Calvin on Loving Our Neighbors

By Chaplain Mike

As I have been thinking and reading about the doctrine of Vocation lately, it struck me that one of the foundations this teaching is built upon is the theology of common grace.

One group of Christians that has thought (and battled!) about common grace are the Calvinists. In fact, debates and conflicts over the doctrine in the 1920’s led to a split in Dutch-American Midwestern Reformed churches, with the Protestant Reformed Church breaking away from the Christian Reformed Church in 1925. Richard J. Mouw wrote an excellent book reflecting on disputes within Calvinism over this doctrine, called, He Shines in All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace.

Luther, who emphasized that good works cannot bring us into saving relationship with God, also stressed that those who have received God’s grace in Christ are called into a life of good works. Luther defines these good works as acts of love and service toward our neighbors. These works are not those done by people with special “religious” vocations, cloistered away from the world, doing their works for God. Rather, they are the practical deeds of kindness that we do for one another in society.Continue reading “Calvin on Loving Our Neighbors”

“For” God or “With” God?

By Chaplain Mike

One of my favorite teachers today is Skye Jethani, senior editor of Leadership Journal and Out of Ur.com. The following video is a good example of why I appreciate his emphasis so much.

In it he describes a turning point in his own thinking and ministry when he realized we may be inoculating people from the Gospel rather than welcoming them into the Gospel by teaching them to live for God rather than with God.

Salvation Stories

What is salvation like?

Not, What is salvation?  What is it like?

Comparisons, though incomplete, are good.  They enable us to comprehend things we’ve never seen or experienced; they enable us to generalize and categorize.  They underlie almost all human understanding of God, whom we can’t experience in the same way we do created things.  Jesus frequently spoke using comparisons; so do modern thinkers.

Recently I’ve seen three common similes concerning salvation.  They all contain aspects of the truth, but inevitably each falls short of the complete truth.  I want to look at them in order to understand better what salvation is like, and to know what we have to do to be saved.

Continue reading “Salvation Stories”

“What if this was what Muslims thought of Christians?”

To say the least, it has been an interesting week for the West and its relationship with Islam.

Friend of iMonk Michael Bell sent this to us the other day. It was written by a friend with a ministry to Muslims in North America.

The Islamic holy days of Ramadan ended Friday, and here is a timely reminder of how we can show Christ’s love to our Muslim neighbors and how that might make a difference. The author’s name has been withheld because of the sensitive nature of their ministry.

“Can I walk with you?” she asked.

This afghan lady had taken a gift basket last Christmas, but never warmed to the gospel.
She never returned our calls.
Never wanted to visit.
Seemed like a dead end.
What could she want now?

As we strolled to school she unexpectedly poured out her heart.
Her family struggles.
Her confusion.
Her pain.

At the end of the stroll she turned and said “Thank you. I knew you would pray for me”

What if this was what Muslims thought of Christians.
What if they didn’t think of Quran burnings or troops invading.
What if this was the message we sent to the Muslim world:

That we are praying for them.
That we love them.
That Jesus loves them and will answer them if they cry out to him to save them.

Today, we are experiencing the climax in a crescendo of religious furor.
The end of Ramadan.
Threats of Quran burnings.
Mosque building plans.
Eid celebrations.

But will the church pray today?
Will you pray for them tomorrow?
Join with us and cry out to God for this lady who believes that we are people of prayer?

Wherever you are.
Whatever you are doing.
Take time to pray.

Reprinted with permission The Jesus Network – www.jesusnetwork.ca

Christ Has No Body but Yours

By Chaplain Mike

At my church today, our pastor began a series on Vocation, a theme we began to explore on Labor Day in our post, “The Masks of God.”

We will continue to explore this vital theological theme in days to come. On this Lord’s Day, here’s a chance to meditate on the subject before the Lord through the meditative music of John Michael Talbot. This is his setting of “St. Theresa’s Prayer.”

St. Theresa of Avila lived in Spain in the days of Martin Luther (1515-1582). She entered a Carmelite convent in 1535 and was beset by illness and poor health most of her life there. She began to receive mystical visions, many of which were disturbing, but was helped to discern God’s voice in them through the guidance of several priests. Her most famous book is an autobiographical account of her spiritual life called the Interior Castle. She founded and later reformed convents of both friars and nuns throughout Spain, often in the face of opposition and persecution. St. Theresa’s primary contribution to mystical theology consists of her intensely personal testimony of her life with God, of which she was given deep insight.

One of her most famous poems (prayers) challenges each Christian and all of us together in the realm of our God-given vocation.

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
Compassion on this world
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good
Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world
Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are His body
Christ has no body now on earth but yours

It’s Party Time!

By Chaplain Mike

Today’s Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

I think Tom Wright perfectly catches the message of this passage in an illustration from his commentary, Luke for Everyone:

We had just moved house, to a dream location: quiet, secluded, at the end of a road near a lake. Everything seemed peaceful. then, on the first Saturday night we were there, all chaos broke loose. Loud music, amplified voices making announcements, cheers, fireworks—all going on well into the small hours, keeping our young children awake. We were appalled. Was this going to happen every weekend? Where was the noise coming from? Why had nobody told us about this before we bought the house?

In the morning, the explanations came. No, it wasn’t a regular occurrence. It would only happen once a year. It was the local Yacht Club’s annual party, celebrating some great event in the sailing calendar. We returned to tranquillity. But it left me thinking about how one person’s celebration can be really annoying for someone else, especially if they don’t understand the reason for the party. (p. 183, emphasis mine)

Jesus’ critics just couldn’t grasp why there was a party going on.Continue reading “It’s Party Time!”

iMonk Classic: My September 11, 2001

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
Originally posted in September, 2001

Of course, it’s far from over, but it has been a week like no other in the memory of anyone who wasn’t old enough to be aware of what happened in November, 1963. Yes, our children will remember this week. They will measure their experience by where they were and what they felt when they first saw the towers fall, and our nation shaken, but still standing.

I want to remember the day. So I will write it for myself.

At 10:15 a.m., I was walking to the post office to get my mail, just two blocks from my home, when two of my co-workers pulled up and began to tell me what happened. I couldn’t picture the reality, the loss, the carnage, but I simply tried to conceptualize what this meant. I would have to tell the students at our school what had occurred. Plans would have to be made for finding out if any of our students, drawn from all over the world, including New York and D.C., had any connections to the WTC or the Pentagon. (As it turned out, we had one student with a relative in the WTC. One of our recent graduates was two corridors down from the Pentagon explosion, and e-mailed us a touching letter later in the week.)

It seems to be my place here at our school to bring the bad news to our students and staff, and on those days I have always felt the presence of the Spirit, giving me the right words and a good heart. This day I felt the same, but I felt something else: the weight of history. Our nation had been attacked in a way reminiscent of Pearl Harbor. As that event galvanized a generation and a country, I had a brooding sense that this tragedy marked the beginning of a certain inevitable sea change: cultural, political, financial, social, spiritual. It was a day that would be driven into our consciousness by the force of the events and the weight of their consequences and implications.Continue reading “iMonk Classic: My September 11, 2001”

Saturday Ramblings 9.11.10

Well, we really know how to attract a crowd here at the iMonastery. All we have to do is list our five favorite anything and the commenters flock like hillbillies to a flea dip. My five favorite movies? (Harvey; Close Encounters Of The Third Kind; Joe Vs. The Volcano; Endless Summer; The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain.) Favorite hamburger joints? (1. In ‘N Out  2. Who cares? It’s not In ‘N Out.) Favorite episode of Gilligan’s Island? (I like the one where the castaways almost get off the island, but then Gilligan does something stupid and they stay stuck. What? Oh.) This week was a musical week as we told you our favorite albums, and we loved hearing about the music you like to listen to. We may try to put together an iMonk concert tour for next summer. In the meantime, put in your earbuds and crank up this week’s Saturday Ramblings.

From the Too Many Matches But Not Enough Brains department: It seems pastors across America are tripping all over themselves to burn copies of the Koran today. It was all started by the pastor in Gainesville, Florida who announced he and his congregation would burn the Islamic holy book on 9-11. Then he said he wouldn’t if the mosque planned to be built near Ground Zero in New York City would be moved. Pastors of other churches in Tennessee and Kansas jumped on board to say they were burning Korans on 9-11 as well. One said it is to save the souls of Muslims. Other reasons given are to teach Americans our constitutional rights and to make us better Christians. We try to stay neutral in most matters here during the Saturday Ramblings, preferring to let you ramblers wrestle things out among yourselves. But in this case, let me just give the official iMonk stance on burning anyone’s scripture. It is wrong on every level imaginable. It does nothing to lift up Jesus or bring glory to our one true God. As St. Paul Harvey would say, these pastors would like me to mention their names…

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 9.11.10”

Why I Am an “Egalitarian”

By Chaplain Mike

Comments are now closed. Thanks to all who participated in an invigorating discussion. To be continued…

One issue that came up in our recent series on The New Calvinism was that of the role of women in the church.

The TNC position (as well as that of others) is generally complementarian, favorable to a more patriarchal view of family, church, and society. Based on structures established in creation, reinforced in a fallen world, and not negated in the New Testament, men are designed to fulfill certain roles, including leadership. Women are designed differently. Though fully equal in personhood, they have been created to fulfill complementary roles that do not include holding positions of authority over men.

Complementarians would thus limit opportunities available to women for Christian vocation, particularly those of ordained, pastoral, or authoritative teaching ministries in the church.

I humbly disagree. In my view, complementarians misread the creation narratives, ignore one of the great consequences of the fall, neglect to appreciate the significant role of women in the Biblical story who subvert man-made authority systems to cooperate with God in bringing to pass his redemptive plan, fail to grasp the significance of Pentecost and the nature of the new creation community in Christ, and misread NT passages that restrict women as universal rules.Continue reading “Why I Am an “Egalitarian””

Keaggy Classic

By Chaplain Mike

Continuing with our music theme, I thought I’d give you some great sounds to kick off your Friday.

In the list of some of my top five albums, I mentioned Phil Keaggy’s “Love Broke Thru” (1976). This was Keaggy’s second solo album. He previously played with the band Glass Harp, who recorded for Decca Records and opened for such bands as The Kinks, Iron Butterfly, Yes, Traffic, Grand Funk Railroad and Chicago in the early 70’s. Glass Harp is considered one of the pioneer “jam bands,” and Keaggy’s improvisational guitar playing was a big part of that. In concert, they would extend some of their songs past 30 minutes.

Keaggy put his faith in Christ in 1970, after his mother was killed in a car accident, and the new direction of his life spiritually eventually led him to leave Glass Harp to pursue a solo career.

Phil Keaggy’s second studio album became a CCM classic, and the song “Love Broke Thru” a signature piece, though it was written by Keith Green, Todd Fishkind, and Randy Stonehill. Green insisted that Keaggy’s version be the first released version, and it has been identified with him ever since.

However, the song from the album that caught everyone’s attention, especially in concert, was the extended jam, “Time.”

When the Lord stops him, that’ll be it,
Too late for apologies.
Too late to forgive your brother,
Too late to get on your knees.
When the Lord stops him, that’ll be it,
Too late to help the needy
And worst of all it’s too late to turn
You must face eternity.
His name is Time, and he’s coming to an end.
His name is Time, where will you be my friend?

Here is a 1980 recording of “Time”—a good example of Keaggy’s amazing gift.