Life2gether

Hide and Seek from Doug Wolter on Vimeo.

A little game of hide and seek with my son Luke reminded me of these verses that I recently read from the gospel of Luke.  Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21).

The little children in these verses are not referring to actual children but rather to those who know they are helpless like little children and admit they cannot know God unless he reveals Himself to them.  Thus, they come humbly to Jesus utterly dependent on him to open the door to wisdom and salvation.  Along these lines, Spurgeon once wrote:

[Jesus taught] that we are to be nothing, and that the less we are and the weaker we are, the better; for the less we have of self, the more room there is for His divine grace. Do you think you will come to Jesus up the ladder of knowledge? Come down. You will meet Him at the base … He asks nothing of you but that you will be nothing, and that he may be all in all to you.

Charles Spurgeon with some challenging thoughts on children and salvation from his book, Spiritual Parenting:

As soon as a child is capable of being lost, it is capable of being saved.  As soon as a child can sin, that child can, if God’s grace assists it, believe and receive the Word of God.

The opinion that children cannot receive the whole truth of the gospel is a great mistake, for their child’s condition is a help rather than a hindrance.

My friend, Jonathan Dodson, just launched a new website jonathandodson.org heretofore known as Creation Project.  I have learned so much from this man about the gospel, community and mission.  He is the real deal.  I encourage you to bookmark his blog and tell others.

BTW, Jonathan has a great series of posts on How Not to Be a Missional Church at the Resurgence.  You can also check out an interview I had with him over his first book, Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

This is beautiful.  Apparently, Carlos Whittaker was recording a video in a bad part of town when a homeless man named Danny began to spontaneously worship with him. 

(HT: Brent Thomas)

Jonathan Dodson:

The topic of work is all to often absent from church pulpits and Christian conversations. Yet it’s where we spent most of our time apart from our beds. To ignore the Christian perspective on Work is to fail in discipling the church and living on mission.

Here are a few good resources all written by Dodson on this topic:

A nice video here from St. Helen’s Bishopgate in London, which can be shared with unbelievers.  You might want to consider embedding on your own church’s website or blog.

That’s Christmas (Short Film) HD from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

John Piper, from his book, When I Don’t Desire God (free download):

A few days ago I called my eighty-five-year-old father and said, “Daddy, I am writing a book on how to fight for joy.  What one thing comes to your mind from sixty years of ministry as to what Christians could do to increase their joy?”  Almost without hesitation he said, “Share their faith.”  Joy in Christ thrives on being shared.  That is the essence of Christian joy: It overflows or dies (p. 227).

Chris Castaldo writes a helpful post to remind us that evangelism is bringing people one step closer to Jesus Christ this Christmas season.  This sentence stood out:

… we need to view the incremental efforts of seed planting, which we perform in the course of natural relationships, as not only a legitimate form of evangelism but also a critical method among our loved ones.