Jimmy Davis's Blog, page 5

Christmas In A Nutshell

Sermon: Unwrapping the Gospel - Part 4

The fourth sermon in the "Unwrapping the Gospel" series is now posted.

Unwrapping the Gospel - Part 4: A New Power

( Click here for the handout that accompanies Part Four.)

You can find the first three sermons from the "Unwrapping the Gospel" series here and here .

For an overview of the five part series click here: UtG Overview Chart

Cruciform Now On VYRSO

If you like to read Christian e-books on the Kindle, Nook, or other devices, you'll love the new (and FREE) Vyrso e-reader app from Logos Bible Software .

You can go to the Vyrso website to learn more, but let me point out two of my favorite Vyrso features:

1. Bible Passage Links: With Vyrso you can just touch the Bible verse references and the verse will pop up automatically for you! That's something that the Kindle and Nook just can't do. For Christian book readers this feature is pure gold. (See photo to the left for an example of how this feature works.) Also, highlighting and notes features are coming soon.

2. Logos Bible Software compatible: If you're a Logos Bible Software user, these books can be read in your Logos software just like all the other resources you have in your Logos Library! You can search, highlight, copy, and more with your powerful Logos tools.

And I'm excited that the Cruciform Press line of books is now available via Vyrso and they are cheaper than Kindle and Nook prices, including my book Cruciform: Living the Cross-Shaped Life .

Sermons: Unwrapping the Gospel - Part 3

The third sermon in the "Unwrapping the Gospel" series is now posted.

Unwrapping the Gospel - Part 3: A New Passion

( Click here for the handout that accompanies Part Three.)

You can find the first two sermons from the "Unwrapping the Gospel" series here .

For an overview of the five part series click here: UtG Overview Chart

Sermons: Unwrapping the Gospel 1 and 2

You can find the first two sermons from the "Unwrapping the Gospel" series here:

Unwrapping the Gospel - Part 1: A New People

( Click here for the handout that accompanies Part One.)

Unwrapping the Gospel - Part 2: A New Purity

( Click here for the handout that accompanies Part Two.)

For an overview of the five part series click here: UtG Overview Chart

Stay tuned for parts 3 through 5. I will post them as they arrive.

Review of Cruciform at Sight Regained Blog

My thanks to Louis Tullo at the Sight Regained Blog for this well written, thoughtful, and kind review of my book, Cruciform: Living the Cross-Shaped Life .

Here's an excerpt from his review, but please visit Louis' blog to read the entire piece:

Cruciform by Jimmy Davis is a book all new believers should have by their side as they turn from their Bibles and try to imagine what the Christian life looks like. Jimmy captures the practical out working of the Gospel message beautifully in his book, coupling it with his own personal experience to make a book that helps to answer that persistent question any new believer possesses: Where do I go from here? . . .

Cruciform teaches, encourages, challenges and pierces straight to the heart. For anyone looking to provide new believers with a practical guide to accompany the Gospel, look no further.

Read the entire review here.

Be sure to follow Louis on Twitter and find him on Facebook .

More on Christmas in 3D

As a follow up to yesterday's post on "The Story of Jesus in 3D" I thought I'd give you my overview of the Story, the Drama. This is not meant to be exhaustive, just a broad overview:

• Act One - Creation: God creates a people to be in community and on mission with Him to share and show His glory and goodness throughout all creation forever! You-first hearts that say to God, to others, and to all that God has made "you first!" We were created to REFLECT the relationship and rulership of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).

• Act Two – Fall: The people God created REBELLED against Him to become a me-first community on a me-first mission, thus deserving His righteous judgment for their sin. People are now under the penalty and power of sin . . . broken relationships with God, others, and all that God has made.

• Act Three - Redemption: God plans for, promises, and provides a way to REDEEM and recreate a people to be in community and on mission with Him through Jesus. (God promised He would make a New Covenant with His people – Ezekiel 36 – that would transform them from the inside out, enabling them to be the community on mission He intended for them to be! (A New People, A New Purity, A New Passion, A New Power, A New Partnership.) The birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus are the central events of all history! Jesus was born to bring the promised gifts of the New Covenant to His people, to us!! By faith in Him we are no longer under the penalty and power of sin!!

• Act Four – Restoration: One day all of God's people will be in community and on mission perfectly with Him to share and show His glory and goodness forever in a new heaven and new earth!! We no longer experience the presence of sin!!

To see how we're going to unwrap the 5 gifts of the gospel this year, take a look at this chart .

The Story of Jesus in 3D

As we attempt to unwrap the gospel this year, I'm going to suggest that we read the Christmas story in 3D. Here's what I mean . . .

In my experience most people read the Bible one of three ways: either as a theology book, a story book, or a guide book.

As a theology book, the Bible answers questions about God, people, and the world. These answers can then be arranged by categories into tomes of systematic theology or detailed catechisms.

As a story book, the Bible is mainly the historical narrative of God's relationship with His creation, particularly people. It's a collection of stories that taken together convey the bigger Story that God is telling the world. As a guide book, the Scriptures tell us what to do. Its pages overflow with rules for right living, commands to be carried out, and principles for practicing godliness.

So which is it? Is the Bible a book of doctrine, drama, or directions? I've discovered that the answer is "yes!" Here's how I believe all three of these approaches to the Bible work together:

The Bible is a story book in which God describes the DRAMA that helps us love the Story of Jesus. The Bible is a theology book in which God inscribes the DOCTRINE that helps us learn the Story of Jesus. The Bible is a guide book in which God prescribes DIRECTIONS that help us live in the Story of Jesus. I've found that the only way to make sense of the Bible as the Story of Jesus is to read it through the 3D glasses of Drama, Doctrine, and Directions.

The Bible as DRAMA

We must first understand the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as a DRAMA. The Bible is primarily a narrative that describes the account of the relationship between God, people, and creation.

Michael D. Williams' Far As The Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption is a valuable resource on this subject. Dr. Williams writes:

"Indeed, the Bible as a whole is best understood as a story or drama. To be sure, the Bible does more than tell a story. Scripture includes psalms and proverbs, songs and prayers, moral instruction and doctrinal reflection. But what holds all of it together, what makes it a unified revelation is the storyline, what theologians often call the drama of redemption. The non-narrative pieces fit into and make sense only within their appropriate contexts in the biblical storyline . . ."

Just as well-told stories grab our hearts and draw us into the drama, so the drama of Scripture helps us to LOVE the Story of Jesus.

But the Bible is a drama that also has notes of doctrine that help us interpret the Story and notes of direction that help us get involved in the Story.

The Bible as DOCTRINE

As DOCTRINE, the Bible records answers to questions that reveal more about God, people, and creation so that we might gain a better understanding of the Story God is telling.

As Dr. Williams observed, the Bible is more than a story, it contains quite a bit of factual information about who and what sort of being God is, who and what sort of creatures people are, and how creation is the stage on which these characters carry out the unfolding drama of God.

That's what Paul's letters and other doctrinal parts of the Bible do for Bible readers. Paul draws from his Spirit-granted knowledge of God's narrative to explain, sometimes in densely packed sentences, who Jesus is so that we can more fully appreciate the Story He's unfolding. Just as books like the Complete Guide to Middle Earth illumines our minds to better understand Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings stories, so the doctrinal passages of Scripture help us to LEARN the Story of Jesus.

The Bible as DIRECTIONS

As a book of directions, the Bible prescribes the attitudes and actions necessary for people to properly relate to God of the Story, the other people in God's Story, and to the creation that serves as the Story's setting.

All of the commands that have to do with having a right relationship with God, people, and all that God has made are given to guide us into a participation in the Story that God has revealed in His Word.

While the Lord of the Rings analogy has been helpful to me, it only explained the purpose of doctrine to me and not the purpose of the Bible's directions. There's simply no book that can tell me how to live in Tolkein's tale. I can love his story and learn more about it, but I don't play a part in the plot. But I can and must live in God's Story, and He has provided in His book a number of directions to show me how to do that.

Not merely Good Information, but Gospel Transformation

This new way of thinking about the Bible as drama, doctrine, and directions infuses my study, teaching, and preaching of God's Word with renewed energy. But I have to be careful that I don't lose my grip on the gospel at the same time that I think I'm getting a better grasp of the Bible.

The truth is I can't love, learn, or live in the Story of Jesus until I love, learn, and live in the Jesus of the Story. Jesus wants me to live my little story as part of His Larger Story found in the pages of the Bible, to live the life I now live in the flesh by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20, italics mine).

Robert Webber once suggested that we can picture the timeline of history like an hourglass on its side. In the middle of the hourglass are the historical events of Jesus' incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and His promise to return. These events comprise the central story that explains the entire Story of the Bible. All of the drama, doctrine and directions found in Genesis 1 to the Gospels lead and direct us to the bloody cross and the empty tomb. From Acts to Revelation the Apostles unveiled new drama, doctrine, and directions that lean and depend on what happened on that cross and in that tomb. All of history prior to Jesus flows to Jesus and His work of salvation, and all of remaining history has since flowed from the life, death, and resurrected life of Jesus.

We must remind ourselves that the biblical drama we love, the doctrine that helps us learn it, and the directions that help us live in it must lead us to lean on Jesus as He is offered in the gospel or else they have no power to transform us or our world. Richard Lovelace once wrote that "spiritual growth is not produced by the transfer of information but by responses of faith." Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the drama, doctrine, and directions of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Biblical transformation happens when we continually embrace by faith the Jesus revealed to us by biblical information. So, this Christmas we will unwrap and put to use the gospel as it is given to us in the drama, doctrine, and directions that reveal Jesus as God's "inexpressible gift" to His people (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Stay tuned for more!

Cruciform At Clarus 2012

I am excited to announce that I will be representing Cruciform Press at the 2012 Clarus Conference (a regional conference of The Gospel Coalition) in Albuquerque, NM, March 9-11, 2012.

The theme of this year's conference will be "The Cross-Shaped Christian Life" with guest speakers D. A. Carson and Fred G. Zaspel.

Cruciform Press, who kindly published my book Cruciform: Living The Cross-Shaped Life , has arranged for me to man their exhibitor's booth at the conference. And since my book seems to fit the conference theme hand-in-glove, they are giving every attendee a free copy of the book! The organizers of Clarus 2012 have agreed to highlight my book from the platform and invite folks to stop by the booth to chat with me or get their book signed.

If you're planning to attend this event, please be sure to stop by the Cruciform Press table for a visit. I'd love to see you and make some new friends.

A True And Transforming Story

I'm convinced that one of the reasons I lose my enthusiasm for the gift of Jesus in the gospel is that I have relegated the Story of Jesus to the fiction shelf of the library of my soul.

The Christmas story has become so encrusted with our cultural trappings that we have taken it off of the non-fiction shelf of our hearts and minds where it belongs, and we have put it in the fiction section where it becomes another traditional fairy tale that has no power to change our daily lives . . . except maybe to inspire us to "get in the Christmas spirit," decorate our homes, sing some different songs, and give stuff to people . . . or better yet, expect stuff to be given to us! But those changes only last for a season.

True, it's a story, but it's the True Story. If I love, learn, and live in the true story of Jesus, it will not merely "get me in the Christmas spirit," it will get the transforming Spirit of Christ into me!

The Christmas story, as it is told in the gospel of Jesus Christ which is unfolded in the 66 books of the Bible, is true, and when we receive it by faith it transforms! It is not true for merely a season, and does not transform for merely a season.

So, here's how I want to help me and you unwrap the gospel by getting the Christmas story off of greeting cards, out of holiday TV specials, and plastic front yard manger scenes: I want us to see the Christmas story in 3D this year.

Stay tuned and I'll explain how we'll do that . . .