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Conference Announcement—”Keep Your Head Up: Being Black and Christian in 21st Century Mississippi”

Join Pastor Rhodes and Dr. Bradley, author of Keep Your Head Up, in Jackson, MS.

Conference Description: A new generation of Christian leaders address the intersections of theology, race, and culture in an exciting conversation about the future of the black church.

Speakers: Pastor CJ Rhodes, Mount Helm Baptist Church, Jackson, MS, and Dr. Anthony B. Bradley, Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics, The King’s College, New York, NY, editor of Keep Your Head Up: America’s New Black Christian Leaders, Social Consciousness, and the Cosby Conversation.

Date: Saturday, February 11, 2012

Schedule:
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 –A Celebration of Praise and Worship in Black Church Traditions
9:00-10:15 Session 1 –Dr. Anthony Bradley, “Reformed Theology, White Privilege, and Black Liberation.”
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:15 Session 2 –Pastor CJ Rhodes, “Liberating the Black Church”
11:30–1:00—Break for Lunch (Lunch is provided)
1:00 p.m. -2:15– Panel and Audience Discussion: “Is the Black Church Dead?”
2:15-2:30–Final Remarks and dismissal.

Lunch is provided for those who RSVP via admin@mthelm.org by February 6, 2012.

Address:

300 E CHURCH ST
JACKSON, MS 39202
601-353-3981
Church website: click here.

January 11, 2012 | Posted in: Race,Social Issues,Theology | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:34 am | 0 Comments »

Posted in Race, Social Issues, Theology | No Comments »

An Interview with Dr. James Hamilton on “Revelation: the Spirit Speaks to the Churches”

Revelation

Dr. James M. Hamilton, author of God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment, just came out with the newest in the Preaching the Word commentary series—Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches. If you aren’t familiar with the Preaching the Word series, they serve as excellent devotional as well as sermon prep resources. Hamilton was kind of enough do to a brief Q&A with us:

Why should pastors preach on Revelation?

1. Because all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable (2 Tim 3:16).
2. Because a blessing is promised to those who read, hear, and keep what Revelation reveals (Rev 1:3).
3. Because lots of people are intrigued by and eager to be taught Revelation.

What’s the best way to prepare to interpret apocalyptic literature in general and Revelation in particular?

I am convinced that the best way to interpret apocalyptic literature and Revelation is by the light of other Scripture. The apocalyptic world view is the biblical world view. We need to soak ourselves in all of Scripture so that we recognize the allusions to other passages in Revelation, and often the meaning of those other passages are crucial to understanding what John is saying in Revelation.

The ancient hermeneutical rule is still the best one: Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture.

If a pastor knows that his congregation takes a very different view of Revelation than he does, how should he go about preaching the book? Should he be trying to convert them to or away from a dispensationalist perspective and why?

As we preach through Revelation we should wrestle through the text and do our best to explain it, and there are appropriate ways to describe how our conclusions relate to the various perspectives. Again and again as I preached through the book, I found myself saying something like this: even if we disagree on how the details of this passage are to be interpreted, we can nevertheless agree on how we are to respond to this text today.

I don’t think we should worry about whether someone comes down as a dispensationalist or not. We want them to heed the message of the book, and we want the text to speak for itself.

What is the relationship between the judgments that accompany the seals, trumpets, and bowls? Are these sequential or recapitulatory?

Here’s my conclusion, the exposition of which can be found in the book: the opening of the seals in Revelation 6 corresponds to what Jesus describes in the Olivet Discourse in the Synoptic Gospels. In my view, this material describes all of church history between the two comings of Christ. The trumpets and bowls symbolize the climactic instance of the new-exodus plagues, pointing to the final redemption of God’s people. I think that the literary structure of Revelation indicates that the trumpets and bowls are complementary depictions of the final judgments that precede the coming of Christ.

What’s with the exodus imagery in Revelation? Didn’t Jesus fulfill the new exodus and return from exile in his death and resurrection? Why are we getting that imagery again in Revelation?

I would argue that we see multiple instances of the new-exodus pattern in the book of Ezra. Thus, Ezra 1–6 depicts a new-exodus at the decree issued by Cyrus, and then Ezra 7–10 depicts another new-exodus at the return authorized by Artaxerxes. The OT, then, sets a precedent for interpreting God’s actions for his people in light of the exodus pattern. The NT authors follow this precedent by interpreting the redemption Jesus accomplished in light of the exodus, the church’s ongoing life in light of Israel’s sojourn to the land of promise, and the final redemption of God’s people as the climactic exodus-style deliverance.

At the exodus from Egypt, God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt. At the cross, God redeemed his people from slavery to sin. At the return of Christ, God will redeem his people from bondage to corruption.

Redeemed from Egypt, God renewed Israel’s experience of his presence by giving them the tabernacle, and then he took them to the land of promise where the temple would be built. Redeemed from sin, God made his people the temple of the Spirit (1 Cor 3:16), and we sojourn toward the new Jerusalem (Heb 12:22). Redeemed from bondage to corruption, God’s dwelling will be with men (Rev 21:3), and God and the Lamb will be the temple (21:22) when the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven (21:10).

James M. Hamilton is associate professor of biblical theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and blogs at For His Renown. Learn more about Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches and God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment.

January 9, 2012 | Posted in: End Times / Return of Christ,Interviews,Preaching and Teaching,The Bible | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:23 am | 1 Comment »

Posted in End Times / Return of Christ, Interviews, Preaching and Teaching, The Bible | 1 Comment »

Worship Distorted

by Bill Clem from Disciple

I was asked to teach an intensive course at a seminary, three eight-hour days of presentation. During the first hour my agenda was to introduce the idea that we are all idolaters. I began by saying, “One hundred percent of your pastoral counseling will involve identifying and confronting idols.” Immediately the push back began: “Idolatry is a primitive idea”; “People don’t have idols; they have issues.” As long as we ignore what the Bible says about the human heart and what God desires from his people, we will raise these same objections. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).

The root of idolatry is pride. Isaiah described Lucifer’s rebellion as he ceased to worship because he wanted to be worshiped:

“You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isa. 14:13–14).

In James, pride is seen as a heart condition that God resists. The posture appropriate to approaching God is one of humility:

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:5–7, 10)

Pride is seen as detestable to God precisely because it steals from God’s glory and his preeminence. Pride is rebellion, but it is much more than rebellion against God’s authority. Pride is self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness. A proud heart sees itself as central and God as the one who must find his place of orbit in the proud heart’s universe. While few people who call themselves Christians would admit to such a self-centered worldview, I find my weeks filled with people with questions and comments such as these:

  • How can God be loving and let this bad thing happen to me?
  • I can’t believe in a God who let’s bad things happen.
  • I don’t care what the Bible says; this is what I want.
  • I have been praying for a Christian husband, and if God wanted me to marry one, then he would have provided one.
  • If God is against homosexuality, why did he create me this way?
  • If God wanted me to stay married, he should have told that to my cheating spouse.

Look beyond the content of those objections to the underlying conviction of those who are making them. The objectors believe they have rights and God has the responsibility to work within those rights. To their way of thinking, God can’t love and also do something the objector can’t understand, nor can God call for behavior that is inconvenient or politically incorrect. They believe that God has no right to ask them to opt for grace and forgive another when they have a “biblical” right to hurt someone who has hurt them.

A couple of things need to be pointed out. First, the idea that God is accountable to us for his behavior, or at least for explanations for acting as he does, skews our real place with God. At best, it makes him our peer, and in that vein he should give us a reasonable explanation. When I talk to people who are angry at God for what he has done or is allowing to happen, I often hear them say, “All I want to know is why.” I have asked several of them, “Really? What if his explanation didn’t satisfy you, and you were convinced he could achieve the same end without doing or allowing what has angered you?” At that point, they often realize that they really want more than a why; they want a why that satisfies them and that makes God accountable to them.

Second, the concept of creature and creator gives God a trump card. He really does get to design his world, his creations, and his story for his own glory. Anything that attempts to compete with that is an idol. Pride paints us into corner between self-centeredness and idolatry.

Jesus already raised the bar from adultery to a heart of lust and from murder of a brother to anger. So how is it we continue to smuggle sin and knock-off versions of righteousness into lives and community in the name of Christianity? It has to have something to do with who or what we are worshiping. When self is at the center, things that feel good or right, emotional places of consolation or insulation, or distractions and attractions don’t seem that bad. But when God is the center, when the God of the universe comes into your soul, living quarters become tight, and there just isn’t any room for things that don’t exalt the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Modified from Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus by Bill Clem

Related Posts:

December 28, 2011 | Posted in: Pride and Humility,The Soverignty of God | Author: Lindsay Tully @ 8:15 am | (2) Comments »

Posted in Pride and Humility, The Soverignty of God | 2 Comments »

Why God Came Into the World

by Francis Schaeffer published in Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Why did God come into this world? Only the scriptural answer will suffice: the second person of the Trinity has been born because he loves the world. But why did he come this way, as a little baby? Why did he choose to lie in a manger and be cared for by a human mother, with the sweetness but the utter weakness of a newborn babe? He came this way because he came to meet the central need of men.

  • He did not come to overthrow the Romans, though a lot of the Jews would have loved that. If he had, he would have come riding on a great conquering steed.
  • The central reason he came was not to raise the living standards of the world. Surely if modern man were going to vote on the way he would like a messiah to appear, he would want him loaded down with moneybags from heaven.
  • He did not come primarily to teach and relieve ignorance—perhaps then he would have come laden with books.

An angel had revealed to Joseph the primary task for which he came: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). He is here to cut the nerve of man’s real dilemma, to solve the problem from which all other problems flow. Man is a sinner who needs an overwhelming love. Jesus has come to save his people from their sins.

Selected excerpt from Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.

December 26, 2011 | Posted in: Christmas,Deity of Christ,Person of Christ | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 1:14 pm | 0 Comments »

Posted in Christmas, Deity of Christ, Person of Christ | No Comments »

The Idolatry of Spiritual Laziness

by Jared Wilson from Gospel Wakefulness

Let’s talk about laziness.

Laziness is idolatry. It is closely related to its opposite—workaholism. Both the sins of laziness and workaholism are sins of self-worship. The behavior looks different, but the root idolatry is the same. And the problem we face is that the law cannot do for either of these sins what grace does. There is no saving power in law. Further—and this is the crucial point in this particular discussion—there is no sustainable keeping of the law apart from the compulsion of grace. We can (and should) command repentance from sin, but it is grace that enables repentance and belief that accompanies it. Repentance problems are always belief problems. When we are set free from the law’s curse, we are set free to the law’s blessings. The difference-maker is the gospel and the joyful worship it creates. Any other attempt at law-abiding is just behavior management.

So we cannot cure spiritual laziness by pouring law on it. God turns dry bones into living, breathing, worshiping, working bodies by pouring gospel proclamation into them. When we truly behold the gospel, we can’t help but grow in Christ and with the fruit of the Spirit. Paul captures the essence of this truth in 2 Corinthians 3:15–18:

Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The law cannot lift the veil. It cannot supply what it demands. But when by the power of the Spirit we turn to behold the Lord—not just see him, but behold him—the veil is lifted and we are transformed bit by bit, so long as we are beholding. This is not self-generated. It comes, Paul says, “from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Vicky Beeching’s song “Captivated” captures this truth well with these lyrics:

Beholding is becoming, so as You fill my view
Transform me into the likeness of You.

According to 2 Corinthians 3:15–18, beholding is becoming. See how Psalm 119:18 relates “beholding as becoming” to obedience:

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” What must happen for a lazy person to be able to become diligent? He must behold the wondrous things in God’s law.

Does he just decide to do that? No. Okay, well, yes, sort of. But he must be moved to decide to be diligent from a force outside of himself. His eyes must be opened by the Spirit. And in this opening, the law and his keeping of it become wondrous, not tedious. This is really what we’re aiming for with gospel centrality, and it’s what gospel wakefulness (super)naturally produces: obedience to God as worshipful response, not meritorious leverage. We are fixing our eyes on the finished work of Christ so that we may be free, and therefore free to delight in the law, not buckle under it.

Religious people can’t delight in the law like the psalmists do. They have to be set free—and feel free—from its curse first. This is where accusing gospel centrality of facilitating antinomianism becomes nonsensical. Generally speaking, people aren’t lazy because they think they’re forgiven for trespassing the law; they’re lazy because they think the law doesn’t apply to them. The truth is that we worship our way into sin, and we have to worship our way out. When people are lazy (or restless), they do have a sin problem, but the sin problem is just a symptom of the deeper worship problem. Their affections are set somewhere else. And wherever our affections are set is where our behavior will go.

So gospel wakefulness does not mean or produce laziness. But what gospel wakefulness does to the work of obedience is something we cannot muster up of our own power. It is the difference between driving our car and pushing it. Or, better, it is the difference between seeing the Christian life as a rowboat and seeing it as a sailboat.

Jared C. Wilson is the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont. He is an award-winning author whose articles and short stories have appeared in a number of periodicals, and has written the popular books Your Jesus Is Too Safe and Gospel Wakefulness, as well as the curriculum Abide. Wilson lives in Vermont with his wife and two daughters, and blogs daily at GospelDrivenChurch.com.

December 21, 2011 | Posted in: Idolatry,Pursuit of Holiness,Sanctification/Growth,Sin & Temptation,The Gospel,The Grace of God | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:00 am | (3) Comments »

Posted in Idolatry, Pursuit of Holiness, Sanctification/Growth, Sin & Temptation, The Gospel, The Grace of God | 3 Comments »