News from November 2010
Why might the younger generation lack urgency in the pursuit of personal holiness?
Posted on November 25, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Is there a lack of urgency in the pursuit of personal holiness among the younger generation? Justin Taylor points us to Kevin De Young’s article about this.
You can read Kevin’s whole post here http://bit.ly/pursuitofholiness
The Pursuit of Personal Holiness
Posted: 24 Nov 2010 10:00 AM PST
Kevin DeYoung has a good post here, expressing some concern about a relative lack of urgency in pursuing personal holiness among the younger generation.
You can read the whole post, but here is an excerpt where he explores the various reasons this might be the case:
1. It was too common in the past to equate holiness with abstaining from a few taboo practices like drinking, smoking, and dancing. In a previous generation godliness meant you didn’t do these things. Younger generations have little patience for these sorts of rules. They either don’t agree with the rules or they figure they’ve got those bases covered so there’s not much else to worry about.
2. Related to the first reason is the fear that a passion for holiness makes you some kind of weird holdover from a bygone era. As soon as you talk about swearing or movies or music or modesty or sexual purity or self-control or just plain godliness people get nervous that others will call them legalistic, or worse, a fundamentalist.
3. We live in a culture of cool, and to be cool means you differentiate yourself from others. That has often meant pushing the boundaries with language, with entertainment, with alcohol, and with fashion. Of course, holiness is much more than these things, but in an effort to be hip many Christians have figured holiness has nothing to do with these things. They’ve willingly embraced Christian freedom, but they’ve not earnestly pursued Christian virtue.
4. Among more liberal Christians a radical pursuit of holiness if often suspect because any talk of right and wrong behaviors feels judgmental and intolerant. If we are to be “without spot or blemish” it necessitates we distinguish between what sort of attitudes, actions, and habits are pure and what sort are impure. This sort of sorting gets you in trouble with the pluralism police.
5. Among conservative Christians there is sometimes the mistaken notion that if we are truly gospel-centered we won’t talk about rules or imperatives or exhort Christians to moral exertion. To be sure, there is a rash of moralistic teaching out there, but sometimes we go to the other extreme and act as if the Bible shouldn’t advise our morals at all. We are so eager not to confuse indicatives and imperatives (a point I’ve made many times) that if we’re not careful we’ll drop the imperatives altogether. We’ve been afraid of words like diligence, effort, and obedience. We’ve downplayed verses that call us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), or command us to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), or warn against even a hint of immorality among the saints (Eph. 5:3).
The blessing of waiting in line
Posted on November 19, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Winter has hit the Prairies this week with much snow and a -21 welcome to this morning. During the past two days of storming, everything slowed down. You have to shovel to get out of your driveway. Traffic moves slower as people cautiously approach intersections and go up and down hills. School buses might arrive a little later. Add to that the onset of Christmas season, with mall insanity, school programs and the rush to get gifts mailed on time. You get the picture.
This time of year presents many opportunities to be standing or waiting in line. Now I used to get extremely frustrated waiting in line. I had very important things to do and the people in front of me were getting in the way. But I’ve been learning lately that waiting in line can provide a wonderful opportunity – to pray for others.
Simply by paying attention to others around me, I see and hear lots that I can pray about. There’s many situations I can’t do much about. But I can pray and bring them before the One with eternal resources to make a significant different. So sometimes while I’m in line, I remember to pray.
It’s amazing the difference this makes in me. When I get to the front of the line, I’m not exasperated or giving the clerk dirty looks because they didn’t work hard enough. I’m thankful I had time to bring some friend or situation before the Lord. I always have more to pray about than I have time to pray.
So maybe the next time you’re in line, you can use it to pray for someone. What a blessing!
A Parable of Freedom
Posted on November 5, 2010 by Pastor Tom
Here’s a helpful picture from John Stott to think about Fundamentalists, Liberals and Evangelicals.
Let me develop a little parable. It uses flight as a picture of freedom (memories of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull!) and seeks to characterize (not, I hope, caricature) the essential difference between the fundamentalist, the liberal and the evangelical. The fundamentalist seems to me to resemble a caged bird, which possesses the capacity for flight, but lacks the freedom to use it. For the fundamentalist mind is confined or caged by an over-literal interpretation of Scripture, and by the strict traditions and conventions into which this has led him. He is not at liberty to question these, or to explore alternative, equally faithful ways of applying Scripture to the modern world, for he cannot escape from his cage. The liberal seems to me to resemble (no offence meant!) a gas-filled balloon, which takes off and rises into the air, buoyant, free, directed only by its own built-in navigational responses to wind and pressure, but entirely unrestrained from earth. For the liberal mind has no anchorage; it is accountable only to itself. The evangelical seems to me to resemble a kite, which can also take off, fly great distances and soar to great heights, while all the time being tethered to earth. For the evangelical mind is held by revelation. Without doubt it often needs a longer string, for we are not renowned for creative thinking. Nevertheless, at least in the ideal, I see evangelicals as finding true freedom under the authority of revealed truth, and combining a radical mindset and lifestyle with a conservative commitment to Scripture.
—From “Essentials”, by David L. Edwards and John Stott (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1988), p. 106.
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—Excerpted from “Authentic Christianity”, p. 103, by permission of InterVarsity Press.