The more I study God’s word and the more I seek to know Him more, the more I am so burdened for the church in America.  We have become so man centered and so activity focused in our churches that we have all but left the glorious gospel of God behind or set the gospel up on a shelf for all to admire from a distance only to be shadowed by “bigger and more important things.”Over twenty years ago I went through the motions of repeating a prayer from a pastor as I walked a long isle.  Like a magic mantra, I repeated the words of my preacher, was baptized shortly after, and was told subsequently that I was saved.  I had no understanding of sin, repentance, the holiness of God, the justice of God or my condition as a sinner.  I was told to simply repeat a prayer.  While it was an emotional experience it was not one that was wrought by the Spirit of God through repentance and faith.  I am so grateful that my God did later save me.  He transformed by heart of stone to a heart of flesh and my faith is not in a decision.  My faith is not even in my faith.  My faith is an ongoing faith in the person and work of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  And that faith is a precious gift from my God - the God that for most of my life I lived in horrendous rebellion.  Despite that hellish rebellion, He saved me.  That my friend is amazing grace.

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It is so refreshing to read a book that exalts Christ on every single page and lifts the glorious doctrines of the substitutionary, vicarious, penal atonement of Christ from Scripture.  It seems these days that you have to dig to the bottom shelf at the back of your local Christian bookstore to find anything worth reading.

This excellent book, The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness by Jerry Bridges & Bob Bevington, is an absolute joy to read.  The forward by Sinclair Ferguson, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church right here in my hometown of Columbia, SC is a magnificent read in itself.

Bridges & Bevington walk through the doctrine of the substitutionary death of Christ chapter by chapter by isolating it in different books of the Bible.  The book opens with a great introduction and overview of the doctrine then shows how the apostles themselves summarized the substitutionary death of Christ in their writings.  Following that is an excellent overview of Christ’s atoning cross-work as found in the Old Testament.

The authors then take you through a well written, theologically sound and very reformed overview of the substitutionary death found in the New Testament Scriptures as found in Romans, 1,2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1,2 Thessalonians, 1,2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews (which is an extensive chapter), 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation.

The writing is engaging and written at a level that both the layperson and the well-read theologian will both admire.  From page to page is the exaltation of our Lord and Savior’s substitutionary death on the cross.  The writers take time to exegete Scripture well and provide great historical context from each book.

I found one particular line in the book so well put considering the flood of prosperity preaching in the world today that tries so blasphemously to turn the cross into a means for material, worldly riches:

“Jesus offers no prosperity gospel.  Christ is not a means to and end for the Christian - He is the end.”  (Page 154)

I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to read a lot of good Christian books - many of the reformed flavor and this is one that will remain in arms reach on my bookshelf.  Every Christian should read this book.  Pastors today need desperately to return to the correct, Biblical understanding of the cross and books like “The Great Exchange” are a welcomed addition to the back of the Christian bookstores!

Download a pdf of the Foreward, Preface and Introduction.

Head on over to monergismbooks.com to order your copy today!

I recently had the joy of traveling out of the States to the “heart” of Europe.  Whether you think it’s the heart of Europe or not, Slovakia is a beautiful country with open fields and rolling mountains… Any way, while we were there, our team spent nearly a week in the northern mountains running a English speaking camp for Slovak students. Though there are several stories and great things I could share about what God did in Slovakia and how he made himself known. I want to take this post to share my personal experience and the subtle impact it has had upon my life.

I’ve struggled pinning it down but this might be how I would describe it. This difference is something like a better view from the overlook of a mountain, a far greater understanding of the call for us to go. To see the need for His presence to be made known and to make it known. Yes, through teaching and sharing about him, but also through the care and time that he desires for our relationships daily whether abroad or at home. Sure, a month ago I would have agreed with that statement, that I believed all of that. Yet, when participating in an effort to go beyond our own land. Something about affirming a statement and not living it out or at least not yet to experience it doesn’t settle well with me. (Matthew 5-7 is something that came to mind)

It’s very easy to come back from such a trip and really feel like you’ve got some things figured out. I truly desire to be careful and intentional  enough to let things simmer down a bit and for the realities of my “localized” community settle back in. Yet coming back was not the usual “spiritual high” experience for me. That makes me think of Psalm 33:10. He will ruin our plans and bring them to nothing. A humbling truth when we really think about his grip on our lives and his desire for the nations.

Though I’ve been called to live where I am now. The impact has been a new unsettled feeling, a desire to move forward with this new understanding. In other words a clearer view of the next step or a more focused perspective of the current stage of life I am called.

One of the most interesting lies that has been magnified by this trip for me was the idea we like to convince ourselves of “I’ve just had no desire to go and do that sort of thing”. This is a statement that I didn’t like before, but now even more so after going. It’s magnified itself in conversations. I don’t think we’re all meant to go to the tough places, and many of us might not be called out of our “mother land”. Yet, the statement above does not justify our lack of striving toward and wrestling with a greater vision of God’s desire to see people groups come to know Him. Think about Jonah… Sometimes, being pulled out of the comforts of our surroundings and into a completely different society is what God requires for us to be a part of what He is doing globally. Having God place us in a society with challenges that are either different or possibly greater than our homeland can transform us and make us seek after Him in new ways.

Now, before  you think I’ve gotten on my high horse just after one mission trip. (Yes, this was my first to a foreign land) I want to be sure that you know I’m not trying to point the finger at the “American” church as a blanket statement to THE church. There are thousands that go every year and serve abroad. Yet I’m also not willing to say that we’ve got it right. No, there is much to do and I’m saddened that there is still too few who are willing to go to people groups that don’t know Jesus. I think to confirm either status would be foolish, though I’m more willing to vocalize the need for discipline within our churches because of it’s current slothful nature and unregenerate status. What I think is greater to point out is the need for us to be striving to see the world as He sees it and to go no matter what. (EASIER SAID THAN DONE)

For so long I’ve sat on the sidelines and have watched several of my friends go on trips and come back changed. (Though our personal transformation is not the entire impact of a trip, it does play a roll in our relationship with our God and the world.) They would come back different, striving for something I could not understand. They had gained a new world vision. Maybe I was jealous, because I never thought this was something I could do or would do.  No, by saying this I’m not glorifying missions as a means to justify ourselves. BY NO MEANS! I know several devoted and godly christians who are not called out of their homeland. What I hope to emphasize is the great need for us to live in such a way that we reflect God’s heart for the nations. That we become devoted to our Lord’s calling that we strive to be obedient to His call regardless of “our” desire. To Love God and to Love Others.

Here is a thorny question: should a person who clearly shows evidence of a regenerate life be excluded from a local fellowship because they hold that their infant baptism is sufficient?  Would allowing them to be a member show a disregard for the biblical command that all believers be baptized or is excluding them a case where a local congregation is putting greater restrictions on church membership than exist for membership in the church universal?

This is the issue that the leadership at Bethlehem Baptist have been apparently wrestling with for a number of years and their pastor, John Piper, spent three weeks outlining the issue before their congregation by taking them back to the bible on the importance of both church membership and baptism before finally bringing the series to a close with a call to community.  This series is thought-provoking and sets before us questions of amazing importance that all believers should wrestle with.

*edited on August 3, 2008

“We are not sent to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not a new social order but a new birth; not revolution but regeneration; not renovation but revival; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new organization but a new creation; not democracy but the gospel; not civilization but Christ; we are ambassadors, not diplomats.”

— Hugh Thomson Kerr

There has been a trend in American Christianity lately to focus on the confession of sin.  If this was a focus that was Biblical I would be rejoicing but what we are seeing is a trend that focuses on confession of sin outside of the only basis for that confession - the cross of Christ.   Do a cursory search on the internet for online confessionals and you’ll find that most if not all are encourage people to confess their sins, often anonymously, in an effort to help the sinner feel better - all without ever mentioning the only way forgiveness of sins is offered…  through the substitionary atonement of Christ on the cross.

One such site boasts in bold print 1 John 1:8-9.  Here is that beautiful verse of Holy Scripture…

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (ESV)

This verse, used out of context alone on a web site that allows people to confess their sins by posting them on a site, one may easily believe that since they have openly confessed their sins that God will forgive them.  There is one problem - God is not obligated to forgive your sins.  In fact, God cannot just forgive you of your sins by your confessing them.  A satisfaction must be made to God for our sin against our Holy God.  The doctrine of penal substitution as the Bible clearly teaches concerning Christ’s sacrifice on the cross continues to be attacked being labeled blasphemously as “cosmic child abuse”.

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OK… I’ve gone quote “happy” here on the blog this week (first Spurgeon, now Washer) but as I continue to hear and run across statements from men of God I can’t help but to post them here.  Paul Washer of HeartCry Missionary Society is one passionate man of God and he hits the nail right on the head…

“There are so many people, especially in my own denomination . . . because of the pathetic theology and pathetic preaching . . . on church membership rolls—and they are as lost as they can be. Because we have forgotten that salvation does not cometh by praying and asking Jesus to come into your heart; salvation does not come by going through four spiritual laws and saying a prayer at the end; salvation does not come by all these silly little mechanisms we’ve developed. It comes as a supernatural work of God through which God regenerates, makes the heart alive, He gives the man repentance, He gives the man faith, the man repents, he believes and is saved. And it is a supernatural work of God that manifests as much if not more of the power of God than when God stood on the first day and said, “Let there be light.”  - Paul Washer

I am currently reading Do Hard Things by Alex And Brett Harris, two teens from Portland, OR.  Through their website The Rebelution, these brothers have begun challenging the teens of our society to do reject the low expectations that society places on them and to do more for the Lord.  I am finding the book a pleasure to read in it clear call to teens by teens to be live a life set apart and exceptional for God.

Not only do I find the book one that I will highly recommend to my students, but I am also finding things that I need to consider as well.  The following excerpt made gave me pause:

Bre, a high-school senior from Indiana, experienced low expectations firsthand.  She, along with other young people, had participated in some community service projects and afterward gave a report to her church.  Following the service, she overheard a man saying, “Aren’t you glad these kids aren’t out smoking pot or drinking?”

“That comment just broke my heart,” Bre wrote to us, “because there truly is a level of mediocrity that has infiltrated nut just our culture, but our churches as well.”  Being consdered a good teen only requires that we don’t do bad stuff like taking drugs, drinking, and partying.  But is it enough to be known for the negative things we don’t do, or should we also be known for the positive things that we do?

I wonder if this message isn’t one that we should all hear, not just teens.  How many of us are satisfied with being more righteous than his neighbor or co-worker?  How many of us cover ourselves with the self-righteous cloak of the sins that we don’t commit?  Are we satisfied with being “shadow-Christians,” who like a shadow are defined by the absence of something and yet have no actual substance?  Or do we desire something more - to be known for our love and desire for God and a passion for His Word?