I was very encouraged by my reading in the Daily Office today. King Solomon is dedicating the temple and tells the people, 

Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name...’ (1 Kings 8:17-19 ESV)

God may approve and reward what's in our hearts even if we fail to accomplish it. The Lord told David, "You did well!" What did he do that prompted the Lord's affirmation? He desired something. He had it in his heart to build a house for God's glory and renown. He wanted to do something specific for God that would result in his honor and praise and increased fame in all the earth. God was pleased with that passion. Yet, David did not accomplish the specifics of that desire. God did not permit it. God affirms and rewards his desire, yet He does not fulfill it. 

So, may our hearts be filled with God-given, God-affirming passions and intentions. And, as we put our hands to accomplish those desires, may we sense His smile even in our failures. 

I use notes when I preach. I actually preach from a manuscript. It is usually two pages, 11pt font, space and half and that usually results in a 45 minute sermon. However, today I decided to try to preach from my iPad and I actually found it to be much easier than loose pages. Some have asked how I went about it, so I thought I would offer this short post. If you use an iPad when you teach or preach or present any material at all, I'm sure you could share a thing or two that would help me and anyone reading this, so feel free to share in the comments. 

I recently discovered Springpad and absolutely love it. If you are not familiar with the service, it captures, organizes and enhances information you don't want to forget. To learn more about it, check out this link. I use it for pretty much everything now. I recently posted on twitter that I use it for my sermon prep and several people responded that they would like to know more about how I am utitilizing Springpad. So, here are a few things I thought would share about how I am using it and how you might find it helpful. I am still learning a lot about it, so if you are a big fan of Springpad and have some helpful insights, leave them in the comments section. I would love to learn how to use it even more effectively.

At Apostles our staff has adopted Bill Hybels' concept of 6x6 Execution - seeking to accomplish 6 major items in 6 weeks. This has been helpful because it allows for intentional neglect of things that we feel are constantly hanging over our heads that we can't possibly get to right now and gives us the ability to operate with clear focus on some major items we must accomplish. On Springpad, I created a notebook for each of my 6x6 items, each notebook in the same color. In each notebook, I can add tasks, bookmarks of relevant websites and articles, notes, checklists, etc. For instance, on my current 6x6 I have Year-End Offering Follow Up. I have several notes and tasks that are part of executing that 6x6 item. With each task, I can attach a note that gives me more information about that taks. In the notes I attach, I can include files from my computer, websites, and other media formats. It's really quite remarkable. Here is a screen shot of all my notebooks and a screen shot of one of my items in the 6x6 Year-End Offering notebook.

When it comes to sermon prep, Springpad is keeping me organized and helping me capture some useful resources. I have a notebook entitled Sermons where I capture any sermon thought I have, series ideas, or news articles that might be illustrative material. I include tags on those items that I put in that notebook. If I come across a great article online that I can use in a message coming up, I will tag it "illustration" as well as tag it with the name of the series the illustration is for. When you add a bookmark in a folder, you can add notes as well. If there is a book I want to buy down the road that would be a good resource for a future series, I can add the book to the notebook. Springpad will gather information about that book, give me an option to purchase it on amazon, and even send me alerts when the price drops or there is a deal on shipping. Also, you can share the link to this notebook with others, so if you hava  teaching team or do a lot of collaboration, you can all share the same notebooks. Here is a screen shot of my sermon folder where I have selected the tag "Choose" (a series title). Everything that I have clipped from the web using the Chrome browser extension or any note that I have written and tagged with "Choose" shows up in this view. I have come across potential illustrations weeks in advance and have clipped them into this folder and tagged them "Choose" and "Illustrations."

Here is a screen shot of all my stuff. Notice the tags and all the different types of information (notes, bookmarks, tasks, products, books, etc.). I also use it for fun stuff as well. I have a kid's notebook where I can look up movies and it will gather information on that movie like times and theaters where it is currently playing, or it will allow me to add a movie to my Netflix que. The great thing about Springpad is that it gathers helpful information for you and adds it to your notebook. Pretty amazing.

So, those are a couple of ways that I use it. If you are going to use, I recommend Chrome. It has a great Chome extension that allows you to clip a site right into one of your notebooks much like evernote. It will even create a Springpad calendar on google calendar for you and you can add event from Springpad. For more advice on using Springpad, check out this article and Springpad's blog.

Jesus not only brings us into God's favor, he keeps us in God's favor. I used to live as if I gained a right standing with God by grace, but maintained that right standing by my works. This led to radical insecurity in my relationship with God. The Gospel says otherwise. Jesus has borne our sin and changed God’s posture toward those who believe in him, forever. He has secured for us pardon, favor, acceptance. All this is ours continually by grace. Our vile record credited to Jesus; his perfect record credited to us. He took what we deserved so we could have what only he deserves. He saves to the uttermost. He intercedes for us – his wounds and righteousness plead our continual acceptance before God. A Prayer from the Valley of Vision puts it this way: All things in me call for my rejection; all things in You plead for my acceptance. This frees us from the constant pressure to measure up and gives us the ability to face and admit our own failings. Christ is our hope. God is continually satisfied with us because he is continually satisfied with Christ. Jesus has won for us what we could not win for ourselves. 

My heart was stirred up over these things again after reading the 19th century hymn O Christ, What Burdens Bowed Thy Head. I include it here in hopes that your heart would be stirred up to treasure Christ above all things. 

O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head!
Our load was laid on Thee;
Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead,
Didst bear all ill for me.
A Victim led, Thy blood was shed;
Now there’s no load for me.

 

Death and the curse were in our cup:
O Christ, ’twas full for Thee;
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,
’Tis empty now for me.
That bitter cup, love drank it up;
Now blessing’s draught for me.

 

Jehovah lifted up His rod;
O Christ, it fell on Thee!
Thou wast sore stricken of Thy God;
There’s not one stroke for me.
Thy tears, Thy blood, beneath it flowed;
Thy bruising healeth me.

 

The tempest’s awful voice was heard,
O Christ, it broke on Thee!
Thy open bosom was my ward,
It braved the storm for me.
Thy form was scarred, Thy visage marred;
Now cloudless peace for me.

 

Jehovah bade His sword awake;
O Christ, it woke ’gainst Thee!
Thy blood the flaming blade must slake;
Thine heart its sheath must be;
All for my sake, my peace to make;
Now sleeps that sword for me.

 

For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died,
And I have died in Thee!
Thou’rt ris’n—my hands are all untied,
And now Thou liv’st in me.
When purified, made white and tried,
Thy glory then for me!

- Anne R. Cousin

In December of last year I posted a blog on planning an intentional devotional life. I encourage you to have a plan that creates space for you to consistently meet with God. Over the last couple of years I have used the Daily Office Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer to guide my devotional reading. This year, 2010, I took a break from that and read through the McCheynne Reading Plan. This year I am going back to the Daily Office Lectionary and I commend it you for your own devotional practices for this Liturgical Year. 

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

In December of 2006, I wrote an Advent Poem for the people of Apostles Church. I have been thinking on it as Advent dawns and wanted to share it as a way to help prepare my heart and hopefully yours for Christ's Arrival - both the remembrance of his coming among us the first time and the anticipation of his final victory when he arrives again.  

Christ Has Come

Earth awaiting. Remnant praying. Virgin bearing. Star appearing. God descending.

Christ has come.

Light unveiling. Darkness waning. Grace unfolding. World beholding. God revealing.

Christ has come.

Crippled leaping. Blind men seeing. Evil fleeing. Sinners singing. God restoring.

Christ has come.

Traitor greeting. Soldiers seizing. Court indicting. Friend denying. God restraining.

Christ has come.

Masses jeering. Mother weeping. Hammer clanging. Blood cascading. God redeeming.

Christ has come.

Tomb releasing. Pierced ascending. Spirit kindling. Church prevailing. God renewing.

Christ has come.

Globe rotating. Pilgrims waiting. Trumpet sounding. Kingdoms bowing. God arriving.

Christ has come.

- Written by JR Vassar 12/2006

This past weekend I had the privilege of being a part of the Right Now Campaign's Lead Beyond our Walls Conference in Dallas, TX. I spoke on Jesus' experience of the Holy Spirit and how in his incarnation, he became dependent upon the Spirit to fulfill his Prophetic, Priestly, and Kingly offices. He then sends his people to be a prophetic, priestly, and kingly community who carry out his mission to the world in full dependence upon the Holy Spirit, trusting in the same resources he had. I also taught a couple of breakout sessions, one of which was on the topic of Defining the Win in Biblical Communication. One of the ideas I hit on in that breakout was that if you give your audience gospel motivations for their lives, they will give gospel explanations for their lives. 

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17) For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison...” 2 Cor 4.16–17 ESV

Pastors and ministry leaders, if you are NOT feeling your outer self wasting away, you are doing something wrong. Ministry is demanding, difficult and severely taxing physically and emotionally. However, if you are NOT being renewed day by day by encounters with God and a vision of the glorious future that awaits his people so that this wasting away feels light and momentary, then you are also doing something wrong. Paul gives us a great tension here for the ministry. You expend so much energy and passion in your labor in the Lord, but it seems like an effortless striving (to borrow a phrase from E. Stanley Jones), because of the renewing work of the Spirit of God in you. You lose blood, sweat and tears, but you don't lose heart. Jesus is the perfect model of this. He often retreated from the crowds to rest because he was exhausted by the demands of ministry to needy people and taxed by the constant attack of his enemies. But he was never irritable, sinfully angry, bitter, or stressed out because He only did what the Father gave him to do and he did it in the power of the Spirit of God. So, the two sinful poles in this verse is that we would either be the lazy and complacent leader who does not live with the wasting away effects of fruitful ministry. Or, that we would be the stressed out, angry, difficult, bitter leader who does not experience the daily renewal of the Spirit of God. 

I want to point out one possible reason why pastors and ministry leaders fall on either poles of this spectrum. It has to do with vision. If you are not feeling the "wasting away" that Paul speaks about here, it may be that your vision is too small. You have not sought the Lord for what he wants to do in and through your church or ministry. You have grown complacent or narrow in your vision. I heard a friend tell a group of pastors this week to push out the end zones of their ministry. Instead of just focusing on the growth of their church, they should focus on the flourishing of their cities so that God's kingdom finds expression in every sector of their city. This requires an expanded vision and as a result, greater and more intense labor. Maybe the reason you are bored and complacent and your ministry or church is stagnant is because your vision is too small. Take a few days to get away and ask the Lord what He envisions for your church or ministry and what is in His heart for your leadership. 

However, if you're on the other spectrum and are a pastor or ministry leader on edge who is angry, bitter and on the verge of collapse, it may be that your vision is too big. Can we have a vision that is too big? Yes, if it is borrowed from another and not given to us by God. One of the great temptations of all church leaders is to see how God is using other churches and then imitate them. I am all for learning from other churches and being stretched by their vision; I am not for duplicating them. The reality is that you might be duplicating the vision of another leader that you do not have the God given capacity to engineer and lead. I feel this pressure all the time. I know when I am succumbing to it because I feel a sinful urgency to produce something that will validate me as a leader and help keep pace with other churches. You can't be renewed day by day when you are giving yourself to things the Father did not give you to do. You are operating independently of Him and his vision for you and your ministry. You need to slow down, pull back, and seek God for what is in his heart for you. It might be that you need to kill some things you started out of a desire to keep up with another's website.

With movies like Avatar and now Eat, Pray, Love, spirituality is capturing more and more people's attention. There certainly is a hunger in our culture to encounter the divine. Everywhere you turn you see this interest in the spiritual. Today’s spirituality is a cut and paste spirituality, a soup of pagan mystery religion, Gnosticism, Eastern pantheism and mysticism, New Age and even Christian ideas all thrown together, blended and simmered into a New Spirituality. As one writer of the New Spirituality put it, it is a necklace of pearls you pick and choose and string together. Oprah is one of the leading advocates of this New Spirituality. Constantly hosting writers of the New Spirituality (NS), each time propelling their writing to the top of the bestseller charts. Recently she led the charge in NS through a 10-session webcast with Eckhart Tolle unpacking his concepts in his book The New Earth; over 500k people joined the first session. Other authors that advocate this NS are Marianne Williamson (A Course in Miracles); Rhonda Byrne in her book The Secret, and Elizabeth Gilbert in the aforementioned Eat, Pray, Love. All of these writers and 100s of others promote a New Spirituality, that is not really new at all; ancient just with a new dress and a new face. In this post, I want to show, not in an exhaustive way, but in a fundamental way, how radically different this pop, generic, new spirituality is from the historic Christian Faith; how its basic elements run counter to and contradictory to Christian Spirituality. Two goals for this: to expose the inadequacies of this New Spirituality in the face of the truth and beauty of Christian Spirituality and secondly, to encourage caution regarding these alternate spiritualities. I want to briefly, not comprehensively, answer three questions: What is this New Spirituality? How is it different from Christian Spirituality? How does Christian Spirituality outshine the competing spiritualities of our day?  

What is the New Spirituality? Again, it is not really new. It is rooted in ancient pagan spiritualities and Gnosticism and Eastern pantheism. Generally speaking, though there are certainly variations, it can be summarized like this: God is All and All is God. God is not a personal transcendent being who exists outside time, matter and space, distinct from creation, but rather is an infinite, impersonal, force that is the Ultimate Reality – God is All. He is all that exists; nothing exists that is not God. The Cosmos is God and you are God. The soul of the universe is what you are at your very core. There is no separation between you and God at all or between you and anything. You are one with all things. All is the One and this is not something you are simply to believe, but something you should seek to experience. Your goal is to become aware of and experience this oneness – to experience your “godness,” your oneness with the One – to awaken to your connectedness with the Whole and lose all sense of self in oneness with the ALL. So, Oprah says in her program, “God is not someone to believe, but something to experience. God is not a believing experience, but a feeling experience.” The problem with humanity is that we do not realize that we are god; we do not realize our oneness with the ONE. When we do realize this, consciousness will completely disappear because we will no longer know any distinction from the One but will be One with the One. It is as if we are a drop of water that has become isolated from the ocean and we are trying to get back into the ocean and disappear into that One ultimate body of water. The way you come to experience your oneness with the One is through mediation; through meditation I can become conscious of my unity with the ONE. Until that happens you will be reincarnated over and over again until the drop of divinity that you are finds its way into the Divine ocean, the ocean of the ONE. That is the basics of this spirituality.

How is it different from Christian Spirituality? Obviously this is different from Christian Spirituality because it is Christless Spirituality. At the base it is radically different. We believe that God is transcendent and triune. Transcendent: That is he is Creator and distinct from and sovereignly reigning over creation. He is Triune: The core of reality is a community of divine love that has created us as distinct creatures to know this divine love and share in it and extend it to others. This contradicts NS at its core. But, one text I want to point out, Galatians 2:15-21, gives a few fundamental contrasts I want to point out: ONE: We are not divine; we are depraved. We are not god; we are creatures distinct from God, who have sinned against God are accountable to God (v. 15). The NS says our problem is ignorance – we don’t know who we are. Xn Spirituality says, “We have failed to love this divine community and obey the Triune God with our entire lives and as such are guilty before him and deserve judgment.  The NS does not even believe there is sin. If God is All and All is God then there is no good/bad, right/wrong, just/unjust, pain/pleasure; there is only the ONE. Now, our experience tells us that there is injustice, evil, brokenness, pain, suffering in the world. It is not illusory. And our experience tells us that we are not divine; we are depraved. We feel moral failure and we feel pain and disgust when someone commits a moral indecency against us. Our problem is NOT that we don’t experience unity with this impersonal Cosmic Force because of ignorance, but that we are separated, alienated from a personal loving God because of our personal sin and rebellion. Our need is not to be enlightened, but to be forgiven. The world does not need to be liberated from its ignorance, but from the curse of sin. Paul says, we know we are sinners. The reason the NS is working hard to convince themselves that they are gods is because we don’t act like gods: we are weak, stumbling, lusting, lying, cheating, grudge holding, gossiping, jealous, envious un-god like people. TWO: Salvation is not by technique but by a cross. The NS focuses on technique. In Eckhart and Oprah’s webcast they teach you to enter a trance where you can move closer to the cosmic consciousness. Emphasis is placed on breathing, yoga, and meditation techniques. These techniques help you realize your true identity as consciousness or as I AM. But, Christian Spirituality says we are not saved by technique, but by a cross. The problem is not that we do not realize who we are; the problem is with who we are. We are sinners, rebellious, self-righteous and God’s solution for our sin is not Meditation but Mediation. Christ is our mediator who dies for us on the cross. He is crucified in our place to pay for our sin, so that we can be forgiven and restored into fellowship with this Triune God. This idea of technique has actually crept into the church. Religious Technique is not just with the NS outside the church, but it is also found in Christ-less Spirituality within the church. Paul is addressing this idea that you can save yourself by technique, by works, conformity to a law. Not so, Paul says. If you could be saved by technique, Christ died for nothing (v.21). In fact, the death of Christ is the most radical indictment of our hopeless condition and inability to save ourselves. It is an indictment of any emphasis on technique. When Paul says that I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, he is saying that when I see Christ crucified for me, that self-righteous me that thinks I can establish my own worth or rightness, or earn my own way by my moral performance dies. When I see Christ crucified, the proud me that likes to establish my identity and worth with my beauty, my intellect, my success, my sophistication, my morality, dies. I realize that I cannot make myself a somebody apart from the fact that Christ loved me and gave himself for me. That “me” that put confidence in me – died. We are not saved by law or confidence in our righteousness (v. 16), but by faith, trusting in Christ alone for our record. THREE: Abundant life is not experienced by positive thinking but by faith in Christ. The NS says that because you are one with the universe, that you can control the universe. Byrne in the Secret writes, “We are the creators not only of our own destiny but also of the Universe…We are all connected, and we are all One.” Because you can create the Universe, NS in The Secret says that you can summon things into your life through persistent thoughts. It is called the Law of Attraction – “you create your life through your thoughts…you can completely change every circumstance and event in your life.” So The Secret tells you to think you have the wealth of Solomon and that everything you touch turns to gold. It promises you wealth, health, success, etc. The way to really experience an abundant life is to think positively and bring that life into existence with your thoughts. Christian Spirituality says that abundant life is lived by faith in Christ, looking to Christ for your security and satisfaction. Abundant life does not come by manipulating an impersonal force to change your circumstances, but trusting in a loving personal God who is in control of your circumstance; One we can trust when we are not wealthy, healthy and successful. And One who indwells us by His Spirit freeing us from our greed and incessant need to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. To Live by Faith is to constantly look to the One who works in us to give us new desires and a new power to live a life of love and obedience to Him and love and service and compassion to others – a life free from self-absorption that is enamored with having more and to enter a new life of Christ-like love that is ready to lose more for the sake of others gaining.

How does Christian Spirituality outshine the competing spiritualities of our day? The superiority of Christian Spirituality can be wrapped up in that one phrase, “the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Historical and Beautiful. The NS is a subjective take based on philosophical and mystical speculation. Christian Spirituality is something beautiful that happened in history–Jesus Christ, the unique and only Son of God, coming in the flesh, loving us, dying for us and rising for us to bring forgiveness, healing, and restoration to our lives and the creation. He was sent by the Father to restore us to the Father, bearing our sin, dying in our place – not as an example but as a substitute. The NS is void of this love and beauty. This is love: not that we are a drop of water trying to find our way back into the vast Ocean through meditation, but that we are rebels and God has made a way for us to be brought back to Him through a mediator – his Son Jesus. The beauty of Christian spirituality is also seen in the life it produces. This love compels us to love God and to love others with selfless, generous, sacrificial love – not contemplate how divine we are and bring prosperity to our own lives.

A word of Caution. A Christ-less spirituality is a dangerous spirituality. Not everything that is spiritual is good. Demons are spiritual. There is a darker side to spirituality. But the darker side never presents itself as the darker side. In Galatians 1:6-10; 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 14 the scriptures speak of a different Gospel, a different Jesus, a different Spirit. Scripture is clear that Satan and his demons promote every kind of spiritual mindset and practice contrary to Christian Spirituality. They seem harmless, having just enough of an appearance of truth, but falling way short and veering way off. The spirit of the NS is not the Spirit of God. It is a different spirit. It is Christ-less spirituality. It is not that Christ was a great example of an enlightened person – but Christ is God the Son, in the flesh, coming to die for sinners to reconcile them to One True God and renew their lives by his indwelling Spirit. When you read books on the NS, when you engage in the techniques of the NS you are opening yourself up to spirits that are different from the Holy Spirit. You are inviting spiritual influence into your life that will drive you from the true God and that will imprison you in confusion and despair and condemnation. Forsake these counterfeit spiritualities and embrace Christ, the one who loved you and gave himself for you.