continuous ourpourers of worship

[The following is a review of a work I recently completed by Harold Best. I highly recommend it if you ever have the opportunity to work through it]


It is rare these days that one is challenged on an intellectual and spiritual level that Harold Best exudes in this work. At 78 years old, I'm not sure of any author that has the life experience to contribute to such an undertaking. Unceasing Worship is by far the most challenging, yet rewarding book I have read on worship to date. Best even goes a step further by dealing with Biblical perspectives on the arts and relates worship to current culture in which there exists much of the experiential spectrum resulting in idolatry in which we are guilty of worshiping our methods and styles as opposed to living and relating to culture as a result of our continuous outpouring of ourself/selves as living sacrifices and going forth as a sweet aroma to spread the gospel of our Lord and Christ Jesus. If you want to gain new insight and renew what it means to live a life of continuous outpouring of worship, read this book. Be prepared to be challenged and have a dictionary at hand to clarify many of the big yet powerful and descriptive words employed by Best to paint a beautiful picture of what it means to live a life of "Unceasing Worship".

characteristics of a missional church

Tim Keller....good stuff!

"emergent": gnosticism revisited

[The following is a reply to my friend Josh Glidden's blog. I've been meaning to write on the subject at hand, but wrote the gist of the subject matter in response to a post he authored. Here's the link to the origianl post: http://joshuaglidden.blogspot.com/2008/01/ranting-raving-and-blaming-worlds.html]

I heard Ravi Zacharias say once that when the tide is low every shrimp has his own puddle. When it comes to "emergent" theology I think you must see the movement as a whole and not focus in on one comment. In light of the observations I've made, I'm probably going to take this a step further and say that I do not agree with questioning the "message" of the Gospel in any form. The "message" I've received is from the Bible and in my opinion there is nothing to question in regards to what we've received. Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:3 the following: "For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...". Now, we know from Acts and Paul confirms in Galatians that he "received" his message directly from Christ himself. To be confirm what he received he went to Jerusalem and compared his message with that of the apostles and it was clear they received the same message. The entire book of Galatians Paul is spending time defending and proclaiming the Gospel. In fact he uses the harshest language that he uses in any epistle to rebuke the Judaizers for adding to the Gospel that he had origianlly laid out for them. He said he wishes they would "emasculate" them selves or "castrate" themselves. One of the largest pagan religions during this time was the worship of Isis in which the priests were all eunuchs and practiced self-castration. I believe Paul was saying if your going to teach the Gospel as Jesus plus circumcision, step it up big boy and go ahead and snip away and cut it all off. You are no different than the pagan priests of Isis! Now, apparently someone had "questioned" the Gospel that Paul had preached and infiltrated the believers to the point where they were abandoning the Gospel. In pop-culture we are experiencing the very same thing. Think about the DaVinci Code, the Jesus Seminar, etc. and they are ultimately questioning the "message" of the Gospel, not just methods. Jones makes a scary comment when he says, "This is about whole new ways of thinking. This is about epistemology...How do we reconsider the gospel and everything that goes along with it?" I don't know Jones' background or what "message" he received but I know that several people within the emergent church are questioning things such as homosexuality. Brian McClaren just decided to take a five year moratorium on the topic to see if we still feel the same way about it then. To me, the movement as a whole doesn't know what the hell they believe. I don't see how any good can come out of questioning the message of the "Gospel", at least the one I know to be true and receieved from the Scripture. Now, it is obvious that the emergent movement operates from a post-modern epistemology in which truth is relative and many operate from a trajectory theology in which theology is dynamic and changing with time and culture. So, rather than questioning our methods in light of the unchanging "message" and truth of the Gospel to contexualize and reach the post-moderns, they have reversed this and began questioning the message itself. It's Gnosticism all over again. It's taking a pagan world view and trying to reconsider the message we've received and just like the Gnostics, they will pass and the true Gospel will stand the test of time and eternity. Rodney Stark wrote the following in "Cities of God" in regards to Valentinus: "Valentinus was very much the academic intellectual, and his movement had the charcteristic of a philosophical school...What he and his students aspired to achieve was to 'raise Christian theology to the level of pagan philosophical studies; in fact, 'the very purpose of the school was speculation...many scholars 'see in Valentinus' teachings the apex of gnosticism, the greatest and most influential of the gnostic schools...What made Valentinus so successful, and such a threat to conventional Christianity, was his effort to reconcile the New Testament with classic elements of Gnosticism by applying 'a peculiar allegorical interpretation of those commonly accepted texts, thereby discovering hidden and deeper levels of meaning consistent with those revealed to Gnostic visionaries." Two leading emergent leaders, Brian McClaren and Rob Bell, have both referenced a book entitled "A Brief History of Everythig" by Ken Wilbur. Ken Wilbur is an evolutionary integrated spiritualist and his book can be found in the "New Age" section of any book store. They both credit this man for having a large influence on their interpretation of the Christian faith. Brian McClaren has recently published a book called, "The Secret Message of Jesus". Apparently there is a secret message that we've missed the last two thousand years.To quote Rodney Stark once again: "...Moritz Friedlander traced the origins of Gnosticism to Jewish roots and claimed that Christianity and Gnosticism were parallel off-shoots of first-century Hellenic Judaism...As for the intense anti-Judaism of much of this literature, it was said to reflect the antagonism of bitterly ex-Jews against the faith of their fathers." It appears to me that much of the "emergent" camp are the disgruntled children of legalism and fundamentalism. I know I've expressed a ton of info here, but I do believe that anytime you borrow from a pagan/secular world view and try to interpret any Scripture or "message" that you're treading on dangerous waters. If you're going to question things, go to the source of the Word! Paul commends the Bereans in Acts 17:11 for the following: "Now these Jews were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." So please, if you're going to ask questions, go to the Scriptures. Don't drink from the toilet of pagan/secular philosophy. Now more than ever, I feel that we as believers need to fight for the truth of the Gospel and not allow these philosophies to toss us to and fro like a wave in the storm of a very unstable ocean. I love you guys and I am truly sharing my heart here. So, please, don't be a stranded shrimp while the tide is low! May Jesus be lifted high!

of hermits and fast donkeys...

Recently I've been making my way through a very interesting book entitled Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief by Rodney Stark. The general premise of the book is that of comparative religion. Stark is a professing Christian, but writes from the perspective of a sociologist. To get to the gist of this post, I was reading a section today on the Chinese religion of Taoism. Apparently Taoism celebrates "Eight Immortals", also known as ordinary people whose virtues were rewarded by the Queen Mother Goddess, who gave them peaches of everlasting life to eat. I want you take notice of why these individuals are immortalized. Without further ado, I now present to you the "Eight Immortals of Taoism" or the "Heroes of the Tao Faith":

1. Chang-Kuo Lao was a hermit with a donkey that could reach incredible speeds.

2. Chung-Li Ch'uan was a smiling, ascetic old man.

3. Han Hsiang-Tzu chose to study magic rather than cram for civil service exams.

4. Ho Hsien-Ku was a girl who became immortal by eating mother of pearl.

5. Lan Ts'ai-Ho was an inspired flute player.

6. Li Tieh-Kuai was a begger who sold wonderful drugs that could revive the dead.

7. Lu Tung-Pin was a hero of early Chinese story-telling who slew dragons with a magic sword.

8. Ts'ao Kuo-Chiu tried to reform his brother, the emperor.

(Taken from Discovering God by Rodney Stark, Pg. 261)

Sound like the type of people you would want to model your life after? As much as I enjoy eating peaches and aspire to be a hermit and ride an incredibly fast donkey, I can't really picture myself following in the footsteps of these eight "immortals".

After meditating on this non-sense for a bit, I was reminded of my own faith in Jesus Christ and a list that is found in the Bible in Hebrews 11. I'm sure that most of you are familiar with this chapter that lists our own "Heroes of the Faith". Hebrews 11:33-40 concludes a list of several heroes in this way:

"...who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, thought commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."

Now, I'm not saying that the lives of these heroes were any easier or glamorous than the "Eight", but I take solace in the fact that by God's grace through Christ my life is not in vain. I love the fact that the "heroes" of our faith spent the majority of their lives fighting for the truth, most suffering death in brutal ways, but through death gaining victory in the fullest and they didn't even have to learn to smile or study magic or eat mother of pearl. Their mission was straight forward and they were willing to give all for the cost of the Gospel. Jesus is the ultimate hero and He ultimately lived the life we couldn't live and died the death we should have died in our place. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone that we can continue the legacy of all those that have gone before us as spiritual vagabonds who "died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But, as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." (Hebrews 11:13-16)

So, the next time you aspire to be an accomplished flute player or try to reform your brother who is emperor, just remember to drive to Georgia to find some of those good peaches, Amen?