The Journal

Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." This is my feeble attempt at examining my life.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Charles Schwab and Sovereign Grace

7:18 PM Posted by Daniel Rose No comments

Sovereign grace we have discovered is what propels out into God's mission.  Now let's continue to explore Ephesians 1:11-14 to see how else it applies to our lives as followers of Jesus,




“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”



We are going to close by looking at the ramifications of verses 12-14. As a result of the sovereign grace of God working out all things according to the purpose of his will we find that we have security.


Security.


It's something that investment companies make millions of dollars off of...


httpv://youtu.be/mFM-m31y5HY


We all desire security and it drives much of what we do and don't do in life.  The perceived lack of security can create fear.  This is what most of the politicians do in their campaigns.  They seek to show that the other party will eliminate security from your life and leave you dangling. When we don't feel secure in our lives we experience fear.


However these verses in Ephesians remove any doubt about security from us. We no longer find our security in the context of finances, power, or relationships with people.  We find them in relationship with the God of the universe. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God and in that sealing we find that there is nothing that can separate us from relationship with God.


This kind of security allows us to live freely.  This kind of security actually sends us with confidence into a broken world without fear of being separated from God. We can enter into relationships with people not worried about our identity because it is wrapped up in God.  We can tell people about Jesus and not have to worry about rejection or pain.


It turns out that when we find our security in the midst of God's grace we are able to step out boldly, confidently, full of grace and truth.  We can then love well to the glory of God.


What would your life look like if you never feared insecurity ever again?


It would be amazing.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Book Review - With by Skye Jethani

7:23 PM Posted by Daniel Rose No comments
With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

Media_httpwwwassocama_dovlp

 by Skye Jethani editor of Leadership Journal has provided for the church an accessible vision to what it means to be the body of Christ.

The text follows a straightforward format where Jethani evaluates four postures that most people have before God. The first is "Life Under God". This perspective emphasises God's holiness. To please God the believer must follow his rule and regulations and come under his authority.

The second posture is that of "Life Over God". This posture is basic unbelief where God is something that is either ignored or used for personal gain.

The third posture is "Life From God".  Here the belief is that if we do the right things and live the right way God will bless us. This is the common posture in the "health and wealth" or "word of faith" movements.

The fourth posture is "Life For God".  The desire within this system is to give one's life for ultimate meaning and purpose.  People who hold this view elevate the faith of the missionary or pastor who have "given everything" for God.

These four postures are all found wanting in some way. So what is the Christian life supposed to look like in its posture?

Jethani argues for a fifth way, "Life With God".  In this posture we discover what it means to live life alongside God. We join him in his mission and community.  This posture takes seriously the incarnation of the Holy Spirit within the lives of every believer.  Grace, mercy, and walking with God are the central factors. In this posture it is argued that we find an attractive and passionate relationship with God.

I think that this is a very helpful book and strongly recommend it. The weakness is that there is lack of contemporary examples for this posture (which might be because there aren't any!).  I appreciate that there are three chapters of application, however, they are still somewhat ethereal and maybe not as applicable as they could be. I found myself still asking the "so what" question. I think this text is ripe for a follow up "workbook" whereby someone could process through their postures before God and then develop an understanding of what it means to do life "with" God.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Flaming Potatoes and the Sovereignty of God

6:24 PM Posted by Daniel Rose No comments
The previous two posts explored bits and pieces of the Ephesians 1:11-14 and how sovereign grace actually effects the way that we actually live and move and do life.
“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

We have discussed "in him" and "obtained an inheritance", no we turn our sights to "having been predestined according to the purpose of who works all things according to the counsel if his will." We must not get hung up in theological debate regarding the issues surrounding the doctrine of predestination.  Those discussions are for another time and place.  The point of this series is to discuss the "so what" so as to send us on and expedition of faith.

I became a follower of Jesus in the summer of 1995, since then I have sought to follow him into the world where he would be. I have changed and grown.  My following has matured but it is no less passionate.  Early on I struggled to come to terms with the doctrine of predestination.  It bothered be to think that God may not have chosen some to be his people.  I struggled to see what the point of engaging a lost world was if God was sovereign over salvation and if God had to be the one to bring people back to life. I really wanted to believe in a synergistic faith and not a monergistic faith.

Then I read, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

Media_httpwwwassocama_ficgq

 and God Centered Evangelism

Media_httpwwwassocama_fgjpp

. These two books transformed my view on doing ministry under the sovereign grace of God.  I discovered that God's sovereign grace actually propelled one to a radical evangelism because there was a confidence in that God would act and make himself known.

This is the beauty of the phrase that we are looking at here in Ephesians 1:11.  There is a purpose for all things.  It is not simply an accident that some people trust Christ or don't. It all with purpose and in accordance with the God's good, pleasing, and perfect will. There is nothing that we experience that is without purpose.  With purpose comes meaning and with meaning comes hope.

The follower of Jesus runs on sovereign grace.

We find hope, meaning, and purpose in its midst.


Media_httpdanielmrose_xphst

In college my floormates had a potato gun.  One night we took the screens out (which was illegal) of our third floor dorm rooms and fired (illegal) potatoes across the quad at another dorm (stupid).  It was exhilarating to watch the small purple balls fly across the night sky and explode as they hit the wall of the other dorm. To fire the gun you needed Aqua Net hairspray, an airtight compartment, and a flint to create a spark.

The doctrine of predestination is the flint for the follower of Jesus.  When it rubs against our sensibilities it creates a spark that sets aflame the Spirit of God within us. We are propelled like a flaming potato into God's mission for his glory (even if we don't agree with the doctrine, it still works!).

Monday, August 22, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Sovereign Grace - It Makes Us Go 2

6:29 PM Posted by Daniel Rose , No comments
In the previous post we began to look at Ephesians 1:11-14,
“11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

We dove into the first phrase, "in him".  Now we must grapple with the next, "we have obtained an inheritance".  What is this inheritance? How do we obtain it? What does this mean? How is this connected to sovereign grace?

The inheritance that we we obtain "in him" is that of the Kingdom of God. We have been transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.  You see, by being "in him" we have all that he has.  Just take a look at Ephesians 1:3-10 for a sense of the inheritance.

We gain this inheritance by being "in him" and get to be "in him" by his grace.  There is nothing that we can do to earn our way into being "in him" we are all broken beyond recognition.  That's the way it is.  If you don't believe me, look in the mirror. Seriously, can you tell me you're not broken? I know I am.  I am broken beyond self-repair.

So, we need help, we need to be brought in and we are done so by his grace. Check out Ephesians 2.

This all means that we have been given something that is bigger than ourselves and we have a responsibility to do something with it.  We must act now in response.  We don't have to.  That is the beauty of sovereign grace.  We are not needed but we are wanted. This is significant.  It means that we can respond to God in proportion as we come to grips with a deeper more full understanding of his grace.

We can't judge ourselves by others.  We can only look at the inheritance and ask, "How am I responding?"

So, how are you responding? What kind of grace have you experienced?

Friday, August 12, 2011

Book Review - Right Here, Right Now by Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford

5:00 PM Posted by Daniel Rose No comments
Right Here, Right Now: Everyday Mission for Everyday People (Shapevine)

Media_httpwwwassocama_hdmsr

 by Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford is one of the most recent additions to the missional library. The book is very helpful as a primer for those entering into the conversation for the first time or for those who are trying to figure out how to move from ethereal to action.

This text has a simple structure beginning with a "Briefing" by Hirsch where he summarizes The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church

Media_httpwwwassocama_tdfai

 in about 30 pages.  This forces him to be succinct and clear when dealing with the philosophical edge of missional thinking.  The book ends with a "Debriefing" where Hirsch is able to fill in any philosophical gaps that resulted in the rest of the text.

The meat of the book is broken into three sections written by Ford with sidebar comments from Hirsch: Putting Our Hearts Into It (Missional Paradigm), Wrapping Our Heads Around It (Missional Analysis), and Doing Something About It (Missional Action).

Putting our Hearts Into It covers the perspective or paradigm shift that has to take place for followers of Jesus need to make to really engage in missional activity. The shift is that of seeing the world with a "missionary's eye", the second is that of being people of peace, the third is getting a proper view of the gospel.

Wrapping Our Heads Around It contains three chapters that cover issues surrounding our culture and how we ought to relate to it.  Ford adeptly critiques Western culture.  After that he argues for a missional lifestyle that frees us from the trappings of the American Dream.  Finally, he provides insight into how to understand the largely suburban world within which most American Christians find themselves.

Doing Something About It looks at the systemic and practical approaches to creating a community wide missional approach. Ford discusses the house church and small group movement, followed by a practical approach to hospitality, and ends the section with a discussion on what it means to be scattered a people of God.

Each chapter concludes with practical steps to take to help you activate what you are reading.

I found this to be one of the most helpful books on the subject that I have read.  Hirsch and Ford have found a nice balance between philosophy and application.  The writing is down to earth and accessible.

The only criticism I have is that in some ways this text can come across as very individualistic.  While community is discussed and the importance of relationships comes through, Hirsch's groundbreaking concept of "Communitas" is largely missing as a word to shape the conversation.  I think an opportunity was missed to bring this concept more into the mainstream.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Book Review - Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

11:44 PM Posted by Daniel Rose No comments
Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World

Media_httpwwwassocama_rqgqe

 by David Garrison and published by the International Mission Board is a very helpful text. I thoroughly appreciated this little book in its simplicity. David did not write more than he needed too. He laid out the need, the vision, and the how-to in a way that is easily grasped. This text is perfect for any person who is stepping outside of Western Christendom trying to figure out how engage the world in a more biblical way.

Garrison defines Church Planting Movements (CPM) as "A rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment (8)." The key words being rapid, exponential, indigenous, planting. If one can grasp these things then we are able to replicate this model.

I really appreciated the structure of the text and how succinct it is. He lays out the core components of a CPM in chapters 3-5 with a list of ten components each. He also provides the leader with answers to FAQ's and obstacles. The stories from countries around the world paint a clear picture of how CPM's work.

I have two criticisms of the text. The first is that in the definition of a healthy church there is no mention of church discipline. This is a key component to keeping a church healthy in the long run. The absence of such has led to the downfall of most of Western Christendom. The second is that there are no stories of this happening in a Western context. While I understand that David works for the International Mission Board, if this is going to be global then it needs to include examples of this working in all contexts. It may be that this is not happening in the West. However, it seems unlikely since I can think of a number of CPM's that are being developed in metro Detroit, MI.

All in all, I would strongly recommend this book. It will be especially helpful for leaders who are moving away from the Boomer Generation's "If you build it, they will come" mentality and the "attractional" mode of church.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Sovereign Grace - It Makes Us Go

6:14 PM Posted by Daniel Rose , No comments
As I continue to wrestle through the implications of theology in every day mission I am struck by a simple little question, "How do we keep at it?"

We have looked at Jesus as the theological center, we have looked at the centrality of being "in Christ", and so now we must consider the role of sovereign grace in this whole thing. You may wonder why I would place sovereign grace here in the midst of this discussion. I mean, we could naturally look at the person of the Holy Spirit and his role in the incarnational church.  We could naturally look at the importance of the Scriptures.  However, it seems to me that we need to grapple with how we get "in Christ" and we need to come to grips with the sovereignty of God in all that we are.

I think the best place to begin is with a little Bible, Ephesians 1:11-14,
"11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."

This little snippet from Ephesians is so full of goodness that we need to work through it over the course of a few posts.  Let's begin with the first phrase, "In him".  We are reminded again that the this is the central understanding of who we are people.  We are people who are "in him".  This is the primary marker of our identity.

Paul wants it to be clear that to be "in him" is the context for all that follows. Ae we pursue our brief analysis of this passage we must keep our in-himness in the front of our minds.

Monday, August 1, 2011