The Gospel Coalition

Going into this new year of grace 2009, I am thankful for four things and concerned about four things.

Thankful:

1. The gospel is being rediscovered and rejoiced over and ransacked in a fresh way, as evidenced by Together for the Gospel, The Gospel Coalition, Acts 29, etc. God seems to be creating new conditions for revival in the future. I hope I see some of it in my lifetime.

2. The rising generation, now in their 20s and 30s, are both theologically-minded and emotionally-intense toward the Lord. This is a powerful mix. If they will stay focused, we’re in for some good days. Future buffetings will test us, and we are all weak. But the race of Hebrews 12:1-2 is always runnable, if we will keep our eyes on Jesus.

3. The age of parachurch usurpation seems to be ending, and the rightful, biblical dignity and authority of the church are being re-asserted. Since the church is where God locates his power (Ephesians 3:20-21), again, it looks to me like the preconditions of revival.

4. The Bible is the focus of renewed fascination and serious study. I see the success of the ESV Study Bible as one evidence here. Pragmatism is less acceptable as a form of validation, and biblical authority is increasingly required. This is the Lord Jesus himself touching us with his royal scepter, asserting his authority, for his greater glory and our greater power.

Concerned:

1. Too many churches remain uninvolved in and even unaware of the new things God is doing. They seem stuck in old patterns of dysfunction. Will they be left behind and lost to tragic inconsequentiality?

2. A tsunami of sin has been slamming us for years now, especially through the internet and increasingly filthy “entertainment.” When will we get sick to our stomachs, sick of ourselves, sick enough to cry out to God for the massive cleansing only he can give? We tolerate sins that put our Savior on the cross. When will we become indignant enough to change?

3. Even in churches and movements that God is blessing, still, prayer can appear to be perfunctory at times. What is our confidence — our cool personalities, or the power of the Holy Spirit in our weakness?

4. My generation and above has most of the money. What are we doing with it? Padding our comfortable lives, or plowing it into the cause of Christ? Lazy self-indulgence is a huge temptation for older people. But the next decade can be the greatest season of our entire lives, if we will invest our historically unprecedented wealth in the rising generations of Christ’s soldiers.

A fascinating Times article by an atheist makes the case for Christian worldview change as essential to Africa’s future here.

HT: Justin Taylor.

The hallelujah chorus that Christ has been stirring in our hearts throughout 2008 he will sustain and intensify and deepen throughout 2009, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

Thank you for checking into the blog this year. I’m taking a break now. God bless you.

HT: Pure Church.

“I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.” Luke 11:8

“Impudence” is the key. Other versions show “importunity,” “persistence,” “boldness,” “shamelessness,” and “brazen insistence.” All good translations.

The word is anaideia. That’s the negative prefix an + aideia (“shame, respect, modesty”). The ESV renders it “impudence.” More casually, we call it “nerve.”

If you think prayer is boring, look at it from God’s perspective. How many boring, predictably flat, way-too-polite prayers must he have to put up with! Jesus is commanding us to pray nervy prayers, because that’s when we start getting serious with God. And he likes that. It’s when doors start opening up.

Matthew Henry: “We prevail with men by impudence because they are displeased with it, but with God because he is pleased with it.”

As you go into 2009, how are you praying? Got the nerve yet to ask God for what you really need and really long for and what would really display his glory in this God-denying world? Or are you settling for polite prayers that bore you and bore God and change nothing?

HT: Vitamin Z.

“The evening meeting connected with the Bible conference began January 6th, in the Central Church [in Pyungyang], with more than 1500 men present. . . . After a short sermon, . . . man after man would rise, confess his sin, break down and weep, and then throw himself on the floor and beat the floor with his fists in a perfect agony of conviction. . . . Sometimes, after a confession, the whole audience would break out into audible prayer, and the effect of that audience of hundreds of men praying together in audible prayer was something indescribable. Again, after another confession, they would break out into uncontrollable weeping and we would all weep together. We couldn’t help it. And so the meeting went on until 2 A.M., with confession and weeping and praying. . . . We had prayed to God for an outpouring of his Holy Spirit upon the people, and it had come.”

Eyewitness account, quoted in Young-Hoon Lee, “Korean Pentecost: The Great Revival of 1907,” AJPS 4 (2001): 77.

Today is our 37th wedding anniversary. I loved her then, I love her far more now. God has smiled on me.