Justinroy

If the rapid expansion of the Church is, in fact, a move of God, our new brothers and sisters will hunger and thirst for understanding.

On average, there are 28 million new Christians each year outside of the United States, and if you didn’t already know, the shape of World Christianity is changing. In fact, most argue that it has already changed.  The West is no longer the epicenter of the Church, and along with this global shift of Christianity, new challenges to the faith arise. The lack of sound theology and biblical teaching is a major problem. New global Christians are left without a biblical framework in which to live and learn the Christian faith. Even though I am overwhelmed with the success of evangelism, we now must exhort and equip our foreign family so that their worship might be true and their doctrines life-sustaining.

This is where Desiring God comes in. Desiring God Ministries have an international outreach program that is committed to feed the theologically starving Church.

International Outreach is working to relieve this theological famine. We are building a network of collaborators who provide biblical resources, in appropriate languages and formats, to equip church and missions leaders around the world. Will you join us in strengthening the global church for the cause of spreading the Gospel to all nations?

Some of their strategies are to:

Cultivate Relationships with those working in the cause of missions and church-planting.

Develop Resources in formats and languages to help equip those in our network.

Build Support through prayer and financial assistance from friends passionate about relieving this famine.

Mobilize Networks to distribute resources through the channels of our partners.

International Outreach is on the frontline of God’s mission by supplying theological education for pastors throughout the world. Jon Bloom, executive director of Desiring God, issued a statement today outlining their current strategy and goals for the year. He promises we will hear more as the year progresses, but he also asks for financial support.

I believe that the global shift of Christianity is God’s work, and He has providentially equipped the West to fund it.

Read Jon’s article here

Give here

Far too often I’m guilty of only reading popular authors. So I’m trying to establish some consistency in reading puritan works, hopping to fall in love with a few of them. That’s why I picked up “the doctrine of justification” by John Owen.  It’s a terrifying book. It frightens me a little. The language and spelling are not contemporary; long and complex sentences subdue the inattentive reader; but the treasure, the painstaking clarity of careful exposition with a mind and heart devoted to the person of Jesus, makes this book a necessary read for anyone studying the doctrine of justification.  Here are a two quotes.

for the doctrine of justification is directive of christian practice, and in no other evangelical truth is the whole of our obedience more concerned; for the foundation, reasons, and motives, of all our duty towards God, are contained therein.

—————

Whether it be anything in ourselves, as our faith and repentance, the renovation of our natures, inheret habits of grace, and actual of righteousness, which we have done, or may do; or whether it be the obedience, righteousness, satisfaction and merit of the Son of God, our mediator and surety of the covenant, imputed to us. One of these it must be, namely something that is our own, which, whatever may be the influence of the grace of God in it, or causality of it, because wroght in and by us, is inherently our own in a proper sense; or something, which being not our own, not inherent in us, not wrought by us, is yet imputed unto us, for the pardon of our sins, and the acceptation of our persons as righteousness; or the making of us righteous in the sight of God.

I’m just asking, does the format on sunday mornings matter, or is it a non-issue?

If we “break” the exposition into 3 parts, with singing in between, does it help or hurt the teaching of the word?

Does it help people pay attention, or is it a better way to “entertain” the audience?

What is the goal of the format? (promote worship/promote exposition /Does exposition lead to worship?)

What would induce a change? (i.e. genuine care, kicks and giggles, staying true to God’s word, relevance)

Just some questions to think about.

If you don’t have time to read finally alive, click the above link and download Piper’s sermons on the new birth. They’re very helpful. Click the picture above to download all the sermons. It’s roughly 250 megabytes

I’m teaching a Bible study on John. Here’s the poster I made for it.

I hope to eventually blog some of my notes on John and share some insights.

I also think that the font I used for John 1:14 looks like the font on the front of Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Sincere gospel confusion is a term I have coined for sincere Christians who teach something other than gospel.  The “sincere” might lead you to believe that I am being gentle, or that I don’t understand the severity of the issue.  Maybe I’m guilty of that at times, but I  understand the weightiness of mixing the gospel with worldly wisdom.

Usually gospel confusion is found in the form of behavior modification.  A sincere gospel confuser will teach and preach that “you need to change your attitude” or “try harder” or “be accepting”.  Preachers slip into behavior modification  when they want to start teaching something “relevant”, something that the people can “take home.”

Having a  new attitude and being a better person are not bad things to do,  they’re just not the gospel; it may be the result of the gospel, hence the futility in preaching those things to people who don’t know the gospel.  Preachers miss the concept that “trying harder”  or “attitude adjustment” don’t come from within ourselves, they come from the power of the gospel.  So, it does zero good to preach “try harder”, without allowing the gospel to change a persons heart. We can scold people when they do wrong. We can reward people when they do good, but this is nothing more than Pavlov’s dog , no heart change.

Behavior modification can never change a persons heart. Our hearts are wicked and bent  in constant rebellion.

What’s entertaining, but ultimately sad, is when we teach behavior modification along with the gospel. Here are a few equations for you:

Gospel + Behavior Modification = nongospel

Gospel + Anything = nongospel

We must be  careful that we are only preaching the gospel of God and nothing else.

Night Photography is one of my favorite things. I love the hassle of positioning the tripod just right. The anticipation, waiting for the shutter to snap, is like the cream in the middle of an Oreo- it’s delicious, it’s awkward and you don’t experience it  much. The shutter usually  opens for a 100th of a second, but with night photography, you can leave it open as long as you want. Night photography is usually a hit or miss; it’s trial and error.  All in all, we got some pretty good shots, however, the most memorable part of the trip wasn’t the pictures we took, but the ones we were afraid to take.

While we were driving/walking around downtown Cincinnati at 3 am, we met, or at least saw, many interesting people. They were the poorest of the poor. The prostitutes and homeless. Here I am walking around with enough camera equipment to probably pay their rent for a few months.  I’m actually ashamed that I didn’t help anyone. I was afraid.

Jesus came for the poor and the broken. My heart was burdened for them, but not broken. I want my heart to break for the weak and the poor. We saw a 23 year old girl selling herself on the street. Should I have purchased her for the night and taken her for coffee? Do I consider my own safety? Would she even listen to me?

Jesus came for those in need. He was a friend of sinners. He ate with the wretched. He is their savior.

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis have written an extraordinary book on “church” called Total Church.  I’m actually just starting it, but I’m excited about where it’s going.   Chester and Timmis are co-founders of the Crowded House in Sheffield UK.

Being involved an the stereotypical church in rural America, I’m acquainted with the antitheses of what Chester and Timmis are purposing, “A gospel community intentionally living gospel”.  Ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.

I’ll have a review of the book up in a few days, but i just wanted to write a little bit today.

Today, I’m also reading  The Baptist Faith and Message.  It’s an eloquent document that outlines what we as Baptist believe.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

Do Baptists still believe this ?

Much has changed since I posted last.

I’ve come to realize that things don’t always go the way I plan.  I had planned to be far  from Claxton by the time I was 23.  I’m not sure what I thought I’d be doing, but I didn’t think it would be here. The tendency in young, optimistic  adults  to move away and become “someone“and do “something” is inspiring, but it’s not always biblical.  God has commanded us to be a vessel for him, not for ourselves. I had this prideful  attitude toward ministry and I’m sure it still lingers in my heart.

I’m still not sure where God is taking me.  But, for this semester, I will be in Claxton, Ga working and living with the people I love the most.  I will be continuing my Seminary education online, for now.

It’s inauguration day! (well, I think it’s actually the day after now).

The sky is changing colors. The trees are dead, but new life is on the way. This is my life right now.

Good luck Obama.