Sadly, it has been believed by some Christians that information alone will result in transformation. But the entire point of study is to repent of what grieves the Lord and to be increasingly transformed to be more and more like Jesus. Simply, information must lead to transformation or we have nothing but head knowledge; this is what Paul called the kind of knowledge that “puffs up” with pride rather than increasing our humility and reliance on Jesus.

Jesus told us to obey.

Jesus foresaw this potential problem, and some of His last directives to us include not just teaching people, but teaching them to obey His Word. In Matthew 28:19–20, Jesus says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.

Not only study, but obedience

Elsewhere in Scripture we are told that we should not only study Scripture, but also obey what we learn from it. Speaking of this, Jesus said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28).

In using the word “obedience” I am assuming that there will be some degree of resistance in you because that word has negative connotations for many people. But Jesus repeatedly connects loving Him with obeying Him (e.g., John 14:15, 21, 23–24). In fact, Jesus is emphatic that obedience to Him will flow out of our love for Him. What this does not mean is that we must obey Jesus so that He will love us. Rather, He has loved us by grace apart from anything we have done and as a result we trust Him, which is the essence of faith. It is because Jesus is perfectly good and loves us that we should logically obey Him if we claim to love Him, as evidence of our trust in Him. If we really believe that Jesus is wiser than us, holier than us, kinder than us, more loving than us, and is for us, then it is foolish to disobey Him.

Self-deception

Jesus’ own brother James says it this way, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). We have all likely met someone who had a lot of Bible knowledge but lacked a love for Jesus and obedience to the Bible; oftentimes we discover that they are very deceived people who arrogantly consider themselves spiritually mature when in fact they are not. Such people are by definition hypocrites since they do not obey what they have learned; they are like Satan, who is also deceived in that he is more wise and powerful than Jesus. The Bible records that Satan knows the Bible, but does not love Jesus or obey Him, which explains his unparalleled pride and self-deception.

Don't be a Bible student like Satan.

Because we do not want to be Bible students like Satan, we must always come to our study of Scripture with humility, bending our knee under the authority of Scripture, and with an eagerness to repent as God the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and folly. We must also continually connect all of our biblical study to the person and work of Jesus; He Himself taught that the key to understanding Scripture was to connect it to Him (e.g., Luke 24:27, 44–45; John 5:39).

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we open the Bible to meet with Jesus, repent of sin that causes distance from Jesus, and are filled with the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus, we are able to gladly obey Scripture; thus, we may live like and for Jesus because we live with Jesus according to His Word. Having now studied this, we will be blessed if we obey God’s command to study His word. As Jesus said in John 13:17, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

Books to read.

If you would like to study the spiritual disciplines in greater detail, Donald S. Whitney has written a wonderful book titled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life that would be helpful for you to read. Also helpful are Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, and Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas.

It's very sad that the term "preaching to the choir" is a text book cliche, yet many churches and Christians are still only preaching to the converted. Too many Christians are the cliche, they are only preaching to the choir. These people only talk about Jesus with Jesus people, they only pray when they're at the dinner table, they are only friends with people from church, they never take part in secular events, and always say they'll pray for some one—but almost never do.

Do you only 'preach to the choir'?

Saul Williams is an activist, poet, and musician. He's known for being anti-authoritarian and against "the man" (I don't know if he's a Christian, so don't sign up for his theology class). But his music was recently featured in a Nike commercial—his fans were flabbergasted that he could possibly do work for a corporation.

Watch the Commercial

Williams wrote an open letter explaining his reasoning for selling the rights to the song (there are a couple cuss words—but if you're going to be a missionary to our culture you'll have to deal with a few of those). I found this quote from a 37signals blog post.

William's quote about preaching to the choir.

"I received a lot of questions from some about why I would allow my song ‘List of Demands’ to be used in a Nike campaign. Ironically, half of the people now reading this post never heard of me until that commercial aired. That, indeed, was one of my reasons for allowing it. A small circle of poets and conscious do-gooders are not enough to effect the change necessary to shift our planet in peril. We must enlist people from all walks of life, people not accustomed to questioning the norm, people who may simply want to dance uninterrupted without message or slogan. I see no glory in ‘preaching to the converted’."

The quote that stuck out to me was "I see no glory in ‘preaching to the converted’." and while I certainly see a big point in preaching to Christians still because we're all sinners who need to be convicted by the Word daily... He has a HUGE point. We need to preach the Gospel everywhere—at big corporations and beat poetry clubs, to sports teams and video game nerds, to rock stars and soccer moms, to condo dwelling city people and the homeless guy at the freeway off ramp. Everyone needs to know about Jesus, and that is what the Resurgence is about. It's a movement to equip people to love Jesus and tell the whole world about Him.

1. Have a good Bible.

Every Christian needs a good Bible that they can easily read and enjoy. A translation such as the English Standard Version (ESV), the ESV Study Bible is very well done, or the New International Version (NIV) is preferable as your primary reading Bible, although there are many other translations that are also quite good (e.g., New King James Version, New American Standard Version).

2. Have some good Christian books.

If you want to build a reference library, the first book you should buy is A Commentary and Reference Survey by John Glynn by John Glynn. That book will tell you which other books are the best resources available for in-depth Christian study and anyone who is serious about studying should have a copy of this book.

3. Have some good (free) online study resources.

There are many great websites that can help you do Bible word studies and such for free. Good examples include the following, with the first one built and run by Mars Hill elder, Zack Hubert:

ReGreek specializes in word studies from the Bible 's original languages.
Crosswalk has many translations and Bible study tools.
Bible Gateway has many translations and Bible study tools.
CCEL has most of the major works from Christian history for free and a “Study Bible” feature that pulls up historical church commentary on specified verses.
E Sword has numerous Bible study tools.

4. Have some good Bible software.

If you can afford it, Bible study software provides some amazing resources and companies like Logos Bible Software are worth considering.

5. Have some good websites.

There are many great resources available for free on the web with articles, books, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, and MP3s. The following are some recommendations:

Desiring God is the website featuring a large repository of sermons and articles from my friend, Dr. John Piper.
Covenant Seminary has a “Free Downloads” link on their front page that will enable you to listen to hundreds of hours of their class lectures on many areas of Christian study. I am grateful to my friends at Covenant who have given the church such a gracious gift.
Mars Hill Church is where hundreds of hours of my teaching is available for free and has been the number one podcast on iTunes for religion and spirituality.
carm has good articles on cults, world religions, and apologetical issues.
equip.org has good articles, book reviews, and more, on cults, world religions, and apologetical issues.
www.christianitytoday.com/historyhas some great articles on Christian history and biography.
www.monergism.com has an almost overwhelming number of free articles on nearly every theological issue from a Reformed perspective.

6. Have some good community.

Most of the Bible was written to communities of people and is therefore best studied in community with other Christians. For this reason, getting plugged into a Community Group and/or taking midweek classes in addition to regularly attending a Sunday church service is essential.
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If you have any comments- feel free to go over the the Resurgence Facebook Page and start a new discussion topic.

I have 40 copies of Death by Love to give away in the next couple weeks, and I need some ideas for contests. Join the Resurgence Facebook page, and leave a message in the correct discussion topic with your contest idea (it should be Christ-centered and somehow related to the themes from Death by Love). I'm going to give the people with the top five ideas a free copy of the book. If you haven't seen the Death by Love Site-check it out!

What to Do
1. Join the Resurgence Facebook page.
2. Go to the Death by Love discussion board on the Facebook page.
3. Submit your idea for the next contest.
3. We'll pick the top 5 entries.
4. We'll get your address and send you one copy of Death by Love—hot off the presses.

I got into the office today, and received a giant manilla envelope with two copies of the Total Church. This is a great book, I read it when it was only being published on the other side of the pond. It was helpful in reflection of how I am living in community and on mission—as well it helped me evaluate my goals as a leader in the Church. I think this book has the potential to radically refocus many churches on their mission, community, and the glory of God.

The Two Parts of Total Church

I've written down the chapter titles so that you can get an understanding of how broad this books is. I would recommend it to any pastor to go over with his leadership, for college and seminary students, and even for any Christian to have a better understanding of what a church body is and how to live as part of one.

Gospel and Community in Principle

Why Gospel?
Why Community?

Gospel and Community in Practice

Evangelism
Social Involvement
Church Planting
World Missions
Discipleship and Training
Pastoral Care
Spirituality
Theology
Apologetics
Children and Young People
Success

Total Church Conference

Steve Timmis and Tim Chester recently spoke at the Total Church North America Conference 2008 in San Diego.

Watch the Video Here

In this video Tim Keller is explaining the main ideas of his book, "The Reason for God" at the Google campus in Mountain View, California. Tim is someone who can calmly and knowledgeably share the Gospel with even the smartest most skeptical people.

I was inspired to share this with you because of a conversation I had with two very intelligent non-Christian men about God. They ask me about my Bible when I was sitting in a Starbucks, and it set off an hour long conversation about why Jesus is the world's only hope. Thankfully from listening and reading the teaching of wise Christian men, like Keller and Francis Schaeffer, I was able to answer most of their questions about God. Listen to this talk and read his book—it will be worth it.

Here's a clip that Dave Miers put up on his website from the 10,000 person large Australia event. The event was called Burn Your Plastic Jesus, which as far as I can tell means to get rid of the myths you have about Jesus, and embrace the Jesus of the Bible.

In following Jesus’ command to love God with “all our mind,” the Christian life is supposed to include regular times of study and learning. The goal of such study is to have what Paul called “the mind of Christ” so that we can live the life of Christ by the power of the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, this month we will examine the contemplative spiritual discipline of study and the correlating active spiritual discipline of obedience.

Study

In John 17:17, Jesus prayed that we would study our Bible. He said, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” Therefore, to become more and more like Jesus we must have regular time in God’s Word. The Scriptures have much to say about the benefits of regular study.

Scripture regarding study

“For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10)

“Give me understanding to learn your commands.” (Psalm 119:73)

“Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” (Proverbs 9:9)

“Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.” (Proverbs 10:14)

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.” (Proverbs 23:12)

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.” (1 Timothy 2:11)

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls [books], especially the parchments [Scriptures].” (2 Timothy 4:13)

To help us learn Scripture, we are told to:

Hear God’s Word (Luke 11:28; Romans 10:17), which means that listening to sermons, lectures, and audio Bibles is very beneficial.
Read God’s Word (e.g., Revelation 1:3) as Jesus often did.
Study God’s Word (e.g., Ezra 7:10; Acts 17:11) as Jesus often did, which caused people to be amazed at His insights (Matthew 7:28–29).
Memorize God’s Word (Psalm 119:11; Proverbs 22:17–19) as Jesus did, which enabled Him to freely quote Scripture as needed (e.g., Matthew 4:1–11).

Conclusion

Because Jesus humbly entered into history as a human being, He had to grow and learn just like we do (Luke 2:52). Subsequently, when we see Jesus frequently quoting Scripture from memory throughout His life, we must infer that He spent considerable amounts of time hearing Scripture, reading Scripture, studying Scripture, and memorizing Scripture.

It's almost midnight and the site is live. For those of you on feed readers, you're going to want to click on the link and visit the site. I'm so thankful that we have such great web guys.

Emphasis on Media

We've put a large flash player on the front page that will contain audio and video. It's a one stop shop to see new media on the Resurgence.

Blog-Centric

The blog is a focus of our redesign. It's now on the front page and easy to get to. So now the 53% of Resurgence readers who don't use feed readers can find out what's new immediately.

Story of the resdesign

A few weeks ago I was talking to @sfaxon about redesigning the Resurgence. Here's that conversation:

Seth: What is the timeline you're thinking of?
Me: I'd like the site redesigned by the second week of September.
Seth: Yeah... and I'd like a pony and a unicorn—that's a bit ambitious.
Me: I can't wait to see my unicorn.

Today I got my unicorn!

I am pumped for the Desiring God Conference in Minneapolis. If you're going facebook or @mikeyanderson me. I've added an avalanche of every YouTube video I can find. If you live within a days drive of Minneapolis, it will be worth coming out.