I’ve had seasons of growth, seasons of dryness, seasons of ‘active ministry’, seasons of ‘rebellion’…

Heck, I’ve been a ‘professional christian’ in various capacities.

But right now, at 27 1/2 years old, with no important-sounding titles like ‘pastor of _______‘ or ‘_________ leader‘, I can honestly say this:

I love the Bible more than I ever have.

I LOVE, the scripture: It is such a masterpiece of a book.

It is one BIG Story composed of lots of smaller stories that even gives shape and context to my story.

And it communicates the same Truth – and sub-truths – in dozens of various ways.

You can read the 4,000-year-old story of Joshua and learn about the courage that comes from trusting in God. Or you can read the 2,000-year-0ld story of Stephen and learn the same lesson.

You can see our need for a Savior in the ancient stories in Genesis, or in Paul’s detailed argument in his letter to the Romans, penned thousands of years later.

Written by so many different people over so many centuries… and still faithful and consistent in the Story of God

The Bible is a miracle.

As I’ve been reading in the Bible this year, I’ve had a question develop in my head:

Only a very small percentage of the Bible actually tells the literal story of Jesus (Matthew 1 – Acts 1). From the middle of Acts 2 through the end of the Bible, all we get are various commentaries and explanations about Who Jesus is and what He accomplished.  So I’ve been wondering how my perception of God and my understanding of the Gospel would be different if all I had of the new testament were the stories of Jesus: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts)

(2 Clarifications: I’m including Acts because it tells us a lot about the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ life, so we’ll just go ahead and say that it makes more sense to group it with the Gospels than with the Epistles. Secondly, the light that the old testament shines on our understanding of the Gospel is profound, and how much of the Gospel we could understand without it would make a fun discussion, but I’ll save it for a later post. So for now, we’ll leave the O.T. alone. We’re just talking about losing most of the new testament.)

I believe that there is more than enough in these five writings to come to a sufficient understanding of the Gospel and it’s place in our lives, but many of the passages that give me the greatest clarity and encouragement would be gone.

So, I want to ask you:

Just for kicks, pretend that Matthew-Acts was the entire New Testament. What book/chapter/passage/teaching would you miss the most? Why?

I LOVE our church.

I LOVE our church.

I freakin’ LOVE our church!

19 services. 178 baptisms*. The Gospel preached. The Kingdom expanded. History made.

Check out this recap of Easter Sunday:

Easter Recap from The Summit Church

Jesus is moving in RDU. Watch out Granville county: you’re next.

*give or take about 5… they change this number every time I hear it

Sometimes with a good will a man wills something which God does not will….For example, a good son wills that his father live, whom God wills to die.

Again, it can happen that the same man wills with a bad will what God wills with a good will.

For example, a bad son wills that his father die; God also wills this.

That is, the former wills what God does not will; but the latter wills what God also wills. And yet the filial piety of the former, even though he wills something other than God wills, is more consonant with God’s good will than the impiety of the latter, who wills the same thing as God does.

There is a great difference between what is fitting for man to will and what is fitting for God, and to what end the will of each is directed, so that it be either approved or disapproved.

For through the bad wills of evil men God fulfills what He righteously wills.

Piper taught for an hour on what he has learned from C.S. Lewis over the course of his life.

Almost every single sentence is quotable and I STRONGLY encourage you to go download it or watch it (for free, of course).

But if you only have five minutes, watch this clip, where Piper explains how a sense of duty in the christian faith is not only a waste of time — it’s just about the OPPOSITE of the Gospel:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T00199dEipc

Remember this series of posts from several months ago?

I wrote about the book “Religion Saves (and 9 other misconceptions)” by Mark Driscoll, head pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

The book is based on the sermon series by the same name (which you can watch, listen to, or download for free).

Well, this month, like every month, ChristianAudio.com is giving away an audio book, and this month it’s the audio version of ‘Religion Saves’! It’s completely free!

Just follow this link during the  month of February, and you can download the book in mp3 form!

I especially recommend the book for those who consider themselves to be skeptics or opponents of Christianity. I think the book does a great job of clearing up several common misconceptions about the teaching of the Bible.

If you get it, please let me know what you think of it!

Check out this excerpt from Seeing And Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper (download the whole book as a .pdf file for free here).

The title of the chapter is “The Glory of Rescuing Sinners, Not Removing Satan“:

Now without sin and law to condemn and accuse and oppress us, Satan is a defeated foe. He is disarmed. Christ has triumphed over him, not by putting him out of existence, but by letting him live and watch while millions of saints find forgiveness for their sins and turn their back on Satan because of the greater glory of the grace of Christ.

It was a costly triumph. But God’s values are not so easily reckoned. If God had simply terminated Satan, then it would not have been so clear that God is both stronger and infinitely more to be desired than Satan. God wills for His glory to shine forth not only through acts of physical power, but also through acts of moral and spiritual power that display the beauty of His grace with lavish colors. To take sinners out of Satan’s hands by virtue of Christ’s sin-bearing sacrifice and his law-fulfilling obedience to the Father was a more glorious victory than mere annihilation of the enemy.

Every year, around this time, I start to get an itch for some Christmas music, and I always go back and forth because I don’t want to be sick of it before Christmas actually rolls around.

Besides the basic warm fuzzies that Christmas music usually brings, I love it because it is usually so worshipful.

Good Christmas songs are songs about Jesus.

They are songs about how God put on flesh and came to earth.

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a great example of this. The song is really a hymn that was written by Charles Wesley, a great reformation preacher. It has stanzas like this:

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

“Hail The Incarnate Deity”, and His name is Jesus! That’s what Christmas is all about!

So, that’s why I’m excited to let you know about a new Christmas album that came out this week.

It’s called, “On The Incarnation“, by Daniel Renstrom and friends, and is inspired by the book with the same title — all about the incarnation of our God!

It has four new songs about the incarnation of Jesus, and some really nice renditions of four historically classic Christmas songs.

You can buy the CD here, or download it from Amazon music here.

You can also come hear Daniel at our church Saturday night, November 7th. Details here.

Lemme know what you think!

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/10/30/on-the-incarnation-by-daniel-renstrom/feed/ 0 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/10/01/this-too-shall-be-made-right-derek-webb/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/10/01/this-too-shall-be-made-right-derek-webb/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:15:29 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=4004

Derek Webb is one of the best musicians that you’ve probably never heard of.

He has a niche of followers who love his music and wrestle with his message, but I’ll bet that if you’re over 25 and reading this, then the name is new to you.

If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and go get one of his albums. Any one will do.

You don’t even have to risk spending your money on something that you may not like! Derek is actually the founder of NoiseTrade, where you can download an album for any price you’re willing pay, or for free if you’re willing to recommend it to five friends!

I’ve been enjoying Derek’s music since he came and performed at NC State several years ago. I remember sitting at Derr track and watching him — nothing but a mic, a guitar, an amp, and some pedals — introduce me to “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2…

A so-called ‘christian’ artist singing a U2 song that has nothing to do with Jesus.

Was this a mistake?

Were the Campus Crusade staff people scrambling to huddle up and figure out what to do?

And so began a long series of lessons that Derek Webb has been instrumental in my learning.

His music constantly challenges me to think rightly about the Church, culture, morality, and Jesus.

He has helped me love the difference between those four words, and their interrelation.

My new favorite song, from his last album (not his newest album), is called “This Too Shall Be Made Right“.

It’s a recongition that this earthly kingdom is broken, but that it won’t always be.

It’s a song of mourning and hope.

Reality and optimism.

One verse says:

the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say we’re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
this too shall be made right

I think of so many people I love when I hear those words.

Another verse says:

I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who i choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
and that’s not just murder it’s suicide
this too shall be made right

Ouch!

This about what happened in Indonesia this week. And how much was that coffee you’re drinking?

You can read all the lyrics here.

Do you have a favorite Derek Webb song?

The Summit Church has a vision to plant 1,000 churches in the next 40 years — most of them in un-reached countries around the world.

That’s right: one thousand churches

One vehicle for this effort is called SendRDU, which exists to help equip and connect people and families who are interested in investing their lives for the sake of the Gospel.

Last week, there was a SendRDU gathering where pastor JD attacked a great question: “What Does It Mean To Be Called?”

This is a rich question that I think all of us struggle with in different ways and at different seasons.

I think pastor J.D. did a fantastic job handling the question. Stephanie and I couldn’t make it to the event (no babysitter), but we downloaded the message and listened to it together this weekend. It was awesome to dream together and remember what God created us for.

I’m so excited to see what God is doing!

You can read his blog post on the topic here, and listen to the teaching here.

I’m curious: what does it mean, in your opinion, to be “called”?

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/09/22/what-does-it-mean-to-be-called/feed/ 3 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/09/18/10-reasons-why-believing-in-the-sovereignty-of-god-matters/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/09/18/10-reasons-why-believing-in-the-sovereignty-of-god-matters/#comments Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:30:59 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=3967 There’s an article this month on the Desiring God website titled 10 Reasons Why Believing in the Sovereignty of God Matters.

If you consider yourself to be a follower of Jesus, or someone interested in God in any capacity, I highly recommend that you take a minute and go read it.

The idea that God is ’sovereign’ is commonly thrown around and disputed in christian circles…

Some will throw the word around without even understanding its meaning, while others will argue about its meaning.

The Desiring God article begins with this definition for ‘the sovereignty of God‘:

We believe that God upholds and governs all things—from galaxies to subatomic particles, from the forces of nature to the movements of nations, and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons—all in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself, yet in such a way that He never sins, nor ever condemns a person unjustly; but that His ordaining and governing all things is compatible with the moral accountability of all persons created in His image.

Do you believe that?

Really?

I struggle to…

I grew up in a stream of christianity that would probably push back against this definition.

As a freshman in college I encountered people who thought and talked this way, and it upset me. I wrestled for years with this understanding of God’s nature and character.

But over the years, my study of the scriptures and my experience with God have led me to confidently affirm this way of understanding God, and that transformation has dramatically changed my perspective as well as my lifestyle.

I want to challenge you: have you ever considered the sovereignty of God? Have you wrestled with it? Are your beliefs on the matter in keeping with the Scriptures, or have you done your best to tag this topic as ‘controversial‘ and avoid it because you don’t like it?

You might be missing out on some of the most exciting Truth in the Bible.

And as Tozer wrote: “What you believe when you think of God is the most important thing about you.”

So don’t take it lightly…

Got any thoughts on this?

This functionality is provided by the fine folks at the Joshua Project. The Joshua Project is dedicated to finding all the people groups in the world, and getting a handle on their status in terms of how they have been influenced by the Gospel. In so doing, they help determine exactly how much work is left to be done in order to complete the Great Commission.

Today’s Un-reached People of the Day are the Tatars of Ukraine.

Based on the best info available, which is from 2002, about 0.01% of the Tatars are Christians. That means that if you woke up as a Tatar this morning — living in a Tatar community and engrossed in the Tatar culture — you would have to know 10,000 other Tatars in order to know one who is a follower of Jesus who could tell you about Him.

“But can’t they just turn on the TV to hear about Jesus?”

-What TV?

“But can’t they just go to the library and read a book about Jesus?”

-Seriously? If someone were literate and if there was a library anywhere near their home and if that library had Bibles translated into the local language and if there was a way to read one of those Bibles without totally freaking everybody out, then maybe…

The Tatar people are dear to my heart because I had the great privilege of spending a lot of time with a couple of them when I lived in Central Asia. I spent hours talking about Jesus and His great love and sacrifice, and I realized that sharing Christ with a cultural Muslim is a lot like trying to tear down a brick wall with a carpenter’s hammer… slow and painful work.

In the end, I had two friends who chose to follow Christ. I enjoyed their hunger to learn all they could about Jesus, while it lasted. My team had to leave abruptly and I wasn’t able to keep contact with them in all the craziness. It’s very possible that they spent some time being detained for even knowing me and my teammates.

I wonder if they think we abandoned them.

I pray for them whenever I think of them. I ask God that they would remain faithful, even in such a dead and hopeless place. I pray that their experience with Him was deeper than the connection it gave them to some Americans. I pray that we will have some great conversations in heaven. Some day.

Please pray with me for the Tatar people. I pray for the followers of Jesus among them to remain faithful and multiply. I pray for those who are lost among them to grow weary of the hopelessness of cultural Islam, and that God would open their eyes to see the beauty of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And I pray that God would send people to bring the message of the Gospel to them.

Do you believe God has specifically called you to stay in America and live a typical American life?

If not, what are you doing about it?

A few weeks back, I shared my excitement about a new book, Religions Saves, and Nine Other Misconceptions.

I wrote a few posts since then, talking about individual chapters (1 and 2), but today I’m excited to be on the official blog tour. So, here’s my overall review of the book (and please forgive me if any of this seems repetitive to you):

What do birth control, humor, calvinism, grace, sex, faith and works, dating, the emergent church, and the regulative principle have in common?

Well, ask pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church to write a chapter on each topic, put them together, and you’ve got Religion Saves, and Nine Other Misconceptions.

So, the first question that comes to your mind is probably along the lines of, “Why would anyone put those topics together in a book?”

Good question! And there actually is a reasonable answer!

The book is based on a really neat idea: pastor Mark explains in the introduction that upon reading through the book of 1 Corinthians, he noticed that a significant purpose of the letter is to address questions from the church in Corinth. And the more he thought about it, the more intrigued he was by the idea of preaching a series of sermons that are answers to common questions from people today — questions specific to our time and culture. So, last year, Mars Hill opened up a portion of their website for a forum called ‘Ask Anything‘. Over a series of voting cycles, people all over the world were allowed to post questions: any questions. These were then widdled down to the 9 most popular questions through a voting process. In the end, 893 questions were asked, 5,524 comments were made, and 343,203 votes were cast, and the following topics emerged, in order:

1. The Regulative Principle
2. The Emerging/Emergent Church
3. Dating
4. Faith vs. Works
5. Sexual Sin
6. Grace
7. Predestination/Election/Calvinism
8. Humor
9. Birth Control

Pastor Mark preached a sermon on each one in a series by the same name as this book. You can download the video and/or audio of each of these for free here. This book is basically another form of responding to those questions, with a chapter devoted to each one.

The first thing you notice when you pick up the book is the excellent design. It’s a sturdy hard-copy with a knurled texture containing an intriguing graphic of a family walking out of a typical-looking church building… and they appear to be on fire. Part of the flame is the provocative title of the book: Religion Saves. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the message of the book.

I think pastor Mark does a great job explaining the title (from the introduction of the book):

Before we proceed, the title “Religion Saves” merits a bit of explanation. The one thread that weaves this book together is religion; many of the questions that made the top nine are highly religious in nature. Religious people are prone to go beyond the teaching of the Bible to argue for positions that are not clearly taught in Scripture. They are further prone to go beyond the biblical principles on these issues and seek to impose their method on others, as if they alone are truly biblical. Religious people tend to have very strong and vocal opinions about the issues we will examine. In fact, religious people were often the most devoted voters for the questions that comprised the “Religion Saves” sermon series and this book.

…

Religious people mistakenly think that they are saving people from such things as a fruitless life, sinful sex, bad relationships, unholy humor, wayward churches, evil birth control, and what they call “strange fire.” However, religion never saved anyone, and religious answers to complex questions are simply misconceptions, which is why I have titled this book, “Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions.”

So as you can see, the purpose of this book is not directed so much at non-believers as at the most religious of believers. This book isn’t so much an apologetic or a call to holier living as it is a call to repentance from our righteousness.

Having read the book, and listened to each of the sermons upon which it is based, I wholeheartedly recommend it for the following reasons (in no particular order):

• Pastor Mark does a great job of thoroughly covering each topic. He doesn’t write a few pages telling you what you already knew. Each chapter is in the ballpark of about 30 pages, and I learned from each one, even though I had already studied each of these topics. I even passed the book on to my dad to help him with some questions he had on the topic of election. I couldn’t think of a better resource to introduce the topic, explain each side, and then make a case for the most Biblical one!
• Pastor Mark shows his cards. An apologetic book or a text book would likely present each angle of a particular topic, and then leave you to take the facts and decide what to do with them. Pastor Mark goes one step further and tries to make a case for his own view on each topic, yet is simultaneously careful not to overstate things. I would challenge a non-christian who thinks that Christianity is too close-minded or old-fashioned to read this book. I’ll bet it would challenge a lot of your incorrect stereotypes. I would also challenge the most fundamentalist, self-righteous of ‘christians’ to read this book. I’ll bet you will be challenged about what convictions you’re holding in a closed hand that belong in an open one.
• It’s a great combination of topics. The odd combination makes it a great read because the gears shift significantly every chapter. But possibly more importantly, the topics emerge from questions submitted by people in our day and age, and are incredibly relevant to our time and culture. In particular, I think that birth control and humor are two topics that are discussed far too infrequently in the modern church, and it leaves a lot of young folks with questions that they are afraid to ask.
• The thread that ties the whole book together is crucial to the Church in our time. Though the topics seem unrelated, the theme of each chapter is a call to repentance (from self-righteousness if we think we’re doing good by Biblical standards, or from rebellion if we choose to reject the Biblical standards) and to turn our eyes to Jesus. I think Mark does a fantastic job of making clear the idea that St. Augustine expressed when he said that “[the christian life] is one of continual, active repentance.“

To be fair, the book isn’t perfect. After all, an imperfect human is the author, and noone toes the line more closely than Mark Driscoll. Sometimes, he distracts from his point in the interest of humor, and sometimes he even made me wince a little bit at the length he was willing to go to be funny or make a point. Nevertheless, compared to his previous two major books, Vintage Jesus – where he pretty clearly crossed the line several times, going too far to make the book humorous – and Death By Love – which was extremely serious and almost completely lacked humor in the interest of making a very clearly explaining the cross of Christ – I think he found a good balance of humor, intrigue, and weight.

But the good far outweighs the bad, and Religion Saves is a book that I’m glad I read. I am such a prideful individual, and repentance is so unnatural for me. Unfortunately, it’s also uncommon in the modern church, and I am thankful for the clear and consistent message bringing it to the forefront of my mind that I found in Religion Saves.

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/08/01/religion-saves-driscoll-book-review/feed/ 0 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/24/tell-me-about-your-church/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/24/tell-me-about-your-church/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:00:51 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=3801 Most of my recent experience as a follower of Jesus has been learning about the Church: what it is, is not, should be, and eventually will be.
I have worked to get a church started, worked to get a church established, worked with pay and without pay…
And this is still a topic that Steph and I spend a lot of time discussing and praying about.

And with all that in mind, I’m curious about your thoughts and experiences.

Whether you go to church or not, whether you’re a christian or not, I’d love to have your thoughts!

(I’m playing with Google forms, so I’ll see what kind of cool ways it gives me to share the results w/ everyone!)

If the embedded form doesn’t appear below (after the break), then please use this link

A couple nights ago, we went to mom and dad’s to hang out and have dinner.

Josiah had cut a couple of teeth and added some new baby babble and an army crawl to his bag of tricks since they had last seen him, so we went and had some catfish and played some boccie ball and let them get a little ‘grandson fix’.

Sometime around 9:00, the following conversation took place:

Dad: So, I’ve been reading through Romans.

Me: Yeah? Good stuff?

Dad: Yeah… I tell you though, I think Paul says some pretty crazy stuff.

Me: Yeah? Like what? (I’m expecting him to talk about how Paul puts everyone under the curse of original sin in chapters 1-3)

Dad: Well, if I’m reading it correctly, he says that God rules over everything, to the extent that He even chooses who will accept His salvation. He wants to create a contrast, so that His salvation looks even more glorious. Paul seems to go out of his way to explain that God’s glory is His first priority, even above people.

Me: Oh, so you’re reading around chapter 8-10?

Dad: I guess. But that doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard at church. I’m gonna go find a good commentary so I can figure it out.

Yeah dad… you just might be on to something there…

What book/commentary would you recommend for him?

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/17/bible-scripture-romans-reformed-predestinatio/feed/ 4 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/06/12/what-does-it-mean-for-christ-to-be-your-treasure/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/06/12/what-does-it-mean-for-christ-to-be-your-treasure/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:00:33 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=3592

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBJzUnxiKwA

This is a short video from Sermon Jams featuring a sermon snippet from a modern-day hero of mine: John Piper (who is on twitter!).

Listen to him spell out Paul’s teachings about displaying Christ as your treasure!