Ray Ortlund is a pastor in Tennessee, and an author as well. He blogs at Christ is Deeper Still, the most gospel saturated blog I have ever read. The posts are rarely more than a paragraph - sometimes only a Bible verse punctuated by a brief sentence - but I’m always left praising God more after I’ve read it. Put his blog on your list.
Read Ray’s Blog
From Tim Chester:
Ordinary life
The context for church, mission, community, discipleship, pastoral care, training, growth is ordinary life. Shopping, chores, meals, sports, journeys. This is how Jesus did discipleship and community: walking along the road or around a meal. See also Deuteronomy 6:4-7 and 1 Thessalonians 2:8.
Shared life
It is also about doing ordinary life together – having our lives intersect. So we’re not talking about house groups or small groups. Home groups are usually a meeting. You have ‘home group night’. It’s an event. We’re talking about a community of people who share life together.
Gospel intentionality
Gospel intentionality is the mentality or habit or culture in which, as you share lives, you look for opportunities to talk about Jesus, to encourage, to challenge, to pray, to praise. Without this all you are doing is ordinary life and everyone does that!
The Gospel isn’t just for church stuff, it’s for laundry and grocery shopping and coffee with friends. We can’t minimize “ordinary life” as though it’s not spiritual enough for good Christians. The Gospel transforms ordinary life, not by removing us from it, but by taking every bit of the routine and making it an opportunity to glorify Jesus - and spread the good news to all the people around us who are living ordinary life too.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. -1 Corinthians 10:31
So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. -1 Thessalonians 2:8
Pacific Crossroads is a solid church in West Los Angeles, and they recently sent out an email about Village of Hope orphanage in Morocco. Last Sunday, Crossroads commissioned a team of people who were slated to go out to Village of Hope in only a few weeks, but they just got news that the Moroccan Government has raided the home and told the children that their foster parents are going to be deported for talking about their Christian faith.
Not only is Pacific Crossroads a church we love here at Shoreline, but these workers in Morocco are our brothers and sisters in the faith. I’d ask us all to join with Crossroads in praying for the situation over there, in the following ways (taken from their email):
1. Pray for the children that are being left behind - that they would be cared for and be protected.
2. Pray for the missionaries who are being asked to leave - that they would be able to mobilize against this.
3. Pray that the Moroccan officials would reverse their decision.
4. Pray that the media around the world would cover this story and bring shame upon the Moroccan government for this decision.
5. Pray that our God - the Father of the fatherless - would be glorified and would act decisively in this situation.
For more information, here’s the Village of Hope website with updates.
Paper Route is an enjoyable band.
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I am really interested in the science behind Starbucks. Not the coffee, the atmosphere. I’ve heard they want to make it a “third place,” or “third space,” or something like that - distinct from home and work as a third spot where you spend your time. I’m sure there are hours and hours of studies and surveys that are behind the way they arrange their stores, from the table sizes to the music, color scheme, everything. I think Peet’s coffee is significantly better, but these days I’m drawn to the Starbucks atmosphere. I think they blinded me with science.
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Plus, I’m positive that I’m more productive when I’m sitting in a deep armchair.
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If D.A. Carson writes it, you should read it. The man is incapable of overstatement, and has an uncanny ability to see every side of an issue and then explain them to you clearly. Right now I’m listening through a series of talks he gave on biblical interpretation, focusing on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. It’s good stuff. You can listen to the first session here.
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March Madness cannot get here soon enough. It just doesn’t sit right when sports talk radio spends a lot of time on Nascar.
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Matt Chandler tweeted something that bears repeating: “Jesus is not a means to an end…He’s the goal or you’re an idolater.” Got me thinking in a good way, not just about ways I might need to repent, but about how Jesus is precious enough to be the goal, of everything. His glory is vast enough that it can touch every piece of our lives. No idol can make that claim.
Blogs can be giant time wasters. But, read appropriately, they can be a great encouragement to your faith. That’s why it’s important to keep a tight leash on your blog reading (and your internet surfing in general).
One guy you should have on your blog list is Jared Wilson over at The Gospel-Driven Church. Jared is a pastor, speaker, and author who is quick to enjoy the gospel and help his readers to do the same. Reading his posts are never a waste of time.
Read Jared’s Blog
Follow Jared on Twitter
Buy Jared’s book, “Your Jesus is Too Safe”
When Jesus took the curse on Himself and so identified with our sin that He became a curse, God cut Him off, and justly so. At the moment when Christ took on Himself the sin of the world, His figure on the cross was the most grotesque, most obscene mass of concentrated sin in the history of the world. God is too holy to look on iniquity, so when Christ hung on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned His back. He averted His face and He cut off His Son. Jesus, Who, touching His human nature, had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout His ministry, now bore the sin of God’s people, and so He was forsaken by God….
…If Jesus was not forsaken on the cross, we are still in our sins. We have no redemption, no salvation. The whole point of the cross was for Jesus to bear our sins and bear the sanctions of the covenant. In order to do that, He had to be forsaken. Jesus submitted Himself to His Father’s will and endured the curse, that we, His people, might experience the ultimate blessedness. -R.C. Sproul (HT: Shane Vander Hart)
When God put together the New Testament, He inspired people like Paul to exhort believers to good works - holy living, prayer, loving others. Basically, God calls us to be just like Jesus.
But Paul never opens his letters with a call for his readers to live better. In almost every letter, he opens with Jesus. And then, he paints the picture of a redeemed group of people who live like Jesus because they have an unstoppable passion to glorify Him.
I think that at the heart of every Christian is the desire to live like Jesus out of real passion, not just duty. But the routine of the every day, the quick-fix temptation of sin, and the distractions of the world can rob us of passion and leave us with the guilty of failing our duty to obey.
If you find yourself there today, don’t try to find passion by increasing duty. Raising the bar for obedience doesn’t reignite passion, it pours water on it. Instead, do what God teaches us in the New Testament - start with Jesus. Remember the gospel. When your passion is lacking, no matter when or where, take hold of your mind and focus it again on the “obscene mass of concentrated sin” that Jesus bore so that you could be eternally redeemed, adopted, safe, secure, loved. Don’t stop. Immerse yourself in the gospel until your passion can’t be quenched. Then, nothing will stop you from living like Jesus with a passion that transcends duty.
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. -Romans 12:1
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. -Ephesians 5:1-2
Here’s what’s good:
Read about how to minister well (even if “pastor” isn’t your day job).
Learn from DA Carson how to know what commands in the Bible are still binding today (holy kisses, anyone?)
Read the Wall Street Journal on getting married “too young.”
Watch “How to Build a God,” by a worship leader from Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
Make the perfect grilled-cheese sandwich.
Read Russel Moore on “Misguided Christian Outrage.”
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” -Luke 17:7-10
God is full of loving mercy, but that doesn’t mean He stops being Lord. Just because your Dad loves you doesn’t mean he stops having authority over you. A good King inspires a humble kind of service, because you know what bad kings can be like.
We can all think of times when we’ve obeyed our Lord and then said, “you’re welcome” - as though we just went out of our way to do God a favor. But Scripture says that our obedience is never a “you’re welcome”:
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. -Titus 3:3-8
How are we called to obey our Lord? By knowing God’s grace towards us in Jesus, to remind us that He’s the kind of Lord we live for every day as a humble “thank you.” Once enemies, now heirs through Jesus, it’s our joy to say, “Lord, we are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
Mondays are (sort of) my day off. After a full day on most Sundays, my brain needs some time to recharge, so I try to keep my schedule light and relax. This gives me my share of odd, undeveloped thoughts. In the interest of you getting to know some sides of me that might not come out in a sermon podcast, some of those thoughts end up here:
John Piper tweeted something earlier in the week along the lines of “TV was made for man, man was not made for TV. Make your viewing feed your sanctification.” Wise, biblical advice in a time when even our billboards have turned into giant televisions. I’m applying this in two ways: first, I’m trying to filter out media that distracts from my sanctification. Second, I’m looking to find quality media - television, film, writing - that stimulates my brain and my heart. Just eliminating inappropriate things isn’t quite it. We can worship God through taking in good culture, and we can miss that opportunity when we just focus on getting rid of the “bad stuff.” I’m reading Dostoevsky’s short stories. They’re good, they make me think, and even though they’re not explicitly “Christian” fiction, they show me life from a unique perspective and give me the opportunity to apply the gospel in a new way.
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Plus, a good story that’s well written is a bit of common grace that shouldn’t be overlooked.
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Scott taught me to earn my man card and start drinking my coffee black. (My Dad also gave me a push in the right direction). But everytime I’m at the S&W - far and away the best diner in Los Angeles - I still put cream and splenda in there. And it’s really good coffee.
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My thesis (which has to weigh several pounds when it’s all printed out) has strict formatting requirements. One of them is for the margins to be at 1″, all the way around. Which you’d think would be easy, but Microsoft word is just throwing footnotes wherever it pleases, with no regard for margins. Thus far, google has no idea how to fix this.
