Sing all you want to…

I was at church two sundays ago discussing prayer with a good friend and he said, “I have a song you have simply got to hear” and proceeded to pull out his iphone and play it for me. I was so moved, impressed and challenged that when I got home, I got on my laptop, pulled up itunes and bought it. It is an incredible song. I recommend you listen to it as well – you’ll be glad you did.

Aren’t these lyrics incredible?

“Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze
If that’s the measure that it takes to crush the idols.
Chuck the pews and all the decorations too
Until the congregations few then have revival.
Tell your friends that this is where the party ends
until you’re broken for your sins you can’t be social.
Then seek the Lord and wait for what he has in store
and know that great is your reward and just be hopeful

Cause you can sing all you want to.
Yes you can sing all you want to
you can sing all you want to
And don’t get me wrong, worship is more than a song.

Take a break from all the plans that you made
And sit at home alone and wait for God to whisper.
Beg Him please to open up his mouth and speak
And pray for real upon your knees until they blister.
Shine the light on every corner of your life
Until the pride and lust and lies are in the open.
Then read the word and put to test the things you’ve heard
Until your heart and soul are stirred and rocked and broken.

Cause you can sing all you want to.
Yes you can sing all you want to
you can sing all you want to
And don’t get me wrong, worship is more than a song.

Anything I put before my God is an idol.
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol.
Anything I can’t stop thinking of is an idol.
Anything that I give all my love is an idol.
We must not worship something that’s not even worth it.
Clear the stage and make some space for the one who deserves it.

Cause I can sing all I want to.
Yes I can sing all I want to
I can sing all I want to
And still get it wrong, worship is more than a song.

And you can sing all you want to.
Yes you can sing all you want to
You can sing all you want to
But don’t get me wrong, worship is more than a song.”

Our duty, our responsibility, our joy.

I recently read through the book of 1 Corinthians and so I decided I  would read 2 Corinthians as well. I must say, the Bible is  awesome. The more you read – the more you want to read.  Additionally, the more and more I read and study the Apostle Paul  and his writings the more I appreciate him and what he had to  say. If there is anyone aside from Christ that Christians should  aspire to be like, I am convinced that it is Paul. He is a beast. I realize there are other amazing Christians throughout history that God has mightily used but I just really like Paul. I am eager to meet him when I get to heaven.

My favorite verses in the whole Bible are in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Those verses are so full. There are so many wonderful themes flowing through them (isn’t the Bible rich?). But among other things, I was struck by how Paul outlines our duty, responsibility and joy of being ambassadors for Christ. Read verses 18-19 a few times and meditate on them. Through Christ we are reconciled to God and through Christ, God gives us the ministry of reconciliation.  He entrusts to us the message of reconciliation! The message that sinners can be reconciled to God is entrusted to YOU.

As verse 20 says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” To me this is incredible. God didn’t send angels to be his ambassadors and make his appeals. He doesn’t choose certain very experienced, highly qualified Christians to work on his behalf. He didn’t select a few very polished speakers to represent him. No! “We”, you and me, ordinary Christians – we are Christ’s ambassadors! God is making his appeals through us! To me that is amazing. And very sobering.

American ambassadors to foreign countries have to be very careful of how they conduct themselves because they represent America. So too, we must be so very careful of how we act before the watching world because we are ambassadors representing Jesus Christ! In Matthew 5:16, our Lord says, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”, and Peter exhorts us in 1 Peter 2:12 to, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

We are ambassadors of the living God. It is our duty, our responsibility and our joy. May God give us grace.

Jesus vs. Religion

I almost hesitate to tell people that I am a Christian. Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16), and I am definitely not ashamed of the gospel or of Christ, far from it. But I am ashamed of the “Christianity” that many professing Christians present to the world. A Christianity that has added in their own codes of legalism – making it ultimately unchristian.

I have tried to witness to far too many people who have simply told me, “Christians are just legalistic, judgemental hypocrites.” And while some say this simply because they don’t like the fact that the Bible condemns sin, most of the time I have to agree with them. Modern-day Pharisees have overrun so many churches and added their codes of legalism to the gospel and judge people based on them.

It certainly is true that the Bible itself does judge Christians who live in blatant sin (see 1 Cor. 5:9-13) and I am not suggesting that Christians turn a blind eye to sin or prescribe to the modern “tolerance” movement. But I am saying that it is wrong to look down on others because they do not follow your personal convictions. I am saying that it is wrong to look down on others because they don’t live up to your standards. In fact, I would argue that it is wrong to look down on anyone for any reason. Even if someone is living in sin, that doesn’t give you a ticket to look down on them. Followers of Christ should be filled with pity for the lost, not contempt.

The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I see that the essence of living the Christian life is the condition of your heart. We all know that looks can be and are deceiving. No one has a perfect life – some people just have better acts than others. I think it is sad that so many Christians judge their standing with God based on the opinions of those around them. Of course, you also have many that judge their standing with God based on how well they are following their own creed. It is as if they pray, “God I thank you that I am righteous, I do not have tattoos, I do not drink, I do not smoke, I do not dance, I do not use bad language…”

You know Luke 18:9 says that Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to, “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt”. Wow. That sounds like far too many American “Christians”. Far too many American Christians have turned the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ into another false religion by adding their own codes.

We are justified in the eyes of God by the finished work of Christ ALONE. Good works will follow because we have new hearts and new desires. But the second that we trust in a single one of our works, rather than the sacrifice of Christ, we are ultimately denying the power of the gospel and trying to add to it.

May God kill the pride in our hearts. In my heart. Salvation is through Christ alone.

The Full Throttle Fellowship

 There is a ring on the middle finger of my brother’s hand (mine too). There is an energy drink can hanging from his rear view mirror (mine too). They both symbolize the same thing. Absolute purity before God prior to marriage.

He didn’t always take this stand. Neither did I. Ever since we were little kids our parents told us that we should save our first kiss for our wedding day. They taught us that courtship was superior to dating. They told us to act in such a way so that we could walk unashamed before God. They were absolutely right but sadly and unfortunately, we didn’t listen.

Without going into all the gory details, we both got burned. I went through a 8-month-long relationship with a girl and gave away my first kiss (much to my shame). I had always thought that I would save my first kiss for when I got engaged. Disagreeing with my parents, I thought that this was still very conservative given how many of my friends and acquaintances kissed every girl that they dated. Once I got into a relationship and convinced myself that we were serious, I rationalized, gave into my girlfriend and gave away my first kiss.

My brother didn’t kiss his girlfriend until they got engaged. Only they never got married. Their wedding was called off 11 days before it happened and, like me, he was left with the mental baggage and bad memories.

We both were incredibly humbled; and grateful that God is a God of second chances. We wear rings and have Full Throttle cans hanging in our vehicles to symbolize our radical commitment to total Christian purity. At first it was just a thing between the two of us, but now it has evolved into a growing ideal and movement. The idea of the Full Throttle Fellowship is that as we run full throttle into everything in life, we should also throw all of our energy and devotion into remaining pure and serving God.

We challenge any and all single Christian men to take our pledge and join us. Our pledge is as follows:

Full Throttle Purity Pledge:

My greatest desire is to bring glory to God. I am joining the Full Throttle Fellowship to take a bold, outspoken stand for Christian purity. I believe that sexual purity before marriage is vital. I pledge to place God first in every relationship present or in the future. I dedicate myself before God to protecting the integrity and reputation of any girl I am in a relationship with. I will treat her as my sister in Christ and joint heir eternal. In keeping with my pledge of purity, I vow to not kiss a girl until I am married to her. I pledge before God to treat her in such a way that at any point up to the day of our wedding the relationship could end and we both could continue on unashamed; knowing that we honored the Lord in every way.

The Ring:

In Old Testament times, the Israelites were commanded to bind verses on their foreheads and sew them in the hems of their clothes to constantly remind them of God. Along the same lines, the point of wearing a purity ring is to be a constant reminder of your vow to honor God in your relationship. The ring can be worn on any finger but the ring finger on the left hand. Pattern or shape is irrelevant; the symbol is the important thing.

May God give us the grace to hold fast to our commitment, may we exalt the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in the way we conduct ourselves and may we encourage others to give all they have in the service of our Lord.

 

Christian/Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) #4

Christian/Christ-follower (Mac/PC parody) #3

Christian/Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part #2

Christian/Christ-follower (Mac/PC parody) #1

Hardcore Prayer

 This evening I walked into the church office of the First Baptist Church in Clinton, LA where my Uncle is co-pastor and saw I paper taped on the wall. It was a prayer by John Piper for his church. I think it is amazing.

————————————————————————————–

O Lord, by the truth of your Word, and the power of your Spirit and the ministry of your body, build men and women at Bethlehem . . .

Who don’t love the world more than God,
who don’t care if they make much money,
who don’t care if they own a house,
who don’t care if they have a new car or two cars,
who don’t need recent styles,
who don’t care if they get famous,
who don’t miss steak or fancy fare,
who don’t expect that life should be comfortable and easy,
who don’t feed their minds on TV each night,
who don’t measure truth with their finger in the wind,
who don’t get paralyzed by others’ disapproval,
who don’t return evil for evil,
who don’t hold grudges,
who don’t gossip,
who don’t twist the truth,
who don’t brag or boast,
who don’t whine or use body language to get pity,
who don’t criticize more than praise,
who don’t hang out in cliques,
who don’t eat too much or exercise too little;

But

who are ablaze for God,
who are utterly God-besotted,
who are filled with the Holy Spirit,
who strive to know the height and depth of Christ’s love,
who are crucified to the world and dead to sin,
who are purified by the Word and addicted to righteousness,
who are mighty in memorizing and using the Scriptures,
who keep the Lord’s Day holy and refreshing,
who are broken by the consciousness of sin,
who are thrilled by the wonder of free grace,
who are stunned into humble silence by the riches of God’s glory,
who are persevering constantly in prayer,
who are ruthless in self-denial,
who are fearless in public witness to Christ’s Lordship,
who are able to unmask error and blow away doctrinal haze,
who are tough in standing for the truth,
who are tender in touching hurting people,
who are passionate about reaching the peoples who have no church,
who are pro-life for the sake of babies and moms and dads and the glory of God,
who are keepers of all their promises, including marriage vows,
who are content with what they have and trusting the promises of God,
who are patient and kind and meek when life is hard.

Pressing for all there is in Christ,

Pastor John

“A Prayer for Our Church”

Our Hope

 As I was driving towards Shreveport this evening with my younger brother on our way to Bible study, I asked him to read me a psalm. He read Psalm 103. It is a very uplifting song of praise and I believes it hits a homerun with regards to the work of Christ. That is very interesting considering it is the old testament, hundreds of years before Christ would come. He is hitting the attributes of God and just exalting the very character of who God is. He is going through the righteousness, the goodness, the power, and the glory of God. And then comes verse ten. And verse ten is right in stride and definitely dealing with the innate character of God. But it is memorable.

Psalms 103:10, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”

Praise the Lord! That’s just about all I can say in response to that. Praise God. The longer I live and the more God shows me the deceit and wickedness in my own heart – the more I rejoice. I think that it is amazing, the gospel never grows old. I never get tired or telling or hearing the gospel. My heart leaps for joy every time I hear the name of Jesus. If you have ever seen the smallest glimpse of your own vile, filthy, wicked heart- you will never tire of hearing the gospel either. 

He doesn’t repay us as we should be! Because we should be damned to hell a million times over for our sin. The wages of sin is death and you earned death. I earned death. I believe that we understand our depravity the more we will praise and glorify Jesus Christ our Lord. 

It is not like a story that grows old. It’s not like the story about your friend almost getting in a car wreck that by the third time they start into it you stop them and say, “That’s alright. I’ve already heard the story. I don’t need to hear it again.”

Praise God for the good news that saves to the uttermost.