Preface: It's been a long time since I've felt inspired to write a poem. It's been a long time since I've felt anything, to be honest, but every Valentine's day, without fail, my body remembers that it is alone. This poem is about me, but in a sense it is not about me at all. These are my thoughts, but not just my thoughts but those like me who know of the pain and privilege of singleness, of a life lived unto Christ. This is the cross I carry. This is the lament of a Single Man:
I've wandered alone off by the roadside
to watch the clouds as they idly fly
But as I sit here perched on a wall knee-high
it happened that two lovers passed me by
"How cruel," I thought, my cross at my side
penning letters to God as I sought out why
this wall had but room for one man to lie
as I lay here watching clouds pass in the sky
"Lord, send me someone equally shy,
meek and modest and as clever as I
She need not be perfect or pleasing," I write,
"I'd do this myself, but Lord knows I've tried!"
So here I sit, reading the clouds for reply
my eyes still damp as I let out a sigh
"Maybe next year perhaps I'll find
that certain someone to share our lives."
But the Lord said to me, "For years I've cried
watching and waiting for you, my bride.
Return to me and in me confide
and I'll return to you, in you I'll abide!"
To hear the Lord's answer, it came a surprise
"How foolish I've been who claim to be wise!"
So now at last I can finally die
thanking God for those clouds that passed me by.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Gordon-Conwell: A Place of Spiritual Formation
Many of my fellow seminarians are probably going to think I made a typo in this title. I did not. GCTS is a great place to learn how to strengthen your prayer life and your spiritual life.
There's a pretty big stereotype/generalization that Gordon-Conwell (and many other seminaries for that matter), are all about academics and not about spiritual formation, that one can "spiritually die" here as a Christian if one is not careful. Actually, this is pretty accurate, but whereas most would see this as a problem to be addressed, I have made a realization: This is exactly how it should be.
Let me explain. Many people come in with the mistaken notion that GCTS should make it ridiculously easy to grow in your faith and walk with God, some even to the point where they expect to be spoon fed spiritual formation. All that would do is make lazy Christians who will have no idea how to spiritually form themselves. Hate to break it to you, but the world and the mission field is an even more spiritually dead place than GCTS will ever be. Actually, GCTS makes it look like a cakewalk with chapel services every Wednesday, ministry opportunities, prayer events as well as a body of Christians so you are never far from a Soul Care Group or a prayer buddy or Scripture study. That is, of course, you show up to any of these things.
If the goal of GCTS is to "equip Church leaders to think theologically, engage globally and live Biblically", it certainly isn't going to do it by making us dependent on Mother Institution. Here, like everywhere else, if you aren't paying attention to your walk with God, you are going to "die". People here are more lulled into a false sense of security because they assume the seminary will handle their spiritual formation for them. Rubbish. By giving us an environment similar to what we will have to face outside of here, they do far more to equip us to handle it than by coddling us and leading us each step of the way.
Your spiritual formation is up to you. Only you can work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It is hard to live like a disciple unto Christ. At times, we all must carve out minutes into our hectic schedules to pray and read scripture. It's a struggle and it's not meant to be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't be worthwhile and it certainly wouldn't have required Christ to come down and die on a cross in perfect obedience.
So I say to you all, Gordon-Conwell is the perfect place to learn the spiritual disciplines in order to feed yourself from the Word of God. Everywhere else is much less forgiving.
There's a pretty big stereotype/generalization that Gordon-Conwell (and many other seminaries for that matter), are all about academics and not about spiritual formation, that one can "spiritually die" here as a Christian if one is not careful. Actually, this is pretty accurate, but whereas most would see this as a problem to be addressed, I have made a realization: This is exactly how it should be.
Let me explain. Many people come in with the mistaken notion that GCTS should make it ridiculously easy to grow in your faith and walk with God, some even to the point where they expect to be spoon fed spiritual formation. All that would do is make lazy Christians who will have no idea how to spiritually form themselves. Hate to break it to you, but the world and the mission field is an even more spiritually dead place than GCTS will ever be. Actually, GCTS makes it look like a cakewalk with chapel services every Wednesday, ministry opportunities, prayer events as well as a body of Christians so you are never far from a Soul Care Group or a prayer buddy or Scripture study. That is, of course, you show up to any of these things.
If the goal of GCTS is to "equip Church leaders to think theologically, engage globally and live Biblically", it certainly isn't going to do it by making us dependent on Mother Institution. Here, like everywhere else, if you aren't paying attention to your walk with God, you are going to "die". People here are more lulled into a false sense of security because they assume the seminary will handle their spiritual formation for them. Rubbish. By giving us an environment similar to what we will have to face outside of here, they do far more to equip us to handle it than by coddling us and leading us each step of the way.
Your spiritual formation is up to you. Only you can work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It is hard to live like a disciple unto Christ. At times, we all must carve out minutes into our hectic schedules to pray and read scripture. It's a struggle and it's not meant to be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't be worthwhile and it certainly wouldn't have required Christ to come down and die on a cross in perfect obedience.
So I say to you all, Gordon-Conwell is the perfect place to learn the spiritual disciplines in order to feed yourself from the Word of God. Everywhere else is much less forgiving.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What is the Gospel?
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." -Romans 1:16
This quote from Romans has been an inspirational one for Christians everywhere to share the message of Jesus Christ, but what is the Gospel? We know that is has power for the one who believes, but what exactly is it? I find many of the more traditional answers insufficient in capturing the idea that it is "the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes". Here are some of the more common ones.
Jesus loves you. While this is true, it is not the Gospel. As a non-Christian, I could care less if Jesus loved me. It would have the same effect as if you told me Bill from accounting loves me or even if Barney loved me (I love you... You love me...). Who is Bill from accounting and for that matter who in the world is Jesus? The Gospel has to be more than this. Simply telling someone Jesus loves you has NO significant power to bring salvation in and of itself.
You are a sinner and Christ died for your sins. I can't help but think this is a giant guilt trip. Am I supposed to feel bad that Jesus died for me? Am I now supposed to bow down and worship him? And wait... did you just call me a sinner? However true this statement is, it is still not the Gospel. Actually, it sounds like terrible news. Moreover, God has been forgiving sin way before Jesus became Immanuel. If Jesus died to simply forgive sin, he did so needlessly.
If you believe, you will go to heaven. Otherwise, you will end up in Hell. It seems we have moved from guilt tripping to threats. This is the turn or burn street preacher style gospel that for me is extremely painful to listen to. It is painful because I see how people react to this methodology of evangelism: disgust, anger, scorn, skepticism, etc. The worst part is, everyone hearing him thinks that is what the gospel is and are repulsed by it. A man sowing bad seed might occasionally get a couple plants, but his efforts are wasted. I am not saying this statement isn't true, however it is just not the gospel.
So what is it then? You would be hard pressed to find the gospel in it's entirety explicitly stated in the New Testament, but I feel like this is for a reason. The Gospel doesn't sound like any one thing. To a lonely man going through depression, it might sound like "Hey, do you want to grab some coffee?", or to the orphan it might sound like "We've found you a family!" or to the recently widowed "Your husband is with God now." It's about those timely gospel words you can share to help someone going through a tough time. The gospel isn't a verbal message at all, but it is a way of life. You preach the Gospel with how you live and through the relationships you build, relationships which have power to transform lives because they are the power of God to save everyone who believes. In order to save us, God needed to be in relationship with us, and he accomplished this through His son Jesus Christ. The Gospel to the leper, the blind, the poor, and the lame wasn't so much Jesus's death as it was his life and for us His resurrection.
This quote from Romans has been an inspirational one for Christians everywhere to share the message of Jesus Christ, but what is the Gospel? We know that is has power for the one who believes, but what exactly is it? I find many of the more traditional answers insufficient in capturing the idea that it is "the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes". Here are some of the more common ones.
Jesus loves you. While this is true, it is not the Gospel. As a non-Christian, I could care less if Jesus loved me. It would have the same effect as if you told me Bill from accounting loves me or even if Barney loved me (I love you... You love me...). Who is Bill from accounting and for that matter who in the world is Jesus? The Gospel has to be more than this. Simply telling someone Jesus loves you has NO significant power to bring salvation in and of itself.
You are a sinner and Christ died for your sins. I can't help but think this is a giant guilt trip. Am I supposed to feel bad that Jesus died for me? Am I now supposed to bow down and worship him? And wait... did you just call me a sinner? However true this statement is, it is still not the Gospel. Actually, it sounds like terrible news. Moreover, God has been forgiving sin way before Jesus became Immanuel. If Jesus died to simply forgive sin, he did so needlessly.
If you believe, you will go to heaven. Otherwise, you will end up in Hell. It seems we have moved from guilt tripping to threats. This is the turn or burn street preacher style gospel that for me is extremely painful to listen to. It is painful because I see how people react to this methodology of evangelism: disgust, anger, scorn, skepticism, etc. The worst part is, everyone hearing him thinks that is what the gospel is and are repulsed by it. A man sowing bad seed might occasionally get a couple plants, but his efforts are wasted. I am not saying this statement isn't true, however it is just not the gospel.
So what is it then? You would be hard pressed to find the gospel in it's entirety explicitly stated in the New Testament, but I feel like this is for a reason. The Gospel doesn't sound like any one thing. To a lonely man going through depression, it might sound like "Hey, do you want to grab some coffee?", or to the orphan it might sound like "We've found you a family!" or to the recently widowed "Your husband is with God now." It's about those timely gospel words you can share to help someone going through a tough time. The gospel isn't a verbal message at all, but it is a way of life. You preach the Gospel with how you live and through the relationships you build, relationships which have power to transform lives because they are the power of God to save everyone who believes. In order to save us, God needed to be in relationship with us, and he accomplished this through His son Jesus Christ. The Gospel to the leper, the blind, the poor, and the lame wasn't so much Jesus's death as it was his life and for us His resurrection.
I discovered this video of John Piper after reflecting a bit on what the "good news" was. I was delighted to see we reached the same conclusion.
In essence, the Gospel is God's promise that no matter what, He will bring us to be with Him. No matter what, he will stand by us, protect us, discipline us, love us and cherish us, to have and to hold until not even death do we part. It is God's promise and plan to save us not only from sin, but from a life of want. We are fulfilled and completed in Christ. The Gospel is now and everyday we decide to live for Christ. It is by our renewed relationships, both with God and each other, that we are saved daily. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is near, so we should all turn from our old selfish ways of living and instead love God by loving each other and vice-versa. I think truly, that this is the way to change to entire world. This is the power of God to save.
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