The Jesus Paradigm

Author: admin

  • Have I Done Enough?

    7:18 AM Do you remember this dialogue from the movie Schindler’s List? It haunts me to this day. It’s between Schindler and Stern:

    Oskar Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more.

    Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.

    Oskar Schindler: If I’d made more money… I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I’d just…

    Itzhak Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.

    Oskar Schindler: I didn’t do enough!

    Itzhak Stern: You did so much.

    [Schindler looks at his car]

    Oskar Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.

    [removing Nazi pin from lapel]

    Oskar Schindler: This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.

    [sobbing]

    Oskar Schindler: I could have gotten one more person… and I didn’t! And I… I didn’t!

    Often I have asked myself, “Why is it I haven’t prayed more for the lost? Why is it I haven’t given more to help further the cause of global missions? How much more could I have done for missions had I not been so selfish? Why did I wait so long in life to learn the importance of of Christ’s call to live a life of radical Christian servanthood? Can I live more simply so that I can send more of my money into His work? Have I submitted every area of my life to His Lordship? When was the last time I shed tears for lost Muslims? If I really submitted my schedule to Christ, how would my life be different? How much more can I do? How much more should I do?”

    Often I have to get on my face and say, “Lord, please forgive me for my sloth and self-centeredness. Please forgive me and cleanse me.” How am I spending my leisure time? My vacations? My limited energy (I am getting older). Do I ask the Lord to plan my days and minutes even? Today, this very day, I need to compare my life against the Scriptures and see where I need to be. How can I best relate the crying demands of the unfinished missionary task to my everyday life and work?

    In Greek class yesterday we translated Philippians 1:18-26 and saw that Paul was willing to risk his life to preach the uncompromising Word of God. The approval of others, fancy titles, popularity — these meant nothing to him. They were less than nothing, mere skubala. His one goal in life was to know Christ and to make Him known. I called the class to make a decision. There is no place in seminary for the study of God’s Word without obedience. Far better not to study Philippians than to disobey its call to put the Gospel first in everything. Somewhere in the midst of our studies we must come to the place where we see the world as Jesus does, where are hearts break because His breaks, when we measure everything against the yardstick of the Great Commission.

    “I didn’t do enough!”

    No, and I haven’t either. Shame on me. Shame on all of us who are not consumed with the Gospel.

    (From Dave Black Online. David Alan Black is the author of Energion titles Christian Archy, The Jesus Paradigm,  Why Four Gospels? and  Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?. Used by permission.)

  • The Church as a Family

    4:37 PM From The Jesus Paradigm:

    The New Testament presents a clear picture of how the early Christians viewed themselves. They understood each church to be an extended family (an institutionalized church was unimaginable) that practiced plural leadership. This eldership was non-hierarchical (each elder was equal in authority to all the other elders) and arose from within those churches the elders would lead. Because the Lord Jesus is the head of the church (Col. 1:18), the elders led by example, not by “lording it over” the church (1 Pet. 5:2). The elders’ authority lay solely in their ability to “persuade” with the truth of the Word of God (see the use of peitho, “persuade,” in Heb. 13:17).

    (From Dave Black Online. David Alan Black is the author of Energion titles Christian Archy, The Jesus Paradigm,  Why Four Gospels? and  Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?. Used by permission.)

  • 6:34 PM In an election year, the words of Dan Clendenin seem appropriate:

    Two radical corollaries follow from the global character of God’s kingdom — the decentralization of your geography and the reorientation of your politics.

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  • What a New Testament Church Ought to Look Like

    4:02 PM I’ve always despaired of coming up with any exhaustive list of what I believe a New Testament church ought to look like. The notion of a royal priesthood captures well, I think, my overall perspective of the composition of an authentically New Testament congregation. I have frequently argued this point on my website and in my more recent print publications. However, there are several strands in this perspective that bear unraveling, if only in a tentative way. The following list is a good place to start. (more…)

  • Completely at the Disposal of the King

    8:40 AM The Abnormal Anabaptist posts his thoughts about the SCOTUS decision in an essay titled What, did something just happen to change the world?  You simply must read it. It’s important to note that the acceptance he’s talking about is not passivity, fatalism, or resignation. It’s not about putting our head in the sand. It’s not about ignoring reality. It’s not about capitulating to evil or a refusal to do what you can do to change things. Rather, it’s a placing of oneself completely at the disposal of the King and His kingdom. It springs from love and trust. We have been shown the pattern by the non-political Jesus, who deliberately laid down His life and now calls us to lay down ours. There is very different from capitation or Quietism. Where there is no trust, where there is no radical abandonment to Jesus’ upside-down reign, it is not to be wondered at that decisions by SCOTUS easily upset Christians. We forget how the kingdom of God operates. The Anabaptists of the sixteenth century — I devote an entire chapter to them in my book The Jesus Paradigm — saw suffering and self-abnegation as normal. Their heroism lay in their acceptance of circumstances that other Christians would have avoided at all costs. (more…)

  • Is Sacrificial Living the Solution to America’s Abortion Holocaust?

    10:10 AM Is sacrificial living the solution to America’s abortion holocaust?

    I don’t think morality can or should be legislated. I think if Christians want a woman not to have an abortion, then they should offer that woman however much she demands to not have an abortion.

    We often talk about the value of human life, but we seldom are actually willing to pay for it. Suppose the mother demands $10,000 for the baby. Many would be willing to pay that price. Suppose she demands $1 million. Well, you tell me, is the child’s life worth that much to you or no? There comes a point at which purchasing that child’s life might threaten your own child’s life. Which is to be preferred? Which is more valuable? What would Solomon do?

    There is usually a presumption that the woman should be responsible for keeping the baby and bearing the cost herself. This I suppose comes from a belief in Truth. But I don’t see God imposing Truth on us. Instead I see Him making sacrifice to exemplify truth.

    Read Evangelicalism = Christian Legislation. Followers of the Christian Right might be shocked by this suggestion, but Christian love demands that we take our faith to the street. Those who are the most sincere about fighting injustice are the ones who are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

    (From Dave Black Online. David Alan Black is the author of Energion titles Christian Archy, The Jesus Paradigm,  Why Four Gospels? and  Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?. Used by permission.)

  • Opposing Government Bureaucracy, But What About the Church?

    12:13 PM Steve Scott’s latest essay is a real winner: Evangelicalism: Government Programs vs. Church Programs. Steve points out the irony that those Christians who want smaller and smaller government are often the same Christians who want more and bureaucracy in the church. In my book The Jesus Paradigm I referred to this as the “FDR-ing of the church.” Steve writes:

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  • On Christian Political Activism

    5) N. T. Wright addresses the issue of church and state (i.e., the kingdom of God versus the kingdoms of this world) in this wonderful You Tube:

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  • A Primitive Ecclesiology

    As you know, I’m involved in writing projects up to my eyeballs. One book I am currently writing is called Godworld. (I think I’ll subtitle it something like Enter at Your Own Risk). Over the past few days I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this topic. Emerson once noted in his Journal that “Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.” For many years a considerable portion of my time has been devoted to the problem of ecclesiology. Being stubborn by nature and a professor by training and education, I hold to the notion that the status quo is rarely acceptable. John Wesley wanted his movement to recover the full message and power of what he called “the Primitive Church.” He was an ardent student of early Christianity. Wesley also studied the Anabaptist groups and the Moravians. Wesley and his followers knew that awakening interest in the church without bringing people to pursue Gospel living was a waste of time. When pre-Christian people talk about “church,” unfortunately they often refer to people whose alien language and jargon have nothing to do with the real world in which these same people live. Christians dress and act in abnormal ways. Their traditionalist churchianity is a language no one seems to understand. The New Testament, by way of contrast, calls Christians to “exegete” the culture that God entrusts to them and to indigenize their faith — witness the 18th century Methodists who wrote Christian hymns to be sung to the tunes people loved to sing in the public houses. As for missions, the New Testament calls all of us — clergy and laity alike — to live out our faith in our mundane professions. (Few are called to seminary!) We are to penetrate the culture for Christ and thus fulfill the second commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” The love of which the New Testament speaks is not so much a feeling as a disposition of good will and service toward others, including people outside our own social networks, nationality, and race. We are to love others as God does. It is just as important that we love the lost as it is to believe that Jesus died for our sins. Growing into the likeness of Christ is essentially “downward mobility.” Because people matter to God, they matter to us. The goal is not mere conversion but bringing people to full devotion to Christ. Evangelism is therefore normative for God’s people. It is simply living and sharing the amazing good news about Jesus in one’s own sphere of influence. This is the process I want to be involved in. It is the process of entering this amazing Godworld — and doing so at our own risk! I want to be involved in this Godworld, not because I am a professor in a seminary, but simply because I am a follower of Jesus.

    “Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.” I would not pretend that I am yet consumed with a love for the lost as Jesus was. I have, however, begun to travel this downward path of Jesus. Just as all Christians have been joined to Christ and participate in His life, so all Christians are called to the ministry of witness and invitation.

    Think about it.

    (From Dave Black Online. David Alan Black is the author of Energion titles Christian Archy, The Jesus Paradigm,  Why Four Gospels? and the forthcoming Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?. Used by permission.)

  • The Cult of the Speaker

    6:30 AM Up for a stern warning this morning?  

    Before I issue it, some background. I have nothing against public speaking. I am asked to speak all the time. I enjoy listening to other speakers (provided they are well-prepared and not just repeating the same old same old). I have been responsible for organizing two major conferences on campus that featured such speakers as Dan Wallace, Darrell Bock, Moises Silva, Grant Osborne, Keith Elliott, and Scot McKnight. I am speaking, in fact, at a conference today at SEBTS. So what is my warning?

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