younger Non-Christians are open to talking about the Bible

"…We asked a total of 1,000 twenty-something unchurched people; 900 American, 100 Canadian. And we compared them to a sample of 500 older unchurched (30 or above). ... And what we found is that yes, there are negative views of the church, two-thirds saying the church is full of hypocrites, people who do one thing and say another. But there was also great openness that's there. One of the questions that we asked them to agree or disagree with was: "I would be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked me to?" Among twenty-somethings, 61-percent said, "Yes." Among their older counterparts of 30 and above, 42-percent said, "Yes." That was a statistically significant difference saying there is something going on, there is an openness that's there. So we're seeing that as an opportunity that in the midst of some negative views of the church there is also some openness to the things of God."

—Ed Stetzer, The Albert Mohler Program, July 30, 2009, timestamp 22:55—23:46.

For more on this see Stetzer’s latest book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them (B&H 2009).

Top 10 Books of 08

1-Recalling the Hope of Glory - Allen Ross

• This book is fantastic. It is a biblical theology of worship that provides deep insights into the progression of worship in the story of the bible. If you want to understand worship this book, along with 'Worship by the Book' by DA Carson, has to be on your list.
  

2-Read the Bible for a Change - Ray Lubeck

• Lubeck's work is one of the most helpful books I have ever read. His explanation of how to read narrative texts, and showing how different genres, types, and forms are to be read is stuff every believer needs to know.
  

3-The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni

• This book is possibly the easiest book I had to read all year. Despite this, Lencioni unpacks some of the most important leadership and team principles I have ever read. If you are a leader or are working on a team, this book could be immensely helpful to you.
  

4-Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome - R Kent Hughes

• Hughes almost left the ministry because he felt so frustrated and like a failure. Luckily he didn't, and he wrote this book instead. In it, he destroys the myth that so many Americans have; that numerical growth is equal to success. He explains what success for a pastor really looks like, and attacks the idol of numbers in an appluadable way.
  

5-God’s Greater Glory - Bruce Ware

• This book gives such a stellar treatment of God and providence that I had to put it on my list. This book is very clear and very helpful for anyone who wrestles with questions about providence and the nature of God.
  

6-Lectures to My Students - Charles Spurgeon

• All pastors should have to read this book. Spurgeon's insights are life changing, and they should be. While some of these chapters are dated, as they were meant to be practical to the pastors of that day, most of them are still immensely helpful.
  

7-The Reason for God - Tim Keller

• One of the best explanations and defenses of the faith I have ever read. Keller's ability to speak in an intellectual way to non-Christians is unparalelled, and thus this book is helpful to all pastors who genuinely want to know how to explain the faith.
  

8-Questioning Evangelism - Randy Newman

• Newman's book profoundly affected me because his point, that our evangelism should be dominated by listening and asking questions, is so simple and true, yet so often practiced. If you read this book, you will find your evangelism benefits greatly.
  

9-Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work - John Gottman

• If you want to have successful relationships, and a sucessful marraige, there is little better to read than Gottman. While not a Christian, his breakdown in this book of how to build a marriage, and how to avoid the pitfalls that destroy marriage, may be one of the most important things you can learn and share with other believers.
  

10-Parenting with Love and Logic - Foster Kline and Jim Fay

• This book is great because its goal is to equip parents to raise fully functioning kids who can make their own decisions and understand that choices have consequences. This book should be required fare for all parents. Read it and see why.

11- okay so I am adding one more...sort of. Earlier this year I read a book called "True Story" by James Choung. The book is a narrative. In other words, it is a ficticious story that is so-so at best. However, his diagram at the end of his book explains how to share the gospel in a new and extremely powerful way. I have altered it significantly, as I think atonement and other concepts need to be more heavily emphasized. But reading his 4 circles model, and learning how to explain the biblical storyline on a napkin, as this book teaches, will be extremely helpful for all who read it...Just alter it a little and talk about the cross, ok?

The deepest longing

Alvin Plantinga had a really inciteful statement here...

The truth is that nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us. Much can make us content for a time but nothing can fill us to the brim. The reason is that our final joy lies “beyond the walls of this world,” as J.R.R Tolkien put it. Ultimate beauty comes not from a lover or a landscape or a home, but only through them. These earthly things are solid goods, and we naturally relish them. But they are not our final good. They point to what is higher up and further back…Even if we fall deeply in love and marry another human being, we discover that our spiritual and sexual oneness isn’t final. It’s wonderful, but not final. It might even be as good as human oneness can be, but something in us keeps saying “not this” or “still beyond”…What Augustine knew is that human beings want God…God has made us for himself. Our sense of God runs in us like a stream, even though we divert it toward other objects. We human beings want God even when we think that what we really want is a green valley, or a good time from our past, or a loved one. Of course we do want these things and persons, but we also want what’s behind them. Our inconsoluable secret, says C.S. Lewis, is that we are full of yearnings, sometimes shy and sometimes passionate, that point us beyond the things of earth to the ultimate reality of God.

Thoughts on Galatians 1:3-4

I have been reading through Galatians the past few days. I love Galatians because its all about the Gospel. Paul is defending it against the Judaizers, Jews who wanted to add additional requirements (i.e. the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament) to the Gospel and distort its truth. Paul teaches that Christians are not under the law, we do not have to obey it, but rather we are under grace.

One of the things that really stuck out to me was this though,

(vs. 3) "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, (4) who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God the Father..."

What is so striking about this? So often when talking about the atonement (death of Christ), whether it be in sharing the gospel, or preaching, or whatever, we talk about how Christ died to pay the penalty for my/our sins. This is absolutely true, and anyone who denies this fact has in fact abandoned the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, however this is not all the death of Christ did. The death of Christ is significant and effective on many levels beyond merely paying the penalty for sin.

Here in Galatians 1, Paul refers to another aspect to the atonement that of deliverance, or victory. I think this aspect of the atonement is not thought of often enough. The death of Christ did not just pay the penalty for sin so that I can now be reconciled to God, it defeated the power of sin and darkness over those who receive salvation. It delivers those who receive the effects of the atonement (i.e. those who are saved) from the domain of darkness, and the stranglehold that sin and death have over us, into the kingdom of light (i.e. the Kingdom of God). One additional thing, this does not in any way mean that the death of Christ is "paying off" Satan what he is due or any such thing, it means that the power that Satan has over mankind while in sin is broken by the power of Christ's death.

Why is this important? Christ's death does not have one effect, result, or aspect. There are multiple ones. Christ's death is penal (it pays the penalty for our sins), it is victorious (it delivers us from the power of sin), it is an example for humanity (of love and self-sacrifice), and there are other numerous aspects.

Each of these aspects is important to understand and proclaim for different reasons. The aspect of victory has often been preached in other areas of the world namely Africa, but has not often been preached as part of the gospel to Americans, at least not that I have heard. Often the gospel presentation in America is something along the lines of "christ died to pay the penalty for your sin so that you dont have to go to hell, but can go to heaven when you die". This is true, but it sure is minimalistic. I wonder what our gospel presentations would look like if we incorporated more of the truth of victory into our gospel proclamation. Something like "Christ died to break the bonds of sin and death that have brought brokeness, despair, suffering, and pain to all of our lives. Now through believing in what Christ has done and repenting of sin we can be delivered both from our sin and from the penalty we are due for it, and can be reconciled to God and begin the process of redemption and restoration that will last our whole lives until we get to be with God as new perfect people in a new perfect world".

Its something to think about. Its something to worship about. Christ came to earth, lived a perfect sinless life, and died the death we deserved breaking the power of sin and death, delivering us from the domain of darkness forever, that we can now be reconciled to God. Let us worship Him for that