Machismo

Growing up in Santa Fe, N.M. I was exposed very heavily to the “machismo”
type of masculinity. A man is defined by how many fights he has been in, how
many girls he has slept with, and how much liquor he can consume. This is handed
down from father to son, generation after generation. I can’t count how many
times growing up that I watched my dad either getting drunk or getting into
street fights.

As a matter of fact, one time when he found out that a neighbor kid was
picking on me, and I had done nothing about it, he drove me over to his house
and forced me to fight him. My dad was as tough as they come. When he was only
16, he wrecked my grandpa’s car, and rather than face the beating he knew was
coming, he pushed the car into the driveway and walked to California with only a
dollar in his pocket.

What It Meant To Be a Man

The sad thing is this is how he would lead our family as well. Our home was
filled with violence and alcohol abuse. I simply thought that this was what it
meant to be a man. Therefore, this is what I was aiming for. My father had
taught me well, and I was well on my way to walking in his footsteps. But little
did I know that God in his grace was calling my father. He would teach him what
it really means to be a man. It would be radically different from what he had
learned, and what he had taught me.

As my father began to walk with Jesus, I saw him do things that he had never
done. These are things that I was taught that real men were never to do. I’ll
never forget the first time I saw my dad reading a bible, or the first time I
saw him cry, or the first time I saw him actually avoid a fight. It blew me
away. I had no neat little box to put this in. I knew that this had to be God
working in my father’s life.

Respect and Confession

This began to teach me that there was more to being a man than I was taught.
The violent and proud man I once knew was gone, and in his place was a humble
and gentle man. A man who still commanded respect, but not through fear. It came
through friendship.

I’ll never forget the day my dad came to me and confessed his sins against
our family and me. He admitted he was wrong in so many areas of his life, and
that by God’s grace he would be a better example of what a man truly is. He
didn’t only do this with me, but also with so many people he had wronged
throughout his life. It was in that moment I learned one of the most important
things about being a man.

Real Men Repent

The bible says in Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever
conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes
them will obtain mercy.” My father taught me the meaning of true repentance.
Through this lesson I was able to win the biggest battle I had ever been in. My
entire life I battled sin, and I always came up on the losing end. When I placed
my faith in Jesus Christ and through the repentance of my sins, I received the
mercy of God and acceptance as his son.

Jesus gave me the victory over sin that I could never have experienced on my
own. Meaning that sin became for me something I do, instead of something I am.
And when I do sin, I can confess and repent of my sin, and God will be faithful
and forgive and cleanse me from all my unrighteousness.

Jesus now becomes for me the ultimate example of what it truly means to be a
man. By God’s grace I live to his glory daily in my life and plan to pass this
on to my son behind me.

This post originally appeared on Mars Hill
Albuquerque’s blog

http://theresurgence.com/2011/08/01/sproul-driscoll-chandler-tchividjian-discussion-panel

By Scotty Smith, Christ Community Church
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” Mark 7:5-8

Dear Jesus, we tremble at the thought of you speaking these words to us. What could be more sobering and painful than to hear you say, “You talk about me a lot—using multiple Scriptures and well crafted theological language. You’re quick to recognize and correct false teaching, and you’re quite zealous to apply what you know to others. But your heart is far from me.”

It would be one thing to garner such a rebuke for mimicking the worse Pharisees and the Galatian Judaizers (Gal. 2:11-21)—putting people under the yoke of performance-based spirituality, and failing to acknowledge your work as the sole and sufficient basis for our salvation. But it would be an altogether different thing to be chided for being a gospel snob and scribe. Have mercy on us, Jesus, have mercy on me.

Forgive us when our love for the truth of the gospel and the doctrines of grace is more obvious than our love for you… as impossible as that may seem.

Forgive us when we enjoy exposing legalistic, pragmatic and moralistic teaching more than we crave spending time with you in fellowship and prayer.

Forgive us when we invest great energy in defending the imputation of your righteousness but have very little concern for the impartation of your transforming life.

Forgive us when we are quick to tell people what obedience is not, but fail to demonstrate what the obedience of faith actually is.

Forgive us when we call ourselves “recovering Pharisees” or “recovering legalists,” but in reality, we’re not really recovering from anything.

Forgive us when talk more about “getting the gospel” than we’re actually “gotten” by the gospel.

Forgive us for being just as arrogant about grace theology as we were obnoxious about legalistic theology.

Forgive us when our multiplied uses of the word “gospel” in our conversations does not translated into multiplied evidences of the power of the gospel in our lives.

Forgive us when we don’t use our gospel freedom to serve one another in love, but rather use it to put our consciences to sleep.

Forgive us for creating gospel-fraternities and gospel-posses which taste to outsiders like ingrown tribes or “clubish” elitism.

Forgive us for having a PhD in the indicatives yet only a kindergarten certificate in the imperatives of the gospel.

Forgive us when our passion for the gospel does not translate into a passion for holiness and world evangelism, and caring for widows and orphans.

Lord Jesus, with convicted and humbled hearts, we ask you to change us, by your grace and for your glory. So very Amen, we pray, in your magnificent and merciful name.

We are offering three classes:

Practical Hermeneutics (The Science of Interpretation) with Dr. Neal Hegeman

An Overview of Christian Theology with Jared Reed

Effective Ministry in a Post-Christian World with Barry Smith

Visit our website today to register for your classes.

Practical Hermeneutics by Dr. Neal Hegeman

An Overview of Christian Theology by Mr. Jared Reed

Effective Ministry in a Post-Christian World by Mr. Barry Smith

For more information check out the registration form on the website or call Academic Director Jared Reed at 786-547-1254

Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.

At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the Bible talks about God’s working for us. As in: “God works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I am lost and need a Rescuer.

“God works for me” means I can’t do the work.

And this glorifies him not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.

I just completed a series on Twitter (@JohnPiper) celebrating some of the texts that express this truth. Here’s the summary list. Read and be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). Let him do that work.

1. “No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:4)

2. “God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, but he himself gives life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:25)

3. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

4. “The eyes of the LORD run through the earth, to show himself strong for those who trust him.” (2 Chronicles. 16:9)

5. “If I were hungry, I wouldn’t tell you. Call on me, I will deliver you. You will glorify me.” (Psalm 50:15)

6. “To old age I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” (Isaiah 46:4)

7. “I worked harder than any, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians. 15:10).

8. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

9. “Whoever serves, let him serve by the strength God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified.” (1 Peter 4:11)

10. “Work out your own salvation, for it is God who works in you, to will and to work.” (Philippians 2:12–13)

11. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/11-ways-god-works-for-us

I recently had the opportunity to read through almost all of the books of R.C. Sproul. Along the way I built a collection of some of the best quotes from each one of them. Here are 5 of the best from Chosen By God.

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What predestination means, in its most elementary form, is that our final destination, heaven or hell, is decided by God not only before we get there, but before we are even born. It teaches that our ultimate destiny is in the hands of God.

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If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.

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The assumption many of us make when we struggle with the Fall is that, had we been there, we would have made a different choice. We would not have made a decision that would plunge the world into ruin. Such an assumption is just not possible given the character of God. God doesn’t make mistakes. His choice of my representative is greater than my choice of my own.

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Most non-Reformed views of predestination fail to take seriously the fact that fallen man is spiritually dead. Other evangelical positions acknowledge that man is fallen and that his fallenness is a serious matter. They even grant that sin is a radical problem. They are quick to grant that man is not merely ill, but mortally ill, sick unto death. But he has not quite died yet. He still has one tiny breath of spiritual life left in his body. He still has a tiny island of righteousness left in his heart, a tiny and feeble moral ability that abides in his fallenness.

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From all eternity, without any prior view of our human behavior, God has chosen some unto election and others unto reprobation. The ultimate destiny of the individual is decided by God before that individual is even born and without depending ultimately upon the human choice. To be sure, a human choice is made, a free human choice, but the choice is made because God first chooses to influence the elect to make the right choice. The basis for God’s choice does not rest in man but solely in the good pleasure of the divine will.

Scotty Smith
Pastor for Preaching, Teaching and Worship
Christ Community Church

An Overview of Christian Theology. Instructor: Jared Reed

Practical Hermeneutics. Instructor: Neal Hegeman

Effective Ministry in a Post-Christian World. Instructor: Barry Smith

See the website for more information. http://mintsmiami.wordpress.com/schedule/

When dealing with a church member (even those overly energetic, poorly socialized middle schoolers) who is sinful, challenging or just plain uncooperative it is good to remember that you are dealing with a person who is the object of incredible, infinite, indescribable, unbelievably precious grace, mercy and patience. God is not angry, annoyed or even impatient with his people when they are difficult. He took all his anger, annoyance and impatience onto himself while on the cross. He is passionately in love with that person we find difficult. God is exceedingly pleased with him, because of his union with Christ. 
 
I was really frustrated with a church member today. What I most wanted was to be vindicated that I was right and justified to feel frustrated. I was reminded, however, that while what I most wanted was vindication, that was not what I most needed. What I needed most was the grace to see this person as God does – loved, pleased with and rejoiced over.

Barry Smith, Executive Director, MINTS-Miami