Cautious Freedom

I’m still not confident of how theologically true his statement was. All I know is that I believed him at the time and it wreaked havoc on me as a fairly new believer. He was a godly man that from all appearances had a godly marriage. I was a college student that had only been a believer for a couple of years and only hoped that someday I could be married to a godly woman.

“It’s not wrong to appreciate beauty. Don’t beat yourself up for ‘just noticing’. It’s that second look that is lust.”

I think I agree with him. And had he said that to me today, I doubt it would have damaged my soul as it did back then. But back then I wasn’t ready for such a “freedom”. I had only been saved a little while and that old habit of objectifying women had not yet been conquered; you could say that I was still haunted by the question.

So I took his advice. And as a hormonally charged sophomore in college I stopped fighting “the look”. I told myself that as long as I didn’t look for too long then it wasn’t a sin. I thought that I could still play the game of measuring women by physical appearance. As you can imagine this re-opened the gates to sin that I thought was conquered.

My brother’s freedom to not beat himself up for ‘just noticing’ had done serious damage to my heart. I was weak. I wasn’t ready for such a freedom. As theologically true as his counsel might have been—it was terrible. My experience was similar to what John Newton explained when he said:

And I have known and conversed with some who I fear have made shipwreck of their profession, who have dated their first decline from imitating others, whom they thought wiser and better than themselves, in such kind of compliances. (Newton On Christian Liberty)

That was me. Thankfully that was me. The Lord rescued me anew from that rebellious way of viewing the world. But it was a painful time that I still deeply regret.

The Freedom Not to Exercise

I’ll cut straight to the point: I’m afraid that my generation is going to kill ourselves and the generations to come because of our supposed freedom. I believe there are many things that we have the right to do because of the work of Christ. But there are many things that we should not exercise our right to do because of the work of Christ in also uniting us to weaker brothers and sisters.

I agree with my freedom-flaunting brothers (was that too harsh?) that we must be careful of legalism. Yes, there are unbiblical fetters that people attempt to put on one another. But I also believe, with Newton, that “when the mind is more enlightened, and we feel a liberty from many fetters we had imposed upon ourselves, we are in danger of verging too far towards the other extreme”.

May the Lord keep us from extremes. May He also cause us to be free to lovingly not exercise our freedoms for the sake of our brothers and sisters. It is my prayer that our generation, the ones before us, and the ones to come will have the wisdom to know when to exercise freedom and when to abstain.

May we be cautious with our freedoms.

Flaunting Our Bacon

Imagine that the apostle Paul has an iPhone with Instagram capabilities. Do you think he would send this out to all of his Jewish friends:

    “Eat this Jews!”

Because of the work of Christ people are now free to eat bacon. Yet, some early Christians had a difficult time making this transition. They grew up thinking that everything that came from a pig was dirty and defiled. In the same way some Gentiles had a difficult time eating food that had been previously offered to idols. Others believed they were free to do anything. 

This was Paul’s response to both:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings.

You can ask several questions of this text and debate them all day. But one thing is clear. The gospel caused Paul to be absolutely “others” focused. It’s the same thing he said in Galatians 5. “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

I don’t see Paul sending an Instagram photo of him eating bacon so as to teach people a theology of freedom. He didn’t flaunt his freedom as a way of showing the supremacy of Christ. In fact truly free people don’t flaunt their freedom, they quietly enjoy it. When you are free—and really living in freedom—you aren’t focused on the freedom itself. In Christ our focus is now on our liberty to truly love and follow Christ and lovingly serve others.

And that’s what has me bothered by much of the behavior of my generation when it comes to Christian freedoms. We pretend like Jesus Christ died to make us free--and then we stick a period on that statement and move on. But there isn’t a period there. There is a comma. Jesus Christ died to make us free so that we can “through love serve one another”.

Listen, the last thing I want to do is give a list of rules. When we are talking about these Christian freedoms I don’t think “right/wrong” is the most helpful question. It’s usually an issue of wisdom and an issue of love. So I propose three questions to ask ourselves about our freedoms:

1. Are you using your freedom to serve yourself or others? How so?
2. Is your identity in Christ or in your “freedom”?
3. Are you free to NOT engage in this freedom?  (Here you need to read this article by Patrick Schreiner which links to this helpful article by Brett McCracken.

There is more to be said on this, but I’ll leave it there for today…

A Healthy, Wealthy, and Prosperous Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed a book that is much needed in our present church climate.  Health, Wealth & Happiness by David Jones and Russell Woodbridge is a great book for explaining the biblical teachings on health, wealth, and prosperity.  It exposes the false claims of prosperity “gospel” teachers and replaces it with a solid biblical theology. 

The good folks at Kregel Publications have agreed to giveaway two copies of this book.  Enter the giveaway for your chance to win one of the two books.  Two winners will be drawn on Friday, August 31st.  And if I have internet access they will be announced on Saturday, September 1st.  (If there is no internet access at the marriage retreat I am helping to lead then it will have to wait until Monday the 3rd. 

Enter below (be patient, sometimes Punchtab is slow to load):

(RSS: You’ll need to click through)

Note To Self: Giveaway Winner Announced

Thanks for all that participated in the Note to Self: Giveaway.  Joe Thorn has written a tremendously helpful book.  A wonderful book that has been won by Bethany Wilhite. 

All you other jokers will have to buy the book yourself. 

Seriously, though, it’s well worth your ten bucks.  Stop crying about not winning the book for free and go buy the book. 

Note to Self: Win a Free Book

A month ago I had the opportunity to read and review Joe Thorn’s book Note to Self.  Yesterday I interviewed Joe and promised to giveaway a copy of his book.  I want to give away one copy of this book to the one that the Lord has chosen before the foundation of the earth—through a random number generator and a Punchtab giveaway.  Perhaps this is you.  Enter to win!

Push to the Final Four Book Giveaway!

Do you like fiction?  Win a copy of Frank Perreti’s new book Illusion.

Are you a fan of Matt Chandler?  He has a new book coming out in April: The Explicit Gospel.  Win a free copy.

 

Want a solid gospel-centered book NOW instead of waiting for Chandler’s?  Did you get excited when you read my review of Note to Self?  Want your own copy for free?  Win a free copy.

Fill out the entry form below and be entered numerous times into the drawing.  The biggest thing that I want to happen is you going to SBC Voices: Blog Madness and voting for Borrowed Light in the Midwest Region.  If you have already voted then I’m asking you to go the extra mile and share the SBC Voices page with your friends on Facebook and encourage them to vote for Borrowed Light.  Currently I’m 5 votes away from first place.  I need your help to push into the Final Four.  Once you’ve voted or shared simply leave a comment here letting me know that you voted/shared. 

The winner will get to choose 1 of the above books as his/her prize! 

Win Below:

Borrowed Light Bracket Challenge

You want to win a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon?  Simple.  Win this bracket challenge:

Borrowed Light Bracket

Click the link.  Join the group.  Fill out a bracket (only one bracket).  And start praying. 

This year looks to be pretty “chalk”.  Most people are not picking a ton of upsets.  Will you go against the grain and pick another VCU type of run into the final four this year?  Or will it be only 1 or 2 seeds in the Final Four? 

Excellence in Preaching Giveaway

I just reviewed this book and I want to give it away to somebody.

Here are the rules.  I’m not looking to give this away to somebody that just wants to read it for the heck of it or to pad a library.  I want to give this to somebody that is either A) going to give it away to a young pastor that is just beginning to get started in preaching or B) a young pastor that convinces me that he needs it C) an older pastor that thinks his preaching may need some help. and this might be used by God to do it. 

So here is how you win this book.  Read the review and then be the first one that meets one of those criteria.  You can either leave a comment here, there, or simply email me at

         mike AT fbjasper DOT org

First come first serve! 

FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY*** Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos

Yesterday, I reviewed Night of the Living Dead Christian.  If that looks like a book that you would enjoy then fill out below for your chance to enter.  Deadline to enter is Wednesday, December 21, 2011.  Drawing will be December 22nd. 

(Sometimes punchtab is a little slow to load so if it doesn’t load right away be patient)

Muscular Faith Giveaway

I just reviewed this book and I want to give it away to somebody.

Here are the rules.  I’m not looking to give this away to somebody that just wants to read it for the heck of it or to pad a library.  I want to give this to somebody that is either A) going to give it away to somebody that needs it or B) convinces me that they need it. 

So here is how you win this book.  Read the review and then be the first one that meets one of those criteria.  You can either leave a comment here or simply email me at

         mike AT fbjasper DOT org

First come first serve.

Get a Life Giveaway Winner!!!

Congratulations to Terry Felton who has won our get a life giveaway.  Terry, you should have gotten a an email explaining how to claim your books.  For all the rest of you losers non-winners, be sure to subscribe to Borrowed Light.  I have a giveaway about every month, so perhaps in the future you can totally redeem yourself. 

GET A LIFE…Free Book Giveaway

Actually it’s not only one life that you can get…Attic Books (a division of New Leaf Publishing) has graciously agreed to give away all 5 volumes of their Life of Series.  That includes the Life of Martin Luther, Andrew Jackson, John Knox, John Newton, and George Washington.

 
                 

It would cost well over 50 bucks to buy all 5 of these but they can be yours for free.  Enter the giveaway below and you could win.  UPDATE: Contest will end on the evening of Wednesday, July 6th.  Winner will be announced Thursday the 7th!



*RSS Readers may need to click through.  Also, sometimes PunchTab is a little slow at loading so if looks blank on your post wait a few seconds and it should load.

Crossway-Giveaway Winner Announced!

Thanks to his twitter referral Mr. Ryan Lake has won the first semi-annual Crossway Giveaway.  Ryan has won 4 excellent books from Crossway.  If you did not win I encourage you to add this website to what ever feed reader you use.  We will be having giveaway’s every month.  So stay tuned.

CONGRATS RYAN! 

Super Awesome Semi-Annual Crossway Giveaway

I like to give away books every month or so.  This month I will be giving away four super awesome books from Crossway.

1. A Quest for Godliness:
 
This first is one that I read awhile back and reviewed.  It has now been updated and revised with a much more appealing cover.



2. Tempted and Tried:

This book blew me away.  Perhaps the best book every published by Crossway and that is certainly saying something.  I reviewed this one a few weeks back.



3. Bringing the Gospel Home:

I am currently reading this book, and I should have it finished in a week or so.  It is a very helpful guide to sharing the gospel with family members and those closest to you.  Certainly, we all have a beloved unbeliever in our family or in our circle of close friends.  This book will help in bringing the gospel to them.



4. Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time

I regret to say that I have not started reading this book yet, but I know that if it is from the pen of Elyse Fitzpatrick it is going to be solid and helpful.



Fill out this form and you can have up to four chances to win: **The script is a little slow for some reason, so be patient and it will load. RSS readers may need to click through.

Free Book Winner

  OR

There were not nearly as many people sign up for this as I thought.  But that is good news for our winner…

DENISE BANDERMAN!!!

Denise, pick your book and give me your new address via facebook message and I’ll ship you out the book of your choice. 

Take a Bribe, Win a Free Book

  OR
I am not above bribing you.  If you vote for me I will enter you in a chance to win a free book:  The Expository Genius of John Calvin or a Pre-Ordered copy of Radical Together.  This book is still in its shrink wrap and it can be yours. 

Two ways to win.  First you can go to SBC Voices and place a vote for Borrowed Light in the Southeast division.  Then simply leave a comment letting me know you voted.  

Second way to win is to subscribe to this blog and then leave a comment letting me know you are a subscriber (and what way you subscribe). 

If you do both I will enter your name in the drawing twice.  Winner will be announced on Friday!  If you win tell me which book you want. 

iFaith giveaway

Yesterday I reviewed Daniel Darling’s new book iFaith.  Today I will be giving you an opportunity to win a free copy of that book. 

I will give you three chances to win. 

#1 Comment on this post.

#2 Comment on this post with a link to your blog, twitter account, or Facebook.

#3 Subscribe to this blog and Comment on this post letting me know that you subscribed.

You can do all three and I’ll enter your name in the drawing 3 times.  Entries will be closed this Friday at 11:59 pm and the winner will be announced on Saturday!

Trellis and the Vine Book Winner

Congrats to Adam Pohlman!  He won a copy of Trellis and the Vine.  Even if you did not win you can still purchase this book for only 17.95. 

Adam, email me your mailing address so I can get this excellent book out to you. 

If you did not win, stay tuned, there will be more drawings in the upcoming weeks. 

How to win the “best book on the nature of church ministry”

That is how Mark Dever described The Trellis and the Vine. 

According to this book, Christians are to be disciple-making disciples and pastors are to be trainers. Superb! This book sets out a crucial shift that is needed in the mindset of many pastors. The authors have carefully listened to the Bible. And they've worked on this book. The result is a book that is well-written and well- illustrated, but even more, a book that is full of biblical wisdom and practical advice. This is the best book I've read on the nature of church ministry."

And this book can be yours for absolutely FREE.  You have three chances to win.  If you do the third one your name will be entered three times in the drawing. 

1. Leave a comment with your name
2. Leave a comment with your name and how you subscribe to this blog
3. Leave a comment with your name, how you subscribe to this blog, and a link to this article on your blog.

That’s it.  You have until 11:59 PM Saturday, June 5th.  Winner will be announced on Monday. 

Note: Jeremy has yet to claim his prize from the previous drawing.