The New Life Bible Conference was once again a time of refreshing encouragement.  Refreshing is an appropriate word because the theme of the conference was Spreading the Gospel and most of the focus was on the work of Holy Spirit in accomplishing His divine agenda.  Here are a couple of excerpts from the conference.  If you want to hear more, contact New Life Fellowship Church.

Also, it is not too early to begin planning for next year.  Lord willing, these brothers will pick up right where they left off.

Thabiti Anyabwile – Acts 1: The Gospel Mandate

Hensworth W. C. Jonas – Acts 4: The Exclusivity of Christ

With the incessant coverage of the sudden death of Michael Jackson, we are getting a taste of the nature of this world’s worship.  And what I see is that in this respect the world is no different than we are.  They desire us to worship their god just as we desire them to worship ours.  The difference is that theirs always die and ours ever lives.  The sad part is that we are more inclined to join them than they are to join us.

Be careful, my friend.  Be careful.

As I have noted before, I had the humbling pleasure of writing the forward to Thabiti’s new book “May We Meet in the Heavenly World:  The Piety of Lemuel Haynes”.  It begins:

Years ago I found a friend and hero in Lemuel Haynes. Being Reformed has at times been lonely. When I first began to embrace the biblical and historical theology of the Reformation, I looked and listened around and found no one who looked and sounded like me. Admittedly, this was before the internet boom and the on-demand access to information both contemporary and historical. Nevertheless, the heroes of the Reformation always came up as white European and American. While this is no reason to accept or reject truth, it does cause one to pause and contemplate the conspicuous absence of non-white voices (read entire foward ).

Like everyone I was shocked to hear the news that Michael Jackson died today.  Shocked that he died, and shocked that he was 50 years old (whoa).  If there was anyone who defined my coming of age years it was Michael Jackson.  Walk through the halls of my junior high and high school, and you would be sure to find someone (in fact many someones) wearing Michael Jackson paraphernalia.  Michael was number one.  Everyone else was competing for second place.

My favorite album was Off the Wall. I still contend that it was the best.  Though Thriller sold a gazillion copies and Bad was a more than adequate follow up, but for my money Michael was at his best with Off the Wall.

I grew up with Michael and his brothers – The Jackson Five.  The hit singles The Love You Save, ABC, I Want You Back, Dancing Machine, and others were staples in our house.  We never missed The Jackson Five and my brother and I tuned in every Saturday morning to The Jackson Five Cartoon.  Michael Jackson was truly a cultural icon and many millions around the world will mourn his passing.   And well they should.  Michael and his music touched and rejoiced the hearts of millions upon millions, and became the object of adulation and worship.

Yet, I am reminded again that the creature is never comfortable being the object of worship.  Though we may think we are and though we may foolishly desire it, when it actually happens it leaves us empty and disillusioned.  Michael Jackson was worshipped by millions and yet in the end, their worship was no solice for a life alone, empty, and hopeless.  Men were created to worship and not be worshipped.  When these are confused or reversed, tragedy is not long in coming.  We see it time and time again in history.  We witnessed it again today.

Friends, only one man in history was equipped to receive worship.  Only one man was ever worthy of the worship of other men.  Only one man received the worship and praise of others and ever lives to tell of it.  His name is Jesus Christ.  Michael Jackson has gone the way of the other cultural icons of history.   We can now add the name Michael Jackson to the list of those larger than life figures who were not larger than death – a list of which Shai Linne reminds us that all are dead,…but Jesus is Alive!

We spent most of last week in Chicago at the New Life Bible Conference.  There I shared the platform with Thabiti Anyabwile and Hensworth W. C. Jonas.  One of the great aspects to the conference is the book table supplied by Reformation Heritage Books.  For the last few years the folks at RHB have supplied to the conference an excellent resource table, filled with some of the best books on theology and living you can find anywhere.  In fact, this year the book table was extra special because available for the first time anywhere were three books:  Glory Road, May We Meet in the Heavenly World, and Dancing with Idolatry:  Are you Bowing to a False God? The last book is written by Hensworth Jonas and is an insightful and challenging look at the subtly of idolatry and how easily we all fall prey to it.  I recommend you pick up a copy and read Jonas’ sobering analysis.  One of the ways he advises against dancing with idolatry is to see all of life as worship to Christ.  He writes:

The saints of God should never have a life that is compartmentalized.  We do not have a religious life and a secular life.  We are to live a Christian life in all areas of life.  Whether the context is the meetings of the church or the busyness and business of the marketplace, our Lord and our faith must be with us all the time.  Do not magnify anything in the your life above Christ.  Christ should not merely be a part of your life.  Christ must be your life.  Let Christ be the reason why you do anything that you do.  This will reserve all devotion to Christ alone.  If you are taking a walk, walk to the glory of Christ.  If you are taking a trip, travel to the praise of Christ.  If you are doing any assignment, work to the honor of Christ.  If you open your mouth to talk, exalt the name of Christ in whatever you say, and let it be edifying to all who hear it.  Saturate your life with the love of Christ.  If someone cuts you, bleed the love of Christ.  You will never bow to an idol if the Lord Jesus Christ is magnified in every aspect of your life.

Our sister Christy took some wonderful pictures of our future.  Here are a few:

I have it from a reliable source that Glory Road:  The Journeys of 10 African-Americans into Reformed Christianity will be available at the New Life Bible Conference this week.  The book is not due for release until July, but some pre-publication copies will be on sale at the conference, available to all those who attend.  So if you want to get an early copy, plan to attend the conference and get to the book table early and often.

Glory Road is the most rewarding book I have had the pleasure to work on.  The stories of the men in this volume not only encouraged my faith, but they also reminded me that we worship a big God who moves in various and mysterious ways and yet always accomplishes his glorious ends.  It is always a delight when I get to fellowship with the brothers in these pages, but even greater when we are able to share a platform and co-labor together as we did in this book.  They are my colleagues, mentors, heroes, and most importantly, friends.  I look forward to what God does through this book as I pray it will encourage others to seek the God of the Bible and embrace the faith that has been once and for all delivered to the saints.

Again, the book’s first availability will be at the New Life Bible Conference, June 18-20, 2009.  It’s not too late to make plans to attend.  In fact, if you come you are guaranteed to get in because after all it is FREE.  Lord willing I will see you there.

Today I discovered that another minister of the gospel has fallen into serious, public, and sit-down-causing sin.  It burdened my heart when I heard the news.  As I prayed for him and his family all that was running through my head was the song by Queen, Another One Bites the Dust.  I hate this!

While I pray his sin is not fatal nor final, and that God is gracious in the recovery of this man’s faith, family, and name, it does soberly remind me that all of us are but a simple deception away from facing similar circumstances.  I hated to hear that this brother was deceived by sin, and I can only imagine the impact it is having on his wife, kids, and church.  Yet, in a selfish sense I needed this reminder today as my own heart has the tendency to get puffed up and stray from the simplicity and beauty of the gospel.

I don’t know what God is doing in allowing this pastor to fall.  But I do know what He is doing in allowing me to find out.  He is saying to me that I need to be all the more diligent less I too be deceived by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13).

“If, as seems evident from the New Testament, churches grew by continually dividing, this has profound implications for our view of church growth.  A vision for church growth must be a vision for church planting.” - Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church:  A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community

“It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties, to form other churches.  We encourage our members to leave us to found other churches.  We even seek to persuade them to do it.  We ask them to scatter throughout the land, to become the goodly seed which God shall bless.  I believe that so long as we do this, we shall prosper.  I have marked other churches that have adopted the other way, and they have not succeeded.”