This video, from the folks at St. Helens Bishopgate, asks questions about what Christmas means. If there was ever a time for someone to look into Jesus (like Larry Norman asks), it would be this time of year. Surprisingly, many people don’t think about Jesus at Christmas, but it’s not too late to think about someone and something that’s not tradition or myth, but real history. And this isn’t ancient history, but something that matters for your life right now and every day.
HT: Adrian Warnock
I know that while I’ve already linked to the comprehensive review by Tim Challies of Paul Young’s “The Shack,” I thought this review by Scott Lindsey at The Resurgence was well worth the look and your time.
Lindsey writes that for all that he loves about the book, “I wish The Shack had an Acts 17:11 tone: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than
the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the
Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
With the book’s repeated message that the Bible has been twisted by churches and pastors and
seminaries (and yes, sometimes it has), I wonder whether readers will walk away from The
Shack with a greater love for Scripture and more of a desire to study it, and more of a desire to
get involved in their churches and submit to their leaders, as Hebrews 13 commands us to. Sadly,
I’m afraid some readers will feel justified in further distancing themselves from both the
Scriptures and the church. And some may read meanings into Scripture that the biblical text itself
contradicts.”
Lindsey says in his review that the portrayal of God and the the Trinity, while entertaining, is flawed and even dangerous.
One reviewer said “Systematic theology was never this good.” This concerns me. While to some
readers God will seem bigger, in certain respects God seemed more amusing and friendly, but
also somewhat smaller, more manageable, less threatening–someone not to be feared. If the
picture of God in The Shack is radically different from the impression people get from just
reading the Bible, this raises an obvious question.
It’s just a novel, just fiction, right? Yes, but when it comes with the hearty endorsement of someone like a Eugene Peterson and comes in a more accessible form than nonfiction books that take a more careful, scholarly approach to exploring the Trinity like Communion With The Triune God by John Owen or The Pleasures of God by John Piper, than it can be dangerous. People who are not well-grounded in the Word will accept something like this as truth.
And if that were not enough of a warning, there is a strong endorsement of universalism that comes through in the novel. This is what Lindsey says in his review:
When I read it without any preconceived notions, I noticed things in The Shack that hint at universalism. E.g., in the passage where “Papa,” God the Father, says—speaking of Buddhists and Muslims—that he doesn’t desire to make them “Christian.” What the author means by Christian is obviously critical. Some could argue that “Christian” is a cultural designation, that all Americans are Christian, Saudis are Muslim, etc., and that Christian is not a helpful term.
There is some truth to that, but Acts 11 says the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. That wasn’t cultural; it referred to true followers of Christ. So since this is in the Word of God, I don’t think it’s wise to portray God as disregarding the term Christian to the point that he would say he doesn’t want to make people Christian.
Lindsey does a thorough job of examining the book in his review. You would do well to read it and decide for yourself.
I am not a shopper by nature. I love to buy things. I love to go out, find that thing, purchase it and bring it home. But for some, the joy of finding it and finding it a good price almost surpasses the giving. Those are the shoppers. I am related to people like this and I love them.
But this is something that is such a great deal that both the shopper and the purchaser can be completely happy with it. Imagine getting something that will make you completely happy and satisfied for the rest of your life. For nothing. And, if you tried to buy it, you couldn’t afford it because it costs too much.
Yet this is precisely what God offers to us through Jesus Christ. It’s salvation. What did it cost God? Only the most precious thing to him, his son Jesus, who he loves more than anything. What did it cost Jesus? Everything. His life, his close relationship with his father. What does it cost you and me? Nothing. But it is ours for accepting it and believing Jesus is who he say he is.
In the Bible, in Romans 5:8, it says that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There are no deserving people who receive this gift, only needy people who realize their need. I’m a needy person. And, because I know I got this gift even though I didn’t deserve it, I don’t want to act like I did deserve it. I want you to have this gift, too. I will guarantee you that there is nothing you get this Christmas that will make you as happy or satisfy you as much. Not even close.
Things break, wear out, get old, lose their appeal, become too small, get lost, don’t fit like they used to, get eaten, are spent and need to replaced. The joy is temporary. Salvation in Jesus will save your life (for eternity) and give you a joy that cannot be lost, no matter what happens in this life. I know too many things in this life that make what is supposed to be a happy time an unhappy time for too many people.
This is different. Jesus talked about what he offered and its worth when he said: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) It’s an offer we all have before us. No one is excluded.
What do you say? Do you want to get something really worth having this year?
What would you tell a young man who said he wanted to have sex with his girlfriend? What would you tell the young woman? Pastor John Piper gives four answers (and a fifth, for the girl) in the Ask Pastor John podcast from Desiring God.
The Rev. Mark D. Roberts has been blogging a series about spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ. For those of you unfamiliar with who he is, Roberts is a pastor, author, retreat leader, speaker, and blogger. Since October 2007 he has been the Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence for Laity Lodge, a multifacted ministry in the Hill Country of Texas.
About the series, Roberts writes: Little is more important for the health and growth of the body of Christ than the power of the Holy Spirit manifested in what we call spiritual gifts. Through such bits of grace, the Spirit builds the body of Christ. In fact, it wouldn’t be too far off the mark to say that the Holy Spirit is a bodybuilder. … Like a committed bodybuilder, the Spirit invests years–indeed, millennia–of effort to help the church grow to perfection. Of course ultimate perfection won’t come this side of the eschaton. But, in the meanwhile, the Spirit molds the church, using members of the church–people like you and me–in the process.
HT: Andrew Jackson
While many breathlessly await the ascendancy of Barack Obama, there’s this: the Indelible Grace folks have a collection of songs that focus on Jesus called “Your King Has Come.” While this may look to some like a bunch of songs focused on Christmas, it is actually much more.
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You can now download the sermons of John MacArthur for free. For those who are unsure of who John MacArthur is, this is his bio from the Grace to You Web site:
Widely known for his thorough, candid approach to teaching God’s Word, John MacArthur is a fifth-generation pastor, a popular author and conference speaker, and has served as pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969. John and his wife, Patricia, have four grown children and fourteen grandchildren.
John’s pulpit ministry has been extended around the globe through his media ministry, Grace to You, and its satellite offices in Australia, Canada, Europe, India, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa. In addition to producing daily radio programs for nearly 2,000 English and Spanish radio outlets worldwide, Grace to You distributes books, software, audiotapes, and CDs by John MacArthur. In thirty-six years of ministry, Grace to You has distributed more than thirteen million CDs and audiotapes.
John is the president of The Master’s College and The Master’s Seminary, and he has written hundreds of books and study guides, each one thoroughly biblical and practical. Best-selling titles include The Gospel According to Jesus, The Second Coming, Ashamed of the Gospel, Twelve Ordinary Men, and The MacArthur Study Bible, a 1998 ECPA Gold Medallion recipient.
As a believers in Jesus, we are not immune to suffering in our lives? Because we crave comfort in our lives, this causes confusion? “Why would God do this to me?” is usually the conversation we have in our heads or maybe with others. After all, isn’t God love? What does the Bible, God’s word spoken to us, say about suffering?
Today in my devotions I read Romans 5, where it says:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
This past week, in Sunday school with 6- and 7-year-olds, we were talking about God’s glory and what it means. That is a hard thing to wrap your mind around even as an adult. The way we explained it was like a box of treasure that holds things too wonderful to imagine. So, in thinking about the passage above, the hope of one day seeing God’s glory and what that holds gives us a joyful hope. And that hope is produced through our suffering. In the end, something we dread, suffering as a believer in Christ, produces something that brings us hope and peace in God.
In the first half of 2007, John Piper preached a series of messages at Bethlehem Baptist Church on marriage. They were powerful and inspiring and now have been summarized in a new book called “This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence.”
As usual, Piper does an outstanding job, this time explaining that marriage is much more than what we think is about. From the Desiring God Web site:
Romance, sex, and childbearing are temporary gifts of God. So is marriage. It will not be part of the next life. And it is not guaranteed even for this life. It is one possible path along the narrow way to Paradise. It passes through breathtaking heights and through swamps with choking vapors. With marriage comes bitter providences, and it makes many things sweeter.
There never has been a generation whose view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between the biblical vision of marriage and the common human vision is now, and has always been, gargantuan. Some cultures in history respect the importance and the permanence of marriage more than others. Some, like our own, have such low, casual, take-it-or-leave-it attitudes toward marriage as to make the biblical vision seem ludicrous to most people.
Reflecting on his forty years of matrimony, Piper explains:
Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display.
“If you are married, this is why,” says Piper. “If you hope to be, this should be your dream.”
One of my favorite groups, Indelible Grace, is now on iTunes. I am thrilled to have their music available to even more people. If you haven’t heard of them, check it out.
Rockstanding 
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