Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Bible driven church
"Come to Our Church, where our desire to worship God is more important than your entertainment. It's not "dynamic worship" like most churches today, since we know you can get more dynamic music at the local bar on Saturday Night, and we can't compete with that. We preach the Word of God without any concern for whether or not it is "positive and uplifting". It may well be convicting, or even invoke fear or anger. But it will accomplish God's purpose. In our church, you can learn how to deny yourself, abase yourself, and put your love of self to death, since one who does not do so cannot be Christ's disciple. You'll be given a cross to carry, and must forsake all others, even to the point of hating even your own flesh for Christ sake, for those who will not do this are not worthy of Him. You will have trials, tribulation, and persecution for Christ's sake, and the world will hate you because it hates Christ. Come and be a part of us."
Confronting people with Biblical truth
I have been concerned and confused as to your take on the Bible as the authoritative word of God. This morning I called the church you attend and asked them about their doctrinal statement and statement of faith. It was rather difficult to find on the website and therefore I called and routed to the pastor's secretary. Basically I copied from documentation given to me for you to reference below. Since you have been an active member there for 50 plus years then I am concluding you concur with the doctrine and practices of this church. I point blank asked the pastor's secretary if this church in Charlotte believe the following 4 things about the Bible:
1. Inspired
2. Revealed
3. Inerrant
4. Infallible
She answered yes to my question.
I recall having a conversation with you some time back where you expressed a problem with some of these things. Maybe I am misquoting you on this and if so I apologize. As you know Nancy and I are giving our lives to the word of God being learned and lived as the authority for our lives. Joe, it was the cry of the Reformation that said "we will only believe and do what the Bible says."
Let me emphasize that in regard to this issue of Ingrid, I am not interested in what you think, or what I think, but rather what God thinks and has to say about these things. I believe your pastor would agree with me on this point. We have a major point of disagreement in regard to Ingrid. You think Ingrid is a "good" person but unfortunately this is not how the Bible speaks. The Lord Jesus addresses the heart of man in Mark 7:21-23 - For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. "All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
The greatest doctrine we have on salvation was written by the apostle Paul in Romans.
He talks about the universal condition of man in Romans 1:18-3:20. Read carefully Romans 3:10-12:
Rom. 3:10 as it is written,
"THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Rom. 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
Rom. 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
Again from the words of the Lord Jesus in his famous "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew 7:18-19- So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Joe, I have studied these verses in depth. There is no way you can look at Ingrid's behavior over the past 25 years in her marriage and see the consistent production of good fruit, as a matter of fact one sees just the opposite. And there is a simple answer to that question given by the Lord Jesus Himself. The reason is because the tree is bad!
Therefore Nancy and I are and remain convinced not on what we think but on the authority of God's word that Ingrid at this time is not a "good" person. Joe I have shared these types of things with Ingrid in the past. Again I have taken a Galatians 6:1 approach to Ingrid, which says "Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness..." However I agree with Pastor Jones that much bolder actions now need to be taken with her. I am in favor of a Jude 23 approach which says "save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh." Or even a 1 Corinthians 5:5 approach in which the apostle Paul writes of a wayward brother "I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." As a matter of fact this is how Pastor Jones has been praying in regard to Ingrid and her ongoing behavior.
If you want to know the Biblical solution for Ingrid it has been clearly expressed through Old and New Testament. The solution for Ingrid is to Repent and Believe! It was the first sermon that the Lord Jesus preached in Mark 1:15. In my opinion and others who have talked to Ingrid and know her, there has been no genuine repentence. He has a worldly type of sorrow in what he did, and in the fact that he got caught. But it was in fact her lack of repentence, that caused Pastor Jones to ask Ingrid to leave the church. Joe, that is called church discipline and she still remains under the discipline of this church.
Joe, I have been and continue to pray that God would do whatever He needs to do, in order to bring Ingrid supernaturally to Himself.
gripped by His grace,
P.S. - This is a copy of the churches doctrinal beliefs and practices concerning the Bible. I think as we continue to talk about these things it should be our plumb line or ultimate compass to guide our counsel and discussion.
The church confesses the Scriptures to be the Word of God written, witnessing to God's self-revelation. Where that Word is read and proclaimed, Jesus Christ the Living Word is present by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. For this reason the reading, hearing, preaching, and confessing of the Word are central to Christian worship. The session shall ensure that in public worship the Scripture is read and proclaimed regularly in the common language(s) of the particular church. (Book of Order W-2.2001)
Leaders in the church can be expected to affirm that "... the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments...[are]...., by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God's Word to [them]." (Book of Order G-14.0405b.2)
The church professes adherence to the traditional statements of Presbyterianism -- the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Westminster Larger Catechism -- though it views them as subordinate to the Bible, which alone is viewed as the inspired Word of God, a viewpoint which encompasses the doctrine of inerrancy in matters of fact, history, and teaching.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Do you think Biblically?
1. Election
2. Predestination
Did either of these doctrines make your list? As most of you know these two terms have been highly debated and controversial throughout church history. Many times I have heard Christians utter a very dangerous phrase, they say things like "doctrine divides." Brothers and sisters in Christ that is not true, and I can prove that by you going to any of Paul's 13 epistles. He wrote in a style in which normally he always begins with doctrine, and then moves to application. Therefore Paul knew, because he was writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, that doctrine was the very thing that brought the church together to be unified in Christ. Again I am speaking to a larger point in our living the Christ centered life and which is grounded in our understand the Bible.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Back from fishing and yes, it was great!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Quote for the day
If I were to go into most churches and preach on the attributes of God, what would happen about midway through that week is you would have faithful church members who have been there for forty years who would stand up and say,
'That's not my god, I could never love a god like that,'
... even though I'm just preaching the historical Christian view of God."
-Paul Washer from the sermon I am Under Obligation
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The analogy of Lazarus in John 11
For the entire message simply click on this LINK.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
10 marks of pleasing the flesh
The signs of a flesh-pleaser or sensualist are these:
1. When a man in his desire to please his appetite, does not do it with a view to a higher end, that is to say to the preparing himself for the service of God; but does it only for the delight itself. (Of course no one does every action conciously with a view to the service of God. Nevertheless, the general manner or habit of a life spent in the service of God is absent for the flesh-pleaser.)
2. When he looks more eagerly and industriously after the prosperity of his body than of his soul.
3. When he will not refrain from his pleasures, when God forbids them, or when they hurt his soul, or when the necessities of his soul call him away from them. But he must have his delight whatever it costs him, and is so set upon it, that he cannot deny it to himself.
4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delights in God, and his holy word and ways, and the expectations of endless pleasure. And this not only in the passion, but in the estimation, choice, and action. When he had rather be at a play, or feast, or other entertainment, or getting good bargains or profits in the world, than to live in the life of faith and love, which would be a holy and heavenly way of living.
5. When men set their minds to scheme and study to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh; and this is first and sweetest in their thoughts.
6. When they had rather talk, or hear, or read of fleshly pleasures, than of spiritual and heavenly delights.
7. When they love the company of merry sensualists, better than the communion of saints, in which they may be exercised in the praises of their Maker.
8. When they consider that the best place to live and work is where they have the pleasure of the flesh. They would rather be where they have things easy, and lack nothing for the body, rather than where they have far better help and provision for the soul, though the flesh be pinched for it.
9. When he will be more eager to spend money to please his flesh than to please God.
10. When he will believe or like no doctrine but "easy-believism," and hate mortification as too strict "legalism." By these, and similar signs, sensuality may easily be known; indeed, by the main bent of the life.
Isaiah 10 and the sovereignty of God
Ultimately the purpose that God fulfills in all that He does is for the glory of His name.
In the first 3 months, yes 3 months, of our fall class we will cover the following about God:
1. His significance (the glory of His name)
2. His sovereignty
3. His self-sufficiency
I think you may be surprised how each of these important characteristics impact the way we live out our Christian lives. The reason for the email this morning is because of my time this morning in Isaiah Chapter 10. This section of Isaiah will be the focus of one class session as it regards the sovereignty of God. If you can grab your Bible, turn to Isaiah 10:5-15 and think about not only what God is doing, but how God is doing it.
Isaiah 10:5-7, 12, 15
5 "Woe to Assyria, (this starts out with a warning like, you are in big trouble Assyria, you who are what?) the rod of My anger, and the staff in whose hands is My indignation,
Do we get the point?
Assyria you who are carrying out My will, My rod in My hand doing exactly what I ordain you to do, now you might ask how can Assyria be in trouble with God for doing what He has ordained them to do? Folks these are the kinds of questions we must wrestle through when we turn to and read Scripture.
6 I send it against a godless nation (who is this? It is Israel), and commission it against the people of My fury, to capture booty and to seize plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
The next verse is critical in understanding what is going on here
7 Yet it does not so intend, nor does it plan so in its heart, what does that mean?, do you see the point of it?
They are being commissioned by God to do the very things of God but they do not see themselves as the instrument of God but rather it is its purpose to destroy, and to cut off many nations . . . (Assyria is selfish and arrogant and they are doing this entirely for their own benefit, they have no idea that as they do this they are carrying out the very will of God)
12 So it will be when the Lord has completed all his work on Mount Zion (this means the work that God ordained Assyria to do) and on
Jerusalem, He will say, 'I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of
Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness . . .
15 Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? (who is the ax? Answer – Assyria, who is the One who chops with it? Answer – God)
Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?'" (who is the saw? Answer – Assyria, who is the One who wields it? Answer – God)
Assyria is raised up by God and given the military prowess that they have, used and ordained by God to carry out this work to bring judgment against His own people then when they have finished it, God then holds them accountable for what they did. Not so much for the work they did but for the intent of the heart in which there was pride and arrogance and selfishness.
They are judged for what they did even though they did exactly what God ordained them to do.
As you meditate on these verses are questions arising in your mind about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man? Well these are some of the critical issues we will cover this fall as we touch on this all important things of Scripture. I maintain that right living is manifested by right thinking.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Shannon McArthur jams!
Baby Brown Eyes
When Christian jargon becomes confusing
Here is a video in which you will hear these kinds of expressions used by two different pastors from two different mega-churches. The problem is the fact that it may lead to false professions of faith which result in false assurance.
9 truths to know about God
From J.I. Packer's introductory essay in In My Place Condemned He Stood:
"Only where these nine truths have taken root and grow in the heart will anyone be fully alive to God."
(1) God..."condones nothing," but judges all sin as it deserves: which Scripture affirms, and my conscience confirms, to be right.
(2) My sins merit ultimate penal suffering and rejection from God's presence (conscience also confirms this), and nothing I do can blot them out.
(3) The penalty due to me for my sins, whatever it was, was paid for me by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his death on the cross.
(4) Because this is so, I through faith in him am made "the righteousness of God in him," i.e. I am justified; pardon, acceptance and sonship become mine.
(5) Christ's death for me is my sole ground of hope before God. "If he fulfilled not justice, I must; if he underwent not wrath, I must to eternity." (John Owen)
(6) My faith in Christ is God's own gift to me, given in virtue of Christ's death for me: i.e. the cross procured it.
(7) Christ's death for me guarantees my preservation to glory.
(8) Christ's death for me is the measure and pledge of the love of the Father and the Son to me.
(9) Christ's death for me calls and constrains me to trust, to worship, to love and to serve.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The "prosperity" gospel exposed
Sincere but sincerely wrong!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Devotional thoughts
This summer I have spent a good bit of time studying and thinking about the practical living out of the Christian life according to God's word. It continues to occur to me that American evangelism has equated, for the most part, spiritual success with the number of conversions in a particular month, quarter or year within the church. However if one takes an objective look at the "Christian" landscape in America the results should bring us much concern. It's almost as if in all categories whether it be divorce, pornography or you pick the subject, the statistics in the church look almost identical to the world. How can that be possible? Well according to everything said by the Lord Jesus Himself and the Bible, it isn't possible, so what is the answer to this modern day dilemma? The number one problem with American evangelism, in my opinion, is that it is producing "false converts." People are "making decisions" for Jesus and then still living like they did prior to their supposed conversion. They have simply acquired and agree to all the information about Jesus but there is no transformation of the heart and life by Jesus. Well, let's go to the Bible and see what the Lord Jesus had to say about this subject.
Read carefully John 8:43-47:
"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
44"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45"But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.
46"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
47"He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."
Now read carefully John 10:25-28:
Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me.
26"But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
27"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Compare John 8 and John 10:
A person does not believe in order to become a sheep, but rather a person is a sheep which enables that person to believe. In John 8, the reason a person does not hear is because they are not of God. Again look at these two sections of Scripture and see if the following conclusion would be correct: "Being of God" and "being a sheep" are the same thing according to Jesus. These two things are not the result of what we do when we believe but rather this is what God does to us, so that we are able to believe.
This is called the doctrine of regeneration. Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us. This is sometimes called "being born again" (using language from John 3:3-8). This definition is from Wayne Grudem.
Guys, bottom line is that no program, event or strategy can produce a true convert to Jesus because only God can do this work. Unfortunately we in our evangelical zeal to get people "saved" we have come up with all kinds of man made tools. Do you see why this is so dangerous? It gives people a false assurance that they have been saved, when in fact if they have not been regenerated by the Spirit, they are still headed straight for hell. I draw these kind of hard conclusions based on what Jesus requires from those saved and what I see and observe in the professing Christians of our day. Again the statistics point to little if any difference between American Christians and the world and that is a spiritual impossibility according to the Scripture when someone is genuinely converted.
There is so much more to discuss in this area and so many more verses that confirm the conclusions drawn in John 8 and John 10. Hope this will challenge you and help you when talking with those in your ministry sphere of influence. It is a matter of heaven or hell.
Blessings,
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Stormy Weather
Quote for the day
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Does a decision for Christ = salvation?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Lone Ranger Christians - No way!
The modern church is filled with Lone Ranger Christians who often have no intention of ever joining a local in church in any formal way. Their supposed liberty, is desired over service to the body of Christ and submission to scripturally ordained authority. They would have the benefits of hearing the preacher and partaking of the Lord's Supper without commitment to the local church. Church membership is regarded as an unnecessary option. Membership in a local church is something that is taught in scripture and no Christian can be excused for not working to find a church to join and serve in (granted it's not always an easy thing). It is his duty to serve the church and be in submission to those in authority. Church membership is not an outdated tradition for stuffy Christians nor is it an optional practice.
Church membership is a necessary consequence when all the teachings regarding what a local church is and how it is to conduct itself are considered. Indeed a Christian cannot carry out his scriptural responsibilities to the body of Christ without joining himself to a local body of believers. The scripture commands Christians; "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you" (Heb 13:17). Christians are plainly and in no uncertain terms commanded to submit to their spiritual leaders. Such a command can only be properly understood as having context within the local church. We also see that Christians who are engaged in open and unrepentant sin are to be put out of fellowship and removed from the local church. Such a person is to be handed over to Satan maintain the purity of the church and to spurn the offender on to repentance that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus(1Cor 5:5). These circumstances would be quite impossible to obey were the subjects not joined to a local body of believers. Henceforth 'membership' of some form is simply implied by such texts.
In the book of Acts, upon salvation people were joining themselves to the church by identifying with a local body and worshiping corporately and attending to the needs of the saints. Acts 2:47 records; "And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." The text does not say that the Lord added to the body of Christ those that were being saved, but rather that the Lord added to their (the local church headed by the apostles) number those that were being saved. Christians were identifying themselves officially with a local body of believers. These were no mere visitors simply kicking the tires of a near by church, they were fully committed to the local church and it's work going so far as to sell their property in order to support the saints in need. While joined to that local body such persons were under the discipline of the rulers of that body. Christians who sinned were subject to appropriate censures and those who had need were aided by the local church's benevolence. They were also responsible for electing elders and deacons to carryout the preaching of the Word and the serving of tables. The believers in these congregations were fully committed to all aspects of the life of the church at the local level.
It is indeed a concept unknown in scripture that a Christian would ever maintain an uncommitted relationship with a local church. The scriptures have no knowledge of Lon Ranger Christians. The universal testimony of scripture is such that when sinners are converted they join themselves to a local church in order to worship with the saints of God and contribute to the work of spreading the gospel. The local church is the very place where the intimacy of the body of Christ is nurtured. It is ordained by God that pastors be placed over these congregations to govern them and to equip them that they may be fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. No Christian who maintains a casual relationship with the church, who will not identify and participate in vital union with other believers can expect to grow in grace or be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ.
Theological deconstruction
In our class on "Learning and Living the God-centered Life" we will spend a good bit of time understanding the word "salvation" as the Bible teaches it. We live in a culture of numbers and statistics. Therefore it becomes prominent in American evangelism that we figure out a way to get people to walk the aisle, sign a card or pray a prayer. Unfortunately this is the way we have come to think and practice, but this is not how the Bible speaks when it comes to a persons conversion to Christ. What could be more important than someones eternal salvation? We desperately need to understand what the Bible teaches about this subject so that we can accurately apply it to our lives and those in our ministry sphere of influence.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Scenes from the Lowcountry 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
The deceptive nature of sin
Here's another excerpt from Paul Tripp's book, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy. Again, I found this both deeply convicting and hopeful at the same time.
Sin lives in a costume, that's why it's so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party.
Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth.
Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty.
Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer.
Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership.
Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart.
The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom.
Evil simply doesn't present itself as evil, which is part of its draw.
You'll never understand sin's slight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. I say all the time to people that no one is more influential in their own lives than they are because no one talks to themselves more than they do. We're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We're all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We're all very good at being intolerant of others of the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us to not hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but to compound matters, we tend to be blind to our blindness.
What does all of this mean? It means that accurate-self assessment is the product of grace. It is only in the mirror of God's Word and with the sight-giving help of the Holy Spirit, that I am able to see myself as I actually am. In those painful moments of accurate self-sight, we may not feel as if we are being loved, but that is exactly what is happening. The God, who loves us enough to sacrifice his Son for our redemption, works so that we would see ourselves clearly, so that we would not buy into the delusion of our own righteousness, and with a humble sense of personal need, seek the resources of grace that can only be found in him.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Learning and Living the God-centered Life
Here is a note this week to the leadership team.
Hope all is well in Charlotte and that you are having a great summer. This has been a time for me to study, reflect and process through the realities of God's word. In our time of study over the past years we have discussed that the Bible is inspired, revealed, inerrant and infallible. However I fear that we as Christians in America have lost our moorings as it relates to making the Bible the plumb line of our lives. My attention this summer has been focused on the following theme of study "Learning and Living the God-centered life." Unfortunately we have many in the church who hold to one of the extremes. Those who want to just learn about the Bible, these folks after years tend to just "show up", and those who want to talk about the experience of the Christian life and these folks tend to "blow up." In my study and teaching this fall and beyond I am proposing to bring these two tensions together to help those in the body of Christ "grow up." I would like to bring Biblical clarity to the practical way of living a God-centered life, as we come to see and savor Christ. In the study of Philippians which has been called the epistle of joy, we studied Philippians 2:12-13 - So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. We can see in these two verses a summary of the Christian life, one is what we are to do and the other is what God is to do.
Maybe it could be summarized by the following:
1 Grace comes down
2. Joy rises
3. Love overflows
Each year I have the privilege to study I am more and more convinced of the following:
- learning to living
- root to fruit
- doctrine to delighting
- seeing to savoring
- believing to behaving
In other words right thinking leads to right thinking in the Christian life. Unfortunately in the 20th Century, which will be known as the century of self, many Christians have tried to bypass the right thinking and go to right living. And for many people that means unlearning what they have learned incorrectly. The air of American culture that we breathe everyday is so dangerous to our learning and living the God-centered life. If you can picture a river with a strong current that is flowing swiftly in one direction. Now drop some Christians in that river in which the current is made up of corruption, demonic influences, sin nature, and the world. There is no way you can put your life in neutral because the current will simply sweep you away. Therefore the apostle Paul writes things like "fight the good fight." He uses metaphors for the Christian life of a builder, boxer, a runner and a solider. I have lots of conversations with people in the church as I have taught over the years. There is too little reading of the Bible, meditating, wrestling and discussing of God-centered principles of Christian living. We have delegated those things to Sunday morning and Wednesday nights in Charlotte. But I am proposing a God-centered saturation of learning and living of the Bible to the point that when you bump up against someone or something then you bleed Jesus.
It must start with a learning and knowing the God of the Bible. The best way to do this is to study the whole Bible in which God has graciously revealed Himself to us. Of course we understand the Bible to be everything that we need to know in order to have a personal and intimate relationship with God, but it does not contain everything that is known about God. Christians need to get back to a learning of the basic attributes of God such as:
- sovereignty
- self-sufficiency
- mercy
- grace
- holiness
- justice
- wrath
- love
- omniscience (all knowing)
- omnipresence (all present)
- omnipotence (all powerful)
- immutability (non-changing)
Again the living for God in to produce fruit follows the learning of God as it is the root. This is simplicity through tremendous complexity, as we study what it really means to be the Christian that one says they have become. By this I mean there are hard verses and hard things that we must come to learn about the God of this universe. We must let Scripture stand even when it appears that there are tensions that seem in our minds to be mutually exclusive. One prime example is how the sovereignty of God and the free will of man can co-exist at the same time. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he every hoped to reconcile sovereignty and free will, to which Spurgeon quickly replied "I never try to reconcile friends." American Christians have spent far too little time with the Bibles in hand and far too much time with the TV remote in hand. The Christian life is war, and not a vacation of comfort and convenience at Club Med. Go to this LINK for a quick update.
I am going to be sending out some emails that will give an introductory breakdown in these three phases of study:
1. A delighting in the supremacy of God
2. An enthusiasm and joy that results from us being satisfied in all that God is in Jesus
3. The overflow of love that manifests in holiness and obedience as we live out the Christian life
The teaching overview will begin with the end in mind. Therefore I will present what it looks like to live out the Christian life (stage 3). But as we start our teaching this fall it will begin with knowing the God of the Bible. Hopefully by beginning at the end, it will encourage those to hang in for a one to two year period of teaching, that I am praying will not be informational, but rather transformational in producing radical Christians for Christ!
Blessings,