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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Apostasy

What a weird word huh? What does it mean? Well, in a sense it means to turn away. In the use the bible employs, it is that strange thing that some do when they turn their backs on the faith.

It is a tough one to wrestle through. We need to have a good understanding of grace, repentance, reconciliation, and restoration... the neglect of these things leads us towards apostasy. The other option is a frustration leading to abandonment. We all sin and the closer to glory we get the more we see our sin as pervasive and dominating every area of our lives. What do we do with sin? We must learn to appropriate God's grace through repentance. If you never learn that elementary Christian practice then you are flirting with disaster. You either have to be unrealistic and pretend your sin doesn't exist, or you just blatantly sin in the face of God. Both, of those will eventually lead you down a path you do not want to see the end of.

Let me recommend a couple resources:

"All of Life is Repentance" by Timothy Keller
This is a beautiful article on the picture of the Christian's life of repentance. Every Christ follower needs to recognize the necessity of repentance... daily.

This is a sermon/lecture from the phenomenally difficult passages in Hebrews 5 and 6. It is a call to be faithful to Jesus and to persevere.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Reading the Text

I have been slacking lately! So first off, sorry!

I would love to let you know one of the main things that I am learning lately as I take courses at Moody Bible Institute. Right now I am taking an Elements of Bible Study Course (don't read elementary bible study because it is actually intense stuff). I also am taking a hermeneutics course. Through these courses I am learning an important fact about the bible. Here it is: There is an intended meaning or meanings behind the text. The ultimate Author and the human author both had a meaning in mind when writing the text and we need to responsibly seek to find that meaning.

The way that this hit home for me is when I though back to a time when I was interviewed by a local newspaper. I was very excited to read the article but when I saw how they had mishandled what I said and made me sound like a dope I was upset to say the least. The way they did their journalism was irresponsible and frankly dishonest.

The same can be said of many of us who handle the Word of God. We import our meaning onto the text and make God say things that we would like to hear.

Let me just encourage anyone who regularly reads and studies the Word to seek what God intended first before jumping to conclusions. Let us treat the Word with reverence and actually listen to and obey the message of the Bible. I hope we learn to be faithful to God's Word and I apologize for any times I have miss-handled the Word.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Gospel Coalition's Website is Revamped

I thought it was noteworthy to point out the Gospel Coalition's new website. This site has a ton of amazing resources worth spending some time browsing. One of which that is particularly helpful to recent high school graduates is The Christ on Campus Initiative that publishes articles to help Christian students to defend their faith as they encounter new and counter-Christian ideas on campus. The articles are published online and free so please check them out here.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Whats in that Bookbag?

Here are a few things that I have been working on lately...

Currently we are doing a series on the Church. I want to give our students an understanding of why we meet together and why we do the things we do. The reality is that they will graduate and more than likely find another church while they are away at college
or when they move into the workforce. So, it is necessary to give them the tools to navigate understanding a church and its functions. If we do not give them a big picture then they will be disheartened when they cannot find another Central Christian. But, if we teach them to love Christ and His bride and show them from the bible what the bride is all about, then they will be able to love, serve, and participate in a local church. Not only is this a good series for when they graduate but it also gives them a firm understanding of why we currently do the things we do at church. So its a win win series.









"Total Church" by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis










"The Church" by Edmond Clowney









"The Living Church" by John Stott











"Vintage Church" by Mark Driscoll

In addition I am taking a few classes through Moody Bible Institutes's Distance Learning program.

Elements of Bible Study: This course is aimed at teaching the basic principles of reading, interpreting, and applying the bible.










"Living by the Book" by Howard and William Hendricks

Hermeneutics: This course teaches the necessity of rightly interpreting the Word.









"Understanding and Applying the Bible" by Robertson McQuilkin

As Alistair Begg and Derek Prime say; "A ministers books are as important as his furniture."

Keep me in your prayers that I am learning the truths of God and that I am not getting a stuffy head full of academic ideas but instead that I am learning and growing in the knowledge of God.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Acts 16- Place of Prayer

Acts 16:13 "On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer."

Acts 16:16 "Once when we were going to the place of prayer..."

Paul and Silas obviously had a bent toward prayer. They can be called men of prayer. So, they sought out places to pray. My question for you today is, "are you a person of prayer?" In our busy lives prayer can be a spiritual discipline that suffers. We give it very little priority so when we finally do attempt to pray we are usually so exhausted that we fall asleep. Imagine if you were having a conversation with a good friend and they fell asleep while you were talking to them. That would be embarrassing. But, somehow we consistently do that to God and hardly think about it. We need to put such an emphasis on prayer that we seek out places to do it. Go on a journey to pray. Find a place of prayer but do not let your time with God get crowded out.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Reflections On Last Weekend

God is so good and gracious. He knows what His children need. We covered the topic, "Why do we suffer?" We didn't exactly answer the question... but we handled it the same way the bible does. The bible assumes suffering and tells us what to do about it.

Just as a disclaimer, I read and listened to a ton to prepare for this... so the way I handled the topic probably sounds a lot like some of my favorite authors/ pastors. Specifically, I got a lot out of 3 peoples views on suffering; John Stott, Don Carson, and John Piper.