The ultimate apologetic is to a dying man….

The are a lot of different kinds of Good News, but there is little good news in “My argument scored more points than you argument.” But the news that “Christ is risen!” really is Good News for one kind of person: The person who is dying.

If Christianity is not a dying word to dying men, it is not the message of the Bible that gives hope now.

What is your apologetic? Make it the full and complete announcement of the Life Giving news about Jesus.

- Michael Spencer (the Internet Monk)

See you in Heaven, Michael.

Michael Spencer (1956 – 2010)

Sermon Poetry, 8 November 2009
Sermon Text – John 18:1-13
Preacher – Pastor Mike Tardive

Kind Jesus, Your people are suffering life
With sadness and sickness and poverty strong
They’re crying with voices of weakness and sorrow
With quavering lips they are singing their song

You’ve given us cups with a drink hard to swallow
We haven’t the strength to survive Sovereign Will
We’re crying with voices of frailty and mourning
Come calm with Your mercy and make our hearts still

We suffer as people who worship our Savior
We follow our Jesus, our Suffering Lord
He drank from His chalice, prepared by the Father
Fulfilling the Scriptures, God’s beautiful Word

Our Father is Sovereign, with Providence Holy
His will is accomplished, no matter how sad
So as Jesus swallowed, our sins were forgiven
We’re bathed in His blood, and our mourning is glad

We’re washed in His mercy, we’re cleansed by His blood
Through death are we living, through blood made alive
In Him is salvation, we’ve access to Yahweh
Once sinners of darkness, now Children of Light

I can’t feel my veins

My skin is ripped and tattered

The green is slowly rushing from my cold and dying frame

Goodbye, ye harsh and feral world …

In damp and ragged sheets my quaking lungs do thoroughly exhale

My skin is covered in raging torrents of terse and icy frigidity

With photographic precision my life runs long before me, engulfing my seeing sense and overwhelming my thinking eyes

A bright reality tears asunder the encroaching blackness and baths me in a glorious essence. I float before it.

Why, oh why, did I eat that dead and rotting fish?

“Thank you, Rich. You left us too soon. We’ve missed you. You suck, by the way, for not wearing a seatbelt.

Say “hi” to Francis for us.”

- Jason Boyett, speaking on the anniversary of Rich Mullins death

She was then freshly twenty, her eyes warm and friendly
When her husband went off to war
His nation had called him, his conscience compelled him
He had left and her heart was torn
He was gone for a year, she shed many tears
Always thinking today he would die
Then a sound down the hall, there he stood proud and tall
Her husband, her love, was alive!

Her groom was alive! Her groom was alive!
She thought she had lost him, she feared he had died
Her groom was alive! Her groom was alive!
She had ached for her darling, she shook and cried
But now he could hold her, her groom was alive

For years they’d been married, their love ever sharing
A picture of Christ and His Bride
One night they went driving, the ice sent them sliding
They rolled down the mountainside
She woke in a daze, her sight filled with haze
Her darling was still, by her side
But then his head stirred, her heart did a turn
Her husband, her love, was alive!

Her groom was alive! Her groom was alive!
She thought she had lost him, she feared he had died
Her groom was alive! Her groom was alive!
She ached for her darling, she shook and she cried
He could again hold her, her groom was alive

The Cross had been empty, their hearts had been breaking
For two tough and lonely days
Their hopes had been shattered, when his blood fell and splattered
They walked in a mournful daze
But on the third day, the stone rolled away
The tomb was all empty inside
Their joy was returned, their hearts flared and burned
Their Savior, their Love, was alive!

The Groom is alive! The Groom is alive!
My sin crucified Him, with Love Jesus died
The Groom is alive! The Groom is alive!
I ache for my Savior, I shake and I cry
My Savior is with me, the Groom is alive!

Well, they’ve done it again.

Pixar’s latest animated masterpiece, “Up”, is nothing short of breathtaking.  The characters are relatable and reliably well-developed; the story is unique and involving; the mixture of humor and drama is almost perfectly blended and the visuals are (as expected with Pixar’s animation) absolutely stunning.

The story basically follows the interactions between a man named Carl Fredericksen and a little Wilderness Explorer named Russell as they experience imaginative adventures together in a remote corner of South America.

Specifically, the story begins with an especially moving sequence of a young Mr. Fredericksen and his adventurous and vivacious wife Ellie as they experience their life together.  This sequence is made powerful and moving through the absence of any audible dialogue, with a well-chosen and touching chronological montage of the Fredericksen’s married life.  In a very short time you’re permitted and invited to experience the joys and heartaches of life as they are married, as they purchase and refurbish their home, as they cope with the grief of not being able to have children , as they grow old together, as Ellie gets sick and finally as Ellie passes from this earth.

Without his Ellie, Carl is left with loneliness, her memories and their old house.  Seeing him in such a state is truly sad because of the sweetness of their lives together.  She completed him and when she left, the best part of him left with her.

Carl ends up losing the house and when developers are threatening to take him to a retirement home and bulldoze his house, he literally up and floats away in it!  The movie continues in typically brilliant Pixar fashion with Mr. Fredericksen accidentally taking Russell on his floating house with him.  During their journey, they meet a brightly colorful Snipe named Kevin, a silly talking dog named, appropriately, Doug, and a particularly bitter childhood hero of Carl’s, Charles Muntz.

Two things about this movie stood out in my thinking.  First is the power of memories.  Both Charles Muntz and Carl are men unable to let go of his past.  Muntz, the great explorer that he was, once discovered a massive bird skeleton only to be written off by the public at large as a fraud and a cheat.   Carl had lived, loved and lost the one person in the world he wanted to love.  Muntz’s existence consisted solely of finding that large bird and clearing his name, in hopes of regaining something of his former glory.  Carl’s was landing his house next to Paradise Falls (as his wife had once dreamed) in memory of her.  Yet it is only Carl who can let go of the past.  When he runs Russell off and ends up finding his wife’s old Adventure Book, he realizes that before her death she had filled up the “stuff to do” pages from yesteryear with images of her and Carl from throughout their time together.  At the end of these pictures she thanks him for the adventure and tells him its ok to move on.  It was only then that Carl is able to finally say goodbye to his dear wife and realize that there was a sad little boy who loved him and needed him.  Muntz died in his bitterness.  Carl found a son and a new reason to live.

I’ve rarely seen such a loving, tender, potent and poignant expression in cinema of the long-lasting, patient and persistent love of a husband and a wife for each other.  Carl and Ellie loved each other deeply.  They completed each other.  They stuck with each other, through the good times and the bad.  Their story truly is beautiful, yet sharply bittersweet.

Pixar has once again hit it out of the proverbial park and I cannot encourage you enough to go see this film.

Outside of the artists in the Square Peg Alliance, there is perhaps no musician today making better music or exhibiting more biblically edifying and encouraging music than Lecrae. This artistry is no more apparent than in his newest (and by far, best) offering to date, Rebel.

The album opens up with an awesome track aptly named “Rebel Intro”. This track sets the tune for the rest of the album with its direct statement that Jesus was a rebel, not because He was disobedient or rebellious per se, but because He was a “sanctified troublemaker” and obedient in perfection to the Father. The energy is maintained with the track “Don’t Waste Your Life”, and honest heart-felt appeal borrowed from the writings of John Piper to not waste your life on trivial pursuits, but to live life for the glory of God and for His renown.

Lecrae continues the plea to be a rebel in this world with the driving “God Hard” and the incredibly transparent, humbling and self-effacing “Indwelling Sin”, “Breathin’ to Death” and “Desparate”. The album continues with application in “Change”, “Fall Back”, “Live Free” and “Got Paper”.

Rebel ends in great encouragement with the songs “I’m a Saint” (reminiscent of Derek Webb’s “Saint and Sinner”), “The Bride” and “Beautiful Feet”. “The Bride” is an especially reassuring defense of the Church’s identity as Christ’s Bought Bride. Christians take a lot of flak in the World, many times justifiably so, yet this song asks us to consider ourselves not primarily as sinners, but as sinners loved by Jesus.

The whole album is worth a good long listen. Lecrae’s creative ability in songcraft is simply stunning, especially so when one couples the craft of the songs to their theological soundness and biblical consistency.  “Rebel” is worth the purchase cost and will be an encouragement to your soul.

“Don’t Waste Your Life” Sermon Jam (with John Piper audio), Download here

Download audio file (Dont_Waste_Your_Life_(Piper_Mix).mp3)

I’m saved by grace through faith in Christ
The Son of God our Lord
It’s not be works I’m justified
But by the love of God
He loves me with a deepest love
I’ve never been alone
My Sovereign King does rule my life
I never am my own

I’m sanctified by grace alone
I grow in Jesus’ Truth
For my small heart which once was dead
Has now been made anew
God give me grace to live for You
And do as You command
Please use me as a useful tool
In Your great Master Plan

When my short life comes to an end
And to my death I come
I know I have a place to dwell
I know I have a home
A place where I will dwell with Christ
Forever and anon
A place of warmth, a place of joy
I’ll dwell e’er in the Son

“Don’t Waste Your Life” by Lecrae from the new Rebel album, with clips from the “Don’t Waste Your Life” sermon by John Piper.

Download audio file (Dont_Waste_Your_Life_(Piper_Mix).mp3)

Read this this morning, and I thought I’d share and spread the encouragement.

The body [is] dead because of sin; Romans 8:10

What body is referred to here? Certainly not, as some have supposed, the body of sin. Who can with truth affirm of it that it is dead? The individual who claims as his attainment a state of sinless perfection, an entire victory over the evil propensities and actings of his fallen nature, has yet to learn the alphabet of experimental Christianity. Pride is the baneful root, and a fall is often the fatal consequence of such an error. Oh no! The body of sin yet lives, and dies not but with death itself. We part not with innate and indwelling sin but with the parting breath of life, and then we part with it forever. But it is the natural body to which the apostle refers. And what an affecting fact is this! Redeemed by the sacrifice, and inhabited by the Spirit of Christ, though it be, yet this material fabric, this body of our humiliation, tends to disease, decay, and death; and, sooner or later, wrapped in its shroud, must make its home in the grave, and mingle once more with its kindred dust. “The body is dead because of sin.” Our redemption by Christ exempts us not from the conflict and the victory of the last enemy. We must confront the grim foe, must succumb to his dread power, and wear his pale trophies upon our brow. We must die-are dying men-because of sin. “Death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” And this law remains unrepealed, though Christ has delivered us from the curse. From this humiliating necessity of our nature even the non-condemned find no avenue of escape; from this terrible conflict, no retreat. One event happens to the wicked and the righteous-they both leave the world by the same dismal process of dissolution.

But the character of death is essentially changed; and herein lies the great difference. In the one case death is armed with all its terrors; in the other, it is invested with all its charms-for death has an indescribable charm to the believer in Jesus. Christ did not die to exempt us from the process of death; but He died to exempt us from the sting of death. If, because of original and indwelling sin in the regenerate, they must taste of death; yet, because of pardoned sin in the regenerate, the “bitterness of death is passed.” If, because there exists a virus in the body, the body must dissolve; yet, because there exists an infallible antidote, the redeemed soul does not see death as it passes through the gloomy portal, and enters into its own life, light, and immortality.

How changed the character of death! If the body of the redeemed is under the sentence, and has within it the seeds of death, and must be destroyed, yet that death is to him the epoch of glory. It is then that the life within germinates and expands; it is then that he really begins to live. His death is the birthday of his immortality. Thus, in the inventory of the covenant, death ranks among the chief of its blessings, and becomes a covenant mercy. “Death is gain.” “What!” exclaims the astonished believer, “death a blessing-a covenant blessing! I have been used to contemplate it as my direst curse, to dread it as my greatest foe.” Yes; if death is the sad necessity, it is also the precious privilege of our being. In the case of those who are in Christ Jesus, it is not the execution of a judicial sentence, but the realization of a covenant mercy. And, as the Christian marks the symptoms of his approaching and inevitable dissolution-watching the slow but unmistakable advances of the fell destroyer-he can exclaim, as he realizes that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus-

“Come, Death, shake hands; I’ll kiss your bands-
‘It is happiness for me to die.
What! do you think that I will shrink?-
I go to immortality.”

“Because of sin.” Ah! It is this truth whose dark shadow flits across the brightness of the Christian’s condition. To what are all our ailments, calamities, and sorrows traceable, but to sin? And why do we die? “Because of sin.” The immediate and proximate causes of death are but secondary agents. Had we not transgressed, we then had not died. Deathlessness would have been our natural and inalienable birthright. And were we more spiritually-minded than we are, while we looked onward with steady faith to a signal and glorious triumph over the King of Terrors, we should blend with the bright anticipation of the coming victory, the humbling conviction that we have sinned, and that therefore “the body is dead. (emphasis added)

- Octavius Winslow