101

I wish I had (maybe I should say "made") more time to read. I love to read and gain insights and shape my worldview, beliefs, understanding and gain knowledge that will hopefully form into wisdom.

At the church I am part of we have men's Bible study on Friday mornings. We are currently going through the Workbook to "Twelve Ordinary Men" by John MacArthur. It's a great workbook. It's kinda funny though 'cause I could get along fine if I didn't bring my workbook because Pastor Bob leads it (even though the men in the study take turns "leading" each page in the workbook...Pastor Bob is just so excited about and knowledgeable of the Scriptures that he ends up leading) and we make it through about three discussion questions each time. I find that we're not really talking about the book, we just use the questions in the workbook as springboards into discussion lead by Pastor Bob.

So even though PB gets upset at us when we don't have anything written down for the answers to the questions, I've decided to take the time to actually read the book "Twelve Ordinary Men" (what a concept!) instead of answer the questions in the workbook. I find it profitable since we discuss the workbook anyway, and I, otherwise, wouldn't make the time to read the book.

It's a great book! I'm only in chapter one 'cause I only got this bright idea three weeks ago and I only read it on Thursday nights (and chapter one is 21 pages long...the intro was 8 pages itself)...anyway, enough excuses for my slow reading...let's get to what I really started to write this entry about--

In the first chapter of this book MacArthur is arguing for the "ordinariness" of the 12 apostles. It's so true, yet historically the church has raised these men up on pedestals and memorialized them in marble sculptures. While reading his arguments I realized that by treating the apostles as uncommon, amazing men who are far superior to us, we excuse ourselves from having to live up to what they did.

MacArthur quotes 1 Corinthians 1:20-21 which says, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." And he points out that the apostles were not from among the religious elite of the time. There were no scribes, no pharisees, no sadducees, no rabbis, no one of the sort. These were ordinary men so that when they did extraordinary things they would not get the credit. Christ, the power behind them, would get the credit.

This is in contradiction to the way the world works (if anyone from Phase 2 is reading this..."Do Not Conform!" or if you remember H206 "Stand Defiant!"). The people of the world desire the fame and glory for themselves. After explaining this MacArthur goes on to say:

"With the notable exception of Judas Iscariot, these men were not like that. They certainly struggled with pride and arrogance like every fallen human being. But the driving passion of their lives became the glory of Christ. And it was that passion, subjected to the influence of the Holy Spirit--not any innate skill or human talent--that explains why they left such an indelible impact on the world." [emphasis mine]

Do I desire to make an indelible impact on the world? Do you desire to make an indelible impact on the world? What, then, should be our passion? Our passion should be the glory of Christ.

Oh God, give me this passion: to glorify Christ, all that He has done, all that He is. May He be the one I desire to magnify, not myself. Help me not to conform to the pattern of this world. Help me to stand defiant against the trends of modern culture which encourages me to focus on myself. Help me instead to focus on Christ in all I do.

...its a high calling...but the ordinary apostles did it. So...so can I.

100

it said "99 posts"

so i figured i'd write one more to make it an even 100.

functional atheist

I enjoy the blogging world. There's a lot of insight, encouragement and knowledge to be gained.

I was just looking through my ever-growing bookmarks of blogs and I saw a title on Joshua Harris' blog that caught my attention: Do Not Be Wise In Your Own Eyes. It caught my attention because in Phase 2 (the High School ministry at OEFC) I have been preaching through Romans. We are now in Romans 12 and I just preached on Romans 12:3 which says, "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith." I also went to verse 16: "Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." (NASB) . We talked about pride and not being wise in our own eyes, so I wanted to see what Josh had to say on this subject.

As I was reading through his post a term he used caught my attention. He said, "When my view of Him is clouded, when I’m a functional atheist, I will trust and applaud my own wisdom."

I don't think I've ever heard that term before but it makes complete sense. Am I a functional atheist? Are you a functional atheist?

A "functional" atheist wouldn't be a true atheist. A true atheist would deny the existence of any supernatural power whenever you asked him. But a "functional" atheist would acknowledge the existence of God and possibly even realize the need to submit to His will, but, by his lifestyle he would functionally be an atheist: you wouldn't be able to tell by his actions and attitudes that he believed in God and admitted the need to follow Him.

Are you a functional atheist? Do you believe in God and even confess that you should follow Him, but do not live this out in your daily life? Does your verbal assent have a noticeable effect on your moment by moment decisions, actions and attitudes?

a principle

I am going through Level Two EE at our church and we are reading "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert E. Coleman. It's an amazing book on evangelism.

I was just reading it and wanted to share this quote with you. Its about not only preaching and teaching but living a life of teaching other people by the way we live each and every moment of our lives:

There can be no shirking or evading of our personal responsibility to show the way to those we are training, and this revelation must include the practical outworking in the life of the deeper realities of the Spirit. This is the Master's method, and nothing else will ever suffice to train others to do His work.
It makes us vulnerable, of course. We are not perfect like our Lord, and those persons to whom we open our lives will come to see our many shortcomings. But let them also see a readiness to confess our sins when we understand the error of our way. Let them hear us apologize to those we have wronged. Our weaknesses need not impair the discipleship when shining through them is a transparent sincerity to follow Christ.

I often feel insufficient for the ministry when I mess up and make mistakes. But the people I lead also make mistakes. And if they do not see me make mistakes, they will think there is something wrong with them because they are not "as good" as I am (rather, as I appear to be). Instead they need to see my sins and also see how I handle them--by confessing my sins and expressing a sincere desire to truly follow Christ.

superpowers

ah...back in the day I was a true FIF fan!

If you don't/didn't know who FIF is (actually, was), you missed out.
They had MANY dedicated fans and always put on an amazing, fun show.

I was proud to claim that I made it to two of their concerts in less than 24hrs one time!

I was feeling nostalgic the other day and put on their live album "Proof that the youth are revolting". It was great. I sang along, danced and laughed at their crazy songs. But I also wanted to share these lyrics with you. They're from FIF's song called "Superpowers":

don't want to rock the mic
don't want to meet the pope
i just want to share with you
how we got this peace and hope

yeah, there's a lot more to the song than that, but i love the sentiment there. ya know, popular bands may get to meet the pope someday (if I remember correctly the Supertones got to play for some event the pope was at...now, I loved the supertones too, so i'm not saying they're no good for meeting the pope...it's just an example.). but really, who cares about meeting the pope? sure, he's popular all over the world, but he's human (uh...not to mention he's the leader of a cult that blinds so many people to the true gospel of GRACE...see this website). and who cares about rocking the mic...FIF was saying that what they really want to do is communicate to us how they got the peace and hope they have in their lives. the peace and hope that only comes from personally knowing Jesus Christ as Savior of your life!

that's what it's all about.