First Dallas Implodes!

I had the opportunity to serve a year as an intern in the Pastoral Ministries Department of First Baptist Church Dallas back in 1999-2000. I had previously served at another church in Dallas for 5 years as a student pastor and even though it was only for a year at First Dallas, it really was a sweet time in my life. It was while serving at First Dallas that my wife and I bowed our lives to the absolute Sovereignty of God over and in all things.

Stephanie and I had only been married for about 10 months when we received the invitation to minister at First Dallas. We enjoyed our time with the ministry staff and serving under then pastor, Mac Brunson, who arrived at First Dallas at the same time we did.

Recently First Dallas decided to enter into a new season of the church's history by tearing down and rebuilding its very old facilities in place of building new structures. Below is a short video of the demolition...it is a little weird to see something that has been around for many decades demolished in a moments time. It's weird b/c those were the very places that I taught Scripture, ministered to people, parked our vehicles, played basketball, etc.

At the end of the video you will be able to see the old historical sanctuary where the term 'expository preaching' was revived through the pulpit ministry of Dr. W.A. Criswell. I was a student at Criswell College and interned while Dr. Criswell was Pastor Emeritus at First Dallas shortly before his passing in 2002.

Does Christianity Have A Vision For Society?

Mark Dever's answer to the question....

"Mark began the message with a statement made one day by a Muslim friend: "That's the problem with Christianity: you have no vision for the state or for society as a whole."

"Does Christianity have a vision for the state or the society as a whole, or is Christianity—as my Muslim friend implied—so heavenly minded that it's of no earthly good? "

"I think visions like the one my friend had for the state are way too shallow. They're about swords and external conformity to laws. Jesus Christ comes to do something much deeper than any social revolutionary has ever been able to do. He's come to actually change our hearts, to change our natures. The Bible shows us that God has a wonderful vision for his world. We’ve all rejected that vision. And yet even after that rejection, God, in his amazing mercy and love, continues to pursue us. Jesus Christ, his own son, stood there teaching the very people that would in a few days' time seek his life, arrest him, beat him, have him put to death."

"Friends, it is the truth of Christianity, about God being holy and loving, and our being made in God's image, and yet fallen, and God's provisions and promises for us in Christ—it is all of these truths together that lead us to sufficiently respect the fallen governments of the world, and yet give us hope to endure them, and to work and hope for something infinitely better. So God gives us the peace that comes with such hope and the strength to get up another day, to continue following Jesus until he brings us home."

You can read the whole blog post by clicking here.

(HT: Sovereign Grace)

Preached James 4.4-6 Tonight...

I preached James 4.4-6 tonight at church. After preaching this passage tonight, I read this quote from Francis Schaeffer on Ray Ortlund's blog. Very interesting...

“The Old Testament says that if God’s people turn away in spiritual adultery, it will not be long until the following generations are engaged in physical adultery, for the two things go hand in hand. . . . Our generation proves this with overwhelming force. Let there be spiritual adultery and it will not be long until physical adultery sprouts like toadstools in the land. In the 1930s liberalism took over almost all the churches in the United States, and in the 1960s our generation is sick with promiscuous sex. It is the same in Britain and other countries. These things are not unrelated; they are cause and effect.”

Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (Downers Grove, 1970), pages 123-124.

Don't Flaunt Your Personal Convictions...Just Live The Gospel!

Maybe in some of the areas that Christians are different, from those who do not follow after Christ, we would be better off in our gospel witness if we didn't purposefully make it public knowledge.

Mike McKinley says,

"As believers, we are necessarily going to have a lot of distance between us and those who don’t follow Christ. We live differently, love differently, hope differently. We’re citizens of a different country.

But it might be helpful if we limit the distance between us and the world in a lot of other ways. We don’t have to flaunt our lack of a TV and be weird and preachy about grinding your own grain. That only serves to put unnecessary distance between us and the people we’re trying to reach. Instead, we should try to engage the world around us, know what our neighbors care about, and try to inhabit the same universe they do.

If they are going to persecute us, let it at least be for things that really have something to do with being a Christian."

For those of us who strive to live God-centered lives, everything revolves around Him. So even our personal convictions, we would probably ascribe to them as Christian convictions.

But maybe there are areas of our lives that are just plain weird to the world, but the enemy uses those weird things to blind them from seeing the true gospel lived out in our lives and hearing the gospel spoken from our hearts.

One way to assess this is to ask the question, "When was the last time someone really asked me about my personal convictions and why I choose to live this way?" If they are asking, then you're probably, more likely, living it before them in a righteous way and there seems to be a freedom behind it. If they are not asking, then maybe the opposite is true.

Maybe.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Should Christians Care For The Environment?

Below is a really good answer to this question from John Piper.

Preparing My Boys For Manhood

As I sit in my hotel room considering all the ways that my boys need me to make them into disciples, make them into young men, make them into young men who love Jesus, make them into young men who love Jesus and will be prepared one day, Lord willing, for them to make their boys into men who love Jesus, an article by Albert Mohler is a sobering reality of what is taking place in our country and world. It is a war against manhood and men are losing the war.

There is an obvious shift for the first time in human history where men are becoming less "needed" in the workforce. Mohler writes,

The bottom line is the claim that the trend and trajectory of the global economy have for some time now been headed toward female skills and talents. At the most basic level, this means a shift from physical strength to intellectual energies and education. At the next level, it also means a shift from leadership models more associated with males toward the nurturing leadership more associated with women. In any event, the changes are colossal.

Mohler ends his article with this..."These trends represent nothing less than a collapse of male responsibility, leadership, and expectations. The real issue here is not the end of men, but the disappearance of manhood."

You can read the article by clicking here.

One Reason Why Nietzche Rejected Christianity

“I never saw the members of my father’s church enjoying themselves.”

Quoted in Current Thoughts and Trends, June 2001, page 4.

(HT: Ray Ortlund)

Resurrection Sunday!

Let's get counter-cultural this year.

In every area of life Christians should strive to correct what the world has taken away from Christianity and then perverted it for its own gain. It's not that we stop using words, meaning, and truth, b/c someone has watered it down or even messed it up all together. We must still use them, but accurately. The point is we should use vocabulary that best fits Christianity, regardless of what others have done to it or think of it.

This is not original with me of course, but I have been determined to call "Easter Sunday"...Resurrection Sunday for some years now. So I thought that I would encourage everyone I know to do the same. Not b/c we are trying to be unique or different, although we will, but b/c it is the right thing to do.

What I have found to be true when saying Resurrection Sunday is...that it is refreshing for some and for many when used in the marketplace they often get taken off guard a bit, but in a very good Christ-centered way. People's thoughts need to be taken quickly to the resurrection of Jesus Christ for this is our abiding hope.

So let's call "Easter Sunday" by its proper name...Resurrection Sunday!

Are you with me?

Postmodern Architecture

Excellent question to a threatening post-modern philosophy.

____________________________________________________

From an address by Ravi Zacharias:

I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in this country. I was minutes away from beginning my lecture, and my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts.

He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.”

I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?”

He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.”

I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?”

He said, “That is correct.”

I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?”

All of a sudden there was silence.

You see, you and I can fool with the infrastructure as much as we would like, but we dare not fool with the foundation because it will call our bluff in a hurry.

(HT: JT)

Roe vs. Wade

From a past article a few years ago...

“The most consequential cultural and political event in American history in the past half century was the Roe v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973. An argument can be made that it is rivaled by September 11, but that fateful day did not result in the deep realignment of religious, cultural, and political dynamics resulting from the Supreme Court’s ukase, which established an unlimited abortion license that wiped from the books of all fifty states any legal protection of unborn children. . . This Monday marks the thirty-fourth anniversary of Roe v. Wade. On January 23, 1973, the New York Times reported that the Court had ’settled’ the dispute over abortion. Thirty-four years later, there is no more intensely contested issue in our public life.” ~ Richard John Neuhaus

Read the rest of the article here.

(HT: Denny Burk)

Mugged By Ultrasound

You will need to take a few minutes and read an article from the Weekly Standard.

It is an article that is addressing why so many abortion workers are turning pro-life. It will make you both cry and rejoice. I read a short bit from Kevin DeYoung's blog. You can read the whole article here.

Please continue to pray for abortion workers!

Introducing Gene Veith

Just added a new blogger to the list...Gene Veith. I was first introduced to Veith around 1997-98 in a Faith & Culture class while at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. It has been many years since I read his book Postmodern Times, but God really used Veith and his writings to introduce me to the way culture changes, works, and counters Christianity. Therefore giving Christians an understanding in order to counter the culture with the gospel.

I wasn't aware of his blog until this morning, so I'm looking forward to reading his intriguing thoughts on Christianity and culture each day.

Enjoy.

Love It...Bringin' It From Dockers!

Talking about 'manning up'.

Someone has had enough of the Political Correctness in this country at Dockers, and it's about time!

Check out this man-ifesto from Dockers on their store website.....I'm lovin' it!

Ahhh, The Legacy Of Socialism

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."

~ Thomas Sowell

(HT: Tim Challies...tweet)

Two Kingdom Theology and Neo-Kuyperians

When you have 7 minutes to read a blog post and you want to stretch your thinking about the Kingdom of God, the church and her ministry for today, then check out Kevin DeYoung's post by clicking here.

It is well worth the time to read and think through the implications of not only what you believe, but more importantly how you live out what you believe concerning the Kingdom of God.

Enjoy and discuss it!

Every Church Is Dying

This is a pretty interesting take on churches today from Tullian Tchividjian's blog.

"My friend Darryl Dash notes that every church is a dying church in one of three ways:

Some churches are literally dying. They are slowly losing people and will likely shut down.

Some churches are glitzy and successful. They look vibrant and alive, but they’re really only alive to themselves and their institution. They look alive, but they’re dying and they don’t know it.

Then there’s the church that could be big or small, glitzy or drab, that dies to itself daily – that has taken up the cross and is more concerned with following Christ, no matter what it costs, than its survival.

All churches are dying. Only the third type of church, however, will experience a resurrection. What kind of church are we?"

Can You Get De-Baptized?

I picked up this post from Denny Burk. Thought you all might like to read about a new 'trend'.

It would seem that atheists would be among the most dispassionate people on earth vis a vis religion. But that is not the case. In too many instances, they are not content to disbelieve. Their unbelief (far from giving them objectivity) compels them to berate those who do not hold their view. They are like the fool of Proverbs 19:3, “The foolishness of man ruins his way, And his heart rages against the LORD.”

Here’s an article from USA Today explaining the new trend among atheists, ‘de-baptism.’

‘Up until last summer, Jennifer Gray of Columbus, Ohio, considered herself “a weak Christian” whose baptism at age 11 in a Kentucky church came to mean less and less to her as she gradually lost faith in God.

‘Then the 32-year-old medical transcriptionist took a decisive step, one that previously hadn’t been available. She got “de-baptized.

In a type of mock ceremony that’s now been performed in at least four states, a robed “priest” used a hairdryer marked “reason” in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants then fed on a “de-sacrament” (crackers with peanut butter) and received certificates assuring they had “freely renounced a previous mistake, and accepted Reason over Superstition.”

Whatever you do....don't shake your head and think "this girl is absolutely pitiful"! This ought to break your heart for those who are so blind and calloused to the Truth of Christ. This girl apparently grew up in the church. If it were not for God's sustaining grace, we too would reject everything that we have been taught about the gloriousness of God in Christ. Pray for her! Pray that God will open the eyes of her heart that she may see Christ for who He is. Pray that she would seek God while He still may be found!

Are You Paying Attention To The Way The Enemy Wants To Destroy Your Faith In Christ?

Today I preached on Colossians 2.8-10.

Here in these verses the Apostle Paul is engaging himself in spiritual battle over the souls of those who were being lured away from their faith in the Deity of Christ and the sufficiency of Christ to save.

The choice weapon of the enemy was: philosophy!

For the Colossian Christians it was a particular hybrid of philosophies of the day. But nevertheless, it was the very weapon that the enemy used to try and destroy the faith of Christians. Belief in anything that seeks to diminish the Deity of Christ and the sufficiency of Christ to save is empty deception and a false system of belief.

We are bombarded by this kind of philosophy all day long in our own culture. The enemies sole desire is to rob, kill and destroy our faith and Christianity. Therefore we must stay tethered to the true gospel. We must stay tethered to the truth about Jesus Christ, that He is the fullness of God manifest in the flesh and because of His deity, He has the power to save and sustain anyone for Himself.

My aim: That we would take seriously Paul's exhortation to flee any kind of man-centered teaching that goes against the truth about Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of the gospel to save and to satisfy.

A Recent "Tweet" From Piper

Here is a line from Piper on Twitter.....

"The reputation of Christianity in the wildly successful first century: “Everywhere it is spoken AGAINST.” (Acts 28:22)."

It's tough to deal with rejection, no doubt, but maybe it's time we have a wildly successful century of Christianity again and be spoken against for the right reasons.

The American Revolution....A Justified War?

After spending some time away on vacation I'm catching up a bit on what I've missed in the blog world. The 4th of July is my wedding anniversary so any time I see something about the 4th I'm all eyes.

I ran across a blog post from Denny Burk. He answered a question about the justification for the American Revolution, he quoted John MacArthur on why the American Revolution may not have been a just war according to the biblical principle in Romans 13.

Burk--I’d like to jump into this fray with a quote from John MacArthur.

MacArthur--“Over the past several centuries, people have mistakenly linked democracy and political freedom to Christianity. That’s why many contemporary evangelicals believe the American Revolution was completely justified, both politically and scripturally … But such a position is contrary to the clear teachings and commands of Romans 13:1-7. So the United States was actually born out of a violation of New Testament principles, and any blessings that God has bestowed on America have come in spite of that disobedience by the Founding Fathers. (Why Government Can’t Save You, pages 6-7)”

Burk--I’ve heard that there are some who justify the rebellion by saying that England was in violation of the Magna Carta.

Burk--As for me, it’s hard for me to believe that Paul and Peter (1 Pet 2:13-17) would have told the colonists to revolt when they told people living under governments just as evil (or more so, think: Nero) to submit.

Wow!