Check out my brother's latest blog entry. I couldn't have said it better if I wanted to.
About a year or so ago I started listening to Tim Keller sermons. In one particular sermon, "Born of the Gospel," Keller says the following:
I found that statement very intriguing and mystifying. I wanted to know what that meant, to be obsessed with the gospel, but I had no idea. I was pretty sure it didn't mean staring at gospel tracts that share the four spiritual laws or the Roman Road, but I was perplexed.An obsession with the gospel is the one obsession that will stop all other obsessions, all other addictions, all other over-desires.
A few months later I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Keller at a conference in Seattle but I didn't have the time to ask him in the brief seconds I had with him. There was a question and answer time after one of his sessions, but I was too intimidated by the few hundred pastors and church planters in the room to ask the question.
About 10 months have passed since the conference, and part of me is now thankful that I didn't have the courage to ask him because it's forced me to figure out what he meant. About six weeks ago I was asked to teach a gospel class at my church. Though many days I feel woefully inadequate and ill-equipped to teach this class, I am also very excited because I find my love of and obsession with the gospel growing continually. The class begins tomorrow night, so pray for me and the people who come to the class as we look together at the gospel.
The reason I'm writing is because my trepidation in teaching this class has caused me to look and meditate and read and listen and pray. In short, it has caused me to become obsessed with the gospel. It is on my mind when I fall asleep, when I wake up in the morning, all throughout the day, as I'm in my car driving, listening to sermons, and begging God for help. It has helped me see just how frequently each and every day I live out of line with the gospel, how often I sin and how the root of my sin is not believing the gospel in that moment.
As I have stared and meditated and gazed upon the gospel--this glorious, beautiful, powerful true story of the love of God poured out on us with utter, unfathomable grace--I am finding myself more transfixed by it. I know it's power more than I did two months ago, one month ago, and one week ago. There is more glory--weight--than I saw in it before. It is more beautiful to the eyes of my heart and my mind than any time in my life. I can't wait to see another angle and implication of the gospel.
As Dr. Keller puts it so well, the gospel corrects the two erroneous tendencies of the human heart. The gospel tells me that, "I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe," correcting the error that God is only loving and accepting, "yet I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope," correcting the error that we must do something to earn God's favor and acceptance.
This afternoon I have been meditating on the cross of Christ with all of this in mind. It has given me a better understanding of the passage I Corinthians 1:23 where the apostle Paul says, "but we preach Christ crucified." I have realized that one of the reasons for this is because of what the cross demonstrates, namely God's violent hatred toward sin, while at the same time demonstrating his unfathomable love for us that he would give up his beloved son to reconcile us to him. If we only preach the wrath of God, or only the love of God, the cross is emptied of it's power because the cross demonstrates both at once. To gaze upon the cross, the indescribable violence, ugliness and brutality of it is to see the love of God. Jesus was the truly innocent sufferer, the only human being who ever fulfilled the law of God, the only human being who didn't deserve to die. Yet because of God's love for us, he literally crushed and disowned his one and only son. II Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus dies the death we should have died, we get the life we didn't deserve. Why? Because God is holy. Without a perfect righteousness--Christ's righteousness--we would be consumed immediately in the presence of God. But because he loves us, he suffered the ultimate agony--there really aren't words for the horror Jesus endured for us--so that we could become children of God. Think today about the violence of Jesus' death and see the love of God for you. Look at what Jesus has done, and by faith accept that Jesus bore your sins on the cross.
Tonight I was having a conversation with my friend Bryant Rosenwinkel at Muldoon's when the word "metrosexual" came up. It came up because a bunch of metrosexuals came into the restaurant, prompting us to discuss the origin of the word. I won't give the history as you can find it on wikipedia, where you can find anything.
The purpose of this blog entry is very simple, and self-serving. I coined a word tonight and I want it as a matter of record (as soon as google indexes this page).
The word is "excloogle" and it is a noun meaning, "an individual who exclusively uses Google to search the Internet."
Bryant and myself both confessed to being excloogles. Enjoy, use, and spread the word. Literally. Make us famous, like the guy who coined the word "metrosexual." I can't remember his name, but make us famous like that.
Ah, Culver's. For those of you unfamiliar, allow me to briefly initiate you. Culver's is a restaurant started in Wisconsin that specializes in two things: Frozen Custard and Butterburgers. It began from one humble location in Sauk City in 1984, but has since exploded to 330 locations in 16 states, thankfully with plans for wider expansion soon. If you wonder what a butterburger is exactly, I implore you to exert even the least amount of imagination and intuition and you'll probably come pretty close. Had Solomon written Ecclesiastes in our time, he may have included a reference to Culver's in that now famous list, a time for everything. Or maybe he already did when he said, "a time to die" or perhaps "a time to kill" depending on who's eating and who's preparing the food.
If you've never been to Culver's you should at least know this much: Culver's makes a steady diet of McDonald's and Burger King seem like a safe bet for long-term coronary health. Today at lunch I went to Culver's in Carol Stream, Illinois with my good friend Clayton Keenon. I hadn't eaten at Culver's in a while and I was craving meat cooked in butter and a bun soaked in butter. Of course, Culver's food is cooked to order so you can truly have it your way. For example, this is what it says on the nutrition information page on their website:
"Culver's food is prepared to order. That means we'll make it just the way you like it. If you have dietary restrictions, just let us know how we can help.
- Ask for the bun without butter
That's always a good start. One might expect them to first mention they have salads.
So when I went up to place my order, I ordered a Butterburger with Cheese (398 calories, 20 grams of fat, 8 of them saturated), only ketchup. As the woman was inputing my order, I jokingly asked her if I could get extra butter. She was more than happy to oblige, clearly missing the joke as her finger rapidly prodded the touchscreen to customize my order. "No, I'm just kidding," I told her. She only hesitated briefly, pausing to tell me that they can do it and then went back to changing my order. "No, I don't want extra butter. It was just a joke." This time she paused and looked up, "Everything is made to order, so we can do that for you. We make everything to order, so they don't cook it until the order is tendered." "No, I really don't want extra butter." She seemed disappointed, so in the spirit of generosity and deference to my cashier lady friend, I got cheese fries. I didn't have the heart to explain to the poor lady that the whole extra butter thing is a family sin I'm trying to bury with me when I die.
And if you're curious about Clayton, he ordered the Double Butterburger with Cheese. Talk about a double entendre. His health numbers? 580 calories, 32 grams of fat, 10 of them saturated. Then we split a custard. I think that's mostly butter too.
Psalms 14 and 53 both begin with the statement, "The fool says in his heart, There is no God." It seems that modern science has given us yet another reason to believe the Word of God. Check out these pictures just released by NASA:
Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."
Can anyone look at the astonishing beauty of Saturn and it's rings and not be overwhelmed by the power and glory our Lord Jesus Christ displays? Remember Colossians 1:15-17, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
Please pause to ponder that statement: By Him--Jesus--all things were created, everything, and further, he holds them all together. Look at the Saturn images again. Jesus created that planet and he is sustaining it as you read this, even as he sustains the breath and the intricate parts of your body that allow you to see, read, comprehend, feel, and most of all, worship. In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), so let us praise him for his power, and even more so, that this all-powerful God of ours chose to leave his throne at the right hand of the Father to come to earth to bear the wrath of our sins. He did not do this because he had to, or because we asked him to, but because he is great and gracious and glorious and wonderful and more. Romans 5:8, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus Christ died for us when we were still his enemies. I don't say this to guilt anyone into loving Jesus because true love is never wrought by guilt, but unconditional love. Two places tell us this (there are many more). I John 4:12, "We love because he first loved us" and Romans 2:4, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"
I hope you look at the rings of Saturn and see the glory of God, and see even more how beautiful the good news of the gospel is, in that the Lord Jesus Christ who holds the rings of Saturn in perfect, beautiful orbit, was SLAUGHTERED at the hands of men so we can be reconciled to God (Romans 5:1-2) to live with him and enjoy his glory and goodness forever. All you have to do is look upon Jesus. He's the hero of the story, and he did for us what we could never do for ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ is a great and powerful savior! Repent and believe, turn and worship.
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