Living Grace

"Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man’s sinfulness and guilt, calling on ‘all men everywhere to repent,’ results in shallow conversions; and so we have myriads of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that ‘faith without works is dead’; and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God."—H.A.IRONSIDE, Except Ye Repent, p. 11.

Thank the Lord for men like H.A. Ironside. He is an inspiration to me and everytime I read one of his works or sermons, it seems that he is using God's Word to deal with me personally. I can not help but to wonder what would happen if we could get the above quote to all of the evangelical churches in America and ask their pastors and staff to ponder them! Those men who are called to proclaim God's Word are called to call sinners to repentance; i.e. to call the lost to change their minds about their spiritual condition and their views concerning God and His Christ. To go from sufficient to need so that they may become rich!
It is one thing to preach grace, but the pastor who preaches it had better live it. This may be misconstrued as one needing to start orphanages or homeless shelters, and while these are good things in helping the poor, they do not meet the greatest need... that of Christ! I mean, think about it... if Christians give the world food, clothes, and healthcare, but neglect the Gospel, you will end up with full, clothed, and healthy people in Hell.
By living out grace, we are in constant reflection of what Christ has done for us on the cross and from the pondering of His riches that are made freely available to us through no effort of our own, we then seek to bless others, and the greatest way that we can bless them is to introduce them to the source of our joy so that they too may be saved! Social justice is good. Homeless shelters are good. But neither will save. Only Christ can do that.

As a side note, I am a huge fan of LOGOS Bible software and I use it everytime I prepare a sermon or do studying of any kind. It is the most complete and thorough Bible study software on the market today! They have just started production on the works of H.A. Ironside and you can get it from them at a special price before it is released to the public. If you do not have LOGOS, please feel free to contact me and I can get you a special discount! Check out http://www.logos.com/ for more details

Making It Clear.

I recently returned from the Free Grace Alliance Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas. The Free Grace Alliance's (FGA) main goal is to make the grace of the Gospel clearly understood in this growing age of evangelical confusion and chaos. At the conference, grace was everywhere! Everyone was kind and friendly and to be honest (for the first time in my life while being at a conference) they weren't fake! (Fake people piss me off, so that's why I bring that up.)
I had the opportunity to sit under some great Bible scholars and grow from what I was being taught. I am appreciative that conviction came from their messages and that I could appreciate the paddling that I was getting! I am particularly thankful for both Dr. Charlie Bing and Dr. Charles Ryrie, both of whom I had the opportunity to meet at the conference. Dr. Ryrie gave a simple commission to the crowd to keep the Gospel clear and do not muddy it up with requirements, laws, unreasonable demands, and fleshly commitments. In his conversation with me (in the picture) he was very encouraging!
One person that I must thank the Lord for is Dr. Charlie Bing. His workbook, "Living the in the Family of Grace" helped to open my eyes to the grace message and changed my Christian life forever. I can not begin to explain how thankful I am for all that he has and is doing in order to help people understand the Grace of the Gospel!!!
Dr. Bing's workbook was the major player that resulted in the end of my self-reliant upkeep of my Christian walk and ultimately led to the destruction of my pride, guilt, insecurity, and law-imposed slavery that I felt from 5 years of bad Bible teaching!
Resurgence (the church that I pastor) will have the privilege of hosting him for a conference on "Living the Grace Life" on October 17th-19th. I am excited for the people of Resurgence to learn and growing and hopefully be destroyed by the grace message.
Let me say in closing that it is so important that we keep the Gospel clear. We can not call on people to submit their unregenerate flesh to unreasonable demands that are simply not found in the Gospel. Asking someone to make Jesus "Lord of their life," asking them to "forsake all of their sins," telling someone that they must "be baptized," or "say a prayer," or "come down the aisle" are all impossible tasks to add to the Gospel message! The Gospel simply does not say that one must turn from their sins in order to be saved. The means is by faith! Believing that Christ died in our place and rose from the dead. The direction is only one way and that is from God to us. To add anything to it is to say that we are a "co-redeemer" in the process, and that simply can not be true, nor do I know of any evangelical that would claim that. The issue is sin and who is going to settle the account with God and His wrath.
Jesus did it all!!!!
Rest in this glorious fact and understand that we are "justified freely by His grace!"- Romans 3:24

The Atmosphere of Change

Change is all around us. Lyricist Neil Peart writes that "constant change is here to stay." We hear political vomit that speaks of "change that we can believe in," and we believe it just because it is articulated well. The point is that people are seeking a change. The norm is not sufficing anymore. Plain doesn't cut anymore. The same ol' same ol' is just that... old.
People are seeking a great shake-up. I can't help but to picture a game of Boggle and people are going crazy with the case; shaking it with all of their might and hoping for something different every time. But I believe that there is one thing that we forget about whenever change is in the air, is that there must be a plain of stability. And even though the change is needed, warranted, and even necessary, the stability factor sometimes stays the same.

I say this as I am sitting at a training conference for church planters that myself and some of the core group at Resurgence went through last March. It's a grueling day! Tons of information and creativity that can be both rewarding and frustrating. Trying to capture your thoughts and heart on paper get difficult really quick. And of course when you throw God in the mix, it gets tricky and sobering.
What I am hearing from the people whom God has called to plant churches is that they are seeking change. Let me be quick to say that they are seeking change, not abandonment! Understand that change does not necessarily mean abandonment. These are people who have a common rallying point in that the Bible is the Word of God; infallible, inerrant, and inspired, but they have different hearts for different people in different communities that the same ol', same ol' are not reaching. The stability is the same; i.e. the Word of God, but the fire is fresh, excitement is contagious, creativity is infectious.
Is the fire still fresh in your setting? If not, what quenched it? We can't blame life because life has always been there. So that is not a valid excuse.
I am sure that we can determine it to a lack of focus.
FOCUS is essential to maintaining a fire for Jesus. God gives vision. God stirs conviction and this births passion. Let's seek to be like brand new church planters who are excited and scared, but focused and and fired up about changing the landscape of ministry on the same stable plain of God's Word.
How else would you obey the Lord?

Postmodernism

It’s a bright day. The sun is warming your bones but not over bearing your senses. It is seemingly the perfect day. It is the day that you have always longed for… so you decide to enjoy it by going for a walk. As you begin, you breathe deep. There is a slight chirp from the birds and even the locusts have decided to make themselves known by humming in a slight drone. In view are the neighborhood kids, playing with a tricycle and a homemade ramp of which they will conquer gravity. Approaching at a steady pace is a man that seems to be in his mid-forties. He seems to be enjoying the day, much as yourself, and he spots you and waves gingerly. You give a slight smile and give a casual “howdy” to the man as he approaches. The man motions for you to slow your pace and you anticipate the conversation, but much to your surprise, it is not what you expected. The man looks at you with a slight smile and an outstretched hand and says, “I think you should give me all of the cash and credit cards in your wallet.” “Excuse me,” you respond. “I said that I think that you should give me all of your cash and your credit cards in your wallet.” How do you respond? What right does this man have to take your personal belongings? And much less, to ask for them outright! He must be mentally unstable of have an incredible amount of nerve. Or, he could be a real life, played out version of postmodern thought. There he is, right in front of your face, setting his own standards, for his own benefit, and disregarding anything that would infringe on his preferences.

Now, it's easy to see that in this world, standards are in place. But where did they come from? In case you missed it, I am talking to those who claim to be evangelicals but want to deny the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Let's be honest and logical. If the Bible tells us how to be saved, yet we believe that the Bible is not true, then how do we know that Jesus is the Way? This is the dangers of "buffet Christianity." You can not take what you like and leave the rest that does not gel with your current, comfortable situation. So encourage you... read the Bible critically, as critically as possible, because it is true and it will stand up to any scrutiny that is thrown at it.