 12 – Jude, and a Conclusion: Revelation.

Let us begin where God begins, in Genesis.

Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…”

This is an interesting command. Be fruitful and multiply. Now why wouldn’t God just want the Garden of Eden populated? Why the whole earth? Because God knew that as Adam would populate physically, he would also populate spiritually. Can you picture that? The planet covered with worshippers of Him as Adam and Eve “filled the earth.” However, we know that by Genesis 3 sin had crept in and by chapter 8 the world was not looking good. So as God floods the earth and starts over, listen to the command He gives Noah, just after he steps off the ark.

Genesis 9:1 “Then God blessed Noah and his sons saying to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

“Hey Noah, don’t just populate a city, fill the earth.” There it is again, the command to multiply. So as we come to chapter 11 there should be one simple question on all of our minds: Does God get the earth filled? Lets keep reading,

Genesis 11: 1-4 “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there…Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.'”

Can’t you hear the talk of the town? “Ya know, we all look the same, act the same, talk the same, eat the same, and dress the same. Lets just stay right here and make a name for ourselves. Do we really want to be scattered?” This does not exactly sound like they are excited about obeying God’s command. Because of man’s urge to settle, God is forced to step in and scatter, filling the earth just as He desired.

Genesis 11:7-8 “‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.”

So as we end the introduction we see that God has a problem: people scattered all over the earth speaking many different languages. How is He going to reach all of them? What will He do? Who will He use? The plot begins.

Genesis 12:1-3 “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you…I will bless you…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'”

Hey Abram, leave. Leave your country, your people, your family, your life, your dreams, your ambitions, your future as well as all that you know and are familiar with and go to the land I will show you. Now if you keep reading, something really weird happens…

Genesis 12:4 “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him.”

He leaves. Man obeys God. This is a pretty weird concept especially in today’s world. So Abram is off to establish a nation that will bless all peoples. Interestingly, this command was not for Abram alone. Watch God continue to call succeeding generations to reach all nations. Next in line is Abraham’s son, Isaac.

Genesis 26:4 “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.”

And to Isaac’s son, Jacob:

Genesis 28:14 “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring”

The rest of the Old Testament is filled with God using Israel to make His name great among the nations. Here are just a few examples:

The 10 Commandments

Deuteronomy 4:5-6 “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'”

His reputation spread after parting the Red Sea

Joshua 2:9-10 “I (Rahab) know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us…we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt…”

Solomon and his wisdom

1 Kings 4:34 “Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.”

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace

Daniel 3:29 “Therefore, I (Nebuchadnezzar) decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces… for no other God can save in this way.”

Daniel in the lions’ den

Daniel 6:26 ” I (Darius) issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel…”

For further study see Psalm 33:13-14, 67:1-7, 86:9-10, 96:3; Isaiah 11:9-10, 49:6, 52:10, 61:11; Jonah 4:11, Habakkuk 1:5, Zephaniah 2:11, Haggai 2:7, Zechariah 8:20-23, Malachi 1:11

As we transition to the New Testament the plot only thickens. Now Christ, God in flesh, enters the scene and what do we see in the pattern of His life and ministry? Nothing different. Whether it is taking a longer route to reach a Samaritan women (John 4:1-42) or healing various Gentiles to teach His followers (Mark 5:1-20, 7:24-30). Christ in the New Testament maintained the pattern established in the Old Testament. Here are a few more examples.

Clearing the temple

Mark 11:15-17 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area designated for the Gentiles to worship and he found people buying and selling there. As He drove them out saying “Is it not written; ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?”

The sign of His return

Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Jesus’ ministry

Luke 4:42-43 “…they tried to keep him from leaving them but He said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.'”

The mandate to His followers

Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”

The book of Acts is a testimony of the account of the gospel spreading to the ends of the earth. It begins with Jesus echoing what He had taught the disciples for the past 3 years.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

As the persecution begins so does the scattering (Acts 8:1), and the Lord adds great numbers to their missionary force.

Acts 9:15 “…Go! This man (Paul) is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles…”

The rest of the book of Acts and Epistles give a detailed description of Paul and the rest of the missionary band struggling to raise up churches all over the world.

For further study see Matthew 9:35-38, 28:18-20; John 20:21, Romans 10:11-15, 15:20; Galatians 3:13-14, I Timothy 2:4-6, II Peter 3:9, I John 2:2

The introduction: Genesis 1-11, the plot: Genesis 12 through Jude, so what is the conclusion?

Revelation 7:9 “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…”

It is important to connect what is happening in Revelation with what God started in Genesis 12 in the life of Abraham. God will do it. There will be a representative from every nation, tribe, people, and language bowing and worshipping at His feet. Heaven is multicultural. God is a missionary God, and from cover to cover He is showing us His mission. Will you join Him in bringing a representative from every people group to His throne? It will happen, the only question is will you be a part?

Originally posted by Todd Ahrend here: http://ow.ly/bAUUl

May We Not Simply Sing Louder

“I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it. A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance, and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.” And then the eyewitness shared with Pastor Lutzer, “ Although years have passed, I still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me, forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.”

I’m the last person to provide a “let’s become a voice in the nations for all the bad things we know are broken!!” rally cry, so this is not a post for such a rant. However, I do feel like this stirs my heart at a deep, deep level. There are many areas both in our own lives, and the lives of friends and family in which we simply try to drown out, ignore, and hope it simply goes away. Many of these are not situations in which we can simply intervene, but Ephesians 3:20 echoes that God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”

So all of my finite, broken, and insufficient words aside, may we re-read the excerpt above, and ask for the Holy Spirit to convict us as we need convicting. Ask God to expose us before Him in context of this excerpt, and pray for the power and obedience to act out on it for His glory and name-sake.

Truth Obeyed Will Heal

Truth obeyed, said the Puritans, will heal. The word fits, because we are all spiritually sick — sick through sin, which is a wasting and killing disease of the heart. The unconverted are sick unto death; those who have come to know Christ and have been born again continue sick, but they are gradually getting better as the work of grace goes on in their lives.

The church, however, is a hospital in which nobody is completely well, and anyone can relapse at any time. Pastors no less than others are weakened by pressure from the world, the flesh, and the devil, with their lures of profit, pleasure, and pride, and, as we shall see more fully in a moment, pastors must acknowledge that they the healers remain sick and wounded and therefore need to apply the medicines of Scripture to themselves as well as to the sheep whom they tend in Christ’s name.

All Christians need Scripture truth as medicine for their souls at every stage, and the making and accepting of applications is the administering and swallowing of it.

J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, 1990, reprint (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 65, paragraphing added.