New Desiring God Website and book I am reading

Here is an exciting note for everyone.....

The New DesiringGod.org Is Coming Soon
Watch for our redesigned website,
providing more content, improved access to all of our content, and many other
improvements, to be released this week.

So check back at www.desiringgod.org soon for the update.

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Also, I am reading a book called No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology. It is slow to start out with, but I am trusting that it will get better as it goes along. I figure that it will be a good disipline to continue with it and not just give up on it after the first chapter. Too often in life we give up on things to early!

Reaching out without selling out

I have recently been enjoying the writings and ministry of Mark Driscoll. For those of you who don’t know who this is, Mark Driscoll is the founding Pastor of a church in Seattle called Mars Hill Church. He is very straight-up, and doesn’t hide from making bold statements. For a introduction to some of his quotes, take a look at Vanessa’s blog where she lists some of them from his book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

Most recently, I have been reading his book called The Radical Reformission: Reaching out without selling out. The book is basically about how to reach the culture you live in. There is a great chapter in this book called "The Sin of Light Beer: how syncretism and sectarianism undermine reformission. " He goes on to say how when it comes to engaging culture, we often fall into one of four camps: Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes. Pharisees separate from the culture, Sadducees blend into the culture, Zealots try to rule over culture (through changing the culture by Christian politics whether it be left or right), and Essenes who ignore culture. Furthermore, Pharisees and Essenes would be sectarians (who stay out of the culture), and Sadducees and Zealots are Syncretists who go too far into the culture.

Both sides fail Jesus's command from John 17:13-18:

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may
have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world
has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from
the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have
sent them into the world.

Jesus said that we are not of the world, but that we are to go into the world. How we find this balance is the difficulty. When you go into the world, you will get "christians" who bring you down for being too worldly, but when you try to take a stand against the world there are "christians" who say you are being to harsh or legalistic.

I think the key is for each individual Christian to be convinced in their own mind what is right for them, based on Biblical principles and their God-given conscience. These two gifts from God are the keys to making our way through grey areas. I pray that God would give our generation a hunger for His Word, and sharpen our conscience so that we would be effective in reaching our culture without selling out to syncretism or sectarianism.

A word from Piper...

I decided to swing by desiringgod.org today and read a fantastic quote by Piper.

Piper Quote of the Day
"The day you hear that you have cancer, or that your child is blind, or that a mob is coming, you turn away from light books to the weighty ones that were written on the precipice of eternity where the fragrance of heaven and the stench of hell are both in the air."(The Hidden Smile of God, pg. 61-62)

In a day and age where the light books are so easily found in Christian bookstores and the weighty ones are found as easily as a needle in a haystack, the quote rings so true. It is such a reflection of our Lackadaisical christianity. Things are fanciful and pleasant, and so are our books.

So what is an appropriate response? Read a weighty book "that (was) written on the precipice of eternity where the fragrance of heaven and the stench of hell are both in the air."

The Lion and the Lamb

• “A lion is admirable for its ferocious strength and imperial appearance. A lamb is admirable for its meekness and servant-like provision of wool for our clothing. But even more admirable is a lion-like lamb and a lamb-like lion. What makes Christ glorious, as Jonathan Edwards observed over 250 years ago, is ‘an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.’”
• “For example, we admire Christ for his transcendence, but even more because the transcendence of his greatness is mixed with submission to God. We marvel at him because his uncompromising justice is tempered with mercy. His majesty is sweetened by meekness. In his equality with God he has a deep reverence for God. Though he is worthy of all good, he was patient to suffer evil. His sovereign dominion over the world was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission. He baffled the proud scribes with his wisdom, but was simple enough to be loved by children. He could still the storm with a word, but would not strike the Samaritans with lightning or take himself down from the cross.
• “So Christ is a lamb-like Lion and a lion-like Lamb. That is his glory— ‘an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.’”
• Part of what makes Christ so glorious is the tension between his powerful lion-like qualities and his meek lamb-like qualities. In that balance we see the fullness of all that is to be admired.

Chapter 2 – Jesus is the Glory of God

• “Christ does not exist in order to make much of us. We exist in order to enjoy making much of him. The assumption of this book is that to know the glories of Christ is an end, not a means. Christ is not glorious so that we get wealthy or healthy. Christ is glorious so that rich or poor, sick or sound, we might be satisfied in him.”
• “There is no “before” God and no “after” God. He is absolutely there, no matter how far back or how far forward you go. He is the absolute Reality. He has the honor of being there first and always. To him belongs this singular glory.”
• “Jesus Christ is the Creator of the universe. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Jesus Christ, the Person, never had a beginning. He is absolute Reality. He has the unparalleled honor and unique glory of being there first and always. He never came into being. He was eternally begotten. The Father has eternally enjoyed “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3) in the Person of his Son.”
• “Seeing and savoring this glory is the goal of our salvation. “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me” (John 17:24). To feast on this forever is the aim of our being created and our being redeemed.”
  

Jesus is fully God, and the purpose of all creation was to bring glory to God in the face of Christ.