"Pride Poisons Ethnic Harmony"

A good (4 min) video from a sermon by John Piper on how the gospel's pride killing nature is necessary to dealing with racial tensions. His main point begins around the 1:40 mark.



May our church be one marked by the humility of the gospel and a growing diversity which proves to the watching world that the gospel is the power of God of reconciliation to him and to one another.

"Love and the 'Piece of Paper'"

I thought this quote from Tim Keller's book The Meaning of Marriage (pg. 79-80), was very insightful.

I remember some years ago watching a television drama in which a man and a woman who were living together were having and argument over whether to get married. He wanted to go ahead and do it, but she did not. At one point she blew up and said, "Why do we need a piece of paper in order to love one another? I don't need a piece of paper to love you! It only complicates things." 

That statement stuck with me, because as a pastor in New York City, I have heard essentially the same thing from younger adults for years. When the woman said, "I don't need a piece of paper to love you," she was using a very specific definition of "love." She was assuming that love is, in its essence, a particular kind of feeling. She was saying, "I feel romantic passion for you, and the piece of paper doesn't enhance that at all, and it may hurt it." She was measuring love mainly by how emotionally desirous she was for his affection. And she was right that the marital legal "piece of paper" would do little or nothing directly to add to the feeling. 

But when the Bible speaks of love, it measures it primarily not by how much you want to receive but by how much you are willing to give of yourself to someone. How much are you willing to lose for the sake of the person? How much of your freedom are you willing to forsake? How much of your precious time, emotion, and resources are you willing to invest in this person? And for that, the marriage vow is not just helpful but it is even a test. In so many cases, when one person says to another, "I love you, but let's not ruin it by getting married," that person really means, "I don't love you enough to close off all my options. I don't love you enough to give myself to you that thoroughly." 

Memorize Scripture with Me in 2017

If you are like me, you are not strong in the area of memorizing Scripture. I think part of that is a lack of planning and encouragement. So, I'd like to plan to memorize Scripture in 2017. If you would like to join me, we can encourage one another in it too!

The Plan

My plan is to use the "Fighter Verses" app from Desiring God. The website for fighter verses is here, and it has links to find the Android or iPhone apps. The app does cost about $3 if you want it (I like it because it can display the verse on my home screen).

Each week, there is a new verse to memorize. The app allows you to do some memory quizzes on the verse, to listen to the verse, and provides links to articles about the verse from Desiring God (helping you to meditate on its meaning an application).

My plan is to spend some time each day reading / reciting the verse (maybe read / recite it 10 times each day). By the end of each week I hope to be reciting from memory more than reading the verse.

Encouragement

Each week we can work on memorizing the new verse(s) and encourage one another by sharing what we are learning as we think about its meaning and how it applies to us.

If we discipline ourselves to do this, we will have 52 passages memorized by this time next year!

Will you join me? Let me know if you decide to join in so we can encourage one another this year.

This week's verse is Isaiah 40:8 

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 

Biography Challenge for Christmas Break

I know that reading is probably the last thing you would consider as enjoyable at this moment. You are probably busy reading, studying, and writing in order to ensure you survive this semesters final gantlet called "finals week." I am praying for you my beloved brothers and sisters.

But, I want to suggest a way to encourage your soul over this Christmas break. Why not plan to read a good Christian biography? I really enjoy reading theology books, but what often brings me the most encouragement is to read a good biography of a faithful Christian who has traveled the pilgrim path before me.

Here are a few good reasons to read a biography of a faithful Christian:

1. It gets me outside of myself and into the sufferings of another child of God. It reminds me that suffering is the common lot of all people in this fallen world and that Christians have resources to endure suffering with joy in Christ.  
2. It helps me see my blind spots. We can often become myopic, only seeing things from our own culture and times. Reading of saints from bygone eras helps me overcome my temptations to chronological snobbery and cultural blindness. 
3. It reminds me that God has been our dwelling place in ages past and is, therefore, my hope in years to come. That is to say, God has been faithful to believers in the past and that encourages my trust in him as I look to the future. Biographies remind me that our labor is not in vain, even when it might feel that way at times, because God is at work in history. 

So, I encourage you to read a good biography (or listen to one using audible or christian audio). Here are few good ones you might consider

• Any of Piper's books in The Swans are Not Silent series (each on contains a short biography of 3 people with great application)
• Through Gates of Splendor or Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliott (on Jim Elliot and the 5 missionaries martyred in Ecuador in the 1950's)
• A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliott,
• 8 Faithful Women by Michael Haykin
• 10 Who Changed the World by Danny Akin is the one I plan to read / listen to (it is available on kindle for 2.99 and you can add an audible version that syncs to kindle for another 2.99).

There are lots of other good ones. I you are interested in one and want to know if it is worth picking up, email me and I'll see what I can find out. Also, you can check out the church library to find some biographies (click here).

Enjoy.

Quotes on Prayer

I taught on prayer this past Sunday during the Sunday school hour. Here are the quotes I used from Paul Miller's book A Praying Life. 

Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like to trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it (pg 20). 

Because we can do life without God, praying seems nice but unnecessary. Money can do what prayer does, and it is quicker and less time-consuming. Our trust in ourselves and in our talents makes us structurally independent of God. As a result exhortations to pray don’t stick (pg. 16). 

If we think we can do life on our own, we will not take prayer seriously. Our failure to pray will always feel like something else- a lack of discipline or too many obligations (pg. 59). 

American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray. We are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We prize accomplishments, production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time. Every bone in our bodies screams, “Get to work.” When we aren’t working, we are used to being entertained. Television, the Internet, video games, and cell phones make free time as busy as work (pg. 15).

'Tis the Season for Envy: Fighting Envy During the Holidays

Thanksgiving and Christmas provide us opportunities to slow down, think, and give thanks. They also can provide temptations. As we slow down and have some time to think, we might find ourselves tempted towards envy.

Envy, that ability to look at others blessings or trials and wish they were your own, has a horrible, internal effect on us. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” It eats us up from the inside. During the holidays, we are often tempted to envy the perceived blessings or even trials (which seem preferable to our own) of others. 

Matthew Sims has an article called "Jesus is Better Than Season Envy." After pointing out that marriage and singleness both have certain blessings and trials, he notes that the solution to the problem of "season envy" is to find contentment in Christ. He writes, 

Married men aren’t envying single friends because their life is so much better or so much easier—but because we’re not satisfied with Jesus. Single men aren’t envying their married friends because marriage makes life easy—but because we’re not satisfied with Jesus. If you feed season envy, you will carry that season envy into your next season of life regardless if it’s marriage or singleness.

As we have been learning in Ecclesiastes, God has ordained the seasons of our lives, and we ought to ask him for strength to enjoy our life and toil. 

To combat envy, spend time gaining a "tranquil heart" (Prov. 14:30) by thanking God for your blessings and trials. Maybe write out a "thankful list" in which you note the spiritual and physical blessings and trials you can thank God for giving you (You might benefit from this article by Stacy Reoach at Desiring God). Where you find it hard to lay aside envy, ask God to give you "the power to enjoy" your lot in life (Ecc. 5:19).  Finally, remember that the Lord is your shepherd, and you will not be left destitute of what you need (Ps. 23:1). Know for certain his goodness and never-giving-up love will chase you all the days of your life (Ps. 23:6). 

What the Church Should Do Post-Election

Here are a few good quotes, about what we ought to do after the election, from Russell Moore's article "President Trump: Now What for the Church?"

1. "The first thing, of course, is to pray for our soon-to-be President Trump. The Bible commands us to pray for “all who are in high positions” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Moreover, the Scripture tells us to give “honor to whom honor is due” (Rom. 13:7). Many of us have deep differences with our new president, and would have no matter which candidate had been elected, but we must pray that he will succeed in leading our country with wisdom and justice." 
2. "maintain a prophetic clarity that is willing to call to repentance everything that is unjust and anti-Christ, whether that is the abortion culture, the divorce culture, or the racism/nativism culture. We can be the people who tell the truth, whether it helps or hurts our so-called “allies” or our so-called “enemies.”"
3. "Moreover, no matter what the racial and ethnic divisions in America, we can be churches that demonstrate and embody the reconciliation of the kingdom of God. After all, we are not just part of a coalition but part of a Body—a Body that is white and black and Latino and Asian, male and female, rich and poor. We are part of a Body joined to a Head who is an Aramaic-speaking Middle-easterner."
4. "The most important lesson we should learn is that the church must stand against the way politics has become a religion, and religion has become politics. We can hear this idolatrous pull even in the apocalyptic language used by many in this election—as we have seen in every election in recent years—that this election is our “last chance.”...Such talk is not worthy of a church that is already triumphant in heaven, and is marching on earth toward the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ."
5. "We should be ready to pray and preach, to promote the common good and to resist injustice. We will pledge allegiance to the flag, but we will pledge a higher allegiance to the cross."