Life Touching Life at NIU

This is a great articulation of true discipleship. Here is a brief summary of it that is very good and here is a little of what Northland  has to share about their commitment to discipleship.

Jesus, at just the right times during His public ministry, showed His followers how He raised the bar. In the Sermon on the Mount, He gave us a clear example when He said, “you have heard that it was said of those of old, ‘You shall not murder’ . . . but I say to you everyone who is angry with his brother . . .” Jesus spoke of adultery and lust, even divorce and oaths, in similar fashion. Raising the bar was a unique characteristic to Christ’s teachings. Not only did Christ elevate teachings, he deepened them, too. He turned morality from a mere external act into an internal motivation. Jesus became mostly concerned with what was happening within the heart. He saw how prescriptive, external conformity among the Pharisees, no matter how rigorously applied, was not producing the needed internal transformation vital to true followers of Christ. So, what did Jesus do? He raised the bar, and that’s exactly what we need to do also.

Raising the Bar From	Raising the Bar To
The Law	The Life in Christ
Precepts & Traditions	Biblical Authority
Works	Faith
Doing	Believing
Pride	Humility
Insecurity	Security
Fear	Love
Control	Coaching
Rules	Tools
Outside-In	Inside-Out
Conformity	Transformation
Performance	Spirit-Filled Living
Hypocrisy	Authenticity

A Living Sacrifice

Here is a great quote from chapter two of The Bookends of the Christian Life. It goes along very well with what we considered this last Sunday morning from the book of Romans.

For many of us, our initial encounter with the gospel when we first trusted Christ occurred many years ago and is now a distant memory. Furthermore, the book of Romans may now be overly familiar to us; it just doesn’t generate the same excitement it surely generated among the Roman believers when it was first read in their churches. The Christian life may now be more of a duty than a joyous response to the gospel. Consequently we may not experience the motivating power of the gospel.

That’s why we need to intentionally bathe our minds and hearts in the gospel every day. Remember, we need the gospel not only as a door into an initial saving relationship with Christ, but also as the first bookend to keep our daily lives from becoming a performance treadmill. As we rely on Christ’s righteousness in this manner, far from leading to a license to sin, it actually motivates us to deal with the sin we see in our lives by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to God.

Prayer in the New Testament

On Wednesday during Teen BLAST you all came up with a list of things we see about prayer in the New Testament. There wasn’t much time for you to write them down if you wanted to, so I thought I’d give them to you here.  The list was erased from the whiteboard, so I recreated the list from my memory and your chicken scratch on the sheets I gave you. They prayed…

• For opportunities and accuracy in proclaiming the gospel
• That individuals would be saved
• That the believers faith would not fail
• That they would not enter into temptation
• For wisdom
• Not for show, but in humility
• For gospel workers
• Specifically
• That God’s will would be done
• For a clear conscience
• That they would act honorably in all things
• With thankful hearts
• Regularly
• That believers would do what is right
• For restoration
• That the Word of the Lord would be honored

So the other day I was wondering…

If  I had a 4-door Buick Regal sedan, how many hay bales could I transport with said car? Then all of the sudden the answer hit me, or more accurately, I drove passed the answer as I was driving down I-94. So, what do you say?

Scroll down for the answer and proof.

The Answer:

9; 4 in the trunk. 2 on the roof. 2 in the back seat and 1 in the front passenger seat.

Two Thoughts on Justification from Bookends

Not too long ago I got my hands on a good little book titled “The Bookends of the Christian Life (You can find it here or here or in my office). I thought I’d share a few thoughts from the book that have been a challenge and encouragement to me. Here are two quotes from the first chapter that are worth thinking about.

There’s an old play on the word justified: “just-as-if-I’d never sinned.” But here’s another way of saying it: “just-as-if-I’d always obeyed.” Both are true. The first refers to the transfer of our moral debt to Christ so we’re left with a “clean” ledger, just as if we’d never sinned. The second tells us our ledger is now filled with the perfect righteousness of Christ, so it’s just as if we’d always obeyed. That’s why we can come confidently into the very presence of God. ~pg. 26

When talking about Galatians 2:20 (I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.) the authors say this:

For Paul, justification was not only a past event; it was also a daily, present reality. So every day of his life, by faith in Christ, Paul realized he stood righteous in the sight of God–he was counted righteous and accepted by God as righteous–because of the perfectly obedient life and death Christ provided for him. He stood solely on the rock-solid righteousness of Christ alone. ~p. 29

C2R Pics

We had a great time at the C2Retreat10. Here is a link to pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!

C2R10 Weather

I just checked weather.com for this weekend’s forecast up at Hartwick Pines. Here it is. It looks like we might make it without any rain. Make sure you bring some warmer clothing. If you’re not sure about doing so, just check out the “LO” on Friday.

Glorifying God in My Music Choices Repost

Reposted from May 2009

I just read a small book titled Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. You can buy it here for only $10.39. Not very long ago I shared some thoughts on from the chapter “God, My Heart and Media” (here, here and here). The next chapter is titled “God, My Heart, and Music” and while I disagree with the author more in this chapter than any other part of the book, he still has several challenging practical thoughts when it comes to our music choices.

The question is this, how can we use music for God’s glory? After all, as he writes, “Music is meant to be a means of bringing glory to God.” Then he shares several specific steps we can take as we pursue glorifying God with our music. Here are a few of them:

• Delete or throw away music you’ll listen to only if you backslide…it’s wise to get rid of what could hinder our growth in Christ
• Listen to music with others. Part of the joy music communicates comes from sharing it.
• Evaluate your current intake of music. Areas to consider include how much music you listen to, what types, in what situations and times of day, and for how long.
• Go on a music fast. Maybe you can’t imagine giving up your music far a month, a week, or even a day. But there are few more effective ways to measure the place music holds on your life, thinking and behavior.
• Listen to old music. Music that stands the test of time is worth giving our attention to. We’re shortsighted, proud, and poorer if we never appreciate the music God has given throughout history.
• Intentionally thank God every time you enjoy music. Music is a gift from God. But God never intends his gifts to replace Him as the object of our desire and delight. Music, like all of God’s gifts, is meant to draw our hearts and attention to His glory, His power and His love.