Rearranging Homes for the Gospel

The Holy Spirit piqued my heart this morning to give thanks for a particular people...(Warning: This is not a Pro-"House Church Movement" post).



As I was finishing Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church this morning, I tried not to breeze past the "Final Greetings" so I might catch my Pop Tart while it was still warm but not yet burnt. So I read:

The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord (I Corinthians 16:19; cf. Romans 16:3-5).

Rearranging Homes: A brief history. I then caught a quick note in some I Corinthians study material that claimed there exists extensive archeological evidence from many different cities demonstrating that some homes were structurally modified to host such churches. My Pop Tart now charred and beyond recovery, I researched a bit deeper: The best piece of archeological evidence is at the edge of the 3rd century Roman world at a garrison town on the banks of the Euphrates River, called Dura-Europos. Around this time the city tried desperately to prevent an attack against the Persians by heaping a bunch of mud and dirt against its Western Wall and, in doing so, preserved the structures buried underneath for archeologists in the 1920s & 30s to uncover in pristine shape. One of the three major structures was a home converted into a church. A wall had been removed in the dining area making more room for congregants, benches were installed around the walls of a courtyard likely as a place for instruction (think Sunday School), and one bedroom had pipes rearranged so it could hold a baptismal font. In fact, homes were so modified for the sake of more people hearing the gospel truth - that eventually, church leaders just received them as donations (no longer lived-in but used exclusively for church ministry purposes), which paved the way for much grander church structures in the 4th century and beyond. In other words, people's gospel-flexibility and gospel-sacrifice with their homes was so immense that it made their home unusable for living and ushered out the era of true house churches. 

The Bedroom with Baptismal Font at Dura-Europos

Rearranging Homes: Today. Our church, Sunrise, meets on Sundays for Corporate instruction in the Word & worship through Song in a Performing Arts Theatre. However, the church really accelerated in unity and growth almost four years ago as we started to hold Bible Studies in homes, which came to be known as Community Groups. Today, we are toward the tail end of Stage 1 of an effort to reach not-yet-Christians through Christianity Explored Dinner Groups - again hosted in ten or so homes. Homes are the real "theatre" in which the bulk of gospel ministry takes place in and through our church.  

Rearranging Homes: Thanksgiving. Katie and I, though we are "people people," are not particularly strong in the area/gifting of hospitality via our home (our children, however, are professional home "rearrangers"...it's like they earned a Masters-level degree in it). So it was good this Am for us to take time to give thanks for those who are and I want to encourage you, dear Reader, to do likewise - for those who have selected homes based on hosting people for worship and fellowship, for those who take time to add scents, sights, and sounds that are pleasing to the senses, for those who have modified permanently or rearrange regularly both their homes and lives to host the saints and anyone searching out the truth of God's good news in Jesus Christ. 

I am so grateful to, You, Abba Father for: Thomas and Lyana Bolas who weekly strain to add furniture and tables to a room that barely accommodates it, for Eduardo and Emilie Del Risco who both work and host while parenting a little girl, for Karl & Janine Nyyssonen who have faithfully hosted for years with the warmest of atmospheres, for Neil & Marida Montgomery whose lives and personalities are buoyant, for the Morgans and Wendles who I know share the love, for Kevin and Maggie McCormac who welcome you warmly as soon as you enter, for JP & Lisa Welman who have permanently modified their very lives to readily host, for Genevieve G and Rose Smith, for Wes Heistand who has stretched himself to weekly have people over, Jeremy & Sheena Strickland who have people plop down on their comfy sofa to "chill-ax," for Avril Ward and Brent & Leslie Novak who have hosted Women's Fellowship Breakfasts, for Jeff and Susy Cummer and Jim and Sherrie Ehman who have hosted events for our teens, for my good friends Gordon and Anna Macrae who've hosted a multitude to their home (including our family quite regularly) and even had an upstairs built exclusively to host those in need. And I'm sure I've left someone out...I give thanks for you too!

Rearranging Homes: You. Perhaps God is calling you to rearrange your Home for the Gospel. Consider the following: 

• (1) Do you already find joy in having people over at your home - even slightly disappointed when they say they must "retire for the evening"? 
• (2) If you are unsure, try it on for size to see if this kind of hospitality is a gift/talent that fits your life -- after a few tries, if you walk away tired and grumpy, with a frustrated spouse, and notice little fruit, that's okay. There are plenty of ways to serve God's church!; 
• (3) Are you part of a local church and have you asked your pastors/leaders if there is something upcoming for which you can make your home available? Perhaps it is better to first try a singular event versus a long-term commitment; 
• (4) If the pastors/leaders say "not really" or "yes, but it'll be a while," consider being hospitable to a newer someone on a Sunday morning and then inviting them over to your home for lunch after the worship service. New people, especially if new to where you live, are looking for an immediate community-connection -- better to the church of the living God than some place else. 

If the above isn't a long-term fit, consider thanking, encouraging, praying for and asking how you might support (with love, leadership, childcare resources...and of course food!) those who have permanently modified or regularly rearrange their homes for the sake of the gospel.

"after three days": Was Jesus really crucified on a Wednesday?

Any time this week approaches, someone inevitably poses the question: 

"Was Jesus' resurrection really three days after his death? Friday afternoon to Sunday Morning seems more like a day and a half."

In the past, I've aligned myself with the traditional church calendar usually by following in the footsteps of Martin Luther's defense - "but Jesus was dead at some point on each of those three days - Friday, Saturday, and at least for a little bit on Sunday." 

However, Jesus' words in Matthew 12:39-40 have always troubled me - "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." In this case, the Lutheran defense, which would require a Sunday (or Thurs) night addition, does not seem to hold up. 

Nothing consequential to the reality of the resurrection is at stake here - except for, of course, the matter of Scriptural inerrancy. Is all of Scripture true as it was originally composed? My worry, accordingly, is keeping to the traditional church calendar. If we are saying history lines up with the Friday-Sun church calendar, are we not in danger of invalidating verses like Matthew 12:40 or Mark 8:31 ("after three days")?

In this linked article Josh Claybourn makes a compelling case for a Wednesday crucifixion. Below is a visual that helps with the Wednesday-theory chronology of events.

To be fair, there are plenty of legitimate dissenting opinions (just check out the comment section in the above article). One problem with the Wed idea is it seems to make for 4 nights in the tomb! Perhaps it was a Thursday, as is argued here. 

And don't worry, SCCers, our Tenebrae Good Friday service tomorrow night is still a-go. Any time is a good time to reflect upon and be moved by the agonies of the cross endured by Jesus on our behalf.

Another Reason Christ had to die: His Example of Endurance

Sunday Morning presented a glorious opportunity for me to preach Christ Crucified from Mark 8:31-38. At the beginning of my message I mentioned seven reasons (!) as to why Jesus, whom Peter had finally confessed to be the One who can make all things right in God's sight (including us), necessarily had to die. Toward the end of the message I reasoned as to why embracing the cross is worth it. Actually it was Jesus' own reasons for why embracing His cross (and our own) is worth it. "There is a me at the end of every cross." With every cross we are called to take up, there we find at its end the greatest treasure of all - Jesus. And when you look a little more closely at the hardest statements of John 8:31-38, you'll begin to notice the many "me's" at the end of them (rising after three days, follow me , the built-in eternal potential to know me forever - called "a soul", the Son of Man who will return for us in the glory of His Father).

Here's one more reason why Jesus had to go to the cross and why His cross is worth embracing: The Example of Endurance using the Joy set Before us.

Here's the Scripture: 

"Let us fix our eyes our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men that you [likewise] might not grow weary or lose heart" (Hebrews 12:2-3).  

I've underlined above both why Jesus embraced the cross as 'worth it' ("for the joy set before him") and why this was necessary ("that you [likewise]" - the [likewise] being my parenthetical addition to help accentuate the author's point - the example). 

Here's why Jesus' embraced His cross: Jesus endures through every agony of His cross "for the joy set before him" (v.2). What joy is that? That joy is re-uniting with His well-pleased Father. To re-unite with the Father such that the Father would be 'proud' or 'pleased' with the Son. Consider what we hear when the Father speaks audibly in the Gospels: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). The Son lives to please the Father (see John 8:29; John 10:17). All of this parallels our own 'cross to bear' - the end of which is further fellowship with our Savior himself and a well-pleased Savior at that. 

Here is the main obstacle to Jesus' joyfully re-unititing with a well-pleased Father: The shame of the cross. There are many dark and difficult aspects of the cross that Jesus must endure - the physical pain, the forsakenness, nobody near who understood what he was going through. However, shame is the one agony of the cross that the author of Hebrews lists. And he says that Jesus despised it. An interesting word choice. Would you or I have chosen such a strategy to overcome shame? He overcame by despising it. Think: Mock, Scorn, Taunt, Turn up your nose at.

Jesus despised the shame of his closest friends abandoning him, he despised the shame of his reputation being mocked and an object of coarse humor, he despised his appearance being stripped down to nakedness, he despised the torture that tore apart all peace, he despised the demonically-inspired mob chants of "Crucify Him," he despised the vinegar he drank and the spectacle made of his suffering.

How did He endure? He despised His shame in comparison to the joy set before Him of re-uniting with a well-pleased Father. He despised shame, saying to it, in effect:

"Shame, you think you are winning? Ha!! I have a greater crown before me - the joy of being re-united to my Father. You see that?! You can't take that away. Compared to the joy I'm about to encounter, the Father's smile I'm about to feel, the Paternal embrace I'm about to experience, your nakedness, your cruel comments, your abandonment, your reputation-marring - these are nothing. I despise you and you are about to die with my death."

What is the joy set before you?   Shame and humiliation are inevitable for the true Christian (Mark 8:34). Here are five joys set before you as you obediently endure suffering:

1. Greater knowledge and revelation of the Son (John 14:21). 
2. Christlikeness (Romans 5:3-5; Romans 8:38-39).
3. Commendation ("Well done" Matthew 25:21).
4. Multiplication of Encouragement (Hebrews 10:24-25)
5. Bathing in the same Future Glory as Jesus Himself (Romans 8:17)

How you might likewise despise the shame of your cross: 
1. "What you might do to my bank account and trimmed-back lifestyle while I give to the cause of Christ is nothing compared to the joy set before me"
2. "The funny looks I get when I talk about my Savior are nothing..."
3. "The cold shoulder returned when I invite someone to church are nothing..." 
4. "How you alter my reputation for standing up for what's right...pssh...who cares compared to the joy set before me."
5. "The lack of invitation because I'm a 'churchgoer' and a 'killjoy', you think that's going to slow me down, shame?!"
6. "All the misunderstandings and unintended hurts because I prioritized my church and now used to shame me by family and friends. You'll have to do better, Sir-Shame, because I have ahead of me my Father's commendation, the glory and the likeness of Jesus, the multiplication of encouragement when I return to fellowship, a deeper knowledge of my Savior! All of this awaits me."

Final Takeaway: Use the joy set before you to despise, scorn, mock whatever shame you must endure for the Cross of Christ. Jesus died to give you this Example of Endurance.

Yahtzee! Adult Scripture Memory through Song & Visual Art

Isaiah 43:1-2

I am absolutely thrilled right now because I've stumbled upon an internet treasure. For years, our family has been singing Seeds Family worship Songs through which our children have memorized 20+ Direct Scripture references (and their happy tunes whittled their way into my brain to add verses like Psalm 34:10 and Philippians 4:11-13 to my arsenal). While there are some great songs & hymns out there saturated with the Word of God and deep truths - I've never seen an undertaking for adults like the one started by pastors by Joel Limpic and Ryan Gikas - The Verses Project.

The Advantages:
1. Well-Composed Adult Praise Music
2. 117 Scripture References as of March 2014.
3. Visually Artistic wallpaper for 1. Smartphones; 2. Tablets; 3. Desktops - all of which serve the purpose of reminding you of not only the verse (though certainly that) but also beauty and creative power of God's Word. 
4. Those who've perhaps done the Scripture or New Testament in a year thing, may want to instead (or in addition) try meditating on 1 Scripture Memory Reference per week! 
>>When Dietrich Bonhoeffer set up his seminary in Finkenwalde he had each student, including himself, meditate on the same verse for an entire week - a half hour each day. They were not allowed to consult any notes or helps but deal with the verse as though it was God's Word to them personally. 
>> Perhaps you've grown cold toward the Word of God, the great Puritan Thomas Watson once explained: "The reason we come away so cold from reading the Word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation." 
5. Option to Sign up to have weekly updates (ie. new verse) sent to your Inbox
6. Free

Two Disclaimers:
1. Recognize the artists are "limited" by their subject matter. Some will cry foul: "Are you saying, Pastor Ryan(!), that the Bible is limiting?" Not at all. Only that the words they sing are consecutive verses (usually 2 or 3) of Scripture and they are limited to these. No artistic license to ponder examples in their lives of what is pure, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy and the like from Philippians 4:8 nor spot-on descriptions of the futility of life before "passing from death to life" from John 5:24. Also, it's the same words again & again (albeit done well!). If I'm honest, I had to initially tune my brain to "Ryan, Remember this is helping you Remember."  The singing is helping plant the Word of God deep into my mind, heart & soul. 

2. Most songs are a bit slower in tempo and softer in sound. This is so the artists can sing God's Word clearly - not to fast so that words run together nor too loud so that the words can't be heard over the music.  

Providence or Parasite? (Sun Am Follow-up)

Sunday morning I had the privilege of leading our people to consider and apply Mark's version of one of Jesus' most famous and beloved miracles - the Feeding of the 5k (I can only assume because everyone loves food especially when super-sized miraculously!! Hollywood made their own version of miraculous food multiplication but Jesus' is the original). Mark's version focuses intently on the need for rest or, more broadly to include fun & play, "leisure" (6:31). Disciples of Jesus Christ are called to work hard and be used by Jesus (6:7-13), risk much for Jesus (6:14-29), but also plan to rest with Jesus (6:30-47). However, along the way, to increase our trust in Jesus, he may plan to satisfy you with a season of more work or more rest. The point is: Doing His will & letting his will, whatever it may be, satisfy you is the best R&R we can get. It was out of trust in His Father that Jesus himself said when his disciples were encouraging him to rest & eat: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). 

So plan for work for and be used by Jesus, plan to rest with Jesus, but satisfy yourself with whatever Jesus brings your way.

The set-up. That's about as far as I could get on Sunday. But I left out an important question when it comes to "whatever," or more specifically, "whomever," Jesus brings your way. Some thing or, rather, some ones come between the prospect of rest and the reality of more "work" for the disciples:

"Now many of them saw [the disciples and Jesus retreating by themselves to a desolate place] and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them" (Mark 6:33). 

Some of you know this scene from your own life. Understand, due to the position of the Sea of Galilee set in a bowl from which you could see people heading down from the hills and the relatively small size of the Sea, the disciples were watching as in slow motion the reality ahead of them developing. Tired, having given all you can give, people - perhaps some of them the same people you just ministered to - are U-turning back your way to ask for more. Is such a person part of God's providence - His gracious plan for every thought, action, and member of His creation - OR parasite - someone who has begun to look to you and depend on you for what only Jesus can provide them? Providence or Parasite?  (**Please note: I recognize each person as inestimably valued by God and created in His image - only that some persons begin to function parasitically in certain relationships)

Fleshy hearts are always the right start. Something happens when you trust your life to Christ and begin to walk with him: You wish to pass on the same love with which Jesus has loved you. You are not only gifted with a new kind of love but a totally new heart: 

Ezekiel 36:25-27   ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

You may have cared for people before, but there always a hint of selfishness - whether it be to 'have that good feeling,' elicit a response from another, or what at the time seemed like a wholly altruistic purpose but now you recognize: "that was mostly for me." When Jesus invades your life, you learn to love freely because He puts His free love into this free heart given to you. Something else happens: You learn that growth as a Christian continues along as you begin to help another along to further trust and grow in Jesus. It was as a young Christian I heard Dr. Howard Hendricks say: "We begin to grow when we begin to take responsibility for another person." All of this is good and right. But there is a seedy underbelly for taking responsibility for growth of others that begins to show itself when (not if) others exploit it. Please hear me: As a Christian you can't avoid being exploited and used - when you offer to others in word & deed a message of a free gift apart from works - some will take the free gift and rob your works. However, I'm talking about the occasional person you will run across who takes and takes and takes. How can you tell such a person apart from them being someone God has providentially put in your path?

Understanding shepherds. I think our first clue in answering this question comes in Mark 6:34: "When [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things." Jesus had compassion. Though the crowd was filled with liars, cheaters, hypocrites, users-of-people, holier-than-thous, it is toward such (like us) Jesus has compassion. Compassion is a fantastic word - the Gk. is splangnizesthai which lit means "a longing from the bowels." This suggests that Jesus' physical constitution was affected - their pain literally makes him sick to his stomach. Again, the tender, responsive, fleshy middle - where the heart is located - is exemplified in Jesus. Why is Jesus splangnizethai'd? "Because they were like sheep without a shepherd." So Jesus will be their shepherd, right? He will hold them in his arms, cuddle closely, feel the warmth of his heartbeat against theirs. Except that would entirely misunderstand what Jesus means here by "shepherd." The shepherd/sheep metaphor in the Old Testament is indeed a rich one, but also perhaps misunderstood. James Edwards notes in his commentary on Mark: 

"As a metaphor, the shepherd of sheep was a common figure of speech for a leader of Israel like Moses (Isa. 63:11) or more often of a Joshua-like military hero who would muster Israel's forces for war (Num 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; II Chronicles 18:16; Jeremiah 10:21; Ezek. 34:5; Ezek 37:24; Nahum 3:18; Zechariah 13:7). It is, in other words, a metaphor for hegemony, including military leadership and victory. In his compassion, Jesus sees a whole people...without a leader." 

In other words, these aren't people looking to mooch off the disciples, tell their sob story for the umpeenth time hoping someone will finally take them in as their own, nor be adopted as the sole and consuming pet project of one of the disciples, nor stop by every so often fishing for affirmation and compliments - these in Mark 6 are looking for a strong leader to lead them that they might become strong. Another way to put it: Some are looking to stay coddled lambs always nursing on newborn milk, but not here - these are looking to be healthy functioning, and productive sheep - dare I say: Strong Rams. Such people approach you in weakness but also seek guidance toward deliverance and change. 

Don't get me wrong, these are all wonderful images of Jesus that you may find in any church nursery built in the 1970s.

Teach us to care through prayer. Jesus leads others to himself by teaching them "many things" (v.34). This is how he begins to shepherd people looking for genuine change. While teaching truth about Jesus has a critical place, we can begin to lead others to the Shepherd through prayer. One reason prayer I have found prayer not just spiritually but also practically so helpful is that early on in an encounter or relationship prayer begins shed light upon whether the person has come to find life or to rob it. 

A busy man once relayed to Oswald Sanders: 

"Up to some years ago, I was always annoyed by interruptions...then the Lord convinced me that He sends people our way. He sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. He sent Barnabas to Saul. So when someone comes in, I say, 'The Lord must have brought you here. Let us find out why He sent you. Let us have prayer.' This does two things. The interview takes on new importance because God is in it. And it generally shortens the interview...pleasant but brief." 

What I have found fascinating is that often times people don't really want prayer - they get antsy when I suggest it or, upon saying "Amen," immediately continue on with the complaint right where they left off as if prayer were a sneeze or a yawn mid-sentence that has no bearing on one's stream of thought - not to mention attitude or perspective. Prayer then either: (a) Brings the person to the One who can give life, sustain growth, and transform weakness to strength; or (b) Exposes an unwillingness to change. I've found great assistance from the Psalms so that I'm not just praying my own words but God's and subtly teaching the person to develop their own prayer language with Him also. I've also found it helpful to have a "go-to" Psalm. Mine is Psalm 130 (It gives a person words to the need for both help from circumstances and forgiveness from sin, truth that God alone can forgive, insistence on how we are to wait upon the Lord, and why God alone satisfy us - all in 8 verses!). Sometimes I'll pray it out loud but if I have a second Bible handy I encourage the person to look and pray with me.

Eugene Petersen wrote a brilliant article years ago, which was also a chapter title in a book of his, called "Teach us to care, and not to care." His thoughtful expose really helped me answer the question: How do you help people who wish to be helped and how can you tell who those people are? I'll leave you with this lengthy excerpt:

I do not mean simply praying for people, although that is involved. I mean teaching them to pray, helping them to listen to what God is saying, helping them to form an adequate response. Teaching people to pray is teaching them to treat all the occasions of their lives as altars on which they receive his gifts. Teaching people to pray is teaching them that God is the one with whom they have to deal, not just ultimately, and not just generally, but now and in detail.

  Teaching people to pray is not especially difficult work — anyone of us can do it, using a few psalms and the Lord’s Prayer — but it is difficult to stick with it, for we are constantly interrupted with urgent demands from family and friends to, as they say, “do something.” And it is difficult to get the person who has asked for help to stick with it because there are a lot of other people in the intersection, offering short-cut approaches for providing care, shortcutting God and promising far quicker results. It is difficult for all of us to stick it out, for often in the confusion and noises of wasteland traffic, it is hard to stay convinced that sin and God make that much difference.

   But difficult or not, this is our calling. Whatever else we are doing is with our hands, with our feet, with our minds — bandaging, directing, giving. This is the core of what we are doing, getting them in touch with God, with neighbor, receiving love, grace. If we do not use these occasions of need to teach people to pray, we cave in to the pressures of care in which there is no cure.

8 reasons why enjoying God with others is better than you and Yahweh "doing your own thing"

This past Sunday I had opportunity to teach from Psalm 40 and try to explain why this prayer-song was a kind of pattern for David's spiritual life - and ebb and flow from worship in private prayer closet (in his case - fields and caves) and public worship with God's people (whether it be dancing before an Ark in his underoos or in the sanctuary). My emphasis for Sunday was upon how running back each day to the private prayer closet - alone with God - serves to re-fuel and sustain every effort of corporate worship.

However, I did make a brief comment: Public, corporate worship - hearing from God's Word together and singing it to one another and to God - protects and enlargens the prayer closet. This is the other side of the coin in developing intimacy with God. The impetus behind that brief comment largely stemmed from a sermon I read last week by David Clarkson.

David Clarkson (1622-1686) was a colleague and successor in the pulpit to the famous Puritan John Owen. His sermon is entitled: Public worship to be preferred before private from Psalm 87:2 and it contains an absurd number of Roman numerals that will cause you to either grow dizzy or begin to form a shape (various Star Wars or Lord of the Rings characters are common) if you look at them (or through them) for too long. 

Ultimately I disagree David's his overall assessment in part because of the inherent dangers of vanity that accompany overindulgence in worshipping God in the midst of others, which Jesus warned us about (Matthew 6:5-6), but mostly because it begs the question: Why would you try to pit two friends against each other?!. The private re-fuels and sustains genuine, lasting public worship while the public worship protects private worship from becoming introspective, selfish, heretical while spurring on insights in to God, the Bible, life that you wouldn't have noticed yourself. Each serves the other as a good friend would. But many of his points are insightful, well-girded by Scripture and so worth taking a gander.

Without further ado, here are 8 reasons (Clarkson gives 12 but 4 of them are, in my estimate, not well-supported) to stop telling yourself: "Oh, I'll just stay out later and spend time with God by myself on the beach when I wake up" or "Must...hit...snooze...button.  Sleep...better...than...preacher" or "God understands that I have ____ going on or ____kids or need to put in ____ extra hours at work" and instead enjoy the benefits promised in God's Word of gathering together to grow from and gladly respond to God's Word.

1. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private. This first point by Clarkson should makes sense. More people means more voices singing, more gifts at the table, more testimonies of thanksgiving - but also more opportunity for the Holy Spirit, through the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3), to make unlikely unity out of such diversity of backgrounds, ethnicities, interests and seasons of life. For brining unity where there would otherwise be relational chaos, God receives maximum glory.

2. There is manifest more of the Lord's presence in public worship than in private. Clarkson argues for this beautifully: "The Lord has a dish for every particular soul that truly serve him; but when many particulars meet together, there is a variety, a confluence, a multitude of dishes. The presence of the Lord in public worship makes it a spiritual feast, and so it is expressed in Isaiah 25:6."

4. There is more spiritual advantage in the use of public worship. For instance, certain deeper spiritual truths which one tries to suss out on his/her own, can be apprehended more readily and precisely when he/she listens to good preaching and worships together with others. Clarkson rightly quotes Psalm 73:16-17 here. Asaph has just been querying GOd as to why the wicked and proud prosper - it all starts to make sense once he arrives to the sanctuary to worship God together with others. For one thing, you realize the true prosperity you possess in community and being a part of the church of the living God most acutely when you get there.

5. Public worship is more edifying than private. In private, you seek God merely for your own good, but in public you seek the good of both yourselves and others. Every person who trusts Jesus brings with them a gift "to serve one another" (1 Peter 4:10), "for building up the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12), and "for the common good" (1 Cor. 12:7).

6. Public worship is a better security against apostasy than private. Heresy is a fun word, but apostasy - yikes. The former has to do with believing and espousing a false teaching or truth but often without contrarian motives. Apostasy, however, is the espousing of false teaching as an act of willful rebellion. Either way, when one locks himself or herself in the private closet without bouncing ideas about the Bible, truth, Jesus off someone else, it's easy to stray the course - often without contrarian or malicious intent. I remember years ago doing this once for the first sermon I ever preached during our preaching lab in seminary. The combination of wanting to preach something more 'original' and not really running my notes by anyone else made for an interesting teaching from II Corinthians re: how people should plant churches. There was some errant content in there. Lesson learned. "Where there is no guidance, a people fails / but in an abundance of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14).

8. Public worship is the nearest resemblance of heaven. A wedding feast, a banqueting table, a heavenly city are all descriptions that entail more than just you and J.C. over a candlelight dinner. 

10. Public worship is the best means for procuring the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments. So next time you hear about your church conducting a prayer meeting, a prayer vigil, etc, I would caution against the "I'll just join in from home" approach. The number of verses to support the above statement are astounding. Joel 2:15-16: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly, gather the people. Consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room and bride her chamber" (you can read Joel 2:17-18 for God's response). II Chronicles 20:3-4 & Acts 4:31 are other poignant examples of God calling His people to come together or using His people as they come together to seek Him.

12. The promises of God are given more to public worship than to private. There are more promises to public, and even the promises that seem to be made to private worship are applicable and even more powerful in the context of public worship. A great example is Revelation 3:20 - often quoted as a most encouraging verse (ie. God is knocking at the door of your heart). But really this invitation is extended not to an individual but to a church. Jesus will come in and fellowship with the church body that hears His voice and invites Him through the door.

We need Sunday because all is not yet Sunday

I've been thinking and reading a lot this week about worship as I prepare to preach on this final avenue of how our church's leadership envisions carrying out our God-assigned mission to introduce people to Jesus and help them grow by his grace.

I am looking forward Zac Hicks leading us in praise and worship when myself and one of our elders attend the Liberate Conference in Ft Lauderdale, FL next month. He wrote a very thoughtful blog post entitled "Why the Tension between Public and Private Worship?" as to why we need to diligently drive ourselves to corporate worship every Sunday. His conclusion stems from the following quote from a book written in the 1960s (by a non-hippie named Jacques Von Allmen) called Worship: Its Theology and Practice. Von Allmen writes:

[Corporate Worship] is necessary because the Kingdom of God is not yet established in power. [Corporate worship] as such is necessary because the whole of life has not yet been transformed into worship. Thus it suggests that the Kingdom exists already, like the leaven in dough, but is not yet established. It shows that Sunday is other than weekday, that all is not yet Sunday. 

Hicks rightly relates Von Allmen's brilliant observation to the already/not yet tension of God's Kingdom that exists through Jesus Christ. One day everything will be perfect - including a perfected and constant community wearing white robes and worshipping the Lamb with no more hunger nor thirst to beset us (Revelation 7:13-17) - but until then we lean into little tastes of divine perfection to keep us going in advancing His Kingdom. God has called us to display saltiness to the world. What does this mean but a kind of set-apartness or difference that makes our lives attractive or 'taste good'.

"You are the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13)  

"Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?" (Mark 9:50)

"Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person" (Colossians 4:5-6). 

Blanding through Blending. However, Satan, through the wicked tripartite combo of sin/demonic/world, seeks to blend us in and remove our flavoring (consider, for instance, Paul's description in Ephesians 2:1-3 of lemmings following what most think is just the way of the world, but is really Satan's way and increasingly adopted as our own stubborn way). So when we chicken out of sharing a little bit of good news about Jesus with a co-worker, tell & then convince ourselves: "Hey, I have rights too!" (self-serving act to follow), throw in your coarse joke you would never say around church peeps, thoughtlessly use the person working on the project with you for your own gain (or use your child or spouse for that matter) - these are ways we lose flavoring as we begin to blend in with everyone else and, suddenly, voila! : "See! Christians aren't any different." Yet, it's always a struggle to prevent blanding through blending. In fact, it's probably why you are reading this blog entry now: You're feeling tired/blah at work or beaten down by the same ole circumstances at home and could use a pick me up. So you read this in your inbox or clicked on a link that brought you here.

Sustaining your Flava. Sunday corporate worship then becomes essential as the start-to-the-week push you need - a reminder that there are others like you on the same mission, at the same well in need of the same grace, and opportunity to remind each other of God's goodness through hearing and singing the Word of God. Likewise, M-F, private prayer closet worship re-fuels us for the day ahead. God uses time in His Word both corporately and privately to remind us of promises that HE is better, to re-focus us on His mission, and to drink in the amazing reality of grace and forgiveness through a return trip to the cross. He brings you to focused time of worship with the entire church on Sundays or with HIm alone to pray against (and in some cases for - see: people) and re-arm yourself against forces that seek to make your life blander through blending. 

The Forever Sunday. Psalm 34:8 is one of Katie's favorite verses (it hangs above our kitchen sink): "Oh,taste and see that the LORD is good! / Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"
The provocative language in this verse is the "Taste and See" as it hints that the God of

the Universe can be experienced as sweetly and readily as a good steak is tasted or a Cayman beach is beheld. But I've often failed to meditate on the means of such blessed and experienced goodness - namely, "taking refuge in Him." A refuge is not a place a person remains or lives out his/her life (notice the Psalmist doesn't say: "residence" or "place of business"), but a place to which a person returns or even runs - recognizing their need for help, safety, and re-fueling. We are promised that one day we will have no need of certain now-essential-items like four walls and a roof because God will be our home (Rev. 21:3), no need for tissues or therapists or pastors for that matter for their will be no more crying or pain (Rev. 21:4), no more places of worship because God the Father and God the Son will be ever available to satisfy our praises (Rev. 21:22), no more Sun because God will bring light through the Lamb our lamp (Rev. 21:23, 22:5), no fear because there is no one bad (Rev. 21:27). 

So until our worship looks like that, we must (and we get!) to gather on Sundays, each of us bringing along a gift to serve and encourage the other, building one another up for the week ahead so that those we encounter M-F might so taste and see God's flavor in us - the difference in us - that they'd join us first for the following Sunday and then the forever Sunday. 

Talking Trinity with a J's Witness (or anyone else...)

This past Saturday was our last non-youth-sports Saturday in January so we were pleasantly enjoying the morning sun and the nonsensical notion of me building a tree fort (which, miracle!, happened much to the chagrin of two fingers on my left hand), r when I heard folks knocking at my office door. The gentleman and his wife were friendly, intelligent, and determined to ask me about whether I would want their literature. I admired their conviction and boldness knowing I can learn something from them about both. After saying, "I'll take it but my interest is mild in the literature itself but I'm interested in how it affects you," we soon approached a fork in the road when I admitted: "I think we share differences in what we believe about Jesus and the Trinity."

Jehovah's Witnesses espouse that all Christians believe, as the Mormons do, not in a Trinity but a Triad of gods (three separate gods with the same essence in various degrees). In fact, they'll try and convince you that the "Trinity" originates not in Christianity but from three ancient Egyptian gods: Osiris, Isis, & Horus. 

So I'm posting a wonderful little article called: Is God a Trinity or a Triad? from my friends at carm.org - not simply because I'm concerned how we respond to a Jehovah's witness but also because I'm finding little hints from dear friends in the church who are questioning if Jesus really is God or just a really, really blessed Son who is an important example and even died an effective death for our sake. The above article on the Trinity gives a simple yet brilliant analogy stating that the universe is composed of three elements - space, time, and matter - each of which reflects the Triune God who created them in that each has three manifestations. If this sounds complicated, it's not and I think you'll find it helpful for both yourself and to pass on. Check it out above.  

I recognize people are often afraid to ask such questions even if they are milling around in their own minds - but they need not be. We all have them, especially as we just begin to grow in Christ. So don't be afraid to ask your pastor(s) questions and, in conjunction, carm.org is also an excellent resource for reference.

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (II Corinthians 13:14).

Free Audiobook for January: THE Book (ESV Audio Bible)

There is something about hearing the Word of God that gets in people. In fact, even among pastor friends of mine when one is expected to get nuanced and talk through biblical concepts in often enigmatic, smarty-pants ways, I increasingly enjoy simply hearing the Bible quoted to me - to discuss it, chew on it, and ultimately be further challenged and edified by it. In fact, please never hesitate to think you are sounding somehow brown-nosing, overly 'spiritual', or "he-probably-already-knows-this" by quoting Scripture to me. It will be a gift every time that I will hopefully choose to receive as such (I mean a friend did just this past Sunday refer to me publicly using Genesis 3:10 "I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid, because I was naked, and hid myself" [p.s. - I was apparently the one in the garden in this scenario] - so I'm a little hesitant to receive wholesale all verses directed toward me).

The apostle Paul says it like this in Romans 10 as he quotes Deuteronomy 30:14: "The word of God is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you can do it." Then later in verse 17: "Trust comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ" 

It is so good to have His Word nearby to hear it & do it so that trust in our Savior grows as might the do-ing that so pleases Him.

So downloading this free version of the ESV Audio Bible is the ideal soundtrack to start the year. I should note that this particular audio version gives easy access to particular books and chapters as needed.

Danger of Christian Karma during the charitable Season of Christmas

Many of you - as we have recently done at SCC - have just recently completed filling bags for the hungry to receive a Christmas meal, purchased a Christmas gift for a child who has an incarcerated parent, or even assembled your family to collectively "give back" during this holiday season.

Speaking from a wealth of charitable experience, Peter Greer, President/CEO of Hope International gives us in this brief interview a prophetic warning and opens up about his own "buying-in" to Christian Karma (ie. if I do good, God has no choice but to bless me). These lines alone are well worth the read:

The only antidote that enables us to truly sustain our service is to constantly remember that our service is downstream from the gospel. We fight hopelessness and discouragement by constantly returning to the Cross and the empty tomb. Then we get to work loving our neighbors in response to the grace we've already experienced.

YES! "Constantly returning to the cross" - something I have to tell myself about a dozen times a day for my love to last and with pure, God-ward intentions.

May God richly bless your blessing others this Christmas as you return & respond to the greatest blessing of all - the bottomless fuel of the grace of God expressed through the cross of Christ and the empty tomb.