Bible Readig Plans

It's time again to renew our commitment to the word of God. A follower of Christ is led, taught, encouraged, rebuked, trained, and protected by God through His Word.

Far to few people who call themselves Christians have actually read the Bible. Don't let that be you. Read God's Word this year.

Here are some options:

1. Read through the New Testament.

2. Read through the entire Bible.

I began to develop my own plan, and realized I was about to reinvent the wheel.

Here is a great website that has a link to some downloadable reading plans.

http://www.navpress.com/dj/content.aspx?id=138


NavPress Reading Plans

Westboro - Not Baptist or Christian

I hesitate to even mention the evil folks of Westboro Baptist. They crave any attention or publicity that they can get. But, I want to make clear a few things in regards to them because some people might get confused by their name.
This group of people, and their cult like leader Fred Phelps, have made a name for themselves by protesting with very offensive signs at the funerals of soldiers, politicians and officials. This last weekend there was a tragic shooting of a congresswoman. She lived. Six others died, including a nine year old girl. There are reports that the group from Westboro is going to come and picket at these funerals. ( I have since seen conflicting reports about whether they will or will not picket at this funeral)
I won’t detail what their signs say, but they are very offensive and completely inappropriate for people who are grieving at a funeral.
I want to set the record straight. Although they claim the name ‘baptist’ they are NOT a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, they are not officially a part of any brand of official Baptist organizations. They are completely their own independent group( I won’t even call them a church, because they aren’t a true church).
Beyond that, I don’t think that they are even Christian. Their actions do not reflect a group of people who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and are seeking to follow Christ. For example, Jesus himself said that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself(Matthew 22:37-39). The actions of Westboro are completely devoid of any real vestige of true, Christ-like love. Jesus modeled compassion. Jesus did speak the truth, but He was always demonstrating love and compassion. These folks at Westboro are not following Christ’s example. I doubt whether they are truly Christian.
We do live in a free country. I have the freedom to write and speak about my objections and opinions about anyone. Freedom means that crazy people get to have their right to free speech as well. Freedom also comes with responsibility, which these people at Westboro seem inclined to ignore. Set aside Christian values for a moment, common decency should keep these folks from picketing at the funeral of a little girl! Come on! Grow up!
This group of people exhibit some clear signs of being in a cult. A cult has one dominant, authoritative leader, an aberrant teaching, and an antagonistic philosophy. This group is run by one man. What he says is law – that is a hallmark of a cult-like leader. The members of this church are made up primarily of his family members. They have a weird, antagonistic philosophy. There are some clear comparisons between this man and David Koresh.
It is also unfortunate that they chose to use the name ‘baptist’. It bothers me that someone might associate who I am as a baptist with what these people at Westboro stand for. I do not want to be lumped in with those nut-jobs.


Here is a great quote from Christian apologist and blogger Phil Johnson:

It is unfortunate that in the media (and thus in the minds of many non-Christians) the Fred Phelps family have become the representative face of religious opposition to homosexuality. For the record, they are not Christians at all. They are gospel-corrupters who have exchanged the gospel of Jesus Christ for a twisted message of fierce, ungodly hatred.

The true gospel is good news about forgiveness and cleansing from every kind of sin—from homosexuality and heterosexual fornication to white-collar sins such as greed and fraud (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). But the Westboro Baptist heretics have exchanged the gospel for a graceless, hopeless harangue that is an embarrassment and an affront to true Christians—and a gross insult to both the Person and the work of Christ.

Such gospel-twisting is expressly condemned in Scripture as the profoundest kind of blasphemy, a desecration of the Name of Christ, and a more horrific crime against God than any sexual perversion. See Galatians 1:7-8; 2 John 7-11.

Christmas Charity

Tis the season to give. I often remark about the incredible lengths our culture has gone to commercialize Christmas. That topic is kind of like the proverbial “beating a dead horse”. But, what about charitable giving? Have you noticed how ubiquitous ads for giving to charities have become near Christmas? I have. It’s everywhere.

Of course, the Salvation Army has been doing this for a long time. Frankly, I find the bell ringing workers really annoying. Lose the bell, please. I also feel sorry for these people. They have to stand outside, no matter what the weather, and ring that bell for hours. I am sure that aren’t getting paid much, not enough to endure that agony. But, a job is a job.

I guess other charities have caught on, because it is no longer just the Salvation Army. Every good charity is asking for your donations. I have heard ads for the following: homeless shelters, food banks, cancer support/research, military personnel, military families, toys for tots, educational programs, chemical dependency groups, oversea orphanages, Angel Tree, and much more. Our church participates in the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for International Missions, and in collecting canned goods for our local food banks.

And the great thing is, people give. I don’t know if it has always been this way, but it seems like these charities are asking and more and more people are giving. It seems to have become part of our culture for families to put charitable giving as a part of their Christmas budget.

This is a good thing, right? I definitely think that generosity is a good thing. It is even a biblical thing. It is a requirement for Christ followers to be generous and seek ways to assist those in need. Yes, I know that some people give just to receive the tax break on their IRS returns. But, I am glad that we live in a generous culture.

But, a couple of things trouble me. I don’t want to discourage people from giving to these worthy causes, but I do want to point out a couple of issues for consideration.
The Bible is pretty clear that giving is not enough. The motivation behind the giving is what counts. God looks at your heart first, and then what is in your hand. Well, don’t people who give demonstrate a good heart? Yes, but the biblical motivation is not just goodness or even concern for our fellow man – it is a recognition of the Lordship of God in our lives. It is also a recognition that all that I have comes from the grace of God. I am afraid that many give to charity, but not from a heart that is honoring God as Lord.

This brings me to another issue. I think that people like to give to charities at this time of year because they think that it is adding to their own intrinsic goodness, or mitigating their own intrinsic badness. I encounter this all the time – people think that they are or have to be good in order to have some type of standing with God.

No one gets into heaven because they gave to charity! God doesn’t analyze the financial books of your life to determine if you can enter His presence. Giving money to charity makes you a good person on a human level, but it does nothing for you on a spiritual level. For all our righteous deeds amount to a pile of filthy, disgusting rags in God’s eyes. We are spiritual wretches, sinners in the hands of an angry God, deserving His condemnation for violating His holy character. Giving to the Salvation Army or collecting canned food cannot erase our spiritual condition. The grace of God through Jesus Christ appropriated by repentance in faith is the requirement for right standing with God.

So, as you consider charitable giving this Christmas , take a moment and check your heart. That’s what God is looking at.

Praise Him For The Incarnation

Praise Him for the incarnation,
for the word made flesh.
I will not sing of shepherds
watching flocks on frosty nights,
or angel choristers.
I will not sing of a stable bare in Bethlehem,
or lowing oxen,
wise men trailing star with gold,
frankincense, and myrrh.
Tonight I will sing praise to the Father
who stood on heaven's threshold
and said farewell to his Son
as he stepped across the stars
to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
And I will sing praise to the infinite, eternal Son,
who became most finite, a baby
who would one day be executed for my crime.
Praise him in the heavens,
Praise him in the stable,
Praise him in my heart.

writen by Joseph Bayly.

It's God's Fault

I am an avid football watcher and fan, but I do recognize the sports shortcomings.

One thing that drives me crazy is when I see some athletes attempt to show some signal of their faith into the game. Let me clarify. I want genuine Christ followers to play their sports in a way that honors the Lord and shines the light of their faith. What I don't approve of is being fake about this, or trying to shoehorn some demonstration into a situation where it doesn't fit.(See Deon Sanders).
Let me give you an example. As I was watching my beloved Aggies play the evil longhorns on Thanksgiving, I noticed something. Every time that the longhorn punter was about to kick, he made the sign of the cross over himself. Is kicking a punt so dangerous that you have to prepare your soul for eternity? (MLB batters do this a lot, too)

Yesterday, an athlete won the all time knucklehead award for faith and sports. His name is Steve Johnson and he is a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. On one play he was wide open in the end zone. The pass sails right to him and hits him in the hands. He dropped it! It happens, even to the best.

But, it's not his fault! It was God's fault. This is what he tweeted after the game:

"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!" "YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..."

Wow! This is no joke. He really tweeted this, which means he really thought this. Nice of him to mention his praise and thanks to God while he is blaming God for dropping the pass.

My pastor in college always said, "You can't fix stupid".


"By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back." Proverbs 14:3

Sharing Christ Around The Globe - OCC

Imagine a child who has nothing. Christmas comes-- no presents at all. Imagine something worse - a person never knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there a way to address both of those problems? Yes.

It is called Operation Christmas Child. This fall our church has participated with this incredible outreach opportunity with hundreds of other churches. The process is simple. Pack a shoe box with toys and items for a kid in an underprivileged part of the world. That shoe box will be loaded with gospel story in their own language and then the child will get the gift.

It is about more than making a kid smile with a simple gift. It is about giving them the greatest gift of all time - Jesus Christ. Countless souls have been changed by this outreach.

I am thankful that we had the opportunity to be a part of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. I pray that the boxes that go out will be used by God to bring scores of people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Needing a Savior

All human beings enter the world as sinners and condemned because they are sons and daughters of Adam (Rom. 5:12-19). Sin blinds human beings to their own wickedness and tricks people into thinking that they are righteous. Sin is not merely a matter of peccadilloes or mistakes. Human beings are fiercely rebellious and stubborn, which is captured in the metaphor of being stiff-necked. The sin of human beings is manifested supremely in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. All enter into the world spiritually dead toward God and heading toward physical death and judgment. By nature, humans are children of wrath and rotten trees. From birth, they are under the dominion of the old age of the flesh instead of the new age of the Spirit. They are a brood of vipers instead of children of God.

The power and depth of sin function as the backdrop to God's saving promises, for such promises represent astonishing good news, given the devastation that sin inflicts on human beings. With the coming of Jesus Christ, the era of salvation and deliverance has dawned; with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the tyranny of sin and death has ended."

A quote from Magnifying God in Christ by Dr. Thomas Schreiner, page 172.

Vote

I voted! It is my privilege as an American and my responsibility as a Christ follower. My guiding principals in voting are determined by my first allegiance - to God and His Word. Not my pocket book, not my comfort, not my preferences.

We also have a biblical mandate to love and pray for all of our leaders, even if we didn't vote for them.

Massive Story - The Gospel

An exerpt from Al Mohler's book, He Is Not Silent
When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:21 that "for our sake Hee made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God", he is talking about a cosmological reversal that is beyond anything we can understand. If our people think of the gospel as a small story in which they get to befriend Jesus and walk alone with Him in a garden, if they don't understand what a massive thing their salvation from sin really is, theen we are robbing them of the gospel.

Every time we preach, we need to create dissonance in the minds of our hearers. We need to declare their own wretchedness, our sin, and our powerlessness, and we need to admit frankly that we can't solve this problem. And then we proclaim the gospel. We show our people how God himself did what they were wholly unable to do. We tell them that the problem of sin was only solved when the sinless Son of God died on the cross as a substitute for His people. (page 101)

Massacre at Church

Headlines in many newspapers are recounting the story of a ruthless massacre of a specific group of people in Iraq. Did these people deserve it? Had they broken some laws? What were they doing to provoke such an attack? Nothing but worshiping God. Muslim extremists, terrorist, walked into this church and murdered 58 people simply for being Christian.
Terrible story! What these attackers don't realize is that the "blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith"(Tertullian said that). It just seems to be the way it works. They more they try and stop the spread of the gospel, the more it spreads.

Spend a moment, read this article, and pray for believers in Christ that are being persecuted all over the world.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/01/2593238/iraqi-christians-mourn-after-church.html