Boredom is a disease. A contagious one. Can’t remember the last (only?) time I caught it. Too busy … thinking, doing, praying, serving, living.
A friend of mine says one of his biggest day-to-day fears is that he will get bored. Perhaps some people are more apt to need constant motivation to pursue new things, to thinki, to serve, to be un-bored.
Christ is the cure to all boredom. Don’t get me wrong, solving our boredom issues is NOT the primary reason Jesus came. He came to satisfy the wrath of God and redeem a people who treasure God as the fountain of all joy. In Him is infinite pleasure, at His right hand forevermore (Psalm 16:11 ). He satisfies. Therefore, there is no reason to ever be bored.
Dare I say that when we are bored we are tempted to sin, perhaps even sinning already? That is because sin is not just doing evil things; we also sin when we make good things into ultimate things. The sin of idolatry, the most prevalent of all, is to fashion a god after own preference, to worship a false god. When we are not satisfied with God, we produce and chase after thoughts and dreams that are a substitute. Sin is what we do when we are not satisfied with our Creator.
In Christ we have every reason to be happy, full of life, and on this grand adventure with Him. We do not, however, have any reason to be bored.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice (Phil. 4 )
That quote comes from Bob Kauflin while speaking at the 2008 Desiring God conference last weekend. Watch or listen to the whole thing: "Words of Wonder: What happens when we sing ".
He likewise makes the point that the theology on your doctrinal statement is essentially of no effect if you sing something different on Sunday mornings. We do actually sing our theology, and that is what people take home with them — the daily theology of your local church. The power of words. The power of music. The wonder of the two mingled together. That is what can fill a mind.
How true it is that we often thoughtlessly throw together "worship sets," and even more thoughtlessly enter them corporately as God’s people and just sing along without having a mind for God and for the words we sing. We truly can attend a worship service without ever worshipping. Do you think about the words you are singing? Do you have any gracious feedback, and not just "I like this song, _____. Can we play that one?" Rather, pointing out that perhaps some of the words are not in-line with Scripture, or are true-but-shallow, and doing so with a humble, gracious tone. (Plus, doing it infrequently, and probably not every week, or for every song!) I know, it’s not en vogue to be discerning like that, but if we come with hearts of grace, and especially also affirm what the worship leader is doing right , we can perhaps help shape the theology we sing and thus by default are (actively or passively) filling our minds with.
If you are a worship leader, how would you respond to this criticism? Do you welcome it? Would you receive it?
I find myself sometimes when the theology is poor or too me-centered in a song, closing my eyes and substituting better, more God-centered, creative language to move me past myself. Perhaps we don’t know our Bibles enough to notice, or simply don’t care. Inclined to think it’s both.
(John Wesley has some words for us.)
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Here’s an unedited brief interview with Bob Kauflin, given just after his talk:
Never been able to make it to a Desiring God conference . This year’s conference ended today, and it looked to be an insightful time in God’s Word.
Look forward to perhaps working through the audio recordings and become a better communicator of God’s glorious wonder.
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The DG Blog has some recent posts summarizing the messages, with audio links and some notes either from the speaker or from an attentive listener
I’ve been reading the book and am challenged on a number of levels. My soul and mind resonate with the subtitle: “A radical reshaping around Gospel and community.”
A helpful quote from Chester:
One of our catchphrases is “ordinary people living ordinary life with gospel intentionality.” It means doing the chores, having meals, watching sports, and so on with an intention to talk about Jesus, to pastor one another with the gospel, and to share that gospel with unbelievers.
May God allow us to serve in the church with this trajectory.
"Note then the kindness and the severity of God :
severity toward those who have fallen,
but God’s kindness to you,
provided you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise you too will be cut off."
What am I talked about? Visa, MasterCard, American Express?
Nope. You can live a whole life without those.
But, you cannot live a second of your life without the Gospel. That is because we need Jesus … always.
The more I talk with church leaders and people, the more I think we have largely missed the Gospel.
We think of it as the starting point, or the diving board (to use my favorite home-grown analogy). We don’t just start at the Good News of Jesus and then move onto maturity in the Christian life focusing on other things. We never, ever, ever outgrow our need for Jesus. He is everything, and whatever keeps you from Him is sin. Period.
Because you need Jesus every second, you need the Gospel every second. He is the one Mediator between God the Father and us sinners, and without Him we would be consumed in an instant.
Yet, how easy is it to leave the Gospel and start related to God on the basis of ___________? (Insert whatever you hope in by default.)
Some of us trust in the fact that we once trusted in Jesus. Like He is a ticket to heaven, and we can simply put Him (or our faith-in-Him) in our pocket to use later. No, no, no. HE is the good news of God’s glorious grace, for in Jesus we get God (1 Peter 3:18 ). Do you want Him?
Note how Paul ended his greatest letter, to the Romans: "Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…" (Romans 16:25 ).
Who was he writing to? Christians (or at least mostly Christians), who still needed the Gospel daily to be strengthened, encouraged, and to persevere. We need outgrow our need for the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus is not just for the unsaved. It is for everyone.
How do you get a daily reminder of the Gospel? Do you preach it to yourself? You should. Don’t wait until Sunday. You may not even here it then.
Take the Gospel with you. Don’t ever leave home without it.
“The tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the Original shout. When our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God, we cast a shadow on the earth and fall in
love with it. But it does not satisfy."
—John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight , p. 9.
"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust them… For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
—C.S. Lewis, quoted by Piper, same page.
We should follow our Lord as unhesitatingly as sheep follow their shepherd, for He has a right to lead us wherever He pleases . We are not our own, we are bought with a price—let us recognize the rights of the redeeming blood. The soldier follows his captain, the servant obeys his master, much more must we follow our Redeemer, to whom we are a purchased possession. We are not true to our profession of being Christians, if we question the bidding of our Leader and Commander. Submission is our duty, cavilling is our folly. Often might our Lord say to us as to Peter, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." Wherever Jesus may lead us, He goes before us .
If we know not where we go, we know with whom we go . With such a companion, who will dread the perils of the road? The journey may be long, but His everlasting arms will carry us to the end. The presence of Jesus is the assurance of eternal salvation, because He lives, we shall live also. We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith, because the paths in which He leads us all end in glory and immortality . It is true they may not be smooth paths—they may be covered with sharp flinty trials, but they lead to the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant." Let us put full trust in our Leader, since we know that, come prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, His purpose shall be worked out, and that purpose shall be pure, unmingled good to every heir of mercy. … Precious Jesus, draw us, and we will run after Thee.
On Sunday I was privileged again to preach in Wilsonville at Canyon Creek Church . This time the text was Philippians 3:1-11 , and my title: "Worthless Doing and Priceless Knowing ."
Asked to give a little synopsis for the church bulletin, this is what I wrote:
We have natural bent towards religion. That is, we tend to find our identity by what we do, rather than in Who God is. It is easy to think we have done so much on our own, for our "gains" are clearly seen by looking at our own religious resumes and feeble good works — especially by comparison with others. Yet, in the Gospel, the ground has become level for everyone, from the talented and motivated to the least gifted. The common thread is God’s grace in Christ, and our response in humility (looking out to Him, not into ourselves).
The Gospel of God’s glorious grace is the only means God has designed to set us free from empty religion. We no longer come to our Creator as ones holding our great accomplishments in our hands. Instead, we along with the Apostle Paul, can rightly say, "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ" (Phil. 3:7 ). Our empty doing is traded for priceless knowing. We now can know, love and enjoy Jesus our Savior as the supreme object of our affections and the true desire of our hearts. Does that describe your trajectory?
Knowing I would be speaking to (almost?) all Christians, I was quick to remind us that the Gospel is for Christians to. We never outgrow our need for Christ, and the good news of His glorious grace. Aimed at helping us all discover grace-renewal in the God of all grace, and be people who "worship in the Spirit" ( Phil. 3:3 ), I wanted us to see that knowing, loving and enjoying our Savior above all else is the goal of God in the Gospel.
We can truly say to Jesus, "Nothing compares to the greatness of knowing You."
The two Greek words de ("but") and Theos ("God") are the first two words of Ephesians 2:4: "But God, who is rich in mercy..."
Because of God's great love and grace extending to us in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, redeemed and able to know, love + enjoy God more fully, ever-increasing and forever.
This site contains the thoughts and conclusions and journeys of the Patterson family -- Jeff, Kari and Dutch -- who have experienced the front-end of God's amazing grace, and continue to delight in His unfailing love.
Read more about us, and what we hold most precious.
