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Published by Jeff Kennon on June 26, 2014

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Are You Too Christian For Non-Christians? – It is so easy to fill our time with the activity and fellowship of Christian life. Block out time for prayer, quiet time, worship, Sunday school, small group, committee meetings, accountability partners, Christian entertainment, political action and socializing with your best friends with whom you just so happen to also attend church and, well, there really isn’t much margin left for, let’s say, evangelism.

How Much Time Do People Read? – A new study from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average American reads only 19 minutes a day (a rate at which the George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series would take more than a year for most readers).

4 Marks of Biblical Discipleship – Here are four important truths we should keep in mind as we consider biblical discipleship.

Cool at 13, Adrift at 23 – At 13, they were viewed by classmates with envy, admiration and not a little awe. At 23, they were not doing so well. 

How To Spend The First 10 Minutes of Your Day – What’s the first thing you do when you arrive at your desk? For many of us, checking email or listening to voice mail is practically automatic. In many ways, these are among the worst ways to start a day.

Why Aren’t College Graduates Ready For The Workforce? – Fifty-nine percent of business decision-makers and 54 percent of corporate recruiters give recent graduates a grade of C or lower for preparedness in their first job. 

25 Maps That Will Change The Way You See The World

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Loathing To Be Faithful In The Small Things

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 25, 2014

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In reading through Dale Ralph Davis‘ short commentary on Joshua, I stumbled upon the following statements…

We find being faithful in little more annoying than satisfying.

The Christian’s faith is not so much proved by his courage in a sudden crisis as by his faithfulness in daily plodding.

What this translates for me is that it is sometimes easier to feed the homeless than it is to load the family dishwasher.  It’s easier to spend a week overseas prayer-walking than it is to pray daily for an annoying neighbor.

Again, Davis writes:

We frequently and strangely prove faithful in the great crisis of faith, remain steadfast in severe storms, perhaps even relish the excitement of the heaviest assaults, yet lack the tenacity, the dogged endurance, the patient plodding often required in the prosaic affairs of believing life; we are often loath to be faithful in (what we regard as) little.

It’s the small things, however, that reveal our true character. On Sunday morning, I can preach eloquently and yet speak unkindly an hour later to the waiter at my favorite Mexican food restaurant.

Jesus said, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

The reality is that Christianity is pretty daily! Some days we just stumble along and nothing exciting appears to happen.

Rod Dryer writes…

Everydayness is my problem. It’s easy to think about what you would do in wartime, or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery or bought that thing you really wanted. It’s a lot more difficult to figure out how you’re going to get through today without despair.

Could it be that the reason we don’t deal well with “everyday Christianity” is because it doesn’t do much for our egos? We need to admit that there is a tendency to make “doing something big for God” our treasure instead of God Himself. And as a result, we will never be satisfied.

This is why we must continually go back to the gospel less we become adrenaline junkies moving from radical Christian venture to radical Christian venture trying to fulfill in our souls what can only be accomplished by Christ. As Augustine famously wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

I don’t mean to infer that grace does not move us to radical action and mission. I think it does. However, we need to be aware that the radical action and mission God opens for you may be found in the ordinary routine of your life. It might just be that in the small things you do daily, the miraculous arises.

We do well to remember Jesus’s parable of the talents in Matthew 25. To those who are good stewards, the master says, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

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Jesus Took My Place

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 24, 2014

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Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy
that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst
that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
athirst that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory,
entered darkness that I might have eternal light.

My Savior wept that all tears might be wiped
from my eyes,
groaned that I might have endless song,
endured all pain that I might have unfading health,
bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze
on unclouded brightness,
expired that I might for ever live.

(taken from The Valley of Vision)

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Does True Fellowship Involve Mission?

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 23, 2014

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As I have been reading through Philippians, my idea of what it means to have “fellowship” or “community” with other believers has deepened. Paul writes:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me (Philippians 1:3-7).

In this passage, “partnership” and “share” is the word koinonia,  which is often translated as “fellowship.” Today, we sometimes equate fellowship with the idea of enjoying coffee or a meal with fellow believers. It is warm friendship.

However, koinonia is much more than that. D.A. Carson writes that “the heart of true fellowship is self-sacrificing conformity to a shared vision. There may be overtones of warmth and intimacy, but the heart of the matter is this shared vision of what is of transcendent importance, a vision that calls forth our commitment.”

Christian fellowship therefore, is “self-sacrificing commitment” to the gospel. The reason Paul was thankful for the church in Philippi was because they, like him, had a deep commitment to the gospel and as a result, longed to see it spread. This is why they supported Paul financially and gave sacrificially to him along with the believers in Jerusalem (see 2 Corinthians 8:1-5).

For both Paul and the Philippians, the “fellowship” they experienced was due to their commitment to the spread of the gospel. They shared in the grace of God together and such grace pushed them outside of themselves to the mission of God in which they experienced true fellowship. And I might add they experienced true joy as well.

So the question we must ask ourselves is: Can true fellowship or community exist outside of mission? Kent Hughes does not think so. He writes:

But if you are looking for true fellowship, give yourself to the gospel at home and around the world. Serve together with others in women’s Bible studies, children’s ministries, youth ministries. Do short-term missions. Join mercy work to alleviate suffering in places like the vast area devastated by Katrina. Take the good news to the poor. Join a band of brothers and sisters to pray for the world. This is how you will experience genuine Christian fellowship. 

I hear many Christians today longing for community and I wonder if we might be pushing them in the wrong direction? We make sure everyone is in a small group hoping that fellowship will emerge when maybe we should be helping people understand how they can work with others in carrying out the Great Commission.

I am not against small groups as I think they can serve as a catalyst for true fellowship in the gospel. Jesus led a small group and it ended up changing the world.

Bottom line: I think we need to examine what it means to have true community. If we have divorced it from the mission of the gospel, I think we are missing out on the vibrant fellowship that Paul experienced with “all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi.”

 

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Memorizing Whole Books of the Bible

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 20, 2014

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Do you ever think about memorizing Scripture? Or does the thought of doing so bore or scare you? If so, then I encourage you to read An Approach To Extended Memorization of Scripture by Andrew Davis.

As one would expect, Davis writes that Scripture memorization is commanded and is beneficial. He also writes a few words concerning the excuses we all give for not memorizing Scripture. But what makes Davis’s take on Scripture memory unique is his chapter on why “memorizing books is better than memorizing individual verses.”

Davis writes:

Memorizing individual verses tends to miss intervening verses that the individual does not feel are as significant. If we continue to focus only on our “favorite” passages of Scripture, we may well miss something new that God wants to say to the church through a neglected portion of His Word. God does not speak any word in vain, and there are no wasted passages of Scripture.

Also, since much of Scripture is written to make a rational case, there is a flow of argumentation that is missed if individual verses are memorized. In addition, there is far less likelihood of taking verses out of context when entire books are memorized.

Now memorizing whole books of the Bible might seem impossible, but Davis helps his/her readers realize that it is doable by offering simple daily procedures. One just has to make the commitment to start memorizing. “We will not regret,” writes Davies, “one moment we spend diligently studying God’s Word and hiding it in our heart,”

An Approach To Extended Memorization of Scripture is a super short read. You can probably complete the book during your lunch hour.  And it costs less than a cup of coffee. So get a copy and start reading. It might just be the catalyst you need to begin diving in to God’s Word via memorization.

 

 

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 19, 2014

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Is Your Small Group on Mission or Missional? – When it comes to small groups, there’s a difference between being on mission and being missional. Which better defines your group? And why does it matter?

Preachers Aren’t The Only Ones With Pulpits – We are all preachers. Some of us deliver our sermons to large crowds while we stand behind wooden podiums. Others preach their sermons to crowds of two while driving to soccer practice.

The Key to True Productivity: Valuing What God Values – Lots of time management books talk about the importance of values. But that’s not enough, because you can value the wrong things.

There’s No Such Thing As The Gift of Evangelism – Why is it that Christians are always looking for ways to talk themselves out of doing evangelism?

Should We Pray For Revival? – Ours is not the first generation to recognize the spiritual declension among us, or to see the need for God to awaken his church and touch our land. From the saints of the Old Testament to leaders in our time, prayer for revival has marked believers who understand the need for the Spirit surpasses our ability and intelligence.

How My Son With Autism Transformed My Business – Watching my son progress taught me that we underestimate the abilities and contribution of people on the margins. Seeing the way Austin is dismissed or ignored by others gave me the courage to stand up for those who are unjustly overlooked and ignored.

The Power of Giving

 

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Christ Didn’t Come To Make Us Better

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 18, 2014

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From Brennan Manning in The Furious Longing of God…

How is it then that we’ve come to imagine that Christianity consists primarily in what we do for God? How has this come to be the good news of Jesus?

Is the kingdom that He proclaimed to be nothing more than a community of men and women who go to church on Sunday, take an annual spiritual retreat, read their Bibles every now and then, vigorously oppose abortion, don’t watch x-rated movies, never use vulgar language, smile a lot, hold doors open for people, root for the favorite team, and get along with everybody?

Is that why Jesus went through the bleak and bloody horror of Calvary? Is that why He emerged in shattering glory from the tomb? Is that why He poured out His Holy Spirit on the church? To make nicer men and women with better morals?

The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creations. 

Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.

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A Recovering Pharisee

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 17, 2014

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It was such defiant grace! How could it be that a rebel son be welcomed back. He had spent all his unearned inheritance on his own pleasures and now he was given a second chance? And not only a new start, but a party as well?

The older brother was not to be a part of such foolishness. Obviously, his father had gone mad. And his father needed to hear just how wrong all of this was:

Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him! (Luke 15:29-30)

How can it be that the one who obeys all the rules seems to get shafted? It’s just not fair! But we need to hear the heart of the father before we jump to such a conclusion.

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

The older son had so much. All the father had was his. But he missed out on understanding the heart of his father. He was so bent on keeping all the rules that grace never entered his worldview.

For this older son, his younger brother deserved to be vanquished. If anyone deserved a party, it was him.  According to his view, he had played by the rules all his life and had gotten nothing.

Bottom line: the grace of the father was too much for the older son. It stirred him to anger and revealed his heart of judgmentalism. Grace, to him, was an offense and as Michael Spencer writes, was “simply inexplicable, inappropriate, out of the box, out of bounds, offensive, excessive, too much, given to the wrong people and all those things.”

The older son could not see how much he needed grace for himself. And this can be a danger for many of us in our walk with Christ. When we begin to think that our relationship with Christ is defined by us keeping the rules, then we not only deny our need for grace but look down upon non-rule keepers with disdain. We become like the Pharisees!

Dane Ortlund writes that “the real question is not how to avoid becoming a Pharisee; the question is how to recover from being the Pharisees that we already are, right from the womb.”

The answer is to continually “bathe our hearts and minds in gospel grace.” By preaching the gospel of grace to ourselves daily, we encounter the grace that “defies our domesticated, play-by-the-rules morality.”

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

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