Currently Reading Early Christian Doctrines By J. N. D. Kelly see related

Fearfully and Wondfully Made!

The Psalmist praised the Lord that he was fearfully and wonderfully made.  Our God is a creative genius.  Let me illustrate it for you. There is not 1 part of your body that you can see that was there 10 years ago.  All the cells in your body have been replaced by new cells through the process of mitosis – cell reproduction (except for nerve cells and brain cells, which are never replaced)  That is true of all of us, so that if your wife says “your not the man I married 10 years ago..” You can say… “You’re right!”  Our bodies replace cells a bit slower as we age, especially in our bones, but they continue to replace themselves.

The question that might come to your mind is, why do the new cells look exactly like the old ones?  Why don’t my eyes change color? Why don’t I grow 10 inches with the new cells? Why the same nose, same facial features, same fingerprints, etc.?

The answer is DNA, Deoxyribonucleic Acid. This is a polymer molecule (a large molecule made up of smaller molecules) located in each cell nucleus that determines its makeup.  Within every DNA molecule is over one hundred thousand genes.  DNA is estimated to contain instructions that, if written out, would fill 1 thousand books of 600 pages each.  A muscle cell might operate according to instructions from volume 27 and a kidney cell according to instructions from volume 789, but each cell has the whole DNA.  The RNA within each cell tells it what part of the DNA instructions that each individual cell should operate according to!  Every cell of every person has their personal DNA, and everyone’s is completely different.  If you have ever watched an episode of CSI, you already know this; it is called our genetic finger print.

DNA looks like a long spiral staircase, millions of turns long. How large and long are those DNA? If you took the DNA out of every cell of your body and put them together, they are so compact that they wouldn’t be as big as an ice cube, yet if they are unwound, they would stretch from here to the sun and back…….OVER 400 TIMES!   Isn’t that incredible?  When you look in the mirror today, pause and take the time to praise the God who created you, and remember that you are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

Currently Reading Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis see related

One  well know Charismatic writer wrote these words:

  "The World awaits a fresh manifestation of the Spirit in the Body of Christ......I am tired of the airy, fairy doctrines of Theologians.  The fresh manifestation of the Spirit will have NOTHING to do with sound doctrine.”"

Is that statement true?  Is it true that a fresh manifestation of the Spirit is going to come independent of sound doctrine?  What is true is that the Church in some circles is accepting just about anything that smacks of spirituality without checking it out with the Word of God first.  We see it in the way the Church has embraced a marketing approach to ministry, viewing the gospel as a product to be hocked. We see it in the therapeutic approach to handling life's problems as opposed to a Biblical approach where God’s Word is seen as sufficient.  We see it in the health wealth and prosperity gospel, where God is seen as a cosmic genie as opposed to the awesome Sovereign Holy One.  We see it in the acceptance of shabby theology in Christian book stores, with books being written that have little to no relation to Biblical teaching.  The extremes are see in the bad theology of some Charismatics to the non-theology of some emergent Church writers.

What is the Problem?  There has been a breakdown of theology on the Local Church level where Pastors have opted out for a perceived better way as opposed to the Pauline example of consistently teaching of the whole counsel of God, and modeling a distinctly Christ-like living pattern.

 As David Wells says in the last Chapter of his fine book “No Place for Truth; Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?”

 "We need reformation rather than revival.  The habits of the modern world, not so ubiquitous in the evangelical world, need to be put to death, not given new life.  They need to be rooted out, not pampered over with some fresh religious enthusiasm.” ( His thesis is that proper theology leads to revival..)  “The death of theology has profound ramifications.  Theology is dying because the Church has lost its capacity for it.  And while some hail this loss as a step forward toward the hope of a new Evangelical vitality, it is in fact a sign of creeping death.  The emptiness of evangelical faith without Theology echoes the emptiness of modern life."

 As the body of Christ we must stand with a balance of love and sound doctrine.  It seems to me that we have swung from an emphasis on Orthodoxy (right belief) to an emphasis on Orthopraxy (right practice). The point is that we need both, without either the Church ceases to represent Jesus.  Pray that Pastors would have a renewed confidence in the Word of God.  God’s people are starving for the knowledge of God and it is time for the Shepherds to step up to the plate and deliver it, line upon line, precept upon precept.

Currently Reading Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples By Thom S. Rainer, Eric Geiger see related

Gaining Perspective

Perspective……an interesting concept isn’t it?  It is so easy to lose perspective in life.  As we go through this life it is not difficult to get so wrapped up in our own lives that we miss the needs of hurting people around us.  It happened to me on my drive home yesterday; let me tell you the story. 

I left my office for the 4 mile drive home and I was in my typical rush.  We were planning on going out after dinner to watch some of our teens play in a softball game and I was running a bit late.  Normally when I go across South Florida Avenue, I make it a point to shift gears and think about my wife Ruth and her needs and break out of the “Pastoral” mindset.  I was ruminating over some ministry issues as I came up to my “perspective changing” intersection, and then I saw it, a back up all the way to the light….not totally abnormal, but now I would be late and it would push all of our plans back.  To be honest with you, I was a bit bent out of shape; convinced that this was a satanic attack on my schedule!  We crawled along for 20 minutes with only 2-3 cars making through each cycle of the traffic lights on Lake Miriam at Cleveland Heights. I haven’t had my blood pressure taken in 10 years, but I am sure it was relatively high by now.  And then it happened, the perspective change.  Along the side of the road ahead I saw that there had been an accident, and I saw a young gal crying as she looked at her new little car which now resembled a crumpled up pancake.  I then notice the older couple, huddled together as the wife was being comforted by her husband, he had already been bandaged up around the head.  “O.K. Lord” I thought, “I get it; all I was thinking about was my little world, my little plans and my little life.  There is a world out here of hurting people who need Jesus, please instill in me YOUR perspective of the world.”

Has something like that ever happened to you?  I am not saying that God had that accident happen to straighten out my perspective, but I am saying that the Lord allows us to providentially come across circumstances daily that are meant to shake us out of our tiny, self-consumed perspective of life on to his global view of a world without hope.  Let us continually seek to see this world as Jesus sees it, then we will have a true and an accurate..…. perspective.

Currently Reading Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives see related

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away

When Job lost all that was dear to him, his response was “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed by the name of the Lord.”  We have a tendency to read those words and think “Well that was Job, super saint in a different age.  It is not possible to have an attitude like that in our day…”  OH?  How about a young couple who was given news months ago that the baby they were expecting was going to have numerous difficulties? Their response was to put total trust in their sovereign Lord.  The baby, Hannah is her name, was born this week with numerous physical challenges.  After surgery yesterday, the Lord took her home.  How did the young, grieving couple respond?  Here it is….from Geoff and Abigail Stalber’s own e-mail:

“Our God was good in giving her to us.

Our God was good in taking her from us.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Wow…..they have found their God to be sufficient in a time of great loss.  To be honest with you, it was no surprise to me, for this is a unique couple with a deep confidence in their Lord.  Geoff is an integral part of our leadership team at Heritage and we love he and Abi deeply.  We sorrow with them this week, for that is what the body of Christ  does, we  rejoice together and we sorrow together……we are a family, and can I let you in on a secret? I love being part of this family even….let me restate that…..ESPECIALLY during the hard times.  People like Geoff and Abi challenge us all to “trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding..”.  Geoff and Abi, we love you.

Currently Reading Steering Through Chaos: Vice and Virtue in an Age of Moral Confusion By Os Guiness see related

Learning Curve

One of the passions of my life is to learn.  Throughout the years I have learned many lessons from many people.  I have also learned that there are many kinds of people.  We could break them down into the following categories:

1.      People who motivate us, who add to our passion to learn & grow.

2.      People who grow with us, they share our passion.

3.      People who learn from us, the catch our passion.

4.      People who watch us, they like our passion.

5.      People who drain us, they want our passion and will suck it out of us.

Being in ministry, it is easy to spend most of your time with group #5, hurting people who are very draining.  I have seen some of them move from group #5 up to group #3 and that is exciting.  One of life’s greatest challenges is to find people in group #1, those who will motivate us, those who add to our passion for Jesus.  Over the years there have been numerous people who have had that ministry in my life, and almost all of them have been older than I, men like Paul Dixon, John MacArthur and Joe Stowell.  One of the exciting realities in my life is that there are now 2 NEW men in the category of people that motivate me, and they are markedly younger than I.

Those 2 younger men have a lot in common, they both love Jesus, they both have a passion to engage the culture for His glory.  Those being  two of my greatest passions, I have seen both of these men shaping my life for better.  Who are they?  One is my son, Art.  He motivates me.  I have watched the Lord shape him into a passionate disciple.  His sole desire is to bring glory to God in all that he does.  He wants to learn deep theology and practice it in his daily life.  Again, those are marks that I am passionate about in my life.  I love to interact with Art and see what he is learning and how he is applying it to his daily life.  Is Art perfect?  With a Dad like me he has little hope for that, but he is a young man of God who is marking the world for his glory.  I am proud of my son, and thrilled to be learning from him!  Another is Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle.  I have listened to Mark for months on the podcast from Mars Hill Church. I have e-mailed him and encouraged him in his ministry in my life.  Recently I had the privilege of speaking to the students at Cedarville University (go Jackets!).  I have learned from Mark some great principles of sharing with singles (much of my personal ministry is to married people), for Seattle is one of the most single centric cities in the country.  At Cedarville I shared many of principles that Mark has shared with the people at Mars Hill, and of course the principles were a blessing to many for they come from the Word of God which carries all the power.  I let Mark know how his ministry is affecting people he does not even know.  If you don’t get his podcast, put it on your ‘to do soon’ list.  (http://www.marshillchurch.org/)  Art doesn’t have a podcast yet, but his blog is a great read (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=aboulet)  My point is that we can learn from people of all ages, not just those older than us!  Those of you who are younger who read this, your life is impacting others whether you realize it or not!