Notes From the Study
Here’s a few salient quotes from last week’s study of Zephaniah 1:2-13: On verse 4: Zephaniah 1:4 “So I will stretch out My hand against Judah And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, And the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests. Baal was the god of productivity: his function in Canaanite religion was to make land, animals, and humans fertile. Baal was another name for the gross national product, and wherever people see bank balances, prosperity, a sound economy, productivity, and mounting exports as the essence of their security, Baal is still worshiped. Baal was also the god of religious excitement and sexual free-for-all. Human sexual acts were publicly offered to h im to prompt him to perform his work of fertilization. No wonder his officiants were called the “frenzied ones.” Wherever excitement in religion becomes an end in itself and wherever the cult of “what helps” replaces joy in “what”™s true,” Baal is worshiped. On verse 12: Zephaniah 1:12 “It will come about at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the men Who are stagnant in spirit, Who say in their hearts, “˜The Lord will not do good or evil!”™ This is not atheism as a dogma but practical atheism; it does not say, “God is not there,” but, “God is not here” ““ not that God does not exist but that he does not matter. In relation to this philosophy of life, the prophet reveals both the mind of God and the mind of humans:... read more
Apple Wow
Just then, I saw a store associate swiping a guy’s credit card on a little hand-held machine and it dawned on me that the associates were not only there to help you learn about the product but could make the transaction right where you stood. … I would have been more impressed if he had whipped out his iPhone to make the transaction – I bet it’s coming (my guess is that his handheld was prolly some Microsoft-based product).
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Praying for a Great Commission Resurgence
A new generation of Southern Baptists is ready for deployment in the service of the Great Commission – and waiting to see if Southern Baptists are ready to send, support, and propel this generation out to the nations. … Southern Baptists need a Great Commission Resurgence that will reorder our priorities, refocus our vision, reclaim our mission, and set our hearts on seeing the nations exult in the name of Jesus.
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Pastors and Prayer
While away on a personal planning retreat, I re-read some sections from John Piper’s excellent book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. I cannot begin to express how convicted I am over the chapters I read, particularly his comments on prayer: From chapter 8: “Brothers, Let Us Pray” 53 – He ordains to fulfill His plans by being asked to do so by us. God loves to bless His people. But even more He loves to do it in answer to prayer. 54 – A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal fruit – which is the only kind that matters – knows neither God nor himself. A pastor who does not know the rhythm of desperation and deliverance must have his sights only on what man can achieve. But brothers, the proper goals of the life of a pastor are unquestionably beyond our reach. The changes we long for in the he arts of our people can happen only by a sovereign work of grace. 55 – The essence of the Christian ministry is that its success is not within our reach. A cry for help from the heart of a childlike pastor is sweet praise in the ears of God. Nothing exalts Him more than the collapse of self-reliance which issues in passionate prayer for help. 56 – The reason so few conversions are happening through my church is not because we lack a program or staff. It is because we do not love the lost and yearn for their salvation the way we should. And the reason we do not love them as we ought... read moreFree Resources!
Check out these free resources from The Gospel Coalition – lots of seminary courses online for free! Pure Church: Free Resources!. read moreThe iPhone Recorder
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Shelving Some Good Friends
It was a sad day last week when I said good-bye to some very close friends who had helped me out in ministry over the past three years. They were by my side through some rough waters. I didn’t always agree with their conclusions on matters, but I valued everything they had to say. Many in my congregation will never know the impact these friends have had not only on me but all who sat under my preaching over the last three years. Amazingly, these close friends are some I have conversed with on a weekly basis, but have never personally met (well, I have met two of them personally, but they would not remember me). Anyhow,it was a sad, but gratifying day last week as I packed away and shelved all of my commentaries on the book of Romans. What a pleasure to preach through the book and have such good friends to help me think through critical issues. Here’s a list of the commentaries I have used and consulted. Top 5 – I never missed a page of reading these each week as I studied. This is the order I would read each of them. I found Cranfield and Schreiner to be the absolute best of the lot 1. C.E.B. Cranfied, International Critical Commentary, Romans 1-8; Romans 9-16. The best on the details of the Greek Text. 2. James D. G. Dunn, Word Biblical Commentary, Romans ““ Volume 1 Volume 2 (if you want to see the New Perspective on Paul, Dunn is essential). 3. Douglas Moo, New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Epistle to... read moreWarren is Writing a New Book
Here’s Rick Warren’s latest update to his congregation, as he indicates a tad about his next book and the revival he says the church is currently experiencing and anticipating. Pastor Rick’s News & Views... read moreBaptist Identity at 400: Podcast
Justin Taylor points us to a conversation on Baptist and their 400 years of existence (Landmark objections notwithstanding). Between Two Worlds: Baptist Identity at 400:... read moreMachen’s birthday
Justin Taylor pointed us to these resources for the theological giant, J. Gresham Machen. Tuesday was his birthday. Against Heresies: Gresham Machens... read more
How To Engage Our Country For Christ
With Independence Day a day beyond us, how should the church engage its culture? Especially when we gather as a body, what is our responsibility to our nation? The following is an article from Pastor Michael Lawrance, of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. What do you think – what is the most biblical approach to engaging the issues of our country? (See also Bob Kauflin’s excellent article along these lines also). When I look out the windows of our church, I see the marble frieze of the Supreme Court and the massive dome of the Capitol Building rising just behind it. Being the associate pastor of a church that sits a mere five city blocks from the seat of legislative and judicial power in America, I am constantly reminded of the need to equip the members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church to be salt and light for the Kingdom of God in the midst of the quintessential city of man. How do we go about that task? Here are four steps that we have taken. Citizens of Heaven First, each Sunday we gather as citizens of heaven, not America. The good news of the Gospel is that the dividing wall of separation between Greek and Jew has been torn down and in Christ any of us can become citizens of heaven. (Eph. 2:14-22) And so breaking with decades of tradition at CHBC, we have removed the American flag, not only from the platform, but from the building. Being a major tourist destination, every Sunday we have visitors from around the world. But it”™s not just our visitors that... read more
Day 3 in Louisville
What an enjoyable day it has been today at the SBC – primarily a day to celebrate the Lord’s goodness in the 150th anniversary of The Southern Baptist Convention. Our day began with the consideration of resolutions. This is generally a very lively event as it is an opportunity for people with strong convictions to attempt to have the convention publicly agree with those convictions. The most notable resolutions of the day were: 1. The resolution addressing Barak Hussein Obama. It was a good balanced resolution affirming Scripture’s call for us to pray for those in leadership over us. It also acknowledged his obvious love and commitment to his wife and children. The resolution was also clear in its call for the President to abandon his commitment to those policies that he promotes and Scripture directly opposes. 2. The resolution on adoption was a joy for me to affirm. It was also a joy to see Russell Moore with his three adopted sons with him as the Convention unanimously affirmed it. I enjoyed having him sign his recent book on adoption. Very little business seems to be conducted this year from the floor. Which made for a fairly positive Convention overall. The key preacher of this year’s convention was David Platt. His message this morning was a passionate call to keep our focus on the key issues of meeting the needs of others through the gospel and proclaiming the greatness of God. The afternoon for us was spent at Southern Seminary for the annual luncheon afterwhich we toured the campus. We watched the chapel service from Heritage Hall and... read more
Day 2 in Louisville
Today was one of the best days at the Southern Baptist Convention I’ve had in a long time. There was plenty to get the blood pumping – both good and bad. Dr. Danny Akin began the day with a great review of 3 John and an exhortation to those at the Founders’ Breakfast. Here’s his words of caution: 1 Don’t make Calvinism such a priority that you cannot work with other confessional Christians for the Great Commission. 2 Take the high road in your rhetoric even if others don’t. 3 Avoid being a theological elitist. 4 Be known as a Great Commission Calvinist. 5 Cultivate a passion for the nations and go to them. 6 Get involved in church planting. 7 Do not be known more for following Jesus than John Calvin. The next event was the opening of the Convention. The highlight of the morning session was the CEO of the Executive Committe, Dr. Morris Chapman’s report to the SBC. He came out swinging at everyone. While always gracious in his demeanor, he proceeded to attack virtually everyone in the room. The Calvinists seems to take the bulk of his invectives. I do not believe Dr. Chapman is completely ignorant of what Calvinism truly believes, so I have to think that he knew that he was setting up and knocking down the poorest of straw men. He suggested that Calvinism taught that God was so sovereign that man had no responsibility to believe and repent. How sad. He went after those who supported the Great Commission Resurgence and while gracious, nonetheless went off on a tangent. His report... read more
Should We Remain in the SBC?
Here’s more on the current trends and debates in the SBC in advance of this week’s annual meeting. Perhaps this is a generationally driven debate. Younger generations (I still wistfully place myself on the senior end of this group) are questioning the viability, reasonability, and rationale of being a part of a denomination that appears more and more irrelevant to the daily life of the local church. I don’t think what I have said is an overstatement. You need only listen to this generation speak of their experiences with denominational life. Other groups are rising up who are more streamlined and focused on what matters biblically and how they can assist churches to accomplish it. The Great Commission Resurgence group is rightly focusing on the downward trend of the next generation’s involvement and commitment to an old and waning way of cooperation among churches. Personally, I believe there are good reasons to remain committed to the Southern Baptist Convention. I believe our cooperative way of funding missions allows us to do much more than we could any other way. Yet, herein lies some of the problem. Doing more tends to bring about more bureaucracy that lessons more action. I think we need to define “missions” biblically and root it fundamentally in the local churches. Yet, if focused and streamlined, I believe our missions agencies could be increasingly on mission and less self-focused and self-promotional. If local churches were headquarters for the mission organization and seen, not merely as a pool from which to draw people and money for their own program, but rather seen as the center for missions,... read more
SBC: Day 1
Yesterday was a day of travel-not much interesting to report. Justin and I flew in to Louisville on different flights. It was fun introducing him to the Cracker Barrel. His life will never be the same. We picked up Pastor Stephen Jones (his flight came in after ours). Fun stuff, huh. Travel. You can visit the convention web-site for the aftermath from the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference. However, Justin and I did have the opportunity to attend the 9Marks at 9 session this evening. 9Marks is the ministry headed up by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Dever opened the meeting (after 9:30 p.m.) and three decisions crucial for the church to make if it is to thrive: 1: We need to decide if we are going with the spirit of the age and treat the church as if it has ADD or put everything on expositional preaching. God’s word has always made God’s people not vice versa. 2: We need to decide to recover the corporate nature of the church and resist the rampant individualism that is defining modern Christianity. 3: We need to decide to grow our church either by seeing the customer as king or pursue true spiritual growth. We pursue spiritual growth through 3 accountabilities: a. Accountability to each other: expressed through membership. b. Accountability to our elders – Hebrews 13:17 c. Accountability of the pastor to God – Hebrews 13:17 Great stuff. In reality, the Convention has not yet begun. It officially kicks off tomorrow morning. Here’s a brief look at our schedule today: 6:30 a.m. – Founders’... read more
Preparing for the Southern Baptist Convention
This week, the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will convene (June 23-24, in Louisville, KY – click HERE for live streaming of the sessions). During this meeting, the normal will be obvious (and I suppose necessary). Messengers will vote for officers, affirm a budget, hear reports from agencies, debate various motions and resolutions, hear a few sermons, and listen to a few mega church choirs sing. LifeWay will have a bookstore almost as large as the convention itself, and I will probably buy very little from it (I don’t have enough money for their prices or desire much of what they offer – perhaps this year I will be surprised). Southern Seminary will be celebrating its 150th anniversary, which should be fun to be a part of. A host of breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings will be held where fruitful conversation over denominational and theological life will be had. However, there is one issue that is beginning to dominate the landscape of this year’s convention. Over the past few years, a group of denominational leaders have been trying to refocus the convention on what they call The Great Commission Resurgence. Many of them make up the first generation of leaders beyond the generation of leaders that fought for and won the Conservative Resurgence, beginning in 1979. With theological liberalism behind the Convention’s institutions, cooperation among Conservatives is now the debate. We will always have such discussions and debates. New (recognizing there is really nothing new) ministry forms and strategies will always create new discussion and debate. The Emergent church, the “missional” mindset, a renewed commitment to social... read more
My Favorite iPhone Apps
[YouTube video blog] What are you favorite iPhone apps? In honor of today’s release of the new iPhone 3Gs (of which I do not own . . . yet), let’s talk about which apps you like most on your iPhone. What? You don’t have an iPhone? O.K., well you need to ask for one for Christmas. So, to indulge in the truly meaningless, here are my favorite apps on my phone – some of which make me more productive and others that balance out my time wasting: Out of the 81 apps on my iPhone here are the ones on my Home Page – my most used and most favorite apps: Address Book. All of my contacts reside here. The iPhone is great with its address book. Searching for names among the hundreds of contacts is very easy. Integrating maps with the address for a one tap step has helped me on many occasions to figure out how to get to someone’s house for a visit. One failing on the iPhone that I had with my Palm Treo (didn’t have it with Balck Berry either), is with one tap I could assign a single ring tone to everyone in my address book. Meaning if someone in the book called, they had a distinct ring. If someone outside the book called, they had another distinct ring. I didn’t even have to look-just listen to know who was calling. Apple is still behind here – though I use the address book very often. Evernote. I can’t say enough about Evernote. It is the best electronic notebook I have ever used (ct.,... read more
Should Wiley be Rebuked?
Perhaps you heard the comments or read about them. Wiley Drake, longtime vocal Southern Baptist pastor from Buena Park, CA, told Alan Combs that he is praying for President Barak Obama to die. Below is a link to friend and fellow pastor Stephen Jones’ response and he also links to Pastor Walter Price’s response. Be sure to check out the comments on Stephen’s post – very insightful. One question to ask and consider: Should Southern Baptists publicly rebuke Wiley Drake at next week’s annual meeting? I’ve heard rumors of a motion or resolution to potentially make its way to the floor. Thoughts? The Desert Chronicle: Imprecatory... read moreWorth Your Time
