The Meditations of an Average Pastor

Blog Moved

2011-08-20T14:43:00.000-04:00

Due to problems with this current blog I will be moving my blog to--http://brianwjohnson.wordpress.com/

It will take a few days for me to get everything set up...

A Post I Like

2011-08-15T19:20:00.001-04:00

Cripplegate blog has has set of articles recently that I have enjoyed. This is a blog by pastors for pastors, but I think it can be beneficial for anyone. The blog also has multiple contributors, which I tend to enjoy reading from the different authors.

The article I would like to refer to is the one regarding Paul Washer--Jesse Johnson wrote the blog. Paul Washer is a controversial figure who is put down or discounted by numerous people. He is also revered highly by many, as are most controversial figures. Controversy is fine, but much controversy happens as the result of the shallow judgment of sound bites and incomplete information. This judgment is not always wrong, but most often reflects our biases; this isn’t always bad, but care and wisdom must be exercised.

Nonetheless, I think that this blog entry by Jesse is helpful in the ongoing process of learning how to ethically, biblically, and with humble fairness conduct ourselves in the realm of social media. Don't misunderstand, the author of the blog is commenting about Washer and how he views him, but I benefited because he helped me think through the way I view others as a result of limited exposure in sound bites, video clips, and terse criticisms or resounding praise. Anyway, here is the link; http://thecripplegate.com/paul-washer-on-homiletics/#more-1114

Saying a lot of nothing

2011-08-10T09:37:00.000-04:00

Recently I have been reading a number of different blogs. By different, I mean blogs those outside my normal circle of reading--I am still am still considering the value of blogs, social media, and other means of popular communication. Also, I have been unable to blog lately as I no longer have internet in my office and have been thrown off my groove. But now I'm back to it... I hope.

Anyway, back to where I started; reading around a little. In general, volumes are being written, but not much is being said. Now, I'm not saying nothing is being said, but much of what is being said is hype, regurgitation, and cheap reproduction slapped with a different veneer, or the meandering of the simple, such as myself. Some seem to be selling something such as a conference, a book, an experience, themselves, or even Jesus, while others are justifying their own ideas and finding freedom in the faceless world of facebook. All of this is hard to shuffle through in the sea of voices competing for an audience.

I too am one in that flooded market. Competing to be heard for my own sake is not my ambition, which only complicates matters. Complication arises in everyone's personal assessment of his or her motives as good and pure. However, even though 'every way of a man is right in his own eyes... the Lord weights the heart.'

Hopefully, with God honoring motives, I see in my reading and in people's lives a contradiction in practice, which is true in every epoch of man as well as in my own life, which needs to be minimized if possible. One of the major inconsistency in practice is the intellectual arrogance of the current milieu, ironically coupled with the intellectual laziness of the current milieu. (And yes, I recognize the use of milieu smacks with delicious satire or paradox in the current sentence, it depends on who is reading. Then again, my mom and my wife are the readers...)

Intellectual arrogance is evidenced with self-praise of enlightened intelligence, superior knowledge, along with abundance of information and technological advance, as though man has some how evolved. This evolution has placed humanity at its pinnacle proclaiming that mankind can do anything. The current context in the pages of history seems different than any before, but then again, all things are common to all men. So maybe this era is not as unique as boasted. I believe similar boasting in what man can achieve is what led God to scatter and confuse the people in Genesis 11.

Without a doubt, in some respect this age is distinct, which is true of every period in history, although uniqueness fades after communicating the superiority of this age, as has been done through out the ages. Blowing the horn of superiority because of the multiplicaiton of information, and yet being yoked to the inconsequential, the frivolous, and the utterly foolish nature of what arrests people's attention is nothing more than than the expression of this time period being similar to every other period of mankind.

New mediums of communication, increased access to information, and an increase in knowledge does not presuppose an increase in wisdom, understanding, and superiority. Currently people communicate a lot about nothing, which is exactly what is desired, but this reveals nothing about superiority, as many assume. Not many want to labor to exercise their 'enlightened intellect,' rather messages need to be short, stories need to be told, and propositional truth needs to be abandoned.

In reality people are lazy, unwilling to think, unwilling to labor to understand, which is no different than ages past. If understanding is not gained immediately, then it is assumed that it cannot be known or it is not worth being known--this is not a new assumption. However, the freedom to bounce to another set of information is relatively new, and the assumption that this makes the current era superior to all others is simply blinding arrogance.

Then again here I am blogging... saying a lot of nothing.

Prayerless Prayers

2011-04-05T21:16:00.002-04:00

Recently a question from the DGM blog regarding your main prayer for yourself has been a great advantage for me. Examining my own heart, remembering my continual prayer, and seeking to pinpoint my most frequent request of the Father has been revealing. My pray is for strength. Not for a bigger bench press, but for spiritual strength in Christ to bring Him glory. My prayer, in part, has been modeled after Ephesians 6:10, which is an admonition to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Even though at times my prayer is vague, it has been continuous. I have variously defined how, why, and what I need strength for, but most often it is for the sake of His name. Here is a short prayer I often pray:

“Lord, for the glory of Father, and the sake of His holy name, may I be strong in you Jesus. Grant me gospel strength to live in the gospel and to possess great gospel wisdom in any and every situation, Amen.”

Sometimes, slightly modified, this is a prayer before I answer the phone, sometimes it is a prayer before I walk in the house, and most often it is the prayer as I get out of bed. I believe this is a good request. Yet I find myself being prayerless in my prayers, especially this frequent prayer. Perverting an otherwise good prayer by heartless repetition is dangerous. Great danger rests in the subtle morphing of the prayer, as strength is requested for its own sake. Requesting strength for the sake of being stalwart and mighty extends well beyond the borders of self-adulation. Sadly, my continual appeal has become a plea for the difficult to become easy, with comfort in mind, not God’s glory.

I am rebuked in my sin. Thank you Jesus. Father, grant me repentance, may I then desire your glory and not my own. May my prayer for strength be a request to stand strong in your might. May my request be that God's glory be known. May I be prayerful in my praying. May you correct me when I stray.

So now I ask you:

What is the most common prayer of your heart?
Have you been prayerless in this prayer?
How has your flesh perverted this prayer to meet its own ends?

Joy in Dependence

2011-03-16T21:31:00.003-04:00

Confessing the need for dependence upon God in all things garners the approval of Christians. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to witness a Christian display characteristics in demonstration of their self-reliance.

This is not a crass statement against believers who have not attained to a level of spirituality that this author arrogantly supposes to have grasped; rather, it is an observation. Completely trusting in Christ Jesus at all times, in all ways, and for all things in total absolute and unmitigated dependence is not a simple and passive walk in the park. The Christian life is filled with perilous difficulty where the believer is tempted to trust in his/her own wares. Now, this is not a 'long is the row I hoe' lament where feeling sorry for one's self is going to be baptized in Christian ease. Here is my advice; get over yourself, trust in Jesus fully, find joy in Him alone. Resting in Christ Jesus through every circumstance only makes Him shine brighter.

Instead of spiraling down into the pit of despair where no joy can be found, where difficulty surrounds its victims breathing threats of hopeless-futility, stand as a dependent of Christ and joyfully rest in the arms of the Great Shepherd. In Christ Jesus, indestructible joy transcends the circumstances of this world and a believer can stand in the joy of dependence upon God. A Christian's joy is found not in things of the world but in the unvarnished inheritance kept in heaven, which is secure in hope of future glory, where there is great joy. Joy does not come from the ability to succeed, doing what is right, or favorable circumstances; rather, joy is found in Jesus alone, with hope of future glory, while trusting in Christ.

Read carefully. Even if this appears like 'pie in the sky' reasoning, where life is dimly lit with hues of grey only to be swept away in the end; it is because the magnitude of God's glory in the current life cannot be fully grasped. Yet, it is not as though God's glory has not be revealed. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork," Ps 19:1. If God's glory is dimmed, it is because the truth of God is suppressed in the unrighteousness of men. If joy is dimmed, it is due to dependence upon something other than the immortal and invisible God.

If God cannot be seen for who He is, then the joy of depending upon Him will ever be elusive. If God's glory is unattractive and feeble in the eyes of man, it is due to a lack of spiritual discernment and not because God's glory is dull or pale. When grasped rightly, the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ brings great joy, not merely in the future, but here and now. There is great joy in beholding the glory of God; this joy is manifest in unmitigated dependence upon the Almighty.

The joy of dependence comes when this life is held loosely, and the things of the world are esteemed rightly. Joy comes when the all sufficient Master Jesus Christ is held tightly and He is rightly esteemed.

Care and Concern for The Precious Few

2011-03-14T05:14:00.000-04:00

This week marks the fourth year that I have served as a pastor in Southern Indiana. I have had many new experiences as a pastor; some good and some not so good. In spite of myself, I am learning and growing in grace by the sovereign might of my Savior and Lord. As a pastor, my care for the precious few has not been perfect, yet I have grown to love the people. As my vision for the glory of Christ increases, I am growing in affection for them.

Over the last four years, I have developed a major concern with the abundance of nominal religious affiliation, which characterizes the community I live in. Many claim to know God and worship him, but their life is only different from the world because of religious activities, rather than genuine religious affections. Numerous people claim to know Jesus Christ, yet they do not follow Him. This lament seems all too common in the pervasive culture, yet it rings true when the pulse is taken in regard to genuine Christianity.

Seeking to understand who is genuinely following Christ and deciding the nature of an individual's Christian faith is a sticky business. Being a judge with evil thoughts comes all too easy. Not everyone who has a weekly religious experiences can be rightly considered a genuine believe. Church attendance does not makes a Christian nor does calling oneself a Christian. For most Christians, this issue bears little concern, as they simply want to let love be genuine while hoping all things, or so goes the refrain. In reality, it is just simpler to not get involved.

If a person claims to be in Christ, it is important take their word for it. Right? Is it anyone's concern if someone is or is not a genuine follower of Jesus? Isn't this a personal matter to be left alone for the person and God to decide?

Yes and No is the answer to the afore mentioned questions. Why? How can it be both yes and no? It needs to be affirmed that a person does need to decide to follow Christ. However, in our highly individualized society the truth must also be affirmed that the decision to follow Christ is accompanied with actually following Him and doing so in the body of Christ. Being united to Christ by faith not only unites one to Christ, but also to His body, the church. So, as a member of a new covenant community by faith in Jesus, a believer must pursue covenant commitments in Christ with His church.

As a shepherd I have great concern for those who have been placed in my charge. The concern is that they actually know Jesus and not merely possess some information about Him. Shepherds, teachers, and church leaders will give account for the souls they shepherd, which is monumentally important in discerning the genuineness of heart in a professing convert. This concern is not only for those in the flock, but also those in the community.

Scripture is not silent about knowing if people have been genuinely converted. The apostle Paul proclaims in Romans 6:17-18 his thanks to God for people becoming obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which they were committed. He teaches that by faith in Jesus believers have been set free from sin and become slaves of God. In 1 Thessalonians 1:4, 5, the author states that he knows the professors of Christ in Thessalonica are genuine; he goes so far as to actually state that they are loved of God and chosen by Him. Colossians 1:28, 29 further notes a shepherd should be proclaiming, warning, and teaching with all wisdom, so that they (the flock) might be presented mature in Christ. This passage carries the implication of one seeking to understand who is genuine amongst those who profess faith in Christ.

Thus, as an overseer of souls, it is of the greatest significance that I patiently proclaim, warn, and teach with wisdom, so that everyone may be found mature in Christ, on the day of the Lord. It becomes clear in a few short verses that discerning the genuineness of faith is not for judgment, but for the guidance of a person in their walk of life that they might be found as obedient slaves of Jesus Christ.

Glory Beyond Comprehension

2011-02-18T19:09:00.000-05:00

God's glory exceeds the understanding of all who look up Him. Incomprehensible is the manifest glory of God, and yet He has made himself known to all through His creation, through His Word, and even in the hearts of men He has written His law. God's glory is beyond comprehension, yet all who receive Him and believe in His name, become children of God beholding His glory.

Why the transcendent Commander of all things, who is great and glorious beyond measure, has set His affection upon His bride, the church, is beyond me. Don't misunderstand. I rejoice in the truth of God's holy condescension. I rejoice that God has let His glory be known, and I exalt His merciful-compassion. Yet there is a mystery to such grace. Awe, wonder, and joy reside in the undimmed magnificence of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. As a member of the body of Christ, united to Christ by faith, I stand with an awe-struck veneration of the glorious One choosing inglorious me.

Which leads to rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, knowing that one day His bride will be shrouded in His glory. God's glory, beyond comprehension, will surround those whom He has cleansed through Jesus Christ. Isaiah 4:5 paints this beautiful scene, "Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy." Covering over the glory that God places around His people will be a canopy providing an environment of intimate love, where the Lord of glory bathes His bride in oceans of love. Through the blood of Christ, His bride's sins are cleansed allowing eternal pleasures to be enjoyed forevermore by those who once stood as the inglorious enemies of the immortal God.

The self-disclosure of God is good news beyond comprehension. His ways are inscrutable and His judgments unsearchable. Though we do not yet see Him, we know that His glory is beyond measure. Therefore, as God has said, 'let light shine out of darkness' and has shone, in the hearts of those who believe, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, let us then cry out, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."--Psalm 73:25, 26

Gospel Attitude

2011-02-12T11:26:00.001-05:00

What is a gospel attitude? It is the attitude that followers of Jesus Christ must carry as they traverse life. Although gospel attitude could simply mean an attitude about the gospel, I would like to define it more particularly.

A Gospel Attitude is the intellectual position, which has feelings arising from reconciliation with God, as a result of faith in His Son, assumed for the purpose of living by faith.

A Gospel Attitude is the knowledge that bears a response regarding the mercies of God, held for the specific purpose of being a living sacrifice.

A Gospel Attitude is the mental position, which bears emotions reckoning the righteousness and love of God, in order that love will be genuine.

A Gospel Attitude is the cognitive understanding that is characterized by an emotive response, because of the gospel of God, assumed for the specific purpose of glorifying God.

Each definition has the same components; thinking, feelings, and acting. Each component illustrates how humans are made in the image of God, as people are intellectual, emotional, and volitional creatures. Objections might be raised at many points, specifically regarding the nature of the emotions in response to the truths of the gospel. What is not being advocated is the necessity of running around waving the Jesus flag, while speaking in tongues, in a great outburst of emotions. What is being upheld is the biblical truth that the whole of a person must be affected by the gospel, even if an emotive response is nothing more than a settled and quiet joy in Jesus, thus propelling obedience.

Why be more particular? Why use such a phrase? What is the motivation for this effort? Well, as I study and preach through the book of Romans, it has become more evident that those who are born again Christians must have a particular mindset with which they operate in the world. This distinct mindset is to encompass the whole of the Christian intellectually, emotionally, and volitionally. Defining the phrase 'gospel attitude' in a clear manner is necessary, as the definition seems to encompass the truth of founding moral and ethical injunctions upon the truth statements of the gospel. In essence, the imperative is grounded upon the indicative.

Nothing novel. Nothing new. Call it a Christian worldview. However, the broad sweep of a phrase like 'Christian worldview,' can fail in expressing the particular all-encompassing mindset centered upon the gospel that believers must possess. Christian worldview can mean anything from a politically conservative mental framework to a worldview that is developed biblically, and everything in between.

Gospel attitude, on the other hand, is a less broad way of thinking, which is not simply ideological thinking; rather, it is a whole life-saturated pattern of biblical thinking, feeling, and acting. Gospel attitude, in many ways, is synonymous with biblical worldview or Christian worldview, yet it seems to press the heart of the individual more fully.

The commands of Scripture for a definite attitude determined off of the gospel is very evident, particularly as I study the later chapters of Romans. Following a set of rules, commands, and ethical injunctions with heartless and legalistic zeal is pointless; rather, a heartfelt attitude of obedience in godliness is of great value.

Defining attitude at this point will be helpful--An attitude is a settled way of thinking and feeling about someone or something, and is typically reflexive of that person’s behavior. The impossibility of changing an attitude is equal to the impossibility of changing the human heart apart from the divine work of regeneration and sanctification. God desires for us is a gospel attitude. A gospel attitude is the settled way of thinking and feeling about the gospel of God that must be reflexive of a Christian's behavior. An attitude founded upon anything else will end in eternal hell fire.

Thinking and feeling in a Christian's life ushers from the regenerative work of the Spirit of God. Due to the gospel, Christians must mature in an attitude that is characteristic of the gospel. Those who have faith in Jesus Christ are to have a gospel attitude! Not an attitude about the gospel of God, but one that is powered and fueled by the truths of the good news of Jesus Christ dying for His bride.

Spiritual Gifts (Prt 2) Selfishness veiled in self-professed, corporate selflessness.

2011-02-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

In my last post, I wrote about spiritual gifts and how they have been given to Christians for the upbuilding of the body of Christ. I wrote about how they are not given to fulfill Christians or to provide them with self-worth and value. However incompletely I may have addressed the question regarding the reasons for using the gifts, let the reader understand this; by making spiritual gifts the chief-end in a disciple of Christ's life, a treason tantamount to idolatry is perpetrated. Children of God are to be worshipers of God using their gifts in the body, so that each part may work properly together being built up in love. Spiritual gifts are purposed for God's glory.

While glorifying God is the ultimate end of these gifts, the building up of the church is a natural result of exercising them within the body. The growth of the church is important as some plant, some water, and God gives the increase. Growth in unity, showing deference to one another in love, and a corporate mentality of grace is not only desirable, but it is also a necessary characterization for the people of God.

Possessing a corporate mentality is requisite within the body of Christ where the gifts are employed. The biblical understanding of a corporate mentality is supposed to be a selfless mindset, i.e., the first shall be last... Giving, teamwork, and common goals shared by every member of the group are the corporate responsiblity of the congregation.

Nonetheless, this corporate mentality can be inverted into a model of corporate self-centeredness by misunderstanding the reason that spiritual gifts must be used. Churches can invert the biblical mentality of the body in motivating the use of spiritual gifts, by propagating that the gifts provide purpose. Self-gratification, self-esteem, and purpose are not the impetus of spiritual gifts. Yet, the average church goer is taught that these gifts are for the fulfillment of the individual. In turn, church attendants have the appearance of godliness, as they appear to be selflessly serving in the corporate structures of the church. The result of this teaching is that churches are great at serving themselves, entertaining themselves, and feeding themselves. Inadvertently, this makes such seemingly selfless corporate deeds nothing more than a facade to mask the idolatrous heart of man.

Don't misunderstand, disciples of Christ should and will find great joy in using the gift God has given for the building up of the church; however, Christians must not not find their sole significance in the gifts. The purpose of a child of God is to bring glory to the Father, as they have been created for such ends (1 Cor 10:31; Isa 43:7). It is in Christ that a believer has purpose--He is the life of those who are in Him (Col 3:4).

While gifts do strengthen the church, God has not given gifts to the body of Christ to build themselves up for their own sake. The church does not exist solely for the purpose of the church. Exhorting believers to find their purpose in spiritual gifts fosters expressions of worship that tend toward an idolatrous worldview, conveying subtly that God exists for the church. Even when veiled in corporate lingo, the building up of the body of Christ is self-serving when it happens for the sake of the religious institutions, denominational affiliation, bragging rights as being the big church in town, or any number of derivations. These all demonstrate a selfishness veiled in self-professed, corporate selflessness.

God does not exist for the church. Rather, the church is the bride, whom exists for God, whom He created for His glory. God's children have been created by him, saved for him, and exist in him; all of their existence is for the one and only Master. In worshiping God, His children are to recognize and operate in the understanding that their existence is for Christ alone. Their gifts are used for something greater than the individual and greater than the whole, namely, GOD.

This subtle methodological blunder, though baptized in Scripture, is as dangerous as it is prevalent within the body. At the root, it will inflate the egos of celebrity-like leaders, seek the establishment of denominational empires, all the while seeking to provide the consumer with yet another product that will satisfy. The purpose of the church is different. Beware the corporate America mentality coupled with a consumer-driven disposition, which is a fertile forum for idol producing factories that yield fruit leading to death. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

Spiritual Gifts For The Glory of God (Prt 1)

2011-01-29T17:02:00.004-05:00

God has given specific gifts to every Christian, entrusting them with the tools necessary to operate according to His plan. Scripture also reveals that God desires believers to faithfully steward these precious gifts. Thus, followers of Jesus should seek to know what gift they have been given.

Staying true to cultural trends, the church has developed various methods to ascertain an individual's gifts. Attempting to simplify the discovery of these gifts, spiritual gift inventories have been developed. The purpose of these inventories is to locate and evaluate a person's giftedness in order that each Christian might be better equipped. Even so, with such consumer friendly resources, confessing Christians encounter difficulties in using their gifts. The first and obvious problem, attempted to be overcome by the aforementioned test, is not knowing how one is gifted. Once the gift is made known, having a poorly conceived notion of what the church is and how the gifts are used is detrimental. Worse yet, spiritual lethargy creeps in and motivating believers to use these gifts becomes another obstacle. All those difficulties affirmed, the use of the gifts is necessary for the proper working of the body of Christ.

Counteracting the problems of ignorance, misconception, and lethargy can be done through various means. One insipid, yet common, method of inspiring the use of the gifts is to teach believers that the gifts provide purpose. While it is the responsibility of those in Christ to be faithful stewards of their gifts, these precious endowments are not meant to be a Christian's purpose in life.

Yet the machine of the church must press on. Exploiting the biblical principle of spiritual gifts in an effort to give those in the church purpose appears to be harmless until the question, ‘why?’ is asked. One might complain that it doesn't matter why the gifts are used, as long as Christians are using them, because this is what is commanded. This question might seem to be juvenile, much like an inquisitive five year old who asks ‘Why?’ incessantly, but this question is much more substantial. Why should Christians use their spiritual gifts? Should they be used for the sake of giving purpose and duty? Are the gifts of God in general our chief end?

Now, to fully answer these questions requires extending beyond the current topic, but it must be understood from this short line of questioning the extent of this seemingly small problem. Should these gifts be a believers chief end? No, they must not be used for this end.

Why then should believers use their spiritual gifts? The importance of answering this is to demonstrate that the end does not justify the means. Spiritual gifts are the means to achieve man's purpose and are not an end in themselves. So, WHY should believers use spiritual gifts?

Christians are to be living sacrifices, by the mercies of God, not being conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind, to discern the will of God. With a renewed mind Christians then are fit to use their gifting as living sacrifices, which is their reasonable service. (Romans 12:1-8)
God commands his children to use their gifts! Yes, that’s right! God, the magnificent One, has commanded the use of the gifts. His children must obey. (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12)
Ephesians 4:15, 16—“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Christians are to use their spiritual gifts because they are equipped with them to work together, as God has intended, in order that the body might build itself up in love.

While this list is not exhaustive, the reader should get the point; Christians should use the gifts they possess. None of these passages teach that gifts grant purpose to the believer. Believers must stand firm knowing that man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, (1 Corinthians 10:31; Isaiah 43:7; Ps 73:25, 26). Standing upon any other purpose for life is vain. God has given his bride tools not as an end in themselves, but on the grounds of achieving his ordained purpose--His Glory!

Bringing glory to the Father is man's sole purpose in life, which can only be done by faith in Christ. Jesus Christ redeems the lost and does not lose a single one that the Father gives Him, so that the Father might receive glory. Finding purpose in life, and thus fulfillment, cannot come from things outside of God, but in God alone. "You make known to be the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).

Soli Deo Gloria!

Prayer Changes Things... Right?

2011-01-21T08:50:00.005-05:00

How often has the expression 'prayer changes things' been used as a motivational spur in the flank of a Christian? Leading people to be faithful in prayer is only slightly harder than getting yourself to diligently, continuously, and in heartfelt gratitude make your requests known to God. This difficulty is why so many catch phrases have been coined, both scriptural and non-scriptural, in an effort to motivate prayer amongst the saints.

'Those who pray together stay together'; 'pray often, pray hard, and let God take care of the rest'; 'Prayer, it works'; 'The prayer of a righteous man avails much'; 'Prayer really changes things, arranges life anew.'; 'It’s good for your digestion, gives peaceful sleep at night, And fills the grayest days with rays of glowing light.'; 'It puts a smile upon your face, a love note in your tone. It makes you fit to live with others, and fit to live alone. It brings God down from heaven to live and work in you!' (I took some of these from this link) These phrases, and statements like them, in various colloquial formulations are used to stimulate the felt need of prayer. Some of the bits of truth espoused are good, while other bits are heretical, yet for all of the conversational usages of phrases like these there is one thing in common--they have come to mean little, if anything at all.

Convincing people of the validity, necessity, and effectual nature of prayer is good. Nonetheless, the imperative to pray must rest upon more than the command itself. The command to pray is often backed up with the pragmatic idea that it works, but this also is insufficient. Our instruction on prayer must be more than a flowery discourse seeking an emotive response.

So, the question, 'Why pray?' must be asked in seeking satisfactory and substantial reason to actually pray. Why pray?

Because of the One who commanded you to pray. The command to pray is not a suggestion--it is a command--but from whom the command is issued is of the utmost importance. In Matt 6:5, Jesus told his disciples, "when you pray..." carrying the notion that you need to be praying. God has commanded that we pray, which should be enough of a reason to pray, but our rebellious hearts resist. The Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer commanding his children to pray is enough reason, and to that we frail, weak, and finite creatures must comply.
Because that is the will of your Master. As slaves of God, (Rom 6:22) by faith in Jesus, we must seek to obey his will. Now, this might appear to be the same point as above, which in essence it is, yet they are separated to point out that it is not just God commanding us to pray, but God as our Master commanding prayer. In 1 Thess 5:16-18 the apostle Paul teaches that rejoicing always, praying nonstop, and giving thanks in every circumstance is God's will for us in Christ Jesus.
Because it brings us in communion with our Master. Praying is not seeking to have a request fulfilled, like going to the cosmic shopping center to get all of our desires of health, wealth, and prosperity acquired. Though prayer is a request that we could have the desire of our hearts. If we delight in Him, we will obtain the desire of our heart, namely--Him! The Psalms give a great picture of how prayer leads us to commune with God. Communing with God, or having communion with God, is simply being close to Him, to enter into fellowship with Him, to seek His face. In Psalm 63:10 the psalmist communes with God in prayer. "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you."

By no means is this a full answer, but suffice to say, the hard work begins. Now is the time to seek God's face! Simply having the indicative (reasoning) doesn't make the imperative (command) any easier, but founding the imperative upon the indicative gives a genuine and God given impetus to actually pray.

Does prayer changes things? Yes, and 99% of the time it is you.

Blog

2011-01-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

Change.

Change is what has not been happening to this blog lately! Nonetheless, I return to the blogosphere to produce yet another poorly written article that my wife might read. The essential aim is to yet again return to do something that is deemed by many as a worthwhile activity. So, I ask, is blogging a useful pursuit? If you are reading this, and you are not my wife, then you might be inclined to say yes. Then again, after reading this little waste of time you might change your mind.

Blogging can be a most excellent place for many to enter the market place of ideas, thus gaining insight into current cultural trends. It can also be a forum for quick and easy exchange of ideas, thus increasing the rate of learning across normal geographic and cultural boundaries. The blogosphere must be a place to put worthwhile words into the world that will have a ripple effect well beyond the boundaries of influence that one person might imagine. Then again, words written might fall into the pile of refuse that so commonly flows through the channels of cyberspace.

Blogging can be a most heinous place for slander, cowardice, and gossip well past what any can foresee. Once a piece of writing is placed on the web it goes to places and is seen by people one might never know or meet. One article can be read, reproduced, and copied by numerous people and used to fit their purposes. Negatively speaking, poorly produced material and quickly posted items may accomplish disastrous results that the author never intended. In other words placing written material out there for all to view could damage the one who reads the writing or even the one who is writing. In former times, a writer was subject to great rigors before an article or book was published, but not in the world of blogging. Personally, I have all too often written something and posted it without having it edited more than once, which is dangerous, as the writing should be carefully produced. Or, like many works on the internet, the labor could go unnoticed keeping the author unscathed by his or her work.

Even so, both positively and negatively, I have been encouraged over the past few months to be very cautious as I place my written material out into the world wide web. Nonetheless, with such words of caution, I return to writing by the encouragement of others. Potentially blogging could be an excellent tool for impacting many with the truth of the gospel. It could also be a great device for learning and conversing in ways that an individual might not otherwise have.

By God's grace more blogs will follow with an effort to improve the quality of the content, the quantity of what is produced, and the usefulness of the material.

Solus Christus

Change

2010-09-10T12:42:00.000-04:00

Change… Change can be uncomfortable, unpredictable, and hard. Even so, it is a necessity of life. Babies grow to be toddlers, toddlers mature into adolescents, and adolescents become adults. Any attempt to remain in any particular station of life is more than avoidance of change; it is a travesty, as change cannot be circumvented. Adolescent boys cannot remain as boys forever, nor can beautiful little girls remain as perpetual princesses. Families grow, people mature, life moves on, and the way things once were are but an illusion hiding the way things currently exist; change happens and it cannot be ignored nor avoided.

Choices need to be made in order to keep up with the tides of change. One choice is simply maintenance, which is allowing the current state of life to suffice, while accepting the currents of change passively, as one is swept into obscurity. Another choice is to proactively and purposefully seek growth. This would require facing challenges as they come with great faith. Personally, the second choice is desirable and will demonstrate an individual’s passion for growth in godliness and the greatest influence for the Kingdom of God.

Nonetheless, in an effort to keep from presuming that everyone sees life in this light, here is a little picture regarding the necessity of proactively seeking growth and change.

When an athlete begins training to improve his or her athletic performance, it seems that minimal amounts of training are beneficial. Short and relatively easy workouts are all that is necessary for improvement. The reason this occurs, in very simple terms, is that untrained individuals have neural pathways and muscular systems that are akin to dirt roads. These dirt roads are rarely traveled and needing maintenance and improvements. The roads are inefficient and lack the quality necessary to function at a high level.

Providing minimal amounts of maintenance to these roads safeguards their quality and efficiency. But if an athlete is going to achieve goals that have been set, then more than maintenance must be done to accomplish these goals. What were once simple and short workouts become increasing complex as time passes. The athlete must constantly seek to find ways to improve neural pathways and muscular systems. As the athlete successfully improves these pathways and systems they become analogous to a four-lane highway. After much planning, adjusting, and work an athlete can successfully built up their dirt roads into highways that are more efficient, functional, and successful at achieving goals.

As time progresses and our athlete is faithful to train, the training needs to be more structured, specific, and tailored to fit the specific needs of the particular athlete, so that the greatest amount of success might be experienced. Again, in simplistic idiom, the maintenance and improvements on the neural and muscular systems have constructed this four-lane highway, thereby improving the functionality and quality of the roads. Nevertheless, even though the roads have improved, they still needs more work. So the maintenance and building of these roads need to be more structured, specific, and tailored to fit the demands of improvement.

Eventually, overtime, the athlete continues to modify, adjust, and change training schedules, eating habits, sleeping habits, along with numerous other factors seeking to achieve the best possible performance. What was once a dirt road, with ruts and holes in the neural and muscular pathways, has become a ten-lane superhighway engineered for the smoothest and most efficient travel. Through careful planning, needed adjustments, and purposeful execution of plans our athlete has succeeded and exceeded all expectations.

Change will come, and if maintenance is an individual’s goal then their impact for the Kingdom of God will be limited to bumping along unrefined dirt roads. Maintenance is nothing more than passively accepting what the tides of life bring.

Now, prayerfully, it is clear that this is a picture of the necessity of proactively seeking refinement and growth. I am fully aware that this example is lacking and deficient in many areas. Nevertheless, the nature of this little story is purposed to show how one must purposefully seek to mature. Growth in godliness will not occur via osmosis, but we must pursue personal holiness seeking to walk in the obedience of faith.

Change happens and when it does godliness is not passively accepting whatever comes, rather godliness is joyfully accepting the decrees of our Father and compatibly operating as responsible agents under the dominion of our Sovereign Lord. Christian, we must seek to give up childish ways and walk as mature children of God.

1 Corinthians 13:11—“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

2010-07-17T09:46:00.005-04:00

Earlier this year I was privileged to take a trip to Shone Ethiopia. God blessed the trip in many ways. Below is a thank you letter to all who supported my trip giving a few details. Even though I was able to send it to many people I believe it will be profitable to post this letter here.

Thank You!

I am writing this letter to you a few short weeks after a successful trip to Ethiopia. I know that the time is past due for a much-deserved thank you to those who have supported my trip; nevertheless, I lingered in my giving of thanks to those who have helped my journey overseas for a few significant reasons.

· First, I wanted to properly process the entirety of the fantastic things that God has done while on this trip.

· Second, I’m still not done processing! My prayer and desire is for the church and those who supported financially to receive the most benefit, so I linger.

· Third, while I have been overwhelmed with responsibilities upon my return, it has not been as overwhelming as the stark contrast between our world and the one I just returned from, so I linger.

Lingering no longer, I want to express my deepest and sincere gratitude for your gift. I was among 15 people who went to Shone (show’-nay), Ethiopia to build a basketball court in the poorest province in one of the most impoverished nations on the planet. Almost nothing went right and most things did not go as scheduled, but God moved among us the entire time. There are immeasurable blessings to be counted, and you are a part of them through your prayer and giving.

We planned to build a basketball court but were only able to finish half, leaving the rest for a local contractor to complete. We gave 200 children school uniforms and 120 children shoes. While it was wonderful to be able to provide for so many it was also very heart breaking to witness that, in spite of all we gave, it was not enough. To our great joy, many have responded with gifts to provide 216 more shoes and 176 more school uniforms to be delivered later in the summer. I praise God for the provision.

While it was an immeasurable blessing to help in these visible ways, our team learned a great lesson on this trip. We westerners often think that poor education or a lack of resources and material wealth is the greatest hardship for people in these conditions, but the chief need that I witnessed was not the need for material wealth. Do not misunderstand me; my heart broke when I saw so many go without basic things. I would love for those who lack food, clothing, and good water to receive these amenities that we take for granted, but these are still secondary. The greatest need in Africa is the same as it is here in the United States—Jesus! The great news that God has provided a way for us to him through Jesus is what they need. I praise God that he allowed us to use secondary things to achieve the most important task we have been given.

Multiple times on our journey we were able to proclaim the gospel of God for those who would hear. While helping build a basketball court, I was able to disciple and teach fourteen Christians from the Scriptures for

eleven days straight. We also strengthened the local church in Shone as we gave money to them in a great time of need. The leadership invited me to preach through an interpreter one afternoon, which was unexpected, yet enthusiastically done. After only a few hours notice, I gave my testimony, preached the gospel, and spoke about the greatest need for the body of Christ both in Shone and in America. My prayer is that I was able to strengthen their hand from the Scriptures.

Measuring the success of our trip by the world’s standards would render it an abject failure; thankfully, Christians operate from a different economy. We succeeded in our mission because, when we were afforded the opportunities, we proclaimed Jesus Christ crucified in both word and deed. We worked as unto the Lord in every situation, seeking to bring glory to our God and king. The locals expected us to work little, talk much, and leave without impacting them. Instead we worked hard, preached Christ, and everyone involved was impacted greatly.

My hope and prayer is that we could strengthen the hand of the local church in Shone, Ethiopia in numerous ways. First and foremost, we need to pray for the salvation of the children in the Look Development program. Secondly, supporting a child through Look Development would make the difference for one child and one family hopefully for eternity. Thirdly, please pray for the church in Shone that they might grow as a bold witness in such a dark place.

Again, I thank you for you support and prayers. God Bless you!

Brian W. Johnson

If you are interested in supporting a child, please visit http://www.lookdevelopment.org/

To view a slideshow of the trip, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDyChw0aiBs

A Short Meditation On Marriage

2010-05-29T10:13:00.002-04:00

In Genesis 2:18, 21-25 the institution of marriage, the earliest of institutions, is ordained by God…

“Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him…' So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Marriage is an institution ordained by God, where he gave the first bride away, where one man and one woman leave their parents and cleave to one another. This is a relationship that is closer than that of child and parent, a relationship that is unique and special as God is the one who puts it together forming a new one-flesh union. This relationship might take only a short time to begin, but a lifetime to perfect.

Marriage is under assault and it has become disposable--forget perfecting it just throw it away and start over, like anything else in some modern cultures. Disposable cups, disposable computers, disposable car, and disposable couples have become the norm. Yet marriage for the Christian is not disposable, it is not something that can be thrown away.

If marriage were founded upon looks, when looks fade away then it would be disposable. If marriage were founded upon feelings, when feelings fade away then it would be disposable. If marriage were founded upon mutual interest, when mutual interests are no longer mutual it would then be disposable.

However, praise God that marriage is not founded upon these things or even for these things. First and foremost marriage is the doing of God. We just read about God instituting marriage in Gen 2 and in Mark 10:6-9 we read more clearly how marriage is God’s doing:

“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made then male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let no man separate.”

As we read that it is God’s doing we know then that it must be founded upon God. In the last phrase of the passage it is also clear that this is not something that man should separate. In other words divorce is not an option. Ultimately marriage exists to display the covenant keeping love between Christ and his church. What holds a marriage together is that it is rooted in a covenant commitment, it is not about staying in love, it is about keeping covenant.

The marriage covenant of a one flesh union between one man and one woman leaving parents and holding fast to a wife is meant to display the new covenant—Like Christ leaving his father and taking the church as his bride at the cost of his life, and holding fast to her is a one spirit union forever.

Ephesians 5:31-32 is another passage that grants insight into the profound mystery of marriage—“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

Essentially the marital union is supposed to be a reflection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For those who have faith in Jesus to forgive and cleanse their sins, and have experienced his grace and forgiveness, it is imperative in their marital relationships for them to take the daily opportunity to display Christ’s covenant keeping faithfulness. This is accomplished by taking the grace and forgiveness of sins that has been given to the individual and extending it in return their spouse. The same grace by which God shows his love for his bride, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The same grace that is has manifested the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, because everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. And for those who believe in Jesus they are made right before God by his grace through Jesus Christ.

Conducting relationships according to the gospel should be evident in every relationship that a Christian enters into, yet the gospel magnified in the bonds of marriage. It is not easy, or cut and dry, as many complex situations arise for which gospel wisdom is be needed. The solid basis for a marriage is the grace of God since Christ obtained and sustains his bride by grace alone.

In Ephesians 5:22-25 instructions are given to husbands and wives concerning living according to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Now when we read this it gives us clear instructions regarding how to conduct marital relationships according to the gospel. When the wife is being sinned against she can by God’s grace take the opportunity to respect her husband, submitting to him with kindness, forbearance, and patience as unto the Lord, even though he is undeserving. Just as the kindness, forbearance, and patience of God is meat to lead people to repentance, your extension of grace may do the same.

And when the husband is being sinned against he too has the opportunity to display love and kindness, as she does not deserve, just as Christ loves and died for his bride while we were his enemies. The husband is to love her as Christ loves the church, which is a most difficult task. Thank God that thought he has given the impossible task to love her, he has also provided the grace, so that by his grace both husband and wife may keep covenant like Christ.

Building a marriage on the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to fulfill the purpose of marriage as God intends. Wives must aim for active, intelligent, joyful submission to their husband’s authority. Husbands must aim for loving, considerate and thoughtful leadership in their family.

In the end, seeking to display the relationship between Christ and the church will be a display of genuine biblical love. Love that the gospel expresses, love that is accomplished by the grace of God alone. Love that is patient and kind; love that does not envy or boast; that is not arrogant or rude, love that does not insist upon its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

The Works of The Lord...

2010-02-08T00:00:00.001-05:00

Who can understand the works of the Lord? God is infinitely complex and beyond our comprehension, yet he is simple and has made himself known. His works can be seen in creation as the heavens proclaim his handiwork. We have seen his works in history and his dealings with mankind. Nevertheless, these acts can be alien and strange to us, as we do not always understand his deeds and works. Tragic events happen, and we don't necessarily receive an explanation why his judgment ushers forth on some and not others. Due to the recent tragedy in Haiti, there has been a renewed interest by some regarding the works of God and his sovereign control. Dr. Albert Mohler's blog on 1-14-10 tackles with eloquence questions about this recent tragedy in a biblical and gospel light. http://www.albertmohler.com/

While I cannot improve upon what Dr. Mohler wrote in his blog, I will aim to understand the works of God among man by listing five observations from a parable in Isaiah 28 that directly relates to the strange deeds of our Lord and his alien works.

Isaiah 28:21-29

21For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work! 22Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land. 23Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. 24Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? 25When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? 26For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. 27Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. 28Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. 29This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.

In 28:14-22, Isaiah pronounces judgment upon the people who have yet again forgotten their God. The decree of judgment has been issued, and in .v 21 Isaiah states that God's deed is alien and his work is strange. He continues to describe the work of God in a parable illustrating how God works. This description relates to more than a specific decree of destruction pronounced upon the people. When considering passages like Romans 11:33, 34, it becomes even more clear that God's ways are inscrutable and his judgments are unsearchable. The illustrating parable helps to convey more clearly how God works, though his way are foreign to us.

Five observations from Isaiah 28:21-29 regarding the works and deeds of God among his people:

1. God is like a farmer who does his tasks in a timely, orderly, and proportionate manner. He does every thing at its proper time to yield what he has purposed. (v. 24, 25)

2. God's works and deeds are according to knowledge. (v. 26)

3. He does not desire destruction for its own sake; rather, he desires the intended results, while using the proper tools, at the proper time. (v. 27, 28)

4. Though his ways are strange, they are according to the excellent wisdom of the wonderful counselor. (v. 29)

5. The salvation that Christ brings is also a strange work. At the appointed time Christ died for us as the wrath bearer, who bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, by his wounds we have been healed (1 Pet 2:24). And all of this was done according to God's perfect purpose and timing. Though the judgment of Christ is strange it is the proper work in its due season for the salvation of his people.

I cannot comprehend the ways of God, and I do not want to think that he is like one of us. What I know is that he works according to wisdom and knowledge. We can be sure that his works will be according to his excellent and wonderful counsel. We can stand firm in the hope that he will do things proportionately, timely, and with the right tools to bring about his perfect purposes. And while we cannot be sure what the exact reason for this devastating earthquake in Haiti is, what we can know is that God is good and to be trusted in all things.

Genuine Faith

2010-01-13T11:46:00.008-05:00

When the world looks at the church what do they see? Positively, they might see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. Hopefully people see the glory of God in the body of Christ. Negatively, the world might see hypocrisy, religion, confusion, the world, gloomy obedience, self-righteousness, fear, false hope, or any other number of negative things. Predominately, in my subjective experience, the world views the church negatively.

Now, not everyone views the church in the same light, but when considering the current negative perception of church, what else should the church expect? The world rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth of the gospel is spiritually discerned, and Jesus is viewed negatively, As his servants shouldn't we expect the same from the world? The offense of the gospel and the cost of discipleship cannot be removed. Yet how often is the offense of the gospel used as an excuse to remain in idolatry? How often do those who claim the offense of the gospel really bring offense due to religion? The idolatry of religion, tradition, and an unwillingness to change characterizes many evangelical churches. This idolatry is being passed off as the gospel.

In one manner of speaking we need to expect that the world will perceive Christians differently, even negatively. Those who are spiritually blind remain unable to discern the truth, nevertheless they do have the capacity to see the light, even though they hate it. They can see genuine faith, even though they do not understand, and they can see religion. Jesus was hated, rejected, and despised not because he was religious or irreligious, but because he walked according to the gospel.

Now, walking differently, so that the world will perceive us differently, might not translate into acceptance of the truth or of the church. We are not going for the acceptance of men! Instead, they will see genuine faith and those who practice what they preach. Practicing what we preach is not living a sanctimonious life style of religious zeal. Practicing what we preach is living, eating, and breathing the gospel; it is a life characterized by faith and repentance; it is forgiving as we have been forgiven; it is making much about God through Jesus Christ and no longer seeking to make much about ourselves. For the sake of his name we must walk differently making much of God.

Slaves to sin are well versed at making much of themselves. They have divined their will, choice, and prerogative as autonomous and as a sacrosanct entity when religion is gained. Entering into a life of supposed worship of God, while acting as though God is being made a big deal of, rather they are worshiping themselves and making much of themselves. The idolatrous lusts of religion are condemnable and this is what the world perceives in much of the church.

The body of Christ must focus upon the genuine gospel of grace. The gospel that has great joy in Jesus Christ, as those who are saved by his grace, and walk in the obedience of faith. The gospel of God is where our duty becomes our supreme joy. Negative perceptions of the church are not the problem. The problem is the accuracy of what the world sees, let us strive to be those who live life with genuine faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Pastoral Longevity

2009-12-14T10:16:00.002-05:00

Dependent upon sources cited, the average tenure of a pastor is less than five years.[1] This statistic is astonishing considering biblical admonitions for endurance, perseverance, and fighting the good fight. Under shepherds of God’s flock are preachers of God’s Word, and they must have more endurance than is evidenced in our culture. Pastoral longevity, turnover, or burnout has numerous different factors that lead pastors to stay with a church for only a short period of time. Modern consideration of the pastoral office has become more career-oriented rather than remaining grounded in genuine biblical ideology. The advent of the pastor as the Chief Executive Officer has only been to the detriment of the church. Not surprisingly, turnover in the pastoral ministry is similar to turnover in the business world which the pastorate is often being modeled after.[2] Considering factors that affect the length of time a pastor serves in a church only examines a portion of the problem, nevertheless the duration of service can be illustrative of the necessity to remove the mentality of professionalism amongst the pastorate. The short-term of an average pastor at a church is directly affected by a mentality of professionalism, which will be examined in the hopes of highlighting the need for ministers of the gospel to be more biblically driven in their methodology for the pastorate.

Factors Affecting Pastoral Longevity

While the argument could be made that the number of years spent in an individual church does not necessarily reflect the effectiveness of a pastor, short term pastorates do not appear to produce much fruit. Pastoral longevity refers to the amount of time in which a pastor spends pastoring any one given church. A pastor serving in numerous pastorates during his lifetime has become a forgone conclusion.[3] This mentality appears to stem from the ladder-climbing ethic that has come to define the pastoral ministry, but selfish ambition cannot be the defining element of an individual seeking to be in the pastorate. The pulpit should never be a ladder to which one should aim to climb in order to shine among men.[4] Rather than stemming from self-promotion, longevity in the pastoral office can be attributed to calling and proper motivation of the one who stand in that sacred office.[5]

Even so, numerous other factors affect a pastor’s tenure at any given church ranging from personal dedication, to theological convictions, and family influence, only to name a few. Some statistical information complied by H. B. London Jr., and Neil B. Wiseman in their book Pastors at Greater Risk, gives some indication of the reasons for such short pastoral tenure. Congregations expect their pastor to competently carry an average of sixteen major tasks, and pastors working less than fifty hours a week are thirty-five percent more likely to be terminated.[6] The cultural drive is for a pastor to be efficient, competent, and possess the ability to multi-task; these are all factors that lead to burnout and high turnover rates.

Conflict and conflict management are also major problems in the Christian ministry and often affect the amount of time a minister will remain with a congregation. Two-thirds of pastors reported conflicts amongst their congregation, with more than twenty percent of those being significant enough that members left the congregation. Forty percent reported a serious conflict with a member of the congregation at least once a month. Forty percent also report that they have considered leaving their pastorates in the last three months.[7] The pressures of the pastorate demonstrate understandable reasons for the lack of endurance in the ministry, especially for the minister who is aiming to further his personal career. Proper motivation and dedication would engender the needed endurance to teach, preach and equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.

H. B. London Jr., and Neil B. Wiseman assert that ninety percent of all pastors indicate that they are very satisfied with being in the ministry.[8] However, while many pastors express a firm belief in God’s call upon their life, along with a desire to stay in the ministry, the numbers demonstrate otherwise.[9] With the average pastor only remaining in a church for less than five years, it would seem that at some point pastors lose their satisfaction, desire, and dedication to the ministry; the outlook for the church is bleak.

Other factors that affect pastoral longevity are the perceived effects of the ministry upon them and their families. Eighty percent of pastors believe that ministry negatively affects their families, and almost as troubling is the fact that fifty percent of all pastors’ marriages will end up in divorce.[10] In addition to domestic worries, London and Wiseman claims that fifty percent of all ministers feel unable to fulfill the requirements of the job, while an astounding ninety percent believe that they are inadequately trained to fulfill ministry demands.[11] Add to these statistics and facts marital infidelity, Internet pornography, insufficient family time, lack of genuine friendship, along with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual burnout; the strains on the pastoral office become more clear. According to these statistics, the pastoral ministry is a bleak and difficult field that is suffering a faster turnover rate than corporate America.

However, the lack of pastoral longevity cannot only be explained by the previously mentioned statistics. While it has been shown that a pastor’s greatest ministry impact in a church happens about the fifth through the fourteenth year, external factors such as being over worked and having a sedentary life style cannot be the sole reasons explicating why the average pastor lasts less than five years.[12] There are more troubling, internal causes for the early exit of a minister from a given congregation.

Professionalism In The Pastorate

One significant internal cause for the lack of pastoral longevity is professionalism in ministry. Professionalism in ministry can be defined as following the agenda set by the world.[13] Professionalism or ministerialism can be defined as, “the tendency to read our Bibles as ministers, to pray as ministers, to get into doing the whole of our religion as not ourselves personally, but only relatively, concerning in it.”[14] Being a pastor is more than being a professional; it is the earnest and most sincere employment of the whole person in a single-minded manner.[15] The pastoral office has an established agenda by God and not the latest fads of efficiency. A pastor must have a drive that is different than the professional world, and a motivation for sticking through such difficulties that is greater than the ambition for success.[16]

Passing over biblical models for the pastorate are common and dangerous. The latest seminars, methods, and fads are implemented uncritically to the utter despair of the pastor when they fail.[17] Success is not dictated by numbers, but by fidelity to the Scriptures. Baptizing worldly business principles espoused by the ‘experts’ might prove to produce successful businesses, but they are lacking the genuine character needed in the pastoral office.[18] So, while the adaptation of leadership principles can aid in conducting business matters more efficiently in the church, a problem still remains when baptizing secular business models to establish the manner in which the church functions and how pastors view their duties as under shepherds. The heart of the Christian ministry is not ministerialism established by worldly business principles; rather, it is eternally and spiritually minded with the aim of being the aroma of Christ.[19]

The idea of professionalism is not one of loyalty or devotion to anything other than the bottom-line. A professional cannot operate in the arena of faith, love, devotion, and contrition to which the pastor is called.[20] A professional devotes himself to his workweek, and when he is not engaged in his office hours or duties of the pulpit, he is not a pastor. Biblically speaking, a pastor is a calling that extends beyond office hours. C.H. Spurgeon expounds on this clearly, “The thought of being clockwork ministers who are not alive by abiding grace within, but are wound up by temporary influence; men who are only ministers for the time being, under the stress of the hour of ministering, but cease to be ministers when they descend the pulpit stairs. True ministers are always ministers.”[21] As the true pastor is a pastor at all times, he must be loyal to the ministry that God has called him. Loyalty is not a blind devotion for the sake of devotion. Loyalty is also not unto men for their own sake. But loyalty is devotion to truth and duty.[22] Were more pastors devoted to truth and duty as a minister of the gospel is called, they would be far better equipped to love and serve those whom they shepherd.

The Pastor’s Dedication to Excellence. While the pastor is not a professional in the truest sense of the word, he is to do all things with excellence. Colossians 3:17, 23 gives great direction to Christians, especially pastors, in the manner in which they are to conduct themselves. Everything is to be done as unto the Lord and with excellence. Removing an attitude of professionalism in the ministry does not preclude striving to perform every task with the greatest amount of quality and integrity. Pastors are not to be lackadaisical sloths that meander about their days. They must be men fully devoted unto their duties as shepherds of God’s flock.

John Angell James in his book, An Earnest Ministry, encourages the minister of the gospel to employ not only all the arts and means available to them to carry about the ministry of reconciliation, but also to do so with the utmost earnestness, intelligence, and spirituality.[23] The pastor must be a man of resources, but these resources are not of the world—they are of God. Although a minister of the gospel does not carry the impetus of the secular world into his tasks, he still must seek to be wise in all of his labors.

The pressure and demand for pastors to be productive managers must be set to the side, so that they might fulfill their divinely appointed office in the power and strength of their Lord. The sincerity and earnestness of a pastor must be a single-minded devotion toward God’s ends and not man’s. God gives his minister the capabilities and sufficiency to be ministers of the New Covenant. At the same time, the Christian minister must utilize every gift that God has given him to the fullest for the sake of the body of Christ.[24]

The work of the pastor is not to simply implement programs and disseminate information for the purpose of Christian living, but he is to be first and foremost converted and is in the business of feeding the flock of God. Dedication to scriptural mandates and commands is of great importance, as the pastor must be devoted to the Word of God in all that he does. While ministerial success is to be desired in a biblical sense, success is not the driving incentive of a pastor. Longevity will be determined by patience and faith that God will bring the harvest.[25]

Study habits of a Pastor

Longevity of a pastor may also be influenced by the study habits of the minister himself. Seventy percent of pastors said that the only time they study the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.[26] This trend is disturbing, considering that the majority of pastors only study the Word to fulfill their pastoral duties. Studying the Word only for the sake of fulfilling ones obligations for employment is a demonstration of professionalism in the ministry. The study habits of a pastor need to be reflexive of his heart and motivation in the ministry.

George Barna, a California-based researcher, explains two patterns emerging from his research. "First, pastoral longevity seems to be tied to an active reading life. Those who have lasted the longest in ministry tend to read more than do their short-lived peers. Second, pastors who have been at one particular church for more than five years tend to read less."[27] The overwhelming desire of a minister of the Word should be to have his heart saturated with the Word. As Barna demonstrates, those pastors who are devoted to studying will tend to have longer lasting ministries. The pastor must not only prepare a sermon to be preached, but he also must prepare himself. Ministerial professionalism does not prepare a pastor to pour his entire life into the ministry. A pastor’s life is a preparation for his task, as the pastor is a man of one thing, which is to feed the flock of God.[28]

Biblical admonitions for endurance, perseverance, and fighting the good fight are what sound the alarm when the average tenure of a pastor is made known. Pastoral longevity has numerous different factors, and only a few of them have been examined here. The career-oriented and professional minister is one facet of the rapid turnover rate for the pastoral office. Turnover in the pastoral ministry is similar to turnover in the business world, which is illustrative of the necessity to remove the mentality of professionalism amongst the pastorate. With the evident need for change proclaimed, hopefully the solution of an earnest and single-minded ministry has been highlighted. If the pastor is most effective from the fifth to the fourteenth year, then pastors must devote themselves to a ministry of patience and endurance for the sake of the Name of the Lord our God.

[1]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors (Beliefnet: August 13, 2007), accessed 30 November 2009, http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2007/08/burnout-for-pastors.html

Information on McKnight’s site was sited from: H B London, Jr., and Neil B Wiseman, Pastors at Greater Risk (Ventura CA: Regal Books, 2003)

[2]Booz & Co., CEOs Hold Steady in the Storm (written 5-12-09), accessed 30 November 2009, http://www.booz.com/global/home/what_we_think/reports_and_white_papers/article/45574145 The average tenure of the American CEO is seven years.

[3]James W. Bryant, Mac Brunson, The New Guidebook for Pastors (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2007), 59.

[4]C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), 35.

[5]Ibid., 28.

[6]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[7]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[8]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[9]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[10]Mark Driscoll, Death by Ministry, accessed 30 November 2009 http://adrianwarnock.com/2006/05/death-by-ministry-driscoll-explains.htm

[11]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[12]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[13]John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea To Pastors For Radical Ministry (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 3.

[14]C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 15.

[15] John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1993), 66.

[16]Ibid., 3.

[17]John MacArthur, The Book on Leadership (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2004), vii.

[18]Ibid., vii.

[19]John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, 3.

[20]Ibid., 2.

[21]C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 17.

[22]John MacArthur, The Book on Leadership, 69.

[23]John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry, 22, 28.

[24]2 Corinthians 3:4-6 is the passage that presents the argument that it is God who gives men their competence in there ministerial tasks. And, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 is the passage that presents the utilization of spiritual gift for the common good of the body.

[25]Charles Bridges. The Christian Ministry (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1961), 72-77.

[26]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.

[27]George Barna, Half of All Americans Read Christian Books And One-Third Buy Them, January 27, 2003. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/114-half-of-all-americans-read-christian-books-and-one-third-buy-them

[28]D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 166.

Bibliography

Booz & Co. CEOs Hold Steady in the Storm: written 5-12-09. Accessed 30 November 2009http://www.booz.com/global/home/what_we_think/reports_and_white_papers/article/45574

Barna, George. Half of All Americans Read Christian Books And One-Third Buy Them, January 27, 2003. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://www.barna.org/barna- update/article/5 barna-update/114-half-of-all-americans-read-christian-books-and-one- third-buy-them

Bridges, Charles. The Christian Ministry. London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1961.

Bryant, James W. Mac Brunson. The New Guidebook for Pastors. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2007.

Driscoll, Mark. Death by Ministry. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://adrianwarnock.com/2006/05/death-by-ministry-driscoll-explains.htm

Hartford Institute for Religious Research. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://hirr.hartsem.edu/index.html

James, John Angell . An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1993.

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Preaching and Preachers. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971.

London, H.B. Jr., and Neil B. Wiseman. Pastors at Greater Risk. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2003.

MacArthur, John. The Book on Leadership. Nashville: Nelson Books, 2004.

Piper, John. Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea To Pastors For Radical Ministry. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002.

Spurgeon, Charles, Haddon. Lectures to My Students. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954.

Followership?

2009-09-15T17:50:00.005-04:00

Leader, leader, leader, who has the leader? Not that I'm a great leader, nor will I ever be, but I am tired of the constant talk about leadership. I am currently in a leadership class, which I find myself frequently standing in disagreement. I have been listening to the leadership discussion that has been ongoing for a while now (of course this is according to my subjective experience and limited knowledge), and I have been thoroughly unimpressed.

While everybody is talking about leading and what a good leader really is, I am not so sure that they would actually submit themselves to truly great leadership, (biblically defined leadership of course). We listen to and read a myriad of leadership paradigms, from the CEO methodology, to the leader as a behind the scenes facilitator, and numerous other methods that Christian writers baptize with Christian ease. Truly everyone wants to be a leader and respectfully we are all going to lead someone, or something, even if all we ever lead in is mediocrity.

Instead of worrying about leading, who is or who isn't a leader, or what are the best qualities of a leader, why don't we write some books about being followers of those leaders? Why don't we actually learn to follow, rather than perpetuating this constant drive for everyone to be a chief? Rather than majoring in independence and freedom, why don't we major in dependence and servitude to our master and Lord, Jesus Christ? He said, "follow me." So, let us learn to follow.

Soon and Very Soon

2009-06-02T07:28:00.003-04:00

The past month has been filled. Finals from the spring semester, a one week course in May, and another in June have kept me from writing like I would want. Anyway, I will return to blogging soon.

A quick shot of news: God is blessing me with a genuine heart of content to preach week in and week out to the grumpy yet precious few. I am learning great amounts and will need years to sift through all that is being gained in seminary. The greatest lesson being learned is dependence upon God. I continue day in and day out to grow in the knowledge and understanding of trusting in the Lord with all of my heart and leaning not on my own understanding, in all my ways acknowledging him, knowing that he will make my paths strait. Not being wise in my own eyes, but fearing the Lord and turning from evil.

God bless.

Prayer it Works

2009-04-20T12:27:00.002-04:00

Over the past couple of years I have been confronted with legalism, spiritual pride, unforgiving hearts, and whole host of other problems. Personally dealing with some of these and learning to practice what I preach. In recent challenges, which are blessings from God, I have not always been gracious, patient, longsuffering, or thankful. For this set of bad attitudes I repent, I pray that God will grant me humility along with a pastors heart for His sheep.

One specific area I have stumbled in is scoffing at the error of peoples ways and preconceived notions. When a person pronounces a statement demonstrating a lack of biblical understanding about Jesus, the Church, election, etc., I haven't been longsuffering. I need to be patient in preaching the Word and in prayer, being a faithful minister of the gospel. Earning the right to be heard and heeded takes more than a few years, more than our microwave mentality provides. I must preach and teach the same things repeatedly and consistently praying that the Spirit of God will take the truth of the Word using it for the Glory of God.

Over the course of the past 12 weeks I have taken each Wednesday to teach about prayer. One prevalent misconception amongst the body concerns prayer. Many have communicated to me that, 'Prayer it Works!' At first I thought that it was a simple statement about the effectual prayer of a righteous man working much or whatever we pray if we ask it in Jesus name He will do. As I began to understand their use of this statement it became clear that 'Prayer it Works' was simply the genie in the bottle. If we rub the prayer genie we will get what we want, the desires of out heart! If we simply place this mantra, 'in Jesus name I pray' then we will be able to pronounce what we have done through prayer. Upon recognizing this problem I jumped on it with both feet appearing as if I didn't believe in the effectual nature of prayer. Really in an effort to correct and teach properly I simply made myself the bad guy.

After much time in prayer, meditating on how to correct the injustice I had committed, the errors of past teaching, along with general malcontent, the voice of Paul Martin rang in my ears; 'Preach the Word BJ!' Learning what that means has been vastly important for me. I have learned to Preach the Word, as Paul exhorted Timothy, it must be 'with complete patience.' Preaching the Word, feeding the sheep, and doing the work of an evangelist takes time, steadfastness, patience, love, endurance, and much prayer, because the prayer of a righteous man avails much!

Falling back, reassessing, and diligently fulfilling the duties of a pastor I have begun to see people being conformed to the Word. People are changing, false teaching from the past is being corrected slowly, but surely; God is working. So, I rejoice in prayer as given to us by God, I rejoice in His Word He has revealed to us, and I rejoice that prayer is effectual when done according to His precious will.

The Battle

2009-04-14T18:30:00.002-04:00

The battlefield of ministry is broad bringing daily challenges, difficulties, and blessings. It is a joy to be placed upon the front lines ministering the gospel. Aiming at sufficiency I find myself most insufficient, lacking on many fronts. Yet, God has not called me to be sufficient, because He is my sufficiency, I am to be sufficient in Him. 2 Corinthians 3:4-5 tells us that God is the one who makes ministers to be sufficient and competent as laborers of the new covenant. We are not sufficient in ourselves for if we were salvation would not be by grace, but by the sufficiency of men and their works. God does not want us to be self-confident, He wants us to be God confident. Having confidence in God, through Christ, as partakers of grace, having received the necessary gifts according to grace; let us use them, (Rom 12:6). Fight to good fight, endure till the end, the Joy of the Lord is our strength! God Bless!

No One Has Seen God.

2009-04-06T13:21:00.005-04:00

If no one has seen God, then how do we explain Christophanes in the OT? In place like Judges 13:22 where Manoah states that he and his wife have seen God, or in Genesis 32:30 where Jacob after wrestling with God, saying that he has seen God face to face. Yet in John 1:18 it tells us that no one has seen God, but Jesus has made Him known. Does this mean that He's been seen? Even though Moses saw Him in Exodus 33:20, God said that Moses could not see His face. In John 6:46 is says that the only one to see the Father is the one who is from the Father. Yet in John 14:9ff Jesus says, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father...I am in the Father and the Father is in me." Is this a different manner of being 'seen?' Doesn't Christ make God known before the incarnation? Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), and He has been seen, making the Father known, but we cannot see His face? Hebrews 1:3 says, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature..." Is there a difference in seeing the Father through the Son and actually seeing the Father?

We know that the Father is seen in Jesus, but what about verses like 1 Timothy 6:16, speaking of God, "...who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see." Or Hebrews 11:27 & 1 Timothy 1:17 that speak of God as invisible, or 1 John 4:12 that says, "No one has ever seen God..." God is Spirit right? Is not being able to see God solely due to Him being an invisible Spirit?

We can't see the fullness of God the Father, no one has nor could withstand being in His holy presence. Jesus is the only one who could with stand the holiness of God, because He is God and He is the image of God. While I don't have the answers to this I am beginning to think that we often make God out to be less holy, less righteous, and less awesome than He really is. And in this process we elevate ourselves thinking of ourselves as though we were like the most high. Pride is indicative of not only the world, but the church as well. Christ has made God known and has given us access to the Father, let us not trample that privilege, yet hold to the good confession of faith, knowing most humbly who we are, and humbly grow in our knowing of God.

I haven't been able to spend much time refining the questions above, nor have I been able to come up with a good answer to them. The questions were raised by someone else and I feel like my answer to them was inadequate. So, if you have the time or energy please give some constructive criticism. I have given a more complete answer to the one who as inquired, but I refrain from giving all that I have come up with to see what others think. Please be kind, I set this out in a humble and fearful manner.

Blessings

2009-04-01T07:01:00.003-04:00

Ps 84:11, 12--"For the Lord God is a sun and sheild; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you."

Great comfort comes by this passage in the dark hours of life. Death has been all around this week with the passing of family members in other parts of the country, and family of church members passing. I am reminded that all things work together for the good of those are called and loved of God, for those who love God. As a child of God, who loves God, standing on the promises of God is to really trust God working for your good even in the death of a loved one, not just for you, but for those around you, and ultimately for his Glory. God is good and working for the good even in the death of those closest to you. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly! So, If we have the uprightness that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, even the death of a loved one is a good thing.

I am not to say that mourning, sadness, lament, or suffering are not real and genuine emotions to experience in the loss of a loved one, there is a time and place for these things. A morbid, detached, and disingenuine joy is not what is being prescribed. But do not grow weary in doing good, knowing that this life is fading, yet our inner man is being built up, so don't live for the seen, but for the unseen that is eternal and unfading. The joy of the Lord is our strength!

I mourn the loss of five different people over the course of this last month, some more well known than others, and these are just the few of my subjective experience. Yet in the same breath I bless the Lord with my soul, blessed is he that trusts in the Lord. I praise God that he witholds nothing good from those who walk uprightly. I rejoice that in faithfulness he has afflicted me (Ps 119:76). I rejoice in the joy of his salvation, that I have been called and loved of Christ Jesus my Lord.

Fight the Good Fight

2009-03-23T09:11:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I lament, complaining about not being listened to, or how there is so much opposition and so little apparent fruit. I'm quickly rebuked being reminded that this is the fight I have been appointed for. In this battle there are lessons of humility, dependence upon God, endurance in preaching the Word, and perseverance in prayer. We have been set in this place to do the work of the Lord with faithfulness not aiming to conjure up results. The world presses upon those in the ministry to feel the need for success as defined by numbers financially or how many people's ears are tickled. Success is fidelity to the Word of God, preaching Jesus Christ crucified, planting, watering, and doing all of that with great prayer, faithfulness, and endurance.

Heresy stems from the felt need to produce the results that only God can produce. This is not an excuse to be lazy, unevangelistic, or complacent that the lost aren't being reached. It is a call to doggedly, with great struggle, fight the good fight! Sow the seed of the Word of God wherever you are, preach the Word in season and out of season. If anything this is a reminder to myself to remain faithful and avoid the tyranny of novelty, grabbing any program or method coming down the pike trying to conjure up the produce of the Spirit.

Parenting & Personal Holiness

2009-03-16T09:28:00.000-04:00

A few blogs ago I focused upon resolving to do bless the Lord with my soul infront of my family, specially with my children. So, how have I been working this out? Really there is not great answer that has been formulated. I've learned long ago spouting off idealistic dreams from a lack of knowledge and experience makes me the fool years down the road. When I was in my early twenties I spoke of life as I knew what I was speaking, only to learn I had less of an idea about life than I portrayed. Humility is pertinent, understanding who we are and genuinely coming to grips with our knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Parenting is the relational out working of biblical principles as one lives in relationship with God and their family daily. The rubber meeting the road is one of the most important aspects of this resolution. Having theoretical knowledge is good, yet it only extends so far. These abstract ideologies must have concrete outworkings within the context of our familial relationships. We must be about discipleship! The older godly parents teaching the younger how they might raise their children in the Lord. This task is important, yet difficult to carryout as it requires going beyond getting together in a class room setting; relationship are hard to press into the confines of a program. We need to live life with one another learning from those who have gone before us. Not following older people because of age and experience, but those factors coupled with a lifetime of biblical fidelity. Again, this task is becoming increasingly difficult. The lose of big family untis has in a degree contributed to this as we are cellularised off into our own little domiciles with every excuse in the world not to be incommunity.

Please don't get me wrong, theory is good as I live in theoretical books most of my days, but we need more of an assimilation of our abstract theologizing into our daily lives. We must learn to take these hard and fast truths, that transcend all cultures and people, implementing them into practice. Regarding parenting as well as other areas of our lives we have all heard someone spout off great ideas only to turn around and operate from a completely different set. This gap or disconnect must be closed in all of our lives.

As dads (because this is what I am), our families needs our personal holiness. Attitude reflects leadership! As the heads of our households our families need our attitudes and whole lives to be reflexive of Christ. Now all of this is not the the silver bullet! We are still in the flesh dealing with fleshly people, all with a need to depend upon Christ. But if the head is not submitting to our Lord then it becomes increasingly difficult for the rest of the family to follow in a direction they aren't being lead.

Personal Holiness is not about self-righteous piety. Personal holiness is the rubber meeting the road and actually being the man (or woman) of God that the Scripture commands the children of light to be in Christ. It is through His power that we can do such a thing, it is by his power that we must do such things. Practicing what we preach and believe is more than just basic morality. It is mercy not sacrifice, love and truth, forgiving as we have been forgiven, which means forgiving those who don't deserve forgiveness as we don't derserve is. Grace by its very definition is given to those who are in need, those who cannot (which is everyone) do a thing to get the goodness of God poured out upon them.

When parenting, or leading in any capacity, we must be characterized by a God besought life not self-righteous. Our righteousness is in Christ alone, being rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, walking in obedience to the upward call, striving to obtain the unity of faith, and doing so infront of our children.

When one see's their children act as they do it is scary, because you realize they learn so much more from what you do than what you say. This does not negate saying things or being corective and teaching with your words. What it should do is cause us to go to God confessing our inability imploring our Lord for strength.

We also must grasp the great weight of our words in connection with our actions. Integrity cannot be underestimated, walk the talk, talk the walk. Limited understanding characterizes a child who only understands about 50% or less of the words that come out of a parent's mouth (an extremely subjective statistic that was made up on the spot like 75% of all statistics ;-). Children understand actions and deeds much sooner than they will our words, children learn by watching us. Parents often have trouble with their kids due to their own lack of personal holiness. Now this is not aleiviating children of personal responsiblity or placing all of the blame squarely upon the parent. In the words of my oldest child, "I'm a black hearted sinner dad," and she is right. How she follows is not really up to me, but how I lead is extremely important.

Not that these are the answers, and this never thought before, but it is a learning process for me and how I believe God to be leading me in fulfilling my duties as a father, a husband, and a pastor. My relationship with God is key not just in the success of these areas, but for the sake of God's glory. My wife, my children and those I lead in the church can never be lead by me to a place that I have not yet gone.

Hopefully I have spouted my ideologies with a little more humility and wisdom this time!

Sorrowful Yet Rejoicing

2009-02-24T07:16:00.004-05:00

It is hard for me to put something like this out into the open, but here is my first attempt. I am unsure of what to call it, but it was a journal entry I had about 4 weeks ago when preparing a sermon. I hope it is intelligible even thought it is rough. I know that there are theological gaps, but this is not a theological treatise. Short and abbreviated it is just me writing.

Hammered with hard truths, realty strikes a fierce blow. The pains of labor are upon them, like a woman giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when delivered anguish will be forgotten and their sorrow will turn to joy. An unprecedented week of popularity and success, the culmination of years of ministry; common place being healing and the miraculous. The teachings of their Lord are hard yet sweet, bitter pills of truth becoming easier to swallow. Heading into the most sacred feast of Unleavened bread with great anticipation, they argue who is the greatest, who gets the right and the left of their most beloved Jesus. News of a traitor amongst them, tumult of past battles rage in their minds, the Savior's words have the aroma of suffering and death, their countenance fails, growing weary with memory of former scars; the flesh is weak. The the death knell rings loudly, stubbornly standing in pride unable to see their weakness one boasts, 'even if all the rest of these deny you Lord I will not deny you, even if I must die with you.' Jesus sorrowfully takes the cup He must take from the Father, from this cup you cannot drink, for alone the Son of Man must carry our burdens, yet He is not alone. He and the Father are one, He shall prevail mightily, He has prevailed mightily preaching and teaching, so that we might have peace and joy in Him. Amidst the world we must suffer, take heart brothers Jesus has overcome. What is lacking in Christ's sufferings? Nothing. He came and with victory was carried on high! Affliction must come as we in His body fill up what is lacking in those sufferings. So, rejoice brothers and sisters, for the genuineness of our faith is to be tested by the fires of the Refiner, rejoice and joyfully drink this cup. Our joy is in Him, not joy itself, our pleasure forevermore at his right hand, beholden to Him and none other. We believe in Him rejoicing with joy inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. They meet Him in Galilee being strengthened in His might, eventually drinking from the cup as the Master had. We are to live as they did, "sorrowful , yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6:10)."

Revivalism

2009-02-16T10:44:00.006-05:00

An item of concern that I have lately been contemplating is revivalism. Revivalism theology is based upon pragmatist ideology and is dominant in the conduct of many churches when attempting to carry out gospel ministry. Revivalist language and practice produces shallow converts who, when challenged in any manner, fall away. It oft reminds me of the parable of the soils. Rather than understanding the parable and applying it to our ministry, many of us attempt to count the produce from the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and anything else that might have a pulse and accepts a part of the message. Great numbers are recorded and boasted as the mighty working of the Spirit of God; yet, when one attempts to find many of these 'converts,' they are extremely difficult to locate. This is often called the revolving back door of the Southern Baptist Church. Converts come in, are assimilated into the body, and, after the honeymoon is over, they slide out the back never to been seen again to the dismay of the leaders. Hardening people's hearts and heads seems to be the overwhelming outcome of these revivalism practices as people are convinced and assured of the Kingdom of God. When any convert falling under this umbrella is confronted concerning their supposed faith, they label the concerned proclaimer of the truth as judgmental and continue in their rebellion.

Some traditionalists that I have the privilege to know state that this is just "how it has always been done," and I shouldn't aim at changing a long standing tradition. Leave well enough alone; if it was good enough for John the Baptist, it is good enough for me. (I have actually been handed the trail of blood that claims baptist lineage all the way back to John the Baptist).

I don't want to give a historical and theological account concerning the issues above as others have done better, (read Iain Murray's; Revival and Revivalism--it is a great book dealing with this in detail), but my question today concerns our reaction against such practices. I personally have a tendency to throw the "baby out with the bath water," per se, and I don't intend to commit such a crime with my church's theological understanding and ministerial practices. So, in an effort to not attack or enter into irreverent babble, quarreling over words with those who prescribe to the new measures, my question is then--how does one preach the gospel? One might say, "Brian, you should have learned this before you became a pastor!" I'm not asking for the mechanics of the gospel, but how might I avoid revivalism practices, leading to shallow man-centered conversions, ushering many to perdition as they comfortably grasp their assurance, only to be rudely awakened when they hear, "depart from me worker of iniquity, I knew you not."

I firmly believe that every word of the Bible points to Jesus Christ; it all leads directly to him. When preaching any portion of the Word of God, we must point to the Word that became flesh and dwelt amongst us. This is a laborious task as we must studiously seek the Word by meditating upon the law of the Lord day and night. It appears to me that revivalism theology makes an effort to hold to this, but only half heatedly as, message after message, the same basic gospel tenets are proposed. It seems to neglect teaching the whole council of the Word,and rather focuses solely upon the responsibility of man. Another popular form is preaching from any text in scripture and then placing a detached gospel tag at the end, ultimately leaving many people confused as to how it fits.

So, my practical question is this: when we come to Romans 13:1-7 on submission to governing authorities, must you finish with 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 no matter what? This is not an oversimplification. Really should every message contain the historical points of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection preached repetitively as the invitation? I agree we must preach the gospel, but can the gospel be preached in another way than just this recurring sermon tag at the end? Shouldn't the preacher labor in his creative talent and knowledge of the Word applying the biblical passage aforementioned, to demonstrate how it leads to the cross? Does the gospel tag harden the hearts and the heads of the people as they repetitiously hear the same thing over and over? Or am I throwing out the baby with the bath water?

Placing the gospel into a formula, tract, or program is damaging and useless as the invitation, decision, praying the prayer, taking the hand, walking the aisle, have all become. These practices have become nothing more than the Baptist liturgy by which people are deceived into thinking they are okay--thus, the hardness of heart. How are we to constantly call for a response to the gospel with out creating such a problem? Or does the very nature of the gospel itself and the preaching of the Word of God automatically call people to respond to such truth?

Should we preach the good news every time we step into the pulpit? Yes! Should it be the revivalist message? Should it be something more or less? Does the gospel tag harden hearts? How do we preach the gospel? Personally, the point I have come to is to preach the Word of God, diligently laboring to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry proclaiming Jesus Christ as preeminent and above all things. By the Grace of God I go!

The New Year

2009-01-01T08:19:00.002-05:00

For the past five years I have been making resolutions with the genuine intent of following through. Having done this for a few years has helped me to refine the process of resolution making. Each resolution from year to year is modified, expounded, or eliminated. Another measure to encourage the achievement of these goals is every resolution being recorded in my journal, it is reviewed and progress evaluated. Sounds anal and type-A, but it has been a good exercise for me.

My main resolution this year is to bless the Lord with my soul. A message Piper preached from Psalm 103 has been a big encouragement in this direction. The message was a fathers day message preached exhorting fathers to bless the Lord in front of their children. My resolution is to be a better dad by blessing the Lord in front of my family, specially my children. Blessing the Lord for his sovereignty, justice, righteousness, mercy, and forgiveness. All to often the words that come from my mouth are corrective and harsh. My desire in these harsh words is to not have children who are unruly, yet it seems to be more damaging than good. The need for correction still remains as I seek to raise my children in godliness. Eph 4:29 is particularly important as I meditate upon how I might speak and live before my family. Letting no corrupting talk come out of my mouth but only that is good for building up as fits the occasion to give grace to those who hear is a pertinent in speaking to my children (a rough paraphrase and run-on sentence of Eph 4:29). Speaking and living as one who blesses the Lord with his soul is in short supply by many professing Christians, specially dads.

While this coming year does not promise an increased amount of time to spend with my family, my prayer is to take the time given and redeem it. Use the time given by God to the greatest end, blessing his holy name.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits, who forgives all you iniquities who heals all your diseases, who redeems you life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's........."

Long Time No Blog!

2008-11-28T09:30:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We had a splendid time as we ate lots of food and hung about with the Barlow's and Bert Bennett. I Thought I might write to simply say I will return to a blog schedule when finals are over and I can take the time to write something thoughtful. I plan on undertaking a writing project in December and January. I hope to write a short paper on prayer examining prayer in the Scriptures. The few I know that look at this blog I will e-mail you a copy and you can if you want provide some constructive criticism. Hopefully it will be profitable, if anything for the purposes of gaining a better biblical understanding of the discipline of prayer.

I'm thankful for the grace of God. I don't deserve it, that is why it is so sweet to me. Thank you God for your goodness to your children.
God Bless
Happy Thanksgiving.

Are You Revived?!

2008-10-27T10:50:00.004-04:00

This last weekend I was able to preach at a nearby church in our local association. It was a revival! I'm not sure if they were revived when all was said and done. To me it seemed very similar to a Bible conference of sorts with an evangelistic emphasis. And being the 'evangelist' I'm not sure that I gave then quite what they were expecting. We had no one come up front, no one made a 'decision', not that I'm aware of. It was just simple preaching of the word of God, combined with fervent prayer--BAM! you have the key element in how God works among his people.

Genuine revival, restoration, or out pouring of God's Spirit is something that comes in an unexpected and unplanned fashion. We cannot conjure up revival any more than we can control the weather. This fact being true we should nonetheless pray with fervency, preach the word in season and out, being faithful in what we are to do as the church. We plant and water and God will give the increase.

Sometimes it seems as if we want to give the increase. When our expectations are not meet, the increase doesn't happen according to schedule, we question if what we are doing is right. We then come up with programs, methods, and techniques to get the desired results. Instead of growing frantic that we are not seeing the ends that we want, let us return to prayer and the Scriptures. Be faithful in those things! The Scripture commands to preach the word and trust that God will bring about those perfect and good ends that he so desires.

Losing sight of what God's will, as expressed in the Scripture, is easy. Nevertheless, we must have biblical fidelity in all that we do, not wandering from the truth just to achieve what we have set as goals and desired results. Setting everything against the crucible of the word is hard, yet we need to take such action. The ineffectual nature of the church today is not because we don't have the right methods, but it is simple due to the lack of the genuine preached word, it is a lack of genuine and fervent prayer, and it is a lack of fear for God.

With all the open ended thoughts that this blog leaves I must finish with this; my involvement in the revival this weekend was good. I was able to preach four times in three days to many people. The word was preached to the redeemed and lost alike. Ideological differences were set aside by some, brothers and sisters in Christ joined together around the word, and I pray that lives will continue to be changed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Humility in History

2008-10-14T05:41:00.002-04:00

Reading church history has never seemed to be a very profitable exercise. With long books, boring repetition of dates, and a myriad of names that one can hardly remember. All of the former complaints can be chalked up to grumbling and shear ignorance. Recently studying CH has been very gratifying. Dates are still hard to remember; names are less difficult to recall; all in all CH has become a humbling exercise.

Church History as a whole gives us an overall ebb and flow that has led the modern church to its current location. Making the statement, "All things are common to all men," much more meaningful. In the recorded pages of history one sees struggles, fights, and victories much like in our day and age. We can only imagine all that has transpired in the pages of history that have never been written. History reveals how men erred in their ways and how men succeeded. Often appearing that the error suffered was due to wrong headed thinking, while others erred out of a sincere desire to bring themselves and their fellow man out of what appeared to be terrible wrongs.

Mostly this is humbling as it becomes quite obvious that anything suffered has already been suffered. There is nothing that men have not already experienced. Battles being fought today are unique to those who are fighting them. Even so, we must recognize that we are not, nor have we been alone in what we face. There is nothing new under the sun. Solomon does an excellent job of conveying that in Ecclesiastes. Also humbling is that any movement, awakening, or revival only comes about by the movement of the Spirit and not by the plans of men. We cannot conjure up methods or any other voodoo, (yes I'm calling the methodological mayhem of today voodoo!), to accomplish the purpose of God. He will move amongst his people.

Reading the very truth laid out in the pages of history, that God will move among his people, and there is nothing new under the sun is also a great comfort. Comfort comes in the confidence that God's purposes will come about and He will be glorified. Comfort is gained when we accomplish our chief purpose, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

2008-09-23T07:39:00.004-04:00

Where do we look, when hard pressed? The distractions of the world are a great temptation. We look to the things of world to remove the feelings of distress. Movies are a place I turn when I want to escape, hunting and fishing when I need to get away. Where does our help come from? It comes from God and Him alone, the maker of the heavens and the earth. Let us not bury ourselves in the distractions of life, but like the psalmist ask our souls, "why are you down cast, O my soul?" When we serve the creator, all Sovereign God of the universe, why would we look to anything else for solace and comfort? I'm not sure, I ask myself such a question. We must ask our soul the question like the psalmist, why are you down cast?

Being down cast makes sense when the world assails us, and according to the world we look to its prescribed locations for respite and comfort. But it makes little sense when we are children of God, who is our Lord, a shield about us, the lifter of our heads. In the same Psalm only a few verses later David writes that he will not be afraid of many thousands of people who set themselves all around him. We must ask ourselves why are we down cast, when we are known by God. David's trust and dependence upon God, his faith, are an example for us. Despite the odds and the apparent opposition, he would not fear even in dire circumstances, for God is his strength.

Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act. Fretting because of evil doers only leads to sin. Trust in God for all things is the only measure that can be taken for a child of God in all circumstance. This is not an exercise in abstract, self help, Christian living, and fluff.

In thinking about last week; God gives us various means of grace to experience his goodness. The grace of God is varied and not only salvific. God strengthens us in grace, gives us the ability to speak grace, grows us in grace, and saves us by His grace. God's grace is irresistible. Growth in grace is a decrease of ourselves and the increase of dependence upon God. It is God getting more of us.

(Psalms referenced 3, 37, 42. Also referenced, Paul Martin)

Narrow

2008-09-16T13:37:00.002-04:00

The path is narrow that leads to life. The gate is narrow and there are few who enter by it. I see this more clearly everyday. I encounter more and more people who do not know Jesus, who don't understand his grace, yet they claim belief in him. They follow him not, but they claim his name. Blind leaders of the blind I see. Claiming a form of godliness yet denying the power of God in their lives. My heart breaks. I pray that I will promiscuously proclaim the gospel of Christ for the the sake of the elect. The amount of lostness in the 'Bible belt' is staggering. We must preach Christ crucified defending the faith against the noxious heresy the fills our world and is anti-Christ.

On a lighter note, maybe. What are the means of grace? Are there such things? Is this a reference to salvific grace or general grace? I ask because I want to know how do you guys look at means of grace?

2008-09-09T05:58:00.006-04:00

'Your work has no handles?" (If you ever get the time read Isaiah chapters 40-48.) The creation telling the Creator that it has been fashioned improperly. The audacity, right? We assume the position of creator when we ask such things or make such statements. Humans act as if God were like one of us to be questioned and told how IT is, (whatever IT represents). We argue and complain about life accusing God in the process. Does not the Potter have the right over the clay to make what He so desires? Let us not speak for Satan by setting out minds on the things of man, (Matt 16:21-23) but let set out minds upon the things of God.

Growth in grace is a downward growth as we lessen our self worth becoming increasingly poor in spirit (Matt 5:3). 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Submit to Christ through the Scriptures revealing of His desires for us, having your mind renewed in knowledge, denying self, picking up ones cross, and follow Him.

2008-09-02T08:51:00.002-04:00

Zwingli, the subject of my reading today. He had a weird inclusivism (maybe not inclusivistic, but much like being a good person gets you to heaven), where he stated that there could be "pious heathens." His affirmation was almost as if one could be saved by grace and not even know it because of God's election. Although, he did affirm reprobation, double predestination, and was a preacher of the gospel. It is odd to think that he could hold such an untenable position. Maybe due to the pressure to publish and get writings out he published a stance that he had not full contemplated. Even if he was wrong in that aspect how man places to I fall in like manner. Zwingli was an awesome man, who literally died in battle while wielding a double headed ax! The Reformers were something else.

With all of the fights and battles that this man and others fought during the Reformation, it is hard to imagine such battles. The magnitude of their problems, issues, and battles were great. The magnitude of my own pale in comparison. Convincing me of my weakness as I feel like crumbling under some of the minuscule problems that are nothing more than mere brush fires. It is good to be strengthened by God's grace. I pray the I can stand firm in the faith that I am firmly rooted and grounded in (Col 2:6-7).

2008-08-26T05:23:00.003-04:00

This morning I rush and will keep it short. Yesterday ended up being a day that was fully unproductive yet very busy. Today I will be busy, but being very productive is on the forefront. A blog is still called for as I desire to develop this habit.

Why are there so many differences of opinion in the Christian faith? What makes MacAurther more right than Haggie? Piper than Olsteen, Sproul than VanImpe, etc.? The reason for this question is that it has been encountered when conversing with individuals who reject church. They are people who refuse to participate with the body in weekly activities yet consider their relationship with God as good as without being a part of the body. I believe the Scriptures say multiple things against such an untenable position.

The reason for this question is not to point out the flimsy arguments that are brought or point out their need as confessing evangelicals to be involved in the body of Christ. My purpose here is also not to argue concerning individual confessors need to be a physical part of the body because they are a spiritual part of the body if they are genuinely in Christ. I really want to know why there is such division among the church? It is also a reasonable question to ask if there are as many that are part of the church as we might thing or that might confess? Maybe the church is not made up of as many "churches" as we want to claim.

C.S. Lewis (whom everyone likes to quote so why should I be any different?), has some keen insight to this problem of division and schism amongst believers. "We have all departed from the total plan in different ways, and each of us wants to make out that his own modification of the original plan is the plan itself. You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: everyone is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say that they are fighting for Christianity." (Mere Christianity, p. 85)

Is this why there is so much division? Am I or is my tradition and group departed and fighting for only a partial truth and not the whole? Do we think that our plan is the plan? Do we act as though we have the corner on truth? I don't believe that we fail in such a manner, but self examination individually and corporately is very necessary. If we don't examine ourselves to see if we are part of the genuine faith then we fail.

Why are we so divided? It comes down to our wants, our sinful desires. One can know the truth but it is often obscured by the many voices and faces of "Evangelical Christianity". Those whom I speak, who ask the question about what makes Piper right and Olsteen wrong need to see this and understand; divisions, fights, and quarreling stem from our sinful desire (James 4:1ff). They also need to understand that the measure of orthodoxy is ones devotion to the source that reveals not only who God is but what He requires of us. Absolutes exist, the truth is real, and quieting the voices of descent will not come through arguments. WE must faithfully preach the Word, all of the Word, nothing but the Word, so help us God! Then we shall overcome the great chasms of unbelief.

Though my argument is complete and laden with holes I would like to hear some expansion upon these question. Or some feed back to help further a better understanding of these ideas.

2008-08-18T08:50:00.002-04:00

Words. I find that the words we use to describe and explain our Christian faith are often not understood by many, (I know the distinction of many is vague and general, but it serves its purpose here). We must take the time to define for people words such as faith, mercy, grace, etc. This is part of preaching and teaching right? Yet the people I come across who readily throw out these words truly have no idea what they mean. My personal problem is that I have taken for granted that people who have been Christians for years know how to biblically define these words.

So, the question is raised; should some of these more difficult words be watered down or removed from our vocabulary? Words such as propitiation, sanctification, predestination, etc. The answer is obvious that we must keep these words as they are biblical. These terms also vividly and beautifully describe, proclaim, and teach us about the glorious gospel of Christ. Let us never get rid of these words, yet we must more diligently teach these biblical truths. Do not assume people are stupid. They aren't stupid or incapable of understanding many of these very simple terms, they are just lazy. Harsh, but true!

Where is all of this leading? Over the past few months or more, it has come to my attention that people really had not concept of mercy and grace. This is of great concern, because these people are "Christians" who don't understand these words. One term that is misunderstood is godly. I soon discovered that I didn't have a great understanding of this word either.

In a way I thought that godliness had to do with personal piety. While this personal piety was was not how you received divine favor it was still something that was achieved through works. As I had never so deeply contemplated this word and in my meditation upon it it became a great source of frustration due to my inability to accurately, biblically define godliness. My understanding prior to this study of godly was lie once we are saved we then must strive to please God and keep ourselves in His good graces by godliness. If one were to accuse me of such a thing I would have utterly rejected that as my stance, but looking back I think that is how some of my teaching has been perceived. Maybe not?

Anyway, Scripture is clear that the only way that we can please God is by grace through faith and not by our works (Eph 2:8-10). This is so that we cannot boast before God; "look at what I've done! Look how good I am!" Repugnant statements in the ears of God my friends. The obedience of faith (Rom 1:5, 16:26), which is a gift of God, is how we please Him, it is through Jesus Christ that we become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). We are not saved by grace and then keep our selves saved by godliness. We are saved by grace, by grace we are kept, by Gods power we are being guarded by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed (1 Pet 1:5).

So, what is godly? What is godliness? Parallel statements in the Psalms have helped me a little in my growth in understanding godly. Psalm 86 is a prayer of David and in this prayer he is asking for the grace to handle particular circumstances. In verse two he states; "Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you- you are my God." (Ps 86:2 ESV) If I am right in the same verse David makes a parallel statement to the very first proposition. The first proposition being; "Preserve my life, for I am godly." This statement if defined by my previous understanding of godly would be inaccurate, but it is the word of God so my understanding must change. What sheds a little light on the first proposition is the parallel statement of; "Save your servant who trusts in you." Not to belabor the point any longer; godliness, being godly is not bound up in personal piety. Godliness is bound up in trust, that is faith.

As the obedience of faith is brought about by the preaching of the Word of God, godliness is brought about in that same obedience of faith as we trust in the promises of God. We put on the newness of life to walk as Christ did and that is by faith, with reliance upon the Spirit, trusting in God. Faith, grace, mercy, trust, belief are not things that are particular to the moment of salvation and then we carry ourselves through. Mercy, grace, faith, trust, and belief are to be with us till glory. God's choosing of us before the foundation of the world, saving us by grace through faith, and the promise to reveal a salvation being kept in heaven by His power through faith is where our godliness is derived. Godly is not by my goodness. We become godly by the grace of God, by his divine favor, that He gives to us even though we are not worthy. Godliness is by faith and trust in our God because He is our God.

Let us biblically define our words and teach them. I am convicted to better understand these words myself. If my understanding of godly is deficient please help me, correcting me with the Word.

2008-08-14T06:33:00.002-04:00

Hey guys thanks for the comments! Feel free to reply as much as you want or ask penetrating questions that I might just scoff at. I am going to try and make a regular habit of posting about once a week starting this coming Monday. Also thanks for putting up with poor writing skills.

2008-08-02T20:17:00.002-04:00

Faith!
We have faith. Right? Do we? Or do we find it really easy to believe and be saved yet really hard to trust and have faith that God is just as sovereign with the mundane as He is with the really important stuff?
It seems that we often fail in realizing the magnitude of the implications of "by grace through faith." This failure appears to be at the hands of cheap grace and easy believeism. It is not popularly preached that though grace is free it was not cheap and therefore should not be marketed as just another consumer commodity. Grace has been so cheapened that the masses fail to see an infinitely holy, righteous, just, and wrathful God. This is a cheap view of God, really it isn't God at all, we only call him God. We accept this idea of God!
Faith in Christ can be flawed and even weak much like Peter's as he stepped out of the boat and into the water only to sink when looking at the wind and storm (Matthew 14:22-33), But it truly was not weak for instantly cried out, "Lord save me." It can be weak and flawed, but it still be genuine faith none the less. Look at this account in the Scriptures, see how bold and confident Peter was in Christ and how he stepped out in faith.
Unlike Peter we don't even make the request! We are huddled at the bottom of the boat in denial as Christians failing to even admit that there is a storm, during which we should be crying out "Jesus to save us." We should in genuine faith cry out to be saved, for the power and strength that we need to over come and suffer well this storm. We must like the psalmist say, "Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel- he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!" That is faith, faith does not say, "why me?" when afflicted it prays, "Lord in my suffering may I suffer well."
Faith is not faith if we only give intellectual assent to gospel facts and have some answers. Faith is genuine when like the disciples in the afore mentioned account you get in the boat when you don't want to and leave into the storm because your master made you. Faith is following your Lord no matter the circumstances. Knowing that it is safer to be obedient and sit in the middle of tumultuous waters that to stand in disobedience while dry and 'safe' on the shore.
Grace is not cheap, our God is not weak, and faith in Christ is regarding him as not only your savior, but your master and Lord. Regard Him as your most Holy Lord (1Pet 3:15).

Eating With...

2008-07-17T07:26:00.002-04:00

1 Corinthians 5:9-10

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-
10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler- not even to eat with such a one.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
13 God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you."

Not even to eat with such a one! With all the possibilities of application that one might think of, in what way do we fail to practice this? Are we to zealous and cut fellowship with anyone that we might not see as perfect as ourselves, or do we entertain fellowship with those who claim to be brothers in Christ yet are wantonly Idolatrous.

A problem arises for me when I am in relationship with confessing Christians, (brothers in Christ) and they are Pharisees. They are idolatrous, covetous, and greedy. They are moral people, good people as the world might see them, but they are by all fruit inspections not in Christ. I feel as if at times I ignore the evil person and fail to: "Purge the evil person from among you (me)."

Anyway, much more to be written but what are your thoughts?

Purpose statement

2008-07-15T09:48:00.004-04:00

Hopefully the purpose of my blog will be fulfilled. I desire to establish (again) the Southview theological society by using blogs. So if you want to be a part that is great. The rules can be set as we go. If it is foolish or to time consuming it will be dropped. Yet it might turn out after all.