I recently purchased Sam Storms’ new book, To the One Who Conquers: 50 Daily Meditations on the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3.  It looks like its going to be a great read.  I have immense respect for Dr. Storms. 

Justin Taylor recently posted an interesting evaluation of Storms’ book along with an excerpt on his blog, “Between Two Worlds.”  Read his post by clicking on the title, ”Do You Care What Christ Thinks of the Church?“

“Evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. We have lost the art of worship. We are not producing saints. Our models are successful business men, celebrated athletes and theatrical personalities. We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern advertiser. Our literature is shallow and our hymnody borders on sacrilege. And scarcely anyone appears to care.”
-A.W. Tozer

“The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God.”
William Gurnall

And I dare not leave out the hard saying which I once heard from an experienced Christian: “I have seen many strik­ing answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning: before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistak­able, more emphatic. (emphasis added)

While acknowledging this phenomenon as a mystery, Lewis then uses the example of our Lord Jesus to remind us that our dependence on spiritual ‘experiences’ may indeed be an indication of weakness, and not of strength. 

This very closely parallels my own experience.  Early in my Christian life, just after my conversion and for a few years afterward, God seemed to manifest His presence in powerful and unmistakable ways every few months.  As I began to grow in Him, it seems those ‘experiences’ have become much more rare.  However, I also have become aware of the fact that I am much less dependent on such experiences to sustain me.  I thank the Lord for His work in my life.  And I pray that He will continue to mold me and make me into a true man of God.

The older I get, the more I become aware of the brevity of life. Someone might say, “That’s morbid. Don’t think about such things!” But the Bible seems to see things differently. In fact, throughout the Scriptures we are frequently reminded of our mortality. James 4:14 tells us that our life is “just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” Yes, life on earth — even if you should live to be 100 — is brief indeed. We must live life to the fullest while we have breath. And we can only live life to the fullest if we know Jesus Christ and are living unto Him as our Lord and Savior day by day, every day. I ask you, do you know Jesus Christ? Won’t you trust Him as your Lord and Savior? If you will do this, all eternity lies before you, and you will worship Christ your King forever and ever!

I have often contemplated the biblical command in 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  In his short but excellent article, “How to Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God”, Dr. John Piper tells us that everything we do-even drinking orange juice-can be done to the glory of God.  In fact, Piper draws this conclusion:

It is sin to eat or drink or do anything NOT for the glory of God. In other words, sin is not just a list of harmful things (killing, stealing, etc.). Sin is leaving God out of account in the ordinary affairs of your life. Sin is anything you do that you don’t do for the glory of God.

You can read the whole thing by clicking here…

Charles Spurgeon’s church was a praying church.  Spurgeon biographer Lewis Drummond writes,

How the people of New Park Street Baptist Church did pray!  They actually prayed down revival.  But prayer must be personal as well as corporate.  Could Spurgeon himself pray?  He could; he actually seemed to walk in a spirit of continuous prayer.  Though not given to long formal prayers, he prayed “without ceasing.” He stated, “You cannot measure fire by the bushel, nor prayers by their length.”  He believed that and practiced it.  Actually, he spent only one or two whole nights in prayer in his entire life, but he walked with God in such depth that he could move from conversation with a friend and then into prayer in a moment.

(Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, p. 29)

Indeed.  According to Spurgeon, “Prayer meetings are the throbbing machinery of the Church.”  

I usually reserve comment on books until after their release, but I must say, this book appears very intriguing indeed!  Not only that, I have come to trust Crossway’s reputation for publishing good quality Christian books. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Real people. Real sin. Transformed lives. A compilation of heartfelt letters written from a pastor to his people that explains Jesus’ work on the cross.

Death by Love is a unique book on the cross of Jesus Christ. While many books debate the finer points of the doctrine of the atonement, what is often lost are the real-life implications of Jesus’ death on the cross for those who have sinned and have been sinned against. Written in the form of pastoral letters, Death by Love outlines the twelve primary effects of Jesus’ death on the cross and connects each to the life of a different individual.

Driscoll, one of America’s most influential pastors, and Breshears, a respected theologian, help readers understand, appreciate, and trust in Jesus’ work on the cross in a way that will transform their lives. Both deeply theological and intensely practical, this book shows how everyone can find hope through the death of Jesus Christ.

Check out the trailor below:

You can read a chapter, download the art, and purchase the book here.  In short, I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.  It should be a great read… Either way, I plan to find out!

Yesterday after church I attended a get-together for our Connection Group at the home of a wonderful couple in our group.  Imagine my surprise when what I thought was just a “routine” get-together turned out to be a surprise celebration for my and Debi’s 25th wedding anniversary!  What a wonderful surprise, but very humbling as well.  I am so grateful for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  It reminded me of Psalm 133, which says:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing–life forever.

Thank you Gary, Freda, and the rest of the gang.  I am so grateful to all of you! — Scott

We opened the work week on Monday with worship performed by The Church at Pinnacle Hills Worship Team.  I think it’s only appropriate that we should close the work week today with the same, right?  So enjoy this beautiful worship song, “In Christ Alone.” Have a great weekend!

What is Christian joy?  Recently I came across this interesting definition and thought I’d share it with my readers:

JOY. A delight in life that runs deeper than pain or pleasure . . . not limited by, nor tied solely to external circumstances . . . a gift of God . . . a quality of life and not simply a fleeting emotion . . . the fullness of joy comes when there is a deep sense of the presence of God in one’s life . . . Jesus made it clear that joy is inseparably connected to love and to obedience (John 15:9-14) . . . There can also be joy in suffering or in weakness when suffering is seen as having a redemptive purpose and weakness as bringing one to total dependency upon God (Matthew 5:12; 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Source: Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984), p.588

“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.”
Mark Twain

I believe Mark Twain was onto something.  Today I’m celebrating 25 years of marriage with my lovely bride, Debi, and I can honestly say I love her more now than ever.  We were young when we got married… too young to know what we were getting ourselves into!  But by God’s grace our marriage has survived and thrived, and all in spite of ME!  The woman a man marries can make or break his success in life.  It really is a general truism:  “Behind every good man is a better woman.”  At least in my case, I am a better man because of Debi. 

I prayed often as a young man that God would provide the perfect wife for me, and I honestly believe He honored that request.  I thank God for Debi, and look forward–by God’s mercy and grace–to another twenty-five years together.  It was famed philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who is quoted as saying, “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”  While I don’t agree with many of Nietzsche’s other philosophical statements, I think he hit the bullseye with that one.  Certainly, after all these years Debi continues to be not only my companion in life, but also my best friend.  Sola Deo Gloria…

To God be all the Glory!

Not long ago I purchased a copy of Dr. Bruce Waltke’s Old Testament Theology (Zondervan, 2007) ).  I had intended to begin reading it by now.  Blogger Tim Challies beat me to it, however, and recently posted this intriguing commentary on Waltke’s discussion of man’s fall into sin and what he calls, “the shape of temptation.”  Challies comments: 

Here [Waltke] shows how Satan’s original act of temptation is an archetype or sorts. All of the temptation that would follow through the long line of human experience would mimic this one. Satan tempted the second human being in the same way he tempts the 20 billionth (or whatever I happen to be). As I read this portion of the book and reflected on it, I could see that this really is the model of temptation. It is not just Satan who works in this way, though, but all human beings. We are prone to following Satan in luring others into sin in the same way.

FIVE STEPS IN LEADING SOMEONE INTO SIN

Be a theologian. There is little doubt that Satan is a theologian, and a skilled and outspoken one at that. He has had a very long time to study God and, as a leader among angels, once enjoyed free access to Him and close communion with Him. Satan knows God and knows about the character of God. But unlike the theologians we seek to be, Satan is a theologian who despises God with every bit of his being. When he turns to Eve and says, “Did God really say…?”  he brings Eve into a dialogue that opens her mind to a new realm of possibility, one she would not have thought of on her own. He knows God well enough to know what God has said and done.

But there is more. Satan is not only a student of God but also of men. From the moment God first spoke of man, Satan must have been watching and observing. Knowing that man was the crown of creation, Satan was surely looking for an opening, a way to destroy this jewel. He became a student of the ways of men. As a theologian, a psychologist and an anthropologist, Satan has unique skill at leading men astray.

Turn commands into questions. Satan takes the command of God and rephrases it as a question. “Did God really say?” What was a clear statement suddenly becomes hazy. Posing as a theologian he asks, “Are you sure about this, or is this only Adam’s testimony as to what God said? Are you sure? How do you know? Is this really a command? Can we discuss this a little bit? Is it possible that you misinterpreted what God said? Is it possible that there is some context here we’ve ignored?” Waltke says, “Within the framework of faith, these questions are proper and necessary, but when they are designed to lead us away from the simplicity of childlike obedience, they are wrong.” And so we see Satan raising questions of interpretation and authority necessarily designed to create doubt and confusion and to lead away from the simplicity of a childlike obedience.

Emphasize prohibition over freedom. Satan carefully and deliberately distorts, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden” into “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” He overlooks the great freedom God gave Adam and Eve and instead overstates the one prohibition. He gets Eve to focus on the prohibition rather than the gift and the freedom. Instead of focusing on the Tree of Life, from which she was free to eat, and on the millions of other trees available to her, Satan got her to focus her heart on that one tree from which she was not allowed to eat. And Eve began to focus not on what she had been given, but on what had been forbidden. And suddenly nothing but what was forbidden could satisfy her.

Doubt God’s sincerity and motives. Satan casts God’s motives as self-regard rather than love. “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He convinces Eve that God is limiting her, that He is not giving her the full measure of humanity. He is holding back, reserving for Himself things that she deserves to know and to experience. As Waltke says, we hear this message all around us today. “Be liberated! Be free! Self-actualize! Unleash your inner potential! The Serpent’s message even echoes in the church. Instead of sanctification, the church seeks self-improvement. Instead of holiness, the church seeks happiness.” When you hear such things, you can rest assured that the Serpent is once again at work seeking to convince you that you need to be something other than what you were created to be.

Deny what God says is true. In the final step, Satan flatly denies what is true. “You will not surely die.” The fruit of all of the doubt and the resentment is unbelief. If God’s words happen to hinder us from becoming what we want to be or from doing what we want to do, Satan convinces us that we can safely ignore them. In the church today many people de-emphasize sin because it may hinder the quest for self-actualization or it may make people feel guilty or damage their self-esteem. “Sadly many evangelical churches are in the process of buying into a guilt-free, pain-free, judgment-free gospel.”

In the face of such temptation, the woman yields to Satan’s denials and half-truths. “Having stripped Eve of her spiritual defenses, Satan’s work is done.” Without God, the decision will be made purely on the basis of pragmatism, of what works best to bring about the desired end, on the basis of aesthetics, of what is beautiful, and on the basis of self-improvement, of what will bring her supposed wisdom. It is only one short step from here to outright disobedience.

And so Satan works through questioning, doubt, focusing on what is forbidden and finally on outright denial of the truth. And Eve is only the first to be drawn in and to succumb to the temptation. Every one of us has fallen for the same old trap. If you think of your own life, I’m sure you will think of examples where this pattern was used against you, perhaps just in your own thoughts or perhaps in a book you have read (and there are many books in the bookstores, both Christian and non- where this same pattern is used). Satan’s first tactic worked so well that I don’t think he has ever felt it necessary to modify it too much. The shape of temptation has not changed.

Wow, do I have a treat for you today.  It’s the Revelation Song, as performed by my beloved friend and brother, Josh Stanbery, and the praise team at The Church at Pinnacle Hills.  This was also the first time I’d heard soloist Frances Manning, who is using her beautiful voice to the glory of God. It’s an incredible song, so sit back for a few minutes on this hot summer’s Monday, and enjoy some worship time! 

Last night we arrived home from our annual staff advance.  What an incredible week it turned out to be!  It was just what I needed, and I come back pumped and excited to see what God is going to do in and through our staff team and church in the coming year. 

During the week we watched a powerful video of Chris Tomlin’s song, “God of This City.”  It was an inspiration as we wait expectantly to see God do even greater things in the coming year.  Take a few moments to watch this video.  Be encouraged and hopeful, for greater things are yet to come!