John Piper on Fundamentalists

20 Reasons I Don’t Take Potshots at Fundamentalists

1. They are humble and respectful and courteous, and even funny (at least the ones I’ve met).
2. They believe in truth.
3. They believe that truth really matters.
4. They believe that the Bible is true — all of it.
5. They know that the Bible calls for some kind of separation from the world.
6. They have backbone and are not prone to compromise principle.
7. They put obedience to Jesus above the approval of man (even though they fall short, like others).
8. They believe in hell and are loving enough to warn people about it.
9. They believe in heaven and sing about how good it will be to go there.
10. Their “social action” is helping the person next door (like Jesus), which doesn’t usually get written up in the newspaper.
11. They tend to raise law-abiding, chaste children, in spite of the fact that Barna says evangelical kids in general don’t have any better track record than non-Christians.
12. They resist trendiness.
13. They don’t think too much is gained by sounding hip.
14. They may not be hip, but they don’t go so far as to drive buggies or insist on typewriters.
15. They still sing hymns.
16. They are not breathless about being accepted in the scholarly guild.
17. They give some contemporary plausibility to the New Testament claim that the church is “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
18. They are good for the rest of evangelicals because of all this.
19. My dad was one.
20. Everybody to my left thinks I am one. And there are a lot of people to my left.

Comment: Yet they take potshots at him

Did Jesus Preach Paul’s Gospel? (Session VI)

Transcript

The universe is meant to make us feel small, to stand in silenced awe

Mars and the Majesty of Christ

Excerpt:

The vastness and beauty of the Milky Way should elicit a response from us. That response should be neither one of pagan nature worship nor greedy utility, but of wonder and awe at Christ Jesus in his infinite vastness and immeasurable beauty. We should likewise marvel at the truth that a God in charge of galactic orbits chooses to live with and in us. We are not adopted into Christ despite our smallness, but indeed on account of it. If the unveiling of Christ was met with a dismissed, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (Jn. 1:46), should we really be surprised that God, at even the cosmic level, chooses what seems insignificant and tiny to display the paradox of the wisdom and power of God in Christ (1 Cor. 1:20-31)?

The universe is meant to make us feel small, to stand in silenced awe. The gospel, though, tells us that we have purpose and meaning, not by our strength or our power, but because we’re hidden in the One who was dead, and is now alive forever, the One for whom every galaxy, seen and unseen, was made as an inheritance.

Comment: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1)

Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ

Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ Excerpt:

Finishing life to the glory of Christ means finishing life in a way that makes Christ look glorious. It means living and dying in a way that shows Christ to be the all-satisfying Treasure that he is

Comment: Perhaps I have posted this before. John Piper's book Rethinking Retirement is a book that I've read multiple times and recommend to all. Follow the link above and download in PDF format. Image source = screen snap from here.  I am definitely in retirement countdown mode - I'm not announcing anything! The terminus ad quem of my retirement is when Kathee turns 65 in April 2016. Since I am already 65 (almost 66), I could retire at any time. I was thinking this morning about the personal economic / paradigm shift of retirement:

• The ancients knew nothing about retirement. They worked and worked and died! This whole "retirement thing" is a new thing. Weird
• What of the Biblical command to work? Adam worked the garden pre-fall (Genesis). The curse among other things is that he would work by the sweat of his brow and labor would be less productive. Think of the rebukes of the lazy and slothful (Proverbs) or the directive "if a man doesn't work, neither shall he eat". 
• So today I labor to live. I've been laboring to live for all of my adult life. I have that Puritan work ethic as part of my DNA. You have to work! You want or need something? Work for it. When I raised support for campus ministry my parents were uncomfortable with that! To them it was wrong to ask for money!
• In retirement, one lives off his capital. Pre-retirement, one lives off his labor. 
• Here's an interesting blog post: Why Your Financial Goal Should Be to Stop Trading Time for Money: So today I am trading time for money. Every day I make XXX and every two weeks I receive a paycheck for that trade off.
• What about working in retirement? I doubt I will need to work (I have a hard time wrapping my brain around that - so imprinted into me is this "I have to work"! What if I found a job that paid $ 15 per hour. Suppose it is something I might even enjoy doing? Is that a good use of my time? (not bragging but I make a multiple of that today).
• Suppose there were an opportunity in a ministry (say a college or a church) to work? Is it sinful to NOT take a wage? What would that be like to be making $ 0 when others are being paid. Would that be demeaning? Would that devalue my labor?
• Finally a Marxist quote (that I disagree with but I find interesting): "Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks." I personally view capital as stored labor (hence the image above). Capital is that which I have earned but not yet spent. 

Boomers, Retirement, and the Lord

Baby boomers long to retire, but can't

Excerpt:

The sad reality is that many members of the baby boom generation are shell-shocked from their recession-related financial losses and have no idea what kind of shape they are in for retirement. The numbers aren't going to add up for them, forcing them to keep working or undergo a drastic change in lifestyle.

"I would love to be able to retire," said Valerie Kindle, 60, one of the 76 million people born from 1946 to 1964. "At this point in time, I can't afford to."

The 2008 recession hit baby boomers right on the brink of retirement age. Kindle, an employment and training specialist for Michigan Works! in Highland Park, said that as painful as it may be, boomers have to take stock of their situation.

HT: Stuff Out Loud

This is a good reminder not to build your life on shifting sands

Comments:

• Nice graphic associated with the article.
  
• I'm one of those "Boomers" (b 1949)
  
• Be sure to read Larry Rogier's comments on the article at the HT!
  
• John Piper has a great article on savings for retirement. Link and excerpt below
  

John Piper: Should I invest for retirement?

Excerpts:

If you get paid once every two weeks, should you give it all away the day you get it and trust God for the other thirteen days? Or would keeping some of it in the bank for thirteen days—because you know a bill is coming in twelve days—be distrusting God for his provision twelve days from now?

That sounds silly, right? But it's not silly: it's an analogy. God ordains that we work for our living and that we use what we earn to pay our bills, whether it's food, clothing, housing, education for our kids, or whatever.

Those bills don't arrive simultaneously with our paycheck, which means that everybody saves if they pay their bills. Everybody does. Some just do it more consciously and briefly than others.

...

Retirement is forced for a lot of people. When you get to sixty-five or seventy you have to step back. Finding another job at age seventy that might support you or your invalid wife is not an easy thing. The way our culture is dealing with that is having you earn your money for the post-working years while you're working. And what do you do with it? You just set it aside.

Why should we assume that the post-working years should be provided for from heaven and the working years should be provided for from labor? I don't assume that.

The way I think about retirement—though I don't believe in "retirement" if you can avoid it—is that you should start doing different things for Jesus. And if you can do them without having to be paid by people because you've set it aside, then that's all the more wonderful.

I think of that like this: I don't want to get rich. I don't want to sit on a pile of money. I just want to be able to survive between the ages of sixty-five and eighty-five. And I'd like to be spent for the kingdom. So if I can have a house and have my bills paid and pour my life out for the kingdom, I would be thrilled.

...

So, all that to say, Put a governor on your life. Make as much as you can, give as much as you can, and save what you need to in order to be a responsible non-borrower. Then do retirement with some minimalistic plan that frees you up for gospel ministry till the day you drop.

A satirical evaluation of Piper kerfuffle

Pied Piper Promotes Pragmatist Pastor

Excerpt:

Folks, maybe now people will wake up. John Piper has invited Satan to one of his Despising God Conferences. Rick Warren. RICK WARREN! Folks, can it get worse? No. It can't. But you know what? Those pseudo-fundamentalists over at pseudo-sharper iron will keep endorsing the man. They'll keep saying good things about him. Some of them, like modern-day Judases, will sneak off to Together for the Lordship Salvation Gospel to go hear their Neo-Evangelical heroes.

Oh, it makes me sick just to think about these men who have crept in unawares.

Comment: Click over to view it!

Retirement math: a simple five-step approach

Do You Have Enough to Retire? Do the Math

List from Wall Street Journal article:

1. Find the target
   
2. Estimate Social Security
   
3. Subtract pensions and other income
   
4. Subtract income from your target
   
5. Multiply the result by 20
   

Why 20 times? It's simple math. You don't want to run out of money, so to be safe you should really save enough to last for several decades. Many of those turning 65 in decent health these days should plan on lasting into their 90s. And when you are retired, you should probably plan on the basis that your investments may only earn 3% a year above inflation, maybe even less.

Investors may earn more, but those in retirement are probably going to want to play it reasonably safe. Based on those assumptions -- they are, I admit, conservative -- you will need to save about 20 times the annual income you need your savings to generate. Those who want to be even more secure could save 25 times.

Comment: Article has a simple worksheet. As for me I know that no true servant of God truly retires .... just has different opportunities. I haven't sorted out the whole "will I be able to fully retire?" question.

John Piper has some good thoughts on retirement:

Should I invest for retirement?

I want to bless those who lean away from big fat retirement accounts and big fat savings accounts. I want to bless the leaning away from those things and towards generosity and immediate-need-meeting.

The reason I don't think we can paint with a broad brush here and say that all savings and all investments are wrong is that it becomes extremely difficult to draw the line as to what is saving for the future and what is spending on a present need.

If you get paid once every two weeks, should you give it all away the day you get it and trust God for the other thirteen days? Or would keeping some of it in the bank for thirteen days—because you know a bill is coming in twelve days—be distrusting God for his provision twelve days from now?

That sounds silly, right? But it's not silly: it's an analogy. God ordains that we work for our living and that we use what we earn to pay our bills, whether it's food, clothing, housing, education for our kids, or whatever.

Those bills don't arrive simultaneously with our paycheck, which means that everybody saves if they pay their bills. Everybody does. Some just do it more consciously and briefly than others.

Then the question becomes, "Should you save for the replacement of your car?"

Suppose you're a traveling salesman and you have to have a car. You know this car: you bought it when it was eight years old with 80,000 miles on it. You've had it for seven years and it's starting to have problems. Should you put any money away? Should you have been putting money away? Or should you borrow?

Some may think it's just stupid to borrow for a car, but if you don't borrow for one then you've got to save for it! There's no other way! And so now you're in to a seven-year savings plan for a car. But why not trust God to give you a car? Now he very well might, and I wouldn't kick anybody out of my church for saying that they don't save for cars but trust God to give them to them, but that's just not the way the Bible demands that you do it.

Now just unpack that analogy into the retirement situation of our culture.

Retirement is forced for a lot of people. When you get to sixty-five or seventy you have to step back. Finding another job at age seventy that might support you or your invalid wife is not an easy thing. The way our culture is dealing with that is having you earn your money for the post-working years while you're working. And what do you do with it? You just set it aside.

Why should we assume that the post-working years should be provided for from heaven and the working years should be provided for from labor? I don't assume that.

The way I think about retirement—though I don't believe in "retirement" if you can avoid it—is that you should start doing different things for Jesus. And if you can do them without having to be paid by people because you've set it aside, then that's all the more wonderful.

I think of that like this: I don't want to get rich. I don't want to sit on a pile of money. I just want to be able to survive between the ages of sixty-five and eighty-five. And I'd like to be spent for the kingdom. So if I can have a house and have my bills paid and pour my life out for the kingdom, I would be thrilled.

Laying up treasures for yourself on earth is reflected in the man who built the barns. He had many goods. "What shall I do with them?" he said. "I'll build more barns." But he didn't need all those barns. He said, "I will eat, drink, and be merry." He shouldn't have been eating and drinking and being merry, he should have been using his money strategically to meet needs. But he was just cavalier about having all this money.

So it is the indifference to needs and the storing up of way more than you need that comes under the accusation of laying up for yourselves treasures on earth.

People are going to call this differently from family to family and person to person. I, for one, labor not to maximize my retirement. My employer here, Bethlehem Baptist Church, is constantly creating ways for us to maximize our retirement, because they (our financial guys) think that a lot of pastors here are not preparing for their families well.

I look at some of those things such as the option to contribute three-percent more to retirement savings and have it matched. But I don't do it, because I look at what I'm putting away and say, "That's enough!" I've got Social Security that I've been paying the government for all these years, and I've got this little retirement plan that I started when I joined the Baptist General Conference. I could put away more, but I look at what I have already and say, "That'll do. That'll bring in enough to live on."

I don't want to be an all-or-nothing type person here. I want people to think soberly and maximize their generosity.

I hardly put anything away for cars either, because we always get used cars. But I know it's stupid to not put some money away, because when trouble arrives I'm always scrambling to find a way to take care of the refrigerator that's broken or the car that's having issues. And I don't think it's an honor to my wife to be careless about that.

So, all that to say, Put a governor on your life. Make as much as you can, give as much as you can, and save what you need to in order to be a responsible non-borrower. Then do retirement with some minimalistic plan that frees you up for gospel ministry till the day you drop.

21st Century John the Baptist

Comment: I appreciate John Piper!

Proud people don't say thanks

3 Truths to Induce Thanksgiving

Excerpt:

Proud people can't be grateful. So here are three very humbling truths for the sake of your thankfulness.

1. Nature teaches us that an infinitely marvelous, eternally powerful being created us and all we have. Therefore we are his creatures. He owns us. Our life, our breath, and everything we have is a gift. Our duty is simply to be thankful to him from our heart and to cherish his glory.
   
2. All of us have fallen short of this duty. We have not consistently prized the diamond of God's glory with an affection anywhere near its value. Instead, we've exchanged it again and again for the cracked marbles that in our great "wisdom" we have determined are more valuable.
   
3. God, in his great mercy, sent his Son to suffer the judgment of people who are broken and contrite in spirit and who trust in him.
   

Proud people don't say thanks, but people who believe these three truths do. We are utterly dependent; we are depraved sinners; and we are redeemed and forgiven through contrite faith.

If this penetrates our hearts today, we will be emptied of pride and filled with thankfulness to God.

Comment: My heart is burdened today by the violence in Mumbai. I'm thankful for a sovereign God who sent His Son, my Savior!

A John Piper book I am awaiting

Update on John Piper's Writing Leave

Excerpt:

Here's a list of forthcoming books, some of which he is working on during this leave.

1. History’s Most Spectacular Sin booklet (June, 2008)
   
2. Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ (September, 2008)
   
3. Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of God (September, 2008)
   
4. John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God (January, 2009)
   
5. A book on Marriage (no title or publication date yet)
   
6. A book on Regeneration (no title or publication date yet)
   

Please join us in praying that God would graciously anoint John Piper during this season of communing with God and writing for the joy of all peoples.



Comment: Today K had a Dr's appointment at 7:30 in Wayzata. I waited in the lobby and read yesterday's USA Today (would that be USA Yesterday!?) and a real estate magazine with Minnesota / Wisconsin lake homes for sale. Afterwards we drove downtown and had breakfast at the 100 Washington 4th floor cafeteria. We happened upon my first Wells Fargo (then Norwest) manager, Jeff Williams. Jeff hired me back in 1994 in Greenwood Colorado. We moved to Minneapolis in '96 and Jeff in '97. That first job was one of the most fun jobs I've ever had (too bad it was also one of the lowest paying secular (remember I used to be a pastor, so I understand low pay!) jobs. Jeff is 62 and I am almost 59. The subject of retirement came up (as often happens when folk our age get together). Truthfully I'm not sure if I will make it to retirement. My brother-in-law died back in December. I've had at least 4 co-workers die this year including one who died yesterday. I'm older than all of the co-workers and almost the same age as Tom (B-I-L) so one never knows. I could die (won't be the worst thing .. "absent from the body ... present with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8); "to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21); "what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14)); or Christ could catch me up ("Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17)). But regardless of those possibilities, one has to prepare for (whatever one wants to call it): the time when one is too old, too weak, to feeble to earn a living. I don't like calling that "retirement" but for now I will. I view retirement as the time when one is freed from the corporate world to serve the Lord as one is able. So the Piper book I am looking forward to is Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of God.