"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it . . . White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise." - J.R.R. Tolkien
Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot, also has some great solo stuff out there (shout out to Kevin Qualls!). This song is basically the idea of Isaiah 58 set to music.
I hate all your show and pretense the hypocrisy of your praise the hypocrisy of your festivals I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship Away with your noisy hymns I stop up my ears when your singing ‘em I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice An endless procession of righteous living, living Instead let there be a flood of justice Instead of a show
your eyes are closed when you’re praying you sing right along with the band you shine up your shoes for services but there’s blood on your hands
you turned your back on the homeless and the ones that don’t fit in your plans quit playing religion games there’s blood on your hands
Ah! let’s argue this out if your sins are blood red let’s argue this out you’ll be white as the clouds let’s argue this out quit fooling around
give love to the ones who can’t love at all give hope to the ones who got no hope at all stand up for the ones who can’t stand up at all instead of a show I hate all your show
We appeal to men as if they had all the ability to receive Christ at any time; we speak of His redeeming work as if He had done no more by dying than make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing; we speak of God’s love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust; and we depict the Father and Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence “at the door of our hearts” for us to let them in...
It needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. The Bible is against us when we preach in this way; and the fact that such preaching has become almost standard practice among us only shows how urgent it is that we should review this matter. To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, & to bring our preaching & practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need.
The glory of the Gospel is that it was accomplished outside of us on the Cross and that the righteousness that counts for me in heaven before the Holy Judge is a righteousness outside of me. Christ is my righteousness. In Christ his righteousness is commended to the Father. I stand clothed in Christ—his righteousness is my only hope.
One of the hardest things in dealing with introverted, introspective, depressed, and insecure people who every time you give them a promise divert this way and deflect that way and can’t wear it. Ultimately, there is only one answer for them—the miracle : “Would you please stop thinking about yourself? Lets pray that God will set you free from the curse of the condemning mirror and begin to think of Christ.
Your measuring up will never happen on planet earth. You will never be good enough. Ever, ever, ever. Relax, you will never be good enough. There is One who has been good enough and only One. And He has died as to climax to that obedience such that your sins have been taken and the righteousness you so long to have has been provided perfectly in Christ before the Holy Judge.
God looks you upon it and says ”I count you perfect and all that are in you my Son and you may be in Him by simply falling on Him.”
A country can only export what it manufactures. That's a pretty basic principle. But now apply that principle to the topic of missions: if generations of American churches have been characterized by pragmatic church growth principles, what would you expect to see characterizing their overseas missions endeavors?
Okay, so maybe American missions work is driven by the same kind of pragmatism that characterizes so many American churches. Is that really such a big deal? Well, stop and consider the differences between planting pragmatically-driven churches in America versus planting them in most Majority World contexts. Such churches in America have the luxury of building themselves upon the foundations of a culture imbued with several hundred years of Christian influence and ethical norms. Fill a room with nominal Christians, as pragmatically-driven churches do, and you still have a dame that looks half way decent. She'll dress up alright.
Now build that same church with those same pragmatic principles, yielding once again a room filled with nominal Christians, but do it in a country with strong traditions in polygamy, or animal sacrifice, or ancestor worship, or Islamic chauvinism, or Hindu castes, or nepotistic social structures, or so on. Build it on the shoulders of leaders who didn't grow up in Sunday School and were not groomed in seminary classrooms with tall genealogical trees, where orthodoxy, even if it's doubted, has been defended in book after book after book. What should we expect of this church? I've been around the Majority World block enough times to suspect something very different, indeed.
“How is it that this spiritual crime is being so perpetuated? Who is guilty of this sin being perpetuated? Too much of the fault falls at the feet of men. Recently, I did some research and discovered that, among our wonderful Journeyman program, today the International Mission Board has 331 journey girls on the field, but only 126 men. There are 2 1/2 times more of our sisters on the mission field as there are our brothers.
I was informed a couple of months ago that in West Africa, one ofour most difficult regions, there are today 50 journeymen—48 are females, only two are men. You say, “Where are the men?” They are sitting at home in their boxer shorts and T-shirts playing video games—that is where the men are. The fact of the matter today is that the median age of those who are addicted to those things (video games) is 34 years old.
“Gentlemen, what are we not doingto inspire our sons and grandsons to dream of doing something great for Jesus? What is it we’re not doing that would cause them to want to give their life for Christ and the nations and put their life on the line for that which really matters? You say, ‘This is a new phenomenon.” No, unfortunately it is not; when Lottie Moon (Southern Baptists’ most famous missionary, a woman who labored in China in the late 19th century) was on the mission field and she would write back home, she would write some scathing letters.
Here is just one of them: “I am trying to do the work that could fill the hands of three or four women and in addition, I am doing the work that ought to be done by young men. I must add that the work is suffering and will continue to suffer for the want of a man living on the spot.”
