In Nairobi and Kitale, we will help out in the orphanages serving food, caring for the children and giving relief to the workers there. In both settings, we plan to spend some time playing games with and just loving on the children.

Valor Discovery intercultural experiences are designed to help students understand God’s heart for the poor and how to compassionately serve the disadvantaged and oppressed in the name of Jesus Christ and for His glory. We desire that our students gain a global perspective of the Great Commission, experience spiritual and emotional growth, and develop an appreciation and love for people from other cultures. On this trip, we will gain an understanding of how a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) works to address global poverty and HIV/AIDS.

I am hopeful that you would partner with us through your prayers for effectiveness in our labors, and protection and transformation in our lives.  If you feel led, we need financial support.  We are working to raise $3,800 each to cover the expense of the airfare, food, and lodging.  You can donate either online or by mail.  You can donate online at the Valor website.  Please write “Mark Gomez” in the comments section so the funds get designated appropriately.  By mail, your tax deductible donation check should be made payable to “Valor Christian High School,” designated “Mark Gomez – Africa trip” and mailed to the address below any time before April 15, 2011. Late gifts can be used but we will need to pay for airfare soon. All gifts are used as designated for the team’s expenses or the local ministry.  In light of this current economic environment, we trust the Lord will provide the necessary finances.

A trip like this is challenging and worthwhile in so many ways.  We are blessed by God so that we will bless others.  Thank you in advance for your prayers, emotional and/or financial support.  We are excited to partner with you in this service opportunity.

Thanks again for your support.  I look forward to sharing what God has done through this trip in my life.

How would you define legalism?  Also, if I may ask…. what does “following Jesus” exactly mean. I know a lot of religions out there think they are following Jesus, so I just was wondering what that meant to you. The reason I ask that is that Christianity is definitely not a set of rules (example you get saved… now you must follow these rules etc… ). But, once we are saved we should grow in our faith as Believers. What in your opinion is the evidence of that growth. Also, are there things in this world that can stunt this kind of spiritual growth? I guess I am probably giving away what I think=).

First of all, I want to say that I appreciate the spirit with which these questions were asked.  I know a lot of times we can sound a bit accusatory and its fairly obvious who we are accusing, so I really do appreciate the gracious spirit from the poster.  Its easy to get defensive.  Its hard to ask questions objectively without coming across as defensive (or in my case, sarcastic).

I think one of the biggest issues as it relates to legalism and specifically the kind of legalism some of us struggled through, is that your spirituality becomes defined by what you do.  Spirituality is defined externally and is worked up, rather than being derived internally and worked out.

In my view, we understand that the whole point of substitutionary atonement is that we could not please God and so Christ did that in our place and purchased our redemption and justification.  His grace accomplished my regeneration and works itself out as He conforms me to His image.  I obey as a result of Christ’s work in me, not solely of my own effort.

The legalistic view we’ve seen and that some former co-workers have advocated is that your obedience works out your spirituality.  You have to follow a list in order to sanctify yourself.  Its getting the cart before the horse.  The more you do for God the more He is pleased with you.  Or, put another way, there is inherent value in following the rules.  Keeping your list of things you’re supposed to do, will bring about your spirituality and conform you to Christ’s image in time.

The problem we run into is that some legalists are so concerned with obeying, that they invent rules that the Bible does not command.  Rules pertaining to modesty or music are codified in black and white.  We preach moralistically, instructing people in the do’s and don’t's of Christianity, rather than speaking expositionally and redemptively and allowing God’s grace to accomplish the obedience.  I asked a group of students what their view of Christianity was, and most admitted that it was a rulebook of do’s and don’t's.  We get very good at telling people don’t have sex, don’t do drugs, don’t chew gum in class and they get the message that if they follow the rules then God is pleased with them.

So, with that background, let me try to answer the specific questions.  First, what does following Jesus actually mean?  When Christ said “Follow me” He had something radical in mind.  It was not merely “Pray this prayer acknowledging certain facts about you and I.”  He meant drop everything that is important to you and make me the most important thing.  So following Christ means making Him supreme in every area of life.  My life becomes marked by repentance and faith in the gospel.  My life is lived through the filter of the gospel.  I seek to know Christ more and more as He is at work conforming me into His image.  And I seek to obey His commands (“If you love me, keep my commandments”).  However, His commands are to love God and love my neighbor.  They are matters of the heart.  So following Christ implies a heart change where Christ is lifted up as the most valuable thing in our lives and as such, He transforms us into His image.

So, that leads to the next question, which was what is the evidence of that growth or transformation?  In other words, how do I know that Christ is transforming me into His image?  The legalist will look at your actions.  Do you read your Bible?  Do you pray?  Do you attend church?  And on and on.  But the question is do you love God’s Word?  Do you love to fellowship with God and other believers?  Because you can do a lot of Christian-looking things that would make a legalist think you are progressing in sanctification without ever actually embracing the gospel.  Since growth and transformation are matters of the heart, they can only be measured at the heart level and actions can produce false positives from an external perspective.  But legalists tend to be quick to affirm the spirituality of someone who follows all the rules.

How then do we assist each other in sanctification if it’s a matter of the heart?  Continually address heart issues.  Continually preach the gospel and look for it to transform people’s hearts.  Will there be a change in actions?  In most cases, absolutely.  But the goal is not change in actions, it is change in heart.  The actions take care of themselves.  If an action is definitively a sin in the person’s life, we call them to repentance through the preaching of the gospel and seek to see Christ deliver them from their sin.

Finally, are there things that will stunt our growth?  The problem with the questioner’s view here is that I think they view worldliness as things we do, whereas the Bible seems to say worldliness lies in things we love.  So, theoretically, yes there are things that will stunt my growth and, technically speaking, everything (yes, everything) has the possibility of stunting my growth because I can grow to love it more than I love Christ.  Which is why Christ says following him might involve rejecting my wife, kids, father, mother, and my own self also.  Because I could grow to love my wife more than Christ, or my church more than Christ, or rest in my own good works, rather than in Christ’s perfect work.

These differing views on sanctification make a huge difference in how we do ministry.  The problem some of us ran into and ended up fleeing from in fundamentalism was that conformity to a standard became a measure of spirituality.  As a teacher, I saw this quite a bit at the student level.  It was very common to hear messages in chapel about what they were supposed to do.  In fact, one youth leader admitted that, yes, it is ideal for a person’s heart to change and have that motivate a change in action, but the change in action is still good for it’s own sake.

I would argue though that since sanctification is a matter of the heart, I would rather a kid with a heart issue not try to conform himself to my standard to fit in.  Rather, I can rejoice when my students sin because they are showing me what is in their heart and I can deal with that (though, I admit, I would rather rejoice that they love God enough to choose not to sin).  If they conform to my standard and make themselves look good, I may never know what is in their heart.  And they might think that God is pleased with them for conforming to my standard.

The other problem comes when we try to define what our standard of conformity is.  My experience with fundamentalism showed me that some people like to set up rules to follow in order that their spiritual growth is not stunted.  Don’t listen to this music, it could stunt your spiritual growth.  Don’t watch that movie, it could stunt your spiritual growth.  Don’t hang out with those people, they could stunt your spiritual growth.  But the problem is that everything can stunt my spiritual growth so I either realize this and become paralyzed, or I give in to the standard and end up in pride that I followed all the rules and am now a good person.  Or, as I saw in my own life and in a lot of students’ lives, we give in to the standard, realize we can’t possibly live up to it, and live in shame (and end up hiding the shame, lest we appear unspiritual).  Either way I go, I’m either sinning in pride or living in shame.  It’s a lose-lose.

But once I free myself from that and realize that God’s disposition towards me does not change (I can’t make God sad).  That He loves me because He chose me in Christ before I did any of those things which I’m now ashamed of and Christ gave me His righteousness so I don’t have to feel ashamed of my own unrighteousness anymore.  I’m free to enjoy living the Christian life.  I avoid sin because I love God, not because my list says to avoid this or that.  I avoid worldliness, not because some fundamentalist made a rule about it, but because I love God more than this world.  And when I sin, I can run to my Father and repent and know that He still loves me because Christ is consistently advocating for me.

Those are my answers to the questions.  I know it’s long, but to be honest, I could have gone much longer discussing the benefits of living a gospel-centered life.  In fact, most Thursday nights, we do just that in a community group meeting at our home.  If you happen across this and are curious, come on by.  Or if you think I’m totally off, let me know and let’s discuss it.  It would sure beat a Facebook comment box discussion any day.

Sermon of the Week

The sermon of the week is actually a series on election by Pastor Mike Abendroth.  Pastor Abendroth is a friend of mine from Massachusetts where he is an elder at Bethlehem Bible Church.  This sermon series was very helpful to me as I was starting to come to an understanding of what the Bible meant by election.  The series is formatted as answers to “frequently asked questions” about election.  He was kind enough to give me permission to post them here for you to listen to.

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 1

Ministry\’s Only Hope: Election Part 1

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 2

Ministry\’s Only Hope: Election Part 2

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 3

Election Part 3

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 4

Election Part 4

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 5

Election Part 5

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 6

Election Part 6

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 7

Election Part 7

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 8

Election Part 8

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 9

Election Part 9

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 10

Election Part 10

Song of the Week

Marcus sent me this song to use as song of the week this week and its an awesome one to use to draw your attention to God and His glory.  Sing along and enjoy the God you serve.

Book of the Week

The book of the week is The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson.  Here are some quotes from the first chapter to whet your interest:

To put this another way, we live in a culture in which
many other and complementary truths about God are widely
disbelieved. I do not think that what the Bible says about the love
of God can long survive at the forefront of our thinking if it is
abstracted from the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the
wrath of God, the providence of God, or the personhood of
God—to mention only a few nonnegotiable elements of basic
Christianity.
The result, of course, is that the love of God in our culture has
been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable. The
love of God has been sanitized, democratized, and above all sentimentalized.
This process has been going on for some time. My
generation was taught to sing, “What the world needs now is
love, sweet love,” in which we robustly instruct the Almighty
that we do not need another mountain (we have enough of them),
but we could do with some more love. The hubris is staggering.

Precisely how does one integrate what the Bible says about the
love of God with what the Bible says about God’s sovereignty,
extending as it does even over the domain of evil? What does
love mean in a Being whom at least some texts treat as impassible?
How is God’s love tied to God’s justice?

Download it here.  Or order your own copy here.

Hope you enjoy some of these materials.  Take a look and bring your questions to our next meeting on February 13.

Book of the Week – Suffering and the Sovereignty of God edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor.  It seemed like we were privy to a lot of suffering recently, both globally (earthquake in Haiti) and personally (close friends facing life and death situations).  It seemed like a good time to reflect on the theology of suffering.  This book takes essays from different authors and theologians and compiles them together to develop a Biblical basis for trusting in the sovereignty of God in light of suffering.  Read it online here: http://bit.ly/1an00j

Sermon of the Week – Repentance for the Righteous by Matt Chandler.  Matt Chandler is one of our favorite speakers because of his expository style and honest approach.  I always walk away feeling convicted and in need of repentance.  This sermon is no exception.  He deals with the fact that we all need repentance, and not just for the things we label as terrible sins.  The good, law-abiding, Sunday School-teaching person who thinks his works impress God needs repentance as much as the drunken, rebellious criminal.  Listen here:  http://bit.ly/6CmvBu.

Song of the Week – God has really impressed on me the importance of prayer in the past few weeks, so it was a delight to listen to the song Marcus picked for this week which deals with waiting for God in prayer.  Listen to it here:

Our song of the week is “All I Really Need” (click for a free download) by Mark and Stephen Altrogge.  The song is part of the In A Little While album put out by Sovereign Grace Music.  The focus of the song is that our real need is peace with God through Christ and He has provided that for us.  We pondered a quote by K. Scott Oliphint and Rod Mays in the book Things that Cannot Be Shaken:

Our true need is not physical water or husbands or pleasure, or. . . .  Our true need is for a permanent solution, one that does not ebb or flow with the times, one not subject to the whims and wishes of our fickle hearts.  We need living water.  We need permanent change.  We need the Holy Spirit to unite us to Christ.  In Him we have the True Bread and Living Water, so that we will never be hungry or thirsty again.  All of our needs are met in Him, because in the end, our only real need is to be united to Christ by the Spirit.

Our sermon of the week is “The Holiness of God” by Paul Washer.  Washer discusses what it means for God to be holy and it establishes a high view of God that is foundational for us to understand some of the truths, and some of the hard truths, of the Gospel.

Our book of the week is God is the Gospel by John Piper, which can be downloaded for free from Desiring God ministries.  In God is the Gospel, Piper grounds the magnificence of the Gospel in the fact that we get God.  That God is the primary object of the Gospel.  And that God is the one who initiates and accomplishes the Gospel power in our lives.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, January 16 at 10:00am.  Feel free to join us for some breakfast foods and Bible study.

The Art of Prayer

Listen to more sermons from The Village Church here.

Buy it here.  Read the sermon here.

Here are some excerpts:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The promises of Scripture may very roughly be reduced to five heads. It is promised, firstly, that we shall be with Christ; secondly, that we shall be like Him; thirdly, with an enormous wealth of imagery, that we shall have “glory”; fourthly, that we shall, in some sense, be fed or feasted or entertained; and, finally, that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe—ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God’s temple. The first question I ask about these promises is: “Why any of them except the first?” Can anything be added to the conception of being with Christ? For it must be true, as an old writer says, that he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.

It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.

Perhaps it seems rather crude to describe glory as the fact of being “noticed” by God. But this is almost the language of the New Testament. St. Paul promises to those who love God not, as we should expect, that they will know Him, but that they will be known by Him (I Cor. viii. 3). It is a strange promise. Does not God know all things at all times? But it is dreadfully reechoed in another passage of the New Testament. There we are warned that it may happen to any one of us to appear at last before the face of God and hear only the appalling words: “I never knew you. Depart from Me.” In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside—repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored. On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknowledged.

This week’s song of the week is “How He Loves” by David Crowder.

Listen to the full version on YouTube:

How He Loves

I love the way this song revels in awe at the fact that God loves us.  That He is jealous for us.  We feel awash in the ocean of God’s love and that love transforms us into His image.  Oh how He loves us!

I figured it might be possible to record myself doing a problem on my tablet PC and then post it online at my math website.  It just seemed like it would be too time-consuming to do that.  That’s when I ran across Screentoaster.

Screentoaster runs a Java applet that will record your screen or a portion of the screen, with or without audio.  Since its a Java applet, it is compatible on any operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux).   After recording, you can make quick annotations which appear at the bottom of the screencast.  After finishing the video, you upload it to Screentoaster, which then makes it available via link, embedding, or as a downloadable .mov or .swf file.  The quality is fantastic while the file size is incredibly small.

Here’s an example of a math problem I worked out and posted to my website:

T:  So what did you do this weekend?

S:  I played Xbox most of the weekend and then I watched the new horror movie out.

T:  Well, did you do your homework?

S:  I really don’t see the point in spending so much time on something that’s not going to be useful to me in the future.

T:  Wait, what?