Consistent Christianity

Christianity is thick with inconsistency, at least which masquerades as Christianity is. Most Christians don’t seem to even realize their inconsistencies. They don’t seem to remember what they said one time and how what they are saying now does not jibe with what they said before.

Prayer is an area in which people who call themselves Christians are frightfully inconsistent. On the one hand, they consider prayer the most important thing in the universe. On the other hand their explanation of why prayer sometimes does not “work” contradicts what they teach.

The fact is, prayer does not “work.” Prayer was not designed by God to “work.” It is not some kind of incantation that causes God to do one’s will. Prayer is designed to allow us to find out God’s plan and get on board with it.

Faith is another common area of inconsistency. Somehow faith is seen as some sort of magical force that keeps anything bad (especially illness) from happening to Christians.

Faith is the vehicle through which God saves us by His grace. When Jesus said, “…your faith has made you whole,” He was not talking about the faith itself. He was talking about the object of faith: Himself.

Faith in faith does nobody any good. It becomes just some sort of ethereal theosophy useful for nothing more than sophomoric discussion. Faith must lead us to believe that Jesus is all-sufficient in and of Himself.

Many self-described theologians have indicated that Christians don’t need to believe God can do something, but that He will do it. Of course the opposite is true. God can do anything, but He gets to choose what He will or will not do. Otherwise, He is not God.

Some theologytes (a word coined to indicate neophyte theologians) think that a person of faith will never be sick. They seem to believe that if a person gets sick and does not get well with prayer, their faith is just too weak. Few of them ever consider how cruel and heartless (not to mention untrue) that position is.

They quote bible verses to support their viewpoint, but miss the real message of the Bible: God’s revelation of His character, His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption. That, plus nothing else, should be sufficient, but it apparently is not.

Then, when they themselves get sick or develop some debilitating condition, their faith is crushed and they go into deep spiritual depression, all because they have a false conception of faith.

Christians are inconsistent with Scripture, too. They love to quote Romans and Galatians to prove we are free from the law and turn right around and quote I John and James to prove what we should and should not do. They seem unable to recognize their inconsistency…or just don’t care.

If Scripture is true, and it is, then it must not contradict itself, and it doesn't. Where there seem to be contradictions there are really none at all. The issue is not with Scripture. The issue is trying to make Scripture conform to Christians’ preconceived notions.

One of the main reasons it seems so hard to reconcile Scripture with itself is that Christians try to understand it as one covenant. In truth, Scripture presents two very distinct covenant relationships with God: The Old Covenant(s) and the New Covenant. Christians try to live with their spiritual feet in each. That is impossible.

Isn't it time for our churches to adopt the sound doctrines that are really taught by the Bible? Isn't it time to train Christians to be consistent in their faith, rather than just “strong?”

Violating God's Principles of Growth

Even the human body grows by division

Once upon a time there was a church leader who decided that the way things had been done were old and boring. So he decided to do things a little differently…actually a lot differently. He actually believed that would result in more participation and reaching more people for Christ.

Whereas for years the church had had a thriving Bible Study ministry that followed all of the principles God made for His creation, the church leader took steps to violate those principles, thinking, “Surely God make allowances for old and boring.”

But as the weeks after the change came and went, the group got smaller and smaller. Although the change was supposed to promote togetherness, it actually resulted in division and separation.

Panic began to set into the church leader’s heart. Not wanting to admit he could have made a mistake, he removed from the group the members who seemed the most incompatible. The group that was left continued to decrease in number. Several of its attendees decided to find another church home.

When asked what was going on, the church leader reminded the questioners that way back at the beginning of the “great experiment” that it would be for only a few months.

Only in those few months the large group continued to deteriorate and the church lost more members to other churches.

Unable to accept that his idea might be wrong (even though it had been tried many times before, unsuccessfully and seemed very intellectual), he pressed on. The class continued to dwindle and the members were less and less satisfied with the sophomoric activities disguised as learning.

When the time to get back to the way things used to be came, classes were a skeleton of their former selves and the teachers had to start all over from scratch.

There are a lot of “new methods” bandied about. Most of them are virtually useless. Nevertheless, leaders, especially inexperienced leaders, continue to try them. They no doubt think there must be something better than what they had. They certainly don’t want to be taught by someone who has “been there, done that.”

That’s the trouble with so-called “new ideas.” Most of them are not new at all. They have been tried and failed because they run contrary to the very principles of creation established by God.

Way too many Christian leaders think that because they thought of something or read it somewhere it must be the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God never changes, though, and His principles remain the same. They always have and always will.

Some day, perhaps prospective leaders will be taught that division is the best unifier. Nothing in God’s creation lives without it. The wheel does not need to be reinvented, and Jesus’ message is sufficient.

Pride in Ministry

There are two kinds of pride in ministry. One is the pride it takes to ensure that a good job is being done. That’s a good kind of pride. It is not discouraged by God’s Word. The other kind of pride in ministry, the one the Bible calls sin, is the kind of pride results from thinking: “I’m a Christian leader, I thought of it, therefore it must be God leading me.”

Quite apart from being sin, that last kind of pride kills ministries. Unless the leader (pastor) has a charismatic personality, like Joel Osteen, or Joyce Meyer, he is unlikely to be able to sustain a ministry by the force of his personality.

There are in the neighborhood of 46,000 pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention. The majority of them, by far, do not have the kind of personality that the charismatic mega-church pastors have. Most operate in churches with fewer than 300 members. Some have churches in that number in the 500-1,000 range. Still fewer have more than 1,000 members and maybe 100 or so pastor mega-churches.

There are three things the “non-mega-churches” are charged with doing: worshiping God, spreading the gospel and ministering to/equipping the saints. By the way, mega churches are charged with the same responsibilities.

In an effort to be current and “relevant,” many pastors of smaller churches are tempted to try different techniques to attract people. Interestingly, many pastors have adopted very worldly methods to “reach” people. The trouble with that is that if any technique attracts people better than the gospel, the people it attracts are likely to be shallow in their thinking and stunted in their spiritual growth. The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin and leads them to a relationship with God through Christ. If He has not done that, no style of ministry will succeed.

Jesus said that if we lift Him up, He will draw people to Him. He doesn't need our help. In fact, our help will really be no help at all. It will be a hindrance to reaching people with the gospel. What pastors really need to do is to be about the business God has put them in: praying, equipping the saints, building (growing) the saints spiritually in Christ and preaching the gospel message.

Too many pastors think they have to “reinvent the wheel” to perform effective ministry today. While some methodology must change, there are certain methods that must be used if a church is to be anything close to what God wants for them.

To achieve spiritual growth among his people, a pastor needs to get them involved in the study of God’s Word. They cannot grow without it. A half-hour or forty-five minute sermon once a week just is not enough to grow people spiritually. That is an invitation to them to remain spiritually milk-fed.

He must also disciple, or train, his people to do the works of service to which God and His Word have called them.

The pastor must send them out to evangelize the lost in the local community, the state, in the nation and around the world. In other words he must lead them to be evangelists and missionaries.

The non mega-church pastor must provide his congregation with solid worship that includes reverence for God and the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Finally, he must preach the gospel to the saved and the unsaved. The unsaved must be brought to an awareness of their sin, must repent of that sin and then must trust in and only in the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary for salvation. The saved will respond to the gospel message with joy and thanksgiving.

All of this is much more than one man can handle and much of it is not the job of the pastor anyway. Bible study, training, and missions belong in the hands of trained staff or laymen who feel called of God to lead in these areas.

A little known secret is that the more people a church has involved in these ministries, the more steadily the church will grow and the more people it will reach for Christ and service to Him.

The Answer: Effective Sunday School

We’re a church staff. There are four of us: a Senior Pastor, an Education Pastor, a Worship Leader and a Youth Director. We are charged with the responsibility of equipping our church members for works of service, no small task, at best. To accomplish that, there are some things we really want to do.

·         We want to worship with our members.
·         We want to help our members share their faith.
·         We want to help our members grow.
·         We want to fellowship with our members.
·         We want to communicate effectively with our members.
·         We want to minister to our members.
·         We want to involve our members in works of service.
·         We want to have members who know and understand the Bible.
·         We want to discover and meet the spiritual needs of our members.

We have 1,200 members in our church. How in the world are the four of us staff members to accomplish all of that? It’s an impossible task!

What we need is some way to break them up into smaller ministry groups. We need to find people who will help us accomplish all of those needs. We need some ways to do all of those things every week, 52 weeks per year. How, oh how do we accomplish that?

I know! Let’s form a bunch of small groups and divide the congregation among them. Then let’s recruit some leader oriented members to help them help us accomplish all of those needs. If there are special needs that one of the staff has to tend to, they can let us know. What a great idea!

But it’s going to take a lot of organizing to get it done.

NEWS FLASH!! WE ALREADY HAVE THE FRAMEWORK TO ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THAT. IT’S CALLED THE SUNDAY SCHOOL! With the proper use of Sunday School, the members can all be ministered to!

With our effective Sunday School helping the church and the church staff we can encourage our members to worship together, to witness, to put their faith into action, to enjoy fellowship with one another and to minister to each other’s needs. Through our effective Sunday School we can be sure everyone is communicated with about the church’s needs, about what’s going on in our church and how to pray for each other. We can also help them learn God’s Word and apply it to their daily lives.

The question is, will we use the one ministry that is already in existence and provides the appropriate structure to accomplish ministry, or will we continue to try to do the impossible?

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Amazing Grace-Wintley Phipps

THIS OUGHT TO WAKE YOU UP IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Hebrews 8:1-13 – An Overview

The New Covenant Relationship

For centuries, devout Jews had been operating under the Old, Mosaic Covenant, but now they were being told by Jesus and the apostles that things had changed. They could not claim to have been uninformed that such a dramatic change was coming. The Old Testament writers had prophesied that a New Covenant was coming, one that was vastly superior to the Old. One such prophet was Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is the longest Old Testament citation to be found in the New Testament. The New Covenant is the subject of our text in Hebrews 8 (and beyond). It is yet another reason why the high priestly ministry of our Lord is vastly superior to that of the Aaronic order since the high priest must carry out the terms of the covenant under which he serves.

31:31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord. 33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. 34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

This same text is repeated in Hebrews 8:8-12. This alone should be enough to show us the supreme importance of the New Covenant. If more is needed, consider I Corinthians 11:25.

"This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.

Also consider Luke 22:20

"And in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood'”

When Christ spilled His blood at Calvary, He was fulfilling the Law and establishing forever this new agreement between God and His creation.

The Mosaic Covenant was a bilateral, conditional, covenant: “And now, if you will diligently listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5). The New Covenant is a series of promises that God made to Israel and Judah, promises which are unchangeable and irreversible, since they are sealed by God’s oath. These promises make the New Covenant vastly superior to the Old Covenant, so much so that the New Covenant replaces the Old, making it obsolete.

The author of Hebrews tells us that the New Covenant is better than the Old (the Mosaic Covenant), among other reasons because it contains better promises.

6 But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. 8 But showing its fault, God says to them, . . .” (Hebrews 8:6-9)

In other words, the author (whom I believe to be Paul, since Hebrews parallels Romans and Galatians and serves as a commentary on them to the Jews) says that the only reason for a “new” covenant is that the “old” covenant is flawed in some way.

How can a covenant be flawed? You can be sure that God did not flaw the covenant.

A covenant is an agreement; usually it is between two parties. There are two types of covenants in the Bible. Some of the covenants were bilateral in that there were obligations and commitments for both sides. The other kind of covenant in the Bible is a unilateral covenant. It is a covenant in which God binds Himself to do certain things, but not conditioned upon the actions of others. This is the type of covenant we find in the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant will not save anybody, no matter how great his or her determination to keep it. It will only condemn them. What, then, was wrong with the Old Covenant? The New Testament tells us. The problem with the Old Testament law is not with the law itself, for it sets forth a standard of righteousness that is holy, righteous, and good:

"So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good" (Romans 7:12).

The problem with the Old Covenant was on man’s side, not God’s. Thus, while the Mosaic Covenant would be broken by Israel and could never save anyone, the Israelite's hope was to be in God, based upon His covenant with Abraham.

When we come to the New Testament, we find that God’s salvation in Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant, as the result of our Lord’s work at Calvary. Put differently, it is by means of the New Covenant that God’s promises to Abraham were fulfilled when we come to the New Testament, we find that God’s salvation in Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant, as the result of our Lord’s work at Calvary. Put differently, it is by means of the New Covenant that God’s promises to Abraham were fulfilled:

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. 69 For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. 72 He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant – 73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham.

Under the New Covenant, God does all of the “work.” He has bound Himself to bestow salvation on those who know Him with no work to be done by them. It is a covenant of pure grace. Not just grace in some areas of spiritual life, but grace in every area of spiritual life!

Discipleship in the Church

The Great Commission tells us we are to make disciples as we go. Many have interpreted this to mean that we are to win people to Christ. It actually goes much farther than that.

“Discipleship” comes from discipere "to grasp intellectually, analyze thoroughly, to discipline one’s self to follow the methods of another.” In the Authorized Bible, it was translated from the Latin Vulgate discipulus "pupil, student, follower."

So our command is not only to win people to Christ, but to train them in the discipline of following Him in word and deed.

Jesus trained his disciples. There were 12 of them…a small group. He did not preach to them; He saved preaching for the crowds. He taught them day-by-day, moment-by-moment. He involved them in their training by giving them assignments, such as gathering baskets, bringing people to Him and many other activities.

Churches today seem to think people are made disciples by preaching, teaching and praying. All of those are imperatives for disciples, but they cannot complete the job. The actual making of disciples is done by showing people how to do what Christ commands and by involving them in doing. This is in keeping with being doers of the Word and not just hearers.

The Sunday School is designed for Bible study. It reveals what God wants us to do. Discipleship Training is designed to teach us how to go about it. Combining them into one event gives neither one the attention it deserves.

Now, it is not the pastor’s job to complete the job of making disciples of people. His job is to pray, edify the saints and preach the gospel. The job of training disciples is left to other church leaders, whether lay persons or staff members.

Would you work for a man if he offered you $.01 per day and would double your salary every day? You’d be well advised to take that job. In one month you would have $10, 737,418.24 in your bank account!

What has that to do with making disciples? It has a lot to do with it. It has to do with church growth, too.

Think of it! If every person discipled one other person per year, in 30 years the church would have 10, 737,418 members, all trained for works of service!

Of course, that’s the ideal. In reality, even if the church were doing what it should be doing, they would only reach about half that many. But 5,368,709 over 30 years is not bad.

So, how does the church accomplish that? The same way Jesus did. Start with one and build from that. The trick is to train one then have that one train another, then have each of those two train one each, and so on until the potential is reached.

Imagine how many pastors, missionaries, deacons, teachers, etc. would be placed in positions of leadership using such a method! The good news is that it can be done!

Under the umbrella ministry of the Sunday School, a Church Training Ministry will do exactly that. Many small, age-graded groups would train for specific roles in the church. Others would train to become better disciples than they already are.

The Discipleship Training Ministry deals with some of the major issues in the church: slow spiritual growth; poor or heretical doctrines and aimlessness on the part of members.

Discipleship Training. Try it! You’ll like it!

EVALUATING AN EVENT

Plan, coordinate, implement and evaluate. Those are the four most important posts of getting  things done in an orderly fashion. Of those,” evaluate” is the most neglected. Evaluation, however, is the greatest learning tool of the four.

To evaluate means to look back at an event to see how it came off. Was the temperature comfortable for the majority of the people present? How was the lighting? Did the event start on time? Were there technical issues? Did each person involved know his responsibilities? Did he perform them well?  What improvements could have been made? What could have been done to prevent any stutters in the event?

Good leaders will not be too prideful or arrogant to look at themselves to see how they might have helped prevent any issues with the event. They will make note of any failures and suggest ways to make them future successes.

Evaluation is a tool that helps ensure that what we present to God is worthy of His attention and brings honor to Him (Malachi 1).

Sometimes smaller churches don’t have the resources to do fancy presentations. When they don’t have the resources, they should not attempt them. God is not concerned with the fanciness or cleverness of our worship offering, He is concerned with us doing the best we can with the resources we have.

Larger churches often have greater resources but don’t take the time to train people to use them to their best advantage. That is a waste of the resources God has provided. Which of us wants to stand before a Holy God and try to explain to Him why we did poorly on a given presentation of worship?

Does that mean we should expect perfection? Absolutely not; if we expect perfection we are doomed to disappointment. It does mean, however, that we should strive for excellence. Does God deserve or does He not deserve excellence? He deserves excellence.

Remember, God gave His best for us. Why should we offer anything but our best for Him?

Good leaders should take the time and effort to honestly and completely evaluate events after they have been planned, coordinated and implemented. That will help insure that we offer God the worship He deserves.

Consistent Christianity

Christianity is thick with inconsistency, at least that which masquerades as Christianity is. Most Christians don’t seem to even realize their inconsistencies. They don’t seem to remember what they said one time and how what they are saying now does not jibe with what they said before.

Prayer is an area in which people who call themselves Christians are frightfully inconsistent. On the one hand, they consider prayer the most important thing in the universe. On the other hand their explanation of why prayer sometimes does not “work” contradicts what they teach.

The fact is, prayer does not “work.” Prayer was not designed by God to “work.” It is not some kind of incantation that causes God to do one’s will. Prayer is designed to allow us to find out God’s plan and get on board with it.

Faith is another common area of inconsistency. Somehow faith is seen as some sort of magical force that keeps anything bad (especially illness) from happening to Christians.

Faith is the vehicle through which God saves us by His grace. When Jesus said, “…your faith has made you whole,” He was not talking about the faith itself. He was talking about the object of faith: Himself.

Faith in faith does nobody any good. It becomes just some sort of ethereal theosophy useful for nothing more than sophomoric discussion. Faith must lead us to believe that Jesus is all sufficient in and of Himself.

Many self-described theologians have indicated that Christians don’t need to believe God can do something, but that He will do it. Of course the opposite is true. God can do anything, but He gets to choose what He will or will not do. Otherwise, He is not God.

Some theologytes (a word coined to indicate neophyte theologians) think that a person of faith will never be sick. They seem to believe that if a person gets sick and does not get well with prayer, their faith is just too weak. Few of them ever consider how cruel and heartless (not to mention untrue) that position is.

They quote bible verses to support their viewpoint, but miss the real message of the Bible: God’s revelation of His character, His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption. That, plus nothing else, should be sufficient, but it apparently is not.

Then, when they themselves get sick or develop some debilitating condition, their faith is crushed and they go into deep spiritual depression, all because they have a false conception of faith.

Christians are inconsistent with Scripture, too. They love to quote Romans and Galatians to prove we are free from the law and turn right around and quote I John and James to prove what we should and should not do. They seem unable to recognize their inconsistency…or just don’t care.

If Scripture is true, and it is, then it must not contradict itself, and it doesn't. Where there seem to be contradictions there are really none at all. The issue is not with Scripture. The issue is with trying to make Scripture conform to Christians’ preconceived notions.

One of the main reasons it seems so hard to reconcile Scripture with itself is that Christians try to understand it as one covenant. In truth, Scripture presents two very distinct covenant relationships with God: The Old Covenant(s) and the New Covenant. Christians try to live with their spiritual feet in each. That is impossible.

Isn’t it time for our churches to adopt the sound doctrines that are really taught by the Bible? Isn’t it time to train Christians to be consistent in their faith, rather than just “strong?”

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-The Power of the Cross-Keith & Kristyn Getty

Ten Reasons to Believe the Bible is True

Why I believe the Bible is True

Many Christians, theologians included, when asked why they believe the Bible is true answer with something like, “It’s the Word of God.” That’s a correct answer to what the Bible is, but it is not a good answer to why the Bible should be believed. Most people who would ask the question in the first place do not relate to “It’s the Word of God,” thus do not relate to the answer.

There are some really compelling reasons to believe the Bible is true. Here are some of them:

10. It was written over a period of 1600 years, yet consistently presents the same principles.

9. Forty different authors of varying ages who lived on 3 different continents using 3 different languages wrote the Bible! Yet it is absolutely cohesive and consistent!

8. The authors were from different eras, cultures, races and levels of education. There were doctors, tax collectors, sheepherders, farmers, fishermen and even kings. These men lived their lives in Asia, Africa and what is now Europe and they spoke in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and the common man’s language of the New Testament, Greek.

7. It includes parables, poetry, and eyewitness accounts of events, visions, laws, genealogy, history, and prophecies, yet agrees with itself all the way through. What other book can make that claim?

6. Men wrote the Bible. Who else would God have chosen to write it, a duck? The Pythagorean Theorem written was by men. Both are consistent with the one who created all that is.

5. Most of its writers had little or no contact with the each other yet managed to relate the same historical events to illustrate the same themes.

4. The theme of every book is the same: God’s character, His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption.

3. Every topic the human mind is capable of is addressed in the pages of the Bible in the form of eternal principles.

2. There are over 5000 manuscripts of the New Testament which are complete or nearly complete! The earliest copy dates back to approximately 150 AD, which is only 120 years after the crucifixion of Jesus and within 50-60 years of death of the last surviving apostle. What other 1st century copy of any other writing is there that was preserved within this time frame. There are only 10 manuscripts of The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar. The earliest dates back to 900-1000 years AFTER the death of Julius Caesar! Virtually no one questions or debates the truthfulness of these writings.

1. The number one reason to believe the Bible is true is the effect it has had on tens of millions of its readers. It has changed their lives. It has given them the absolute key to eternal life with their creator. The key's name is Jesus.

God Let It Happen?

When bad things happen to us, whom do we accuse? Some people accuse Satan others accuse God. Who is really to blame?

Consider a Christian’s financial setback. Is Satan responsible for that? God “let it happen.” Is He responsible? He did not prevent it. Does that mean “He allowed it to happen?”

There is a false logic in the questions. On the one hand we say, “God is in control of everything.” On the other hand we know that Satan is walking to and fro seeking whom he may devour. Both statements are true, but both ignore free will and the sinful state of the world.

In order for man to love God, He gave man a free will. Otherwise, the love man had for God would not be love at all. Therefore, man gets to choose whom he will serve and love. God could control him, but chooses not to.

We live in a fallen world, beset by sin. Had man chosen not to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, we would still be in a perfect world. But Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, thus introducing sin into the world and passing the “spiritual gene” of sin to all of mankind.

Our battle must not be with God, but with principalities and evil in high places. It is a spiritual battle that can only be won by trusting in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary.

But the worldly battle with bad things goes on and will do so until God finishes all things in the end.

In the mean time, we continue to struggle with the bad things that resulted from man’s initial disobedience to God. Earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, famine and all other evils continue, including financial setbacks. Our loved ones and we are subject to physical death. We lose friends, pets, our homes and many other things we hold dear.

What is God’s role in all of this? The Bible tells us that in every circumstance His grace will see us through. He has made that possible through Jesus Christ. God does not interrupt the natural (and sinful) flow of things unless He has a special purpose for doing so. He does, however, provide us with His sufficiency, whose name is Jesus.

It really comes down to the question: Is Jesus enough? For some He does not seem to be. They want Jesus, but they want Jesus plus something or other.

What a day of joy and relief it is when we realize that Jesus is, indeed, sufficient for our every need (if not our every want). In fact, the entire gospel is predicated on the principle of Jesus plus nothing equals eternal life, joy, blessings, comfort and purpose.

The next time something bad happens, don’t blame God. Don’t even "acquiesce" to “His will.” Instead, run to Him for comfort and support. He will carry you through.

Things That Should Not Be Taught In Church

 (The words in bold. The explanations of why follow.)

1.      This is God’s house. God does not live in the church buildings. He lives in the hearts of believers. Besides, He is omnipresent (everywhere at once). The church building is “God’s house” only in the sense that it has been built and dedicated to worshiping Him and celebrating Christ’s resurrection.

2.      God won’t love you if you do that. God loves you no matter what you do. His love will be fulfilled in you when you repent of sin and trust in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary. His love is quite apart from your actions. That does not excuse bad behavior. True Christians will want to do what is right because of what God has written in their hearts.

3.      Christians are bound by, and should live by, the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were fulfilled in Christ, as were all of the other written laws of God. Christians are to live by the Holy Spirit and the Truth God has written in their hearts, not on tablets of clay. They have a New Covenant relationship with God.

4.      God will send you to Hell if you do such-and-such. God sends nobody to Hell. If you want to go to Hell, you’ll have to “crawl over” Christ’s death and resurrection to get there. It will be your choice to do so. The only unpardonable sin is the sin of rejecting the prodding of the Holy Spirit to repent and come to Christ.

5.      God is not fair if He sends people to Hell who have never heard of Christ. Well, why haven’t they heard? You have the resources to tell them. There are missionaries you can support. You could become a missionary. You can reach them via the Internet, radio, TV and the printed word. You can send Bibles. You have been told to tell them, why haven’t you?

6.      If you pray hard enough in faith, God must “answer” your prayer. Prayer is not designed for you to instruct God or to use Him as your “magic genie.” Prayer is to discover what God wants for you and to enable you to get on board with it. To pray effectively, you must be righteous in Christ, fervent in your desire to do God’s will, trust His will and pray for what He wants you to have.

7.      If you have enough faith God will cure you of any ailment. Well, everybody who dies, dies of something; a heart attack, a stroke, liver disease, etc., or some sort of accident. Either everybody who lived before now had insufficient faith, or that is a wrong statement. It turns out that is a wrong statement. We are eternally healed by the stripes of Jesus, but we are not removed from the sinful nature of this world. Simply denying an illness will not make it go away. God will not be manipulated by your life issues, but will see you through any life situation, illness or otherwise, to the very end (which, by the way, is really a beginning).

8.      Natural events, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes and volcano eruptions, are God’s way of punishing people in a certain area. The nature of nature is to behave naturally. Jesus calmed the waves, but He did not prevent the storm that caused Paul’s ship to break up. The devastating nature of some weather events is the result of the fact that we live in a sin-cursed world. Both “good” and “bad” people are affected by adverse weather.

9.      If God were fair, he wouldn't let so-and-so happen. God is not bound by your sense of fairness. Whenever your sense of fairness and God’s sense of fairness disagree, you are the one whose sense of fairness needs adjusting. To think otherwise is the essence of pride, and pride is the essence of sin.

10.  Some sins are worse than others. Actually, sin is sin. Sin is not a matter of degree, but of the heart. The Beatitudes in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount were all about how we think in our hearts. Stealing a paper clip from the office will keep you as far out of Heaven as grand theft will because the motive for each is the same: I want what I want and since you have it, I’ll take it. The only remedy for any sin is repentance and trusting in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary.

Principles of Growth

Scripture tell us that creation points us to God and praises Him. God created everything in a particular way and in an ultimately orderly fashion. What God has created is a picture of who He is and how He has ordered things. We can see the “acting out” of His Biblical principles in nature.

One inviolate rule of nature is that everything grows by division…everything.

Microbes grow by cell division. Plants grow by cell division. Your body grows by cell division. A super-nova explodes and a solar system is formed. Whatever it is, if division stops, it dies.

The same is true in business. A business grows by division, either from within or from without. A corporation forms new divisions, each to handle a specific aspect of the business.

Churches grow by division, too (in structure, not in theosophy). It is one of God’s basic principles. A church not properly divided is doomed to die. Conversely, the more a church divides, the better it grows and the more unified it becomes. This seeming contradiction takes place because of the way God has chosen to do things in all that He has created, including the church. It is a very Biblical principle.

In so-called “mega-churches,” the congregation is led by a senior pastor and several co-pastors, each of whom is responsible for certain aspects of the church. One may minister to older adults, another to youth and still another to children. They, in turn, divide their responsibilities among their own staff and volunteers.

It turns out that there are very good, logical reasons for growth by division. God, in His infinite logic, has made things so that their growth takes place by division. In the church, this lives itself out by ministering to specific groups at their specific life stages. Pre-schoolers are ministered to in one way, elementary aged children in another. Youth are ministered to in one way, adults in another.

Within each group, division can help growth as well. Pre-schoolers might be divided into classes/departments for 3-year olds, 4-year olds and 5 year olds. Children might be divided into groups by school grade, such as 1st graders, 2nd graders, 3rd graders, etc. Youth might be divided into middle schoolers, 9th graders, 10th graders, etc. Adults might be divided into college/career groups, young adult groups, middle adult groups, etc. All of this division takes place to meet the developmental needs of those being ministered to.

Doesn't all of that division lead to a lack of unity? No, it does not.

There is no reason that all of the groups can’t move toward the same goals and use the same basic Scripture passages and themes each Sunday. In fact, that would be ideal.

So, what happens if a church does not divide, but decides that there should be one or two all-inclusive groups in the name of unity? The result is that the group is not ministered to on its own level but must be ministered to on some middle level. This might be too deep for Youth and not deep enough for more mature Adults. At any rate, it cannot possibly lead to, or even promote, unity.

The “Can’t we all just get along?” idea just can’t work. It leads to an artificial unity that will not be fulfilling to anyone. It’s not as though it were a new idea. It is an old idea that has been tried many times and has always failed.

The unmitigated truth is, division in a church ( in structure, not in theosophy) is God’s preferred method. If God prefers it, who are we to contradict it?

My Greatest Mentor

My greatest mentor was my pastor named Harold Brown.

Harold was not a great preacher. He was a little too psychologically oriented for my tastes. That is not too surprising, since he had a doctorate in Psychology.

But Harold really knew how to organize to get things done. Some of the great accomplishments he achieved while I was with him included an enlargement of the church auditorium (paid for before it was finished), the building of a second educational facility (also paid for before it was finished) and exciting church numerical growth.

I was serving as Minister of Music, Minister of Youth and Minster of Education under Harold Brown, all at the same time. My training had taught me nothing about the practical aspects of being a Minister of Education and little about being a Minister of Youth. Most of my practical training was in church music. But not a day ever went by that Harold did not teach me something about the administration of the Ministry of Education in a church. He not only taught me, he showed me how to do it.

During my tenure under him, the ministry grew exponentially, not because of me, but because of the overall ministry structure of the church under his leadership. I know of at least 7 pastors, 2 church musicians and several Youth Directors and Youth Directors’ wives who came out of that 3 ½ year ministry. He gave me the basic principles of growing any organization and helped me increase the choir from 21 members when I got there, to 60 members. We even had to enlarge the platform to accommodate the larger choir.

Harold also trained me in effective visitation and involvement with church members. His method included being involved with the church members where they were. It was common for us to go visit a church member who owned a business and actually dive in with what needed to be done in the business that day. We loaded trucks, welded iron, unpacked products, and stocked shelves, all while conversing with our brother in Christ who owned the business. We visited hospitals, nursing homes and congregants who were home-bound. Most weeks we ate a meal at several church members’ homes at their invitation.

He taught me to be involved directly in the lives of my Youth and choir members. He taught me to play with them, pray with them, love them and befriend them. He taught me to organize and play with my Youth members; softball, football, tennis, racquetball, backpacking and more. He taught me how to make them aware of their spirituality and how to satisfy it through Christ.

It was Harold Brown who showed me how to develop a comprehensive ministry that would lay the groundwork for years of growth. The Youth Ministry was fed by the Children’s Ministry. The children had been groomed for teen-age-hood, and were acclimated by the time they got to the Youth Ministry. The same was true of the Music Ministry.  Those in Children’s Choir graduated into the Youth Choir. Those in Youth Choir graduated into the Adult Choir.

The basic framework for all of the ministries of the church was effective, small-group Bible study classes (Sunday School) designed to fit the needs and growth of each age group. Their thorough capture of Bible truths prepared them for being trained as disciples and for service to Christ afterword.

Harold taught me to lead a person to Christ. I knew I was supposed to, but didn't know how. He took care of that. He taught me how to move a conversation in the direction of spiritual matters and how to bring a person to an awareness of their need for Christ. Then he taught me how to “close the deal.” Many of our church members had also been instructed in how to lead someone to Christ. We baptized at least twice a month, often more.

Harold never separated daily activities from weekend “spiritual” activities. He showed me and our brothers in Christ how to live for Christ in the day-to-day process of life. Although he often refrained from the jargon of Christianity, there was never any doubt that he served Christ and Christ alone.

The lessons Harold taught me stood me in good stead in the following years of my ministry. At one church in which I served, we had a traveling Youth Choir called The Remnant. In another, we had a thriving Youth Choir ministry and a bodacious sports ministry. The pianist, Joe Martin, who played for the Youth Choir now presents concerts around the country. Trips for fun were intertwined with trips for missions. It was common for us to plan a trip to Disney World, ministering in churches along the way in the evenings.

I am grateful to God for the lessons learned from Harold Brown. I learned a lot from others along the way, but none ever taught me as many things about ministry as he did.

I wish everybody in ministry could have spent some time with him. They would avoid so many of the pitfalls that result from “trying to reinvent the ministry wheel.”

God’s Plan for the Redemption of His Creation in Every Book of the Bible 02

Once more in Genesis we will see God's plan for the Redemption of His creation. The culmination of His creative activity concludes with Christ-like completeness.

Here it is in outline form.

GENESIS 1:26 – 31

I. Chapter 1 introduces us to the essentials of creation through the creation of man.
   A. God has not detailed the creation of the universe
   B. The creation of man is not detailed here
   C. It will be detailed in Chapter 2, because He wants us to know about it
   D. Three ways to get things created
      1. Direct creation (the universe and Adam)
      2. Indirect creation (Eve)
      3. Natural generation (procreation)

II. “In His image.” The Hebrew word is tselem: likeness; as in a mirror; a reflection; simileic (the same as “like” in Acts 2).
   A. Man is like God in that he is a trinity
      1. Man is a mental being; a spiritual being and a physical being
      2. Man is self-conscious; man makes his own decisions; man is a free moral agent
   B. Man is to be a multiplier
      1. Every generation thinks it is the one that discovered sex
      2. Every generation thinks the one before it was pure and the one after it is debased…and that is true
  C. Man is to be a subduer
      1. This is a reference to man learning about himself and the universe, such as in a laboratory, an        observatory, etc.
      2. Man is to pass down what he has learned and to build on it
   D. Man is given dominion (the Hebrew is radah: to tread down) over the earth
      1. That is a term used in Scripture to denote both rule and responsibility.
      2. It also implies that before the fall, Adam had the same control over the earth that Christ has.
      3. Scripture also implies that man was a vegetarian before the flood

III. Some things taught or implied by Chapter 1 of Genesis
   A. The word “God” is mentioned 32 times
   B. The Bible is written to reveal spiritual faith
   C. Genesis teaches the Unity, power and Personality of God
   D. Genesis denies polytheism
   E. Genesis denies the eternity of matter
   F. Genesis denies pantheism –
   G. Genesis denies fatalism – the idea that God runs everything like a master puppeteer and “what will be, will be.”
   H. God acts in : order; progress; promptness and perfection

IV. In chapter 2:2 & 3 we are told that God completed His work and “rested.”
   A. “Rest” was not an indication of tiredness, it was a statement of completeness. All that had to be done was done. In other words, “It….is…finished!
   B. When Christ had done all that He had to do for the redemption of God’s most loved creation, He cried out from the cross, “It…is…finished!” It was His statement of completeness.

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-He Reigns-Newsboys

WHAT IS A HYMN, ANYWAY?

Notice the theme of unity.

Scripture says we should "..speak to each other is psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs making music in our hearts to God" (Ephesians 5:19). And "...as you sing psalm, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16).

We know what psalms are. They are the songs of the Bible and are found in, (where else?) the Psalms. So, they are scripture songs. But what is a hymn?

A hymn is more than just a song found in a hymnal A good hymn has a particular form and a particular character.

There are six general characteristics of a hymn.

1. Hymns are God centered, not man centered. They look upward, not inward. A hymn draws man to recognize and acknowledge his sin and to receive the mercy and grace of God.

2. Hymns are by and large doctrinal in context. They are rooted in the Word of God.  A good hymn is true to the Word of God.  It is designed to lead worshipers to respond to God’s truth.

3. Hymns are characterized by words of beauty, dignity, reverence and simplicity. Hymns exemplify good taste in concept, word and setting.

4. Hymns are “adult” in word and tone. They avoid expressing eternal truths in immature modes of expression. They are true to the gospel while still having meaning for the contemporary Christian.

5. Good hymns display poetic technique and expression. They move logically through their theme in a clear and lofty manner. The words of the hymn fit the subject of the song. Words are not crammed illogically together to fit into a musical phrase that is too short.

6. Hymns have a structure that is logical and consistent. They may present themselves as a set of verses, a verse followed by a refrain, or some other formation, but both the words and the music manage to fit together without forcing them to do so.

There has been a move away from singing hymns in worship. When they are sung, they are often modified in such a way that the words no longer fit the music. Sadly, many of the mighty, majestic hymns of worship, praise and doctrine lie virtually unused in the pages of the hymnal.

It is shameful that the church has acquiesced to a youthful form of music to the exclusion of the great hymns. The church is the loser for it.

Besides, God’s word demands that we sing them.

Congregational Church Governance 01

Who "runs" the church?

“So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:5 (NIV)

Who governs your church? Who selects your pastoral leadership? Who decides how the tithes and offerings will be spent? Who determines what beliefs and practices will guide your church? Who owns your church’s property? How much should a congregation know about the administration of the church? A church’s polity or governance determines the answers to questions such as these.

What Is Congregational Church Governance?

Polity is how an organization, such as a church, functions—the policies that guide matters such as governance, decision making, structure and leadership. Baptists differ from most Christian denominations in matters of polity. The difference especially is evident in how congregations of Christians are governed.

One major difference between Baptists and many other denominations is that no person or group outside of a Baptist congregation is to have any authority over the church in regard to beliefs and religious practices. Furthermore, all of the members within the church fellowship are to have equal voice in the governance of the church.

Baptist church governance often is termed “democratic.” In a sense it is. In a democracy, all of the people have equal voices in decision making. No individual or group of persons is in control. Such is to be the case in a Baptist church. One way that democratic governance is practiced is that each member of the church has the right to vote on matters at church business meetings.

To many non-Baptists, and even to some Baptists, this seems to be a strange way for a church to function. Putting the governance of a church in the hands of persons who have no special training, education or calling appears to be foolish. Why would Baptists dare to function in this fashion?

The in depth answer to this question will be presented in subsequent articles. The immediate answer is that we have no "chief priest" other than Christ, Himself. He is a priest on the order of Melchizidek. The Congregation is a group of priests. That is the Biblical description. We are a priesthood of believers; a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). Therefore, the congregation is responsible for the on-going operation of the church.

A well informed congregation is required for this to be the case. They must know where the church is going, how it is going to get there, what the finances of the church are (in detail) and who is doing what. Since they are the priests, they have the right and responsibility to be completely informed about every aspect of the church. They also have the responsibility of making decisions about the church: who the pastor will be, who the staff will be, how the church will operate, how the finances will be handled, how ministry and missions will be done, etc.

No pastor, staff, committee or group has any right to dictate or decide the direction of the church. That is to be decided by the congregation under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If a pastor does not trust his congregation to be ultimately led by the Holy Spirit in church matters, he should move to a church that he does trust with those matters.

So who runs the church? The Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) through the congregation. The pastor is not charged with running the church. His job in leadership is to pray, minister to the members' needs and to preach the gospel. The rest is up to the church itself.

ORGANIZING THE CHURCH FOR GROWTH 01

Small Group Bible Study
in Sunday School

"Organization" is a scary word to some people. Some consider it on the verge of evil. Others think it too cold or lifeless to be of use to the church. Still others consider it nonspiritual. All of these fears are false.

In its simplest terms, organization is what we use to be certain we put our socks on before we put on our shoes. That's important, because to do otherwise would be socially inappropriate. Organization must never be the reason for a ministry, but no ministry can succeed without it.

Organization is not nonspiritual. It is, in fact, evidenced in absolutely everything God has ever done, is doing and ever will do. Creation was an act of ultimate organization. Genesis gives us the order of creation. The universe testifies to an infinitely organized God. The earth evidences extreme organization. Every living thing is organized to the point that its DNA molecule is designed in a unique way so that in no two plants or animals is it the same. Every atom is organized according to God's laws of physics.

Some concede all of that to be true, but somehow when it comes to the Body of Christ they think organization is an anathema. The opposite is true.

If the church is the Body of Christ, and if Scripture likens it to a human body with many parts, how can we think of it as any less? What are those parts of the Body and how are they to be lived out?

Far too many churches have a jumbled approach to organization. They prefer "to let the Holy Spirit lead," which is, of course, vital. What they mean by "let the Holy Spirit lead," is to let there be disorder, chaos and lack of direction. In other words, they use "the leadership of the Holy Spirit" as an excuse for being to lazy to organize and as an excuse for sloppiness.

There are those who mistakenly believe that the church can be "organized" around the worship service(s). Because of the number of people involved, each at a different level of participation, that ends up not advancing the Kingdom of God in Christ at all. When the service is over, the majority of people go their way not seeing each other again until the next service.

Then the church frantically tries to hold a few "special events" that people can come to and fellowship and "get to know one another." Maybe the events are well attended, maybe they are not. But even if they are, they do not afford an opportunity for people to get to know one another. Getting to know another person means to understand his station in life, his situation, his trials, his likes, his dislikes, his state of spiritual growth, his family and ever so much more. That cannot be done in a series of fellowships.

If the church is to be effective as the Body of Christ, it must organize itself like the body is organized: many members, each responsible for certain functions, all in different parts of the body, but all moving together in the same direction when the body walks.The most effective way to accomplish that is to organize in a way to accomplish that end.

Whether you call that organization Bushkabob, Omnistudy, Bible Study Ministry or Sunday School, its job is the same, to organize the Body of Christ in a way that is effective for advancing the Kingdom of God in Christ.

For the sake of this treatise, it will be referred to as Sunday School, which shall be understood to mean the umbrella ministry that encompasses the entire mission of the church. It is the process that organizes God's people for effective ministry.

Why is Sunday School the vehicle to grow a great church?

The Sunday School, properly set up, is organized to reach people for Christ. If it is done correctly, it consists of many small groups of people who can study the Bible, pray for each other, realistically know and care for each other and encourage each other. It is specifically geared to reach people at their age level, development level, spiritual growth level, understanding level and needs level.

Preschoolers have certain spiritual growth needs. Children have unique spiritual growth needs as do Youth and Adults. Even adults find themselves at different stages of growth such that Young Adults have one set of spiritual growth needs, Older Adults a completely different set of needs and those in between have needs of their own.

The appropriately organized Sunday School strives to meet each of those populations with what they need to better understand God's word, to better minister to each other, to better pray for each other and to better encourage each other.

To properly implement a Sunday School that meets those needs takes an extraordinary amount of work and well trained leadership. There is no room for poor planning, hastily slapped together group sessions, or helter-skelter assemblies that serve no purpose and teach nothing.

The Education Ministry of the church bears the usual responsibility for the establishing, organizing, implementing and evaluating the work of the Sunday School. A well trained Education Pastor, Minister of Education or Education Director (whatever a church chooses to call him), thoroughly learns the ins-and-outs of a well run Sunday School and then learns how to train people to lead in it as Division Leaders, Department Leaders and class teachers (or facilitators, if you will).

A well operated Sunday School guards against classes that are too large, recognizing that large groups tend to lose touch with one another and cannot minister to, pray for and encourage one another nearly as well as a smaller group.

That said, if the directors, leaders and teachers of the small groups are not properly trained as to the objectives, goals and action plans of the church, they will not be able to do their jobs well, and the whole system is at risk.

Some of the additional benefits of a well organized, efficiently run Sunday School are: solid, meaningful church growth, consistency in message, encouragement to worship and the interpersonal relationships that cannot be achieved in any other venue: worship, fellowship, large group studies or some hybrid group made up of diverse needs and life stages.

More will be written about the details of the Sunday School organization in later posts, but for now, let's examine a basic skeleton of Sunday School organization that will lead to consistency in message, ministry and outreach.

In its purest form (and in a small church), the Sunday School should be divided into at least six groups: Nursery, Preschoolers, Children, Middle Schoolers, Youth and Adults. Each group should be subdivided as the attendance in each area grows. This is not disunity, it is reaching people where they are.

The two most necessary requirements to keep a Sunday School running efficiently are: exceedingly good communications and great, extensive leader training. No teacher should be in place who is not trained in the objectives and goals of the church. Likewise, no teacher should be in place who has not been given ample opportunity learn to use teacher aids: crafts, games, videos, Bible dictionaries, concordances and the Internet, to name a few.

One frequently neglected area of Sunday School leadership is making sure the class time is used for ministry, prayer and the study of the Bible, not for opinionated discussion of  heretical personal ideas about God. Every teacher should be trained in how to keep a group on topic as dictated by the Scripture being studied.

Sunday School is not a time to air church problems, politics or socio-economic issues, except as required by the passage being studied. Remember, the point of all Scripture is Jesus, not the economy. It is a time to teach how to apply the message of Scripture (the gospel) to the students' daily lives.

While some churches seem to be grown through worship, that worship is almost always personality driven, and once the charismatic leader leaves, if the subsequent leader does not provide the same level of satisfaction to the congregation, the church dies. What pastor would think he was serving Christ if the legacy he left was a dying church?

The Sunday School is the one ministry of the church that is properly organized to maintain and accelerate growth in the Body of Christ. It is the only ministry suited to funnel people into other ministries, such as discipleship training, missions, music and service.

Build a great Sunday School and build a greater church.

A BOOK REVIEW

I am beginning to think that the majority of Christians know a lot of theosophy, a lot of false doctrine and a lot about fellowship, but very little about reading.

Did you ever sit in a group where the members were asked to divide into groups, read some Scripture and then "tell what they learned?" In most cases, they learned stuff out of context, reported cliched ramblings and came away having not learned what the Scripture was really about.

Today's book review is about the book of Acts.

In some Bibles it is titled "The Acts of the Apostles." Some theologs have said it should be called "The Acts of the Holy Spirit." Both titles are partly right and partly wrong.

The book does tell about things the Apostles did. It also tells what the Holy Spirit did. But neither is what the book is really about.

Acts divides itself into three parts: The establishment and rapid growth of the church (chapters 1-2); the trials of the Apostles and their perseverance through them and Paul's trip to Rome. Each of the three sections advances the main narrative which is the preaching of the gospel.

In Acts 1-2 we find 3,000 people who were touched by the Holy Spirit, responded to the gospel message and were saved. There are some peripheral stories, such as the early Christians sharing what they had (voluntarily...not through government coercion), the experience of glossa (languages), and the healing of a crippled beggar, but the main event was the salvation of souls when they heard the gospel.

Chapter 3 records a healing and a gospel message to the Jews, who Peter said should have recognized Messiah.

From chapter 4 all the way through chapter 26 we have instance after instance of Peter, John, Stephen, Philip and Paul preaching the gospel, getting tried,  thrown in jail or stoned for it and their refusal to preach any other message, much to the chagrin of the religious leaders known as Pharisees.Each chapter tells of at least one such incident and most tell of multiple incidences.

When Paul got to Athens, he tried to dialog with the philosophers, trying to convince them about the unique, special God he served. That went over like a lead balloon. Paul records in his letter to the Corinthians that he had learned his lesson and would never again stray from preaching only the gospel. And he never did.

As we read the narrative, we finally get to chapters 27-28 where Paul finally makes it to Rome. There he preaches the gospel with the protection of Roman guards, since he was a Roman citizen. Still the Pharisees tried to get to him, but they could not.

The lessons to be learned from Acts do not revolve around how churches should behave. It revolves around what should be our determination to preach the gospel, no matter what the circumstances and no matter what the costs.That is what the book is about.

I used to think the book of Acts was about boring church history, or how Christians are to interact, or any one of a dozen other minor themes. Frankly, I hated the book...until I learned that it is really about keeping-on-keeping on with the gospel message, no matter what. That takes guts (and the comfort of the Holy Spirit) and is exciting!

The Use of Music in Praise and Worship

Corporate worship is a time when Christians gather to worship God and to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. There are 6 Biblical parts of corporate worship: prayer, meditation, praise, reverence, singing and the presentation of the gospel.

Worship and praise are two different things. Worship includes the prayer, meditation and reverence of the service, while praise involves singing and other forms of exultation. Music can be used for either worship or praise. The preaching of the gospel is the message of worship.

The music of praise and worship should be something that helps bring congregants into personal relationship with God. It is a participant activity. The goal should be to get everybody singing.

There are some things that hinder people from participating in singing. Some people just don’t think they have a good enough voice to sing. While that should not really be a factor, some people’s inhibitions discourage them from participating. The good worship leader is aware of that and takes that into consideration when planning the music for a service, perhaps providing a few very easy songs.

Others are prohibited from participating because they don’t know the songs. A good rule of thumb is, if 1/3 or more of the congregation is not taking part in the singing, the worship leader should probably look at choosing music that people are more familiar with.

That is not to say that new music should not be introduced to the congregation, but new music has to be introduced in a deliberate fashion. One technique is to use prospective new music as pre-service music one week, special music from the praise team or choir the next week, perhaps as an offertory song the third week and then as a congregational selection the fourth week. By then “new” music will be familiar to the congregation.

The style of music is not the main issue. Almost any style of music is appropriate if appropriately presented. It is not a good idea for the drummer to think that he carries the melody of the song, nor should he try to imitate a rifle on every second or fourth beat. Neither is it a good idea to use music that is too difficult for the abilities of the congregation.

The style of music should match the message of the music. One would not sing “Be Still and Know that I Am God” to a fast, rock or rap style of music, because it just does not fit. Neither should “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” or “These are the Days of Elijah” be sung to a soft, slow tempo, for the same reason.

The Bible encourages the church to sing three types of music: Psalms (Scripture songs), Hymns (songs of a poetic nature and particular format) and Spiritual songs (choruses and so-called “you songs”). It is good to incorporate each type in each worship service, in no particular order and at no particular placement.

The leader of the music portion of the service should have a positive, strong voice, should be able to sing on pitch and should keep constant eye contact with members of the congregation. His job is to engage the congregation and to encourage them to take part in praise and worship. Closing his eyes and “looking spiritual” is totally inappropriate for the leader because doing so would be distracting and would isolate the congregation. His tone should be authoritative without being strident or “blatting.” Remember that his job is to lead the singers.

It is funny to watch some people who think they are conducting music when they are just flailing their arms. Music conducting has specific patterns for a very good reason. Each beat of the pattern has an ictus that should be crisp and identifiable. (You can find out more about the ictus here).

The key to good leadership (beyond the basic qualifications of being able to sing, play or lead) is preparation. Many music leaders prepare for the upcoming Sunday at a rehearsal held on a weeknight before the service. They work only on the music for Sunday and nothing more. That is a really big mistake. As some wag once said, “Proper, prior planning prevents poor, pitiful performance.”

The praise team, choir, instrumentalists and dramatists should train according to established learning methods with which God has endowed his creation. Time between learning sessions ingrains the lessons far better in the performers’ minds than cramming all of the music into one rehearsal. If there are three songs for which the praise team will be responsible in any given service, the team should get four or five weeks of rehearsals before the performance. That takes good planning.

In the three song scenario, each worship rehearsal should involve about 15 songs. The first three rehearsed should be the ones for the following Sunday. They would have had five rehearsals on them by the time they are to be used, and the difference between the performance after on 2 hour rehearsal and 5 shorter rehearsals over time is astonishing. The next set of songs rehearsed should be the new songs. After that there should be rehearsal of the next three sets in order of the Sundays in which they will be used. If properly organized, this method should be able to be implemented in 1½ to 2 hours of rehearsal per week.

The final warm up before the worship service should be done just prior to the service itself for purposes of refreshing their minds. This is not the time to work out kinks. That should have been done at rehearsal.

When these principles are followed, the congregation is likely to be engaged in worship and praise. They will be blessed in their participation and God will be blessed by His people’s worship.

God’s Plan for the Redemption of His Creation in Every Book of the Bible 01

In this series of 66 Monday posts I will discuss the revelation of God’s plan for the redemption of His creation in every book of the Bible. I will take the books in order and will examine the verses relevant to the subject. I will include cross-references, context and points of doctrine.

God’s Plan of Redemption Revealed in Genesis

Before Genesis 1:1 there was no such thing as time. God exists in eternity and is in no way accountable to time. Before the advent of time God had a plan for His creation. He has revealed that plan in His Word, the Bible. That revelation begins in Genesis.

After He created the universe, including the earth, and after He had created the flora and fauna, God turned His attention to the creation of mankind. The Bible tells us that He breathed into man the breath of life.

All of the flora and fauna God had created was alive. Trees and grasses grew. Animals grew and reproduced. They already had life when man was created. So, what was so different that God had to tell us that He breathed into man that life?

The Hebrew word for breath in this passage is xwr, Ruwach – (Roo’-akh). It is used 378 in the Old Testament (KJV); 232 times to mean Spirit or spirit, 92 times to mean wind, and 27 times to mean breath. It can also mean side (6), mind (5), blast (4), vain (2), air (1), anger (1), cool (1), courage (1), and is also used miscellaneously 6 times. For the purposes of this post, and without going into intricate detail, the word breath used here refers to God making man in His image and imparting to man the thing that sets him apart from all other living things: the human soul.

In Genesis 2:7, we read that God inspired into man the nishmat chayyim, or "breath of life."

In the gospel of John, we read, “In the beginning was the word (Gk: logos), and the word was with God and the word was God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Then, amazingly, “In Him was life (Gk: zoe) and the life was the light of the world” (John 1:1-4).

Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. (John 14:6). When He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, He breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

What we have ended up with, without getting too pedantic about it, is that God, through His Spirit breathed into man a special kind of life; a life with His image in it. It was a life quite different from the plants and animals. It was a life with consciousness, passion, love, caring, and all of the other spiritual parts of man. It was a picture of the fulfillment of God’s plan in Jesus Christ.

But wait! There’s more!

In Genesis we see that Messiah (NT: Christ) will be born through the sees of the woman (Genesis 3:15, Luke 1:34-35). Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob (Genesis 12:3, 17:19, 28:14, Luke 3:23-34). Messiah would be a king in the line of Judah (Genesis 49:10, John 1:49).

Later, in Hebrews 8:20-7:28, we find that Jesus had been typified in the person of Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), and that He would be the high priest of a New Covenant!

Do you see the connection? From the very beginning, God’s plan of salvation was being unfolded in His word: Jesus would be born of a virgin, die a substitutionary death for our sins and afford for us eternal life.

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Un Lugar Celestial-Jaci Velasquez

HERE'S WHAT I BELIEVE-If Anyone Wants to Know

The Bible

The Bible is the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original autographs, and of final authority in all matters of faith and practice.  The Bible's purpose is to reveal God's character, His love of His creation and His plan for its redemption through Christ. Every verse is to be interpreted in light of its purpose. It is to be interpreted in terms of the word used, the verse it is in, the chapter it is in, the book it is in the Covenant it is in and in terms of the Bible as a whole. The Bible is not to be judged by personal experience; personal experience is to be judged by the Bible.

Inspired in Old Testament Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, the Bible has been translated into many languages in order to carry its message to all people. The Bible is perfect, translations are not. Because of the idioms used in every language, the Bible must be re-translated from time to time, not to change its meaning, purpose or content, but to better convey its message to those reading it.

Everything you need to know about God is found in the Word of God. He has left out nothing that He wants you to know, and any extra-Biblical revelation is a product of the imagination.

God

There is one God, eternally existent. He exists in three persons: the Father; the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son and He is not the Holy Spirit, but He is God. The Son is not the Father and He is not the Holy Spirit, but He is God. The Holy Spirit is not the Father and He is not the Son, but He is God.

God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (He know absolutely everything) and omnipresent (He is everywhere at once). He is bigger than man can imagine (His right hand spans the universe). He is more powerful than the explosion that would be caused by splitting every atom in the universe. He does not live at the church building, He lives in the heart of man in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus (Christ)

Jesus the man was God incarnate in every respect. He is the physical vessel through whom God left His throne to become a man for the purpose of becoming the sacrifice required for the remission of sins. He is the Christ long sought by Israel, long predicted under the Old Covenant and is the embodiment of the New Covenant predicted by Jeremiah.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin named Mary. He preached the Kingdom of God and salvation, He was illegally charged with crimes by the religious leaders called Pharisees. His death was forced upon Rome by those religious leaders. He was crucified to death on the cross, placed in a borrowed tomb and rose triumphantly from the grave.

His sacrifice is substitutionary and representative.  He rose bodily from the dead and ascended to His Father’s right hand, where He now ministers as our Great High Priest.  He will come to rapture His Church and will subsequently return to reign over the earth. He is alive today.

The personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to translate His Church is imminent and will follow a 7-year Tribulation, that will inaugurate Christ’s reign over the earth.

Man

Man was created directly by God in His image for fellowship and communion with Himself.  Man was created without sin and his purpose was and is to glorify God.  The first man, Adam, sinned voluntarily and now all mankind is under condemnation of not only physical death, but also spiritual death (which is separation from God) until they repent and place their faith in Jesus Christ.

Salvation

Redemption is wholly by the blood of Christ, and salvation from the eternal result of sin is possible only when we repent and personally place our faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement on our behalf.  Salvation is by grace, through faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ, and not by any works that we can do. Furthermore, no no works we do can result in God loving us more, nor can any keep Him from loving us completely.

One comes to salvation by recognizing that he is sinful by nature, by repenting of that sin and by placing his trust in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary. This is God's plan of redemption as revealed in all of Scripture from the beginning of time.

The Holy Spirit

Once saved, The Holy Spirit indwells the believer and regenerates him, and enables him to be seen by the Father as perfect in Christ, quite apart from his actions. At salvation, man receives all of the Holy Spirit, not just a part of Him.

The Church

The church is the Body of Christ, that is: it is His continued embodiment on Earth. The church is charged by Christ, Himself, not with winning people to Christ, but with training (making disciples of) those who have come to Him to be His disciples to do what He wants done.

The church exists both scattered and gathered. The church gathers regularly to worship God and to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The church also gathers to give one another encouragement and to testify to the work of Christ in their individual lives.

The Ordinances

There are two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Baptism is an outward representation of an inward life change. It a testimony the the new believer has given up (died to) all claims to righteousness in and of himself. It is a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Scripture indicates that baptism immediately follows salvation, but plays no role in it.

The Lord's Supper serves as a recollection of the Last Supper. It is done to bring to mind what Christ has accomplished to bring us our salvation. The wine (or drink) represents the blood shed by Christ to establish and seal the New Covenant relationship with God by believers. It recalls and celebrates the substitutionary death of Christ for our sins.

Creation

Before the universe was created there was no such thing as time, thus the words, "In the beginning..." At the moment of creation God brought into being the universe, including the earth. The Holy Spirit was present at creation and hovered over the earth. Christ was present at creation and actually made all that was made. The earth was virtually fluid until God gave it form and substance. Then God gave it both. Following His act of general creation, God created flora and fauna. As His crowning act, God created man.

Man was created to love God and to engage in fellowship with Him. God gave man one rule, which man could not keep. Man's disobedience started in his spirit (heart) and it was his being that would forever need salvation in Christ. Thus it was evident from the beginning that God would unfold His plan of salvation in Christ

Everything in creation points to God. The unimaginable complexity of the universe, !00% in compliance with God's laws of physics gives testimony to God. The unfathomable complexity of the human brain (second only to the complexity of the universe itself) gives testimony to God. The 204 billion atoms in each DNA molecule arranged in astonishing order, give testimony to God.

To say that we are fearfully and wonderfully made is probably an understatement.

Notice that there are no "proof texts" in this statement of faith. Everything in it is based on the proper reading of Genesis 1 through Revelation 22.