Dear Seminarian,

Do not let the Bible become a mere object. Remember that it is the very Word of God. When you spend semester after semester dissecting every detail of the Hebrew and Greek text, it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Respectfully,

Keith Mathison

Matt Chandler – Devotional Life

Journal Entry 9.16.09

Galatians Haiku

Gospel: Distorted
Creator God: Deserted
The false preacher: Damned

(Galatians 1.6-9)

Campus =/= Church

Does the centrality of the church mean that campus ministry is irrelevant or redundant? No indeed. Should you be involved with a campus ministry at your college or university? Yes indeed. So how do you avoid the spiritual dangers of an unchurched spirituality?

1. First of all, resist the temptation to keep your membership in your home church. Join a church in your college town, as soon as you find one with a commitment to Christ and the Scripture.
2. Second, find a church where some people will know your name, and will know if you are not present. Find a place where someone will ask you, “Where were you?” if you miss a week.
3. Third, spend some time with people in your congregation who are not in the same place in life as you–a lonely senior adult, a harried thirty-something Mom, a sarcastic fourteen year-old kid.
4. Fourth, pester the church leaders of the church for some way for you to exercise your gifts in the congregation–and let the leaders recognize and encourage your gifts. This means submitting yourself to serve the Body in whatever way the church deems necessary. Most often, this will be something more Christ-like than glorious, such as cleaning toilets or restocking cookies and juice-boxes for Vacation Bible School.
5. Fifth, find a campus ministry that seeks to work alongside the church. Look for a ministry that wants to enhance what is already happening in your life in discipleship and spiritual growth and mission in your congregation. Be very wary of a campus ministry that isn’t constantly asking you, “Where are you in church–and what’s happening there?” And be very, very wary of a campus ministry that seems to resent the time you spend with your church as “competing” with their ministry.

There are lots of campus ministries like this out there. Be sure you find one. Be sure you pour yourself into whatever ministry your campus group can empower you to lead or serve. Be sure you and your fellow campus ministry group members are out among your unsaved fellow students with dynamism and compassion. But make sure that you are, first of all, an active, identified, and accountable member of a local church. It may seem a little slower-paced than your campus ministry. It may not seem relevant to twenty-first century culture. But it is part of the unfolding mystery of the universe. And Jesus is there. So what other kind of spirituality do you need?

cc: Russell Moore

God’s Existence: A Pizza Pub Conversation

Here is a brief rundown of a conversation my wife and I had with a buddy of our last night at a wonderful pizza pub we have here in the city.

It all started with, “God does not exist, or so some say.” This would be my response:

“Is that true?” To which they would most certainly respond, “Yep.”

And there you have them; they’ve just conceded the existence of God.

How so?

1. Truth exists. (If they don’t believe truth exists, well, then they just made a truth claim and believed it to be true.)

2. Truth is unchangeable. (What is true today has always been true and will always be true.

3. Truth is eternal. (Any denial of the eternity of truth turns out to be an affirmation of its eternity. Do you see how that works?)

4. Truth is mental. (Without a mind, truth could not exist. The object of knowledge is a proposition, meaning, a thought.)

5. Truth is superior to the human mind. (Truth cannot be subjective and individualistic. Beliefs may vary, but truth cannot change. If truth and the human mind were equal, then truth could not be eternal and unchangeable.)

6. Truth is God. (There must be an ontological ground for truth. But the ground of truth cannot be anything perishable or contingent. Since truth is eternal and immutable, it must exist in an eternal Mind. And since only God possesses these attributes, God must be truth.)

Therefore, when humans know truth, they know something of God’s nature.

This in no way proves the diety of Christ, or any other god, but it does give you something to chew on if you claim an existence without truth, gods, or Jesus Christ as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Quote of the Day – Robert Schuller

Michael Horton: Would you be willing to address your congregation as a group as sinners?
Robert Schuller: No I don’t think I need to do that…I want to attract them, and so I use the strategy that Jesus used. I preach the way Jesus preached. I don’t preach, probably, the way Paul preached.

RS: The Bible is a contradiction: Old Testament–Law, New Testament–Grace. Jesus is a contradiction; totally human and totally God.
MH: Of course we would say that that the dual nature of Christ is a mystery but not a contradiction.
RS: It is a contradiction, but you know what? Contradictions are ultimate points of creativity.

RS: Just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean you should preach it.

MH: But not while we were worthy Christ died for us?
RS: Listen, if Christ had died for somebody who wasn’t worth anything that would have been a lousy deal. God is a good steward and he teaches us to be good stewards. God knows the worst sinner is worth saving so that he would die on a cross for us.
MH: But how can we deserve undeserved favor?
RS: You tell me! I don’t have to answer that question.

CALLER: Dr. Schuller, what do we tell someone who says, “I’m already happy and fulfilled, so why do I need the gospel?”
RS: I don’t know…I can’t relate to that.

MH: Well the Apostle Paul says, “There is no one who does good, no, not even one.
RS: Well, I’m not going to say that because I just think that leads ultimately to “holier-than-thou-isms,” self-righteousness, etc., and that comes out of the personality of the preacher and does an untold damage…

For more of the interview these quotes came from, click this link.

Why I Love William Carey

William Carey (1761-1834), known as the “Father and Founder of Modern Missions,” was the first missionary to India sent out by the Baptist Missionary Society. His motto was:

Expect great things from God.
Attempt great things for God.

In his will, Carey directed a simple headstone
to be placed on his grave, inscribed as follows:

William Carey, born August 17, 1761: died
‘A wretched, poor, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall.’

On his deathbed he said to Alexander Duff:

When I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey;
speak about Dr. Carey’s Saviour.

He must increase, but I must decrease. –John 3:3

To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. –2 Peter 3:18b

Quote of the Day – C.H. Spurgeon

The motto of all true servants of God must be, “We preach Christ; and him crucified.” A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching. [Exposition of Acts 13:13-49 published in 1904]

Be Like God: Angry and Good

James 1.19-20: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Only God’s anger can.

I want to be angry with God, rather than at God. I want to be shaking fists with God, not at God. I want to be locking arms with God in righteous anger, not protesting against him.

I want an unquenchable zeal for God’s cause and an uncompromising distaste for sin. I want to live life in the reality that Jesus died not only to free me from my own idolatrous anger, but to enable me to take up his righteous anger. He died so that I would be angry at sin the destruction is causes in my life and everyone around me. Jesus died so that my anger would be holy and pleasing to him.