AAF: What are your thoughts on a mosque at ground zero?

Aug 20 | Heather | 13 Comments |

(Ask Anything Friday is a series that I try to get to each Friday… if you have a question, submit it HERE. No subject is off-limits! Questions can relate to the church, theology, personal life, etc.)

Anne Rice and which scholars are the most biased in their research

Aug 20 | Pastor J.D. | 1 Comment |

Loved this interview by Christianity Today with Anne Rice. Loved especially this point:

Sometimes the most conservative people are the most biblically and scholastically sound. They have studied Scripture and have studied skeptical scholarship. They make brilliant arguments for the way something in the Bible reads and how it’s been interpreted. I don’t go to them necessarily to know more about their personal beliefs. It’s the brilliance they bring to bear on the text that appeals to me. Of all the people I’ve read over the years, it’s their work that I keep on my desk. They’re all non-Catholics, but they’re believers, they document their books well, they write well, they’re scrupulously honest as scholars, and they don’t have a bias. Many of the skeptical non-believer biblical scholars have a terrible bias. To them, Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, so there’s no point in discussing it. I want someone to approach the text and tell me what it says, how the language worked.

Spiritual Change Begins with Sight

Aug 18 | Pastor J.D. | No Comments |

I think the greatest insight I got from studying Ephesians came from looking at the placement and content of the prayers Paul prays for the Ephesians throughout the book.

If the prayers in Ephesians indicate to us what Paul appears to have most often prayed for his congregations, then the answer to that is “spiritual sight.” Twice in the book of Ephesians Paul bursts into prayer, praying

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸ having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the value… and the power…” (1:17)

and that

“you may have the strength to comprehend… the love of Christ.” (3:18-19)

Paul is in the middle of explaining some of the deepest doctrine and practical instruction found anywhere in the Bible, and as he does so he keeps praying that God would give the Ephesians eyes to see the glory and majesty of God, because real change comes from sight, not knowledge or behavioral adjustment.

What Paul is praying for is certainly accompanied by knowledge and results in behavioral change, but what he is asking for Ephesians 1 is more than either of those. Sight—seeing the majesty of God with the eyes of your heart and feeling the magnificence of His love–is what ultimately changes our hearts.

All true change—heart-level change that restructures our desires—begins with sight.

The goal of a lecture is that you leave with new information; the goal of a motivational speech is that you leave with new behavior. The goal of a sermon is that you leave worshipping God, having seen Him more clearly for who He is.

How many of the sermons that you hear are focused on sight, rather than information communication or behavior change?

We need Gospel-centered, Christ-exalting sermons and Spirit-induced regenerating power. The 1st should drive you to the text, the 2nd to your knees.

“Thou Shalt Not Murder” is Larger Than You Think

Aug 17 | Pastor J.D. | 11 Comments |

That is the commandment I’m preaching on this week… been thinking about all the places in the Bible that talk about “murder” in terms of more than just shoving someone into a meat-grinder.

Here’s what I’ve found…

[21] “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ [22] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother… or says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. (Matthew 5:21–22, ESV)

Jesus expands this from an act to a general attitude toward other people. It includes anger that has an intent to harm… whether physically, or emotionally or to verbally put them in their place. Jesus here also says that the murderous spirit includes insulting others… or to devalue them by putting them into a derogatory or diminutive category. 

The book of James in the Bible says that those people who exploit the poor and live in luxury while others around them suffer are guilty of murder:

[5:1] You rich…  Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. [5] You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. (James 5:1, 5 ESV)

The prophet Ezekiel talked about a failure to evangelize as a type of murder:

“See, oh son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. [6] If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them… his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand… [8] If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. (Ezekiel 33:6-8 ESV)

Here’s my question for you. How do you think Christians (and other morally conscious people) most break the 6th commandment, “Thou shalt not murder?”

Random Insight Dump and When Helping Hurts

Aug 12 | Pastor J.D. | 1 Comment |

I’m sure this doesn’t get to count as an official blog, but I’ve had some really great insights given to me over the past couple of days. There is little rhyme or reason to them, but there’s some good stuff there. I spend yesterday with some pastor friends, including Matt Carter, Bob Roberts and David Platt processing the Great Commission, and some come from that… and there’s some just from time with God.

• The greatest church planting center of Acts, Antioch, wasn’t planted by an apostle, or even a church leader, but evidently by businessmen who carried the testimony of Jesus with them. Acts 11:19-23. When Paul finally got to Rome, where he dreamed of establishing a church planting center, he was met by Christians, “regular” believers who had preceded him because their business or persecution carried them there. What is your job, where is God allowing you to go, and how is God using it to further the Great Commission?
• We know from history that the ones who most spread the Gospel in the early church were converted soldiers and Christian businessmen and businesswomen.
• We won’t see a church planting movement until “laymen” understand their role in the planting of churches.
• Leadership is recognizing fleeting moments & acting w/ boldness and courage in them.
• Joseph came to throne of Egypt , but through imprisonment and slavery. Paul finally got his dream to preach in Rome, but he arrived in chains. Jesus is seated at the right hand of Father, but he got there through the cross. Do you see a pattern? What is God doing in your life? Where does that mean He is taking you?

Finished reading When Helping Hurts. What a fantastic book. I’ve made it required reading for all Summit pastors, as it is the ‘bible’ we will live by in ministering to our community.

• Most “Western” compassion efforts misdiagnose the “disease” and so administer the wrong medicine (metaphorically speaking).”
• The only time you should do relief in an area is when the local community is either unable or unwilling to do it.
• You hurt people you intend to help when you do for them what they can and should do for themselves.
  • There are 3 different kinds of compassion efforts
    1. Relief is the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to “stop the bleeding.”
    2. Rehabilitation seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions.
    3. Development is the process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved closer to being in right relationship to God, self, others, and the rest of creation.
    • One of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make–by far–is in applying relief in situation in which rehabilitation or development is the appropriate intervention.
  • Development is not done to people or for people but with people.

Finally, what a great night of prayer we had the other night... There is something so real and pure about God’s people coming together just to call on his name. That’s what we were to be known for–people who called on the name of the Lord. We are a “house of prayer for all nations.” I believe the church is most purely the church when it is gathered together praying. Leave your comments about prayer meeting on our church facebook page here.

Rest

Aug 09 | Pastor J.D. | 2 Comments |

Some of the best insights into a passage usually come for me after I’ve finished preaching the message 3-4 times over the weekend… the word has saturated my mind, and I start to see clearly where it applies to me. It’s not that they are new insights, just that I see more clearly how the Word confronts my life and how I’m not living up to it. It’s the (much-ignored) value of Scripture meditation.

Such has been the case of the message I preached on “Remembering the Sabbath” 2 weeks ago. The whole concept of “rest” in the Bible is rich and very Gospel-centric.

Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath law, which means that He is our Sabbath rest. Just as God promised the Israelites that if they would let the land rest He would bring abundant fruit in their fields, so if we learn to rest in Jesus, God will bring abundant fruit in our lives. The key to fruitfulness in both the Old Testament and the New is not in our activity, but in our resting.

Whether we are religious or not, each of us has a “rest.” Your “rest” is the place you to which you retreat, the place to which you run in difficulty to find happiness or security. When you are under stress, it’s where you find escape. When you are depressed, it’s how you pick yourself up. It’s that thing your mind wanders to, to delight in, when it idles or you are dreaming about the future.

It might be a possession you own. It might be something you hope to be someday. It could be a temporary escape from pressure, like retreating into the sensual pleasures of pornography, wine, or drugs. You may escape through your boyfriend. It might be a good book or your children. What your soul rests in will vary, even depending on your season of life, but each of you has one.

If that rest is anything but God, it will bring bad fruit from your life. For example, you’ll get obsessive and addictive. You’ll be in a bad mood. You’ll lash out at others. You’ll be a stingy materialist.

But if your rest is God, God will bring good fruit from your rest. You’ll be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, self control, and faithfulness. These things are the fruit of the Spirit. In other words, they are the crop that comes from resting in God. Resting in anything else but God produces the opposite of these fruits–worry instead of joy, selfishness instead of love; harshness instead of gentleness; addictions rather than self-control.

So where does your soul find rest? Do you escape by overwork? Do you have some secret fantasy life that you find delight in to escape the toil of life? Is it a “good” thing like family, friends, or books? There is no true rest for our souls except in Jesus–His love, His approval, His promises.

I’ve been in a particularly stressful time of life recently, and God has used this to show me that my “rest” is in many things besides God. But He has purified me in this time, showing me that He is the only reliable refuge and strength and that resting in Him produces the wonderful fruits of the Spirit in my life.

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