Watch this video: Sanctity of Life Sunday
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Thursday, December 31, 2015
NEW YEAR'S DON'TS
1. Don’t worry about the
year 2016.
Don’t worry about what you
will eat, drink, and wear this year. Your Father in heaven knows your needs.
Instead of worrying, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” and
all your needs will be given to you according to his will (Matt. 6:33).
After all why worry about
the unknown future of 2016 when you can pray. “O what peace we often forfeit, O
what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in
prayer.” Yes, what will take place this year is not known to us, but for us
believers in Christ, we know that God is causing all things to happen for his
glory and for our good (Rom. 8:28-29). And the word good in this
passage ultimately refers to our conformity to the image of Christ. The bitter
events of 2016 will only make us better believers. Let us therefore welcome the
New Year without fear.
2. Don’t boast about the
year 2016.
Don’t brag about what you
will do in 2016; you don’t know what will happen this year (Prov. 27:1). “You
do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist
that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).
Don’t act as if you can
control the future. You are not in control of everything. Don’t think that you
can do and get whatever you want this year. You are not all-powerful. Don’t be
overconfident about your future plans. You are not all-knowing. You don’t even
know if you are still alive tomorrow. Thus learn to qualify your plans by
saying, “If the Lord wills, I will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).
Nevertheless, no matter what happens, God’s will is always best for us because
he is all-wise and all-good.
3. Don’t waste the year
2016.
You waste this year when
you use it only for your own pleasure. Remember the rich fool who said to his
soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be
merry.’” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you,
and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:19-20).
What a wasted life this
rich fool had! He used his time, energy, and resources only for himself. With
God’s help, let’s spend all the days of 2016 for God’s praise. Let’s also seize
all God-given opportunities this year to “do good to everyone, and especially
to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10). Remember, “Only one
life, So soon it will pass, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” A life
spent in the service of Christ is the most meaningful life that anyone can live
in this world.
Have a blessed New Year!
By Brian G. Najapfour
WHY READ THE BIBLE
According to John Piper, here are 7 reasons to read the Bible:
1. God, the creator of the universe, the one who holds
all things in being, and who therefore knows everything there is to know, and
who is infinitely wise, and full of grace and truth — this God inspired the
writers of the Bible in such a way that the Christian Scriptures are the
infallible word of God.
2. Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, who was with God
and was God from all eternity, stands at the central hinge of history and
pledges his absolute allegiance to the Old Testament as the inerrant word of
God, and pledges his absolute commitment to bring the fullness of God’s written
revelation to completion in the New Testament.
3. The word of God to us in the Bible is complete.
4. In the Bible, we see God — more surely and more
clearly than anywhere else.
5. By the word, God gave us life. Life from spiritual
deadness. Life that lives by union with his life. Life that will last forever.
6. The warfare against soul-destroying sin is won by
the word of God.
7. By the word God imparts to us the very joy that his
Son has in himself.
See the full article; http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-one-must-read-this-year
Worth considering as we start a New Year!!
Friday, December 18, 2015
7 WAYS TO BECOME A BETTER SERMON LISTENER
By Stephen Ash
Editors’ note: This article is the second installment a multi-part series on expository preaching that will run each week in December. The series is part of our new Expository Preaching Project. TGC Council pastors are preparing free instructional resources on expository preaching in both video and print formats in six strategic languages. We are prayerfully seeking to raise $100,000 this month to fund the project. Generous partners have offered a 50 percent match ($50,000) of all dollars given up to $100,000 by December 31. To make a donation, please click here and select “Expository Preaching” from the designation list. For a more expansive treatment of how to listen to expository preaching, see Christopher Ash’s book Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (Good Book Company, 2009).
Previously:
“6 Ways Not to Preach the Birth of Christ” by Steve Mathewson
How to listen to a sermon? you may think. What a silly subject. After all, it would be pointless to write on “how to watch TV.” And listening to a sermon is even easier than watching TV, since I don’t have to deal with the remote control. It’s a passive activity, something preached to me, not something I actively do.
Ah, but it’s not. After the parable of the sower, Jesus says: “Consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18). He says if we listen in one way, we will be given more, but if we listen in another way, even what we think we have will be taken from us. It’s a life-and-death business, listening to sermons. So let us consider carefully how to listen. Here are seven pointers.
1. Expect God to speak.
Although we are listening to sound waves produced by human vocal chords, if the preacher is opening up the Bible then we are actually listening to the authoritative voice of God. “If anyone speaks,” Peter writes about Bible teaching in church, “he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pet. 4:11). And if anyone listens to a faithful sermon, he should do so as if hearing the very words of God.
Pray during the week for next Sunday’s preacher. Pray for yourself and those who go to church with you. Come to the sermon as physically and mentally fresh and attentive as you possibly can. Quiet your mind and heart and expect God to speak. “Lord, speak to me. I am listening.”
2. Admit God knows better than you do.
When Timothy preached in Ephesus, Paul warned him that many would “not put up with sound [health-giving] doctrine,” but would desire for the preacher “to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3). By nature we all want that. We want the sermon to make us feel better about ourselves, to boost our self-esteem, to reinforce our preexisting prejudices.
But when God speaks, he calls me day by day, week by week, to turn from sin and to trust in Christ. He calls me to “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted” in me (James 1:21). I need to sit under the Word in humility, not over it in judgment. God is God and I am not. I must be ready, then, to adjust my opinions, my beliefs, my heart, my life.
3. Make sure the preacher says what the passage says.
Our question is how to listen to an expository sermon. Every sermon should open up from Scripture the meaning God has already put into Scripture. In this sense, every sermon should be expository—exposing what’s there. The alternative is “impositional” preaching in which the preacher imposes a meaning on the text. Of course, some sermons expound one passage while others expound verses from more than one passage. The advantage of the former is that it’s easier to ensure the preacher says what the passage says.
The authority of the preacher doesn’t come from his office (pastor, minister, or whatever) or his powerful personality. It is entirely a delegated authority. When he says what Scripture says, he speaks with authority; when he does not, he has no authority. A friend once said to me that when his pastor preached, he would have his Bible open and ask, “Where did he get that from?” It’s a good question. If I can see he got it from the passage, I should bow and repent and believe; if not, I shouldn’t.
Be humble but not gullible. Read the passage during the week leading up to the sermon. Ponder it. You don’t have to be an academic to do this. What’s the main idea? Is the central thrust of the sermon the central thrust of the passage?
4. Hear the sermon in church.
It is possible to hear sermons from downloads, alone, in our own time, at our own convenience. This is not a bad thing, but it’s not the best thing. God’s standard pattern is for his people to assemble (“church” means “assembly”) and sit under his Word together.
Listening to sermons is not a “me and God” thing; it’s a “God shaping us together” thing. We listen together. We hold one another accountable. I’ve heard the sermon; you know I’ve heard it; now you know I’ve heard it. You expect me to respond appropriately, and I expect you to. We help one another, stirring one another up to godly living as we gather together (Heb. 10:24–25).
5. Be there week by week.
Be regular in church. We breathe the cultural air of anti-commitment. It’s so easy to drift in and out, sitting on the edge as spectators. But the commitment to consistently gather with your covenant family is important.
God doesn’t give us quick fixes that come from hearing one or two Sunday sermons; he shapes and molds our minds, our hearts, and our character over time by the steady drip, drip, drip of his Word. We need to hear Christ proclaimed again and again. As Peter puts it, “I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them” (2 Pet. 1:12). Consider keeping a record of the Sundays you are—or are not—in church. You may be shocked at how often you’re away. Resolve to be there regularly, both for your own good and the good of those around you.
6. Do what the Bible says.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves,” the apostle writes. “Do what it says” (James 1:22). The purpose of sermons isn’t to make us know-it-alls, but to make us like Jesus. We are to be those who “hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” of godly character (Luke 8:15). We don’t come to the preaching of God’s Word to be entertained or to have our brain cells tickled by intellectual displays or to have our emotions swayed by manipulative oratory. We come to hear, to worship, and to obey.
After the Sunday sermon, think about some concrete way in which you will obey the preached Word. Write it down. Tell someone what it is. It may be something to start doing, or to stop doing. It may be words to speak, or to stop speaking. Most of all, it will be an attitude or desire of the heart. It may help to keep a journal Sunday by Sunday. Return to past entries from time to time and review your progress. Ask yourself how God is at work in you through his Word. You may be surprised and encouraged.
7. Do what the Bible says today—and rejoice.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” So says Psalm 95, and so says the writer of Hebrews quoting it (Heb. 3:15). Today. There is an urgency to our hearing. Don’t put it off till tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come.
And then rejoice. Be glad God caused the Bible to be written exactly as he wanted. Be glad for the good news of all he’s given us in Christ. If you are a believer, be glad your name is written in heaven. Let each time you sit with your covenant family in Christ listening to a sermon be a time of fresh repentance, fresh reliance, and fresh obedience to your King.
Previously:
“6 Ways Not to Preach the Birth of Christ” by Steve Mathewson
How to listen to a sermon? you may think. What a silly subject. After all, it would be pointless to write on “how to watch TV.” And listening to a sermon is even easier than watching TV, since I don’t have to deal with the remote control. It’s a passive activity, something preached to me, not something I actively do.
Ah, but it’s not. After the parable of the sower, Jesus says: “Consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18). He says if we listen in one way, we will be given more, but if we listen in another way, even what we think we have will be taken from us. It’s a life-and-death business, listening to sermons. So let us consider carefully how to listen. Here are seven pointers.
1. Expect God to speak.
Although we are listening to sound waves produced by human vocal chords, if the preacher is opening up the Bible then we are actually listening to the authoritative voice of God. “If anyone speaks,” Peter writes about Bible teaching in church, “he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pet. 4:11). And if anyone listens to a faithful sermon, he should do so as if hearing the very words of God.
Pray during the week for next Sunday’s preacher. Pray for yourself and those who go to church with you. Come to the sermon as physically and mentally fresh and attentive as you possibly can. Quiet your mind and heart and expect God to speak. “Lord, speak to me. I am listening.”
2. Admit God knows better than you do.
When Timothy preached in Ephesus, Paul warned him that many would “not put up with sound [health-giving] doctrine,” but would desire for the preacher “to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3). By nature we all want that. We want the sermon to make us feel better about ourselves, to boost our self-esteem, to reinforce our preexisting prejudices.
But when God speaks, he calls me day by day, week by week, to turn from sin and to trust in Christ. He calls me to “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted” in me (James 1:21). I need to sit under the Word in humility, not over it in judgment. God is God and I am not. I must be ready, then, to adjust my opinions, my beliefs, my heart, my life.
3. Make sure the preacher says what the passage says.
Our question is how to listen to an expository sermon. Every sermon should open up from Scripture the meaning God has already put into Scripture. In this sense, every sermon should be expository—exposing what’s there. The alternative is “impositional” preaching in which the preacher imposes a meaning on the text. Of course, some sermons expound one passage while others expound verses from more than one passage. The advantage of the former is that it’s easier to ensure the preacher says what the passage says.
The authority of the preacher doesn’t come from his office (pastor, minister, or whatever) or his powerful personality. It is entirely a delegated authority. When he says what Scripture says, he speaks with authority; when he does not, he has no authority. A friend once said to me that when his pastor preached, he would have his Bible open and ask, “Where did he get that from?” It’s a good question. If I can see he got it from the passage, I should bow and repent and believe; if not, I shouldn’t.
Be humble but not gullible. Read the passage during the week leading up to the sermon. Ponder it. You don’t have to be an academic to do this. What’s the main idea? Is the central thrust of the sermon the central thrust of the passage?
4. Hear the sermon in church.
It is possible to hear sermons from downloads, alone, in our own time, at our own convenience. This is not a bad thing, but it’s not the best thing. God’s standard pattern is for his people to assemble (“church” means “assembly”) and sit under his Word together.
Listening to sermons is not a “me and God” thing; it’s a “God shaping us together” thing. We listen together. We hold one another accountable. I’ve heard the sermon; you know I’ve heard it; now you know I’ve heard it. You expect me to respond appropriately, and I expect you to. We help one another, stirring one another up to godly living as we gather together (Heb. 10:24–25).
5. Be there week by week.
Be regular in church. We breathe the cultural air of anti-commitment. It’s so easy to drift in and out, sitting on the edge as spectators. But the commitment to consistently gather with your covenant family is important.
God doesn’t give us quick fixes that come from hearing one or two Sunday sermons; he shapes and molds our minds, our hearts, and our character over time by the steady drip, drip, drip of his Word. We need to hear Christ proclaimed again and again. As Peter puts it, “I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them” (2 Pet. 1:12). Consider keeping a record of the Sundays you are—or are not—in church. You may be shocked at how often you’re away. Resolve to be there regularly, both for your own good and the good of those around you.
6. Do what the Bible says.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves,” the apostle writes. “Do what it says” (James 1:22). The purpose of sermons isn’t to make us know-it-alls, but to make us like Jesus. We are to be those who “hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” of godly character (Luke 8:15). We don’t come to the preaching of God’s Word to be entertained or to have our brain cells tickled by intellectual displays or to have our emotions swayed by manipulative oratory. We come to hear, to worship, and to obey.
After the Sunday sermon, think about some concrete way in which you will obey the preached Word. Write it down. Tell someone what it is. It may be something to start doing, or to stop doing. It may be words to speak, or to stop speaking. Most of all, it will be an attitude or desire of the heart. It may help to keep a journal Sunday by Sunday. Return to past entries from time to time and review your progress. Ask yourself how God is at work in you through his Word. You may be surprised and encouraged.
7. Do what the Bible says today—and rejoice.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” So says Psalm 95, and so says the writer of Hebrews quoting it (Heb. 3:15). Today. There is an urgency to our hearing. Don’t put it off till tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come.
And then rejoice. Be glad God caused the Bible to be written exactly as he wanted. Be glad for the good news of all he’s given us in Christ. If you are a believer, be glad your name is written in heaven. Let each time you sit with your covenant family in Christ listening to a sermon be a time of fresh repentance, fresh reliance, and fresh obedience to your King.
Monday, December 7, 2015
2014 TIME MAGAZINE - PERSON OF THE YEAR
I never really questioned, “Why me?” in the midst of it all.
God never promised that if we followed Him, we would always be safe. Doing good
doesn’t protect you from danger when you are doing good in a dangerous
situation. But there is peace, even in the midst of danger, when you know that
you are following God’s calling. The harder question for me is not, “Why did I
get Ebola?” but rather, “Why did I get such special treatment while so many in
Liberia were dying?” Dr Kent Bradley
(http://www.boundless.org/blog/5-questions-with-a-time-magazine-person-of-the-year/)
Monday, November 9, 2015
The 6 Assassins of A Man's Contentment by Darrin Patrick
You have enemies as you try to live as a content man.
Most of the time we think the enemies are from without—people around us and
circumstances upon us. But the true enemies of contentment are within in us,
which is where contentment is either fed or starved. At the heart of
contentment is an embrace of the present and a willingness to enjoy the good
things we have right now. These enemies distract us from the present and prompt
us to either idolize or demonize our past and future. We either worship or hate
the past or future, but doing so makes it impossible to embrace the glory of
the contented life.
The following 6 assassins are at work within you to
destroy your enjoyment of the life God has given you...
1. Regret
Sometimes we should regret things. If we make bad
decisions, if we hurt other people, we need to acknowledge our mistakes and
feel their weight. But some men allow their regrets to turn into a cancer of
self-loathing that undermines their ability to make balanced and healthy
stories out of their lives.
2. Nostalgia
In the words of Don Draper, nostalgia is “delicate, but
potent. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.” It
recalls to mind the successes and joys of the past, while suffocating our
ability to enjoy the present. Our lives can never escape the unrealistic burden
of having to measure where we are now according to a standard set a year or
decade ago.
3. Fear
Some people are so consumed by their fear of what will
come tomorrow that they are paralyzed today. They worry that if they enjoy
something too much, they will be devastated if it goes away. As a result, they
are always hedging their bets, always pulling back at the last second from the
edge of truly enjoying life. Their fear becomes a self-fulfilling cycle of
discontentment.
4. Vision
To have vision for the future is a good thing, but some
men become blind to the present. They can’t appreciate what they have now
because they’re waiting to achieve the goals that will finally turn their life
around. These men are greyhounds chasing the rabbit around a track with no
finish line.
5. Multitasking
Multitasking spreads our attention across many
activities, but keeps us from fully engaging any of them. There is no sense of
completion for the multitasker because there is always something undone. When
we multitask we don’t give ourselves fully to anything. Instead, we give some
of ourselves to everything. This nullifies the reward of seeing one thing to
the end.
6. Hurriedness
Busyness is doing all the things that we are responsible
for, but hurriedness is the frantic mental and emotional state we experience
that accompanies our busyness. Hurried people can’t celebrate (which is the
secret sauce of contentment) because they are focused on the next thing on
their to-do list.
These assassins are deadly because they hide in the inner
recesses of our hearts and enable us to have a certain degree of productivity.
But the victory is short-lived.
Contentment is the fuel for a life well-lived
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