Your pastors leave tomorrow for our annual pastors retreat.  Every fall we spend a few days away so that we can focus on praying for the church, studying together, and talking about the direction the church is headed.  We always have a lot of fun together and grow together, too.

Please pray for wisdom, strength, the gifts of fellowship and fun, and the presence of the Spirit with us.  Please pray for our families as well.  I don’t think there is internet access on the retreat, so the blog may be quiet for a few days.

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I’m reading C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. If you’re not familiar with the book, it is a collection of letters to Wormwood, a junior tempter, from Screwtape, Wormwood’s uncle.  Screwtape is a much more experienced demon: in fact, the under-secretary of a department.

Yes, the main characters are both fallen angels, and the Letters are thus a one-sided conversation about how to render Christians ineffective in the Christian life and ultimately woo them to hell. Thus, everything you read is backwards: the Enemy is Jesus, Our Father Below is Satan himself, “the patient” is the Christian to whom Wormwood is assigned to harass.

Lewis was a genius and his book is insightful, witty, and at times even frightful. It is worth reading. I found these words particularly provocative:

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 54.

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D.A. Carson’s explanation of what we learn about love from 1 Corinthians 13 is classic:

“…here are both altruism and self-sacrifice, but Paul can imagine both without love. So love must be something other than, or more than, mere altruism and self-sacrifice.”

“It may be difficult to provide a perfect definition for Christian love. But it is not difficult to find its supreme example. Christ’s love for us is not grounded in out loveliness, but in his own character. His love is not merely sentimental, yet it is charged with incalculable affection and warmth. It is resolute in its self-sacrifice, but never merely mechanical self-discipline. If we wish to come to terms with the apostolic tradition of Christian love as ‘the most excellent way’ that all believers must follow, we need only imitate Jesus Christ.” Carson, For the Love of God, 9/8 entry.

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Parents,

Thursday Thoughts has taken a break for the summer (I have been thinking on Thursdays!), but a recent blog post by Al Mohler is too important to miss.

On Monday, Dr. Mohler reviewed a book called The Death of the Grown Up. The premise:

This much is now clear — Americans are taking a lot longer to grow up. As a matter of fact, this society has developed a period of extended adolescence that is completely without precedent in human history.

Actually, that’s not news. Sociologists and cultural analysts have realized this for some years.  What apparently makes this book unique is a strange corollary:

What Diana West adds to this analysis is her perceptive observation of how older adults now act like adolescents and identify with adolescent culture.

As she explains, “More adults, ages eighteen to forty-nine, watch the Cartoon Network than watch CNN. Readers as old as twenty-five are buying “young adult” fiction written expressly for teens. The average video gamester was eighteen in 1990; now he’s going on thirty.”

This is a disturbing trend, unique in world history:

As West notes, teenagers of an older generation tried to identify with adult culture. Now, the tables are turned. In her words:

That was then. These days, of course, father and son dress more or less alike, from message-emblazoned t-shirts to chunky athletic shoes, both equally at ease in the baggy rumple of eternal summer camp. In the mature male, these trappings of adolescence have become more than a matter of comfort or style; they reveal a state of mind, a reflection of a personality that hasn’t fully developed, and doesn’t want to - or worse, doesn’t know how.

Her look at America’s adults is not very encouraging. She writes about “parents who need parents” and parents who facilitate the misbehavior of their teenage children. Few seem to know what an adult is supposed to look like, or how an adult supposed to act.

Too many parents have assumed that their teen needs them to be a friend and a peer more than a parent. Thus, too many teens don’t really have a parent. Teens need to be challenged to rise to maturity and adulthood rather than be led to the assumption that adolescence is preferable as they watch their parents take on teenage clothing styles, pastimes, and lingo.

I don’t think this problem is common in our church, but we must constantly guard against the insidious creep of culture into our homes and lives. Let us call our kids forward to maturity, teach them maturity, urge them to maturity, and celebrate maturity. May we share with Paul this same urgency and intention in preaching the gospel:

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” Colossians 1:28

Categories: Thursday Thoughts For Parents, five15 blog
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Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you’ve got to love the September drama unfolding at the hands of our beleaguered and beloved Washington Nationals. The New York Mets have led the NL East most of the year, mostly by a wide margin, but have watched that lead dwindle over the last month. Now they hold a precarious one game advantage over the Phillies.

And our Nats have done it to them. Playing the spoilers, the Nationals have risen far beyond the predicted malaise, taking the division-leading Mets in 5 games out of the last 6, outscoring them in this latest series 32 to 19. The Nationals have now improved on last year’s record by at least one win, and are decidedly not in last place of the East (thank you, Marlins!).

If this is gibberish to you, don’t be concerned. All I’m saying is that there is great joy to be had in September if you’re a Nationals fan. We can thank God for this pleasant diversion while we root, root, root for our home team.

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If you missed the last couple nights of Ken Burns’ masterpiece about World War II, I’m pleased to tell you that part 4 of “The War” airs tonight on PBS. 8pm on channel 26 if you have Cox.

Don’t buy the hype: there is no such thing as must-see TV. All of us would be just fine if TV ceased to exist tomorrow. But if you are going to watch TV, this is the sort of thing to watch. To spend a couple hours getting a historical perspective and gaining appreciation for the sacrifices that an entire generation of men and women made to protect our freedom and win the freedom of others is time well spent.

You’ll know where to find me in about an hour.

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I love Crossway books for three reasons. First, they publish the English Standard Version Bible, my favorite English translation. Second, they publish great books, many of which have become all time favorites.  Finally, if I understand this right, they are one of the only Christian publishers that is not owned by a major secular conglomeration. Let us thank God for Crossway, buy their books, and pray for them.

A pastor named Tony recently published a photo tour of their headquarters. It’s worth checking out.

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Aren’t you glad that sermon cam isn’t permanent? I am. But what if someone followed you around with that camera for a week or a month. Would it be obvious from your thoughts, words, and actions, that you are a Christian? We’re saved by grace alone through faith alone, but your faith is true by looking at what you do. That was the basic idea behind Vince’s message yesterday: the test of obedience. What is a Christian? A Christian obeys the commands of God.

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:1-6

From these verses, Vince helped us see that sin is the obstacle to obedience and Jesus Christ has shown us the way of obedience. We are now called to live as forgiven sinners.

Vince explained that there are some common excuses we give for not obeying:

• “I don’t feel like it.” This is what we say when we focus on our subjective feelings rather than the objective truth of the Word of God.
• “Everyone else is doing it.” This excuse reveals that we have the wrong standard, letting ourselves off the hook because we are looking at others rather than at Jesus.
• “It’s just too hard. I just can’t do it.” Actually, this statement is right, but it can’t be used as an excuse for sin. We need God’s grace and help to obey, so let’s cry out for it in prayer and go get that help from parents and the church.
• “I’m under grace now, I don’t have to obey.” This excuse shows that someone doesn’t understand what grace is or how it works. Through salvation, we’ve been given the power now to obey, not the freedom to disobey.
• “God loves me and wants me to be happy!” OR: “God will forgive me!” That’s only half the truth. Happiness is found in obeying. Forgiveness comes when we repent. Forgiveness is a promise God offers to us, not an excuse for sin.

Vince summed up his message with these words from Martin Luther:

“This life, therefore,
is not righteousness but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished but it is going on.
This is not the end but it is the road;
all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.”

Talk to your parents about this message. Ask them:

• How am I making excuses for my sin? Where do you see me letting myself off the hook?
• Where do I need to obey the commands of God more carefully?
• Confess any areas of sin in which you have not been obeying God.

Categories: Monday Matters, five15 blog
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It’s not often that we can laugh to punctuation, but the August 30 entry from my Eats, Shoots & Leaves calendar cracked me up:

“In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is the daddy and the comma is mummy, and the semicolon quietly practises the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit brother who gets over-excited and breaks things and laughs too loudly.” Lynne Truss

This quote comes courtesy your exclamation mark of a youth pastor.

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Hey five15,
I have great news. We have our first five15 meeting of the year THIS SATURDAY NIGHT, 9/22.

Originally this meeting was scheduled as a not-so-big meeting, intended for high school students at their parents. Because RYE was high school only, I want to change this meeting to be a BIG MEETING, meaning high school AND middle school students (and their parents) are invited.

High school students, we will be splitting up into our discussion groups. Dust off your notes from the five15 Retreat and bring them if you can.

Our schedule has not changed from last year:

• 5:15pm Pizza & Ping Pong. Bring a few books bucks for the eats. Soccer, volleyball, ping-pong, foosball are all going on. Tons of fun.
• 6:30pm Meeting starts. Don’t be late.

Bring a friend and bring your Bible! See you Saturday night.

Categories: Announcements, five15 blog
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