Free to Serve

Nye, Creation Museum, and Genesis

Bill Nye the Science Guy is racking up hits on Youtube for his video warning parents not to teach their kids that God created the earth. He says it'll hamper scientific progress. He fails to explain how America, flush with citizens who have affirmed a Creator God, managed to become so technologically innovative in the first place. Nonetheless, Nye is convinced that in a couple hundred years the whole worldview of creationism will be gone. You can watch him here:

 

For a rebuttal to Nye's comments, see Dr. David Menton and Dr. Georgia Purdom of the Creation Museum:

 

Join me this Sunday as I'll be starting an eight-week series through the Book of Genesis. This week, Genesis 1 and 2.

Got Anxiety? Part II

In the last post, I argued that when we are weighed down by distress, we shouldn't turn within and look at ourselves. We have to go outside ourselves and remember the gospel. But many times our own sin will keep us (or at least make a hearty attempt to keep us) from dwelling on the gospel. We will struggle to truly believe that all of God’s promises for us in the gospel are true. That's why after remembering the gospel we should go the Lord and confess unbelief.

When we struggle with anxiety or depression or discouragement or doubt it is not because we don’t know the gospel—at least intellectually. It is because unbelief has reared its ugly head in our hearts. We know what is true with our mind but we are battling the Truth within. This battle should come as no surprise: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5:17).

On one hand, those with the Spirit want to trust the Lord in thick and thin. They want to rejoice even in their suffering because they know that this pleases God. And yet the desires of the flesh remain. And these desires want unbelief to reign. These desires want God and the gospel to be doubted and, ultimately, dismissed. A battle erupts. Perhaps it is an invisible battle—at least to the eyes of family and friends—but it is a battle nonetheless.

Unbelief should not be toyed with. It is dangerous: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Heb. 3:12). Thankfully, we can treat unbelief as we treat any other sin. We can confess it and receive God’s mercy. Writing to Christians, John taught, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Pastor John Piper, in his book, Faith in Future Grace, made this exact point--unbelief is the root of anxiety:

I have also learned something about the root of anxiety and the ax that can sever it. One of the most important texts has been the one I underlined when I was 15—the whole section of Matthew 6:25-34. Four times in this passage Jesus says that his disciples should not be anxious. Verse 25: “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life.” Verse 27: “And which of you be being anxious can add a single cubit to his life’s span?” Verse 31: “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’” Verse 34: “Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow.”

Anxiety is clearly the theme of this text. It makes the root of anxiety explicit in verse 30: “But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?” In other words, Jesus says that the root of anxiety is inadequate faith in our Father’s future grace. As unbelief gets the upper hand in our hearts, one of the effects is anxiety. The root cause of anxiety is a failure to trust all that God has promised to be for us in Jesus.

So battle anxiety first by remembering the gospel and, second, by confessing your unbelief.

Part Three: take your emotions in hand.

Got Anxiety? Part I

Everyone, sometimes, is anxious. The first question is not if you will be anxious, but when? And the second question is what will you do when that day comes? The great Baptist pastor, Andrew Fuller, urged us not to look within ourselves for hope. That is of no use! “Though it be proper to know our own hearts, for the purpose of conviction, yet if we expect consolation from this quarter, we shall find ourselves sadly disappointed.” In other words, if your answer to your distress is to camp out in your own heart in the hope of finding comfort, you will come up empty.

As Christians, we know we should not worry. Our Savior exhorted us not to be anxious, but to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). But how do we do this? When the troubles of this world feel like a crushing weight pressing down upon our chests, how can we push it off? How can we take our eyes off of ourselves and place them upon the kingdom of God in such a way that the anxiety leaves and peace is found? Over the course of a series of posts, I want to answer that question.

First, remember the gospel.

The answer begins in our sovereign God who “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). Amazing. Jesus Christ laid aside his natural glory for the ignominy of flesh. And why? Paul answers elsewhere: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

For our sake. Those are sweet and powerful words. They imply a God of immense love, compassion, and joy. He delights in redeeming a people to know him, love him, and enjoy him forever. That is good news. Christ came into the world to establish a kingdom, a kingdom populated by men and women who have been adopted into the family of God. He did this for our sake.

When the weight of anxiety seems immovable, relief is found in a God who made himself known, lived among us, and then died for us so that we could have everlasting life. And the gospel is at work in the life of every believer until God presents us “blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). The gospel is leading us into the perfect presence of God. Is he with us now? Yes, we are filled by God’s Spirit. But the work of the gospel will be fully complete when “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3).

As anxiety builds in your life, as worries pile up, remember the gospel. Not only have you been saved from the domain of darkness but the future that God’s gospel-work has won is very bright.

Part two: confess unbelief.

Personally Proactive

Julie Lowe, a mother and counselor with CCEF wrote a nice article called, "Body Image." She makes the point that one of the best things parents can do when raising children is to be proactive--to attack the lies and tempations with which the culture attacks our kids and us. She focuses on body image: "One pervasive lie in Western culture is that a person's value lies in physical appearance." True enough. We'd be crazy to deny that the billboards and commercials that our kids see are slowly crafting an image in their mind of what it means to be beautiful. 

Now, imagine what it is like to spend an entire life drinking lies. Imagine what it is like to be 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 and to believe in your heart (even if you deny it with your lips) that you are worth no more than what you produced in the workplace or what you managed to tuck away in your retirement plan.

How tempting it is to look in the rearview mirror of life and think you are only as good as your last job, your last review, your last bonus. Just as we shouldn't allow the culture to define for us what it means to be beautiful, we shouldn't allow the culture to define for us what it means to be successful.

Let's be personally proactive. Let's remind ourselves that true beauty was seen when the Savior bled. True success was realized when the God-man rose. That means for us, true beauty and success will only be found in Christ. As Paul wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20. 

The Lord Reigns

The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! --Psalm 99:1

Let the peoples tremble. Their fear and anxiety will not move the LORD from his throne. He is fixed. He is settled. He is more secure than a mountain. People may fret. They may worry. They may even attack him and his glorious name or they may attack his people. It doesn't matter. The LORD reigns.

Let the earth quake. Disasters may come. Floods may rise. Hurricanes may beat the land. Tornadoes may rip through cities. Cancer cells may crush the human body. Bones may break. Everything in life may appear to be coming apart at the seams. It doesn't matter. The LORD reigns.

Some suggest God is reigning and unconcerned about the people trembling in fear and those trembling in fury. He is concerned. Some suggest God is reigning with no interest in a world that is quaking. He is interested. God is waiting for his time to unveil his glory before the eyes of every man. God is waiting for his time to reveal the new heavens and the new earth--which will never quake again. 

And he has given us a downpayment of hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the Savior's heart began to beat again, when his mouth began to preach again, when his eyes began to see again we could be sure that the Lord reigns, he reigns now over sin and over death and over all the people of the earth. And his reign which is ignored by so many today will one day be ignored by no one. The Lord will reign in judgment over all who reject him and in mercy over all who turn to him.

The Lord reigns.

So let James 4:8 mark your life today, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."

Does Satan Care About Our Kids?

Satan certainly wants to see our children uninterested in the things of God, hard-hearted toward the gospel and, ultimately, unsaved. Thankfully we know that the power of the devil fills a thimble when compared to the Niagara Falls-power of Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, we should be aware that the devil will do everything he can to halt the spiritual interest of our little ones. 

How does he do this? Most often, by stunting the gospel-vigor of the parents. Richard Baxter, writing in the seventeenth century, was right on target when it comes to the plan of Satan to attack the family--in this case, a family including biological members (parents and children) as well as employers and employees (masters and servants):

[Satan] does what he can to hinder parents and masters from doing their part, in the instructing and admonishing of children and servants, and dealing wisely and zealously with them for their salvation: either he will keep parents and masters ignorant and unable, or he will make them wicked and unwilling, and perhaps engage them to oppose their children in all that is good; or he will make them like Eli, remiss and negligent, indifferent, formal, cold, and dull; and so keep them from saving their children's or servants' souls.

Are we "remiss and negligent, indifferent, formal, cold, and dull" or are our homes full of intentionality, interest, liveliness, warmth, and zeal in and for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Psalm 90

Right now Psalm 90 is my favorite psalm. I trust that will change. The Psalms speak to every situation under the sun. They speak to despair (Psalm 42) to repentance (Psalm 51) to death (Psalm 23) and to truth (Psalm 119). But I think I turn to Psalm 90 most. Why?

First, because I'm comforted by the reality that God is everlasting. God the Father never had a birthday. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God" (v. 2). God has never been taken by surprise. He's never been shocked or unnerved. He is as calm as the centuries are long. What a comfort to know my everlasting God doesn't just know what my day will be like, he has ordained things so that what happens tomorrow will happen for my good. I can trust him.

Second, because I'm challenged by the need to make the most of every hour the Lord gives me. "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty . . . So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (vv. 10, 12). Our lives our short. There is no other rational conclusion to draw. But the shortness of our days is no reason to stop working, to stop trying, and to give up. My brief life is lived under the watchful and caring eye of an eternal God. Therefore, I should live well for him. 

Having become aware of his need to number his days, to live carefully for God, Moses was overwhelmed by his need for God's help. So he ends the Psalm with a series of prayers:

First, he prayed for the LORD's return (v. 13). He sensed God's discipline, and he prayed for God's forgiveness and his presence. So I pray for the return of Jesus Christ. As eager as I am to live and to work and to raise my kids and to enjoy my wife, I pray for the return of Christ and the arrival of the new heavens and earth.

Second, he prayed that he would be satisfied by the love of God (v. 14). We are so easily satisfied by such small things--a vacation, a car, a kind word from a friend. But those are trifles compared to the knowledge that there is a God who has loved us profoundly and perfectly in Jesus Christ--and the cross is the evidence.

Third, Moses prayed for joy (vv. 14, 15). He wanted to be marked by gladness and by joy. He did not want his days spent in dismay, but in delight! So should we. Let us pray for the joy of the Lord to overflow from our hearts like a spring that never stops.

Fourth, Moses prayed for God's power to be obvious in his life. "Let your work be shown to your servants" (v. 16). May God's Spirit be so at work in me that I am growing holier each and every day. We need God to be at work in our lives. We should long for the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds (Phil. 4:7). We should see Christ working in our hearts so that we can struggle into godliness (Col. 1:29). We can expect the Lord to lead us into worship so that we can rest in him until that great day comes when we will be presented blameless before him (Jude 24). 

Yes, I love Psalm 90. More than that, I love the God who gave these words to me to feed me the truth I need to live for him.

The Lord's Prayer is Dangerous

At least that's how Paul David Tripp put it in his devotional book, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy. Here is one example:

"Thy kingdom come" is a dangerous prayer, for it means the death of your own sovereignty. It means your life will be shaped by the will of another. It means that you will experience the messiness, discomfort, and difficulty of God's refining grace. It means surrendering the center of your universe to the One who alone deserves to be there. It means loving God above all else and your neighbor as yourself. It means experiencing the freedom that can only be found when God breaks your bondage to you! It means finally living for the one glory that is truly glorious, the glory of God.

May we pray this dangerous prayer--and many more--today.

Elders Retreat & Disciple Making

Last week, the Elders of MVBC spent two days together. It was a good time of fellowship as we prayed for each other and the body, thought through the services of the church, got to know our newest Elders, and discussed the book, The Trellis and the Vine. 

It is easy for church leaders to focus on the management of the church (finances, facilities, events, and administration) to the neglect of the spiritual growth of the members. The former is called trellis work. The latter, vine work. Both are important, but if the vine work is neglected, the church will spiritually dry up an die.

At the heart of vine work is promoting the idea that every member of the church has the responsibility of making disciples. And so we asked ourselves if Christians see it as their responsiblity to make disciples. We brainstormed a number of reasons people don't take it upon themselves to make disciples:

• Some limit disciple-making to Sunday morning. They think disciple-making is simply what happens in Sunday school or the church service.
• Some give so much attention to discipling their own familes (a good thing!) that they neglect discipling their brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Some wonder what disciple-making is. Perhaps church leaders need to do a better job explaining what it means to make disciples. 
• Some have never seen it done and are, therefore, confused as to what it looks like.Perhaps we need to do a better job showing what it looks like to make disciples. 
• Some people are naturally shy and introverted. For them, the thought of getting into someone's life deeply enough to disciple is petrifying.
• Others may not be shy, but they still feel ill-equipped. They've neither been taught nor trained.
• Some don't have a biblical view of God. We worship a God who wants us to grow, and who wants to use us to grow others. The better we understand why God cares so much about disciple-making, the more likely we will be to give our lives to this grand, divinely-given task.

The list goes on and on. But the the point is obvious. Christians should see themselves as disciple-makers. The Elders should communicate this as a biblical priority for our congregation. You should ask yourself the question, "Am I making disciples?"

On Contending and Disciple-Making

If you are growing as a Christian it is probably because God has used another Christian to help you. If you were dropped off on a deserted island with only a Bible to read, you could still grow in godliness. (This assumes you can stay alive. Do you know how to catch fish with a spear, start a fire without matches, and get milk out of coconuts? I'm just asking.) But most of us don't live on a deserted island! We live in communities of faith, local churches, with other believers who love us and want to see us grow in the faith. 

Two passages that are especially helpful in impressing upon us the need to help one another grow in the faith are Jude 3 and Matthew 29:19-20. 

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20).

Jude is writing to Jewish Christians facing an onslaught of false teaching. It appears that these false teachers are misrepresenting the "faith" by promoting the idea that you can say you are a Christian while you live like the world. In verse 4 Jude said these people were perverting "the grace of our God into sensuality." They claimed to believe the gospel but then denied the gospel with their life. It is in this context that Jude exhorts the believers to contend for the faith. He wants them to challenge the faith of these so-called believers. But Jude also wants his Christian readers to represent a true and living faith in the church so that others don't get swept away by this false teaching.

Jesus is giving his disciples a mission. They are to teach his commandments wherever they go so that disciples will be made. As Jesus' word is taught the Spirit will bring new life. Once new life comes, the process of growth begins. Making disciples is what we do when we bring the gospel to bear on the life of an unbeliever and when we seek to help a believer grow in grace.

So what can we learn by looking at these passages side by side?

1. Conversion is just the beginning of the disciple-making process. The new birth is an essential start, but once a believer is born he must be charged to follow Jesus, contend for the faith, and help others do the same. Someone long ago said we should strive to be "soul-winners." The problem is that our work is not done when a soul is won, it is just beginning.
2. Every Christian is commanded to contend for the faith by discipling other believers. The command to make disciples is laid at the feet of every disciple. The command to contend for the faith rests with every Christian. The sooner we see that God has given us extraordinary work to do, the better. It doesn't matter if you are a roofer, a homemaker, a doctor, or an accountant. If you are a Christian you have to ask yourself the questions, "How am I contending for the faith?" "How am I making disciples?" Though contending for the faith will certainly include challenging unbelievers to give up the name, "Christian," contending includes shoring up the faith of believers so they don't fall into heresy. That's why I say each beliver is charged to contend for the faith by discipling others.
3. We are all tempted to let others contend for the faith by discipling other believers. We think our favorite apologist will contend for the faith for us. We think our pastor has been hired to make disciples. And if we are in church leadership, we may farm out disciple-making to a particular pastor or a small-group system. The reality is that it should be normal in every Christian life to contend for the faith by making disciples.
4. Everything we need in order to contend for the faith by discipling others is found in Scipture. Jesus told us how to make disciples. We do it by teaching everything that he commanded. Jude (Jesus' brother) urged us to contend for the faith that has been delivered to us. This "package" is nothing less than the precious gospel that came from Christ, to the apostles, was preserved in Scripture and is now ours to protect and promote. Our job in contending for the faith is applying the Word of Christ to the life of God's people.
5. Hope of success is not rooted in our ingenuity but by God's grace. In other words, we cannot contend for the faith by disicpling others without God being at work. We need his Spirit or nothing good will happen. Yes, we have everything we need in Scripture to make disciples. Yes, our job is simply to apply the Word to the lives of believers. But we have no hope of that Word "sticking" and producing change if the Spirit refuses to blow in their lives. So let's pray that God, through his Spirit, would pour out his grace and mercy and peace and love in the lives of those we want to see transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We don't live the Christian life alone, on deserted islands. We live together. We have been given responsiblity for one another. This responsiblity is obvious in Jude 3 and Matthew 28:19-20, but the truth is that this responsiblity is a theme from beginning to end. It is seen in Adam who was charged to help Eve follow the Lord's commands and it is seen in Revelation where we sing together, encouraging one another to sing to with one voice, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory" (Rev. 19:6-7).

Let's prepare for that great tomorrow as we contend for the faith by discipling one another.