Grace Toronto Church » From Dan

Fall Reading recommendation: How People Change

Dan — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:15:55 +0000

I am reading, and enjoying, the book How People Change, by Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane. I know of no book that better or more practically describes how to grow spiritually, through the power and freedom of the gospel, than this one. A great companion to our study of Ephesians this fall.

He’s My King

Dan — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:18:27 +0000

When I was a young Christian, I came across this little soliloquy by Dr S.M. Lockridge. I lost the tape, but recently found it online, with cheesy graphics, on YouTube. Ignore the graphics and enjoy a little Jesus today. Here is the link:

Do you know Him?

Dan

When God Seems Gone

Dan — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:58:10 +0000

I just preached on the topic of when God seems gone. It is a deeply personal topic for me, since Sue and I have experienced a fair bit of loss and tragedy this summer. So many of my friends and church have asked; how are you doing? Really? We are doing very well. We have felt and seen the Lord working through all of these tragedies and brokenness, and we have seen glimmers of the triumph of grace that God is weaving into history. Most importantly, He has graciously opened our eyes to His tender love and care for us in deep ways that are hard to express and yet impossible to ignore. He is near, and we have known it in incontrovertible ways.

God has grown larger and more seemingly close to us as these tragedies have unveiled the reality of our vulnerability and need for him at all times. These trials have actually shone a light on real reality. Reality is that God is supreme; that His purposes cannot be stopped, and that His love is powerful enough to carry us through the fiercest storms. God’s sovereignty may occasionally be a troubling doctrine to some, but to those whose lives are tossed on the waves of a rough sea, it is the most comforting and beautiful truth.

Remembering my dad

Dan — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:52:12 +0000

Most of you know now that my dad died last week. We had the funeral service this past Thursday, July 8. Dad died of Alzheimer’s disease, having lost an almost decade long battle to this horrible affliction.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and letters and emails and support during this difficult time. It has been a tough week. My family loved our dad. We miss his fierce love of life, humour, hospitality and love for us.

Thank you for praying; we have felt lifted up and carried this week. The funeral service was very meaningful; I was privileged to give a little message reflecting on my father and the gospel. I enclose it here as a way of honouring my Dad, and the Lord who made him and, I hope, has now remade him.

I loved my father. He was a force of nature, fierce in all his ways, fierce in his loves, fierce in his hates; fierce in his opinions and fierce in his faith.

One of my father’s favorite things to do was read. An extremely literate man, his favorite poet was Dylan Thomas. One of Dylan’s most famous poems, of course, is called Do Not Go Gentle. I thought of it this week while I watched my father breathe his final few days of breaths. It describes Dylan’s emotions as he watched his father slowly slip off to death on his bed.

The first, and the last lines of the poem are these:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight  
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,  
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
 Do not go gentle into that good night.  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

My father raged against the dying of the light. He hated death. He hated his disease with the fierceness of his being. And in his fierceness, he was surely right. Death is an enemy; in Christian terms, death is one of the last great enemies, a great shadow and affliction, a curse brought upon humanity by our own pride and self-dependent thirst for control: control of our own lives, our own desires. Death, then, is the result of our rebellion against God; against trusting God with our lives, our loves, our being, our destiny, our happiness.

My father understood rebellion. He loved rebels. From early on, I realized that my father resonated with the sinners, not the saints, in all the TV shows and movies we watched. And that is, I think, because he understood at a gut level that he was a rebel in his heart. We are all rebels; all rebels struggling to throw off any authority that might keep us from running our own lives. Even God. My father had a deep sense of God, of God’s holiness, of God’s justice. My father was a bit more of an Old Testament Christian, if you know what I mean. He saw God in all of His power and terrifying purity. And my father knew himself to be a rebel.

Indeed, the New Testament says that we are all rebels; all seeking our own way; all running from God in our natural state. The apostle Paul was like Dad; proud, strong, intellectual, well-trained.

The interesting thing is that the apostle Paul was a very religious man. He was a rabbi. But he realized a signal truth; that you can run from God by being religious or moral just as easily as you can run from God by being irreligious or immoral.

Indeed, Paul came to realize that he too was the chief of sinners- the chief of rebels against God. He wrote: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And so here we are; rebels all, sinners all, guilty before God – all. Yet hating the consequences of our self-dependent rebellion – hating the decay and death that we have brought upon humanity.

And so we are trapped. There seems no way through death, no way to re-make and repair the damage done when we rebelled.

But my father, I think, knew there was a way. My father raised us as his children to believe that a way had been made to conquer death. Indeed, the apostle Paul, who once feared and hated death, was able to say ‘o death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’

Paul, too, had found a way through death- a way my father clung to, I think, to his dying day. He found a way through the mercy of a God who loves rebels, like you and me. That way is through Jesus Christ, who came to undo all of the consequences of sin – not by simply ignoring our rebellion, but by paying the price of divine justice for our sin.

Jesus came to rescue rebels. He gave His life for rebels. He loved rebels even to the end. And he died to rescue us, rebels against God’s rule and way, from the consequences of our sin and rebellion.

Jesus Christ, God’s divine son, became a human being to conquer death. He lived a pure, sinless, perfect human life. He lived the kind of life we cannot live. We would be both attracted by him- and intimidated by him. His goodness would melt us – and yet his goodness would scare us, because it would reveal the selfishness of our own hearts – the selfishness that alienates us from a perfect God of love, and that will separate us from that God forever, for eternity, if we do not get it dealt with.

Jesus lived a life that pleased his heavenly father. And then he gave his life as a substitute for us. On the cross, He paid the penalty of divine justice that you and I deserve to pay.

Galatians Paul said: he became a curse for us.
Corinthian church: He made Jesus who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Roman church:
3 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith

My Father helped me in my journey of faith. My dad and I had a difficult relationship; we were too alike. Dad’s method of showing love and my ability to receive love were vastly different. I felt alienated at times from the man whose love and acceptance and approval I desired most. I mourned not sensing, not feeling that for much of my life. Yet now I rejoice over it. My dad taught me what it feels like to be alienated from your father; he taught me the emptiness and pain of longing. And in that longing he prepared me to see that I was alienated from my heavenly Father; that I was separated by my own stubborn heart. It was my earthly father who helped spur my realization that I needed to be reconciled to God.

On the last day I remember having a real conversation with my father, we were heading to a restaurant for lunch. He was frustrated with his disease, knowing where it was going. I talked ot him openly about my faith, and quoted a famous quote from Jesus. Jesus was talking about life andsaying:
death and the afterlife. People were wondering if we all go to a better place, or how it works. And jesus clarified with a simple truth: He said:

I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in me, though he dies, he will live forever.

That means that there is a better place – but it is bound up in Jesus. Of all the religious leaders who have ever walked the earth, Jesus is the only one to have conquered death- his resurrection is a matter of historical record. All the other teachers and leaders are dead; Jesus alone conquered death.

And in his resurrection, Jesus promised that anyone who believed in him would experience the same resurrection, the same conquering of death. There is a better place – but only for those who have faith in Jesus. era

So I quoted this verse to my father – and said: ‘Dad, what do you think of that saying by Jesus? That if we have faith in him, we can have eternal life?

He turned to me – Dad was pretty private about his faith – but in this last day, he turned to me and said: son, I am counting on it.’

That is what faith is. Counting on it. That is the fierce faith of my father. That is the one sure way to eternal life; counting on Jesus Christ to save us from the horror of death and the terror of eternal justice.

If Dad could be here today, back from the grave, having met Jesus, this is what he would say to us; count on it.

On the last day of his life, my father slep…all day. He never awoke. His breathing started laboured, but became more peaceful as the day wore on. When he died he seemed at rest, at peace. He died gently; in contrast to his favorite poet’s words, my dad went gently into that good night. I believe he did, because by counting on what Jesus had done, he ad in faith come to a place where death is no longer the dying of the light, but the beginning of the light of eternal life in Christ. Death loses it’s sting, death is dethroned, defanged, defeated. death is transformed from a destination we fear – to a doorway; a doorway into the arms of God.

Jesus said: I am the door; if anyone enters by me, they will be saved.
Jesus also said: I am the Good shepherd, I lay down my life for my sheep. We heard the 23rd Psalm read, which says the Lord is my shepherd. Well, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who allows us to pass through the valley of the shadow of death with joy, not fear.

Thank you for being here to honour my father in life and in death. May you honour the One who brings life from death. Let us pray.

Continuing the Conversation: He is sovereign over all

Dan — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:56:08 +0000

This past Sunday we had a bracing conversation about the topic of God being sovereign. This profound topic always provokes deep emotions from all of us. So, we thought we would give ourselves a chance to extend the conversation online.

Let me recap: God is lord of all- He is lord of history, He is lord of creation, and he is Lord of his people. Here are some snapshots from this Sunday’s message to rekindle our memories:

The Christian understanding of this world is this: It is not as arbitrary as it appears, though it is as broken and fickle as it appears. There is a God who has made this world, who is governing this world for his good purposes, and who will re-make this world for His glory and our good. He has, for a time, allowed our human independence to not only corrupt our moral and physical existence, but that of the natural world as well. But God is in control of the world. In fact, He is sovereignly in control of everything.

1. He is in control of His people

God did not choose all of the nations of the earth to be His people in the same way as He chose Israel. He did not reveal Himself to all the nations in the same way he did with Israel…. and the same dynamic is at work in the New Testament.

In the New Testament the people of God are all of those who believe in Jesus and who become spiritually united to Him. But who has faith in Jesus? The New Testament’s answer is; all of those whom God chose, out of the magnitude of his grace and love, to set his saving adopting love upon.
Lest we be confused at this point, let me make it clear: everyone who is a Christian is a Christian because God chose them. Not the other way around. You may think you chose God, but you did not. He chose you first, and then empowered you to choose Him, to desire him, to love him, to believe in him.

Let me quote Jesus on this:
1. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide (15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328369133_1439', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 15: 16)
2. 6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328369133_6074', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 6: 44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Some people balk at this idea – but we need to examine why we are so resistant. Some of us fear being taken advantage of; some of us fear losing our independence; some of us hate the idea of suffering and cannot imagine God allowing it. All of these different lenses offer glimpses into the kind of God we would want: a just God who deals with oppression; a compassionate God who cares about suffering; a gentle God who does not abuse his power. And this is precisely the God who the gospel describes; sovereign, yet gracious, gentle, yet not willing to overlook injustice and wrong.

OK, that is enough to get the ball rolling; let’s talk!

Why God is supreme, not us

Dan — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:31:01 +0000

I am late to get to bed on Saturday night. But there is a reason. God’s supremacy is starting to infect my soul. About time, too.

My soul was made to be filled with something infinite. My soul was fashioned to be thrilled with something incandescent and pure, perfect and sublime. My heart is not satisfied until it gazes in wonder at pure Glory. And that is to say, my soul is made for God. God alone can fill me; God alone can satisfy me.

And when God us supreme, the right Person is at the center. Not only is glory unfurled, but Order is finally achieved; the supreme things are supreme.
I am too tired to say this well, so I will return to it later this week. But when God is at the centre of the universe, of my life, then everything works. My hunger for significance is swallowed up in wonder at HIs Significance. My thirst for glory is quenched by gazing at His, and knowing that He knows me. Wow.

More later.

Gospel mercy v cultural mercy

Dan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:55:33 +0000

This last month we have been thinking about what we value most as a church. Three of our core values are: missional, merciful, prayerful. And I have been thinking about how these three values are inextricable fruits of the gospel.

While reflecting on mercy, it occurred to me that gospel mercy is much different from every other kind of mercy I have encountered in our culture. Gospel mercy springs from the free grace of God to sin-soaked, enslaved rebels and traitors. And it completely changes how we understand mercy. Let me explain why.

In our culture, mercy is the right thing to do; indeed the culturally ‘hip’ thing to do. It is therefore done for two reasons, both flowing out of this cultural perspective. First, it is done out of duty. Second, it is done to feel good about ourselves, because we have done the ‘right thing.’ Take a look at all the publicly funded, publicly trumpeted charitable walks, races and ribbons and you will see this perspective all over the place.

Two results flow from the culture’s attitude. The first result is a subtle self- righteousness; we think we are pretty good when we do mercy. The second result is a subtle superiority over the person we are offering mercy toward. We are there for ‘their good.’ What we are really saying is that we are their good. ‘We’ are not ‘them’; we are better than them.

Do you see what lies at the heart of this mercy impulse? Selfishness; it is about us at the end of the day. We are dutiful, or we are good, or we are progressive and enlightened. It slides into being about us. And it divides us subtly, but surely, from those whom we would give mercy to.

That is why, when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, he deliberately included two people who should have helped the robbed, beaten, half- dead jewish man on the Jericho Road. Jesus had both a Levite and a priest – the two classes of people in Jewish society tasked with helping to care for the poor- walk right by the beaten man. They were Jews; he was jewish. They were one with him – but they passed right on by; why?

Because when push comes to shove, when giving mercy becomes dangerous or inconvenient, duty is not enough. It does not give us enough motivation to give mercy – not when our life might be at risk – and in the case of the beaten man, the danger implicit in helping him on a dangerous road were higher than the benefits of feeling good about ourselves.

But in the gospel, mercy is much, much different. Mercy is what a loving God did to us. Mercy is what the holy God, who was under no obligation to help us, did for us. God came all the way down to us; to that beaten man on the road – because that beaten man was us, and is us. We are beaten, beaten and robbed by our sin, our selfishness, our rebellion. We are near death – spiritual death, because of our own choices. And God, like the Samaritan man seeing a hated Jewish stranger on the road, had no natural obligation, outside His own pure love and grace, to render any help at all.

Gospel mercy sees that beaten man on the road and says; ‘that is, really, me.’ Gospel mercy does not pity the broken, but identifies with the broken. Gospel mercy sees me in that addict strung out on the bench; gospel mercy sees me in that homeless shelter.

But gospel mercy goes even deeper. In the gospel, God did not just pick us up off the road and help us, as the Samaritan did for the poor beaten Jewish man. he exchanged places with him, took the beating for him- indeed, died on his behalf, for his healing!!!

So that broken man on the side of the road isn’t just , in some very real way, identified with me- he is also, in a very, very real way – identified with Jesus. That is Jesus i feed when I feed him; that is Jesus I warm when I give her a blanket.

That is mercy without self-righteousness; mercy without duty, mercy without reserve or qualification, mercy that will go the distance and brave the danger and bind up the brokenhearted and do whatever it takes to love my neighbor.

That is the mercy God showed me in His Son. That is the mercy in the gospel I believe and preach. That is the mercy in the gospel I am called to live and incarnate. The gospel of the free grace of God is the gospel of the radical mercy of God. They cannot be separated. May God unite them in my heart and my life today.

Reading through the Bible in a year

Dan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:57:16 +0000

I am trying to read through the Bible in a year. I do this about every second year, and I always find it both rewarding and challenging. The sheer breadth of issues covered by the scriptures always surprises me when I do this, and the wisdom and literary beauty of the scriptures puts me in awe.

But I always feel like I need to race through to keep up. Not sure how to balance these things, but still it is worth it.

Merciful is Missional – and vice versa.

Dan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:57:58 +0000

There is a small brouhaha in the corner of the blog world that I occasionally surf over the precise relationship between being merciful and being missional. There is some reason for it; the word ‘missional’ has so many meanings today that it probably means milkshake to someone out there.

But really. The Lord jesus said clearly that we are called to ‘go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…’ (And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328369133_4791', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Matthew 28:18- 20). We are called to proclaim the gospel in word; ‘you shall receive power when the Holy spirit is upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

“‘May his camp become desolate,
and let there be no one to dwell in it’;

and

“‘Let another take his office.’

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328369133_7578', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Acts 1:8-9).’

He also said we are to show our discipleship following of him by showing mercy and doing justice: see His clear teaching here.

So when respected Christian leaders say that an emphasis upon social justice may lead to theological slippage, they are, I think, getting the cart before the horse. It is true that historically, some churches and denominations departed from biblical orthodoxy in the early 20th century, retaining only a strong biblical sense of social justice. In response, orthodox evangelical churches grew wary of both the doctrinal departure of many mainline churches, and of the social justice that they emphasized. The first wariness is healthy, wise and necessary. But the second wariness – of embracing social justice – needs to end. Now.

Mercy is not an option. Mercy is a reflection of the gospel of God who had mercy upon poor, miserable, sin-addicted self-destructive slaves – you and me. The gospel is all about mercy. Jesus showed spiritual mercy, physical mercy, social mercy, relational mercy in His ministry; he foreshadowed the new Creation He will one day bring in.

And, by the way, mercy is missional. Mercy puts credibility to the message in a way that almost nothing else does. Mercy makes the gospel real, shows it’s transforming power, and validates the reality of the Spirit to a skeptical world. In the words of a Vancouver church planter: ‘mercy may be our final apologetic.’

Mercy, then, is embedded within the gospel. Let us learn to love justice, to do mercy, and to preach the grace of God in Christ contagiously and consistently.

What I’m Reading

Dan — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:32:30 +0000

Nice to get back to some reading again. Here is a short list of books I am reading, and why:
1. The History of the Jews; Paul johnson. I am and have always been intrigued by their history.

2. Knowing God, J.I. Packer. A classic that changed my life and thinking decades ago, now nourishing my soul again.

3. The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges. Another classic and a prophetic book for our time. The church needs to recover her sense of God’s call to ‘be holy, as I am holy.’

4. John Adams, by McCullough. A great biography of an inspiring man.

5. Crazy for God: Frank Schaeffer. The son of the great Christian thinker and apologist Francis Schaeffer, on his journey of faith and life. A raw, honest memoir, occasionally a bit rough on his parents, but roughest on himself.