|
|
| |
 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
|
| |
| The Nashville Statement
|
| |
|
|
| |
Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
|
| |
Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
|
| |
|
email
|
|
| The beauty of His holiness. |
Immature believers are easily convinced that any continuing presence of sin in their life proves or at the most strongly suggests something illegitimate about their faith. Who among us, no matter where we are in our walk, can say that we have never experienced concern about the legitimacy of our confession, having found ourselves at some weak moment, in the grip of sin?
As we mature, we begin to rely, not on our own effort, but on God's steadfast faithfulness. We do not look to our obedience to prove ourselves legitimate, but we look to God's promise again, with renewed certainty that we were made acceptable to Him in Christ, and that this is a finished work ("...it is finished!") rather than setting our hope in our own imperfect ability to remain ultra holy.
I think a great many preachers attempt to do the work of the Holy Spirit in trying to persuade their congregation, however this persuasion comes, to be more ... well, Christ like. I know the longing desire to see Christ formed, not only in myself, but in others. I know that the world has no balm like the life of Christ which provides not only comfort in the knowledge of a sure reconciliation, but more, provides the Holy Spirit who works in us, conforming us to the image of Christ - in spite of all our failure. Who but God is fit to build His church?
My encouragement for you today is one about where the focus of your faith must remain if you are to grow in it. Do not look to your own sinful self, but look to the God whose steadfastness can keep a promise made, even to a wretch like yourself. God's promise doesn't waver because you are unworthy of it. Learn and live that, and you will find yourself able to draw nearer to God. Those who keep their gaze on their own efforts imagine that God loves them when they are obedient, and hates them when they are not. Of course, since they never feel "good" for long, they end up putting a holy hill between themselves and God, and hamstring their own sanctification.
Funny how that works. They want to be holy in order for God to accept them (bad theology), and it is this very thing that cripples the whole process of sanctification.
Don't get me wrong, we should/must concern ourselves with holiness, and the pursuit thereof - but not as those who do so in order to make themselves acceptable to God. The moment we obey in order to make God like us, we are operating in the flesh. Obedience is supposed to be an act of unfeigned worship. Our flesh will never desire to obey, so that when we do obey, we must be on guard against trying to purchase God's favor through our begrudging effort. It is a sign of maturity to reason, "My flesh hates to obey you in this, but my soul delights to worship you in obeying!"
We cannot draw near to God through obedience that flows from a desire to pacify or placate - rather we draw near first by resting in God's steadfast promises by which we are irrevocably named His children, and given the right to come before Him (in Christ). We first rest, I say, in what God has accomplished in reconciling us to himself - and then, in the certainty that we are His children, and acceptable to Him, not because of our sinlessness, or perfect obedience, but because of Jesus Christ, and what has already been accomplished on our behalf at Calvary - in that strength, I say, we yield our members to obey, not as a means to do again what Christ has already done (reconcile ourselves to God), but rather as a conscious act of worship - to live in accord with the desires of He who made us, and to do so for no other reason than He said we ought to, and we trust Him over our own desires.
Worship God, the scriptures say, in the beauty of His holiness.Labels: Quickie |
posted by Daniel @
10:43 AM
0 comment(s)
 
|
|
|
|
| 960: You Do Church The Wrong Way! |
Your worship style is all wrong. Your programs are all wrong. The church decor is all wrong. The sermon length is too long. The prayer time is artificial. The singing/sermon time is all out of balance. Your small groups are all wrong. Your big groups are all wrong. The way you organize yourself is all wrong. Did I say the service was all wrong? The way you meet is all wrong, and where you meet is all wrong. In fact, everything you do is wrong. Yet for all that you saddle up every Sunday to slake your wrongfully motivated bovine appetites.
Okay. We have all heard how whatever church we go to, is "doing" church wrong. Everyone wants to have a "New Testament" church, but no one wants to admit that almost every church mentioned in the NT was only mentioned because they too were "doing" church wrong.
Yet scripture's criticism of these churches was not that they organized themselves in the wrong way - but rather that they conducted themselves according to their own leading, and not the leading of the Holy Spirit, both individually and corporately.
What made a New Testament church a New Testament Church™ was not the length of the sermon, or whether or not they shuffled their children out of the service the moment the singing stops - rather it was whether or not individuals in that church were surrendered to God in their will.
Your church is stale, and your service old fashioned. Everyone in your congregation knows that it could be so much better, but they have also, for the most part, become increasingly numb to what they are supposed to be, and moreso in the pacifying wake of each passing, slumbering year.
But always and ever the problem is identified as something external. As though there was some group of people holding the real go-getters back. As though if it weren't for the way we organize ourselves, we would be so much more. etc.
Blah, blah, blah.
The problem is spiritual inertia, and it causes the staleness, the deadness, or the slow decay that we see in some churches. But you must understand, that spiritual inertia wasn't produced, nor is it maintained or strengthened by the order of our service, or the manner in which we organize ourselves. Listen, the people who are hyper-concerned about the "way we do church" are the same people who are working in the strength of their flesh, and trying to squeeze out a spiritual sprint out of a new pair of shorts.
Well, I suppose I have penned better analogies, but I am going to stick with that one for now.
Look, do you want a new testament church? Stop trying to clean the outside of the church's cup, and work instead on the inside. What is true of the individual is true of the church. If you have a collection of believers who are sold out to do the will of God with all their heart, it isn't going to matter if they meet in a cave or a cathedral, if they sip coffee, or chew gum - you are going to have a church that finds its unity in their shared Savior, and in His service, and the rest will look after it self.
If you want to do work for God's kingdom, then make it your work to draw near to him. Don't make that a means to an end. Don't draw near to him as a rung on the church change ladder, draw near to him, and forget about the rest, because if you do draw near, the things of this world (such as how we should best organize ourselves) will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
That isn't to say that you get all flaky with your doctrine, and develop an "anything goes" attitude in how you organize yourself. Rather it is to say that once you deal with the real problem, the other things will solve themselves, and if they haven't solved themselves yet, it is because, contrary to what you thing, you haven't actually drawn near to God.
What must you do to do the work of God? Believe on Him whom God sent. That's it. Do this and the other stuff won't be an issue. Try doing the other stuff first, and you will be labouring to build your house in vain.Labels: Quickie |
|
posted by Daniel @
8:44 AM
8 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
| A Quick Truth |
I said as much yesterday in a Twitter tweet, but it bears much repeating.
Yet before I reiterate, I should provide the briefest of context: I have said before, and maintain to this day that there is NOTHING spiritual, noble, or rational (for that matter) about simultaneously believing two (or more) doctrines that seemingly contradict one another. I do not think there is anything humble about willfully clinging to ones own ignorance, and I find it pretty near offensive when someone presents this flaw as a virtue.
Given this context, I will restate yesterday's tweet: Whenever we should find ourselves believing two (or more) theological ideas in such a way that they cannot logically or rationally be reconciled to one another, we demonstrate to ourselves that our understanding of at least one of the ideas is either flawed or naïve.
When this happens we should not be content with our doctrine, but press on in our understanding until the light of harmony comes. Doctrinal slothiness doesn't befit a child of God. Ignorance is seldom innocent, usually we hold onto falsehood or naïve notions because we prefer these to what the bible teaches.
-- Post From My iPhone
Labels: Quickie |
|
posted by Daniel @
6:04 AM
10 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
|
|
