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Albert Pujols writes about his faith in Christ

Aug 13th, 2009
by GarrettWishall.

I enjoy Albert Pujols. I enjoy his dedication to what he does. I enjoy his attitude and demeanor on the field. I enjoy that he does not take steriods. As a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan from a family of Cardinals fans, I really enjoy that he is a St. Louis Cardinal.

I have heard strains about Pujols walk as a Christian, but not a lot of details. I just read some details.

On his website Pujols has posted an article that details his faith in Christ. Here is an excerpt:

My life’s goal is to bring glory to Jesus. My life is not mostly dedicated to the Lord, it is 100% committed to Jesus Christ and His will. God has given me the ability to succeed in the game of baseball. But baseball is not the end; baseball is the means by which my wife, Dee Dee, and I glorify God. Baseball is simply my platform to elevate Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I would also rather be known as a great husband and father than an All-Star baseball player. Perhaps one day I could be honored with an invitation into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. That would certainly be a boyhood dream of mine come true, but it is a far greater honor that one day I will be in heaven with God to enjoy Him forever.

Good stuff. Many athletes evoke the name of God and sometimes Christ following good performances on the field. Some of credit God with their ability to play well. But you sometimes wonder if they have a substantive walk with God that is built on true faith in Christ. Pujols seems to be the real deal. He continues:

How do I know that I will spend eternity with God in heaven? It goes back to the original discussion – Faith. The Bible says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” It is my faith in Jesus Christ’s work in my life that grants me eternal life with God. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s why the mission of this Foundation is “Faith, Family, and Others.” It is because our faith is at the heart of everything we are and everything we do.

Pujols also talks about Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross in his place and lays out a ten-point doctrinal statement of what he and his foundation believe. The doctrinal statement is biblical and orthodox. Pujols also talks about how winning the 2006 World Series was not the high point of that year for him, but instead seeing some of his teammates and friends come to faith in Christ.

Let’s pray for Pujols’ ministry and all those who proclaim the name of Christ, whatever the profession.

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Posted in: Sports.
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An inside scoop on Acts29

Aug 6th, 2009
by GarrettWishall.

In the fall of 2008, Ray Ortlund delivered a series of lectures on the power of preaching at Southern Seminary. I found the talks to be thoughtful, engaging and appropriately urgent, with Ortlund challenging students to be faithful and loving ministers.

Ortlund, 59, serves as pastor of Immanuel Church (PCA) in Nashville, Tenn. The church is affiliated with the Acts29 Network. In a recent blog post, Ortlund gave six reasons that provide an inside perspective on why he is glad to be a part of Acts29. Here are two of the six reasons:

2. I am inspired by the men in A29. They are doctrinally conscientious, risk-taking, hardworking, imaginative, manly, fun. If there are some rough edges, they’ll get knocked off in time. (Proverbs 28:1)

6. I have so much to learn about gospel ministry. I need wisdom to understand and adapt and contextualize with Stott’s “between two worlds” faithfulness. A29 specializes in missional wisdom. In my opinion, this is their greatest strength. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Ortlund holds a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, served as an Old Testament professor of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for nine years and has pastored churches in California, Oregon and Georgia.

And he is in Acts29.

Is this an odd combination? Are these two things — extensive formal, academic theological education and a new, burgeoning church planting network — that can’t go together?

Apparently not, according to Ray Ortlund.

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Posted in: Acts 29.
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Do you preach the Gospel to yourself?

Aug 5th, 2009
by GarrettWishall.

Tim Challies had a helpful post on preaching the gospel to yourself from Jerry Bridges book “Respectable Sins”.

Here is an excerpt:

In his book Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges writes about the important discipline of preaching the gospel to yourself every day. Realizing that many people have heard of this discipline but do not know how to practice it, he provides an overview of how he does so. I found it helpful and trust you will too.

***** (From Bridges)

Since the gospel is only for sinners, I begin each day with the realization that despite my being a saint, I still sin every day in thought, word, deed, and motive. If I am aware of any subtle, or not so subtle, sins in my life, I acknowledge those to God. Even if my conscience is not indicting me for conscious sins, I still acknowledge to God that I have not even come close to loving Him with all my being or loving my neighbor as myself. I repent of those sins, and then I apply specific Scriptures that assure me of God’s forgiveness to those sins I have just confessed.

Bridges goes on, providing several Bible passages to help you preach the gospel to yourself. He then concludes:

Whatever Scriptures we use to assure us of God’s forgiveness, we must realize that whether the passage explicitly states it or not, the only basis for God’s forgiveness is the blood of Christ shed on the cross for us. As the writer of Hebrews said, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (9:22), and the context makes it clear that it is Christ’s blood that provides the objective basis on which God forgives our sins.

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Posted in: Biblical counseling, Gospel.
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How eternal are your pursuits?

Jul 15th, 2009
by GarrettWishall.

Humans are weak, failing, and temporal. The word is strong, abiding, eternal.

Whatever lasting impact John Calvin has had on the church of Jesus Christ, and on the whole world for that matter, is owing to his commitment to understanding and explaining the word of God.

Strive for relevance in your day, and you’ll may make a difference for a few years. Anchor yourself in what is eternal and you may influence the world for another five centuries.

So writes Kevin DeYoung in a blog post on July 10, John Calvin’s birthday, that I was just able to read. DeYoung is the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, where Michigan State University is located (and where I was born!). He is also the author of “Why We’re Not Emergent, by two guys who should be” (co-authored with Ted Kluck) and “Just Do Something, a liberating approach to finding God’s will.”

Deyoung’s post was helpful, refreshing and convicting. In the context of reflecting on the legacy of John Calvin, he challenges people to consider the permanence, or lackthereof, of their pursuits.

This is the paradox of permanence. The only way our lives will ever touch that which is eternal is to admit that our lives are hopelessly temporal.

DeYoung elucidates well this truth that God has been driving home to me: I am a created being and He is the Creator.  I will wither away and die, while He has always been and will always be. And He is a personal God, who took on human flesh, died for sinful men and gives us roles in His kingdom. That should define how we live!

I commend DeYong’s post to you. Here is a final excerpt:

No one will care about your GPA and SAT scores in ten years. If you win a state championship, you’ll be forgotten the next year you don’t. Your beauty will get wrinkles and trim figure plump. Write a great book and it will gather dust in a library some day. Have a big famous church, it won’t last forever. Be an important person in your field, you still be unknown to over 6 billion people in the world. Build an amazing house, it will crumble some day, if it doesn’t go into foreclosure first. All of our achievements and successes are destined to be like dead grass and faded flowers.

But…the word of our God stands forever. The word about Babylon in Isaiah 40 stood firm. and so will his word in our generation. All God’s declarations about himself and his people are true. All his promises will come to pass. Our only confidence is in the word of God. John Calvin was a man, an imperfect, sinful man, but a man that God used enormously because he put his confidence in the word of God.

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Posted in: Wielding the Sword.
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Multi-campus leads to major destruction?

Jul 7th, 2009
by GarrettWishall.

Wowee! The folks at 9Marks know how to stir up a crowd. Jonathan Leeman, editor of the 9Marks ejournal, just published a post on the 9Marks blog speculating about the state of the church in 100 years if the multi-campus phenomenon continues to grow and spread.

While I appreciate Leeman’s concerns, I believe they are a bit over-stated. I am sympathetic to those with concerns about the idea of a multi-campus church, though I am still sorting through my exact approach to the issue, but don’t think it will lead to the kind of destruction Leeman theorizes about in his post.

Here is an excerpt:

Few anticipated how quickly these pragmatic, seemingly inconsequential shifts of polity would corrupt the churches throughout an entire nation. Ninety-six percent of evangelical Christians in America belonged to approximately one hundred multi-campus “churches” by 2030—the franchises swallowing up the mom-and-pop shops. Some of these franchises were originally orthodox. Yet many of them were not, which meant that the wolves now had a mechanism for multiplying their influence exponentially. Furthermore, the orthodox bishops were often replaced within a generation or two by less orthodox successors, in a way that unorthodox bishops are seldom, if ever, replaced by faithful men, simply by virtue of the kinds of trees the unorthodox pastor plants. The cumulative trajectory was downward, then, away from orthodoxy.

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Posted in: Ecclesiology.
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