Dearest

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George Beatty of Cleveland, Ohio, had a wonderful jewelry store, remarkable for its window displays. Over the years, Mr. Beatty had bought a stock of small precious stones that he kept in pint cups. He had a cup of small rubies, a cup of topazes, and a cup of diamonds—all sparkling brilliance. Some of them were small stones and chips that were worth very little. Early in the morning, before the customers came, he made pictures by placing the stones on black velvet squares; a magnificent peacock with its tail spread out was on one. He put these portraits in stone in the window, and many people stopped to look.

A wealthy customer wrote Mr. Beatty that his dearest granddaughter was going to have a birthday; he wanted something distinctive of real beauty. Five times in the letter, the customer spoke of the granddaughter as “dearest.” The old man looked at me and said, “I prayed and asked the Lord to give me an idea. I noticed how many times ‘dearest’ appeared, so I underlined it. When I sent my customer the sketch and told him what I proposed to do, he was greatly pleased and thought my idea was wonderful.”

Mr. Beatty sent him a ring with baguettes so beautifully cut that the light scintillated from them. Across the top of the ring, the first stone was a diamond; the next, an emerald, then an amethyst, a ruby, a second emerald, a sapphire, and then a topaz. I looked at it and asked, “Buy why do you have two emeralds?” He smiled and said, “Because there are two e’s in ‘dearest.’ If you take the initials of those stones, it spells the word ‘dearest.’”

Before the Lord God Almighty created the sun, the moon and the stars, He chose us, and—as it were—He put us in a ring to be worn as a signet upon His hand. Spelled out in the heart of God, we are his dearest.

Source: “Timeless Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching“ by Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Is it Biblical to Ask Jesus Into Your Heart?

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Trevin Wax gets to the heart of this issue in his post “Is it Biblical to Ask Jesus Into Your Heart?“

Trevin writes:

The Southern Baptist blogosphere has erupted in conversation on whether it’s proper to use phrases like “asking Jesus into your heart,” “accepting Christ,” or methods like the “sinner’s prayer” when sharing the gospel. Like many online conversations, this one has tended to generate more heat than light, and I get the feeling that good folks on both sides of this issue may be talking past one another.

This discussion over methods and terms has been bubbling under the surface for a good while now. A younger generation of pastors look out at the state of evangelicalism and are rightly concerned that many people with cultural Christianity in their background cling to assurance they are saved despite an overwhelming lack of evidence of genuine conversion. It’s no surprise that some pastors are blaming the methods and terms that became prevalent in the previous generation. That’s why we hear a pastor like David Platt consider a phrase like “asking Jesus into your heart” to be “dangerous” and “damning.”

The response to this critique has been to trot out the biblical and historical precedent for using such terminology. That’s not hard. The idea of “receiving Christ” is all over the New Testament. It is certainly a part of the good news that we are not only in Christ, but that Christ is in us. Pastor Steve Gaines’ rebuttal to David Platt, for example, focused on the biblical preponderance of such language and how it offers a full-orbed view of what takes place when a sinner places faith in Jesus Christ.

A Global Perspective

The first time I questioned the legitimacy of expressions like “ask Jesus into your heart” was when I was a student in Romania. Several Romanian pastors challenged the use of such terminology. They considered it to be another example of the American tendency to water down the nature of true repentance, and they recommended the use of such phrases only if fully explained. They saw these expressions as distinctively “American” and worried that they did not give sufficient weight to the idea of surrendering one’s life to King Jesus in repentance and faith.

Though some in the Southern Baptist Convention want to make this a debate between Calvinists and non-Calvinists, a broader perspective shows that this is part of an ongoing conversation between Christians in the U.S. and Christians in other parts of the world. The pastors I knew who had concerns with this language were not Calvinistic at all. Still, they were afraid of creating false converts and offering them false assurance. It ought to at least give us pause that many Christians in other parts of the world are uncomfortable with this terminology.

The Real Issue is False Assurance

At the end of the day, the conversation about “the sinner’s prayer” and “asking Jesus into your heart” is not really about the legitimacy of such methods or the biblical justification for using expressions like “having a personal relationship with Christ” or “receiving Jesus.” I believe that properly understood and explained, any of these methods and terms can be used, to good effect. And I bet David Platt would have no problem at all with the careful way that Steve Gaines explains what it means to “receive Jesus.”

The real issue comes down to finding our assurance in these methods and phrases. False assurance is when a pastor says, either explicitly or implicitly, “as long as you walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, or asked Jesus into your heart at some point in time, you’re safe.” It’s the kind of false assurance that doesn’t take into account a Christian’s fruitfulness (as Jesus commanded us to) and tries to convince tares they are wheat. The debate is not really about the usefulness of a sinner’s prayer, but the grounding of one’s assurance in a particular moment in time where one felt remorse for sin, regardless if true repentance was present or later evidenced.

Growing up in independent Baptist circles, I recall how much emphasis was placed on the moment of conversion. Revival speakers would come into town and scare us as teenagers, telling us, “If you don’t remember the when, the where, the how, and the who of when you got saved, you’re probably not. So come down and get it settled today!” Multiple baptisms were good for the evangelist’s PR and dozens of teens getting re-baptized made the church feel good (“Look what God is doing in our young people!”).

Despite the hype, I never got re-baptized. I couldn’t articulate all the reasons why this was wrong, but I knew something wasn’t right. It felt like the shenanigans of these revival speakers put way too much emphasis on a moment in time and not on a life of fruitful faith.

True Conversion

This conversation about our methods and terminology in evangelism is an important one. I just hope that people who share a lot of the same concerns will understand the common ground they have and not impute mistakes to one another.

To my young pastor friends, we are often more apt to express concern about the precision of evangelistic language than we are to celebrate the passion of evangelistic outreach. Let’s not impute the excesses of revivalism to everyone who uses terms that are familiar within that stream of evangelicalism.

To my older pastor friends, please don’t assume that those who critique shallow evangelism are necessarily criticizing you or your ministry. And don’t think that young guys are gun-shy when it comes to evangelism, afraid to call people to personal faith and repentance, or have a problem with a moment of conversion.

Again, the issue is one of false assurance. No pastor wants to stand before God and find he offered false assurance to someone who showed no signs of genuine repentance and faith. We all ought to tremble at the thought.

Meanwhile, is it biblical to ask Jesus into your heart? Absolutely. We ought to say more than this when we evangelize, and our main focus ought to be on the biblical terminology of repentance and faith, but surely it is proper to speak of receiving Jesus.

Let’s just make sure we explain our terms and phrases so that the nature of true repentance and saving faith is communicated clearly, boldly, and graciously. I hope that’s something all of us can agree on.

10 Life Changing Quotes

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For many years I have enjoyed reading anything and everything by Warren Wiersbe. I began reading his books long before I became a pastor, and they are still a tool I use today in my Christian walk and in preparing sermons. If you want to grow as a Christian, I would encourage you to start reading any of his books. Some of my favorites are from his “Be Series.”

Last Wednesday Jayson Bradley posted “10 Dynamic Warren Wiersbe Quotes.” Because of the great influence Dr. Wiersbe has had on my life I wanted to share these quotes with you.

Here are 10 inspiring Wiersbe quotes:

1. “The Christian life is not a playground; it is a battleground, and we must be on our guard at all times.”—from The Bumps Are What You Climb On

2. “This modern emphasis only on personal salvation makes us lose sight of the grandeur and glory of God’s church. I am not minimizing our personal experience with Christ, but I am affirming that it is not the primary goal that God has in mind. He is building His church. He is building up the Body of Christ. The glory and greatness of our personal salvation is but a reflection of what God is doing corporately in and through His church.”—from Prayer: Basic Training

3. “You don’t have to read very far in your Bible to discover that God forgives His servants and restores them to ministry.”—from Be Amazed

4. “The immediate purpose of prayer is the accomplishing of God’s will on earth; the ultimate purpose of prayer is the eternal glory of God.”—from On Earth as It Is in Heaven: How the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us to Pray More Effectively

5. “For the most part, the people we serve in our congregations don’t look like Josephs, Esthers, or Davids, nor do we; but the same God who glorified himself in the lives of ‘ordinary people’ in ancient days will glorify himself in our lives today if we will trust him.”—from 10 Power Principles for Christian Service

6. “God’s people don’t live on explanations; they live on promises.”—from Be Heroic

7. “We may be statistics and numbers as far as the world’s computers are concerned, but we are precious individuals as far as our Shepherd is concerned. He knows his sheep personally.”—from Be What You Are

8. “Satan wants us to think that our ‘disobedience detours’ must become the permanent road for the rest of our lives, but this is a lie.”—from Be Obedient

9. “The most important meeting we as leaders attend is that daily personal meeting with the Lord, before the day begins, when worship and meditation increase our faith as we receive the orders for the day.”—from On Being a Leader for God

10. “If you serve only to earn a salary, you will never do your best as long as you think you’re underpaid. If you minister to get recognition, you will start doing less when people don’t show their appreciation. The only motivation that will take you through the storms and keep you on the job is, ‘I’m serving Jesus Christ.’ “—from On Being a Servant of God

Follow this link for more of Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s books on Amazon.

Rethinking the Small Group Focus

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Small groups within a church are clearly a great way to develop disciples. Within these groups are great opportunities to grow intimate relationships with other believers. These growing relationships can demonstrate the love, compassion, support, and encouragement found within the body of Christ. However, these attributes will not be seen or experienced by those needing Christ unless our small groups invite those without Christ to become a part of the group.

As a small group family grows closer, fears can begin to arise about bringing others into the group. The end result is a small group that is organized to meet “our need” for friendship, spiritual growth, encouragement, and support. These are not bad in themselves; however, when we limit them to “our group” then we have become a private club, not Christ-followers seeking to make disciples. Disciples should focus on personal growth, but a growth which equips them to be better disciple makers.

Logan Gentry shines a bright light on the need of small groups to get past their fears of growing in his post, “Community on Mission with Depth of Intimacy.”

Gentry writes:

 Small groups have become a staple in the American church as a way of cultivating friendships, developing community, and encouraging spiritual formation. Pastors and other small group leaders often cite Acts 2:42-47 as the model for such community devoted to God and devoted to one another through shared time, resources, and space. But there is growing sentiment for small groups to fulfill the rest of that passage—God adding to their numbers daily—by extending the gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers.

We love to study the Scriptures and discuss the glorious truth of the gospel with one another, and we enjoy spending time with fellow believers. Yet we’re often fearful and uneasy about what will happen if we invite people who do not believe as we do into these environments. What will happen to our intimacy? What will happen to our deep community?

I worried about the same things when church leaders first asked me to transition my community group toward an outreach focus. Now, as a pastor seeking to foster community, I’m encouraging others to transition their groups, and they’re reacting with the same skepticism. One particularly apprehensive community group pushed back hard during a couple tense lunches. They feared the destruction of their friendships and community developed over the last three years as a closed group. This community group was the reason they stayed at our church—even stayed in our city.

We all desire to be known in community, to have friendships with people we trust and enjoy. We long for a community like the one described in Romans 12:15 that rejoices when we rejoice and grieves when we grieve. But what if intimacy and community isn’t the end goal of small groups?

When Jesus Blew Up the Small Group Model

While most small groups aim to develop and maintain Christian community, Christ himself built a community around him that reflected a different goal. The group aimed to exalt God among believers and non-believers alike. They sought to spread worship and enjoyment of God above all things.

As I read the Scriptures alongside books like Total Church by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester, The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, and others, I began to discover what the community groups I led were missing. Our community wasn’t a failure, but it was incomplete. Community had become an end to our mission rather than the context for it. We had embraced the blessings and transformation of the gospel as a community, but we did not seek to extend these benefits to others. I came to realize we needed to radically redefine our purpose for small groups.

We often seek to develop intimacy through conversation, confession, and prayer within a small group that grows together with time and trust. Burt actually, we tend to form our lasting friendships through shared experiences, shared time, and shared mission. This insight reflects what we see in Scripture with Jesus and his disciples along with the early church. Luke 10 show us Jesus opening up and sharing his compassionate mission with his disciples. They celebrate together when the disciples return from mission. The relationship between mission and community extends throughout the book of Acts.

In my own life, as my community has taken a concern for the people in my life who I desire to know Christ and follow him with their lives, our relationships have gone deeper. Our conversations no longer center on the surface level of catching up on activities since we’ve last seen one another. When they ask about the things I love the most (God and people), I feel more cared for and connected, because these friends reveal that they know my heart and share my compassion and mission for others.

The same thing happened in our church’s community groups that initially resisted change. Over the first year of the transition, they began opening their community and inviting co-workers, neighbors, and even their doorman. Their community began to grow to beyond capacity. Six months later, during a training meeting, another community group leader expressed the same concern about destroying community by expanding the group. I asked one of the other leaders to answer. “We were expecting it to hurt our friendships,” he said, “but it was the exact opposite.”

This moment felt almost scripted, but it was joyful to see the truths of Scripture and the promises of God lived out in our midst. It was a powerful celebration of God’s work as we fought through the fears and apprehensions to value the gospel of Jesus Christ more than our conception of community.

How Does This Work Out?

Practically, this shift does not require the community to sacrifice their conversation, confession, or prayer together, but it may realign the context and focus. Often we seek to cram Bible study, discussion, confession, and prayer into a two-hour block on a weeknight, which usually means one of them gets sacrificed (often prayer because we this time will lead to drawn-out requests).

Instead, we may develop gender-specific, Christ-centered accountability groups outside our regularly scheduled small group meeting. This may seem like an additional burden, but it’s part of approaching your regular life with more intentionality. I’ve often heard it said that you don’t have to do different things, but do things differently. Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma Communities describes this as living ordinary life with gospel intentionality.

Many small groups have only a façade of intimacy because they do not help members reach friends and neighbors they want to know Christ. A small group that reflects the focus of the Acts community to love God, one another, and others becomes a community on mission with depth of intimacy.

Beautiful Day, Isn’t It?

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The day started out rotten. I overslept and was late for work. Everything that happened at the office contributed to my nervous frenzy. By the time I reached the bus stop for my homeward trip, my stomach was one big knot.

As usual, the bus was late—and jammed. I had to stand in the aisle. As the lurching vehicle pulled me in all directions, my gloom deepened.

Then I heard a deep voice from up front boom, “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” Because of the crowd, I could not see the man, but I could hear him as he continued to comment on the spring scenery, calling attention to each approaching landmark. This church. That park. This cemetery. That firehouse. Soon all the passengers were gazing out the windows. The man’s enthusiasm was so contagious I found myself smiling for the first time that day. We reached my stop. Maneuvering toward the door, I got a look at our “guide”: a plump figure with a black beard, wearing dark glasses, and carrying a thin white cane.”

This short story by Barbara Johnson reminds me of the old saying, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” Sometimes the way to a better day is not a change of scenery, but a change of perspective.

Source: “Stories for the Heart” Multnomah, 107.

Culture Is Redefining What’s Right, Wrong

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Lillian Kwon’s article on Jonathan Falwell’s Mother’s Day sermon is fantastic and something every Christian needs to hear!

Joining pastors throughout the country in denouncing President Barack Obama’s support for same-sex marriage, Pastor Jonathan Falwell told thousands from the pulpit that they must protect the biblical definition of marriage, even if the culture and the president tries to redefine it.

“We’ve got to protect marriage; we’ve got to protect our families; we’ve got to protect the Church,” Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., preached Sunday. “I don’t care what the world says; I don’t care what the culture says; I don’t even care what the president says. With all due respect … the Bible says that God made them male and female and the two shall become one flesh.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman, period,” he said to applause from the congregation.

Falwell, son of the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, had pondered and prayed about whether to continue his message series on “Holy Wars” or preach on something more pertinent to Mother’s Day on Sunday.

But he was convinced that there was no better day than Mother’s Day to talk about marriage and family especially at a time when those institutions are being attacked, he told the megachurch of some 20,000 members.

“We’ve got to understand that indeed we are in the midst of a battle … the battlefield is something that is very, very real in our lives,” he preached. It’s a battle that rages in our hearts, souls and minds, he added.

Satan, Falwell warned, is trying to keep people from enjoying God’s great blessings.

Reading from the New Testament, Galatians 5, Falwell listed adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lewdness as sins.

God, he stressed, provides a “very clear understanding so there is no gray area” on sexual sin. But the culture is redefining what a sexual relationship should be like, he lamented.

“We’re redefining what is right and what is wrong,” he said. “God knew that we were going to live in a culture today just as many in that day were living in where we redefine what sin is, where we change the idea of what sin is so that we can make room for the things that we want to do,” the Virginia pastor said.

“It’s easy when we understand that adultery is wrong and fornication (any sexual relationship outside of the bonds of marriage) is wrong but if we can change the definition of fornication then we can open all kinds of doors and that is where we live today.”

He continued, “When we do that …. when we begin to make cases for and explain away what the Bible says, then we begin to destroy our very souls and the battlefield is raging and Satan is winning.”

Americans are split on whether homosexual behavior is a sin. According to LifeWay Research, which surveyed more than 2,000 Americans in September 2011, 44 percent say it is a sin and 43 percent disagree. Among born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christians, 82 percent call it a sin.

While exhorting the congregation to stand on the Word of God and be clear about what the Bible calls sin, Falwell urged caution.

“What is vitally important to understand is that while we stand on truth, we must speak the truth in the love of Jesus Christ,” he stressed. “There is no room in today’s culture and there better not be any room in the Church today to attack people who disagree with us. Rather, let them see the love of Jesus Christ in us.

“I will tell you this, that God loves homosexuals just as much as He loves Baptists. Jesus died on the cross for every single one of us.”

The message Christians should be spreading is about the gift of eternal life, he urged.

“Yes, the Bible does call sin sin but let me reveal to you through the Word of God not what God says ‘no’ to but rather what God gives us the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to and that is the incredible gift of God’s eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Here is the link to read the entire Christian Post article: “Jonathan Falwell: Culture Is Redefining What’s Right, Wrong“