Make All Things New

“When people, especially those who love rap music, when they hear Christian rap, it’s just an automatic respect if the quality is good,” Gray, a biblical counseling major, said. “… People stop in their tracks, and they lend you an ear. It’s almost like Mars Hill, the Areopagus. It’s just this marketplace where people want to hear your ideas.”

“When they hear relevant metaphors and similes that are from the culture but are affiliated with God’s Word and the Bible, it’s just a wonderful tool in the hands of God,” he said. “And I’ve seen so many people, I’ve just seen their jaws drop and I’ve seen the Holy Spirit dig inside of their heart and start to remove that stony heart. And they hear the Gospel through rap music.”

And those are just two of the great quotes from a Townhall.com article on Flame preaching the gospel through hip hop. It is well worth your time.

One of the first books I was assigned to read for LAMPhilly training is Edmund Clowney’s Called to the Ministry In God’s sovereignty, I had heard some of these same principles a couple of years ago from Tim Keller (a student of Clowney’s). I am so thankful to find this small book and I commend it to you.

You can read some of the great quotes from the book over at Justin Buzzard’s blog and I am posting my short book report to encourage you to read Clowney!

Called to the Ministry
by Edmund Clowney
P & R Publishing (1964)

“What is Christ calling you to do?” This is the opening question in this small but immensely helpful book by Edmund Clowney. Does God still call people to ministry the same way he did in biblical times? Clowney systematically addresses these (and many other questions) with biblically based answers. In order to answer the opening question, Clowney writes, “We must first consider the Lord’s calling of every Christian, then we should examine what the New Testament says about the calling of the minister of the gospel.” (p. V)
According to Clowney, the first part of understanding God’s calling in one’s life is to be called a child of God. No one can be called to gospel ministry unless he is first called into relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Once called into fellowship with God through Christ, the Christian is called to follow Christ into service. Gospel ministry is a call for Christian to serve. An interesting paradox is now found. “The ‘Come!’ of Christ separates us from the world to his name; the ‘Go!’ of Christ sends us into the world in his name.” (p. 18) But how, specifically, is a Christian to put Christ on display through service? “[T]he calling of an individual in the church of Christ is determined by the gifts Christ has given him, by the ‘measure’ of the Spirit he has received.” (p. 27) That is, the Christian is supernaturally-equipped to for specific service within the church and within the world.
The second portion of this book focuses specifically on the calling to ministry. Clowney describes this calling as specific to the gifting given. Summed up, “The call of the Word of God to the gospel ministry comes to ALL those who have the gifts for such ministry.” (p. 79) These gifts are given to the individual by Christ for the purpose of building his church. The work is of Christ and for Christ from start to finish.
This book serves as more than just an excellent primer for anyone wrestling with a sense of calling into gospel ministry. I say “more than” because while Clowney’s book is brief in length, it is vast in its depth of wisdom. This wisdom comes from his focus on Jesus and the scriptures for the basis of his arguments. I found his arguments excellent and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
The way Clowney helped me to understand the calling to ministry was extremely helpful to me. Specifically, understanding that there are basically three aspects of calling to gospel ministry and it is not just some internal feeling you get (while that can be part of it). Calling to gospel ministry consists of an internal call, what I might term a “burden” for sharing the gospel. Another aspect would be the affirmation of the gifting for gospel ministry by leaders in your local church (who know you well). And finally, the circumstances or opportunities to test and grow the gifting you have.
These specific points have helped to confirm my calling to gospel ministry for the sake of Christ’s glorious name!

Redeem your commuting time!

I learned something extremely helpful this morning and wanted to share it. The good folks who publish the ESV allow you to download audio versions of any passages you want! For free!

It takes a little work to get them but it is not complicated. Check out this link on how to do it.

I read these quotes from John Frame’s The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God:

It is arbitrary to insist that theology be written in a formal, academic style. Rather, theologians ought to make broad use of human language – poetry, drama, exclamation, song, parable, symbol – as Scripture itself does. (p.85)

The work of theology is to proclaim the old ideas of Scripture and nothing else. But the work of theology is, indeed, to proclaim those old ideas to a new generation. This involves application, and that demands newness, since every new situation is somewhat different from its predecessors… (p.340)

There is a great need for imagination among theologians today. There is a crying need for fresh applications of Scripture to situations too long neglected, for translating the gospel into new forms. The artistic gift may be well employed in the theological profession. (p. 343)

I was excited to read these words! Yes, we need people to use creativity in expressing the truths found in Scripture. So often though, creativity is used to exalt creativity itself or (worse yet) the creative person. I don’t desire creative approaches simply to communicate creatively, but creative approaches to communicate theology! I long for people to use their creative gifts to tell another generation to hope in God!

What do you think?
(HT DashHouse)

With the birth of our fourth child, Nathanael Owen Curcuruto, and his subsequent five day stay in the hospital, I have been away from blogging all month. I have lots of thoughts to share so I plan on taking some time to write this week (and I pray it will be worth your time!).

So, I’ll start back with some good links I have found and go from there.