Well... It's almost 10 and I'm still packing for a month of the super crazy sports camp that is Kanakuk. I'm looking forward to an exciting time of growth and opportunities to make a difference in the lives of a few of these guys. So pray for me, because I can only do so by the grace of God!!!
I'll be back in a month... for a day... then I'm off again!!! Crazy summer. Hopefully I'll remember to post a few of my thoughts when I get back!!
Social justice is a topic I've been pondering a lot recently. So often we hear the gospel getting confused with giving your money to the poor or feeding the hungry. My first reaction to people who mention the poor and such has been rather judgmental in that I instantly accuse them in my mind of compromising the gospel, which most certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with your quality of life right now, and everything to do with being reconciled to God through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:9).
However, don't we also see that true religion is to visit orphans and widows (James 1:27) and that we should remember those who are in prison as though ourselves in prison (Heb 13:3)? The gospel is not supposed to save us and then disappear. It saves us and sanctifies us! This is manifested in concrete and purposeful acts of goodness and kindness toward other people, whether they are Christian or non-Christian.
What I am about to offer is just a small step in accomplishing this task. I wanted to let my readership know about a new search engine that I've been using for a little while now called GoodSearch. Every time you do an internet search with it, about 1 cent goes to the charity of your choice. I have chosen Prison Fellowship (as they were the ones to let me know about this in the first place) and thus far we have raised $600 for it since the start of 2007. Prison Fellowship is a prison reform ministry dedicated to giving the gospel to inmates and redeeming lost lives. They are also quite successful at reducing the recidivism rate of prisoners who graduate their program.
You may choose any charity on the list of which there are currently 34,000 and 100 joining daily. This site is powered by Yahoo! so the search result quality is not going to be diminished or anything like that.
The Word is clear that we are to help those in need. This is a great way to do that, while also supporting the spread of the gospel message (should you choose a ministry that does this). The spread of the gospel message should always be our #1 priority, because Christ commanded we do it, and because Hell is not made more pleasant by a full stomach and stable income. If anyone can come up with a good reason NOT to use this search engine, do let me know, because I certainly can't find any.
Happy searching.
By far the highlight of my year thus far (and for a long time to come, I’m sure!) is the Resolved conference which I had the privilege to attend this year with 13 other people from Christian fellowships on campus. It was an awesome experience hearing the word of God (Ps 119:103) and letting it do its work in my heart (Heb 4:12).
The theme this year was "the gospel." I ask you: could there be a better theme?! I was pumped to hear the central message of Christianity spoken of by such knowledgeable men of the faith. And I was not disappointed in the least (Is. 55:11). I figured at the very least it would help me articulate the message to other people, but the sermons dug deep into my heart and probed depths of the magnificence of the gospel that I never could have dreamed of knowing. If I had to pick a favorite sermon, it would be CJ Mahaney's exposition of Isaiah 53. The line that rings in my head over and over again is: "Heaven doesn't get over the cross!" If you can set aside the cross as a nice little thing that God did for us way back when, you do not appreciate the absolutely astounding nature of Christ's sacrifice. I will definitely be looking forward to the audio recordings of these sermons as they get posted on the Internet.
In all there were 9 sermons and 1 panel discussion, for a total of 12-15 hours of biblical expository preaching. We heard from CJ Mahaney, John MacArthur, John Piper, Rick Holland, and Steve Lawson. We heard about the accomplishments of the gospel (Rom 5:6-11), the supremacy of Christ (Heb 1:1-4), the shamefulness of the message (1 Cor 1-2), atonement and justification (Luke 18:9-14), the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:1-6,10), the cost of discipleship (Luke 14:25-35), God is the Gospel (Habakkuk 3:17-18, and others), humility (1 Cor 4:6-13), and the relationship between missions and God’s glory (Rom 11:36, and others). As I have said already, these were all heart-wrenching sermons, and well worth the time to travel down and listen to them.
I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year, but after that conference, I felt compelled to resolve to do something! CJ Mahaney counseled us to focus on maybe 2 or 3 things to take away from the conference and focus, meditate, and work on as we come back to life as it is normally presented to us. These are three resolutions I determined to do follow, and I would appreciate everyone’s accountability in all these things.
1) Resolved, to cultivate within myself a spirit of humility and slay the spirit of pride.
2) Resolved, to adjust my mindset continually to be focused on the person of Christ and His atoning work finished at Calvary.
3) Resolved, to daily meditate on the Word of God not merely as an apologetic but exercise, but as the result of a personal and meaningful relationship between a slave and his Master, the saved and his Savior.
Again, I had a wonderful time there, almost beyond description. It isn’t often that you get together with 3000 Reformed (college aged) brothers and sisters and listen to five godly men who are dedicated to proclaiming the sovereignty of God and the truth of the Word. It was a wild ride indeed, and I highly recommend it! Resolved is coming back next year as well to Palm Springs in mid June. That is right when the quarter system schools get out, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to do schoolwork. The theme will be heaven and hell. Speaking of heaven, I got a book by that name at the bookstore that they had for us down there. It’s by Randy Alcorn, and it looks really good so far, so maybe I’ll let you guys in on a book review when I’m done! Thanks for hanging in there and being faithful to wait for my not-so-frequent blog updates, all. Until next time.
