To The Streets

Something has been burning in my belly. I can't shake it. I have a picture in my head of movement of preachers that, I believe, will shake up the culture and change the face of American Christianity in a myriad of good ways. 

What if evangelicals hit America with 200, or 500, or 1,000 theologically strong, gospel-centered pastors who start preaching in open-air and public places in their cities, beyond their Sunday morning worship services, at least once a week for the rest of 2011? What would happen? What if even more did it, or what if it was done more often (Whitefield preached an average of 20 times a week for 34 years)? 

In my opinion and in no particular order, here are some things that will probably happen if a movement of solid preachers would take to the open-air in America...

1. The Gospel would spread, maybe in an unprecedented way, across our land. It would be heard by people who would never set foot in our churches. It would spread in other ways explained below.

2. Our pastors and our people would be forced to learn to explain the Gospel simply, answer objections, etc. This would spark more training in theology, evangelism, apologetics, etc, but this time with a sense of need rather than something we too often learn for our "personal growth" only.

3. A *buzz* would grow among our neighbors. Suddenly it would be hard to miss seeing and/or hearing the Gospel where we live and in the places we go. People will stumble across it sooner or later, and probably more than once, and it will shake people up. Instead of being the odd guy down at the outdoor mall, it will be respected, calm, thoughtful, theological, loving people doing it. It will open a conversation as to "why" this is suddenly everywhere.

4. Persecution of one form or another (or all forms) would naturally increase. We are mostly left alone in our buildings, but when we preach with biblical power in the open-air the Devil will not be pleased.

5. The stereotype would change of open-air preaching and open-air preachers as the "turn or burn" and "sandwich board" folks would be drowned out by good, biblical, evangelistic preaching. It would come across as more normal because good preachers are doing it, yet it would still shake things up.

6. The media would take notice and start asking us what's going on, and we'd get free airtime to talk about Jesus. It would spark a growing public conversation about things on our agenda instead of merely getting asked to chime in when we fit in with the world's agenda. 

7. Dozens, hundreds of doors for personal evangelism would open up in every place public preaching is done because some of our people will attend and strike up conversations with those who stop to listen. In other words, we create a clear pathway for immediate personal evangelism. The preachers cast nets to draw them in, our people cast hooks, and together we work out our different roles in evangelism.

8. We would begin to pray with a new fervency, boldness, and deep need like in the end of Acts 4.. We would find ourselves relying on God in ways we've ignored because we take few risks. Our prayer meetings would, without question, see less "pray for aunt Sally's leg" and see more prayer for salvation, for strength, for the words to speak, for courage and boldness, for the many different issues that will result from the preaching, and so on.

9. Our churches would immediately start to see more visitors. The seeker kind. The skeptic kind. The curious kind. This would come because of the people who want to hear more from the preacher and the people who have connected personally with Christians during public preaching. They will come because this is the preacher who doesn't play well with others, and this time not because they spew judgments but because they won't stay away in their safe, warm buildings.

10. Christians will be separated from "Christians." Dead churches and denominations, the ones that don't have nor preach the Gospel, will start to look clearly different from evangelical ones. Our preaching will force the issue because people of various "Christian" groups will hear and react differently. Christians without Christ will be challenged to leave their Gospel-less churches and denominations. It will create a challenge to the peaceful, live-and-let-live relationship happening among all groups called "Christian" in our cities and it will reopen a necessary discussion on issues of Gospel, truth, theology, heresy, etc... and all in a much more public way.

I believe that if in the next couple of months hundreds of preachers in America would embrace this, and public preaching started happening all over the place, especially with the spring and summer months coming as the perfect opportunity, that we would see amazing things happen by the hand of our good and gracious God. I believe we would see mighty works by the Holy Spirit. I believe it would be amazing, but we would have to do it in order to see it.

Article found on:http://www.thegospelcoalition.org 

Pearl of Greatest Price

Matthew 13 includes my favorite section in the Bible as well as the main reason why Julia and I desire to be missionaries.


There Jesus tells his disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." I love this picture. Imagine walking in a field and stumbling upon a treasure that is more valuable than anything else you could work for or find in this life. It is more valuable than all you have now or will ever have in the future. You look around and notice that no one else realizes the treasure is here, so you cover it up quickly and walk away, pretending you haven’t seen anything. You go into town and begin to sell off all your possessions to have enough money to buy that field. The world thinks you’re crazy. “What are you thinking?” your friends and family ask you. You tell them, “I’m buying that field over there.” They look at you in disbelief. “That’s a ridiculous investment,” they say. “Why are you giving away everything you have?” You respond, “I have a hunch,” and you smile to yourself as you walk away. You smile because you know. You know that in the end you are not really giving away anything at all. Instead you are gaining. Yes, you are abandoning everything you have, but you are also gaining more than you could have in any other way. So with joy—with joy!—you sell it all, you abandon it all. Why? Because you have found something worth losing everything else for. This is the picture of Jesus in the gospel. He is something—someone—worth losing everything for. And if we walk away from the Jesus of the gospel, we walk away from eternal riches. The cost of nondiscipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship. For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing him.

H2O

Out of the 6.8 billion people on the planet today, approximately 1 billion of them do not have access to clean, safe drinking water. Lack of access to such water is the primary cause behind illnesses, diseases, and death in third-world countries. One child dies from contaminated water every 15 seconds, i.e., in about the time it has taken you to read this paragraph.

India is home to over 130 million of these people who do not currently have access to clean, safe drinking water. For this reason, I am using my blog for Tuesday, March 22, 2011 in order to raise support for The Adventure Project. The Adventure Project is a non-profit organization which is attempting to raise $10,000 dollars in a single day in order to purchase water to help 300 people every month. Any amount which you can donate would be a huge help and would go far in changing the lives of individuals, villages, communities and the entire country of India. Follow this link in order to learn more information and donate... www.TheAdventureProject.causevox.com. 

Homosexual Marriage

The Government of the United States of America exists to punish what is evil, protect what is good, and look out for the welfare of the American people.

Homosexuals have exactly the same right to marry as anyone else. However, while every individual person is free to get married, no person, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has ever had a legal right to marry simply any willing partner. Every person, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is subject to legal restrictions as to whom they may marry. There is no discrimination here, nor does such a policy deny anyone the "equl protection of the laws" (as guaranteed by the Constitution), since these restrictions apply equally to every individual.

Furthermore, marriage is not a creation of the law. Marriage is a fundamental human institution that predates the law and the Constitution. At its heart, it is an anthropological and sociological reality, not a legal one. Laws relating to marriage merely recognize and regulate an institution that already exists. Marriage scholar Maggie Gallagher says that "marriage across societies is public sexual union that creates kinship obligations and sharing of resources between men, women, and the children their sexual union may produce." Marriage takes place when there is a possibility for procreation. Even in situations where couples are told they will be unable to have children, there is still possibility for procreation and therefore the union is a marriage. Homosexual unions are not marriages because there is not even the slightest chance that children will result from sexual intercourse.

Homosexual marriage will also harm society and lead to a breakdown of the family unit. Numerous studies have shown that children in households with a mom and a dad will be less likely to use drugs as a teenager, and less likely to be involved in crime. Marriage existing between a man and a woman is in the best interest of children as well as the best interest of society.

The Government exists to punish what is eveil, protect what is good, and lookout for the welfare of the American people, therefore, Government should conintue to promote a traditional view of marriage.

T.U.L.I.P.

    What does Calvinism teach? Calvinism can be divided up into hundreds of points. There are a variety of propositions and ideas which are woven into the fabric of Calvinism. But if we were to concisely describe the simplistic form of Calvinism's teaching on salvation (for instance), we would look at the acronym T.U.L.I.P.: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints.  This is a helpful acronym to describe salvation in terms of God's sovereignty (as the Bible does!).
    The first doctrine of grace is Total Depravity.  Total depravity keeps us humble. It states that man is totally and completely a sinner; heart, soul, mind and body, who can do no righteous deed. The image of God is so marred and twisted by the fall of Adam that every person who is conceived is at that point at enmity with God. They are enemies of God, they hate God, and they would even kill God if he showed up in their living room. As a matter of fact, when the Lord Jesus Christ came down to earth, they killed him. Total Depravity is proven by both the Old and New Testaments: Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-18. After one understands that he is a sinner who cannot by his own power come to faith, and that he has lost everything which would enable him to come to Christ because of the Fall and of his sin, then he comes to see Unconditional Election (Second doctrine). Man, being sinful cannot choose to follow God because he hates God. So God must remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. God chooses man. He unconditionally, not based upon anything a man can do which is good or evil, elects people to everlasting life. Its God’s job to save, and our job to praise Him for saving us. The Scriptures shows this doctrine emphatically: Malachi 1:2; Romans 8:29; Romans 9:1ff; Ephesians 1:3ff.
    How does God save us? Yes, He elects us, but what is the basis for our election? It is not our work, but Christ’s work. God sends His Son to die for everyone whom He elects. The Son pays the price, and the debt is removed. When Jesus dies on the cross He secures salvation for everyone He dies for. And the work of Christ’s death and resurrection is transferred at that time to the account of all those who will be saved through Him. Jesus comes to die for God’s chosen people, His treasured possession. In this way the atonement is limited in scope but not in power (Third Doctrine).   The Scriptures teach us this doctrine as well; Isaiah 53:1ff; Matthew 1:21; John 10:1ff; Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:25.
    The fourth doctrine of grace, or Calvinistic doctrine, is Irresistible Grace. If Jesus dies for the elect, and God unconditionally elects all those depraved people whom He calls His own, the regenerating power of the Spirit of God will not fail. Regeneration is where the Spirit changes the old heart of stone to a beating heart of flesh. And He does this prior to our faith. We believe on Christ after our sinful depraved souls are given the new capability to believe through the renewing power of God’s Spirit. His grace is then called irresistible, not because we believe against our will kicking and screaming, but our hearts are inclined to believe, so we love to believe and we go to Christ willingly. The Scriptures show us this in Psalms 51:10; 110:3; Jer. 31:33ff; John 3:2ff; Romans 2:29; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 1:29; and 2:13.
    The last main point of God’s grace seen so vividly in the doctrines of Calvinism is Perseverance of the Saints. All who are redeemed from their depraved states, all whom Christ came to ransom from death and pay the price to redeem from God’s wrath, all whom the Spirit irresistible touches with His grace, and all those who are unconditionally elected to eternal life will persevere to the end. They will sin, yes. But they will never fall away from grace. This does not give us a license to sin, for those who are truly changed are changed and have a new desire and new nature which releases them from the that the old depraved nature had on them. These saints persevere because God continually upholds them through the grace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. They are God’s temples, His residing place. God dwells in the spirit of a man’s renewed heart. This, in and of itself, is an amazing thing!! And does the Scripture show us this doctrine? More than we could imagine: Phil. 1:6; Romans 8:30; John 10:28-29; John 17:2, 6, 9, 24; 1 Thess. 5:23.
  

Tar Heels

The year was 1864, Robert E. Lee's army was being attacked on all sides. After one particularly heinous battle Robert E. Lee noticed that the section of his army which remained steadfast even in the thick of battle was the boys from North Carolina. Robert E. Lee commented that the boys from North Carolina held their ground like their heels were stuck to the ground with tar, hence the name tar heels. Since that day the nickname has stuck and individuals from North Carolina have gone by the nickname of tar heels. Tar Heels is not only a nickname for individuals in North Carolina or even the name of the greatest team in college basketball but rather it is a way of life which should characterize every Christian in the 21st century. Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground even in the midst of moral decline in our society.
For example,

• The Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God, Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground on this issue.
• Marriage is between a man and a woman, no matter how hard the government or culture attempts to re-define marriage, Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground on this issue.
• A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to get to Heaven, Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground on this issue.
• Life begins at conception and is valuable all the way until an individuals takes their last breath, abortion and/or euthanasia is not an option. Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground on this issue.
• Hell is a literal, eternal place filled with horrific pain, and Heaven is a literal, eternal place filled with unending joy. Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground on this issue.
• Evolution is a fairy tale for grown ups, Christians must have tar heels and stand their ground on this issue.

Tar Heels is not only a nickname for individuals in North Carolina or even the name of the greatest college basketball team but rather it is a way of life which should characterize every Christian in the 21st century.