The Love Test

Do you really love the people of your church?

If you are a Christian, you have to. There are no exceptions for this.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1 ESV)

Let's take the Love Test.  It is one thing to say you love every member of your church, but the Bible tells us what that will look like. Rate yourself. Do you really love your church family?

The Love Test

(Answer True or False for each question.)

1. You are gladly inconvenienced and you do not react in anger when taken advantage of. You happily put up with people.
2. You are actively generous with your time and stuff toward other people. You look for ways to go low and serve.
3. You don’t sit around wanting what other people have and you don’t wish evil and loss on them. You pray for God to bless your friends and enemies.
4. You don’t parade your accomplishments in front of other people. You’re embarrassed when anyone draws attention to you instead of the Lord
5. You don’t get all puffed up over your supposed achievements. You’re glad to go unnoticed. You know who deserves the credit for any good in you.
6. You are not bossy and domineering with people – you listen carefully.
7. You don’t demand that things get done your way but are flexible and quick to see others points of view.
8. You are not quick-tempered nor easily offended by what other people do. You brighten the room. You’re not a grump!
9. You never hold a grudge. You have a terrible memory for all the ways people have failed and offended you.
10. You don’t get excited about sinful things or find joy in others failures.
11. You get fired up when people live according to the Bible.
12. You do all you can to protect others from shame and embarrassment, even when they royally mess up. You can be trusted.
13. You are not the least suspicious of people and simply always think the best of their motives - regardless of how they are acting.
14. You always expect that the Christians around can live even more for God.
15. You refuse to stop being an optimist when it comes to others. You just won’t stop believing in the Christians around you no matter what they do.

All I have done here is take the famous love chapter from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, and give each description of what love is its own explanation. 

How did you do? Did you pass the test?

Book Review: I Am Second – Real Stories. Changing Lives.

Perhaps you have seen one of the I Am Second videos? They involve a person in a black T-shirt under one light essentially giving their testimony of faith in Jesus. Doug Bender and Dave Sterrett have now produced a book by the same title.

You know, I love the effort folks like this make to get out the real testimonies of folks whom God has saved. There is a kind of messiness to it all that demonstrates the reality of conversion. We really are sinners who have been saved by grace and not our own doing.

You can read of athletes Josh Hamilton and Bradie James, musician Brian Welch, and many others. There are a host of videos on their iamsecond.com website.

One weakness of the project, though, is the assumption that the testimony of a famous person will result in lots of other people getting saved. As much as I admire these guys for their goal, that is just not the way it works. In fact, this kind of thing (using the wealthy or famous or beautiful to win the lost) can really send false messages. Jesus is not about making your life better. Nor is He somehow validated since a famous dude followed Him. 

That makes me question the usefulness of the project. Every Christian should ask himself some serious questions if he feels more excited that a pro quarterback “got saved” than his fellow church member’s kid.  This little review doesn’t allow the time to develop these thoughts further, but I think this is one of the ways technology has changed us and gotten us a little off course.

So, as glad as I am for the motives of these brothers, I am not as convinced of the usefulness or wisdom of the end product. I am sure God will use it to save some, for His Gospel is too powerful and glorious to not bear that kind of fruit. But I think somebody should spend as much money producing videos of unknown saints in India who turned from idolatry to serve the Living God. That story is just as, if not more, important.

(This book was provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications and Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)

The Revelation is Done. What’s Next at Grace Fellowship Church?

Sunday, October 28 I preached my last sermon in the Revelation series, Stand and Conquer. That made for 28 sermons on the 22 chapters of this remarkable book. Preaching it changed me. One of the deepest ways I was affected was in my personal confidence in the canon of Scripture. I have never been one to wrestle with big doubts about the Bible’s authenticity and reliability, so I was somewhat surprised when I stood back to evaluate what the big takeaways were for me personally in preaching the book.

The Revelation so wonderfully “ties all the loose ends” of the Bible’s redemptive storyline, that my certainty in the Bible as a whole skyrocketed. Those that suggest the Bible was written by men as some product of an elaborate conspiracy to delude the masses have always amused me. Try getting ten men to agree on anything, let alone a religion!

The more I read it, the more the single voice of God’s Holy Spirit is heard in the Bible. Real men, with real personalities and real hang-ups, were used of God to write His real thoughts… without error. It is a wonderful miracle. And this miracle was confirmed again and again as I preached my way through the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The more Jesus was revealed, the more whole Bible made sense. Praise God.

Now, as for what is next, here is the plan.

We will enjoy the preaching ministry of John Ensor this Sunday morning. John is in town to speak at the Pregnancy Care Centre Banquet on Saturday night. We are humbled and happy that he is able to stay over and preach for us on Sunday.

Sunday night will continue our series on the Ten Marks of aHealthy Church. This week we will talk about the Gospel and its centrality in the life of a church. I can’t wait!

On November 11 I will begin a small series on Delighting in God. If you are new to Grace Fellowship Church then you will have observed this little motto on almost everything we produce: Delighting in God to the Glory of God for the Good of All People.  That is more than a catchy phrase to us. It sums up the Christian life. But "dead mottos the delighting Christian do not make!" That is why every few years we like to go back and remind ourselves what this life is all about. This is big picture stuff that I hope is going to change us and re-focus our living. Pray God is with us.

After this series we will take a couple of weeks in December to meditate on Jesus, not just on His coming, but on what He did when He came and what He will do when He returns.  Following that, the New Year will start a new series on the Lives of Saul and David. I have longed to preach this series for years. There is so much here in the lives of these men that teaches us about God, the fear of man, Godly risk, the fruit of sin, how to worship in trials and suffering, true love – the list could go on. I think this extended look at these men from the OT narrative will do a lot for us as Christians. I want our church to be full of men and women who have a heart after God.

So, that is where we are going. I trust the Lord is in it. As always, all of these plans are framed by the robust theological truth of James 4:15 “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Why Am I Going to “ The Works of God: God's Good Design in Disability” Conference?

1. To be reminded that sin and suffering are in the world.

When I was forced to start thinking about disability back in 2001, it was not long until I realized that all of us are disabled. That is what sin does. Being around my family and friends living with disability reminds me of the New Jerusalem and the day when all suffering will end. Events like this make me spiritually sober again.

2. To connect with a few choice brothers.

There are some brothers who will be at this conference that I long to fellowship with. They are men who think Godward thoughts about disability and who have similar ideas about how to build the church so that she becomes a place where disability is embraced, not rejected. I have no idea where these conversations will go, but I cannot help but be very hopeful the Lord will use our time together to do some good things for the church at large.

3. To learn how to love my son better.

I need teaching. Disability is a part of our lives 24/7 and there are brothers and sisters that know so much more than I do and love so much better than I do that I simply need to be around them. I need to know how to live out the Gospel more effectively under my own roof.

4. To learn how to make our church a safer refuge for the disabled.

I think we have done a lot of good things as a church to embrace those who are different from us, but I am certain there is much more to do. We are still a relatively young church and there are a thousand ways we need to mature. This is one of them. I am praying that the preaching and fellowship around the conference will fill my small brain with a million good ideas.

5. To be encouraged.

I love my disabled friends. Our journey into the world of special needs has taught us that there is often more honest joy and laughter here than in the all the air-brushed fancies of the “normal” world. God’s surprising grace is found when my Down Syndrome friend tackles me in a joyful hug or when my Williams Syndrome friend uses big words to warmly greet me. Joy surges in my heart when I watch the young couple lovingly hold and smile and talk to their severely affected, non-communicative daughter – knowing she will likely die soon from her disabilities. The Gospel draws into greater focus when I observe happy, humble, loving couples who have faced the daunting task of raising a person who requires massive investments of time and attention. I could go on.

It may be too late for you to join us at the conference, but here is the information.

The Works of God: God's Good Design in Disability |

November 8, 2012 in Minneapolis, MN.

Bethlehem Baptist Church (North Campus)

5151 Program Avenue

Mounds View, MN 55112

Here is a partial schedule of the day:

7:15 AM          Check-In, Registration, Bookstore and Exhibits Open

8:30 - 9:30       John Piper - When Jesus Meets Disability: How A Christian Hedonist Handles Deep Disappointment

10:15 - 11:15   Speaker Panel with Guthrie, Lucas, Talbot and Piper

2:45 - 3:45       Mark Talbot - Longing for Wholeness: Chronic Suffering and Christian Hope

4:00 - 5:00       Greg Lucas - Parenting When Your Heart is Continually Crushed

At 5:30 PM, the Bethlehem Baptist Church Disability Ministry will host an evening of conversation and prayer that all are welcome to attend.

Church Planting Economics 101: Paper clips

So I was digging out some old sermons from the filing cabinet today and kept finding these annoying little paper clips holding each sermon together. I hate little paper clips and believe they are wrong in every way. Paper clips are meant to be big and thereby useful!

So I started wondering why I had not used real paper clips back in 2001 and it suddenly hit me: I couldn’t afford them. We were into year one of planting Grace Fellowship Church and since I had to work to support myself and there was no real church budget yet, I bought the cheapest clips I could find.

Thankfully, we can afford real paper clips now and they afford me weekly joy.

Let that be an encouragement to you, Church Planter, if you are working hard with little money in those early days. That kind of frugality will teach you much and the fact is, you will live; even with little wannabe paper clips.

Besides that, who knows? Maybe one day God will prosper the work enough to buy the real ones.