Carrying Out Love to Our Neighbors - The Doctrine of Vocation (Jim Wilkerson)

Cultural A.D.D.

Whether it's Larry King and the national media or the local news reporter in nearby Jacksonville, most news outlets have their attention on the disaster we presently see in Haiti. We look at the horrific scenes, shake our heads, feel an emotional tug toward those who are hurting while simultaneously feeling the sense of helplessness to come to their rescue, only to quickly return to the NFL playoffs or the American Idol auditions.

Not that sports events or singing competitions are inherently evil (I, for one, enjoy them both), but have you ever considered just how little we in our media driven culture can focus our attention for any significant amount of time on the things that matter most? Maybe you have experienced the difficulty of enjoying a conversation over a meal with a friend because he or she is distracted by the constant Facebook and Twitter updates sent to their Blackberry?

It's nice to have the abundance of information that we have from the internet and our mobile devices, but it seems to me that our information overload has many of us spread too thin. As one has said, our culture is amusing itself to death. We forget the blessing of silence and meditation because we have no room for dead air.

Let's enjoy our technology, be thankful for it, and use it wisely; but do not "hide yourself from your own flesh" (Isaiah 58:7). Intentionally silence the media for a specified time by turning off the radio, the television, the computer, or silencing the phone, and use the time to pray for those in Haiti today and to meditate on the goodness of God to you if you have been spared from such a tragedy.

America's Culture of Idolatry

Mark Driscoll discusses idol worship in America on Nightline.

Joel Osteen and the Glory Story: A Case Study

Read the full article here

HT: JT

genocide?

Can you think of the last time you encountered a person with Down syndrome?

Having trouble?

I can think of Stevie Thrift. Stevie is now in his late thirties and I get to see him on occasion. Other than that I hardly ever see anyone with Down syndrome anymore, and I have reason to believe that it isn't just me. The truth is that fewer babies with disabilities are being born. One of the most chilling things I have heard in recent years is that somewhere around 90 percent of babies who are given a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome are aborted. 90 percent. So only 10 percent of Down syndrome babies actually come into the world. We may be very close to eliminating Down syndrome, or at least eliminating from our society those who may have it.

This is not the first time in human history the "seek and destroy" tactic has been used on those who don't seem to fit into the "normal" or "acceptable" categories. This is a heinous crime, even in a culture of death, and one which breaks my heart.

Why my children will watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama

They are young, they probably won't remember it, but I desire for my children to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

• I want them to because they are Americans who are a living in a moment when history is being made. Regardless of any political ties or views, this is a day that will be remembered for as long as the United States is a nation. It is important that they learn the history of their nation and why today is so important to many of all races.

• I want them to watch because of their current memory verse: "Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in Heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps" (Psalm 135:6). They are learning that our God is absolutely sovereign, that he appoints all rulers whether they be good or evil to fulfill his purposes, and that no purpose of the Lord will be thwarted. Barack Obama is playing a part in history as God brings glory to himself. Last night before bed I was honest with Camdyn and told him why I did not vote for President Obama. I explained to him (the best way I could to a four year old) the awful practice of abortion and that it is a great sin and offense to God. But I was able to explain to him that God uses evil to accomplish his desires. Christ was crucified at the hands of wicked men. The murder of the Son of God was the most heinous crime ever committed, but they only did what God had before ordained to take place. God used evil for the salvation of the world.

• I want them to see Pastor Rick Warren invoke the name of Jesus in his prayer as he has said he will do and for their mother to explain to them why this is so important.

• Finally, I want them to watch the inauguration because it is an incredible opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Many are trusting in and hoping in President Obama. There are those who are making whatever sacrifice is neccessary to be at this great event. Though Obama may offer hope to our nation, and though I hope my children are excited (Presidential inaugurations are supposed to be times of national excitement), I want us to help them look past President Obama and know that our only ultimate hope is not in a man who leads a nation but in Jesus Christ who died to delliver us from the wrath of God.

America's Christless Christianity

(This excerpt is from the opening commentary on The White Horse Inn January 6, 2008)

Most Americans believe in God, affirm that Jesus Christ is in some sense divine and the Bible is the Word of God. 86% of American adults describe their religious orientation as Christian while only 6% describe themselves as atheists or agnostic. Judging by its commercial, political, and media success, the Evangelical movement seems to be booming. But is it still Christian? I am not asking that question glibly or simply to provoke a reaction, my concern is that we are getting dangerously close to the place in every-day American church life where the Bible is mined for quotes, but largely irrelevant; God is used as a personal resource rather than known, worshipped, and trusted; Jesus Christ is a coach with a good game-plan for our victory rather than a Savior who already achieved it for us; Salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God's judgment by God himself; and the Holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we can plug into for the power we need to be all we can be. As this new "gospel" becomes more obviously American than Christian, we all have to take a step back and ask ourselves whether increasingly Evangelicalism is a cultural and political movement with a sentimental attachment to the image or trademark or experience of Jesus more than a witness to Christ and him crucified. We have shown in recent decades that we really don't have much stomach for this message of the Apostle Paul called a "rock of offense, foolishness to Greeks, and a stone that causes stumbling." Far from clashing with the culture of consumerism, American religion seems not only at peace with our narcissism but gives it a spiritual cast.

Now before we launch this protest, I want to be clear about what we are not saying; first, we are not going to be saying that "Christless Christianity" characterizes all churches in the United States today. There are a lot of marvelous exceptions, and I hope you are a member of one of them. Second, we are not going to be standing on a denominational high-horse hurling critiques at other denominations and traditions below. One thing I think will become increasingly clear as this series unfolds is that all four of us are painfully aware of the fact that the creeping fog of Christless Christianity is as discernable in our own circles as anywhere else today. So much of what we are calling "Christless Christianity" isn't really profound enough to constitute heresy. Like the easy listening music that plays ubiquitously in the background of popular culture: in elevators, in malls and at the airport, the message of American Christianity has simply become trivial, sentimental, and irrelevant. Driven more by distraction than outright denial, Christless Christianity is killing us softly. Our charge is not necessarily that Evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal, but that it is becoming theologically vacuous. Far from engendering a smug complacency, core Evangelical convictions centering on Christ and him crucified drove three centuries of Evangelical missions. The ministry of John Stott, a key leader of this post-war consensus, has embodied this integration of Christ-centered proclamation with a passion for mission. And yet when asked in a recent issue of Christianity Today how he evaluates this world-wide evangelical movement Stott could only reply, "The answer is growth without depth." There certainly are signs that the movement's theological boundaries are widening, and we will touch on some worrying examples as we go along. Furthermore vacuity and liberalism have typically gone hand-in-hand when it comes to the church's faith and practice.

Nevertheless it is not heresy as much as silliness that is killing us softly. God isn't denied, but trivialized, used for our life programs rather than worshipped and enjoyed. Christ is a source of empowerment, but is he widely regarded among us today as the source of redemption for the powerless? He helps the morally sensitive to become better, but does he save the ungodly, even Christians? He heals broken lives, but does he raise those who were dead in trespasses and sins? Does Christ come merely to improve our existence in Adam, or to end it sweeping us into his new creation? Is Christianity all about spiritual and moral makeovers? Or about death and resurrection? Radical judgment and radical grace? Is the word of God a resource for what we have already decided what we want and need, or is it God's living and active criticism of our religion, morality, and pious experience? In other words is the Bible God's story centering on Christ's redeeming work that changes our stories or is it something we use to make our stories a little more exciting and interesting? Christ's person and work are largely taken for granted in the interest of other more supposedly practical and relevant concerns of our day. When it comes to what happens on an average Sunday and in the ordinary diet of Christian ministry, I just don't think there is a remarkable difference between liberal mainliners and conservative Evangelicals. Some may take their cues from the New York Times and the others from Fox News but the real question is to what extent churches in America are really convinced that the proclamation of Christ from his Word is the power of God unto salvation. When the diet becomes "What Would Jesus Do" instead of "What Has Jesus Done" the labels just don't matter anymore.

Amazingly, Protestant Liberalism survived despite its abandonment of the gospel, just as the health and wealth gospel promoted by Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and T.D. Jakes, attracts a wide following even though it's exchanged the central Christian claims for the American Dream. Religion, spirituality, and moral earnestness, what Paul called a form of godliness that nevertheless denies its power, can continue to thrive in our environment precisely because they avoid the scandal of Christ. Folks whatever we say our practice does not support the contention that the Evangelical movement today is Christ-centered. Christ may be used for personal and public purposes, his trademark might be spread all across America, he may be even in some sense followed as a prophet or a king, but as our high priest, Christ and him crucified, he seems more peripheral to our own agendas.