From chapter 2:
Believing the true Gospel, and responding to it in repentance and belief, is the only way to be saved. The Gospel and its required response, therefore, are the very last things we want to assume that people know – even if some of them insist otherwise. The human heart is astoundingly deceptive (Jer. 17:9), nominalism (being a Christian in name only) has spread in our churches like gangrene, and misunderstandings about the Gospel abound among professing evangelicals, especially regarding its relationship to other religions and its implications for our everyday lives. People need to hear the Gospel – whether they’re professing Christians or not.
2Cor. 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. The implication is that once you try to turn the corner from technique, program, or entertainment to the Gospel, it’s likely that you’ll either lose them, or they will be converted to you, not Christ. The Gospel of Christ has never needed the gimmicks of man to effect conversion in the soul. (p44)
It has been my conviction that one who attends a “real” church should get a “real” Christian education. If I am to attend “every time the doors are open” then why should one attending seminary for only a short duration have any better education than me who spends a lifetime in corporate study? Acts 2:42. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. How serious are we about knowing our great God? I know of only one place where He has given to us His own self-revelation. Should not we be adamant about knowing what He has said? This is the only manner that we will be His light to the world that He desires the salvation thereof. 1Tim2:3-4 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4. who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Coincidence? I think not
I'm reading Joshua Harris' book Not Even a Hint and by the grace of God Josh has returned us this morning to our theme of accountibility.
From page 133:
Alone, isolated, and without accountability, [we become] the perfect target for temptation. Our enemy goes after people who have isolated themselves from other Christians. Stragglers make easy victims. Without other people to encourage them, watch out for them, and confront small compromise in their lives, they often end up drifting into serious sin.
From Paul:
Think of a herd of wildebeasts on the African plains. They are constantly being followed by lions and hyennas. Who are those predators looking for? The weak; be they young, old, or sick. Those predators do not waste their energies on the others. So, the herd is there to protect. Did you know that a giraff can actually kick your head off? Think about what a herd of giraffs can do. But when you seperate that one young, old, or sick giraff from the herd then it becomes dinner.
I believe we who make up the church should always find ourselves in one of two positions: either seeking the protection of the church in our weaknesses through accountibility and confession or seeking to protect those in the church through accountibility and confession. Again, this is impossible without relationships.
Go out there, gather the herd around you, and kick the head off of the sin that so easily entangles.
From page 133:
Alone, isolated, and without accountability, [we become] the perfect target for temptation. Our enemy goes after people who have isolated themselves from other Christians. Stragglers make easy victims. Without other people to encourage them, watch out for them, and confront small compromise in their lives, they often end up drifting into serious sin.
From Paul:
Think of a herd of wildebeasts on the African plains. They are constantly being followed by lions and hyennas. Who are those predators looking for? The weak; be they young, old, or sick. Those predators do not waste their energies on the others. So, the herd is there to protect. Did you know that a giraff can actually kick your head off? Think about what a herd of giraffs can do. But when you seperate that one young, old, or sick giraff from the herd then it becomes dinner.
I believe we who make up the church should always find ourselves in one of two positions: either seeking the protection of the church in our weaknesses through accountibility and confession or seeking to protect those in the church through accountibility and confession. Again, this is impossible without relationships.
Go out there, gather the herd around you, and kick the head off of the sin that so easily entangles.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The Preventative Function of Accountability Relationships
From page 69:
Sin needs darkness to grow--it needs isolation disguised as "privacy," and prideful self-sufficiency disguished as "strength." Once these conditions prevail, sin is watered with the acid of shame, which then makes darkness appear more attractive to the sinner than the light. But when we walk in the light by confessing our sins, we realize that we are not alone in our struggles, and we open ourselves to the protective rebukes and loving corrections that function as pesticidies to curb the destructive and enslaving potential of habitual sin.
From Paul (the pastor not the hurricane):
I appreciate so much the emphasis in the chapter on relationships which make correction possible as well as profitable. I am always prone, like the rest of us, to want to correct someone else's theology, attitude, or behavior while honestly belieiving there is nothing in need of correction in my own theology, attitude, and behavior. But in a real relationship my theology, attitudes, and actions will come out and call for correction.
Here's my question: How do we cultivate those relationships while being so busy?
Sin needs darkness to grow--it needs isolation disguised as "privacy," and prideful self-sufficiency disguished as "strength." Once these conditions prevail, sin is watered with the acid of shame, which then makes darkness appear more attractive to the sinner than the light. But when we walk in the light by confessing our sins, we realize that we are not alone in our struggles, and we open ourselves to the protective rebukes and loving corrections that function as pesticidies to curb the destructive and enslaving potential of habitual sin.
From Paul (the pastor not the hurricane):
I appreciate so much the emphasis in the chapter on relationships which make correction possible as well as profitable. I am always prone, like the rest of us, to want to correct someone else's theology, attitude, or behavior while honestly belieiving there is nothing in need of correction in my own theology, attitude, and behavior. But in a real relationship my theology, attitudes, and actions will come out and call for correction.
Here's my question: How do we cultivate those relationships while being so busy?
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Between Two Worlds: America's God
Between Two Worlds: America's God
I thought this was pretty interesting about how the denominations break down at a glance and also the precentages of how those people view God. Check it out.
Paul
I thought this was pretty interesting about how the denominations break down at a glance and also the precentages of how those people view God. Check it out.
Paul
Reading Dever's synopsis of the Gospel, which I thought was incredibly simplistic but accurate, my first thought was how many of our people would feel that they were being put on the spot and offended. Do we have the relationships even within the church to be able to ask such bold, but simple questions?
Another thing that is not spelled out but is implied is Dever's view of the role of the pastor. It's a view that the pastor's role is much more than what many in Baptist circles would care to enjoy. I would personally like to see that these kinds of questions come from deacons, even Sunday School teachers.
How many of our Sunday School teachers could answer let alone ask their students to explain the Gospel in 60 seconds. Encourage it in your class next Sunday. Take somebody out to lunch that you haven't gotten to know very well; maybe a new member.
We have got to raise the bar in Sunday Schools. Many of us may say, "Amen," but if we don't set the standard and then tell them that there is a standard, they will not live up to it!
Start there building the relationships. It's not enough that the pastor holds us to it, we must, we must hold each other to the standard of being able to explain the Glorious Gospel in 60 seconds, and understand how to live it a lifetime.
On a technical note, when posting make sure that your font is set to "normal size"(12 pic). It seems to cause the template to force everything down below the lowest link. Mark your the culprit.lol.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron
Thursday, October 19, 2006
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
The introduction of this book states that the church of God is the only institution entrusted by God with the message of repentance of sins and belief in Jesus Christ for forgiveness. This single task ultimately displays His glory to His creation. This solitary message is what is known as the gospel – euangelion – the good news or as the Old English says, “Glad tidings.”
The gospel is what grows the church in both the vertical (spiritual) and horizontal (numerical) realm. It does so by protecting the assembly from doctrinal error and moral wickedness. The church must be faithful to this gospel message and trust that Christ will build His church by this very method that He has set forth before us. We, as a church, do not measure success by the count on our membership role but by our faithfulness to remain steadfast to the whole of scripture.
So what is the gospel? The authors of this book have outlined the gospel as:
God is our holy Creator and righteous Judge. He created us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, but we have all sinned, both in Adam as our representative head, and in our own individual actions. Rom. 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, We therefore deserve death – spiritual separation from God in hell. Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph. 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. We, in fact, are spiritually stillborn, helpless in our sins. Ps. 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Rom. 5:6-8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Eph. 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. We are in need of God to impart spiritual life to us. John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." So God sent His Son Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to die the death that we deserved, and He raised Him up for our justification, proving that He was God’s Son. Rom. 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 1:4 declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. If we would have Christ’s perfect righteousness credited to us, and the penalty for out sins accounted to Him, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. 2Cor. 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Old Testament showed us the Law and how helpless that we were in our own efforts to keep it; this is not good news. The New Testament contains this good news that even though we are all sinners we have Jesus Christ as our substitute. He alone paid our sin debt in full making us alive to righteousness and an access to God’s peace. He is Jacob’s ladder.
The introduction of this book states that the church of God is the only institution entrusted by God with the message of repentance of sins and belief in Jesus Christ for forgiveness. This single task ultimately displays His glory to His creation. This solitary message is what is known as the gospel – euangelion – the good news or as the Old English says, “Glad tidings.”
The gospel is what grows the church in both the vertical (spiritual) and horizontal (numerical) realm. It does so by protecting the assembly from doctrinal error and moral wickedness. The church must be faithful to this gospel message and trust that Christ will build His church by this very method that He has set forth before us. We, as a church, do not measure success by the count on our membership role but by our faithfulness to remain steadfast to the whole of scripture.
So what is the gospel? The authors of this book have outlined the gospel as:
God is our holy Creator and righteous Judge. He created us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, but we have all sinned, both in Adam as our representative head, and in our own individual actions. Rom. 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, We therefore deserve death – spiritual separation from God in hell. Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph. 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. We, in fact, are spiritually stillborn, helpless in our sins. Ps. 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Rom. 5:6-8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Eph. 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. We are in need of God to impart spiritual life to us. John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." So God sent His Son Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to die the death that we deserved, and He raised Him up for our justification, proving that He was God’s Son. Rom. 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 1:4 declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. If we would have Christ’s perfect righteousness credited to us, and the penalty for out sins accounted to Him, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. 2Cor. 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Old Testament showed us the Law and how helpless that we were in our own efforts to keep it; this is not good news. The New Testament contains this good news that even though we are all sinners we have Jesus Christ as our substitute. He alone paid our sin debt in full making us alive to righteousness and an access to God’s peace. He is Jacob’s ladder.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
THE DELIBERATE CHURCH
The following will serve as our scheduled reading assignment:
Week of Oct 1 Intro and chapters 1&2
Week of Oct 8 Chapters 3-5
Week of Oct 15 Chapters 6-8
Week of Oct 22 Chapters 9-11
Week of Oct 29 Chapters 12-14
Week of Nov 5 Chapters 15-17
Week of Nov 12 Chapters 18-20
Week of Nov 19 Chapter 21
Monday, October 09, 2006
Christianity Today's top 50 books
You've probably seen the list by now but if you haven't check it out and be surprised. I want to thank Denny Burk at www.dennyburk.com for pointing me to the list.
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