A Christian Man’s Travel Plan

This week I’ll be traveling away from home to teach the book of Hebrews in Memphis, TN and then the book of Romans in Little Rock, AR. As I prep for my trip, there are three basic things that are on my mind: family, purity, and ministry. I thought I’d share how I plan for each of these when I’m on the road in case it might help you prepare for your own travels.

 

Family

Whenever I’m gone, I want to make sure my family knows that I love them and that I’m thinking about them. I do this with phone calls, but I also do a couple other things.

1. For my wife I write her a card for each day I’ll be gone. The card usually has a short prayer or a couple sentences telling her something I love about her, and then a verse of Scripture. It takes about 20 minutes to do these cards (depending on how long the trip is) and I’m pretty sure it blesses her more than I realize.
2. For the kids, I try to rally them together before I leave and show them on a map where I’m going. I ask them to pray for me while I’m gone and tell them what I plan to do while I’m there. I don’t always leave them something to open when I’m away, but I always bring them something back to let them know they were on my mind while I was there.    Continue at Garrett Kell

How Far is Too Far? (Part 3)

Earlier this week, Gerald Hiestand expressed the need for pastors and ministry leaders to develop a more thought-out premarital sexual ethic. Research shows that only 20% of Christians remain abstinent prior to marriage. As evangelicals, we are often ready to take a necessary stand on homosexual ethics, yet the issue of heterosexual purity is compromised for nearly 80% of us. And so we want to begin a conversation that may feel offensive, overly conservative, or at a minimum, uncomfortable. Nonetheless, we think it’s an important one to have. We encourage you to begin by reading Gerald’s post and How Far is Too Far Part 1 and part 2 for an introduction to this series of posts.

How far is too far? Perhaps this is the wrong question, but it’s one that is asked nonetheless. Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas give a thought provoking answer in Sex, Dating, and Relationships. What does it mean to adhere to the New Testament’s vision of sexual purity? Here’s a short excerpt:

Don’t eat the cake.

Imagine that a man comes home from work one evening to find that his wife has baked a cake. As he walks into the kitchen, she sees him eying the cake and explicitly states, “Don’t eat that cake; it’s for our party this evening.” He nods in understanding, and she leaves the kitchen. As soon as she leaves, he cuts himself a large slice and places it on his plate. And then, bite by bite, he chews the cake and spits it back onto his plate. Having thus chewed the entire piece (but not swallowed, mind you), he scrapes the chewed piece back into the empty space on the cake tray. At this moment his wife walks back into the kitchen and looks at him in horror. “What are you doing?!” she exclaims. “I told you not to eat the cake!” He looks at her calmly and says with an assuring voice, “And indeed I have not. You see, dear, I define eating as ‘swallowing.’ And since I didn’t swallow the cake, I didn’t eat the cake. In sum, I did not have eating relations with that cake.”   Continue at Crossway

How Far is Too Far? (Part 2)

Earlier this week, Gerald Hiestand expressed the need for pastors and ministry leaders to develop a more thought-out premarital sexual ethic. Research shows that only 20% of Christians remain abstinent prior to marriage. As evangelicals, we are often ready to take a necessary stand on homosexual ethics, yet the issue of heterosexual purity is compromised for nearly 80% of us. And so we want to begin a conversation that may feel offensive, overly conservative, or at a minimum, uncomfortable. Nonetheless, we think it’s an important one to have. We encourage you to begin by reading Gerald’s post and How Far is Too Far Part 1 for an introduction to this series of posts.

WHAT CONSTITUTES SEXUAL RELATIONS?

How far is too far? Perhaps this is the wrong question, but it’s one that is asked nonetheless. Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas give a thought provoking answer in Sex, Dating, and Relationships. What does it mean to adhere to the New Testament’s vision of sexual purity?

Nearly all Christians who take the Bible seriously will acknowledge that sexual activity should be reserved for marriage. And it’s doubtful that anyone—Christian or not—would really try to make a case that oral sex and fondling are not sexual activities. So the line is pretty clear as far as those activities are concerned. But what about kissing? Many (perhaps most) Christian dating couples regularly engage in passionate kissing.

Answering the kissing question is not as difficult as one might think. Clearly some forms of kissing are nonsexual; we kiss our children and our mothers. But there are some forms of kissing that we reserve exclusively for our wives. And the reason we do so is precisely that those forms of kissing are sexual.  Continue at Crossway

Holiness Wars: What Is Antinomianism?

Writing at a time of intense controversy and division within Reformed ranks, the English Puritan Richard Sibbes wrote, “Factions breed factions.” We are called to the peace and purity of the church, but when is the concern for peace a crutch for compromise and when does our appeal to the church’s purity become a cloak for own pride and dogmatism? 

Of course, we all say that we should find our unity around primary truth, but I know of no historical debate in which a partisan advocated schism in the name of “secondary matters.” Repeatedly these days I hear church leaders dismiss important age-old debates because they are not “gospel issues,” as if we had not been commanded by our Lord to “teach them everything I have commanded you.” At the same time, some of the most divisive issues in our churches today concern matters that are not even addressed clearly in God’s Word.

One issue that is clearly addressed in Scripture is sanctification: the work of the Spirit through his Word in uniting us to Christ and giving us the grace to grow up into Christ, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Given the centrality of justification to the Reformation debate, it is not surprising that Reformed, Lutheran and other evangelical bodies are crystal-clear in their confessions and catechisms on this point. In some circles, though, it is at least assumed in practice that our confessions aren’t quite as clear or as emphatic on sanctification. Reformation theology is great in defining the gospel, but when it comes to the Christian life, we need to supplement it with healthy doses of Thomas a Kempis, Spener, Wesley, and their contemporary voices.  Continue at Michael Horton

IMAGE

Do Not Think On These Things

Since hanging this visual of Philippians 4:8 on my office wall, opposite the door, I have been forced to look at it every time I enter the room. As a result, I’ve been thinking about some of the things that I should not be thinking about. That is, the truth and positive perspective exalted by the Scriptures on this poster, which we must put on, have reminded me of how false and negative some of our thought patterns can be, which must be put off. Therefore, I’ve come up with my own list of opposites, sinful thought patterns we each must put out of our mind while at the same time filling it with truth: “Don’t Think On these Things.”

• Whatever Is False (plane): ideas that are erroneous, wandering, and deceitful. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit (1 Thess 2:3).
• Whatever Is Dishonorable (atimia): a lifestyle that is degrading and shameful. Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor (2 Tim 2:20).
• Whatever Is Unjust (adikos): actions that are unjust, unrighteous, and wicked. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much (Luke 16:10, NKJ).
• Whatever Is Impure (akatharsia): any form of impurity and uncleanness. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints (Eph 5:3). 
• Whatever Is Unbecoming (aschemoneo): behavior that is unseemly, improper, and unsuitable. [Love] does not act unbecomingly (1 Cor 13:5).
• Whatever Is Offensive (proskope): a cause for stumbling. [G]iving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited (2 Cor 6:30). 
• Whatever Is Evil (poneros): bad, malignant, wicked, and worthless. [A]bstain from every form of evil (1 Thess 5:22).  Continue at  Paul Tautges

Purity, Power, and the Missing Mark of the Church

Arguably the best general description of the effect the New Testament Church had on its society is given by Luke in Acts 17:6. When an unruly mob could not find Paul and Silas — the source of their irritation — they dragged other Christians before the city officials and declared, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6). What was intended as a damning criticism, however, was actually an unintended accolade because unbelievers were admitting that the early Christians were having a substantial impact upon society, a society characterised by polytheism, gladiatorial combats, sex outside of marriage, divorce, infanticide, and abortion. This account sounds just like life in early twenty-first century Western civilization, doesn’t it? Well, it does, except for the bit about the church turning the world upside down.

Our postmodern, pluralistic society is not far removed in essence from first-century Graeco-Roman society. Ungodliness is still here, immorality is still in evidence, and the life-is-cheap attitude still pervades. But society in the West does not really notice or take seriously the church. Why? Could it be because the reality of the living God is not being seen in the Western church? Could it be because there is no attention-grabbing evidence of the transforming power of the gospel? Could it be because, to some extent, the sign ichabod is metaphorically hanging over the doors of many sanctuaries and around the necks of many Christians? And if all this is the case, why is it the case? Could it be because, generally speaking, Christians in the West are simply not as devoted to the Apostles’ teaching as we should be? I am increasingly convinced that this is the case.   Keep Reading>>>