I’ve been trying to read more lately. But, the problem with most of what I have been reading is that most of it is dry and is not engaging. And it is hard for a dry book to keep my attention when there is so much else out there that is begging for it. This, however, is not the case for Vintage Jesus, by Mark Driscoll. So far it has been a great read; challenging my faith and making me laugh at the same time. I have been reading it for the past few nights and came upon a paragraph that I had to share.

Sadly it is too common for churches not to speak of Jesus, which is a tragedy akin to a wife rarely uttering the name of her own husband.  In our day when there are innumerable contradictory beliefs about who God is, Christians must be clear that their God is Jesus Christ alone so as to communicate the same central truth that scripture does.  No matter how many verses are used, the Bible has not been rightly understood or proclaimed unless Jesus is the central focus and hero.

Mark Driscoll
Vintage Jesus, pp. 66

Exactly. I think that Christians in general and many churches (if not most) have such a low view of Jesus and the gospel that we loose the power of our faith for powerless religion. I wish all Christian leaders had the same attitude that is extolled in this paragraph (and in the book as a whole), about their savior.

I would highly recommend that all Christians read this book, it would give us all a much better understanding of our hero. You can buy a copy of the book at amazon.com.

What would you do if you found a treasure so valuable that the loss of everything else to gain it would be gladly accepted? Wouldn’t you live your life in such a way that everything you did, and thought about would be centered around that treasure? Wouldn’t it cause you do do crazy things to gain it and to show it off once it was gained? I think so. And it’s my belief that that treasure which is more valuable, more life giving and sustaining, and more worthy of all of our dreams and affections is none other than Jesus Christ.

I think the issue with so many people, including many Christians that I know (and myself from time to time), is that they can get so caught up in the great things that God has done and the things that He has created, and their affections end up terminating on those things. And when they end there it makes it really difficult to see the treasure of who He is because they are blinded by what He made.
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Man, John Piper has just been on a roll lately. This video is a promotional video for a conference that is being held soon, that I wish I had had the money to go to, but didn’t (maybe next time). Matt Chandler also has a video that is pretty closely related to this current one.

I am becoming more and more convinced of the importance of good Bible teaching in the lives of Christians. I think without good Bible teaching Christians can never fully understand who Jesus is and why they should live for Him.

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Lately, I have been arguing with different people about the importance of the bible. Some of them see it as nothing more than a rule book which breads legalism, while others see it as something that isn’t necessary as long as there are leaders like Bono to show us what to do. Needless to say, but I will anyway, I totally disagree with both of those views.

The Bible is there above everything else to point us to and to teach us about our great king. It is not a rule book in which we attain salvation, but a book pointing to our salvation in Christ. But, it would be a great mistake to assume, that it isn’t of great value. It is the authoritative declaration of God about God. It is in Him that we have hope salvation, and it is in the pages of His book that we learn about Him. And so it is extremely important, for from these pages we learn about our King.

So, in saying that, I would encourage you to watch this video from a conference that the Resurgence is putting on called Text and Context, from Matt Chandler (pastor of the Village Church). It’s less than four minutes, but it does summarize my views on the matter as well. After you watch it, I would be interested to hear your opinions on the matter.

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I guess it’s finally time I said this. Of all of the worship choruses that I sing or intimate prayers that I pray, or all of the time I spend personally with the Savior of the World, I must not love Him. No matter how deeply I understand and thrive on the love and grace of Christ, and no matter how much I think I know and love Him, I must be wrong. Over and over, no matter what I put first in my life or how I live it, I am told that my faith in Jesus is not enough. I’m told over and over that I really don’t love Jesus the way that He wants me to. And this comes not from teachers or preachers, theologians or psychologists, but from some random guy or gal through email.
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This morning I got an email from the Desiring God mailing list about hearing the voice of God.  I wanted to pass this on to you and ask you to be patient and read the whole thing, becuase there is a great point to be made.  If you’re like me half way through it you will be a little confused by what he is saying, but I promise that if you read the whole thing it will make some sense.  Please also let me know what you think.

The Morning I Heard the Voice of God
March 21, 2007
By John Piper

Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock. God actually spoke to me. There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words were in English, but they had about them an absolutely self-authenticating ring of truth. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks today.

I couldn’t sleep for some reason. I was at Shalom House in northern Minnesota on a staff couples’ retreat. It was about five thirty in the morning. I lay there wondering if I should get up or wait till I got sleepy again. In his mercy, God moved me out of bed. It was mostly dark, but I managed to find my clothing, got dressed, grabbed my briefcase, and slipped out of the room without waking up Noël. In the main room below, it was totally quiet. No one else seemed to be up. So I sat down on a couch in the corner to pray.

As I prayed and mused, suddenly it happened. God said, “Come and see what I have done.” There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that these were the very words of God. In this very moment. At this very place in the twenty-first century, 2007, God was speaking to me with absolute authority and self-evidencing reality. I paused to let this sink in. There was a sweetness about it. Time seemed to matter little. God was near. He had me in his sights. He had something to say to me. When God draws near, hurry ceases. Time slows down.

I wondered what he meant by “come and see.” Would he take me somewhere, like he did Paul into heaven to see what can’t be spoken? Did “see” mean that I would have a vision of some great deed of God that no one has seen? I am not sure how much time elapsed between God’s initial word, “Come and see what I have done,” and his next words. It doesn’t matter. I was being enveloped in the love of his personal communication. The God of the universe was speaking to me.

Then he said, as clearly as any words have ever come into my mind, “I am awesome in my deeds toward the children of man.” My heart leaped up, “Yes, Lord! You are awesome in your deeds. Yes, to all men whether they see it or not. Yes! Now what will you show me?”

The words came again. Just as clear as before, but increasingly specific: “I turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There they rejoiced in me—who rules by my might forever.” Suddenly I realized God was taking me back several thousand years to the time when he dried up the Red Sea and the Jordan River. I was being transported by his word back into history to those great deeds. This is what he meant by “come and see.” He was transporting me back by his words to those two glorious deeds before the children of men. These were the “awesome deeds” he referred to. God himself was narrating the mighty works of God. He was doing it for me. He was doing it with words that were resounding in my own mind.

There settled over me a wonderful reverence. A palpable peace came down. This was a holy moment and a holy corner of the world in northern Minnesota. God Almighty had come down and was giving me the stillness and the openness and the willingness to hear his very voice. As I marveled at his power to dry the sea and the river, he spoke again. “I keep watch over the nations—let not the rebellious exalt themselves.”

This was breathtaking. It was very serious. It was almost a rebuke. At least a warning. He may as well have taken me by the collar of my shirt, lifted me off the ground with one hand, and said, with an incomparable mixture of fierceness and love, “Never, never, never exalt yourself. Never rebel against me.”

I sat staring at nothing. My mind was full of the global glory of God. “I keep watch over the nations.” He had said this to me. It was not just that he had said it. Yes, that is glorious. But he had said this to me. The very words of God were in my head. They were there in my head just as much as the words that I am writing at this moment are in my head. They were heard as clearly as if at this moment I recalled that my wife said, “Come down for supper whenever you are ready.” I know those are the words of my wife. And I know these are the words of God.

Think of it. Marvel at this. Stand in awe of this. The God who keeps watch over the nations, like some people keep watch over cattle or stock markets or construction sites—this God still speaks in the twenty-first century. I heard his very words. He spoke personally to me.

What effect did this have on me? It filled me with a fresh sense of God’s reality. It assured me more deeply that he acts in history and in our time. It strengthened my faith that he is for me and cares about me and will use his global power to watch over me. Why else would he come and tell me these things?

It has increased my love for the Bible as God’s very word, because it was through the Bible that I heard these divine words, and through the Bible I have experiences like this almost every day. The very God of the universe speaks on every page into my mind—and your mind. We hear his very words. God himself has multiplied his wondrous deeds and thoughts toward us; none can compare with him! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told (

Psalm 40:5

5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told. (ESV)

).

And best of all, they are available to all. If you would like to hear the very same words I heard on the couch in northern Minnesota, read

Psalm 66:5-7

5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah (ESV)

. That is where I heard them. O how precious is the Bible. It is the very word of God. In it God speaks in the twenty-first century. This is the very voice of God. By this voice, he speaks with absolute truth and personal force. By this voice, he reveals his all-surpassing beauty. By this voice, he reveals the deepest secrets of our hearts. No voice anywhere anytime can reach as deep or lift as high or carry as far as the voice of God that we hear in the Bible.

It is a great wonder that God still speaks today through the Bible with greater force and greater glory and greater assurance and greater sweetness and greater hope and greater guidance and greater transforming power and greater Christ-exalting truth than can be heard through any voice in any human soul on the planet from outside the Bible.

This is why I found the article in this month’s Christianity Today, “My Conversation with God,” so sad. Written by an anonymous professor at a “well-known Christian University,” it tells of his experience of hearing God. What God said was that he must give all his royalties from a new book toward the tuition of a needy student. What makes me sad about the article is not that it isn’t true or didn’t happen. What’s sad is that it really does give the impression that extra-biblical communication with God is surpassingly wonderful and faith-deepening. All the while, the supremely-glorious communication of the living God which personally and powerfully and transformingly explodes in the receptive heart through the Bible everyday is passed over in silence.

I am sure this professor of theology did not mean it this way, but what he actually said was, “For years I’ve taught that God still speaks, but I couldn’t testify to it personally. I can only do so now anonymously, for reasons I hope will be clear” (emphasis added). Surely he does not mean what he seems to imply—that only when one hears an extra-biblical voice like, “The money is not yours,” can you testify personally that God still speaks. Surely he does not mean to belittle the voice of God in the Bible which speaks this very day with power and truth and wisdom and glory and joy and hope and wonder and helpfulness ten thousand times more decisively than anything we can hear outside the Bible.

I grieve at what is being communicated here. The great need of our time is for people to experience the living reality of God by hearing his word personally and transformingly in Scripture. Something is incredibly wrong when the words we hear outside Scripture are more powerful and more affecting to us than the inspired word of God. Let us cry with the psalmist, “Incline my heart to your word” (

Psalm 119:36

36 Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain! (ESV)

). “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (

Psalm 119:18

18 Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law. (ESV)

). Grant that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know our hope and our inheritance and the love of Christ that passes knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God (

Ephesians 1:18

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

Ephesians 1:18

19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (ESV)

). O God, don’t let us be so deaf to your word and so unaffected with its ineffable, evidential excellency that we celebrate lesser things as more thrilling, and even consider this misplacement of amazement worthy of printing in a national magazine.

Still hearing his voice in the Bible,

Pastor John

What do you think about all of this?  Please leave a comment.

Alina and I have joined a new church in our area in the past few weeks and are very excited about the work that God is doing among them, and in us. The church is an extension of an already established church in the area; First Baptist McKinney (www.fbc-mckinney.org). The one that we have joined is their newly planted north campus: First McKinney North (www.fmnorth.com). Alina and I are very excited to be involved with a Truth teaching God worshiping church of people who are not ashamed of what they believe.

Talking with some people about our joining this church has brought some unnecessary yet expected criticisms. My aim here is show that the criticism is unwarranted and un-biblical. The problem that some see with this church is that it is a satellite church. The pastor is not in the room preaching, and in fact is a recording of a message that he had given earlier that same morning at the main campus. The complaint I heard goes something like this “the bible says that the pastor has to be in the same room preaching [or else it doesn't count]”.

Let me just say right up front that the Bible does not say that, and in fact it shows something quite the opposite. If it were true that a man had to bring the message of Christ or else the message was void, I would want nothing of this gospel. Think about it, if the message of Christ were only as powerful as the man who brought it, it would be worthless. No matter how good a man can be, he cannot be perfect, and because of that, his message cannot be perfect. The purpose of the preacher is not to bring an inspiring message from his own wisdom, but to bring the truth of God. A pastor should not be standing on the platform telling us what he thinks, but rather what God says. The preacher is just the messenger. And it is the message that saves. The messenger isn’t what is sacred, but rather the message.

says that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Notice that it is the message of Christ that saves not the message of the preacher.

The problem with this understanding of the gospel is that it limits the power of God’s word and His Holy Spirit for salvation. This belief suggests that God’s word could not sustain itself without man. And that it is man who saves man, not God who saves man. Paul says in

that “1Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Notice that Paul says “the gospel which i preached… by which also you are saved.” It is the gospel that saves, not the preaching of it.

Yes, it is our duty as Christians to: (

) “19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” But, nowhere does the Bible teach that the message is so week that it can only be sustained by the direct word of mouth. In fact the opposite is true.

says that “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” We are the jars of clay, the message of Christ is the treasure. We must understand that this treause of the gospel is more glorious than these jars of clay, that can crack and break. The gospel can not crack and break and turn to dust over time, but we will. The message is bigger than us and more glorious than we can contain, this just proves that it is the power of God who gives life (saves) and not us, who are frail and could break at any time. In

Paul says “I planted [the seeds of the gospel], Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”

Compared to the glory of God and His message of salvation, we are nothing. Our duty as Christians is to get the message out; to shout it from the mountaintops and to hold our light up for all to see. We must reach the world in any way possible. We must use tapes, cds, books, magazines, the Internet, television, and yes, even satellite transmissions to get this message out. If we were to say that a pastor had to be in the room for the message to count, it would put more emphasis on the messenger rather than the message. And if the word of God only counted when it was brought by someone standing in the same room, it would invalidate all of the theologians and biblical scholars that have come before us. We would have to throw away any cds or tapes that had preaching (or worship for that matter as you obviously could not worship personally today with a recording of an event that happened years ago). This belief would even invalidate the very truth of the bible. The Bible was written many years ago, and if the only way the word of God counted was to be given by a pastor in our midst, the bible would be worthless, after all none of us has ever met the apostle Paul, let alone heard him preach.

Hearing the word of God being preached from a man standing in the same room does not make the gospel any more true than reading the bible by yourself in a quite room does. The gospel is always true, not matter how it is brought, or who brings it, because God is always true. God’s message does not depend on man’s preaching. The message will be just as true if I’m sitting in the main campus watching the pastor as he preaches live, or sitting in the north campus watching a recording of the pastor. The message is still true.

I pray that God would use Alina and I to help get the message out.