Marriage Proverbs for Clay and Taylor

I’ve been studying Proverbs with my Advanced Bible class. I thought I’d write a few for my newlywed son and his wife, and invite the IM audience to add their own. (Keep them short.)

“Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church” is the most humbling word that God will ever speak to you.

Spiritual leadership is easy to talk about and almost impossible to find. In the end,it amounts to being like Jesus.

Don’t bring into marriage the same idea of marriage you had when you were single. Learn about marriage from those who have lived it and the One who designed it.

At all cost, avoid credit cards. The seduction of living above your means is incredibly easy, and must be fought with an all or nothing attitude.Continue reading “Marriage Proverbs for Clay and Taylor”

Searching For A Community of Strugglers

Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. (Paul the Apostle, Letter to the Galatians, 4:19, NLT)

This line from Paul has stayed with me for two days. It comes from a section of the Galatian letter when Paul has shifted from teaching to recounting his personal relationship with the Galatians and the love he has for them. The metaphors here are especially insightful.

Paul isn’t in labor pains for the Galatians to come to faith as new believers. That’s already a reality. No, Paul is in “labor” as the Galatians are struggling in their journey toward Christ being “fully formed” in their lives. In other words, Paul is watching the struggle of real disciples, in the growth process, and his heart is the heart of a mother in labor and a father who longs to see a healthy child.

The Galatians aren’t the Corinthians, but they are in a mess. Flatterers have taken them down the road of a false Gospel. What was a solid church plant is at real risk, but Paul is not just concerned about doctrinal correctness. He is concerned over what will be the result of moving away from Jesus and the work of the Spirit, instead encouraging a dependence on flesh and the works righteousness of the old covenant. He sees dark results ahead if the Galatians lose this battle.Continue reading “Searching For A Community of Strugglers”

Riffs: 05:11:09: Comrade on Cross, McKnight on the Kingdom Gospel, 9Marks on Rebaptisms in the SBC

UPDATE: Bryan Cross responds to Comrade here. Thanks Bryan.

Three great posts today. I’m too drained to riff much on either one, but both are very much worth your time and discussion.

First, Fearsome Comrade at The Boar’s Head Tavern, a Lutheran blogger of some note who has written for this site in the past, has taken up my challenge to engage the apologetic method of Catholic apologist Bryan Cross. I’ve been urging the Comrade to do this for some time and he’s been too busy with political blogging to take the challenge, but he finally did so. Cross is an RC apologist with a different voice than the usual ex-Protestant ranting. But his apologetic method is the kind of Catholic presuppositionalism that takes in so many Protestants wandering in the evangelical wilderness.

Cross blogs here at Principium Unitatis.

Read: An Analysis of the Catholic Apologetics of Bryan Cross.

Then Scot Mcknight says what more and more of us need to say: the Gospel that dominates evangelicalism is right. It’s just not right enough. It’s not the Bible’s story.

Provocative and on target, as Scot increasingly is these days. We have a Gospel that overlooks, even deconstructs community and leaves many of us who care about the Gospel looking for anyplace that seems concerned to embody it.

Read: The KingdomGospel 1.

Finally, the 9Marks blog discusses the statistic that spells “Coming Collapse” for many SBC churches: 60% of adult baptisms are rebaptisms. We had a major discussion on that subject here at IM. Southern Baptists and their numbers are a big joke to me. I’m completely cynical on anything any church claims regarding baptism numbers.

Thanks to those who helped me restore the post.

Open Mic At The IM Cafe: Horrible, Terrible Children in Church

A friend and I were swapping stories about the amazing, crazy, hilarious, rude, embarrassing, you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up bad behavior of some children in church. Also, we tossed in a few stories about the adults who bring them and often make things much worse.

We thought you might have some stories to share. I prefer bad behavior stories that make the entire audience wince, but will take whatever you have.

No cute stories please. I want the dark side. This is oral history. Call the Smithsonian.

You Catholics should win this thread easily. With no nurseries, you already have the table set for excitement.

Internet Monk Radio Podcast #139

podcast_logo.gifThis week: Is Discipleship a Program or a Process? Real Man Rhetoric Gets Real Annoying. Riding too far on the Mother’s Day bandwagon.

Support the IM sponsors: New Reformation Press. New products available: New music and DVDs. Emmaus Retreat Center. A great place for your next group or individual retreat. The Devotional Christian. All the best online devotional resources in one place.

A Case for Retro Christianity.
Truth for Life

Intro music by Daniel Whittington. Exit Music by Randy Stonehill. Bumpers by Clay Spencer.

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Does the Gospel Change The Way You Look At The People The Culture War Tells You To Fear and Dislike?

eye2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.* The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling* the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The Bible says the love of Christ controls us, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.Continue reading “Does the Gospel Change The Way You Look At The People The Culture War Tells You To Fear and Dislike?”

iMonk 101: The Sin We Love To Hate

iMonk 101 posts are replays of previous Internet Monk posts.

This piece comes from February of ’07 and was written in response to comments by then NBA player Tim Hardaway about gays. I’ve never republished it. Hardaway apologized for his comments, but Jewish pundit Michael Medved wrote a column that gave the Jesus-subtracted culture war view of the subject. I think it will keep the IM audience involved in the Andrew Marin/Love is an Orientation discussion.

love-the-heterosexual-hate-their-sin.gifUPDATE: Michael Medved regularly reminds me of the difference Jesus makes in how I look at a cultural issue and how a Jewish conservative looks at the same issue. Law by Moses. Grace and Truth by Jesus.

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people,” he said. “I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.” -Former NBA player Tim Hardaway.

As soon as I read the comments of former NBA player Tim Hardaway, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I heard a Christian come as close as possible to saying the exact same sentiment.

True to my intuition, it happened within a week. “Let’s not join the secular media in condemning Hardaway for not being politically correct, because as Christians, we hate that sin, too…..”Continue reading “iMonk 101: The Sin We Love To Hate”

Riffs x2: 05:06:09 Who Will Dominate the Culture? and What’s The Evangelism Problem?

NOTE: Sorry to have to turn moderation on folks, but this thread is too risky.

UPDATE: Ed Stetzer sends this along: Todd Johnson of the World Christian Database provided the following response: “This video seems to be making its rounds. It is full of misinformation and misinterpretation of data. We provide more reasonable current figures and projections of Europe’s Muslims in both the World Christian Database and World Religion Database. Jenkin’s book God’s Continent critiques the position that Europe is becoming Muslim. That book is probably the best single counter to this video.”

A few comments on two somewhat related posts about the state of things evangelical as we ponder the Coming Evangelical Collapse.

Someone sent me this Youtube video about the likelihood of Christians becoming minorities in countries dominated by a growing Muslim population.

The implications for Christians: evangelize Muslims and have babies.

Christians- and Jews- have been minorities for much of their history. The New Testament would be a completely different book if it were written to a majority Christian culture.Continue reading “Riffs x2: 05:06:09 Who Will Dominate the Culture? and What’s The Evangelism Problem?”

Michael Bell: Looking at the Pew Forum’s “Changes in Religious Affiliation” Data

mikeprofileInternet Monk First Officer Michael Bell returns with a look at some of the recent Pew Forum data on changes in American religious affiliation.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
– Bob Dylan 1963

For years I have heard about the many changes that have been taking place within the Christian World. Churches and denominations growing, churches and denominations shrinking. We have had a pretty good idea of who has been growing, and who has been shrinking, but with birth rates, death rates and other factors, it has been pretty hard to pin down the source of the growth and decline. Have Evangelicals been growing? If so, has the growth come from the non religious, Catholics, Mainline Protestants, or other religions? What sort of outflows have they experienced that have offset the inputs? Is the back door larger or smaller than the front door? How are the Catholics, the Mainline Protestants, the non religious and others doing?

Well now we know. Continue reading “Michael Bell: Looking at the Pew Forum’s “Changes in Religious Affiliation” Data”

Open Mic At The iMonk Cafe: Soli Deo Gloria?

It appears to me that the most misunderstood of the solas is “sola deo Gloria.” I’m especially interested in the Catholic take that God “shares” his glory with the saints.

Do reformation Christians really believe that “glory” belongs to God alone? Or do we, like our Catholic friends, believe that God shares his glory with those who are “glorified?” What is the relationship between the “sola” glory of God and a “glorious” anything else? (Like the universe, for example?)

Question: What does it mean to say “Glory to God alone?” And how do we practice it?