Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Monday, August 13, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
ARE YOU READY FOR AN EYE-OPENING, GUT-WRENCHING FILM?
Here's a new, eye-opening film from Unearthed feauturing the Resurgence's leaders, Mark Driscoll and Justin Holcomb.
UNEARTHING SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
When Unearthed was formed, we had our hearts set on producing a documentary that would expose the mechanics of the global sex trade. For a solid year, we traveled, filmed, raided brothels, rescued victims, and had our hearts crushed by the magnitude of sexual brokenness that surrounded us. You can watch some of that work here.
When it came time to edit the film, we decided that the last thing the world needed was another depressing documentary that explained how badly sex trafficking sucked. So, we pulled the plug on it, we prayed, we waited, and we listened.
THE ROOT OF TRAFFICKING
We all have responsibility to the victims of this injustice, and we're thrilled that 85% of the money that comes into our doors goes right back out to some of the best organizations in the world that rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate the women & children that live in this hell.
But who's going after the victimizers? Really...who's made it their ambition to kill this thing at the root? If we rescued every victim today, we'd wake up to a demand for 100+ million new slaves tomorrow. If a victim's care is the only weapon in this battle, it'll continue to do a cyclically miserable job of winning.
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If we rescued every victim today, we'd wake up to a demand for 100+ million new slaves tomorrow.”
We've got to go after the heart of the issue, and that is the hearts of men. Men perpetuate the demand in sex slavery. Men in our cities, backyards, and churches can fuel the global sex trade with their "private" sexual decisions, which often create massive global impact.
Take porn for example: a 97 billion dollar per year industry that's got almost 80% of men and 35% of women ensnared. Americans spend so much on porn each year that it breaks down to $50 per person, and we account for only 14% of the global porn share. While specific connections can be hard to trace, we know that porn profits directly fund the acquisition of new women and children being forced into sex slavery.
THE HEARTS OF MEN
Jacob's story in the video above isn't an isolated incident. Jesus is continually transforming abusers into protectors; addicts into free men and traffickers into rescuers. Over the next year, we're creating a film called The Hearts of Men. It's a raw, unfiltered examination of how sin distorts sex, who's affected, and how the Gospel changes all of it. We know that to win this war, we need to engage men and right now they aren't just asleep on the battlefield, they're fornicating on it. A generation of God's sons need to be reminded who they are in Christ: chosen, washed, sanctified, and justified.
Men, we're coming after you, in love, because we know that when the gospel changes you, everything changes.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday, January 31, 2011
Mining the Archives: Luther Gets Saved in Habakkuk
The book of Habakkuk, a small book of prophecy tucked toward the end of the Old Testament, was written in about the 7th century B.C. Six hundred years later, it was instrumental in the writings of the Apostle Paul, and some 1,500 years later, in the life of the great reformer, Martin Luther. The following is adapted from a sermon Pastor Mark gave as part of a sermon series series on the prophetic book in 2003.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
Habakkuk 2:4
A lot of pastors are in ministry trying to pay God back rather than just trusting Jesus. Martin Luther was one of those guys: his incentive for ministry was to pay God back. He was going to study theology, and he had the mind of an attorney.
Luther tries God v. man
Luther saw God as a judge and as a prosecuting attorney. He saw himself as a defense attorney. He realized that God’s case against him was that he’s a sinful man unfit for heaven and forgiveness. So he picked up ministry, he picked up the Scriptures, he started to study, trying to find a way to defend himself against this case that God has made against humanity.
He came to the conclusion that God has an airtight case: we’re all wicked. That’s the only thing that is absolutely provable in Christianity is the evil of the human heart. That’s why we lock our doors. And that’s why we have jails. That’s why we have attorneys. That’s why we have prisons. That’s why we are reticent to even extend a hand of friendship to a stranger because we know not whether they are a friend or foe.
Luther said, “You know what? God’s case against humanity is a winner. We’re bad. And especially if God is judge, can’t lie to him. And if God is prosecuting attorney, you’re not gonna beat him. There’s no way out.” So he decided was he was going to study the Scriptures and find all the things that God wanted him to do, and then he’d do those so God would like him.
The Pursuit of Perfect Penance
And he tried really hard. Really hard. Harder than any of us. He became a priest, which meant no wife, no sex, no kids. He actually went that far. He became a monk and a pastor and a professor of theology. He said, “Not only that, since sin requires punishment, I’ll punish myself. I’ll sleep on an uncomfortable bed or the floor. I’ll eat terrible food or starve myself so I rack my body.” And he actually did have intestinal problems for the rest of his life. “I’ll avoid all worldly pleasure. I won’t laugh. I won’t have a good time.”
And this guy was so racked because he was such a clever and clear-thinking mind. When it came to the Scriptures he realized that, in light of God’s Word, he was doomed.
What the monks would do usually is they would send the men into confession with a priest. And you would go in to the priest and you’d tell him all your sins, and then he would absolve you and proclaim forgiveness upon you, and they’d go do their work as monks. (We Christians do the same thing except for our priest’s name is Jesus. He’s our high priest. We go to him and confess our sins, and he died for them and he pardons us and grants us forgiveness.)
Confess? Yes. Hoe? No.
The problem was Martin Luther would be in there all day, every single day. He realized that even the way he confessed sin was a sin, so he would confess his sin and the way he confessed his sin. And then he realized that the motive for confessing his sin was a sin. So he would confess the motive and the mean and the sin. Right? Because it’s not just doing the right thing. It’s doing the right thing in the right way for the right reason. And the other monks thought, “He must be lazy, trying to get out of the work. He goes in there and prays all day so he doesn’t have to go out and hoe the garden.”
Finally, the priest said, “Enough already. Can’t you be in denial like everybody else and just go hoe the garden? Everybody else is in denial. Can’t you just say, ‘Well, I had a bad thought and we say blah, blah, blah, now move on?’”
Luther said, “No. I was reading the Scriptures and it says, ‘Be perfect.’ It says, ‘Do everything.’ It says, ‘Obey God.’ It says, ‘Motives count.’ It says, ‘Method counts. Everything counts.’ I’m not making it.”
And Luther became so depressed that he was almost at this place of suicide and coming apart. And then something amazing happened.
The German Theologian Reads the Turkish Apostle Who Reads the Judean Prophet
He was studying the book of Psalms, and it brought him back to Romans 1:17, where Paul quotes Habakkuk, which led him all the way back to Habakkuk 2:4. Over 2,000 years after it was written, that same little verse that exploded for Paul, exploded for a guy named Martin Luther.
Luther writes, “There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness, which the merciful God justifies us by faith. As it is written,” he quotes Habakkuk 2:4, “he who through faith is righteous shall live. Here I felt that I was altogether born again and have entered paradise itself through open gates. Here a totally other face of the entire Scriptures showed itself to me.”
Martin Luther got saved in Habakkuk 2:4.
The Reformation Takes Form
And out of his understanding came what we call the Reformation, the cleaning up the understanding of the gospel and the recognition that “I don’t save myself. Jesus saves me. I don’t need to be good. Jesus was perfect. I don’t need to please God. Jesus did on my behalf. I don’t need to work my way to God. God has humbled himself and come down for me. I just need to trust him, and he will take away all my sin and he will love me and forgive me and adopt me into his family.”
“He will then give me a new heart. He will give me a new life. He’ll make me a new creation. And then all these Scriptures that I know are good I will begin to live in accordance with those Scriptures by grace because it’s grace that saves me and it’s grace that empowers me to honor God, through the Holy Spirit that the Son of God will send into me so that it’s no longer I who live, but it’s Christ who lives in me and through me and often times in spite of me. And then God gets all his glory and I get my redemption and I trust him, not me, and it’s about him, not me, and he’s God and I’m not.”
And 2,600 years after Habakkuk writes this little verse it’s still working because God said it. That’s how God still transforms and loves and heals and forgives and redeems people.
God says, “Know who I am. Don’t fight me. Trust me. And once you have, keep trusting me until you see me, and then your faith shall be sight.”
At this point, I call you all to response. Last week a number of people came to Christ in this church. They stopped worshipping themselves and started worshipping Jesus.
If you’re a non-Christian, that is what you need to do: Your trust needs to be in Jesus, not yourself. His death, burial and resurrection, not your morality or spirituality or sincere or insincere attempts. You recognize your sin. You own it, you name it, and you ask Jesus to forgive you, and he will. And you trust him and belong to him and walk with him. And he will give you the grace to become the person that he intends for you to be. He’s good from beginning to end.
There is a wealth of resources in the Mars Hill media library, including over 500 sermons preached at the church, some dating back to 2000. Many of the sermons don’t have video, much less a sleek intro video with scored backing track, just grainy, scratchy audio of a younger Pastor Mark. But the truth of the gospel and the relevancy of the teachings last. So, from time to time, we’ll repost bits from those archived sermons here on the blog so that they can be useful to you in your discipleship. (And because we’ve been studying the Gospel of Luke for over a year now—with another year to go—it’s good to shake things up and learn something from a different book every once in a while.)
Originally Posted at http://blog.marshillchurch.org/ On January 30th 2011
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Joel Osteen's New Age Life Now?
Joel Osteen's New Age Life Now?
By Brannon Howse
"Whatever you conceive you can achieve."
With this favorite karma-changing promise, New Agers believe you need only use the "unlimited" power and consciousness of your mind to bring about all your dreams, desires and wishes.
Cloaked in a "Christian" package, Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now, bears an uncomfortable and dangerous similarity to this most popular of New Age claims. Sample a few of the Osteen versions:
1) "You will produce what you're continually seeing in your mind. If you foster an image of defeat and failure, then you're going to live that kind of life. But if you develop an image of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace, and happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold those things from you." (page 5)
2) "You must conceive it in your heart and mind before you can receive it." (page 6)
3) "You must look through your 'eyes of faith' and start seeing yourself as happy, healthy and whole." (page 15)
4) "What you will receive is directly connected to how you believe." (page 22)
5) "We receive what we believe." (page 72)
6) "Learn how to conceive. Keep the image of what you want to become in front of you. You're going to become what you believe." (page 81)
Osteen now travels the country, packing out stadiums with his happy-talk. But I'd like to see Osteen pay a visit to China, preach his "your best life now" drivel, and see how Christians there respond. Let Osteen look into the eyes of Pastor Lei who has been repeatedly arrested and beaten for preaching the Word of God in his church-a church not licensed by the Chinese government. How would the American's best life work out for Pastor Lei and his congregation? Perhaps their jail time for the Gospel would give them time to assess Rev. Osteen's claims.
Have these and countless other persecuted Christians been beaten, jailed and murdered because they "received what they believed," or did these terrible things happen to them because they did not "develop an image of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace, and happiness"?
Were eleven of Jesus' disciples martyred because, "they received what they believed"? Were the disciples living under a "curse of poverty and defeat" as Osteen says of so many? Here's a role call of questions I'd like to ask Mr. Osteen. Why is it, Joel, that:
• Paul and Matthew were beheaded?
• Barnabas was burned to death?
• Mark was dragged to death?
• James, the less, was clubbed to death?
• Peter, Philip, and Andrew were crucified?
• Thomas was speared to death?
• Luke was hung by the neck until dead?
• Stephen was stoned?
How would these disciples take to the best-life message?
Yes, I know. Joel's promises sound so much better to American ears than all those warnings of Jesus about being hated by most people for His sake. But it remains that in large measure, Joel's offering can be described as nothing less than blasphemy. On page 36, he claims, "God has a big dream for your life." On page 56: "God sees you as a champion. He believes in you even more than you believe in yourself!" And on page 110: "God has confidence in you."
Osteen does not provide a single Bible verse to back up these statements…because there are none. Nowhere in the Bible do we read that God believes or has confidence in us. He loves us, but does not believe in us. On the contrary, He knows all too well how unbelievably fickle and untrustworthy we humans actually are. It's not like Joel describes on page 57: "Believe it or not, that is how God sees you, too. He regards you as a strong, courageous, successful, overcoming person."
Furthermore, God does not define our success in materialistic terms as Joel does. God is interested in our obedience above all. On page 63, Joel writes:
As long as you are pressing forward, you can hold your head up high, knowing that you are a "work in progress," and God is in the process of changing you. He's looking at your last two good moves.
Joel, where in the Bible do you read that God is not looking at our last two bad moves but our last two good moves? Isaiah 64:6 says that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags or wickedness to God because He is so holy. Even if God did look at our last two good moves, He would still see filthy rags.
Or how about this Osteen gospel gem from page 95:
"Be the best you can be, then you can feel good about yourself."
Where in the Bible do we find this teaching? What if your best is getting drunk just once a week instead of twice a week? Should you still feel good about yourself?
But wait. I've saved Joel's most outrageous statement for last (drum roll please). On page 144, Joel elevates us to the heavenlies by pointing out that "You may even need to forgive God."
Whoa! And exactly what would we be forgiving God for? As I recall, forgiveness is for sins-or at least mistakes. But which of those has God made? Not a one according to any Bible I've ever read.
Oswald Chambers offers a perspective on the kind of thing the Osteens of the world do to Christians:
"Satan's great aim is to deflect us from the center. He will allow us to be devoted to the death to any cause, any enterprise, to anything but the Lord Jesus."
Hebrews 13:9 instructs us to not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings (deflected from the center) but sadly, that is exactly what is happening for many at the hand of Joel Osteen.
Instead of pursuing our best life now, we should pursue the things of the Lord so we can have our best life later. I fear that for many who follow Joel's false teaching, this life is the best they will get. The false gospel proclaimed by Joel Osteen and accepted as truth by millions may allow many to achieve what they can conceive of the things in this world, but true to Jesus' promise, they may lose their souls in the pursuit.
Originally Posted by Brannon Howse at www.worldviewweekend.com
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Suffering.....
T4G 2010 -- Session 8 -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Originally Posted at www.theresurgence.com/blog by Mike Anderson Director
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