Top 5 Reasons Your Church Could Land in Court
We need to pay attention to this.
Why We Lament When We’re Not Lamenting
I appreciate this article. There are reasons to sing songs of lament even if you are not personally lamenting. John Starke gives a few of those reasons.
The Spiritual Discipline That Impacts Everything
What do you think it is?
NYC on the Brink of a Great Awakening?
Interesting. Let us pray that it is so.
Apparently Ted Turner doesn’t want to go to hell. The man that once considered Christianity a “religion for losers” now confesses that he’d prefer heaven over hell. He’s leaving the door open to the possibility of God.
In the article by CNN, Turner expressed his encouragement by his ex-wife Jane Fonda’s take on his spiritual well-being. According to her, “he’s a shoo-in”. Why?
“The miracle is that he became what he is. A man who will go to heaven, and there’ll be a lot of animals up there welcoming him, animals that have been brought back from the edge of extinction because of Ted. He’s turned out to be a good guy.”
There you have it. Apparently saving bison and being a good guy will punch his ticket to heaven. A heaven, says Turner, which is much akin to “Montana in the summer”.
The Americanized “Gospel”
Fonda is encouraging Turner with an Americanized “gospel”. Here, the first pre-requisite to going to heaven is actually wanting to go. Thankfully, Ted now has that one covered. Secondly, you’ve got to be a basically good person. Few have made explicit what qualifies as “basically”. What is the line between a basically good person and basically a jerk? And what is the exchange rate between saving a bison and committing adultery?
I feel for Turner. I really do. God has set eternity on the hearts of men. As he’s staring at death’s door all of his accomplishments are losing their luster. He knows that he cannot take his wealth with him. All he has left is to hope that he’s been a good enough person to not have to pay recompense for his missteps.
While Fonda’s gospel reassures Turner and millions of other Americans it will ultimately end up bankrupt.
Psalm 49
Rather than Jane Fonda, Psalm 49 would be a great place for Turner to consider. In this Psalm the Sons of Korah contrast the lot of the righteous with the lot of the wicked.
49:7 is telling.
“Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life”.
You can’t buy your ticket to heaven. Not by good deeds. Not by giving $1 billion to the UN, nor by saving a million bison. If a man cannot redeem another—I seriously doubt a bearded mammal will do the trick. That’s the point of Psalm 49:7-14. If all you’ve got is your own resources on the day of judgment you won’t stand.
Psalm 49:15 is the answer that Turner is looking for—though the one that he may not want.
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.
The only hope that Ted Turner has, and the only hope that you and I have, is that God would pay to ransom our soul. Only he has the resources to pay our debt. Thankfully, this he has done—in full—through the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing sufficient enough to pay our debt. Everything else will leave us coming up short.
There is a debt that Ted Turner cannot pay. But it is a debt that has already been paid by the crucified Son of God. Will Turner “become weak” and call upon the name of the Lord and be saved?
Will you?
The Missing Epistle of Paul to Smallville
What do you do with hypothetical questions that people pose when you are sharing the gospel?
10 Days of Simple and Strategic Prayer for Your Church
I love this idea.
Lessons from 35 years as a pastor
Young men, listen.
What Your Facebook Updates Say About You, Your Faith, and Your Mental Health
How you speak—even on Facebook—reflects who you are.
“Behold, I am coming soon…” (Revelation 22:7)
Almost two thousand years later and Jesus has yet to return. Blues singer Keb’ Mo, echoes the sentiments of many. While encouraging people to get up and do stuff on their own he sings:
Get up everybody, get off your [rear]
We gotta do something, and we got to do it fast
Cause the people are hungry, starvin’ and the fuel is low
Don’t wait for Jesus, he ain’t comin’ back no mo’
While believers wouldn’t go to the lengths of Keb’ Mo we still have our struggles with the Lord’s tarrying. Why does he not come and rescue us? What is he waiting for? Millions of believers, stretching out over two millennia, have cried out “Come, Lord Jesus”. And he’s yet to return. Has he abandoned us? Does he care?
The Reason He Has Tarried
I find it interesting that the believers in Peter’s day had the same concern. This after having waited no more than three decades. Peter responded to their concern by saying,
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
Jesus has not yet returned because there are still people to come to repentance.
Make this personal.
If the Lord had answered the pleas of the first century, there would have been no second century. And without a second century there wouldn’t have been a twenty-first century. And without a twenty-first century there wouldn’t have been a you. And without a “you”, believer, there would have been an empty seat at the marriage supper of the lamb.
You would have never known the Lord because you would have never been born. Never to know Christ. Never to know his glory. Never to revel in His excellencies. Never to worship.
So why did the Lord not come when the first century saints pleaded with Him?
One reason is because you, believer, weren’t born yet. God had purposed from eternity to save you. He couldn’t answer the prayer of that first century saint because it would mean that you’d miss the dance. Because of his great love for you, he waited for some 2,000 years so that you could be born, and so that you could be brought to repentance. God is that dedicated to your joy.
It’s Also Not About You
Now, as good Americans we’ll read this truth and rather than fall at our knees to worship God, we’ll grab a mirror and marvel at our awesomeness. We’ll think that Jesus waited because we’re so amazing and heaven wouldn’t be the same without us.
No, it’s not about you. That heavenly feast isn’t fundamentally about us. It’s about Him. It’s about His glory. Yes, God is so glorious that there weren’t enough worshippers in the first century. In order to really capture even a sliver of his radiance thousands of years of believers falling in adoration are needed.
Also, this isn’t uniquely your story or my story. It is our story. The reason that the Lord has yet to return is because there are still believers that will come to repentance. Who knows maybe there is only one. Therefore, while we pray and cry out, “O, Lord come” let us be faithful in sharing the gospel to make the answer to that prayer a possibility.
O, Lord come!