Why I Love Lecrae

This guy's got passion and he practices what he preaches. I love it. Check out this song "Sacrifice" from his mix tape Church Clothes:

Trusting God in the Dark

I needed this today.

From Dane Ortlund:

'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love . . .'
--Genesis 22:2

The command to offer up the son of the promise, with whom the whole future lies, seems the complete contradiction of the Purpose of God on which Abraham has set his faith.

Abraham in the story is called by God to make a supreme sacrifice, an act of complete and entire worship, trusting God in the dark, committing everything to him: 'not my will but thine be done.' While God did not in the end demand this sacrifice to be made, that which he did demand was the entire willingness to make the offering.

Such is the meaning of the story as the writer tells it; and because this and nothing less is the true and original meaning therefore we, in interpreting it, may and must look onward to the self-giving of our LORD, in whose case no offering of a substitute was possible. Hence we may and must find the finalanswer to Isaac's question 'Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?' and Abraham's reply 'God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son' (22:7-8) in the words of John 1:29, 'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.'

--Gabriel Hebert, The Old Testament From Within (Oxford University Press, 1962), 34

Jesus: The True Hero

An excerpt from The Book That Made Your World by Vishal Mangalwadi. Here, Mangalwadi is writing about how the Bible completely redefined heroism, with Jesus being the true hero.

"Classical heroism with the Bible because while the former valued power, Christ's heroism prized truth. Other kingdoms fostered heroic deeds by cultivating racial, geographic, linguistic, religious, class, or caste pride and hatred. Jesus made love the supreme value of the kingdom of God. This love was not sentimentalism. It went beyond loving one's neighbor as oneself. Its supreme manifestation was the cross: sacrificing oneself for others, including ones enemies.

Jesus' heroism replaced brutality with love, pride with meekness, and domination over others with self-sacrificing service. He exemplified this when he humbled himself, took a basin of water and a servant's towel, and started washing his disciples' feet. This, he said, is what the kingdom of God is all about. He was the King of kings and the Lord of lords. All power in heaven and on earth, he claimed, was his. But he had come not to be served, but to serve, not to kill but to give eternal life. These were not homilies delivered by a guru who sat on a golden throne. These teachings changed history because they emanated from a live lived in the public arena."

Have We Made The Church Too Safe?

An interesting video with Gabe Lyons. One of the reasons young people leave the church, according to Lyons is that it is too safe. There is a disconnect between the way people in the church are living their lives and the risks and lifestyle that the Bible calls them too. Those growing up in the church are protected from the world rather than being allowed to engage it. This is why a lot of younger people who are creative (artists, musicians, writers) and desire to engage the world end up leaving the church. This is a tragedy because God is the ultimate artist, with his creation being his masterpiece. He delights to have us engage the beauty of his creation in a way that glorifies him. Christians, of all people, should be the most involved with the arts. However, as Lyons points out, this isn't the case in most contemporary churches, and it is a reason why many young people leave the church.

   

"When we talk about faith and the idea of living on mission for Christ, and what he calls us to give up, and they don't see people in their churches taking the kind of risks that they actually see in the pages of Scripture, they say Christianity is too safe, it's overprotective for the things they want to engage"

From the NFL to the University of Chicago

An awesome article about Jason Wright, a follower of Jesus, and a former NFL player with the Arizona Cardinals who has forgone an NFL contract worth millions in order to enroll at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business in order to attain his Master's in Public Policy, with the hopes of starting an organization to reach inner-city youth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Awesome!

You can read yahoo's story here.

Christ, The Only Mediator

A post-worthy quote from Augustine's Confessions. What a beautiful reminder that Christ is the only one by whom we may be reconciled to God. Neither religion, nor morality, nor spirituality, nor rituals may mediate sinful humans to a good and holy God. Only Jesus. He is the one True Mediator. He alone is sufficient to mediate man to God.

"Who could be found to reconcile me to you? Was I to beg the help of angels? What prayer should I use? What sacred rites? Many have tried to return to you, and have not had the strength in themselves to achieve it, so I have been told. They have attempted these methods and have lapsed into a desire for curious visions, and have been rewarded with illusions. For in their quest they have lifted up by pride in their high culture, inflating their chest rather than beating their breast. Through an affinity in heart they attracted themselves as associates and allies of their pride....They sought a mediator to purify them, and it was not the true one......But a mediator between God and the human race ought to have something in common with God and something in common with humanity....


The true Mediator you showed to humanity in your secret mercy....He is the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He appeared among mortal sinners as the immortal righteous one, mortal like humanity, righteous like God. Because the wages of righteousness are life and peace, being united with God by his righteousness he made void the death of justified sinners, a death which it was his will to share in common with them. He was made known to ancient saints so that they could be saved through faith in his future passion, just as we are saved through faith in his passion now that it is past. It is as man that he is mediator. He is not midway as Word; for the Word is equal to God and with God.


How you have loved us, good Father; you did not spare your only Son but delivered him up for sinners. How you have loved us, for whose sake he did not think it a usurpation to be equal to you and was made subject to the death of the cross. He was the only one to be free among the dead. He had power to lay down his soul and power to take it back again. For us he was victorious before you and victor because he was victim. For us before you he is priest and sacrifice, and priest because he is sacrifice. Before you he makes us sons instead of servants by being born of you and being servant to us. With good reason my firm hope is in him. For you will cure all my diseases through him who sits at your right hand and intercedes with you for us. Otherwise, I would be in despair. Many and great are those diseases, many and great indeed. But your medicine is still more potent."

The Measure of Friendship

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."

John 15: 13-15

"A friend loves at all times,

   and a brother is born for adversity."

Proverbs 17:17

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, 

and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."

1 John 3:16

Biblically, friendship is defined by sacrifice. It is measured by what someone is willing to give up for the other. In both verses written by John, we see the utmost display of friendship is seen in the giving of ones life. From these criteria, we can see how Jesus is the ultimate friend. Here is a prayer that I wrote this morning.

Jesus, I praise and thank You for being the ultimate friend. You have unconditionally loved the loveless. You alone have loved me at all times. I confess to you Lord both my undeserving state of this friendship, and my self-justifying attempts to make myself appear worthy of this friendship. Yet, I rejoice in the truth that my union with You in completely contingent upon Your grace. You are the true friend, who at my very need your life did spend. And in what manner did you spend your life? You spent your life for me in the most extravagant way. For man or woman could lay down their life for me in order to preserve my temporal life here on earth, but only You could lay down your life in order to atone for my sins and to give me fullness of life. Jesus, you are the ultimate friend because you paid the ultimate cost. For you humbly left your glorious throne, you left your exalted position, and stooped down to my level. You saw your friends in dying need and you laid aside your glory, becoming man, being born in a manger, living among the filth which we caused, and died the death you didn't deserve, in order to save your friends. You have saved me from the ultimate adversity.There is no greater sacrifice. There is no greater friend. More so, you did not do so grudgingly, but out of gladness and joy. You are the pinnacle of friendship.

Jesus, I also praise you for the earthly friends which you have given me. Though imperfect and weak, their friendship gives me a faint, yet beautiful glimpse at your perfect friendship. Hints of Your radiant glory shine forth through their selfless love and raise my yearning to better know you, the true friend. I marvel at Your grace, as seen in the gift of friends. May we continue to sharpen each other, and to help each other more clearly behold the beauty of you, Lord Jesus. 

Missional Community?

With the recent resurgence in gospel-centered church plants from groups such as ACTS 29, Sovereign Grace and Redeemer, the word 'missional' has become exceedingly trendy. Churches love to label themselves as 'missional', or love to call their small groups 'missional communities'. All this really means is that the church sees itself as part of God's mission. A missional church is a community of Christians who live and experience life together, who are united together in the gospel, meeting regularly to worship, speak biblical truth to each other, to build up, encourage, rebuke, and to partake in the Lord's Supper together. It is also a group that considers its purpose not only to inwardly build each other up and experience life among each other, but to share their lives with those outside the church. Missional churches are serious about living and proclaiming the gospel outside the church walls. They long to see the redemption of all things, and being indwelled with the Holy Spirit, are partakers in this mission. Yet, they do this together. They do this as a community of believers.

The reason I am posting this is because this term 'missional' seems to be so modern and trendy, but it is really an ancient idea. In fact, Israel was called to be a 'missional' community. They were to be a holy nation that mediated God's presence to the rest of the world. They were called to be a blessing to the rest of the world. Also, Saint Augustine mentions the idea in his Confessions. In this quote, Augustine had just recently become a Christian along with a few of his close friends. The next step? They were to move back to Africa together, live together in 'missional' community, so that they be of whatever service the Lord saw fit for them. That is 'missional' community.

"'You make people to live in unanimity' (Psalm 67:7): So you made Evodius a member of our circle, a young man from my home town. When he was a civil servant as an agent in the special branch, he was converted to you before we were. He was baptized and resigned his post on taking up your service. We were together and by a holy decision resolved to live together. We looked for a place where we could be of most use in your service; all of us agreed on a move back to Africa."

Saint Augustine, Confessions, pg. 166

Where Are the Young Men Like Paul

In the last chapter of his life, the Apostle Paul, constrained by the Spirit, decided to return to Jerusalem in order to preach the gospel. He did this knowing that this choice would certainly result in death. Why would he do something so radical? Speaking to the elders at Ephesus, Paul wrote,

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again."  Acts 20:24-25