A Word from Francis Schaffer

If you have not read any of Francis Schaffer, you should. He was probably the greatest prophetic voice in evangelicalism in the last century. Even though he has been with the Lord for a number of years, his is still a prescient voice today...maybe because he had his finger on the humanness of evangelicals and their weaknesses, but nevertheless his voice still rings true, and issues he pointed out are still with us today.

I read his last book, The Great Evangelical Disaster, in 1984, the year he went home. It was one of the defining books that I have read, and I have been re-reading it the last few weeks. I am going to quote some of it as he draws the book to a conclusion, as it hits the church where it lives today.

"We need a revolutionary message in the midst of today's relativistic thinking. By revolutionary or radical, I mean standing against the all-pervasive form which the world spirit has taken in our day. This is the real meaning of radical....We need a young generation and others who will be willing to stand in loving confrontation, but real confrontation, in contrast to the mentality of constant accommodation with the current forms of the world spirit as they surround us today, and in contrast to the way in which so much of evangelicalism has developed the automatic mentality of accommodation at each successive point.....the evangelical accommodation has constantly been in one direction--that is, to accommodate with whatever is in vogue with the form of the world spirit which is dominant today. It is the same world spirit which is destroying both church and society. Balance must be considered constantly. But the accommodation we have been speaking of has constantly taken the form of giving in to the humanistic, secular consensus which is the dominant destructive force of our day.'

'It does seem to me that evangelical leaders, and every evangelical Christian, have a very special responsibility not to just go along with the "blue-jean syndrome" of not noticing that their attempts to be "with it" so often take the same forms as those who deny the existence or holiness of the living God.  Accommodation leads to accommodation--which leads to accommodation..."

A true prophetic voice is timeless. This was written in 1984, but we see the same issue alive and well in the church today. As Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun." We see the same accommodation today, as so many pastors/churches/Christians have fallen into the "we must be relevant to the culture" trap. The pursuit of relevance has led to accommodation. It is only when we are truly counter cultural, truly radical to the culture that we have any true impact. We are not salt and light by accommodating the world spirit of our times, but only when we are stopping the corruption of the world spirit, and exposing the corruption of the world spirit can we call ourselves truly radical; and you cannot be relevant and radical at the same time. 

I would recommend that you read this book.  Think about what Francis Schaffer has to say, and see how he recaptures the true meaning of living the radical Christian life.

Making the World a Better Place

I think it is safe to say that wanting the world to be a better place would be common sentiment the world over.  In many places it is even a popular sentiment.  And we see great efforts from many quarters of society to achieve this goal, from breast cancer awareness, to clean water initiatives, to homeless shelters, to aids research and education, to disaster relief, to famine relief, to refugee aid, to save the whales, to anti-abortion measures, to racism awareness, to anti-poverty campaigns, to enviromental concerns, to soil conservation, to water conservation, to energy conservation, to operation Christmas child, to no child left behind, to school drop-out initiatives, to Unicef, to UN peace keeping, to Mid-East diplomacy, to anti-terrorist measures, to social justice concerns, to mercy ministries, to the Salvation Army, to food banks, to welfare, to...whew, the list goes on and on.

All of us, who inhabit this world, want it to be a cleaner, safer, nicer, peaceful, friendly, beautiful, and even loving place to live.  But, alas, it is a sentiment doomed to failure, and a desire that will never come to fruition.  Why, you might ask?  Because the root issue of all of the problems in this world, sin, is ignored by the world; and all the attempts that those in the world make to make the world a better place to live, treat the symptoms, not the disease. 

Man is a slave to sin, he is blinded by his sin, he is deceived in his sin, he loves his sin, he is an inventor of sin, he is an encourager of sin, he flaunts his sin, he feeds his sin, he exalts his sin, he is incapable of not sinning, he excuses his sin, he justifies his sin, he promotes sin, he uses sin to accomplish his purposes, he won't give up his sin, he cherishes his sin, he worships his sin, he speaks sin, he thinks sin, he acts sin; in other words he is thoroughly permeated and dominated by sin.  He is born in sin, and sin is inescapable.

The earth is cursed because of sin.  All creation groans because of sin.  The world and all that is in it is passing away because of sin.  Man is condemned because of sin.  Since man rules over the world and sin rules over man, therefore sin is the ruling and guiding force in this world.

Enter the church, the greatest sin-fighting agent in the world; and not the corporate or organized church, but the church as the body of Christ, the church as represented by each individual Christian as they live out the life of Christ in their daily affairs.  Christ told us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are salt and light.  Salt stops the corruption of sin in its tracks (Matthew 5:13), light exposes sin and causes it to flee (John 3:18-21, Ephesians 5:8-13).  In addition to this, through the church the gospel is proclaimed; and it is the gospel, the living Word of the living God, that brings cleansing to sinful man (John 13:8-10, John 15:3, Ephesians 5:25-27).

The church has been given the mandate to go into all the world and make disciples, and the church does that by preaching and sharing the gospel, the Word of God.  It is the gospel that cleanses man from sin, it is the Word of God that keeps man's way pure, and keeps him from sinning (Psalm 119:9, 11).  True believers do not practice sin, but practice holiness (I John 3:7-10), and as they do they are salt and light in the world.  It is the gospel that deals with the sin that dominates and controls man; first by cleansing him from sin and freeing him from the bondage to sin, and then by empowering him to have victory over ongoing sin as he is obedient to the Word of God. 

So, what is the most important thing the church must do to make the world a better place?  What is its mandate from its head, the Lord Jesus Christ?  It is to preach, teach, and live the gospel.  So as we, the living body of the living Lord, go about our daily affairs, sharing the gospel and living the gospel, the world is made a better place, literally one Christian at a time.  But if all of God's people, those that are truly His, would make this their focus; we would see the world become a better place, not a perfect place...that is yet to come (Revelation 21-22).  So as we minister to those around us, our neighbor, let us make their world a better place by introducing them to the One who has overcome the world and all of its sin, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Crushing Weight of Glory

An excellent post by Tim Challies on having an eternal perspective on suffering.

http://www.challies.com/christian-living/the-crushing-weight-of-glory#more

Great Last Words

"I am going to the three Persons, with whom I have had communion...My bow abides in strength.  Is Christ divided?  No, I have the whole of His righteousness; I am found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God, , which is by faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.  Christ cannot love me better than He doth.  I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God...Now I shall be ever with the Lord.

These are the last words of Thomas Goodwin
Banner of Truth
November 2011
Page 3

In our final hour, may we all have this confidence spawned from a life that has experienced the fullness of communion with the triune God.  May we all be swallowed up in God.

Preaching and Relevance

...we have to face the fact that the pursuit of relevance as being constantly timely is a mirage.  When relevance is invoked as self-authenticating concept, it becomes meaningless and dangerous because it begs the questions, Relevance for what?  Relevance to whom? 

Such questions are commonly ignored in today's headlong rush after the unholy trinity of the powerful, the practical, and the profitable.  But if we don't ask them, the constant appeal to relevance becomes an idol, a way of riding slipshod over truth, and a means of coralling opinion deceptively.  Until, that is, we finally deceive ourselves.

The fact is that nothing is finally relevant except in relation to the true and the eternal....Only truth and eternity give relevance to "relevance."  To think or do anything simply "because it is relevant" will always prove to be irrational, dangerous, and a sure road to burnout.  It may tast like unpleasant medicine to our practical modern thinking, but in fact it's a powerful antidote to perpetual folly.....God has broken into our silence.  He has spoken and has come down Himself.  And in His written and living Word we are given truth from outside our situation, truth that throws light on our little lives and our little world.  This word of God is the only true Archimedean point to gain the leverage to raise us above the forces of gravity in our human condition.

Os Guiness
Prophetic Untimeliness
Pages 106-107

Preaching the Gospel

People are brought to faith in Jesus Christ

not because a preacher happens to be exceptionally

dynamic one Sunday morning, or because he finishes

his sermon with a spellbinding story.  Rather, in a

mysterious work that is both sovereign in expression

and divine in origin, the power of God unites with the

proclamation of the word of God and produces effects

that are in keeping with the purposes of God. 

Arturo Azurdia III

Spirit Empowered Preaching

Page 44

Then the Lord said to me, "You have seen well,

for I am watching over My word to perform it."

Jeremiah 1:12