Came across this quote in a book today by John Shaw to an incumbent pastor who was beginning his pastorate in 1752:

“All will be in vain, to no saving purpose, until God is pleased to give the increase. And in order to do this, God looks for their prayers to come up to his ears. A praying minister is the way to have a successful ministry.”

-Benji

9Marks has just released their latest e-journal and it is available on their website. Since I just wrapped up a series on Husbands, Wives, Children & Family as I have been preaching through Colossians, I found this article very helpful:

30 Practical Ways For Pastors to Love Their Wives & Families

as well as this one:

9Marks Pastors’ Wives’ Forum-What have been one or two of the most unexpected blessings of being a pastor’s wife?

~Benji

Testing. This is from Jott.com, I’m actually speaking this entry into my phone, from my office to test and see if this really works, so far this is been an amazing service. listen

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Wouldn’t it be great if stories like this marked us as the body of Christ?  This is a great picture of Grace shown for those who find themselves on “different sides” of sometimes heated, but non-essential issues that we struggle with inside the body of Christ

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Thank you for your warm welcome and tender embrace to the Blog…hold me tight, physical touch is my love language.  I have deemed this year as the “Year of Augustine”, which is off to a slower start than I had expected.  Reading someone in the 5th century is a little harder than reading many of the modern writers like Rob Bell, Donald Miller, or even Piper.  So, 5 months later, I just finished “City of God” which has many practical applications for the church, pastors, and Americans who have a very hard time separating the spiritual life frompatriotism.  I was very excited to read his doctrine on “just war” because it has influenced and been adopted by both church and state since the 5th/6th century. 

My interest was sparked by an earlier read this year, “Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne.  This book almost sparked several things, I literally saw two Christian brothers almost throw down over the content of this book, thankfully and to the glory of God they submitted to the Spirit and resolved their conflict.  But, Claiborne says this, “I not exactly sure what Jesus meant when he said, ‘love your enemy’, but i’mpretty sure that he didn’t mean drop a bomb on them”.    So, I must admit that I’m reading book XIX of City of God with that thought sticking in the back of my mind.

If you never read “City of God” (there are much better Augustine reads) you need to understand 1 thing about Augustine, his theology is rooted in scripture.  This book is 1091 pages, with hundreds of biblical referencesfootnoted at the bottom.  So weather or not you agree with his theology, understand that you disagreement is a hermeneuticdifference.  You’re both reading the same scripture.  A summary of Just War: War is justifiable if there is injustice because peace is the ultimate end or outcome of war.  What was so disturbing, is that all of the quoted scripture that justifies war came from the Old Testament.  The New Testament was cited rarely to quote passages around peace. 

My goal here is not to give a defense of what some may call Christian pacifism, because I’m not there, but to just to be honest about my growing discomfort as a follower of Jesus with any type of war.  Know this: I was the first to say we should invade Iraq and one of my closest buddies is a green beret captain, but a few thoughts have been going through my mind since I read “just war”. 

First, my view of war has been heavily influenced by the Old Testament.  Second, we only see one disciple ever pull a weapon (Matt 26), and Jesus immediately tells him to put it away and heals the man’s ear.  Jesus follows it with “All who draw the sword will die by the sword”.  Just a reminder contextually that politically, that the Jewish disciples were invaded held politically captive by pagan Rome.

Third, there is never any testimony of any disciple (-90ad)  or church father (90-150ad) who took up  a sword, but all disciples were martyred (except John) and many church fathers choose the same fate.

Fourth, Vengeance for sin in New Testament is the Lord’s.   Now, I get the whole idea that we are supposed to submit to our government (rom 13), but we are only supposed to submit to our government when we are not violating the commands of the New Testament.  So for example, Christians in the first, second, and third, centurieswere called pagans because they choose to submit to Christ and not to the god’s of the Roman Empire.  Many of them punished by death, or at least called horrible citizens because they would not submit or attend Roman pagan feasts.  This is why the apologists write, to give a defense of what Christians believe and how they are actually better citizens because of what they believe.

I forgot the passage about “turning the other cheek” in the sermon on the mount, which I have heard N.T. Wright explain as a way for people to fight like men, which I reject because “turning the other cheek” is exactly how Jesus, disciples, and the early church responds.  Oh, also that we were once enemies of God so we are to have mercy and forgive (luke 7).

What we see in the first 4 centuries is a Church is not taking up arms and and seeing martyrdom as a glorious event.  It is not until Constantine in the 4thcentury where the church becomes entangled with the empire that we find a church that is willing to stand behind war.  The church has always been wed to some empire ever since then.  If you don’t believe me, ask yourself, how hard is it to separate your American duties from your Christian duties.  It becomes very hard to separate. 

So I’m not trying to “ruffle feathers” or be “that guy” only to let you guys in on my journey over the last 5-6 months in dealing with what Christ is asking of his followers, the church.  Have we really been brainwashed in our understanding of war?  Does Jesus command us to take up arms or support it?  As brothers and sisters, I ask to help me process this in community.   

Thanks for listening - rob

OK… Everything looks normal here in the beginning. Like you are going to see a good old fashion baseball brawl. But, then all of the sudden, you are in a different world.

Does anybody have any idea why that is happening?

abortion (positive)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363434,00.html

global warming (ridiculous)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/366025_bonfire06.html?source=mypi

Just scratching my head in disbelief…

-ross

This is by no means an endorsement of this DVD, but in light of the heated discussions around here concerning Bell’s theology {see the posts here and here}, I thought I’d point out that the DVD from his tour “The Gods Aren’t Angry” is now available {click here}. Watch and see {it’ll cost you $20} and hear what I would call a misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the Gospel…

-Benji

If these truths are true for you…you might be a Calvinist.

-Benji
{HT: Vitamin Z}

Ok… it is a surreal season in life now that my oldest daughter is not in elementary school as of today. She is in middle school. She just graduated to the youth group. The youth group sometimes hangs out until 10pm or later… that is past her bedtime, or what used to be her bedtime. So many changes and I have just discovered I am not really prepared like I thought I was. Tonight she sent me a link to a YouTube video. Yes, SHE sent me a link from HER email address… and it is hilarious! I share it with you. This clip was the source of the bellowing laughter I just heard from the other room. I love that sound…

-ross

Steve McCoy over at Reformissionary has posted the last couple of days: The Big 5: Systematic Theology, The Big 5: Books on Personal Evangelism and The Big 5: Books on Church Leadership. The comments are building and it is interesting to see that so many of us get locked into a “stream” of the church. Now, I’m not saying that is a bad thing, it is a natural thing. While Reformissionary has not stated this as an objective, it does give the readers and the author a good idea about the “streams” that the blog is swimming in and who is reading it. 

So, I post today for your consideration… Who are the Top 5 Preachers/Communicators of the Gospel living today? What are your thoughts?

-ross

I am pleased to announce that I have extended the invitation to 2 of my best friends from seminary to join me here blogging at Amazing Grey City. Since we generally are running the same thoughts and ideas by each other and interacting through the phone and email, this seems like a great place to open up the conversation to all of you. Stay tuned as Ross and Rob will join me in the coming days {we’ll add their bio info soon!} and keep an eye out for some exciting changes in the coming days here at this blog.

Thanks for reading! Please stand by…

Here’s a question to consider:

According to Genesis 1:11-30, the Lord created the vegetation, plants, trees, etc on the third day. Genesis 1:26 says that God created man on the sixth day.

But Genesis 2:5-9 says that the Lord created man before there was vegetation. So, which came first- the vegetation or the man?

There is a reasonable explanation… discuss.

“May you be a wall and not a door {Song of Solomon 8:9},
may men treat you as their sister, in all purity {1st Timothy 5:2},
may older women train you to be godly {Titus 2:4-5},
may your heart exult in the Lord {1st Samuel 2:1},
may you be a worthy woman {Ruth 3:11},
and may you be a woman who fears the Lord {Proverbs 31:30}.”