If you want to engage more in learning about, experiencing, and practicing Gospel Transformation, a must-read is Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp. Next to the Bible, this may be the best book I've ever read.
Another of my top 5 that has recently come out and speaks clearly to many of the problems in the American Church and American Culture is Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. AWESOME!!!
If you want to know the others in my top 5:
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
A Quest for Godliness by J. I. Packer
Not the Way It's Supposed to Be by Cornelius Plantinga
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Some Thoughts on the Church
As Joe Novenson once said, "The church may be a whore, but she is God's wife and your mother."
G.K. Chesterton: "The church has gone to the dogs at least 5 times, and each time it is the dogs that came back dead."
Jesus seemed to think that the church was pretty important to His whole plan (Matthew 16:17-19 and John 17:21-26).
The church today is radically messed up but abuse doesn't point us to disuse but to proper use. We are called to engage with others in living out the Truth as revealed in God's Word and to seek out a church that is pursuing that. Christ calls us to this (John 17:21-26), even as He prays for it.
To gripe or abandon the local church without pursuing misses the point and reveals that we are more concerned with our pain and desires than with God's passion and desires. Or as Madonna has said recently, "When you turn over an apple cart, all you have is a mess of apples on the floor and how does that help anything."
G.K. Chesterton: "The church has gone to the dogs at least 5 times, and each time it is the dogs that came back dead."
Jesus seemed to think that the church was pretty important to His whole plan (Matthew 16:17-19 and John 17:21-26).
The church today is radically messed up but abuse doesn't point us to disuse but to proper use. We are called to engage with others in living out the Truth as revealed in God's Word and to seek out a church that is pursuing that. Christ calls us to this (John 17:21-26), even as He prays for it.
To gripe or abandon the local church without pursuing misses the point and reveals that we are more concerned with our pain and desires than with God's passion and desires. Or as Madonna has said recently, "When you turn over an apple cart, all you have is a mess of apples on the floor and how does that help anything."
More on Gospel-Driven Motives
LOC said in response to my earlier blog on motives...
"But Can we ever REALLY do anything motivated by anything other than selfishness in the end?Even when we do things anoymously our hearts are deceiving and full of evil. "
My answer:
A resounding Yes...Paul says it (1Cor 13) and I have experienced it that love for God and others rather than selfishness can and should be the motivation for the good things we do, as a result of a transformed heart, which is a response to the Gospel (God free love and grace towards us) and the work of the Spirit to change our heart. I am not saying that we can have absolutely pure motives, nor am I saying we should navel-gaze to try and figure out our "true" motivation anytime we do things. But to say that what pleases God are kind actions driven by Gospel-driven motivation. Anything less should drive us to God so that He might graciously change us. 1Tim1:5 "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."Now it is just as wrong to have a Gospel transformed heart and to do nothing (I would actually say this is impossible, for a Gospel-transformed heart moves us to action). Also I would agree with CS Lewis that showing kindness, even while wrestling with poor motives, often can be the instrument through which God transforms our motives and attitude. But I ramble. May we run to God continually to experience His grace that we might embody that grace in our actions and our motivations.
"But Can we ever REALLY do anything motivated by anything other than selfishness in the end?Even when we do things anoymously our hearts are deceiving and full of evil. "
My answer:
A resounding Yes...Paul says it (1Cor 13) and I have experienced it that love for God and others rather than selfishness can and should be the motivation for the good things we do, as a result of a transformed heart, which is a response to the Gospel (God free love and grace towards us) and the work of the Spirit to change our heart. I am not saying that we can have absolutely pure motives, nor am I saying we should navel-gaze to try and figure out our "true" motivation anytime we do things. But to say that what pleases God are kind actions driven by Gospel-driven motivation. Anything less should drive us to God so that He might graciously change us. 1Tim1:5 "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."Now it is just as wrong to have a Gospel transformed heart and to do nothing (I would actually say this is impossible, for a Gospel-transformed heart moves us to action). Also I would agree with CS Lewis that showing kindness, even while wrestling with poor motives, often can be the instrument through which God transforms our motives and attitude. But I ramble. May we run to God continually to experience His grace that we might embody that grace in our actions and our motivations.
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