Most Christians are okay with not really understanding how the different books of the Bible fit together. But it really is a big problem. To miss it can end up being to miss the gospel, or to radically change it in extremely unhelpful ways. Recently someone in my church gave me the book
The First Idiot in Heaven. The basic premise of the book is that only Paul’s 13 epistles are really for non-Jewish Christians, Paul preaches a gospel of absolutely pure grace, and that leads to ultimate reconciliation for everyone – ultimate universalism. I don’t think that misrepresents book, though I didn’t read very much of it – 50 pages or so.
Category Archives: Learn and Grow
Learning the Stories of Christian Missionaries
One point of application I took away from Nic’s sermon yesterday came right off the bat- as he mentioned John G. Paton’s story and how reading about missionaries has encouraged and inspired him, I decided I wanted to do more of that myself. I suggested he put out a blog post with some recommendations…he responded by assigning me the work instead- well played. Here is the fruit of that discussion:
Why Read Biographies of Christians?
John Piper wrote a short chapter on why to read Christian biography in his book Brothers, We are Not Professionals. He points out that Hebrews 11, a summary of many of the greats of faith in the biblical story, is written to compel us to run the race of our faith well. If an author of Scripture sees value in sharing stories of faith lived out to spur his readers on, it makes sense for us to seek these too. Continue reading Learning the Stories of Christian Missionaries
The Gospel For All Nations
High Point Church has always been a missions church. We have never been afraid to believe the gospel is for all people. And there have always been people within our movements who have risen up to answer the call to foreign fields. High Point is just over 50 years old, and over 50 years global missions has changed a lot. Very few new missionaries hear what John Paton (sailed from Scotland to the New Hebrides April 16, 1858) was told, “You will be eaten by Cannibals!” (He almost was.) Missions looks a lot different, even though we are often doing many of the same things we have always done. We are translating the Bible into new tongues. We are helping people and economic squalor apply basic technologies for better lives. We are teaching indigenous missionaries to preach the gospel. We are sending Western missionaries into countries with no indigenous witness – especially in Muslim lands.
Worship Series Takeaways
I really enjoyed the worship series. Like most series, we only scratched the surface – or better, only dealt with a very narrow sliver of the subject of worship. In fact, the main thing we focused on was what we 
called ‘church’ – or the weekly gathered worship service.
We always have to remember that people are skeptical about worship – and even more so about the weekly worship service. Many churchgoers, and most non-churchgoers feel a sense of cynicism about worshiping God in general. Because they confuse the ugly reality of human self-importance with the impossibility of divine self-importance, the logical fallacy produces cynicism.
For others, the cliché of not wanting to be part of organized religion which sometimes comes from actual bad or hurtful church experiences carries a lot of personal weight. But in a faith mainly designed around loving each other, being with each other in regular and meaningful ways cannot be discounted. Have a listen to sermon one or two to review my arguments on this.
Third, people just don’t feel like the investment is worth it. I think it’s important to acknowledge that going to church is a burden, and that it is a responsibility with real weight. You are making an investment of real-time, energy and life. The question is, is the burden worth it? And I argued that the burden is lighter than we think and its contents, like a backpack, are more important than we anticipate.
But one of the biggest misconceptions is that people are confused about why we get together in worship services. The point of worship services does include worshiping God. But in the New Testament, the main focus is building each other up. We do church to build each other up in Christ. We come together for each other to use every resource God has given us to deepen and build our faith in the gospel and to accelerate the transformation of our life around the Savior.
In order to really get what we should out of worship, we need to consistently do three things.
- Remembrance – We need to see it as an opportunity to remember what we constantly forget
- Expression – we need to actually grow in expressiveness and worship. For some people, that may be just singing and actually praying. For others it may include more. But we need to be full participants, and do everything we can to be fully engaged.
- Celebrate – joy and thankfulness are the fuel of Christian motivation. Being happy in God is critical to loving and obeying God. When we come together we should expect to celebrate – whether it is the consistent reliability of the character of God, or the events God has brought about by his working in Providence, or the evidence of his gracious work in the life of those around us. We should be celebrating. (Here are two videos {video one} and {video two} that we showed during the service.)
The biggest take away I would suggest from the series is not to underestimate God’s purpose in creating the actual local church and commanding us to be part of it. It is always folly to underestimate God’s commands. The whole reason he has to command them is that he knows they are true and we won’t believe them unless they are commands rather than suggestions. Therefore, every command ought to get our attention. The less you think you need the church, the more you do.
I shared in one of the sermons, that one of the reasons I got into ministry was because I thought church was terrible. Most of my church experiences were incredibly boring, anti-intellectual, hokey, and I felt embarrassed to bring non-Christians. But when I realized loving Jesus was loving the church, I only had a few choices – and one of them was to jump in and fight for the church. That won’t mean going into ministry for most people. But if you are committed to the church like you’re committed to a marriage – then you are much more likely to fight for her health and vibrancy. When done with some humility, that usually leads to great things for churches and those they are intended to reach.
Remember from the Worship Series
Is worship a kind of primitive barbarism?
Some kind of worship can be found in the archaeological history of virtually all cultures. People have always been religious and have always believed that the gods demanded something of them. Some believed they demanded human sacrifice. Some believed they required food. Some believed they required elaborate and ecstatic rituals. Some believed they required esteem and reputation. We now consider this a primitive notion, foolish and ignorant. But if Christians accept that the ancient barbaric view of worship was more insightful than today’s snide rejection, we can see how big a job it was for God to enlighten us through the progressive revelation of Scripture, especially in the special Revelation of himself in the God-man Jesus Christ.
Engage & Equip 