Blogs for today, October 12, 2010

Misplaced Confidence

What makes a disciple?

Leadership questions

What does the word "law" mean in the bible? (thought this was a helpful post)

Are your church members under-employed? (interesting)

Detecting Our Idols

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been reading Tim Keller’s book, “Counterfeit Gods”, and now I am nearing the end of the book. So far, the ending has been the most provocative as the Holy Spirit is using it to examine my heart for the hidden idols that are there.

Here a few statements from the book’s epilogue:

Idolatry is “what is fundamentally wrong with the human heart”. (p. 165)

“Idolatry is always the reason we ever do anything wrong.” (p. 165-166)

“Idolatry is not simply a form of ritual worship, but a whole sensibility and pattern of life based on finite values and making created things into godlike substitutes.” (p. 166)

One thing is for certain: everyone worships something or someone. We are all worshipers. Everyone gives his allegiance to someone or something. Everyone finds security, significance, and importance in someone or something. Ultimately, if it isn’t Jesus, then that thing, whatever it is, is an idol.

What changes is not whether we worship or not, but the object of our worship. Piggy backing off of what Keller says above, our fundamental problem is that we assign ultimate value to things and people that only Jesus rightly deserves.

I believe it was John Calvin who said, “The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.”

Well, what do we do about these idols? How can we detect these idols?

Keller offer four ways:

Check our imagination – “what do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart?” (p. 168)

How we spend our money – “your money flows most effortlessly toward your heart’s greatest love.” (p. 168)

How we respond to unanswered prayers and frustrated hopes – “but when you pray and work for something and you don’t get it and you respond with explosive anger or deep despair, then you may have found your real god.” (p. 169)

Our most uncontrollable emotions – “look for your idols at the bottom of your most painful emotions, especially those that never seem to lift and that drive you to do things you know are wrong” (p. 169

May God’s Holy Spirit transform our hearts and replace our idols with the supreme greatness of Jesus.

Book of Ephesians in 15 minutes

I thought this was really good. Check it out Book of Ephesians in 15 minutes

The Huddle or the Playing Field

This one really hit home with many of our churches: The Huddle or the Playing Field

Vision for Transformation

I began reading a book this week entitled “Tranformational Church” by Ed Stezter and Thom Rainer. The basic idea is that as a disciple-making missional community of believers our primary goal in aiming for the glory of Jesus Christ is to see transformation taking place in people’s lives.

They say, “transformation is at the heart of God’s mission to humanity” (p. 3). Certainly, this is taken right out of Romans 8:29, “for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Through the power of the gospel, God takes a life that is ruined by sin and transforms it into “his workmanship” for His glory.

God’s agent and tool for accomplishing this is through the disciple-making missional community of believers called the church.

However…

“The alternative to this biblically-mandated transformation is to pick a rut and make it deeper. And this is just what many churches have done, preferring, even if not consciously, repetition or even stagnation. As leaders, we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that just managing the status quo is good enough. Some leaders take the merry-go-around approach to church. They think that is they can just keep everyone moving, the flashing lights shining bright, and the music happy, they won’t get any complaints. Some leaders try to take the “don’t rock the boat approach” approach. They think that if we all remain very still in the boat, it won’t turn over. But it also won’t go anywhere.” (p. 3)

“Rather than missionary disciples for Christ going into the world, we have a group of people content to go in circles.” (p. 3)

All of this had gotten me thinking about us as a church. Have we caught this kind of vision for our church—to be a disciple-making missional community of believers who desire & seek to cultivate transformation by the power of the gospel & the Holy Spirit in the lives of our members and our community?

“I can only imagine…” what the Lord wants to do through us for the sake of His kingdom. Let’s dream together for the future that God has for us…catch the vision…transformational church!