Category Archives: Pastoral

A Challenging Suggestion

Posted on by
Reply

Back in 2009 Ligonier Ministries hosted a Conference for Pastors and Leaders called “Pillars of the Christian Faith.” It was described in the following way:

“While always initiated and empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit, history tells us that the most powerful periods of church renewal and reformation follow the efforts of Christian leaders to teach the Word of God accurately. These gifted teachers held in common a solid grounding in the essential truths of the prophetic and apostolic writings, the foundation upon which Christ builds His church. Christian leaders today must likewise be established in these biblical truths if the church would enjoy a new reformation.

In Ligonier Ministries’ 2009 Ministry Leadership Conference, “Pillars of the Christian Faith,” Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, Steven Lawson, and R.C. Sproul seek to equip you for effective, biblical leadership based upon the essential truths of the Christian faith.”

The sessions were as follows:

1. Creation and Providence (Sproul)
2. Our Sovereign God (Lawson)
3. Thy Word is Truth (Ferguson)
4. Questions and Answers
5. The Word became Flesh (Duncan)
6. The Holy Spirit (Ferguson)
7. Created in God’s Image (Duncan)
8. Cosmic Treason (Sproul)
9. Saved by Grace (Lawson)
10. Vespers Service – The Gospel of Reconciliation (Ferguson)
11. The Church and Sacraments (Duncan)
12. The Last Things (Ferguson)

You can now watch the entire conference for free. What a gift this is!

Over the next couple of weeks, (as difficult as it may be amidst your busy schedule) may I make a suggestion that you carve out an hour to sit with your Bible, notebook and pen and watch one of these sessions each day?

I would also encourage you to allow for time to reflect on the truth you hear and to pray that it may effect both change, new focus and refreshing of vision in your heart, life, and ministry to others. I suggest this because I believe your soul will be greatly enriched by this process, just as mine has been.

If you willing (and able) to take on this challenge here’s the link.

May God richly bless you and empower you for all He has called you to do. – John

A Man of Two Questions

Posted on by
Reply

“Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” 2 Tim 2:7

MESSAGE TO SELF:

You may be armed with an inspiring quote; found a good phrase you might use as a punch line; you might have heard a great story that is sure to “wow” the people; you might have up to date facts and figures at your disposal that might possibly be shocking or even frightening, but certainly, enlightening; you might have a file of pithy quotes showing how the great thinkers of the church have seen the issue; yes, you may have all of this and more, but remember this, when you step into your office to study the word of God, you enter what for you is sacred space.

Of course, it may not be seen that way to others, but it has to be this way for you. There should be no discussion or debate on this. This is the time when you pour out your heart to God, pleading with Him to open up the text of the Bible to you. This is where you declare your total dependence on the Holy Spirit, even though He might use your study habits as a means to opening up your understanding. This is the place where the man becomes the man of God. Alone with God, your gaze is heavenward in heart, while your eyes peer downward at the text of the Bible in front of you.

Remember too that all of hell trembles as you enter this place. Hell fears the proclamation of the word of God as no other thing in this world. You wrestle not with flesh and blood but against hostile unseen forces seeking to distract you from your calling. Hell has no fear of a joke; of a punch line; or an insightful quote, but hell trembles when a man of God proclaims the word of God. If the devil cannot stop you in public, he will seek to win the war in private, distracting you with a million other things and a million other affections.

So knowing that there is both heavenly and hellish interest in what you do in your study, settle it forever. This is a sacred place to you. Its a place where you are unreachable (and those close to you know it) unless there is an emergency. Your phone is off. There are no earthly distractions. Outside the study, you have all the time in the world for people – your family especially; but inside, you have entered, what is for you, the very holy of holies.

Your task is not complicated but amazingly simple – to please the audience of One.

How exactly do you do that?

You know the answer, but let me remind you once again. Your task is not first to think of how to communicate truth; how to say it with passion, how to communicate in such a way that people can identify with it.. no, no, no, a thousand times, no. That is important. God offers no rewards for the boring preacher. Yet communication is a secondary matter. That comes later.

Your first priority is to ask (and then answer) two simple questions:

(1) What does the Bible say?

(2) What does it mean by what it says?

Fruits, Flakes, Fakes and Nuts

Posted on by
1

Some time back (around a year ago) I had interchange with someone on the internet (actually a good friend who shall remain anonymous) on the subject of how we are to deal with the fake christian people in our lives. I have provided the interchange here in hopes the discussion might be helpful to others:

First of all I wrote: “True faith endures!! The true child of God MUST endure to the end, and WILL endure to the end, because it is God who started and will finish the work in him. Those who abandon faith in Christ were never really His. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for IF THEY HAD BEEN OF US, THEY WOULD HAVE CONTINUED WITH US. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” – 1 Jn 2:19

Someone responded to this saying: “Amen!! There are a lot of flakes among us, but there are also a lot of FAKES, pretending to be one of us. Sometimes they are workers of the enemy, and their mission is to destroy us and our ministry. Something to think about.”

My response: “Very true.. the way to avoid flakiness in our lives is to be grounded always in the practical application of Scripture and not moved about by experience that has no backing in the Word.. and may God deliver us from the fakes. Deceived people deceive people. ”

The person responded by saying: “I thought we were supposed to avoid fakes.”

I then said: “Did I say otherwise? Just some general overview remarks – we often DO NOT KNOW who they fakes are. All the non-elect are fakes in that they are not genuiniely born again – but they can often look the part and that is John’s point in 1 John 2:19 – the way we know they are fakes is that they did not continue with us. That’s all. And his conclusion was that they were never truly OF US.

The elect dont have the letter “E” stamped on their forehead and nor do we see the non-elect stamped with a “N.E” on theirs. One of the points of Jesus’ parables was that both look alike often times and we should not try to work out who the elect are or non elect are and differentiate them before the time but leave that to the TIME when the Son of Man appears. Matt 13:24 “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

But the second component is discernment and when someone is a proven false teacher of heresy, or someone consistently sows division, they should be marked and avoided.

2 John: 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Romans 16:17 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.

Its tricky because there are some people who are genuinely born again but are not fully following the Lord and some go even further and need church discipline.. they are not always fakes as such – but could be. Peter might have looked like a fake when he denied the Lord, but he was a true sheep and God restored him. The point is that God is certain of who are truly His, and we often are not. We should treat people with grace, love and kindness until (1) it can be determined that the person teaches blatant damnable heresy and will not repent of it; or (2) sows discord amongst brethren.

Judas was always a false disciple and was “a devil from the beginning” according to Jesus – a fake if ever there was one – but the other disciples were fooled by him even when Jesus was not. God did not reveal that to the other disciples and even the fakes serve God’s purposes in the end. Our job is to make sure we are not fake ourselves, love one another and avoid those who teach heresy (the wolves in sheep’s clothing) and those who cause divisions.”

Just to cover the “fruit” and “nut” components, there is someone I know (not in my church) going about telling others that the Lord has revealed that there will be some nuclear disaster here in Arizona this year. In hearing this, I have promised my children that should I see this person, I will ask them to sign a prepared paper I have already written to say that “I __________ state that the Lord has told me of a coming disaster of nuclear proportions coming to the state of Arizona this year (2010) and wanting to be held accountable, agree that if this does not happen, that on January 1, 2011, I will repent of this false prophecy (publicly if needed) and seek Pastoral counseling.”

That’s how I handle the fruits and nuts! 🙂