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New Life Staff

I love the “Jesus Storybook Bible”.  After the actual Bible I think it is the most effective tool we have in teaching kids the gospel.  Recently I read a blog from someone who was quoting Sally Lloyd Jones, the author, about why she chose to write this book.  This is the reason I love this book so much!

            “Sometimes I go into a Sunday School and ask two questions of the children, “How many people here think you have to be good for God to love you?” and “How many people here think God will stop loving you if you stop being good?” I wrote this book for the children that put up their hands.

            Unfortunately, quite a few do.  These are not children who don’t know the Bible.  These are children who know their bible stories very well, who could answer all the questions, who go to Sunday school, who are “good”.  But somehow they’re missing the most important thing of all, the true heart, what the Bible is all about.

            The Bible is of course an adult book, so in order to make it accessible to children, by its very nature, as you retell it; you’re going to have to reduce it down.  Unfortunately, the danger is that you reduce it down into moral lessons.  The entire Bible is hammered down into one long lesson on obedience.  Almost like a Bible Aesop’s Fables.  Each story becomes a lesson so you can fix your behavior and be a better person.  Children are then likely to be left with the impression that they must be good for God to love them.  Disastrous and inaccurate.  It’s as if Jesus never came.

            If you lose the greater story of the Bible, the danger is you start thinking that it’s all about you and what you should or shouldn’t be doing.  You can start to think it’s a book of rules to follow (of course there are rules in it and they show us how life works best but if we could save ourselves by following the rules, Jesus never would have had to come); or you can think it’s a book of heroes to copy (clearly that can’t be right though.  So many of the people God uses are not heroes at all-they are broken sinner!)

            But if you see that everything in the Bible is pointing to the greater one, the greater Hero, the greater David, the greater Daniel, the Greater Shepherd, the True King-it transforms everything.  Suddenly, it’s an incredible adventure. A wonderful love story.”

I pray for our children here at NLD, that through our teaching they will not miss the point of the gospel.  I know that as adults we still struggle to understand, but all the more reason to pray for God’s leading in choosing strong gospel centered curriculum, and people who are committed to loving our children into the kingdom.

Every day Kamal gets up to face a day of searching for friends.  He often wonders why Americans, even teenagers, don’t seem to have much time for relationships.  The people who DO have time are other teenagers whose families have also immigrated from places like Albania, or China, or Puerto Rico.  So he usually hangs out with them, and they try to use their basic English to connect with each other.

Kamal’s parents worry about him, that he is getting in with the wrong crowd.  Is he doing drugs and getting into trouble with the law?  In the Middle East they were able to keep tighter controls on him, because they knew the culture and also knew his friends.  But here everything is new, and he doesn’t seem to want to bring his friends home with him. Kamal seems embarrassed by his parents with their heavily accented English and foreign ways.  Kamal wants desperately to fit into American life and not stand out, so he tries to be out of the house as much as he can.  But he does worry that his parents won’t be able to find work…and then he’ll have to start making friends all over again in another part of America!

This is daily reality for many immigrants in NE Philadelphia!  America may be the land of opportunity…but not for them!  There may be 1.5 million people in the city of Philadelphia, but many of the inhabitants of NE Philly get up every morning and go through the day without ever meeting anyone who is even willing to have a conversation with them!  Many immigrants are able to get some support from agencies designed to help them adjust to the US.  But where can they go for friendship, especially with native English speakers, the most valuable asset to have in a new country?!

NE Community Church, formerly New Life NE, is re-launching among this immigrant population.  Their vision is ”to bring the peoples of the nations of NE Philadelphia into a living, loving, and lasting relationship with the Lord of the nations and His people through a ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed.”  They are offering the longed-for friendships that so many in NE Philly are starving to have, relationship with native speakers, yes, but more importantly, relationship with the Lord of the nations, who knows and understands them more intimately than they know themselves!  Their word and deed ministry includes English classes 3x a week, citizenship classes, American holiday celebrations, and beginning Sept. 19^th monthly worship services, one in English, one in Albanian, and one in Chinese!

We at New Life Dresher have many valuable resources with which to help our partners in ministry in the NE.   We have native English speakers who can help with the teaching load of the English classes!  We have families who could “adopt” an immigrant family at holiday seasons!  We have Kingdom Builders who could help with building projects of this new church!  We have businessmen who could help provide jobs for immigrants or even start new businesses in NE Philly!

The Lord has brought the world to us!  NLD will always be sending missionaries overseas, but we have opportunities HERE to reach the world without even leaving the US!  How will we respond as a church?  How will YOU respond?

Being there raised the obvious question for me: “Why should we go to hard places?” We naturally prefer things that are easy, painless and comfortable. Why would anyone choose to bring more pain into his or her life? We have enough pain already, don’t we?

Witnessing the faith, hope, and joy of our friends reminded me why we go to hard places. Though our friends face unique challenges and trials because of where they live and how they are serving the Lord, I was encouraged by their faith in Christ and the evident grace that he gives them.

So, why do we go to hard places? Three things stand out as I reflect on our trip.

1. We go because Christ’s love compels us. I was struck by the internal motivation of our friends on this trip. They want to be there even though it is a hard place. They are not there out of a sense of duty. Christ has given them a desire to be salt and light in that place. He has given them a genuine love for their neighbors and their culture. What they have received from Jesus they want to share with others.

2. We go because Christ is at work in those places. Despite resistance, obstacles and opposition, King Jesus is changing lives in those places. I think of what the Lord said to Paul in Acts 18. “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent . . . because I have many people in this city.” That’s what motivates our friends to keep on serving. Christ is at work; he is changing lives, he is bringing people to faith.

3. We go because we have confidence that Christ will be with us in the hardest times. The battle is intense and some days are very hard for our friends. But they are very aware of God’s grace sustaining them during the hardest times. They would rather endure hardship with the Lord’s help than know comfort and ease without him. The Lord stands at their side and gives them strength (2 Tim. 4:17).

We are all called to go hard places for the Lord—some of those places are geographic and cultural, like our friends overseas. But for most of us, the hard places are found in relationships and circumstances here in America. The points above apply to those hard places as well. Rather than avoiding the hard places, may we pursue them with hope and confidence in the Lord.

At the end of the film, Chauvalin muses on his future on security council because of the Scarlet Pimpernel’s “primitive sense of Noblesse Oblige.”  The hero responds with the pointed quip, “Primitive!  My dear Chauvalin, I shall take it any day over your new order.” This new order is the order of the French Revolution, where everyone is under the reign of terror in the name of  the “Republic”. 

 The Oxford English Dictionary (via Wikipedia) says that Noblesse Oblige ”suggests noble ancestry constrains to honourable behavior; privilege entails to responsibility”. We have lost this notion  in much of our Western Society, and have replaced it with a sense of entitlement.  Privilege is, now, an excuse to enjoy more stuff and we never have to endure anything or fight for anything.  This leads us into a sense of apathy and boredom.  There is no great fight to fight or cause to give our lives to, so we become consumers crying “here we are now entertain us!”

But the code of the Scarlet Pimpernel reveals my desire for a code.  A code is simply being a way of living that orders my life and calls me to responsiblity and nobility.  This code is the Gospel.  The message is entrusted to me that Jesus Christ died, was raised, and enthroned as King of the World.  This message is also a code of conduct because I am not my own, but belong to my King.  His mission is that everyone would know that his blessings would be made known “as far as the curse is found”.  I, as a loyal subject, must always enter into that message for myself by dying and trusting God to raise me up or at least raise up the cause of His Kingdom.  By not fearing death, I can truly live risking everything without caring how people or history see me.

The Scarlet Pimpernel pretends to be a silly fool so that he can be brave.  Why? Because of a code.  Am I willing to do the same for my ‘primative’ Gospel?  When I do, I find more joy, more love, and more life that I have ever desired.  This is the antidote to the cynicism, the boredom, and the apathy of Post-Modern life. Come and join the League of the Risen King.

The Church is a work in progress, but a glorious work in progress.  What we will be is greater than what we are, but we are greater than what we were. We are sainted sinners, being both depraved and loved.  Being the Church of Jesus Christ is about becoming as well.  We are already in Christ by his power displayed through faith by the Spirit.  But we are also not yet what we shall be in Christ.  This is what Baptism communicates as a sacrament.  We are in Him, but we are becoming Him as well.

I often think of Shakespeare’s Henry the V Act 4 Scene 3 on this topic.  At Agincourt, Harry the King inspires his exhausted troops who are outnumbered 5 to 1 to action.  He does this with the great St. Crispin’s Day speech.  In this speech, he calls his troops his Brothers.  For a peasant Englishman to be called a brother of the King is radically generous.  But Henry V tells them that this Battle of Agincourt will “gentle” their station or condition in life.  They become a Band of Brothers because they fight together.   He says all of this before the battle, before the glory.  Now we, in the future, see that those soldiers do share in King Harry’s glory, but it was only through the battle, through the fight that they share in that glory.

We, here at New Life, are ordinary.  We do not live up to the titles given to us by Christ.  This is why we can always be guilty of hypocrisy, but we share in a glory.  It is the glory of the one who conquered Death and gives Life to our dying bodies.  This glory is extraordinary.  It shines through the battle as we fight together against the Darkness and Death that live in our hearts and in our world.  Through that glory, we are becoming extra-ordinary. We few, We happy few, We band of brothers.

Enjoy the speech from Henry V (Full Script of scene)

~ Jerry Fourroux

My sister-in-law, Charis, got quite the surprise on our trip to Williamsburg, VA.  In the midst of a lively orchard, her boyfriend, Gus, dropped to one knee and popped the question.   It was an exciting time, and all the magic and hope of a life spent together brought joy to all of us who witnessed it.  Of course, now begins the planning and hysteria of an actual wedding. I am grateful to my future brother-in-law. Gus made a wonderful gesture to us by including Charis’ family. 

Some buy into the myth that marriage is just about two people who fall in love, so there is no room for other people.  In fact most of Western literature loves the story of Pyramus and Thisbe or its modern incarnation, Romeo and Juliet. The story of ’star-crossed lovers’ whose love is stronger than their family’s hostilities. Of course, today we do not have too many feuding families, but our families and communities, it is said, “just do not understand.”    Then, when marriage gets tough, and it always does because two selfish sinners are living together, there is no one to walk together with them.

We must not keep our marriages on an island.  We must let others in on our conflicts, difficulties, and struggles.  That may seem intimidating because we know most of the problems arise from our pride and selfishness.  But again, it is in the light of Community & the light of Scripture that the light of the Spirit changes us.  This is why weddings are done in churches.  It is the church who witnesses the vows and will hold the couple accountable to their vows. 

I was reading a friend’s blog recently who spoke of a Wendell Berry quote at a wedding.  It is from one of my favorite books Sex, Economy, Community, and Freedom.  This quote summarizes the vital importance that community plays in the survival and flourishing of a marriage.

Lovers must not, like usurers, live for themselves alone.  They must finally turn their gaze at one another back toward the community.  If they had only themselves to considers, lovers would not need to marry, but they must think of others and of other things.  They say their vows to the community as much as to one another, and the community gathers around them to hear and to wish them well, on their behalf and on its own.  It gathers around them because it understands how necessary, how joyful, and how fearful this joining is.  These lovers, pledging themselves to one another “until death,” are giving themselves away, and they are joined by this as no law or contract could ever join them.  Lovers, then, “die” into their union with one another as a soul “dies” into its union with God.  And so, here, at the very heart of community life, we find not something to sell as in the public market but this momentous giving.  If the community cannot protect this giving, it can protect nothing—and our time is proving that this is so.

We must protect marriage as a community.  Therefore, at New Life, our marriage vows are a public event, and our goal is transparency.  Then, the grace of God flows deeply to the lowest place in our hearts growing us into the full maturity of Christ our Head.

~ Jerry Fourroux

Malik plays the song often.  He is about 13 so I do not think he heard the song ever performed.  I suddenly realized he is playing a song that he heard July 2009 at Michael Jackson’s funeral.  John Mayer performed a guitar rendition of Human Nature, the same song Malik plays.  Here, I thought Malik was playing an old song, but in reality he is enjoying the new expression of the old song.  In fact, a whole generation has relearned Michael Jackson’s music after his death. Those old songs have become new again for the new generation.

Just like an old song that becomes stale, we often in the Christian life hear the same old truth having a “been there, done that” attitude with it.  It is still the vibrant transforming truth of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, but we grow weak to hear with the same life.  We need a new way to hear music of the Gospel.  The cliches and stories can become yesterday’s Manna.  We need fresh bread from heaven.  We must make the Gospel new to our cold hearts. 

Our imaginations must be encountered by the cool fresh water of Jesus’ love and righteousness. Our sin festers a numbness of heart, but  we seek to make the Gospel new again.  A friend’s kind encouragement through a verse, a prayer prayed, a song sung, a bread eaten, a wine savored, and a verse preached are all ways the Holy Spirit makes the Gospel new again.  We have not finished theology, because theology is not finished with us.  There is more to write, more to preach, and more to savor. God wants his divine love to be expressed to our hearts in new ways in every suffering, every conflict, and every confessed sin.  The Gospel must be made new again in our hearts every day.  We are desperate for it.  You could say its Human Nature.

Below is the video of John Mayer’s reinterpretation of Human Nature. .

Even more so, I cannot keep myself from falling either, but this falling is into sin.  Sin is not just doing the bad stuff or being a bad person.  Sin is an alienation from our Creator and a lack of conformity to his Law of freedom.  It is a state of being, not just an act.  The acts of sin remind me of the deeper more sinister truth about the darkness of my soul.

Often, the isolated incidents of sin are falls letting me know that I have yet not learned to walk.  I may feel pain, get angry, and even hurt others in my falls.  But the goal for me spiritually as well as for my son, is to learn how to fall correctly. 

My son needs to learn not to fall head-first.  I need to learn not to fall pride-first.  When I fall pride-first, I think “I cannot believe I did that!”  When I fall grace-first, I think “I cannot believe what wonderful grace is mine in Jesus!” As a human, we will all fall: we will all fail.  God knows this and knows all the darkeness of the human heart.  He sent Jesus not for people to live better, but to fall better. 

Jesus is a soft place to fall.  One of my favorite hymns is “Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners.”  He does not come to make the strong stronger or moral person more moral.  He comes to make weak sinners powerful pictures of his Grace.  It is only when we fall down in Christ that we reflect his love and his patience.  Fall Down in the Grace of Jesus Christ, so that his power would be made perfect in a flawed weak sinner.  Fall grace-first.

This Post about our Purity Weekend is from guest columnist Corby Shields.

Bob: (approaching slowly, looking at ground) “Hey Jim,” (shuffles feet, scratches head), “I been wondering…how do you know if…uh…if, your wife is, you know, likes ‘it’?”

Terri: (dressed provocatively) “What do you mean have I considered why I’m dressing this way? At least the guys are paying attention to me now!”

Joe: “Dude, she wants me. You can see it in her eyes.” (listening) “Man, don’t bring that s**t, it’s her choice to put herself on this website, and I’m not hurting anybody by checking it out.”

Awkward, unsettling, intrusive, unnecessary. These may be some words that come to mind in reading the above snippets of conversations. Without doubt, it is difficult to talk about sex and sexuality. Many of us believe it’s a personal issue, best left alone and behind closed doors.

But what does any of this have to do with Purity?

There is a reason that we believe that these issues are not best left to the written word or behind closed doors but should be discussed and walked through on a continual basis. God’s Word teaches us that our personal sexuality is inextricably linked to two things: our relationship with God and our relationships with others. And these two areas of relationships are always public, no matter how hard we try to hide them.

Sex is powerful, because our view of our sexuality reveals who is at the center of our life. Engaging in pornography and masturbation are not harmless acts. They reveal that personal sexuality is just that, personal. It’s all about me and what pleasure I can get.‘How I dress is my business.’ And that statement just told us who is the central concern in the speaker’s decisions. Dressing to get attention is a dead giveaway of a life devoted to self. ‘I just want someone to pay attention to me.’ ‘I want to be wanted.’ ‘I need to release some tension.’ ‘I feel empowered, in charge, like I never do in my regular life.’ ‘Come on, baby, just this once; I need this. It will be great for our relationship.’ ‘You know I’m happier after we’ve done it.’ Around whom does the universe and all people revolve in these statements?

Life lived for personal gain or pleasure is empty. Satan’s original lie in the garden was that x, y, or z is better than God. God knows, and he has told us again and again, that we will never be happy until we are happy in Him, that only when he is at the center of our lives will we know who we are, that only when all our thoughts and actions revolve around him will we be truly thinking and living.

You see, purity is not just an outward conformity. It’s more than abstinence, turtle necks, internet filters, or the physical acts. Purity, as the Bible defines it, is single-mindedness. Belonging to and serving God in our sexuality is purity.

In summary, this Purity Weekend is not about rules or boundaries primarily. It is about a boundless joy and delight in single-minded, pure-hearted devotion to our True Lover. This joy, this realigning of our universe, is enacted in our every decision and thought. Boys are no longer simply people to give us attention and affection. Women are not objects for our pleasure or domination. Spouses are not just here to meet our needs. These people are brothers and sisters, creatures in the image of the One Who created sex, and are respected and loved as such.

Please make every effort to come this weekend to New Life Dresher’s Purity Weekend. Consider meditating on Romans 6.1-14 as you prepare for this coming weekend.