Prayer: Basic Training/ Wiersbe

Life is too short, and the Christian life too exciting, for us to waste our time on trivialities. T. S. Eliot, in one of his poems, describes a group of sophisticated people who measure out their lives "with coffee spoons." What a foolish way to live! Yet some Christians live that way.

One day each of us will have to give an account of his life to God. Jesus, when He gave His account, said: "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do" (John 17:4). I trust that I will be able to give that kind of a report, and that you will, too.

One of the first steps toward making our lives "accountable" is to major on the priorities, the things that matter most. If we are going to overcome the world, we must abandon the world’s standards for success. We must measure our lives by the things that God holds dear [emphasis mine]. We must ruthlessly cut away all that is excessive and that holds us back from doing God’s will. "Let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).

We may not like to admit it, but too many believers (and Christian ministries) live by the code of the world. Instead of overcoming the world, they have been overcome by the world. Some of them have imitated the world in hope that they can attract the world, but their very success is failure. They have forgotten the priorities that make the Christian life distinctively Christian. Jesus reminds us of these priorities in [His prayer in John 17]. [The rest of his chapter goes on to explain the following six priorities]

1. God's Glory

2. Truth

3. Assurance

4. Obedience

5. Unity

6. Holy Living

The Church’s Responsibility for Educating Children

Thanks to the Evangelical Movement of Wales and Martin Downes for the following article:

The Church's Responsibility for Educating Children

The direct responsibility of educating children in the Christian faith is given by God, not to Sunday schools, but to parents. In order for this to happen the church’s responsibility to parents, in their distinct and complementary roles, is to teach them all that God requires of them, and all that they must do to bring their children up in the ‘discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Eph. 6:4). 

I suspect that on these matters our attention has been focused on Sunday schools and children’s clubs and not on parental responsibilities and family worship and instruction. There may be good reasons for this. Perhaps the majority of children in our churches come from unbelieving homes (as I did). Some will come from broken homes. Others will be from families where an unbelieving husband tolerates the church attendance of his wife and children but will not allow Christian influences in the home. There certainly is a place for the direct role of the church in educating children. In fact an hour of Sunday school may be all the Christian influence that some children receive in a week.

 

The church and the Christian home

The church must educate children indirectly by teaching believing parents directly. This includes teaching parents the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). This of course requires that each Christian parent has a genuine, growing spiritual life that shows itself in a humble and teachable spirit. If you are not growing in grace and in knowledge (2 Pet. 3:18), walking in the light (1 John 1:7), loving others sincerely (1 Pet. 1:22), and taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5) how will you be able to teach your own children about trusting in and living for Christ?

We will never find encouragement from the world to order our families in ways that please God. Not only is the family openly attacked and being reinvented, but in subtle ways we are led away from what God says in his word about family life. On television and in films children are encouraged to find their security in their peers and not in the home. It is almost taken for granted that education happens outside the home. In Scripture the ultimate responsibility for educating children lies with parents. We are not to hand our children over to a state school, Christian school, or Sunday school in such a way as to let someone else take the ultimate responsibility. We need to be reminded of this.

In the Old Testament we see this principle, of indirectly teaching children by directly teaching parents, at work: ‘these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise’ (Deut. 6:6-7). Here we see who should teach, what should be taught, and when it should be taught. God’s word is not like a ride at a theme park where height restrictions apply, ‘The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law’ (Deut. 9:29).

No one has a greater influence upon a child than a parent. The great truths of creation, fall, salvation in Christ and new creation, are to be learned at home. This requires commitment, diligence, patience, and prayer.

 

The church and Christian parents

In Paul’s letters we see again and again how the gospel of grace straightens out misshapen relationships (Eph. 5:22-6:9; Col. 3:18-4:1; Titus 2). Here we find the directives from God, grounded in the gospel, that shape day-to-day living in the home. Parents must be shown, and taught, from the word, what God requires of them. Children too must learn from the word how they must honour, respect, and obey their parents (Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:1-3). 

Ministers should find opportunities to teach from these passages whether or not they are part of the current Sunday series. Not only must there be clear teaching but there should also be, from the elders, encouragement, exhortation, modelling of family life, and where necessary correction. As well as emphasising this in teaching and by pastoral care, there is the vital ministry of older women to younger women in how to bring up children (Titus 2:3-5).

We live in a day when there are excellent resources available for children and families that churches can stock and recommend. John MacArthur’s What the Bible says about parenting and Ted Tripp’s Shepherding a Child’s Heart, are helpful ways in which the wider church can equip parents to educate and raise their children. 

 

The church and children

Public worship and the teaching of God’s word, in the Old Testament and the New, is for all of God’s people. Indeed Moses commands, at the Feast of Booths, to ‘Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God’ (Deut. 31:12-13).

Our task is not to send all the children out during our gathered worship but to teach them that this is for them. This will involve getting them used to sitting still and helping them to understand the songs, reading and sermon. If you have young children draw appropriate cartoons to help them follow the sermon. We should ‘educate them up’ and not dumb the service down for them. If we do the latter we are sending the message that Christianity is something to grow out of and not a message so great that it transcends our highest thoughts. It is also important that families worship together, that children learn what is expected of them by seeing mum and dad listening to God’s word.

When the church teaches children it is vital to show them how the stories of the Bible are part of and make sense in the light of the ‘big story’ of redemptive history. In this way we can educate children to see that the Bible is not a random collection of spiritual and moral lessons but is one book with one message about the kingdom and grace of the one and only Saviour Jesus.

We also need the courage to turn back the clock and to learn the great catechisms. The best education that we can have would be to learn the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Learning by question and answer is found in Exodus 12:26-27, ‘And when your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?” you shall say, “It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses”’. It is how we all learn, and it is a proven way to store the mind with essential biblical truths.

A husband and father, as the head of the home must lead the way in these matters. Christian families must know what God requires of them and be encouraged and exhorted to do it. All must be done so that the doctrine of God will be adorned, and the word of God not reviled.

Piper's Take on Forgiving an Unrepentant Person

I am glad to re-post this brief word on FORGIVENESS from DGM:

Author: Tyler Kenney

There's been some good discussion in the comments on Sunday's and yesterday's posts about forgiveness and reconciliation. One big question has been, "Do you forgive a person who is unrepentant of their sin?" Some have argued Yes and others No.

For what it's worth, I thought it would be good to highlight Piper's answer to this question as expressed in his 1994 sermon "As We Forgive Our Debtors: What Does Forgiveness Look Like?"

Forgiveness of an unrepentant person doesn't look the same as forgiveness of a repentant person.

In fact I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3—4, "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' forgive him." So there's a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.

But even when a person does not repent (cf. Matthew 18:17), we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us and do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27).

The difference is that when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and confession and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do him good; but we cannot carry through reconciliation or intimacy.

Please pay attention to the thought regarding the person who does not repent, viz., that they "cut off the full work of forgiveness." that's vital! There's a soothing, a healing, and a mending that takes place in the soul, which CANNOT take place without repentance and forgiveness. Forgiveness really DOES heal, and remove from someone the blight of the sin. It goes to the doctrine of forgiveness. So, who says doctrine doesn't matter?
.

Preachers NOT to Tickle Ears

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. . .4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5). John Angell James writes:

But when the Christian public is so enamoured of talent, as to admire it more than the message, which it is employed to set forth; when no preacher can be heard with pleasure or even endurance, however sound his doctrine, clear his statements, impressive his manner, or earnest his address, unless his discourse is radiant with the light of genius, and gay with the flowers of rhetoric; when truth itself is unpalatable unless it is sweetened with the honey of human eloquence, and even error so sweetened is swallowed for the sake of its luscious accompaniment; when the hearer of a sermon turns from it with disgust, because it fails to regale his fancy by the brilliancy of its images, or to lull his ear by the smoothness and harmony of its periods; when this is the state of the public taste, and it is to be feared that to a great extent it is the state of it now, surely it is time to call the attention of our congregations to something higher and better. -John Angell James (1785-1859) An Earnest Ministry.  

Thanks to Ray Van Neste from Oversight of Souls blog for this quotation.

Character In Ministry-Do We Have It?

How do you define success? The following comes from the pen of Fred Smith, Sr., "Essays on Christian Character."

Beware of the Celebrity Syndrome
The celebrity syndrome is one of the ruling principles of our present society. It isn’t so much what you are known for as it is that you are well known. Moral tramps sell more books than saints.

Our son Fred invited a Christian layman who was experiencing a phenomenal rise in popularity to attend a meeting Fred was holding for laypeople. This Christian leader accepted. A friend of the man remarked to Fred, “You know he will expect to speak.”

Fred had not put out the program, and before he did Fred called the assistant of this Christian layman, asking if he expected to speak. The assistant said, “Nothing could be further from the truth. He doesn’t want to speak. He just wants to attend.”

The experience was so unusual, Fred called his entire staff together and told them, “We have found a real one,” meaning, “a humble one who has not yet accepted the celebrity status.”

Before a person becomes a Christian celebrity, he realizes that God is working through him. After he becomes a celebrity, he thinks he is working for God and that he’s doing God’s work. He may even delude himself into thinking his will is really God’s will.

Those working to be celebrities are tempting God.

Is God Using Me or Am I Using God?
I met Torrey Johnson when he first started Youth for Christ. At that time I was asking certain people I admired for their picture and autograph. He gave me his with the inscription: “To Fred, God’s man in God’s place.” I never felt I could hang that on the wall. I kept it in the desk drawer. I was always condemned by how seldom I felt that I was truly God’s man in God’s place. During the times I felt God was using me, I felt extremely small and extremely secure. When I felt big, I felt insecure, because then I was depending on my own strength.

Recently when I asked a friend the usual question, “How’s it going, Ron?” he answered in the best possible way. He said, “Fred, I feel God is using me.” What a wonderful feeling to realize God is using us rather than our using God. So long as we keep that spiritual dimension in our leadership, people will see God in us.

Two great epitaphs come to mind: Someone told me he found the small gravestone of Fanny Crosby, which was located in the same cemetery as the large monument to Barnum, the circus king. Crosby’s said simply, “Aunt Fanny—she did what she could.”

The other great epitaph is the one for A. W. Tozer: “He was a man of God.”

Inner Success
Once a young preacher said to me, “I can be happy just being a man of God, but that isn’t enough for my family. It isn’t enough for my board. They want me to be successful.”

If we let others define our success, it is truly a slippery slope. If we follow Christ’s example, then we simply go about doing good.

I suggest to any Christian who wants to be successful that he or she explore Scripture and try to find someone who started out to be successful and then made it. I can name five or six who tried it, and each was cursed. Remember the man who offered the apostles money for the spiritual gift? He probably intended to help people with it, but he wanted to take the credit instead of seeing that God got it. Peter told him, “May your money perish with you.”

You may remember that Mother Teresa said she would not accept any more honors because it took time away from her work. Caring for the dying was more important than receiving the Nobel Prize. She knew inner success.

Smith, F., Sr. (1998). The Pastor's Soul Volume 5: Leading With Integrity (79–80). Pub Place: Bethany House Books.

Say "No" to Pornography - John Piper clip

The battle rages for our hearts and minds. That's a stark fact! Here, Piper deals with the sticky issue of pornography with a group of young people, but his application certainly pertains to all of us. Please view this for your own good and the benefit and blessing of those around you.

"I will not set before my anything that is worthless" (Psalm 101:3).

What's With All the Confusion About "Judging"?

IF you've been a pastor any length of time (or even a mature Christian) you're bound to have heard every conceivable approach to the subject of judging that there is. Even those who care little about the Bible will declare with certainty, "Well, doesn't the Bible teach that you're not supposed to judge?!" It's in the air we breathe! But is that all that the Bible teaches on the subject of judging?

Here's a test. 

Just go into any Bible-believing church and ask them, "Does the Bible teach anywhere that we ARE to judge?" And just listen to the answers. Hopefully, I'm wrong, but time and experience have taught me that the lion's share of Christian folk are locked in on this subject. Their answer will most likely be . . . "Never!"

REALLY. Are Christians never supposed to judge?

I want to answer this question. But if you are looking for a humanistic answer. Skip this post. I am not the least bit interested in what man has to say about this (or any) subject. I want to know . . . and ABIDE by what the Scripture teaches, what the Spirit of God says through His authoritative WORD! First . . .

It Depends!

That's right. Most who deny any judging are thinking of Matthew 7:1ff, "Judge not lest you be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you yourself will be judged." This verse is speaking about judging the motives of people's hearts, which, of course we cannot do and must not try. Why? 1) Because we cannot know infallibly what someone's thinking. Only God reads the heart and knows our intentions. 2) The "Love" chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that "love believes all things," which is another way of saying love "believes the best about someone." So, we (if we love) will not "jump to conclusions, but will give the other person the benefit of the doubt. OK, so that is the general rule on THAT kind of judging. Remember, Matthew 7:1 says that IF you do judge, be prepared to be judged by the same standard. If you can judge that way, you are probably on safe ground. NOTE: It seems that many of those touting this verse are trying to avoid anyone judging THEM because they have already determined that they are living sinful lives! Unfortunately, many Christians fall for such a deceptive maneuver and back off. 

Another King of Judging

But the Bible clearly teaches another kind of judgment and we must not be ignorant of it! Starting with the verses immediately after Matthew 7:1, Jesus urges us not to "give that which is holy to the dogs," and swine trample the pearls of the gospel under their feet etc. So, who is Jesus expecting will determine who are those "dogs" and "swine?" Point here is that WE must assess the "dogs" and "swine" (not at all meaning that we call them such). Jesus is urging us to discern those who will not rightly determine the gospel to be the rare jewel that it really is, like pigs not being able to appreciate the value of real pearls!

Jesus, in John 7:24, tells us not to "judge according to the appearance, but to judge righteous judgment," that is to tell the difference between true and false religious practices. Further, Paul, after warning the Corinthians that "natural" men do not understand the things pertaining to God, offers that the "spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one" (1 Cor. 2:14-15). Meaning? The spiritually minded person has the inner "Spirit" capacity to discern true and false faith, spiritual from non-spiritual, things of God verses things of man. That they are "judged by no one" refers to their spiritual status which is earned by Christ's blood and affirmed by grace through the Spirit. Therefore it is outside the purview of man's ability to detect. It is confirmed in and through the Holy Spirit. The Lord God knows the truth about our true spiritual status. We do not, according to Paul, judge even ourselves. Why? God is our judge. And his judgment is always perfect. 

One More

Paul commands the Roman believers: 

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive (Romans 16:17).

See the clarity in this? He's expecting the Christians to detect who is causing divisions and creating obstacles doctrinally, which means you have to be able to discern error and declare it wrong and discipline it out of the church! Again, this is a type of judgment.

There's more. But this is perhaps enough to get across the point that one must not subtract from God's Word that which it DOES teach on judging, or for that matter on ANY subject!