July 21, 2013
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"we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in America" ~ Dalton Thomas @ Ekballo #3
In my last two posts Calvinism & missions? Indeed! Ekballo # 1: TULIP & prayer to the Lord of the harvest and "We're not on Christian cruise ships. We are on battleships." David Sitton @ Ekballo # 2," I blogged on the first two plenary talks given at the Ekballo Midwest Conference, held April 19-20, 2013:
Scott Anderson's talk The Essential Nature of Prayer in the Gospel Mission found here: http://youtu.be/fuA3p5X32sE
David Sitton's talk Propel the Church, Harvest the Nations found here: http://youtu.be/6JBqc29qmkA
Today, I'd like to present the third and final plenary talk, "Martyrdom and the Eternal Purpose of the Church" given by Dalton Thomas.
First off, in case you might be tempted to skip over Dalton Thomas' opening prayer, please don't! As you listen, you'll hear the humble and fiery heart and soul of a young man who loves Jesus and is sober-minded and vigilant, single-eyed for Christ, zealous for God's name, and seeking to bring glory to God. Thomas is 27 years old, and given that I'm over 50, I am supremely blessed and encouraged whenever I see God raising up such men and women in the next generation in this era when so many are at ease and complacent in Zion, a day of cheap grace, lukewarmness, and small things here in the West.
Thomas' main text was Ephesians 3:7-13, but before he gets to the text, he prefaces it with the following words (boldface mine, throughout):
The call to martyrdom is not the exaltation of death over life. It is the exaltation of Christ over all things... It's not the call to seek death, it's the call to seek Jesus. And the more that we find Him, the more that we find He is more valuable than life, and more valuable than what we lose in death. And so, the more we love Him, the more we love our lives less, and the more the task of global missions becomes very easy to lay hold of. I don't think we have a missions problem in America. I don't think we have an evangelism problem in America. I think we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in America.
I can't express my delight at hearing these words; they are so very relevant. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you've heard the steady drumbeat of our need to be rooted in right doctrine.
As Thomas introduces the main Scripture text, he says:This is the text we're gonna look at tonight -- Ephesians chapter 3, which you're probably thinking, "This is not a martyrdom passage." It is.
. . . I do believe this is the most important statement in the Bible about the nature of the Church. Paul uses a phrase that we're gonna to look at tonight, that I think just needs to be contemplated for a couple decades, which is this phrase: "the eternal purpose of God."
Now tonight, before we look at this, you know, it would be interesting, if we passed around a piece of paper to everybody, and a pen, and said, "Write down your definition of the eternal purpose of God. Fold the paper up and send it up here, and we're gonna go through them." Everyone would give good, Biblical answers, Bible verses that stuck. But I found a number of years ago, when the Lord laid hold of me with this passage, I realized is that what I would have written is not even close to what Paul defined as the eternal purpose of God. I think in order for us to rightly reckon and apprehend the call to frontier missions, I think we need to have a perspective on the eternal purpose of God, lest we be disconnected from the center of it all.
As you listen, see how your definition of the eternal purpose of God lines up with the Biblical definition, which the apostle Paul unfolds in Ephesians 3.
WARNING: Be prepared to have your head blown up –– but by that I mean blown up in a good way –– more particularly, to have your theology blown up, to have your understanding of God refined and purified and renewed and expanded –– I only say that because I felt like my own head was blowing up (in a good sense) as I first heard Dalton Thomas in person, and once again as I reviewed my notes on his talk a couple months ago, and then once more as I've relistened to the whole talk again over the past few days...
http://youtu.be/47nP5JAqTxY - Dalton Thomas // Martyrdom and the Eternal Purpose of the Church
Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of truth. We confess we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in the Church in America, as well as in our own souls. How can we know God as we ought, how can we love God as we ought, how can we serve God as we ought, how can we live to God as we ought, how can we die for God as we ought, how can we glorify God as we ought –– unless we know the truth about God? Our adversary, the devil, is a deceiver. He is a liar and the father of lies. He transforms himself into an angel of light. He wants to keep us from knowing the truth and loving the truth. Holy God, be merciful and gracious to us, and pour out Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Apart from Your opening our eyes, we have no genuine spiritual sight of You and of Your truth. Your Word is right and pure and true. As we read, listen to, meditate upon, and study Your Word, sanctify and cleanse us. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological understandings we might be clinging to. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological underpinnings we may be building upon. Lead us into all truth for the sake of Your blessed name, so we might be a delight and a joy to You, and bring praise, honor and glory to You throughout all the earth. Amen.
ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei
[the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the word of God]
Photo credits:
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_Müller_Tagebucheintrag.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V56_D0465_Hollow_dynamite_cartridge_elevation_view.png / PD
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