Thursday, August 16, 2012

Praying for Sight

"Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.'"

John 3:1-2 ESV

Notice Nicodemus' use of the plural pronoun we. Although he is engaging Jesus in a personal conversation, he references the observations and beliefs of his brotherhood. Nicodemus states plainly that they know Jesus has come to them from God! Yet they do not relate to Jesus as such. They do not receive him as the fulfillment of God's covenant promises. How can they know what they know and believe what they believe and not open their lives to Jesus and receive him as Savior and Lord? Why can't they see? Because their hearts are hardened. They can't see Jesus for who he really is. What is the remedy? Being born again. That is why Jesus' declaration in verse 3 is crucial: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." God must supernaturally change the sinner's heart. As we consider the spiritual condition of those around us, we need to pray with absolute dependency on the Holy Spirit, recognizing that only God can cause a Pharisee to really see.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Radical Thinking!

"When someone asks, 'Where is your church?' we point them to a building or give them an address, and everything centers around what happens at that location. When we gather at the building, we learn to be good. Being good is defined by what we avoid in the world. We are holy because of what we don't participate in (and at this point we may be the only organization in the world defining success by what we don't do). We live decent lives in decent homes with decent jobs and decent families as decent citizens. We are decent church members with little more impact on the world than we had before we were saved. Though thousands may join us, ultimately we have turned a deaf ear to billions who have never even heard his name. Discipling is much different. Whereas disinfecting Christians involves isolating them and teaching them to be good, discipling Christians involves propelling Christians into the world to risk their lives for the sake of others. "

David Platt, Radical

We are beginning a new session of Discipleship Study at our church this month, using the book Radical by David Platt as our resource. Periodically, I will share a quote from his writing or a point from our lesson and discussion. While we may not agree with David's points on everything, his passion for Christ is evident in his writing and he does force us to think about things we would like to ignore. So let's tackle the hard things together, as brothers and sisters in Christ!