Trevin Wax was a very creative and well written post entitled, "How I Wish the Homosexuality Debate Would Go". He writes:

Just once, I’d like to see a TV interview go more like this...

It would be very useful for many of us to memorize these responses. So helpful.

This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

Lost from AsiaLink HistoryMaker on Vimeo. (HT: Mark and Maki)

Community: Taking Your Small Group off Life Support from Crossway on Vimeo.

This is a must-watch video.

Jerry Bridges:

Evangelicals commonly think today that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Once we’re inside the kingdom’s door, we need the gospel only in order to share it with those who are still outside. Now, as believers, we need to hear the message of discipleship. We need to learn how to live the Christian life and be challenged to go do it. That’s what I believed and practiced in my life and ministry for some time. It is what most Christians seem to believe.

As I see it, the Christian community is largely a performance-based culture today. And the more deeply committed we are to following Jesus, the more deeply ingrained the performance mindset is. We think we earn God’s blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life.

Most Christians have a baseline of acceptable performance by which they gauge their acceptance by God. For many, this baseline is no more than regular church attendance and the avoidance of major sins. Such Christians are often characterized by some degree of self-righteousness. After all, they don’t indulge in the major sins we see happening around us. Such Christians would not think they need the gospel anymore. They would say the gospel is only for sinners.

For committed Christians, the baseline is much higher. It includes regular practice of spiritual disciplines, obedience to God’s Word, and involvement in some form of ministry. Here again, if we focus on outward behavior, many score fairly well. But these Christians are even more vulnerable to self-righteousness, for they can look down their spiritual noses not only at the sinful society around them but even at other believers who are not as committed as they are. These Christians don’t need the gospel either. For them, Christian growth means more discipline and more commitment.

Then there is a third group. The baseline of this group includes more than the outward performance of disciplines, obedience, and ministry. These Christians also recognize the need to deal with sins of the heart like a critical spirit, pride, selfishness,envy,resentment, and anxiety. They see their inconsistency in having their quiet times, their failure to witness at every opportunity, and their frequent failures in dealing with sins of the heart. This group of Christians is far more likely to be plagued by a sense of guilt because group members have not met their own expectations. And because they think God’s acceptance of them is based on their performance, they have little joy in their Christian lives. For them, life is like a treadmill on which they keep slipping farther and farther behind. This group needs the gospel, but they don’t realize it is for them. I know, because I was in this group.

Gradually over time, and from a deep sense of need, I came to realize that the gospel is for believers, too. When I finally realized this, every morning I would pray over a Scripture such as Isaiah 53:6,” All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” and then say, “Lord, I have gone astray. I have turned to my own way, but you have laid all my sin on Christ and because of that I approach you and feel accepted by you.”

I came to see that Paul’s statement in Galatians 2:20, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me,” was made in the context of justification (see vv. 15-21). Yet Paul was speaking in the present tense: “The life I now live ….” Because of the context, I realized Paul was not speaking about his sanctification but about his justification. For Paul, then, justification (being declared righteous by God on the basis of the righteousness of Christ) was not only a past-tense experience but also a present-day reality. Paul lived every day by faith in the shed blood and righteousness of Christ. Every day he looked to Christ alone for his acceptance with the Father. He believed, like Peter (see 1 Pet. 2:4-5), that even our best deeds–our spiritual sacrifices–are acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ. Perhaps no one apart from Jesus himself has ever been as committed a disciple both in life and ministry as the Apostle Paul. Yet he did not look to his own performance but to Christ’s “performance” as the sole basis of his acceptance with God.

So I learned that Christians need to hear the gospel all of their lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin-bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God.

Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude. Yet even when we understand that our acceptance with God is based on Christ’s work, we still naturally tend to drift back into a performance mindset. Consequently, we must continually return to the gospel. To use an expression of the late Jack Miller, we must “preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” For me that means I keep going back to Scriptures such as Isaiah 53:6, Galatians 2:20, and Romans 8:1. It means I frequently repeat the words from an old hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

ALBANY - Notorious "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz has no interest in getting out of jail.

Berkowitz said prison is "not a good place" but he has no plans to seek his release because God has already made him a "free man" by forgiving him.

"Jesus Christ has already forgiven and pardoned me," Berkowitz wrote in a recent letter to a Fox News reporter. "He has given me a whole new life, which I do not deserve."

Berkowitz added that "while society will never forgive me, God has."

The famed serial killer is serving six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences at the maximum-security Sullivan Correctional Facility in the Catskills for a string of killings that terrorized the city during the 1970s.

Berkowitz, a former Yonkers resident, has been denied parole five times and has been in prison 34 years.

He is eligible for a sixth parole hearing next year.

"I would do anything if I could go back and change things and have prevented the tragedy from happening," Berkowitz wrote.

How you respond to this story can tell you a lot about your view of God,  sin, and the Gospel. 

Be honest. What was your immediate thought when reading him say, "while society will never forgive me, God has"?

Most honest, for me, it was, a quick thought of, "Really?  Wow.  That is pretty scandalous." 

Exactly.  Quite scandalous.  What this reaction exposes is that I am still in process to believe that my justification is truly by grace through faith.  Completely a work of Jesus' righteousness given to me.  I still like to contribute a little here and there. 

If God can't forgive a serial killer, why should he forgive you?  On what basis? 

Michael Kelley:

As he was closing his sermon on Sunday, my pastor made this wonderful point:

“If you want to know whether you love religion or whether you love the gospel, check and see how angry you are at God.”

Imagine that you are self-employed with very tight financial margins.  Miss a day's work and your competitors get the upper hand.  Miss a day's pay and you wonder if you'll be able to buy groceries. Time is money.

Now consider an agrarian economy.  Here time might mean survival.  Delay planting and you might miss the rain.  Take a day off in the midst of harvest and your produce might over-ripen or even rot.  With these risks in mind, the Sabbath was a big deal.  It was a test, a weekly tutorial for anxious people.  God was saying through it, "I am the Creator God who will care for your needs.  Embedded in the rhythm of your week will be an opportunity to rest.  You will do this because I rested on the Sabbath, and you will do it because I continue to be at work on your behalf on the Sabbath."

Just when your think you are getting the knack of the manna and are not worrying about tomorrow, you are told to trust your heavenly Father for today and tomorrow.  Once again, we can't help but be astonished at God's strategy.  Worry and fear are about danger, perceived needs, and being out of control. By incorporating the Sabbath into the normal rhythms of life he gives us weekly opportunities to say, "You, God, are in control, and I will practice trusting you by honoring your Sabbath and resting today."

- Ed Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest, p. 78