Weekly Once-Over (01.30.2014):
Finding Your True Identity: It is Jesus who pursues, secures, and maintains our position in the family of God. He died that we might be restored to a right relationship with his Father, back into the family we were originally created to be a part of. Jesus, our servant king, gave us his indwelling Spirit and sent us out on his mission. It’s all about Jesus.
How To Make Accountability Work: Accountability has gotten a bad rap. It is easy to see why, I guess. When it comes to battling against sin, and especially those stubborn, addictive sins, accountability relationships are sometimes held up as a cure-all, a near guarantee of success. Yet often they end up being a means of commiseration more than challenge, a time when Christians sit around feeling sorry for one another rather than full-on battling against sin.
6 Very Simple Ways To Your Super Bowl Missional: The Superbowl is coming up and, whether you like football or not, it’s a very big deal to the ones we want to reach with the gospel. One of the most basic principles of biblical mission is a willingness to adopt someone else’s culture to reach them for Christ.
Jesus Is Better: As we share our faith, may we do so with the winsome confidence that life in Jesus is so much richer, fuller, and better than any life apart from him. The gospel is good news! Lives that reflect a joy deeper than circumstances lovingly bear witness to this soul-satisfying truth: Jesus is better.
The Grammys, Grace, and The Gospel: 3 Things the Grammys Can Remind Christians: So, the Grammys are not representative of our culture, but in some ways they are indicative of its shifts. And, the Grammy moment is a good moment to remind ourselves of a few things.
Christians and Movies: Are We Contextualizing or Compromising: Is our bigger problem a lack of contextualization? Or is it that we’ve compromised ourselves without knowing it? That’s the issue here. And I suppose I worry more that we are failing our neighbor because of our compromise than because we’ve failed to contextualize. Alissa is right that film watching is a matter of wisdom, not fear. But my great fear is that we are being unwise.
Why I am a Continuationist: All the gifts of the Spirit, whether tongues or teaching, prophecy or mercy, healing or helping, were given (among other reasons) for the edification, building up, encouraging, instructing, consoling, and sanctifying of the body of Christ. Therefore, even if the ministry of the miraculous gifts to attest and authenticate has ceased, a point I concede only for the sake of argument, such gifts would continue to function in the church for the other reasons cited.
Why I am a Cessationist: Now, could God in cutting-edge missionary situations grant miracles and signs and wonders to accredit the gospel as he did in apostolic times? Yes. But that's not the same thing as having these gifts as a regular feature in the ongoing life of the church. If the signs and wonders of the apostles have returned, we should see the blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, and the dead being raised. God heals today (sometimes dramatically), but the healing of colds, the flu, TMJ, stomach, and back problems, and so forth aren't in the same category as the healings found in the Scriptures. If people truly have the gift of healing and miracles today, they need to demonstrate such by performing the kinds of healings and miracles found in the Bible.