I’m with Zach Nielsen; I hope this sweeps the nation:

Thanks to my friend Brian for pointing this one out:

I hear the statement all the time: “The Lord really blessed us with ______”.  Here is my question; can I buy a yacht and say that it is a blessing from the Lord?  Is this the formula; make a wish, get what you wished for, then make it spiritual and okay by saying that it is a blessing from the Lord? 

Well what about Deuteronomy 28?  Doesn’t that seem to be the formula in that text?  You do good you get blessing, you do bad you get cursed.  So, can we transfer this to our day?  Is my extravagant home, luxurious car, and our yacht a sign of blessing?  Or is it a sign of disobedience. 

Here is my take.  Look at the reason why God blessed Israel.  God’s blessing of Israel was not for the sake of Israel alone.  God’s blessing of Israel was so that they could in turn be a blessing to the nations.  What I am saying is similar to what Piper has said previously:

“Does not the OT promise that God will prosper the faithful? Indeed! God increases our yield so that by giving we can prove that our yield is not our God. God does not prosper a man’s business so that man can move from a Buick to a BMW. God prospers a business so that hundreds of unreached peoples can be reached with the gospel. He prospers a business so that 20 percent of the worlds’ population can move a step back from the [brink] of starvation…Too many people are shaped by the consumer culture than by the economics of Christ. They still operate on the simple rule: If you earned it, you deserve it. It’s yours; use it for your own material comfort.

”The evidence that many of our people are not rich toward God is how little they give and how much they own. Over the years God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture, they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun”.

“The problem is not earning a lot. The problem is the constant accumulation of luxuries that are soon felt to be needs. If you want to be a conduit of God’s grace, you don’t have to be lined with gold. Copper will do.”

Living with gold-lined lives is not necessarily a sign of God’s unstipulated blessing, it may be a sign of your disobedience.  God may have blessed you with a six-figure salary, but he did not do it so you could have a six-figured salary life. 

What does this have to do with ministry?  Pastors can train people to think this way.  When sermons, prayers, and programs are geared around “meeting our needs” it is only natural for the people to find God’s blessing in materialistic prosperity.  It is our duty to preach in such a way that people are gospel-focused and not blessing-focused.  So, pastor preach in such a way that people find the greatest blessing in God Himself.  Furthermore, live in such a way that people see this modeled.

Author: John Piper

Publisher: Crossway

Pages: 192 pages

Price: 12.99

Genre: Christian Living

Quick Summary:

This is a Piper book so you should know what you are getting: a healthy dose of the glory of God, radically Christ-centered appeals, and passionate pleas to enjoy God. In this particular offering Piper’s main concern is that we understand that the greatest gift of the gospel is God Himself. “All God’s gifts are loving only to the degree that they lead us to God Himself. That is what God’s love is: his commitment to do everything necessary (most painfully the death of his only Son) to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying—namely, himself.”

The first few chapters of this book are given to defining the gospel. Then Piper moves towards what this means for the Christian life. He then moves forward with a little theology. And finally closes out the book by encouraging us to “sacrifice and sing”.

What I Liked:

The first four chapters are worth the cost of the book. Even in the introduction Piper asks perhaps one of the most important questions for modern evangelicals: “could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?” We really need to hear this message. If you do not consider God to be the ultimate good of salvation then something is wrong. Piper makes a passionate biblical defense of this central doctrine to the Christian faith.

In his typical Edwardsean-way Piper absolutely exhausts this topic. He considers the impact of this doctrine on numerous aspects of the Christian life. He writes in a heartfelt and pastoral manner. You will be deeply informed and emotionally stirred.

What I Disliked:

UPDATE: Due to a comment, I have reworded this section. The original did not convey my actual intent.

I absolutely love John Piper and his ministry. Unfortunately, most of the congregation in which I serve do not share that love. A good portion of our church has commented that his writing is too difficult for them. And I think I understand. Piper can use really big words that may be unfamiliar to those that do not read a good deal of theology books. Piper also will have jam-packed sentences. Now, in Piper's defense I would love to see the somewhat anti-intellectualism in our church context be changed. I would love to see people pursuing God with not only heart but also mind. So, I am torn. I love Piper and his writings and would love to see people labor to read and enjoy him. At the same time I would love for Piper to write books that would appeal to those of a more rural context.

One commenter felt in the orignal that I was holding my church in contempt and not loving them. The truth is I have a ton of compassion for our church. Certainly, that passion can grow because I know I do not love them like Jesus does. Yet, at the same time I also would love to see our church pursue doing hard things...like reading Piper.

Should You Buy It?

There is hardly a Piper book that I would not heartily recommend. The modern church that is so enamored with the gifts of the gospel needs to hear this call. I heartily suggest you buy and read this book. In my opinion, this is one of the Top 5 books written by Piper.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Posting may be slow here for the next few days.  I have scheduled a few articles and hope to have an internet connection in Colorado, but this is uncertain.  Be sure to subscribe to this blog through Google Reader so you keep updated.  Be praying for us! 

Having spent much time with teenagers I found this article intriguing: Study Links Teen Depression to Bed Times.

This was an interesting read.  Dr. Mohler considers the need for children to have silence.

I really like Jared Wilson.  If you are not familiar with him you need to be.  I especially appreciated Jared’s take on the Culture War.

I am excited about this series by Bruce Ashford: On Disciplined Reading.  Check out Part one and part two.

Tony Reinke tells us why he rarely uses Revelation in his devotional time, but also reveals why he is going to start.  My take on the book of Revelation is also quite simple; Jesus wins.  You can read Tony’s excellent thought’s here. 

Being such a superstar I could really relate to this by John Piper: “Hero Worship and Holy Emulation”.  Actually, I can relate because I am not a “superstar” but one that can be tempted towards hero worship.  Kevin DeYoung also weighs in. 

I am unfamiliar with Gary Lamb.  Apparently he confessed to having an affair with his assistant.  In light of this Jared Wilson offers some solid thoughts on pastoral falls. 

Here is where you can get media from Advance09. 

Colin Adams provides us with 8 common problems in evangelism and offers some solutions. 

This is powerful:  (HT: DG)

In Exodus 24:12-16, God summoned Moses to the mountain to receive the law & commandments. Its interesting to note that Moses waited six days before God finally spoke to him on the seventh day. Remember, Moses was there because God summoned him. But God did not speak right away. Moses had to wait.

God summons us to come to him regularly to commune with him in prayer and in the Word. How many seconds pass by before we get impatient because God has not spoken to us? How long do we wait upon the Lord before rushing out into the busyness of our day? After all, we have places to go, people to see, things to do. Its not like we have the spare time of Moses, is it? All he had to do was lead a nation into the Promised Land while introducing them to Jehovah God as they fought the enemies along the way who would eliminate them from the face of the earth. Oh yeah, and he also had to deal with that 'grocery procurement' issue.

Now that I think about it, perhaps we should learn to wait upon the Lord. There are people you and I need to introduce to God. There are people in our lives we hope to lead into the Promised Land. There are enemies who would destroy us. And didn't Jesus say something about "our daily bread"?

May the Lord remind us daily that we are privileged to be summoned into his presence and that he is most certainly worth the wait.

If you are just joining the discussion (that as of yet has not been much of a discussion) then please check out the foreword, intro, and chapter one.  You can catch up pretty easily.  If you have yet to buy the book I would suggest buying it for a paltry 9 bucks, here. 

Quick Summary:

This chapter gives us instructions for beginning the work.  The most important thing to do early on is to clarify the gospel.  In the previous chapter we were urged to be patient.  In this chapter that statement is qualified: “…the one thing you don’t want to be slow about is preaching the Gospel.” (44)  The Gospel is the most important aspect of our ministry.  Perhaps one of the most important principles in this book is contained in this sentence: “What you win them with is what you win them to.” 

So, how do you go about clarifying the gospel?  Dever gives a few tips.  1) Put yourself in the background, and preach Christ crucified.  2) Let the content of the gospel do the work.  Rather than working on attracting people to you work on attracting them to the Gospel.  3) Let Jesus do the talking as much as possible.  It would be wise to begin preaching through one of the Gospel accounts.  Dever closes this section with this: “The more your congregation is clear on the Gospel, the less likely it is either tepid nominalism or carnal divisiveness will find air to breathe…”  (45)

Alongside clarifying the Gospel another important beginning work is to cultivate trust; because “people have to trust you if they’re going to follow you”.  We are then given three ways to cultivate trust.  1) Expositional preaching.  This will show people that you stand upon the Word of God and not your own ideas.  2) Personal relationships.  This is simple, people will trust you if they know you.  Dever did not mention it but the old adage is fitting here: people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.  3) Humility.  If you pursue accountability and correction it will go a long way in bringing trust.  Not only that the accountability and correction will serve for your own personal growth.

Another beginning work is to clean the rolls.  (This may be the most difficult and controversial).  Rotary clubs clear members so why doesn’t the church?  Church membership should mean more than membership to a Rotary club.  There are biblical, pastoral, and evangelistic reasons for cleaning the rolls.  Dever will discuss this in more detail in a later chapter.  A good way to begin this work is to “contact negligent members in order to instruct them and notify them of your intentions, and remove them.”  (48)

The last thing suggested as a beginning work is to conduct reverse membership interviews.  Dever suggests going through the church membership, start with the most recent members, and begin interviewing them.  This helps to clarify the Gospel, to look for genuine conversion, and to build relationships. 

Quotables:

“…when we assume the Gospel instead of clarifying it, people who profess Christianity but don’t understand or obey the Gospel are cordially allowed to presume their own conversion without examining themselves for evidence of it—which may amount to nothing more than a blissful damnation.”  (43)

“The Gospel of Christ has never needed the gimmicks of man to effect conversion in the soul.”  (44)

“…leaders usually have more opportunities to do things wrongly!”  (46)

“If membership is the church’s public affirmation of a person’s conversion, then to leave a nonattender on the rolls could very well be damningly deceptive.”  (48)

Questions:

• What do you think of a pastor that insist on keeping a “professional distance” between he and his congregation? 
• What are you preliminary thoughts on “cleaning the membership rolls”?
• What is your opinion of reverse membership interviews?
• Are there other ways to cultivate trust than those mentioned?