Preparing for corporate worship: God became man (1)

"If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared" (Ps. 130:3-4). This is a great Christmas verse. Why? I was pondering my own sinful shortcomings this morning as I drove to the train station, and I thought about the first part of this passage. I recognized my iniquities made impossible any basis I had of my own for standing without condemnation before the Holy Judge. Yet, I do stand without condemnation before Him. Why? Because God the Son became an embryo, a newborn, a child who grew into a man who lived a perfectly righteous life in my place and stood condemned before His Father in my place. That is what Advent, the incarnation, Christmas -- however we choose to describe it -- is about. In corporate worship this Sunday, Covenant Community Church will begin giving special attention to this miraculous truth that God became man. May we come with joyful and humbly grateful hearts to worship Him.

The importance of a complementarian view

Complementarianism describes what I believe to be the biblical view of the God-designed differences between men and women, as well as the roles they fulfill in the home and church. Here is a helpful video excerpt from John Piper's sermon last weekend in which he describes complementarianism's middle ground between two erroneous views.

Top 10 tweets

1. “Whether you realize it or not, you are in an unending conversation with yourself and it forms the way you live.” – Paul David Tripp

2. “You preach [to] yourself a gospel of aloneness [and] inability or of the provisions and power of an ever-present Christ.” – Paul David Tripp

3. “You preach to yourself a gospel of your righteousness, power and wisdom or of deep spiritual need and sufficient grace.” – Paul David Tripp

4. “Anything you say you’ve got to have to make you happy has your soul by the neck.” – Dave Furman

5. “Our ascended Lord is the Victor and the victory medal around his neck is the bedraggled lamb of the church he carries to his heaven.” – Elyse Fitzpatrick

6. “Either you are getting your identity vertically or you’re shopping for it horizontally.” – Paul David Tripp

7. “We give ourselves to others to help form Christ in them.” – Darren Patrick

8. “Lord Jesus, purge every semblance of Javert from my soul. Eradicate in me everything allergic to grace.” – Scotty Smith

9. “Faith is not only a serious assent to the truth of God’s promises, it is also a satisfying embrace of Christ in the promises.” – John Piper

10. “You are most loving and kind when you accept that there’s no truth you’d give to others that you don’t need yourself.” – Paul David Tripp

What's a mom to do?

What a blessing it is to know many ladies of many ages who are recipients of God’s saving grace and are following Jesus. They encourage and challenge me by the grace I see expressed in and through their lives. I benefit from those who are part of our family by birth or marriage and from those whom I have known across the years and miles. I also reap the reward of worshiping with such sisters in Christ week by week within Covenant Community Church.

Many of these female saints are mothers. As mothers, they bless their families with their sacrificial service for the good of their husbands and children. Some ladies who are not mothers or whose children have grown and moved away serve as spiritual mothers to young ladies, and some who still have children at home are spiritual mothers to others outside their nuclear family.

Some mothers in our church – and many other churches – are home educators as well. In addition to all the responsibilities all mothers have, these mothers also teach their children reading, writing, math and the other disciplines. For mothers with large families, this can mean home-schooling children for as much as a quarter of a century.

A recent conversation with my wife -- as well as some writing by Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center blog -- prompted me to want to write something for Christian mothers. This won’t be as provocative or as humorous as Altrogge’s posts, but I hope it proves helpful. You can read his posts on the subject here and here.

Here are some questions to set the stage for six recommendations: How does a Christian mother respond to the challenges mothers have always faced? And how does a Christian mother respond in seasons sometimes further complicated by even more responsibilities? How does she react to criticism from a world that often does not esteem motherhood? How does a mother respond when other Christians – often other mothers – pile unbiblical expectations on her and try to tell her via books, blogs, Facebook, speeches and one-on-one communication she is failing or she is not being a faithful Christian mother?

Certainly, it helps to have a loving and servant-hearted husband who leads her by grace. And it is beneficial to have children who genuinely express gratitude.

What I share below, however, is for a mother to apply regardless of how good her support system is. I hope these points will help mothers know how to think biblically about the unhelpful and even disconcerting messages they may receive from others. These points can be applied by any follower of Christ to his or her life, but I offer them specifically for mothers who are seeking to do their best to love their children and rear them to worship God and follow Jesus.

1. Flee fundamentalism, legalism and any other performance-based approach to Christianity. While sincere, those individuals and ministries that excel at burdening mothers and others with works-based and/or culturally driven standards seem always to be with us. They promote what amounts to an unbiblical, grace-deprived Christianity. Don’t let these anti-gospel messages define you.

2. Flee to Jesus and His gospel. This point is really a summary of those that follow, but there seems to be a need to state it explicitly. If you are going to flee something, you need to run to someone or something. Run to Jesus.

3. Recognize your security and most important identity are in Jesus. They are not in whether you do all the mommy things some Christian voices or some in the world try to convince you a good mother does. They are not in whether you accomplish all the things you think you should. They are not even in those occasions when you do accomplish all you think you should. As Milton Vincent says in A Gospel Primer for Christians:

The gospel also reminds me that my righteous standing with God always holds firm regardless of my performance, because my standing is based solely on the work of Jesus and not mine. On my worst days of sin and failure, the gospel encourages me with God’s unrelenting grace toward me. On my best days of victory and usefulness, the gospel keeps me relating to God solely on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness and not mine.

Your security and most important identity are also not in how your children perform. They are not in how your children turn out. That is important, but you cannot control those outcomes, no matter how well you perform your role as mother. You are not sovereign – even over your children’s lives. God is. Trust Him, because He is worthy of trust. Rest – yes, rest – in who Jesus is as your Savior, Lord and Life and in what He has done for you.

4. Preach the gospel to yourself. Remind yourself at least daily – maybe several times a day – what the gospel is and what Jesus has done for you. He is your substitute in His righteous life, His all-sufficient death and His triumphant resurrection. The gospel of Jesus is the truth that matters most. Read the New Testament with your spiritual eyes attuned to what it says Jesus achieved for you and who you are as a result of that work on your behalf.

5. Live by grace. Your salvation is all of God and all of His grace. Remind yourself of that grace when you fail. Extend grace to other mothers who do things differently than you while living under the lordship of Christ. Shower grace on your children, giving them a real-life picture of a God who is a loving, forgiving, embracing Father and not a performance-based, rule-focused tyrant.

6. Spend time with grace-extending ladies in a church with a growing gospel culture. Have other ladies in your life as mentors and friends who are seeking to live by the gospel of grace and are not continually burdening themselves and others with the weight of a moralistic, performance-focused mentality. This is best done in a church where everyone is hearing the gospel proclaimed and applied from all of Scripture to Christians, as well as non-Christians, and the church is growing in grace as a result. Our church is blessed by ladies who have learned to reject fundamentalism and legalism and are able to guide younger mothers in living by the gospel of grace. An online resource that is helpful for mothers is the Domestic Kingdom blog, which is edited by Gloria Furman, a pastor’s wife and mother in Dubai. She also is the author of the forthcoming book, Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home.

(As always, I welcome your comments and questions on anything I have written in this post.)

Mondays are for music: 'Gather 'Round, Ye Children, Come'

Andrew Peterson recorded his Christmas album, "Behold the Lamb of God," in 2004, but his band and he, as well as a collection of other musicians, had already been touring the previous four years to perform this splendid, big picture, musical presentation of the incarnation of Christ. They begin another "Behold the Lamb Tour" this week with a Dec. 6 stop in Richmond, Va., and a Dec. 7 show in Gaithersburg, Md. The video below is of Peterson and his friends performing the opening song, "Gather 'Round, Ye Children, Come." With this edition of "Mondays are for music," I inaugurate what I plan to be a December video playlist of songs about the amazing story of God becoming a man.

Top 20 tweets

Since I have been on a short sabbatical from blogging, I decided to expand “Top 10 tweets” to “Top 20 tweets” on this occasion to try to do justice to all the tweets I collected during the last week and a half. Here are the “Top 20:”

1. “Every thought, desire, choice, word and action of Jesus was lived on your behalf so you could stand before God with a record that is clear.” – Paul David Tripp

2. “It boils down to either finding our place in God’s story or giving God a bit part in our story.” – Scotty Smith

3. “The gospel is the good news that the determining factor in my relationship with God is Christ’s obedience, not mine.” – Tullian Tchividjian

4. “God’s grace wasn’t given to deliver your dream for your life, but to deliver you and give you life.” – Paul David Tripp

5. “My sins are greater than my confessions, but I am thankful my Savior is greater than both.” – Jared Wilson

6. “We parent not to make sure our kids never sin but to teach them how to deal with their sin in light of the gospel. 1Jn 2:1” – Bob Kauflin

7. “Grace is not only greater than all my sin, but also greater than all my so called ‘goodness.’ Both need redemption.” – Scotty Smith

8. “God isn’t a genie we can call to our service whenever we feel the need, then bottle back up so we can go on living as we please.” – Randy Alcorn

9. “The Gospel is like a Hobbit. For many it looks weak and insignificant. But through it, God will save the world!” – Greg Breazeale

10. “If you’re not living by the joy of the Holy Spirit the only category you have for the spiritual disciplines is legalism.” – John Piper

11. “Jesus, I don’t need 1000 tongues; just free the one I have 2 bless, not curse; 2 praise, not whine; 2 honor you, not me.” – Scotty Smith

12. “Isn’t it good news to know that we don’t have to live in fear ‘that our life hangs in the balance of whether or not we make a wrong move?’” – Tullian Tchividjian

13. “Every sunrise points us to look ahead to the Day that is coming that will be the end of darkness forever.” – Gloria Furman

14. “God is better than our small faith. He may use means which surprise us to draw our attention to Him.” – Mark Dever

15. “Constantly rehearsing the ways people have failed you is like putting a straw into a sewer and sipping away. Don’t do it.” – Scotty Smith

16. “Corporate worship is designed to welcome you into the sweet peace, rest and hope that is only found in the person and work of Jesus Christ.” – Paul David Tripp

17. “The key for a gospel-driven leader is this: remember to forget yourself.” – Trevin Wax

18. “Too many Christians live to not make mistakes instead of resting in the love of the One whose blood covers all our mistakes.” – Tullian Tchividjian

19. “Are we willing to be made uncomfortable to reach the nations with the gospel? Our Lord Jesus was (Mark 10:45)!” – Daniel Akin

20. “Let’s be very careful NOT to equate ‘no longer under God’s law’ with ‘no longer called to do God’s will.’” – Scotty Smith

A brief break from blogging

I plan to take a short blogging sabbatical for about the next 10 days. I have not posted much this week, since I have been on the road or away from the home and office four of the first five days of the week. Now, we are on a road trip to Kansas for a much-anticipated family get-together Thanksgiving week.

I should be back to blogging Nov. 26 or shortly thereafter.

As a sendoff for now, here is a verse from my Bible reading today:

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Heb. 11:6, ESV).