Today in Blogworld 05.12.16

Mike Leake

Moms, Your Secret Sacrifices Matters

I’m thankful for all of the little things my wife does that I’m too much of a dolt to even notice.

Tim Challies On Writing

J.A. Medders recently interviewed Tim Challies on writing. Good stuff.

Inside Bethel Church

I’ve only heard some of the music coming from here. It’s helpful to know about the church which produces some of the music we are listening to.

What Cancer Cannot Kill

Amen.

Is it Biblical for Churches to Require a Tithe?

I appreciate the way Jonathan Leeman thinks through this question.

This baby gets glasses and sees mom for the first time:

One Reason ‘Me and My Bible’ Isn’t Enough

Mike Leake

I can be such a people-pleasing chicken sometimes. Through the Lord’s grace I’m growing in this area, but I confess I still identify with the apostle Peter a bit much. In Galatians 2 we read of Paul’s opposing Peter “to his face”. It’s easy to read this and think only of Paul and to place ourselves in his shoes as champion of gospel fidelity. But I think I understand a bit too well what was going on in Peter’s heart.

Tom Schreiner paints the picture well:

Presumably [those from James] expressed concern about Peter and other Jews eating with Gentiles, fearing the consequences that would follow from not observing OT food laws. We can imagine that James and other Jewish Christians in Palestine would be troubled upon hearing that Peter and his friends were abandoning dietary regulations. Such news would have been scandalous to unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, and it presumably troubled many Christian Jews in the homeland as well. (Schreiner, 140)

Peter was happily living out the gospel, eating bacon and enjoying his new Gentile friends. But suddenly the implications of the gospel started rubbing some folks the wrong way. Controversy and disunity threatened to shake up Peter’s happy existence. And so he started shrinking back from eating with Gentiles.

And here’s the kicker, the folks from James were likely making a very biblical sounding argument. I can hear Peter rationalizing now. “God has a heart to save our Jewish people. He sent His Messiah to us. Apart from Christ they won’t understand what we do about the food laws. We will become offensive and it will close the door to the gospel. God doesn’t want me to blow my witness with them. Therefore, I had better stop eating with Gentiles”.

But what was driving the bus for Peter wasn’t theology it was fear. It was fear of what might happen. Fear is a desperate thing. It’s the drowning man in the pool flailing away trying to grab hold of anything to preserve him. Fear doesn’t care what it ravages on the way to its desired safety. And what better rock to grab onto than Scripture? But when fear grabs hold of Scripture it always contorts it.

The problem for folks like Peter, and myself is that the more we grow in Christ the better we know Scripture. That is a terrific antidote to fear and anxiety…except when it isn’t. What I mean is that we aren’t immune from fear ruling our hearts. And in those moments all of our Bible learning will actually be used to serve our flesh. The more Scripture we know the more that we’ve got in our arsenal to twist and use to bow to our idol of the day.

This all sounds scary. And it is.

What we ought to conclude from this is that me—even Holy-Spirit indwelled me—and my Bible isn’t enough. We need people like Paul to call us on our Scripture twisting and fear-motivated hearts. Others can see when something else is ruling our hearts. We need them in our lives to oppose us to our face when we are wrong.

Study the Scriptures. Labor to know God’s Word with all of your might. But don’t assume this means you don’t need the community of God’s people. You do. Otherwise all your Bible knowledge will just be twisted to serve idols.

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Photo source: here

Today in Blogworld 05.11.16

Mike Leake

The Rise of the Anti-Culture

Somehow Carl Trueman can say our culture is dead and make me laugh at the same time.

Why a Short White Man Isn’t a Tall Asian Woman

This is mind-boggling. But we can learn so much about what we are up against here.

3 Reasons Your Pastor Desperately Needs Prayer and Encouragement

This is true.

Behinds the Scenes Secrets of Window-Washers

I don’t know why I found this so interesting, but I did.

Holy Preaching Voice

I don’t think I do this. I know it annoys me when I hear it so I certainly hope I don’t.

I’m loving the work of the Bible Project, this one on Proverbs:

What Donald Trump Got Right about @drmoore

Mike Leake 6 Comments

Russell Moore, the head of the ERLC of the SBC, has been a vocal non-supporter of the candidacy of Donald Trump. On Sunday he was on Face the Nation and also wrote an op-ed for The New York Times. This apparently drew the attention of The Donald as the president-hopeful tweeted this:

Sadly, I think Donald Trump is more correct in this tweet than we would like to admit. I don’t know Dr. Moore personally, but I’ve read a ton of his stuff and sat under his preaching quite a few times. After reading this tweet I could almost hear Dr. Moore saying something to the effect of, “I am a nasty guy with no heart—which is why I need Jesus”. In fact, when I started working on this article I scoured the internet looking for quotes to show this. Then this video appeared:

Typical Russell Moore. Deflecting from himself and pointing to Jesus. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Moore’s position on certain social issues, you have to admit that he is dedicated to proclaiming the gospel. And this is why I believe Donald Trump’s tweet has more truth to it than we’d like to admit.Russell Moore is increasingly becoming a “terrible representative of Evangelicals” because self-professing Evangelicals are increasingly less about the evangel and more about preserving the American way.

I’m convinced that the word evangelical has become meaningless. I nodded my head in agreement when I read this from the pen of Dr. Moore months ago:

Part of the problem is that more secular people have for a long time misunderstood the meaning of “evangelical,” seeing us almost exclusively in terms of election-year voting blocs or our most buffoonish television personalities. That’s especially true when media don’t distinguish in election exit polls between churchgoers and those who merely self-identify as “born again” or “evangelical.”

The same fear-mongering that drove the bus in 2012 is driving the bus still today. What I mean is that I don’t believe any evangelical is voting for Trump because of evangelical reasons. Most professing believers that I’ve encountered are voting for Trump because they agree with his policies on immigration, they like that he is an outsider and ‘tells it how it is’, and they believe through his financial savvy that he’ll truly work to make America great again. And for most what I’ve seen is fear of what could happen to America if Hillary is elected. In the minds of some Trump is the great restrainer of the Antichrist.

What is driving the evangelical vote for Trump isn’t the gospel. Now, don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that folks who vote Trump don’t believe the gospel. I’m just saying that when it comes to this area the thing driving them isn’t gospel. It’s things in the periphery. That’s fine as far as politics are concerned but it really muddies things up when we talk about followers of Christ supporting and championing the cause of one who doesn’t have a need of repentance.

So, Donald Trump is correct. Russell Moore isn’t a very good representation of evangelicals anymore. But I think Moore will take that so long as he’s a representation of a humble Galilean whose kingdom is of another world. Call us what you will, but I too am more concerned about gospel fidelity than winning a culture war or an attempt to “make America great again”.

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Photo source: here