Christian Living Blog

If you’re like me, you probably don’t think about diversity very often. We’re more often content to “live and let live.” That’s the very assumption that Scott Williams wants to challenge in his new book Church Diversity: Sunday the Most Segregated Day of the Week. Williams bases the premise for his book on a quotation by Martin Luther King Jr. that is as startlingly true now as it was fifty years ago–

“We must face the sad fact that at the eleven o’clock hour on Sunday morning when we stand to sing, we stand in the most segregated hour in America.”

You may be thinking, “But, what’s the big deal? Why is diversity so important? If Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians each have their own church, why does it matter? We’re all worshiping Jesus.”

Well, part of it has to do with the Great Commission Jesus gave us in Matthew 28 to “go and make disciples of all nations,” and challenging ourselves to move beyond “what is” to “what will be.” There will come a day when every tribe, tongue and nation will gather to worship the Lamb. So, when we worship as a diverse body of Christ, we reflect the kingdom of God on earth as it will be in heaven.

I interviewed Scott Williams a few weeks ago, and was intrigued to learn more about this topic. I hope you’ll listen to the interview and start thinking about what the body of Christ can look like.

Hear the Interview

Message from Scott Williams

Over 20 years ago Doug Sherman wrote Your Work Matters to God, which has become a classic on meaningful vocation for Christians in the workplace. This summer Sherman’s newest book More Than Ordinary hit the shelves. In it, he explores what it means to live a live filled with meaning and purpose, and to have a spiritual walk that is both intimate and exciting.

I recently interviewed Doug Sherman about More Than Ordinary. Go ahead and take a listen, or check out the video below where Doug introduces the book himself.

Hear the Interview

Message from Doug Sherman

I remember the first time I heard the word “Christianese.” It was my freshman year at Gordon College in my Introduction to Communication Theory class. My professor was explaining how as Christians we sometimes use terms that you wouldn’t understand if you didn’t grow up going to church. Phrases like “born again,” “Spirit-led,” or to “love on someone,” can sometimes be confusing, rather than inclusive. To those outside the church, it can make Christianity seem like a club with it’s own set of vocabulary and rituals, rather than a dynamic, compelling relationship with the lover of our souls.

I think what my professor was getting at is that we are two different cultures, Christians and non-Christians. You don’t have to travel to Africa or Asia to experience a different way of life, you may only need to travel down the hall, or across the office to find someone who views the world in a radically different way than you do.

When you become a Christian your worldview shifts. If you were an atheist, you realize that there is a God who has a plan, and life has meaning beyond what we experience with our five senses. Or if you were a Hindu, or Neo-pagan, you move from worshiping many gods to the true One as revealed in Christ. This is a powerful, dramatic and life-altering shift. However, as soon as that person joins a body of believers, they pick up cultural behaviors and attitudes that aren’t necessarily part of the Gospel message, and we learn to live from a script that contains both Biblical and non-Biblical habits.

This is what Frank Viola addresses in his newest book, Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script. In each of the 10 chapters he pinpoints a particular behavior or phrase that Christians often take for granted as part of our thinking, and examines it under the lens of Scripture.

I interviewed Frank recently to discuss Revise Us Again. I hope that you’ll take a few moments to listen to the interview, and more importantly take a little time to examine yourself and see where your life may need some revising.

Last week I had a chance to chat with Joanna Weaver, author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and Having a Mary Spirit. We talked about her newest book Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place in the Heart of God. In Lazarus Awakening Joanna takes a closer look at the story of Lazarus and how God longs to do a similar miracle in our lives. He wants to resurrect places in our hearts and relationships that need healing, so we can live more fully for Him.

Listen to my interview with Joanna.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Nearly a hundred years ago, the famed Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield asked that same question. Writing in the Princeton Theological Review in 1916, Warfield decried the confused state of Christianity in his day. He asked:

Does anybody in the world know what ‘Evangelical’ means, in our current religious speech?  . . . Take an even greater word. Does the word ‘Christianity’ any longer bear a definite meaning? Men are debating on all sides of us what Christianity really is.  . . . If everything that is called Christianity in these days is Christianity, then there is no such thing as Christianity. A name applied indiscriminately to everything designates nothing.[i]

If Warfield could survey the current evangelical landscape, it’s doubtful he would be encouraged. The term Christianity has only become more ambiguous in the last century. In fact, ask what it means today and you’re likely to get a hopelessly convoluted assortment of answers, even from those who identify themselves with the label.

For some, being “Christian” is primarily cultural and traditional, a nominal title inherited from a previous generation, the net effect of which involves avoiding certain behaviors and occasionally attending church. For others, being a Christian is largely political, a quest to defend moral values in the public square, or perhaps to preserve those values by withdrawing from the public square altogether. Still more define their Christian experience in terms of a past religious experience, a general belief in Jesus, or a desire to be a good person. Yet all of these fall woefully short of what it truly means to be a Christian from a biblical perspective.

To be a Christian, in the true sense of the term, is to be a wholehearted follower of Jesus Christ. As the Lord Himself said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (emphasis added). The name suggests much more than a superficial association with Christ. Rather, it demands a deep affection for Him, allegiance to Him, and submission to His Word. “You are My friends if you do what I command you,” Jesus told His disciples in the Upper Room (John 15:14). Earlier He told the crowds who flocked to hear Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31); and elsewhere: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23; cf. John 12:26).

When we call ourselves Christians, we proclaim to the world that everything about us, including our very self-identity, is found in Jesus Christ because we have denied ourselves in order to follow and obey Him. He is both our Savior and our Sovereign, and our lives center on pleasing Him. To claim the title is to say with the apostle Paul, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

Since its first appearance in Antioch (in Acts 11:26), the term Christian has become the predominant label for those who follow Jesus. It is an appropriate designation, because it rightly focuses on the centerpiece of our faith: Jesus Christ. Yet ironically, the word itself appears only three times in the New Testament—twice in the book of Acts and once in 1 Peter 4:16.

In addition to the name Christian, the Bible uses a host of other terms to identify the followers of Jesus. Scripture describes us as aliens and strangers, citizens of heaven, and lights to the world. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, members of His body, sheep in His flock, ambassadors in His service, and friends around His table. We are called to compete like athletes, to fight like soldiers, to abide like branches in a vine, and even to desire His Word as newborn babies long for milk. All of these descriptions—each in its own unique way—help us understand what it means to be a Christian.

Yet, the Bible uses one metaphor more frequently than any of these. It is a word picture you might not expect, yet it is absolutely critical for understanding what it means to follow Jesus.

It is the image of a slave.

Time and time again throughout the pages of Scripture, believers are referred to as slaves of God and slaves of Christ. In fact, whereas the outside world called them “Christians,” the earliest believers repeatedly referred to themselves in the New Testament as the Lord’s slaves. For them, the two ideas were synonymous.

Though it sounds shocking to our modern ears, the biblical understanding of the believer’s relationship to Christ could not be more clear. He is the Master and Owner. We are His possession. He is the King, the Lord, and the Son of God. We are His subjects and His subordinates.

In a word, we are His slaves. That is what it means to be a Christian.

This article is adapted from John MacArthur’s new book Slave: The Hidden Truth about Your Identity in Christ.

[i] B. B. Warfield, “‘Redeemer’ and ‘Redemption’,” pp. 177–201 in the Princeton Theological Review, 14/2 (April, 1916), 199; online at: http://scdc.library.ptsem.edu/mets/mets.aspx?src=BR1916142&div=1&img=1.

This week I spent some time talking to Kevin Malarkey. Back in 2004 Kevin and his son Alex suffered a terrible car crash. While Kevin was unharmed Alex received serious injuries and spent two months in a coma. When Alex awoke he had amazing experiences to share.

Although unconscious  at impact he miraculously saw the entire accident in great detail, and then was  taken to heaven by angels. The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven is Kevin and Alex’s retelling of what happened that day and what Alex experienced in the supernatural realm.

Click here to hear my interview with Kevin.

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed pastor Britt Merrick about his first book, Big God: What Happens When We Trust Him.

Britt is a surfer. When I say he’s a surfer I mean it in two ways. He’s both a man who rides the killer waves of Southern California beaches, and a soul surfer on an intense journey riding the unpredictable waves of life with a lot of moxie.

When Britt started writing Big God he knew that the book would be about faith and exploring the Biblical heroes from Hebrews Chapter 11. What he didn’t know was that he’d be called to the most difficult challenge of his life at the same time. His 5-year-old daughter Daisy, was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer, a Wilms’ tumor, that was about the size of a football in her abdomen. The tumor was removed shortly after discovery, but the Merrick’s still had to face several months of chemotherapy treatments and an uncertain outcome.

So when Britt started talking about faith in our interview, I had to listen. Here is a guy who has clung to Jesus with everything he has in him. I hope you’ll take a listen too. If you do, I think you’ll agree that our God is a Big God, and with His help we can have faith big enough to make it through the ups and downs of life’s storms.

Click here to hear my interview with Britt.

Recently, there have been a slew of books addressing the issue of world poverty and the Christian response. A few that come to mind are The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, Radical by David Platt, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and later this summer, Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado.

I have to admit that I’m in favor of the attention this issue is getting. After two trips to India in 2002 and 2009 my eyes have been opened to the reality of daily life for the majority of believers around the world. As a college student I attended a lecture with Paul Borthwick (How to Be a World-Class Christian) and I remember him saying that if you were to average together all the Christians in the world–North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa–the result would be an Asian woman. Having sat in small house churches in Northern India, knowing that there were thousands more scattered throughout the continent, I started to believe him.

And what are these Asian Christians, who are no doubt below the poverty line by Western standards doing? They are serving the poorest of the poor in their own land with the time and resources they have to offer.  The Good News Bhawan Center in Bhopal has 5 sewing centers where they teach Hindu women from the slums how to sew and read. They come to learn a useful skill, but also to hear the Gospel. In another part of the city church staff go out 5 days a week to  shanty-town, corrugated metal slum neighborhoods to gather the children there and teach them how to wash their hands, brush their teeth, and comb their hair. The children also learn games, songs and basic lessons. They are offered a few hours just to be a kid, free from the crushing realities of poverty. These children are dalits, meaning “untouchables.” They are ignored by Hinduism and forgotten by their government. Some of these children are sponsored, a uniform is bought for them and they attend a local school. With education they have a chance to break the cycle of poverty. There are two of these children programs in the slums of Bhopal, serving about 70 children daily.

I’m amazed by the perseverance and work ethic of my Indian brothers and sisters, but rather than feel guilty about my opportunities and resources living in the U.S. instead I ask, “What can I do?”

If your heart hasn’t been broken yet for the plight of the poor or if you’ve yet to experience Christianity outside of Western culture, I recommend any of the fore-mentioned titles as food for thought. Or better yet, go and see for yourself what the Body of Christ is already doing around the world, and how you can support the effort.

Last Friday I had the opportunity to talk with author Frank Viola about he and Leonard Sweet’s newest book, Jesus Manifesto.

Jesus Manifesto is a passionate exploration and declaration of Jesus Christ. Viola and Sweet feel that many Christians and churches have lost sight of the majesty and supremacy of Jesus. Our lives are filled with activity and spiritual things—spiritual gifts, social justice, ministry, etc, but what is our motivation? They call Christians and the church to renew their first love and come back to simply adoring our Lord and Master.

Click here to listen to the interview with Frank Viola.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) recently announced the 2010 Christian Book Award winners. Richard Stearn’s The Hole in Our Gospel won both the Christian Life Category Award and 2010 Christian Book of the Year.

Below you’ll find an interview with Richard Stearns and Bill Hybels at Willowcreek Community Church. Hear the story behind this life-changing book.

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3