"Religion starts wars."

Religion doesn't start wars; people do. A sinful heart will use (and pervert) any means necessary to live out its superiority complex.

Saying 'religion starts wars' is like saying 'neighborhoods cause gang violence.' The problem is people.

Leadership and Isolation

My friend Josh Cahan posted this on his blog. I've noticed that church leaders tend to see themselves as 'leading the church' but not really a part of the church. This quote is such a great reminder that leaders need not be isolated from life of the church.

"It is important that leaders see themselves and are seen by others as part of the church. Professionalism is always the enemy of authentic gospel leadership. Leaders are not a special class set apart on their own, having to face burdensome responsibilities and forced to endure a lonely existence. Leaders cannot be detached. They must be visible believers who live their lives openly in the midst of the believing community." (Total Church by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis)

Video: Persevere

A video I shot for our church's leadership conference. We all admire leaders who have persevered through difficult times, but it's must easier admired than lived out.

The overall idea and creative work is the brainchild of Bobby Morganthaler.

Video: Follow the Follower

Here's another video I shot for our church's leadership conference. It's about the paradox that all Christian leaders live in: In order to lead well, we have to follow well.

The overall idea and creative work is the brainchild of Bobby Morganthaler.

Video: Dream Big

Here's a short video I shot for our church's leadership conference. It's about the power of vision and the necessity for Christian leaders to dream big.

The overall idea and creative work is the brainchild of Bobby Morganthaler.

So much of pastoring is praying.

Lord, it's so easy to lean on the wisdom of the world in all of its activity and striving and ingenuity. Please help me to lean first and foremost on your wisdom (1 Cor.3:18-19), to fight with weapons that are spiritual (2 Cor.10:4), and to work according to your divine power (Col.1:29).

hypocrisy and its impact on preaching

It is so difficult to preach, with passion, something that you do not personally live. Why? (1) Because your conscience bears down on you in your preparation (if it hasn’t been seared by prolonged hypocrisy). You have to fight through feelings of condemnation and guilt and that saps you of your confidence. (2) Because you lack the experience necessary to not just inspire but to actually be helpful. It’s semi-easy to get up and inspire people to do something that you don’t do, because you’re inspiring yourself at the same time. It’s the difference though between someone inspiring you to climb Mt. Everest with vague, abstract words (“It’s beautiful. You should do it. There’s nothing like it in the world.”) and someone actually being helpful to you in knowing how to climb. Someone who has climbed it many times can tell you exactly how to pack for the weather, how it will feel when the low-altitude air hits your lungs, how you should adjust your breathing, the discouragement you’ll feel at 15,0000ft. Someone who hasn’t can only describe a picture of a place that they, at best, long to visit.

Ezra, the scribe, gives us the process for great preaching: "For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel" (Ezra 7:10).

Note: I should add that a preacher is always faced with the reality of preaching something that he/she doesn't live perfectly. But there's a difference between not applying something perfectly and not applying it at all. I'd also add that if you find yourself about to preach something that you haven't personally applied, confess it to God, take joy in the confidence that you're accepted by God because of the gospel, make serious plans to apply whatever you're preaching to your life and/or don't preach it yet.

Updates to this post

"No pastor lives up to what he preaches. If he does, he is preaching too low." John Piper

Why do you believe the church is still so divided racially?

I read a blog post by Pastor Ron Edmonson a little while ago in which he asked, "Why do you believe the church is still so divided racially?" You can read the original post here. I decided to post my response. This is an issue I'm extremely passionate about and my thoughts are a work in progress:

i see the problem at two different levels. one is practical and the other is theological. i put worship style, preaching style, homogeneous church leadership, etc as practical barriers. but i think those are only outworkings of deeper issues.

i'll address the institutional black church for example. in many ways, the black church has been a means of SURVIVAL for black people. one of it's primary functions from the beginning was to preserve African/Black culture and protect/advance the people within that culture. i think that's why you can have so many unbelievers who are still actively involved in the black church. and a lot of black churches still exist for that purpose. it's a core value for the black church--sometimes explicitly so--and i think folks just assume it's ok because that's the way it's been, like artie said.

in light of that, i think it goes beyond the practical factors. i think it comes down to a fundamentally flawed or nonexistent "theology of difference" - be it racial, social, or economic. for example, i don't think most christians can answer the question "biblically speaking, is it ok to embrace ethnic identity?" or "in God's created order, where did race even come from?" now, i don't expect the average person to have answers to that stuff. i didn't for a long time. but i'm hoping that pastors (including myself) will equip our congregations to process race through a biblical framework. because i think that what will filter down is an obvious disparity between how we act/react/feel and what we claim to believe. we have to allow the Bible to critique our presuppositions about race and identity and even our preferences. we have to be willing to admit our prejudices (or at least our ignorance) and allow the Bible to confront them.

i grew up in an all black church in an overwhelmingly predominantly black community. when i graduated from college i went to work for a pretty well-known evangelist in the "CCM-esque" christian world (i.e. white lol) and i got a crash course in all things steven curtis chapman. i remember being the only black guy on our staff in the first few cities i worked and having a really hard time being comfortable around older white people in particular (i think because of images in my head of old white supremacy dudes who were suited by day and hooded by night). i remember being at events where i was the only black guy (and youngest guy period) in a room full of wealthy, influential, older Christian white people and in conversations thinking "you're talking to me but you don't want me here or you wonder why i'm here." i remember being CERTAIN that me and the folks on our staff couldn't possibly have much in common. all of that was rooted in deep-seated skepticism. praise God, He changed me...and i'm glad i did because i wouldn't have lasted now in a predominately white church! lol

two last random thoughts:

1 - i think if we want to invite different kinds of people into our churches, we have to be willing to invite different kinds of people into our homes.

2 - the more exposure i've gotten beyond my preferences, the more my preferences have changed. i like acoustic guitars and romantic jesus songs now. :-)

An elder/pastor is called to "care for" the Church, not to simply manage it (Acts 20:28).

we have to teach people what to believe

The church isn't doing its job if it only teaches people how to live and not also what to believe. We have to equip people to think critically and correctly.

my prayer in seminary

Lord, convert what I learn into wisdom and worship.

two of the hardest questions i've ever been asked

my professor, Gregg Allison, asked our class these two questions:

Are you willing to go anywhere, say anything, do anything, and give up everything regardless of the cost for the sake of Jesus Christ?

If you knew that your suffering was God's best for you and you knew that you could not have His best in any other way, would you be willing to suffer for the sake of His honor?

he cautioned us not to answer too quickly.

a God who is in no way mysterious is in no way divine

i was talking to (debating with) a friend this weekend about God. we were talking about the various and often frustrating challenges involved in believing in God. he brought up some valid criticisms and, after a pretty long dialogue, i made this comment:

"i don't have answers for a lot of the stuff you bring up. some if it i'll never have an answer for. i'm not sure i'd want to worship a God who was totally answerable."

after the conversation was over, that thought kept ruminating in my mind.

i think part of what makes God worthy of worship is the mystery surrounding Him. my wife ashley makes a good point that mystery is an indicator that God is bigger than us. there will always be a gap between us as finite creatures and Him as the infinite Creator.

without mystery, there is no worship. i think christians should be more faithful in developing our own critical grounds for believing the Gospel (1 Peter 3:15), but we should also acknowledge and stand in awe of the mystery that makes God, God (Romans 11:33).

many of us want a God with no mystery. i say a God who is in no way mysterious is in no way divine.

a God who feels pain

a few days ago, ashley and i were at the pediatrician with ava. she was getting her 4month checkup, which unfortunately included...vaccinations. yep. if you're a parent, you're already feelin' me.

this wasn't her first time. i was at work when she got her first shot, but right afterward, ashley called me from the doctor's office so that i could listen in on what sounded like a monster metamorphosis as ava was being introduced to pain. so i was dreading the prospect of actually seeing her experience it.

i even said to ash: "i can almost feel the pain."

and then i reflected on that for a moment. i've been guilty in the past of thinking that God is removed from our pain because of His infinite knowledge. in other words, sometimes i've thought that he doesn't waste time feeling our pain, not because He doesn't care, but because He knows that what we're going through is for our good and only temporary. but I had that same knowledge about Ava's pain and yet it didn't stop me from grieving for her, hurting with her. i knew that she'd be smiling again in a matter of minutes and i even knew that looking back on it, she would see good in it. but my heart couldn't help hurting with her...simply because she was hurting.

how much more does God know our pain? He has infinite knowledge (Isaiah 46:9-10), well beyond ours (Isaiah 55:9), yet he is intimately aware of how we feel (Hebrews 4:15) and He cares (1 Peter 5:7).

God's infinite knowledge should bring us great confidence (because He's ordained how it'll all work out) but his ability to empathize should bring us great comfort.

george muller on the importance of scripture meditation

"While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now, while preparing the eighth edition for the press, more than forty years have since passed away. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.

Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself toprayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference then between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events, I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even an hour, I only then begin really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!"

Excerpt from the Autobiography of George Müller

"God feeds the birds, but He doesn't throw the food into their nests."

- author unknown

A free pdf version of Piper's 'When I Don't Desire God'

CLICK HERE to read or download the book.

feeling like a failure

i met with a girl who was struggling with a heavy sense of condemnation. old, nagging, condemning voices were on replay in her mind. someone telling her she was a failure. feelings of guilt for past, confessed sin. fear of never being able to live up to people's expectations. so i sent her this email after our meeting and the verses are so powerful that i figured i'd share them.

I’d encourage you to get behind these passages to understand them in context and then to really make this a part of your regular meditation. Your identity is in Christ, not from your accomplishments or failures, not from people’s affirmation of you or criticism of you. You are a daughter of the Most High, the Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. He redeemed you with His love and demonstrated His love for you by dying on the cross. He bore your sin, shame, failure, humiliation, and inadequacy. So, as those past hurts resurface, fight against them with the truth of who you are in Christ! Beautiful, free, holy, blameless, accepted.

• “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (psalm 147:11) – God is pleased with you, not because of your performance, simply because you trust in Him
• “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) – this was God’s promise to Judah, even in these midst of their sin, that he would redeem them and rejoice over them
• “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1) – As a believer in Christ, God never condemns you, not for sin, failure, anything. People may condemn you and judge you as insufficient, but Christ makes you perfectly sufficient before God.
• “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…” (Col.1:21-22)

These are just a few and there are tons more. But put these on index cards, tape them on your mirror, on your steering wheel, whatever. Memorize them. Pray regularly that the Spirit would make these come alive to you and help you to really see yourself the way He sees you.

helpful commentary on psalms

I picked up this book for one my Old Testament classes. It can be a bit technical at points, but it's pretty understandable for the serious Bible student and has been very helpful to me in understanding the Psalms.

Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook by Mark D. Futato

why are you in ministry?

this is an amazing sermon from Matt Chandler. I watch it every once in a while as a way of living out Psalm 139:23-24: