TwitterFacebookYouTubeEmailRSS

Monthly Archives: July 2012

“This Day’s Awakening” Guest Post by Brian Campbell

Posted on by

If you’ve never heard of Brian Campbell, you need to. He is a gifted musician, song writer, and worship leader. I’ve been getting to know him over the last 4 months and am increasingly encouraged by our friendship. Because of a recent conversation that we had, I’ve asked him to write a blog post for us about what he has seen God doing in the church around the USA. It’s pretty encouraging. Enjoy. – Mario

Jesus’ disciples consistently operated from a place of experience. Before the community leaders, Peter and John acknowledge their chief argument is only “what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20); Paul’s entire ministry was based upon a single encounter with the Son of God on the Damascus road where he was commanded to bear witness to he had seen and heard (Acts 22:15); John begins his gospel with his own testimony: “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34). A sort of holy “show and tell” ensued in the first century, where ordinary people saw Jesus and their lives were changed as they simply shared what He did.

Mario asked me to write briefly about what we have seen on the road in this exciting season of the American church. I talked with our team this week at Come&Live [(www.comeandlive.com) they're absolutely brilliant by the way!] and our friends are seeing the same things. For me it took seeing the awakening theme on seven consecutive church signs–and for my good friend Aaron Long to write a song about it. The reality is that it seems like across denominations, across church creeds, and across state boundaries, there is a strong sense of expectation, of movement, of becoming, and of stepping into purpose. It is like something beautiful and long dormant has begun to stir again in the people of God–and not just on the fringes or from the pulpits, but in the pews!

The theme was so strongly and frequently visited through our spring event locations, that I decided to do a study of the “great awakenings” in this country’s history. All began in the first decades of a new century, first in the 1700s, with preachers like Jonathan Edwards and the Wesley Brothers (great bluegrass band name by the way). It brought the country to a place of experience, away from mere ritual to heartfelt faith. It was so deeply influential that eighty years later the writers of the American Constitution, heavily influenced by their French counterparts, could not make the radical shift to anti-God, but rather could only move Him to a place of the Unmoved Mover, the deist’s God. The 1800s saw a second great awakening, a move under preachers like Charles Finney which focused on the salvation of lost people. It led within 30 years to the end of slavery and the birth of evangelicalism. It can be argued that a third great awakening was witnessed at Azusa  Street with Catherine Coleman in the early 20th century. In a sense rediscovering the Person of the Holy Spirit, who was long marginalized in many Protestant churches, the 20th centuries great awakening led to the Jesus Movement, the charismatic renewal in the early 1980s, the general appreciation and rediscovery of a vital person of the Godhead in the evangelical church.

As we are well engaged in the 20th century, there is a sense that this day’s great awakening is at hand: I see individuals who were on the road for years of effective ministry being planted in local churches to care for God’s people; I see others who, like me, grew in the local church and are now being virtually pulled into a broader role in the people of God. This shift and shake-up tells me God is at work, bringing people into the roles that He has prepared them for in this time. It’s a time to prepare God’s people, to equip, and to cultivate, and to encounter the living God. But then again, all times are good to encounter Him.

What encourages me most about this days’ awakening is that instead of one charismatic figurehead or apostolic figure leading the charge, there are literally tens of thousands of people around this nation doing exactly what I do. Many of them have similar hearts, gifts, andpassions, and they’re all needed! I think about a scripture I read that says everything is a “yes” in Christ, and in this season, I believe this is particularly relevant. Do you feel called to care for homeless people? Do it! Do you see a need to help rescue children from human trafficking in Europe? Do it! Do you want to try to lead worship at your local church? Do it! Do it, learn and do it better, learn to do it with others, learn to structure your life in a way to unleash the Kingdom through whatever you’re doing.

In all of it, get ready, stay ready, get others ready. The great awakening of our time is about to begin.

To learn more about Brian Campbell visit www.briancampbellmusic.com

Kevin DeYoung: The Power of Words and the Nature of Sin

Posted on by

To be a Christian is to be a person who cares about words. We care about definitions and implications. Our aim is not to be contentious or obstreperous. Our aim is to be true and to speak in a way that strengthens the truth. We care about words because words communicate ideas and ideas have consequences. We pay attention to language because God has revealed himself through it. Words matter to God. They should matter to us.

Having said all that, I’d like to suggest we think more carefully about one of our new favorite words: brokenness. I’m not on a crusade to ban the word from the evangelical lexicon. You don’t have to apologize if you say the word in front of me. It’s not a bad word. It’s just not an adequate word.

What do we communicate with the word “brokenness”? It seems to me the word is a rough synonym for “messed-up-ness.” Worship leaders ask us to confess our brokenness. Pastors tell us we all have brokenness. Sinners under conviction reveal their struggles with brokenness. Often I hear the word used with reference to sexual sin. Someone with a porn addiction may admit his sexual brokenness. Or someone speaking against homosexuality may be quick to assure his audience that we all struggle our own form of sexual brokenness. The word shows up in many delicate situations.

And yet, the word is inadequate at best and misleading at worst. On the good side, “brokenness” conveys an important truth about sin. When we develop an insatiable appetite for porn, when we long for same-sex partners, when we can’t live without people’s approval, we are not functioning the way God intended. God’s Edenic design for human flourishing did not include addictions, unnatural lusts, and fear of man. Marred by sin, none of us is the way we are supposed to be. We are all broken.

But as a metaphor for sin, “brokenness” is seriously limited. The term does not convey a strong sense of moral culpability. If anything, it suggests a helplessness in the face of external forces and circumstances. It gets nothing of the Godward direction of sin. In fact, the term “brokenness” sometimes feels like a safer, less-offensive euphemism for sin. Instead of confessing rebellion, disobedience, guilt, or moral evil, we only have to acknowledge that somethin’ ain’t right. We don’t work the way we should. We’ve been wounded before. We’ve had a hard go of it. I’m not suggesting those who use the term “brokenness” are trying to avoid their sins or the minimize the sins of others. But the language can have that effect.

In Reformed Dogmatics, Herman Bavinck examines the different Hebrew and Greek words for sin. The list of definitions is daunting: missing the mark, departure from the right way, twistedness, wrongness, deviation from the right direction, crossing a set of boundaries, breaking a covenant, apostasy, rebellion, deviant conduct, godless behavior, offense, unfaithfulness, infidelity, betrayal, disobedience, violation, lawlessness, guilt. “By far the majority of these names, Bavinck maintains, “describe sin as ‘deviation, a violation of the law.” In citing 1 John 3:4, he concludes that “Scripture consistently views sin as lawlessness” (3.129-30).

Granted, it is no violation of Scriptural truth to use non-biblical language and metaphors to describe our sin. But overtime it usually proves unwise. The biblical language for sin is stronger and more God-directed than makes us comfortable. The present Christian culture gravitates toward language that is inner-directed and therapeutic. We prefer the language of brokenness and woundedness, even though these words in the Bible tend to describe physical pain or divine punishment (Isaiah 30:26). Sin is almost never, if ever, described as personal malfunction. It is, instead, seen as an offense to God, a violation of his law, and liable to punishment. We may be broken, but that doesn’t describe the half of it. We need a Savior, not just a Handy Man.

At War With Words

Posted on by

My words have always gotten me into trouble. When I was in first grade, I got in trouble with my teacher because I told them that my mom had fallen down and broke her arm. Later the same day, one of the teachers saw my mom at my school and asked her how she was doing, my mom informed her that she had not fallen and thus not broken her arm.

Words can seem like just words. Yet with words we have power, true power. We can communicate. We can inform. We can encourage or discourage. We can hurt or we can heal. For me the greatest realization has come in realizing that we all have a decision to make when it comes to using our words. Am I going to use my words to hurt others? Am I going to use my words to promote myself and make myself look good? Or am I going to use my words for the benefit and edification of others? Am I going to use my words to promote God and make him look good?

I’ve always thought that the church was full of ignorant people who need to be informed. I saw my job as having to inform them. I think a lot of pastors still think that. But for the last 2 years I think God has been teaching me something; I think the last 2 weeks I have begun to learn it. The church is not full of ignorant people needing to be informed. The church is full of hurting people who need to be loved.

My task, your task, the task of every believer, is to love them. Sometimes that means informing them. But even in informing, there is a loving way in which to inform. Love, not information, is the key to the Christian life. Information still needs to be shared, but without love, it is just a “clashing cymbal.” Everything must be done from love or it is meaningless. Love is what gives our words meaning and weight. Two words spoken in love are greater than two thousand words spoken to inform.

Pornographic Identity

Posted on by

The average single man watches porn for 40 minutes, three times a week. That’s two hours a week, and 104 hours per year. The average male views porn for the first time at age 11, which means by the time he is 30 he will have watched almost 2,000 hours of pornography. For the average man in a relationship it is only slightly different. A married man, or man in a steady dating relationship, will watch porn 1.7 days a week for 20 minutes. Perhaps more alarming, 90 percent of men watch pornography.That is really scary to think about. According to that statistic, 12 out of the 13 men in my small group at church are watch porn nearly 2 days a week.

William Struthers talks about how prolonged exposure to porn affects relationships. In his book Wired for Intimacy, he writes:

Because of these cognitive structures and the ability to store sexual images that are associated with sexual arousal and gratification, the minds of many men become hidden, personalized adult film studios. Any women they have seen and anyone else they can imagine are their performers. As porn and fantasy take control of the mind, it becomes a dream theater that is transposed over the waking world. Every woman they come into contact with is objectified, undressed and evaluated as a willing (or unwilling) mental sexual partner. She is rated on her imagined sexual proficiency and then either stored for later use or discarded as worthless. This mental consumption of a person is a violation of the image of God in each of us.

The frequent use of porn shapes the way a man views and relates to all women, not just those on his computer screen.

It affects the marital relationship too. Women admit that their husbands are asking them to do things in the bedroom that they do not feel comfortable doing, things that their husbands have seen in pornography. Men admit it too. They want their wives to look like and act like porn stars for their own enjoyment. Some men and women even find their marital sexual life boring after prolonged use of pornography.

The reality is, pornography is a problem because identity is a problem. How men view and identify their wives is a problem. When husbands identify their wife as a sexual object they make her a slave to their desires. Self satisfaction becomes an idol. This is just the beginning. The problem then extends to the kids. The children are annoying and irritating, disruptive to the ideal life and taking away from the pleasure of the father. Everything in life becomes a sacrifice to be made at the altar of the man’s desire.

The answer? Of course, it is the gospel. Paul remarks in Ephesians 5,

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Husbands, we need to understand and believe by faith, that Christ died (layed down his life) for his bride, for us. Understanding the gospel in this way transforms our thoughts and affections. It allows us to serve our wives and esteem them as more important than ourselves. It frees us from the slavery of porn and gives us the joy to love our wives as our own bodies, cherishing her for who she is, and not for who we wish she could be. Understanding who we are, who our wife is, and who Christ is and what he has done is the freedom we need to break the chains of slavery and release our hearts to love God and our wives as we should.

New Affections

Posted on by

Thomas Chalmers, noted leader of the Free Church of Scotland in the early 19th century, once preached a sermon entitled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” The main thrust of the sermon can be summarized from Dr. Chalmers opening statement:

There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world; either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment; so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon, not to resign an old affection which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. My purpose is to show, that [this] method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.

The world throws every possible temptation and allurement to entice the believer to set the affections on something other than God; something that will never bring ultimate satisfaction and joy to the soul. There are times when it is necessary for believers to “demonstrate the world’s vanity,” but the greater emphasis should be placed on setting forth God as more worthy of the heart’s attachment and affection.

The gospel is the primary means of godly change in the life of a believer. Faith in the gospel produces affection for God and neighbor. Obedience to God’s Word is the fruit born out of this affection. Righteous living needs to be done, not merely out of duty, but out of a heart of affection for God and others. Faith produced by the Word of God renews our mind and transforms our affections to love God more fully and more deeply, which enables and motivates us for acts of righteousness. Faith in the gospel produces in us an affection for God and a passion for his glory that results in a righteous life.

CyberChimps