the wholistic nature of the Gospel - Chapel talk by Dr. Dane Ortlund

Dr. Dane Ortlund gave this talk in Wheaton chapel last spring. I found it incredibly meaningful and moving...I hope you will too.

http://www.wheaton.edu/WETN/All-Media/Chapel/Undergraduate/110425ortlund?lightbox=true


Miles

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

One thing I'd like to do with this blog is share some of the things I've been reading and thinking about. One of the books I read over the summer that really struck me was Erasing Hell by Francis Chan. The book was somewhat written as a response to Love Wins by Rob Bell, but in my opinion the crux of the argument goes far further than that. Erasing Hell goes beyond talking simply about hell and discusses a common way of looking at God that is not just theologically misguided but cripples our relationship with him.

At one point, Chan references Roman 9, which says "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?" (v 20-21). Chan says the following in reference to the metaphor of the potter and the clay: Does the Potter have the right to do whatever He wants with the clay? In the midst of the tragedies that life often brings, in the midst of the mysterious and hidden ways in which God often works, in the midst of the theological tensions and paradoxes that are woven throughout Scripture, in the midst of the pain and sorrow and misery and confusion that accompany our existence on earth – we must come to a place we can answer yes to this question. Yes, the Potter has this right." 

He later says "It is incredibly arrogant to pick and choose which incomprehensible truths we embrace. No one wants to ditch God’s plan of redemption, even though it doesn’t make sense to us. Neither should we erase God’s revealed plan of punishment because it doesn’t sit well with us. As soon as we do this, we are putting God’s actions in submission to our own reasoning, which is a ridiculous thing for clay to do."

Wow. Thought-provoking stuff. May we live humbly enough to trust the Potter's hands in our lives and allow him use the clay of our lives to make a beautiful piece of art.


Here's a video of Francis Chan talking about the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnrJVTSYLr8.

Or I recommend just picking up the book. It's a great one.

El Faro

In English, El Faro means the lighthouse. When I was studying abroad in Costa Rica, my group went to Nicaragua for six days. Of the many things I saw and learned, my experience with El Faro is the most etched into my thoughts. El Faro was the name of church located in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital and largest city. Managua is home to a place called “La Chureca,” the largest municipal dump in all of Central America containing the trash of some 1.3 million inhabitants. 2,000 Nicaraguans live inside the dump, subsiding on the money they make from going through the trash and finding bottles and other items that can be recycled and frequently eating any food scraps they find amongst the refuse. Food is in desperately short supply, as evidenced by the tragic story that took place a few weeks before the day we came. Three kids had been searching for food and ingested rat poison thinking it was food and died.

                In the midst of this incredible suffering and pain stands the lighthouse, El Faro church. El Faro runs an elementary school for the kids who live in the dump and feeds them each day. El Faro has several other programs in place to help the people of La Chureca. The church even started holding its church services in La Chureca so that the people there could come to church. I find El Faro to be one of the truest pictures of what the Church is called to be: Christ’s Body. In 1^st Corinthians 12, Paul calls the members of the church “the body of Christ.” We fulfill this calling by going out to a world in need and loving and serving the people around us. Christ’s body the Church exists not solely for itself, but for presently outside of the body. This is the way Christ lived (just read the Gospels).

The Gospel of John makes the analogy of Jesus as light, the light of the world. John 1:5 refers to Jesus, saying “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” And just as Jesus shone in the darkness, we are his followers and collectively as his Body the Church are called to shine in the darkness of this sin and suffering infected world. Maybe that is why in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says this “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (5:14-16).

My experience with El Faro church really brought this call into focus for me. My prayer is that we may all find our “La Churecas,” that we would follow our call to be Christ’s body and to be his lighthouses in this world filled with so much darkness.

An experiment: Intro to this whole blogging thing

Hello family and friends. This summer has been one filled with a lot of talks with those close to and a lot of self-reflection. In this process, it became apparent that I needed a way to process my daily thoughts. After some thinking about how to do this, I started thinking about starting a blog. As my favorite writer (and the author of the only blog I read or “follow”) Don Miller says "I write blogs, misspellings and all, as a way of journaling through ideas.” (You can read his blog here: http://donmilleris.com/ I promise you it is far better than mine. For me, I’m too much of a perfectionist to let too many misspellings go by, but over the next several months I will be trying out the whole blog idea as a way of reflecting on all that I’m learning about and some of my thoughts. I’ll try to post different thinks once or twice a week (along with the occasional Youtube gold for my fellow fans out there). Some of the posts will serious and some will be less so. For you all who are reading this please read as many or as few of what I post as you want. This experiment is primarily as a way to get my thoughts on paper and I’m humbled if you find what I write interesting or entertaining. I’d love to read any comments you have about what I post. I think that’d keep things a little more interesting.

The “title” of my blog comes from the name of one of my favorite songs, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2. (Check this out if you haven't heard it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv-lKwOQvE) If you didn’t know, U2 has long been one of my favorite bands. This song has always carried great weight for me because of its brilliant lyrics and killer instrumentation. I feel the song speaks of the struggle and longing that we all have...the desire to be whole. We go through our lives searching for something, anything to make us feel whole, to appease the deep inner desires of our hearts to be healed from the heart and saved from the suffering that is all too common in this Fallen world. My favorite part of the song is the third verse, when Bono sings

“I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it”

These lines so poetically capture what I believe is the answer to these longings of our hearts: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was him who carried the cross of our shame, loosing the chains and breaking the bonds of sin that entrapped our lives. Jesus’ Kingdom is coming through his death on the cross and triumph over death. As Jesus’ Kingdom continues to be ushered in, the transforming work of the Gospel breaks down all the barriers that separate us (all the colors bleed into one). Pain and suffering still are so present on this earth as we work to bring Jesus’ Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven and wait for his second coming, when the picture painted in Revelation 21 will become a reality. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (21:4-5 NIV). So in the midst of the tough times and pain and disappointment of life, run to Jesus, the one all of our hearts are looking for.

Miles