The Best Gift

I was reminded by this little clip that the gift Jesus gives at Christmas is much better than anything Santa ever dreamed of giving. Take some time to celebrate the Gift by enjoying Him today! Merry Christmas! ~Jon


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aKEkzh0Inw

Did You Notice That Key Change?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This continues to be a season of transition. God is sweetly reminding me that He is orchestrating my life and bringing about changes in His time, not mine. In this article from Ron Bergthold, he translates transition into musical terms and re-emphasizes that we must stay in step with God to embrace each change as He brings it.

Lord, prepare us for what You have in store. Help us turn from the old key and rise with You to the new key with the passion that can only come from You, Holy Spirit.

~Jon


Did You Notice That Key Change?
by Ron Bergthold

How many professional trombonists does it take to change a light bulb? (Answer: None. Professional trombonists can’t afford light bulbs.)

Wrong notes are a fact of life. Though we obviously play more of them when the music is difficult, sometimes we play them when we are distracted or not paying attention. Interestingly, it seems that one wrong note inspires others. And when I start playing a lot of wrong notes, it is often because I missed a key change.

As a brass player, keys with a few flats are easier to play than those with many sharps, but I can adapt to the key of B if I need to. The problem comes when key changes are made often or unexpectedly. Some very good composers use key changes liberally, and as we struggle to continually transition through one of these pieces (and likely play a lot of wrong notes), we tend to question the wisdom and necessity of any key change at all!

Transitions within our lives also seem to raise the frequency and severity of wrong “life notes,” those stressful conflicts that beg for resolution. We immediately recognize that something is not as it should be, but then struggle to know how to fix it. The source of wrong notes may be viewed as good (a new baby), bad (a bout with cancer), or simply different (a new job), but we can always feel the tension or discord. Sometimes, being more at ease with the old key, we decide to continue playing notes comfortable to us, but then hear even more grating sounds result. We begin to suspect that it must just be someone else’s problem, or maybe even a mistake of the arranger. But we really need to check the key!

God is our Master Arranger who writes in a perfect key that is completely aligned with His Word. He lovingly crafts a life score for each of us, intended to teach us who He is and thus to draw us closer to Him. When we become a Christian, we become awakened to this new key and begin a life-long journey towards knowing Him more fully.
2 Corinthians 5:17 describes those in Christ as having become “…a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Our main peril is the old and much more comfortable key. We try to make sense of the new notes, but in the old key. If we have a disagreement with a coworker or friend, we wonder why we can’t resolve it quickly, even after we read that the love God has for us is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4). We wonder why we always have to keep dealing with the same issues from this person, even after God explains that we should not be keeping a record of those wrongs in the first place (1 Corinthians 13:5). We begin to question why we should even have to put up with this person at all, and thereby completely miss our God-arranged notes of helping that person begin to understand who God is.

Regardless of the source of tensions we experience in life, it is imperative to see if we are in the right key - that is, aligned with His Word. Being imperfect musicians, we will miss some notes along the way, but we will also begin to acquire a new comfort and joy in playing in this wonderful new key. He designed our life not so that we could simply play it easily the first time, but that He would reveal, and we would receive, a portion of His heart with the playing of each new note.

For the TRBC Orchestra on November 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox postcard

The Jewel Of Worship

"Man was made to worship God...The purpose of God in sending His Son to die and rise and live and be at the right hand of God the Father was that He might restore to us the missing jewel, the jewel of worship; that we might come back and learn to do again that which we were created to do in the first place--worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, to spend our time in awesome wonder and adoration of God, feeling and expressing it, and letting it get into our labors and doing nothing except as an act of worship to Almighty God through His Son Jesus Christ." - A.W. Tozer, Worship: The Missing Jewel, pg 7-8

Thankful

Thanksgiving Day is winding down for another year and I am being inspired by a door. Let me explain...

We are at my parents house in White Hall, Arkansas. This is not the house I grew up in, but my folks built this house when I was in college, so there are lots of memories here and I am very familiar with it. They are currently adding an addition to the house that includes two new bathrooms, a large quilting/exercise room, and a good amount of extra storage space. It's going to be really nice (when it's finished)! Right now, it is very much still under construction. There were workers here when we arrived on Wednesday night making sure that the bathrooms would be functional, but otherwise, there are still quite a few things to be done before they can totally move into this new space. To get to this new place, currently we walk through the door that used to lead to the small guest bathroom that Suzanne and I have always used in this house. When that door is closed, it looks just like it always has...but when you open that familiar door, you enter a whole new living space.

This is the door that is inspiring me.

Sitting on the couch, I look at the closed door and in my minds eye, I know what is behind it...but in reality it is being changed day by day. It's being prepared by skillful builders for fruitful labors and increased value for my family. The architect drew out meticulous plans and the ones building the addition are carrying them out to the letter. This is what God is doing in our lives right now. We are staring at a door. We think we know what lies behind it. We think we can predict what God is up to, but we fall woefully short. Our predictions, regretfully, are many times based on our expectations of people and our interpretations of circumstances. God knows what is being prepared behind the door of the next season and He is preparing every detail! Our job is not to figure it all out, but to walk through the door by faith.

"For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]." - Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified Bible)

Thanking God For The Door (and what's on the other side),

~Jon

No Time To Cower

This is a timely word. Hear it and move ahead. ~Jon

No Time to Cower
When days are desperate, be bold and move forward, for Jesus' sake.
Gordon MacDonald posted 11/17/2008 07:21AM

Wild times lead people to pursue spiritual realities. Look for an uptick in prayer, spiritual friendships, greater curiosity about what the Bible says about life's priorities. Wild times humble the arrogant and acquaint us with the struggles of the poor. Compassion and generosity take on a new meaning. That's not too bad.

There are two possibilities here. One is that I simply don't know what I'm talking about, and it's full steam ahead into business-as-usual. The other? That these conditions do indeed call for a courageous response like Foch's approach to turbulent times: "I attack." A bold advance.
That's what I pray the Christian movement will do. Not retrenchment! But a bold advance involves dramatic change: in leadership, in ways of doing Jesus' work, in innovative new thought about the meaning and impact of the gospel. Again, I say: attack!

What could that possibility mean to people of spiritual influence in these days? Several experimental ideas:

Let's go back to the Bible and rediscover what godly people said and did when the sky was falling in their generation. New insights, possibly?

Let's make sure we have something substantial to say to those who are victimized by this economic tsunami: those losing their jobs, those who thought they were economically secure in their old age and discovered they aren't, and youth who might be fearing that there's no dream out there for them.

Let's reappraise our priorities of generosity and make sure that the giving-dollar goes to efforts that advance Christian ministry in enduring and deepening ways. Enough of the silly ways the Christian-dollar has been raised and wasted.

Let's think repentantly about how a lot of us have allowed ourselves to be caught up in a global financial system that was largely based on greed and falsehood. Lots of Christian organizations are crying about what has been lost because of this flawed financial system. But we ought not to forget it was that same system that helped those organizations get a lot of what they had. What goes up often comes down.

Maybe it's time to seek new ways of doing Christian service, ways less dependent upon money and bricks and mortar and more dependent upon unadulterated spiritual power. The early Christian movement, it seems to me, knew a lot about this.

We need to ask ourselves if we have any kind of message rising from the words and life of Jesus that would be significant to those in our larger world who thought they had a better way than Jesus' way. Revival time?

Confession: I have never been a great proponent of "revivals" because too many of them (the modern ones anyway) seemed contrived. But maybe—just maybe—we're at the brink of a real one.The great 1859 revival that touched America and large parts of Europe was anything but contrived. And that revival was framed in an economic disaster that was as bad as this one, maybe worse.

An American by the name of Jeremiah Lamphere suggested opening the doors of churches at noon each day for people to come and pray. Soon churches were flooded by people on their knees. Many found Jesus. You could say that they organized their lives around Christ, not cash.
In a sense Landphere said, "I attack." Maybe Marshal Foch got his idea from him.

Gordon MacDonald is editor at large of Leadership and interim president of Denver Seminary in Colorado. Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal

When God's Will Doesn't Make Sense

This is a hard word. Especially if you have prayed for one thing and gotten something else. I don't claim to understand God's way, but I know He is good. So I choose to stand in awe of Him and rejoice in who He is even when I don't understand.

Praising The King Who Reigns,
~Jon


When God’s Will Is That His Will Not Be Done
Meditations on 1 Samuel 2:22-25
By John Piper June 10, 1997

1 Samuel 2:22-25
"Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And he said to them, “Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? “No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord’s people circulating. If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death."

It was too late for Eli’s sons. They had crossed the line of no return. The sentence had been given by the Lord. They were to be slain by the Lord. And they were slain, according to 1 Samuel 4:11. There are three implications of this text for our lives.

1. It is possible to sin so long and so grievously that the Lord will not grant repentance.

That is why Paul said that after all our pleading and teaching, “God may grant them repentance”—not, “will grant them repentance” (2 Timothy 2:25). There is a “too late” in the life of sin. As it says of Esau in Hebrews 12:17, “He found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” He was forsaken; he could not repent.

This does not mean that those who truly repent even after a whole lifetime of sinning cannot be saved. They certainly can be, and will be! God is staggeringly merciful. Witness the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus said, “The one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). But no one knows where the point of no return is. The deciding factor is not a set number of years of sinning or a particular kind of sin. God alone knows in the case of each person where the line is crossed. This is a call for making haste to reconcile with God (Hebrews 3:15), and a call to be vigilant against willful and protracted sinning (Hebrews 10:26).

2. God may not permit a sinning person to do what is right.

“But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death.” Listening to the voice of their father was the right thing to do. But they would not. Why? “For the Lord desired to put them to death.” The reason given for why they did not obey their father was that God had other purposes for them, and had given them up to sinning and death. This shows that there are times when the will of God’s decree is different from the will of God’s command. He commanded, “Children, obey your parents.” But in this case he willed that instead of obedience they persist in their sin and be slain. God is not sinning in this will of decree. He is ordering things so that sin continue for holy and just purposes, which is not sin on God’s part.

3. Sometimes our prayers for God’s revealed will to be done will not be done because God has decreed something different for holy and wise purposes.

I suppose that Eli prayed for his sons to be changed. This is how he should have prayed. God commanded that children obey their parents. So we should pray that they obey. But God had decreed that Hophni and Phineas not obey, but rather be slain. When something like this happens (which we do not ordinarily know ahead of time) while we are crying out to God for change, the answer of God is not: “I don’t love you.” Nor is it, “I don’t hear you.” Nor is it even, “I don’t approve of your prayers. I do!” Rather the answer is (even when we can’t hear it): “I have wise and holy purposes in not overcoming this sin and not granting repentance. You do not see these purposes now. Trust me. I know what I am doing. I love you.”

Submitted to God,
Pastor John

© Desiring God
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Move

This morning when the alarm went off (for the 3rd time) :) Switchfoot's song, Dare You To Move came on the radio. I have heard the song hundreds of times, but God allowed me to hear these lyrics with fresh ears this morning.

"...Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
What happens next?...
...Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before"

When I came into the bonus room, I picked up our copy of The Valley Of Vision and read The Mover (pg 12-13). God continued to speak.

"O Supreme Moving Cause,

May I always be subordinate to Thee,
be dependent on Thee,
be found in the path where Thou dost walk, and where Thy Spirit moves,
take heed of estrangement from Thee,
of becoming insensible to Thy love.

Thou dost not move men like stones,
but dost endue them with life,
not to enable them to move without Thee,
but in submission to Thee, The First Mover."

Lord, in You "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28a). Let me see You move today so I can know where we are going. I will go with You.

~Jon

Do Not Be Afraid

I read this great little article on the Desiring God blog today and it ties in nicely to yesterdays post. Also, throughout my time at TRBC, we repeatedly were reminded through what God did through Jehoshaphat that He truly fights our battles. Our job is to recognize and celebrate who He is in our situations.

~Jon


Do Not Be Afraid
November 13, 2008
By: Jon Bloom
Category: Commentary


The armies of Moab, Ammon, and Edom were on the move. Destination: Jerusalem. They were relatives of the Israelites; Moab and Ammon were descended from Lot and Edom from Esau. But this was no family reunion. This was a slaughter in the making.

These three nations bordered Israel and Judah on the east and south. And since the reigns of David and Solomon, they had off-and-on been subject to the kings of Israel, paying a tribute tax and providing forced labor for Israel.


But it had been over 60 years since Solomon’s death and Israel had split into two kingdoms. Their strength was divided. And the northern kingdom was weakened from its battles with Syria. The time was ripe. If they joined forces now, they could crush the army of Judah and plunder king Jehoshaphat’s wealth. After that, maybe the northern kingdom.

Jehoshaphat caught wind of the impending attack. It didn’t take a Pythagoras to do the math. His army was like a sandcastle facing a large wave about to break right on it. The kingdom of Judah would be swept away unless he got some very strong help.


Now, forget for the moment that you know the fairytale-like ending to the story. What would it have been like to be Jehoshaphat? A brutal death for himself and everyone he loves. Tens of thousands of his people were bearing down on him. Everyone was looking to him to do something to save them. Imagine the pressure.

Jehoshaphat really did trust the Lord and believed his promises. He did believe God could rescue Judah. He wanted to honor God by his trust. And, in this case, he didn’t have many alternatives. Sometimes that is a great mercy.


He must have remembered his father Asa’s mistake. As a younger king Asa had cried out to the Lord for deliverance when his small army faced one million Ethiopian soldiers and God had miraculously answered him. But in later years he abandoned that trust and forged an alliance with Syria. And God disciplined him severely for it.

So Jehoshaphat gathered the people of Judah in Jerusalem for a fast. They stood before the temple, and the king, in an act of great leadership, pleaded their case before the Lord and then said this:


“We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. (2 Chronicles 20:12)

Isn’t that a beautiful confession? It is so child-like in its humility and faith. It is, in fact, another Old Testament picture of the gospel. We are powerless to save ourselves. But when we look to God and call on him for deliverance from the impending judgment, he brings about a salvation beyond our wildest imagination.


The reason God orchestrated Jehoshaphat’s predicament is the same as his design in the tribulations and crises in our lives: he want us to increasingly find freedom from fear.

You see, real freedom is not the liberty to do what we want, or even the absence of distress. Real freedom is the deep-seated confidence that God really will provide everything we need. The person who believes this is the freest of all persons on earth, because no matter what situation they find themselves in, they have nothing to fear.


But the only way for sinners like us with a bent toward unbelief in God to find this kind of freedom is by experiencing repeatedly God’s delivering power and his faithfulness. That’s why we are to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds (James 1:2). They are making us free.

There are a lot of temptations to fear right now: political change, economic calamity, natural disasters, all on top of personal hardships. If you're feeling the wight of these things, you may be helped by the message, “Fear Not, I Am With You, I Am Your God.” In this sermon, John Piper unpacks Isaiah 41:1-13, one of his favorite texts, and gives us what he calls “the key to overcoming fear.” Remember that all these difficult things are working together for your good and for your ultimate freedom and joy.


God answered Jehoshaphat’s faith-filled prayer in a spectacular way. He threw the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites into confusion and they slaughtered one another. Jehoshaphat and his choir-led army never had to lift a sword. And it took them three days to carry the plunder back home.

God’s word to us through this story in all the crises we face is this: “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).

God Is Still In Control

I haven't posted anything recently. These last two weeks have been very unique for Suzanne and me. On October 31, I officially received word that due to continued financial difficulties, my position at Two Rivers was being eliminated. So, what that means is that tonight will be the last time that I lead a rehearsal with the choir at TRBC. God is so good to me, though. He has allowed me and my family to experience His presence in a unique way with a band of brothers here. We have been encouraged with many eternal friendships. These are the friends who have, and continue to point Suzanne and I back toward what is eternal and unseen. This has been a gracious gift from our Father and we praise Him. Although we are uncertain of what our next assignment will be, He is already there. I came across this article today and I think it is extremely timely and relevant. As the old TRUTH song says, "Take heart and know God is in control."

~Jon


God Is Still in Control
Barbara Rainey


“These are times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine, 1776.

These past weeks we have been dealt an economic blow most of us were not expecting. And it is spreading around the globe, threatening every nation. It seems impossible to lock out the incessant reports of bad news from the media. It seeps into our thinking and leads us to depression and discouragement. The result is often fear, panic, and inaction. We feel helpless under the assault of all that seems so bad. Our normal routine has been upset.


All of us feel these trying times. Dennis and I are watching investments fall and donations to FamilyLife drop dramatically. We are thinking hard about how and where to cut spending both personally and at work.

But do we forget in our fearful response to bad news that God is still in control? This has not caught Him by surprise. He knew it was coming just as He knows all that is yet to happen.
And not only does He know, but is it possible that He caused it or allowed it for our good? “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” Job 2:10


Is it possible that He in His sovereign will and providence wants us to learn new wonders about Himself as we are forced to trust Him in ways we never have? Might He want us to have the joy of seeing Him provide in ways we did not expect?

One of my favorite heroines of the faith is Corrie ten Boom who, with her father and sister, hid Jews in their home during World War II because they believed God wanted them to preserve life. And how did God reward them for doing these deeds of courage and sacrifice and love? He allowed them to be hauled off to Ravensbrook concentration camp in Germany to experience depravity and a depth of suffering none of us knows. It was far worse than our current economic crisis. And yet in the midst of that suffering they experienced miracles of God’s presence, His provision, His grace and mercy, and love and forgiveness in ways not possible in the comfort of their ordinary lives.


God is always more concerned about our character than our comfort, our faith than our feelings, and our love for Him rather than our love for things. God is not afraid to use a little pain or even a lot of pain so that we might have the privilege of knowing Him and seeing Him at work.

Romans 8:28 tells us that “all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.” May we remember He always has our good in mind. And may we, in our response to this present difficulty, be like Job about whom the Bible says in Job 2:10, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” It is good to give thanks to our God.

Play With Confidence

Article #7 from Ron Bergthold deals with a much misunderstood idea...confidence. Those without a biblical worldview equate confidence with cockiness. This is not the confidence of the follower of Jesus. The confidence we embrace comes from Who we belong to and Who controls us. The Spirit of Jesus fills us with the confidence of Jesus and empowers us to live the life of Jesus out in our daily existence. I Surrender All becomes our theme song. It's then that we can live with God-confidence. Be blessed by this word and my apologies to any bari-sax players. ;) ~Jon


Play With Confidence
by Ron Bergthold

How do you make a chain saw sound like a baritone sax? (Answer: Add vibrato.)

Shaky, wavering, tentative, thin – these are not words we like to hear describing our tone, but they often describe the sound initially produced from beginning students (except maybe from a bari sax). New instrumentalists are usually not confident, simply because they have no reason to be! Though they start badly, they hopefully gain confidence as they improve. A lack of confidence can interfere with a student’s progress, or even plague seasoned players when there is no reason for it.

Thus one of the first and fundamental skills needed to be developed by good musicians is playing with confidence. This involves knowing what you are capable of and believing that you can reproduce this capability in the piece you are about to play. If you know you can do it right, you probably will. If you are not sure, chances are you will not play it well, and certainly not with the desired musicality and passion. Of course, many reasonably believe too much confidence is the gateway drug to pride, and that, given the stern Biblical warnings against this evil, we should only play with meek and humble passivity.

Jesus’ disciples, when confronted with the revelation that one of them would betray Him, reacted with at least two emotions (Luke 22:23-24). The first emotion reflected a lack of personal confidence. Might he be the one capable of such a deed? We are often the very first to question our own abilities. Self-doubts and fear of what others will think of our playing comes naturally. Even the most talented players question whether they have what it takes to give a truly great performance sometimes. Fear of failure rules many lives, producing wide-ranging effects, from the “I won’t even try it” to the “I will not let myself fail” obsession and its accompanying perfectionism.

The second emotion that quickly took over the disciples’ initial thoughts appears much more sinister. A surge of over-confidence quickly overwhelmed their personal self-doubts, creating a full-fledged battle of who among them was the greatest! They went from zero to ninety on the pride scale in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. How could that kind of shift take place? How do we stop that kind of roller-coaster turn of direction?

It was actually not a turn, but rather acceleration in the same wrong direction. Both self-doubt and pride focus on us, when God clearly and jealously desires our entire attention. Even when we are pounded by circumstances that demand our self-preservation and raise our biggest fears and doubts, we must instead completely trust in God and His Word. David wrote Psalm 27 in the midst of extreme life-threatening opposition, but was still able to state in verse 13 that he was “…still confident in this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The “land of the living” meant right here on earth, not later in heaven.

Every minute of our lives, we choose for whom we will live and play. It is indeed the most important choice we make and continue to make. Proverbs 3:5-6 encourages us to choose wisely: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Confidence in God means He alone is our audience. Play for Him with utmost confidence IN Him!

For the TRBC Orchestra on October 22, 2008

Playing The Rest

Here is the next installment in Ron Bergthold's series (#6) and he continues to challenge us using these metaphors from the orchestra and connecting them to our lives in Christ. This one hits on God's invitation to rest. Here in America, we don't really have a grasp of this. We tend to fill our "days off" with just as much activity as our work days. The idea of Sabbath, commanded by God, seems to be lost on us. For most, rest = leisure. This is not the heart of what God is calling us to. Leisure's focus is entertainment. His rest is a place of ceasing from activity and enjoying Him. A time where we are connected to Him through a radical departure from the noise and kinetic activity of our day to day lives, and lest you try to make this about a specific day of the week or some observance of ritual, check out Hebrews 4:9-11.

"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." (ESV)

He is calling us to cease our activity that is not empowered by Him. He is saying, "Rest in Me, and I will work through you." Lord, we hear You. Help us rest in Your work and fulfill our destiny in You.

~Jon

Playing the Rest

by Ron Bergthold

Did you hear about the violist who bragged she could play a 32nd note? (Answer: The rest of the orchestra did not believe her, so she proved it by playing one).

The climax of a musical piece can actually be marked by a unified silence, a grand pause, when every person plays a deafening rest. Grand pauses can generate a masterfully dramatic effect, unless someone accidentally plays a note within it! As we all know, it can be more difficult at times to not play a rest than to actually play the notes. From the dotted sixteenth rest to the triple-digit bar naps, everyone knows they will need to cease playing at some point.

Although at times some composers mercifully place a few rests for the brass to recover their lips, most do not arrange rests simply to allow alternating players to relax. The main intent is to bring to the listeners’ ears a different sound by eliminating one instrument or another completely, allowing others to rise to the forefront. In order to get just the right effect, the trumpets must be silenced so the flute melody can soar. The simple rest is a vital tool of the best composers, used expertly for balancing instrumentation and providing variety and life to the music we enjoy.

Spiritually when we think of rest, we often think of a Sabbath rest, where we refrain from routine work and focus on God. This is a refreshing gift from God that is as often overlooked today as it was overworked by the Pharisees in the time of Christ. They had defined work in such exacting physical detail that maintaining a “restful” mode was so burdensome that one could not enjoy the true rest which God intended.

The Old Testament hinted at true rest in Exodus 33:14 when God told Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Jesus built on this thought in Mark 6:31 when He told the apostles, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Jesus then explained in much more detail in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” The source of true rest is being in the presence of God.

We must learn to play the rest by ceasing our own performance and instead learn and listen to God’s solo, often coming as a still, small voice that may not be heard while we are playing our own tune. We don’t cease from playing entirely though. God still wants us to produce music, but He intensely wants us to listen to Him and connect to His part so well that the listener will hear a beautiful duet. The overall composition will always have a unique style which is “gentle and humble” in heart and restful to the soul.

I can’t help but note a future rest that will occur. The biggest of all grand pauses is found in Revelation 8:1, “When He (Jesus) opened the seventh seal, there was silence for about half an hour.” Can you imagine complete silence anywhere for 30 minutes and the effect it would have on all who participate? The unifying declaration of all God had done in history to reconcile man unto Himself will be contemplated, and the beginning of a whole new era for creation will be anticipated! And how will this majestic silence be broken? The rather obvious answer can be found in Revelation 8…..

For the TRBC Orchestra on October 1, 2008

Breathe--With God

I am really excited to post this next article (#5) from Ron. It really ties in with a lot that God seems to be saying right now. This idea that our primary response to God is to submit or surrender to Him is resonating in the Body. I believe God is moving in a unique way and this is to be our response...surrender...and breath Him in. Then His life will flow out of us and His will is accomplished and He gets all the credit! ~Jon


Breathe – With God
By Ron Bergthold

Why do bagpipers walk when they play? (Answer: To get away from the sound.)

With the exception of bagpipes (a rather abnormal instrument), wind instruments require you to breathe in just before you play. In fact, we usually take a breath that matches the speed and length of the note we are about to play. Proper breathing is one of the basic requirements in learning to play well. It allows the player to sustain lengthy notes or complete connected phrasings. It maintains a proper tone, pitch and volume, while lack of adequate breathing will produce a shaky, thin, or choppy sound. In short, breathing provides life to the music played.

I am convinced that God is an awesome instrumentalist. The breath of God is described early in the Bible, beginning with Genesis 2 when He breathes physical life into Adam. In Ezekiel 37 we find dry bones receiving the breath of God, also coming to physical life through Ezekiel’s prophesying word. Although the bones received tendons and flesh, this passage was pointing to a different kind of breath and life that God later made available through the Acts 2 Pentecostal wind of the Holy Spirit.

We become the very instrument of God when we enter into a relationship with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit providing the very breath needed to produce music for God. This means several things to us.

The first is that we exist only as long as God provides our next physical breath. Acts 17:25 says that God “is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.”

The second is that, besides being physically worthless to Him, we are spiritually worthless to God without first offering ourselves in submission to His spiritual breath. Romans 6:13 says, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.”

The third is that when we do submit spiritually, music which is beautiful to God’s ears arises from our lives. Our submission must match the speed and length of the Holy Spirit’s breath and intent. We can prepare to receive this powerful force by learning and meditating on scripture so we can gain familiarity with the breath. Shallow understanding of the Word and its truth will limit our willingness to respond to the breath.

But we also must realize that our response ultimately originated with God and not of ourselves. Romans 12:3 says; “Do not think of yourself more highly that you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” When we are lovingly patient with an annoying coworker, it is the result of us submitting our tongue to God’s breath. If we encourage or otherwise help a friend who is depressed, it was not done on our own initiative, but was an act of a virtuoso who loves to play His instrument.

Let us always be His submissive instruments…!

For the TRBC Orchestra on September 24, 2008

Play or Practice?

Endurance. Perseverance.

These are two words that are not too popular in America, today. The thing is, for those of us that follow Christ, these words are fruits of true faith in Christ. When Jesus walked the earth, He taught that when persecuted it would be "By your endurance you will gain your lives." (Luke 21:19) Also, the writer or Hebrews speaks of God's disciplining us to be like Him this way. "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all children have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." (Hebrews 12:7-8) This endurance is somewhat passive, in that it is the ability to submit to a process that is outside of ourselves.

As for perseverance, the Random House dictionary says, "Perseverance commonly suggests activity maintained in spite of difficulties or steadfast and long-continued application." James, the brother of Jesus agrees. "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves...the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." (James 1:22, 25) I must quickly refer to how we "do." It is only through the power found in a totally dependant reliance on Jesus as the ultimate life giver (John 15).

As you read the next installment of Ron Bergthold's series, ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to endure and persevere in His strength as He completes His work in you.

~Jon


Play or Practice?
by Ron Bergthold

What’s the range of a tuba? (Answer: About 20 yards, if you practice and have a good arm.)

“Can we run it again?” The director was asking those words to the entire orchestra, but his eyes were specifically searching the brass to see whether they really had enough lip to get through the chart again. In reality, the end had already come and gone. Being September, many had taken at least a few lazy weeks off during the summer and their endurance was not yet up to par. Not that par was really great! Playing in a church orchestra was fun and rewarding, but to build endurance meant practicing, which is really just for those still learning to play or for those who earned their living by it, right?

Paul encouraged the Galatians (vs 6:9) to “…not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Given their considerable trials, it is understandable that the Galatians were ready to give up. We all have experienced fatigue and reached our physical limits. We simply cannot play one more note above the staff or move another finger. At that point our joy of playing dissipates and we give in by giving up. We come to this wall in other areas of our life as well. We cannot continue speaking without adding a cynical, harsh or gossipy word. Or stop without taking one more look, spending one more dollar, or stepping where we know we shouldn’t.

Paul advocated the concept of spiritual practice – a disciplined obedience, sown in partnership with the Holy Spirit over time, to reap an otherwise missed benefit. One of those benefits is an endurance which takes us farther or higher than we have ever gone before. But we often seek an easier path, arguing more for the selfish and short-term: “No one’s perfect; even the pros miss notes.” “I have my other full-time job to do.” “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to perfect me.” “I am actually free from my wrong notes – they are silenced by the blood of Christ and never even reach His ears.” We can spend more time justifying not practicing than doing what would actually help.

We have all heard friends naively wish they could simply pick up an instrument and jam, or ponder what it would have been like if they had just continued those piano lessons. They do not consider the awkwardness and difficulty of starting out, or the hours, months and years of practice that eventually yield to the joy of discovering new levels of playing.

We know better. We know that private preparation and practice impacts public performance. We know that endurance for the more difficult pieces comes only after considerable investment of time and effort. We also know the rewards that follow and the joy it brings, as well as the never-ending opportunity for further improvement.

God describes many rewards of a practiced Christian life – of consistently yielding to the Holy Spirit and submitting to the Word of God. With each act of obedience, God reveals more of Himself to us, which encourages us to take the next step, all the while building an endurance of love and character to tackle the more difficult passages of life. God explains that we are His “treasured possession” (Ex 19:5) whom He desires to “bless” (James 1:25), so that we will “overcome the evil one” (1 Jn 2:14) and realize the “fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:15). He wants us to know Him intimately, like we know and love our instrument, but even more – much more. Have you practiced lately?

For the TRBC Orchestra on September 17, 2008


For more on this topic go to: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/37/

Watch Out!

Here's article number three from Ron Bergthold. Enjoy. ~Jon

Watch Out!

by Ron Bergthold

How do you get a rhythm guitarist to play softer? (Answer: Give him music to read.)

We’ve all done it, falling mentally asleep while counting five sets of 8-measure rests. Was that the 3rd or 4th set we just passed? Our eyes then search the director for a clue of when to come in. Sometimes the director has to admonish us with a “Watch me!” when our group appears too distracted or when he knows that we may miss an upcoming critical section in the piece.

I do not have to work hard to be distracted. I can effortlessly zone out or in an instant redirect my focus to the most trivial happening away from my intended purpose. Jesus knew there were enough people like me to give this warning in Luke 12:37a, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.” He hit a similar theme again in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” The key word here is “watch”.

So if we individually watch well while playing, we will play more together as a group and more often notice upcoming key changes or accidentals and thus not hit (as many) wrong notes. It is a fundamental, but critical, step to take, since the consequences of not watching are often immediate and apparent to all. Reading God’s wisdom in the Bible and taking heed, trying to apply it to our lives, will provide a better opportunity for us to avoid temptations and their oft-followed sin. Watching well in our spiritual lives will certainly help us to avoid at least some of the potholes in life.

But watching just to avoid bad is somewhat of a chore and is a trap in which most new players get caught. The focus leans too heavily on just getting the right notes or rhythm and not on the ultimate purpose and beauty of playing good music. The second reason given above by Christ, from the Luke passage, indicates a much more exciting and critical motivation for us! If we are watching, Jesus said “It will be good…” for us. Knowing Jesus as the Author of good means this will not just be an ordinary good, but a very excellent good!

Think of a luxuriously enjoyable time in which you were either playing or listening to good music. Spine-tingling moments of a furious phrase within an energetic piece. The final coming together of a particularly challenging work that had been rehearsed over and over. A couple of measures of soft and sweet beauty at the tranquil ending of an inspired composition. Chances are the notes were right because of either maturity or rehearsal, but you didn’t listen and think “Wow, they got the notes right!” You instead pronounce the ultimate word of praise, “That was so good.”

And so, God is watching us, but not for wrong notes as many fear. Instead He seeks those moments in our lives when, through watchfulness, we catch such a good glimpse of Him we are overtaken by the beauty of His own music and can only utter words of praise to Him, “God, you are so good!”

For the TRBC Orchestra on September 10, 2008

Love One Another

Tonight, I am sharing with the choir at TRBC a message from John 13:34-35 & John 15. I am openly admitting to them that much of it came from John Piper's message, "A New Commandment of Christ: Love One Another As I Have Loved You." (You can never accuse Piper of using two few words, huh?) So, I figure instead of expounding much on the subject here, I will simply let his sermon speak to you as it did to me.

Blown Away By Christ,
~Jon


The New Commandment of Christ: Love One Another As I Have Loved You
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By John Piper September 14, 2008

John 13:31-35
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

A Bridge-Sermon
This sermon is a bridge.
It’s a bridge from Summer to Fall.
It’s a bridge from a year of topical messages on marriage and regeneration and spectacular sins to a new extended exposition of the Gospel of John.
It’s a bridge from the fruit of relational servanthood to the root of the Servant himself who modeled servanthood for us and made it possible by his blood.
It’s a bridge from a Summer break from small groups to a new and stronger involvement in small groups at Bethlehem.
Let me make a comment about this bridge before we turn to our text. Since we finished Romans at the end of 2006, we have focused mainly on crucial topics that the Elders considered important for us as a church. Now it’s time to turn again to a season of sustained exposition. I wrote the Taste & See article this past week about why that way of preaching is important and why we are turning our attention to the Gospel of John. I’ll have more to say about that next week when we start at the beginning of the book.

Relational Culture and John’s Gospel
Today we jump into the middle of John at chapter 13 because this text is a bridge from what we have been talking about in the relational culture of Philippians 2:4—have the mind in you that is humble and counts others more significant than yourselves and looks not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others—a bridge from that fruit of love to the root of Love himself, Jesus Christ, who modeled it and made it possible by laying his life down for his sheep. If I understand John’s Gospel correctly, we will never be far in this new series from the issue of how we love each other.
John 13:34 is a bridge from focusing on the relational culture of loving each other into the Gospel of John. It gives us a golden opportunity as we begin the Fall together, to wave the banner of small-group life at Bethlehem. If Bethlehem is your home church, you need to know that we who are responsible for your souls believe that God has led us to shepherd you largely through your involvement in small groups.

Small Groups: Part of Our Organic Life
Small groups are not autonomous creations at Bethlehem. They are part of an organic life that moves from Elders and pastoral staff to trained and accountable small-group leaders to the people. Some shepherding happens in large groups like this, and in classes that are offered, and in ministry efforts that people join, and in spontaneous friendships. But the plan of your leaders is that you be cared for and accountable mainly through the organic flow of shepherding in small groups.
That’s why we do all we can to help you get connected in such a group, and it’s why we devote this Sunday every Fall to that effort. This is how a large church becomes small. This is how an impersonal church becomes personal. This is how a point of proclamation becomes a web of relationships.

Not a New Idea
It has always been this way. Small groups are not a new idea. When 3,000 people were added to the church in Acts 2, they attended the temple and broke bread in their homes. Soon that number in the church was 10,000-plus (5,000 men, plus women and children, in Acts 4:4). The key from the beginning was a combination of large assemblies and small fellowships. There are crucial aspects of Christian obedience that correspond to each of those. I pray that you will be responsive to our leadership and help us care for you in this way.

“A New Commandment I Give You”
The verse that I want to focus on is John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” There are glorious things in verses 31-35 that I am passing by. We will be back, Lord willing. Today there is only time for one verse and one question: What’s new about the commandment to love each other?
I pray that Jesus himself will speak in this message concerning his commandment to Bethlehem that we love each other. Immerse your mind now in this text with me, and let the mind of Jesus saturate your mind. That is how we are changed. The word of God reveals the Son of God and the glory of God by the Spirit of God, and we are changed (2 Corinthians 3:18). This a miracle. If I did not believe in it, I would not be a preacher of this word. It has power far beyond mine.

Christians Are Under Authority
John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” If you are a follower of Jesus, a Christian, a child of God through faith in Christ, you are a person under authority. You are not your own. You do not call the shots any more. Jesus is more to you than Master of your life, but he is not less. He comes to you with more than commandments, but not less. You are a person whose life is defined by the will of another, namely, Jesus. What he wills you want.
And what he wills and commands in this verse is that we love each other—that his followers love each other. “A new commandment I give you”—not a new suggestion, or a new idea, or a new possibility, or a new life-option, but a new commandment.

What’s New About Jesus’ New Commandment?
The question that has guided all my focus in this message is What’s new about the commandment to love each other? “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” I see two answers implied in this verse. The key to the answers is found in the words in the second half of the verse: “. . . just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The newness of the command to love each other is found in the words “as I have loved you.”
I see two ways that the commandment to love each other is new in those words. First, the command is new because it is a command to live out the love of Jesus. Second, the command is new because it is a command to live on the love of Jesus. The words “as I have loved you” contain a pattern for our love for each other, and they contain a power for our love for each other.
Loving each other is not a new command per se. It was already there in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”). What’s new is that Jesus is now the pattern we live by and the power we live on. Let’s look at these two kinds of newness.

1) Jesus, Our Pattern: Living Out His Love
The basis of the first kind of newness (Jesus as our pattern) is found earlier in John 13. Look at what Jesus does at the very beginning of this chapter to provide the example of what he means when he says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:1 and following:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. . . . [Jesus’ love for us is about to be demonstrated]. 4b He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. [This is Philippians 2:3, counting others more significant than himself as he takes the role of a slave] . . . 12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
So here we have Jesus giving us an acted out pattern of love. So when we get to verse 34 and he says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another,” we don’t have to go guessing what he means by “as.” As I have loved you in the pattern I just gave you a few moments ago. Verse 15 says, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” And verse 34 says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” So the pattern of love to be followed is clear.

a) Laying Aside Status and Becoming a Servant
This is how we are to love each other at Bethlehem. It involves at least two things. One is that we lay aside status and rank and prestige and privilege and take the form of a servant—that’s what Philippians 2:7 said, and that’s what Jesus does here. Verse 14: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” By virtue of my status and rank and privilege as our Lord and Teacher, I am not obliged to wash your feet. But I “count you as more significant than myself” and serve you.

b) Engaging in Practical Deeds of Helpfulness
So the first part of Jesus’ pattern is that it lays aside rank and privilege to serve others. The second part of the pattern is that this love involves practical deeds of helpfulness. In those days, almost everyone walked. The roads and paths were dirt. There were probably no socks and no sidewalks. Everyone’s feet were more or less caked with dirt. The dirty work had to be done. Jesus did it for those who should have been doing it for him. He laid down a sense of entitlement. And served.
The new commandment is that we look at this pattern, that we watch our Lord and Teacher and Savior do this, and follow him in it. We live out the love that we see in Jesus.

2) Jesus, Our Power: Living On His Love
That leaves one more angle on the newness of this command to love each other. I called it, not living out, but living on the love of Jesus. When Jesus says that the new commandment to love each other is a commandment to love as I have loved you, he draws attention not only to the pattern of love we follow, but the power to love that we need.
Here’s where I get this idea. If you search the Gospel of John for the closest verbal parallel to the words of verse 34 (“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”), the closest parallel is John 15:12: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” But here, instead of acting out a pattern to follow, Jesus describes a connection with himself that gives the power to love.
So the newness of the command to love like Jesus is not only the pattern of his behavior but his connection to vital power—our connection to that power by being connected to him. Look three verses earlier at John 15:9-10: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

The Key to Jesus’ Love
Jesus said the key to his love was his relationship with God the Father: “I abide in his love” (verse 10). Jesus lives in constant and perfect union with the Father. The effect is that the Father’s love moves into Jesus and lives there as a divine power to love. Then Jesus says at the end of verse 9, “Abide in my love.” So he abides in his Father's love, and we are to abide in his love.
That’s how we are able to love each other “as he loves us.” He loves us by abiding in the love of the Father. We love each other by abiding in the love of the Son—which is the love of the Father.

Abiding in Jesus
We can see the picture Jesus has in his mind in verse 5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” There’s where I get the power idea. “Apart from me,” Jesus says, “you have no power to do anything.” You cannot love each other as I command you to love, if you do not abide in me as I abide in my Father.
So the newness of Jesus’ commandment is not only that Jesus has become our pattern for love by taking the role of a servant, but also that Jesus has become our power for love by himself abiding in the Father so that as we abide in him we are given the very love of the Father with which to love each other.

Trusting and Treasuring Jesus
And if you wonder what hour-by-hour abiding in Jesus means, it means hour-by-hour trusting him to meet all our needs and be our supreme treasure. And when we are confident that he will meet all our needs and be our treasure, we are freed and empowered to humble ourselves and meet the needs of others.
Which leaves one last question: How can we trust him to meet all our needs and be our treasure if we are sinners and deserve only wrath from God and not love?

Jesus, Our Propitiation: Laying Down His Life for Us
The answer is given in this very context. Right after saying in John 15:12, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” he says in verse 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus could not leave us with only a pattern and only a power through union with him by faith. He had to go deeper and solve the problem of John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
Our problem is not mainly that we don’t love like we should. Our problem is mainly that because of our sin, God’s wrath remains on us. How is it removed? Why does God cease to be angry with us and instead pour love into our lives through Jesus and empower us to love? The answer is John 12:13: Jesus laid down his life for his friends. Jesus died in our place. Jesus endured the wrath of God that we deserved so that God’s justice would be satisfied and his love could flow unhindered through Christ to us and through us to each other.
The commandment to love each other is new because Jesus is the pattern and the power of that love. And he can be those for us, even though we are sinners, because he removed the wrath of God by laying down his life for us.

Together into Small Groups and John’s Gospel
I pray that we will move together into the Gospel of John and small groups this Fall. There are glories of Christ to be seen here that we have never seen before. And there is love to be lived here in small groups that some have never tasted before. The union of life in small groups and life in the Gospel of John will be a good marriage. I hope you come.

© Desiring God
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When God Works

You know I love to pass on quotes that move me. This one moves me because it speaks of God's activity in His church, not His church trying to do God's work. There is a difference. When God works, we are energized. When we work, we are exhausted. When God works, He alone can take the credit and get the glory. When we work, we can feed our pride by doing "good" things "for God."

Lord, I long to see You do Your work in Your church.

~Jon


“The world does not need to see good people doing good things for their God. They need to see God doing ‘above and beyond all that we ask or think’ among His people. When the church allows God to fill them with His presence, the world will see and glorify Him because they have experienced Him in the life of His people. They will know His love because the church sincerely loves all people. They will know His power because the church steps out in faith and attempts what only God can accomplish. The world will stand in awe of God when His people let Him be God in them and through them. When God begins to heal marriages, return wayward children, heal alcoholics and drug addicts, provide for physical needs in times of crisis, and give wisdom to business people, the world comes to know the difference God makes in our world.” (Henry and Melvin Blackaby, A God-Centered Church, pg 200)

The "Popular" Church

I think it is healthy for us to question not only our motives, but our methods in the church. What are we saying through our words and actions when we gather together to worship? Are we representing God's heart for His glory and His desire for people to be saved and satisfied by Himself? Or are we trying to dress up the gospel so people will listen? What is our part in being a witness of Christ and His work on earth? Are we portraying who Jesus really is, or are we just trying to fit in? Are we driven by a concern for our reputation within our denomination or among other local churches? Are we willing to love sinners like He did, even as we revel in His holiness and power? Who are we gathering for when we worship, people or God? Is the gospel enough to save, or should we attempt to prop it up with something cool? Don't get me wrong, I believe that there should be creativity in ministry and I don't want to sound like we are not called to reach out to those who are not yet born again. I am simply saying that we should question our assumptions to make sure they are God's assumptions, too. I came across this from Joe Stowell and John MacArthur commenting on the popularization of the church. It hits at the core of our purpose as Christ's church.

"We must resist the temptation to popularize the gospel and thereby trivialize the depth and power of the gospel. Gospel presentations that speak merely of finding peace in Jesus, that claim that the gospel is about thinking positively, or that we're really here to help people recover and feel good about themselves leave the essence and issue of the gospel in jeopardy. Attempts to entertain people into the kingdom and to put only the foot forward that is going to be accepted and applauded by the culture without also putting the essence of the gospel forward creates an environment in which we discount the very heart of Christianity.

John MacArthur has a wonderful way of keeping us in the tension of truth. He writes:

'The overriding goal is becoming church attendance and worldly acceptability rather than a transformed life. Preaching the Word and boldly confronting sin are seen as archaic ineffectual means of winning the world. After all, those things actually drive most people away. Why not entice people into the fold by offering what they want, creating a friendly, comfortable environment, and catering to the very desires that constitute their strongest urges? As if we might get them to accept Jesus by somehow making Him more likable or making His message less offensive...That kind of thinking badly skews the mission of the church...It is the Word of God, not an earthly enticement, that plants the seed for a new birth (1 Peter 1:23). We gain nothing but God's displeasure if we seek to remove the offense of the Cross (see further Galatians 5:11).'" [John MacArthur, Ashamed of The Gospel, pg 18 as quoted by Joseph M. Stowell in Shepherding The Church, pg 60]

Lord, give us the right questions to ask so we can discern how to be Your people on the earth in these days. ~Jon

Follow The Leader

Here's part 2 in the series on unity. I have been challenged this weekend with how God uses even painful persecution to accomplish His purpose of making us more like Jesus (Hebrews 12). This article is a beautiful picture of God-centered submission within His bride, the church. I am grateful that Ron has allowed me to share it with you. ~Jon

Follow the Leader
by Ron Bergthold

If a conductor and a watermelon were both dropped from a tall building at the same time, which would reach the ground first? (Answer: Who cares?)

Does a good orchestra really need the conductor waving his arms? Everyone knows the rhythm section sets the pace and energy. Accomplished musicians can read a tech sheet, understand changes to the score, and listen well enough to those around them to competently create an excellent product on their own. Yes, at least when the players are reasonably decent, the guy up front is essentially inconsequential, right?

Even worse than the inconsequential is the leader who has irritating habits or damaging flaws. We cringe at what might happen next and know that we deserve better. Life would only improve if someone else (maybe us!) were in charge and the conductor, the supervisor at work, the parent, the government or the pastor simply left, providing us the needed freedom to creatively express our own heart. It is here we have both great opportunity and danger.

God purposefully delegates some of His roles to imperfect human leaders – and then very clearly tell us to “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men…” (1 Pet 2:13a). God did not command this just to frustrate us, but rather for the sake of His Name and for our good. He uses flaws of our authorities to drive home lessons that we would otherwise miss (hence the opportunity).

Peter goes on to tell the slave with a harsh master to keep on submitting, since “..if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable to God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.” (1 Pet 2:20b-21). Do we have that stubborn kind of submissiveness? Our resilient tendency is to justify our choice to go our own way and rebel against, quit, ignore, leave, or complain about our authorities and, in so doing, choose a much more dangerous path.

Musically, a director assists a group to honor and bring life to the composer’s written instructions and purpose. If one player or section refuses to soften as encouraged by the director, another voice or counter-melody will often be lost. If a percussionist decides that no accelerando is needed, even through directed, chaos will ensue. Our unwillingness to submit creates negative consequences for those around us. Think drunk-driving homicides, divorce, and strife within a church. And even greater than these visible physical consequences, we distance ourselves from or quench the Holy Spirit, and we dangerously miss what God graciously wants for us at that time.

Spiritually, God the Father is the Arranger of all creation and Jesus is the director who is in the process of reconciling us to the Composer and His desired state in us here on earth. Our full submissiveness to Christ and His delegated authorities will allow the composer’s intentions to unfold and, at the same time, provide us an opportunity of great joy. How submissive are you to the authorities in your life today?

For the TRBC Orchestra on September 3, 2008

Perfect Unison

Tonight I am posting the first of a series of articles written by a friend on the subject of unity. If you look back over past posts, you will see that this is something that the Lord has had me thinking a lot about lately. I suppose it is just where we are...at least in the body of believers that I am a part of. Anyway, I trust you will be encouraged by these articles by Ron Bergthold and I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. :)

~Jon


Perfect Unison
by Ron Bergthold

How do you get two piccolo players to play in perfect unison? (Answer: Shoot one.)

Unity can be difficult to achieve. Because unity often requires us to “give in” to another’s position, we will only submit when we truly honor the other person and expect that the end result will be worth our effort. Consider the difficulty of tuning two instruments – let alone an entire orchestra. Playing in and listening to middle school bands has taught me to understand that unity of pitch does not come naturally, but is only learned over time, and then only with help. How does this key learning take place?

Most musical groups tune everyone to one person. Whether this person has the right pitch is usually not questioned; the goal is unity. If the entire group plays sharp, at least they are together. Professional orchestras tune to the oboe, since it plays a consistent pitch. This works well unless you have an inconsistent or missing oboist. Then the task often defaults to the pianist or anyone who plays the best pitch. This “follow the best leader” process seems to work well enough for most organizations.

But today, technology has brought us the digital tuner! Science has eliminated one of the key purposes of the oboist and avoided the pain of coming to agreement with an on-site, but off-pitch, piano. However, the problem is still not totally solved. Musicians must still learn to match the perfect pitch presented. I personally like to believe that my own instrument was factory tuned and I can avoid this whole effort, but insisting that would only lead to the detriment of the music to follow.

The ideal must be to have players with perfect pitch – that internal sense and ability to play in tune no matter what. But players with this ability can be irritating and irritable; the former because their perfection points out our own imperfections and the latter because they have the ever-present burden of sensing all the off-pitch noises filling their imperfect world. And may two perfect-pitch players never disagree, for I am fearful that one may be compelled to shoot the other.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10, the Apostle Paul definitely encourages us all to play in tune: “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” As hard as it is to tune an orchestra, it is much more difficult to reach agreement within the walls of a church. Indeed, the very presence of Paul’s appeal points to a need at that time. So how do we accomplish this today?

We often take the “follow-the-leader” approach only to find out the leader is off-pitch. We may discover the “digital tuner” model, which brings us to realize that God provided His Word as the perfect guidance we need. However, this model still requires us to believe its truth to the degree that we are willing to make our will subservient to the stated will of our Father. Ideally, we would like to attain perfect pitch with the Father, and indeed, we do have this opportunity!

Jesus prayed for each believer in John 17:21 that, “…those who believe in me…would be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” Can this really be possible? Please remember who is praying! God provided the material answer to His Son’s prayer by placing within each believer the Holy Spirit to interpret and assist us in finding the right pitch. The very first note that affirms His presence in us is a humility that produces an honor for and obedience to His Word. The ideal church is one in which all members are not only listening to the Holy Spirit but adjusting their minds and actions to conform to His Word. The Bible provides much more meat to this direction, and Peter provides a great start in 1 Peter 3:8: “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.” Are you in tune?

For the TRBC Orchestra on Aug 27, 2008

Two great quotes

I came across two quotes I wanted to share with you. There is no apparent connection except that we, humans, when we are living according to the flesh (even religious flesh), do not represent who God is. It is an amazing and convicting statement that Paul gave us in Romans 14:23b, "For Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (ESV). ~Jon

"Our anger at political shifts in our culture has robbed us of the fundamental compassion of Christianity, compassion for all the lost. We have become selectively interested in lost souls. If they are of 'our kind,' then let's win them. If they are from the other side of the political spectrum, then it's judgment that they deserve. When is the last time we heard people praying for the lost soul of the doctor who runs that abortion clinic or the executive director of the local gay rights alliance? How many of our churches have ministries to AIDS victims seeking to effect a last-minute rescue of a life for eternal gain? Given our political frenzy, it seems that the church today is much more interested in 'search and destroy' than 'seek and save.' We are prone to be too long on mad and too short on mercy." - Joseph M. Stowell, Shepherding The Church, pg 59-60


"In the Twin Cities Marathon a few weeks ago one of the wheel chair participants had a blowout near the end of the race. But he kept going on the rim of his wheel, until five blocks from the finish line the wheel buckled and the chair fell over. Some people from the sidelines ran to him and held the chair level, running along beside him while he finished the race. They sustained him. They held him up. They enabled him to do what he needed to do. That's what grace does for us.

But the comparison is not exact. In fact it is very misleading. Because while the friends holding up the chair is a good picture of grace, it was the man's tremendous upper-body strength that got him across the finish line after 26 miles, and his friends had nothing to do with that. That strength came from him not them. But grace is not like that. Grace sustains everything in the Christian life. It holds up the broken chair. It gives the upper-body strength. It prevents other obstacles. It keeps his heart beating. It keeps his eyes seeing. Grace sustains everything in the Christian life." - John Piper, Sustained By All His Grace (sermon), http://www.desiringgod.org/

Strength for today

Here's a great Piper quote for today. ~Jon

"Often we feel today like our reservoir of strength is not going to last for another day. The fact is, it won't. Today's resources are for today, and part of those resources is the confidence that new resources will be given tomorrow."—John Piper, A Godward Life, p. 25.

Keys To Lasting Change

I read an article this morning in Billy Graham's Decision Magazine that intrigued me. It's called "Keys To Lasting Change" by Chip Ingram. It is an article written to help individuals who know God and love God, but have not been able to gain ground in overcoming sinful patterns in their lives. It is a great article and very helpful for individuals. But as I read, I realized that it is not only applicable to individuals, but churches, too. I think many local churches realize that they are not fulfilling God's design for them, just like many believers know this about their personal lives. The thing that hit me here is that it is not a quick fix, but a process that God leads us through. Be encouraged that the Holy Spirit will lead us into Christlike obedience and that obedience will be accompanied by the power necessary to accomplish all that God has planned for us. Hallelujah!

Praying for healing in Christ's Church,
~Jon

Here's the article link:
http://www.billygraham.org/DMag_article.asp?ArticleID=973

Romans 12

Romans 12 (The Message)

Place Your Life Before God

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13 Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson