From One Degree to Another

Phil Auxier's Blog

  • Home
  • About
  • Archive

Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Powered by Genesis

The Church, The Future Generations and Revival

April 21, 2015 by Phil Auxier

Here’s an important question answered from Ray Ortlund’s When God Comes to Church:

“Do we want to guarantee that our children will run in the opposite direction of our most cherished biblical convictions?  All we have to do is sterilize our churches.  Make them rigid, unresponsive, grim.  Require of our ministers that they play the role of scolding, scowling Reverend Eat-Your-Peas. Treat the gospel as a theological system only, rather than also as a personal remedy.  Use the Bible as ammunition for “culture wars” rather than as food for life.  Withdraw from the historical situation in which God has placed us.  Build up the walls, reinforce the barriers and make certain that no experience gets in here.  Ignore the fact that “doctrine only” is not itself a biblical doctrine.

“But do we want our children to embrace our biblical convictions with joy?  Let our churches become environments fertile with revival potentialities.  Let’s shape our churches with deliberate intention that their content and tone may encourage our children, and all others, in true experience of God.  Let our convictions open up to their eyes a glorious vision of God and to their hearts the succulent pleasures of God.  We cannot trigger a divine visitation on our churches, but it is our responsibility prayerfully to offer our Lord a church steeped in the gospel and tenderly responsive to his presence.  His Spirit’s blessing should not have to work against the logic and ethos we create.

(pp. 16-17)

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Parenting, Ray Ortlund, Revival

From One Degree To Another?

Yeah, that's right. My one, consuming passion is Jesus Christ, my Lord. I'm totally gripped by one message: the Gospel - the good news that God came after me when I was far from Him. So, the life I live, I live by faith in Him: He loved me and gave Himself for me.

From One Degree To Another is the change that He's accomplishing in me by grace. Growing downward in humility, upward into Him, outward toward others, and inward with renewal characterize my existence.

This site is where I flesh all of these types of things out, including my life as a slave to Jesus, husband, father, coffee-enjoyer, and pastor. I hope it encourages you.

RSS My latest sermons at Crestview

  • Overwhelmed with Grace September 17, 2023
    In this sermon from 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Phil Auxier shows how a call to live generously provokes thanksgiving and makes Jesus shine.
  • Gospel Priorities September 10, 2023
    In this sermon from 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5, Phil Auxier uses the appeals to the church at Corinth to help us understand how the Gospel works in how we live.
  • Our Genuine Love Comes from God’s Lavish Grace September 4, 2023
    In this sermon from 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Luke directs us into God’s heart as the focus for genuine love expressed in generosity.

Categories

  • 1 Corinthians
  • 1 Samuel
  • 2016
  • abide
  • advent
  • Apologetics
  • Baby Dedication
  • Bible Intake
  • Book Review
  • Books
  • Camp
  • CBCH2Go
  • Chandler
  • Church
  • Colossians
  • conference
  • conferences
  • confession
  • COVID
  • Crestview
  • CrestviewKids
  • devotions
  • Easter
  • Elders
  • Elyse Fitzpatrick
  • Ephesians
  • Evangelism
  • Faith
  • family
  • food
    • ChickFilA
  • For The Church
  • Free Audio
  • Funeral
  • Goals
  • Good Friday
  • Gospel Friday
  • Gospel of John
  • gratitude
  • Great Commission
  • H2Go
  • health update
  • heart
  • Heaven
  • Holy Spirit
  • Holy Week
  • Hutchinson
  • Isaiah
  • Jesus
  • Job
  • Judgment
  • kansas
  • leadership
  • life
  • Lord's Supper
  • LRC
  • LRCAA
  • mental health
  • Missions
  • Music
  • Palm Sunday
  • Parenting
  • Paul Tripp
  • Peace
  • personal
  • Piper
  • Planning
  • prayer
  • Preaching
  • Psalms
  • Ray Ortlund
  • reading
  • recommendations
  • rest
  • Resurrection
  • Retreat
  • revelation
  • Revival
  • Russell Moore
  • salvation
  • Scotty Smith
  • Scripture Memory
  • service
  • Shai Linne
  • sin
  • Small Groups
  • Suffering
  • Sunday School
  • Technology
  • Thanks
  • Thanksgiving
  • Uncategorized
  • vacation recap
  • valley of vision
  • VBS
  • Weakness
  • Week of Prayer
  • Weekend Preview
  • Weekend Recap
  • women's ministry
  • worship

Recent Posts

  • Weekend Recap – Living Generously
  • Weekend Recap – Gospel Priorities
  • Weekend Recap – When You Walk By The Way
  • Weekend Recap – That the Next Generation Might Know Him
  • Weekend Recap – Salvation Is Now