Many Christians live their lives with no rear view mirror because of misunderstanding the application of Philippians 3 which teaches us to 'forget what lies behind'. The calling is not to ignore our past but to work with Jesus through out past.
Jesus teaches that we're not to pray like religious people. We don't need to carry a prayer rug around with us and face east when we do. We just talk to our Dad.
This clip is taken from the sermon "John the Baptizer's Birth Prophesied," preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll at the Mars Hill Church Ballard campus in Seattle, Washington, on September 27, 2009. It is the 2nd sermon in our sermon series, "Luke's Gospel: Investigating the Man Who Is God."
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1--2)
The concept of the Word (logos) is one imbued with meaning for both Jews and Greeks. To the Greek philosophers, the logos was the impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order in the universe. It was in some sense a creative force, and also the source of wisdom. The average Greek may not have fully understood all the nuances of meaning with which the philosophers invested the term logos. Yet even to laymen the term would have signified one of the most important principles in the universe.
To the Greeks, then, John presented Jesus as the personification and embodiment of the logos. Unlike the Greek concept, however, Jesus was not an impersonal source, force, principle, or emanation. In Him, the true logos who was God became a man—a concept foreign to Greek thought.
But logos was not just a Greek concept. The word of the Lord was also a significant Old Testament theme, well-known to the Jews. The word of the Lord was the expression of divine power and wisdom. By His word God introduced the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 15:1), gave Israel the Ten Commandments (Ex. 24:3--4; Deut. 5:5; cf. Ex. 34:28; Deut. 9:10), attended the building of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:11--13), revealed God to Samuel (1 Sam. 3:21), pronounced judgment on the house of Eli (1 Kings 2:27), counseled Elijah (1 Kings 19:9ff.), directed Israel through God's spokesmen (cf. 1 Sam. 15:10ff.; 2 Sam. 7:4ff.; 24:11ff.; 1 Kings 16:1--4; 17:2--4., 8ff.; 18:1; 21:17--19; 2 Chron. 11:2--4), was the agent of creation (Ps. 33:6), and revealed Scripture to the prophets (Jer. 1:2; Ezek. 1:3; Dan. 9:2; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jonah 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1; Mal. 1:1).
John presented Jesus to his Jewish readers as the incarnation of divine power and revelation. He initiated the new covenant (Luke 22:20; Heb. 9:15; 12:24), instructs believers (John 10:27), unites them into a spiritual temple (1 Cor. 3:16--17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21), revealed God to man (John 1:18; 14:7--9), judges those who reject Him (John 3:18; 5:22), directs the church through those whom He has raised up to lead it (Eph. 4:11--12; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5; 1 Peter 5:1--3), was the agent of creation (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2), and inspired the Scripture penned by the New Testament writers (John 14:26) through the Holy Spirit whom He sent (John 15:26). As the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ is God's final word to mankind: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son" (Heb. 1:1--2).
Then John took his argument a step further. In His eternal preexistence the Word was with God. The English translation does not bring out the full richness of the Greek expression (pros ton theon). That phrase means far more than merely that the Word existed with God; it "[gives] the picture of two personal beings facing one another and engaging in intelligent discourse" (W. Robert Cook, The Theology of John [Chicago: Moody, 1979], 49). From all eternity Jesus, as the second person of the trinity, was "with the Father [pros ton patera]" (1 John 1:2) in deep, intimate fellowship. Perhaps pros ton theon could best be rendered "face-to-face." The Word is a person, not an attribute of God or an emanation from Him. And He is of the same essence as the Father.
Yet in an act of infinite condescension, Jesus left the glory of heaven and the privilege of face-to-face communion with His Father (cf. John 17:5). He willingly "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.... He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:7--8).
John's description of the Word reached its pinnacle in the third clause of this opening verse. Not only did the Word exist from all eternity, and have face-to-face fellowship with God the Father, but also the Word was God. That simple statement, only four words in both English and Greek (theos en ho logos), is perhaps the clearest and most direct declaration of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in Scripture.
Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 January 31, 1892) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers." In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times a week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London for 38 years. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon's which now works globally. He also founded Spurgeon's College, which was named after him after his death.
Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.
Last week Ontario’s
Premier Dalton McGuinty siezed the opportunity to write his radical six gender
sex education in the new ant-bullying law.Everyone agrees that bullying is a serious threat to children and must be
combated with strong, stiff programs and penalties.Children’s lives depend on it.Unfortunately the Premier is using everyone’s
good will to advance his agenda.
The Anti-bullying Bill
13 uses the force of law to make teachers in both Public and Catholic
to:
·Teach Radical Six Gender
Curriculum- Equity and Inclusive
Education
Bill 13 Section 2. (1) Paragraph 29.1 of subsection 8 (1) of the Act is repealed and
the following substituted:equity and
inclusive education
29.1 require boards to develop and implement an equity and inclusive
education policy, and, if required by the Minister, submit the policy to the
Minister and implement changes to the policy as directed by the
Minister;
·Support Homosexual Clubs in all Public and Catholic
Schools
Bill 13 Section 9. Board support for certain pupil activities and
organizations
303.1 Every board shall
support pupils who want to establish and lead,
(a) activities or organizations that promote gender equity;
(b) activities or organizations that promote anti-racism;
(c) activities or organizations that promote the awareness and
understanding of, and respect for, people with disabilities; or
(d) activities or organizations that promote the awareness and understanding
of, and respect for, people of all sexual orientations and gender identities,
including organizations with the name gay-straight alliance or another
name.
·Force Churches
Renting School Property to Follow Province’s Radical Agenda.
Bill 13 Section 7
(2) Agreements with third parties re use of schools
(3.1) If a board enters into
an agreement with another person or entity, other than a board, respecting the
use of a school operated by the board, the board shall include in the agreement
a requirement that the person or entity follow standards that are consistent
with the code of conduct.
It is egregious to
impose, with the force of law, this bizarre social engineering experiment on
Ontario’s children under the pretence of protecting children from bullying.There is no proof that forcing all schools,
Public and Catholic, to teach this material and host gay clubs will stop
bullying.This guise doesn’t hold water
with standard pedagogical practices.Our
schools don’t have to teach the intricacies of every element of difference to
combat bullying.Teachers don’t need a
219 page curriculum guide extolling the virtues of being short, overweight,
Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any other identifying factor. They simply need to
combat bullying.
Think of the millions of
small, innocent children who will be subjected to this agenda if we do nothing.
Last year tens of thousands of parents spoke out, the Premier heard our cries
and cancelled a similar program.
Please act to protect
children and do the following:
1.Call Premier McGuinty at
416-325-1941
2.Send Premier
McGuinty an email by clicking here. A copy will
be sent to every Ontario MPP. CLICK
HERE TO EMAIL YOUR MP(If this doesn’t work with your system go to www.stopcorruptingchildren.com
and click on Email Premier McGuinty)
If your a young person and thinking about marriage, then please hear this clip and don't make a wrong turn and pursue outward beauty, instead of pursuing someone who fears the Lord.
Richard Baxter - English puritan divine (1615-1691) was a prominent English churchman of the 1600s. He was a peacemaker who sought unity among Protestants, and yet he was a highly independent thinker and at the center of every major controversy in England during his lifetime.
Born in Rowton to parents who undervalued education, Baxter was largely self-taught. He eventually studied at a free school, then at royal court, where he became disgusted at what he saw as frivolity. He left to study divinity, and at age 23, he was ordained into the Church of England. Within the Anglican church, Baxter found common ground with the Puritans, a growing faction who opposed the church's episcopacy and was itself breaking into factions. Baxter, for his part, did his best to avoid the disputes between Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and other denominations, even convincing local ministers to cooperate in some pastoral matters. "In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity," he was fond of saying.
The interest in cooperation was not due to a lack of conviction. On the contrary, Baxter was opinionated in his theology, which was not quite Separatist and not quite Conformist. Among his more than 200 works are long, controversial discourses on doctrine. Still, he believed society was a large family under a loving father, and in his theology, he tried to cut between the extremes. He eventually registered himself as "a mere Nonconformist" ("Nonconformist" was a technical term meaning "not Anglican"), breaking with the Church of England mainly because of the lack of power it gave parish clergy.
Baxter also found himself as a peacemaker during the English Civil Wars. He believed in monarchy, but a limited one. He served as a chaplain for the parliamentary army, but then helped to bring about the restoration of the king. Yet as a moderate, Baxter found himself the target of both extremes. He was still irritated with the episcopacy in 1660, when he was offered the bishopric of Hereford, so he declined it. As a result, he was barred from ecclesiastical office and not permitted to return to Kidderminster, nor was he allowed to preach. Between 1662 and 1688 (when James II was overthrown), he was persecuted and was imprisoned for 18 months, and he was forced to sell two extensive libraries. Still, he continued to preach: "I preached as never sure to preach again," he wrote, "and as a dying man to dying men."
Baxter became even better known for his prolific writing. His devotional classic The Saints' Everlasting Rest was one of the most widely read books of the century. When asked what deviations should be permitted from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, he created an entirely new one, called Reformed Liturgy, in two weeks. His Christian Directory contains over one million words. His autobiography and his pastoral guide, The Reformed Pastor, are still widely read today.
We cannot ask God to forgive us and refuse to forgive other people. Are you withholding forgiveness for someone? If you do, you're denying someone what was freely given to you. That's hypocritical and sinful, and we have no right to do so.
This clip is from the sermon "Kiss the Feet," preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church Ballard in Seattle, Washington on November 20, 2011. This is the 100th and final sermon in our sermon series on the Gospel of Luke.
Do you really repent? Do you only talk to God about other people's sin but not your own? Jesus commands us to preach repentance, and parents need to model it for their children so that there's a culture of repentance in the house.
This clip is from the sermon "Kiss the Feet," preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church Ballard in Seattle, Washington on November 20, 2011. This is the 100th and final sermon in our sermon series on the Gospel of Luke.
We murdered the beloved Son, Jesus Christ. His blood is on our hands. And the gospel, the good news, is that then the Father looks at us and says, "If you will take that kind offer from my Son, I'll adopt you into my family called the church. I'll give you my name, the family name of Christian. And I'll call you my beloved son as well."
This clip is taken from the sermon "The Father of a Murdered Son," preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll at the Mars Hill Church Ballard campus in Seattle, Washington, on July 10, 2011. It is the 82nd sermon in our sermon series on the Gospel of Luke.
"Preach the gospel, and when necessary use words"? No. Use words. Jesus commands us to tell everyone about him, because everyone needs to know him.
This clip is from the sermon "Kiss the Feet," preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church Ballard in Seattle, Washington on November 20, 2011. This is the 100th and final sermon in our sermon series on the Gospel of Luke.
The need for this work is summed up well in the
introduction by AlanHisrsh:
He sees a disturbing trend where "the term missional is now being
appropriated at a massive rate. But so very often this is being done without
the foggiest idea of what it actually means and the impact that it should have
on our thinking and practices" (p.11). "When everything becomes
missional, then nothing becomes missional. This book speaks directly into that
situation" (p.12).
MichaelFrost sees his task as "an attempt to reclaim the word
'missional' from the grips of conventional churches bent on finding a new
buzzword to meet the annual fixation for something new and 'relevant'".
He spends a great deal of time describing what a
missional Church is and his not. A missional church then, is a church that realises this Missio Dei and has a
"wholesale and thorough reorientation of the church around mission"
(p16). “Mission is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of
God through Christ. "It is our automatic response to God's reign and rule, proven through Christ, revealed through the Spirit. Therefore,
any collective of believers set free from the disorder of this present age, who
offer themselves in service of the mission of their God to alert people to the
new unfolding order of things, can rightly be called a missional church."
(38)
To contrast, he makes it clear that mission is not primarily concerned with church
growth. It is primarily concerned with the reign and rule of the
Triune God. If the church grows as a result, so be it.” (p24). It "is not
about evangelism, It is not about sending, but being sent. Missional is like
slow cooking, where disciples incarnate deeply within the communities they are
in or called to be in. No quick fix. No rush to pile up numbers of conversions.
No snappy 'four spiritual laws.' " (46).
Since he recognizes that God reigns and rules through Christ,
whatever you do that alerts people to the fact of the rule of God, is
missional. The strength and problem with many of these contrasts is that there
is a lot of room for action. While he affirms this action by both ‘announcement
and demonstration’ (p35) almost all the focus and the examples are on
‘demonstration’. It would be best to look elsewhere for much of the "announcement" or content of the
message.Although Frost
quotes quite extensively from various missional authors, his treatment of the
Scriptural message of the "announcement" is infrequent. You need to
go though twenty-five pages before the first text is cited. InterestingBiblical treatment such as "The Cross as
Metaphor/Paradigm" (p. 90ff) are few and far between. Taking concepts like
the incarnation by quoting The Message
that "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood"
(Jn. 1:14) is so offensive, that his argument for moving into the neighbourhood
(proximity) (p. 123) is undermined.
The missional approach often seems to be living
out a "lordship" of Christ's
self-sacrificial life, but it is often not
careful in what it advocates. One, for example sees a renewal of
"monastic practices-confession, repentance, Bible reading, prayer..."
(p.79). Calling these spiritual disciplines "monastic" contradicts a missional connection with the
community. Likewise, the trend to define one's self on what you don't do (don't
drink/smoke/gamble/hang out with people who do) sounds more like old school
"fundamentalism" than "pietism".
Yet, I would agree with Frost that this kind of spirituality "outsources
the need to do the daily work of keeping in step with the Spirit of the
God" (p.85). Again a good point is made with a poor choice of terms:
"Church people worry that the
world might change the church, Kingdom people work to see the church change the
world" (p.103). Perhaps using a term like "religious" would have
been preferable for Christ came to establish a
"church", or called out people for Himself to be agents of His
Kingdom.
There seems to be a very "grass roots" feeling to the work
of mission. Things like structure, leadership, doctrinal standards and
accountably are woefully lacking.
Seeing congregations "led by humble men and women" (p.79) perhaps
even hints at the author's desire for "egalitarian" leadership.
I found myself laughing in chapter four on
"triumphant Humiliation" in the description of false persecution that some feel: "Maybe when your neighbor
ignores you, it's not because he hates the light of the Lord that shins from
you. Maybe he just thinks you're a jerk. Maybe we get most of the rejection we
do because, well, we deserve it" (p.83). This is a much needed wake up
call for contemporary Christianity.
Frost missed a great opportunity
to take his ChristocentricKingdom
model in dealing with the topic of peace
in chapter five. His treatment of reconciliation, justice and beauty only finds
meaning through the cross. Understanding how the work of Christ
enables reconciliation, justice and beauty truly informs these concepts. His treatment
on "beauty" is so weak, that it is essentially without meaning. Yet,
he did give biblical elements of reconciliation and justice. The contemporary
facts for these things provides a useful link of doctrine and need.
Frost' conclusion wisely sums up his point.
The main point in "The Road to Missional" is simply this: "becoming
missional is not about making congregations more appealing for a new
generation; rather, becoming missional is about equipping and releasing people
to be the church in their neighborhoods, regardless of what style of worship
they prefer of the size of the congregation. Becoming missional is all about
tapping into the missio Dei in order to be a foretaste of the reign of God in Christ.
This is rooted in the cross and God's shalom. And do, becoming missional is not
simply a matter of language or programming ' it is a never ending process and a
'calls it followers to the disciplines of sacrifice, service, love, and grace;
and a mission that delights in beauty, flavor, joy, and friendship" (146).
Yet, it does no good to try to do the
"mission" of Christ and not proclaim His words while
doing do. Our message may counteract our methods. This work is helpful in
suggesting ways to live out the message of Christ. Yet, I fear
we may quickly forget and get side-tracked if we do not continue to learn about
the person and words of Christ in order to check our actions
to His mission.
Rating: 2.5 stars of 5.
Product Details
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Baker
Books (Oct 1 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0801014077
ISBN-13:
978-0801014079
Product Dimensions: 22.6
x 15.2 x 1.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 227
g
"Book has been provided courtesy
of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller
from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group".
From the National Conference for Christian Apologetics and interview Dr. Gary Habermas. The question for this episode is "Should Christians be surprised by suffering?"
This November, Canadians from coast to coast to coast will come together to mark Veterans' Week.
At hundreds of ceremonies and events, we will remember and recognize the sacrifices and accomplishments of our veterans those of past missions and conflicts, and those who are still returning home today.
http://reasonablefaith.org - Can you invalidate someone's belief by showing how someone came to hold it? Hear special guest Dr. William Lane Craig explain the genetic fallacy.
Grab a copy of Dr. Craig's new book "On Guard" to learn more about this and other arguments on how to defend your faith with reason and precision.
James Smith was a predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel in London from 1841 until 1850. Early on, Smith's readings were even more popular than Spurgeon's!
From "Daily Bible Readings for the Lord's Household"
The habit of laying up a text of Scripture in the morning, to be meditated upon while engaged in the business of this world through the day—is both profitable and delightful. It is as a refreshing draught to a weary traveler!
James Smith - My friend, I Know Not What Your Trouble May Be
