Cross to Crown Blog

In case you missed the big banner at the top, my new book Exalted: Putting Jesus in His Place is now available. You can read a free preview here. You can buy it at the following locations. (For what it's worth, all royalties will be split between Cross to Crown Ministries and my church.)

Amazon (softcover or Kindle)

iBookstore (iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch)

Barnes & Noble (Nook)

For most of us, life brings seasons of happiness. Some things are just plain fun. My children have it so good that when something is not fun, they wonder what's wrong with the world. When high school gives way to college, we anticipate a great adventure followed by the start of a great career. Then comes love and marriage, then the baby carriage.

But what happens when we can't get into the college we want, when the perfect job persistently eludes, or when the honeymoon romance becomes full moon horror, or when parental utopia is interrupted by the rebel or the infirm? Suddenly, adults begin to wonder what's wrong with the world. It seems like Jesus isn't serving us very well. That, of course, is the problem. We rarely have the guts to say that Jesus exists to serve us, but the assumption lurks around our spleen at times.

The apostle Paul was a man who understood two vital truths: First, he understood that Jesus purchased him with His blood. That meant that Jesus owned Paul. He was Lord over Paul. He was the commander and Paul was the obeyer. Second, he understood both the greatness of his sin and greater grace of his Savior. Jesus gave His life to purchase Paul's. The only reasonable response for Paul was to give his life in thanksgiving, even to the point of giving up his life.

Acts 21:1-14 portrays this vividly. Everywhere Paul went, the people who loved him begged him to avoid going to Jerusalem. They knew that tremendous harm awaited him there. They loved this man who had devoted so much time teaching and exhorting them for the cause of Christ. They couldn't bear the thought of him suffering more. But he couldn't bear the thought of failing Christ in order to avoid pain. That is the difference between Paul and most of us.

As the great hymn declares, love for Jesus demands our soul, our life, our all. If we give it all to Him, then we will serve Him faithfully no matter what He calls us to sacrifice. We won't let fear or friends stop us. Because we love Him, we will follow Him all the way to the cross.

Last summer, my family took a tour of Hoover Dam. The sight was impressive. We were quickly struck by the level of design and engineering skill required to create it. Our tour guide pointed out the most significant elements of the structure and highlighted things we would not want to miss on such a short journey through the dam.

Yearly Bible-reading plans are wonderful tour guides for the Scripture. But just as we did not leave Hoover Dam as experts in hydrology, one does not gain a deep understanding of God's Word by staying at the surface. We need to dig in.

In addition to reading broadly, I encourage you to pick some portions of the Bible for 2012 and determine to own them by the end of the year. Notice I didn't say to buy other books (like commentaries) and own them. I mean study the Bible itself, by yourself, doing everything you can to understand what it teaches before turning to other helps.

If December finds you a newly formed expert in a few biblical books, you will look back on the year with a satisfied smile. More importantly, you will have grown in your love for the Son of God. That's an achievement worth pursuing.

If you've never published a book, you may not realize how much work goes into getting it from digital document to publication. I have enjoyed the process, but there have been many unanticipated details along the way.

One of those details has been deciding on the title. The working title, which originated several years ago when I first conceptualized the book in my head, wasJesus, the Reason for Everything. While it captures the message of the book accurately, some thought it might not capture anyone's attention. So, we went a different direction. Some of the other options on the table were:

A Christ-Obsessed Life: Living in Light of the Cross and Crown of Jesus
A Christ Obsession
Cross to Crown: A Call to Live Intentionally Christ-Obsessed in All Things
Real Christianity
Why God Created: the Reason for Everything

In the end, none of those made the cut. But the creative discussions were fun and educating. I am more appreciative than ever for those who labor in the particulars of making a book ready for public consumption.

If you have any experience with this, I would be interested in hearing about it.

Michael Horton. Introducing Covenant Theology (pp. 20-21). Kindle Edition:

To read Deuteronomy, for example, as if it were timeless principles of blessing and cursing is to confuse this covenant concerning a national, geopolitical entity (i.e., the nation of Israel) with the eternal plan of redemption carried forward in the unconditional divine promise to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ. Again, covenant theology helps enormously in understanding both the continuities and discontinuities as we read Scripture. It helps us to see the basic continuity between the old and new covenants in terms of a single covenant of grace running throughout, as well as the discontinuity within even the Old Testament itself when it comes to the principle of a unilateral divine promise and an arrangement dependent on personal obedience to all that God commands.

Horton is so close to what the Bible actually teaches. But the distance in an unbridgeable gap. The Bible does not say anywhere that there is a "single covenant of grace running throughout." Rather, it says that Jesus runs throughout. All things are summed up and united in Him (Ephesians 1:9-10). God's purpose for history is not covenant, it's Christ.

I'm fond of saying that godliness is not a what, it's a who. I say that because the Bible says that (1 Timothy 3:13-16). Jesus is godliness.

We must not be childish in our thinking about this. Godliness requires action, intentionality, and awareness of God's standard. But it is important not to begin with a check-list of do's and don'ts. Only as Christ is formed in us by His Holy Spirit will we progress in sanctification. And as Christ is formed in us by the Spirit, we most definitely will see progress.

Beginning next Monday, NCST will offer a four-week class on Godliness and Spiritual Disciplines. We will look at how to please Christ in very practical ways, such as life planning and redeeming your time. We will also talk about sin, especially sins of the tongue. We will draw from the OT wisdom of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, as well various NT teaching.

The classes are Monday and Tuesday nights, 5:50-8:20 p.m., February 13 - March 6. If you live near Colorado Springs, you are invited to come. The first two nights are free. For those not pursuing a degree, you can audit for only $100 (and you don't have to do any of the work).

You can register here.

The final chapter of my coming book is entitled Why Did I Write this Book? The four answers are:  

1. Because I needed to read it.
2. Because I couldn't keep it in.
3. Because Christ is life (Col. 3:4)
4. Because you and I must exalt Jesus as King.

The first two are unique to me. But the second pair are true for you and every other human being. Jesus is life. He is the reason for life. He is the purpose for life. He is the goal of life. He is the meaning of life. He is the reason for the snowflakes I see swirling outside my window. He is the meaning of the Don Quixote novel my wife is reading to my children in the other room. He is life, subjectively and objectively, inside and out, created and sustained. Therefore, all who live should live to worship Him.

None of this is new to a believer with any experience of turning Bible pages. But there is a world of difference between knowing it and knowing it. My hope is to help Christians grow in their knowledge of their Life.

Last summer, during a 3-month sabbatical graciously granted by my church, I wrote a book. Its theme and contents had been welling up inside me for several years. In fact, I had tried to write the book on a previous sabbatical, but it wryly eluded me. This time I caught it and secured it to the parchment.

Since finishing the manuscript, I have deliberated about whether to pursue a traditional publisher or aim in another direction. After extensive research, prayer, and several discussions, I decided to publish it with Cross to Crown Ministries, a decision that excites me for two reasons. First, it is gratifying to bring this project near to completion. (Writing a book is pleasure; publishing it is satisfaction.) Second, since we began this ministry, publishing books has been a future desire. It appears that the future is now.

Soon, I'll give you more details on the book itself.