Filed under: Informative
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Filed under: Service
Joshua Guthrie is a young man with a heart to help the poor find water. I’d encourage you to go to his site and donate a dollar. He is calling his vision “dollar for a drink” and is part of building water wells in Sudan. I’d love to see a good response from my blog community (do I have one?) … Joshua’s goal is $8000 by Christmas and he’s over half way. If you donate, leave a comment on my post! -Kyle
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I really enjoyed this article by John Ortberg and so I thought I would share it with the rest of you!
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What is the gospel? Folks in the most interesting places are asking that question these days. When I was growing up, in the 1890s, no one had to ask what the gospel was. We knew. It was the answer to the question: “If you were to die tonight, how do you know for sure you’d go to heaven?” The gospel was what got you saved. We knew what getting saved was, too. Getting saved was being placed in the heaven-bound category. And we knew what heaven was. Heaven was the pleasure factory where everybody wanted to go after death.
But now folks like N.T. Wright (from a New Testament historical perspective), and Dallas Willard (from a spiritual formation and discipleship perspective), and Shane Claiborne (from a community perspective), and Brian McLaren (from a general gadfly perspective), are calling us to rethink what the gospel really means. Recently someone asked me to comment on it. (Actually it was my wife. And she did so only because I asked her to ask me to comment on it so I’d have an excuse to write about it.) So here are a few thoughts.
I recently subscribed to an actual, academic, peer-review journal called Journal of Happiness Studies. “Positive psychology” is the big new trend in social science over the last decade, so all kinds of researchers have decided to explore the northern rather than southern hemisphere of human emotions.
One theme that keeps cropping up is the happiness paradox: “the more directly one aims to maximize pleasure and avoid pain, the more likely one is to produce a life bereft of depth, meaning, and community.” One article listed eleven separate facets of the happiness paradox. Another explained the principle of indirection: happiness, by its nature, cannot be obtained by direct pursuit. You have to sneak up on it. Or rather, you have to let it sneak up on you while you’re pursuing something more important.
It struck me that the traditional expression of the gospel I heard growing up fell into a similar trap. There was not much serious thought about the true nature of heaven. (If you’ve been avoiding God all your life, would you want to be in heaven? It appears that God will be very hard to avoid there.)
Maybe the “if you were to die tonight” version of the gospel falls victim to the happiness paradox. If “heaven” is understood as “ultimate happiness,” then I can seek to obtain it while remaining trapped in my self-centeredness. If “heaven” is understood as the eternal pleasure factory, then obtaining it has no intrinsic relationship to transformation, therefore no intrinsic relationship to discipleship.
But if the gospel really is the announcement of the availability, through Jesus, of the “with-God life,” then things begin to fall into place. Grace is not just the forgiveness of sin, it is the power to live the with-God life from one moment to the next. Heaven is not a pleasure factory that an angry God chooses to shut some people out of because they don’t pass a theology test; it is a community of servanthood that can only be enjoyed by a certain kind of character.
Discipleship or obedience is not something we have to cajole people into by obligation or gratitude (“after all, Jesus died for you; the least you can do is deny yourself happiness for a while on earth”), it is simply the process of learning to enter into the good, with-God life. The gospel becomes social as well as personal—not because individuals don’t matter, but because to be “saved” means (among other things) to be delivered from the chronic selfishness that contributes to the world’s hurt and to my misery.
We do have a ways to go on one great task regarding the gospel. And that is how to articulate a biblically sound, spiritually powerful gospel in a way that calls for great clarity of decision.
One reason the old “if you were to die tonight” gospel was so popular (and, I think, has been used by God to a large degree), is that at least it helps people be very clear that they’ve made a decision about something. (“I’m not going to earn my way anymore; I’m on the grace plan.”) And that decision itself is often enough to start people on the road toward God.
In our day, I think, we are seeing more accurate ways of understanding the gospel. But we need clarion calls of directness to help people respond today.
When Jesus walked the earth, the call “Follow me” was easily understood. People would actually, physically, bodily, walk with Jesus. People knew if they were following.
When the church formed, the call to follow Jesus was easily understood. There was an alternative community that met daily, that radically transformed people’s financial lives, social lives, time, learning, allegiances, and hope. People knew if they were following.
In our day, that experience has become so diluted and enculturated that people have a hard time knowing.
The availability of life, with God, in his favor and power, as a gift of grace we receive by repentance and trust, through the death and resurrection of Jesus—that’s the gospel with power. What needs still to be done is to find ways to express this with great clarity and simplicity, ways to help ordinary people know for sure they have made the great decision, the great commitment of their lives.
Filed under: 1
-Matthew and I went to school together at Taylor U and we did ministry together at Exit 59 Church. He got to meet Obama two summers ago at a cookout in Iowa. I love this guy!
Filed under: 1
Many evangelical voters seem to love Sarah Palin, yet recently, she made a statement that should alarm many of us.
“I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America — as the greatest source for good in this world.”
As she attacked the character of Barak Obama, she calls America the ‘greatest source for good.’ She is not alone as politician when it comes to stealing language that should only be used for God and than using it to refer to America. Bush, Obama, and McCain are all guilty of it. The greatest source for good in the world is Christ and His global following from all the nations. Her statement could be classified as heretical or unorthodox. Most likely, however, she probably didn’t think through what she was actually saying. We need more thinking Christians who are engaging in faith and politics!
Filed under: scripture
A Paraphrase of Psalm 8:3-9
“When I look at your universe, Oh God, the detailed craftsmanship of your hands, the moon and stars, which you have set in motion, WHAT IS HUMANITY that you are even thinking of us, and our children that you even care for the smallest of them? YET (though we are nothing) you have made us slightly lower than the flaming beings that surround You. You have clothed us with glory and honor. You have given us all authority to compassionately govern over Your creation; you have placed all things at our feet as if we were Kings and Queens of this good earth. All creatures that inhabit the fields, the forests, the air, and the sea are ours to cherish and make use of. May you be praised, Oh God, throughout the whole, good earth for doing these things! “
A Paraphrase of Psalm 10:4, 7, 8, 11, 18.
“In pride, humanity does not seek God. All their thoughts say ‘There is no God….’ Their mouths overflow with destructive ideas, oppressive words, curses from hell… Humanity sits quietly, ready to ambush the innocent ones living in their own villages… Humanity says in its heart ‘God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, He will never see our evil ways…’ Oh God, Break the arm of humanity and weed out all the evil until there is none. Hear the voice of the broken, encourage their hearts by being a Father to the fatherless and providing justice to the oppressed, so that humanity, who is made of dust, may strike terror no more.”
NT Wright on Nightline (click here)
A Short Discussion Between One of My Best Friends Matthew Josten and Myself About the Interview
A Brief Bio: Matthew and I met at Taylor University by living together on the same floor, sharing the same major, and doing ministry together at Exit 59 Church. In the spring of 2007, Matthew and I skipped classes to attend Wheaton’s theological conference on the Church Fathers. Many of the papers that were presented there were over our heads, but we still learned alot. In the fall of 2007, we skipped classes again and drove down to Asbury Seminary to hear New Testament scholar and Bishop NT Wright speak. We both found his presentations very fascinating and inspiring. Matthew and I have had many memories and alot of awesome conversations together. We always seem to learn something from one another. Matthew is actually the one who sent me this video and wanted to know my reaction to it. What is recorded hear is an unrehearsed discussion we had on ‘IM’. I thought many of you would enjoy reading our discussion, and might want to participate yourselves.
THE DISCUSSION
me: i think NT Wright just articulates restoration of all things in his own imagnitive way
but I agree with most things that he says
josten: ya.. idk if I buy into his whole heaven view (at least how he expressed it on tv…)
josten: but I guess we will find out when we get there
me: oh, what parts did you disagree with?
nightline did edit his stuff way down and I dont think they were totally fair to him.
josten: I guess I would have to look at it some more (it is hard to get very deep in a 5 min interview) but I am not sure if I totally buy into the idea that heaven is the “inbetween state”
me: well it depends how the word heaven is used in the NT
josten: explain
me: well i need to do a word study on it.
but when I think of heaven– i think of both the intermediate state and the renewed earth of Rev. 21
i think of heaven as when we are with Christ
josten: right…
me: but I agree with NT Wright in that the thrust of the New Testament is on the renewed earth part.
the resurrection of the dead happens on earth and those people stay on earth after it happens,
but I think NT Wright is fine to contrast pop view of heaven and the restored earth version.
me: i think the restored earth will be the springboard from which a new humanity will seek to explore a renewed universe and continue discover the marvelous works of God again
and we will be in perfect community, have glorified bodies, experience true worship, and live with Jesus here on earth.
josten: I guess when you explain it that way it makes sense… just something didn’t quite click when I was listening to the interviews of NT
me: yeah, well i didnt like the way it was presented and sometimes Wright can use reactionary language.
he likes to contrast himself from the doom and gloom judgement day stuff.
I think he hurts himself when he does that,
because its part of the gospel message and the New Testament.
josten: right…
me: like in 2 Peter 3
“7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”
earlier Peter compares this judgement of fire with the flood.
the interesting thing about the flood is that it didn’t destroy the earth completely.
it destroyed most people but not the earth.
i think it will be the same with the fire.
josten: interesting point.. In never thought of that
me: the text also says ‘the earth will be laid bare’
more like its been exposed for what it really is, than blown up
i think the fire will be a renewing fire
it destroys the ungoldy and the evil world-systems, but it preserves what is good
for example Rev. 21:24
“24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
the kings and nations will bring their glory and honor into the City.
the culture of the nations that is not impure will be kept and brought into the city as if God intended people to create diverse culture all along.
this isnt really a modern interpretation either, because the ancient Jewish worldview was this.
me: the earth would be restored. The lion would lay down with the lamb. the nations would turn their weapons into gardening tools as its says in Micah, essentially world peace after the ungodly have been judged.
josten: so you are saying this is what the ancient Jews believed?
me: well not about the specifics as revealed in Revelation
josten: right
me: but concerning the resurrection of the dead and the renewed land and the coming of the new jerusalem
yes, because thats what the prophets said,
and the early church emerged from that worldview and put Jesus at the center of it.
josten: tru…
josten: I am going to make something to eat
it was good talking with you
have a good evening!
me: yeah, take care brother
think about heaven!
its so good
Filed under: Culture
Its never good to be a one issue voter when choosing political parties or a political candidate. For example, if Hitler was a pro-life republican, it would still be a horrible idea to vote for him. We need to use wisdom to discern the whole person and all the issues involved in order to make decisions.
Now that I have made that clear, check out these stats that I read today.
Abortions per day in USA: 3,700 (abortionno.org)
US Casualties in Iraq War to date: 4,124 (icasualties.com)
Iraqi Civilian Casualities: 90,000-100,000 (possibly more… its really difficult to find a solid number on this)
Abortions since beginning of Iraq War 3/31/03: 7,196,500
Christians, don’t forget about this issue and how abortion is a tragedy that is still occuring everyday in this area of the modern world. We as Christians should be talking about it just as much as we talk about the Iraq war. I don’t think abortion is just a political issue to God. Please make this issue a priority.
Here are some other important issues:
“Remember the poor”- Gal. 2:10 (foriegn aid/global debt/the state of welfare and the church’s relationship with them)
“Act Justly and Love Mercy”- Micah 6:8 ( justice against corrupt leaders/nations/businesses)
“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth” -Mt. 5:5 (the way politics are done)
“He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” -Micah 4:3 (peaceful negotiations should be highest priority among nations for God values peace and wants more peace-makers from the local level to the global level).
“15 “Look at the behemoth,
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
16 What strength he has in his loins,
what power in the muscles of his belly!
17 His tail sways like a cedar;
the sinews of his thighs are close-knit.
18 His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs like rods of iron.
19 He ranks first among the works of God,
yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.
20 The hills bring him their produce,
and all the wild animals play nearby.
21 Under the lotus plants he lies,
hidden among the reeds in the marsh.
22 The lotuses conceal him in their shadow;
the poplars by the stream surround him.
23 When the river rages, he is not alarmed;
he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth.
24 Can anyone capture him by the eyes, [c]
or trap him and pierce his nose?”
-Job 40:15-24 (No one knows for sure what the ‘behemoth’ is, but it is obvious in this passage that God is delighting in this creature that He has made. Remember that ‘God is green’ and you should be too! He takes pleasure in interacting with his creation and finds it to be very good! So preserve His creation and join Him in restoring our world to His original intent!
