Good.

This was posted on the 9Marks blog today, and I would like to share it with you.

April 04, 2008

Gospel Counterfeits

by Jonathan Leeman

In their book How People Change, Tim Lane and Paul David Tripp lay out seven counterfeit gospels.

Formalism. “I participate in the regular meetings and ministries of the church, so I feel like my life is under control. I’m always in church, but it really has little impact on my heart or on how I live. I may become judgmental and impatient with those who do not have the same commitment as I do.”

Legalism. “I live by the rules—rules I create for myself and rules I create for others. I feel good if I can keep my own rules, and I become arrogant and full of contempt when others don’t meet the standards I set for them. There is no joy in my life because there is no grace to be celebrated.”

Mysticism. “I am engaged in the incessant pursuit of an emotional experience with God. I live for the moments when I feel close to him, and I often struggle with discouragement when I don’t feel that way. I may change churches often, too, looking for one that will give me what I’m looking for.”

Activism. “I recognize the missional nature of Christianity and am passionately involved in fixing this broken world. But at the end of the day, my life is more of a defense of what’s right than a joyful pursuit of Christ.”

Biblicism. “I know my Bible inside and out, but I do not let it master me. I have reduced the gospel to a mastery of biblical content and theology, so I am intolerant and critical of those with lesser knowledge.”

Therapism. “I talk a lot about the hurting people in our congregation, and how Christ is the only answer for their hurt. Yet even without realizing it, I have made Christ more Therapist than Savior. I view hurt as a greater problem than sin—and I subtly shift my greatest need from my moral failure to my unmet needs."

“Social-ism.” “The deep fellowship and friendships I find at church have become their own idol. The body of Christ has replaced Christ himself, and the gospel is reduced to a network of fulfilling Christian relationships.”
How many of these do you recognize in your own heart? How can we help our congregations to recognize them in their hearts through preaching, discipling, and counseling?

I don't know about you, but I can definitely think of times where I followed these gospels instead of Jesus.

More creativity please...

Why aren't Christians more creative?

This question was raised on a blog that I read occasionally, and I've been wondering about this since I read that post. It seems that Christian media, entertainment, etc. takes its cues straight from popular culture. I think the intent is to be "relevant," but the result is nothing less than cheesy. We serve the creator of creativity and this is what we come up with:



or this:



or my personal favorite, the musical stylings of Apologetix (Sorry, Joel, I know you like them):



However I did find this t-shirt:



I know that our purpose in life isn't to reach some special level of creativity, and I am certainly not trying to say that all Christians lack creativity. David Crowder is an excellent example of a creative Christian. And all of these mentioned things have their place and have served many people, I'm sure. I just wonder if we, as a whole, are resting on pop culture so much that we aren't using all that we have been given. Questions? Comments? Insults?

Reason #4

Why I love Jon and Kate Gosselin #4:

They expose their children to life. I mean, did you watch Monday night's episode? It wouldn't have mattered if they had one babysitter for each child, flying 8 children from Pennsylvania to Utah for a ski trip is hard! Some parents in their situation would decide that it would just be easier to keep them home, in a familiar location, with a set schedule, for the sake of everyone's sanity. Jon and Kate see the importance of trying their best to let all 8 children experience life like it would have been if there had only been, say, 3 kids. That's pretty brave and incredible... not to mention, it takes an abundance of patience. My parents used every opportunity they had to expose me to other cultures and areas, and I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world. It helped me see so far beyond the Chatom bubble. The Gosselin's life is pretty brave and incredible... not to mention, it takes an abundance of patience that I can only wish to have when I become a mother... Lord willing. :)

Why I Love The Gosselins

Please tell me that you have caught on to the entertainment that is "Jon & Kate Plus 8." It's pretty amazing. 8 kids! In 2 pregnancies! Crazy! Other than the fact that the kids are way too adorable and funny, I love this show for several reasons. All of which I will share with you right now. Feel free to stop reading.

1- They actually parent their children. They know each individual child's personality, and have a real relationship with each one. I've seen other families with many children that use what I like to call the "shirking" method. This means they shirk some responsibilities as a parent by putting each child in charge of the one born right after them. I get so sad when I see this. My cousin and his wife have 11(!) children, and he has made the comment before that he doesn't really know his younger kids. His relationship with the oldest 4 or 5 is great, but after that he couldn't, and didn't, share his time with all of them. Isn't that a shame? Granted, this would be almost impossible considering the Gosselin children are only 2 ages. But the principle still applies.

2- They aren't fake. I don't think they have the time or energy to be fake. They let people really see what their lives are like. Have you ever seen the Duggar family on TLC? These people have 16 children. I love kids, but I prayed that God would not want me to birth 16 children after watching this. Anyway... they're too dang happy to have 16 children. They also use the "shirking" method. Now that I write this, that might be why the mom is so rested and cheerful... she doesn't really do much with the children.

3- They love the Lord. Now that they have a weekly show, a lot of this area of their lives is edited out. But if you have seen the specials they had before the show started, it shows Jon and Kate praying together, them getting ready to go to church, etc. They truly to see their children as gifts from God. All 8 of them.

So, I'm stopping now because I'm pretty tired of typing... but you should love this family also. Go to to learn more.

Katherine

This past weekend I had the opportunity to teach at a D-Now style retreat in Montgomery. It was at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, which is one of the biggest churches in Montgomery. Um, HUGE. I know I don't always act like it, but I pretty much love these weekends. I participated in them every year while I was in youth group, and I remember learning so much from them and growing as a result. Also, the college students that led them had a distinct impact on my life. I had never before actually seen and interacted with college students that were living for the Lord. I'm not even sure I knew they existed. I was lucky enough to have some leaders several years in a row, so I was able to build a relationship with them. So, D-Now weekends have a special place in my heart. However, this one was a little different. This was for the children's ministry. Yep... I taught the 5th grade girls.

Forgive me while I digress a bit:
This is an age group that has always been, and will probably always be a little awkward for me. I think I almost get intimidated by kids of this age. Strange, I know. If I have known the child(ren) for a while, it's not awkward, and we can get along. If I DON'T know the kids I get really nervous. They're past the age where they think every older person is cool, but they're not quite to the age where it's a little easier to see past nerdiness. Does that make sense? I worry about my cool factor! I just have an irrational fear of 5th graders. I am fallen. Now back to the point of this post...

Friday night the children's minister informed me that we would have an extra girl in our group for the scavenger hunt the next day. He explained to me that Katherine is 16, but has Down Syndrome. So while she still participates in children's ministry activities, she can't participate in overnight events. Y'all, I started sweating. I don't know if I can explain the anxiety I had all night about this. I had to have church by myself in the bedroom that night. (P.S. Don't underestimate the amazingness of having your own bedroom during a D-Now. Thank you Jeremy!) But Katherine loves church, she loves being with people, and he really wanted her to be involved as much as possible. So, Saturday morning comes along. We walk into the church and basically go straight to the kitchen for lunch (hot dogs...yummy :). All of a sudden I feel someone grab my hand (and it wasn't gently!) I turned and looked down and Katherine's sweet face turned to me, gave me a HUGE smile, and she promptly introduced herself and started conversation. From then on I had a new best friend. She helped us in the scavenger hunt (that is, until her "stomach hurt"... I am told this is the key sign that she's tired of doing something :) Katherine sang her heart out during worship, and she giggled and played alongside the other girls. The time that we got to spend together was so sweet.

I went into the weekend with such pride in my heart. I never expected to learn anything from these girls, but they impacted me more than I can really explain on here. Katherine doesn't understand the ins and outs of being a Christian. She will never approach her relationship with Jesus through a theologian's eyes. She probably won't ever do much more than sing, but she will sing louder and with the sweetest heart than anyone else in the church. I think that she "gets" being a Christian more than I do most of the time. It's so amazing that her love and knowledge of Christ was never taught to her, but by the grace and sovereignty of God it is there. She was full of more joy than the majority of the Christians I am in contact with every day... and most definitely more than I fight to keep. I realized that I should no longer pity this girl, for she was made exactly this way for God's glory. I wish you could have seen her giving God his glory... Katherine is the lesson of a lifetime.

As for the other girls, they blew me away! If Katherine needed a hand, a friend, someone to talk to, they were there in a flash. They joked with her, talked with her, and included her in all they did. They even helped her smuggle 6 bags of Famous Amos cookies away in her pockets. I'm positive that I would not have been so selfless and loving as a 5th grader.

I hope that I don't easily forget Katherine's face as she sang to Jesus, or the other girls' faces as they started to think of scripture in a new way. It's so easy to get caught up in what we know... where we serve... which author we're reading. We often forget who we know, who we serve, and the original author of life. We could all learn a little something from Katherine.

The... Caroline Show?

Do you ever have those times where you just feel very conspicuous? I definitely just had one of those in Kroger. It was like everyone in a two mile radius was taking note of my awkwardness. And grocery shopping at Kroger happens to be one of those errands where I just want to disappear into the cereal boxes. Unfortunately, I'm not the same shape or color as Lucky Charms, so I had to keep myself distracted, so I started thinking about The Truman Show. It's that movie where Jim Carrey finds out his whole life is a TV show. Several years ago I was quite obsessed with this movie, and have wondered if that was my life since. Strange. I know. By the time I checked out, I had quite the "Truman" story planned out in my head. Naturally, the people in Kroger noticed me from TV! However, once I left the "set" of Kroger I realized that my life really isn't interesting enough to be a TV show.

Do you think people would watch your show?

My resolution

At least once a year I go through all of my clothes, bags, shoes, etc. and clean out my closets and drawers. Usually this bag goes to Goodwill or something like that, which is really awesome when you're trying to stuff a garbage bag as big as you are into an overflowing bin... oh yeah, the opening is usually over my head. That would be fine if I didn't have the strength of a 7 year old. Fun stuff. I digress.

This cleaning process made me think a little about the idea of cleaning up life. It's the beginning of the year, and almost everyone thinks they have to have a resolution. Apparently this leads to enlightenment or joy or something. I can bet that at least 75% of the lists include something about health, organization, and/or money. I can see the benefits in those things. There's nothing wrong with that if there aren't impure motives, I guess. We need to clean things out every once in a while.

As I was cleaning out my closet, I was thinking about how this relates to my life and my relationship with Jesus Christ. What would He clean out of my life? How does he clean things out? What one major thing haunts me and hinders my becoming more like Christ? It's so amazing that 2000 years ago the burden of sin was taken away from me. However, as you probably have figured out, that doesn't mean that all problems are gone. Nor is the act of sinning gone. One verse that kept coming to my mind was Philippians 3:13-14. I'll start with 13b. "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." I have problems with letting go of past sin. Cleaning it out, if you will. I despair over it. I let it live inside me and breed doubt and complacency. In the face of these sins I tend to forget who saved me. I forget in whose image I am made. I forget that Christ has overcome death and sin. Joel and I recently talked about the effects of reminding others about the gospel. So, friends, my resolution is to clean things out. I will try to remind myself and others of the gospel. I will put my sins behind me, push away despair, and "press on toward the goal."

Maybe adding health to the list wouldn't be such a bad idea either :)