Now that Rob Bell’s controversial book Love Wins is on sale on both sides of the Atlantic and many other comments have been made, I am feeling like I cannot avoid engaging in the controversy, or at least should read some more material to understand it better. I did not seek out such involvement, as you can see from my post which ironically listed Five Reasons I hadn’t previously blogged about Rob Bell. Since then I have posted a couple of highly relevant articles without directly addressing Bell’s work.  These are:

• Why a belief in hell is so practically important (John Piper)
• The folly of imagining hell is not real and sin is not deadly (Charles Spurgeon)
• Mark Driscoll’s sermon on hell taken from the Rich Man and Lazarus.
• Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the folly of thinking God is only love.

I have now found a very helpful round up post on Gary David Stratton’s blog that lists some of the major posts on each side of this vociferous debate. He says that over 400,000 responses are now available online, so reading every post is clearly not an option! I have been following some of the posts he lists, and have finally succumbed and am in the process of reading the book. If you have been following things more closely, and there are critical posts you think I should read that are not on Stratton’s list, please let me know. There is one additional page that I have found to be interesting, a transcript of an interview by Lisa Miller with Rob Bell.

Finally, also in Stratton’s blog is a suggestion that we should use the Apostle Paul’s blogging checklist. I have adapted this somewhat from his version, which he took from 1 Corinthians 13.  I commend this list as we consider blogging about this issue or others. For not every blog post on either side of this debate has kept within these wise boundaries. So, before you hit send, grade yourself on this list:

Is this blog post I am about to publish

1. Demonstrating patience towards those who disagree with me?
2. Kind in its tone and content? Would my “enemies” agree?
3. Free from envy in it’s motivation? Rather than secretly wishing I was as popular as the person I am condemning?
4. Full of humility and not boasting? Rather than implying I have all the answers and the monopoly on the truth?
5. Wanting others to do well and highlighting good comments elsewhere rather than arrogantly seeking more hits for my blog?
6. Polite and not rude?
7. Not insisting on my own way? Have I acknowledged that there is a chance, however small, that I might be wrong about this?
8. Calm and not irritable?
9. Avoiding even the hint of sounding resentful?
10. Rejoicing with the truth, rather than taking joy from pointing out others error? Have I struck back at those who have been hurtful to me or brushed over and endured any perceived wrongs from them, have I thought the best of others?

If you cannot honestly answer yes to all of these bold questions, it is time to save the draft, pray, go and make yourself a cup of tea, and come back to re-edit the post later. There is a time for boldly speaking the truth.  But we must always do so in love. The above checklist is demanding.  It requires careful examination of our hearts.  We will all no doubt fail at times to follow it fully.  I know I have.

Fortunately there is grace for us, as well as opportunities for public repentance when needed!  I believe that none of us can have the insight into our own sinful hearts to fully achieve such high standards on our own. I do thank God that I have people who watch over both my soul and this blog and are not afraid to point out when they feel I have erred.  I trust that you also have those who can help you to follow Jesus online.  May God help me, and each of you to blog as Christ would want us to, and to treat others online as we would want to be treated.  Those of us that love grace must be sure to demonstrate it to others.

There is not very many videos of Jack Hayford available for free online. It was a delight therefore to watch this one over the weekend and I really felt that it benefited me. I could hear God speaking to me through his Word. I encourage you to watch the following video and then consider booking in to our next 300 Leaders Conference where he will be speaking.

The video is followed by some notes I took when I watched it:

Psalm 119:165

Peace is wholeness or completeness. Let God’s Word help us become like this. People tend to think of religious people as being pious and inflexible. We do have boundary lines, but when God’s wholeness is lived out in relationships it imparts freedom. Your being needs to encounter the Book. Then you will be an influence. We are not called to merely make remarks about things that we disapprove of. There are ways we can prophesy our future. There is a biblical law of reciprocity. Give and it will be given to you. There are principles of life that rebound on you. Judge not and you will not be judged. Giving is to be pressed down and running over.

Be gracious and non judgmental. Relate to people in these ways. Love and receive people who are way out of line. It doesn’t come easily. Like a bay. Something is shaped in you. Wash out an area in you where goodness can come and favor and winsomeness to others. People will begin to recognize you as someone they can trust.

Everything about Jesus has this quality. People came to him. Something in him drew them to him. This kind of person is a witness for Christ. We are to be like this. It’s not passivity, but establishing the grounds for our witness.

Our goal is winsomeness. There is a power in simply letting people know we like them. We must never condemn. A simple example of condemning is to say “I am through with them..”. We mustn’t give up on people.

There can be something in us that blocks our relationships with others. It is not that our values are wrong. It is not that our gospel must not be spoken. Something in the way that we relate to others should open a tide of influence. People will be drawn to you and thereby to Jesus.

In a sermon from the series  The Christian’s Duty in a Hostile World, John MacArthur connects two glorious truths: the centrality of Jesus’ resurrection and that “faith cannot be removed or detached from the realm of real life.”

It is no great surprise to me that I enjoyed Bob’s book so much,  or that he seems to be enjoying mine.  For while their subjects may seem disconnected at first glance, in reality they have everything to do with each other!

The truth that lies behind Bob’s view of both the individual’s need for transformation and the need for the church to impact society is well expressed by MacArthur:

Salvation is not just forgiveness for sins. Salvation is a new order of life . . . when we understand salvation in a biblical way, we must understand that salvation effects a whole transformation of life. It is not just the forgiveness of sins, it is the transformation of life.

MacArthur goes on to explain that our woeful neglect of the resurrection has led to a terrible misunderstanding:

You might be interested to know that as central as the cross is in Christianity, it was not really the central focus of the early church. The early church saw much more in salvation than just the moment at which Christ atoned for sins, the moment in which He died on the cross. The early church saw salvation in much broader terms than that. The early church saw salvation as something that only began with the forgiveness of sins and led to a life transformed into obedience and consummated in the glory with Jesus Christ. It is interesting that even history sort of reflects this. In his book, Civilization, author Kenneth Clark shows that the cross as such was a very late symbol in Christian art and Christian culture. When we think about Christianity, we think immediately about the cross as the symbol of our faith. You might be interested to know that as far as that book, Civilization, determined the first appearance of the cross in Christian art or culture occurred in A.D. 430, all the way into the fifth century, on the doors of the church at Santa Sobina(?) and that that cross was a very small little cross inset into some piece of Christian art.

The early church did not focus on the cross. The early church focused on what great event? The resurrection. It focused its attention on the resurrection. And consequently its preoccupation was not with the point at which sin is forgiven, but the point at which new life begins. And the resurrection is that point. We, of course, died in Christ spiritually and in that death the penalty of sin was paid. But we also arose in Christ, says Paul, to walk in newness of life. To be saved then to the early church, and surely to us as well, was not just to have your sin forgiven. It was not just some transaction which dealt with your guilt. But rather to be saved was to be delivered from the power of darkness and to be translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. In other words, it was to enter in to an entirely new kind of life, to enter into a new sphere of existence. Salvation is not just atonement. Salvation is not just forgiveness. Salvation is regeneration. It is transformation. It is the imparting of a new kind of life, the life of God in the soul of man.

Why do so few Christian preachers today grasp this fully?

But MacArthur doesn’t leave us there.  He goes on to explain that if life transformation has happened in you, then good works are the inevitable result.  As Bob Roberts likes to put it “We serve not to convert but because we are converted.”

MacArthur then explains that every single Christian has a unique contribution to make to the Kingdom effort.  I can almost hear Bob talking about using your job to connect to the nations:

So you have a special gift. It’s a combination of the colors, as it were, on the palette of giftedness that come together to make you unique and there’s nobody like you, absolutely no one like you . . . So you take that unique gift in a unique ministry with a unique effect with a measured amount of grace and a measured amount of faith and then you add your physical capabilities, your training, your background, your opportunities, your environment and all your influences and you function like nobody else…nobody else. That’s why there’s nobody to replace you if you don’t function. That’s the extent of spiritual gifts.

So there you have it: Because salvation is not only about forgiveness of sins but the start of a new life begun by the resurrection of Jesus, Christians have a duty in this world to spread that new life, not only by preaching but also by acts of kindness that stem from a transformed heart.

What takes the place of love for God in your life and mine? Is it always sin? Not according to Piper. It is of course relatively easy to live an outwardly “pure” life, free from the most obvious of sins. But our hearts are way more deceptive than that:

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18–20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.

Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire for God is awakened in their hearts. But then, “as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14). In another place he said, “The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). “The pleasures of this life” and “the desires for other things”—these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts of God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.

From John Piper, A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1997), 14-15.

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

Stop. Whatever you are doing right now, just stop. I know you are probably busy but you can spare five minutes can’t you?  Ask God the following question “am I doing anything out of rivalry or concept? Please show me.”

What about that promotion you applied for at work?  Are you thinking of the good of the company? Do you honestly feel you can contribute at that level? Or are you seeking to advance your career selfishly, oblivious to the fact you may be being promoted to your level of incompetency? Have you considered the effects on your family if, by taking on a role not made for you, you are fired in a few months? How would you feel if someone better than you got the job instead?

What about that ministry at church? Notice I didnt call it YOUR ministry. It’s not. Are you serving in the way you are because your gifting meets like a glove the need of the people? Or are you serving because you somehow managed to squeeze yourself like a square peg into a round hole?  How would you feel if someone else was found who could better do your role? Would you feel insecure and angry or would you be confident that there must be a more suitable role that you can serve in?

Are you on sone kind of “Christian leadership ladder” in your imagination? Do you hope for a steady rise to the so called top.  Or are you perhaps longing for a meteoric climb? Are you simply serving  time at the moment hoping to build your credentials for a future launch to run your own church? Do you secretly despise the leader you currently pretend to follow? Are you using him so one day you can strike out on your own?

Are you sure that your desire to church plant has been put there by God? Do you think you have all the answers or are you humbly seeking Gods help? Were you surprised when someone suggested it was time you lead? That could be good if it is a sign of humility. But it could be bad if it means that God has never stirred your heart with a godly ambition. Are you actually following the call of man or the call of God?

And Pastor, what of the growth of the church God has entrusted to your care? Are you constantly comparing yourself to others? Do you feel envious of a church growing faster or bigger? Or do you feel superior to one growing slower? Why do you want the church to grow? Is it so that you will look good or is it so God will be glorified by souls coming to know him and worship him as Lord?

It is only as we spend time on our knees being examined by God that we can know the true answers to these questions. Truth be told, all of us have mixed motives at best. Many of us start out as young guns, full of a cocksure confidence that often goes with youth. Those challenging circumstances you face may be Gods way of taking the wind out of your sails. God knows I needed him to do that for me. Has he broken you in as a man might a wild horse?

The irony is, when God truly humbles a man, taking away that sense he can conquer the world with no one helping him, it is then that the man is fit for service. Do you feel weak? Then God can make you strong! Do you exclaim like Paul “who I worthy for such a task?” Then God can qualify you! Do you lack wisdom? God will give it to you. Do you feel alone? God will give you those to serve alongside or under who he has specifically designed to cover your inadequacy. Not everyone is built to plant a church as the top of some pyramid. Far more are called to serve a leader in an existing church. Or, if indeed called and equipped by God to start a new work, to do so under the direction and support of another wiser leader.

If these words have hit a raw nerve in you, they are not intended to make you give up. Though, if you are doing something God never designed you for, a change of direction may indeed be the best thing, as quickly as possible. But perhaps, as God convicts you of independence, you may be able to still do the role you have, but with a different attitude. Perhaps you can find a godly leader who can shepherd your soul. Perhaps you can find a vision bigger than your own to gladly support. Perhaps God will take a humbled, almost broken, you and use you as a tool in his hands for the advance of his kingdom and his glory.

Will you join me in praying “God, test my heart. Weigh my motives. Purge me of any wrong desires for my glory. You know my heart. You know that even tho my ugly pride rears it’s head from time to time, I have determined to follow you and seek your glory. Make me a tool in your hands. May I bring honour to your name. May I serve you with true humility. And as you advance others may I rejoice that the cause is strengthened. Thank you for dying even for this most ugly of my sins. Thank you for your resurrection power that is given to me that I might be free! Help me to find my identity in you and to cease striving. “

My friend Jamie Munson over at Resurgence has posted an excellent article on the difference between two controlling motives in our lives. I wanted to share his table with you here, and encourage you to go read the whole post.

via Have It All or Want It All? | The Resurgence.

These notes are from the morning session of the 300 conference we recently had with John Piper. I have set them to auto-publish today, as I have been reliably informed that by now the video and audio of both this talk and the excellent Q and A should be available from 300leaders.org pop over and watch it if like me you are getting Piper withdrawal syndrome! I hope you enjoy this talk which was vintage John Piper. He was clearly enjoying himself as he preached one of only a very few messages he will be preaching during his 8 months break.

These are the things that have driven me for the past thirty years. There are just a few things that have shaped everything I do.  You don’t need go know a lot of things, just need to know a few things profoundly deeply.

Piper aimed to show that one of your main jobs as a pastor is to help your people pursue their maximum joy in Christ Jesus 24/7. This brings glory to Jesus.

He told us that his message remains controversial. Their is a suspicion of those who pursue their joy.  However, he told us that people with a Charismatic bent tend not to stumble as much about what Piper thinks. This is because a sweet experience of the Spirit helps people realise enjoying God is a good thing!

He began by unpacking his personal and church mission statement:

To spread: our church exists to spread.

Passion or zeal: Not a theology. I am on a crusade to make people reformed. But, doctrine is like blood, it’s supposed to course through your veins not be carried in a bucket!

Supremacy of God: I.e. God centeredness.

In everything. No area of your life that god is not supreme over.

for the joy. It is the supremacy of God that brings joy. It doesn’t oppress life.

Piper says he is on a crusade to spread joy to the world.

2 Corinthians 1.24. Working for joy, because an essential component of saving faith is joy in Jesus.

Saving faith embraces Jesus as a savior and treasure.

This verse is a voccational definition for you as a pastor

Philippians 1:25. Joy of faith. Joy from faith, constituent of faith. Paul says he is staying on the planet to advance joy.

That my joy may be in you John 15:11

Philippians 1:19ff preached first sermon at Bethlehem.

Paul’s desire is that his bodily life should not cause shame to Christ but honor.

How does it happen if he died? To die is gain. When my death is to me a benefit. You loose everything on the planet. Far better to be with Christ. If you are so satisfied with Jesus that when the moment comes to die you think “yes” because you want him. Everyone wants to be happy. Since Kant, many argue that you can’t want your own happiness to be good. But we have no choice over wanting to be happy. Paul sees Christ with the eyes of his heart as supremely satisfying. Purusing joy in Jesus makes him look magnificent.

Everything on earth is like rubbish compared to Christ.

People wonder about you, because you have a another drive.

Pursuit of joy in Christ doesn’t make you self-centered.

2. The reason we care is that pursuing satisfaction in Jesus makes Christ look magnificent. This is the goal of the universe.

3. What are some of the biblical justifications to this and what are the objections to this.

1. Commands us to do so. Psalm 100:2 Serve the lord with gladness. Psalm 37:4. Delight self in lord. Phil 4:4. People argue emotions can’t be commanded. The Bible commands emotions everywhere. Hope, joy, broken heartedness, Whether you can perform it or not is not the issue. God grants us the ability to do what we cant. It’s a sin not to be happy in Jesus. This is not icing on the cake it is the cake.
2. Bible shows that the nature of faith includes joy in Jesus. John 6:35. Coming to Jesus is an act of the heart. Synomynous with believing. Faith is a coming to Jesus for the satisfaction he gives. It is talking about soul hunger and thirst being satisfied. We area at the end of our quest. That’s faith. It’d not about a quick decision. It’s a miracle. We can’t make anybody be satisfied in Jesus.
3. The nature of evil shows we should pursue joy in God. Jeremiah 2:12-13. Be appalled at two great evils: people have forsaken the fountain of living waters and dug broken cisterns. Evil is standing at a fountain when you are desperate, and disdaining it and trying to dig your own source of Joy. The battle for most Christians is not with horrible evils, rather making neutral stuff becoming our God.
4. The nature of conversion. Kingdom is like Matthew 13:44. Eveeything he has is precious. Trips over something in a field and discovers a treasure. Just tripped over King Jesus. I will have him at any cost. Sells everything. It was from his JOY that he did this. At any cost our cost pursue Jesus. So many churches have pastors who hammer their people with threats and coercion. Rather awaken people to joy in Jesus.
5. The Bible threatens us with terrible things if we will not enjoy Jesus. Deut 28:47. Because did not serve with joy you will serve your enemy. Fear of God is a positive thing in the Bible. Can seem to contradict joy. But Psalm 2 says kiss the son less he is angry. If you hug God he is lovely, but if you run away from him he is scary! Fear can be negative, bit we like it of we are safe. In the storm of God’s holiness but safe as he goes by
6. Bibles teaching about self denial teaches us in Mark to deny self take up cross and follow me. This is a common objection to Piper’s teaching. Read the next verse. We are not meant to ultimately loose our life, instead we are meant to loose it now. John 12:25. Adds he who loves life looses it, hate it IN THIS WORLD to save it. Stop trying to be safe. It looks like you hate your life. Not ultimate self denial. It’s denial in this world to maximize your joy for ever. Its OK to have stuff. But we have to count all the stuff as loss to know Jesuss. If any of the stuff has to go let it go. We must put a cap on lifestyle to show that we value Jesus more. We mustn’t value stuff the same way they do. Jesus is the treasure not the stuff. Deny yourself wealth, security, fame, etc to have eternal pleasures
   6. If you don’t pursue your joy in God you can’t love People. Loving people does not mean stopping pursuing your joy and instead pursuing theirs. 2 Cor 9:7. God loves a cheerful giver. Not a begrudging giver. Not a dutiful giver. People feel more loved when you give to them because you want to. Help me go love people. Help me to be happy to do this. Help me to want this. An essential component of love g people is being glad to do so. We feel more loved when we are served joyfully. Imagine saying to a lover, I have bought you these flowers because it was my duty to do so!

Hebrews 13:17. Addressed to people but implications for leaders. Leaders are to be helped to do their work with joy not groaning. For that is no advantage to you. When the joy starts to go, we get on our faces and pray restore to me the joy of my salvation and help me to love you more so that it spills over onto the people.

Mark Driscoll is at his very best in the following clip. Ever wondered how family and mission entwine, especially in a growing church where you don’t know anyone? Ever wished for more intimacy and a greater relational feel in your church? Ever felt neglected and rejected in your church? Ever felt like your church was not your home? Watch this clip and be prepared to be blown away. I love the way he begins: Family is a category of relationship that the world knows nothing about. What’s better than friends? Family. It’s a huge painful annoying mess, family is awkward, trying and hard, but you love the family, and you serve the family, and you don’t give up on family. This sermon speaks about our need to find a way to contribute to our church. commit to it, and connect to a small group. Christians must change from being consumers to being active participants in the mission of God. When you are contributing to something, you will feel connected to it.

The full sermon this clip comes from is available from the Mars Hill Website.

The man is a dynamo. Knowing as I now do how much heartache and mental effort can go into just one book, the many volumes that Piper has produced are a monumental achievement. Most of us find it hard to even keep up with reading all of them. They are all good, but some of his works stand out as exceptional. I believe that his book on Ruth called A Sweet and Bitter Providence (Crossway, 2010) is one that it is important you do not miss. Piper crams a lot of teaching into a short book, which also includes the full text of the biblical book. He shows us the sovereignty of God and portrays the value and dignity of women. He shows how, when God calls us to suffer, there is always both bitter and sweet components to the experience. Here are a couple of extracts:

[Ruth] is different from most people today. We have a sense of entitlement. We expect kindness and are astonished and resentful if we don’t get our “rights.” But Ruth expresses her sense of unworthiness by falling on her face and bowing to the ground. Proud people don’t feel amazed at being treated well. They don’t feel deep gratefulness. But humble people do. In fact, they are made even more humble by being treated graciously. They are so amazed that grace came to them in their unworthiness that they feel even more lowly. But they receive the gift. Joy increases, not self-importance. Grace is not intended to replace lowliness with pride. It’s intended to replace sorrow with joy. (Page 64-65)

Here Piper explains why it is that some people can honestly say that they are humbled by great success. I pray that I will always be amazed at how well I am treated. Certainly my recent trip to the USA with its warm welcomes from so many people, and so many people opening their homes to me, was an incredible blessing. I thank God for how he has directed my paths, and for how graciously I have been received. It was far greater than I deserve.  May we all learn to drop our idea that we have “rights” and our sense of entitlement.

God’s sovereignty even over our sin is nicely explained in the next quote I also want to share with you:

In fact, during the time of the judges, it was sin to demand a king. Nevertheless, near the end of this period, the people asked for a king . . . Asking for a king meant that they were rejecting God as their king. This, Samuel says, was a great wickedness . . .

Nevertheless, the book of Ruth is written with a clear sense of joy that Ruth and Naomi and Boaz are the forebears of the king of Israel. So in the same period when it was a “great wickedness” to ask for a king, God was preparing to give the people a king. We are meant to conclude that, without approving of sin, God governs the sinful acts of men for his own good and wise purposes. He was planning that Israel would have a king, though it was sin for the people to demand one. (Page 114)

Knowing God rules,  even over my mistakes, gives me great confidence that he will make sure I finish the race well. I am confident to trust my life into Jesus’ hands and to ask him to guide me and mold me into what he wants me to be. He will make sure I become the man I was meant to be.

Piper has also written a companion volume, which is a collection of poems dramatizing the story. I read this first and it reminded me how full of life and fresh the story of Ruth really is. Seen through the eyes of the great-great grandson of Ruth and Boaz, it is a fresh reminder that King David would surely have grown up hearing the remarkable story of his ancestors. No wonder he had such a confidence in the sovereign hand of God at work in his life to protect and guide him, even through difficulties. This story should inspire us, as it no doubt inspired him.

Lloyd-Jones makes a great point in the quote below. The only thing I would add is that many people today think that simple preaching of doctrine will automatically lead to a transformed life. Lloyd-Jones is right when he says we must be taught to think. We need practical guidance to help us apply the wondrous truths of the gospel, or we will remain stunted and immature Christians. Where is the preaching that will help us live as Christians?

Nothing happens automatically in the Christian life. That is a very profound principle, for I believe that most of our troubles arise from the fact that we tend to assume that they do happen automatically. We persist in holding on to a semi-magical notion of regeneration which teaches that, because of what has happened to us, the rest of the story is, quite simply, ‘they all lived happily ever after’. But of course we know that that is not true . . .Obviously the antidote to that is to think, to have an understanding, to reason the thing out thoroughly. The world does not do that. The trouble with the world, ultimately, according to the teaching of the Bible, is that it does not think. If only people thought, most of their problems would be solved . . .

The fallacy of the humanist is, of course, that he believes that all you have to do therefore is to tell people to think. But as long as they are sinners they will not think. These elemental forces are so much stronger than the rational forces that ‘man in sin’ is always irrational.

When we become Christians we still need to enforce this self-same principle. Even the Christian does not think automatically; he has to be taught to think—hence these New Testament epistles. Why were they ever written? If a man who becomes a Christian automatically does the right thing, why did the Apostle ever have to write these epistles? Or if you can receive your sanctification as one act, one blessing, why were these epistles ever written? Here they are, full of reason, full of argument, full of demonstrations, full of analogies and comparisons. Why? In order to teach us how to think, in order to teach us how to work these things out, and how to gain understanding.

David Martyn. Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work : An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18 to 6:9 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, c1973), 209.