The Gospel Driven People

Promise-Driven Commission

During Mike Horton’s session this past Saturday at our inaugural “Gospel-Centered Life” conference at Coral Ridge, he asked the audience to say the words of the Great Commission from Matthew 28 out loud. As you can imagine, almost everybody said in unison the words, “Go therefore…”. Mike rightly pointed out that the Great Commission actually begins with the words, “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me” (v. 18). It’s only after Jesus says that, that he says, “Go therefore…” (v.19).

This is a super-important, paradigm shattering observation. To miss it, is to miss the gospel. In fact, if we don’t see it, our entire understanding of the church’s mission will be wrong and weak.

In an article that Mike wrote for Modern Reformation magazine entitled The Great Announcement, he expands on this idea:

Just go. Just do it. “Get ‘er done,” as they say. Reflection slows you down.

The same thing can happen with the ... HERE

The Rhythm of the New Testament

By Dane Ortlund

"I want to call people to holiness, as the new creatures they are, by bringing them into deeper and deeper awareness of the gospel of grace... I believe the gospel is central to sanctification, and that effort and action are neither central nor optional (optional = antinomianism) but integral."

The rhythm of the New Testament is “walk in love as a response to how deeply you are loved in Christ.” “Be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph 5:1). In a nutshell: if the imperatives of Scripture are extracted in preaching without being self-consciously placed within their (heart-transforming) indicative framework, then such bald imperatives will invariably devolve into a counterproductive reinforcement of the Pharisee lurking in every human heart—even the regenerate human heart.

For the regenerate, holiness has taken on a strangely attractive hue, for God is now our loving Father, not our wrathful judge. We now delight in the law in a way we never did (never could) before. But the law itself remains impotent to generate this holiness. The law can guide us, but not propel us. It is a steering wheel, not an engine.

Jesus Freaks

Classic!

Missional Life in Suburbia... Maple Valley, Wa.

Untitled from MVMC on Vimeo.

Things Are Not Always As They Seem...

From the other perspective.

Storying

Storying the Bible in North America

Chronological Bible Storying is changing Christian communication and training dramatically. Church planters that learn how to address oral learning preferences will ride what has been called by some “the next wave of missions advance.”

Mike Mohler, pastor of Trinity Point, a new church plant in an affluent part of Easley, SC, turned to Bible storying for their family small groups. They grew from one small adult Bible study to nine small groups with 90 participating that met in homes in a span of six months.

Cathy Palmer found that her work among refugees in Clarkston, Ga., was accelerated when she gathered women to sew quilts and casually introduced them to one Bible story at a time.

A Nehemiah Church planter in Louisville, Ky., found Bible Storying extremely effective in evangelizing and then discipling several Muslim-background and Catholic Iraqis.

It can be said that about half of...

Click HERE to read the rest of this article.

Culture

What Is The Gospel?

What is the Gospel? from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

Help Even the Unrighteous Poor

by Joel Brooks

My office is located in one of the poorer areas in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. Even as I am writing this, outside my window I can see two prostitutes standing across the street outside a hotel and a homeless man pushing a grocery cart full of cans. Confronted with scenes like this on a daily basis has made me think a lot about Jesus’ call to serve the least of these. What should this look like in my life? Over the years, I have far more failures than successes when it comes reaching out to these people.

It might not be easy, but our call to help the poor is a scriptural mandate that few would argue against. Deuteronomy 15:7-8 says:

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.

This is just one of many passages in the Bible that show God’s concern for the least of these.

But any person who has actually spent time serving the poor realizes that... click -> HERE to read the rest.

Acts 28

How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in Acts 28 where Paul meets with the leader's of the Jews upon his arrival in Rome. He tells them why he has arrived in Rome from Jerusalem. He explains that back in Jerusalem, he had done nothing against his people or the customs of their fathers, yet he was delivered as a prisoner into their hands as a result of him appealing to Ceasar since the Jewish leaders back in Jerusalem wanted to put him to death. Paul told these leaders in Rome that he wanted to explain to them that it was because of the hope of Israel that he was bound and delivered to them in chains.

Because they had heard of this "sect" and how it was spoken against everywhere, their curiosity in knowing about it (the hope of Israel) made them schedule a time where all could meet and hear what Paul had to say.

Some days later, when they were able to meet with Paul, they met in the residence that he was staying at (he was under house arrest). Upon their arrival, there was an even greater number of the Jewish leaders who came to hear what Paul had to say. From that morning until evening Paul expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God. He tried to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets and as time wore on, the Word of God, the Gospel, the Good News changed their hearts. Many of these men became convinced. The scales were removed from their eyes. They heard and understood. They saw and perceived. God opened their eyes and their ears. And their hearts understood. They turned and God healed them.

The part that I would loved to have seen is the process they went through during this period of time. I would have loved to have see the demeanor of the leaders in the morning and then watched them change as the day wore on. I would have loved to have seen their faces and their physical posture (from defiance or possibly skepticism to faithful acceptance) change over the course of that time. How wonderful it would have been to see it dawn on them that they had been "missing it", as their fathers had "missed it" all along, and all of a sudden see them "get it". They understood that God's Word, what Paul persuaded them with, had been pointing to Jesus from the very beginning of time. How wonderful it would have been to see them go home and tell their wives that they had been wrong all along, to tell their friends that they had been teaching them in the wrong way, and to see them begin to start to teach their family and friends about the Hope of Israel, the only Way, the Way of Truth

Ashley’s Mission Theology

The following was found at Dr. Mike Stroope's blog. It is the theology of missions that one of Dr. Mike Stroope's students has. I was so impressed with it that I thought through it and have added in italics my thoughts and expansions to better describe my own theology of missions.

The collective blessed ones, the people of God, are known as the church. (Amen!)

The mission (which is to display the Light, the glory of God, through both word and deed, to a fallen world which was given to the collection of blessed ones) cannot be separated from the identity of God’s people.

Mission is who the church is (as in what we, the collective blessed ones, are to naturally do), not what the church does (mission is what the church does if the church is being sanctified and made more like God).

It is God’s mission, however, and not the church’s mission (It is God's mission first. And because it is God's mission, then and only then, can it be the church's mission).

The mission of church is to actively and faithfully bear witness (through overflowing actions and proclamations) to who they are and to their God.

God has a church for his mission, and not a mission for the church (Because God has a mission, He has chosen a collection of blessed ones as His instruments, to tell of His greatness, to display His glory through, which is the mission of the church).

Through the participation in God’s redemptive and restorative mission, both the church and the world are changed. (Amen!)

Found HERE

When Dogs Meow by Dr. Mike Stroop

In a meeting this week, a man gave a group of us a nugget of profound wisdom - ‘A dog does not bark to be a dog, but barks because he is a dog.’ In a folksy way, he was simply saying that being and doing belong together; one is not separate from the other. Dogs bark because that is what dogs do. They are not trying to be dogs by barking, but barking is part of what it means to be a dog.

In the same way, followers of Jesus do certain things because that is what they do. When a woman surrenders to Jesus, she becomes a new kind of person. John says she is born again of the Spirit. She performs acts of love not to become a Jesus follower; she loves because of a changed nature.

James, the brother of Jesus, talks about this truth in terms of faith and works. He asks, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works?” The answer is that talk of faith is useless - unless there are works. A bit later he says, “someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works’.” In other words, works are not imperative for faith, works are indicative of faith.

Thus far, this is straightforward and clear, and yet, there is an uneasy question – What does it mean when a dog meows? Well, if a true dog meows, then... click HERE to read the rest of this article.

A New Word

one·an·oth·er·ing (wun-e-nuth’er-ing) v.

1. To fulfill New Testament Biblical instructions for Christians regarding activities to be done to, for, and with one another. –one·an·oth·ers n.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jn 13:34-35

Loving one another (John 13:34)

Forgiving one another ((Ephesians 4:32)

Accepting one another (Romans 15:7)

Bearing with one another (Ephesians 4:2

Being devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)

Honoring one another (Romans 12:10)

Greeting one another (2 Corinthians 13:12)

Being hospitable to one another (1 Peter 4:9)

Being kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)

Sharing with one another (Hebrews 13:16)

Serving one another (Galatians 5:13)

Carrying one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)

Building up one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Encouraging one another daily (Hebrews 3:13)

Comforting one another (1 Thessalonians)

Stimulating one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)

Instructing one another (Romans 15:14)

Admonishing one another (Colossians 3:16)

Praying for one another (James 5:16)

Confessing your sins to one another (James 5:16)

Being of the same mind toward one another (Romans 12:16)

Submitting to one another (Ephesians 5:21)