Our collection of eight songs continues. The artist today is Robin Mark.
April 12, 2017
April 11, 2017
Passion Week Songs (3) – At the Foot of the Cross
For Holy Week, each day we’re posting songs appropriate to focus on Christ’s suffering, death, atonement, resurrection.
The artist today is Kathryn Scott.
April 10, 2017
Passion Week Songs (2) – Lead Me to the Cross
This year, we’re doing something different for Holy Week. Each day this week, we’re posting songs appropriate to focus on Christ’s suffering, death, atonement, resurrection.
Subscribers: This means you’ll get two posts from us this week only. One in the morning, and one at 5:30 PM EST. If you’re also a subscriber to Christianity 201, it means you’ll get two items each day at 5:30 PM EST.
The songwriter today is Graham Kendrick.
April 9, 2017
Passion Week Songs (1) – Remembrance
This year, we’re doing something different for Holy Week. Each day this week, we’re posting songs appropriate to focus on Christ’s suffering, death, atonement, resurrection.
Subscribers: This means you’ll get two posts from us this week only. One in the morning, and one at 5:30 PM EST. If you’re also a subscriber to Christianity 201, it means you’ll get two each day at 5:30 PM EST.
Today’s artist is Matt Redman.
June 12, 2015
The Disconnect Created by Fashion Jewelry
From Java, a beaded wood cross necklace from Gifts With A Cause.
You’ve seen it, I’m sure.
The tabloid by the checkout lands an interview with a well-known porn star and her picture is on the cover, wearing a cross.
“Wait, what?” you ask out loud, causing the shopper ahead and the cashier to look at you strangely.
Whether it’s an actor known for his very dark, very Godless roles or a marcher being interviewed at the Gay Pride parade, the cross around the neck almost always surprises any person of faith. It certainly raises a number of possibilities.
- The contrast is intended to shock.
- The person doesn’t really know or understand the significance of the cross.
- They believe that they are a Christian.
- The cross-wearing somehow cancels out the wrong in that person’s life.
- They take a different, pre-Christian meaning to the symbol.
- It represents what they’d never admit verbally; that God has blessed their life with good things.
- They are somehow appealing to a religious demographic, hoping that in spite of what they’re saying or doing, those people will like them.
- The cross was a gift from someone, and by wearing it once in awhile they can say…that they’re wearing it.
Are there other reasons I’m missing?
The point is that there is a disconnect between the symbol and the person’s reputation or lifestyle or even activity at the moment the photo is taken or the video is recorded.
It’s a symbol that should be dear to the devout believer; the sincere Christ-follower. And so some get incensed that it’s being misused or misapplied or even mocked.
When I see these pictures on an online news feed, or in a magazine at the grocery store, I try to find the redemption in the moment, and I gotta admit, I’m not seeing it…
Tangentially: For those in the know, what do think of the trend in the last few years of wearing sideways crosses on necklaces and bracelets?
April 3, 2015
At The Cross
Today’s blog post is presented jointly with Christianity 201, part of our blog network, which provides daily devotional and Bible study content 7-days-a-week.
Gal 6:14 May I never put anything above the cross of our Lord Jesus the Anointed. Through Him, the world has been crucified to me and I to this world.
This morning I attended two very different Good Friday services in two different towns. As I left the first one, and walked toward my car, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What is my takeaway for having been here?” Also, “What does the cross mean to me, personally?”
Really, I have no words. There is no verbal or written expression that can unravel the mystery or make an appropriate response to God’s transcendent love and Christ’s transcendent sacrifice. A song came to mind from Matt Redman, I Will Offer Up My Life, and the line
Oh my words could not tell, not even in part
Of the debt of love that is owed by this thankful heart.
As I thought about it later, the song is strongly oriented to Easter even though the title points to a personal response of sacrifice to God.
You deserve my every breath, for You’ve paid the great cost
Giving up your life to death, even death on the cross
You took all my shame away, there defeated my sin
Open up the gates of heaven and have beckoned me in
The cross does demand a response however, and for Redman, the songwriter, that response is defined at the outset, in the first verse,
I will offer up my life in spirit and truth
Pouring out the oil of love, as my worship to you
In surrender I must give my every part
Lord, receive this sacrifice of a broken heart
At the second service we looked at the verse in Galatians (above) and also this passage:
NIV I John 4:8b …God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The speaker said that while “the holiness of God demanded that there be a punishment for sin, the love of God demanded that there be a way of salvation.” The sermon title was, “There Had to be a Cross.” That reminded me of another song by another British songwriter, Graham Kendrick, Here is Love. The speaker said the cross is the intersection of our sin and God’s love; you could also God’s requirement for justice meeting his loving mercy.
Grace and love like mighty rivers
Born incessant from above
Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love
My prayer today is that you also would find something new in the Good Friday/Easter narrative, and would make a personal response.
As a bonus, here’s the song that follows the one above from Graham Kendrick.
March 3, 2015
March 24, 2012
A New Kind of Bible Translation
B. J. Stockman
Tucked away in Wednesday’s link list was a reference to something produced by B. J. Stockman that appeared at Vitamin Z while Zach was off for a week. Stockman called the concept “Preaching to Yourself” and it involved taking a chapter of an epistle and re-interpreting it in the first person, so that instead of it being Paul writing to a first century church, it’s me making a declaration to live out the things Paul is teaching. You might want to pause here and read his introduction to the first chapter.
I had already posted the link when I decided to share it in our family Bible study evening that night using the section of chapter three I had posted at Christianity 201, and also reading the original text from my NIV Study Bible. What amazed me was how this reconstruction of the text served as commentary; how much it brought the text to life.
Anyway, Zach managed to stay away long enough for B. J. to get five of the six chapters posted, and I thought I would allow you to look at Galatians chapter five in parallel.
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ORIGINAL TEXT – NIV
Freedom in Christ1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! Life by the Spirit13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
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FIRST PERSON
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A few takeaways about the process itself:
- You can do this. Yes, you. Great Bible study motivator.
- Your small group, Sunday School class, youth group can do this.
- You can repeat this process with the same book months or years later and get new results.
- Some of you are familiar with a practice of ‘praying the scriptures’ and this can be seen as a variant on that.
- Be sure to read the introduction mentioned above to learn more about the process.
About the author (from B. J.’s blog, 5:21)
B.J. lives on the redwood coast of California with his beautiful wife Kate, daughter Grace, and son Adoniram. He has a passion for leading people deeper into the gospel of grace in Jesus and the glory of God. He graduated from Bethany University with a B.A. in Biblical & Theological Studies, has studied at Fuller Theological Seminary, serves pastors around the nation through Docent Research Group, and has a real day job too.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (vs 25)
August 20, 2011
Of Course I’m a Christian; I Keep The Ten Commandments
This is a joint post today between Thinking out Loud and Christianity 201. Readers at C201 were introduced to a book by Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock last Friday and Saturday. This weekend we return to the book for a look at keeping “the big ten” and ask if that’s a prerequisite for earning God’s favor, or is it the natural of fruit having already received his grace…
More from the book, Look to The Rock, by Alec Motyer (p.41)…
…Nevertheless, law is really and truly law. The terrors of [Mount] Sinai were real and palpable (Ex 20: 18-21, Heb 12: 18-21). This was no contrived display of religious fireworks designed merely to cow and awe. The cause of the whole manifestation of fire and cloud, earthquake, thunder and lightning was simply this: that “the Lord descended in fire.” (Ex 19:18). This is what he is like. His holiness is not a passive attribute but an active force such as can only be symbolized by fire, a force of destruction of all that is unholy. At Sinai this holy God came to declare His holy law.
It is at this point that the sequence of events in the great historical visual aid bears its distinctive fruit: In the Old Testament as in the whole Bible, the law of the Holy God is not a ladder of merit whereby sinners seek to come to God to win His favor and climb “into His good books;” His holy law is rather His appointed and required pattern of life for those who by redemption have been brought to Him already who already belong to Him, and are already “in His good books.” The Law of God is the lifestyle of the redeemed.
Somewhere in the middle of reading that section, I started thinking about the difference between law and grace in terms of the “How Do You Spell Religion?” presentation which I’ve outlined here. I see this as another way of looking at man’s attempts in more of a chronological method:
If each of the checkmarks below represents the keeping of one or several commandments and the cross represents acceptance by God, many people feel that their story should unravel something like this:
In fact, what the Bible teaches is that living “a ten commandments lifestyle” is more of the fruit of experiencing the grace of God. The commandments were never requested of Israel’s neighbors, they were the cadence of a life lived in fellowship and communion with God. While they are phrased in a “Don’t do this” manner, they could be interpreted — or lived out — in more of a I Cor 13 way: “Doesn’t kill, doesn’t steal…” etc. That’s also in keeping with a “before and after” way of looking at life that incorporates life transformation. So it looks like:
Of course, there is always the issue that most of the general population can’t name all ten commandments, and if they do, they tend to focus on the “second tablet,” the ones having to do with interpersonal relationships, and neglect the first four, having to do with our relationship with God.
April 22, 2011
Delivered from Death
When you’re in your teens or twenties, or even thirties, you may not think much about death. With the passing of time comes the reality that the death rate is 100%, and with that comes much uncertainty.
Some of the uncertainty is fueled by all the knowledge we have. Every night I watch ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, sometimes flipping over to NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. There are various health stories on the news to be sure, but it’s the commercials that do me in. Every week brings a new “condition” — usually described by an acronym — and when you listen to the long disclaimer, the potential side effects of the “cures” seems to make them rather dubious remedies.
In other words, I’m not becoming a hypochondriac — well, maybe I little — but I am becoming too aware of the things in our fearfully and wonderfully made bodies that can break down.
Last week, on one of the blogs, someone wrote about being so medically phobic, he breaks out into a sweat when his wife trims the cat’s nails. And I think it was one of the Christian bloggers.
Fear and anxiety should not be part of the life of the Christian. While the communion elements were being passed this morning at the Good Friday service and everyone else was breathing a quick prayer of confession for having downplayed their income on their 2010 tax return, or looking at pornography last night until the wee hours; I was seeking forgiveness for fear and anxiety.
Every year, I write something to the effect that, for those of us who’ve been around for awhile and have had our share of Christmases and Easters, we should look for something new in the Easter story or Christmas story that we didn’t know was there before. For me, this year, in several of the messages I’ve heard in church or downloaded, it’s been this theme that in Christ’s resurrection we’re not only delivered from death, but delivered from the fear of death.
This quote from yesterday’s post at Christianity 201 — which I encourage you to read — best describes the perspective every Christ follower should have:
…Christ Himself [became] the instrument by which the Father would — for all time — make death not a wall … but a door.
Thinking Out Loud 
First Person Faith
B. J. Stockman
This first ran here three years ago under the title “A New Type of Bible Translation” It was produced by B. J. Stockman and appeared as a guest post at another blog that is now dormant. Stockman called the concept “Preaching to Yourself” and it involved taking a chapter of an epistle and re-interpreting it in the first person, so that instead of it being Paul writing to a first century church, it’s me making a declaration to live out the things Paul is teaching. You might want to pause here and read his introduction to the first chapter.
I had already posted a link to the original introduction and first chapter of Galatians, when I decided to share it in our family Bible study evening that night using the section of chapter three I had posted at Christianity 201, and also reading the original text from my NIV Study Bible. What amazed me was how this reconstruction of the text served as commentary; how much it brought the text to life.
I thought I would allow you to look at Galatians chapter five in parallel.
Freedom in Christ
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
FIRST PERSON
A few takeaways about the process itself:
About the author (from B. J.’s blog, 5:21)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (vs 25)