Persecution Could Bless the Church in America

Sorry for the lapse in blog posts this last week. My wife and I have spent the last week moving from our old apartment to a townhome. We really like the new place. It gives us much more room and is pretty freakin' cool! All that said, here's a short blurb from Jared Wilson about the possibility of persecution blessing the church in America. Hope it makes you think. I'm in total agreement. What about you?

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -- Matthew 5:10

At the time of the Boxer Rebellion, 230 Christian missionaries and 23,000 Chinese Christians were killed in China. In the years following, the number of Christians in China grew to 70,000. Then communist China really cracked down, outlawing Christianity and expelling all Christian missionaries. The number of Christians in China grew 100 fold to 70 million.

In our nation there is some concern among Christians about religious freedoms and the state recognition of Christian expression. These concerns are, for the most part, justified. Arguably. But there are many overreactions, many voicing of concerns that belie the reality of the God who is sovereign over everything, including nations, kings, and laws.

But let's not presume to think we are presently persecuted. In Matthew 5:11, Jesus says, 'Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.' Persecution is a blessing. Either he meant that or he didn't. The Beatitudes are proclamations, not commands, so we don't need to seek persecution. It's not the blood of the one with a martyr complex that is the seed of the church. Perhaps socialism is creeping into America. We should be concerned about this and talk about it, against it even.

But let's also not assume that persecution would be the worst thing to befall us. It could be, actually, that persecution, should it come, is the best thing to happen to the American church."

What Did Jesus Look Like?

Let's be honest.  Unlike most contemporary portrayals of Jesus, he was not a white American with long, flowing hair.  And though we cannot know exactly what Jesus look like until we get to heaven to see him face-to-face, we can make some good approximations.  Justin Taylor lays out these approximations well in his excellent post on what Jesus might have actually looked like.  Here's his visual conclusion:

The Invasion by Trip Lee

This is the official music video for "The Invasion" by Trip Lee.  This song is part of his new album entitled, Between Two Worlds.  I've heard a few of the songs so far.  Awesome!  Mix rap with solid biblical teaching, and you'll get this album.  You can preview parts of the album on Trip Lee's MySpace page.  Justin Taylor interviewed Trip Lee about this album here.  If you want to buy it, you can download it from iTunes, buy it from a Christian book store, or buy it from Amazon.

God's Masterpiece

Church is not a mindless tradition that we as Christians attend to once a week.  And it's not a place where we gather with friends to hear a motivating message about how to live better lives.  No.  It is much bigger and immensely more important. 

"What is the really important thing that is happening in the world in our generation?  Where are the really significant events taking place? What is the most important thing?  Where do you need to look in the modern world to see the most significant event from a divine perspective?  Where is the focus of God's activity in history?

The most significant thing happening in history is the calling, redeeming, and perfecting of the people of God.  God is building the church of Jesus Christ.  The rest of history is simply a stage God erects for that purpose.  He is calling out a people.  He is perfecting them.  He is changing them.  History's great climax comes when God brings down the curtain on this bankrupt world and the Lord Jesus Christ arrives in his infinite glory.  The rest of history is simply the scaffolding for the real work...

And there will come a day when God will pull down the scaffolding of world history.  Do you know what he will be pointing to when he says to the whole creation, "There is my masterpiece"?  He will be pointing to the church of Jesus Christ.  In the forefront of it all will be the Lord Jesus himself who will come and say, "Here am I, and the children you have given me, perfected in the beauty of holiness."  - Scottish preacher Eric Alexander as quoted by Richard Phillips in Masculine Mandate

Let this encourage you.  God is building & perfecting his people for that glorious day of His return.  And how has God purposed to bring this about?  Through your local church.  We must never forget that God uses means, and what a glorious means this is!  Therefore, when you take the time to cook a meal for the family who is extremely busy with the birth of a newborn, you are God's chosen hammer to drive another nail in the framework of the house of God.  When you sit down with your friend in small group to pray with him for an upcoming surgery, you are the chisel that God used to carefully sculpt His monument in progress.  And when you gently rebuke your brother in Christ to turn from his sin and toward his Savior, you are the brush in the hand of God that gently stroked the canvas of His Masterpiece.  God is perfecting His people, and it is a glorious work!

Awesome CJ Mahaney Impersonation

If you've ever seen CJ preach, you'll know that this impersonation is dead on.  Really funny!


Jonathan Rourke as CJ Mahaney from Resolved on Vimeo.

Answering the Question, "What Is a Christian?"

Thanks to those of you who posted answers to the question I posed in a post 2 weeks ago.  I thought that it brought about some lively discussion.  The question posed was this: "What is a Christian?"  I believe that the way we answer this question has implications larger than one might expect.

Let me draw your attention to 2 of the answers I received to this question.  The first comes from Bob.  Bob does a fantastic job of not only answering the question for himself, but also for numerous other people & religious groups.  For instance, he says, "If you ask a politician [what a Christian is], a Christian is somebody who comes from a generally conservative moralistic constituency that is against abortion, and gay marriage." And "if you ask some in certain denominations notably Catholic, Lutheran, & Church of Christ... Christians are people who have been baptized."  He lists off an additional 14 other ways that people might answer this question, all of them well worth your time to read and ponder over.

So if there are so many different ways that people answer this question, how do we know what a Christian truly is?  Is a Christian simply someone who follows Jesus and professes to be his disciple?  Is it someone who agrees with Christian teaching? Is it someone who goes to church? To answer this question, I think it might be helpful to first answer the question, "What is an apple?"  Now, some of you may say an apple is red or green.  Or you may say that an apple tastes good or that it contains seeds and a stem.  You might even say that an apple grows on a tree.  But do you see what's happened here?  You've given me a description of an apple without ever telling me what an apple really is.  The same is true for most answers to the question of what a Christian really is.  Yes, a Christian is a follower & disciple of Jesus.  A Christian does go to church, and a Christian does (or should) believe that homosexuality & abortion are sins.  But that does not accurately answer the question.  Why?  Because, sadly, not all who profess to be & act like Christians are truly Christians.  Listen to the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 7:21-23.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Being a disciple of Jesus, going to church, and getting baptized are all descriptions of true Christians.  In fact, those characteristics are the fruit of becoming a Christian.  But those things in themselves do not make one a Christian.  Ok, so what is a Christian then?  I will first default to the Iain Murray who will give the longer answer, and then to Andrew Barber (a good friend & the 2nd commenter that I wanted to point your attention to) who sums it up nicely.

"To become a Christian is to experience the power of Christ in the forgiveness of sin and in the receiving of a new life. It is a change accomplished by God and altogether apart from human effort or deserving, for the very faith which is the instrument in uniting the sinner to Christ is itself a gift: 'By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God' (Ephesians 2:8).  Further, while obedience and love result from the gift of faith, these graces follow rather than contribute anything to our acceptance with God.  It is Christ's finished work alone which secures for ever the believer's status of righteousness and of 'no condemnation.'"  - Iain Murray in Evangelicalism Divided, pg 152

To sum that up in the words of Mr. Barber, "A Christian is someone who's experienced regeneration. Everything else is implication." 

Now, why is this such an important distinction to make?  And what are the implications of answering that question wrongly?  In my feeble attempt to keep you on the edge of your computer chair (and due to the fact that being a husband & a daddy consumes much of my time), I'll leave you there to ponder those questions until next week.  Leave a comment if you have any questions or want to further the discussion.

How to Find a Local Church

Call me weird, but one of things that I really enjoy doing is helping people find a good, gospel-centered, bible-believing church in their area for them to attend.  I believe that where you attend church is an extremely important part of your Christian life.  Therefore, after having had to find a good church to attend twice in the past 5 years (due to relocating to a different area of the Midwest) and after helping many people try to find a good church in their area, I have compiled a short (and hopefully helpful) primer on how to find a good local church.  For future reference, you will be able to access this short how-to on one of the tabs at the top of the blog.  I hope this serves you well!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

There are a few tools that I use first to look for a solid church in a particular area.  I use these because I am totally on board with these ministries and would more than likely recommend any church that is affiliated with them.  Here are the four:

Sovereign Grace Ministries: The church that my wife & I attend is part of Sovereign Grace Ministries.  I can't say enough good things about this ministry.  If there is one in your area, your church search may be easier than you think.
The Gospel Coalition: This is a gospel-centered organization for pastors & their churches.  You can find out more about them here.
9Marks: 9Marks is "a ministry dedicated to equipping church leaders with a biblical vision and practical resources" whose goal is to help create "churches that display the glory of God."  You can find out more about them here.
Acts 29 Network: This is Mark Driscoll's church planting network.

So, here's how I would suggest you use these 4 tools.  Go to each website and do a search for churches in your area.  If you find one in your area, I would definitely add that to list of churches to visit.  Now, obviously, there are lots of great churches out there that will not show up on these tools.  These 4 sites are just meant to help you find some of the great churches out there.  This is just the first place I would go to start looking because of the high quality of these gospel-centered ministries.

Now, before you expand your search any further, you should probably sit down and figure out exactly what you are looking for in a church.  One of the great things that looking for a local church does is that it drives you right back to Scripture in order to help you figure out what the bible teaches.  Consider it a mini-theology course.  It will force you figure out what the heck you believe.

Now, maybe you've already done this.  If so, awesome!  But if not, you will need to decide on what are theological must-haves (gospel-centered, justification by faith alone, God's Word as inerrant, etc.), theological convictions (infant baptism or believer's baptism? tongues, prophecy, & healing or not? Calvinist or Arminian? women as possible pastors or not?), and preferences (worship style, dress code, small groups, etc.) in a church.  Obviously, theological must-haves & theological convictions are much more important in a church than your preferences.  Here's an good rule-of-thumb to go by: The church you decide on must meet all of your theological must-haves, most (if not all) of your theological convictions, and some of your preferences.

Once you've figured out your list of theological must-haves, theological convictions, and preferences, start compiling a list of churches to visit by looking at each church's:

• Statement of Faith on their website to see if they match your theological must-haves and convictions.
• Vision/Purpose Statement on their website to see if you are on board with them.
• Example of what a Sunday gathering might look like to see how they match up with your preferences.
  

After you've compiled the list, start visiting each church and whittle down the list.  While you won't be able to get all of your questions answered by visiting each church's website, you should be able to answer almost all the rest by visiting the church itself.  You can tell a lot about a church by the books they stock in their bookstore, by the songs they sing during worship, by the pastor's sermon, and by the people themselves.

Once you've whittled down your list to a few that you are seriously interested in, I would recommend scheduling a meeting with the pastor of each church left on your list.  In that venue, you can ask more specific questions that you would like answered before you decide on which church you want to attend.  These might be questions you never got answered when you were looking through the church's website.  Or they may be more theological questions that can be best answered by the pastor himself.  Whatever the questions might be, it's good to sit down and have a conversation with the pastor himself to get the best understanding of what a church is like.

After you've done all that, the last and most important thing you can do is pray.  God is glorified when you acknowledge that no amount of research could ever replace the guiding hand of God in your decision of where to attend church.

For your added benefit, I've added some additional helpful resources to aid you in your church search.  Hope this helps!

What are the 9 marks of a healthy church?:  These 9 marks will really help you evaluate different churches as you go and visit.  It's thoroughly biblical and extremely helpful.
Why Join a Church by Don Whitney
Questions to Ask When Looking for a Church Home by Don Whitney
Practical Tips on How to Find a Church by Dan Phillips

Book Review: Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey

The topic of ambition has scarcely been addressed by the Christian community in the last couple of generations.  Even hinting at the fact that someone might embody just a smidge of ambition is enough to make a person question his motives in his own endeavors.  This is largely due to the preconceived notion that all ambition is selfish ambition.  Dave Harvey, in his new book, Rescuing Ambition, is out to combat that ideology with the biblical notion that there is another kind of ambition that is not selfish, but selfless...  Godly ambition.

Harvey begins by laying out the biblical foundation for ambition - the pursuit of glory.  What we pursue determines whether our ambition is godly ambition or selfish ambition.  Harvey puts it well when he says, "We will always pursue glory.  The only question is, 'Where will we find it?'  Will we love the glory that comes from God, or will we love other glories?"  Herein he shows how ambition was corrupted during the Fall of mankind in the garden of Eden and how ambition was converted by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was converted from an inward focus on self to an outward focus on the glory of God.  Harvey again and again reminds us that all godly ambition is for the glory of God.  The rest of the book is spent unpacking that idea, the implications of it, and an admonishment to go dream big for God's glory.

The most helpful chapter for me in Rescuing Ambition was the chapter entitled, "Ambitious for the Church."  Too often I tend to disconnect godly ambition in my life from the life of my local church.  I am prone to think that being ambitious has to do with high & lofty ambitions like finding a cure for cancer or preventing sex trafficking, all the while neglecting the very specific purposes God has placed right in front of me, one of which is contributing to the building & perfection of God's church in Oswego, IL.  Harvey reminded me to be ambitious for the church for the glory of God.
"Ambition for the church compels us to join our imperfect self with other imperfect selves to form an imperfect community - all for the glory of God...  When church is not an ambition but only a place, the real ambitions of our lives inevitably crowd it out."
Readers will really appreciate three things about this book.

1. Harvey has made this book very readable & enjoyable.  He does a great job of systematically unpacking what God's word has to say about ambition without making it too complicated as well as supplementing his careful exegesis & thoughts with many stories from church history and people from his own church.  This mixture makes for a very enjoyable read.
2. Just reader his chapter on "Ambitious Failure" is worth the price of the book.  His aim in this chapter is to answer the question, "Where is God when our dreams lead to defeats?"  I'm so glad that he took a whole chapter to answer this very important question as it is directly related to our ambitions.
3. Harvey never lets the gospel come out of focus for the reader.  Our ambition is directly connected to the gospel, and Harvey will not let the reader forget that.

This book is for anyone who has ever dreamed big dreams.  And this book is for anyone who thinks dreaming is for chumps.  Get it, read it, and may we all have big ambitions for the glory of God.

Thanks to Crossway for publishing this fantastic book.  You can buy it here.