Renewing the Church-Part 2

We need to get rid of the notion that church growth is directly related to techniques, hard labor or charismatic personalities. We would not demean these, especially the "hard work" ethic. But what we deplore is a faith dependency on these things, a dependency that turns our eyes off the Master and away from the Holy Spirit for our empowerment. It is not alarming that many voices have been crying out for renewal in the church. What is alarming is our apparent faithlessness with regard to the "Old Paths" (as J. C. Ryle would call them). However we choose to deal with today's culture, we must realize--shouldn't we--that man is basically the same today as he was 200 or even 2, 000 years ago? Sin still blinds man's spiritual eyes and jades his ability to understand the truth. It is this with which we must deal, ever and always. The gospel cuts through that where the Holy Spirit drives it home to the heart.

Mark Galli's article (see post 2 days ago) in the October Christianity Today writes of numerous problems in the church requiring, as he calls it, a "kaleidoscope of answers," many of which rightly deal with horizontal issues such as racism, and indifference to injustice as well as poor ecclesiology,  and inattention to doctrine. And while granting that many of the movements he cites do pay attention to the vertical (the Godward issues), "our practical and activist sensibility--one of our movement's stellar attributes--tends to undermine the vertical" (p. 25).  This supports what I have often taught, namely that much of our brand of Christianity tends to (if not outrightly) objectify the gospel, reducing the life of Christ to a set of Christian actions . . . minus Jesus, the Person.

Spiritual formation certainly aims the believer in the right direction, as long was we don't get our hands on it and reduce it to yet another method! We American Christians have an uncanny way of taking the living Word and the Spirit-filled life and quantifying it and qualifying it and ultimately consigning it to a laboratory where Christianity becomes a set of laws born out through experimentation and testing. Will we ever learn to walk with God like Enoch, become a friend like Abraham, or earn the moniker from God as a man/woman after His "own heart" like David? We do not promote comparisons here, but example. I love what Jesus told Martha, "Mary has desired the one thing necessary" (Luke 10:42). His "one thing" seemed to involve the attentive sitting and gleaning from Christ himself. Paul would later cry out, "That I may know Him . . ." (Phil. 3:10). That's getting at it!

Applying it slightly differently, Galli quotes Martin Luther, who said, "One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ." One more time. We can turn the Bible itself into an idol (bibliolatry)--not to be too negative. Still, John Wesley's reputation is commendable to us all, that he was preeminently a man of one book. I love God's Word, and especially as it gives life. "We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete" (1 John 1:4).

Get enamored with Jesus himself. Walk with Him in solitude. Do more than merely read, but pour over Scripture intentionally praying "open my eyes to behold wondrous things" (Ps. 119:18). Look for wonder. Worship the Wonderful!! When our hearts are renewed IN Christ, we will then likely start to see changes within the body of Christ at large. That is God's call.

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How To Renew the Church?

An Old-Time Revival Tent?

Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today wrote the title article in the October issue "In The Beginning, Grace." To assess the spiritual malaise in our country, he cites a poll taken by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Published in 2005, they interviewed 267 American teenagers and "concluded that a new religion had emerged in America whose chief tenets are as follows":

• A God exists who created and orders the word and watches over human life on earth.
• God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. 
• The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 
• God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
• Good people go to heaven when they die.
  

Galli continues, "Smith and Denton noticed that this "de facto creed" was particularly prominent among mainline Protestant and Catholic teenagers, 'but is also visible among black and conservative Protestants.'"

Smith and Denton's Conclusion?

We have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

Galli suggests that while this poll represented teenagers, it could actually be applied to "large segments of evangelical faith" as well.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will present Galli's conclusions. But . . .

But allow me to draw a couple of observations from the above poll. First, with deference to our pollsters, may I suggest that it really isn't all that necessary to question teenagers or any other cross-section of our society in order to discover the "default" position in sinful man's heart. None of the above creedal statements reveals anything new. It is but a collection of superficial mishmash of generally perceived religious feelings. Given a little time, even the few divine references will disappear. Either way, they represent but the downward spiral of godlessness. Which brings me to my second issue: If we are to be amazed, it is not at culture's inability to perceive their true spiritual state. After all, natural man cannot understand these things because they are "spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14, ESV). What should astound us is the church's complicity in promoting such a trivial god in the name of communication (or popularity), such that only a vestige of the original gospel still remains, thus leaving the hearers to wallow in their own confusion. The trumpet must once again be blown, and that with a clear sound calling the church back to biblical faith. It has always been the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). The church leadership needs to repent of her unbelief and return to explicit trust in the power of God to save and to keep. And forget numbers; that's God's bailiwick (domain).

As Galli states, many voices are crying out for renewal--and rightly so. The question is what kind of renewal? Is our cure as infected as the disease? The answer must arise from no less a source than the eternal Word of God in Jesus Christ. That, you may offer, is obvious. I would say that it is not as obvious as it should be.

Tomorrow: Vertical versus Horizontal fixes.
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Herald the Gospel Boldly!

The Church has lost sight of the fact that they have something vitally important to say to the world. This is essentially what my daughter, Rachel shared with me from her reading of R. C. Sproul's, Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics. Putting it that way has stuck with me, especially given the tenor of the church's demurring approach to evangelism these days. Coming at this from another generation & a different author, I am amazed at the perspicuity of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who back in the 1960s preached a wonderful series of sermons on the book of Acts. In volume 6, Compelling Christianity, in a sermon entitled simply, "The Word," on 8:4, "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word."  

But there are those in evangelism, according to Lloyd-Jones who seem to be afraid to declare the truth too dogmatically, who seem to imagine that there is merit in admitting that truth can come from other religions. Perhaps, they think, Christianity does not have the "corner on the market" of directing folks to heaven?! [My paraphrase] And is this not true, that today it is considered a virtue to be tolerant of all beliefs by putting them all on an equal par with the gospel? That last part is vitally important. We can be tolerant of others, but THAT DOES NOT MEAN EQUATING THEM! It's almost as if we cannot be too bold to assert that we have the truth, so we prevaricate by saying that we are pursuers of God in a manner of speaking. Lloyd-Jones sees it quite another way:

They were not looking for anything; they were telling people what they had found. They were not explorers; they were men and women who knew exactly what they had found. This is emphasized everywhere in the New Testament. A church is not a society in which you seek for truth. The church is a society that proclaims the truth, declares it, and heralds it. And if she does not do that, she is not a church, no matter how old she is or who belongs to her. The idea that a Christian is someone who is seeking for salvation or seeking the truth is an utter lie, a contradiction of the very basis of the Gospel. 

Thank you, Lord, for a daughter who's seeking the truth from a foundation of The TRUTH, and has laid her account solidly at the foot of the cross without hesitation. 

Amen!! 

Really, The Gospel IS GOOD News!

We Christians, according to Michael Horton, "need to be evangelized every week." For what? To get the soul-freeing gospel right. And don't we want to do just that? We MUST! Whether or not we realize it, we who call ourselves Christians struggle, not just against "principalities and powers" (Eph. 6:10ff), but against law versus grace. Horton says it this way:

When we confuse law and gospel, we avoid both the trauma of God's holiness and the liberating power of his grace. We begin to speak about living the gospel, doing the gospel, even being the gospel, as if the Good News were a message about us and our works instead of about Christ and his works. The proper response is neither to dispense with the law nor to soften it from demand to helpful advice. . . . We are not called to live the gospel but to believe the gospel and to follow the law in view of God's mercies. Turning the gospel into law is a very easy thing for us to do; it comes naturally. That is why we can never take the Good News for granted.

Which is precisely why Horton insists that we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day! "THE LAW TELLS US WHAT TO DO; THE GOSPEL TELLS US WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US IN CHRIST. . . . The law tells us what God expects of us; the gospel tells us what God has done for us." (emphasis mine)

Indeed, it IS for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1), not freedom from the law, but freedom IN CHRIST to believe and be saved. It is the work of Christ that you believe and are saved (John 6:29). HIS work. We rest in that, and in that alone! Don't bolt at this under the pretense that "we're supposed to do something!" We DO. We believe. We trust. We depend on God. It's not OUR doing. It is HIS. Why do we fight this?

"Jesus, I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art.
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart."  --Jean S. Pigott (1876)

Amen!

Taken from Christless Christianity by Michael Horton.
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In Everything Give Thanks

"See what cause the saints have to be frequent in the work of thanksgiving. In this Christians are defective; though they are much in supplication, yet little in gratulation. The apostle says. "In everything give thanks" (1 Thess. 5.18). Why so? Because God makes everything work for our good. We thank the physician, though he gives us a bitter medicine which makes us sick, because it is to make us well; we thank any man who does us a good turn; and shall we not be thankful to God, who makes everything work for good to us? God loves a thankful Christian. Job thanked God when he took all away: "The Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1.21). Many will thank God when He gives; Job thanks Him when He takes away, because he knew that God would work good out of it. We read of saints with harps in their hands (Rev. 14.2), an emblem of praise. We meet many Christians who have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouths; but there are few with their harps in their hands, who praise God in affliction. To be thankful in affliction is a work peculiar to a saint. Every bird can sing in spring, but some birds will sing in the dead of winter. Everyone, almost, can be thankful in prosperity, but a true saint can be thankful in adversity. A good Christian will bless God, not only at sun-rise, but at sun-set. Well may we, in the worst that befalls us, have a psalm of thankfulness, because all things work for good. Oh, be much in blessing of God: we will thank Him that doth befriend us."

Taken from Banner of Truth's Puritan Paperback, "All Things for Good," by Thomas Watson, pp 62-63.
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An Edwards-ian Thanksgiving

In November 1739, Jonathan Edwards preached not freedom from want, but freedom from demons. 

by Elesha Coffman | November 18, 2009

Thanksgiving is a feel-good holiday. All Americans know, or think they know, about the “first Thanksgiving” celebration among helpful American Indians and grateful Pilgrims. Some Americans know, at least vaguely, that the national tradition is also connected to war. Abraham Lincoln began the annual observance in 1863, as the Civil War was nearing its bloody crescendo, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the federal holiday official by signing a bill in December 1941, a few weeks after Pearl Harbor. But hey, those wars happened a long time ago, and they were noble wars, and the good guys won. As the twentieth century spun on, Thanksgiving became synonymous with plenty, even excess, prompting an annual round of reduced-fat recipes, dieting tips, and warnings about the lethargy brought on by too much turkey. The dominant image was Norman Rockwell’s iconic “Freedom from Want,” another World War II artifact symbolizing all that was right with America and could be right with the world following an Allied victory. 

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), America’s foremost theologian, held forth a very different vision in his 1739 Thanksgiving sermon.

Naturally, Edwards could have known nothing of the Civil War or World War II. He did know about cooperation and conflicts between European settlers and American Indians; in 1750, having been forced from his prestigious Northampton parish, he became a missionary to the Housatonic Indians. But no meditations on ethnic harmony, national success, or bountiful harvests informed his sermon. Instead, he took as his text Luke 8:2-3 (NIV): “and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” 

What, you might ask, has this to do with corn on the cob? The direct connection is the labor of women as cooks and caregivers. Before you dismiss this idea as hopelessly backward and sexist, read what Edwards said about the women who served the disciples:

How suitable and becoming was the behavior of those women that when Christ had been their deliverer from such grievous calamities, they thus showed their dear love and gratitude to him, and fed and clothed him as long as he lived, and prepared for an embalming of him when he was dead. How suitable and amiable was the behavior of Mary Magdalene, that had been a notorious sinner and out of whom Christ cast seven devils, in following Christ ever after wherever he went, to provide meat and drink for him while he lived, from a dear love which she always had for him, and followed him to the cross, and followed him to the grave, and was the most [?] of all in doing him honor at his death.

The members of Edwards’s congregation could not minister directly to Christ, so he exhorted them—men and women—to minister to “the least of these” in his stead. Edwards called for an active ministry: “We are not only to wait till the poor come to our houses a-begging, but we are to bring ‘em to our houses (Isa. 58:7). … We are not to wait till they come to our houses, but we are to go to theirs. This is said to be pure and undefiled religion (Jam. 1:27).” As further incentive, Edwards stressed that none of this work would come close to the effort Christ expended on our behalf, yet all pious efforts would be rewarded in heaven. Gratitude should beget service, which yields blessings and yet more gratitude.

If there is any freedom from want in this picture, it comes not through sun and rain on fields, or through national security, but through Christ’s people following his example and assuaging the grievous calamities of the poor and oppressed. Freedom from want is not a guarantee, but a goal. And it’s going to take a lot more work than the most lavish turkey dinner.

* * * N.B., while we’re on the subject of gratitude, many thanks to the folks at the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, who transcribed this sermon and made it available online.

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WONDROUS Things--Meditation 4

"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law" (Psalm 119:18).

If more Christians were convinced of this--that God's Word is WONDROUS--then they would far more quickly read and soak in it! The benefit is incalculable! Prayer is needed to arrive there. But the destination is certain! Wonders await those who seek God in His Word!

His name is "Wonderful" and all his promises are "exceeding great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4); they transcend man's capacity (Manton). God infinite transcends, Jesus via Holy Spirit comprehends. Therefore, we pray.

Indeed, the law of the LORD is perfect, 
   Reviving the soul; 
The testimony of the LORD is sure, 
   Making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
   Rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure,
   Enlightening the eyes. (Psalm 19:7-8)

God's Word--revives our sluggishness, bestows wisdom, bolsters our heart with joy, and turns all kinds of lights on for our eyes to see! Wondrous things! YES. Is Christ not called the "Wonderful Counselor" (Is. 9:6), the "Word made flesh" (John 1:14), the Spirit-taught Glory (John 16:14). Are we not in the Book privy to "the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 1:18), the mysterious [now unveiled] wisdom of God ordained for our glory (1 Cor. 2:7). Wonder-filled mysteries unfolded for us! That's marvelous. And shall we not attempt daily to plumb those depths through the Spirit? Can we not say with the woman at the well, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did?" (John 4:29). Is He not still telling us these things, for the "Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of  soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).

Yes, we pray -- "Open my eyes to behold wondrous things . . ."

If we are to be guilty, let us not be guilty of asking of God too little!

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