Friday, February 3, 2012
Power to Forgive
I have been reading the story of Joseph and have grieved with him as he was so wrongfully mistreated - yet, when all is said and done, here is what he says to his brothers that caused him such harm:
Gen 45:5-7 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. (6) For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. (7) And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 50:20-21 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. (21) Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
As I have read this, I have been impressed with a key that can help me to forgive when I am mistreated. I need to understand that the sovereignty of God has been working right alongside the "meanness" of others toward me. What I mean is: God never causes people to sin against me and you, but He does orchestrate that conflict to work good in me, and perhaps even good in them. This sovereign control of our God is something that gives us strength then to forgive others. Joseph was able to forgive and even comfort his brothers because he knew that God's hand was even in their attack of him.
If you and I can believe and remember this, we can find strength to forgive and even thankfulness for people being mean to us!
pw
Friday, December 30, 2011
Is Christ Divided?
1Corinthians 1:11-13 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. (12) Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. (13) Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
Here was a struggle in the church of Corinth. There were divisions because members were worshiping a certain man and his particular style of preaching. Paul greatly rebukes this in the next several chapters making the point that we don't worship MEN. We are not "OF" men. Men who are spiritually gifted are to be imitated, listened to, learned from, respected, and even obeyed - but not to cause factions or groups to themselves.
Frankly, this is always a temptation within the body of Christ. It comes from Preachers who may struggle with the temptation of pride that comes when people listen to them and value them over other fellow Ministers. Also, there is a tendency that we all have to want to exalt and rally around those who make an impact on us. There is a loyalty that starts with good motives, but may grow to a faction that pulls the attention away from Jesus Christ and places it on men who are supposed to be His slaves! It is often easier to focus on men who we can follow physically than Christ whom we must pursue spiritually.
By inspiration, the writer simply says "Is Christ divided?" - the answer to that is "NO!" When there are divisions within the church following certain leaders or even laymen, we have taken our eyes off of the Goal. That Goal is Christ.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Is your pastor REALLY preaching God's Word to you?
Is your pastor REALLY preaching God's Word to you?
That may seem like a silly question. I mean, you go to the church service, open your Bible, listen for 30-45 minutes, have an invitation and then go home - of course he is preaching God's Word isn't he?
I would like to explore that question by giving you an illustration that Pastor Mark Minnick used while instructing a room full of preachers what it is to preach God's Word. He said if you were studying topography and were sent to a certain mountain to bring back a report on that mountain, you would go and study the mountain and write the report on things like size, height, mass, number of trees, texture, type of rocks, etc. You would DISCOVER and write the report. What you would not do is CREATE. There is no creation to be done. The mountain is already there, you just need to discover what is there are present it in a report. This is preaching.
Unfortunately, there are many sermons that are created instead of being discovered in the Bible text itself. God has already presented the thought patterns, context, points, structure, flow, argumentation, etc. A Pastor's sermons should mirror the exact thought patterns and argumentation of a certain passage or paragraph of Scripture or he is not really preaching God's Word. He is preaching a Dr. Frankenstein experiment of his own creation. He is combining cliche's and folk truth that he has heard to present 35 minutes of a so called sermon that everyone leaves saying "that was acceptable, or he really got going, or that was really good (creation)". This is not preaching God's Word.
Sermons that truly mirror the argument of each paragraph of Scripture sometimes are shocking and even tough to ingest because they are Divine Argument. God often does not go to the cliche' Sunday School answer in the next verse. He goes where His divine heart would go. That is tough for some pastors because it doesn't sound like "3 points and a poem" like happens in most pulpits.
But when we preach this way, something incredible happens: people change. Cliche' preaching of repeating "ear candy" sayings and rhymes does not change people because it is man's word. God's thinking changes people.
I am not saying there is no place for Topical sermons - but those topical sermons had better be preached with contextual understanding. That means the preacher doesn't just string together rapid fire verses to support his point - he carefully searches out scripture that connects to the subject he is preaching and DISCOVERS God's mind on it and then preaches it carefully using the key passages of Scripture using the verses in such a way as to perfectly preserve the verse in the meaning God meant for it to mean in the context it was plucked from. Frankly, even Topical preaching is best done by going to the key passages and preaching them in their own contexts.
Here are some telling questions to answer the original question of if your pastor is REALLY preaching God's Word to you:
1. Does he take you to the passage he is preaching in your Bible and explain the context?
2. Does he get the "points" of his sermon from the points God makes in the Bible paragraph?
3. Is the argument flow of his sermon the same as you can read right there in the Bible on your lap?
4. Does he often refer to phrases/words in the passage as he preaches (this indicates he is following the passage as he preaches...this is very good)
5. Is he skipping verses as he preaches? (this is not good. Why is he skipping what God wrote? Why is he not following the flow God did in the verses?)
6. Are you hearing the same popular verses over and over? (this is bad...he needs to preach the whole Scripture. There are 66 books, why are you hearing the same verses?)
7. Is he explaining the modern meaning of words? (this is essential - the Hebrew and Greek are not always played out by our translations. The preacher definitely needs to clearly define words that God gave originally by inspiration.)
8. If you read the same Bible passage later, can you recall the sermon. It should "mirror", so the sermon should be easy to recall. If it is DISCOVERY, it will look the same as the passage. If it is "Creation", there is no telling what monster may emerge.
I do hope this helps challenge pastors to do their job and congregants to seek a church that preaches the very Word of God.
pw
That may seem like a silly question. I mean, you go to the church service, open your Bible, listen for 30-45 minutes, have an invitation and then go home - of course he is preaching God's Word isn't he?
I would like to explore that question by giving you an illustration that Pastor Mark Minnick used while instructing a room full of preachers what it is to preach God's Word. He said if you were studying topography and were sent to a certain mountain to bring back a report on that mountain, you would go and study the mountain and write the report on things like size, height, mass, number of trees, texture, type of rocks, etc. You would DISCOVER and write the report. What you would not do is CREATE. There is no creation to be done. The mountain is already there, you just need to discover what is there are present it in a report. This is preaching.
Unfortunately, there are many sermons that are created instead of being discovered in the Bible text itself. God has already presented the thought patterns, context, points, structure, flow, argumentation, etc. A Pastor's sermons should mirror the exact thought patterns and argumentation of a certain passage or paragraph of Scripture or he is not really preaching God's Word. He is preaching a Dr. Frankenstein experiment of his own creation. He is combining cliche's and folk truth that he has heard to present 35 minutes of a so called sermon that everyone leaves saying "that was acceptable, or he really got going, or that was really good (creation)". This is not preaching God's Word.
Sermons that truly mirror the argument of each paragraph of Scripture sometimes are shocking and even tough to ingest because they are Divine Argument. God often does not go to the cliche' Sunday School answer in the next verse. He goes where His divine heart would go. That is tough for some pastors because it doesn't sound like "3 points and a poem" like happens in most pulpits.
But when we preach this way, something incredible happens: people change. Cliche' preaching of repeating "ear candy" sayings and rhymes does not change people because it is man's word. God's thinking changes people.
I am not saying there is no place for Topical sermons - but those topical sermons had better be preached with contextual understanding. That means the preacher doesn't just string together rapid fire verses to support his point - he carefully searches out scripture that connects to the subject he is preaching and DISCOVERS God's mind on it and then preaches it carefully using the key passages of Scripture using the verses in such a way as to perfectly preserve the verse in the meaning God meant for it to mean in the context it was plucked from. Frankly, even Topical preaching is best done by going to the key passages and preaching them in their own contexts.
Here are some telling questions to answer the original question of if your pastor is REALLY preaching God's Word to you:
1. Does he take you to the passage he is preaching in your Bible and explain the context?
2. Does he get the "points" of his sermon from the points God makes in the Bible paragraph?
3. Is the argument flow of his sermon the same as you can read right there in the Bible on your lap?
4. Does he often refer to phrases/words in the passage as he preaches (this indicates he is following the passage as he preaches...this is very good)
5. Is he skipping verses as he preaches? (this is not good. Why is he skipping what God wrote? Why is he not following the flow God did in the verses?)
6. Are you hearing the same popular verses over and over? (this is bad...he needs to preach the whole Scripture. There are 66 books, why are you hearing the same verses?)
7. Is he explaining the modern meaning of words? (this is essential - the Hebrew and Greek are not always played out by our translations. The preacher definitely needs to clearly define words that God gave originally by inspiration.)
8. If you read the same Bible passage later, can you recall the sermon. It should "mirror", so the sermon should be easy to recall. If it is DISCOVERY, it will look the same as the passage. If it is "Creation", there is no telling what monster may emerge.
I do hope this helps challenge pastors to do their job and congregants to seek a church that preaches the very Word of God.
pw
Friday, October 21, 2011
Today is the End of the World
This is October 21st, the postponed or redefined date of the End of the World by Harold Camping.
I will not waste your time talking about this heretic - I have written an earlier blog entry on him. I will however challenge you with the question "Are you ready for the end?" We do know that it is coming, whether Oct. 21, Dec. 5th, or ten years from now......
To put that in Biblical thinking, are you ready for the Lord to come today. If you are a recipient of the grace that is in Jesus Christ, that would mean what we call "the rapture". At first you may jump to the rehearsed answer "of course I am ready!" - however, are you ready to give account of the "things done in your body, whether they be good or bad?" as the Scripture says.
There is no condemnation to those in Christ and this cannot be answering for any/all/part of our sin. This means the quality of the good works done in our body since we have received Jesus. Those works, words, sacrifices to God are either good or bad. Period.
I think about this and I am not so sure that I am ready to stand before that trial of fire. I know that I have done many things in the name of the Lord, love, etc., but I am left with the strong impression and reality that many of them were done with motives that were prideful, selfish, and even self serving. It is a struggle to do these works that will be tried with pure motives. I think we have to have supernatural grace to do any works purely.
I have scripturally stained thoughts also about "the crowns" or rewards that we will receive. We quickly quote the Revelation 4 passage about these being cast at Jesus feet, and He certainly is worthy of that - but the passage we quote is not the passage of the saint's crowning, but of the "24 elders of heaven". Sometimes this "casting crowns" is a scapegoat for believers not to realize that what they are doing right now will have eternal impact on their standing in heaven. It is not like we will cast the crowns and then we all will be equal. As in Rev. 4 with the elders, there is ranking in heaven. We see that discussed with James and John's mother in the gospels who wants her sons to sit on the left and right of Jesus when He comes to power.
What I am saying is that your works as a believer do matter and will be rewarded accurate to your service, love, sacrifice, faithfulness. This reward will be played out in your Millennium and perhaps heavenly ranking. This is also illustrated by the parables of the talents when the managers are rewarded according to what they have done with the money entrusted them.
So, I return to Judgement Day today. Are you ready? Understanding that what you have done on this earth continues into eternity, are you ready to meet the Lord?
pw
To put that in Biblical thinking, are you ready for the Lord to come today. If you are a recipient of the grace that is in Jesus Christ, that would mean what we call "the rapture". At first you may jump to the rehearsed answer "of course I am ready!" - however, are you ready to give account of the "things done in your body, whether they be good or bad?" as the Scripture says.
There is no condemnation to those in Christ and this cannot be answering for any/all/part of our sin. This means the quality of the good works done in our body since we have received Jesus. Those works, words, sacrifices to God are either good or bad. Period.
I think about this and I am not so sure that I am ready to stand before that trial of fire. I know that I have done many things in the name of the Lord, love, etc., but I am left with the strong impression and reality that many of them were done with motives that were prideful, selfish, and even self serving. It is a struggle to do these works that will be tried with pure motives. I think we have to have supernatural grace to do any works purely.
I have scripturally stained thoughts also about "the crowns" or rewards that we will receive. We quickly quote the Revelation 4 passage about these being cast at Jesus feet, and He certainly is worthy of that - but the passage we quote is not the passage of the saint's crowning, but of the "24 elders of heaven". Sometimes this "casting crowns" is a scapegoat for believers not to realize that what they are doing right now will have eternal impact on their standing in heaven. It is not like we will cast the crowns and then we all will be equal. As in Rev. 4 with the elders, there is ranking in heaven. We see that discussed with James and John's mother in the gospels who wants her sons to sit on the left and right of Jesus when He comes to power.
What I am saying is that your works as a believer do matter and will be rewarded accurate to your service, love, sacrifice, faithfulness. This reward will be played out in your Millennium and perhaps heavenly ranking. This is also illustrated by the parables of the talents when the managers are rewarded according to what they have done with the money entrusted them.
So, I return to Judgement Day today. Are you ready? Understanding that what you have done on this earth continues into eternity, are you ready to meet the Lord?
pw
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Love Lasts
So, what does that mean? "love never fails?" If you keep reading it becomes clear that many of the things that we think are tremendous spiritual virtues and abilities (prophecy,tongues, knowledge) will be gone at some point in history. Those supernatural revelations will be no more - but love "lasts". It will be a high and noble virtue supported by the Lord on through all of eternity.
I think about that in my love to people. For instance, in my love to my children, some of the things that cause friction between us and I make a big deal of simply will not last. I allow things like their lack of performance in school, chores, etc. to interrupt the fellowship of my love to them when the truth is whether they earned a "B" or a "C" in Chemistry is not going to matter in the grander scheme of things that really matter. Love does matter. Love lasts. We certainly must push our kids, but not to the point of causing anger and deep scars from our words and scoldings.
We have but a few fleeting years with friends, family, coworkers, spouses, etc. We need to concentrate our relationships with others on what matters: Love. Love lasts and so we must make it the highest priority with others right now.
pw
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