You think you know and love God?

The more that I’ve immersed myself in Gospel centered preaching, the more I believe that much of modern Christianity has been poisoned by an anti-Christ, false gospel that masquerades itself as being the truth but is nothing more than a satanic deception that will lead the multitudes who consider themselves Christians straight to hell. This Jesus + works message is absolute garbage and does not lead us into right relationship with God or true love of Jesus.

This is, perhaps, one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard that really makes this false gospel clear. My prayer is that everyone would hear these words and consider how they have been approaching God. Has it been through your own good deeds, trying to please God and get Him to love you more? Or has it been by recognizing your own inability to please God and, therefore, crying out for grace offered only through the blood of the Lamb of God?

Check it: Motivations (Fear or Love) by Matt Chandler

10 things young singles should know about relationships

Here are some great points about dating that Jared Wilson (blogger at the Gospel Coalition website and pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church) wrote on his blog today. I wonder if we, as Christians, focus a bit too much on sex in dating, and I think that emphasis is seen in these points below. Nonetheless, sex before marriage has remarkable consequences for everyone involved (emotional ties that are too deep for the level of commitment; minimization of the purpose of marriage; unplanned pregnancy which can lead to higher levels of abortions, children without their own parents if they are given up for adoption, miscarriages, etc.), and it is clear that the culture and Christians in general is/are engaged in sexual relationships before marriage at a high rate. This is something that clearly needs to be addressed, which may lend itself to emphasizing sex as much as we do. This is good that we address these things, but I’ve also heard of a number of Christians who, even after they are married, find sexual activity to be very difficult to engage in—some do not even have sex on their wedding night. If this is because of shyness or feelings of nervous anticipation, that is one thing; but, if this is because of feelings of shame or fear because of a church culture that inculcates a sense of shame regarding sex (as opposed to a healthy view of sex that advocates for positive, godly choices) then that is a serious problem.

But I digress. I don’t believe Jared Wilson says anything negative or harmful. These are just things that I thought of when I was reading through it.

 

10 Things Young Singles in Romantic Relationships Ought to Know

by Jared C. Wilson

1. It’s not bad to want to have sex with your significant other. It’d be another sort of worry if you didn’t. The key is to want to glorify Christ more than you want to have sex with each other.

2. The key to glorifying Christ more than you want to have sex with each other is that it is a decision to be made over and over again.

3. Persons in a dating or courting relationship are on their best behavior. So however they are now, you can expect, over time, for them to get “worse.” As familiarity grows, people let their guards down. Marriage does not fix bad behavior; it often gives it freer reign. Ladies, this means if your boyfriend is controlling, suspicious, verbally condescending or manipulative, he will get worse, not better the longer your relationship goes on. Whatever you are making excuses for or overlooking now, will get harder to ignore and more prominent the longer your relationship goes on. You can’t fix him, and marriage won’t straighten him out.

4. Nearly every Christian I know who is married to an unbeliever loves their spouse and does not necessarily regret marrying them, but has experienced deep pain and discontent in their marriage because of this unequal yoking and would now never advise a believer to marry an unbeliever.

5. Assuming you’re special and you’re different and their experiences won’t reflect yours is shortsighted, unwise, and arrogant. The people who love you and are warning/advising you against your relationship might be ignorant fools. Those sorts of people do exist. But odds are better that your parents, your pastor, your older married friends are wiser than you think.

6. Living together before marriage is a marriage killer.

7. Premarital sex de-incentivizes a young man to grow up, take responsibility, and lead his home and family.

8. Pre-marital sex wounds a young woman’s heart, perhaps imperceptibly at first but undeniably over time, as she trades in covenant benefits without covenant security. This is not the way God designed sex to fulfill us. Never give your body to a man who has not pledged to God his faithfulness to you in covenant marriage, which presupposes an accountability to a local church. In short, don’t give your heart to a man who is not accountable to anybody who provides godly discipline.

9. All of your relationships, including your romantic relationship, is meant to make Jesus look big more than it is meant to provide you personal fulfillment. When we make personal fulfillment our ultimate priority in our relationships, ironically enough, we find ourselves frustratingly unfulfilled.

10. You are loved by God with abundant grace in Christ’s atoning work, and an embrace of this love by faith in Jesus provides Holy Spiritual power and satisfaction to pursue relationships that honor God and thereby maximize your joy.

Source: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/gospeldrivenchurch/2012/06/19/10-things-young-singles-in-romantic-relationships-ought-to-know/

Obama’s faith

Why We should reexamine the faith of Barack Obama

by Owen Strachan

Is Barack Obama a Christian?

This perennial question came to the fore recently after American President Barack Obama endorsed same-sex marriage in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts. Speaking of his views on the issue as the result of “an evolution,” Obama relayed that he had decided that it was “important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” Referencing the ethical witness of his daughters, the President made his argument on biblical grounds, specifically the “golden rule,” the idea that we should “treat others the way you’d want to be treated,” as he paraphrased Matthew 7:12.

The question of whether any person is a Christian is important, not just a President or celebrity. Scripture offers numerous examples of people who claim faith and yet are not necessarily converted (Matt. 7:22; Luke 8:4–21; 2 Tim. 4:3–4). Christians and local churches act biblically when they examine a confession of faith to see if it is backed up by a holy, God-pleasing life (1 John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:22). Though a vocal Christian contingent argues that such analysis is hostile, it is necessary for us to examine the faith of those who profess it.

At first blush, President Obama can certainly sound like a Christian. As seen above, he cites Scripture as an inspiration and moral guide. At the 2012 Easter prayer breakfast, he explored the “all-important gift of grace” that came through the endurance of “unimaginable pain that wracked His body and bore the sins of the world.” At the 2011 prayer breakfast, he spoke of how he came to “know Jesus Christ for myself and embrace Him as my lord and savior.” The President had sounded similar themes in his 2004 interview with Cathleen Falsani.

Yet in that interview, his most fulsome statement to date of his religious views, President Obama diverged sharply from Scripture. In the interview, never refuted in print or in word, spirituality boils down to values: “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power … there are values that transcend race or culture.”

The Lord’s Supper

Hello all! It’s been an eternity since I have had time to write anything! Life has been very busy and I have been feeling pretty sick the last few days (recovered today, thankfully!). I wanted to post something that I read today, which is a discussion on how often we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper! I am very privileged to attend a church that celebrates the Lord’s Supper each week, and it has truly become one of the most treasured times of my week to proclaim in such a tangible way that I share in and partake of the broken body of our glorious Savior, who shed His life for us. I cannot imagine a more beautiful and solemn act of remembrance by which we truly experience the body and blood of Jesus, and experience true nourishment and strengthening of our faith by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the communion elements! I hope you all enjoy!

 

The Lord’s Supper: How Often?
By David T. Koyzis
March 1990

In most Reformed and Presbyterian churches, the typical Sunday morning worship service is a preaching service in which the sermon is regarded as the centerpiece. The Lord’s Supper, or communion, is celebrated infrequently—perhaps four to six times a year—and is viewed by the congregation as something of a special occasion. Such occasional celebration is so much a part of the life of Calvinistic churches that it is probably not widely known that Calvin himself favored weekly celebration of communion.

Why did he favor frequent celebration of the sacrament, and why were his wishes not followed?

Scripture and the Early Church

As is the case with the mode and time of baptism, the Scriptures are not clear about how often the Lord’s Supper ought to be celebrated. Jesus himself gave no direction on the matter, nor did the apostle Paul. But Luke reports in the book of Acts: “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.” (20:7) Luke was describing his seven-day visit to the city of Troas in Asia Minor. The passage implies that the breaking of bread was not an unusual occurrence, but the normal practice of the Christians in that city.

Several extrabiblical sources report more explicitly that the early church celebrated the Lord’s Supper whenever it met for worship. These include the late first-century Didache, or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, and the First Apology of Justin Martyr, which was written in the middle of the second century. In The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, which was written around A.D. 200 and is the oldest surviving Christian liturgy, the author documents the normal worship service at Rome, which included the Lord’s Supper. Unfortunately, as early as the fourth century the laity had already begun to participate in the supper with decreasing frequency.

Jesus vs. Religion

To clarify that this wasn’t an attack against the church, Jefferson Bethke said today on his Facebook page:

“If you are using my video to bash “the church” be careful. I was in no way intending to do that. My heart came from trying to highlight and expose legalism and hypocrisy. The Church is Jesus’ bride, so be careful how you speak of His wife. If a normal dude has right to get pissed when you bash His wife, it makes me tremble to think how great the weight is when we do it to Jesus’ wife. The church is His vehicle to reach a lost world. A hospital for sinners. Saying you love Jesus but hate the Church, is like a fiancé saying he loves his future bride, but hates her kids. We are all under grace. Look to Him.”

Here’s an interesting critique by Kevin DeYoung: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/13/does-jesus-hate-religion-kinda-sorta-not-really/

I would like to know what you all think about this! I understand why Kevin DeYoung would be concerned about the message being portrayed because there is a great deal of room for misinterpretation. I also understand that Jefferson Bethke is calling the church to rid itself of legalistic, man-made distinctions among believers (something which Kevin DeYoung would absolutely agree needs to happen). Regardless, I am glad that a video about Jesus conquering sin and bringing grace and freedom to sinners is going viral. I definitely don’t mind passing it along.

New Years Resolve

I have this feeling that this next year is going to be very different from the previous few years. It’s going to be a rough year, but also one that is filled with hope and joy–even in the midst of whatever difficulties may come. My confidence in God has grown significantly in the last few months, in many ways because of the wonderful community of believers at Garden City Church in San Jose, and I know that will only continue. God is always faithful, in spite of our times of faithlessness, because “He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). He has shown me that very clearly recently.

One of the big changes that is coming this year for me is making daily Scripture reading a priority. Although I have read Scripture enough to know my way around and have quite a few verses memorized, I know that my mastery of Scripture isn’t even close to what it could be, nor is my dedication to memorizing and understanding Scripture even close to what  Christians in past centuries had. In the past it was not uncommon for Christians to memorize whole books (if not entire testaments) of Scripture. Needless to say, I am not even close to that kind of memorization.

A number of people from my church and college group are starting this reading plan, starting today (oh boy, better get reading), for the whole year. It was developed by Prof. Horner at the Master’s College in southern California. The basic idea is to read one chapter from ten different sections (see the link at the bottom of the page for details about the sections) in Scripture every day, neither skimming the chapters nor carefully reading them (he suggests a moderate pace of about 6 minutes per chapter). Although it is not a plan that encourages deep study, those who have continued this plan for a few months have experienced deep understanding due to the fact that you are saturating yourself with Scripture from ten different areas all at once. In this way, you begin to see how the narrative of Scripture is truly unified.

In addition to getting the whole picture of the Bible (and reading it two times through in a year), Prof. Horner said that many people become so familiar with their Bibles that they know exactly where verses are on a given page from memory (eg. Psalm 119:9 is on the bottom right). Retention of what is being read increases exponentially overtime, and many people say their lives are completely revolutionized. Indeed, how can one remain unchanged when they are filling their minds with Scripture every day?

I’m really excited for this plan, and I trust that God is going to continually transform my mind and make me more like His Son.

If anyone is interested please check out the following links:

Horner’s reading plan

The 3650 Challenge Facebook page (this is a group page for people doing the plan)

I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year and that you will consider starting a Bible reading plan that gets you reading God’s word daily!

Must We Believe in the Virgin Birth?

Albert Mohler is one of the leading voices in the American church that is calling Christians to maintain adherence to the “faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Every aspect of the Christian faith has been challenged from the beginning, but this is the first time when people have simultaneously claimed membership in the Christian community and abandoned doctrines that have been considered essential all along. These departures from orthodoxy are not simply private matters, as they may have been in the past, but have actually become accepted by entire denominations as acceptable.

One belief that is seen as unimportant and expendable is the virgin birth of Christ. In a great article, Mohler discusses why the virgin birth is absolutely essential for Christians to believe:

In one of his columns for The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof once pointed to belief in the Virgin Birth as evidence that conservative Christians are “less intellectual.” Are we saddled with an untenable doctrine? Is belief in the Virgin Birth really necessary?

Kristof is absolutely aghast that so many Americans believe in the Virgin Birth. “The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time,” he explains, and the percentage of Americans who believe in the Virgin Birth “actually rose five points in the latest poll.” Yikes! Is this evidence of secular backsliding?

“The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine America’s emphasis on faith,” Kristof argues, “because most Biblical scholars regard the evidence for the Virgin Birth … as so shaky that it pretty much has to be a leap of faith.” Here’s a little hint: Anytime you hear a claim about what “most Biblical scholars” believe, check on just who these illustrious scholars really are.

To continue reading, click the following link: Must We Believe in the Virgin Birth?

Presbyterian Polity

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church–Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)

Saturday (Nov. 19) I attended the meeting of the presbytery of San Jose, PC(USA). I think that there were two things that were confirmed:

1.) I am a huge nerd

Christian Unity

Kevin DeYoung posted what D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said concerning unity within the Christian Church:

The starting point in considering the question of unity must always be regeneration and belief of the truth. Nothing else produces unity, and, as we have seen clearly, it is impossible apart from this.

An appearance or a facade of unity based on anything else, and at the expense of these two criteria, or which ignores them, is clearly a fraud and a lie. People are not one, nor in a state of unity, who disagree about fundamental questions such as:

(a) whether we submit ourselves utterly to revealed truth or rely ultimately upon our reason and human thinking;

(b) the historic fall, and man’s present state and condition in sin, under the wrath of God, and in complete helplessness and hopelessness as regards salvation; and

(c) the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and the utter, absolute necessity, and sole sufficiency, of His substitutionary atoning work for sinners.

To give the impression that they are one simply because of a common outward organization is not only to mislead the world which is outside the church but to be guilty of a lie. (Knowing the Times, 160-61).

Source: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/10/29/the-starting-point-for-christian-unity/

Think and Preach like a Calvinist

Awesome article that I just read on The Gospel Coalition. I thought it was worth passing along!

How to Call for a Gospel Response Like a Calvinist

“Think like a Calvinist. Preach like an Arminian.”

That is how one preaching professor taught his students to call people to faith in a sermon. He couldn’t reconcile a theological system that embraces God’s sovereignty in salvation with a plea for sinful people to change. Ultimately, this prof thought Calvinism makes sense biblically and logically, but not practically.

Perhaps you have struggled with this, too. I know I have.

There was a season of my ministry where I didn’t call people to believe the gospel. I preached the gospel, of course, but only with the hope that the Spirit would use his word to regenerate spiritually dead teenagers against their will. I merely implied that they must believe the gospel.

But I have turned from this mindset. This is not because my pendulum has swung to a more balanced position between Calvinism and Arminianism—I don’t believe there is such a thing. It’s because I’ve grown to understand what Calvinism is and, perhaps more importantly, what it isn’t.