Website Of The Week I

May 22, 2005 @ 5:08 pm by Pressed

Taking on an old tradition of Michael Morgan who used to have a website of the week on his blog timetobelieve.net, I am going to start listing some websites each week in relation to Christianty and Theology. I want to help you find more websites that can be helpful to Christians and at the very least informative.

This weeks website is http://www.fivesolas.com
Many people are familiar with Sola Scriptura in relation to reformed theolgoy, but did you know that there were actually five latin phrases that developed in the Protestant Reformation.

Sola Scriptura
- Scriptures alone are our rule of life and faith.
Soli Deo Gloria
- Everything is to be done only for the glory of God.
Solo Christo
- Salvation is by Christ alone.
Sola Gratia
- Salvation is by grace of God alone.
Sola Fide
- Salvation is by faith alone.

On this website you will find a reading room that has various articles related to reformed theology, eschatology, Baptism, Creeds, Prayer and more. You will also find writings by Thomas Watson. I printed out his work on the Ten Commandments (hope you have lots of paper… If you interested in the Ten Commandments and their application I would suggest reading that particular writing. There are also a few fun things you can do on the site as well. This website has some great resources that could be useful to you in a variety of different ways, and if you are like me you could probably spend hours upon hours reading it. Have fun! Let me know what you think.

Pressed

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Position On Missions

May 21, 2005 @ 2:21 am by Pressed

I believe that the mission of God is to reach His chosen lost children among all nations and thereby glorifying Himself in His saving grace and mercy. As it is the case that humans who were created by God, molded and shaped by his hand, and known personally by God even before they were born are now corrupt and fallen from God by the sin that separates us. In God’s perfect compassion and grace he chose to make a way for those who are corrupt and condemned already to be born again, made anew in Christ and to no longer be condemned but instead given the gift of eternal life. God has been working after the fall to bring mankind back to himself. While this is something only God can do, the way He has chosen to carry out his mission and purpose is unique. God chooses to use his people, the people who were once lost but are now new in Christ, to reach the lost in all nations and among all tribes. It is through these human instruments that people can be reached within their own culture and language. This mission of God becomes also the mission or assignment of the church as found in the great commission, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” - Matthew 28:19-20. As children of God we are the salt and light, sent into the world to be a witness for Christ and representatives of the very name of God and to proclaim the Kingdom of God, which was the most prominent teaching of Jesus in the New Testament.

God uses His people to reveal Himself to those who are lost by the preaching and hearing of His Word. The Word of God is an important element in the mission of the church in that it reveals sin, reveals the fallen state of man, and reveals the way God has chosen to save mankind. It is through the hearing of the Word of God that people come to an understanding of their sin and it is through the Word that they are led to salvation. I do not believe, however, that man can understand the Word and come to a saving faith in Christ by simple human reason. There has to be a revelation given in the Word of God and activated and understood through the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual. The people who are lost but hear the Word of God through the preaching and teaching of God’s people and through the power of the Holy Spirit come to an understanding of their own sin and suffering and need for a savior and in that understanding they reach out to Christ in faith that he is the Son of God sent to save them from their sins. Without the Word of God and the revealing nature and work of the Holy Spirit I believe the mission of the church is impossible.

I believe the work of the church, God’s chosen agency, is to not only reach all nations, including our own backyard, with the gospel of Christ, but it is also the churches purpose to disciple and teach these individuals in order to bring them up as Christians who have the same mission minded purpose. The church has been given all authority to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching all nations with the promise that God is with us. It’s purpose is to glorify God by evangelizing the world, discipling its people, and by being a light and example of things holy and good in the world. The church should be inwardly focused in discipleship and outwardly focused in missions and evangelism with the primary goal of bringing glory to God.

While I believe that it is the churches purpose to be the agency for missions and discipleship, I believe within that agency God calls specific people to be missionaries. While every person in the church has some mission, and each person is called to evangelize and spread the Word of Christ, I think some are chosen to be full-time missionaries. I believe the missionary is sent forth to do missions in certain areas and that the church is the responsible sending agency. The mission field is a focused mission area that people, chosen by God, are sent to work as missionaries in a more intense and active way. The local church should be the sending agency that endorses, authorizes and prays over those it sends to do missions. The church can use agencies such as the IMB or NAMB to send its missionaries, but I think ultimately the sending authority should be in the hands of the local church alone. If it is God’s call and the church sends a missionary into the mission field, I also feel it is necessary that the people being sent understand mission theology and the truth of God’s word, in order that the truth would be proclaimed and lived in the mission fields where a local church may or may not be. It is important to train missionaries to train the people of different cultures and nations to reach their people with a good theological background.

Whether it be a specific calling or the general calling of the church, those who have come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ are called to be messengers with a message from God sent forth by divine authority for the purpose of bringing the lost to Christ through evangelism, church starts, edification, and education.

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The Role Of Christians In Society

May 16, 2005 @ 10:59 am by Pressed

I’ve been having an interesting discussion on an old entry entitled “The Controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention: PART I” I am moving the discussion to a new post because I think it has potential to be a good discourse and because I would like to see what others, who visit my blog, think about it. The discussion began with this comment:

The main problem I have with the SBC and particularly fundamentalist Christians is their selective reading of the Bible especially regarding Jesus’ teachings about social justice and nercy. They have become so politically motivated (and power-starved)that their ideology has aligned completely with the Republican National Committee. I wish someone would explain to me how you can be pro-war and pro-life or against right-to-die and pro death penalty. It doesn’t make any sense and it’s not supported by the Bible. Please be consistent. If you are a Christian you are against killing. Correct? Even more confusing is how strongly you promote the 10 Commandments and then conveniently ignore “Thou shalt not kill.” Why have you not fought against poor environmental policies? Are we not called to be stewards of the world? I could go on but this is tiresome and it hurts my spirituality. I know you are cursing me as a liberal or evildoer but Jesus was about reconciliation above all and it would do some good if you could open your mind just large enough to have a discussion and concede that you don’t have all the answers. - Al

Honestly, no one that I know of in the SBC and myself included has ever said that we have all the answers. I for one have never claimed to know all things. It is not that we have some problem with selective reading of the Bible that is the problem for most people, it is more our determination to be solid and unwaivering on Biblical doctrines that make poeple think that the SBC is a closed minded, bigoted agency. Unfortunatly I believe that is so far from the truth.

If you want to talk politics in relation to the church and the SBC then you have to recognize that for a Southern Baptists Christian, such as myself, the issues is not about one political party being right and one political party being wrong, it isn’t about Democrat or Republican, because both have their downfalls and their issues that completely clash with what we stand for. When it comes to voting Democrat or Republican it is about voting for the lesser of two evils, not one being “right” and one being wrong.

While I do not believe the SBC or any churches in the SBC have aligned themselves with any party; think about this for a moment: If the agency aligned itself with the Democratic party then people would say, “why would you vote for a party that supports the killing of babies and homosexual marriage.” If the agency aligned itself with the Republican party people say, “how can you vote for war loving, poor environmentalists.” Either way it is the same thing and no matter what political party was in the White House it would be the same thing, both have bad qualities and do things that as a Christian I would not support. Does that mean Christians should not vote. Should Christians just shut up and take a back seat when it comes to politics because our religious moral convictions have us too blinded to play a role in the political process?

I don’t think that is the answer either. I think Christians, especailly Southern Baptists should play a role in the political process. When it comes to that arena then you have to know that both parties have evil’s (Noone is perfect. No politician or party will ever be perfect) and its a matter of picking the lesser one and then fighting its potential drawbacks.

As far as “Thou shalt not kill” goes I would have to ask you a question. Do you think war is always wrong? Is killing always wrong? If so, then why is it that the same God who said “do not kill” leads Isreal to take over lands and nations by force and instead of taking them captive or exiling those poeple he has them slaughter kill everyone including the women, children, men, animals, and then burn everything. There is a difference between violent, intentional murder and war, although I believe it is a very, very fine line. but to say that all war is wrong because of the Ten Commandments, I do not agree.

Thank you for your response and the fact that you are engaging in this discussion gives me hope that there is a chance for greater unity in the Christian community. We do agree that Christians should be active in politics or at least on the issues they feel called to speak up for. And, yes, I agree that we need to vote and possibly even chose a party affilitation, however, we differ in that I am drawn to certain moral issues that you may not be drawn to as much. Does that make me less Christian or just different? I am certainly not for abortion or promoting promiscuous lifestyles, but my Christian beliefs have to be measured against the whole spectrum of issues when I pull that voting lever. I would like to see conservative Christian and progressive Christian leaders stand up for the issues that are right even when it goes against party lines. That is very uncommon. Let’s have conservative pastors speak out against the death penalty or poverty issues (or at least the fact that our government is not developing policy to address those most in need) or to be fair let’s have progressive ministers say more about our overindulgence in sexually explicit media or abortion. This is what I mean about consistency. To be a true Christian to me is to be a rebel, to speak up for what is right and call out those that are off track, like Jesus did. To do this you have to slap the hands of those in your own political party as well. I believe most Americans are moderate. They don’t like the unbiblical partisan behavior. They don’t like that the radical right has stolen the Republican party or that hard-core secularists want control of the Democatic party.
Lastly, I don’t think that self-defense is unjustified (if you are attacked, you must fight back just as we did when Pearl Harbor was attacked). You have to protect your home and family. But war should never be chosen until all peaceful solutions are tried. And it should especially not be used pre-emptively! In Iraq, we now know that there was no connection between the attackers of the WTCs and Iraq. Finally, yes, war is always bad in that human life is taken. We should pray for forgiveness whether we feel justified or not. - Al

I would like to hear your Biblical perspective of war, I’m not sure that you fully answered my question. However, I have to agree with you that Christian leaders should very well stand up for the issues that are right even when it goes against party lines. I believe that, as pastors, we should stand up for these issues including the environment, sexual indulgence, and poverty, which is what I meant when I said we had to vote for the lesser evil and then fight the drawbacks, meaning the things that we don’t agree with.

Being one of the pastors of a Southern Baptist Church and being a part of the Southern Baptist Convention I am only familiar with what we do and with what many of our pastors and people are involved in. I see pastors and the convention standing firm in many of these areas, fighting and speaking out against many issues. Even as a church we fight world hunger and understand the value of human life as we speak out against abortion, fight the gambling boats close to our area, and help others in our area with poverty and hunger. I don’t see the church as being silent, however I think there is always room for us to do more, speak out more, and fight more for what we believe regardless of who is in office.

Now, regarding the death penalty, I think maybe the reason many conservative pastors and laypeople don’t take up the fight against it is because they don’t see it as wrong. I understand that this immediatly goes back to your first question of inconsistency, but again I think there is some Biblical support for the death penalty. The problem with the death penalty and with our legal system as a whole is that it can be corrupted by fallible humans who pretty much corrupt everything we touch. I think for those who are not against the death penalty as a whole they should still be against the corruption in our legal systems.

All these things do bring up some interesting questions. What should be the role of Christians in our secular society?

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7 Steps in reading the Bible

May 10, 2005 @ 5:11 pm by Pressed

Seven steps in reading the Bible
Quotes from C.H. Spurgeon

1. Do not just read the words, intentionally read the Bible to understand it.

“Do not be content to just read the words of Scripture. Seek to grasp the message they contain.”

2. Read the Scriptures in faith without critical human rationale.

“Believe what God reveals. Reason must bow to God’s revelation.”

3. Apply what you read to your life and live in obedience to the Lord.

“Apply what God says to yourself and obey His will in all things.”

4. Consistantly read the holy Scriptures every day.

“We quickly lose the nourishment and strength of yesterday’s bread. We must feed our souls daily upon the manna God has given us.”

5. Read the entire Bible in a systematic fashion more than once.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.’ I know of no better way to read the Bible than to start at the beginning and read straight through to the end, a portion every day , comparing Scripture with Scripture.”

6. Read Scripture and seek to understand it in its own context.

“As a general rule, any passage of Scripture means what it appears to mean. Interpret every passage in the simple manner, in its context.”

7. Always seek out what God is doing in every passage of Scripture.

“The whole book is about Him. Look for him on every page. He is there. If you fail to see Him there, you need to read that page again. ‘Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15 kjv).”

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House Sitting Adventures

@ 10:16 am by Pressed

I recieved an e-mail from mindmyhouse.com which is a new service that is meant to help homeowners find house sitters. The editor of the website had e-mailed me to ask permission to reproduce a blog entry I wrote on house sitting last summer. As I went back to look at this entry I had a good laugh when I remembered all the things that happened with the dog I was watching.

Originally posted on July 29, 2004

I have been house/dog sitting for my pastor all this week while he is on vacation. The real reason that I am staying at his house is because of their dog, Beamer. The Perry’s didn’t really want to leave him in a kennel and thought it would be better if someone would stay with him, so I agreed to stay and watch the dog. It’s pretty easy stuff. Feed him twice a day, take him out to go potty in the morning, afternoon, and evening times, and that’s about it. He has several toys that he likes you to throw so that he can chase them down all throughout the house, which can be quite amusing. During this little chapter in my life I have learned several things about this dog:

1. He likes to run around in hyperactivity mode, come at you with full speed and force and then jump with both legs extended directly into your groin area. This may not be as painful for the females as it is for the males, but let me just say that I have been taken out a couple times this week already.

2. He likes to roll around in the nastiest, stinky smelling stuff he can find and then sit under you during dinner so that you can hardly eat because of the wretched smell of death emitting from him. I took care of this problem by filling up the bathtub and dumping him in. I found the doggy soap and me and Beamer had a little bathing party. Unfortunately Beamer was not the only one to get completely soaked during this little adventure. The floors, walls, my clothes, and everything else was covered in water and doggy suds.

3. The only way to get this dog to go poop is to say the special code word. All week I have been trying to get him to go potty outside and he never would. He would hold it in and go in the house. I couldn’t figure it out, because I took him outside often and for long periods of time. I called the pastor and told him of the problem and here is what he said to do, “Well you have to take Beamer out to the tall grass and then say to him, ‘Beamer go poo-poo.’” To this I was skeptical and thought it was a joke. So I went back to the house, took him out to the tall grass, and I said, “Beamer, go poo-poo.” And he did! I couldn’t believe it, the dog needs a code word to go to the bathroom outside. Sheesh.

4. He has big claws. I was getting him all worked up, playing around with him and he was jumping around when suddenly he landed on my face. Unfortunately for me his big ole claws sunk into my face and scratched my nose half off. It was a painful experience. After a few minutes of screaming and holding my face he decided to just lick me instead. *sigh*

5. He likes to terrorize the poor neighborhood dog that is stuck in a fenced yard. Beamer hears him barking and then goes strutting over there as if to say, “look at me, I am not stuck in a cage like you!”

I will be house sitting again come Thursday for a two week period. This is a big house with lots of plants to water and a crazy cat… should be fun.

Pressed

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