Matt Chandler has been huge influence in my life toward a passionate love of Jesus and he is going through some really tough stuff at the moment. He had part of a malignant brain tumor removed (but the doctors couldn’t get it all), and no one knows what will come of it at this point. No one wants to say it, but he could die. He could die as a result of the tumor or in surgery or he could die peacfully in his sleep when he’s 83 after a lifetime of passionate service to the gospel.

But no one knows, and a malignant brain tumor is about as serious as it gets.  Through this situation I have cried my tears for me, for him, for his family, and for the church. And I caught myself asking God why. Why would He do this? Why would he take a man who at 35 has done more for the gospel than most people will do in their entire lives?

But that is before I was rebuked by the testimoy of Matt, himself, that he gave in a video before his surgery. I have never seen Christ so honored in the midst of such dire circumstances. If you haven’t seen the video, you really need to: you can watch it at http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=363.

He also posted a blog post on the morning of the surgery that made me weep all day.  You can read it here: http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=357.

The Dallas Morning News did a story on it and I think God was honored through it.

So please, pray for Matt and his family and the church. And pray for me, it is hard on me as well. But more than anything pray that Christ would be honored through all of this and that the gospel would shine brightly.

Christ is all.

I hate looking for a new church. It reminds me of car shopping. I feel like every time I walk into a new church I have to sit through another pitch on why this church is better than the others. This church has bounce houses for kids, and this other one has a coffee shop for young adults, and the third one does hymns to a contemporary beat for the older people.

I know what I’m looking for, but I’m not exactly sure how to explain that to others (but I’ll know it when I see it), but like walking into a Dodge dealership wanting a Ford F150, everyone seems to think that they know what I need better than I do.

The websites and the welcome material are well thought out and flashy (not to mention most of the church buildings themselves), and the people greeters seem ready to pounce on the new family.

I don’t like being the new family. I don’t like my children being sold to either. But more than anything, I don’t need someone to try to sell me glitz, glamour, and good feelings in place of the Gospel.

That can make it hard to perservere, but my faith isn’t in a sinner’s ability to be holy and carry on the fight, but in a God who promises “that he who began a good work in [me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

When it comes to my faith, it is simple. I believe that God sent His Son, Jesus, who is the source of joy and the only Savior who could pull wretched and hopeless human beings out of the wicked and ultimately hell bound journey that they walk. I believe that the church is supposed to show Him to the world and not build kingdoms unto itself nor further fruitless religion. Christians should be guided by love, forgiving those who have wronged them and being just and compassionate toward those who are lost, and firmly proclaim repentance toward those in sin.

My politics are simple as well. I am very conservative. I believe that a government that is big enough to give us everything that we want is big enough to take it all away. I believe that government is greatest when it is out of sight and out of my way.  I believe that America was and is great, but is quickly becoming something that would be unrecognizable to the founders except in comparison to the tyranny from which they fled. Our country is being plundered by people who view it as something that needs to be fixed, and our freedoms as things that need to be taken. I believe that if the current trend toward socialism continues, the America of tomorrow will no longer be great and our children will inherit the heavy hand of tyranny instead of the freedoms that we desire for them.

So what should I/you do? What is our responsibility as Christians in this hour of history? What should we do in the midst of governmental oppression and thievery, and how does it relate to the freedom of Christ and the riches of Heaven? What do we do with healthcare? Gay marriage? Abortion? Taxes? The environment? Energy? Debt?

So many questions. Any ideas? I’ve got plenty, but I know what I think and am more interested to know what you do.

If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don’t watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

John Piper

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I love his story, I think its more like the normal Christian experience than we like to admit.  Most churches look at people like this and judge them, I look at him and see hope. If there is hope for a man who struggles with such weighty issues, then there is hope for a man like me. Thank God for Jesus.

 Visit I Am Second for more stories.

What does it take for people to wander through the wilderness for 40 years seeing God work all kinds of miracles and still in the end rebel against Him? Unbelief. That’s what this passage teaches.

It tells us that no matter how great the miracles that we witness, no matter how great God’s provision is for us, that we have in us a bent toward sin that will take us captive if we let our hearts be hardened by sin. Just as many of the Israelites witnessed God’s continual mercies and still hardened their heats toward him, so do many of us.

Many of us have seen God completely change the lives of people around us, replacing the agony of their lives with the joy of Christ. We have seen Him heal marriages and cure the incurable. We have seen Him change communities and restore families. And yet, we are content to sit on the sidelines and watch Him work in others and never submit our lives to Him and ask Him to do those things in us.

So we wander. Enjoying God’s provision, but grumbling about the way that it differs from what we want or the way we think it should be. And we go after the things that He has warned us to flee from. But because of our unbelief in His sufficiency we replace Him, little bits at a time, with things that feel good and make us feel happy for the moment.

And as we give ourselves to those things our hearts grow harder and harder toward God, and many of us become angry at God because He doesn’t give us the things we want or do for us the things we require. 

But in the end, the only thing that we needed was Him.

It is our unbelief, and the unbelief of others around us, that drives us from Him. And we are admonished to “exhort one another every day… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (v13).” 

May we engage each other, and teach each other of the gretness of God so that our unbelief may not harden our hearts toward Him.