Just a great song...

Enjoy everybody.... Part three coming soon.

Part 2

"The Gospel should transcend our cultural, theological, and relational norms in our everyday lives"

This was the first statement I left y'all with a couple of days ago. I think that this is the essential element of the Great Commission that Christ left the disciples, and us, with at the end of Matthew. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." ALL NATIONS. God has granted us the gift of Grace through the cross, intended for all groups of people all over the world. This good news is not ours alone... In scripture Israel was the chosen nation of God. We are in the same position as Americans that Asians, Africans, Latin Americans and the rest of the world is in. We have been grafted into the Vine of Christ by Gods love.

This is great news for us, but it also means that we do not have a monopoly on it, nor is it ours to choose to whom it will go, and how it will look. This is far beyond church polity, or the so called "great debates" of our modern church. All of that must be informed by the Gospel itself.

This is not to say that we shouldn't pursue holiness and sanctification in communicating and debating the good and evil in our Church and in our World. Christs sanctifying work comes through our community and our pursuit of Holiness: but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thess 5:21-22. Paul also tells us to warn each other of Evil and Luther encouraged us to preach the Gospel to each other daily. But this is much different from the prejudices that I know I have in my own life, and from the ignorance of being isolated in our own lives, cultures, and local churches.

There is truth in everything. Every religion, every culture, every king and dictator, every liberal spirituality is here under the eye of God and His providence. This is not to say that we should go and eat up everything that is out there, but it is by Grace that we all are living and breathing each day... so we cant just cast aside someone, or some idea, as useless and totally false. The Gospel always has room to work and change people and things. Again I appeal to the testing of everything. Let us not justify heresy and false Gospels, but lets address them and work with them and teach against them with a mind not for defense of pride, but rather that God is doing a good and eternal work here.

We should rejoice in the diversity that God put on this earth. From the plethora of plants and animals, to the changing of the seasons, to the differences of each of us. The people of God once before thought that they could revel in being the same and "figuring it out." Then in Genesis 11 God saw fit to disperse them all over the world with different languages and confusing them, so they would not think they are greater than God.

God loves creation, and it will be good once more, even in all its diversity. The world is the way it is for a reason, diverse, because no one of us has the lock on the love of God. The thing that unites us is the Gospel alone. We are united as brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what that looks like around the globe. That is for next post though...

Praise God!
and happy Easter!

Virginia is for Chaplains

Well, I almost went a whole month without blogging. Sorry kids... but it wasn't a month, it was almost a month!

I just got back from an amazing trip to Virginia to visit my friend Justin who is a Naval Chaplains Candidate with me. First of all the Appalachian Mountains are absolutely breathtaking. I forget what an amazing creation the Earth is when I am stuck here in the Midwest with no seas and no mountains to marvel at.

Drive highway 501 in a stick shift before you die, thats all I have to say about that.

Also it was very interesting being in Lynchburg. Located right in the heart of the state, it was a distinctly different culture then what I am accustomed to here in Cincinnati Ohio. There seemed to be a church every 500 feet or so, and the gospel is something that is taken very seriously. There is a distinct southern influence and an obvious Baptist one, diverse socioeconomic standings from the backwoods to the socialite elite, and a very interesting diametric between the America of our past, and the future ahead.

Here in Ohio we like to contextualize, teach, work with the Gospel until it is woven into our daily lives (at least thats the idea). There, it is something that is assumed. The Gospel is what it is, and you're either on board or you're not. It was very interesting indeed to see what God has done for His names sake there in relation to what He is doing here.

I have thought a lot about that since then. The Gospel is moving all over the world, and in a lot of places it is moving much more abundantly then in America. I think we know that in the back of our minds, but it really is happening. Not only this, but the Gospel looks differently in different areas. There were some things that I respect about the Baptist theology and polity, and some things that I am uncomfortable with... but it works in the culture they are in. I know that I can say that I am pleased with the growth of the Church in Africa, or China, or its persistence in the South, but its very different when I see it, and when it doesn't look like what I think the church should be. I think that this cultural gospel (which Ive blogged about before) is something that has led to intolerance, poor missionary work, and hypocrisy within the church. It then becomes the gospel beyond the Gospel, which Jesus did not come to do: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17. Jesus came for the Law, to fulfill it, because it was a good and righteous law... He did not come to add to the Law, which is the essence of the cultural gospel.

This made me ask a very important question of myself that I think can benefit us all... Is my foundation in my theology, or in the Gospel? I believe that there is a positive statement we can make, and a negative one regarding this idea. For the former: "The Gospel should transcend our cultural, theological, and relational norms in our everyday lives" and for the latter: "Our cultural and theological differences and misunderstandings cannot undermine the work we are charged with as brothers and sisters in Christ, for the good of the name of Christ and the Kingdom of God".

The gospel transcends all... for this reason:
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:11-12

I will be blogging about these two statements I made in the next two days to address these ideas and tease them out a little further... Stay tuned, and Happy Easter...

He is Risen, He is Risen indeed.
Praise God!