From Greatness to Mediocrity

Greatness is a hard quality to measure, especially if you desire to measure it by God's standard, because we are so quick to measure according to our standards. Size of the church, the number of people, the type of ministries available are all ways in which we try to measure church health and growth. And the outward signs are not always the most accurate. In fact, rarely are they ever indicative of church health. However, Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, has attempted to find a way to measure church health according to God's standard as accurately as possible. He admits it is not infallible, but he believes it is fairly accurate. Sadly, according to the measurements they can go by, it appears that there are churches that have gone from being great to being mediocre or worse. Churches that once were beacons of obedience to the Great Commission have now lost the flame that pushed them forward. This is a question for all of us to ask of ourselves and our own churches. Are we growing the way God wants us to be growing? Are we about the business to which God has commanded us? If not, is there a way back? Of course there is. Thom Rainer gives this encouragement towards the end of his post. I encourage everyone to check out his blog post because we all need to consider whether we are about the business God has called us to.

Read the full article here.

A Marine's Viewpoint on the Christian Life

This past week, our pastor has been on vacation. Therefore, one of our members filled in for him for the mid-week Bible study last night. He served as a Marine. The devotion he gave last night was a wonderful exposition of the Bible from a Marine's point-of-view.

He has the entire manuscript included on his blog, "The Colonel's Corner." I encourage you to check it out. I pray God challenges you through it like He challenged me.

The Gospel Defined by John Calvin

Justin Taylor on Between Two Worlds reprints Calvin's preface to Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament (1534). It is a wonderful description and definition of what the gospel really is. I've reprinted it below for you to read.

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel

we are not Christians;

without the gospel

all riches is poverty,
all wisdom folly before God;
strength is weakness,
and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made

children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom

the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinner justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure,
and slaves free.

It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.

It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone.

For, he was

sold, to buy us back;
captive, to deliver us;
condemned, to absolve us;

he was

made a curse for our blessing,
[a] sin offering for our righteousness;
marred that we may be made fair;

he died for our life; so that by him

fury is made gentle,
wrath appeased,
darkness turned into light,
fear reassured,
despisal despised,
debt canceled,
labor lightened,
sadness made merry,
misfortune made fortunate,
difficulty easy,
disorder ordered,
division united,
ignominy ennobled,
rebellion subjected,
intimidation intimidated,
ambush uncovered,
assaults assailed,
force forced back,
combat combated,
war warred against,
vengeance avenged,
torment tormented,
damnation damned,
the abyss sunk into the abyss,
hell transfixed,
death dead,
mortality made immortal.

In short,

mercy has swallowed up all misery,
and goodness all misfortune.

For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit.

If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying, O hell, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? it is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us; and we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation is in it; but we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things.

And we are

comforted in tribulation,
joyful in sorrow,
glorying under vituperation,
abounding in poverty,
warmed in our nakedness,
patient amongst evils,
living in death.

This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.

Relying on the Gift of the Spirit's Power

In the book, The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper, he discusses how he seeks to rely completely on the Spirit's power during the preaching event. Now, I know most people who will read this are not preachers, so naturally, you are thinking, "how does this apply to me?" I believe that the insight Piper gives in this section can apply to whatever God calls you to do, whether it be teaching Sunday School, at home Bible study, or even witnessing to a lost person. Anytime you seek to share with someone else the truth of God's Word, this information is important because you must learn to rely on the gift of the Spirit's power.

To help him rely on the Spirit's power, he uses an acronym, APTAT:

First is to Admit that you can do nothing apart from Christ, just as John 15:5 teaches, "apart from me you can do nothing." This step helps to humble us to the point to where we must rely on God.

Second is to Pray for help. Knowing that we cannot do anything on our own, we seek God's power in the words that we speak to others. It is God's power alone that can raise the dead and give sight to the blind. Likewise, it is only God's power that can take His Word and open the hearts of those who hear it.

Third is to Trust in a specific promise of God. Take a Scripture in which God has promised His power and help and bank on that specific promise as you seek to share the Word God has put on your heart.

Fourth is to Act in that confidence. Knowing that God has and is enabling you to speak His Word, we must carry through in obedience knowing that He will be faithful.

Finally is to Thank God for His help and presence in the work He has called us. When we get done and look back, we know that our effort is feeble and unworthy, but it is powerful because of what God is doing through it. Thank Him for His Spirit and His promise.

This is a great acronym for all Christians as they follow Christ in obedience to Go into all the world making disciples!

Helping Kids to Love Missions

As Christians, it is important for us to teach the importance and the joys of missions. Therefore, it is vitally important that we teach children how to love missions and to help support missionaries. Desiring God has a blog post on 10 ways in which families and teachers can help teach kids how to love and support missionaries. Check it out here!

Pray for Muslims During Ramadan

Mission Network News is calling for a month of prayer for Muslims around the world during the Ramadan season, August 22nd to September 20th. Ramadan is a very holy month for Muslims in which they try to purge their bodies of all kinds of evil through fasting. Let's be in prayer for them that God would open their eyes to His love for them and that they would find the only true cleansing from sin that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Click here to read the full article from the Mission Network News.

Prepare for Suffering - Now!

The following quote comes from the book, Let the Nations be Glad: the Supremacy of God in Missions by John Piper. In this quote, Piper quote Richard Wurmbrand who suffered in his home country of Romania to help stress the importance of preparing for suffering before we have to face suffering.

"Richard Wurmbrand endured fourteen years of imprisonment and torture in his homeland of Romania between 1948 and 1946. He had been leading a secret underground ministry when the Communists seized Romania and tried to control the church for their purposes. Wurmbrand, like the apostle Peter, stressed the tremendous need to get spiritually ready to suffer.

"What shall we do about these tortures? Will we be able to bear them? If I do not bear them I put in prison another fifty or sixty men whom I know, because that is what the Communists wish from me, to betray those around me. And here comes the great need for the role of preparation for suffering which must start now. It is too difficult to prepare yourself for it when the Communists have you in prison.
I remember my last Confirmation class before I left Romania. I took a group of ten to fifteen boys and girls on a Sunday morning, not to a church, but to the zoo. Before the cage of lions I told them, "Your forefathers in faith were thrown before such wild beasts for their faith. Know that you also will have to suffer. You will not be thrown before lions, but you will have to do with men who would be much worse than lions. Decide here and now if you wish to pledge allegiance to Christ." They had tears in their eyes when they said yes.
We have to make the preparation now, before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nice carpets, or nice curtains. You do not have a wife any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand." (Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, p. 78-79)

May we be able to say with Paul that "I can do all things (even suffer and die) through Him who strengthens me."

Biblically Sound Hip Hop

Anybody who knows me, knows that I love music, especially Christian music. But one of the problems I've found is that alot of what is classified as Christian music is little more than just secular music that just happens to mention Jesus' name once in a while to make it fit the Christian genre. Of course, over the years that's been changing. You now have bands such as Shane and Shane, David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, and Todd Agnew (just to name a few) which all seek to keep Christ central in all of their music. But all of these fit within the praise and worship genre of music. It's hard to find anything other than the contemporary/praise genre that keeps Christ and the Scriptures central in their songs. However, recently I have come across a hip hop artist that is just as Christ centered as the other bands that I have just mentioned. I can confidently recommend this artist to anybody who is looking for a deep, biblically sound message in this genre of music. The artist is Lecrae. Throughout his songs he talks about keeping Christ as the treasure of your heart, living the kind of holy life that honors God, what it means to be a part of the body of Christ, and finding our indentity not in the things of the world, but in Christ alone. Lecrae is about as biblically sound as any praise and worship artist that I've listened to. Granted, not everybody is into this kind of music, but there a lot of people who are and it is great to know that there is finally some music to be able to confidently recommend to those people. Be sure to check out this artist. He is currently on his "Don't Waste Your Life" Tour.

Here are a couple videos to check out on this artist. You can also go to YouTube and look under Lecrae:


"Send Me"



"Truth"

Don't Waste Your Life

Each of us who are called by God have been called for a purpose. Not to live according to the purpose in which God has created us with is to waste our life. Sadly, many Christians go through life only to come to the end and weep because they have wasted their life. We only have one life to live and unless we live it to the glory of God we will have wasted it. According to Paul, to live is Christ and to die is gain. May we live our lives so we can honestly say that about our lives.

Penn Gillette on Christian Evangelism

I had this video emailed to me a few weeks ago and wanted to share it with all of you. This video is of Penn Gillette giving his take on evangelism. The reason why I think this is interesting, because, if you know of Penn Gillette, you will recognize him as being one of the most popular magicians today. He is also an outspoken atheist. However, I think he has some interesting things to say about evangelism that we as Christians need to learn and practice as we go into all the world with the gospel. Penn talks about a situation where a Christian came up to him after one of his shows and offered him one of those green Gideon Bibles. Penn, though he has not received Christ (as of yet), was very impressed with the manner and behavior of the Christian who approached him. There are things that we can learn from this man.

Happy 500th Birthday!

Five hundred years ago on July 10th, 1509, one of the most influential men of God in the protestant reformation was born, John Calvin. His name usually evokes some kind of emotion in people, normally negative feelings. However, he, along with others such as Luther and Zwingli, was used by God to bring reformation to the church and to bring the focus back to a true focus of the gospel of Christ and to bring individual access to the Word of God. Before the reformation, the people had to depend upon the clergy to preach the Word of God and trust that what they were being told lined up with what God had revealed to us in His Word. However, with the reformation, the Bible was translated into the common languages and people could read the Word for themselves. The Roman Catholic church had also manipulated the people into buying indulgences in order to earn favor with God or to help a loved one escape purgatory. The reformers, such as Calvin and Luther helped bring back the true message of the gospel that a person is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by works lest anyone should boast.

Whether or not you agree with all of his personal theology, and honestly, I do not think any two people agree on everything, we must thank God for men like Calvin who followed God in obedience and was thus used by Him to bring the truth of the gospel back to the people. Let us continue to pray for men like these to be raised up by God to lead His people in the truth of His Word.

In Honor Of...

Born on Feb. 27th, 1930 and died on May 7th, 2009 was a man who meant the world to me, although the world will never know his name. That man was Victor H. Cosentino, my grandfather. He was born to Italian immigrants Vincenzo and Domenica Cosentino in Butler, PA. However, it is not him directly that this post is in memory or honor of. Here is a man, who wanted his life and his death to bring honor and glory to Christ. I do honor the memory of my grandfather because of the focus his life brings to Christ and not to himself.

A letter my grandfather was writing before he passed away was found by my grandmother a couple weeks ago. He made explicit statements in the letter that he did not want the memorial service to be about him, but to bring honor to the One who saved him. He was not a perfect man, but he was a godly man who desired to bring honor and glory to Christ. I love him and I miss him, but I know his joy has been made complete because he is seeing Christ face to face just as He is. And one day, he and I shall worship and enjoy Christ together in His presence.

So, it is not in memory or honor of my grandfather that I write this post. It is in celebration for the joy he is experiencing and the honor of his Savior! It is because of his loving obedience to Christ that my father learned to fear the Lord with all his heart and in turn, taught me to love and fear the Lord with all my heart. God worked through this man to draw three generations of Cosentinos to Himself, and hopefully a fourth as my baby girl comes to know the loving grace of our Heavenly Father.