W.W.T.K.D.?
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
I think that blogging for knots will be an occasion for resting in Jesus. I read lots of other blogs, posts, tweets, articles and online musings of other really profound thinkers.As I often read what other people write I find myself looking deep inside my heart for a profound nugget of wisdom to throw to the hordes (ha!) of people waiting to gather up the gem I have offered. That introspection often feels quite hollow. In reality I feel like Jo-Jo the monkey boy dangling a Happy Meal toy in front of people who are feasting on steak tar tar at Tavern on the Green. There is a non-Gospel, lack of confidence in Jesus that gnaws at my soul. It hisses to me, “Be profound…be wise…say something ‘meaningful…W.W.T.K.D…(what would Tim Keller do? or say?) There are daily posts by Scotty Smith and Tullian Tchividjian and then there are the chirps that I find gurgling up from me. There is a really twisted reality in me that wants to find my identity in telling other people how their identity isn’t found in themselves. Does that make sense? I want to profoundly tell you how much your identity in Christ FREES you from the opinions of men, but in doing so I am really seeking the approval of men! I’m a Romans 7 poster child—- doing the things I hate, not doing the things I’d love to be doing. I guess the real “Knot” in this post is in me. It’s the guy who knows the truth, but doesn’t KNOW it. In one of my first encounters with the Pharisee within me a friend suggested that I would likely try to ‘get the Gospel right’. They were correct. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So much for blogging tonight. I will stick with repenting of blogging for today.
Leave a Comment
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.Jean's Tweets
Recommended Reading
-
“Jesus + Nothing = Everything will remind you of the ancient yet ever-fresh truth that everything we need is found in the perfections of Christ—not in ourselves, not in our reputation, our relationships or wealth or accomplishments—in Christ alone. If you’ve never rested in the finished work of Christ this book is for you. If you’ve rested in it for decades like I have, this book is for you, too. Why? Because we forget; And, although we love Jesus, we’re blind to the ways in which his work connects to our daily lives and we wonder why joy and zeal are foreign concepts to us.” -Elyse Fitzpatrick
-
Get ready to be bothered by the Gospel. Steve Brown teaches grace in a way that gets under your skin—- Reading Brown is like having a gospel hair in your mouth of your conscience. The more it bothers you the more beautiful the pearl produced will be
-
From the publisher: “It is a deep and rich biblical study of sanctification - how Christians grow in holiness and become more like Jesus. In a day when Christians are very prone to pursue self-help methods to grow in obedience to Christ, Walter Marshall lays out the biblical way of growth: obedience comes as Christians live by grace, in union with Christ, by faith.” This book influenced me PROFOUNDLY on the topic of sanctification. The Modern-English re-write makes this a TOP PICK for 2011!
-
I ‘accidentally’ picked up this book simply for the title alone. I grew to hate it quickly. It hit a little ‘too close to home.’ Fischer’s book plunges the scalpel of self-awareness and need for deep repentance deep into the hard hearts of Pharisees like ME!
Recommended Listening
- Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Ricky JonesRicky Jones is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a trophy of grace. If you want to listen to bold preaching by a man who knows his sin, knows his weaknesses and trusts only Jesus to take what he says and use it to God’s glory then you are heading in the right direction. The preaching is bold, the preacher is humble and you will be blessed.
- Key Life Ministries
Steve BrownSteve Brown is not the most subtle guy you will ever meet. If I were to write an S.A.T. question about Steve this is how it would go: Steve Brown is to legalism what a child hopped-up on cake and ice cream is to an pinata! I love this guy. Check out his website and fair warning: you are not heading to a ‘SAFE’ little Christian site!
- Coral Ridge Presbyterian
Tullian TchividjianAs one comment on iTunes said: “Tullian preaches the Gospel in an unadulterated and undomesitcated way…The way it should be preached!”
Recommended Links
- Mockingbird Blog
David ZahlMockingbird is a ministry that seeks to connect the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life in as fresh and down-to-earth a way possible.
- White Horse Inn
MIchael HortonWhite Horse Inn is a multimedia catalyst for reformation. We believe that each generation must rediscover and apply the gospel to their own time. We long to see a second reformation take hold of our churches and return them to the God-honoring, Christ-centered, Spirit-wrought places of worship they should be.
- On Earth as it is in Heaven
Tullian TchividjianWilliam Graham Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) is a Florida native, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham.
- Heavenward
Scotty SmithSmith is the founding Pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, avid writer, prolific blogger and tweeter. His nuggets of Gospel wisdom are seasoned by years of service to the Bride. He is gentle and very purposed in his every comment.
Comments
Jenny F. | January 05 2011 at 3:43 pm
As a fellow blogger, I’m happy to have another great blog to add to my reader. Especially my own pastor! Also, I see you’ve got Hal Farnsworth under recommended listening. He reigns from my in-laws church and the greatest city for any college student, including me. GO DAWGS!
Dallas | January 07 2011 at 12:29 pm
Hey Pastor,
I totally agree that the developing revelation of who we are in Christ (and Christ in us) frees us from the bondage of the world’s systems, including religion. My question is, “How do you transition from a literal-factual, requirements-rewards approach to Christianity (which people under 40 are continuing to reject by the tens of millions) from within a denominational and institutional entity that was built on it foundationally?
I am not being sarcastic. How do we get to a more compelling Gospel model without throwing out the baby with the bath water? Or, worse, do nothing and within a generation contract and shrink to become a historical footnote within the Body?
Sharla Grable | January 11 2011 at 7:06 pm
“There is a really twisted reality in me that wants to find my identity in telling other people how their identity isn’t found in themselves.”
Dear Jean, the most phenomenal characteristic of God’s love is that it painfully patiently waits for its Beloved to wake up to this truth. The change will never take place through conceptual theological beliefs alone, but in companionship with experiencing His love through you. To realize that one is not his own mind or flesh, but an inception of the Great Mind and the creation of that (like a painting or sculpture, that uniquely has been crafted from the artist’s own make-up and whose structure is therefore gifted with the same properties of its creator, on a slightly less functional scale) is a reality inhibited to most men by the countless forms of illusion in this world which obscure this truth, derived out of man’s own faulty understanding of who he is. Man is such a fine construction of the Life that God is, that he perceives himself to actually be life, rather than the creation of the One that is the Definition of Life. Love like God’s saves its Beloved from the delusion of itself (thanks be to Christ). And we know if the Beloved stays lost in illusion and chose’s to believe only in the playground of existence it is habitual to, it will be lost forever. The Love of the Creator that is alive in those who are awake is the same love that compels you to spread the Gospel, unmask the truth, so that our brothers who are cut from the same cloth as us, will realize there are no differences between us – no Black, no White, no fat, no skinny – we are all made in one image and clothed in temporary garments and our greatest commandment is to love each other as we love our Creator.
Beautiful is your passion, but in short, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink! Patience and peace be with you as you lead the most stubborn of horses throughout your lifetime! Take it from a student of psychology; you can’t fix us anymore than we can fix ourselves.
Sharla Grable | January 12 2011 at 7:20 pm
Forgive me, I was tired when I wrote the above, and forgot that the biblical text actually says our greatest commandment is to love our Father with all our hearts, and then love each other as we love ourselves. But you knew that! But the measure with which we are commanded to love our brother, I think, is close to that which is for our Father, because in loving ourselves, we are loving the One who created us. Just my thoughts! :o)