World Changer

HT: Thinking Out Loud

Ordinary: A Review

A Review of Ordinary:How to Turn the World Upside Down, by Tony Merida

I had never heard of Tony Merida prior to seeing an advertisement for this book. Now that I have read it, I;m following the author on Twitter and am anxious to read everything he writes! Merida is the founding pastor of Imageo Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C. He also serves as Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, NC

The thesis for the book is taken from a sentence borrowed from Steve Timmis: "Ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality." Merida lists Timmis, David Platt, Tim Keller and Russell Moore as influences on his thought as expressed in this book. The book is about uniting (or better yet maintaining the existing Biblical unity) of gospel belief and proclamation with gospel inspired mercy and service. Each chapter discusses another aspect of kingdom mercy and service: (1) Neighbor Love, (2) Kingdom Hospitality, (3) Care for the Vulnerable, (4) Courageous Advocacy, and (5) God-Centered Humility. Every chapter has both exposition of relevant Scripture and multiple examples and testimonies of how to work the them out in practical ways.

I found the book to be easy to read ,with an argument and presentation that was easy to follow. I also found it very hard to put down, yet I kept pausing to think and ponder over what he was saying. To put it simply, it's a great book and I highly recommend it. I certainly read it more than once.

By the way, a good book to read as a companion to this one might be Tim Keller's Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes us Just.

(Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes, but that does not influence my opinion. See my Policy on Book Reviews)

Breathing Mercy

From Challies.com

When You Fall

"Since even the just man, the holiest man, falls as often as seven times a day, indeed, seventy times seven, what are you to do in these slips and falls? If you fall, and you cannot avoid it, do not lie still, do not sleep there where you have fallen. It would be a shame to sleep, therefore rise again. And how are you to rise? By lifting your soul and running to the fountain of grace and mercy, by repairing to Christ Jesus, to obtain mercy for your soul, and to ask Him to send from Himself the needed peace to put your conscience to rest, and to restore your soul to health."

— Robert Bruce, Mystery of the Lord’s Supper (Scotland, UK: Christian Focus Publications), page 160

HT: Of First Importance

Speak That I May Hear

Who will bring me to rest in You?

Who will send You into my heart
so to overwhelm it
that my sins will be blotted out
and I may embrace You, my only good?

What are You to me?
Have mercy that I may speak.

What am I to You
that You should command me to love You,
and if I do not,
are angry and threaten vast misery?

Is it, then, a trifling sorrow not to love You?
It is not so to me.

Tell me, by Your mercy, O Lord, my God,
what You are to me.
“Say to my soul, I am your salvation.”

So speak that I may hear.
Behold, the ears of my heart are before You, O Lord;
open them and “say to my soul, I am your salvation.”

I will hasten after that voice,
and I will lay hold upon You.
Hide not Your face from me.
Even if I die, let me see Your face lest I die.

- Augustine of Hippo

HT:  Kingdom People

What is Good

Picture from TCW's Kyria Blog

Pursuit of Fleeting Pleasures

Psalm 51 is King David's confession of his sin after his affair with Bathsheba. In verse 4 he says "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight."   The following comments on this passage come from Tony Reinke, quoting Rick Gamache's sermon “Whiter Than Snow”

I believe what David is saying in verse 4 [Psalm 51:4] is that all sin is a preference for the fleeting pleasures of the world and the flesh over the everlasting joy of God’s fellowship. This is why the Christian life is a life of repentance (like Martin Luther said), not because every time we sin we lose our status as God’s children and have to get saved all over again. Our status never changes. We are always God’s children, we are still declared to be holy even when we sin, we are still the heirs of his Kingdom.

But our sin affects our relationship with God. Our sin breaks our fellowship with God. David realizes that before he ever committed adultery with Bathsheba, he committed spiritual adultery against God. Why did he need her? Why was he willing to murder his own friend for her? It is because before David ever sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, he lost the joy of his salvation. That is why he asks for the joy to be restored [Psalm 51:12].

We sin because we forget God’s steadfast love and abundant mercy. When we are not ravished by him, we forget the superior pleasures that there are in God and give ourselves to the inferior pleasures of sin. And this is why David says, “Against you God, you only have I sinned.” He goes deep with his confession because he knows repentance is the way back to fellowship with God.

I think it is absolutely amazing and very telling, given what we know about the situation, that David never mentions sexual sin in Psalm 51. He’s not mainly praying that the Lord would provide him with good accountability. He’s not mainly praying that God would give him self-control and protect his eyes and his mind. Those are all good things. But David does not mention them here because his sexual sin — and every sexual sin — is the symptom of the disease not the disease. Sexual sin is a symptom of lack of fullness of joy and gladness in Jesus. It’s a symptom of a lack of being ravished by the love and kindness and mercy and goodness and beauty and excellence and majesty and glory and honor and power of God.

Eagerness

"Man is eager for vengeance and God is eager for forgiveness."
              -- John MacArthur

Quoted at The Gospel-Driven Church: Love Rushing Through the Dam Break

Silly Story...Great Truth

Great story from Tullian Tchividjian:

A friend of mine recently told a silly story about a man standing at the gates of heaven waiting to be admitted. To the man’s utter shock, Peter said, “You have to have earned a thousands points to be admitted to heaven. What have you done to earn your points?”

“I’ve never heard that before: but I think I’ll do alright. I was raised in a Christian home and have always been a part of the church. I have Sunday school attendance pins that go down the floor. I went to a Christian college and graduate school and have probably led hundreds of people to Christ. I’m now an elder in my church and am quite supportive of what the people of God do. I have three children, two boys and a girl. My oldest boy is a pastor and the younger is a staff person with a ministry to the poor. My daughter and her husband are missionaries. I have always tithed and am now giving well over 30% of my income to God’s work. I’m a bank executive and work with the poor in our city trying to get low income mortgages.”

“How am I doing so far”, he asked Peter.

“That’s one point,” Peter said. “What else have you done?”

“Good Lord…have mercy!” the man said in frustration.

“That’s it!” Peter said. “Welcome home.”

My friend who used this silly illustration ended it by saying, “Teach the law. The Psalmist called it perfect. Teach it until people recognize their inability to keep it and cry out for mercy…Mercy always comes running.”