Years ago, when those “spiritual gift” tests were in vogue, a pastor told he didn’t like them because Christians were using them as an excuse to be slack in the areas where they were not “gifted.”
“But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…” Matthew 6:3
When it comes to doctrine, Mark Driscoll defines all issues as either closed-handed or open-handed. The non-negotiable fundamentals are held with a closed hand. In the open hand are issues that can be debated without shafting a church’s faithfulness to the apostles’ doctrine.
We moderns don’t like uncertainty. It reminds us that we are not God. Over the centuries we’ve progressed from not naming children until they are 7 (in case they died and the name was wasted) to designer foetuses. But uncertainty is part of God’s process of bringing us to maturity. He blesses those willing to take risks for Him and His honour.
Andy Stanley highlights the benefits of uncertainty:
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“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
When I hear atheists railing against religious instruction in public schools, I get angry. Why is it that they get to ram their atheistic ideology down everyone’s throat all week in a public school? They believe their ideas are neutral, but such a neutrality is impossible. You can’t educate without a worldview, and there is no such thing as a neutral worldview. Perhaps atheists should be forced to fund and staff their own schools.
Oh, to entwine the thread of prayer around
These cares and woes, the daily, hourly cares,
Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church by Mark Driscoll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was expecting to be shocked by this book, but perhaps we’re all Driscoll-desensitized now. Sounds like Mark was just what Seattle needed. Lots of wisdom from hard knocks, teachability, but above all, persistence for Jesus. Continue reading
“Courage is the flower of conviction.”
When Christians speak of “cultural engagement,” what comes to mind? Are we thinking diamond rings or swords and strategies?
Jefferey Ventrella again:
Postmillennialism provides a biblically tenable basis for hope in God’s future grace. But we must not forget that God’s decree ordains both the end as well as the means. Christians must “work out their own salvation,” and this means ethical living by God’s holy standard, that is, theonomic living…
Jeffery Ventrella writes:
If theonomic postmillennialism is true—and it certainly is—then what differences here and now should this conviction make in the lives of Christians and their churches? What should be the character, and what should be the conduct of a professing postmillennialist?
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