TYPICAL TOPICAL

There are different formats that pass themselves off as "preaching."



Each theological seminary tends to magnify one style over others.



Some formats are "self-determining," that is: they have their main points dictated by Scripture.



Other types of "preaching" involve inserting the ideas and philosophies of the "Preacher" into them.



The most difficult style of preaching, and the most likely to err, is topical preaching.



In it, the "preacher" selects a TOPIC (led, of course, by the Holy Spirit). He then sets about the task of developing the topic, using Scripture verses to back his point of view.



One major issue with this preaching approach is that the preacher must constantly guard against allowing his point of view to supersede the view of Scripture on the subject.



He must also avoid using Scripture verses out of their context to "prove" his point.



Often, the verses chosen are really teaching an opposite principle, but because they sound right, seem "spiritual" or use language that makes them seem as though they "fit" the topic, he uses them, blithely disregarding their true meaning.



For example, suppose a preacher wanted his listeners to learn the importance of listening carefully, studying hard, becoming wise and doing the right thing.



He might search Scripture until he found Job 34:2-4. Hear my words, you wise men, listen to me, you men of learning. For the ear tests words as the tongue tastes food. Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.



"Sounds good," you say.



Maybe so, but it would be an abomination to use those verses to teach the lesson he wanted learned, because they are the words of Elihu, about whom God, Himself, said, (speaking to Eliphaz) "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."



In fact, here is why God would be angry about Elihu making that statement:



1. It is self-serving. Count the number of times he refers to himself.

2. It is being used to accuse Job of doing that of which he is innocent.

3. It suggests that men determine what is right on their own...a very common approach in even today's secular society.

4. It teaches that together we can learn what is good, apart from God.



Now Job is a perfectly good book of the Bible...of course.



But one must be very careful about quoting Job, for it is replete with traps just like the one above.



In fact, to quote what Job says is to reveal his despair.



To quote what God says reveals His character, love and long-suffering.



But to quote Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar or Elihu as though they have anything constructive to say is to reveal one's total misunderstanding of the point of the book of Job, which is:



Religious people (Job's accusers) tend to misuse truths about God to beat the faithful over the head, especially when they are down, and God does not like that.



Two-thirds of the book deals exactly with that issue.



In fact, so many people misuse the book of Job, that I wonder whether they know how to read at all.



Job was not patient, yet we speak of the "patience of Job."



Job was righteous...God said so, yet we try to figure out what he did wrong to deserve his travails.



Job was depressed, wishing he had never been born.



Job was angry with God, questioning His motives and actions.



But Job was faithful.



For the faithful...truly faithful...the reward is beyond our wildest dreams.

A pastor once said to me, "There may be one meaning to a Scripture verse, but there are many applications."

Poppycock!

God's Word means what it means. Otherwise it would be arbitrary and capricious, and one could never be certain of its meaning. Its "meaning" would be subject to various interpretations and winds of doctrine.

If you are going to preach topically, at least let the Scripture dictate your topics and don't try to "proof-text" your sermons.



After all, not one soul on earth needs a behavioristic religious philosophy lesson.



Few souls on earth care about your "life systemology."



What they need is to hear the Word of God rightly divided.

The Bible is God' revelation of His character, His love for His Creation and His plan for its redemption.

I WISH FOR YOU

A HAPPY AND CHRIST FILLED NEW YEAR!

Why Did God Become a Man?

The following is an outline of a sermon by one of my favorite preachers, Dr. David Jeremiah.

I invite you to look up the scriptures, as they are not quoted completely in this post.

Most of all, I invite you to consider that the Mighty Creator, the One who holds more power in one hand than all of the power of all of the atoms in the universe, loves you enough to have come to live among us a sacrificial birth, a sacrificial life and a sacrificial death in order to afford you an opportunity to live with Him eternally.

God became a man to satisfy the prophecies of the Old Testament.

Luke 24:44 "All things must be fulfilled…concerning me."

Isaiah 7:14 "The Lord will give you a sign…"

Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem…whose origins are from of old…"

Jeremiah 31:15 "A voice in Rama…they are no more."

Matthew 2:16-18 "Herod…was angry…and put to death the children…"

Herod had been named "King of the Jews" by Rome.

He feared this new "King" would dethrone him

Foretold hundreds of years before it happened

God became a man to show us the Father

John 14: 9 "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

Jesus was God in a body.

To know who God is, you must know who Jesus is.

Jesus is not an idea of God, not a picture of God, He is God Himself.

Colossians1:15-19 "He is the image of the invisible…fullness dwell in Him."

John 1:1-3 "In the beginning…that has been made."

Before Jesus, man could only philosophize and guess about God’s nature. Now we can know Him.

If you want to know God, you must get to know Jesus. "I am the way…"

God became a man to save us from our sin.

I Timothy 1:15 "This is a faithful saying…that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

He had to become one of us so He could pay the penalty we should have paid.

He offers salvation to anybody who will come to Him in faith, trusting in, and only in, His finished work at the cross of Calvary.

Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

John 1:29 "Behold the Lamb of God…of the world."

Without accepting Him we cannot be forgiven.

God became a man to sympathize with our weaknesses.

Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize…"

Jesus’ temptations were not philosophical, they were real.

He understands you like no one else.

Apart from Christ there is only discouragement and despair at Christmas time.

Jesus came knowing what it would cost Him.

God became a man to secure our hope of Heaven.

He came down so that we could go up.

Until Christ is in you, you can’t go to Heaven…not Politically Correct, but I don’t care.

He had to come as He came to be what He was

He was both man and God

Born uniquely of a virgin with no sin nature.

He had to be what He was to live as He lived.

He lived a perfect life

He had to in order to be the Perfect Lamb of God.

He had to live as He lived to do what He did.

He could not have otherwise saved us.

If He had gone to the cross with just one sin, He would have gone in vain.

This Christmas remember that He was born to die; that His physical death, though horrible, did not compare to the moment when God left Him alone with the sins of the universe on his soul; and that His death provided that if you want to be with God forever, you can. His resurrection guarantees it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!

ASTONISHMENT AND AWE

I got a comment on my last post from Shari http://sharisnewblog.blogspot.com/.

We had communicated before, and she had communicated with my wife, Bonnie, about her dad.

But being the sort of addle-headed person I am, I had heard without hearing (more correctly: read without reading).

Turns out that Shari is the daughter of a radio announcer who recently went on to be with the Lord.

Turns out also that her father and I (long before he was her father) had spent time together in my home in Warner Robins, Georgia, playing radio announcer with an old Revere reel-to-reel tape recorder which we discovered generated RF (radio frequency).

When one spoke into the microphone, the signal could be picked up as far away as the house next door.

We played music for the guy next door, who could pick us up on his bedroom radio.

Interestingly, both of us actually ended up in radio, though neither seems to have known that about the other.

His name was Seymor C. Holmes III, but nobody really knew him by any name other than "Skip."

When I knew Skip, "rought around the edges" would have been the kindest thing one could say about him.

He tended toward the profane, smoked like a chimney and I'm not really certain what we had in common enough to be friends.

Not that we were close, nevertheless, he was occasionally at my house and we messed around with things that teens in those days messed around with.

Mostly, I think, I served as a diversion for him.

We did not stay in touch.

According to his own testimony, he did not "grow into a fine young man," but drifted downhill until late in life.

And then...Oh but then.

Something happened in Skip's life that you need to hear about.

In a presentation a couple of years before his death, he gave his testimony.

You can hear it here (click on the picture with the cross):

http://myspace.com/skipholmes

And I recommend that you do.

It is some 28 minutes long, so set aside some time, but it is worth every second of it.

I was moved to tears as I listened, and I don't do that often.

Every day, when I sign off my air shift at the Christian radio station (heard online at www.kingdom.fm, I say, "The Lord willing, I'll be back here again tomorrow, and if you'll join me, we'll praise God together through music and the Word. Have a beautiful day, today. Make it a Christ filled day, and I'll see you here, tomorrow. But if I don't see you here, I'll see you over there."

Skip Holmes, wait for me, Brother in Christ. I won't see you over here, but I sure do look forward to seeing you over there.

DAFFY DEFINITIONS?

I was listening to a radio talk show the other day.

The host was interviewing an author whose latest book defended the presence of illegal aliens in our country.

During the interview she made the most remarkable statement.

She said, "Somehow we in America have equated 'illegal' with 'criminal,' and that's unfortunate."

I fled to my thesaurus and looked up "illegal."

Here is what I found: unlawful; lawless; prohibited; criminal; illicit; unauthorized; illegitimate; unlicensed."

It seems there are those in this county who would make it their practice to define, or re-define, words to mean whatever they want them to mean at the time they are using them.

The way a society defines words depends on many factors, such as their linguistic origin, their historical meaning and, to a lesser extent, their common usage.

Sometimes common usage, over an extended period of time, can alter the meaning of a word.

"Cool" is an example.

"Cool" means less than warm.

But it began being used to mean something that is sociologically desirable, as in, "That is a really cool game."

Of course in that context the word "cool" has nothing to do with temperature.

Over time, as society used the word more and more to mean something "hip," [a whole different discussion. (Hint: it's not a body part)].

However, it is not the prerogative of someone to arbitrarily change the meaning of a word.

For instance, "marriage" has historically meant the union of a man and a woman.

Some have tried, unsuccessfully to one degree or another, to change its meaning to include the union of two people of the same sex.

If we do so, we will need to come up with another word that means what "marriage" used to mean.

I drive a 1995 Saturn SL2. If I decide to call it a 2007 Cadillac, will it become one?

The nature of something cannot be altered simply by changing its name, or ignoring its definition.

Therefore, that which is against the law may be referred to correctly as illegal, criminal, or any of the other synonyms listed above.

An illegal alien engages in unlawful behavior by breaking in line in front of those who go through the proper steps to enter this country, and is therefore a criminal.

Now all that's left to do is to decide to what level of criminality it rises and to react appropriately.

I wonder whether any member of our government is able to do that.

A TAXING SUGGESTION

I have, after much consideration of the present tax code, the proposed "Fair Tax" plan, and my own belief in a flat 11% tax on every earned dollar in the country - personal and corporate - over a poverty line, with no deductions (which, of course, would give the government more money than they'd know what to do with [although they most certainly would figure it out]), decided on an alternative plan.

The federal government (our universal fiscal savior) should tax us at the rate of 100%, taking every dollar we earn.

Then they could set up a chart by which they can discern the value of every person and decide how much each should receive.

How much do you think that might be for you?

Does the figure "$0.00" come to mind?

THE SUBJECT IS ONE BILLION

A good friend sent this to me.

If you haven't read it, do so, but be warned: This is too true to be very funny.


The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were Living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.


While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division . .

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?


A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you Each get $516,528.

B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.


C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family Gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C .. HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??


Tax his land, tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor, tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.

Tax his cow, tax his goat,
Tax his pants, tax his coat.
Tax his ties, tax his shirts,
Tax his work, tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco, tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze, tax his beers,
If he cries, tax his tears.


Tax his bills, tax his gas,
Tax his notes, tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.

If he hollers, tax him more,
Tax him until he's good and sore.
Tax his coffin, tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.


Put these words upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me to my doom!"
And when he's gone, we won't relax,
We'll still be after the inheritance TAX!!

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Perm it Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax),
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax),
Liquor Tax,
Luxury Tax,
Marriage License Tax,
Medicare Tax,
Property Tax,
Real Estate Tax,
Service charge taxes,
Social Security Tax,
Road Usage Tax (Truckers),
Sales Taxes,
Recreational Vehicle Tax,
School Tax,
State Income Tax,
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA),
Telephone Federal Excise Tax,
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fe e Tax,
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax,
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax,
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax,
Telephone State and Local Tax,
Telephone Usage Charge Tax,
Utility Tax,
Vehicle License Registration Tax,
Vehicle Sales Tax,
Watercraft Registration Tax,
Well Permit Tax,
Workers Compensation Tax.


STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.


We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?


Can you spell 'politicians!'

And I still have to "press 1" for English.