New Blog Address!

Hey everyone! Just a quick update to let you know that Death to Life has moved to a new address! You can find the updates (including one posted today) here: http://nathanjohnsonsblog.wordpress.com/ So if you subscribe to the RSS feed or if you have the link saved somewhere, please update it as this blog will no longer be updated or managed. Thanks for your patience, and definitely go check out the new site - now with 50% more...

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Big Questions, Round 2 (part three): Old Testament Faith in Christ

QuestionsHow were the people in the Old Testament made right with God? Before I thought it was through faith in God in general, and perhaps sacrifices. Then I listened to Mark Driscoll preaching over Genesis. He said that all the Old Testament people who were faithful also believed in Jesus. The only things I have found that seem...

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Big Questions, Round 2 (Part Two): God's Intervening Grace

Questions:1) You said that the wicked are people who directly oppose God at every point of their lives and are hardened against him. Don't all people act like this unless dad intervenes? 2) Sometimes like in Romans 9 the Bible says that God hardens people's hearts. So is everyone who will never belong to dad "wicked,” or is it just...

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Big Questions, Round 2: God's Grace and Hate

Recently one of my friends who is doing mission work in a closed country sent me some really great questions and I gave it my best shot at answering them.  I thought it might be interesting and maybe beneficial to post them here to get some discussion going.  So over the next few days I’ll be posting a distillation of those...

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Book Review: "What He Must Be..."

“What He Must Be… if he wants to marry my daughter” by Voddie Baucham Rating:  4.5/5 The Short Review:This is an excellent book that I highly recommend; pretty much everyone should read it.  Seriously. The Long Review:As a single guy (an introverted one at that), I do a lot of thinking – especially about marriage, family, and dating.  I’ve read quite a few books about dating and courtship, but none have challenged...

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Grace-Driven Effort

I recently watched an excellent sermon on Gospel-driven sanctfication from one of my favorite pastors, Matt Chandler of the Village Church in the Dallas area.  During his address to the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference this year [see the full message here: http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=691 ], he quoted one of my favorite theologians, D.A. Carson: “People do not drift towards...

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Fight Clubs - Gospel Centered Discipleship

One of the things we strive for at CityView Church (where I am currently the Pastor for Spiritual Formation) is to live authentic Christ-focused lives that emanate the gospel in every way possible.  One way that we’ve decided to equip our people with is through implementing Fight Clubs – a type of gospel-centered accountability...

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Slavery: Redemption Groups Immersion part 4

[A note of introduction:  I am indebted to Pastor James Noriega of Mars Hill Church for quite a bit of the material in this post. It is a distillation of the notes that I took during his session at the Redemption Groups Immersion I attended in Seattle a couple of months ago.] This past weekend I had the opportunity to...

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D-Day + 66 years - This Day in History, June 6th

Today is a big day for me as an (amateur) historian, a Texas Aggie (whoop!), and as an American. One of the most iconic moments in United States history occurred 66 years ago today:  the amphibious assault on the Bayeux region in Normandy, France which began the Allied invasion of Europe (‘Operation Overlord’) in World...

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Graduation - Joy and Gratitude

Yesterday I completed a journey that has taken me four years to complete – I graduated with a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It has been a long road and I am overwhelmed with emotion when I think back over the past four years and God’s sustaining grace through it all.  One of the biggest evidences of that grace has been my friends, family, mentors, community, and...

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Death to Life turns 1

Well, it has been a year since I first started this endeavor and I have to say it’s been an interesting one to say the least.  I have thoroughly enjoyed writing my posts (check out the first one here), even though I honestly don’t know who reads what I have to say.  Several people have outed themselves at various...

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Constant Need: Redemption Groups Immersion part 3

The last two posts concerning Redemption Groups have – I hope – driven home the idea that God has been taking me through an intense time of rediscovering who I am and where my allegiance lies.  The first post (Ashes) focused on God bringing me to the point of complete desperation and dependence on him alone, and the second...

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