Archive for August, 2007

Being a Leader without Being a Jerk (Ephesians 5:21-6:9)

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

ylic-web-banner.jpgThis past weekend, I spoke about how to be a leader without being a jerk, based on Ephesians 5:21-6:9. To listen to the message, click here.

Motivational Posters for the Emerging Church

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

My buddy Steve Lake links to these satirical "motivational posters for the emerging church." Whatever you think of the emerging church movement, these posters are pretty funny. Here are my favorites:

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Bullwinkle Causes Global Warming

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

From Spiegel Online International:

The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year — equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey.

Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.

 

Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway’s technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year.

Bacteria in a moose’s stomach create methane gas which is considered even more destructive to the environment than carbon dioxide gas. Cows pose the same problem

(more…)
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Norway has some 120,000 moose but an estimated 35,000 are expected to be killed in this year’s moose hunting season, which starts on September 25, Norwegian newspaper VG reported.

As James Taranto put it in Best of the Web Today: "So not only man but animals cause global warming. Apparently the only way to preserve life on earth is to wipe out life on earth."

“Starbucks Spirituality”

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Make sure to read "Starbucks Spirituality" over at ChristianityBibleStudies.com. It tells the story of Daniel Hill, a pastor, who also works part-time at Starbucks, and what he and others have learned about sharing Christ to a postmodern audience. Here’s a sample:

Daniel Hill suggests that 90 percent of the accusations Christians face are rooted in mistrust. "I don’t find that people have a problem with Jesus," he says. "They have a problem with Christians."

Anyone who claims authority today—politicians, parents, or pastors—will face the question of trust.

Rick Richardson, author of Evangelism Outside the Box and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s national field director for evangelism, observes: "When people ask questions about homosexuality, for instance, we’re tempted to think they’re asking questions about right and wrong. But they’re not. They’re asking about dominance and oppression.

"Homosexual strugglers look at what the church has done to women, they look at slavery, at this history of collaboration between Christian faith and Western dominance—and they say, ‘In light of that, how can I trust you?’"

If that’s the question, how can we respond?

The answer requires more than words. Christians, with PowerPoint presentations and four-point evangelistic outlines, have mastered the art of proclamation. But words alone aren’t going to answer the trust question.

Trust is built by actions, not words.

"We’re supposed to proclaim the kingdom of God and demonstrate the kingdom of God," says Soong-Chan Rah, pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church near Boston. "Evangelism for our generation means learning to do both.

"Part of proclamation means that we speak the whole gospel of Christ, not just the Westernized version of it. We also need to be good at demonstration—bringing healing to our sick society and at-risk neighborhoods, bringing wholeness not just to the spiritually lost but also to those who are under economic oppression."

I thought the article made for very provocative reading.

What to Expect When You Write about Revelation

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

As you know, I recently completed a Daily Word series on Revelation. Here’s one of the replies I received from an unknown correspondent:

Sir:
 
In an attempt to prevent people from being distracted from the Truth, as well as a full-scale military confrontation between the United States/Israel and Iran, I suggest that you remove the information about the Revelation of John from your website and replace it with a link to:
 
 
Thanks,
 
Michael (Daniel 12:1, Sura 2:98 of the Koran, Column XVII of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light)
Make of it what you will.

“The Case for the Real Jesus” by Lee Strobel

Monday, August 20th, 2007
The Case for the Real Jesus.jpgIn one of their songs, the Canadian rock band downhere asks, “Can anybody show me the real Jesus?” For two millennia, Christians have turned to the New Testament to answer this question. But in the modern era, doubts have been raised about the New Testament’s canon, text, originality, and truthfulness.
 
Lee Strobel thinks these doubts can be overcome, and in The Case for the Real Jesus, he sets out to do so using the format he popularized in The Case for Christ. For each doubt raised about the New Testament’s portrait of Jesus, Strobel interviews a scholar with relevant expertise.
 
Strobel and his panel of experts consider six issues: (1) the extent of the New Testament canon, (2) the reliability of the New Testament text, (3) the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, (4) the independence of the Gospels’ portrait of Jesus from pagan rites and ideas, (5) the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in Jesus’ life and ministry, and (6) the exclusive truth of the Christian faith. For each issue, Strobel and his experts offer reasonable arguments for their positions, as well as consider and rebut opposing arguments. Their final conclusion is that the New Testament portrait of Jesus is the real one.
 
This book is geared for a popular audience, but each chapter concludes with a list of suggested readings for people interested in further investigation of the issues. I highly recommend it as an introductory text for people with doubts about Christianity, as well as for Christian small groups, book clubs, and Sunday school classes.

How to Walk in Love (Ephesians 5:1-21)

Monday, August 20th, 2007

ylic-web-banner.jpgThis past weekend, I spoke from Ephesians 5:1-21 on the topic, "How to Walk in Love." Click here to listen to the message. (It may take a few moments for the file to open.)

“A Phrase of Facile Liberality”

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Over at the First Things blog, Robert T. Miller takes Roman Catholic Bishop Tiny Muskens to task for suggesting that Dutch Christians pray to God as Allah. (Muskens is bishop of Breda). The whole post is worth reading, but what I thought particularly excellent was this long quote from G.K. Chesterton:

There is a phrase of facile liberality uttered again and again at ethical societies and parliaments of religion: “the religions of the earth differ in rites and forms, but they are the same in what they teach.” It is false; it is the opposite of the fact. The religions of the earth do not greatly differ in rites and forms; they do greatly differ in what they teach. It is as if a man were to say, “Do not be misled by the fact that the Church Times and the Freethinker look utterly different, that one is painted on vellum and the other carved on marble, that one is triangular and the other hectagonal; read them and you will see that they say the same thing.” The truth is, of course, that they are alike in everything except in the fact that they don’t say the same thing. An atheist stockbroker in Surbiton looks exactly like a Swedenborgian stockbroker in Wimbledon. You may walk round and round them and subject them to the most personal and offensive study without seeing anything Swedenborgian in the hat or anything particularly godless in the umbrella. It is exactly in their souls that they are divided. So the truth is that the difficulty of all the creeds of the earth is not as alleged in this cheap maxim: that they agree in meaning, but differ in machinery. It is exactly the opposite. They agree in machinery; almost every great religion on earth works with the same external methods, with priests, scriptures, altars, sworn brotherhoods, special feasts. They agree in the mode of teaching; what they differ about is the thing to be taught. Pagan optimists and Eastern pessimists would both have temples, just as Liberals and Tories would both have newspapers. Creeds that exist to destroy each other both have scriptures, just as armies that exist to destroy each other both have guns

Chesterton had a way with words, no?.

“The Big Idea” by Dave Ferguson et al

Friday, August 17th, 2007
The Big Idea.jpgI am an information junkie. I read newspapers, magazines, books, and blogs. I watch TV and listen to talk radio. I consider myself a well-informed guy. But being well-informed is not the same thing as being wise or effective. Indeed, too much information can paralyze our ability to make decisions.
 
Our churches often contribute to this glut of information. The pastor preaches on one topic, Sunday school teachers teach on another, the worship leader sings new songs with multiple verses, and the announcement guy rambles on with the church’s upcoming events. No wonder parishioners get stuck in their spiritual lives. They have too much information to act on. They know more than they can do.
 
In their new book, The Big Idea, Dave Ferguson, Jon Ferguson, and Eric Bramlett tackle the topic of information-glutted, decision-paralyzed churches. They argue that churches should teach one big idea per week, and that this big idea should be reinforced in all the church’s venues (worship services, Sunday school classes, and small groups). They demonstrate the multiple benefits of the big-idea approach. And they offer practical guidelines for how to implement this model of ministry in your church based on their own experience.
 
Do you want to make more and better followers of Jesus Christ? Do you want to see a greater connection between people’s faith and works? Then, as The Big Idea’s subtitle puts it, “focus the message” so that you can “multiply the impact.” Teach your parishioners one thing a week. They can do more with less.

The Daily Word on Hiatus until Labor Day

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

Dear TDW Subscribers:

The Daily Word will be on hiatus for the rest of August. After Labor Day, I’ll begin a new series on Proverbs. See you in the fall!

George

“Surely, I Am Coming Soon†(Revelation 22.6–21)

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
 
At long last, we come to the end of John’s Apocalypse.
 
Let us take a moment to review:
 
In chapters 1–3, John gave us a picture of Jesus Christ in glory, writing letters to the seven churches of Roman Asia, calling them to courage and steadfastness in their practice of faith. Revelation 4.1–8.5 portrayed Christ as the slain Lamb worthy to break the seven seals and so reveal the divinely ordered course of history. In 8.6–11.19, seven angelic trumpet blasts herald the beginning of the New Age in which “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
 
Chapters 12–14 narrate the age-long conflict between “a woman, clothed with the sun” (the Church), “a great red dragon” (the devil) and his beastly minions (the Antichrist and False Prophet), and the woman’s child, “one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (Jesus Christ). Although the war between them was fierce, its outcome was never in doubt—Christ and the church win. Chapters 15–16 portray God’s unfolding judgment as the pouring out of seven bowls of wrath, culminating in the destruction of Babylon, that is, the world organized in opposition to God. Babylon’s destruction, the defeat of Satan, and the establishment of God’s Peaceful Kingdom in the New Heaven and New Earth are the central themes of 18.1­–22.5.
 
Through these chapters, John has been communicating a single message: The certain end of history is the kingdom of God, so pluck up your courage and remain faithful to Jesus Christ. As Martin Luther so eloquently put it, “He must win the battle.” We live between the time of Christ’s first coming and his second coming. At his first coming, Jesus Christ offered all humanity the grace of a second chance to repent and get right with God. At his second coming, Christ will affirm each of our choices, either confirming us in our badness or renewing us in his goodness.
 
But, as Tom Petty sings, “the waiting is the hardest part.” We live between the times. We have Christ’s promise, “Surely I am coming soon!” And as we suffer along with the suffering world, we pray, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” Notice that the “Amen” we offer affirms Christ’s promise to return, not our invitation to him to do so. It is our way of affirming the truthfulness of his promise. He will come indeed. All we must do is wait.
 
At the end of the day, the life of the Christian is one of patient trust, that God will accomplish what he has promised at just the right time, which is rarely when we expect it. And it is a life of hopeful optimism, based not on an assertion that the world is getting better and better but that God will make all things new. And finally, it is a life of perseverance, of sticking with God when the circumstances are bad and the good side seems to be losing.
 
At the end of the day, it takes courage to be a Christian. So be brave and stick it out: Christ is coming soon.
 

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

How God Changes People (Ephesians 4:17-32)

Monday, August 6th, 2007

ylic-web-banner.jpgThis past weekend, I spoke from Ephesians 4:17-32 on the topic, "How God Changes People." To listen to the message, click here. (It may take a few seconds for the file to load.)

The Healing of the Nations (Revelation 22.1–6)

Monday, August 6th, 2007
 
Several years ago, I presided over the funeral of a twenty-six-year-old mother to five who had died suddenly and unexpectedly the week before, perhaps of a brain aneurysm. Her oldest stepdaughter was fourteen, her youngest son almost two. Ten years earlier, that same woman’s mother and father had died within one month of each other, leaving her and her two brothers orphans. The tragedy of the mother had become the tragedy of the daughter too.
 
The world is not supposed to work that way, but it does. Parents are not supposed to die before their children, but they do. Sons and daughters are not meant to grow up as orphans, but there are orphans nonetheless.
 
The world lies under a curse.
 
Revelation 22.1–6 speaks of “the river of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city,” that is, the New Jerusalem. “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.” With these words, John is making a point, namely, that the New Jerusalem is the old Eden, better, however, because purified.
 
In the opening chapters of Genesis, God planted Eden as a garden in the midst of the wild world, a fit habitation for Adam and Eve. Every blessing was present there, but Adam and Eve rejected what God had offered them in order to grasp after what God had forbidden them. Ever since, we have been denied access to the tree of life.
 
The world lies under a curse of death.
 
But God offers us life. Notice that the river flows “from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” God is the source of life. To believe in God and Christ is to experience life in eternity, even if we die for a moment. And notice this: “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse.”
 
The world lies under a curse of death, but it need not.
 
Revelation 22.1–6 speaks of the life of the Spirit in terms of humanity’s basic needs for food, water, shelter, light, and warmth. And it portrays salvation as the healing of a deep wound. As I have reflected that funeral four years ago, I have been reminded of several truths that I too often ignore: Life can wound you. It will leave scars on you that cannot be healed in a lifetime. But all things can be healed in eternity if we place our lives in the hands of a Master Surgeon today.
 
Someday, the world’s tragic pain will give way to triumphant praise.


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