Be The Fruit

The main purpose of Sex is Not the Problem (Lust Is) is to differentiate between sex and lust to show how lust corrupts God’s design for sex. This book defines lust as “craving sexually what God has forbidden (20).” Essentially, this book shows that God designed humans as sexual beings that are to enjoy sex. Sometimes people think that God is against their enjoyment of sex, but really God is against the lust that corrupts his design for sex which robs us of the true enjoyment God intended. One key principle that this book conveys is that to truly conquer lust we must understand that God is against lust “not because He is opposed to pleasure, but because He is committed to it (29).” In order to conquer lust, we must embrace God-created sexuality and bring it under His rule (43). This books shows that we cannot conquer lust unless we turn it over to God and rely on his grace and forgiveness.

This book also provides a distinction of how lust manifests itself differently in men and women. Men often fantasize about the actual act of sex with a woman while women fantasize about sex with a man as part of a glorified romantic relationship. Also, women often are tempted to become the object of a man’s lust by dressing or acting provocatively (86-87). The key principle is to know that both men and women struggle with lust, and understanding how each gender lusts differently allows each to combat their problems more precisely.

This book also takes on the issue of masturbation, describing it as “self-centered sex.” The key principle is that masturbation is “solely about you and your pleasure (103).” This self-centered pleasure distorts God’s intent for sexual pleasure between a husband and wife.

Finally, this book provides some practical steps for combating the problem of lust. The key principle is to take into account all things that can lead you astray as well as having mechanisms to help keep you on a righteous path. We must avoid movies, television, and things on the internet that we know may cause us to stumble. We should know what situations or scenarios that tends to trigger our lust. We must also maintain openness and accountability with people that will help us maintain righteousness. We should also spend time in prayer and reading and memorizing the Bible to help replace the bad with the good in our minds.

Critique 

There was nothing in this book that I totally disagreed with, but I would have liked to see Harris expand on how to avoid the “diet mentality” that he described on page twenty-five. On page forty-seven Harris writes that the practical steps that he provides to combat lust can turn into a checklist that ends up worthless. Harris provided the warning, but I do not think he ever fully described how to achieve it. The steps provided were all good, but there needed to be some discussion as to how those steps work together to make up a lifestyle that is devoted to God and free from lust. The problem is that a person can do each step well on its own, but never have it transfer to other parts of their life. A person may have great quiet time in the morning, but do evil in the afternoon because it was out of the “spiritual” segment of their life. Once again, there is nothing wrong with the suggestions, but it would have been more helpful to focus on how those suggestions translate into all areas of a person’s life.

Conclusion

Sex is not the Problem (Lust is), is a book that I recommend.  Harris does a good job of explaining exactly what lust is in relation to what God created sex to be.  The real beauty of the book is that he places the solution to the problem of lust in the gospel.  He rightly conveys that lust is a sin, but there is a solution and it can be found in the Cross.  One of the things that gets missed about the Cross is that Jesus not only paid the penalty so that we can be forgiven, but he also broke the bondage of sin in our lives.  As believers, we can move forward, grow, and overcome problems with lust because of what Jesus did on the cross.  Without the cross, we are enslaved to our sins and we only have our willpower to overcome them, and we all know that our willpower never lasts.  I recommend this book because it is easy to read, but packs a lot of punch in the way it defines the nature of lust and how the true solution to the problem must be found in the gospel.

You can check out more here.  Read an additional review by Tim Challies here.

Timmy Brister wrote a very detailed post about “Word-Driven Movemental Christianity” here.  Timmy argues that the Word should be the center of any church-planting movement rather than ideas and techniques.  Ed Stetzer adds to the post in the comments.  Check it out.

C. J. Mahaney tells how the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye written by Joshua Harris is receiving praise and an endorsement from a liberal feminist professor of religion here. 

John Piper explains how we must be able to test an revival by looking at doctrine here.

Michael O’Neal shares the reflections he had about what it takes to go to heaven when he was listening to the memorial service for Skip Caray here.

Jason Bradford just finished reading The Faith of Barack Obama and gives his thoughts and reflections here. 

I happy to announce that apparently my weekly feature, “Idolatry Thursday” has inspired Aaron Chambers to start a thursday feature on his blog.  Aaron’s new feature will be “New Music Thursday,” and he hopes to expose his readers to all kinds of new music here.

This week at bethefruit.com I reviewed and gave some of my thoughts on Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal by David Dockery here.

What have you been praying for lately?  Is there one thing that you offer up to your Sunday school class or small group for prayer requests every week?  If there is something that has been dominating your prayer life then it would be wise to take a step back and examine your heart because what you are praying for might be an idol in your life.

In Seeing with New Eyes, David Powlison discusses the concept of watching what you pray for:

“Your prayers often reveal the pattern of your imbalance and self-centeredness.  Of the many possible things to ask for, what do you concentrate on?  Prayer is about desire; we ask for what we want.  Do your prayers — or lack of — reflect the desires of God or of the flesh?”

What is the desire behind your prayers?  Is it a desire that glorifies God?   

Are you praying to lose weight?  It could be that you motivation is to glorify God, but it could be that you are chasing an idol of beauty.

Are you praying for God to give you a husband/wife?  You might be consumed by the desire for a spouse rather than trying to glorify God in the circumstance you are in.

Are you constantly praying for a job, money, or increased income?  You might be enslaved by the idolatry of attaining more stuff.

The examples could go on and on, but I hope you can see that sometimes we pray with wrong motives.  Let’s take a look at a passage of Scripture that examines this issue:

¹ What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? ² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:1-4, ESV)

This passage is all about what we do when we are controlled by our lusts.  The original language used is the language used to describe warfare.  Essentially, James tells us that people who are controlled by their lusts will murder, fight, or quarrel because they do not get what they want.  Think about a 3 year-old who just was told that they cannot have any candy and you will get the picture.  Beyond that, James points out that some don’t ask, but others do not have because they ask with wrong motives.  So, in addition to pure ugliness, our wrong desires can come out in the requests we make to God.

Let me be clear.  A constant prayer concern is not always an idol.  In many cases, if you have a constant prayer request it probably means that you are going through a trial rather than worshipping an idol, but it is wise to always examine our motives when we are making requests to the All-mighty. 

If you want to see a good example of what it looks like to seek God with lustful or idolatrous motives, just watch any of the health and wealth preachers on TV.  Think about Joel Osteen who tells people that God wants to give them their “best life now.” But what does his version of the “best life” look like?  When you get down to it, Osteen is teaching to ask God to give you whatever you desire.  What desires does Osteen promote?  Primarily, he promotes pursuing idols of better health, increased wealth, and good parking spaces.  The relationship looks more like one we might have with a genie rather than the sovereign creator of the universe.

It is good to pray for the things we desire, but we should always remember that sometimes we desire wrong things.  Take notice of what you are praying for and examine your heart because your prayers reveal your desires and your desires might be for idols that are controlling your life.  

Until next time, put God first and “be the fruit.”  

I had a conversation some time ago about the transition of a “traditional” Baptist church. In the conversation, a statement was made that the church looks more like a non-denominational church than a Baptist church. This statement made me think, “What is it that makes a Baptist church Baptist anyway?” It is not the music and style of worship, although there could be some distinctive aspects to it. It is not what clothes the people wear, what time they meet or anything like that. It seems to me that Baptist churches should be defined by their core theological beliefs rather than methods of ministry or culture. The trouble with the viewpoint of the man I had the conversation with was that he was only looking at external differences rather than the theological beliefs that should be driving Baptist beliefs.

In Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal, David Dockery does a great job laying out what he believes should be the core distinctives of Baptist churches in the future. Dockery explains his proposal by giving an excellent historical account of how Baptist beliefs have developed over the years. It was interesting to see how much of the time the changes in beliefs were driven through reactions to previously held ideas.

Dockery makes it clear that there is quite a variety of beliefs among Baptists, but he believes that there are core beliefs that Baptists should stand for. His main idea is that Baptists should be confessional in that they should focus on core theological beliefs that have been stated in various confessions and seek to achieve unity in those areas. Dockery explains that it is most important that Baptists agree on the trustworthiness of the Bible, and all faith and practice should develop from there.

I think Dockery is correct that we should focus on confessional beliefs. One of the interesting aspects of the history that Dockery lays out is how what we know as “traditional” was very programmatic in nature where most of what was Baptist revolved around the programs or means of ministry. Much of these things were merely cultural in nature with little based on core beliefs. Such practices were essentially a checklist that gauged one’s spirituality where if you hit the list of programs, you were a good Baptist. Dockery states, “These practices were to Southern Baptists what Latin Mass was to Roman Catholics” (7). Looking back to the conversation I mentioned earlier, much of the practices that looked “non-denominational” in that particular church appear to be reactions to the “traditional” practices that Dockery describes. The trouble with such an approach is that in many cases, old traditions are replaced with new traditions that are just as programmatic. Sunday School, potlucks, and hymns are replace by casual clothes, praise music, and small groups. In either case, “who we are” depends on the things we do rather than what we believe, and when this happens all beliefs are subject to change. By becoming more confessional, as Dockery proposes, Baptist faith and practice will be more clear and stable. To put it simply, by being more confessional, we keep the main things the main things.

One of the most thought-provoking areas of Dockery’s proposal was that of education. As a student at Southern Seminary, I was deeply moved thinking about the level of education I am receiving for such a great value because of the cooperative program. I am amazed by all the things I have learned that I am using now and will use in the future. I can see firsthand how Baptists can work together by funding the Seminaries in order to better prepare pastors for their work. It surely is a great benefit for all Baptists – and all Christians for that matter — to have more well-educated pastors, but Dockery takes his vision a step further. Dockery explains how historically, Baptists have funded institutions for higher education, but how many of such schools have become something other than a Christian college. Dockery proposes that there could be institutions of higher learning funded by the convention that are based on confessional beliefs. I was struck by the idea that such institutions could exist not only to provide people with good educations, but also to train and teach people to think more christianly in their lives. He proposed that such institutions could practice rigorous research, but could do so based on decidedly Christian beliefs. A good example would be for such an institution to be developing rigorous scientific research based on Creation rather than evolution. In the world we live in today, there is a great need for more people who know how to orient all aspects of their lives – family, work, and hobbies – around what the Bible teaches; therefore, his goal is on right track.

I recommend that anybody who has thought of themselves as a Baptist pick up this book and give his proposal some thought. Dockery wrote many things that need further development and discussion, but his emphasis on the core Baptist beliefs begin in the right place to answer my question, “What is it that makes a Baptist church Baptist anyway?”

If there are any “indie” music artists out there looking for some help, they should check out the launch of Tone Box digital here.  Jason Bradford talks about the maturation of his label here. 

Staying with the musical theme, Richard Clark mentions “4 reasons country music is actually kind of good” here.

Speaking of people who think country music is good, Chad Jarnagin and his wife Jennifer welcomed their son Elijah into the world.  Congratulations to them.  Link.  (Chad really loves  loathes country music.)

Ed Stetzer was “Thinking about Apostles” here, and then had “More Thoughts on Apostles” here.

Trevin Wax is back into the swing of things after his blog sabbatical posting an interview with Rabbi Derek Leman about his Feast:  Finding Your Place at the Table of Tradition here.  I don’t know much about it, but it sounds interesting.  Trevin also shared some of the lessons he learned from his sabbatical here. (In the comments, he gave me a little insight into how he approaches writing for his blog.)

At Be the Fruit this week, I challenged people to think about where they find their identity here.

How do you identify yourself?  How do you define who your are?

Sometimes one of the most difficult questions I answer is, “Tell me about yourself.”  How do you begin to answer such a question?  In most normal conversations, our identity typically moves to the question, “What do you do?”  For some reason we seem to think a person’s job tells us a lot about a person.  In our culture, I guess we think we can see the measure of a person based on what they do for a living.  If they have a really good career, then they must be good because they are successful.  But, that really does not tell us much because such a person might be consumed with a successful career, but with a home life that is in shambles.  On the other hand, a person may have a “lesser” job, but with a great home life and a growing relationship with God.  That really looks at how others identify you, but the question of the day is, “How do you identify yourself?”

Now this is Idolatry Thursday, but this question is not directed at any specific idol.  This is essentially a diagnostic question that you can ask yourself that might reveal some idols that you might have in your life.  Answers to this question may not reveal an actual idol, but it may give you something to consider.

Do you identify yourself with your chosen career, as mentioned earlier?  Be careful, because many people can get wrapped up in their lust for a successful career and leave God behind.

Do you identify yourself with your hobby?  Is breaking 80 on the golf course keeping you from things you should be doing?

Do you identify yourself with your favorite sports team?  Are you a rabid fan who sins every time your team loses a game?

Do you identify yourself with your blog?  Is your blog reading/writing keeping you from spending time with your family? (not me, never, I always read and write at home)  I guess I am preaching to myself here.

Do you identify yourself with your kids?  Be careful that you are not living vicariously through their lives and achievements.

The list could go on and on.  Give this some thought today.  Ultimately, we need to remember that we must find our identity in Christ.  Remember this, even if you find that your identity is in something other than Christ; if you find that your identity reveals an idol that is pulling you away from God, there is hope for transformation.  Consider the following passage of Scripture:

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, ESV)

I love this passage of Scripture because it lists several “identities” of people who were transformed and justified by Jesus Christ.  Remember, if Christ can change these people, he can change you too.

Until next time, put God first and “be the fruit.”

__________________________________

Question adapted from:  David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, (Phillipsburg:  P & R, 2003), 140. Link.

Key Principles 

In The Grace and Truth Paradox, Randy Alcorn considers the concepts of grace and truth and their relationship. For most of us, balancing grace and truth is a difficult concept to understand. It seems that most of us either tend to emphasize either grace or truth and never figure out how to balance the two. In this book, Alcorn shows the example of Jesus who he states came with a balance of 100% truth and 100% grace (16).

Alcorn explains how grace and truth are not opposites, but should work together for Christians. We need to be willing to be truthful to people even if it might hurt them, but we should never do it with hurtful intentions. On the other hand, we need to show grace to people, but that should never be reduced to just being nice to people. Alcorn explains that in many cases we have “redefined Christlike to mean ’nice’” (73), but grace is so much more than being nice given that Jesus often did things that would not normally be construed as nice such as throwing tables and calling the Pharisees a brood of vipers. Throughout the book, Alcorn digs into the concepts of grace and truth and shows that one really cannot exist without the other.

Alcorn sums up the concept well when he comments on the command in Ephesians 4:15 to speak the truth in love. Alcorn states: “Our job is not simply to help each other feel good, but to help each other be good” (77). We should speak and act lovingly, but it should be done with full truth so that people do not just feel better, but become transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Critique

I would have like to read a little more “how to” information about ways to implement the 100% grace and 100% truth concept. It is something that is easier said than done. A little more practical help on implementation would have been helpful, but the brevity of the book is probably worth leaving out such info.

Personal Application

The most significant lesson I learned from this is that I should not strive for a 50/50 ratio of grace and truth, but for a full 100/100 balance. The two go hand and hand. How can I truly be exhibiting grace if I am not being truthful? If I do not tell the truth, people may face more harm and difficulty than if I just gave them a hug. True grace to an alcoholic must include the truth that they need to stop. To simply be nice and not tell the truth would be a selfish move because my motive would be not to help them, but not to upset them so they might like me.

On the other hand, how can I be truthful if I am not doing it with grace? To speak “truth” in an unloving way reveals a selfish heart bent on hurting rather than helping others. Such truth may be factually true, but not really true because it does not include the truth about God’s love and grace. The truth about God is the ultimate truth, and grace is certainly a huge aspect of God.

This book is an excellent primer for anyone trying to figure out what the Christ-like balance of grace and truth. It provides a solid but brief theological foundation for the concept. The book is short, easy to read, and easy to understand, but it also packed with solid foundational theology.

This concepts discussed in this book are things all Christians would benefit from learning, and Alcorn does a great job in explaining this concept in a very small amount of space.  Check it our here.

I had to add Jared Wilson’s blog to the blogroll because I have been reading his stuff ever since William Guice posted his attractional vs. missional chart on his blog here.  This week Jared has expanded on that chart searchwarp.com with two articles this week; Missional and Attractional 1 here, and Missional and Attractional 2 here.

Speaking of attractional models, Dr. Jim West pulls no punches when he states that mega-churches only exist to accumlate wealth.  Read his interesting thoughts here.

William Guice shares some of his heart-felt reflections this week about the huge need for Christians to focus on engaging neighbors, friends, and family as opposed to just going to another “rock-it-out” Sunday service here. 

This week, I wrote about how the “American Dream” can be an idol for many of us, and that it might just be an obstacle to the spreading of the gospel here.  Todd Young had some related thoughts here as he analyzed the “Prosperity Gospel” explaining that the phrase is an oxymoron.

If you read all of the above you might notice a pattern.  Perhaps all of these ideas sort of feed off of each other.  Just thinking…

Finally, today Trevin Wax is supposed to end his 1 month blog sabbatical.  I have to say that I am glad because I can honestly say I missed reading his blog.  He is supposed to be making some sort of announcement today so check it out here.  I am writing this on Thursday night, and I may not get online tomorrow so I won’t be able to update this so you will have to go see it for yourself.

I heard a message last night from William Guice tonight where he contrasted the “Kingdom of the World” to the “Kingdom of God.”  One of things he hit on is the us vs. them mentality many of us get into in an election year like this one.  He drove home how government, politics are not what being a Christian is all about.  I touched on this topic in a way when I described how politics can become an idol in our lives here.  One thing he wrapped up the talk with was the question, “Are we more wrapped up with being Americans than we are about being follower’s of Christ?”  That is a deep question.

That question got me to thinking about what it means to be an American.  I began to think about the American dream.  What is the American dream?  When I think about it, I think about things I heard as a kid.  “If you work hard, you can be anything you want to be.”  Then I think of things like this:  “In this country, a person can start with nothing and move their way up the ladder and achieve great things.” 

But what are we really talking about when we say these things?  Are we talking about that anyone can become a good person?  No.  I think we are talking about a person making lots of money and acquiring things.  When we talk about the American dream we talk about rags to riches stories.  We talk about people who had nothing who now live in mansions. 

As I scanned my “Idolatry Thursday” writings earlier here, it really hit me that a lot what I have been writing about are things that we Americans strive for.  A lot of what I have written seems to be what the American dream is all about.  We want more stuff, more entertainment, more beauty, the best education so we can get better jobs to get more stuff, and on it goes.  The essence of the American dream seems to be centered on what man can do rather than what God can do.  We say, “I can do anything I set my mind to,” while I read where the apostle Paul writes “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).  Paul knows where his strength comes from while we tend think of it as coming from within.

The great problem is that the American dream becomes the god of our lives and we strive to attain more and more things through our own efforts.  How many of us are building our own Towers of Babel so we can stand back and marvel at our own greatness?  I know I have built a few, how about you?

Don’t get me wrong, I love living in America.  It is a wonderful blessing to have the measure of freedom that we have.  The past two nights I have had the ability to freely assemble with other believers to worship and learn about our God.  This is something we take for granted.  The early Christians did not have this freedom, and many Christians today that live  under totalitarian regimes don’t have this freedom either.  You want to know something interesting?  The rate of growth in such countries is very high today while the numbers of Christians in free countries is on the decline.  The early church was much the same.

So I ask and wonder:  Could it be the American dream that is getting in the way of us spreading the gospel?  Are we so consumed with trying to get more and more things that we lose sight of our real calling to go and make disciples in this world?  I think we have gotten so consumed with our idols that we just don’t have time to engage our friends, family, and neighbors with the gospel.  Could this be why freedom equals a decline in Christianity?

In the American dream we dwell on the rags to riches stories, but there is only one rags to riches story that matters.  That is the story of Jesus becoming a man so that he could live a sinless life and die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  You see, no matter what we attain, what we create, or what we accomplish, we are all just rags.  The only riches that exist are those that can be found in Jesus Christ.  We must examine our lives and see if we are more consumed with striving for the American dream rather than living for Jesus.

William, my friend, you always try to make people think so I think accomplished that last night.  Hopefully what I have written here causes others to think as well.

Until next time, put God first and “be the fruit.”

A Gospel Primer, by Milton Vincent, is a little book that I highly recommend to Christians of all levels of maturity.  The author explains the intent of the book, “This book is offered as a handy guide to help Christians experience the gospel more fully by preaching it to themselves each day.”

The beauty of this book is that it is short, easy to read, yet extremely powerful.  Why is it powerful?  It is powerful because it just sticks to the plain and simple message of the gospel which is the most powerful message this world has ever known.  The book is laid out in four sections.  Part 1 gives “Reasons to Rehearse the Gospel Daily.”  This section includes short thoughts on how the gospel should transform our lives on a daily basis.  Each thought exhorts us to keep the gospel front and center in our lives.  Also, the thoughts are laced with many scripture references for further investigation and study.

Part 2 gives “A Gospel Narrative” in a prose version.  Essentially, the author lays out the gospel in very personal terms.  He writes the story using personal pronouns so you will experience it as if you are reading your own story.  You will read of your fallenness and the great gift of God’s grace through the sacrifice of Jesus.  It is a great experience as a personal devotion.

Part 3 is much like the previous section except this section lays out the gospel in a poetic version.  Again, this poetry is written in first-person so it reads as if you are speaking of yourself, which you actually are.

Part 4 recounts the story behind the book.  The author shares how there was a time when he was miserable in his walk.  Although he is a seminary graduate and a pastor, Vincent struggled to live as if God’s grace was real and true in his life.  He began to emphasize the gospel in his daily life and began to connect to God in a new way.  In this process the thoughts, stories, and poetry were developed for his church, and it has now been put together in this publication.

This book has been endorsed by C. J. Mahaney, John Mac Arthur, Jerry Bridges, and others.  Now it has been endorsed by Bill Blair so it is bound to be a best-seller now.

The truth of the gospel is something I never get over.  Every time I hear it or read it I am moved.  A Gospel Primer shows how the gospel can be conveyed simply, accurately, and fully.  I recommend that you pick up this book and read it to preach the good news of Jesus to yourself every day.  You can check it out here.