"Church and the College Years"

Don't just go to church. Don't just join a church. Begin serving actively in a local church during your college years. Far too many young adults church "hop" during their college years. They become church consumers. Gathering nuggets of wisdom from various sermons and preachers. Getting a spiritual fix from vibrant singing, prayer, and fellowship here and there. Never giving and participating substantially in the life and ministry of a local body of believers.

Friends, the local church needs you during your college years. They will benefit from having you there, plugged in, and committed. It will be good for your heart and soul as well.

This is an excerpt from Jon Neilson's article "Church and the College Years". If you have questions like "Why do I need to be a part of a church" or if you often think "I love Jesus just not the church" then read the first section of the article.  The second half builds on that theological foundation and is an appeal to college students to: 1. Go to church, 2. Join a church, 3. Serve in a church.

The Emptiness of Elite Athletes Apart from Christ

During the Olympics, I saw a brief interview with US diver David Boudia. He said something about God's goodness and sovereignty and it caught my attention. So, I began an investigation...I looked him up on twitter.  So, I am not much of a detective, but there I saw several tweets about his Christian faith that were encouraging.

Today, I read an article in the Baptist press about him which was also encouraging, "Olympic diver Boudia's empty life undergoes 'radical change'".  In it, his testimony of how he came to Christ is laid out. His diving coach at Perdue was the one who helped lead him to the Lord.  Boudia told his coach, Adam Soldati, that he was feeling hopeless. Soldati commented that the hopelessness he saw in Boudia was common among elite athletes.

They're grabbing onto and they're holding onto their sport to ultimately define them, to give them a sense of identity," Soldati said. "God has put that in us to run after and to seek satisfaction, but ultimately that's going to be found in His son Jesus, period.

How true that is. And this isn't just true for elite athletes I'd argue. Elite athletes may sense it more acutely (as well as elite CEO's, political movers and shakers, and academic elites).  These individuals, if they do not know Christ, have tasted the best the world has to offer (or are seeking it with all their might) and realize it is empty. The success doesn't provide the promised goods. The reason it is empty isn't because good things are bad. It is because seeking identity, purpose, and to worship good things is idolatry and not what we were made for. We were made to delight in God (Ps. 16).

Every human being searches for something to define him or her. But, the Bible tells us our identity is to be found in the one whose image we were made in- God.  The image has been defaced by our sinfulness, but those who are in Christ are being recreated into the image of Jesus Christ. That is a message all of us need to hear.  I am thankful for that reminder from the testimony of David Boudia and Adam Soldati.

"Challenges to God's Providence"

Here is the last article by Dr. Moore on God's providence.  Here is an excerpt.

The major challenge to the Christian notion of providence though doesn’t come from a pipe-smoking heretic in a faculty lounge somewhere. The most dangerous sub-Christian theology of providence I can find is my own. It doesn’t show up in typed out discourses like this one. It shows up when I worry about the future–as though God does not have my future planned for me. It shows up when I’m anxious about how to pay for college educations or how to avoid my family’s genetic predisposition to heart disease or whether my church is going to do well next year. My fretfulness or my mistrust or my manipulation reveals a heart that doesn’t truly believe that God knows–or can do–what is best for me. These also reveal a heart that doesn’t yet fully get the goal of divine providence–conformity to Christ Jesus.

I hope this has been an immensely practical study of theology for you.  All theology has practical application for our lives.

Here are the others if you missed them
"Musings on God's Providence"
"The Goal of God's Providence"
"The Extent of God's Providence"
"The Mystery of God's Providence"

"The Mystery of God's Providence"

Article four of the five part series on God's providence by Dr. Moore is here. Here is an excerpt.

Human beings are not puppets made of meat. Joseph’s brothers don’t think they are saving the world by initiating God’s plan to rescue Israel through Joseph’s sojourn in Egypt. They think they’re disposing of an irritant. God turns these actions against them though–and even their evil is turned around for the good.

Here are the first three if you missed them
"Musings on God's Providence"
"The Goal of God's Providence"
"The Extent of God's Providence" 

"The Extent of God's Providence"

Here is the third article from Dr. Moore on God's providence.   Here is an excerpt

Some of us think that God rules providentially over the broad parameters, the “big things,” but not over the incidental details of history or of our lives. But, as I’ve noted before, so much of history–and our lives–is itself detail driven. The Bible tells us God raises up and tears down nations and rulers–the kinds of spectacular things we read about in our history books and hear about it in real time on CNN. But Jesus also tells us that a bird doesn’t hit a window and break its neck apart from the Father’s care.

Here are the first two if you missed them
"Musings on God's Providence"
"The Goal of God's Providence"

"The Goal of God's Providence"

As I said yesterday, I will be posting links to several articles by Dr. Russell Moore on the subject of God's providence. Here is the second one in the series (the first one is here in case you missed it). Here is an excerpt (I hope you'll read the whole thing)

All of human history is staging ground for the revealing of Christ–whether it’s the caravan of travelers that stumble across Joseph in a pit or the rise of the Roman Empire. In the same way, all the events of your life are pulling you toward conformity with Christ, for life in his Kingdom.

"Musings on God's Providence"

God's providence is a doctrine that is so full of practical application.  I know of no better doctrine to meditate on when you are tempted to be anxious or worried about present situations or the future.

Over the next several days I will be linking to several articles in a series on the doctrine of providence written by Dr. Russell Moore. I hope you will take the time to read them.

The first one is "Musings on God's Providence".  Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite

If your grandfather hadn’t noticed that girl at the picnic, or if he’d been too shy to say anything about it, you wouldn’t exist. All of us can think of similar “what if” situations. If Franklin Roosevelt’s mother had had a migraine headache the night he was conceived, we might all be speaking German right now. Who knows? History moves along by the seemingly small and insignificant decisions of billions of people, and by the seemingly random forces of nature.

Christians have a unique perspective on the unfolding of history–whether on the broad, cosmic level or on the small, personal level of our own stories. We believe that God is king, and that he governs the flow of events around us.

"Legalism or Obedience?"

This summer we have been spending some time discussing our pursuit of godliness.  As we think about obedience, there is always the danger that we will be accused of being legalistic (or that we might actually confuse godliness with legalism).  I found this article by Fred Zaspel to be helpful.  Here are a few excerpts:

....find a Christian who is careful to obey God in everything, and we won’t have to look far to find another Christian to call him a legalist. What do we make of this?
 
It’s a word we all hate, but exactly what is legalism? Legalism is that attempt to establish or maintain a right standing with God by means of our own efforts....

...Still more broadly the term is also used of those Christians who insist on extra-biblical standards of behavior and judge godliness accordingly. 

...But we must be careful not to confuse legalism with obedience. Obedience is not legalism. Obedience is obedience. God commands us to obey his Word, and when pressed with those commands we must not cry foul — “legalism!”  No, disobedience is sin, and obedience is not legalism.

On the contrary, any violation of God’s commands is sin, and there are no exceptions allowed. No custom, no family tradition, no “We’ve always done that!” will cover it. Scripture insists that violation of God’s law is sin.

Simply put, we needn’t fear that we may obey our Lord too much. Jesus said that if we love him, we will obey him.

Happily, God has promised in the New Covenant to give us a heart to obey him. And every true Christian has found that obedience to God is not a burdensome thing. This is the work of his Spirit within us to bring us to obey him — not legalistically but faithfully.

 

Thoughts on "Chic-Fil-A Day"

I thought this was a good article to help us think Christianly about Chic-Fil-A Day and the culture wars associated with it.

In the article, the author neither advocates taking part nor avoiding Chic-Fil-A Day (started by Mike Huckabee to show support for embattled Chic-Fil-A leaders).  He does do a good job showing that whether we eat (chicken sandwich) or drink (lemonade) we are to keep our focus on the main thing: the gospel of Jesus and the glory of God.