The Mission

I'm enjoying a little time away with the fam at the beach...been invited to preach at a missions conference on Sunday morning. Instead of driving down Saturday, and then back on Sunday, we decided to make a small vacation out of it. Today I swam in the ocean for the first time in a long, long time, and played on the beach with the kids. Now I'm sitting in the condo watching my kids watch a Hannah Montana movie.

Anyway, we attended the meet and greet at the church, and I got to meet some great people who are serving around the world. It is always an honor to meet such people, and to be reminded that God is making a name for Himself in the hard places of the world.

In the process of putting together the message, I ran across some disturbing statistics. Last year $12 billion was put into the offering plates of SBC churches. 12 BILLION! Of that money given, only $0.02 of every dollar goes overseas to reach people with the Gospel. The rest of it, $0.98 of every $1 is spent on ourselves in America.

60% of the world's population is under 24 years old. That would be about a little more that 3.5 billion people, if there are 6 billion on the planet. Half of those, roughly 1.8 billion, live within a 3 hour flight of Singapore.

There are close to 100 people ready to go to the foreign field as career missionaries, but the International Mission Board doesn't have the funds to send them. Nearly 350 are ready to go for a short-term assignment, but again, there isn't any money.

SBC churches baptized less people in 2007 than they did in 1950.

57.6% of the world's population is considered "unreached" by the IMB.

There are over 3,000 SBC churches in North Carolina, which has a population of 9.2 million. I've been told there are 450 in NYC, which a population of 20 million.

What does all this mean? That we've got a lot of re-thinking to do concerning why we exist. We've got to re-evaluate how we understand the mission, and what that means is that we've got to take a hard look at our giving and going. Two pennies out of every dollar. What are we thinking?

I’ve started reading through Your Jesus is Too Safe, which is basically an up-to-date Christology. The author uses a lot of humor, and when telling the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22) he writes:

What happened next? Abraham is standing with his knife in the air, poised to strike, and God intervened. He told Abraham to stop. And he told him, “You’ve proven you trust me, because you haven’t withheld your only son from me.” He directed Abraham to a ram trapped in the thistles. Isaac had probably never been happier to see a ram in all his life. I bet he kissed that ram on the lips. Which, for the ram, had to have been the strangest thing ever to happen to him. And as they were slitting his throat a few minutes later, I bet he looked at Isaac and was like, “What the heck?"

I was sitting on the couch and laughed out loud when I read that! But, lest you think this book is too soft or irreverent, I read this at the end of the chapter:

I’ll go on record here and now: I wouldn’t do that. I want to love Jesus more than I love my family, because that’s something Jesus calls us to do, but I’ll say that if he ever shows up and says, “Kill your kid,” I’m not doing it… But of course I don’t have to. The truth of the matter is that the sacrifice has already been made.

Amen to that!

GCW 10.18.09

GCW stands for "gospel centered worship" and is my attempt on Fridays to remind myself of the good news in a way that prepares my heart for Sunday It is my way of intentionally getting the Gospel on my mind through the weekend so that when I gather with believers for worship on Sunday, my heart is ready to corporately rejoice in the Gospel. So, this weekend I'm thinking about what my friend and fellow pastor JD Greear said on his blog about his fundamental beliefs about the Gospel. I agree, and will be meditating on these truths all weekend.

1. Gospel is spelled "d-o-n-e," not "d-o". The word "Gospel" implies an event that has already been done, not something we must go and do. The Gospel is not, then, primarily about what we are to go and do for God, but about what God has done for us. The Gospel is good news, not good advice.

2. The core message of that good news is that God saves sinners. From start to finish, it is all God's work, not ours.

3. Christ saved us by substituting for us. He lived the life we were supposed to have lived, and died the death we were condemned to die. Whatever "metaphor" you choose for salvation--justification, redemption, cleansing, defeat of the evil powers--substitution is the core of it. For example, Christ's blood cleanses us... but how? Because He substituted for us and absorbed the curse, corruption and condemnation for sin.

4. "The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time."

Confession

Last Sunday night I was out-of-town and attended a small worship service as part of the Fall Trustee meeting at Southeastern Seminary. I got there late...I thought it started at 7:30pm when it actually started at 7:00pm. But I got there just in time for the music. And this is where my confession comes in.

I love music, and I like singing in church. But I found myself being more in the flesh than in the Spirit as I stood in that chapel with the saints singing to our God. The reason? We sang the first and last verses of 8 hymns in a row, with a little intro played on the piano before every hymn. We sang hymns number 514, 516, 524, 533, 537, 540, 544, and 547. We stood in that chapel and sang without stopping for a long time.

Now, I didn't mind it. It took me back to days long gone when I used to sit in a Sunday night service and the music director would call out for requests, and someone would yell out one they wanted to sing, and we would sing it. We would sit there for a good 15 minutes singing those hymns, and it seemed that there was always some smarty pants who asked for the Star Spangled Banner.

Anyway, it wasn't singing all those hymns that messed me up. It was looking around the room at who was singing. Most were seasoned saints, who have walked with the Lord a long, long time. And there was such joy in their voices as they sang. That was encouraging to me. It was the strength of their legs that messed me up.

I can't tell you the number of times that I've had seasoned saints let me know that they have a problem with all the standing up we do during worship through the years. I guess it is hard to stand up and sing 3 songs that you don't know that well, that have drums and guitars, and that seem to be too repetitive. The legs just can't handle it. And over the years they've let me know it.

But Sunday night there was youthful strength in everybody's legs...except mine. And instead of thinking about marching to Zion, or the roll being called up yonder, or what it's going to be like when we all get to heaven, I was letting the flesh win the battle. So, there it is...my confession.

SEBTS

It is a great privilege for me to serve as a trustee at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am in my fourth year, and it is so encouraging to attend the meetings to see how this seminary functions, to hear the vision and heart of the administration, and to meet both faculty and student body that are so committed to the gospel.

I always try to break away from the schedule in order to go to the bookstore, where I usually find a few books to buy. This trip has been no exception. Here are the books I got, and that I'm looking forward to reading in the next couple of months:

Your Jesus is Too Safe, Jared Wilson. The premise of this book is that we need to cut through the glossy, modern perceptions of Jesus to rediscover the original and raw person who confronted the religious status quo and changed the world. I bought it because I liked the title...we'll see.

Why Johnny Can't Preach, T. David Gordon. This is a short read (99 pages) that focuses on the impact of the media on messengers of the gospel. I've already read the first chapter, and have figured out that this guy wouldn't like my preaching. But I'm going to finish it, and hopefully learn a lot.

The Gospel-Driven Life, Michael Horton. The author states that the book is aimed at people who want to see their own lives and their churches become more gospel centered. I always try to regularly read books that confront me with the gospel, so I'm looking forward to digging into to this one soon.

The Book of Ruth, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Robert L. Hubbard. Since I just started preaching through Ruth I thought I'd add this book to my list of resources I'm working through.

In the Why Johnny Can't Preach book, the author mentions the statistic that the average American adult reads less that nine books a year. Our culture is becoming aliterate, which means we know how to read, but we don't read. If you're reading this, let me challenge you to find a way to make time for reading. Good reading. Gospel reading. Challenging reading.

I love the comedy bit by Jim Gaffigan where he mentions how he hates those people who say, "The book was much better than the movie." His response: "the thing I liked about the movie was no reading, and it was over it two hours. I went home and took a nap." That's funny, but you really need to know that the book is better than the movie! So read!

Two Months

I realized today that is has been two months since I thought about this blog. It seems that I have some sort of avoidance issues with this thing. I have friends that update theirs everyday. And they always seem to have something interesting to say. I guess I'm just not wired that way. Or maybe I am but I'm too lazy.

I think facebook has really taken the place of blogs. It is much easier to post short little status updates, add photos, and check up on everybody from one page. Plus you get the extra bonus of feeling good knowing that you have so many friends.

I remember when I was in seminary, living with a group of guys in a condo in Greensboro across the street from UNCG, commuting three days a week to class...all without cell phones, computers, or a GPS. I have a Honda Accord that I drove, and one day coming home from school a belt broke and I had to pull off the interstate. I really was at a loss as to what to do, since I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. I limped into a mom-n-pop gas station and made a collect call to my dad in Winston-Salem. That was in 1993! Being the great dad that he is, he got in his car and came and got me.

If that were to happen today things would be much different. I would have made a cell phone call, twittered the event in the hopes that a friend close by would come to my rescue, taken pictures of the damage and e-mailed them to a mechanic friend, and started shopping on-line for a new car.

I can't even imagine the kind of world my kids will be interacting with in 30 years! And while I enjoy many aspects of technological advancement, I'm not sure it has made our life any easier or less cluttered. Or happier. I mean, with all these important blogs to update, and statuses to report, and tweets to tweet, it can keep you busy!

So, I've ignored this blog for two months. Not that anyone cares that much, but I'm resolved not to feel guilty about it. Or to tie my value to it. Or to find my identity in it. But as for now, I think I'll write something witty everyday just to prove that I'm in the game, I'm connected, that I get it. Or maybe I'll get around to it in two months.

Sick

Yep, I'm sick. Not to make a big deal of it, but something has been bugging me since Sunday night. It started with achy muscles and a fever. Then came the headache, and lots of pressure behind my eyes. Next it was a sore throat. Still carrying a fever. And now it is extreme fatigue. I've gone home on Monday and Tuesday and taken a 2+ hour nap. I'm going to bed very early, and struggling to wake up on time.

So, something is not quite right. I'm heading to the doctor in just a little while, which is my way of saying, "I give up...obviously Sudafed and Advil can't beat this thing." Plus, I want to make sure that I don't have swine flu. You never know, right? I have a feeling that I just be told that whatever it is it just has to run it's course...now give us your co-pay. We'll see.

I'm 41 years old. Every day my body breaks down just a little bit more. My middle child has recently been asking questions about me, fearing that I'm going to die in my sleep because she thinks I'm so old. All this is to say that this week I have been reminded that I really don't have any strength of my own to hope in. I've lost some weight recently, started running and getting back in shape, and feel like I'm stronger than I was 6 months ago. But the reality of life is that each day we are dying a little bit more.

That's why I'm learning to rest in the words of Scripture where I'm reminded that Christ is my strength. I hate feeling this way with all the chills, aches, and bouts of fatigue. But it has served me well to remind me that Christ has taken my ultimate sickness upon Him, and that when I am weak He is strong. One day we will all experience that physical difficulty that we will not recover from, whether it is a crippling disease or a minor infection. Something will finally break our bodies down. But on that day, those who have been singing about Christ being their strength will rejoice, knowing that He alone is their hope. And then we will close our eyes, and wake up blinded by His glory.

So, it's off I go to see my doctor. But my heart is full of praise for my Great Physician.