Author Archives: Stephen Rodgers

Living Theology #32 – Conversion (Faith and Repentance)

by Garrett Glende

“Just have a little faith” is a phrase we hear fairly often these days. It’s usually directed toward a downcast sports fan or a doubting friend, but the adage is generally not taken very seriously. It’s meant to provide a tiny speck of security in something that doesn’t really deserve to be trusted. The reality is that there are few things in this world that can truly be trusted after all. People, science, and the stock market are all things that we place our trust in that will at one time or another fail us. In chapter 35 of Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem develops a biblical view of the concepts of faith and repentance and how they are applied to individuals. Despite the fickleness of worldly things, we are able and called to place our faith in the person of Jesus Christ, forsake our former ways of sin, and turn towards righteousness. Grudem defines the two acts of faith and repentance as comprising the manner of conversion, “the willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.”

In modern day American Christianity, faith is probably the most talked about aspect of a person’s spiritual life, yet many seem to have misguided views about what the Bible actually says about it. Grudem lays out three elements that construct the biblical model of faith, the first of which is understanding. For someone to be converted, it is obvious that they must have some sort of knowledge about Christ and the gospel message. How can someone place trust in something that they know nothing about? But intellectual knowledge is not enough. Many so called biblical scholars have accurate knowledge of the facts concerning the gospel, yet they are far from becoming Christians. As James tells us, even the demons believe (James 2:19). The second necessary component to faith is approval. The sinner must agree that Christ has indeed paid the penalty for sin at the cross, and that His resurrection has secured a means of salvation for all who would believe. Still, mere ascent to the data does not match the Bible’s diagnosis of true faith. In addition to understanding and approval, the individual must depend personally on the person and work of Christ. Thus, “saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.” If the third element is not present in a person’s life, then they have placed no more trust in the redeeming work of Jesus than the fact that a minute is made up of sixty seconds. There is nothing personal about the composition of a single minute. When the Bible describes saving faith, it uses words like “come,” “received Him,” and “believe in Him.” We get the picture that a person who has faith in Jesus is fully dependent on Him and goes to Him for salvation because he trusts Jesus’ words and actions.

However, faith is not the only aspect of a person’s conversion. Along with faith, the Bible speaks of repentance as being a necessary ingredient for salvation. Grudem defines it as “a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.” As a result of the work of the Spirit in our hearts, we see the ugliness of our sin and are grieved by it. Like faith, there is true repentance and there is worldly repentance. True repentance is full of sorrow over sin because the person is found to be guilty of hating the very God who died for them. It is not sorry over the consequences of sin, such as broken relationships or loss in worldly possessions, although these may be present as well. Genuine repentance is first and foremost an understanding that sin is evil and a sorrow over that sin. A truly repentant person will then turn their lives away from this sin and towards obedience. This is literally a change of heart. A heart that once loved sin now loves Christ and wishes to obey Him. Grudem explains that “when we turn to Christ for salvation from our sins, we are simultaneously turning away from the sins that we are asking Christ to save us from.” Thus, faith and repentance cannot be separated from one another.

Many of us can remember when we first experienced conversion. There was a clear change that God worked in our hearts. This may have been quite a while ago for some, but let us not forget that faith and repentance do not stop at conversion in the life of the Christian. In reality the entirety of our lives are to be marked by these two. Especially as we grow in knowledge of our Savior, we are able to rely on Him even further and exercise even greater faith. Aspects of His character that were once foreign to us can now become great pillars for us to lean on. For example, as we grow in our understanding of His sovereignty we can trust Him more when fighting through trials. And as we come to know more of His holiness, our knowledge of how sinful we are will continually lead us to repentance. And I suppose that this should be the case whenever we open our Bibles. Each time we read of the greatness of God we are given the opportunity to have our lives changed. Whether we choose to do so is really up to us. We could just let our knowledge stay just that – knowledge – or we could have it change us. Pray that we would all deepen our faith in Jesus, as He is the only one to be truly believed in.

Discipleship is Life

by Pastor Patrick Cho

I recently attended the Men Discipling Men Conference at The Master’s College and it was a tremendous blessing. The speakers delivered really good messages, the seminars were challenging and helpful for ministry, and the fellowship with the Lighthouse guys who went was refreshing. But one of the most memorable moments of the weekend actually wasn’t at the conference but at our host home.

We had a chance to stay with one of the elders from Immanuel Bible Church and his family. This wasn’t anything new since they are gracious to host our guys for the MDM Conference and Shepherds’ Conferences every year. Most years, they have even tried to invite all the guys from LBC over for a late night meal! They truly are a wonderfully hospitable family. As good as the chili spaghetti was this year, my highlight was when Andrew (that elder from IBC) invited all of us to share about how we had been learning and growing recently.

Up until this point in the evening, we were all enjoying random conversations with each other. Some of them were very profitable and spiritual; others were less. We were all just sitting around enjoying really good food, but Andrew took the initiative to bring us together and have a time of mutual encouragement and edification.

This reminded me of a helpful principle that is often neglected in the church: Discipleship is life. Discipleship is not just when one person decides to meet up with another person on a weekly basis to share prayer requests and have a time of accountability. We should not limit discipleship to a program. Discipleship can and should happen whenever two believers come together, because discipleship is life on life ministry.

Marriage is discipleship. Parenting is discipleship. Friendship is discipleship. Even sitting around a living room with a group of conference attendees eating chili spaghetti can be discipleship. It all comes down to whether we choose to make the most of the opportunity or not. Unfortunately, most of the time, we allow the opportunities to pass us by. Instead of making use of a chance to encourage someone, pray for them, teach them, or witness to them, we choose instead to talk about things that are not profitable or spiritual.

In this sense, you don’t need to go about looking to form a “discipleship relationship.” If you have relationships with fellow believers, you can be a blessing to them just as they can be to you. Say an encouraging word, share what you have been reading in Scripture, ask for or offer prayer support, or just bring everyone together to share how they have been growing or what they have been learning. Discipleship is life and we should never forget this.

The Love is Better Than Wine

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Song of Solomon 1:2

Nothing gives the believer so much joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment as others have in the common mercies of life, he can be glad both in God’s gifts and God’s works; but in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as in the matchless person of his Lord Jesus. He has wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; he has bread which all the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth.

Where can such sweetness be found as we have tasted in communion with our Beloved? In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus, the heavenly manna. We would rather have one mouthful of Christ’s love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time’s mirth, in its best trim, compared to our Lord Jesus in His most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged with the soldier’s spear. All earthly bliss is of the earth earthy, but the comforts of Christ’s presence are like Himself, heavenly. We can review our communion with Jesus, and find no regrets of emptiness therein; there are no dregs in this wine, no dead flies in this ointment.

The joy of the Lord is solid and enduring. Vanity hath not looked upon it, but discretion and prudence testify that it abideth the test of years, and is in time and in eternity worthy to be called ‘the only true delight.’ For nourishment, consolation, exhilaration, and refreshment, no wine can rival the love of Jesus. Let us drink to the full this evening.

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Weekly Links (7/30/2010)

by Stephen Rodgers

We’re back! And we’ve got some really great links for you today. So without further ado…

That’s all for now. See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Homeless Ministry Update

by Joyce Kang

The PB Homeless Ministry was the first ministry I joined when I became a member of Lighthouse. Four years later, it still remains a ministry that is very near and dear to my heart for a number of reasons. I am often asked why I serve in this ministry, and quite frankly, my response can be summed up in our church’s passion statement: love for God and people. Christ’s death on the cross has given every believer a new life and purpose. As I continue to grow in my understanding and love for Christ, I desire to share this great gift with others.

We live in a world full of lost people, and it is the responsibility of every Christian to follow Christ’s command to evangelize and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) As Christians, our aim in this life is to make disciples of Christ because it is through the salvation of lost sinners that our Father is glorified. At Lighthouse, we are truly blessed to have solid teaching, praise, and fellowship on a regular basis; however, they are not the end goal of the church. The purpose of the church is to make worshipers of Christ by seeking and saving the lost.

The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the workers are few. The Great Commission tells us to GO and make disciples; therefore, we must be obedient and heed that command. If we truly desire to imitate our Savior and reflect His love for us, we must fervently labor to win men and women to Christ. The need for missions exists everywhere, so a good place to start is in our local community.

It has been a humbling and joyful experience to witness God’s faithfulness to this ministry over the years. Although the fruits of our labor are not always evident, there is great joy in knowing that we are faithful to Christ’s command. The PB Ministry has been a tremendous source of encouragement to me and I would like to challenge the members of Lighthouse to consider serving in this ministry. I would also like to encourage you to partner with us by praying for the following:

  1. The Gospel to remain at the forefront of our minds as we labor.
  2. God’s word would go forth convicting and changing lives for His glory.
  3. Ample opportunities to build relationships with the homeless and boldness in sharing the Gospel.

Living Theology #31 – Regeneration

by Garrett Glende

In case you haven’t been following along, the past few topics in this series have been under the umbrella of the application of the atonement in our redemption. We have been walking through what theologians call the ordo salutis (order of salvation), studying the process of our salvation from election to glory. The issue at hand this week is the wonderful doctrine of regeneration: God’s act of giving new life to dead sinners by awakening their hearts to see the glory of the Son and their need for His forgiveness.

Grudem defines regeneration as “a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us.” The crux of this definition is that regeneration is fully an act of God. Jesus gives us insight into this “secret act,” as Grudem describes it, in John chapter 3 where He encounters Nicodemus. Here Jesus tells him, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus’ response suggests that such an occurrence would be impossible, to which Jesus replies:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

Jesus illustrates the mystery of regeneration by comparing the act of God, particularly the Holy Spirit, to the wind. We cannot see the miracle of the new birth take place, but we are able to see its effects. So it is with the wind: we only know that the wind is blowing because we hear its whistle and see the swaying of the trees. Just as we cannot control the course of the wind, we also are at the mercy of the sovereign will of God in regeneration. As spiritually dead people (Eph. 2:1), running as fast as we can away from our Creator, we must be brought about to a whole new life in order to make any sort of movement towards God. In support of God’s regenerating work, James speaks of the Father of lights, who has “of his own will brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). Peter also declares that God has “caused us to be born again…” (1 Pet 1:3). Indeed, we see throughout Scripture that God is the only person who is able to grant spiritual life.

Now that it is clear that God is the one who gives new life, we can look at what actually happens in regeneration. As stated above, much of it is a mystery and we cannot explain all the details of the process, but we can glean certain truths from Scripture. One thing that can be noted is that the Bible often relates the new birth with ideas such as washing, cleansing, and renewing. We see this clearly in Titus 3:5 where Paul writes that God has “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” Echoes of Ezekiel 36:25-27 come to mind:

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Again, we see that God is the one who gives this new life to His covenant people, purifying them through the washing that comes from the Spirit. This passage from Ezekiel is a beautiful picture of God’s grace in removing our hearts of stone, hardened to spiritual truth, and replacing them with hearts of flesh that are alive and receptive to God’s word. We who were once alienated to God and hostile towards Him, completely dead in our sins, have now been brought into life where we are able to worship and glorify our maker (Col. 1:21).

The book of 1 John offers much practical application in light of this doctrine. As a benchmark for true saving faith, John cites many fruits that will be exhibited in result of the new birth. We must examine our own hearts to see if we are truly living in accordance with what the Bible describes a born again person is like. John writes that “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). We see clearly that regeneration results in a changed life. The sins that we once lived in – the very same ones that enslaved us – no longer control our lives. We have been given a new heart that now desires to please God in all that we do. This does not mean that we never sin again, but there should be a distinct mark in our attitude towards sin and its outward manifestations. By this hatred of sin, we will be assured of our salvation, as John writes that “you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him” (1 John 2:29). Perhaps the greatest display of the Spirit’s work of regeneration is our love for God and people. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). It seems simple, but it is often one of the hardest things to do – love one another. Consider if your life displays the fruit of the Spirit. Do you claim to have been born of God, but fail to love your brother? These types of questions are difficult to ask yourself, but it is good for us to diagnose what is really going on in our hearts. But this we know for sure: that for those whom God has given new hearts of flesh He will never cast out. He will continue to mold and sanctify them into disciples of Christ, all by the marvelous power of the Holy Spirit that powerfully works within us. May we truly live as those given new life, fighting sin and loving others, all to the glory of God.

No Better Place on Earth (part 2)

by Elder Peter Lim

When I wrote Part 1 a few months ago, I had in mind the road that leads to Heaven in general as the best place to be. Of course I still stand by that truth. However, I wanted to write a little more specifically of why that place is San Diego for me in particular. Actually, there are many places in the world that I would like to be at. It’s not because it would be fun, or beautiful, or better food, or low cost of living, or job/business would be better, or people are friendlier, or people in San Diego have made it difficult for me to stay, or just need a change, or just want to see the world, or any number of other reasons. No, the only reason I would like to be anywhere else is because of the opportunities for ministry there. As of a few days ago, my missionary friends have had to leave their homes within a moment’s notice because of civil unrest in the Islamic country in which they are serving in and bands of men are walking around with guns and other weapons, killing hundreds of people. I wish I was there with my friends. There is a church half way around the world where it’s freezing cold and much blood has been shed historically for the cause of Christ. I wish I was there with fellow believers who have become dear to my heart. There is a little church plant about 8 hours North of San Diego who can use some more help to reach the lost and strengthen the members there. I wish I was there with fellow church planters. There are small churches all over the world where they are praying for someone with any knowledge of scripture to come and help them to grow. I wish I was there with strangers who are fellow brothers.

So what in the world am I doing here in the comforts of San Diego? Good question. Why are you where you are? I am here in San Diego with a definite purpose: to minister in the church here. We have a need for faithful people to serve sacrificially in a difficult situation. The difficulties here include: a culture that is indifferent or even hostile to Christianity, pseudo-intellectuals who ignorantly follow the influences of the world, a church-culture which produces either baby Christians or self-deceived “Churchians” who think that they are saved when they are not (Matt. 7:21-23). We San Diegans need a beacon that shines brightly in this dark world in order to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in a clear light. This gospel needs to be clearly preached and demonstrated to the many young people who come through our fine city. The mission field is right here in our own church as many people are finding out that they’ve been walking through life with a worldly world-view that can barely be considered Biblical. We have seen people testify that they had been deceiving themselves into thinking that they were Christians when they couldn’t even give a basic outline of a gospel presentation, let alone understand the extent of their own sinfulness before a Holy God with a brokenness in spirit. Many are thinking that it’s okay and normal for a “Christian” to go through life arguing about the technicalities of where to draw the line between liberty and legalism rather than living under the power of the Spirit and contriteness of heart. There is much work to do right here in San Diego.

In the movie “Star Trek: Insurrection”, there is a scene in which Captain Picard discusses with one of the planet’s residents regarding life. Picard asks her why she and her people never took advantage of their superior technical knowledge by building starships to explore the universe. Her answer is, “Anywhere I could go, would only take me away from here” meaning that she is already in the most wonderful and best place to be. Why would she ever want to leave? In the same way, I can only think of one reason why I would ever want to leave San Diego and the work we are doing here… in obedience to the call from God to evangelize to the lost elsewhere, which reminds me of our frequently quoted phrase, “the definition of missions is just church over there.” That’s why I believe God has sent me here to San Diego, to minister to His bride, Lighthouse Bible Church, as she reaches out to the lost here in America’s Finest City. If you share my desire to reach San Diego and you plan on being here long term, please let me know and I’ll add you to my personal list of coworkers that I expect to minister with for the next 40+ years.

Editor’s Note #3: July 2010

by Stephen Rodgers

And just like that, another hiatus comes to an end. From the previous notes you can see what our goals were for the break, and I’m happy to say that most of them were met (although a couple will continue to resolve in the next week or so).

Just to let you know, the recent LBCSJ church plant has had a rather significant effect on our staff. Some faithful workers were a part of that team, and have since left. Now don’t get me wrong, they left with our best wishes and prayers, but they’re still not here anymore. Other staff members have taken the initiative to step into some of the positions in other ministries left vacant by their departure. And while they’re still here in the broader sense, that means they’re not here as much in the narrower sense.

To make a short story shorter, we’re a bit understaffed from where we used to be. The plan for dealing with it is simply that we will continue to post Tuesday-Saturday on our regular schedule, and Mondays will become a bit of a…can I say surprise? Like a party? Or a weekly Christmas that sometimes just doesn’t happen sometimes?

In other words, if I have an article for Monday, I’ll be sure to post it for you. But that won’t always happen.

This might change for a number of reasons. A current staff writer might get a wild hair to write more. A new staff writer might emerge from the shadows. I might try to create a new series that doesn’t require much effort (a la “Random Post from the Archives” or the like). But in the meantime, we’re just going to take a tiny step back, take a deep breath, and see what happens.

We’re still here five days a week.

Thanks for reading!

Editor’s Note #2: July 2010

by Stephen Rodgers

A quick update for anyone who keeps track of such things:

  • The migration to WordPress 3.0 went off without a hitch.
  • The old SPARK category no longer exists; it has been merged into the Lighthouse News category. You can find all the previous entries there now.
  • The 2010 College Graduation testimonies have been posted.

As a matter of personal curiosity, does anyone use the “Share on…” links at the bottom of each article? I know when I post on Facebook, I just copy the URL. If they’re not getting much use, it might be better to put something that would be helpful to more people there, like a “Similar Articles” list. If you have an opinion on that, please track me down and let me know.

Thanks!