Moore to the Point
By Russell D. Moore. Russell D. Moore serves as the teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. In addition, Dr. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Find sermons and other resources to help Christians engage the culture from a biblical worldview at www.russellmoore.com.

Jesus Shoves Me, This I Know: Why the Spirit of Christ Ought to Upset You (Matt 23:1-39)

— Sunday, November 30th, 2008 —

December Heat and Light

— Thursday, November 27th, 2008 —

I’m counting down to next week, and to the launch of the brand new “Moore to the Point” website at www.russellmoore.com

Set your browsers for the new site the first week in December. See you there.

How to Get Arrested at a Wedding Reception: Hearing Your Invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Kingdom (Matt 22:1-14)

— Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 —

Challenges to God’s Providence

— Friday, November 21st, 2008 —

God’s providence is an obnoxious idea to those who don’t want a King, and to those who don’t want a Father. All sorts of anti-Christian and sub-Christian ideas move into the vacuum to replace it. Islam wants a King but not a Father–so the religion speaks of providence in capricious, arbitrary, and impersonal ways. Revisionist Christian theologies want a Father and not a King, so they often speak of a God who loves you, but who can’t intervene in the details of your life. Some, such as Darwinists or Marxists or hyper-capitalists, want neither a King nor a Father so they replace providence with the determinism of genetic material or economic forces or human greed. 

The major challenge to the Christian notion of providence though doesn’t come from a pipe-smoking heretic in a faculty lounge somewhere. The most dangerous sub-Christian theology of providence I can find is my own. It doesn’t show up in typed out discourses like this one. It shows up when I worry about the future–as though God does not have my future planned for me. It shows up when I’m anxious about how to pay for college educations or how to avoid my family’s genetic predisposition to heart disease or whether my church is going to do well next year. My fretfulness or my mistrust or my manipulation reveals a heart that doesn’t truly believe that God knows–or can do–what is best for me. These also reveal a heart that doesn’t yet fully get the goal of divine providence–conformity to Christ Jesus.

The Mystery of God’s Providence

— Thursday, November 20th, 2008 —

Just because God rules over history, though, doesn’t mean that history is easy to understand. The Bible, for instance, presents a real and mysterious tension between the free decisions of angels and human beings and God’s overall purposes. People and angels make real decisions–they do what they want to do. Human beings are not puppets made of meat. Joseph’s brothers don’t think they are saving the world by initiating God’s plan to rescue Israel through Joseph’s sojourn in Egypt. They think they’re disposing of an irritant. God turns these actions against them though–and even their evil is turned around for the good.

The same is true for Satan. He isn’t trying to accomplish God’s purposes when he assaults Job with affliction, or when he enters Judas to betray Jesus to the cross. Satan’s evil intent is real evil–and he’ll be judged for it. Even that evil that he meant for wicked ends though is thrown back at him, as the cross he plans for destruction saves the world.

Sin and evil can’t overthrow God’s purposes, the Scripture teaches. At the same time, God is not the author of evil.

The Extent of God’s Providence

— Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 —

Some of us think that God rules providentially over the broad parameters, the “big things,” but not over the incidental details of history or of our lives. But, as I’ve noted before, so much of history–and our lives–is itself detail driven. The Bible tells us God raises up and tears down nations and rulers–the kinds of spectacular things we read about in our history books and hear about it in real time on CNN. But Jesus also tells us that a bird doesn’t hit a window and break its neck apart from the Father’s care.

It turns out God saves the world through very minute and (it seems) random details. Apologist Peter Kreeft puts it this way: “If one Egyptian tailor hadn’t cheated on the threads of Joseph’s mantle, Potiphar’s wife would never had been able to tear it, present it as evidence to Potiphar that Joseph attacked her, gotten him thrown in prison, and let him be in a position to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, win his confidence, advise him to store seven years of grain, and save his family, the seventy original Jews from whom Jesus came. We owe our salvation to a cheap Egyptian tailor.”

The Goal of God’s Providence

— Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 —

It is far too easy to confuse providence with a pagan vision of “fate” or “chance,” as though God were an impersonal force driving history along. Our confessional statement rightly though sums up the Christian consensus by noting that God rules “as Father.” God’s purposes in history have a goal, and that goal is not a “what” but a “Who.” The goal of history has a name, a face, and a blood type: Jesus.

Paul tells the church at Ephesus that God “works out everything in agreement with the decision of his will” (Eph 1:11). He also tells them though what that decision is about–”to bring everything together in the messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him” (Eph 1:10).

This is why the history of Israel is so significant. It’s not just about an ancient people. It’s about all of us. The Apostle John sees in his vision on the island of Patmos the whole sweep of cosmic history as a woman giving birth, with a dragon seeking to devour her baby (Rev 12). Satan wars against Israel–through temptation to evil, through enslavement, through bloodthirsty enemies–but why? God protects Israel–sometimes through miraculous intervention (the parting of the seas) and sometimes through seemingly less extraordinary means (the storing of food in Joseph’s Egypt)–but why?

Musings on God’s Providence

— Monday, November 17th, 2008 —

My three year-old son was sitting on my lap as I told him a story, the story of how his mother and I met. He looked up at me with a curious expression as I told him of how my cousin kept telling me about her friend, and how she wished I would give her a call. I told him how I hadn’t been interested in tracking down a “blind date” with some unknown high-school senior (I was a sophomore in college).

My cousin had stopped nagging me about it, until one day sitting in biology class I just decided to scratch out a note asking my cousin to set up a time for me to meet this girl. I stamped the letter, and took it to a curbside post office box. I hesitated at first, and almost pulled back the letter, before letting it fall into the mailbox. It was too late. I couldn’t retrieve it. And my whole life was changed.

I met the girl my cousin told me about, and she was everything she’d promised, and more. I loved her, married her, and can’t imagine my life any other way. As I told that story, I looked into this little face and realized that one more half-second of hesitation and I probably never would have mailed that letter. I would have never met this girl. This little boy wouldn’t exist at all. A nanosecond decision in a biology class has resulted in not just my personal happiness, but, potentially, entire generations of people who never would have lived otherwise. Thank God I wasn’t interested in the lecture that day.

One’s life story is typically made up of such little decisions. Think about how different your life would be now if you hadn’t made a decision, maybe one you came to in a matter of seconds. Think about all the decisions made for you–that you probably never noticed or thought about–that have formed who you are and what you’re doing.

How to Murder Jesus in a Grape-Field: Your Response to This Service Might Be More Meaningful Than You Think (Matt 21:33-46)

— Sunday, November 16th, 2008 —

Big Changes Coming to This Site

— Saturday, November 15th, 2008 —

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. If you’ve been in a retail department store, that is. And what does everyone want for Christmas? A face-lift. If you’re in parts of Southern California, that is.

This website will be undergoing a massive face-lift, a mid-career change, a midlife crisis, and occupational therapy, as of February 1.

In the meantime, though, look for a massive dose of Botox as the first phase of the project happens…December 1.

As a wise man once said, “If we make it through December, everything’s gonna be alright I know.”