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Love and Strategic Recklessness

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Here’s a post I wrote that appeared on our church’s mission blog (the CBC H2Go blog) today:

One of our mission team’s core values is that we’d be strategically reckless:  forsaking our security/comforts in this life for the everlasting joy that’s found in Christ.  It seems we’re giving up so much, but then, again, when we consider what we’re gaining (Christ) it’s really nothing.  I was thinking about how this relates to love.  Love is risky.  Love is saying “no” to ourselves and laying our lives down in service to others.  For this reason, Paul commanded the Romans to “owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves one another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).  In other words, when we love, we are so in tune with God’s heart that it can be said of us that we are obeying all that God intends for us.  

Love.  It seems so easy, yet is a very costly thing.  Today, how might love inspire your strategic recklessness?  How does Christ’s love compel us to be loving in our actions?  Let’s step out as a strategically reckless people in love. 

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I would add that today the Christian church celebrates Love.  Maundy Thursday is about that new commandment that Jesus gave that we love one another.  This really connects well with this theme I wrote about for the Missions blog.  Hope you’re inspired by the love of Christ, which is controlling you, to be the loving people you’re called to be.



T4G Recap (Part 2 with Audio Links)

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I was privileged to attend Together for the Gospel last week in Louisville, KY (and even wrote an update after Day 1).  If you don’t know, this is an every other year gathering of pastors in the evangelical stream.  We come together from different denominations but are united by one message: the good news that sinners can be right with God because of Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, died and rose again, reigning today from heaven.  This year’s conference theme was taken from Romans 1:16 and how we should be unashamed in the Gospel.  Here’s how the messages shook down:

Tues:
Mark Dever: The Certain Victory of Christ’s Church an Encouragement to Evangelism
Thabiti Anyabwile: The Happiness of Heaven in the Repentance of Sinners
Al Mohler: The Open Door is the Only Door, the Singularity of the Gospel in a Pluralistic Age

Wed:
Kevin DeYoung: Never Spoke A Man Like This Before: Innerancy, Evangelism and Christ’s Unbreakable Bible
David Platt:  Relenting Wrath: The Role of Desperate Prayer in the Mystery of Divine Providence
Matt Chandler: Christ Is All

Thurs:
Ligon Duncan: The Gospel By Numbers
John MacArthur:  Mass Defection: The Great Physician Confronts The Pathology of Counterfeit Faith
John Piper: Persuading, Pleading and Predestination: Human Means in the Miracle of Conversion

(All of these sermons are available for audio or video download, so enjoy!)

These men are my heroes.  To a man, they have served faithfully and marked me through their service in the Word.  So, when I get a chance to hear them live at one conference, it’s like the All-Star Game.  But, God used these sermons in many ways to cement and solidify my heart in Gospel reality.

On top of this benefit, I was able to attend with brothers in Christ who love Christ and me.  They asked hard questions, pressed for fellowship and provoked me to good deeds.  We drive intentionally (12 hours) to have plenty of windshield time to dream, discuss and have unhurried time with one another.

So, I’m grateful for this opportunity.  It was a great week.  I’m still digging out from being gone, but found it to be a rich time.

Holy Week Help

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Here’s a quick round up of 2 resources I’m utilizing this week…

1) John Piper’s Devotional Love To The Uttermost.  Here’s their description:

Love to the Uttermost: Devotional Readings for Holy Week is designed for Lent 2014. The readings begin on Palm Sunday, end on Easter Sunday, and aim to focus our attention on Jesus he displays his love to the uttermost (John 13:1). These meditations on the self-giving love of Christ are all excerpted from the preaching and writing ministry of John Piper.


This resource is available as a Mobi (Kindle), EPub (iDevice), or PDF.  Enjoy.

2) In conjunction with Justin Taylor’s book, Final Days of Jesus (my review here), there are videos being posted every day related to each day of Jesus’ final week.  Here’s the Palm Sunday and Monday versions for you to enjoy:




My hope is that these resources bless you and your worship of the Risen Christ this holy week.  

T4G Day 1 Recap (#T4G)

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I’m privileged to attend the 2014 Together For The Gospel conference.  This is a conference I’ve attended since its inception in 2006, so this is my fifth time attending (it’s held every other year).  This year, I’m attending with one of our elders, a friend our church supports in India and another friend in ministry from St. Louis.

We began our journey on Sunday and finally arrived late Monday.  We grabbed supper with another couple our church supports to check in on their ministry.  We took in a pre-conference called Band of Bloggers.  This conference included some rock star bloggers from my neck of the evangelical world and discussed how platform building relates to the Gospel.

The afternoon session began with Mark Dever introducing the conference theme (Being Unashamed of the Gospel) and encouraging us through Isaiah 36-37, that God won’t abandon us in the amazing task of making His fame known to others.  Thabiti Anyabwile continued our afternoon session by helping us see how heaven rejoices in the news of repenting sinners from Luke 15.  Our evening session was Albert Mohler holding relentless to the exclusivity of Christ, specifically in Acts 4.

Some other highlights included seeing old friends.  Gatherings like this assemble some of my best friends in ministry.  So being able to connect with them and make new friends is a tremendous encouragement.  The singing (7000 mostly MEN!) of songs old and new is always a highlight.  One song that stuck out to me last night was All Creatures Of Our God and King.  There were two new verses introduced for that song:

All the redeemed washed by His blood,
Come and rejoice in His great love.
Oh, praise Him! Alleluia!
Christ has defeated every sin;
Cast all your burdens now on Him.
Oh, praise Him! Oh, praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
He shall return in pow’r to reign;
Heaven and earth will join to say
Oh, praise Him! Alleluia!
Then who shall fall on bended knee?
All creatures of our God and King!
Oh, praise Him! Oh, praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
I’m, again, so grateful to get to participate in this conference.  So, thank you Meg, family, church and others that enable me to enjoy such a thing.

Weekend Recap – All Under Sin

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My 3/30/14AM sermon, All Under Sin from Romans 3:9-20, is now online.  This sermon was a hard one to preach (as a sinner) but one in which the good news of the Gospel shined so brightly that it brought great encouragement.  Until sin is bitter, the Gospel doesn’t taste sweet.  So, this sermon got at the reality of our sin and then drove us to a Christ-centered dependance.  I hope it’s encouraging to you.

Book Review – Final Days of Jesus

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I had the privilege to read and offer this short review of Crossway’s The Final Days of Jesus earlier this month.  This is a fascinating work and one, quite honestly, that you’ll want to have in your library.  It’s written by Andreas Kostenberger and Justin Taylor (here’s a link to Justin’s blog on this book, which gives you a feel for its visual layout).

The table of contents is simple: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  One week.  This book is about one week, but it’s not just any normal week.  It’s the one week in which the lives of so many people have been changed.  It’s the final week of Jesus Christ.

This book takes this final week, imports all the Biblical texts describing this week, harmonizes them, and gives the reader commentary on what’s happening and why it’s so important.  I read this book when lent began a few weeks ago and remember thinking that it would be an amazing book to work through on the Palm Sunday through Easter week.  Even if that doesn’t work, though, this book would prove profitable in helping readers know what happened in this final week of Jesus Christ.

I know this statement will get my nerd card stamped for another year, but this book is cool for its graphics and charts.  I grew up reading the encyclopedia and love those little stat corners of the USA Today.  There are parts of this book where huge amounts of data are cohesively presented as a picture or chart.  Having these are almost worth the price of the book.

So, I’m happy to recommend this book to you.  Read it and allow what the Bible says about the greatest person who ever lived come into clear focus.  Your life won’t be the same by looking at the Final Days of Jesus.

Book Review – What’s Best Next

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I’ve always appreciated Matt Perman.  When he worked for Desiring God, I consulted with him on an important issue we were facing in church life and found him to be full of wisdom with theological support.  I’ve also benefitted from his time at other conferences.  He’s been approachable and always, in my interactions with him, been seeking to live out what he’s now written in this book, so I would highly recommend this book.

What is this book?  It’s entitled What’s Best Next.  How The Gospel Transforms The Way You Get Things Done.  It’s a book on how the Gospel informs productivity and, admittedly, Matt believes he’s written something that is unique.  I can’t find a weakness in this book.  I’m one of those people who find themselves where the knives go in the knife drawer.  I’m an organized person and have some borderline disorder tendencies when it comes to order (just ask those close to me).  I’ve read books on productivity, getting things done and maximizing my life and time.  But, in this book, the great content of those books is fused with a life that exists for something eternal: God’s glory and the good of people.
I’ve already given away 3 copies of this book and we’re considering using it as a Sunday School text at our church.  I think many could benefit from so many specifics in this book.  It breaks into 7 parts: 1) Making God Supreme in Productivity, 2) Gospel Driven Productivity: A New Way to Look at Getting Things Done, 3) Define: Know What’s Most Important, 4) Architect: Create a Flexible Structure, 5) Reduce: Free Up Your Time for What’s Most Important, 6) Execute: Do What’s Most Important, 7) Living This Out.  Matt’s style of writing is easy to read and includes helpful summaries and blocks at the end of each chapter and for the book as a whole at the end.

There are so many great recommendations and practical outworkings in this book.  My favorite parts were the first 2 parts where a theological foundation is laid for why we should be productive and how this is about more than self-serving tendencies.  It’s about wielding all of our time and energy in a way so that God is glorified and people are served.  These are things that are worth giving your life for and are eternal.  They’re in desperate need of being Gospel-informed.  Matt gives these connections and from there presses us into application (which is another super-helpful feature of this book).  It will not be my go-to book when I’m stuck in slow progress and evaluating how to maximize my time and energies.  

I hope you’ll read and allow God to stir your heart through Matt’s service to us.  What a blessing to have this book.  Now, there’s only one question: What’s Best Next?

Weekend Recap – God, The Just

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My 3/23/14AM sermon, God The Just from Romans 3:1-8, is now online.  This sermon aimed, once again, at the heart of those with empty, faithless, religious practice, urging them to repent and rest in Christ alone as their right standing before God.  I hope it’s an encouragement to you to rest in Christ as the only standard of your righteousness.

Working Together – one of my posts on the H2Go blog

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Here’s a post I wrote for our CBC H2Go blog entitled Working Together:

Too often, working together isn’t the reality when we think of church life.  If we don’t like something that’s happening, we pack up our toys and head for the church down the road that is doing those things that we like (at least until the next thing we don’t care for pops up).  But, God’s vision for the church is much more glorious.  He envisions His people to be wholly engaged, working together for His purposes.  Hear how this is described in Romans 12:4-5 “For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  God’s vision then isn’t minimizing the diversity that exists, but to allow that individuality to shine as it comes together for one big purpose.  

What can you strive to do today to be more wholly engaged to our body?  What might need to change?  What do you need to repent of?  How might you need to act?  Today, step into God’s vision and be wholly engaged in His work for you – His glory in a united church on mission under grace.