Today in 1892, the great Charles H. Spurgeon died. For those of you who have never heard of Spurgeon, he was the minister of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London and probably the greatest preacher of all time. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from Spurgeon:
"Do not reckon you have prayed until you have pleaded, for pleading is the very marrow of prayer."
"I'm afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows and pains and griefs is altogether incalculable."
"It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me; that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand; that my trials were never measured out by Him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity."
And how 'bout one more...
"The most terrible warning to impenitent men in all the world is the death of Christ. For if God spared not His own Son, on whom was only laid imputed sin, will He spare sinners whose sins are their own?"
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Football and Faith
A friend recently lent me his copy of Tony Dungy's new book Quiet Strength. After reading it, I have to say that I thought it was an excellent book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tony's explicitly Christian approach to life and football. It was a big encouragement to read about the influence of such Christians within the NFL, a league that has its fair share of controversy and bad publicity. If you are a football fan, I'd encourage you to get a copy and read it.
In the course of the book, Tony gives a few quotes that I found helpful. I wanted to share them with you today. The first is from Chuck Noll, the former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers who led them to 4 Super Bowl wins, and the second is from George Washington Carver, the former slave turned botanical researcher, educator, and expert.
Noll said, "Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else."
Carver said, "When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
It is interesting how life consists in the ordinary, every-day things! This is especially true in the Christian life. What distinguishes the Martin Luthers or John Calvins of the world from you and me? In one sense, from a human perspective, they did the ordinary things, the common things of the Christian life in uncommon ways!
The people who change the world don't usually set out to do so. But in doing the ordinary things of life in uncommon ways, they usher in great and profound change.
In the course of the book, Tony gives a few quotes that I found helpful. I wanted to share them with you today. The first is from Chuck Noll, the former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers who led them to 4 Super Bowl wins, and the second is from George Washington Carver, the former slave turned botanical researcher, educator, and expert.
Noll said, "Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else."
Carver said, "When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
It is interesting how life consists in the ordinary, every-day things! This is especially true in the Christian life. What distinguishes the Martin Luthers or John Calvins of the world from you and me? In one sense, from a human perspective, they did the ordinary things, the common things of the Christian life in uncommon ways!
The people who change the world don't usually set out to do so. But in doing the ordinary things of life in uncommon ways, they usher in great and profound change.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Something right in the family
I have been reading Elisabeth Dodds' book on Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, Marriage to a Difficult Man. Last night I came across an incredible section in which Dodds recounts the impact of the Edwards' family over the generations after their deaths. This is what she says:
Up until the year 1900 (that is approximately 150 years after Jonathan Edwards died), the marriage between Jonathan and Sarah Edwards had produced:
13 college presidents
65 professors
100 lawyers (one being the dean of an outstanding law school)
30 judges
66 physicians (one being the dean of a medical school)
80 holders of public office (3 U.S. Senators, mayors of three large cities, governors of three states, a U.S. Vice-President, and a controller of the U.S. Treasury)
Then Dodds continues describing the family, saying:
"Almost all the men had college degrees and many completed graduate work in a time when this was unusual. The women were repeatedly described as 'great readers' or 'highly intelligent,' although girls were not sent to college then. Members of the family wrote 135 books, ranging from Five Years in an English University to a tome on Butterflies of North America. They edited eighteen journals and periodicals. They entered the ministry in platoons and sent one hundred missionaries overseas, as well as stocking many mission boards with lay trustees. One maverick married the daughter of a South Sea Island chieftain but even that branch reverted to type, and its son became a clergyman.
"As [A.E.] Winship put it: 'Many large banks, banking houses and insurance companies have been directed by them. They have been owners or superintendents of large coal mines...of large iron plants and vast oil interests...and silver mines. There is scarcely any great American industry that has not had one of this family among its chief promoters....The family has cost the country nothing in pauperism, in crime, in hospital or asylum service; on the contrary, it represents the highest usefulness.'"
Dodds does not record for us the number of men that entered the ministry from this family, only saying that there were enough to describe it as "platoons" of men. But she does point out that 100 persons went onto the mission field! And all this came not from some wealthy family with all the resources that accompany such. It came from a bookwormish minister and his uncommon wife.
Absolutely amazing!
Up until the year 1900 (that is approximately 150 years after Jonathan Edwards died), the marriage between Jonathan and Sarah Edwards had produced:
13 college presidents
65 professors
100 lawyers (one being the dean of an outstanding law school)
30 judges
66 physicians (one being the dean of a medical school)
80 holders of public office (3 U.S. Senators, mayors of three large cities, governors of three states, a U.S. Vice-President, and a controller of the U.S. Treasury)
Then Dodds continues describing the family, saying:
"Almost all the men had college degrees and many completed graduate work in a time when this was unusual. The women were repeatedly described as 'great readers' or 'highly intelligent,' although girls were not sent to college then. Members of the family wrote 135 books, ranging from Five Years in an English University to a tome on Butterflies of North America. They edited eighteen journals and periodicals. They entered the ministry in platoons and sent one hundred missionaries overseas, as well as stocking many mission boards with lay trustees. One maverick married the daughter of a South Sea Island chieftain but even that branch reverted to type, and its son became a clergyman.
"As [A.E.] Winship put it: 'Many large banks, banking houses and insurance companies have been directed by them. They have been owners or superintendents of large coal mines...of large iron plants and vast oil interests...and silver mines. There is scarcely any great American industry that has not had one of this family among its chief promoters....The family has cost the country nothing in pauperism, in crime, in hospital or asylum service; on the contrary, it represents the highest usefulness.'"
Dodds does not record for us the number of men that entered the ministry from this family, only saying that there were enough to describe it as "platoons" of men. But she does point out that 100 persons went onto the mission field! And all this came not from some wealthy family with all the resources that accompany such. It came from a bookwormish minister and his uncommon wife.
Absolutely amazing!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Church Discipline in Wall Street Journal
This morning, I was given a copy of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that discussed the issue of church discipline. Apparently, according to the article, there has been something of a revival of the practice of exercising church discipline in recent years, especially among more evangelical churches.
The problem that I have with the article is not really a problem with the author of the article but a problem with the churches cited and the extreme measures they appear to be taking under the rubric of "church discipline."
For example, the article cited a 6,000-member church in Nashville, TN, that is threatening to expel 74 members from its membership for "gossiping and causing disharmony unless they repent." Then the article went on to explain that these 74 members were simply looking to gain access to the church's financial records and had been denied such access by the leadership of the church.
The article also cited a church in Virginia that ousted a 43 year old working mother and her children for "gossiping about her pastor's plans to buy a bigger house."
Another instance involved a church in Michigan, which removed a 71-year old woman from its membership for "taking action against the church and your preacher," and then proceeded to have her arrested on at least two occasions when she continued to attend after being removed. According to the article, all this woman did (accompanied by several others) was to demand that her pastor run the church in accord with the church's constitution.
Well...these stories raise several issues that I'd like to talk about here:
1. Each of the situations discussed in the article appear to be examples of church leaders acting FAR TOO EXTREMELY! I say this for several reasons. First, in at least two of the three situations I cited, the members were WELL WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS in what they were asking for. NEVER should ANYONE be disciplined for acting within their rights. The only possible exception would be the example of the woman who gossiped about her pastor wanting to buy a bigger house. And this raises the second reason, and that is, each of the situations went to the EXTREME in dealing with minor sins. Excommunication should be reserved for only the most serious of grievances. And while it is true that the article does not tell us all the sordid details, it is also true that gossip about a pastor's house is NEVER grounds for excommunication or removal from church membership. PERIOD. If the pastor or the leadership was offended at what she said, they should have discussed it with her one-on-one. And then, following the guidelines of Matthew 18, taken it from there. Excommunication is never to be exercised quickly or as a first-line consequence. In the Presbyterian church, for example, there are several steps along the way before one is even able to suggest the word "excommunication," not least of which is a fair trial before a plurality of the leadership.
2. These situations smack of pastor-abuse! Sadly, the church is frequently torn apart not by the sins of the membership but by the sins of the leadership. These situations have the look and smell of unvarnished PRIDE (and you know what they say, if it looks like a duck and smells like a duck...). If the leaders would have humbled themselves in each of the above instances, there would probably have been no further need for church discipline!
3. Now let me really speak my mind! Each of these instances occurred in independent churches (with baptistic or congregational church governments), which means that there was no recourse for the church members to appeal the decisions of the church leadership. One of the beautiful things about the Presbyterian form of church government, besides being Biblical (!), is that it provides a security and a means of protection for the members of the local church. This can be seen in at least two ways. First, the Presbyterian church is governed by a PLURALITY of elders. The pastor is not THE decision-maker but is only ONE of many decision-makers. This prevents the pastor from harming the church or its members by his own personal agenda or feelings. Second, the Presbyterian church is accountable to superior "courts of appeal," so that each individual member cannot be held prisoner by the tyranny of any one local church. In each of these cases cited above, the church member would have been able to appeal the local church's decision to the regional "church," called the Presbytery (which is made up of all the elders of the churches in a particular geographical region) and, after that, to the national "church," called the General Assembly.
I am all for a revival of the practice of church discipline. But we need to be careful not to use church discipline as a weapon to ensure that we get our own way or to ensure that those who oppose us are eliminated. We are to love those who speak against us and pray for those who persecute us, even in the church. Sometimes, we do have to initiate church discipline. But it should always be with an eye to reclaiming the brother or sister, never to alienating them completely and arresting them for sitting under the preaching of the Word!
Comments?
The problem that I have with the article is not really a problem with the author of the article but a problem with the churches cited and the extreme measures they appear to be taking under the rubric of "church discipline."
For example, the article cited a 6,000-member church in Nashville, TN, that is threatening to expel 74 members from its membership for "gossiping and causing disharmony unless they repent." Then the article went on to explain that these 74 members were simply looking to gain access to the church's financial records and had been denied such access by the leadership of the church.
The article also cited a church in Virginia that ousted a 43 year old working mother and her children for "gossiping about her pastor's plans to buy a bigger house."
Another instance involved a church in Michigan, which removed a 71-year old woman from its membership for "taking action against the church and your preacher," and then proceeded to have her arrested on at least two occasions when she continued to attend after being removed. According to the article, all this woman did (accompanied by several others) was to demand that her pastor run the church in accord with the church's constitution.
Well...these stories raise several issues that I'd like to talk about here:
1. Each of the situations discussed in the article appear to be examples of church leaders acting FAR TOO EXTREMELY! I say this for several reasons. First, in at least two of the three situations I cited, the members were WELL WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS in what they were asking for. NEVER should ANYONE be disciplined for acting within their rights. The only possible exception would be the example of the woman who gossiped about her pastor wanting to buy a bigger house. And this raises the second reason, and that is, each of the situations went to the EXTREME in dealing with minor sins. Excommunication should be reserved for only the most serious of grievances. And while it is true that the article does not tell us all the sordid details, it is also true that gossip about a pastor's house is NEVER grounds for excommunication or removal from church membership. PERIOD. If the pastor or the leadership was offended at what she said, they should have discussed it with her one-on-one. And then, following the guidelines of Matthew 18, taken it from there. Excommunication is never to be exercised quickly or as a first-line consequence. In the Presbyterian church, for example, there are several steps along the way before one is even able to suggest the word "excommunication," not least of which is a fair trial before a plurality of the leadership.
2. These situations smack of pastor-abuse! Sadly, the church is frequently torn apart not by the sins of the membership but by the sins of the leadership. These situations have the look and smell of unvarnished PRIDE (and you know what they say, if it looks like a duck and smells like a duck...). If the leaders would have humbled themselves in each of the above instances, there would probably have been no further need for church discipline!
3. Now let me really speak my mind! Each of these instances occurred in independent churches (with baptistic or congregational church governments), which means that there was no recourse for the church members to appeal the decisions of the church leadership. One of the beautiful things about the Presbyterian form of church government, besides being Biblical (!), is that it provides a security and a means of protection for the members of the local church. This can be seen in at least two ways. First, the Presbyterian church is governed by a PLURALITY of elders. The pastor is not THE decision-maker but is only ONE of many decision-makers. This prevents the pastor from harming the church or its members by his own personal agenda or feelings. Second, the Presbyterian church is accountable to superior "courts of appeal," so that each individual member cannot be held prisoner by the tyranny of any one local church. In each of these cases cited above, the church member would have been able to appeal the local church's decision to the regional "church," called the Presbytery (which is made up of all the elders of the churches in a particular geographical region) and, after that, to the national "church," called the General Assembly.
I am all for a revival of the practice of church discipline. But we need to be careful not to use church discipline as a weapon to ensure that we get our own way or to ensure that those who oppose us are eliminated. We are to love those who speak against us and pray for those who persecute us, even in the church. Sometimes, we do have to initiate church discipline. But it should always be with an eye to reclaiming the brother or sister, never to alienating them completely and arresting them for sitting under the preaching of the Word!
Comments?
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Church Growth
While doing some searching on the internet, I came across an article by RC Sproul on church growth. I thought I'd pass along portions of it for your reading pleasure (if you'd like to read the whole article, you can find it here http://ccc138.org/article.asp?ID=621).
The article is entitled "Swimming Upstream." Here are a couple of quotes from it:
"The only seekers we tend to draw with seeker sensitive services are believers seeking a different church. By presenting a God who wants us to look at ourselves, who doesn't judge and command, who has a wonderful set of insights on how to have a happy, healthy marriage we put God's imprimatur on narcisism. There's nothing evangelicals like more than to be told that God loves them just the way they are."
"But why aren't the seekers coming? They like pop music, so we give them pop music. They like stories so we give them dramas. They like anonymity, so we let them have it. They like convenience, so we'll change their oil while they're here (this by the way is being done). The problem is that we can do none of these things as well as the world can. Why get up on a Sunday morning and drive somewhere to listen to pop music, when its as close as my stereo? Why settle for cheesy scripts and sets when the television does it so much better? Why spend an hour getting an oil change when the pros can do it in ten minutes? Imagine every company on the stock exchange looking to the one company whose stock rose the highest in a given year deciding to do what they did. 'Gee', thinks Ford, 'Microsoft made a killing. Let's get out of the car business and make software.' Or imagine PBS deciding to air nothing but sitcoms made up of sophisticated urban x-ers."
"The foolishness of the gospel routes the wisdom of the wise. Practically speaking the experts are failures. What they consider failure, on the other hand succeeds."
"So what does this tell us about how to grow the church? It demonstrates that we're listening to the wrong experts. Even the pagans know it is wise to counter-program. When everyone is going one way, go the other way. You will stand out. You will be noticed. You will be effective. If there were such a thing as a "seeker", someone who is looking for something, they would certainly not be looking for more of the same, or a bad imitation of what he is fleeing. When the world gives us mindless drivel, then is the time to say of the church, "Come in here. You'll get none of the nonsense you're so tired of." When the world is happy and light, we need to be somber, serious. When the gods of this world are distant, spineless, voiceless, reflections of our baser selves, our duty is to present the on true God, transcendent and immanent, omnipotent and tender, the God who speaks with all authority and wisdom. And we need to reflect not the perverse generation form which we have been saved, but Him in whom we have been regenerated, Him whose image we are to be."
Comments?
The article is entitled "Swimming Upstream." Here are a couple of quotes from it:
"The only seekers we tend to draw with seeker sensitive services are believers seeking a different church. By presenting a God who wants us to look at ourselves, who doesn't judge and command, who has a wonderful set of insights on how to have a happy, healthy marriage we put God's imprimatur on narcisism. There's nothing evangelicals like more than to be told that God loves them just the way they are."
"But why aren't the seekers coming? They like pop music, so we give them pop music. They like stories so we give them dramas. They like anonymity, so we let them have it. They like convenience, so we'll change their oil while they're here (this by the way is being done). The problem is that we can do none of these things as well as the world can. Why get up on a Sunday morning and drive somewhere to listen to pop music, when its as close as my stereo? Why settle for cheesy scripts and sets when the television does it so much better? Why spend an hour getting an oil change when the pros can do it in ten minutes? Imagine every company on the stock exchange looking to the one company whose stock rose the highest in a given year deciding to do what they did. 'Gee', thinks Ford, 'Microsoft made a killing. Let's get out of the car business and make software.' Or imagine PBS deciding to air nothing but sitcoms made up of sophisticated urban x-ers."
"The foolishness of the gospel routes the wisdom of the wise. Practically speaking the experts are failures. What they consider failure, on the other hand succeeds."
"So what does this tell us about how to grow the church? It demonstrates that we're listening to the wrong experts. Even the pagans know it is wise to counter-program. When everyone is going one way, go the other way. You will stand out. You will be noticed. You will be effective. If there were such a thing as a "seeker", someone who is looking for something, they would certainly not be looking for more of the same, or a bad imitation of what he is fleeing. When the world gives us mindless drivel, then is the time to say of the church, "Come in here. You'll get none of the nonsense you're so tired of." When the world is happy and light, we need to be somber, serious. When the gods of this world are distant, spineless, voiceless, reflections of our baser selves, our duty is to present the on true God, transcendent and immanent, omnipotent and tender, the God who speaks with all authority and wisdom. And we need to reflect not the perverse generation form which we have been saved, but Him in whom we have been regenerated, Him whose image we are to be."
Comments?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Property owners at last!
I have just been informed that it is now official: we have closed on our new property north of I-10!
As many of you will know, we have been waiting for approximately 1 year for the Corps of Engineers to grant us permission to develop a 10-acre parcel of land on the new Mississippi Highway 605 north of I-10. The reason being, it contained "jurisdictional wetlands." Well, with permission from the Corps in hand, we officially closed on the property Tuesday and can now begin to move forward with our plans to build a new church facility!
Please continue to pray for us. There are still MANY logistical details that need to be worked out before we will be in a new facility. But we know that we serve a God that is sovereign over EVERY detail of our lives.
Please continue to pray for the sale of our downtown property (we do currently have a contract on that property) and for the health and growth of our church.
We thank you for your support and encouragement!
As many of you will know, we have been waiting for approximately 1 year for the Corps of Engineers to grant us permission to develop a 10-acre parcel of land on the new Mississippi Highway 605 north of I-10. The reason being, it contained "jurisdictional wetlands." Well, with permission from the Corps in hand, we officially closed on the property Tuesday and can now begin to move forward with our plans to build a new church facility!
Please continue to pray for us. There are still MANY logistical details that need to be worked out before we will be in a new facility. But we know that we serve a God that is sovereign over EVERY detail of our lives.
Please continue to pray for the sale of our downtown property (we do currently have a contract on that property) and for the health and growth of our church.
We thank you for your support and encouragement!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
John Piper on TV
I just read excerpts from an article written by Dr. Ligon Duncan, Senior Minister at FPC in Jackson, taken from an article written by Dr. John Piper, which was entitled, "You Have One Life: Is TV Too Big a Part of It?" I have yet to find this article by Piper on-line, but here are the excerpts that Dr. Duncan cites:
"If all other variables are equal, your capacity to know God deeply will probably diminish in direct proportion to how much television you watch. There are several reasons for this. One is that television reflects American culture at its most trivial level. And a steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul. You get used to it. It starts to seem normal. Silly becomes funny. And funny becomes pleasing. And pleasing becomes soul-satisfaction. And in the end the soul that is made for God has shrunk to fit snugly around emptiness.
"This may be unnoticed, because if all you've known is American culture, you can't tell there is anything wrong. If you have only read comic books, it won't be strange that there are no novels in your house. If you live where there are no seasons, you won't miss the colors of fall. If you watch fifty TV ads each night, you may forget there is such a thing as wisdom. TV is mostly trivial. It seldom inspires great thoughts or great feelings with glimpses of great Truth. God is the great, absolute, all-shaping Reality. If He gets any air time, He is treated as an opinion. There is no reverence. No trembling. God and all that He thinks about the world is missing. Cut loose from God, everything goes down.
"Just think how new TV is. In the 2000 years since Christ, TV has shaped only the last 2.5 percent of that history. For 97.5 percent of the time since Jesus, there was no TV. And for 95 percent of this time there was no radio. It arrived on the scene in the early 1900's. So for 1900 years of Christian history people spent their leisure time doing other things. We wonder, what could they possibly have done? They may have read more. Or discussed things more. For certain they were not bombarded with soul-shrinking, round the clock trivialities."
Thoughts? Comments?
"If all other variables are equal, your capacity to know God deeply will probably diminish in direct proportion to how much television you watch. There are several reasons for this. One is that television reflects American culture at its most trivial level. And a steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul. You get used to it. It starts to seem normal. Silly becomes funny. And funny becomes pleasing. And pleasing becomes soul-satisfaction. And in the end the soul that is made for God has shrunk to fit snugly around emptiness.
"This may be unnoticed, because if all you've known is American culture, you can't tell there is anything wrong. If you have only read comic books, it won't be strange that there are no novels in your house. If you live where there are no seasons, you won't miss the colors of fall. If you watch fifty TV ads each night, you may forget there is such a thing as wisdom. TV is mostly trivial. It seldom inspires great thoughts or great feelings with glimpses of great Truth. God is the great, absolute, all-shaping Reality. If He gets any air time, He is treated as an opinion. There is no reverence. No trembling. God and all that He thinks about the world is missing. Cut loose from God, everything goes down.
"Just think how new TV is. In the 2000 years since Christ, TV has shaped only the last 2.5 percent of that history. For 97.5 percent of the time since Jesus, there was no TV. And for 95 percent of this time there was no radio. It arrived on the scene in the early 1900's. So for 1900 years of Christian history people spent their leisure time doing other things. We wonder, what could they possibly have done? They may have read more. Or discussed things more. For certain they were not bombarded with soul-shrinking, round the clock trivialities."
Thoughts? Comments?
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Happy New Year!
As we embark upon a new 12 months, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to use this time to reflect upon the real meaning of life.
What is it that you were put here to do?
Were you put on earth for yourself? to seize as much fun, money, power, etc., that you can and then to die?
Were you put here only to procreate and ensure the human race continues on into the future?
Or, were you put here for some other purpose?
The Bible teaches that you and I were put on this earth for one overarching reason: to glorify the great God of this universe by serving Him with our every breath.
The next question that automatically springs to mind is, “How do I do this?” That, too, is something that I want you to reflect upon at the beginning of this new year—“How can I accomplish my purpose in life in 2008?”
The answer to that question will be different for each of us. No two of us is exactly the same, and so we should not expect our answers to that question to be exactly the same. But, that being said, there should still be some common ground in all of our answers to that question. Since this is the season for resolutions, I’d like to share 20 resolutions that are “common ground” for each one of us in accomplishing our purposes in 2008. They are taken from the Puritan Richard Rogers (1550-1618) and "modernized" a bit...
These 20 items are things that we all should commit to do in this new year:
1. To keep a continual watch over our hearts, words, and deeds.
2. To be careful to redeem the time now and to make sure that our time in the future is not spent idly, carelessly, or unprofitably.
3. To attend to prayer and meditation upon God’s Word at least once each day.
4. To be careful to do good and to receive good from those with whom we spend time.
5. To instruct our family in the things of God and to watch over and care for their spiritual condition.
6. To be sure not to give too much time and care to earthly pleasures and worldly profits, and certainly not to give them more care than our relationship with Christ and His church.
7. To stir up ourselves and others to love God’s people and, especially, to be willing to suffer for doing good.
8. To be sure not to give too much freedom to wandering thoughts and sinful desires.
9. To prepare ourselves to take up our cross and follow after Christ, no matter where that might lead us.
10. To set aside time to grieve over our own particular sins as well as those of the age in which we live.
11. To look with longing each day to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for our full deliverance out of this world and into the heaven of heavens.
12. To seek out an honest, godly, faithful, and wise Christian who can hold us accountable and can speak about spiritual things and challenge us to grow in our faith.
13. To remember that we are mortal and that we will not go on forever and, then, to live in light of that fact.
14. To grow in our knowledge of and love for the Bible.
15. To resist the sins and corruptions in our life and to grow in our ability to overcome them.
16. To strive against returning to old and sinful patterns of living and to avoid all occasions and situations that would lead back to them.
17. To ensure, insofar as it has to do with us, that we not lose our first love (Rev. 2:4) and that we continue to enjoy God’s Word, prayer, meditation, and fellowship.
18. To be much in reflecting on God’s benefits and works, in order to praise Him continually for them.
19. To fight to always be grateful for the great redemption Christ has accomplished for us.
20. To practice repentance not just when caught in wrongdoing but as a matter of our daily life and walk.
I do hope that you will all have a Happy New Year and that we, as a church, will strive to live out our reason-for-being in 2008.
As we embark upon a new 12 months, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to use this time to reflect upon the real meaning of life.
What is it that you were put here to do?
Were you put on earth for yourself? to seize as much fun, money, power, etc., that you can and then to die?
Were you put here only to procreate and ensure the human race continues on into the future?
Or, were you put here for some other purpose?
The Bible teaches that you and I were put on this earth for one overarching reason: to glorify the great God of this universe by serving Him with our every breath.
The next question that automatically springs to mind is, “How do I do this?” That, too, is something that I want you to reflect upon at the beginning of this new year—“How can I accomplish my purpose in life in 2008?”
The answer to that question will be different for each of us. No two of us is exactly the same, and so we should not expect our answers to that question to be exactly the same. But, that being said, there should still be some common ground in all of our answers to that question. Since this is the season for resolutions, I’d like to share 20 resolutions that are “common ground” for each one of us in accomplishing our purposes in 2008. They are taken from the Puritan Richard Rogers (1550-1618) and "modernized" a bit...
These 20 items are things that we all should commit to do in this new year:
1. To keep a continual watch over our hearts, words, and deeds.
2. To be careful to redeem the time now and to make sure that our time in the future is not spent idly, carelessly, or unprofitably.
3. To attend to prayer and meditation upon God’s Word at least once each day.
4. To be careful to do good and to receive good from those with whom we spend time.
5. To instruct our family in the things of God and to watch over and care for their spiritual condition.
6. To be sure not to give too much time and care to earthly pleasures and worldly profits, and certainly not to give them more care than our relationship with Christ and His church.
7. To stir up ourselves and others to love God’s people and, especially, to be willing to suffer for doing good.
8. To be sure not to give too much freedom to wandering thoughts and sinful desires.
9. To prepare ourselves to take up our cross and follow after Christ, no matter where that might lead us.
10. To set aside time to grieve over our own particular sins as well as those of the age in which we live.
11. To look with longing each day to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for our full deliverance out of this world and into the heaven of heavens.
12. To seek out an honest, godly, faithful, and wise Christian who can hold us accountable and can speak about spiritual things and challenge us to grow in our faith.
13. To remember that we are mortal and that we will not go on forever and, then, to live in light of that fact.
14. To grow in our knowledge of and love for the Bible.
15. To resist the sins and corruptions in our life and to grow in our ability to overcome them.
16. To strive against returning to old and sinful patterns of living and to avoid all occasions and situations that would lead back to them.
17. To ensure, insofar as it has to do with us, that we not lose our first love (Rev. 2:4) and that we continue to enjoy God’s Word, prayer, meditation, and fellowship.
18. To be much in reflecting on God’s benefits and works, in order to praise Him continually for them.
19. To fight to always be grateful for the great redemption Christ has accomplished for us.
20. To practice repentance not just when caught in wrongdoing but as a matter of our daily life and walk.
I do hope that you will all have a Happy New Year and that we, as a church, will strive to live out our reason-for-being in 2008.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
