Daily Archives: January 31, 2012

“Inspiration Sells, But Only Jesus Transforms”



A post from Resurgence, adopted by a post from Jared Wilson.

Excerpt:

There is a pastor whose Twitter feed I occasionally read, but I shouldn’t, because it absolutely drives me nuts. A large portion of my reaction is tied to my own issues, I’m sure, but I see in his broadcasts an almost pathological intention not to mention Jesus. …

We ministers of the gospel — and Christians at large — can fumble this commission in three main ways:

1. We speak in vague spiritual generalities. Love. Hope. Peace. Joy. Harmony. Blessings. All disembodied from the specific atoning work of the incarnate Jesus and exalted Lord. It all sounds nice. It’s all very inspirational. And it’s rubbish. He himself is our peace. He himself is love. He himself is life. He does not make life better. He is life. Any pastor who talks about the virtues of faith, hope, and love, with Jesus as some implied tangential source, is not feeding his flock well.

Continue Reading at Resurgence


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Read Related:
- The Beneficial God: Modern Christianity and Its Ubiquitous Psychological Slope
- Gospel Idolatry
- How To Lose The Gospel
- Guest Q&A: Losing Faith in Guilt
- The Incidental Christian: How We Make God Who We Want
- Sugar-Driven Gospel


Music Review: Give Us Rest – David Crowder Band


Give Us Rest
By David Crowder Band

Summary:
David Crowder Band, the cutting edge of Christian worship bands in the last decade, offer up their sixth and final album. It’s a virtuoso effort of bells, chimes, whistles, banjos, techno, and choir-pumped glory, with their most Christ-centered focus and ambitious musicality. It’s an unforgettable experience.

Review:
No one does it quite like the David Crowder Band. Not only have they been light years ahead of the Contemporary Christian scene (which is mostly light years behind), but they’re often outpacing their secular counterparts. While most Christian bands have an equivalent in the mainstream — Third Day is Pearl Jam, Tree63 is U2, Group 1 Crew is Black Eyed Peas, Switchfoot is Switchfoot — there’s really no close match to DCB. While they may be made of many derivative parts, David Crowder’s signature country twang and the aggressive, experimental musicianship is more than a copy-paste quilt of genres. He’s really in an artistic league of his own.

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Question: Spiritually Immature, Or Sick?

brianli asked:
Hey there, I’ve been following your blog as well as your tumblr for a while now and I just wanted to pass on some encouragement as well a ask a question that has been on my mind recently. I’ve heard the term “spiritual maturity” or even simply “oh I have/haven’t been doing well spiritually” and I was just wondering, what constitutes or defines whether someone is spiritually mature or whether they’re doing well spiritually? It’s gotta be more than an emotional thing, right?

I’m digging the idea of the Christian faith being susceptible to spiritual allergies, as if some days we can feel congested (I missed my QT) or we can’t stop sneezing (I cursed out my grandmother). But I don’t think spiritual maturity has anything to do with the strange claim of “I haven’t been doing well spiritually.”

So a little theology lesson: James 1, 1 Corinthians 3, 13, and Hebrews 5 all mention the actual definition of a legit mature Christian. You’ll notice that emotions don’t have much to do it with it, if at all. James talks about how we consider our trials, the Greek work hegeomai, which means to reason out or carefully deduce. Paul talks about infants drinking spiritual milk because they are still in love with the world, and later in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter, Paul says to put childish ways behind you. Hebrews 5 says spiritual solid food helps us to discern between good and evil.

There are other passages about maturity, but they all have one thing in common: they are more about the attitudes of our heart than what we say, do, or feel. And from the position of our heart comes the saying, the doing, the feeling. Christian maturity is a growing process of habits, obedience, experiences, biblical learning, accountability, and church involvement that accumulate over time and tough seasons, which result in a continually changed heart. Think of the four seeds, the Parable of the Sower, and while some say the seeds represent different types of people, it could also be the stages of one person’s spiritual journey.

When someone says, “I’m not doing well spiritually,” I understand what they mean — they haven’t been reading their Bible lately, they’re not connecting in worship service, they watched Jersey Shore and liked it — but that’s usually a cop-out for lukewarmness.

Continue reading →