I don’t usually dabble in US politics – unless of course it is to bag Bush 
But I’ve seen this video being bantered about from SNL and I thought I needed to share it. Hope you enjoy!
News headlines around the world have been screaming “the end of the world” in regards to the powering up of the CERN particle accelerator in Europe yesterday.
Many people I know have been on tender hooks waiting for the passing of this test to see if the world lives beyond this event – especially as there seems to have been valid safety concerns. And it seems that the anxiety of the whole thing has taken it’s toll in an ugly way.
A 16 year old girl was so freaked out by the event that she drank pesticide and committed suicide thinking that the world would end. My heart goes out to this little girl as she faced her fears during the last days of her life.
How I wished she knew the God of the Bible and realised that mankind, as dumb as it can be sometimes, will never be in a position to alter the destiny of the world as outlined in Scripture. Only God knows the beginning and the end of everything. Anyone grounded in Scripture shouldn’t have skipped a heartbeat about this experiment causing the world to end. God says:
“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” Isa 46:8-10
Before this planet was around, God knew the beginning and end of it. Think of it in this way. If you were on the side of the road watching a parade go by, you would see the beginning, the middle and eventually the end of it as time passed by.
But God is not like you or me. His vantage point would be like in the sky where He looks down and sees the start of the parade as well as the end – right before Him. He can confidently say that 20 minutes into the parade, a float looking like a monkey will pass you. Sitting at street level at the start of the parade and hearing God say this to you, you would need to accept this as faith – even though you can’t see the monkey float.
In a similar way, He has mapped out the history of the planet – from beginning to the end. And He has taken the time to document this and publish it – it’s called the Bible. And the Bible has the audacity of being the only “religious” document in the whole world of including vast amounts of prophecy. Some of which has been fulfilled, some of which is being fulfilled and some of which will be fulfilled.
Mankind is sitting at street level and watching history parade itself in a linear fashion. God has declared what will happen in the past, present and future – as only He is beyond time and can see the beginning and end in one glance.
And nowhere in scripture is a reference to mankind destroying the world before God accomplishes His purpose. I wish this little girl knew of this before she downed the pesticide that took her life. I wish her parents were grounded in scripture. I wish her parents knew Jesus – the ultimate accomplishment of God.
But they didn’t and she’s dead.
God is in control. Not man.
My heart goes out to Michael Guglielmucci in so many ways. For the past two years, he has been faking a terminal illness, written a top selling song about belief in God to heal him, and living in internal shame as he did this all to cover up his addiction to porn.
When I first heard about his deception, I was outraged. Mainly because of the pathetic testimony his life has on the Kingdom of Jesus on earth. An unbelieving world doesn’t need much to condemn what we believe in as crap. And his lies made us all look like a bunch of fools.
But if we think that we are immune to such depravity for a single second, we are deceiving ourselves. As people who have decided to follow Jesus, we also inherit an enemy hell bent to destroy our salvation and joy in our King.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
Mike was snared into this trap because of his addiction to porn. Something I was a vulnerable to for a long time. And the enemy of his soul pounced on this opportunity and kept him in bondage and deception for over two years.
I can only imagine the inner turmoil Mike felt as he fronted up to large gatherings and spoke of his battle with his “fake cancer.” The demons he endured during this time is beyond me to comprehend. But God in His mercy, wanted to free Mike from this battle and made him pay the ultimate consequence and inspired him to come clean. In doing so, He shattered Mike to his core.
Now instead of outrage, I am humbled by the discipline our Father dishes out to His children. I’m a dad and sometimes I need to be cruel to be kind. This shatters my heart as I see my kids crumble under an authority they have no capacity to understand – nor understand why.
But as a father, I have the “bigger picture” in mind and am willing to endure the hardship of hurting my kids feelings in order to teach them valuable life lessons. In a much bigger way, our Father does this to us in order to bring out the best in us:
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…
…but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Heb 12:5b-6, 12:10-11
Right now, Mike is feeling the discipline of his Father. Because he was such a public figure, his discipline is being played out in a public way. And this must cut him to the core.
But in the end, it will yeild the “peacful fruit of righteousness” – Mike’s torment will end – eventually. So in the mean time, who am I to judge him? God’s Kingdom is way too big to be thwarted by the actions of a son in discipline. And what discipline it is! Check out this video to see his lies confessed to all…
Like I said, my heart feels for the guy. He knows how massively he has screwed up – and he is paying the consequences right now and is being crushed by the discipline of his Father. As I think about these things, I can only hope that I don’t find myself in a situation where I am also disciplined by my Father.
It’s times like this where the words of Paul ring true:
“..work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Phil 12:12b-13
I feel a kinship to Mike as I, and you, are equally as vulnerable to our enemy’s attack. I pray that Mike repents and is restored. And I pray that I and you don’t ever find ourselves in his shoes. And my “outrage” has been subdued by the fact that the Kingdom will easily absorb this event. Jesus is in control.
Getting a message across to an audience is a tough thing. “One on one” is hard enough – but try doing it front of many and things really get frustrating. What I find the most difficult when I’m asked to share a message at Church is to compress what’s best defined as a “3D thought into a 1D sentence.”
When I “think” about things, it’s very much a “given this,” “then that,” “in spite of” and “because of” – all rolled into a single line of thought. But try communicating this in a 1D sentence, and much of what you are trying to communicate is lost on your listeners.
That’s why I take my hat off to master story tellers who are able to articulate the thinking behind a sentence and do it in a way which captivates the attention of the listener. For those of you that know me, you know that I’m talking about Mark Driscoll as a prime example.
I love this guys preaching style. Not only is he a crack up, but he holds onto a very strict interpretation of Scripture and upholds the integrity of it rather then wanting to rip it apart. But he does all this in a way that grabs your attention and leaves you wanting for more. Perhaps this is the reason why the Church he Pastors is accustomed to listening to him speak for more then an hour as the norm.
For those who haven’t heard him speak, below is a 2 minute grab from one of his recent sermons. I overlayed it on some music to give it a bit of effect. But have a listen to how this guy tells the story. And remember that this little snippet was just part of an introduction – very mild compared to what he says later on.
Have a listen and tell me what you think…
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My highly anticipated event at the Sydney Entertainment Centre has come and gone. Mark Driscoll’s “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” event was a sellout with 10,000 people treated to typical “Driscollonian” brilliance.
To say that he was funny is the understatement of the year. He had the crowd in tears on several occasions with his take on Australian, and particularly Sydney, culture. Curiously I did see some people walk out early in the piece – most probably thinking that Driscoll was all comedy and no substance. Their loss!
And as you can see from the photo, I did get to shake the man’s hand after the event as he stayed back and had a chat and prayer with anyone keen to meet up with him. I’m the tall guy on the left and my mate and Pastor is on the right. When we told him we drove up from Melbourne, he was blown away by how far we’d driven – he has done his homework on Australia!
Not since Billy Graham back in 1975 have 10,000 people packed the arena to talk about Jesus! Driscoll has been likened by some to be the modern day Spurgeon and now he seems to be on par on what Billy G was able to achieve!
But instead of elevating him to superstar status and worship him as an idol (and heaven knows how hard some can fall – check out this story on Mike Guglielmuci), I simply take my hat off to a guy sold out on the message of Jesus and the advancement of His Kingdom.
I’ve been listening to Driscoll for 2 years to the day of the event and have seen him grow in maturity, influence and impact as he follows his calling as founding Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Additionally his work in the church planting movement Acts29 and ministry in The Resurgence and various high profile connections with some of the leading theologians of our time, has elevated Driscoll to monumental “influential” status in Christianity and indeed the world – being recently included in Seattle’s Top 25 most influential people (and this in the city of Microsoft, Starbucks and Kurt Cobain!)
But push all that stuff aside and you have a guy sold out to his hero – Jesus Christ. The “Burn Your Plastic Jesus” event was designed to destroy the false views of Jesus held by Sydneysiders (a bunch of Australians inferior to Melbournians) and to replace it with a biblically accurate rendition of what Jesus said and did.
Thanks to Dave Miers, here are the 7 plastic Jesus perceptions Driscoll addressed:
It’s my personal opinion that Driscoll held back on his assessment on many of these areas – in particular the Bling Jesus – which stands for “prosperity gospel.” He did mention that Sydney has a likening to “Bling Jesus” in particular referring to a 11% increase in “Bling Jesus” denominations. Anyone who knows Driscoll knows that he can’t stand the “prosperity gospel” and undoubtedly he was referring to Hillsong and like minded denominations. But as a guest to our shores – he held back. Which was kind of strange for him.
But his pictures of the various “jesus” stereotypes and his explanations had everyone laughing – except for those who held onto these views. I was blown away at how much he understood our culture as he went through these stereotypes.
He then took a few mobile phone Q & A’s before nailing what Jesus said and did. In particular, he addressed the following areas:
These are taken out of his book Vintage Jesus and in his explanations, he trashed the plastic views. Personally I felt as if he rushed this area a little and would have loved to see him rip into the Revelation 19 rendition on the reality of our Glorified King – as was printed on our booklets. His teaching in this area is some of the best bible teaching I have ever heard!
But by this stage, he had been talking for a good 1.5 hours and to an unaccustomed crowd to long teaching, this may have been a little tiring. Additionally like a good guest, I think Driscoll didn’t want to come across too strong in his views as this was his first visit here.
Having a chat with him after the event, he mentioned that he plans to hold an Acts29 bootcamp in 16-18 months time and is meeting up with John Piper and Matt Chandler next month to convince them to come down for the event. Now that would be cool indeed!
Overall an awesome night! Jesus was glorified, Driscoll was funny and the venue was packed! Check out the five minute clip below of some of his teaching including a dig on the Bryon Bay dopers! Like I said, in his 3 weeks here, he nailed our culture to the bone! Truly a missional mindset!
