Another great quote from the introduction to John Piper’s latest book God Is The Gospel that I blogged about earlier:

Would You Be Happy In Heaven if Christ Were Not There?

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activites you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisifed with heaven, if Christ was not there? (emphasis mine)

This quote reminded me of a sermon I preached a couple of months ago from Philippians 1:20-21. These are some reflections from my meditations on the passage at the time:

“To die is gain” states in the simplest terms how Paul thinks about death (and eternity): being with Christ. So many appeals and presentations of the gospel today are anything but Christ-centered. More often, they are self-centered (“Do you want peace in your life?”) or even hell-centered (“Do you want to avoid hell, which is a really unpleasant place?”). Worse yet, our references to eternal life are primarily “anti-death.” But Paul gets it right: the only reason one would want to have eternal life is because of Christ! Death is gain, because death brings us finally and forever to be with the one after whom we have longed for (or should) while on earth: our glorious and beautiful and merciful Savior!

References to hell as a Christ-less eternity often fail to convey the real implications of a Christ-less eternity: that Christ himself is the source of all that is good, all that is love, all that is happiness.

Heaven is not merely a “new and improved” version of earth. Earth is a poor copy of heaven in all its glories. We do not see clearly here, only to get a shinier version there. Rather, we see “dimly as through a glass.” There, we shall see that this was but a dream, blurry and undefined. And Christ, above all, shall be seen in unmitigated and unparalleled beauty and glory. And He indeed is heaven’s Sun, all else is a reflection of Him (we don’t see objects, we see light).

John Owen put it very descriptively and nailed it exactly when he wrote in The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded:

The glory of heaven which the gospel prepares us for, which faith leads and conducts us unto, which the souls of believers long after, as that which will give full rest, satisfaction, and complacency, is the full, open, perfect manifestation of the glory of the wisdom, goodness, and love of God in Christ. (emphasis mine)

C.J. Mahaney is a preacher/author whom I’ve recently discovered as Biblical, passionate and humble, and also with a wacky sense of humor. Good combination. He currently leads Sovereign Grace Ministries, a family of churches spread throughout six countries. More about SGM here.

C.J. and his wife Carolyn were recently the guest speakers at the Men’s and Women’s 2005 Fall Conference at The Bible Church of Little Rock. The audio of their ten messages are available for free on the web:

C.J. Mahaney
Sex, Romance and the Glory of God – Part 1
Sex, Romance and the Glory of God – Part 2
Message to Men
Humility: True Greatness
The Cross Centered Life
The Soul of Modesty

Carolyn Mahaney
Message to Women: What Christian Wives Need to Know
True Beauty
A Woman’s Beauty Regimen
What To Do About the Things We Can’t Do Anything About

Hat tip to Justin Taylor and thanks to BCLR for being generous enough to share these messages with all of us who were not so privileged as to be present under C.J. and Carolyn’s teaching.

(Updated the links on Feb. 7, 2007)

I’ve created a little mini-blog to journal our upcoming trip to China to bring Emmaline home. Enjoy! I plan to post photos and notes detailing our experience traveling to China, from China, and bringing her home.

Eric Zeller has some good thoughts on his blog about the upcoming Narnia movie that I blogged about below.

The “Christian” organizations that are organizing the “faith community” outreach aspect of the marketing have come up with several themes you can emphasize in your outreach: a) “Encounter the Power”; b) “Winter in Narnia”; c) “Discover the Wonder”; and d) “What if there were no Christmas?”. These all may be great ideas, but none of them pertain to what I would argue is the book’s central point of Christological allegory: the voluntary substitutionary death of Aslan as a picture of the voluntary substitutionary death of Christ. If there is any point at which we should be using Narnia as an illustration it is that! But that is a little bit too much for our friends at Disney; they’d rather talk about “values.”

He concludes:

I do plan to see the movie, and it may be that I’ll be able to use that illustration in an evangelistic conversation – if God provided that opportunity, that would be great. But that is probably going to be the extent of my Narnia outreach efforts. Disney can afford to advertise their own movie – they don’t need me to do it for them.

Also, this post by paleoevangelical talks about this issue as well.

I read this last night in the introductory chapter of John Piper’s latest book, God Is the Gospel. I thought it was such an eloquent statement of the necessity of doctrines as well as pitfalls in being zealous of doctrine, I had to share. In most circles of the church in America, it seems doctrine is deemed irrelevant or “heady”… and in other circles, such as some I frequent, I think the danger is to dwell on doctrine so much that we forget the point of being doctrinally informed. Read on, then buy the book. The first paragraph excerpted below is Piper’s working definition of “doctrine”; the latter two are the paragraphs I found so helpful. Bold emphases are mine.

Doctrine means teaching, explaining, clarifying. Doctrine is part of the gospel because news can’t be just declared by the mouth of a herald—it has to be understood in the mind of a hearer. If the town crier says, “Amnesty is herewith published by the mercy of your Sovereign,” someone will ask, “What does ‘amnesty’ mean?” There will be many questions when the news is announced. “What is the price that has been paid?” “How have we dishonored the King?” When the gospel is proclaimed, it must be explained. … Unintelligible good news is not even news, let alone good.

Gospel doctrine matters because the good news is so full and rich and wonderful that it must be opened like a treasure chest, and all its treasures brought out for the enjoyment of the world. Doctrine is the description of these treasures. Doctrine describes their true value and why they are so valuable. Doctrine guards the diamonds of the gospel from being discarded as mere crystals. Doctrine protects the treasures of the gospel from the pirates who don’t like the diamonds but who make their living trading them for other stones. Doctrine polishes the old gems buried at the bottom of the chest. It puts the jewels of gospel truth in order on the scarlet tapestry of history so each is seen in its most beautiful place.

And all the while, doctrine does this with its head bowed in wonder that it should be allowed to touch the things of God. It whispers praise and thanks as it deals with the diamonds of the King. Its fingers tremble at the cost of what it handles. Prayers ascend for help, lest any stone be minimized or misplaced. And on its knees gospel doctrine knows it serves the herald. The gospel is not mainly about being explained. Explanation is necessary, but it is not primary. A love letter must be intelligible, but grammar and logic are not the point. Love is the point. The gospel is good news. Doctrine serves that. It serves the one whose feet are bruised (and beautiful!) from walking to the unreached places with news: “Come, listen to the news of God! Listen to what God has done! Listen! Understand! Bow! Believe!”

I just got a mailer from Focus on the Family trumping the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. The headline on the envelope: Now, a major motion picture release provides an unprecedented evangelistic opportunity.

Pardon my tempered enthusiasm, but I could’ve sworn that many said the same about the Passion of the Christ movie last year. Yet its evangelistic impact was hardly unrivaled, historically speaking… consider the Great Awakenings, etc. And frankly, it seems that sinful men are more likely to turn to Christ in the context of opportunities like world disasters and personal crises than a movie about a lion — unless seeds have been much sown already.

My question, in light of the excitement about Narnia, notwithstanding the Scriptural opportunity to “make the most of every opportunity” (Col. 4:5); how much are we succumbing to the entertainment-oriented technique-centric media-driven mentality of today’s gospel-light American evangelical church in being (overly?) excited about this movie?

The FOTF newsletter states: “The imaginative legacy of C.S. Lewis is an ideal way to reach a whole new generation of hearts and minds!” Again, I wonder if too much emphasis is being poured into this great combination of Lewis’ allegory—however illustrative and well-told—special effects and all; and too little on the power of God’s Word to save (Romans 1:16, Isaiah 55:11).

Far more have been won into the Kingdom through the means of lives that exemplify the love and power and Word of Christ; than by fancy presentations and books and methods. I don’t mean to be a skeptic, but I feel a need to have caution in being overly hyped about this movie. May we have well-balanced enthusiasm even as we ponder the opportunities that this movie may provide.

By the way, I don’t mean to say I have no enthusiasm for this movie. I am enthusiastic. But that enthusiasm is primarily driven by my fondness for the original books and my enjoyment in the gospel as it is symbolized in the tales. Plus, I think the effects will be amazing, esp. since the team doing it is the same as that which did the great LOTR movies. I am not primarily viewing it as an evangelistic tool because of my above musings.

After a long break we resumed school today. Even though the break was not intentional, it provided a refreshing new perspective for me. Perhaps this break was needed. Matthew seems to be reading words and sentences really well, and I’m rather surprised by it. I thought he would forget all those lessons he had learned.

I’m more patient with his boyish nature now. I have previously said that his restlessness is frustrating to me when it comes to schooling. I had wished he could/would sit still for more than 5 minutes so I can at least finish one lesson with him. Well, it was different today. No, he didn’t change. He’s still restless and moves about a whole lot. However, instead of discouraging his behavior, I adapted my teaching method to his needs.

We learned many new words and sentences today. As soon as he learns one word, he has to act it out or find the object that resembles it. For example, we learned the word “run.” After he sounds it out, he gets off the chair and runs around to demonstrate for me that he knows what it means. I like learning the word “hug” because he leans over and gives me a hug. Learning the word “rug” sends him to look for rugs in the house. After learning “dug,” he goes on to tell me how he was at a friend’s back yard digging and filling holes.

I have previously complained that the most I can do school with him was about 10 minutes. Well, today we were able to do school for about 45 minutes and we covered about 3 lessons. He was having a good time learning new words and sentences and he kept asking for more. We only stopped because I could tell he was getting tired. I was very blessed today. I need to remember that I have a boy, not a girl, and I need to adjust to his boyishness. God made him this way and I must accept it as good.