How Do We Seek God Honoring Social Transformation?

The Desiring God blog has a post about a study on the effect of protestant missionaries on the cultures they go to. This is a good article to read for all our sociologists in the group, but it is good for all of us too. Below are a few paragraphs I found most helpful on the issue of the gospel and social transformation.

...the way to achieve the greatest social and cultural transformation is not to focus on social and cultural transformation, but on the “conversion” of individuals from false religions to faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. Or to put it another way, missionaries (and pastors and churches) will lose their culturally transforming power if they make cultural transformation their energizing focus.

There is a biblical reason for this. The only acts of love and justice that count with God are the fruit of conversion. If repentance toward God and faith in Jesus does not precede our good works, then the works themselves are part of man’s rebellion, not part of his worship.

Thus John the Baptist says, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). That’s the transformation that counts with God: First repentance, then the fruit of repentance. And Jesus says, “Make the tree good and its fruit good” (Matthew 12:33). First a new tree, then good fruit.

Who Hates Who? The Barronelle Stutzman Case

Watch this video about Barronelle Stutzman, the florist in Washington State being sued for not making floral arrangements for a same sex wedding. It is not enough for the social elites that same sex marriage be recognized as a legal institution. Rather the push has been and will continue to be for every individual in society to affirm homosexual marriage as morally right. With all this talk of hate and bigotry, I find myself asking who is really being narrow minded? Who is really acting with hate? I am sure every individual story is different. In this case, however, it is clear that Christians must be ready to lose everything for the sake of following Christ and truly loving others.

Caesar and Coercion of the Conscience

Recently there have been several legal cases against individuals who have refused to render their professional services for homosexual "marriages." One is a cake shop and another is a photographer (there are more than 2).

How should we think about this issue? Should Christians have the right to, for conscience sake, opt out of participating in gay wedding ceremonies or is this akin to Jim Crow laws during the days of racial bigotry? Here are a few articles to help you think through this issue. We are in a time of great cultural pressure. Let's think biblically.

Caesar, Coercion and the Christian Conscience: A dangerous confusion by Al Mohler
Refusing to Photograph a Gay Wedding Isn't Hateful by Denny Burk
Is Sexual Orientation Analogous to Race? by Joe Carter

"The Secret Will of God"

I think many Christians make the mistake of acting on what they can never be sure of rather than relying on what they can know for sure. In other words, Christians confuse God's secret will with his revealed will. - Paul Tripp

That quote is from a helpful article by Paul Tripp on the issue of God's will. I encourage you to read the whole thing.

If you are interested in more on this topic, check Kevin DeYoung's helpful (short) book called "Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will."

Evangelicals and Hollywood

There seems to be in our day, a growing fascination among Christians with not being seen as prudish. This is especially true in the realm of entertainment. We want to "engage the culture" and affirm common ground with unbelievers around us. And these desires can be biblically thought out and useful. But it is also the case that in the name of such things we begin to confuse worldliness with the biblical worldview. Trevin Waxin has a thoughtful article at the gospel coalition's site on the issue of Christians and entertainment. It is worth a read. Below are a few quotes highlighting his main point:

I never subscribed to the fundamentalist vision that saw holiness in terms of cultural retreat or worldliness as anything that smacked of cultural engagement. I don’t subscribe to that position today.

But sometimes I wonder if evangelicals have swung the pendulum too far to the other side, to the point where all sorts of entertainment choices are validated in the name of cultural engagement.

....

I am concerned that many evangelicals may be expending more energy in avoiding the appearance of being “holier-than-thou” than we do in avoiding evil itself.

...

At what point does our cultural engagement become just a sophisticated way of being worldly?

Let's start thinking and talking to one another more about our entertainment choices. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Meditation is Required for Christian Growth

Last night, I spoke on the topic of meditation (and how it can be used in discipleship) from Psalm 119:97-104. I came across a great quote on the topic of meditation from Oliver Heywood (quoted by Lou Priolo in his booklet "Selfishness"). Writing 300 years ago he said, Christian meditation is the

...solemn endeavor of the soul to bring home to itself divine things; and so to resolve, ponder, and digest them, as to work their transforming power into every element and faculty of its being...It is the digestive process, by which spiritual food nourishes the soul and promotes its growth in holiness.

Lack of meditation is the primary reason that so many professing Christians, in spite of exposure to the most excellent teaching, still remain ignorant, unstable, and unfruitful; "ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Instruction flows in upon them from all sides; but their hearts and minds are like sieves, out of which everything runs as fast as it is poured in. The impressions which truth makes on their minds, are as temporary as characters traced on the sands of the sea-shore, which the next wave erases forever. But meditation imprints truth deeply on the conscience, and engraves it on the tablets of "the inner man," "as with the point of a diamond laser beam." It thus becomes incorporated into the soul; and forms, as it were, a part of it; and it is ever present, to regulate the heart's affections and to control and guide all of its movements.

We are blessed to have much great teaching at our church. The danger is that we become hearers and not doers. The potential disaster is that we might hear the word, be responsible before God for it, and not have it affect our will, thinking, desires, and behavior. You will not grow in the faith if you do not think about and apply God's Word. The Spirit of God works through the Word of God rightly understood and meditated on.

Take some time to meditate on God's Word. If you don't know how, check out this resource from Don Whitney to help you get some ideas.

Struggling with Singleness

Here is a short video by David Powlison on the issue of struggling with singleness.