Jesus is the True & Better.....

More Tim Keller excellence. This is good. This is beyond good. This is (insert whatever superlative you like so long as it implies BIG)!

Friend Request

The Facebook concept has invaded all parts of life. Better not ignore this one!

Hat Tip: Vitamin Z

Free Tullian Books at Crossway

Crossway Books has a drawing for free copies of two of Tullian Tchvidjian's best books: Surprised by Grace and Jesus + Nothing = Everything. I have read and own copies of both, and have posted about them both on this blog - excellent reads. 

To enter the drawing  go here. They also published this list of Tullian's Twitter feeds. Enjoy!

• “The power of the gospel is just as necessary and relevant after you become a Christian as it is before.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Typically, it’s not that Christians seek to blatantly replace the gospel. What we try to do is add to it.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Legalism happens when what we need to do, not what Jesus has already done, becomes the end game.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Our performancism leads to pride when we succeed & despair when we fail, but ultimately it leads to slavery.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “We know God hates bad works; we’re not nearly so convinced that he also hates self-righteous “good” works.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Self-righteousness can lead only to the robbery of freedom.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Disobedience happens not when we think too much of grace, but when we think too little of it.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “We’re always to soak first in what God has already done before we set out to do.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Only the gospel can free us from the enslaving pressure to defend ourselves.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Our ultimate problem is not indifference to God, but idolatry.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “Christian growth doesn’t happen by first behaving better, but by believing better.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “We’re liberated by the recognition that God loves us in order to make us lovely, not because we are lovely.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “What licentious people need is a greater understanding of grace, not a governor on grace.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “We need to make it clear that Jesus came first not to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “The primary goal of the gospel is to bring about mortal resurrection, not moral reformation.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• “The gospel of amazing grace gets us in, keeps us in, and will eventually get us to the finish line.” #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• Preoccupation with our effort instead of with God’s effort for us makes us self-centered and introspective. #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR
• Because our self-imposed rules make us feel safe and self-pleased, they become a counterfeit God. #jpne http://cway.to/GTqKuR

For You

"Is there anybody here that never sinned? Then there is no Christ for you. He never did anything for you, and never will.

 Are you guilty? Do you feel it? Do you confess it? Do you own it? Christ is for you."

              -C. H. Spurgeon

Putting On Batman - A Parable of Righteousness

From Matt Schneider at Mockingbird comes this story of a modern day want-to-be super-hero.The material below is his stuff, not mine.

Perhaps you’ve seen the recent viral images on Facebook and the like of Batman being pulled over on Route 29 in Silver Spring, Maryland for having no tags. The images made me laugh, but I didn’t think much of it until my wife sent me an article published earlier this week in The Washington Post titled, “Who is the Route 29 Batman?” Believe it or not, the curious case of Lenny B. Robinson sheds some light on the topic of imputed righteousness.

The article is worth reading in full, but the skinny is that Robinson is an independently wealthy divorced man who spends his free time and spare money on dressing up like the Caped Crusader, driving his black Lamborghini made to look like a Batmobile, visiting sick children Washington and Baltimore area hospitals:

Batman began visiting Baltimore area hospitals in 2001, sometimes with his now teenage son Brandon playing Robin. Once other hospitals and charities heard about his car and his cape, Batman was put on superhero speed dial for children’s causes around the region. He visits sick kids at least couple times a month, sometimes more often. He visits schools, too, to talk about bullying. He does not do birthday parties.

His superhero work is limited to doing good deeds, part of a maturation process in his own life. In his earlier years, he acknowledges that he sometimes displayed an unsuperhero-like temper and got into occasional trouble with the law for fights and other confrontations. Putting on the Batman uniform changes and steadies him.

“Eventually, it sinks in and you become him,” Batman told me. “It feels like I have a responsibility that’s beyond a normal person. And that responsibility is to be there for the kids, to be strong for them, and to make them smile as much as I can.” He understands that might sound corny, but he doesn’t care.

Of course, the metaphor ultimately is only partial; obviously I am not talking about God declaring us righteous on account of Christ. But there are parallels: putting on Batman (compare to “putting on Christ”) allows Robinson—who is then recognized as the real Batman by everyday people, children most especially—to become righteous in the ways the character Batman is regarded as righteous despite being an ordinary and undeserving guy underneath all that fancy black leather and neoprene.

This happened in Montgomery County, MD, where I used to live. Holy Parable of Righteousness, Batman! And no Joker anywhere in sight.

From the Buckle of the Bible Belt

This survey confirms what I already knew - That I live in the "Buckle of the Bible Belt." From Which U.S. States Are the Most Religious? by Joe Carter

The Story: A new Gallup survey finds that Mississippi is the most religious U.S. state, and is one of eight states where at least half of the residents are "very religious." At the other end of the spectrum, Vermont and New Hampshire are the least religious states, and are two of the five states---along with Maine, Massachusetts, and Alaska---where less than 30 percent of all residents are very religious.

The Background: Gallup classifies 40 percent of Americans nationwide as "very religious" based on their statement that religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week. Another 32 percent of Americans are nonreligious, based on their statement that religion is not an important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend religious services. The remaining 28 percent of Americans are moderately religious, because they say religion is important but that they do not attend services regularly or because they say religion is not important but still attend services.

The research by Gallup appears to show that the differences in religious conviction are part of a "state culture" phenomenon, and are not the result of differences in the underlying demographics or religious identities in the states. As Gallup says in its report, "it appears there is something about the culture and normative structure of a state, no doubt based partly on that state's history, that affects its residents' propensity to attend religious services and to declare that religion is important in their daily lives."

Why It Matters: While America remains, as Gallup notes, a "generally religious nation" the national averages conceal the "dramatic regional differences in religiosity." Americans in the "Bible Belt" and Utah tend to be more religious while New England and the Western states tend to be the least religious.

Such surveys are admittedly crude tools for discerning trends. But when so many "state cultures" are nonreligious it's likely a sign that there is a need for broader efforts at evangelization here in the United States.

One problem with living in a heavily "churched" area is that so many people have just enough religious to be inoculated against the gospel.  On any given Sunday, 60% of the population in and around Jackson, MS are not  in church.  We still need more gospel preaching churches, and gospel sharing Christians,

Your New Name - Defined by Grace

Who are you?  Are you simply and only the sum of your own actions, decisions, mistakes and failures? Or are you defined by His actions, His decisions, His victories and His grace.

‘To get a name’ in the Bible is to get what we call an identity. God, of course, constantly names people in the Bible. When he names Adam, Abraham, Israel, and even Jesus, he refers to what he has already done or what he is going to do in their lives. When God tells someone ‘what I have done/will do is your name,’ he means that his grace in their lives should be the defining factor.

Our security, our priorities, our sense of worth and uniqueness – all the things we call identity – should be based on what God has done for us and in us. This means that if we do not have a name, if we are insecure and have to ‘find who we are,’ we have either no grasp or an inadequate grasp of what God has done."

                        - Tim Keller

Let us find our identity in Him, not in ourselves!

Ultimate Tribute at the Hunger Games

"Hunger Games" Fans:  Jesus came to take your place at the Reaping...... and He is the ultimate Tribute!
   

Gospel Based Discipleship

I really like this explanation of discipleship:

"A disciple of Jesus is someone who learns the gospel, relates in the gospel, and communicates the gospel. This definition of disciple shows us that the gospel both makes and matures disciples. We see this in Jesus’s ministry. Jesus proclaimed the same gospel to the crowds that he taught to the disciples. He did not have the twelve on a special, gospel-plus track to study advanced subject matter.

The gospel is for undergraduates and graduates because nobody ever graduates from the gospel.

Jesus taught the same gospel of the kingdom to sinners and saints.

Why? Because his agenda of grace is the only solution to our common predicament of sin, Christian or non-Christian. Both desperately need the forgiving, reconciling, and restoring power of the gospel to know and enjoy God, not just once but for a lifetime.....

.....This gospel-centric approach to disciple-making is largely missing from discipleship today, which tends to focus on evangelistic techniques and discipleship methods. Unless these methods are tethered to a robust understanding of the gospel, they will actually sabotage discipleship. What we need is a recentering of Christian discipleship devolving it into forms of spiritual performance.

The Great Commission is not evangelism- or discipleship-centered—it is gospel-centered. It calls us to make disciples by being a people who orbit around Jesus and his blood-bought benefits, not performance and self-made efforts.

Disciples are gospel people who introduce and reintroduce themselves and others to the person and power of Jesus over and over again. A disciple of Jesus never stops learning the gospel, relating in the gospel, and communicating the gospel."

From Jonathan Dodson at The Resurgence
 

Harvests of Links

Some miscellaneous harvests from my internet meanderings:

Raptured Pet Insurance a Hoax

Tim Tebow in Babylon

Could Many Universities Follow Borders Into Oblivion? 

Seven Ways Leaders Regain Their Drive 

The Bristol Palin Post that Shut Down the Servers

Did Early Christians Believe Jesus Would Come in Their Lifetimes?

The Difference Between Partisans and Fans