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Santa: Reject Him, Receive Him, or Redeem Him?

'Tis the season ... for parents to decide if they will tell the truth about Santa.  Read here an article by Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, where he provides parents with a Biblical approach for redeeming the story of Saint Nicholas.  

For more information about rejecting, receiving, or redeeming cultural in general, check out this blog post by Pastor Mark.

HT: The Resurgence

Mark Driscoll's Counseling Style?

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I tried to come with a title for this post - I really did. But I can't. I'm speechless.

Santa Christ: The Problem with Creating Worship Experiences

R.C. Sproul wrote, "For one thing, in our worship at Christmas we may varnish the staggering truth of the incarnation with what is visually, audibly, and aesthetically pleasing. We confuse emotional pleasure — or worse, sentiment — with true adoration."  For many, Christmas is nothing more than sentiment.  We seek after temporal happiness, briefly cast aside differences with family, friends, co-workers, and others, and go through religious rituals mostly so that we can obtain a desired experience to coincide with the contemporary Christmas holiday.  Much in the way we dig out an old Christmas sweater, we also temporarily pull on Christ to "celebrate" his birth.

Much in the way we dig out an old Christmas sweater, we temporarily pull on Christ to "celebrate" his birth.

How?  By attending an experientially rich worship service, complete with mood lighting, lit candles, familiar and perfectly performed music, and even sweet dear grandma whose heart is warmed by the presence of your butt in the pew next to her.  Most are there to simply hear a story told, to hold a candle, and to arrive at an emotional state that culturally defines our modern Christmas.  But in the heart, this has little or nothing to do with Christ - in fact Jesus is held in the same regard as Santa Claus.  He's a means to an end.  He's an aspect of an cultural experience.  But in our hearts, He's not real, his birth, the most miraculous event in all of human history, does not move as to motivate genuine worship or even life change. 

I pray that I do not approach the Christmas service at my church with this kind of attitude.  I pray that I am focused more on Christ than on the how well the music was performed or the other aesthetic features bound to be present.  And I pray that the local church will be focused on presenting Christ, the whole messy Christmas story, in a way that pleases Him more than it pleases first time visitors who are after the sentimental feeling of the modern"Christmas" experience.

HT: Ligonier

What is Arcing, Why is it Important, & How Can You Learn How to Do It?

Learn how to arc via a free, online, video-based tutorial called ARCING 101.

HT: Bible Arc via Desiring God

A Consice Theology of Role Models

Paul gives a two-part command in Philippians 3:17—join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who live like us. This idea of imitating Paul and leaders like him is not unique to this passage (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9; 1 Timothy 4:12; 2 Timothy 1:13; Hebrews 13:7). However, the Philippians 3:18 ground to the command carries a particular weightiness.

Paul tells us to imitate him and those who live like him, "for many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ."



Paul says that apostasy is the basis for why we should imitate him and those who live like him. Paul does not suggest the benefits of having a role model, he narrows the profile of who a role model should be and he declares its essential place in Christian discipleship. I think these two points from Philippians 3:17-18 make up a concise theology of role models.

Read more here.

HT: Desiring God

How You Can Easily Slip Away From a Biblical Worldview

The message in the video above will sound right to most of us, even many Christians, but it is, at it's root, a humanist, evolutionary, anti-Christian message that promotes self-salvation. This video wonderfully depicts just how easy it is to slip from a Biblical worldview to a faith perspective promoted by the world to glorify the world.

First off, the video is terrific. It's interesting, it's fun, and it's been produced very well. In other words, it's attractive. Even without hearing the content, one would be easily drawn into the message being delivered simply because of the visual narration.

Secondly, nearly everything the lecturer states sounds right if you're not listening closely. Even from a Christian perspective, it seems perfectly reasonable that God would have wired us to empathize with each other, share in each others struggles, and intend for empathy to be a foundational element of doing life together amongst believers and non-believers alike. But if you accept that premise, what else have you accepted? Or more to the point, what have you rejected? Only that at man's core is a sinful nature, and thus man's need for a Savior, as well as God Himself. That's quite a lot to cast aside, but that exactly what you're doing the moment you start buying into the message that this video is delivering.

There's nothing new here. It's an old message wrapped in a shiny, contemporary package. The message is - there's nothing that exists outside of what has evolved, we are in control of our own fate, we can be own savior or we can destroy ourselves, etc. It all sounds wonderful, but it's not Biblical.

Social Media and Discernment

John MacArthur writes:

Twenty-five years ago Neil Postman observed that television had become an American “necessity” and lamented its effects on society. He correctly described the culture of the 1980s as one that was amusing itself to death. If he were alive today, Postman would be astonished at how quickly Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media have gripped our society. His earlier criticisms raise an interesting question about these current trends: If TV put our culture in the casket, has social media nailed the coffin shut?

Read more here as Pastor John MacArthur encourages all to take a careful look at social networking and encourages believers to exercise discernment.

HT: Light and Heat

Why Did He Come?

Cardboard Stories from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

Genesis 6:5: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Hebrews 9:26–28:  "Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."

He came to Redeem!!

HT: The Austin Stone

Paul's Plans and God's Plans

Have you ever stopped to think how much of Paul's witness to Christ was given in circumstances he did not plan? I'm not debunking planning. It's essential. Paul had very clear evangelistic plans. That's obvious from Romans 15 and from the book of Acts. The point I'm making is that God is the master evangelistic planner. What he wants is people who wear the shoes of readiness to move with the gospel (Ephesians 6:15). And once we are moving with a heart for lost people, there will be many interruptions and surprises—but none of them without evangelistic purpose.

"They will deliver you up to prisons and take you before governors and kings. That will be a time for witness." In other words, always and in every circumstance—especially the unexpected ones, and the frustrating ones—be ready to bear witness to Christ.

HT: Desiring God

The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story

The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story from David C. Cook (Lifeway) publishing looks like a really neat Bible for young boys.  It's fully illustrated, comic book style, and includes over 200 Bible narratives in chronological order.  You can learn more about it at www.TheActionBible.com.  I think everyone might like taking a peek at this one, but especially young boys.  Pretty neat!

Journey to the Manger Day 2 // Isaiah 1:10-20

Eight hundred years before the Advent of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah is called to live among God’s people, whom he describes as rebellious and stubborn. They are a sinful nation; a people weighed down by iniquity; they are an offspring of evildoers. The prophet even likens God’s people to Sodom and Gomorrah. These are dark days indeed–full of gloom and despair as the prophet exposes in painstaking detail the extent of Israel’s waywardness. Yet amidst this backdrop of darkness and faithlessness described so poignantly by Isaiah in the opening chapters, this same prophet a few chapters later speaks of a time when those who walk in darkness will see a great light. This light will shine forth in the darkness. Those who are in anguish will be filled with gladness and rejoicing. Hope for this glorious restoration is to be found most profoundly in a child who will be born. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The son to be born will reign on the throne of David. This king will establish righteousness and justice–precisely what is needed in a dark land. Let us rejoice this Advent season–for the child promised by Isaiah has been born. His light has come and shone into the darkness. This child born to us according to God’s plan of old is indeed our hope. He is the one who turns our gloom into rejoicing. Let us give thanks to God for the gift of his beloved Son.

Sign up to receive Advent devotions from the faculty at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary here.

Journey to the Manger: Day 1 // Psalm 146

The Christian life is summed up in this short psalm. 5 Praise, confession, conviction, comfort, exhortation – 6 all of these sprout up from the soil of Psalm 146. 7 The author begins in a posture of praise and worship, a 8 worship that includes creating melodies and spiritual songs 9 to the Lord. He then moves to the confession that God is, 10 as our Christian creeds echo, “Maker of heaven and earth.”

But the heart of Psalm 146 is what flows out of this prayerful confession. “Do not trust human leaders,” he says, “for there is no deliverance from them.” The shock we receive from this harsh exhortation is matched only by the fact that it applies to all human authorities. The psalmist does not have in mind only pagan rulers, but his own kin as well. The limitations of human authority are a result of their being finite, human, frail–they offer hope for a brief moment and then crumble. Even those rulers who shroud themselves in an aura of godliness are unable to bring deliverance, for their “breath” (ruah) will soon stop and the powerful will return to the dust of the earth.
Our hopes, our prayers, our longings for the Lord to fix this broken and sinful world must rest in the “one who keeps faith forever.”

Sign up to receive Advent devotions from the faculty at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary here.

Gospel Coach By Scott Thomas & Tom Wood

Just received my copy. Here's a quote that I can relate with, "Ministry leaders tend to be the most under-resourced members of the church, usually getting the least amount of support and attention."  Most pastors would probably say give me the support, but give Him the attention."  Unfortunately that's not how it usually works out.  The Church typically gives its leaders little support, much complaint, and all of their attention - not necessarily good attention.   Looking forward to digging in deeper and reviewing this here in a few weeks.

Time for Action on Behalf of the Persecuted Church

Sayed Mossa is a new believer in Afghanistan who is in jail in Afghanistan because he decided, of his own free choice, to follow Jesus. In this letter he managed to smuggle out through the hands of a Westerner, he describes daily beatings, torture, and sexual molestation. He stands to be executed for his decision to follow Jesus next week. He has a wife and 6 children, one of whom is disabled.

Read more.

HT: JD Greer

Giving Thanks for God's Crowning Mercies

All year long God blesses us by the grace extended to us through Jesus.  In his book Morning and Evening Charles H Spurgeon reminds us of the mind-bending reality of the graciousness of God's blessings upon our lives:

All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake His mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon His children with beams of love. Like a river, His lovingkindness is always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as His own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all His creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and have their being.

Yet as the sun on summer days gladdens us with beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the atmosphere itself is sometimes fraught with more fresh, more bracing, or more balmy influences than heretofore, so is it with the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days of overflow, when the Lord magnifieth His grace before the sons of men.

Desiring God & Darrin Patrick Live Next Tuesday

Join Desiring God online next Tuesday, November 23rd, from 9-11AM (CST) as Darrin Patrick answers questions about all things church planting and pastoring. They will broadcast live that morning from Patrick's church in St. Louis, MO.

Desiring God writes:

Darrin is most recently known for his book, Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission (which you can now purchase in our online store). It hit shelves less than three months ago and was accompanied by a powerful trailer.

Darrin is a fitting person to talk about church planting: he pastors The Journey, a church he founded in St. Louis in 2002 which has seen remarkable growth, and he serves as Vice President of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network.

We'd love to have some questions ready in advance for him. If there's one you'd like us to ask, please email it to dglive@desiringgod.org, or Tweet it using #dglive. And as always, we want to hear any more that come to you during the broadcast as well.

HT: Desiring God

The Jesus Juke

Ever been the recipient of a shame grenade from a Christian brother or sister? You know, when you're talking about something, even probably in a joking manner, and then someone turns the conversation in the opposite direction with a serious and holy comment. John Acuff, the funny and spot-on commentator and blogger (Stuff Christians Like) about Christian culture, calls this the "Jesus Juke." 

Why do we do that? Why do we Christians throw tiny, little shame grenades at each other?  Read John's post about the "Jesus Juke" and then don't do that.  As John points out, "I’ve never met someone who was “juked to Jesus.”

HT: SCL

Hit 'em With the Rock of Ages

“Rock of Ages” is a great hymn, one of the best.

Here is the bad news: It was written out of spite, by a bitter and narrow-minded young man who couldn’t keep his personal hatred from over-flowing into his prayers and songs.

Here is the good news: God rescued the hymn from the defects of its author and his worst intentions, and Rock of Ages is every bit as good as you think it is. If you skip the rest of this blog post, remember that.

Read more here.

HT: Bob Kauflin