I love the way John Piper speaks about God.
If there’s one thing you can say for the man – it’s that he is certainly not indifferent about the Gospel or the things of God. I may not always agree with everything he says, but when I hear him speak about God, there is no doubt in my mind that he is a man who loves God.
Here’s some classic John Piper for your listening pleasure:
America’s largest Christian retailer, Family Christian Stores, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
This doesn’t mean that they are closing down; they are doing this in order to save their company. They are going to restructure and try to stay in business.
Perhaps most interesting though, is that while Family Christian Stores is floundering, Lifeway Christian Bookstores is expanding.
What’s the difference between these two? In short, I would put it this way: Lifeway has higher standards about what they sell and how they do business.
Earlier this year, when it came out that a certain big name pastor/author had committed rampant plagiarism, Lifeway immediately dropped his books from their shelves. Family Christian Stores, on the other hand specializes in cheesy Christian paraphernalia and selling whatever sells. I remember going into one of their stores once and being surprised to see a particular book on their shelves. My wife asked the manager why they sold that book – his response was very telling: he said he was ashamed to have that book on their shelves too, but corporate said that they had to, because they are first and foremost a business and people buy that product.
It would seem to me that the reason Family Christian Stores is struggling whereas Lifeway is flourishing must somehow be attributed to the fact that Christians actually have higher standards and are more discerning as to where they spend their money and what values they want their retailers to represent than Family Christians Stores gave them credit for.
Following up on a previous post on why Christians worship on Sunday and the correlation between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, I recently read something I found interesting.
While many people assume that Christianity just took the Jewish idea of Sabbath and moved it to Sunday, it turns out the reason for the Christian Sunday is deeply eschatological.
Check it out:
Jewish Sabbath
Christian Sunday
Christianity was not just a rebranding of Jewish practices, but an eschatological fulfillment of them.
The Christian Sunday is more than a day of rest for Christians, it is a day of new creation. In it, we remember not only to rest from our labor, but we are reminded that with the resurrection of Jesus, we stand at the dawn of eternity – and that one day soon, the Son will break over the horizon and usher in the New Day. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have witnessed the death of death and the birth of “the life that is truly life”.
The story of told of the man whose wife came in to wake him up on a Sunday morning:
It’s time to get up honey, you need to get ready for church! You’re going to be late!
I don’t want to go to church today! It’s boring and the people there are all jerks and nobody is nice to me.
But honey, you have to go to church! You’re the pastor!
Now, just to be clear: I LOVE going to church! And not just because I’m the pastor. But I do know that some people sometimes struggle for various reasons with not feeling like they want to go to church.
I would encourage you with the words of Paul’s letter to the Galatians: That going to church, being in fellowship, joining in prayer, singing songs of praise and worship to God, partaking in Communion, hearing the Scriptures read aloud and expounded upon, hearing the Gospel message proclaimed and applied to real-life scenarios – these things are tantamount to “sowing to the Spirit”.
Paul says in Galatians 6:
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Gal 6:7-9)
When you don’t feel like going to church, I encourage you to make the choice to sow to the Spirit – take that hour and a half out of your Sunday morning to sow to the Spirit and you will, in due season, reap a harvest of joy and life and righteousness.
Theology for the People 