Person of Jesus

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking wick he will not put out.” Isaiah 42:3

This is the Holy Spirit describing the Messiah.  Do you KNOW how comforting this description is?  Have you ever been bruised?  When I go to Winco I will never buy a bruised piece of anything, and if flowers to fruit in my house begin to wither and bruise I simply throw them into the garbage can.  But Jesus will not break those who are bruised.  No one likes a smoking candle after it has been blown out.  Lick your fingers and put it out of it’s misery.  Not so with Jesus.  He blows on our souls with just the right intensity to burst us into flame once again, and he binds up the broken hearted until they are ready to love with intensity once again.  This is good news, that if God who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how much more shall he freely give us all things.  

Speaking The Word To One Another

Speaking The Word To One Another

In Ephesians 4 Paul famously lists the gifts that the ascended Christ has given the church—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers.  We are also told that these giftings will “prepare us for works of service” (Eph. 4:12). 

The picture here is of all the different parts of the body fulfilling their proper function, each part working with the others for the growth of the body.  But what is common across this multifarious function of different body parts is “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15).  We may each do this in different ways, in different contexts and with different levels of effectiveness, but the basic methodology of body growth is that all the members “speak the truth in love,” one to another.  We are to be disciples confessing.  In Matthew 10:32-33 Jesus said, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.”  To be a disciple is to openly confess his Word to others.  We have all been given a “word ministry”.  That is what builds up a local body of believers. “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

This can only mean that God wants all Christians to be speaking to each other regularly, urging and encouraging one another being saturated with the Word of God.  The more Word centered we become, the more we are built up to the glory of God. 

Joy Doubled In The Joy Of Another

“For you are our glory and joy”

 John Piper writes about joy doubled in the joy of another,

“But there is another way of describing the psychological process that leads from delight in God to labors of love.  When a person delights in the display of the glorious grace of God, that person will want to see as many displays of it as possible in other people.  If it can be God’s means of another person’s miraculous conversion, I will count it all joy, because what would I rather see than another display of the beauty of God’s grace in the joy of another person?  My joy is doubled in his.”

“When the Christian sees a person without hope or joy, that person’s need becomes like a low-pressure zone approaching a high-pressure zone of joy in God’s grace.  In this spiritual atmosphere , a draft is created from the Christian with the high pressure of joy to the low-pressure zone of need, as joy tends to expand to fill the need.  The draft is called love.”

“Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.  The overflow is experienced consciously as the pursuit of our joy in the joy of another.  We double our delight in God as we expand it in the lives of others.  If our ultimate joy were anything less than joy in God, we would be idolaters and no eternal help to anyone.  Therefore, the pursuit of pleasure is an essential motive for every good deed.  And if you aim to abandon the pursuit of full and lasting pleasure, you cannot love people or please God.”

Treasure In Jars of Clay

That is Why We Have This Treasure in Jars of Clay

“It is then, we say, in the successive stages of his experience, that the believer sees more distinctly, and adores more profoundly, and grasps more firmly, the finished righteousness of Christ. And what is the school in which he learns his nothingness, his poverty, his utter destitution? The school of deep and sanctified affliction. In no other school is it learned, and under no other teacher but God. Here his high thoughts are brought low, and the Lord alone is exalted.”

- Octavius Winslow

Mark Driscoll on St. Patrick

St. Patrick: One of the Greatest Missionaries Who Ever Lived

Mark Driscoll

 Preaching Pastor at Mars Hill Church

I am a servant of Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. – Patrick

My family name was originally O’Driscoll until it was changed a few generations ago by relatives hoping to more fully assimilate into American culture after immigrating from Ireland. Though I was raised Irish Catholic, I knew virtually nothing about Saint Patrick other than the green beer, parades, shamrocks, leprechauns, and drunken Red Sox fans that celebrated in his honor every March 17th.

Technically, Saint Patrick is not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he was a Roman-Britain who spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh.

Patrick was born around 390 A.D. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep.

Isolation

Patrick was a rebellious non-Christian teenager who had come from a Christian family. His grandfather was a pastor, and his father was a deacon. However, during his extended periods of isolation without any human contact, Patrick began praying and was eventually born again into a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Patrick endured the years of isolation in rain and snow by praying up to 100 prayers each day and another 100 each night.

In his early twenties God spoke to Patrick in a dream, telling him to flee from his master for a ship that was waiting for him. Amazingly, Patrick made the 200-mile journey on foot without being caught or harmed to find a ship setting sail for his home, just as God had promised. The sailors were out of food for the journey, and after Patrick prayed a herd of pigs miraculously ran toward the ship, providing a bountiful feast for the long voyage home.

God Speaks to Patrick

Upon returning home, Patrick enrolled in seminary and was eventually commissioned as a pastor. Some years later God spoke to Patrick in a dream, commanding him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel and plant churches for the pagans who lived there.

The Roman Catholic Church had given up on converting such “barbarians” deemed beyond hope. The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were part, were an illiterate bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically had *** **** *nyone and worshiped anything. They were such a violent and lawless people, numbering anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000, that they had no city centers or national government and were spread out among some 150 warring clans. Their enemies were terrified of them because they were known to show up for battles and partake in wild orgies before running into battle naked and drunk while screaming as if they were demon-possessed. One clan was so debased that it was customary for each of their new kings to copulate with a white mare as part of his inauguration.

Unique Missionary Strategy

In faith, the forty-something year-old Patrick sold all of his possessions, including the land he had inherited from his father, to fund his missionary journey to Ireland. He worked as an itinerant preacher and paid large sums of money to various tribal chiefs to ensure he could travel safely through their lands and preach the gospel. His strategy was completely unique, and he functioned like a missionary trying to relate to the Irish people and communicate the gospel in their culture by using such things as three-leaf clovers to explain the gospel. Upon entering a pagan clan, Patrick would seek to first convert the tribal leaders and other people of influence. He would then pray for the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, preach the Bible, and use both musical and visual arts to compel people to put their faith in Jesus. If enough converts were present he would build a simple church that did not resemble ornate Roman architecture, baptize the converts, and hand over the church to a convert he had trained to be the pastor so that he could move on to repeat the process with another clan.

Patrick gave his life to the people who had enslaved him until he died at 77 years of age. He had seen untold thousands of people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700 churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong public stand against slavery.

Roman Opposition

Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman civilization and church polity he was seen by some as an instigator of unwelcome changes. This led to great conflicts between the Roman and Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts. Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination.

In the end, the Roman Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity. Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day around the world, including at Mars Hill where we occasionally sing the "Prayer of Saint Patrick" and the Celtic hymn "Be Thou My Vision."

For Further Study:

• At www.ccel.org there is a free copy available of Patrick’s book Confessions.
• Steve Rabey’s book In the House of Memory is a good introduction to Patrick and Celtic Christianity.
• Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization is a fascinating historical look at Patrick and the implications of Celtic Christianity on western history.
• www.ChristianityToday.com/history is the site for Christian History and Biography magazine, which is a wonderful resource that includes an entire issue on Patrick and Celtic Christianity.

My Sneaky Little Heart

What are some things we can learn from examining the parable of the pharisee and tax collector who both went to the temple to meet with God in Luke 18?

Here's the account,

Luke 18:9   And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:  10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

What's wrong with how this pharisee approached God?  After all he thanks God for the difference between himself and the other man.  Here's what's wrong.

1.  Comes with nothing to confess or repent about.  Who makes an appointment with the doctor only to tell them they need nothing.

2.  Self-chosen morality.  He brags about a mixture of things minus the tithing that God never asked for such as fasting twice a week.  His walk was simply another mechanism for self-exaltation.  

3.  He sincerely believes he is different then the tax collector.  

Moment by moment, throughout our day, our self justifying hearts war with the truth of justification by faith in Jesus Christ.  This pharisee viewed this thieving tax collector with contempt, which revealed his self justifying faith.  It is the same today.  How you view sinners reveals what you believe about the grace of God that has been given us in Christ.  The true position of what I believe vertically, shows up in how I view others horizontally. I believe God is awakening a whole new generation with the gospel and the deal breaker is going to be arrogance with him.  If we stay low, God is going to do an amazing work through US!  According to this parable, the times when you have felt furthest from the Lord are the times when you have possibly been the closest to Him.  Our hearts are so sneaky as to take the gospel and turn it into yet another mechanism for self-exaltation.  

God Died Me Justice

"So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy" (Romans 9:16).

We’re all control freaks.  And that makes grace maddening.  It is just so darn uncontrollable. Grace is not manageable.  Jesus warned us with an intensity and passion about the death that comes with being a deserving Pharisee (Matt. 23,  Mk. 12:38-40,  Lk. 20:45-47). Anyone can get outward routines and habits right, the Pharisees certainly did--and most of them went to hell.  I got a million reasons why God should bless me and they are all illegitimate and dangerously offensive to my God.  Have you ever just felt like you were on top of things spiritually and that God was impressed? On my best day I need Jesus and his substitutionary death on the cross.  Jesus took my place because my best day is as about as good as used toilet paper compared with the currency of holiness.  

Romans 9 tells us that Jesus is a stumbling block.  Indeed, many will stumble over him.  Why?  Because him hanging on a cross reveals the extreme ugliness of my sin and what it would take to bring me into reconciliation with himself.   As Matt Chandler tweeted yesterday, "Jesus is not a means to an end, he is the goal and you're an idolator."

Christian Hand Sanitizer

“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation” (Amos 6:1).

Powerless Christians do not walk by faith; they structure and organize their lives so they never have to.  They don’t need to listen to God’s plan for their life because they already have it mapped out.  God would never call us to something beyond our own supply of power and resources would he?  I think Jesus should have made a special hand sanitizer that would protect me from all things that require faith.  Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than the average, but besides that, they really aren't different from the average nice guy/gal unbeliever.  They assume holiness = sanitized life, but they couldn't be more wrong.  

“They don’t depend on God on a regular basis—their refrigerators are full and for the most part, they are in good health.  The truth is their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.” Francis Chan

Jesus speaks to this false security in Luke 12:16-21

“And he told them this parable: the ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop (he must of really been doing something right).  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

God Has Spoken

God Has Spoken

I have soon to be four sons.  Their names are Toby, Chase, Jack, and Max.  We named them with easy-to-say-all-at-once-names.  Try it……TOBYCHASEJACKMAX.  It almost sounds like a new name for a holiday, but that wouldn’t fit the occasion.  When I sound one of my son’s names I expect them to listen to my words because I love them and desire in my heart that they will become accustomed to listening.  I also expect them to make eye contact with me signifying they are tuned into me.  So too the Lord God has spoken.  He has spoken in times past by decrees creating with the very breathe of His word, “Let there be light, and there was light” (Genesis.1:3), “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breathe of his mouth” (Psalm.33:6).   God has also given words of personal address to people directly speaking with them such as Moses and Abraham.  These occasions are rare but they have happened.  God has also spoken through the instrument of human lips.  Frequently in scripture God raises us prophets through whom he speaks such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, “and the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold I have put my words in your mouth’” (Jeremiah 1:9).   God has also given us his words in written form (the Bible).  In addition to God’s words of decree, personal address, and God’s words spoken through the lips of human beings, He has also given us a written Word (1 Cor. 14:37, John 14:26, 1 Tim. 2:16, Jer. 36:29-31),

To top it all off God’s word is spoken by his Son Jesus.  Jesus is the Word become flesh.  He is what the Word looks like in a human body, “and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”(John 1:14). 

God has spoken very clearly with countless illustrations and even by hands on interaction with us.  As Christians we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to help us understand his written living Words to us.  It is most profitable to study God’s written precise Word.  It is God’s written Word that He commands us to study and learn.  The man or woman is “blessed” who “meditates” on the Word “day and night” (Psalm 1). 

Questions:

1. Do you think you would pay more attention if God spoke to you from heaven or through the voice of a living prophet than if He spoke to you through the written words of Scripture? Would you believe more eagerly and obey more diligently? 
2. Do you think your present level of response to the written words of Scripture is an appropriate one?
3. When you think about the many ways by which God speaks and the frequency with which God communicates with his creatures through these means, what conclusion might you draw concerning the nature of God and the things that bring delight to Him?