Preorder My Next Book: Fake Christianity: 10 Traps of an Inauthentic Faith (and How to Avoid Them)
Fake Christianity is deceptive and deadly. And, unfortunately, it’s very much alive today. We can easily recognize problems and hypocrisy around us. But it takes humility and courage to face the error and deception within us. Sure there obvious examples of hypocrisy all around us. But as we identify and avoid those sins, we also need to hear Jesus’ call to identify and avoid more subtle forms of hypocrisy, like prayerlessness, neglect of the Bible, gossip, bitterness, and every other form of ungodliness.
In Fake Christianity, I look primarily to Jesus’ final public message before his crucifixion and resurrection (Matt 23), where he addresses a culture remarkably like our own. I do my best to help you see how Jesus exposes ten traps of inauthentic faith and how the gospel enables us to overcome them. As we follow Jesus’ words and walk in his power, we will experience greater joy, peace, hope, love, and purpose.
You can preorder the book HERE.
Francois Fenelon on God’s Purposes During Prolonged Trials
“God orders a series of events that detach us gradually from the world first, and finally from the self also. The operation is painful, but our corruption makes it needful. If the flesh were healthy, the surgeon would not need to probe it. He uses the knife only in proportion to the depth of the wound and the extent of the proud flesh. If we feel his operation too keenly, it is because the disease is active. Is it cruelty that makes the surgeon probe us to the quick? No, far otherwise-it is skill and kindness; he would do the same with his only child. . . . He must tear from us what we love wrongly, unreasonably, or excessively, the thing that hinders his love. In so doing, he causes us to cry out like a child from whom one takes away a knife with which it could injure or kill itself. . . . God afflicts us only for our correction. Even when he seems to overwhelm us, it is for our own good, to spare us the greater evil we would do to ourselves. The things for which we weep could have caused us eternal distress. That which we count as loss was then indeed most lost when we fancied that it belonged to us. . . . God deprives us of the things we prize only because he wants to teach us to love them purely, truly, and properly in order to enjoy them forever in his presence, and because he wants to do a hundred times better for us than we can even desire for ourselves.”
In The Complete Fenelon (15-16).
Paul Tripp’s Meditation on How “God’s in Control of Your Story”
Situation
upon situation
upon situation,
the ever-changing cycle
of your story,
has been authored by Another,
one of infinite power
unparalleled wisdom
unending grace,
who has every epic
every turn of the plot
every surprising mystery
every unnoticed moment
written into his book.
The Author is never surprised
never taken off guard
never confused by new developments
never feeling unprepared
never just making it through
never looking for a way out.
Situation
upon situation
upon situation,
the ever-changing cycle
of your story,
authored by Another,
the changing saga written
by the One who never changes.
Let go of knowing the future.
Let go of having your own way.
Let go of self-sovereignty.
Let go of the anxiety of not knowing.
Let go of craving more power.
Let go of ranting against mystery.
Settle into what you’ve been designed to be.
Celebrate being included in the gospel plot.
Be thankful you’re not in control.
Remember God’s way is better.
Know that you’re in good hands.
Things out of your control
are not out of control.
There is an Author,
he is not you
his will will be done.
Your story,
that ever-changing cycle
situation upon situation
surprise after surprise
mystery chasing mystery
year piling upon year
has a final chapter,
penned before time began
written on the pages of eternity
and it will be glorious.
The 3 Ways Jonathan Edwards Believes Trials Benefit Believers
In 1746, Jonathan Edwards wrote A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. He wrote it in the midst of the First Great Awakening, attempting to explain the nature of true Christian conversion.
At the beginning of the book, Edwards provides three benefits that trials bring to “true religion.” They are below:
- Trials help distinguish between true and false religion – Edwards writes, “Trials, above all other things, have a tendency to distinguish true religion and false, and to cause the difference between them evidently to appear.”
- Trials reveal the beauty of true religion – Edward writes, “trials not only manifest the truth of true religion, but they make its genuine beauty and amiableness remarkably appear.”
- Trials purify and increase true religion – Edwards writes, “another benefit of such trials to true religion, is that they purify and increase it. They not only manifest it to be true, but also tend to refine it, and deliver it from those mixtures of what is false, which encumber and impede it; that nothing may be left but that which is true.”
7 Books Recommended by Glen Scrivener About the Historical and Conceptual Roots of Popular Cultural Concepts
In The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality, Glen Scrivener contends that concepts like equality, compassion, consent, enlightenment, science, freedom, and progress aren’t self-evident. Instead, they are the fruit of Christianity.
I’ve just started making my way through this fascinating, engaging, and biblical book. But early on, Scrivener provides a list of books that have helped shape his own thinking. I thought I’d provide his list for those interested in adding thoughtful books to their reading list.
On equality: Inventing the Individual by Larry Siedentop
On compassion: Destroyer of the gods by Larry Hurtado
On consent: From Shame to Sin by Kyle Harper
On enlightenment: The Light Ages by Seb Falk
On science: The Warfare between Science and Religion: The Idea That Wouldn’t Die, edited by Jeff Hardin
On freedom: In the Image of God by David Brion Davis
On progress: Protestants by Alec Ryrie
The 3 Angles Eugene Peterson Believes Should Shape Pastoral Ministry
Eugene Peterson is concerned about the state of pastoral ministry. In Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, Peterson warns his readers about pastors who “are abandoning their posts, their calling. . . . What they do with their time under the guise of pastoral ministry hasn’t the remotest connection with what the church’s pastors have done for most of twenty centuries.” Are there important organizational considerations that need to be attended to in every church? Sure. But that isn’t the main thing Peterson believes pastors should be marked by.
What should a pastor’s dominant concern be? Prayer, scripture, and spiritual direction. Using a metaphor from trigonometry, Peterson argues that these three emphases are the angles pastors should devote themselves primarily too. “I see these three essential acts of ministry as the angles of a triangle. Most of what we see in a triangle is lines. The lines come in various proportions and the shape of the whole are the angles. The visible lines of pastoral work are preaching, teaching, and administration. The small angles of this ministry are prayer, Scripture, and spiritual direction. The length and proportions of the ministry lines are variable, fitting numerous circumstances and accommodating a wide range of pastoral gifts.”
Why does Peterson believe these things “angles” are so important? Because, he argues, “Pastoral work disconnected from the angle actions is no longer given its shape by God. Working the angles is what gives shape and integrity to the daily work of pastors and priests. If we get the angles right it is a simple matter to draw in the lines. But if we are careless with or dismiss the angles, no matter how long or straight we draw the lines we will not have a triangle, a pastoral ministry.”
Richard Lovelace’s Understanding of the Pre-Conditions, Primary Elements, and Secondary Elements of Spiritual Renewal
Richard Lovelace’s Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal explores “the nature of revival and what it means for the church.” Lovelace takes his readers through the Jesus Movement, Jonathan Edwards, and a wide range of historical figures and movements. It’s a fascinating read.
At the heart of his book, Lovelace provides the pre-conditions, primary elements, and secondary elements of renewal. I thought I’d provide the outline for those below:
Pre-Conditions of Renewal
- Holiness of God
- Sinfulness of humanity
Primary Elements of Renewal
- Justification
- Sanctification
- Spirit Indwelling
- Authority in Spiritual conduct
Secondary Elements of Renewal
- Mission
- Prayer
- Community
- Disenculturation
- Theological Integration
Charles Spurgeon’s Four Comforts When You Face A Severe Trial
- There is no curse in your cross.
- Your trials are assigned by divine wisdom and love.
- When you bear the cross, God gives special comforts that he never gives the healthy.
- Trials bring you nearer to God.
Redemption City Church Releases New Song: “By the Blood”
Major wars are fought on multiple fronts. The same is true with the spiritual war that every Christian finds themselves in. One of the major fronts of our spiritual war involves music.
That’s why the Apostle Paul commanded the Colossians to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16). Psalm 33 commands its readers to “sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.” The book of Revelation shows us the singing of gospel-centered songs throughout eternity. These are a few of the verses that drive our efforts to write new gospel-centered songs for the cause of Christ.
We have had a blast gathering songwriters together this past year to write songs that Christ might use to encourage and strengthen our church. This song, “By the Blood,” has been such an encouragement to our church, Redemption City Church, this past year, we thought we’d record it for those beyond our church gathering. I love the chorus:
“Your grace so sweet, washes over me, I’ve been made clean, by the blood of Jesus. Love so free, the price was paid for me, I’ve been made clean, by the blood of Jesus.”
I hope song encourages you like it has encouraged me. You can also find it wherever you listen to music.