Body of Christ

When the incarnate body of Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven, who felt the effect of His bodily absence..?

...starving widows?

...rejected prostitutes?

...fatherless children?

...the blind?

...the poor?

matthew 11:5
luke 4:18

i believe this is a great question to measure the Christ-centeredness and Biblical saturation of your church:

If the body of Christ you attend were suddenly eradicated from the face of the planet, who would feel the effects..?

...widows?

...orphans?

...homeless?

...anyone?

How must God feel when His body does not look like Jesus?

Isaiah Chapter 1?

empire

Many kings in history and many dictators today intend to get glory. They want to be known as strong and rich and wise. And how have they done it? By keeping their citizens weak and poor and uneducated. An educated people is a threat to a dictator. A prosperous middle class is a threat to a dictator. A strong people is a threat to the strength of a dictator. So what do they do? They secure their own power by keeping their people weak. They get their glory by standing on the backs of a broken people. ...Kings...keep their people weak so that they can be strong and rich.

But now contrast the way Paul draws attention to the glory of God. If any king ever had the right to display all his glory by stepping on the backs of a rebellious people, it is God. But what does he do? He displays his glory by making his people strong. “Now unto him who is able to strengthen you . . . be glory forevermore . . .” God magnifies his glory by making you strong with his gospel. God feels no threat from your strength at all. In fact, the stronger you are in faith and hope and love through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the greater he appears. God does not secure his strength by keeping his people weak. He magnifies the glory of his strength by making his people strong. “Now unto him who is able to strengthen you . . . be glory.”
--John Piper, God Strengthens Us Through the Gospel

God forbid that the church of the body of Christ functions as an empire or act as a king who secures his own safety, security, and wealth at the expense of others and on the backs of the poor and oppressed.

May the American church follow Christ--body broken, blood poured out--for the whole gospel to go forth to the salvation of all nations, peoples, and street corners.

"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body."

2 Cor 4:10-11

eucahrist

while i complain about low church attendance, our brothers in india rejoice that their pastors kept the faith while their churches were burnt to the ground with them inside.

while i sit at applebee's sipping an $8 drink, a woman in rwanda walks for 10 hours, from midnight to 10:00am to bring back water for her family. every. night.

i'm stressed out because i have a 45 minute commute to a job where i sit in an air-conditioned office with free coffee, soda, and clean water in the toilet.

ever 6 seconds a child under the age of five dies from dehydration.

i increase my standard of living at the expense of others' lives.

if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
1 cor 15:19

how can i claim to follow Christ if my life, my spending, my standard of living would be the same even if i did not [1]? even if God did not exist, i would be living this same life, because my life is good. comfortable. why? so i can be happy?

need exists because relationships do not. if i loved them, i would not buy new clothes while they freeze to death in a cardboard box.

2 solutions. ignore their cries. or deny self.

which is of Christ?

i hope i don't feel better just because i typed this.


//chris



[1] Francis Chan's latest three sermons have truly convicted me in this area.

John.Piper.

I have no deeper respect for any living being than this man. I pray that at the age of 62, I have the legacy, the passion, and the authenticity of Dr. Piper.

I echo what Mark Driscoll posted in his blog post "Why I Love John Piper"

Piper does not meet the culturally hip/relevent standard of acclaimed pastors today. Piper is real. Biblical. Passionate. God has used his writings to utterly change my life in ways that no other person has. I hope to meet him someday. I'm not speaking out of idolatory and worship, but out of thankfulness.

Read Don't Waste Your Life, and When I Don't Desire God (along with every other book Piper has written), and allow them to penetrate your life.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

The difference between an entertainment-oriented preacher and a Bible-oriented preacher is the manifest connection of the preacher’s words to the Bible as what authorizes what he says.

The entertainment-oriented preacher gives the impression that he is not tethered to an authoritative book in what he says. What he says doesn’t seem to be shaped and constrained by an authority outside himself. He gives the impression that what he says has significance for reasons other than that it manifestly expresses the meaning and significance of the Bible. So he seems untethered to objective authority.

The entertainment-oriented preacher seems to be at ease talking about many things that are not drawn out of the Bible. In his message, he seems to enjoy more talking about other things than what the Bible teaches. His words seem to have a self-standing worth as interesting or fun. They are entertaining. But they don’t give the impression that this man stands as the representative of God before God’s people to deliver God’s message.

The Bible-oriented preacher, on the other hand, does see himself that way—“I am God’s representative sent to God’s people to deliver a message from God.” He knows that the only way a man can dare to assume such a position is with a trembling sense of unworthy servanthood under the authority of the Bible. He knows that the only way he can deliver God’s message to God’s people is by rooting it in and saturating it with God’s own revelation in the Bible.

The Bible-oriented preacher wants the congregation to know that his words, if they have any abiding worth, are in accord with God’s words. He wants this to be obvious to them. That is part of his humility and his authority. Therefore, he constantly tries to show the people that his ideas are coming from the Bible. He is hesitant to go too far toward points that are not demonstrable from the Bible.

His stories and illustrations are constrained and reined in by his hesitancy to lead the consciousness of his hearers away from the sense that this message is based on and expressive of what the Bible says. A sense of submission to the Bible and a sense that the Bible alone has words of true and lasting significance for our people mark the Bible-oriented preacher, but not the entertainment-oriented preacher.

People leave the preaching of the Bible-oriented preacher with a sense that the Bible is supremely authoritative and important and wonderfully good news. They feel less entertained than struck at the greatness of God and the weighty power of his word.

Lord, tether us to your mighty word. Cause me and all preachers to show the people that our word is powerless and insignificant in comparison with yours. Grant us to stand before our people as messengers sent with God’s message to God’s people in God’s name by God’s Spirit. Grant us to tremble at this responsibility. Protect us from trifling with this holy moment before your people.

--John Piper

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2008/3243_In_Honor_of_Tethered_Preaching/

//cp

...strange.things.are.afoot.at.the.circle.k

laura came home from work on thursday (our date night) and I asked her what she wanted for dinner.

"i don't know, how 'bout you?"

"joe's crab shack."

so, we googled the nearest Joe's and shot off to Pittsburg for dinner.

good times :D

...yeah

we are so freaking married

...insanity.defined.

five guys, five states, five days, ten skateparks, one dodge neon... prayers are welcomed.