The Promise No One Claims (Discipleship, Part 3)

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America, christian, christianity, disciple, discipleship, faith, Hebrews, Jesus, persecution, suffering

Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.  (Joshua to the people of Israel–Josh 23:14)

Have you ever heard someone talk about claiming the promises of God?  I have.  The phrase itself doesn’t appear in Scripture, but the idea, I think, is that God can (and must) be taken at His word.  That is, His word must be believed, even in the face of seemingly contradictory evidence.  Abraham provides a perfect example of that type of confidence in God’s promise.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old–and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (Rom 4:19-21)

Abraham was accordingly commended for his faith.  I want to be cautious here.  There is a fine line between faith and presumption.  And I want to avoid both of two unhappy mistakes—encouraging presumption; or worse, discouraging vibrant faith, because “without faith it is impossible to please God. (Heb 11:6).

A review of “Mighty Acts of God: A Family Bible Story Book”

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bible, book reviews, books, children, children's books, christian, christianity, predestination, reformed theology, Starr Meade, theology

I recently wrote a review at Amazon for the new bible story book, Mighty Acts of God.  In the  introductory note to parents, author Starr Meade wrote,

In this storybook, the focus in each story is on God, not on the human characters in the story. The stories are not presented primarily as moral tales giving children role models to emulate, or as accounts of how God always meets people’s needs (as do genies in fairy tales!). Instead, the book’s goal is for children to rightly see the God of Scripture, as he presents himself in the Bible’s narrative accounts. In this way, the book as a whole provides an overview of the character and attributes of God.

Taken together, all the stories we read in Scripture of God’s mighty acts relate the story of God’s mightiest act: his work of redemption. When Satan’s schemes and people’s sin seemed sure to thwart his plans, God’s purpose never faltered; he continued to perform one mighty act after another, all working together to accomplish the plan of redemption he had devised before he had created anything.

You can read my full review here.

The Dissuasiveness of Jesus (Discipleship, Part 2)

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christian, christianity, discipleship, F.F. Bruce, hard sayings, Jesus, Matthew Henry

Should we try to persuade men to follow Christ or not?

At some point in our Christian life, most of us have been led to believe that one of our primary duties as a Christian is to persuade others to make a “decision” to follow Christ.  I’m going to go out on a limb and make what may sound like an outrageous observation.  When I read the gospels, I get the distinct feeling that Jesus’ words were carefully designed to dissuade many of his admirers from following him.  Think for a moment about his response to some of them:

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  He said to another man, “Follow me.”   But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”  Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 9:57-62)

Could Jesus have been any more offensive? 

Theology, Foxtrot Style

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cartoon, Foxtrot, free will, fun, funny, humor, predestination, theology

No real point to this.  I just think it’s funny.

Go deep. How can free will coexist with divine preordination? Too deep. If Batman died would the Joker be happy?

Discipleship

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christian, christianity, church, discipleship, Jesus, Luke 14, the cross

In a comment on my last post, Mark Bass referred to a passage in Luke 14.  Several years ago my former pastor asked me to write an article for our church newsletter.  At the time, that very passage was weighing on me (as it often still does), so I attempted to write a brief devotional meditation based on it.  As a result of Mark’s comment, I decided to go ahead and republish it here:

Our pastor recently asked me to write an article on discipleship for the church newsletter.  I  found that to be simultaneously both very simple and very difficult–simple, because the Scripture texts are unmistakably clear; and difficult, because the same texts are uncomfortably clear. 

How much like Jesus are we?

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America, christian, christianity, David Platt, discipleship, poor, poverty, SBC, social action, southern baptist, video

What’s your reaction to the following graphic and video clip?

The text reads:  “Each week, millions and millions of upper middle class American citizens put on expensive dress clothes, and load themselves into SUV’s and drive past homeless shelters, orphanages, prisons, missions, and halfway houses on their way to very expensive and nice church, where somebody tells them how to be more like Jesus.”

A lot could be said about that, and I want to give you a chance to do just that.  What’s your response to the statement?  Is it true or is it false?  Is it fair or is it unfair?  Why, or why not?  Now, watch this 5-minute video.

David Platt began his message at a recent conference by showing that clip (HT Timmy Brister); Platt went on to say:

Over 4.5 billion who are without Christ are right now heading to an eternity in hell.  That is a vast spiritual need.  Add to that a vast physical need.  26,000 children will die today because of preventable disease.  God has chosen to determine the measure and integrity of faith by our response to the poor. If this book is true, then we do not have time to play games with our lives [emphasis mine].  We do not have time to play games in the church.  I want to call us this morning to forsake hopes, plans, dreams, possessions, and ideas of a nice, comfortable, safe middle-class American life.  I want to call you to forsake it all in radical abandonment for Jesus Christ.

Both the graphic and Platt’s message are an indictment, if not a scathing rebuke, to most American Christians.

The comments are all yours.

Christian Carnival CCCXIII

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abortion, avatar, blogging, blogs, C.S. Lewis, christian carnival, christianity, theology, William Wilberforce

Welcome to the 313th edition of christian carnival ii, a weekly collection of some of the best posts of the Christian blogosphere.  This carnival is open to Christians of Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic convictions.   I want to point out that this is the first time some of my closest blog friends have submitted a post to the carnival, and I’m thankful for their participation.  Their posts add significant value to this carnival.

As Jeremy Pierce notes in this post, one of the goals of the carnival is to offer our readers a broad range of Christian thought.  If you’ve never participated before, this is a great way to make your writing more well known and perhaps pick up some regular readers.   (Most of the instructions here are copied from Jeremy’s blog.  Following the carnival links you’ll find additional instructions and qualifications for posts being submitted to next week’s carnival.)

As you might expect with a carnival of this nature, there are some outstanding submissions every week, as well as a few that leave me scratching me head.  At any rate, I encourage you