I want to introduce you to a very unusual book by Mark Driscoll and his writing buddy and professor, Gerry Breshears. I would go so far to say that this is a unique book in that I have never seen anything quite like it.

If their first book together, Vintage Jesus, was a light cheerful book that offended some by its use of humor and at times edgy topics for illustrations, this new book by these two men is more of a grungy, almost dark book. The video over at the ReLit site leaves you in no doubt that this is a book that will wrestle with darkness, pain, and even demonization.

Certainly this book represents just a tiny sample of the ocean of pain that a pastor of a large church has to handle over the years. Some neoliberals argue that people who believe in penal substitutionary atonement do not engage with the real suffering found in the world. This book demonstrates emphatically that this is simply not true in Driscoll's case. Such critics also argue that the evangelical's gospel can become overly narrow, eventually focusing solely on the "felt need" of the feelings of guilt many still feel. Guilt, however, is far from the only reason people come to Christ. The New Testament is full of helpful ways we can understand what Jesus did on the cross.

Without in any way softening his commitment to the centrality of Jesus taking the punishment of sin in our understanding of the cross, Driscoll is far broader in his understanding of and application of the cross to hurting people's lives today. From convicted child molesters, to cheating husbands and raped women, Driscoll shares pen outlines of the destruction manifest in the lives of specific people to whom he has ministered. He then shows in a letter written to each individual how a specific aspect of what Jesus has done on the cross can bring wholeness and salvation to them.

This is a vital book that should be read by every Christian who is serious about reaching out with the gospel into this dark and damaged world. I will share a video of Mark speaking about the book, followed by an excerpt from one of those letters that particularly struck me. You will have to buy the book to see exactly how Driscoll and Breshears apply the gospel to Bill and his violent, abusive father.

"As a little boy you rightly felt angry at your dad, and that anger rightly compelled you to confront his injustice and protect the rest of the family. Therefore, anger can be a righteous virtue, which explains why God gets angry at sin too. The Bible is full of examples of God getting angry at sinners. A few examples will illustrate my point clearly, but a reading of Leviticus 26:27-30, Numbers 11:1, and Deuteronomy 29:24 for starters, speak of God's anger as being hostile, burning, and furious.

Flaccid church guys will often accept that in the Old Testament God did get angry, but they will say that Jesus was a nice, emotionless, flaccid church guy, just like them, who chose a hollow, fake smile over anger every day. But even Jesus got angry, furious, and enraged . . . [Here Driscoll cites Mark 3:5 and Revelation 19, but one could also add Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-17.]

In speaking of God's anger, I want to be careful not to give permission for us to lose our temper and rage, because that is a sin—the very sin your father committed repeatedly. However, because God is perfect, his anger is perfect and, as such, is aroused slowly (Exodus 34:6-8), sometimes turned away (Deuteronomy 13:17), often delayed (Isaiah 48:9), and frequently held back (Psalm 78:38).

Furthermore, God feels angry because God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-19, Zechariah 8:17). Sadly, it is commonly said among Christians that "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." This is as stupid as saying that God loves rapists and hates rape, as if rape and rapists were two entirely different entities that could be separated from one another. Furthermore, it was not a divinely inspired author of Scripture but the Hindu, Gandhi, who coined the phrase, "Love the sinner but hate the sin" . . .

Regarding God's anger and hatred, it is commonly protested that God cannot hate anyone because he is love. But the Bible speaks of God's anger, wrath, and fury more than of his love, grace, and mercy. Furthermore, it is precisely because God is love that he must hate evil and all who do evil—evil is an assault on whom and what he loves.

Therefore, Bill, your anger toward and hatred of your father are justifiable and are the healthy response to seeing your dad beat the mother and siblings you love. However, in a mysterious conflict of deep emotions, you continued to love your father just as God continues to love unrepentant sinners whom he simultaneously hates . . .

I know this will be difficult for you to comprehend, Bill, but Jesus has fully experienced what you have, and much more. Jesus was mocked and beaten, though he was without sin. He willingly substituted himself for those he loved and wanted to save . . . "

From Death By Love by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, copyright 2008, pages 127-129. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

In 2009 Newfrontiers is starting a Belfast Church — the eleventh largest city in the UK. The church plant website went live recently, and they have already opened a Belfast Church plant Facebook group.

The emerging vision for the church plant is:

1. To see a Christ-centered church planted in Belfast city, on a mission seeking a transformed city.
   
   
2. To be a church that reflects the growing diversity of Belfast.
   
   
3. To see multiple thriving congregations established across Belfast.
   
   
4. To plant churches in all five cities in Northern Ireland.
   
   
5. To plant churches in every major town in Northern Ireland.
   
   
6. To raise up indigenous leaders and church planters.

David Capener would love to hear from you if you are interested in being part of the Belfast plant or know of anyone who might be. The growing team would also really value your prayers.

Please pray for . . .

• More to gather with a heart for Belfast.
  
• House sales!
  
• For our meetings with local church leaders from across the community.
  
• Worship leaders.
  
• The favor of the city especially among the business community.
  
• Musicians with a heart for church planting.
  
• Those with a heart for church planting to gather with a vision to plant out across NI.
  
• A student worker.
  
• Those moving to Belfast who are looking for work.

John Piper rarely gets starker than he does in the following quote. His biblical remedy for lust? Well, it's simple really. Understand that unless you are one of those who fights lust with all your heart, you were never truly saved. The quote begins with a question from someone who heard one of his sermons:

“Are you saying then that a person can lose his salvation?” In other words, if Jesus used the threat of hell to warn about the seriousness of lust, does that mean that a Christian can perish?

This is exactly the same response I got a few years ago when I confronted a man about the adultery he was living in. I tried to understand his situation and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, “You know, Jesus says that if you don’t fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever.” As a professing Christian he looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, “You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?”

So I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the threats of the Bible, and puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical warnings. I believe this view of the Christian life is comforting thousands who are on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Jesus said, if you don’t fight lust, you won’t go to heaven. Not that saints always succeed. The issue is that we resolve to fight, not that we succeed flawlessly . . . if we don’t fight lust we lose our soul. The apostle Peter said, “Abstain from fleshly lusts that wage war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).” The stakes in this war are infinitely higher than in any threat of World War III. The apostle Paul listed “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,” then said, “it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come” (Colossians 3:6). And the wrath of God is immeasurably more fearful than the wrath of all the nations put together. In Galatians 5:19 Paul mentions immorality, impurity and sensuality and says, “Those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21).

John Piper, Future Grace (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1995), 331. Available electronically from Logos Bible Software.

I never thought I would say this, but hold on to your plastic. You really DON'T want to be buying a Mac laptop right now. Have I gone insane? Am I converting back to PC? No, don't worry, this Mac evangelist is not about to backslide into the world of WINDOZE. It's just that all the rumors about Apple soon to significantly update its range of laptops is getting closer to being true by the day.

The following MacRumors article certainly would be enough on its own for me to just wait a few days more if I was about to buy a Mac. You don't want to buy old spec, especially not if something really dramatic is about to be launched!

HT - Ian Jukes (via iChat)

I wonder—when was the last time you heard another Christian preach or speak about conviction of sin? When was the last time you saw someone on the brink of salvation in tears of anxiety and burden because of a distinct awareness of their sinfulness? It seems to me that true conviction is not present as much as it should be today. If Spurgeon is right, if anyone has not experienced it, we should be very concerned about the validity of their salvation.

"First, regeneration will be shown in conviction of sin. This we believe to be an indispensable mark of the Spirit's work; the new life as it enters the heart causes intense inward pain as one of its first effects. Though nowadays we hear of persons being healed before they have been wounded, and brought into a certainty of justification without ever having lamented their condemnation, we are very dubious as to the value of such healings and justifyings. This style of things is not according to the truth. God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the law.

When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; for "when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." When the Spirit of the Lord breathes on us, He withers all the glory of man, which is but as the flower of grass, and then He reveals a higher and abiding glory. Do not be astonished if you find this conviction of sin to be very acute and alarming; but, on the other hand, do not condemn those in whom it is less intense, for so long as sin is mourned over, confessed, forsaken, and abhorred, you have an evident fruit of the Spirit. Much of the horror and unbelief which goes with conviction is not of the Spirit of God, but comes of Satan or corrupt nature; yet there must be true and deep conviction of sin, and this the preacher must labour to produce, for where this is not felt the new birth has not taken place."

— C. H. Spurgeon

I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning tendency recently. A company phoned me, saying my number had been "specially selected for a new government sponsored program of IVAs." In fact, they weren't the first company to ring me and try and get me to take out what is essentially a last step before bankruptcy. Unless these companies know something about the state of my finances that I don't know, then I'm sure I have not been specially selected at all. It is, of course, the classic tactic of the salesman. Somehow, though, it seems to me to be somewhat sickening that the consumer boom is now leading finally in its dying breaths to companies breathlessly trying to persuade people of the benefits of seeking a legal remedy for their mushrooming debts.

Don't get me wrong—I'm far from being against IVAs and bankruptcy where it is needed. In fact, the concept of being forgiven debts that you simply cannot pay is a very biblical one. In today's climate we could do well to preach about how we are all spiritually in debt to God, and yet in a glorious echo of the Old Testament Jubilee, God has wiped our debts away, thanks to the payment of his son, Jesus. Some Christians feel, wrongly, that financial bankruptcy is not appropriate for them as children of the King. I agree that all possible attempts at a responsible approach to repaying debts should be tried first. But there are undoubtedly times when a bankruptcy is inevitable. Indeed, it is very possible for you to be declared bankrupt without your consent, and to initiate such proceedings in those circumstances is nothing less than being honest. To continue to effectively lie to creditors by pretending you can pay them when you blatantly cannot is not a Christian virtue. Certainly many banks have played a significant role in enticing unwary people into debt they should never have taken on in the first place. The wickedness of the banks in these situations, with their dodgy credit card deals and mortgages, which in the UK used to stretch to 125 per cent of the value of a home, is surely causing all of us a headache at the moment.

As such, when a bank is clearly preying on a customer and is charging them extortionate rates of interest, which then causes them to slip further and further behind, it is a godly thing to initiate proceedings to break such financial slavery.

But no one in their right minds takes such a step without considering every other possibility first. So to sell such arrangements over the phone in a hard-sell call that speaks of a "government sponsored program" is just wicked, and I hate to think of the effect such a call has on someone who is struggling with their finances.

I only just recently discovered that videos from Billy Graham are available free online. I had a look at the following sermon from 1958 and it was really heartwarming. O may God raise up preachers like Billy again! Billy will soon be 90 years old and some people have set up a site for people to send their stories of how Billy's preaching touched them.

The Doctor was given his nickname, I believe, not so much because of his medical degree, but rather because of the way in which he used his diagnostic skill to get to the root of the human predicament. This quote is a good example of that:

To fail to control ourselves means a loss of energy. These things can actually be measured. When I say ‘self-control’ I include controlling one’s temper, controlling one’s spirit. Have you ever seen a man trembling in a rage? What energy that man is wasting! He is emitting energy at a tremendous rate because he cannot control his temper, and his own spirit. And, of course, he is but as putty in the hands of the devil. When a man cannot control himself how can he possibly deal with the enemy? Discipline is an absolute essential in an army; it is one of the most important things of all. If an army is not disciplined it is already defeated, it becomes a rabble.

The Bible has much of this kind of teaching. It is a major theme in the Book of Proverbs. The wise man in dealing with this matter says: ‘He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty’ (Proverbs 16:32). What he is saying is that a man who is slow to anger, a man who can control his temper, is a much stronger man in the end than a mighty man who loses his temper. The second man is much mightier by nature, but if he dissipates and wastes his energy by failing to control his own temper he will lose the battle. This first man has nothing like the vital force and capacity, nor the strength of the second, but he controls himself; and a man who can control himself will often beat a man who is very much better at the task, and who has much greater strength, simply because he is reliable and steady.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 20 (Edinburgh; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1977), 101. Also available electronically from Logos Bible Software.

NOTE
This photo of "the Doctor" is quite rare, according to Philip Eveson, principal of the London Theological Seminary, where this portrait hangs inside the Lloyd-Jones library. Although pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London for many years, the Doctor was originally born and raised in Wales, and he also pastored his first church in South Wales.

For more information on Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, see this summary post or the MLJ Recording Trust.

Today I want to highlight another of the Newfrontiers USA churches that are being planted in the top 100 cities in the United States.

From a geographical perspective, the cities of Seattle and Tacoma almost look as if they make up one city. As a result, Tacoma is located in the metropolitan area where Mark Driscoll is working so vigorously. A very prophetic guy named Sam Poe is one of the leaders there, and the church is known as New Community Church, Tacoma.

I've been sharing a number of quotes from Spurgeon's The Soul Winner. Today I thought I'd share one which is quite striking. It argues that since conversion is a miracle, it is by a trail of such miracles we can know if someone is called to preach.

"A new and heavenly mind must be created by omnipotence, or the man must abide in death. You see, then, that we have before us a mighty work, for which we are of ourselves totally incapable. No minister living can save a soul; nor can all of us together, nor all the saints on earth or in heaven, work regeneration in a single person. The whole business on our part is the height of absurdity unless we regard ourselves as used by the Holy Ghost, and filled with His power. On the other hand, the marvels of regeneration which attend our ministry are the best seals and witnesses of our commission. Whereas the apostles could appeal to the miracles of Christ, and to those which they wrought in His name, we appeal to the miracles of the Holy Ghost, which are as divine and as real as those of our Lord Himself. These miracles are the creation of a new life in the human bosom, and the total change of the whole being of those upon whom the Spirit descends."

— C.H. Spurgeon

Anger is very much associated with our sense of rights. We feel that we have been violated and "deserve" better treatment. The truth is, none of us deserve anything but hell. We build up for ourselves a mental picture of our ideal life, of what we want, so that it becomes an idol. When we don't get our own way, we start to throw our toys out of the pram and feel justified to be angry.

James challenges these thoughts in 4:1-2: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." John Piper explains this further as follows:

Humility does not feel a right to better treatment than Jesus got . . . Humility does not build a life based on its perceived rights . . . Much of our anger and resentment in relationships comes from the expectation that we have a right to be treated well. But, as George Otis once said to a gathering in Manila, “Jesus never promised His disciples a fair fight.” We must assume mistreatment, and not be indignant when we get it. This is what humility would look like. Peter (1 Peter 2:21–23) and Paul (Romans 12:19) give us great moral assistance in this difficult task by reminding us that God will settle all accounts justly and that temporary injustice will not be swept under the rug of the universe. It will be dealt with—on the cross or in hell. We need not avenge ourselves. We can leave it to God.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals : A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 163. Also available electronically from Logos Bible Software.

One of the interesting controversies of theology is the nature of man. Many assume we are tripartate — body, soul, and spirit. Others argue strongly that Scripture suggests we only have two parts — body and soul/spirit. In today's quote from Spurgeon, he seems to suggest we have two parts before salvation and three parts after. I would be interested in your thoughts on this. Do you think he was right? Have you heard anyone else teach this? You can discuss this over at this blog's Facebook group.

"Regeneration, or the new birth, works a change in the whole nature of man, and, so far as we can judge, its essence lies in the implantation and creation of a new principle within the man. The Holy Ghost creates in us a new, heavenly, and immortal nature, which is known in Scripture as "the spirit," by way of distinction from the soul. Our theory of regeneration is that man in his fallen nature consists only of body and soul, and that when he is regenerated there is created in him a new and higher nature—"the spirit"—which is a spark from the everlasting fire of God's life and love; this falls into the heart, and abides there, and makes its receiver a partaker of the divine nature." Thenceforward, the man consists of three parts, body, soul, and spirit, and the spirit is the reigning power of the three."

C. H. Spurgeon