Race and the Church

There are some very good conversations going on at 9marks regarding race, racism and the church. From their homepage, look at the left hand column and scroll to the bottom. They are very much worth the effort to read through. I especially enjoy the contributions from Thabiti Anyabwile. His blog, Pure Church, is always worthy read.

While on this subject, I would also highly recommend From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race by J. Daniel Hays. I still have a few pages left, but the book offers a much needed look at how race is understood throughout scripture, and he takes special notice of the large role that Africans have played in not only early Christianity, but ancient Israel as well.

Edward Perronet

I don't have the time to post very much these days, but came across this story on the cyberhymnal website (Good story!)

Perronet, son of an Ang­li­can min­is­ter, de­scend­ed from French Hu­gue­nots who fled the con­ti­nent to es­cape re­li­gious per­se­cution. For a time, Per­ro­net was a co-worker of John and Charles Wes­ley. John Wes­ley was al­ways try­ing to get him to preach, but Per­ro­net, though cap­a­ble, was some­what in awe of Wes­ley, and al­ways de­ferred to him. Any time John Wes­ley was pre­sent, Per­ro­net felt Wesley should do the preach­ing. But John Wes­ley was not one to take “no” for an an­swer. So, one day, in the mid­dle of a meet­ing, he simp­ly an­nounced, “Bro­ther Per­ro­net will now speak.” Think­ing quick­ly, Per­ro­net stood be­fore the large crowd and de­clared, “I will now de­liv­er the great­est ser­mon ev­er preached on earth” (you can imag­ine he got ev­er­y­one’s at­ten­tion). He then read the Ser­mon on the Mount, and sat down.


This story can be found at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/p/e/perronet_e.htm.

Has Religion done more harm then good?

Albert Mohler debated on Susan Jacoby in an online debate (Washington Post/Newsweeks "On Faith") regarding the above topic. It is a good debate, though I found it a bit short for the topic. It seemed to end just as it was getting started. Worth taking a look at though.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2007/02/has_organized_religion_done_mo.html

Our Backward Misery

Just finishing John Pipers book When the Darkness Will Not Life, I was struck by how backward we are in our misery. In chapter 4, he makes the point that our unconfessed sin “clogs our joy”. He notes Ps. 32:2-3, in which David says,

“Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.”

When we hold onto our sin, we waste away; we suffer and groan all day long. Real healing, and therefore real joy, is found in confessing our sins to God and to our brothers (James 5:16). But far too often we do not want to go there. We would rather sit in our misery and weep in self-pity.

In chapter five, Piper writes that the “darkness of our souls is owing in part to the fact that we have drifted into patters of life that are not blatantly sinful but are constricted and uncaring.” In other words, we often feel miserable because we are too self-absorbed. We are unwilling to care and feel the pain of those around us. We instead seek only to relieve our own pain.

These thoughts are intimately related to each other, and they have caused me to ponder just how backward our sinful flesh is. We, who know Christ, have the awesome ability to confess our sins, and have them completely forgiven! God will not hold ANY confessed sins against us because of Christ. We can have the burden lifted, and enjoy the joy that comes with it. But so often we don’t. Instead, we harbor are secret sins (including bitterness and bad attitudes), and harden ourselves against loving others.

We should feel the pain of others. We should suffer with others. We should care that there are people dying without Christ, we should care that there are children who are starving, we should care that there are families being decimated by aids, we should care that our church members are lonely and need us… and on and on it goes. We should weep for these people, but instead we only weep for wont of our sins. We weep for the pain we feel because we will not give up our pride.

The only possible way this can be accomplished is to have the inward joy of a sinner who meditates the glory of being redeemed by the blood of Christ. The sinner can confess their sin with confidence, because “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”(Romans 8:1). It is this joy and grace that allows a sinner to bear with joy the pain and suffering of not only my own life, but also the tears of those God places before their path to love. As Piper notes at the end of His book, Paul writes, “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Let us hate our sins; running from them to the joy of fellowship with Christ, and weep for the suffering.

1 Corinthians 7:8-10

8 For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—

9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

I've begun meditating on these verses. It seems that there is a God-given type of sorrow that both leads to repentance, and leaves no regrets. When I look at my heart truthfully, I begin to realize how often I sin, and how truely wicked my flesh is! If the resulting sorrow is from God, it will cause me to repent and run to God. To repent is not to simply feel sorry for something, but to truely change directions. When we turn around, and we see God in His power, mercy, and grace, we can stand in assurance that He is both powerful enough and faithful enough to forgive those who turn to Him. This leads to joy, not regret... again, not because of who I am, but because of who GOD is.

The question that is raised then is this; what about those who feel sorrow, and never run to God? Even as Christians, if we cannot move from the sorrow of guilt to joy in God, is that joy God given? The answer seems to be no. We need to feel sorrow over sin, but it's purpose is to lead us to God in repentantance so that we can restore our relationship with Him. God is the focus, not us. If it does not lead us to run to God, then it is not surving it's intended purpose, and is not from God.

God is so good! Even Godly sorrow turns to joy and shows a great and powerful and good God!

Ortiz on playing at Fenway

I do love David Ortiz

"I keep telling the new guys, wait until you play your first game at Fenway," Ortiz said. "You might need a diaper. And it will be like that every day."

I read this from an article in the Hartford Courant by JEFF GOLDBERG. See http://www.courant.com/sports/hc-soxnotes0411.artapr11,0,7068775.story?coll=hc-headlines-sports

Replacement Theology and Israeli Support

A friend of mine recently sent me this article entitled:
Evangelicals seeing the error of 'replacement theology'. The link can be found at http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/lead-story473.htm.

Dr. Hagee is (or appears to be) the leader of an organization called "AIPAC" which has three primary purposes as per this article: "...one, to unite Christian supporters of Israel to speak 'with one voice for a common cause'; two, to establish a 'rapid response' capability that can flood Capitol Hill with e-mails, faxes and phone calls at short notice on issues of concern to Israel; and three, to organize 'Night to Honor Israel' events in every major US city 'so that the Jewish people can see and feel Christians expressing the love of God to them without a hidden agenda.'"


I find this article disturbing, and strongly really disagree with Dr. John Hagee's viewpoint on Israel. It leads to a different gospel from the one that we are given in God's word.

While I do think that Israel has a special place in God's heart; Dr. Hagee's theology indicates that Jews are saved in some other way then through faith in Christ. There is no way to honestly support that biblically. Why did Paul preach Christ to the Jews so fervantly? Why did he react so strongly against the "Judiazers" (See Galatians)? He did so because he saw faith in Christ as the ONLY way to God. The glory of God is seen in "the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6), not in the sacrifice of animals (Hebrews 10:5) or through observance of the law (see again, Galatians), which was only a "a shadow of good things to come" (Hebrews 10:1), which would be Christ Himself.

Hebrews 10:5
1 For the Law, since it has only aa shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can cnever, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

There is no way for Israel to be saved other then accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior. When this happens, they enter into the church, which is the body of believers.
We cannot stand together as brothers with those who do not accept Christ as the Messiah. This savlation is surely for the Jews first (Romans), but it is THIS salvation(through Christ) that is for the Jews, not the other way around this. Secondly, the church has replaced Israel in a sense. Isreal was once God's means for showing the world who He was and demonstrating His wisdom. But now God is using the Church for this purpose. The church is central to God's kingdom here on earth, not the Jewish nation. I do not believe that this excludes the Jews from having any place in the heart of God. I think they do have a special place that we, as gentiles, are not a part of. But this is not in relation to salvation. Out support for Israel, I believe, should not be blind and we should ALWAYS desire for them to come to know Christ. To not desire this above all else in our relationship is not not love them. True love for someone is to show them God.

I am not advocating beating someone over the head with the bible every time we meet them. What I am advocating is for us to make the gospel central in our lives. Our witness is not something we do out of simple obedience, but is our passion because we wish to demonstrate the glory of God in all we do. Whether we live or die, we do so to the glory of God. God's glory is seen in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6), whose glory is shown in the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Challenged

I have been challenged by my sister in law, Amanda McMillan, to blog more often. In fact, her words were: "I will blog about important stuff... if you blog more then once a year". Ouch!
Ok, well, your right Amanda, so here it goes! (Though I did blog last less then 2 months ago!)

The Emerging Church Part 1

The Emerging Church

My 2 cents on The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

A few weeks ago, Tom Crouse was posting on the Emerging church movement, especially as it is articulated by Brian McLaren. See http://engagingyourworld.blogspot.com/. Recently, McLaren was a speaker at the Vision New England Conference in Boston (Congress 2006).

I have not read or listened to McLaren myself, but since I was supposed to comment on Dan Kimball’s book on the Emerging Church some 4 or 5 months (or more?) ago, I will do so now.

What I want to comment on is not so much about the book itself, but on an issue that I believe is central to it; the purpose of the church. I believe that this is the fundamental problem the emerging church faces, and frankly, it is the same problem that many of our traditional churches and modern “seeker-sensitive” churches have faced as well. We can argue all we want about what type of music is godly, or what type of building we should have, or whether symbols distract or point us to Christ. Most of these debates, due to the lack of direct teaching in the New Testament, degrade to the culturally sensitive and culturally informed conscience of the person arguing. They seek out to “prove” what their feelings tell them are right. I say “they”, but should use “we” because we all fight this (or should fight this) tendency in our hearts.

Since the time of the Second Great Awakening, there has been an underlying evangelical belief that the purpose of the church is to evangelize. This is the root of MANY churches and church movements today. This is the purpose of the “seeker-sensitive” and other churches focused on one target group of people. While it is not wrong to begin a church within a specific culture, it is wrong to make the PURPOSE of the CHURCH the REACHING of a particular group. Again, this is different then beginning a church within a certain culture. There is an important distinction here. We are called to preach the gospel to the world, but for the sake of Christ. The purpose of the church is NOT man, but of God. The gospel, the good news of Christ, saves man, but is ultimately FOR God. Ephesians 3:9-11 says:

8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,

9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;

10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Verses 8 & 9 speak of the specific job God gave to Paul, namely, to preach the gospel and the “…unfathomable riches of Christ” to the gentiles. Verse 10 & 11 explain why. It is so that the wisdom of God will be made known, not just to humans, but to even the heavenly beings! And verse 11 then makes the further point that this was always God’s plan, from Eternity past and was carried out in Christ.

More of this to be developed shortly:

(To be continued)