BOUND TO CHRIST

This is part 3 in a series on biblical illiteracy and its effects on America and within the Church.

For being dead in my trespasses, I knew quite a bit about the church. For about ten years, I grew up in a local church and participated in the various activities they had for kids. I was in Sunday school, I was a shepherd in a Christmas pageant, I could even repeat to you the Apostle’s Creed (We believe in one God, the Father…). But if you were to ask me about God Himself or about Jesus, I could tell you very little. I knew church. I didn’t know the gospel.

Part of that may have been that I was just a kid and I did not think in theological terms. But my experience in the church is like so many in our so-called Christian nation. We go to church, we learn the basics about how to do good and we come out of it Christianized non-Christians. And this leads to the main modern effect of biblical illiteracy: a Christ-less Christian nation.

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“God and God alone who makes certain that a portion of His Word falls upon good ground.” - R.C. Sproul

Ligonier Ministries has a magazine called TableTalk named after the dinner discussions of one of my historical heroes, Martin Luther. Recently, R.C. Sproul wrote an excellent article on the topic of “by grace alone.” At times this topic can become a split issue among Christian brethren, which is unfortunate. Sproul explains the common Reformed stance well with a humble and Christocentric mindset.  Check out the article entitled “Grace Alone” in TableTalk, it will encourage you to form your own cross-centered response to saving grace.

This is part two of a series on biblical illiteracy and its effect on American culture and the Church.

I never thought of Billy Preston as a preacher.  But his words, more often heard in commercials nowadays, ring true in this age of biblical inerrancy.  ”Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”  Preach it, brother!

His words remind me of many conversations I have had with people who claim to be Christians but who reject the gospel.  One story in particular comes to mind.  I had been trying to reach out a friend and we had once gotten into a fight because I basically told him that he wasn’t a Christian.  Needless to say, it was a while before I could share the gospel with him again.  When I finally got that chance, I simply shared with him the basic tenets of the faith.  I talked with him about Christ’s life, death and resurrection, that we must be born again and that no one could attain salvation based on merit.  After I finished talking, he simply said this, “I just don’t interpret it that way.”  This baffled me.  How could his interpretation lead him to a completely different basis for his faith?  How could we both be Christians and see God as two different Gods? Read the rest of this entry »

No score and three years ago
I came to the Bible Belt
Where churches are custom as Scions
And as holy, Catholic and apostolic
As Gander in Turkey Creek.
Smiling faces, all from Atlanta, line the bookshelves,
All wearing ties
With seven simple stupid steps
To finding God’s will for your life.
I never knew it was lost;
The red letters must have missed something.
After all, Jesus was only a man.
Too many are chained not just to sin
But to an altar call at age eight,
A cultural Christianity,
A simple prayer lost in the decades of addiction,
Freed from righteousness.

At this crossroads, some would want a new foundation,
A new sensation to ring in the tribes, tongues and nations.
I want the old one,
The one crying in the wilderness,
The one of glorious, green, groaning, growing gardens of Creation,
The one of parted seas,
The one of Calvary’s tree,
The one of Golgotha’s altar bloodier than the blot red altars of Leviticus’ priests,
The river from His hands, His head, His feet
Like Moses’ plagued Nile flowing anew,
As Watts once wrote, “Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?”
God gets no glory out of your best life now
But out of this:
To take the curse and blot out my shame,
Holy God in perfect love became
Perfect man to bear my blame.
The wrath of God towards sin in one man,
While still sinner, Christ died for us.

The stone the Bible Belt builders have rejected
Has become the cornerstone.
Lay that, and you’ll find one holy, Catholic apostolic Church.

This is part one of a 9 to 10-week series on biblical illiteracy and its impact on America and within the Church.

My life’s ambition is to be a sponge.

While most will find that statement curious, I believe it is all by grace.  Sponges absorb liquids quickly.  They need no training or technological improvements to do their job.  My job is to know God’s Word.  Therefore, I long to absorb its contents like a sponge.  I want to cram its wisdom inside my head.  If I know nothing else, I want to know Scripture.

Many Americans, including evangelicals, do not hold this same view of the Bible.  With secularism on the rise and fewer people attending church, many simply have a Bible on the shelf just to have it on the shelf.  Some even share the view of atheist comedian Pat Condell, who once said, “If all you have is Scripture between your ears, then you’ve really got nothing between your ears.”  Unfortunately, American culture has turned the Word of God into another ancient book.  While some folks recognize the Word for its wisdom, I believe the majority of young American evangelicals, due to either ignorance or familiarity, fail to recognize its true quality.  In the Bible’s 66 books, you get to learn about the most important person of all time.  You meet the living Jesus of Nazareth. Read the rest of this entry »

“Who is He?  If He was just another prophet, His resurrection is little more than a historic curiosity.” –Kevin DeYoung

The opening words of Kevin DeYoung’s main session sermon were these, “You don’t know me.  You don’t need to know me.”  Before the conference, many people such as myself has no idea who this man was.  Yet, after he spoke, all of his books sold out quickly and it was not because of his eloquence.  DeYoung had a passion for Christ and took the subject of Christ’s life, which some might ironically see as the most boring of the topics, as opportunity to explore Christ’s person.

DeYoung preached on a passage of Scripture where Jesus says very little, Luke 8:22-56, but says quite a bit about Himself.  This text contains the familiar stories of calming the storm, driving out demons from a possessed man, healing a sick woman and raising a child from the dead.  While the miracles are obviously miraculous in themselves, they testify to the power of Jesus Christ.  His wonders echo the words of Psalm 67 and Psalm 107, the latter of which reads, “He stilled the storm to a murmur, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” Luke 8:24 says that Jesus rebuked the winds and they instantly stopped.  No tricks. No magic spell.  Jesus simply commanded the winds to stop because, “That was Jesus’ storm.”

“This is not an ordinary man,” DeYoung said. “This is not a long shirt, soft-spoken, sheepish Jesus.” Read the rest of this entry »

“It’s one thing to say that Jesus is preeminent.  It’s another thing to live like Jesus is preeminent.” –Joshua Harris

In my Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary, the word preeminent means this, simply “having highest rank.”  A synonym for this word may be the priority.  When Josh Harris took the stage for Next 2009’s first session, he had a loaded topic to discuss. Many pastors, including his mentor, C.J. Mahaney, had preached on this topic before, even at New Attitude.  Yet, for the Christian, this old, old doctrine can never be outdated.  For while Jesus of Nazareth never ascended into nobility and died as a criminal, this man accomplished more in His lifetime than the human race has done in its 6,000+ year history. Read the rest of this entry »

“Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways.  In these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He has appointed her of all things and through whom He made the universe.”  –Hebrews 1:1-2

Rarely will you pour your heart out to a stranger.  When I was assigned to my Next ‘09 small group, I was in a circle of strangers.  There were a few groups with other members of my church, but in my group, I was probably the only person there outside the Virginia/Maryland area.  And yet, when we began discussing Christ–His preeminence, His humility and His sufficiency–I found it rather easy to speak up in the group.  When you have Christ in common, geography and familiarity do not matter.  God showed me in those sessions the truth of those two verses above.  In these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son.  We all know the same Jesus.

Small groups benefit Christians where the messages cannot.  Preachers can teach the principle of Scripture and offer some application from the pulpit.  But daily application of the gospel is personal.  Not everyone is in the same season of life as the minister on stage.  Some may hear his words for the first time while others think about his words with a new perspective.  And some, who know the Scriptures and have sat under sound teaching for many years, may have wisdom even the speaker needs to learn.  To keep the application personal but true to the words, you need fellowship.  You need small groups. Read the rest of this entry »

“Never put the accent on the appearing and focus on that. Put the accent on Jesus.” –Sinclair Ferguson

“It’s almost a psychological-spiritual paradox,” Ferguson said as he began the final session of Next 2009. After learning about the glory of Christ in His preeminence, the miracle of His incarnation, His sinless life, His atoning death and His all-important resurrection, the Scottish pastor and seminary professor began his message with a peculiarity in the life of the Christian. Though there is a sense of eagerness to see the Lord in His journey, we joyfully and patiently await His miraculous coming.

Ever since our Lord and Savior ascended into glory, many people have come and gone prophesying the end of the world. Looking at “signs” from the world, at least a few people in every time period have thought they would see the world’s end in their lifetime. But their focus was not on that it was Jesus returning. It was about “ending the bad days.” It was about settling disputes on eschatology. It was about being “raptured up” before the rest of the world. It was not about Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

“For (the Apostle Paul), gospel-centered meant gospel transfer.” –Dave Harvey

“I can very much relate to the description of Timothy: humanly speaking, hopelessly unfit.  I need a t-shirt with that on there…What God calls you to, God will give you the grace and the strength to carry it out.” –Jared Mellinger

Unlike the other sessions, this breakout told a story.  This story was about a man passing on the baton to the next generation.  You could almost say this was the goal of the Next Conference being played out in the Church.  One generation gives wisdom and trains the younger generation to hold fast the gospel.  When the time comes, the younger generation steps up and continues the work of the Church, to preach the gospel in all the nations and to endure until the Lord’s return. Read the rest of this entry »