These Guys Are Getting It So Right!

Check out this video I found on Desiring God. This is legit.

Soma Communities - Missional Community Profile - Tacoma, WA from Soma Communities on Vimeo.

Results of Community: The Equipping of the Saints and the Building of the Body.

In D. A. Carson’s book responding to the threat of postmodernism and pluralism, The Gagging of God, he produces a short praise of community that I would like to share with you.

“Third, belonging to one or more overlapping interpretive communities is not only inevitable, it can be a good thing. Suppose the interpretive community in question is a group of sincere, committed, knowledgeable Christians. To put this in contemporary terms, this group has been shaped by the biblical text. This does not mean that all their understandings of the Bible are or reasonable or true. It does mean that at least some of their number have spiralled in on the text again and again; they have taken pains to approach it asymptotically, believing or even fearing that they cannot approach it absolutely; they have tried, again and again, to fuse the horizon of their understanding with that of the text, as they themselves are being shaped by the community. And they have taught their findings to others in their community of faith and live them out, thereby shaping the entire community of faith by the text. To be reared and nurtured in such a community is to grow up with tremendous advantages. By the grace of God, there may be a much earlier and deeper personal grasp of the message of Scripture than would be the case if the individual belonged to an entirely alien interpretive community.

Indeed, such an interpretive community may help many of those who are nurtured and shaped by it to avoid foolish and dangerous mistakes. This is, in part, the argument of Louth: belonging to an interpretive community is not unavoidable, but for the Christ it is right and sage and good and rewarding to explore and think things out in the context of the lived Tradition (p. 127).”

Here Carson is saying that we are all inevitably influenced by the interpretive nature of the communities we exist in (earlier he shows that these are not always the deciding factor in decision making, simply because people change interpretive communities all the time). Now Carson does not simply leave it at the existence of the influence, but he goes on to say that the influence is often a great thing for Christians. The idea is that as Christians, shaped by the Bible, mature in knowledge and understanding, they spiral into the text by asking harder questions and receiving better answers. Within a community of people who are themselves spiraling into the Scriptures, Christians can inch closer to this absolute, ultimate knowledge that does exist but is outside of our reach currently. We often make similar mistakes in our interpretation of the Bible, and within this context of community, fellow believers, who have already spiraled through the mistake, can be there to teach and correct. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. That is why Paul wrote in Ephesians:

And he (God) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

The teachers provided by God are to equip the saints and guard them from being swayed by false doctrine. Of course this is not fully accomplished until future glorification when we see Jesus and all false doctrine dissenter-grates. The saints, who are the joints of the body, each work properly in the ministry in the mean time and the body grows. The growth is directly connected with the equipping done by the teachers. Paul says explicitly that the equipping is “for building up the body of Christ.”

We press towards ultimate knowledge, but we know that we are growing up into Him (Christ) and approaching it asymptotically. We approach this line of knowledge by the grace of God, and the work of those who have spiraled into the Scriptures already and those who are spirally alongside us. We are equipped by those who have wrestled with doctrine before us and those who wrestling alongside us. The loner Christian is not only at a disadvantage, as Carson implies, but he/she is a malfunctioning part of the Body. He/She is not being properly equipped, and thus not working properly to grow the Body.

You will learn more in the context of a Biblically based interpretive community than you will ever learn on an individualistic conquest of knowledge. GET IN COMMUNITY.

Haiti, Life, and Praise

I am sure everyone reading this realizes that 8 days ago one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory occurred. The poverty stricken country of Haiti was decimated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. This disaster has been covered intensely by the media. Seeing the devastation and destruction almost in real time has deeply impacted me. The fragility of life has stuck out to me. I started thinking about security and how that affects the we live day to day. How many Haitians do you think woke up that day thinking that they would be buried alive under their homes?

How does the Bible describe the life of a person? James 4:14 says “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Here is a quick object lesson: Find the nearest spray bottle near you (whether it be windex or fabreeze), make sure the setting on the nozzle is “spray”. Now spray it up in the air and count how long it takes for the mist to disappear. Alright so you finished that. THAT IS HOW THE BIBLE DESCRIBES OUR LIVES! 2Corinthians 5 calls our lives here on Earth “tents” compared the houses Jesus has prepared for us in heavenly places. Psalm 39 says that “all of mankind stands as a mere breath”. Think about that. Think about those cold days as a kid when you would pretend you were a dragon breathing out smoke (or am I the only one?). How long did each one of the those breaths last? A matter of seconds, that is how long. Our lives compared with eternity are simply seconds.

What impacted does this have on us? How does this affected the way we live? First it makes me want to make the most of this short life. It makes me want to seek God’s glory all the more while I am here and alive. Paul says in 2Corinthians 5 we are in temporary “tents” longing for our heavenly dwelling. But he does not disregard the tent itself. He says we are not home, Peter echoes that we are indeed exiles (1Peter 1:1), but he does say while we are here we make it our “aim to please Him.” A bunch of people from my church and I recently went to the Passion 2010 Conference. It was an amazing experience! And there was a speaker there named Andy Stanley. Unfortunately I did not get to see his session, but from what I heard the theme of his session was “what would people say about you at your funeral.” Now initially I was kind of put off by this because it seems very self-centered and man-focused. However, now I look at it slightly differently (still he could have made it more focused on Jesus but I will not say much more about that because I have not heard what was said). I have only been to three funerals in my life but from both of those I gather that funerals are intended to be more a celebration of a loved one’s life more than feeling pity for them or ourselves. So what people say of you at your funeral really can be one of the most Gospel-centered moments of influence you have in your “tent”. Here is where I am going with this, Phillipians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” If we seek to make the most of this world by seeking to please God, at our funerals people will see Christ in our lives and see that we truly have gained a glorious house to replace our temporary tent.

Another impact this catastrophic event should have on us is that we should be forever thanking God for the life we have right now. Acts 17:25 “ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” HE GIVES US LIFE AND BREATH AND EVERYTHING. THIS VERY MOMENT! THE ONLY REASON YOU HAVE NOT DIED AS YOU READ THESE WORDS IS THAT GOD HAS SUSTAINED YOU ANOTHER MOMENT! Think on that. That changes everything! There is a commercial running for McDonald’s now, in it there is guy who refuses to acknowledge anyone until he gets his coffee. How often do we do that with God? I know I do. I have to lay in bed for 30 minutes before I can even think of functioning. But that is not how I should awaken. I should get up and immediately fall down and thank the Lord for another day in this tent and immediately seek to please him. Coffee can wait!

So my aim will be to get my days started correctly with praise and live out the day seeking to make the absolute most of it, Lord willing I make it to the end of the day.

May Grace Be With You,
D New

A Blog About Why I Am Blogging

Why did I start a blog? Was it simply to be cool like everyone is (or appears to be)? Hopefully this blog will explain some if not all reasons for it.

The most primary reason for starting this blog is to do my best to glorify God. All other things stem from that one desire. Whether it be using this blog to lead others to Christ or expressing thoughts on what the Lord has shown me, the basis for it is to glorifying Christ. This will undoubtedly bring me and hopefully others satisfaction of some sort, this is expected because God is the most satisfying Being in the universe. Although satisfaction will be a result, I must stress it is NOT the reason.

So why don’t I just post stuff on Facebook and debate, discuss, and share via statuses (stati???)? Well I have found after running my mouth many a time and witnessing others do the very same, Facebook tends to not be a good place for such activity. After observing mostly myself, I find that Facebook is littered with reactionary, emotional outbursts rather than calm, clear rebuttals. Here is how it plays out often: Christian A says something controversial, Christian B then freaks out and explodes on his status (note, wall etc.) and John 13:35 and 1 John 4 are left on the side of the road.

Now of course my blog is not perfect nor I am, but I believe posting thoughts and having discussions here are steps in the right direction. I feel myself attempting to balance Proverbs 17:27 and 2 Timothy 4:2. Hopefully posting here will help because of my desire not to jump on here and just write whatever rant I have at the front of my mind (for that check out my twitter @D_New just kidding but seriously… kinda). I desire to share Christ-centered, thought out ideas, questions, and information. Basically I plan on putting effort into this and hopefully making it a good tool for myself as well as others. Now this does not mean I will skirt the tough and often controversial topics, but I will definitely think out what I say much more than I would in the wonderful world of Facebook.

May Grace Be With You,
D New