Guitars and Trials

This is a copy of our bulletin article I just finished up for Sunday. If you go to CF, you can get a double dose.

Whether you’re a musician or not, you would probably have to agree that there are few things worse than hearing someone play a stringed instrument that is severely out of tune. My parents love to remind me of a time when I was in kindergarten and I “led” music for my class with my guitar. I’m sure that was the first and only time I ever did such a thing. That little guitar that I had and cluelessly strummed was far from in tune. Yet my teacher and parents were gracious and let me have my day of glory. The process of tuning a guitar is simple in theory, but takes a musician with a decent ear (or a tuner for the rest of us) to get just the right amount of tension on the string so it produces the proper sound.

I think sometimes when we are going through trials, we need to remember the analogy of the guitar. Many times our perspective when a difficult circumstance comes is, “Lord, what do you want me to learn through this.” The unspoken next line of that thought is, “Because I’m ready to learn it and get this situation over with!” Yes, God does teach us lessons through trials. Yes, sometimes we learn and the difficulty ends quickly. But many times, if not most of the time, trials provide the necessary amount of tension on your life to make you useful for the kingdom. You shortchange God’s plan when you only ask, “Can this please end now?” The answer may be “no” and the Lord has good reason for that in His wise and benevolent plan.

The letter of 2 Corinthians gives us a picture of this lesson. In chapter 12, Paul is being tormented by a “thorn in the flesh.” Paul asks for this affliction to be removed and God denies this request. We are told why in 2 Cor 12.7. Paul was used mightily by God to deliver His Word. Because of this God found it necessary to give him this affliction to keep him from “exalting himself.” It is shortly after that we find the promise in verse 9 that we can cling to as well during a trial, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Don’t waste your affliction. Consider the difficulties that life brings to be tools designed to make you more like Christ (Jas 1.2; Rom 8.28). Remember God’s grace is always sufficient (2 Cor 12.9) and he’ll never put more on you than he gives you grace to handle (I Cor 10.13)!

Life at Camp

We're towards the end of the week here in beautiful Black Mountain. Summer camp has once again been incredible, with more things in store.

We have been served very well by Adam Bailie and Kurt Gebhards. They have enlarged our understanding of Christ and challenged our views of ourselves. The reality is Christ is more glorious than we can imagine, and our sin is worse than we can imagine. Combining these thoughts leads us to gospel that is infinite in value.

It's hard to capture in a post such as this the impact that this time is having on the attendees. It seems that the Lord is using this time in many hearts to turn our affections as a group to Christ. Many have expressed a desire for better relationships with one another, relationships that have a spiritual focus. I pray that this would be the case in the coming weeks and months.

Filled with the Spirit

Ephesians 5.18 has always been an enigma to me. What does it really mean to be filled with the Spirit? And how do I get filled (or better yet, how did I get unfilled)? Graham Cole has written an excellent book called Engaging with the Holy Spirit: Real Questions, Practical Answers. This book comes at least in part from a larger work, which is also excellent, He Who Gives Life. I thoroughly enjoyed this short primer on the Holy Spirit. I really enjoyed his treatment of the filling of the Spirit in the last chapter. Maybe I have heard this type of thing before, but to understand these verses in terms of Ecclesiology instead of Sanctification is really helpful and clarifying for me.

Let me attempt to reconstruct some of the argument. The only command in the Bible to be filled with the Spirit is found in Eph 5.18. We have numerous examples of the Spirit empowering prophets, kings, apostles, even Elizabeth enjoys some type of special ministry of the Spirit when she and Mary meet (Luke 1.41-42). Cole argues that these special experiences need to be treated with great care. These experiences all involve some type of filling AND speaking. "These instances of filling are conjoined with some kind of speech act." (103)

We then come to Eph 5 and we meet our only actual command to be filled. These special occurrences give us no indication of an intentionally cooperative activity. In other words, God chose to sovereignly do these things. These instances are all individual. The Ephesians passage is corporate. The command is given then we find 5 participles, all present and continuous in nature. The question is, do we understand these as being participles of result or participles of means? One quote may help to clarify the difference: "The five participles [activities] do no lead to the filling by the Spirit, rather they indicate the means by which the command is carried out." (107 )

So what's the point? Cole makes some great observations in the last part of his argument. I think this final quote will well summarize the significance of this discussion.

However, to pursue the Spirit's control is to miss it. In moral philosphy there is a fallacy called the hedonistic fallacy. Pursue pleasure, and you will not get it. Pleasure is a byproduce of other pursuits. Pursue the Spirit, and you will not be obeying the Pauline command. However, fill up our gathering with these practices, and then the Spirit will be filling the temple of God. Both attitude (thankfulness and reverence or respect) and activity (speaking, singing, making melody, and so forth) are involved.

May our corporate gathering reflect the mighty filling of the Spirit through our attitudes and our actions. You would be well served to pick up this book for yourself and read all the chapters. My attempt to summarize doesn't do this treatment justice!

Why China?

My wife and I are in the process of adopting from China. As we have been pursuing this for a number of months now, we have been asked the question numerous times, why China? I read this article this morning and was reminded again why we want to adopt from China. This article is a poignant reminder of what happens when the imago dei is lost. If man is not in God's image, he is nothing more than a collection of atoms and matter. To paraphrase Schaeffer, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity.

The article opens with this paragraph:

After one birth and one abortion, a young Chinese woman gave birth to her second child. Knowing the fines for giving birth illegally would leave her family impoverished, she left the baby with her sister in another village and went to an abortion clinic, where she paid the clinic for the corpse of a baby girl. When the population control police came to her home to levy the fine, she carried the body to the door. They assumed her baby died and left her alone.

This is why we want to adopt from China.

The Future of Church History - Thoughts on a Helpful Post

I just read this post over at the 9 Marks blog. The article cites a section of a Church History book written 100 year from now. The author is attempting to look down the road at what the multi-site/celebrity pastor approach to church today is going to produce. Here is one section I thought was particularly stinging in it's assessment:

Gone were the days of the “ordinary pastor,” the man whose skills were not extraordinary, but sufficient to guide a ship with a hundred eternal souls safely through stormy waters to the distant shores. His sermons weren’t made for television. His music wasn’t good enough for the recording studio. Therefore, churches, feeling themselves entitled to professional excellence in all things, politely dismissed him, tore down the old buildings, built high-tech stadiums, and gave the league all-stars seven-year, multi-million dollar contracts.

Wow. I've never really thought about this in these types of terms. I too am concerned for the future of the church. It will be interesting how the podcast/conference/blog world is going to influence the way people think and practice ecclesiology. I'm having conversations with people now where they say, I can get good preaching anytime, therefore, I have other priorities I'm looking for in a local church. Is there not something significant still to the importance of the LOCAL church? Would this not have been a foreign idea in the first century? Fellowship doesn't come through chat rooms and message boards. There is something special about the presence of God in the midst of the corporate gathering where the ordinances are observed, corporate prayer is practiced, the Scriptures are read, and fellowship is enjoyed.

Podcast are great (I get a few myself), conferences are great (our church hosts one and I like to attend them) but we must understand these things are supplements. The local assembly must be the priority!!

How's your Christian Life?

Ok, so it may seem like I'm splitting some hairs with this thought, but I really think this is a helpful distinction.  Lot's of times I hear someone ask "how's your Christian life going?"  I understand the heart of the question, but it seems like this question is shorthand for "How faithful have you been to the spiritual disciplines this week?"  It seems like the answers tend to follow that track.  "I haven't spent the time in the Word that I need to, or I'm not praying enough, or I had a great quiet time this morning."  These are good things to talk about.  But maybe there is an unnecessary and subtle division that is being drawn just in the way the question is asked.  

I'm trying to eliminate the terms Spiritual Life and Christian Life from my vocabulary.  I don't have a life that's not my Christian life.  The question is how is life as a Christian?  Again, not to bog down in the minutia, but I really find this useful.

The spiritual disciplines are important.  No doubt.  But faithfulness to them does not equal spiritual health.  The gospel must permeate every part of our thinking on all subjects in every area of life, not just on what is 'spiritual.'

The End of Evangelicalism?

Check out this article here.

He makes a pretty grim prognosis for evangelicalism as we understand it now.