The Well 05-11-08

Tech Line Up:

Direct: Chris Ballard

Video Switch: Joel Edgar

Video 1: Rob Breedlove

Video 2: Gunnar Johnson

Still Camera: Ben Douglass

Sound: Jeremy Green

Lights: Adam Poncy

Powerpoint: Jason Schloesser

 

Prophet, Priest, and King

“In sum, Christ saves sinners by uniting in himself the offices of prophet, priest and king. As a prophet Christ removes our sinful ignorance by his word; as a priest he purges our offending guilt by his sacrificial blood; and as a king he conquers evil and protects his people by his limitless power. Christ functioned in his threefold office during his earthly humiliation; he serves in the same manner through the Spirit in his heavenly exaltation. A person is saved when Christ becomes his or her prophet, priest, and king.” (Demarest, “The Cross and Salvation,” 186-187)

I was wondering if sometimes we chose one of Christ’s offices and neglect the other two.  Perhaps some of us take advantage of Christ’s office of Prophet by accruing an intellectual knowledge of all of the truth that he bestowed on us by his earthly ministry and the ministry of His Spirit in the apostles.  In neglecting the other two we may have an intellectual agreement with the fact that He died as a sacrifice for our sins but that recognition of this loving sacrifice doesn’t affect us the way it should; in terms of thankfulness and the spurring on of love and good deeds to others.  In neglecting his role as king we might not see an affect on our lives toward obedience and submission to his teaching and example.  We may emphasize his role as priest, where he offered himself as the sacrificial payment to God covering our sins and redeeming us for a reconciled relationship with our Father in heaven, but neglect his teachings and revelation, as a prophet, of the character of God and therefore demonstrate laziness in our obedience to him as King.  If we overemphasize his office as king we may seek to be righteous through obedience to him while having a diminished understanding of his teachings because we don’t value the teachings as much as the ability to be obedient to our king.  While obeying the king we may often forget that our sin has been atoned for through the ministry of Christ as priest.  It seems clear to me that we desperately need to have a balanced understanding of his offices to better know who Christ is and to be affected by that knowledge.

 

Online Commentary

Every once in a while someone will ask me about a good commentary or I’ll talk with someone that is frustrated with their own bible study because there is so much they don’t understand in scripture. I think there is no reason to endure a lot of this frustration. A lot of people have gone their whole Christian life without taking advantage of the assistance that can be found in a good commentary. Using a commentary isn’t an admition that you are a poor student of the bible, they exist to provide the lay student, as well as the highly trained student, of the bible with the fruits of hours of study done by a scholar who is skilled in study and communication of God’s eternal truths. Take advantage of that. One of my professors has made his own study notes available online for free! They go verse by verse, have background information, and outline information to help you get the big picture. Dr. Constable is a Bible Exegesis Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and his notes can be found at www.SonicLight.com or you can just Click Here.

 

Ramaḍān

Today is the first day of Ramadan during which Muslim people will fast for 30 days. The following is a paragraph from wikipedia on what it is.:

Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان, Ramaḍān) is an Islamic religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when the Qur’an was revealed. The name “Ramadan” is taken from the name of this month; the word itself derived from an Arabic word for intense heat, scorched ground, and shortness of rations. It is considered the most venerated and blessed month of the Islamic year. Prayers, sawm (fasting), charity, and self-accountability are especially stressed at this time; religious observances associated with Ramadan are kept throughout the month. Ramadan is divided into three ten-day parts, or ashra (Arabic for ten). They are named Rahmat (mercy of God), Maghfirat (forgiveness of God), and Najat (salvation), respectively. Laylat al-Qadr, which falls during the last third, commemorates the revelation of the first verses of the Qur’an and is considered the most holy night of the year. Ramadan ends with the holiday Eid ul-Fitr, on which feasts are held. During the month following Ramadan, called Shawaal, Muslims are encouraged to fast for a further six days.

Many people that would like to see Muslims recognize Christ as savior will be using this month as a time of more frequent and concentrated prayer for the Muslim world. Islam’s influence is far reaching, from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the Pacific rim, and even Denton, TX. Many Christians will also participate in fasting during this time as they commit to prayer. I would encourage anyone to do likewise. This doesn’t mean fasting from any food for 30 days. Muslim people will fast from sun-up to sun-down, not eating or drinking, and then they will celebrate and eat at night. Some Christians I know participate in various ways; some fast only from lunch, using that as a time to pray, others don’t fast at all but commit extra time to prayer in this area, some fast from food but not drink from sun-up to sun-down, and some might to the real deal and fast like the Muslims do. Whatever you think will cultivate an attitude and practice of prayer and concern during this month is great.

 

Back to School

Well its been forever since I posted anything, and since school is back in session and I’m going to have a lot to think about over this next semester I guess its time to get back on it. A fellow student asked the question yesterday if our professor thought that the reason that our nation seems to be so overtly lost  because we hold God at arms length rather than rejecting Him outright. The professor agreed and I can see why. As I observe other nations with either an atheistic world view or even a theistic world view, whether pantheistic or monotheistic, they all seem to have some mechanism in their society for controlling the extent of their immorality. Of course just about every nation is pretty bad off in this area; but as you look at America, a supposedly “Christian” nation, though more accurately a “post-Christian” nation, it seems as though we indulge in the many manifestations of sin freely and without a crisis of conscience. So many people would claim to believe in God, they might even claim to be Christian, yet by holding God at “arms length”…leaving him at church on Sunday, or even leaving him as a memory from our childhood when we were more religious, we have given ourselves the freedom to not fear the creator or his wrath. America does not shy away from sin because America thinks they know God and that they have Him right where we want Him. This is foolishness because there is no conceptual box that is big enough to contain or restrain the God of the Universe. Our nation must admit to itself that the Christian faith is not a national identity, a family value, or a fallback option but is instead the way the truth and the life.

On an unrelated topic, I liked this quote from Spurgeon that came up in another class.

“I believe the doctrine of election
because I’m quite certain that if God had
chosen—if God had not chosen me, I should
never have chosen Him. And I’m sure He
chose me before I was born or else He never
would have chosen me afterward. And he must
have elected me for reasons unknown to me
for I never could find any reason in myself
why he should have looked upon me with
special love.”

 

Spiritual Disciplines

I had a couple conversations with some friends, Tommy Rutledge wanted me to drop his name in here, about the topic of spiritual disciplines. A friend asked me what they are and though I thought I had a good understanding of it I fumbled around with an answer. I decided to go to the bible and see what the fruit of some study might be. I have this fancy program on my computer which helps me with greek study and this time its use was very fruitful.

The first verse people will often go to as a reference to the disciplines is 1 Tim 4:7

But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; (1 Tim 4:7) ( see also, Heb 5:14, 12:11 and 2 Pt 2:14)

The word used here and in 3 other places is Gymnazo. You don’t have to be a greek student or a linguist to see what words we get from this. How about gymnasium and gymnastics. My lexicon told me that it was commonly used in ancient literature to refer to gymnastic training (often in the nude, which is actually an important detail). This word is related to another word, gymnos, that means stripped bare or naked. It is used in Mark 14:52 about a man (maybe Mark himself) that was following the group that arrested Jesus but when they grabbed him he ran leaving his linen sleeping attire in their hands, and so he was “stripped bare.” Athletes in the 1st century would train and compete naked, that is why this is significant. This is just to emphasis that the word here for discipline carries the idea of training that comes from athletics. I think it might also be important that this type of training involved the removal of cumbersome clothing, remember they didn’t have under armour back in the day.

So, the spiritual disciplines carry the idea of training, training for what. This verse tells us…”for the purpose of godliness.” The most impactful realization that I came to while thinking this through was that my definition of what constitutes a spiritual discipline is mostly dependant on my definition of godliness. If we think that godliness is defined by the actions and practices of the face themselves, we will likely fall into legalism and wear ourselves out. If we define it the way it should be defined, our practice of the spiritual disciplines will lead us to an “uncommon reverence and respect” for God and a deeper relationship with Him. I think this distinction of true godliness is important because it points us toward the proper goal, that of worshiping God rightly, not merely going throught he motions of what we perceive to be effective Christianity.

I did a small word study on the word for Godliness (eusebeia). The lexicon gave the definition of “awesome respect according to God, devoutness, piety, godliness. In this verse it is an adjective but is related to the verb which means to show uncommon reverence or respect, show profound respect for someone. Essentially I think our practice of the disciplines should lead to greater devotion to God and more authentic worship of Him.

This is what our spiritual disciplines and the practice of them should lead to, they are not an end in themselves. Some commonly accepted disciplines are: solitude, silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study and meditation upon God’s Word and God’s ways, service to others, scripture memory, and fasting. I could name more, and some of these came out of Dallas Willard’s book “Spirit of the Disciplines.” He explains what they are in a different way. That by practicing them we are living like Christ. I’m not sure if I’m explaining it better but this study helped me in my motivation to engage more fully in the discipines of the Christian life…for the right reason.

 

Prayer Misunderstood by Hollywood

Melissa Ethridge sang a song entitled “I Need To Wake Up” and there was a screen beind the band flashing exhortations to the world to be more eco-friendly. That’s great, I definatley have no problem with that. I was struck by one statement in particular. One line asked us to “pray that people will find the power to change.” What struck me first was that Hollywood, or at least the Academy Awards (which can be considerd the epitome of all that is Hollywood), was asking me to pray. Obviously Hollywood hasn’t been converted, and now believes in the power of prayer. Who are we being asked to pray to. I often hear about events suffering backlash for calling people to prayer. I doubt that will happen here because the higher power is unnamed. Actually, what confuses me more is that we are called to pray not for power, but that we will find power. Where is this power supposed to come from, within ourselves? Think about it. We were asked to pray to a higher power…for the power…to find a power…to change. Anyone else think this is odd. How wonderfully blessed we are as believers in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity seems to actually simplify things when compared to Hollywood’s perspective on prayer. If we need change, we simply pray to God for power and he takes care of the rest because all power is sourced in Him. We have access to him to pray for that power through the work of His son on the cross, and he supplies that power through the Holy Spirit. The Godhead already has the infrastructure in place to recieve our petition for power and to then supply it. It is no mystery for us which higher power we need to seek for power or where that power will come from. Basically the Trinity asnweres the questions…Who do we pray to?…Why will He listen?…and How will he dispense His answer?…How blessed we are. James 5:16 was quoted to me earlier today by an ex-con and addict. He said, “the effective prayer of a righeous man can accomplish much.” This is true because God has power and he hears our prayers. My brother in Christ that quoted this to me has seen the power of prayer, I have too but I still hope to see God work miracles like the ones that he could testify about.

 

Jacked-Up Statistics

I was waiting to meet with a professor and came across a magazine with some statistics that I had heard before and was convicted by. I thought I would post them here for anyone to consider. These stats are jacked up not because they are wrong, but because of what they might indicate about how we as the church are pursuing the mandate of world evangelism.

PEOPLE GROUPS: are large sociological groupings of individuals who have a common affinity - a shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, or situation. For evangelistic purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without significant barriers.

• 27,000 PEOPLE GROUPS
  • unreached - 13000
  • reached - 14000

We’re half-way there people! That may encourage or discourage you, that probably depends on you.

CULTURAL PEOPLE BLOCS: This part really convicts me. CP Blocs are broad categorizations of the worlds people into eight major cultures (defined by the predominant religion within the group, also considering the group’s geography, language, and history). Consider especially the number of Non-Christians per missionary to decide if we need to change how we send.

• Christian Block
  • Unreached People Groups———————-0
  • Reached People Groups——————-10,000
  • Christians———————— 1,906,000,000
  • Non-Christians———————329,000,000
  • Foreign Missionaries———————413,100
  • non-Christians per missionary———-796
• Buddhist Bloc—————————–367,200,000
  • Unreached People Groups——————1,500
  • Reached People Groups———————-300
  • Christians—————————-14,900,000
  • Non-Christians———————359,800,000
  • Foreign Missionaries———————–2,700
  • non-Christians per missionary—-133,259
• Folk Chinese Bloc————————-386,800,000
  • Unreached People Groups——————3,200
  • Reached People Groups———————-500
  • Christians—————————-64,800,000
  • Non-Christians———————956,200,000
  • Foreign Missionaries———————–5,400
  • non-Christians per missionary—-177,074
• Hindu Bloc—————————–1,021,000,000
  • Unreached People Groups—————–3,200
  • Reached People Groups———————500
  • Christians—————————64,800,000
  • Non-Christians———————956,200,000
  • Foreign Missionaries———————–5,400
  • non-Christians per missionary—-177,259
• Muslim Bloc—————————1,285,000,000
  • Unreached People Groups—————–5,500
  • Reached People Groups———————600
  • Christians—————————38,500,000
  • Non-Christians——————-1,246,500,000
  • Foreign Missionaries———————–4,200
  • non-Christians per missionary—-296,786
• Non-Religious Bloc———————–917,700,000
  • Reached People Groups———————200
  • Christians—————————89,000,000
  • Non-Christians———————828,700,000
  • Foreign Missionaries———————12,000
  • non-Christians per missionary—–69,058
    • this bloc includes persons professing no religion or no interest in religion

 

Perspectives on the Trinity

For a school assignment, I needed to interview 3 ministry leaders on the topic of the Trinity. Many of us don’t understand the significance of it and so I thought I’d post the rough transcripts of what was said for people to consider. Check it out:

Shea Sumlin: College Pastor @ Denton Bible Church

Prayer:

When first understood the Trinity and their different roles it really affected the way I pray…I was taught to pray to the Father in the Son’s name through the Holy Spirit. It really affected my communion with God through prayer in understanding that it was the Holy Spirit who was interceding for me in my prayer life, that it’s only through what Christ has done on the cross that I can even have confidence in prayer, that I can approach the throne of grace with confidence. And that I’m addressing the person of God…

Community:

What I’ve learned about the communion that takes place and the relationship that takes place there, that God has created us in his image and we are therefore designed for relationship and community. It has changed the way that I relate to people, theres not only a need for community but I’m wired for that need.

Relating to Church and College Ministry:

There are different parts of the body that come together, not as separate entities, and that is reflective of the Trinity. We wire our whole Col min around that, small groups are huge for us not only for discipleship and the sanctification process but its just doing life in community, and there’s a need for one another b/c all of us have different roles to play.

Jono Brooks: Worship Director @ Denton Bible Church

General Thoughts:

Serving with the strength that the spirit provides

Calling upon the character of God the Father

Under the protection of the blood of Christ

Relating to Worship:

I don’t often try to worship all three at once. The relationship that the Trinity has within itself has a direct influence on an understanding of the command to worship God because there is something that doesn’t make sense to people when they hear that God demands worship. They see it as selfish and unloving. When you show them that the very make up of the Trinity…one of its chief designs [aspects]… is so that God can glorify and worship himself by the relationship and service that Christ has to the Father and that the Holy Spirit then gives to man so that man can worship God as well gives you a real good argument and understanding of why and how God is to be worshipped. If I’m trying to make an argument that God is the only being in the universe that can demand to be worshiped and is worthy to be worshipped, that is the chief argument that I go to.

Mike Scheer: Mission Staff, Serve International Director @ Denton Bible Church

“all theology traces back to the Trinity”

I would view the Trinity in more of a social model, where the relationship in the Trinity provides more than just a model for ministry but for marriage, local churches. You’ve got a Godhead that has intimacy, communication, both within itself but also reaches beyond itself. I would probably not emphasize the Piper model where God creates out of a seeking of his own glory, out as an act of creativity and love which is in consistency with his character…knowing that the ultimate end will be that that creation will then glorify him but that not being the ultimate goal. He has always been a giving God so the concept of him being self-giving instead of self-seeking has been really influential in all areas of my life…Especially in mission, why is it that we are a missional community? Why is it that we go? We go because he went. Titus 3 is a great testimony on outreach. We are to be the good deed doers, why is it that we are supposed to do that? The point is that in Titus 3-7 is because God came to serve you when you were in need. A lot of the great Christological passages are in the context of God the father acting out of his self giving love. The definition of our constitution is that we have been formed by a self-giving God to be a self-giving representative in this world. In MTI we teach to the guys that we’re sending out that the church by definition is the presence of God in this age, and that that’s the way we need to see ourselves.

We respond to God in a couple ways, whether its worship, instruction (i.e. study) in deepening our understanding of who God is, and we also need to reflect God to a dying world. We do that internally through fellowship and through service, but we also do it through outreach…In that the Trinity is self-giving within itself, so we ought to be self-giving to each other…fellowship is more of a mutual “I do for you, you do for me,” like the “one another” passages…the shared identity. The service is more the spiritual gifts, “I serve the body in a selfless way” knowing that as I do that we all benefit. So we do that just as the Trinity has intimacy and communication and interaction.

We also serve beyond our body, just as we see exampled in the Trinity as we see it going beyond itself in creation and then redemption. So, in my mind the Trinity serves as a foundation in a very applicable way to how we should live in relationship…as the local church, as a ministry to this world, and even in our interpersonal relationship. Understanding the Trinity in the social model took the Trinity from being a list of attributes to something that is directly applicable, to being able to ask “is our church healthy” and the answer is in how we are responding to or reflecting the Trinity…what’s that mean?…I think we look at the social interaction within the Trinity and we see that internal relationship of fellowship, community, and service. Submission and leadership…some of those hierarchy issues. And then how the Trinity interacts with that which is outside of it. That model was liberating for me and really made the Trinity something that applied to daily life.

 

Mission??? What’s that?

How do you conceptualize missions? A classmate of mine fumbled around today when my evangelism professor put him on the spot. He fumbled around because my spunky Hispanic professor intimidated him but his definition was probably in line with most people in the class. And most people in our churches today. Our contemporary definition describes people doing ministry at a great physical or social distance. This, of course, is within the realm of the proper definition but fails to adequately define mission for the people of God. Our current understanding is not only limited but limiting. If people in the church continue to conceptualize mission as an endeavor for people whose level of commitment to the task warrants the title “missionary,” then the rest of the body of Christ will fail to see how they are to be a part of God’s mission every day. Mission is not defined by the nature of the task but by the nature of the God for whom the task exists. God is revealing himself to us, his creation…this is His mission (or rather, his movement toward us)…therefore our mission, as derived from God’s nature is to reveal him in word and deed. It may actually help us to consider our former definition of mission; for example, what if we were to approach life like a missionary in a foreign context. What decisions will you go through and how will you make them…

1.) Living situation – you will choose to live close to the target audience (perhaps Russian college students) and you may choose to live near any nationals that you may already have a discipleship relationship with to maximize missional potential.

2.) Cell Phone – It will be filled with the numbers of strangers you meet on the metro, students you meet on campus, basically just people that you hope to have 5 more minutes with so that you can finish the gospel conversation that got cut short when you met before.

3.) Finances – you are supported by 50 families that expect to hear about your faithful service through newsletters so you live efficiently in order to be a good steward of the finances that have been given for the sake of the mission.

These are just a few areas that one might give careful consideration. Tell me, as I try to tell myself, what is so stinking different about how the missionary must live and make decisions from the college student in Denton Texas or the young professional that hates his job and is looking for a new one or the well off old guy in the church that likes to throw his money at other people that are willing to share their faith so that he can feel better about his lack of a missional lifestyle. I’ve been encouraged recently by hearing about a few college students who are starting to make missionally determined decisions about their lives. I am not one of them. I desperately need to grow in this area. Do you?