I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Rom 12:1-2

This was the passage that was spoken on in church on Sunday and discussed in our small group. For some reason the first part of verse two stuck out to me in a way that I hadn’t thought about it before. It says, “Do not be conformed to this world” as if to say that this world has a shape that we are not supposed to be. So, of course, my mind first thinks of a cookie cutter. We often hear the term “cookie-cutter-christian” to refer to legalistic christians who live by very strict, conservative guidelines that they accept as biblical truth. It seems that in the context of this verse that it would be more accurate to depict sinners as the ones in a cookie-cutter shape. They are all the same. They all sin. And they are bound by the shape of sin because they cannot help but be in that shape since they are controlled by the flesh and not by Christ. So, therefore, Paul tells us to not be in that shape. We know what that shape looks like, so don’t look like that. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The previous 11 chapters show what that renewing looks like and how we are supposed to think. It is in these two verses that Paul encourages the church to now be like that by the transformation that takes place when we are renewed by what he had previously taught. So, don’t look like the cookie-cutter sinner any more. We all know what that looks like. Instead, be holy (or set apart) as God calls us to be.

Josh

- Photo taken as compliments of rosina w. photography

Social Media Defined

“Creating relevant conversation and building community.” – Jon Evans

Social Media is a Means – Not an End

Tweeting just to tweet is meaningless. Tweeting with the purpose of building others up or investing in others with the purpose of building up a real-life relationship is substantial. The key to this is being purposeful. People are on Twitter and Facebook for a reason. Usually it is because of relationships. Being on Facebook to just merely exist and to broadcast your life isn’t necessarily productive. Being purposeful and meaningful on social sites can be very effective in the real-life relationship.

Going to the People Is Key – Not Necessarily Being Everywhere

The question was asked whether it was necessary to be on every site or if being on a limited number of sites was okay. When it comes down to it, we virtually exist on social sites to relate to people. Therefore, we need to go to the people – not have them come to us. That being said, other mediums are great but you should consider using the tools that others are already using instead of introducing new ones.

Relationships are Crucial to Being Effective with Social Media

As mentioned in the previous points, the relationships are the important part. We need to relate to others – not merely exist. Meet people where they are at and keep in touch with them. Displaying quotes and Bible verses can seem pious if there is not a relational aspect added to it such as “…this verse was a huge encouragement to me. You need to read it for yourself…”

Let God Control the Heart; Let Us Use the Tools Available to Us

This point came out of a question in relation to using streaming video for churches. There were several points made. I won’t go into them all but I think the best point was that we need to let God do the controlling. We tend to control people by not using certain mediums in hopes that it will bring them into the church instead of staying at home. But not streaming a sermon isn’t really conducive to building relationships. If some people would rather stay home and watch the sermon instead of come to church, so be it. That is a heart issue. Let God work on them. Streaming video provides a great resource to other bodies of believers wanting to meet around a streaming video of a good church while in wait for a local pastor. People who are physically sick may be encouraged from it streaming straight to their home. Sharing the resource with unbelievers who are hesitant to attend a church might be a great springboard for conversation about the gospel.

The basic underlying theme that I gathered is that our virtual lives are mere extensions of our real lives – what is in the heart. So, focusing on your relationship with God is the most important aspect of being effective in relationships with each other whether in virtuality (I think I just made that up) or in reality.

I know for sure that I am leaving some great stuff out. I apologize. However, feel free to add to this if you were there. Otherwise, enjoy some of this stuff. I found it thought provoking to ministry as well as one-on-one relationships with others.

- Josh

We have been going through several stages over the past several years. We have gone from having a pastor to no pastor (for about 1.5 yrs – I think…I may be wrong) to a pastor to change. Through all this many have chosen to leave the body for reasons from job transfer and ministry opportunities to family concerns. While they are all understandable, our church has completely changed in the three years that I have been attending. Many of the people who were there in the beginning are not there. The complete make-up of the body has changed. This leads me to ask the following questions:

• If the church is the people, what am I supposed to commit to if the people come and go?
• If I stay, am I not just committing only to the teaching elder and the doctrines that have been set up?
• What is the church now?

I have no intention of leaving at all. I believe that God is doing a wonderful work at Grace Bible Church. Sometimes things like this happen for us to refocus on Him, our true prize. I am very excited about the friends that God has led me to as new members, but the recent events cannot be ignored. I am not as concerned about the reason people are leaving as I am the implications of their leaving. What are we now? Sure, we still have a good body, but those who I committed to when I became a member are gone.

I am sorry that I do not have many answers on this post. Sometimes I write just to clear my head and try to provide fuel for the thoughts of others. I doubt that we are the only church going through such circumstances. I praise God for his work in our lives no matter how misunderstood his actions may be. Nothing that I have seen is wrong with our leadership, teaching, or practice. Just people’s actions leave me to wonder and reconsider the meaning of the church.

Trusting in the wisdom of God, our wonderful gospel

Josh

Break my [heart]
for what breaks yours

I figured that it must be some cruel love note to someone. Later through the day I had a song stuck in my head from listening to Pandora radio. The song was Hosanna by Hillsong United. I decided to look up the lyrics so that I could learn them. Here is what showed up.

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees
We’re on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

Hosanna in the highest

That changed the whole meaning of those words. No longer did I think of those words as a twisted love note, but a sincere heart cry that I enjoy now. I hope that this is also your heart cry.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
–Psalm 51:10-12

Josh

In dark, filthy places, forsaken, forgotten
Our brothers and sisters are paying a price
They will not deny Him to purchase their freedom
For these are the faithful, the martyrs for Christ.

Twisted and broken, abandoned and beaten
Their bodies confined an unseen sacrifice
But deep in their spirits, they know perfect freedom
For they are the ones who’ve been set free by Christ

CHORUS

From under the altar the voices are crying,
“How long Lord, till you come judge the earth?”
But He’ll wrap and redeem them in robes of pure white
For the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
For the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

The deafening silence–their faithful refusal
To doubt or deny in the presence of men
They live by His promise beofre His own Father
That in His Kingdom, He’ll not deny them

CHORUS

“How long Lord?
How long till You come again to take us home?”

words and music by Michael Card and Phil Naish
copyright 1998
Mole End Music

I also would add that the pastor that was the inspiration for the prayer band was arrested. There is a lot that we can learn from men like this. Let’s continue to pray for them!

For His name,

Josh

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

— Matthew 15:1-9

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) — then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

— Mark 7:1-13

Enjoy!

[See post to listen to audio]

PS – Feel free to download it from here.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  – John 14:6

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”  – Matthew 7:21-23

Alive in Him and through Him,

Josh

1) To those who believe in elder rule, to what extent are you “subject to the elders” (1 Peter 5:5)?

2) Andrew Franseen from Greenville, SC (previously from Kansas City, MO) and recent intern at Hampton Park Baptist Church has recently been presented to our congregation at Grace Bible Church to be a candidate for Teaching Pastor. What do you know and think of him if you know him or know of him?

Just,
Josh

(Disclaimer: I know that some may not agree with the music in this video, so just mute it if that is the case for you.)

I found this video online a while ago, and I found it very inspiring. Choreographed presentations of Scriptural things have always, in my mind, fallen short of displaying what the Bible tells us. This one is so far the best one that I have found. You can find various parts of it in Scripture. Here are a couple that I found.

- Our falling away:

Is 53:6 –

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Rom 3:10-12 -

None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.

- God’s drawing us:

John 6:44

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him

- God’s care for those who seek Him -

Psalm 9:10

And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

James 4:8

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

- His taking our place

Titus 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works

1 Timothy 2:5-6

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man [1] Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Ephesians 5:2

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

I hope that you enjoyed it. These are again only pieces of Scripture found in this skit. These passages are awesome passages with so much depth and truth. Look them up for yourself to see. See how many more you can come up with.

Seeking Him,

Josh

• Mark Dever (with 9 Marks Ministries; pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church)
• Ligon Duncan (Moderator of the PCA; senior minister of First Presbyterian Church)
• C.J. Mahaney (president of Sovereign Grace Ministries)
• Albert Mohler (9th president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
• John Macarthur (pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church; president of Grace to You, and Master’s Seminary and College)
• John Piper (Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church; leader of Desiring God Ministries)
• R.C. Sproul (minister of preaching and teaching at St. Andrews Chapel; founder of Ligonier Ministries)

As you can imagine, the messages were great. I will comment later on each session one-by-one after I have a chance to meditate on them once again. (Warning: the recaps may be sporadic and have lengths of time in between.) My brother has posted some pictures that I took from the conference on his website. (This is why you will not see me in them. For my Northland friends, I will post that pic in my Pictures page.) You can see the pictures by clicking here. Please stay posted for more info. Feel free to check out the Together for the Gospel Blog, my brother’s blog, or Challie’s.

Amazed by grace,

Josh