ELEVATiON CHURCH

Late in 2005, my friend Steve and his core group had about 90 on their church plant's launch Sunday. Now, 20 months later, they have at least 2500 people every week and are the third fastest growing church in America. They are a multi-site church in Charlotte, NC called Elevation.

Steve is a solid brother. He loves our Lord. He is always intense. You might not agree with him on every jot and tittle of theology. You may think he's a heretic because he has preached in a way-too-tight Def Leopard shirt and pastors First Baptist Trendy. But.... I know this man and he is just as saved by grace as any man in Christ.

What Elevation did this past week is undebatably unique and distractingly beautiful. For their new series kick-off, they passed out money to everyone who was there. That's right. Some got $5, some $10, some $20, and one person randomly got $1000 in each service. They didn't take up an offering and instead gave money away for their people to bless others. They're calling it the Bless Back Project.

DAMNiNG DESPAiR

William Cowper thought he was not among the elect. This is apparent in his poetry, his depression, and even in some of his hymns. G. K. Chesterton saw it. In Orthodoxy, he claimed that Cowper was “damned by John Calvin.” Cowper was friends with John Newton [pastor and hymnist who wrote “Amazing Grace”] and lived with him for 12 years. Newton would write to William to encourage him in his fearful despair.

July 30, 1767 [excerpts]:

I can only advise you to resist to the utmost every dark and discouraging suggestion.

Though sin has abounded in us, grace has superabounded in him; though our enemies are many and mighty, Jesus is above them all; though He may hide himself from us at times, He has given us a warrant to trust him, even while we walk in darkness, He has promised to return, and gather us with everlasting mercies.

So, to renounce self, to live upon Jesus, to walk with God, to overcome the world, to trust the Lord when we cannot trace him, and to know that our duty and privilege consist in these things, may be readily or quickly learned; but, upon repeated trial, we find that saying and doing are two different things.

We please ourselves with agreeable prospects and proposals; but determination is with the Lord. We may rejoice that it is, He sees all things in their dependences and connexions, which we see not, and therefore he often thwarts our wishes for our good.

Let us strive and pray for a habitual resignation to his will; for He does all things well. It is never ill with us but when our hearts doubt or forget this plainest of truths.

eye saw this extra beatitude at an old church this weekend

ROMANS 8.29-30

Romans 1-11 is a unit. Romans 1-8 is a unit. Romans 5-8 is a unit. The phrase “Christ Jesus our Lord” begins this section [5.1] and closes it [8.39]. This phrase also serves as a marker that ends shorter sections in 5-8 [5.11, 5.21, 6.23, 7.25, 8.39]. More climatically however, Paul ends chapters 5-8 in a very unique way.

He gets to such a point in his argument that he begins to talk about the future love of God in a past tense way because he is so zealously sure of it. He says that all those that God foreknew, He predestined; all He predestined, He called; all He called, He justified; and all He justified, He glorified [8.29-30]. The glorification of the believer [being made like Christ and being with Christ] is a future event, but Paul uses a past tense verb to describe it! He is overtaken with free grace and can in no way state it any clearer. Because of this he then asks seven rhetorical questions to highlight the unbreakable truths of 8.29-30. As Judith M. Gundry-Volf says...

Paul portrays salvation as a series of divine initiatives snowballing toward fullness. He links these initiatives so tightly that each is born of the former and bears a promise of the one which follows. Glorification is thus the finishing touch on the indivisible divine work of salvation which originated in God’s foreknowledge and predestination of Christians and has come to historical expression in their calling and justification. These verses truly do form a “chain” of interconnected divine salvific works and so imply a continuity in Christian’s salvation.

So, the Apostle states the positive realities of salvation in 8.29-30, seven rhetorical questions that are wrought by his close-to-speechlessness in 8.31-35, and then closes by a negative affirmation of what he knows can’t happen to those who are in Christ [8.38-39]: Death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things future, height, depth, nor anything ever created can separate us from God’s love in Jesus.

pope john paul on EVANGELiZATiON

The “how to” of evangelization looms large in Christianity and rightly so. It is not unusual to see methods slaughter the Gospel on the altar of relevance. Whether it be a denominational program, a seeker-based approach, or an emerging watered-down gospel, everyone has a slant on how. So, I figured you’d like to know Pope John Paul’s take.

fastest growing churches in America

Personal and pointless facts about the 100 fastest growing churches in America, especially from the view a Bible-belt South Carolinian:

1. A father and son combo make the cut and each have their own church.

2. Husbands and wives pastor some of these congregations together. I must have missed that somewhere in the pastoral epistles.

3. The fastest growing church in America is a Latino-based congregation.

4. It is simply intriguing to see which denominations are on this list and which are not. This is not a slam or a compliment, merely noteworthy.

5. With each congregation it lists the number of campuses they have and the only church with 10 or more campuses is in South Carolina. Congrats?!

6. There are a whole lot of HUGE ones in the south.

7. My friend Steve planted the third fastest growing church in the country! He also played on stage with Green Day in high school.

8. Jesus will build His church [Matt 16.18] and all growth of the church will come from Him being the God-ordained head [Col 2.19] and not necessarily really cool lights or cute talks on how to live better tomorrow. This is not sarcastic or pessimistic, but hopeful and realistic. Lord, please make these churches Gospel-saturated. I dare you to pick just 5 off the list and pray.

MY THiRD FAVORiTE ATHEiST

"Religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." These are sweet words from best-selling atheist Christopher Hitchens. Read more. My other two favorite atheiests are my brother-in-law and Richard Dawkins.

it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living bible?

This is some Søren Kierkegaard with a good, swift kick to the academic crotch [at least it was to me]...

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the very minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming to close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without it? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

JOHN 17

I found this really helpful, beautiful, and thought-provoking on John 17.... and you should too.

HOPE DOESN’T DiSAPPOiNT

If it is tangible or visible, it undefines itself. Who hopes for what he already sees? Hope, by nature, must be a conviction of future surety. It is a horizon of absolutes that is apprehended and daily known through faith. Yet one day, these things which are our food for today, will be no longer needed. Faith and hope will die. Our faith shall be sight and we will meet the sun on the horizon of hope. But in the now, this kind of hope births perseverance and does not waver in the face of temporal options. This is the precise type of hope that does not disappoint. Or as G.K. Chesterton notes, “Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.”

HOW TO ASCERTAiN THE WiLL OF GOD

This is from George Mueller's book "Answers to Prayer." He lived from 1805-1898 and fed thousands of children at an orphanage, some nights not knowing where food would come from the next morning.

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever that may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. Next, I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.

6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge; and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving the most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

NT FAiTH

Faith in ROMANS is the key to how someone becomes right with God. That is precisely what Paul was articulating in chapters 1-4. We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the Law.

Faith in HEBREWS is what grants us endurance to stay right with God. We are not of those who shrink back, but of those who persevere [10.35-39] in "the assurance of things hoped for" [11.1].

Faith in JAMES is the conduit for good works in the Christian life. This is why faith without works is useless [Js 2.20]: because faith is descriptive of the life of a Christian and not just of the hoop one jumps through to become a Christian.

So, why is it so hard to see that these three do not contradict one another but are instead inextricably linked as a whole. Different situations call for preaching and teaching faith in different ways. But without this framework, legality, Antinomianism, and the faith healing prosperity gospel are "crouching at our door" [Gen 4.7]. Furthermore, none of this is ever divorced from the Holy Spirit graciously and sovereignly working in sinners "as He wills" [1 Cor 12.11, 18] to draw us, sustain us, empower us, and cause to serve the King for the kingdom.

EPiSTEMOLOGY 101

Esther Meek is genius in this book. Its flow and tangible illustrations provide her argument with substance. She asks Can we know God?, Can we know anything for sure?, and How can we know if we can know anything at all? She discusses how any kind of knowing is not static, but a process. Our subjective involvement in knowing does not necessarily determine the truths we know, but molds how we know, live, and think about them.

oh, blessed self-forgetfulness!

Never in my life have I heard Christian character and Gospel humility articulated like Tim Keller does here. He paints a picture of humility from the Apostle Paul that is drastically against modern culture and even against what mainline Christianity has posited as walking humbly. You must listen and be challenged.

A WEDDiNG iN AMiSH COUNTRY

10 reasons free will doesn't exist in the way you think it does

1. Most importantly, it is not in the Bible. Any imperative in the NT calls for the activity of the will, not its freedom. Philemon 14 in the NASB and ESV are translated using the words "free will," but the context indicates a meaning far from a self-autonomous libertarian freedom.

2. It contradicts scores of Bible verses that talk about God being over the human will [Ex 4.21; Prv 16.33, 21.1; Ac 16.14; Rom 9.16; and others].

3. If I had a free will I would never want to employ it. This is just to say that if man is really sinful, then our will, our emotions, our desires, and our thoughts are all sinful. "Your kingdom come, Your will be done."

4. It is different than moral responsibility.

5. It is a philosophical impossibility. We live in a cause and effect universe. Therefore, when you choose to drink orange juice, it is because you were thirsty. You were thirsty because you ate too many saltines. You ate too many saltines because you were hungry. You ate saltines because that's all that was in your house. And so forth. Also, culture, family, social status, race, age... all of these are what cause us to choose what we choose.

6. If free will exists in a theistic worldview, it can only be possessed by one Being. Principally, this is also what makes truth absolute as well. Free will cannot be innate to more than one being at a time; it is the nature of free will.

7. It is different than eternal accountability.

8. Free will has become the center of the application of evangelical teaching and preaching and this is far from biblical. The cross, the glory of God, the grace of God, hope, peace... these should be held out to souls. People should not be told it is all up to them; eternity hinges on their volition; their choice is all God is waiting on; and other sappy anthropocentric nonsense.

9. It implies an impotence in God, not a tolerance in His love. If man has free will, then God necessarily is impotent to that will and He can only cross His huge fingers and hope that we do what He wants.

10. We are always bound to do what we want to do. We can never do what we don't want to do. In other words, the will is free in the same way that it is bound if you want a real migraine... it always carries through with what it most desires at any given time. Go read Jonathan Edwards on this.

ROMANS 5.10 and 8.7

By yourself, you hate God. On your own, you would seek to destroy God if you could. Apart from Christ, you would be God's most virulent foe. To even think that this is overstating our sin problem is to highlight the truth of our stiff-necked disposition. This is not hell/fire/brimstone preaching or deranged spiritual pessimism, it is the picture the Apostle Paul hints at in Rom 5.10 and 8.7. He uses language in these two verses that paints the picture of sinners as God's enemies who are hostile and actively opposed to Him. But... He justifies the ungodly. And if "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more will we be saved through His life" [Rom 5.10].

JOHN NEWTON from 1779

as by the light of opening day
the stars are all concealed
so earthly pleasures fade away
when Jesus is revealed

creatures no more divide my choice
i bid them all depart
his name and love and gracious voice
have fixed my roving heart

ROMANS FiVE

So how does "justified by faith" [Rom 5.1] relate to "justified by his blood" [Rom 5.9]? Moreover, in broader Pauline thought, how do the above two relate to "justified by his grace" [Titus 3.7]? All three of these are the same in Greek [aorist passive participles from dikaiow]. It is clear that both the blood and the grace are acts of God. The context of Romans 5 shows that faith is an act of man. Another way to view it is that the blood is objective and historical; in slight contrast, genuine faith is ongoing and subjective. At what point do all three of these converge? It has to be the cross. I do not know how intricately it all works together, but God forbid if I boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [Gal 6.14]. Paul wished to know nothing among the Corinthians except the cross [1 Cor 2.2]. It is here that faith can be grounded on blood that was spilt and both can find their source in the grace that saves.

EX NiHiLO

To Him who made great lights, His steadfast love endures forever. The sun to rule over the day, His steadfast love endures forever [Ps 136.7-8].


















From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens [Ps 113.3-4].