The seven part series on the Book of Genesis is now completely posted on the podcast!

God Is In Your Face: The Metanarrative Story of God and His creation Man.
An expository series through the Book of Genesis. Featuring God, Adam and Eve, Noah, Jacob, Esau, Joseph, and Jesus.

Genesis Part 1 – You Are God’s Idea
Genesis 1:26-27. Series: God Is In Your Face. You are His image. Part 1. “The Epic Beginning of Human History, the Burden to Love God’s Ideas, trying to imagine your teacher having a private life, waking up from the bad dream of life, and our True Selves.” 1-8-12

Genesis Part 2 – God Designed Design
Genesis 2:15. Series: God Is In Your Face. We are on mission for Christ. Part 2. “The boring Pre-Life before your (so-called) exciting Real Life, our specifically designed framework, the Gospel Package, and old school Nintendo games.” 1-15-12

Genesis Part 3 – The Day The Earth Fell Down
Genesis 3. Series: God Is In Your Face. How it really is. Part 3. “Epic road rage dancing, being caught on YouTube in your worst moment, Trying Hard To Be Good versus Just-Good-Enough, and having the ear of God.” 1-22-12

Genesis Part 4 – The Most Ridiculous Mission Ever
Genesis 6-9. Series: God Is In Your Face. His grace is His wrath. Part 4. “The nicer older brother who snaps and loses it, the Doomsday Clock, what’s more scary than following God, growing up off the boat, and your Life Sentence.” 1-29-12

Genesis Part 5 – Stop Running For Your Life
Genesis 32-33. Series: God Is In Your Face. God never stops pursuing you. Part 5. “The amazing baby who can do no wrong, the awkward joke-killer, the Embarrassing Meltdown, and how celery and an Angry Birds doll shows us God’s painful grace.” 2-12-12

Genesis Part 6 – The Hard Part Is The Whole Thing (1 of 2)
Gen. 37-41. Series: God Is In Your Face. Rising above it. Part 6. “How my friend broke someone’s arm on the street, the size of the dog in the fight, the trials of Jeremy Lin, the passive Asian, the Cost of Compassion, and How To Donate $10,000.” 2-19-12

Genesis Part 7 – The Hard Part Is The Whole Thing (2 of 2)
Genesis 42-50. Series: God Is In Your Face. He’s got this. Part 7. “Almost driving into a cop and the guy he’s chasing, taking things Out Of Context, preaching the whole Bible, the War Cry of Our Generation, and the EKG heart monitor of our lives.” 2-26-12

Click here for Podcast Player.

It’s silly to think that God changes based on our moods, views, and attitudes: but we fall into this pit trap like clockwork. God can feel far away, and that’s a legitimate feeling, but He never takes vacations. His zip code don’t change. It’s that we naturally drift from the shore by the slow-boiling gravity of complacency, and our minds unchecked wander into hostile territory. The heart fights an uphill climb. We just forget that.

Add to this a million shiny distractions and a soul-demanding schedule and more information in today’s newspaper than a 17th century man gets over his lifetime, and that’s enough to kill you. All that movement but you’re dead inside.

We should expect this though. That sometimes we just lose connection. Our spiritual lives make little sense in a swirling mass of deadlines, phone calls, papers, drama, bills, health, family, good news, bad news. We have to react to these things, press buttons, return calls, mediate, never hesitate. No time to meditate. Can’t slow down this train.

After a while, that whole robotic-cog-of-society routine will rip out every last part of you. We simply just react. No human is meant to juggle a million mindless tasks for so long, or he’s no longer human. We’re not built to be far from our Source. The very American ideals of Neurotically More-Productive-Bigger-Efficient-Image only hollow us out into enslaved lever-pullers. It’s all performance and no personality.

In the miasma of a culture that demands we stay busy, such a process-driven efficiency robs us of joy. And we’ve given the thief the keys to our front door.

Continue Reading at my main blog

The other day I pretended I had cancer. I don’t do this a lot. Tuesdays are typically not Cancer Day (that’s Ebola Virus Day).

I went through my phone to see who I could call about it. Out of so many numbers, I came up with just a few names. Everyone else: too dramatic, critical, self-centered, unhelpful, unpleasant. Maybe I was being harsh. But still, no thanks.

I imagined other scenarios. God forbid I had just cheated on my future wife, let’s say. Or caught with porn at church. My future kids run away from home. Unforeseen debt. Got into a fight at the bowling alley. Wife miscarries. Doubting God again. Miserable about family, life, faith. Wanting to quit ministry.

Again: only a few names from the phone. Everyone else: too judgmental, snappy, quick to fix, short tempered, too religious. Was I being just as critical?

But an even weirder, troubling truth was that I felt safer talking to non-believers like my mom and brother instead of good old-fashioned church people. Because they wouldn’t be so fast to throw a Bible at me, or spiritualize everything, or connect it to the mysterious sovereignty of God.

I was sure they’d talk to me like a human being, with grace and dignity, capable of seeing past my poor choices.

No, they couldn’t offer Bible verses or Christ-centered counsel. But they wouldn’t look at me like some anecdotal success-story waiting to happen. Not just some damn discipleship project they could brag about at church like God would turn it around by the end of the episode.

And I knew then that something was wrong with this.

Continue Reading at my main blog

This is a great Q&A from The Bridge, an excellent ministry in Chicago.

About confronting your youth pastor, and extends to confronting any of your church leaders.
(Re-posted with permission from The Bridge.)

Anonymous asked:
I am very involved with my church, and I love the people there. But the thing is, I think there are some things that the leadership, especially the youth pastor, could be doing better. He’s not like doing anything wrong, he’s just not getting the kids fired up the way he could. How do I bring the subject up in a way that he will listen to me?

Matt from The Bridge answered:

Don’t. This thing you are thinking about doing, do not do it. I get how you are feeling, it is a feeling that permeates youth. I know you are on fire for the Lord and you want everyone else to be where you are. That is not a bad thing, it’s a great thing. The idea of telling someone in a position of responsibility that they are dropping the ball, based on your zero years of experience, is not a good use of that energy.

Continue Reading at my main blog

An article by Steven James on the CNN Belief Blog.

While I don’t agree with every part of it, I get exactly what he means.

Excerpt:

The Bible is a gritty book. Very raw. Very real. It deals with people just like us, just as needy and screwed up as we are, encountering a God who would rather die than spend eternity without them.

And let’s not talk so much about Jesus being naked on the cross, and let’s pretend Paul said that he considered his good deeds “a pile of garbage” in Philippians 3:8 rather than a pile of crap, as the Greek would more accurately be translated.

Continue Reading at CNN

Read Related:

– How to Lose the Gospel
– Strange Sundays With Your Pastor
– I Want To Read My Bible — But How?
– Fake Jesus Makes Fakers
– Sugar-Driven Gospel
– Guilt-Driven Gospel
– The Beneficial God: Modern Christianity and Its Ubiquitous Psychological Slope
– The Incidental Christian: How We Make God Who We Want
– How To Lose God In Ten Days

Five incredible sermons worth your time.

Continue Reading at my main blog

Sometimes I sit through these counseling sessions where the girl goes on and on about her idiot moron unprincipled boyfriend: he doesn’t listen, he clips his nails in bed, he showers every three days, he forgets to call, how do I get him to hear me, I try so hard to express my feelings and it’s like he does not care, and –

I want to say the same thing, you know. I do not care, either.

If God were at that moment to tear the roof off over our heads and take a peek, I wonder how much she would care.

Even for five seconds, to see the glorious holy wrathful infinite epic universe-exploding face of God. Does anything else really matter then? We’d both burst into flames. So no, nothing else matters then.

Every selfish desire is predicated on a tangible, earthly treasure, and it always turns out to be garbage. William Law said so simply, “If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.” A hard truth, but standing before the face-melting presence of God, it’s the only truth.

At judgment you’ll only have one problem: and only one solution.

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Beloved, when I started praying for what God would have me to do, my simplistic Christian life began to take a dramatic turn. When we pray we expect God to drop the answer down from heaven in a cute, neat little package: “faith? You got it now go walk in it!” Or, “patience? Granted! now go suffer long and be at peace!” If it were that easy! Beloved, when we go to God with a need, God doesn’t just drop it down from heaven, we have to go through some hills and valleys before that prayer is manifested. It has been my experience that it took going through a trial or a life altering situation that produced the results that I prayed for! And, can I tell you beloved that I was so focused on the situation, that most often my prayers were answered, my petitions granted without me even realizing it! The answered prayer did not show up the way I thought it would look, but nonetheless, God answered it in a way that glorified His kingdom! This reminds me in the book of Acts when Jesus descended from heaven, and the Apostles inquired about restoring Israel:

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7, 8).

Beloved, God is saying we are not to question how or when He will use us, but we must remain open and willing to go and do His will when we are called. We will be aided by the Holy Spirit to witness to those He puts in our path.

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much (Luke 16:10).

Moreover, I was so ready to serve on missions so far away, but God was showing me that there are souls dying right here on the fields of sin. During a long season, I found myself witnessing to an influx of the broken hearted, the hopeless, those desiring to know God, and those rejecting God! And let me just tell you most of those situations showed up as problems, cantankerous people, insubordination, and contention.

Naturally, when we meet any kind of resistance we usually want to run the other way. But saints if we avoid all people who exhibit obstinate traits, we run the risk of a missed opportunity to introduce Christ.

Instead of running away from difficult situations or people, pray and ask God to give you provision regarding the situation and ask for a greater measure of patience. We often forfeit growing spiritually, building character, or allowing God to use us by running away from our problems. If you are ever going to serve in a larger capacity in ministry, the difficult people around you now is your training ground. Don’t run away from them, pray, trust God to work out His salvation in their lives. Also, ask God how to perfect your love language, and to teach you how to effectively witness to people. Don’t be moved! Pray for His will to be done in that person’s life. You are there at that company, in that family, in that situation for a reason! God has you there for a purpose: HIS divine plan! God is preparing you for a ministry, don’t stunt your growth!

Saints, if you feel you haven’t yet found your calling, maybe God has to see if He can use you right where you are before he can graduate you! He needs to see if you are going to be faithful to the few around you, before He can give birth to your God ordained ministry!

We’re not surprised anymore when a famous preacher who blasts homosexuality gets caught in a homosexual affair doing meth. A governor who pursues ethics in Wall Street is busted for carousing with prostitutes. An actor turned governor turned actor hides a secret child outside his marriage for ten years, fully realizing his role as an actor. We’ve learned that Nazi doctors who ordered the deaths of countless people were also fathers and husbands, a phenomenon later coined “doubling.” At least a third of pastors are addicted to pornography. And half of Christian men are in the same boat.

Once you claim a standard, you’re claimed by that standard.

Even the reckless prodigal or the pseudo-reasonable atheist has claimed categories of superiority. They both sneer at the religious right. The only difference is a Christian works from a deficit: he is expected to be impeccably polite while an atheist lacks all accountability and likes it that way. The atheist has infinite loopholes when he falls — especially when he falls — while the Christian is ready to be hanged at any second for a single outburst.

It’s a sort of reverse bigotry. The non-religious gets in a scandal and it’s “business as usual.” The pastor destroys his marriage and he’s no longer qualified for ministry, or to be treated like a human being.

How far do we take this? If an atheist turned out to be an axe murderer, his atheism as a cover is as good as a cheap hooker’s dress. Try to call that the usual business and you’re likely to be called insane.

No matter who you are or claim to be, a standard has claimed you.

The late John Stott said, Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross … It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.

While no one has a valid excuse for hypocrisy, a follower of Christ has more reason to keep it real. He is held accountable even when others are not. And if we claim no superiority, then we have no right to judge outside the church. We have every right to confront each other in the church, to build and not to destroy.

But we cannot ask of others what we first are not doing ourselves.

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You cracked open your journal, busted out your favorite pen, and finally opened your Bible.

Five sentences later, you have no idea what you just read.

Confusion, frustration, resignation: But the pastor made it so easy. It was better when he told it.

And the final excuse: At least I tried.

It’s happened to all of us, from rookies to veterans, when we catch the excitement of digging into Scripture and come out cold. Most of us will conclude the Bible is too hard, that we’re not mature enough, that we need to be spoon-fed, that something’s wrong with me, that we’ll try it again later. And with each pass at reading, we grow more bewildered.

Every pastor with the best of intentions is yelling at you to read your Bible, but they forget to tell you how.

Of course the simplest way would be to turn to Genesis and just rip right through it. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little help in reading Scripture. If you genuinely want to read the Bible but have had some false starts, here are some ways to dig into the Greatest Truth in the universe.

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Hello, friends!

First of all, thank you to the dozens of people who have shown support and encouragement.

Thanks to my friend Christine for sending me a $100 Starbucks gift card.

Thanks also to my mom, who is not a Christian, who lovingly understands what I’m trying to do.

After some discussions and ruminating, I thought I would be a little smarter about it.

- Each month I’ll put $900 or more in savings.

- This will accrue at least a little interest.

- At the end of the year, I’ll have at least $10,000.

- Over the year I’ll pray about an awesome charity.

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A list of Christian books I’m looking most forward to in 2012.
For all book reviews, click here.

Continue Reading at my main blog

At retreats, revivals, megachurches, and your average Sunday service, there is always someone in the back who has lost sense of it all. The music blaring, people hollering, lights piercing, front row hopping, lead singer strutting, fog machine fogging, and bass drum beating the guts out of your bowels. Right in the middle of it, you get detached and distracted and disillusioned and you see it for what it really is. Whether you’ve been in church for ten minutes or ten years, this whole stageshow can wear you down instantly. One Sunday you’re enveloped in bliss; the next Sunday you’re watching with arms crossed, a migraine setting in, every riff on the electric guitar an assault on your brain. Everyone else is singing triumphantly but you don’t get it anymore.

While we can chalk this up to an anti-institutional mind of a younger, skeptical generation, we do suspect that praise and worship in the local church has strayed from something pure, raw, real. We’ve flooded the congregation with so many artificial devices and cues that it’s hard to tell if the Spirit is actually working.

I’ve heard, “What you win them with is what you win them to.” When you show a funny video every Sunday with high-caliber production values, it creates a strange appetite for slick perfection. No need for the Spirit. No room for reliance. It’s scary to think that an entire church service full of thousands can be built without one move of the Holy Spirit himself.

The church should certainly be excellent at all it does; as D.C. Talk once said, “If it’s Christian, it oughta be better.” I am not a hipster advocating outdoor church with hemp-made chairs and a bearded surfer with a banjo. Yet when I read the Bible and look at today’s church, something is lost in translation. Most of all, that guy in the back with his arms crossed has lost intimacy with the King. He only sees the crude plastic scaffolding of desperate entertainers and pragmatic preachers, but none of it fully reveals God on His sovereign throne.

Continue Reading at my main blog

From one of my favorite preachers, Dr. James MacDonald.

Note to pastors: Ministry is downright, flat-out, straight up hard. It’s not at all glamorous and glitzy like the megachurch rockstars have you believe. You might aspire to be the next best author or have the next hit website, and while that’s fine, those are not the biblical models of sacrifice amidst persecution. Aspire to be the pastor who stays with his people for forty years, persevering week in and week out under the crucible of ministering to one home. God might call you to leave when it’s time, but He doesn’t call you to quit when it’s tough. Press on.

Here are the most downloaded messages from The Way Everlasting Podcast.

Thank you to all the listeners for your prayers and support!

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God Is The Point of Everything 1 – The Boss Who Loves Us
Romans 8. Dayspring Winter Retreat. Absolute love and authority. 3 of 4.”The bizarre world of X-Factor, the creepy girl who idolized me, in the passenger seat of life, and what it’s like to be the worst preacher in the history of preaching.” Dec. 20, 2011

Legends and Tales 10 – The Superhero’s Final Sacrifice
Mark 14-15. Series: Legends and Tales. God loves – period. 10 of 10. “How we know on no uncertain terms that God loves us, breaking free of approval and accomplishments, my dad’s Epic U-Turn on the highest hill, and How To Stop Trying.” July 31st, 2011

Holiness is Happiness 1 – The Glorious Bigness Of God
Isaiah 40. Preached at the Lake Yale Retreat. The infinite glory of God. 1 of 6. “Marie the Tae Kwon Do Terminator, the Cannon Ball of Glory, scaling out from the earth times septillion, and the only thing that can take your breath away.” July 4th, 2011.

Part 1 – Built Like A Rock
Matthew 7:24-27. How you think is who you are and where you go. Part 1. “When the honeymoon is over and you learn how their fart smells, eating at Thanksgiving until you want to die, and adjusting your sound board.” Nov. 27, 2011

Truth And Righteousness In A Liar’s World
John 17. Finding the truth in the lie. “The real you at 3am when you’ve stopped showing off, the fatal flaw of the Asian-American church, the zombie escaping reality, uncovering the false argument, and clarity in Heaven.” November 18th, 2011.

Daniel and the Two Kings – Good Pride, Bad Pride
Daniel 4-5. Series: Never Not Faithful. Losing control is a good thing. 4 of 5. “The Messy Unnecessary Argument, turning into a cow when you’re having a cow, and the future version of yourself warning you today.” September 16th, 2011.

Ramblings: The Reformed, Religious, and Rebellious
The repercussions of the Reformed movement, hating on the religious, and why I was called a lying witch abortionist. Eight minutes. September 29th, 2011.

Ramblings: Catalyst with Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll
From the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta FL. With audio clips of Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll, plus highlights of Lecrae, David Platt, Jon Acuff, and Andy Stanley. Plus the LoveLife Conference with Mark Driscoll. October 17th, 2011.

The Twelve – Peter the Rockstar and Andrew the Background Guy
Luke 5. Series: The Twelve Who Knew Him. God works in the craziest and the quietest of us. 1 of 5. “A slice of world history around the time of Jesus, the Five Fails of Peter, and the unstoppable force of a power duo.” February 13th, 2011.

1 Peter 1:1-9 – Get Up At Nine Before The Ten Count’s Over
1 Peter: 1-9. Series: The Craziness Of Hope. Everything you see with your eyes becomes garbage. 1 of 10.”The Conscionable Hitman, the Neutered Tiger Theory, the thread versus the Minotaur, and the champion heart of a real boxer.” May 13th, 2011.

Here are my favorite books of 2011. These are not necessarily the best written, but the most personally impactful.

Erasing Hell
By Francis Chan

In response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins, Francis Chan writes a sobering and solemn appeal on the reality of hell. While largely criticized for its length and simplicity, I found it a near-perfect plea for those who do not consider our spiritual futures. My review here.

Book Review: Jesus + Nothing = Everything
By Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced “chu-vi-jin” like religion)

An engaging if at times over-wordy work on what it really means to be known by Jesus. Tullian is a great writer, cutting away years of idolatry and guilt-driven religion in just a few sentences. My review here.

Redemption
By Mike Wilkerson

One of the best works to arrive for breaking addictions and pains of the past, Mike Wilkerson of Mars Hill Church uses Exodus as a stirring challenge to overcome our shackles. Despite some structural problems, the book is a swift punch to the gut while a gentle embrace of new life. My review here.

Dug Down Deep
By Joshua Harris

An autobiography and treatise on Christian doctrine, which succeeds at both. Josh Harris, the “Christian Dating Guru,” sheds that image and reveals a mature, sincere, gentle pastor’s heart. My review here.

Note To Self
By Joe Thorn

A short book of self-addressed notes that rediscovers the art of preaching to yourself. While the style is not always consistent, this is far from a gimmick and there are some great spiritual missiles of conviction. Good for a devotional. My review here.

Gospel
By J.D. Greear

You would think a book with such a simple title would be full of dry doctrine and neo-Reformed anger, but this is a compelling study of the gospel’s implication for our lives. J.D. Greear centers this on a “gospel prayer” that’s a bit less effective, but his endlessly quotable writing will open up the gospel for you in new ways. My review here.

King’s Cross
By Timothy Keller

No Best-Of-Christian-Books List can be complete without a work by Tim Keller. While not his best work — it lacks the clear focus of Prodigal God, Counterfeit Gods, and Generous Justice — it certainly opens up the life of Jesus in a powerful, intense, step-by-step exegesis of Mark. By the end I felt as if I had personally walked with Christ himself. And that’s really the point of it all. My review here.

These are the Top Ten Blog Posts of my main blog in 2011. Thank you to every reader and supporter, your prayers and encouragement are welcomed and appreciated. Here’s to 2012!

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10) A Christian Is Not Up To Your Damned Standard
An angry post that caused me to lose some followers, tick off some Reformed people, and indirectly caused a blogger to call me an “abortionist” and “witch whore.” I did apologize for my angry tone.

See also: I Love My Doctrine More Than Jesus: Why No One Cares About Your Theology
And: Gospel Idolatry
And: The Trend of the Gutless Gospel: How My Thoughts About The Gospel Have Changed Over Time, Part One

9) Movies That Christians Should See: The Truman Show
The most popular review of “Christians Should See” series, with perhaps my favorite film of all time.

8) Book Review: Erasing Hell
Francis Chan writes a succinct response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins, which I was also interviewed for by the local newspaper.

7) When Pastors Just Want To Quit
When your church is falling apart: no one’s listening, no one’s cares, no one’s convicted. But why it still matters.

6) It Would Be Easier If I Wasn’t A Christian – Part One
A four-part philosophical look into why we should consider being a Christian. Part Two here. Part Three here. Part Four here.

5) Why Is The Old Testament So Crazy? — Part One
A multi-part discussion about the insanity of the Old Testament. A straight reading of the OT is like a bad acid trip, with its supposedly misogynistic, slavery-endorsing, pagan-esque ways. Plus Part Two. More coming in this series.

4) How To Lose The Gospel
We tend to fear the boldness of the Gospel. Whether you’re the everyday churchgoer or a pastor, we water down the cross of Jesus Christ. Here’s how, and how not to.

3) The Beneficial God: Modern Christianity and Its Ubiquitous Psychological Slope
How the Gospel has become a Marketing Campaign for the psychological advantages of the Christian religion. Every preacher is doing it.

2) Porn Addiction, Part One: Excuses and Myths
As a recovering porn addict, this is an ongoing discussion about what porn does, why it’s “bad,” and how to quit. Parts two and three also included, and more to come.

1) The Problem With Heart Motives
A critical look into a popular teaching model called “Heart Motives,” which has a small fanbase but a rising backlash against its unsound theology.

Scholars, theologians, bloggers, pastors, Calvinists: I love scholarly stuff because it’s a fascinating dig of brilliant minds into every branched minutia of knowledge, but no one in the real world cares about it as much as you do.

Your specific-sliced doctrine does not have a flag in the warzone. My army friend who served two years in a heated Iraq: double election and TULIP did not get him through the explosions and fellow injured soldiers. No doctor or athlete or janitor or convicted killer geeks out over predestination and Gospel Centrality. No matter how much you convince yourself that deeper doctrine brightens your Sunday people, the fine print doesn’t work in the grimy filth of the everyday world. If you’re dead honest with yourself, it doesn’t work for you, either.

I appreciate the Gospel Coalition and other Reformed sites like it because they return to sound theology. Except more and more, that theology forgets Jesus. It points to Jesus for a better life and faithful faith and informed Bible knowledge and self-validation, but hardly ever to Him. It’s disturbing that we Reformed drown so much in semantics (like I’m doing now) and forget to encourage our beat down brethren.

When Tim Tebow talks about Jesus but doesn’t precisely point to the bloody gospel, that’s not a reason to doubt his faith or to accuse him of poor witnessing. So we don’t know that he’s Calvinist or Arminian. He’s already proclaiming his love for Jesus amidst a ridiculous amount of mockery: then the inner-Pharisee must also enslave him with the burden to preach a better gospel. To criticize his Jesus-love and then point fingers at his “vague non-contextual faith claims” would only stumble up Tebow worse than it is. Imagine his anxiety over professing Jesus plus stressing out over inserting the correct gospel.

Continue Reading at my main blog

In church we love to distinguish between Good and Bad, the Legalist and Lawless, the one who gets it and the one who doesn’t. If we can attack laziness and anger and drugs and “you-know-that-guy” long enough, then apparently we will not become like them.

Except Jesus died for them too.

A common practice in church is to demonize the Pharisee so that we do our best to anger the religious folk, and then we call that innovation. You don’t want to be a legalist, do you? You also don’t want to be a bad husband, an abusive father, an un-tithing criminal, a cheating wife, a rebellious child, a dirty college kid. So the preacher pounds this into the ground — don’t be like this, that, and all the in between — hoping to land a missile down your throat. Everyone walks away and says, “Wow, that was convicting.” And every week, it’s like someone keeps throwing your nasty drawers on the wall as an exhibition of your poor hygiene. This passes for brilliant preaching.

Continue Reading at my main blog

I asked this question to my very favorite Unka Glen, who has one of the best blogs in the universe.

My question:
Hey brother, I had a strange question. It’s basically to re-affirm that I’m not crazy.

I just feel crazy. People really respond to these religious sermons (that are actually saying some good things despite my overall unease) and I feel perhaps I am being hard-hearted or elitist or just plain stupid.

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Glen’s Answer:

Awesome question and good observation. Fear, shame, and guilt are used as tools of the enemy to ultimately drive us farther from the Lord, but they’re also emotion-based, not spirit based. (Ya know, like courage, zeal, and conviction). You can use emotions to stir people up and get them to do anything.

This is the first trick that weak, insecure, unprofessional preachers learn. Push that guilt button, they’ll all come forward in prayer. You count the heads of those who came forward, and BANG, I’m an amazing preacher.

But here’s the thing about emotion: it burns off. Think about it. Try to maintain the exact same emotional state, any emotion for, say, an entire day. Now try to have that exact same emotional state for three days, a week… It just doesn’t work that way. Life keeps rolling along, other things grab our attention.

Continue Reading at my main blog

The Winter Retreat Sermons: God Is The Point of Everything

The four sermons from the Dayspring Winter Retreat are now posted!

God Is The Point of Everything – Winter Retreat, Part 1

Isaiah 55. Simply knowing and embracing God. 1 of 4. “Saving the four year old child in traffic, Psychological-Advantage-Theology, planking for God, and Jacob the bass guitar player.” Dec. 19 2011

Me, The Point of Everything – Winter Retreat, Part 2

Phil 2:1-18. The lies we buy. 2 of 4. “The most opportunistic generation for selfishness, having Chick-Fil-A withdrawal, and a dance floor where everybody’s doing the robot by themselves.” Dec. 20, 2011

The Boss Who Loves Us – Winter Retreat, Part 3

Romans 8. Absolute love and authority. 3 of 4.”The bizarre world of X-Factor, the creepy girl who idolized me, in the passenger seat of life, and what it’s like to be the worst preacher in the history of preaching.” Dec. 20, 2011

To Struggle Joyfully – Winter Retreat, Part 4

1 Kings 2:1-4. Joy and pain with God. 4 of 4. “The wonderfully weird life of David, the secret sinful lives of our Bible heroes, the Starfox barrel roll, how sin makes you stupid, and the abusive love of parents.” Dec. 21, 2011

The Way Everlasting Podcast
From New Light Church

How To Deal With Yourself: The Crazy You Secured In Christ

The four part series is now completely posted!

Part 1 – Built Like A Rock

Matthew 7:24-27. How you think is who you are and where you go. Part 1. “When the honeymoon is over and you learn how their fart smells, eating at Thanksgiving until you want to die, and adjusting your sound board.” Nov. 27, 2011

Part 2 – Deep Roots For Real Fruits

Luke 8:1-15. How God grows you. Part 2. “Diet Coke versus Real Coca Cola, accidentally eating all the cookies, a giant spider the size of your head, and the disciples who were called morons.” Dec. 4, 2011 – Combined children’s service

Part 3 – Everything’s Going To Be All Right

John 16:33. The stable anchor in a world of instability. Part 3. “The Earthly Story versus the Heavenly Story, when the pressure of the moment feels permanent, cutting the line at Disney World, and the bitter blog.” Dec. 11, 2011

Part 4 – Don’t Worry About It

Matt. 6:25-34. Series: The Crazy You Secured In Christ. Worry is a bad theology. Part 4. “Worrying about trying not to worry, the journey of a hamster named Dexter, cleaning out the buffet, and a Metaphorical (or) Supernatural Promise.” Dec. 18, 2011

The Way Everlasting Podcast
From New Light Church

Do you idolize the gospel?
From my main blog.

The crucifixion has become a concept. That’s nothing new, except for all the marketing. With the recent trend of “Gospel Centrality” by the Reformed Calvinist crowd, who proudly wave the flag of finally understanding the Gospel, I’m both excited and concerned. I’m excited for a return back to the roots of the Bible — that the whole thing really is about Jesus — but much less excited about the elitist nightmare of Reformed teaching that creates ivory towers of superiority. “I got it and you don’t,” shouts the gospel-informed upper class. It is an incipient form of anti-Pharisaical religion masquerading as brand name faith. Suddenly there is a second-rate citizen of the church that apparently doesn’t get it anymore, and those who get it, instead of sharing, are angry and snarling.

Several books have been released just in the last year that capture this bandwagon phenomenon, including Jesus + Nothing = Everything, Gospel Wakefulness, King’s Cross, and simply just Gospel. They are quite excellent reads. The Gospel Coalition blog has expounded endlessly on gospel-centeredness, and have done it well. Tim Keller does a great job of seeding the gospel into Old Testament passages. An entire conference was devoted to this neat trick. And apparently, without the gospel, you got it all wrong man.

The idea is this: the work of Jesus gives you all the acceptance, validation, and approval you need so that sanctification is merely resting deeper in the gospel. The work of Jesus detaches you from seeking lesser treasures. The work of Jesus eats away at worldliness and idolatry and morbid introspection. The work of Jesus gives freedom to lose, freedom for joy, freedom from self.

We see the problem. The work of Jesus. Gospel Centrality often leaves out Jesus himself.

In many of the writings about the gospel trend (yes, it’s a trend), there is a deafening void around the person of Jesus. Nothing about his compassion, fellowship, friendship, healing, ministry, speaking, or anything else that would clearly define him as a living God-man among us. There is no weeping Jesus, the one who came for Mary and Martha and Lazarus his friends, not the one who ate fish with his unbelieving disciples, not the man who slept on a boat while a storm raged around him.

Instead there is a rabid fixation on the implications of the cross, which are uniquely critical to the Bible but still serve the ultimate point: intimacy with Jesus Christ. In gospel centrality we get intimacy with an enigmatic concept of man-centered freedom, which is still idolatry. It’s putting the concept of Jesus higher than Jesus. I can get acceptance and validation from a mosque, a synagogue, a temple, or the LGBT. What’s missing in this gospel movement is the one who made the gospel possible.

Do I misrepresent here? I’m not sure. The consequences are obvious. Camps are formed over correct doctrine, which has always happened, but now there is one more dividing line over the gospel-anchor. That divisive line is more abrasive than ever. The writings are dry, as if they outline Jesus’ job description but can never feel him as a flesh-and-blood person. You can tell by the way they call him “Christ” instead of Jesus, because saying Jesus doesn’t have the same weighty authority. I appreciate Mark Driscoll — the king of the Reformed movement — foremost because he describes Jesus as if he knew him. When Mark gets misty, I can see he actually gets it. Nothing elitist about it. The same for pastors like Francis Chan, Hershael York, Ravi Zacharias, Matt Chandler, David Platt, and the late Adrian Rogers, who despite their many differences are obviously in love with Jesus.

Much of the Reformed crowd never get even close to that sort of intimacy. Instead Jesus is painted as a mathematical formula to overcome anxiety-neurosis-neediness-desperation-selfishness. Gospel centrality has the undeniable and perhaps accidental effect of making Jesus a psychological tool.

If our theological trends do not bring us to a place where we can say, “I love you Jesus,” then it’s only half of a theology with a dull end. We’ve missed the point if we’ve missed both the work and person of Jesus. Saying, “Thank you for your love” is still the same as wanting God for His stuff. A golden calf in the shape of Jesus is still a golden calf.

Yet I do believe the Gospel-Centered movement is a wonderful thing. When it brings us to cry out, Abba Father, I love you and need you, then that’s surely enough. The Good News of Jesus, after all, is inextricably linked with his work on Calvary. I would only hope we do not form a dead-end doctrine disguised as the real thing, while altogether dismissing the risen savior. Trends pass; Jesus will not.

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From my main blog

An absolutely awesome post from Unka Glen’s blog.

Excerpt:

If we asked the average Christian, “what would you do first, if we asked you to start a brand new ministry to nonbelievers”? I get a funny feeling that many of them would say, “I’d start by convicting them of their sins”.

Just so you know, that’s the wrong answer.

This is indeed so totally wrong that I’d like to help get everyone off of this way of thinking. Now, I know that some of you are really sin-focused, and you just can’t imagine a world, let alone a religion, without sin being the thing you use to guage where you are in life. Thus I know it’s hard to let go of, but we must try.

People inexperienced at ministry make one simple, bizarre, and untrue assumption: that people living in sin don’t think they’re sinning, and thus all we need to do is tell them they’re sinning. A lot. You really can’t remind them enough of how sinful they are. Sin. Sin. Sin.

As a ministry professional, I can tell you that throughout the course of my career, very nearly everyone I’ve worked with knows exactly when they’re sinning (they may not admit it but they know it). Moreover, of the tiny percentage living in sin who think they aren’t in sin, nearly all of them already know that what they’re doing is something the Bible calls a sin.

At best, reminding people of their sin is useless, since they’re either already aware of it, or they already know that this is how you see them. At worst, you end up coming across as deeply insulting. On many mission fields, that’s the end of your ministry.

Continue Reading at his blog