A Quest for More: Chapter Three

Part Four of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter Three: A Total Disaster

BIG IDEA:

"As his child, when you get up in the morning you awake to a huge kingdom. It courses back through history and extends to before the foundations of the world were set in place. It extends forward in time to endless eternity. It encompasses every location known and unknown, every situation of every kind, every person and every created thing. The goal of this kingdom is the complete restoration of every last thing that was damaged by the fall. You must no longer live for yourself. Grace has led you through the door to something more and better. Grace calls you to shape your living to the contours of this amazing work of restoration." (page 45).

BASIC OUTLINE:

• The Fall ruined everything: "What happened in the garden is truly the central catastrophe of human history. It is almost impossible to overstate the hugeness of its significance Here is how big this disaster was (and is) When Adam and Eve fell, the entire cosmos fell with them!" (page 38)
  

• God's original design was gloriously transcendent and cruciform: "People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another..." and "People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give into worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator" (pp. 38-39).
  

• The present result of the fall is not submission to God and service to others, but the pursuit of self-rule and self-service: "The quest for autonomy will always crush transcendence...Since that horrible moment in the garden, every human being has tended to confuse autonomy with transcendence. The inertia of sin is always away from the Creator and toward ourselves. And let it be known that this is not only the struggle of the unbeliever; it is the struggle of the believer as well. As long as sin still dwells in our hearts, autonomy will war with transcendence" (page 42).
  

• "Because of this there are two things that I must always keep in view: [#1] The ongoing tendency to treat my life as if it were no bigger than my life...Most of us have learned how to celebrate our inclusion in God's great and glorious work, while functionally caring for little that does not directly address us. In doing this we have Christianized our autonomy....even though we are trying to live inside of God's boundaries, we have still manufactured a life where self is at the center." and #2 "We must keep in mind that the fall was a total disaster...it is only when you remember how big the effects of sin are that you will live the way God calls you to live. Here is the logic of living in light of the purposes of God: if sin's devastation is as wide as creation, then the scope of redemption must be just as big. Therefore, we are called to live with the total restoration of creation in view" (pp. 43-44).
  

SOME FAVORITE (and convicting!) QUOTES:

"We get so excited about the personal benefits of redemption that we lost sight of redemption that we lose sight of redemption's greater goal. Yes, the personal benefits of redemption are an amazing thing, worthy of eternal celebration. But redemption's agenda is not to make our kingdoms successful, but to welcome us to a much bigger, much better kingdom" (page 46).

"Many of you...have settled into a self-focused enjoyment of the good life. You are enjoying what grace has done to your marriage, your partnering, your friendships, and your work life. It has been all too easy for you to miss the point that you were rescued from what was very bad--not just to be part of something good, but amazingly, to be part of something very great." (page 46).

Christian Bloggers as Prophets

If you've spent much time surfing the Christian blogosphere you've probably noticed that a blogger's bent is often toward what's wrong with the Church and her preaching, practices, worship, and witness. Some have noted that Christian bloggers can be the cyber equivalent of Monday-morning-arm-chair-quarterbacks, second-guessing the ministries and messages of front-line Christians on the field while they bask in the glow of their monitors in the comfort of their mom's basement. I'm sure there is some of this extreme Church-bashing going on out there, but perhaps there is room for rants and raves that are redemptive. A chapter in Dr. Michael D. Williams' Far As The Curse Is Found recently convinced me that the mission and message of Old Testament prophets might also (or should) apply to many Christian bloggers:

Prophets minister in times of crisis, sounding the alarm, warning Israel of impending judgment whenever it has failed to seek the Lord, calling it back to its mission in the world...The prophets are complainers. They rant; they rave; they threaten. The prophets rail against Israel's worship, the monarchy, the cultic institutions, and the general lifestyle of the people. They aim their criticisms at the habits and presumptions, the complacency and waywardness of Israelite society.

A student once asked me why the vast majority of my criticism in lectures targeted the contemporary church and Christian culture rather than the sins of the secular world. I answered that I was merely following sound biblical precedent. The prophets do not expend their critical energies complaining about the militaristic cruelty of the Assyrians. Nor does Jesus deliver scathing rebukes of the easy syncretism of Roman culture. Rather, both level their criticism at Israel, the people whom God had called to be his light within a sin-darkened world (pp. 188-189).

Like the prophets of old, perhaps there are some Christian bloggers who are called to rant, rave, and rail against the Church's worship, institutions, and "the general lifestyle" of her people. Perhaps we need someone who will "aim criticisms at the habits and presumptions, the complacency and waywardness of [Christian] society."

However, the prophet's ministry was not merely one of indictment, but also one of encouragement:

But the fact that the prophets focus on the covenant people of God shows that their complaints and threats have a positive purpose: to call the covenant community back to faithfully obeying the God who had redeemed them by his mighty deeds on their behalf...The problem the prophets address is not some failure inherent in the promises of provisions of God but the failure of Israel to respond rightly to God's gracious initiations. Rather than being characterized by faithfulness and love, rather than being a light to the nations through its embodiment of covenant life, Israel engages in idolatry, gross social injustice, and religious syncretism. There is no shortage of religion and ritual, but the people have forgotten the covenant. They have forgotten why Yahweh had delivered them from Egypt and elected them, why he had given them the land, and why he had given them his law...The situation calls for a policing of Israel's response to the covenant. the prophets assume this role. Thus we might think of them as covenant enforcers (pp. 189, 191).

So also Christian blogger-prophets ought not to merely criticize the Church, but also call the Church "back to faithfully obeying the God who had redeemed them by his mighty deeds [the life, death, and resurrected life of Jesus] on their behalf." Christian bloggers have a unique opportunity to be "gospel enforcers," to preach the good news of the New Covenant to the people in the pews as well as the preachers in the pulpits. God's people must be reminded that the root cause of the Church's failure to live out her calling to be and act like the New Covenant community of Christ is our failure to respond by faith to the New Covenant, the gospel (see Galatians 5:6).

Therefore, the Christian blogger should not insist on innovation in the Church as an organization so much as invite the Church as an organism to return to her first love. Williams reminds us that:

What the prophets denounce is not the institutions of Hebrew religion but rather what the Israelites had come to make of these things...The prophets are not confessional, political, or social innovators. Rather, they serve as heirs and interpreters of a tradition that goes back to Moses and Abraham. They call Israel back to its true character and calling, back to the law, back to the covenant (pp. 190-191).

Too many bloggers decry the practices of the Church as culturally irrelevant, suggesting that the solution to the Church's poor reputation in today's culture is a willingness to blend and bend a little. But, as Ezekiel 36:16-38 suggests, the problem is not that God's people are too different from their neighbors, but that they are not different enough. God's solution was the New Covenant, the promise that through Christ he would transform his people into a community that would bear and bless his name among the nations. so that they might see the difference and be drawn to it. Like Ezekiel, the blogger-prophet must help remind the Church of her true identity as God's beloved covenant people who by his grace flesh out the Royal Law of Love (James 2), serving as bondservants of their King in the place he has put them.

So, to sum up these thoughts, I'm suggesting that these descriptions of the Old Testament prophet might serve as a call for Christian blogger-prophets to speak from God in order...

• to point out the waywardness of God's New Covenant community, the Church, and
  
• to point the Church back to heart-rending, life-transforming belief in the New Covenant promises as they are proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
  
• being careful not to promote innovative change in the institution as much as proclaim Christ's invitation for the Church to remember their identity as his beloved bondservants.

One last thought: The OT prophets "spoke with divine authority" (Williams, page 194). They knew their message was from God. They did not presume to speak for or from themselves. Even as they rail against corruption and rally the Church to gospel-centeredness, Christian bloggers (including me) must remember Peter's encouragement in 1 Peter 4:10-11:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks [or blogs], as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves [Christ and his Bride] by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Tim Keller's "Prodigal God"

My friend Tullian Tchividjian asked Tim Keller to explain the title of his new book The Prodigal God. Tullian received this response from Tim:

The word ‘prodigal’ does not appear in the Greek text. It is an English word that has become attached to the parable of the two lost sons in Luke 15. But it is a good, suggestive word that helps us understand the parable’s teaching.

The word ‘prodigal’ is an English word that means recklessly extravagant, spending to the point of poverty, of ‘being in want’ (Luke 15:14.) The dictionaries tell us that the word can be understood in a more negative or a more positive sense. The more positive meaning is to be lavishly and sacrificially abundant in giving. The more negative sense, is to be wasteful and irresponsible in one’s spending. The negative sense obviously applies to the actions of the younger brother in the Luke 15 parable of the two sons. But is there any sense in which God can be called ‘Prodigal’?

Read the rest of Keller's response here.

[HT: On Earth As It Is In Heaven]

A Quest for More: Chapter Two

Part Three of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter Two: More or Less?

BIG IDEA:

"We are all capable of fighting for what has little value while forgetting things of transcendent value...It is so hard for us to make the truly important things functionally important to us...When I opt for a me-centered 'more,' what I actually get is always much, much less" (pp. 26-28).

BASIC OUTLINE:

• The tendency "to talk about more, but to settle for less" is common to all humans.

• We have inherited this less-is-more attraction from Adam and Eve, who were looking for more ("you will be like God") when they settled for less ("she took of its fruit and ate...and he ate").

• Our enemy has continued to use this less-is-more tactic throughout biblical history...even tried it on Jesus.

• Our only hope is the good news that God in Christ has come to redeem us from our obsession with smaller kingdoms and to recreate us into people who "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33).

SOME FAVORITE (and convicting!) QUOTES:

"A man will forget that, as a father, he has been welcomed to the transcendent glory of being part of God's work of forming human souls. Instead he will buy into the replacement glory of career success. More and more, his life will be eaten up and defined by his work. Less and less will his sense of purpose have to do with the formative community that only he can offer his children. Sadly, his children cease to be one of the joyful focuses of his living and become an obligation in an already-too-busy schedule. Less and less do his children know him, respect him, trust him, or feel his love" (page 29).

"The struggle I am describing very often takes place inside the borders of good theology and regular participation in the scheduled programs of the church. It is possible, and maybe even quite regular, to participate in these things and still be settling, in the little moments of my daily existence, for much, much less than the transcendence for which you were created. Things as mundane as wardrobe, menu, schedule, workload, location, traffic, weather, being right, getting affirmed, money, housing, employment, gardens, family rooms, sex, leisure, who's in the bathroom first, who did what with my newspaper, who ate the last of the cereal, etc.--all of all which are important in some way--rise to a spiritually dangerous level of importance in the heat of the moment. These are the moments we live in every day. The normal day is a 24-hour collection of little moments. Day after day, week after week, and year after year, these little moments set the character of a person's life.

When little things become the big thing for which I consistently fight, I have forsaken transcendence for the temporary shadow glories of creation" (pp. 30-31).

A Quest for More: Chapter One

Part Two of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter One: A Quest for More

BIG IDEA:

"There is woven inside each of us a desire for something more--a craving to be part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our relatively meaningless day-to-day existence" (page 14).

BRIEF OUTLINE:

"You were hardwired by your Creator for a glory orientation...We were simply made for glory, but not just the shadow glories of the created world. We were made for the one glory that is transcendent--the glory of God. When you grasp this, your life begins to make a difference" (pp. 18-19).

"Let's consider the glory-focus of Genesis 1 and 2. There are four transcendent glories that were created to be the life-shaping focus of every human being. The first is the glory for which every human being is to live, and the following three are glories that flow from the first" (page 19).

• "God glory...our lives were designed to be shaped more by our attachment to the Creator than by the creation. We were made to experience, to be part of, to be consumed by, and to live in pursuit of the one glory that is truly glorious--the glory of God" (page 19).

• "Stewardship glory...[Adam and Eve] were constructed to do more than take care of themselves; they were called to care for the wide variety of amazing things God had purposefully crafted to be reflectors of his glory...it was a call for Adam and Eve to never shrink the size of their care to care for themselves" (page 20).

• "Community glory...God makes Adam and Eve and immediately calls them to the transcendent glory of a world-reaching, generation-spanning, and history-encompassing community. This commitment to community was meant to be a major shaping focus of their day-to-day living" (page 21).

• "Truth glory...Immediately upon creating Adam and Eve, God did something that he had not done with anything else he made. He spoke to them...God's words contained knowledge of him, the meaning and purpose of life, a moral structure for living, the nature of human identity, a fundamental human job description, a call to human community, and a call to divine worship...Every thought was meant to be shaped by the truth glory that he would patiently and progressively impart to them" (pp. 21-22).

SOME FAVORITE QUOTES:

"I am afraid there are many people of faith who attend church each week, give regularly to God's work, know their Bible pretty well, and don't live overtly evil lives; but they have settled for 'below and less' when they were created for 'above and more.'

The mistake they have made is that they have shrunk their Christianity to the size of their own lives. They have taken God's grace and wisdom as an invitation to a better marriage, a better relationship with their children, a better extended family life, better success at work, etc. And there is a way that God's grace does invite me to all of these things. But here is the point of this little book: God invites you to so much more!" (pp. 17-18)

"It is about living for a greater kingdom than the kingdom of my life, my family, and my job. And where do I live for this greater kingdom? In my life, my family, and my job!" (page 23)

Book Study: A Quest for More

Our church is reading A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp together this summer. Over the coming weeks, I'll post some quotes from and thoughts about the book, so stay tuned. [One way to stay tuned is to subscribe to The Cruciform Life by email. See the right hand side bar of this page.]

Dr. Tripp has made a brief but intriguing video introduction to the book that would be worth your time to watch. You can also read the first chapter for free here.

Here are some comments about the book from Dr. Tripp's website:

Is Christ the center of your life?

Is He really your source, your motive, your goal, and your hope?

Is it possible that your Christianity may, in fact, exclude Christ?

“There really is no place for Christ in many people’s Christianity. Their faith is not actually in Christ; it is in Christianity and their own ability to live it out.”

Paul David Tripp expertly traverses the deepest recesses of the human heart and compassionately invites fellow Christian travelers to journey with him into God’s bigger kingdom. The author promises readers that they will be encouraged, excited, and motivated by hope as they learn how to set aside their “little kingdom” attachments which can expertly masquerade within the church as Christian activism, legalism, emotionalism, formalism, creedalism, and externalism; in favor of God’s expansive and soul-freeing eternal quest.

Tripp demonstrates through sound biblical principles how humanity is made by God to transcend far beyond the mere physical realm and is likewise created to be “glory junkies”—those whose visionary lives are governed by God’s grand purposes rather than existing only within their narrow self-interested confines. Writes the author, “It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence, because you were created to be an ‘above and more’ being. You were made to be transcendent.” Tripp then shows Christians how to “transcend” through daily, moment-by-moment, practical methodology that transforms individuals into the image of Christ.

Bible Overview Daily Readings

Would you like to get an overview of the whole Bible broken down into daily readings?

Each week on the Riverside website I'll post a new Reading Schedule on the front page with 7 daily readings from the Bible. Beginning June 1st we'll start with Genesis and continue with each book of the Bible in order until we finish Revelation. Our goal is to complete the survey by the start of Advent at the end of November.

Please remember that this is a survey. Our daily readings will only skim the surface of the treasures that are available in each book of the Bible. These readings are intended to give you a taste of the Story of God and His people. Hopefully they will whet your appetite for more. Please feel free to read more than the verses and chapters we've listed.

Be sure to check the Riverside website each week for the new Reading Schedule! While you're there, sign up to receive our Prayer Updates via email.

A Cruciform Worldview

In his helpful article "Beyond a Veggie Tales Gospel: Why We Must Preach Christ From Every Text," Russell D. Moore writes:

I have never seen the film, The Sixth Sense, and I doubt I ever will. It's not only because my movie picks don't typically extend to horror pictures (although that's true). It is also because the movie's been ruined for me. Long ago, a friend explained to me the premise of the film. A detective, played by Bruce Willis, investigates a young boy who "sees dead people," ghosts who can only be seen by him. At the end of the move--at least according to my friend--the Bruce Willis character is himself seen to be a "dead person," a ghost, who can only be seen by the troubled little boy. "When you see the movie the second time, you'll notice that Bruce Willis is never seen interacting with anyone of the other characters," my friend said. "He is just shown talking directly to the boy." If I were to see the movie now, I would see the same film that everyone else saw at its release, but I would be seeing it with the mystery decoded. I would notice patterns and themes. I would see where the story was going.

The same is true of the storyline of Scripture. The apostles announce that a great mystery has been revealed in the gospel of Christ Jesus--a mystery that explains the "whys" of everything from the creation itself to the existence of the nation of Israel to the one-flesh union of marriage. What God has been doing in His universe for all these millennia, Paul tells the church at Ephesus is not accidental or haphazard. It is part of a blueprint, a purpose "which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). Paul tells the church at Colossae of Jesus that "all things were created through Him and for Him" and that "in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17).

Every text of Scripture--Old or New Testaments--is thus about Jesus, precisely because, at the end of the day, everything in reality is about Jesus. Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are human beings religious? Why do people want food and water and sex and community? Why are there galaxies and quasars and blue whales and local churches? God is creating all that is for His heir, for the glory of Jesus Christ. When you see through Jesus, you see the interpretive grid through which all of reality makes sense.

What Moore applies to preaching can also be applied to teaching biblical worldview. Those of us who ballyhoo the biblical worldview can come dangerously close to the error of the Pharisees to whom Jesus said "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40). Could He not just as easily say to us "You study the Scriptures so that you might develop a biblical worldview, and it is they that bear witness about Me, the key to interpreting all of reality; yet you fail to see Me in every text and sometimes are willing to build a worldview apart from believing in and becoming like Me"? We want the Bible to shape the way we look at the world, but our view of the Word is too often Christ-less and cross-less. Jesus Christ crucified is the lens through which we truly make sense of God's Word and world (1 Corinthians 1:20-25). With all the talk about biblical worldview, we must remember that our worldview is not biblical unless it is also cruciform.

[HT: Of First Importance]

3 Ways to Understand the Bible

My friend T. M. Moore writes a daily email devotional called Crossfigell in which he includes a quote from a noted Celtic Christian and a related portion of Scripture followed by his brief commentary on them. [Crossfigell means "cross vigil," a Celtic prayer practice in which one would hold out his or her arms in a cruciform position while praying. Legend has it that one Celtic saint prayed in this posture long enough for birds to build a nest in his hand!]

This week T. M. sent a series of 3 devotionals on the topic of interpreting God's Word. I've included the full text of all 3 here, but you really should sign yourself up to receive his rich daily messages. Sign up for Crossfigell at his website, Paruchia (see the menu on the left side).

Understanding Scripture (1)

For Holy Scripture is understood by three methods of approach. The first way of reading it is when it is understood only literally without any figurative purpose, as St. Jerome says, "The Acts of the Apostles seem to me to speak of plain history." - Liber de Ordine Creaturarum, Irish, 7th century

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundrend years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, full convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. - Romans 4.19-21

One mistake people make in reading the Bible is failing to allow it to speak to them with respect to the plain teaching of the historical record. There is much to learn simply from understanding events in their proper setting and time. How shall we lay hold on the promises of God? Paul says, Well, look what Abraham did: He looked past the restraints of his circumstances, gave glory to God for what He had promised and what He could do; thus, he envisioned himself in possession of the promised blessing and took the necessary steps of faith to attain it. There is nothing mystical or allegorical here, just the straightforward lesson from history as to how we, who are the heirs of those same promises, may expect to realize them in our own day. This is the starting point for all right understanding of Scripture: what does the record say, in its plain historical meaning and original historical setting, and what can we learn from observing this example? So don't be too quick to let your response to the Word of God fly to heights of spiritual implication and application. That may be important, as we shall see. Begin by asking, What's happening here, and how can what's happening help to shape my own walk as I take up the example of our forebears in the faith (Rom. 15.4)? Much power and many blessings are to be had by simply taking the Word at face value and bringing its historical lessons into our own walk with the Lord each day.

Understanding Scripture (2)

For Holy Scripture is understood by three methods of approach...The second way is when it is investigated following a figurative understanding without any regard for actual events, as with the first and final parts of Ezekiel, the Song of Songs, and the exposition of certain Gospel parables, which say one thing and represent another. - Liber de Ordine Creaturarum, Irish, 7th century

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. - Song of Solomon, 2.3, 4

It may or may not be possible to identify the historical situation referred to in the Song of Solomon, but it matters very little. There are those who would reduce the Song to a kind of manual of human love. And, while the exchanges between Solomon and his beloved can yield insights into the beauty and wonder of marital love, deeper mysteries seem to be at work here. If we miss these, we miss the point of the Song altogether. Prompted by Paul and John to think of the Church as the Bride of Christ, we find the Song a bright source of illumination into the richness, depth, and fullness of joy that relationship affords. The Song teaches our hearts how to love our heavenly Groom, and creates in us a hunger for a deeper relationship with Christ and a more overwhelming experience of His love. If churches knew this love of Christ and loved Him as much in return, would not their common love for Him inflame them for one another as well, and lead them to overlook the many differences that divide us, so that we might celebrate and encourage one another in seeking greater heights of love for our glorious King and Groom? Let us sit in the shadow of Christ's love, cool and protected against the heat of the secular day, and let us feed on His fruit and grow fat in His spiritual provision, unfurling together and in every situation our banner of love by and for the King Who has saved us!

Understanding Scripture (3)

For Holy Scripture is understood by three methods of approach...The third way is when, retaining the record of historical events, it is understood with a mystical meaning, for instance, Noah's ark, the tabenacle, and the temple were actually built, and through them are traced with understanding the mysteries of the church. -Liber do Ordine Creaturarum, Irish, 7th century

I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. - 1 Corinthians 10.1-5

All that sad history of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness has ongoing spiritual significance for us today. That's Paul's argument in a nutshell when he is trying to get the Corinthians to live in a manner consistent with their profession. The Israelites "tasted" of the Lord, but they did not feed on Him. Just so, many who have been baptized and participate in the life of the church are merely "tasting" of the Lord; they have not truly known Him in a life-changing way. Their baptism, church attendance, even their public profession of faith won't save them if there is no turning away from the idols of the age and the lifestyle of unbelief to follow Christ in the way of self-denial and sacrificial love. "Therefore" Paul continues "let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (v. 12). The stories from Biblical history have important practical lessons to teach us, but they also hold vital spiritual significance, if only we know how to read them. We must read them in the light of Christ, Who is the Focusing Light of all the revelation of God, for in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Our study of God's Word - like our profession of Christian faith - is not complete until we see Jesus in the text, meet and feed on Him there, and are through this encounter transformed into His image by the Spirit of God. Some of the Corinthians were deceiving themselves, for they had not yet come to know Jesus. May the same not be true of us. "Examine yourselves" (2 Cor. 13.5).

Cruciform Listening

A couple of worthwhile thoughts about loving others by listening to them:

To Be Heard and On Being a Hearer

My summary: Cruciform Listening = Loving God and others by listening to God and others


[HT: Altogether Too Much Privacy]

One Another-ing

Over on the Riverside website I've begun a series of articles examining the "one another" passages of the New Testament. The series is intended to explore what it means for the church to practice biblical community by devoting itself to "the fellowship" (Acts 2:42).

Here are the first two installments:

Part One: Love One Another: John 13:34-35

Part Two: Consider One Another: Hebrews 10:24

Book Review: The Jesus Way

The Jesus Way: A Conversation On The Ways That Jesus Is The Way
By Eugene H. Peterson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2007)

In his introduction to The Jesus Way (which in my estimation is worth the price of the book) Eugene Peterson contrasts what he calls the “way of Jesus” with the way of American culture and the way of the American church:

The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal: nothing disembodied, nothing abstract, nothing impersonal. Incarnate, flesh and blood, relational, particular, local.

The ways employed in our North American culture are conspicuously impersonal: programs, organizations, techniques, general guidelines, information detached from place…We cannot use impersonal means to do or say a personal thing—and the gospel is personal or it is nothing…

When it comes to persons, these ways of the world are terribly destructive. They are highly effective in getting ahead in a God-indifferent world, but not in the community of Jesus, not in the kingdom of God…the North American church at present is conspicuous for replacing the Jesus way with the American way (pp. 1-5).

Peterson argues that the American church is enamored with the truth of Jesus but ignores the method by which Jesus embodied that truth. But relational, word-made-flesh, life-on-life discipleship does not sell well in a culture that is steeped in mass production. We have found ways to efficiently mass produce almost everything, why not mass produce disciples? Peterson argues that we have come to exchange the way of Jesus for the way of industry:

If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem-solving, whatever. We are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?...There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus…this is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more…the cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, ‘deny yourself’ congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church (page 6).

The Jesus Way is the third in a series of Peterson’s “conversation” books published by Eerdmans and starts off stomping some of our ecclesiastical toes in the introduction and first chapter before settling into six chapters of what amounts to an Old Testament Bible study. These chapters are rich, albeit long, and are meant to show us that the way of Jesus falls in line with and further illumines the way that God has expected His people to walk throughout history. The final three chapters of the book contrast the way of Jesus with the ways and means of some of His contemporaries. Peterson insightfully explores the answers to three questions:

• Why didn’t Jesus adopt the Donald-Trump-like, bigger-is-better way of Herod or the intense, moral-purist, preserve-God’s-tradition way of the Pharisees?
• Why didn’t Jesus follow the affluent-religious-professional way of Caiaphas or the radical, anti-corrupt-religion ways of the Essenes?
• Why didn’t Jesus buy into the charismatic-celebrity, play-both-sides way of Josephus or the might-makes-right way of the Zealots?

Jesus rejected or just plain ignored all of the popular leadership styles of His day and walked a different path, a path of suffering submission to God that only finds its way in us through the life and language of prayer.

A couple of other thoughts that struck me as I read The Jesus Way:

• I love the rich, colorful way that Peterson writes, but sometimes I think he could be more efficient with his words. Sometimes the middle and latter chapters seemed to drag on. (See, I’m a product of my culture, aren’t I?) In all those words, though, were many nuggets of pure gold wisdom.
• Speaking of nuggets, some of the best thoughts about prayer I’ve read as of late are in the last three chapters of this book.
• This is a nit-picky point, but it caught my attention. After a rather long, but interesting discussion contrasting the non-violent way of Jesus to the violent ways of the Zealots, I was surprised that Peterson never addressed passages like Matthew 11:12 where Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.”
• After beginning with a rant against the programmatic and impersonal American church, the book surprised me with an interesting thought toward the end. Peterson, who sometimes sounds overly sympathetic to those who want to throw off the ritual and regulation of church, said that “without the protection of ritual and doctrine and authority, Christian spirituality is vulnerable to reduction and desecration.” Comparing the organization of the church to the dead bark of a tree and the organism (people and life) of the church to the tree’s inner life, Peterson wisely points out that “while the bark both hides and protects the cambium, it does not create it. The bark is dead. And neither do religious institutions create life….” (page 232).

All in all I commend Peterson’s latest “conversation” to you. Again, if you get the book for no other reason but to read the introduction (and I would add the first chapter), then picking up a copy of The Jesus Way is the way to go.

I Like "Stuff Christians Like"

We Christians must take Jesus and His Word more seriously and ourselves less so. If you ever need a good laugh, especially a good laugh at yourself and at your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, hop on over to Stuff Christians Like. Careful, you may get your toes stepped on!

Some of my favorites include:

#5 Bootleg Cookies

#13 Adding gymns to your church

#47 Rooting for secret Christians on American Idol

#160 The Bait and Switch

There are so many more to highlight...go get a cup of coffee, connect to somebody's free WiFi and read a few!