The Process of Revival (pt. 1?)

So I was driving down Airport Blvd. when I saw a church sign that read "40 Days to Revival." It's this Sunday's message. It sparked some thoughts, and that's what this is.

I've been in church a long time, growing up in predominantly Charismatic settings. I've been at a Southern Baptist Church the past 2 years and it's been a cool experience because it's simply something different; it's been interesting to see how God works through all sorts of different ways inter-denominationally. All that to say that the sign was something I'd expect at one of my previous churches, not at another Southern Baptist church. "Revival" isn't so much a hot topic for more of the reserved denominations, such as SBC, but, rather, is quite the topic of choice for more charismatic circles.

So I let my mind wander, trying to think of what it was that the slant of the message would be. I can't really be certain, since it's a bit of a curveball to begin with being that it's a baptist church, but I can imagine what some of my old pastors would say in such a sermon series. The emphasis would be just what the title implies, a semi Scripture based, semi narrative series on what the apostle's were thinking, praying, etc... during those 40 days before the tongues of fire came and rested on everyone's heads. Unfortunately, I would be confident in saying that some of my former pastors wouldn't really care about the 40 days, it would simply be a means to an end, that being the gift of tongues, which is even more sad considering that the Holy Spirit wouldn't be emphasized as much as his particular outpouring of tongues would be.

Well, now that I'm writing all this, I think that I was right in questioning if this would be the first part of a series of blogs, cause I obviously won't get around to all I want to say since I've already taken up a decent amount of space. I'll give an outline real quick of the thoughts I had on what truly led to the revival, more than just those 40 days (not that I'm implying that specific study on those 40 days is wrong or evil, I was just setting the stage to show what sparked the thoughts about that revival that you will hopefully read about in the upcoming blogs).

Here goes:
1.The Intertestamental Period (the 400 or so years between the book of Malachi and Matthew)
- there was a deprivation of God's Word
2. The coming of the Word (Christ's birth, life, and death)
- "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..."
- there was a whole new experience of the Word of God, one that had yet to have been had
3. Unity and Prayer
- the apostle's and Christ's family devoted themselves to prayer, and did so "in one accord"
4. Structure/Authority Recognized
- the apostle's developed structure out of their unity, used their authority to prepare for "the promise of the Father"
5. Outpouring/Revival
- birthed out of all the above
6. Salvation
- the reason for 1-5
7. God being seen as glorious
- the canopy under which every single piece of the puzzle exists and the end to which all the means lead towards

There ya go. Looks like this might take a while, but I think it'll be fun. Hope that, now that you have an idea, you are interested to see what happens with this and that you'll think about it also so that you can help guide discussion through comments and all.

Grace and peace-
J

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Aggravations No More

I had a meeting today. I happened to get there early. Twenty minutes early, actually.

I thought that Ken would be free, otherwise I wouldn't have "wasted my time" in getting there so early. But, he wasn't free. He was in another meeting with another pastor at the church. Ken's office is next to another guy's office. This other guy is older. I'm not quite sure exactly what his role is in everything at the church, but I know some of it entails dealing with the senior congregation that we have. He is dry. Drier than all the deserts in the world stacked upon each other and multiplied by some arbitrarily selected number of gargantuan proportions. No exaggeration.

Well there's a seat that is placed in between the doors to Ken's and this other guy's office. Lucky for me, the other guy leaves his door open. So, when I get there to meet Ken early he usually sees me and comes out and says hey, amongst a bunch of other things.

He isn't crazy. He isn't smelly. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the man. By no means is there anything wrong. He's a great guy, so don't get me wrong. It's just that it is always one of those very strange, awkward, forced conversations that we all hate to have.

But he taught me something today. He didn't, actually. But God's spirit did. As he was rambling and I was trying to find something to say in reply, my mind was also racing to find a way to escape the conversation, was hoping that Ken would hurry up and end his current meeting, etc...

Then I realized. Why am I being impatient? Why am I unsettled in this conversation? Why am I so set on escape? I preach God's sovereignty to my peers, to the kids in the youth group, and even to people who are in authority over me (of course, in a respectful, humble way). It's a HUGE part of my life. God's recognition in my life as being just that---GOD---is core to my beliefs and values.

Or so I thought.

But then I got kicked in the face today, all thanks to that "other guy." If I truly believe God is in control of everything---all things ranging from my schooling, my future marriage, disasters and calamities, the winds, the waves, the good, and the bad---then how could I possibly be so unwilling to be in a position that I would claim he had ordained?

Here's a few verses to chew on.

Isaiah 46:9-11
"...remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, DECLARING THE END FROM THE BEGINNING, and from ancient times things NOT YET DONE, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it."

Psalms 139:16
"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, EVERY ONE of them, the days that were FORMED FOR ME, when as yet THERE WERE NONE OF THEM."

God is in control. It's not that he dirties his hands in things when they go wrong and then make them work out (Romans 8:28), but he MEANT for every piece of it to happen (Gen. 50:20). How much more the things that are good?

He has formed every day for us and written it down in his book, and he did it all before we were even a formed substance. Don't belittle God and make much of yourself by thinking He has a giant, holy eraser that he uses to clear his records of our lives when we all the sudden take matters in our own hands, cause that was written down too.

Don't be as I have been, praising God for his sovereignty in the big things, but forgetting and losingsight of the simple fact that every little conversation, every detail of our day is under his control also, which should bring humility into our hearts, not aggravation, discontent, or grumbling. God forgive me.

Grace and peace to you all-

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Response to Rabbi Kushner

(Author: John Piper)

From 11 to 12 this morning, Gary Eichten of Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Rabbi Harold Kushner about the collapse of the 35W bridge. Kushner is best known for his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. There were several astonishing things about this interview--not unusual for religious talk shows on public radio, but astonishing still.

1. The most astonishing thing is that God's grace is so great neither the Rabbi nor I was struck dead by God during the interview--he, because of his blasphemous belittlings of God, and I, because of my contaminated anger at what he said.

2. Another astonishing thing is that Gary Eichten, as far as I heard, never challenged the Rabbi to support anything he said with an authority beyond his own opinion. Think of it. Here is a solitary, flawed, finite, fallible human being (like you and me) speaking over public airwaves with no support beyond his own personal viewpoint making unchallenged pronouncements, with no accountability whatsoever, about the greatest Person in the universe--statements that are contrary to what most Christians and Jews and Muslims have believed during the entire history of those religions. And they let him just go on and on preaching his opinions.

3. Less astonishing for our day, but more outrageous is the claim of the Rabbi that God is not "all-powerful." Specifically, he does not "control the laws of nature." On the contrary, both the Rabbi's Bible and the New Testament teach that he is all-powerful and does control the laws of nature.

Job 37:5-7 "Out of the south comes the storm. . . . [God] disperses the cloud of His lightning. It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited earth. Whether for a rod . . . or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen. . . . Stand and consider the wonders of God!"

Psalm 135:5-7 "The LORD is great. . . . Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth. . . . He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind from His treasuries."

Psalm 148:7 "Praise the LORD from the earth, sea monsters and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling His word"

Mark 4:37-39 "There arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat. . . . And Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

There's not a plant or flower below,
But makes Thy glories known;
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from Thy throne.
Isaac Watts

4. Finally, the Rabbi is pastorally short-sighted in saying, "People need consolation, not explanation." He does not mean, "Hug and cry first, give God-centered explanations later." That would be wise counsel. He means, "All our attempts at answering 'Why?' will be wrong. So don't try." The reason for this is that God did not "intend" anything by the collapse of the bridge. You can't intend something by what you have no power to control. So God did not exercise any wisdom or love in causing or permitting the bridge to collapse. It was strictly random. So one should only give consolation, not explanation. There is not explanation.

There are two reasons why this is pastorally short-sighted and unsatisfying. One is that it is built on a falsehood. God does not need to be "all-powerful" to keep people from being hurt in the collapse of a bridge. He doesn't even need to be as powerful as a man. He only needs to show up and use a little bit of his power (say, on the level of Spiderman, or Jason Bourne)--he did create the universe, the Rabbi concedes--and (for example) cause some tremor a half-hour early to cause the workers to leave the bridge, and the traffic to be halted. This intervention would be something less spectacular than a world-wide flood, or a burning bush, or plague of frogs, or a divided Red Sea, or manna in the wilderness, or the walls of a city falling down--just a little tremor to get everybody off the bridge before it fell.

So the Rabbi is not pastorally helpful to build his counsel on the fact that God is not "all-powerful." Bereaved wives know in their heart that this is a copout. A human could have cleared the bridge. If God is just a little bit powerful, he could have figured out a way to save her husband.

The other reason why the Rabbi's pastoral approach is shortsighted is that sooner or later the anguished human heart does need some answers about the power, wisdom, and love of God. The Rabbi's Bible (and my Bible)--the only authority he or I have for making any pronouncements about God at all--gives more comfort than the Rabbi is willing to offer. In Genesis 50:20, Joseph explains to his brothers why their murderous treatment of him is not meaningless: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." God did indeed (contrary to the Rabbi's assertion) have an intention in this evil. "God meant it (the evil) for good." (See also Genesis 45:7 and Psalm 105:17).

This is the final pastoral comfort, and I do not write this without 30 years of seeing it in people's lives. From the hundreds that have testified with breathtaking faith, just two weeks ago a woman stood up at the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, NC, during a testimony time in front of 450 people and spoke of throwing herself across the grave of her dead son. With tears, she thanked God that someone pointed her to the sovereign control of an all-wise, all-loving God. Her husband stood with her, and together they spoke of the strength and stability and hope and, finally, the joy that comes from knowing that they are not in a random world, but one where God assures them that the worst things will indeed work for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28). This I have seen in the lives of hundreds of those who have suffered far more than I have.

No, Rabbi Kushner. Your soft words offer no hope in the end. The foundation is false. And the consolation does not satisfy the God-given passions for truth and meaning in the human heart. May the Lord open your eyes to the One who died for your sins and rose again, Jesus Christ, so that if you would trust him, you would be saved from the wrath of God that your blasphemy and my contaminated anger deserve.

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A Proverbs 31 Woman

who was married to the same kind of man, none other than Mr. Bill Graham. Ruth Bell Graham died at 5pm this past wednesday. reading her obituary brought me to tears; she seems like a wonderful woman, and would most certainly have to be in order to survive this many years with the world's most famous evangelist. i pray for to marry such a woman, and, to all the guys, you should add that to your prayer list also; a partner like that will make life mean so much more than we could make of our own accord, but we must, of course, be the godly men that are "deserving" of such a woman. and, women, may you all strive to be such a godly woman.

you can fin more HERE.

grace and peace-
j

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Ripple

here's a cool idea. i love this kind of stuff. it's a mini webapp that raises money for various causes...all you have to do is use the search feature (powered by google) on the site.

so, go to this link: http://www.ripple.org/index.html. chose how you'd like to save the world, then do a search for whatever your heart desires. it's simple. just go here instead of google. it's the same engine as google, so don't think you're getting ripped or anything. it'll be a great search with great results, but even better results because it will go deeper than a god search result, it can result in helping a family across the world get clean water, or some education, or adequate nourishment. do it!

peace-
j

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Morning & Evening: Joy & Sin

Morning: Holiness and Delight

"Delight thyself also in the Lord."
--Psalm 37:4

The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than "holiness" and "delight." But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them.

They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving Him from custom, they would follow Him though all the world cast out His name as evil. We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight.

Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold.

"'Tis when we taste Thy love,
Our joys divinely grow,
Unspeakable like those above,
And heaven begins below."

Evening: Sinning Christians

"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face...because we have sinned against Thee."
--Daniel 9:8

A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love--light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God's own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus' bosom.

Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter's denying his Master. Remember, it is written, "He wept bitterly." Have we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul, bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God. Admire the grace which saves thee--the mercy which spares thee--the love which pardons thee!

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Blessings and such

It's amazing to see the small blessings in life and how much they make a difference in the whole scheme of things.

Yesterday was a rough day. It came around though, after much prayer and the likes. Well today has been great. God has just been blessing things left and right. The small things like coffee. I had coffee this morning at Beaner's, my favorite local coffee shop, as usual. Then left. Came back. Polly was on her way up so I ordered one of her favorite drinks and was told to put my money away. Free drink. Score!

So then I go and have lunch with Polly and some friends, run some errands, blah blah blah, come back to Beaner's. I'm researching ways to help other people, new ways for FRAME to get involved with other organizations that have a similar goal and/or vision. Well, then one of the baristas walks up with my favorite drink, and hands it to me with a big smile. So sweet. And delicious.

The small things in life, the little acts of kindness from one person to another, make all the difference. I saved $8 today on coffee products, which I'll be able to give to someone else now, perhaps tonight when I go down to feed the homeless. And how cool is it to do those kind deeds with a name greater than our own attached to it---namely, Christ's.

Therefore, go do something for someone, be that little cliche ray of light that we all need at some point. "Faith without works is dead."

Grace and peace to all-
J

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