Amy Henry on Parental Blindspots

I am not sure who Amy Henry is, but she writes for World magazine. I love World magazine, therefore, I am a fan of Amy Henry. She recently wrote a short, great article on parental blindspots. Very, very good read.

You can read the entire article here.

A portion:

"I can’t think of a single family, mine included, who doesn’t have blind spots. Those who insist they don’t are probably the most blind. Christianity doesn’t excuse us and may even make us more unaware of our weaknesses. Ever had some kid walk into your house, take one look at your TV and say, “People who watch movies are going to hell,” while his mother looks on with an expression on her face that says, “I am SO proud of his ability to call a spade a spade”?

"If we care about our kids, if we care about being the aroma of Christ in this world, it would behoove us to gird our loins and find out where our blind spots are. We need to be big boys and girls and have the courage to ask those closest to us if they’ve noticed anything we need to work on as parents, any gaps in our discipline, what ugly traits they consistently see in our children."

WBC's Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization and Uruguay

As I mentioned yesterday during announcements, the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) challenged churches to pray and fast for world evangelization this past Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 (the day of Pentecost). This call for SBC churches was off my radar, so I didn't emphasize it or plan for it. Being that we are praying and fasting for Uruguay tomorrow, I encourage as many WBCers as possible to also pray and fast for world evangelization.

The official site for this via the IMB is here.

Some specific prayer requests are posted here.

Some facts about the day are found here.

Some information about fasting is found here.

I would encourage you to read through the recently proposed recommendation to the SBC by the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and pray through it for God to use Southern Baptists in the most effective and efficient way possible to penetrate the lostness around the world.

You can also watch the full report here and an abbreviated report here.

Look Who's Supporting the GCR Task Force Recommendations

Recently, the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) as appointed by the Convention President Johnny Hunt in June 2009, publicized their recommendation for a GCR.

At the Pray for a GCR web-site, several posts have recently appeared from those within the Convention who have put their weight behind the task force's recommendations.

Dr. Robert White offers his thoughts here.

Dr. Jerry Rankin offers his thoughts here.

Bill Crews offers his thoughts here.

Another GCR related article of interest is a response to Morris Chapman's concern about the future of the Cooperative Program. Danny Akin and Nathan Finn respond here.

Very, very, very interesting nonetheless.

I would love to hear feedback/comments from people who want to weigh in on the discussion.

Baptist Twenty One Interviews SBC Presidential Candidates

Recently, Baptist Twenty-One posted the third interview with SBC Presidential nominee Dr. Ted Traylor.

You can read the interview here.

Discussion Questions from 05/23/2010 Sermons at WBC

Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching from Luke 16:19-31 in the morning services and Ephesians 1:15-23 in the evening service.

Later today or tomorrow, you will be able to watch and/or listen to the messages here.

Here are some questions to guide a discussion to further help you grasp and apply Sunday morning's message:

1. In Luke 16:15 Jesus told the Pharisees that what man exalts, God hates. What are the two primary 'man-exalting' and 'God hating' areas in this chapter that Jesus (Luke) addresses?

2. What does Jesus want the Pharisees to understand about the Old Testament and their own self-righteousness? (See Luke 16:14-18)

3. How does the parable Jesus tells in Luke 16:19-31 help further communicate this point?

4. What is the primary point of the parable Jesus tells?

5. How does knowing that humans are woefully sinful and Jesus is one's only hope of being right with God free you forever? How does it change/adjust how you live your everday life?

6. Read all of Luke 16. What does Jesus want us to understand about the relationship between a born again follower of Jesus and how he or she spends their money?

7. How many copies of the Bible do you have at your home/study? Do you read it? Why or why not? If you were to die today, how could you be sure that you would not be like the rich Jew/Pharisee?

8. If you have experienced the grace of God in Christ in your life, how has that reality begun to play itself out in your practical life? In your spending? In your time?

Sunday night, I only had time to briefly (in my opinion!) unpack Ephesians 1:19-21. I plan to go back and fill in the other parts of Ephesians 1:15-23 next Sunday night (if the Lord wills).

Here are a few questions to enhance your dialogue, discussion, and understanding of what Paul prays for the Ephesians regarding the power working toward believers:

1. According to verse 18, how is the believer supposed to grasp the immeasurable greatness of God's power working toward the believer?

2. Why do you think, when speaking of the power that is at work toward the believer, Paul mentions the power God used to raise Jesus from the dead? Why not talk about the power needed to walk on water or feed 5,000 people, or raise Lazarus from the dead or cast our demons?

3. How does knowing that when Jesus rose from the dead, everything necessary to accomplish our salvation was completed give you power to live today?

4. Why do you think Paul also mentions that the power working toward the believer is the same power Christ exercises over every single power in the universe?

5. How does knowing that a God who loves you passionately and unconditionally and a Jesus who gave Himself for you on a cross and who reigns over every molecule in all the universe give you power to live today with radical intentionality?

6. Will you commit to pray for yourself, your family, your church family, and others would have God open the eyes of their hearts to know this power that is at work toward them? Will you pray now?

Recent Great Commission Resurgence Articles of Note

Baptist Twenty One links to some helpful articles circulating on the web relating to the GCR here.

Parenting and Porn

Justin Taylor posts a very helpful article for parents of teenagers (especially boys!) who have computers in the home.

Click here.

David Platt Interview and Link to Talk at T4G Breakout

Justin Taylor posts an interview with David Platt here.

Included is a link to his talk he gave at T4G, which is outlined in chapter 7 of his new book Radical.

An excerpt from the interview:

How would you counsel folks who feel a constant low-grade sense of guilt that they are always failing the Lord and never doing enough?

This is a great question, and it’s one of my greatest concerns even in writing this particular book. The last thing I want to do is leave readers overwhelmed by guilt, constantly wondering, “When I am going to be radical enough? What do I need to do, how do I need to give, or where do I need to go in order to do enough for God?” These are extremely unhealthy questions, for the reality with which the Gospel confronts us is that we’ll never be able to do enough. No matter what we do, even if we sell all of our possessions, give to the poor, and move to the most dangerous country in the world, we cannot do enough to be accepted before God or approved by God. The beauty of the Gospel is that Christ is alone is able to do enough. He alone is able to keep the law and commands of God, and He has done it. Indeed, He has been faithful enough, generous enough, compassionate enough, etc. As a result, the starting point of the radical life is death to self, death to every attempt to do enough before God, and trust in Christ, the One who has lived the radical life on our behalf.

The beauty now is that when we trust in Christ to be our righteousness, we are free to obey from a totally different position. In Christ, we have been declared “not guilty” before God. As a result, we no longer live from a position of guilt, but from a position of righteousness. And not only have we been declared righteous in Christ (as if this were not enough!), but He has given us His Spirit, and He lives in us to enable us at every single moment to live according to the commands which He has given us. As Christians, we now find ourselves free from guilt and driven by grace.

In addition to all this, guilt is ultimately an unbearable burden and an unsustainable motivator. We may change our ways for a short time based on guilt, but real, true, radical life change will not happen until we trust in the Gospel.

So my encouragement to anyone who struggles with a low-grade sense of guilt, wondering if they are ever doing enough, would be to realize that they can never do enough . . . and then to rejoice in the reality that Christ has done enough for them. Then, whenever they are confronted with sin or shortcomings, I would encourage them to trust in Christ, to rest in His righteousness, and to ask Him to produce the fruit of a radical Gospel in their lives. This alone will sustain radical, life-changing, world-impacting obedience for the glory of God in all nations.

Raising Obedient Children

I found this post at the Resurgence blog (and Zach Nielson's). Click here to read the entire post and explanation of each point (well worth it...if you are a parent. PJ and Ashleigh Smith have some great advice. What do you think?

Here are a few ways that we are trying to raise obedient children:

1. We are confident in our God-given parental authority.

2. We never count to three.

3. We model it ourselves to authority figures in our lives.

4. We use appropriate forms of punishment.

5. We try not to exasperate our children (Eph. 6:4).

6. We are convinced that it really is worth the effort.

Jerry Rankin Gets it Done...Again

Jerry Rankin posted an article at his blog this morning entitled "Rhetoric or Obedience?"

Very, very powerful and needed not just for the GCR discussion (as important and needed as it is related to that!!!), but also for all church leaders and all followers of Christ.

I urge you to read it for yourself here.

His conclusion (emphasis mine):

"We must see what truly fulfilling the Great Commission entails. It means sacrificing a lot of what we are currently doing, including the traditional structure and programs with which we are familiar. Are we not willing to give it up and make some changes for the sake of a lost world for which Christ gave His life? If we are to see a Great Commission Resurgence among Southern Baptists, there is a command to be obeyed, a commitment to be made, a cost to be paid and a compromise to evade. Mere rhetoric won’t get the job done."

Baptist Twenty One Interviews SBC Presidential Candidates Continued

This morning, Baptist Twenty One posted their second interview with SBC President nominee Dr. Jimmy Jackson.

The interview is here.

Baptist Twenty One Interviews SBC Presidential Candidates

Next month in Orlando, Florida the Southern Baptist Convention will select a new President. As of now, there are four candidates (I think this is correct) to be nominated and voted on to serve as President. Baptist Twenty One is going to post their interview with each candidate submitting or allowing for their names to be nominated.

The first interview they conducted and posted was with Bryant Wright.

The interview can be read here.

God willing, I will post others as they appear on their site.

Two Books Bro. Matt Recommended During His May 16th, 2010 Sermon

The two books I recommended during the message I preached at WBC on May 16th, 2010 were:

This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence by John Piper

When Sinners Say 'I Do': Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage by Dave Harvery

Discussion Questions from 05/16/2010 Sermon at WBC

On Sunday, May 16th, I only preached during the 8:30 am service. Randy Presley challenged the seniors on Senior Recognition Day during the 11 o'clock service and Phillip Powers preached during the evening service. All of which can be watched or listened to at some point tomorrow (05/17/2010) here.

I chose to preach on one verse in Luke's Gospel instead of 'clump' of Scriptures as I normally do as I have been going through Luke. The text we are at in our study of Luke is Luke 16:18.

If you did not attend yesterday at 8:30, that is fine, but I would strongly urge you and encourage you to listen and/or watch the sermon prior to trying to answer the discussion questions below. The questions could be answered without hearing the message, but would help tremendously. The questions I pose are done so assuming those who walk through them attended or listened to the message.

Here are the questions:

1. Since Luke only recorded Jesus talking about divorce/remarriage in 1 of his 2,158 verses (combining Luke and Acts), we can be pretty sure that his purpose in including verse 18 of chapter 16 was NOT to give his readers a robust theology of divorce, remarriage, and adultery. This being the case, what was Luke's main purpose in including the verse? To ask it another way, why does Jesus just all of the sudden bring up divorce and remarriage and adultery in the middle of this chapter, seemingly out of nowhere?

2. Compare your answer with what Paul says in Philippians 3:7-14.

3. In what ways have you been trying to justify yourself to God instead of trusting in Jesus alone for your righteousness and salvation?

4. Why does Jesus consider someone who marries after divorce as committing adultery? See Genesis 2:24. Why does Jesus consider lust adultery? See Matthew 5:28.

5. One of the questions Bro. Matt posed in his sermon was, "If I Have Divorced and/or Remarried, What Do I Need to Do?"

The four scenarios/responses given were:

a. If you are divorced and are not remarried, do everything possible to reconcile with your spouse. Everything you possibly can.

b. If you are divorced and single, and your previous spouse has remarried, based on Luke 16:18, I would suggest remaining single (see 1 Corinthians 7:32-35).

c. If you are divorced and have remarried, but did so assuming it was fine and there were no problems in the eyes of God (in other words, your motives were totally pure when you divorced and remarried… you were ignorant of the truth of God’s word on this), recognize God’s understanding of marriage, agree that His decree of it is right, look outside yourself to Jesus to be your righteousness, and commit to follow and obey Him in this regard the rest of your days.

d. If you are divorced and remarried, and did so knowing it was a sin against God and his ideal of marriage, repent by agreeing with God that your attitude was sinful, look outside yourself to the One who fulfilled the law for you (Jesus), believe that He is enough, and fight with all of your might to glorify God in your current marriage, committing to a life of obedience to Him and His expectations for the marriage covenant.

Do you agree/disagree with these? Why or why not?

6. If you are married, how does Luke 16:18 challenge you in your marriage? What do you need to do?

7. If you are not married, how does Luke 16:18 challenge you? What do you need to do?

What is the Gospel?

Greg Gilbert has recently written a superb book with this title. Get it here.

Al Mohler recently interviewed Gilbert on the book here.

Gilbert talked about this topic ("What is the Gospel") during a break out seesion at Together for the Gospel 2010 here.

I strongly recommend getting your hands on several copies of the book (for yourself, for you to give away to others, for you to take small groups through, for you to read with a non-Christian, etc.), listening to Mohler's radio program, and here Gilbert himself speak about it at T4G. Very, very, very helpful stuff for the believer (and non-believer!).