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Table of Contents:
Legalism vs. Authentic Faith: A Contrast
Enjoying Life Is Not a Sin
How to Love Your Mother
Exegetically Speaking
Words to Stand You on Your Feet
Living out the Living Word
Following God
Points to Ponder
Jewels from Past Giants
Counselor’s Corner
The Story behind the Song
Church Builders
Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel
Marks of the Master
Book Reviews
News Update
Sermon Helps
Puzzles and ‘Toons
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Legalism vs. Authentic Faith:
A Contrast
By John Meador
Originally published in Pulpit Helps in
two parts, May and June 2002.
The Gospels record a number of
confrontations between Jesus and the
Pharisees. These altercations were rooted in
the conflict between their “kingdom of
legalism” and the true Kingdom of God. As
self-proclaimed guardians and keepers of
the Law, the Pharisees wrongly believed
they had a corner on the Kingdom of God.
They were so presumptuous that they added
619 different commandments to the Ten
Commandments. In addition, they added
358 prohibitions regarding the Law,
including 39 different additions to just the
Sabbath law.
From the time Jesus began His
earthly ministry, the Pharisees were
opposed to Him. In Mark 2:7, they ask, “Who
can forgive sins but God alone?” In Mark
2:16 you find them criticizing Jesus for
eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners. In
verse 18 they ask. “Why do John’s disciples
and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but
Your disciples do not fast?” In verse 24 the
Pharisees say, “See here! Why are they
doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” In
Mark 3 we find the worst of the
confrontations, when Jesus comes into the
synagogue again. In these verses we will
discover the distinctions between the
counterfeit and the genuine Kingdom of
God.
The story of the man with the
withered hand in Mark 3:1-6 is, in reality,
about legalism. The real story is the conflict
between the Pharisees with their legalism
and Jesus Christ with the new kingdom
principles. Legalism is all about what is on
the outside, while Jesus was concerned
about what was on the inside. The
Pharisees were about ritual; Jesus cared
about relationships. You find those opposite
extremes whenever you see conversations
between the Pharisees and Jesus, but this is
the clearest scriptural example I have found
which explains what authentic Christian
living is—what we are to be about.
Let’s make the contrast clear. First,
legalism is unmoved by Scripture and
moral reasoning. At the end of chapter 2,
Jesus begins to reason with the Pharisees
about the Sabbath. Notice, in verse 25, He
appeals to them on the basis of Scripture:
“Have you never read what David did…?”
Then in verse 27, He appeals to them on the
basis of moral reasoning: “The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord even
of the Sabbath.”
Incredibly, they were unmoved by
either appeal. Legalism is always like that.
These Pharisees exemplified the mindset
that says, “When I get my rules all in an
order, when I get my thinking all figured out,
I’m not going to be moved by anything else,
whether it’s Scripture or moral reasoning.” In
the case of the man with the withered hand,
Jesus found that they have not changed one
bit as a result of His words.
There’s something symptomatic of
spiritual death when we are unmoved by
Scripture. I’ve heard people say, “Well, I
know that’s what it says, but this is what I
really believe.” That’s a dangerous place to
be, where you’re not even moved by the
Word of God or the moral reasoning of
Jesus Christ. Yet that’s where these men
were. They were so set in their ways that
even the Son of God could not gain a
hearing. They were determined, resolute,
and confident that they had all the answers.
Legalism is unmoved by Scripture.
Second, legalism has its eyes on
man and has forgotten about God. Mark
3:2 says, “And they were watching Him to
see if He would heal him on the Sabbath….”
I’ve always thought that when you come into
a house of worship, you come to look for
God. We come to praise the Lord, to lift His
name up, to worship Him, and to engage in
a relationship with Him. The Pharisees, who
were the experts of religion in their day,
came not to look at God but man. In their
eyes, Jesus was a mere man and they came
to watch what He would do. Their purpose in
the house of worship had nothing to do with
God, but to condemn the One that wasn’t
like them. That is what legalism does.
Legalism sets up a complex, outward
system of laws that is used to judge others.
You end up evaluating all others around you
instead of looking to God.
There’s a third principle here:
legalism is eager to calculate and
condemn. Mark 3:2b says, “…in order that
they might accuse Him.” The Greek word
“accuse” is where we get our English word
“categorize.” They were categorizing Jesus,
stereotyping Him in a negative way. They
were saying, “We have our set of rules
about religion, and Jesus doesn’t fit the
mold. He’s not keeping the Law in the way
we want Him to.” We often do that kind of
thing with people, even when we don’t mean
to. We categorize them because they don’t
look like us, or because they don’t do
everything exactly like us. There’s no
freedom in legalism. Legalism is calculating
and condemning, putting down even God’s
Son!
Notice another glaring problem:
legalism has no answers for serious
questions. In verse 4, Jesus reasons with
them: “‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good
or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?’ But
they kept silent.” Make note of this! It’s the
first time on record that the Pharisees kept
silent. The verb here expresses the thought
that they “kept on being silent.” They
couldn’t come up with an answer. These
men, who added 39 laws to the keeping of
the Sabbath and considered themselves the
keepers of the Sabbath, couldn’t even
answer a question about whether to do
good, or to do evil, on the Sabbath! That’s a
picture of legalism. Legalism doesn’t think
through what’s behind the law, but simply
takes the letter of the law and does not
discern the spirit of the law! The Pharisees
were so busy defending their system that
they would not even reason with someone
concerning the purpose behind that very
law.
One final thought on legalism.
Legalism condemns its own deceived
followers. Verse 6 says, “And the Pharisees
went out and immediately began taking
counsel with the Herodians against Him, as
to how they might destroy Him.” The very
guardians of the Sabbath law were breaking
the Sabbath worse than anyone else could
possibly have done! They were so worried
about all their precious interpretations of
Sabbath laws—yet, on the Sabbath, they
were plotting to murder the Son of God.
That’s how deceptive legalism is.
It’s a great paradox, but it’s easier to
keep law than it is to maintain a relationship.
It is into that legalistic environment that
Jesus came. And here, perhaps more than
in any other passage of Scripture, we find
Jesus demonstrating the principles of
authentic Christian living—what believers
are to be about. The Pharisees were
focused on ritual, while Jesus came talking
about relationships.
First of all, He shows that we are to
love our enemies. Mark 3 says, “…He
entered again into the synagogue….” Jesus
knew the Pharisees were waiting on Him
everywhere He went, and every time He had
something to say. Yet Jesus persevered,
even going to the people who hated Him the
most. Matthew 5:44 tells us what to do about
our enemies: “But I say to you, love your
enemies...and pray for those who persecute
you.”
Do you have any enemies like Jesus
did? Jesus didn’t call them His enemies, but
they certainly considered Him their enemy.
Do you know anybody that constantly
criticizes you, condemns you, and accuses
you? You can never seem to live up to his or
her standards. Is there anybody in your life
who hates you with a passion and desires to
see you hurt? What do you do with people
like that? If you’re letting Christ live through
your life, you love them! Why? So Matthew
5:45 can be fulfilled: “...in order that you may
be sons of your Father who is in heaven....”
The second principle is in Mark 3:4.
Jesus calls the man with the withered hand
up in front of them all. “And He said to them,
‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to
do harm, to save a life or to kill?’ But they
kept silent.” Put that in principle form and
here’s what you’ll find: Kingdom living
involves finding and doing what is right.
God has given us so many different avenues
by which to find right. For instance, the
Christian has a moral map called Scripture.
The Christian has a moral compass called
the conscience, which enables us to know
what is right or wrong. Finally, the Christian
has a moral guide, called the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes into our lives and He
leads us. He shows us what is right and
what is wrong. We can know the right thing
to do and we can do it.
Verse 5 contains an example that
illustrates a principle: “And after looking
around at them with anger, grieved at their
hardness of heart, He said to the man,
‘Stretch out your hand.’” Here we see a
picture of Jesus’ anger, and in that that
picture we understand that we must be
angry over wrong. Some would say you’re
not supposed to be angry about anything,
but there are many different kinds of anger.
When you look at the anger of Jesus Christ,
you notice it was never anger in retaliation.
Jesus’ anger was always directed toward
moral wrong. He exhibited anger when
others were hurt as a result of some action.
The Pharisees were a classic example of
those hurting people by their rigid legalism,
and the Bible says that Jesus was angry
with them: “…After looking around at them
with anger, He was grieved at their hardness
of heart.” Anger is what a good man feels in
the presence of stark evil.
There’s something wrong if stark evil
is in our presence and we’re not angry.
Ephesians 4 is Paul’s account of what we
are to do with anger. In verse 26 he says:
“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the
sun go down on your anger, and do not give
the devil an opportunity.” There’s a
difference between being angry and acting
angry. Someone said, “Anger against wrong
is a sign of moral health.” If we are able to
see a horrible crime against another and not
be moved, there’s something spiritually
unhealthy about our lives. Jesus’ anger
burned for the moment, but grief over their
hearts was what He carried away.
Also, we should show mercy in the
face of hostility. Mark 3:5b says: “…He
said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And
he stretched it out, and his hand was
restored.” Ministry costs something. It cost
Jesus. Verse 6 says that as a direct
consequence of what Jesus did in verse 5,
the Pharisees began to conspire to put Him
to death. Ministry cost Him His life. It will
cost us. It may cost us popularity, or how
people receive us at our workplace, or in our
family. It’s always right to minister, no matter
what it might cost us. There are those in
other parts of the world who will tell you that
to open their mouths with the name of Jesus
Christ is to put a death sentence over their
heads. But they do it anyway. Why?
Because it is what God wants them to do.
They recognize that ministry costs and yet
it’s worth it.
Finally, authentic kingdom living
attracts people in need. Mark 3:7 says,
“And Jesus withdrew to the sea with His
disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee
followed; and also from Judea, and from
Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond
the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and
Sidon, a great multitude heard of all that He
was doing and came to Him.” People walked
more than 100 miles just to be in the
presence of Jesus.
I look at that and think, “Where has
the church erred?” Why neglect the powerful
ministry principle here? The power of
Christ’s ministry is a pattern for the body of
Christ. Today there are churches taking their
ministry pattern from everywhere except
Jesus Christ. They’re taking it from modernday business practices or from churches
that seem successful. Yet here we have a
tremendous example showing that when we
minister in authentic Christian living, God
draws people from all around.
How must we live in order to
captivate the hearts of people so that they
would go any distance to be near? We must
live and teach as Christ did!
John Meador is senior pastor of First Baptist
Church of Euless, Texas.
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Enjoying Life Is Not a Sin
By Shea Oakley
Intensely enjoying something does
not necessarily make it into an idol.
If the ability to experience a particular
pleasure is God-given, and the way and time
it is enjoyed is God-approved, then it is safe
to say that a Christian’s enjoyment of it is
God-ordained. Unfortunately, throughout
2,000 years of Church history, there have
always been a number of baleful voices
calling for the demonization of any delight
but that which comes from the direct worship
of God. In fact, today, some would attack
even that most supreme of pleasures,
labeling it all “emotionalism.” Is it
overstepping to suggest that many of these
voices come from people who cannot or will
not allow themselves to enjoy the good gifts
God gives us in this life and who envy
other’s ability to enjoy them?
We are often told by such individuals
that Christianity is a religion of self-denial.
This is certainly true in the sense that we are
called to die to the selfish aspects of our old
nature. It is also true that we are called to be
self-controlled, not chasing very opportunity
for gratification that the world we now live in
offers us.
What this does not mean is that we
are to deny ourselves pleasurable
experiences for the mere reason that they
are pleasurable. Such an extreme rejection
of all such experiences has a name,
extreme asceticism, and as the apostle Paul
tells us, its practice does nothing to restrain
sinful sensuality. In fact such asceticism can
easily lead to that particularly satanic sin,
spiritual pride. Many ascetics find it quite
enjoyable to declare their superiority over
anyone who is not an ascetic!
In 1 Timothy 6:17 Paul tells us that it
is God “…who richly provides us with
everything for our enjoyment.” The people in
our churches who attack “enjoyment” as
some kind of synonym for sin would do well
to meditate on this verse before they declare
the simple experience of innocent pleasures
in life to be tantamount to hedonism. God
made His finest creation with the ability to
feel delight. This should be no surprise as
we are made in the image of a God who
Himself takes pleasure in all the good things
He has created.
There is clearly such a thing as an
inordinate love for pleasure, even pleasure
that God does not call inherently sinful. This
is where the specter of idolatry does rear its
head. Some years ago I heard a radio
pastor give a sermon on what he called “the
lust for bliss.” What he referred to is the
fallen human desire to avoid pain and
maximize good feelings at any cost. When
we make the enjoyment of anything more
important in our lives than loving and
obeying our Lord, we make for ourselves an
idol. It is no doubt wise to examine our
hearts on a regular basis to make sure we
have not let some pleasure crowd out and
replace our devotion to Jesus Christ. It
should also go without saying that any
activity that is specifically condemned in the
Scripture is never right to enjoy.
Even with these caveats, many of us
still need to allow ourselves to experience
more of what God has made for us to enjoy
on this side of Heaven. Whether it is riding a
beautiful horse or listening to a good piece
of music, a swim in the ocean or reading
exquisitely written literature, we (as children
of the Creator of all good things) have the
privilege to intensely enjoy, these things in
the right way. Once God Himself is first in
our hearts He bids us to live an abundant life
that embraces the legitimate pleasures He
has made for us to enjoy.
© Shea Oakley. All Rights Reserved.
Converted from atheism in 1990, Shea
Oakley has written over 350 articles for
electronic and print publications since 2002,
including Disciple Magazine (and Pulpit
Helps Magazine), The Christian Herald, The
Christian Post, Christian Network and
Crosshome.com. In 2003 he graduated from
Alliance Theological Seminary with a
Certificate of Theological Studies. Shea and
his wife Kathleen make their home in West
Milford, New Jersey.
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How to Love Your Mother
By Tonya Stoneman
Published in Pulpit Helps, May 2003.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, stood by
the cross at Calvary and witnessed as
history’s greatest tragedy was inflicted upon
her Son. “When Jesus then saw His mother,
and the disciple whom He loved standing
nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman,
behold, your son!’ Then He said to the
disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that
hour the disciple took her into his own
household” (John 19:26-27).
John the Beloved lived to be an old
man—long enough to take good care of
Mary all the days of her life. Even as He
hung dying on the cross, Jesus
demonstrated His love toward His mother,
making provision for her care in His
absence. The older a mother gets, the more
she needs to know that her children still love
her. How can you show love to your
mother?
1) Love her verbally. When you tell
your mother that you love her, it is important
to be specific. Tell her why and how you
love her. Express some of the qualities for
which you love her, like the fact that you
enjoy the meals she prepares or you
appreciate how dependable she is. When
you stop and think about all the things your
mother does to serve her household, you
will find plenty of examples.
2) Love her physically. Your mother
was the first person to touch you. Before you
were born, she wrapped you in her womb.
After you came into the world, she tickled
the bottoms of your feet and made you
laugh. She kissed your cheeks in the middle
of the night and held your little hands when
they were soft and tender. She also
changed your diapers, tied your shoelaces,
combed your hair, and buttoned your shirts.
She touched you constantly during all those
years when you needed the security of her
touch. When her primary duties as a mother
have expired, she will need to know that she
is still needed. She will need your touch.
3) Love her patiently. Moms have
big jobs. There likely is no corporate
responsibility that rivals motherhood when it
comes to physical, emotional, and spiritual
commitment. It is easy to become impatient
with our mothers when they don’t do things
the way we want them to. Sometimes they
are late to appointments, prepare meals we
don’t like, or don’t follow through in the way
we expect them to. In these times we must
exercise patience. It is important to
remember that our mothers aren’t
bottomless wells from which we draw each
time we have a need. Our mothers have
their own schedules and needs. It is unfair to
expect them to always align their lives to
accommodate ours.
4) Listen to her. Can you remember
a time when your mother stopped what she
was doing to listen to you pour out your
burdens? Maybe somebody you were dating
stood you up, a friend didn’t invite you to a
party, or you didn’t make the basketball
team. What did your mother do? She put her
arm around you and encouraged you. She
listened. Sometimes our mothers long for
someone to talk to. One of the sweetest
ways you can express love toward your
mother is to listen to her. A lot of mothers
suppress fears, anxieties, frustrations, and
inner torments because they don’t want to
worry their children. In fact, there are no
parents who never have fears, heartaches,
or burdens. In her later years, she may face
troubles more intense than anything she has
helped you overcome in your own life. It is
important to keep the door of communication
open so that our mothers can express their
fears when necessary.
5) Love her gratefully. Think for a
moment about all the things that your
mother has done for you over the years.
How many meals did she prepare for you
while you lived at home? How many boxes
of cereal did she buy? You wanted Corn
Flakes, so she bought that. You switched to
Lucky Charms, so she bought that. She
asked you how you liked your eggs—fried,
scrambled, or poached. Mothers never bring
these things to our attention. They just make
their trips to the grocery store and stand in
line with their carts full of food because they
love us. If we begin to enumerate all the little
things that our mothers have done
throughout the years, we will realize that we
owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.
6) Love her tenderly. A mother
sometimes needs acceptance and
understanding rather than a lot of advice.
Her actions may seem strange, but when
you love somebody, you accept her just as
she is. Maybe it’s something she can’t help.
Maybe she doesn’t understand her own
emotions. Don’t judge your mother—just
tenderly love her, and accept that she’s
going through a difficult time. The best mark
of what kind of kids we are is how we
respond to our moms when they are going
through hardship.
7) Love her generously. Is anything
too good for your mother? When you think
about all the things she has done for you,
could you ever do enough to repay her?
More than likely your mother sacrificed so
that you could wear the clothes you wore.
When she went to the store to buy herself a
dress, she made sure that you had the best
she could afford first. What was left over,
she spent on herself. Mothers do this every
day with their time and energy, canceling
appointments or forfeiting opportunities to
take their children to sports practice or
friends’ houses. How can we be stingy
toward our mothers when they have been so
unselfish, loving, and generous toward us?
8) Love her forgivingly. Perhaps
you do not have a harmonious relationship
with your mother. You may be resentful and
bitter toward her. Whatever has happened
between you, you have a responsibility
before God to forgive her. Maybe there is no
excuse for her sins; however, when we do
not forgive we cannot love. And God tells us
to love. If He can forgive us despite our
failures, surely we can do the same for our
mothers.
9) Love her cheerfully. What comes
to your mother’s mind when she thinks
about you? Does she smile or frown? Is she
encouraged or burdened? The next time you
visit your mother, encourage her, laugh with
her, and do your best to make her happy. In
doing so, you will show her how you
genuinely feel toward her.
10) Love her honorably. “Honor
your father and your mother that your days
may be long upon the earth” (Ex. 20:12). It is
the only one of the 10 Commandments with
a built-in promise for blessing. It doesn’t
matter what your vocation is in life, how
many people know you, or the amount of
money you earn. When you live the kind of
life that honors your mother, she will be
proud of you.
How do you love your mother? You
love her with all of your heart. You
demonstrate your love to her in a way that
makes her grateful for every moment of time
she invested in you, every penny she
sacrificed for you, and every experience she
provided that helped you become the person
you are. Whoever you are, you owe a great
deal to your mother.
In Touch Magazine, May 2002 issue.
Used with permission.
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Exegetically Speaking
by Spiros Zodhiates
God, the Source of Good
James 1:17a
From Faith, Love & Hope: An Exposition of
the Epistle of James, AMG Publishers,
1997.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above” (James 1:17a).
After James clears God of all
responsibility as far as the desire to do evil
in man is concerned, he makes a very
significant statement regarding the
counterpart of evil—good. He says: “Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and cometh down from the Father of
lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning.”
The words translated “gift” are not the
same in Greek. There is a definite distinction
between the two Greek words. The first one,
dósis, means “the act of giving,” and the
second one, dōrēma, the “result of that act,
the gift itself.” Dósis comes from the verb
dídomi, which in its original sense means “to
give, to present,” with the implied idea of
giving freely.
James wants us here to have a
glimpse into the character of God. Before we
fix our attention on the gift, he wants us to
look at the Giver and know His nature and
His action toward us. Why does the sun
shine? Because it is its nature to do so. Why
does God give and so freely at that?
Because it is His nature to do so.
There is a legend told of an ancient
kingdom whose sovereign had just died, and
whose ambassadors were sent to choose a
successor from twin infants. They found the
little fellows fast asleep, and looking at them
carefully agreed that it was difficult to
decide, until they happened to notice one
curious small difference between them. As
they lay, one infant had his tiny fists closed
tight, the other slept with his little hands wide
open. Instantly they made their selection of
the latter; and sure enough, the legend very
properly concludes with the record that, as
he grew up in his station, he came to be
known as the King with the Open Hand. We
could say the same thing of our God. His
hand is always open to give.
There is, however, a characterization
of His giving. It is “good,” James says. The
word in the original Greek is agathē. The
word “good,” of course, has such a wide
meaning that we are likely to misunderstand
God’s activity in our lives. What is good
giving? The Greek word in early times, when
referring to persons, meant “gentle, noble,”
with special application to birth and rank.
This gives us to understand that God’s
giving is good, is noble, is gentle in its
generation, in its origin, in its birth.
All things that God created are good
in themselves. Good can, however, become
evil, as it reaches the hands of sinful man
and is misused. That, nevertheless, does
not rob it of its goodness of origin. What
would we do without a knife at home? It is a
most useful instrument. But it can become
deadly if it is misused, if instead of peeling
potatoes it takes the life of an innocent child.
We do not arrest the maker of the knife, or
imprison the knife itself, but we punish the
user of it who used it in an evil, sinful
manner. And sin, as you may know, means
nothing more than missing the mark, the
goal, its intended use. Thus good, noble
giving may prove to be evil when handled
wrongly by the recipient.
The first trick which Satan used
against God was an insinuation against
God’s goodness and generosity. “Can it be
possible,” said the serpent in substance,
“that your God has shut off a part of the
garden from you and commanded that you
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” In
other words, God could not have created
anything that is not for the enjoyment of
man, for if that were so, then He could be
accused of having created evil.
Unfortunately, Eve fell for Satan’s lie, as so
many of us do. James in verse 17 gives the
answer, a most important theological
statement, that God has created nothing that
is evil in itself; all of God’s creation is good
and noble, but He has at the same time
created certain restrictions as to the use of
His good giving. Once you get out of those
boundaries of God’s prescribed use, you are
likely to harm yourself instead of benefiting
from God’s giving. I wonder whether there is
anything which God made which does not
have some useful purpose. I doubt it very
much. That is the declaration given by
James: “Every act of God’s giving is noble in
its origin.”
That adjective, agathē, describing
God’s giving, also implies a blessing, a
benefit. The axiom enunciated is that not
only is every creation of God noble in itself,
but it is beneficial for the recipient, as long
as that creation is within the boundary of his
enjoyment. Do not forget that God did not
merely create things, but He also created
laws regulating things both physical and
spiritual, things material and immaterial. He
made the grass for certain animals and flesh
for other animals. Those laws must be
obeyed if God’s creation is to benefit from
His creation.
I want to call your attention further to
a very significant observation concerning
this word agathē, “good,” characterizing
God’s giving. The word has no regular
degrees of comparison. There is no “gooder”
and “goodest,” as my little daughter used to
say. This might imply that there is no
possible improvement on God’s giving. What
He gives is the highest and the best, the
most profitable for man. The way He gives is
also the very best. Do not think for one
moment, child of God, that you can ever
improve on it. So many times we seem to
indicate by our actions and our reception of
God’s gifts that we know of better ways in
which God could enrich us with His benefits.
But James, by virtue of this word he uses,
declares that we are mistaken, that we are
not capable of improving on God’s manner
of giving. Is this not a meaningful lesson and
one that should induce complete satisfaction
with His dealings with us?
After James has spoken of God’s way
of giving, he proceeds to tell us something of
the gift itself. He says that the result, the gift,
the dōrēma that comes from God, is perfect.
The word “perfect” in the original Greek is
téleion which, as I mentioned in a previous
study, comes from the root word télos,
meaning “the end, the purpose, the result,
the fulfillment, the completion, the
consummation.” That which God gives has a
purpose, has a goal.
Now remember what James said in
verse 4 of this chapter, that we should be
made perfect. In other words, all of God’s
gifts have as their end the accomplishment
of God’s purpose in our lives, and that is
perfection. God is not interested so much in
what we think of the gifts that reach us, but
what they will accomplish in us.
I like spaghetti very much, but I have
a tendency to put on weight easily, and that
is not the best thing for me. But spaghetti is
good for a thin person who needs to add a
few pounds to his weight. Spaghetti is God’s
gift, and for my thin brother it proves the
perfect food, but for me it does not.
Similarly the perfection of God’s gifts
ought to be judged by what they accomplish
in us. Are affliction, illness, adverse
circumstances, financial straits, God’s
perfect gifts for us, His children? Of course
they are, because of the net results that they
will produce in us. Is it not wonderful to know
that God never makes a mistake in His
giving? He gives you just as much money as
you need for the perfection of your
character, no more and no less.
You remember how the Apostle Paul
was caught up to the third heaven and heard
unutterable things. This was a gift of God.
But God, knowing that there might be a little
puffing up of Paul’s ego as a result of this,
gave him a counterbalancing gift, “a thorn in
the flesh.” Paul doubted the goodness of
God in the second gift and asked Him to
take it away. God, however, answered
saying: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for
my strength is made perfect in weakness”
(the same Greek word).
What is a perfect gift, then? That
which makes you and me perfect, even as
He is perfect; and remember that the
Captain of our salvation was made “perfect
through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10).
We have spoken of God’s giving, that
it is good, and of the result, the gift, and its
consummation in us, which is perfection.
What a debt we owe to God. Everything we
touch, or feel, or see, or hear—everything is
a gift. We did not make it; we did not buy it;
we did not deserve it. So you and I should
gratefully say, “Thank You, Lord.”
Spiros Zodhiates (1922-2009) served as
president of AMG International for over 40
years, was the founding editor of Pulpit
Helps Magazine (Disciple’s predecessor),
and authored dozens of exegetical books.
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Words to Stand You on Your Feet
by Joe McKeever
When to Submit, When to Insist
“Be subject to one another in the fear
of Christ” (Eph. 5:21).
I leaned over to my grandson in
church the other day and whispered, “I
remember when Brother Ken brought the
drum set into the church. Some almost died.
Now look.” On the platform was the usual
dozen or so musicians—pianist, keyboard,
several guitars, two or three drummers, one
violin, a couple of horns, and this time, for a
special emphasis, a mandolin and banjo.
The music was great.
What I thought was, “What if we had
given in to the critics? What if Dr. Ken
Gabrielse—now the dean of the Warren
Angell School of Fine Arts at Oklahoma
Baptist University—and I had feared the
criticism and buckled?”
There are times when church leaders
need to pay attention to the criticism, and
times to ignore it. Knowing “what time it is” is
the hard part. For God’s children, that’s a
function of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God
is the Great Time-Teller.
Note: I am not saying that having
more musical instruments in church is
necessarily better or godlier than limiting the
accompaniment to a piano and organ. But
for us at that time, it was a giant step
forward. We could have submitted before
the fears of the naysayers, but where’s the
faith in that? By putting the welfare of the
greater church ahead of the criticism of the
few, we blessed everyone, including those
who griped (which is to say, they managed
to get past their complaining and to love the
full instrumentation).
A young pastor sat in my office
recently to bring me “up to speed” about his
ministry. He reminded me that “two and a
half years ago I sat in this room with you
wondering whether I could pastor a church.”
That congregation had dwindled to 16 by the
time Dan took the leadership. These days,
he says, they’re running 50. “However,” he
said, “not a single one of the original 16
have remained. They’ve all left.”
That happens. Knowing the
background of that church, I assured him
that their leaving was not a bad thing. Over
the last quarter of a century, I’ve seen a
succession of pastors eventually throw up
their hands and leave. The building and
grounds are attractive and the neighborhood
appears prosperous. Originally, I thought
that if the right pastor came, that church
would do well. What I had not known,
however, was the tight control a few people
were exercising on their pastors—a death
grip.
Pastor Dan has simply loved the
people, he said, and he has stayed by the
changes that needed to be made. What
changes? They reverted to mission status
and put themselves under the authority of a
larger healthy church in the area. They
changed the name of the church in an
attempt to shed the old image and
dysfunctional reputation. As these and other
changes were brought in, the old-timers
quietly slipped away.
“I’ve tried to honor them,” Dan said.
“For one, I bought a plaque of appreciation
and took to his house. Bought it out of my
own pocket.” Someone who knew that fellow
said, “Pastor, you sure go to a lot of trouble
to honor a guy who hates you.”
I said, “Don’t weep over those who
left. It appears they’re the ones who kept the
church back all those years. Keep your
focus on the Lord.” Knowing when to pursue
a departing church member and when to let
them go—that’s a toughie. Only the Holy
Spirit can show you. Ask Him.
Some years ago a local pastor called
to say three of my members had been in his
services the day before. “These are your
people, Joe,” he said. “I don’t want to take
your members.” I said, “My friend, they have
been unhappy from the first day I arrived. If
they can worship God at your church, I wish
them well.” To this day, those three are
happily serving the Lord in that church. On
those rare occasions we bump into each
other in town, we greet each other warmly.
It’s all good.
Sometimes we submit to the person
with a gripe and a complaint; at other times
we insist that the course we’re on is right
and we will go forward. If there is a set of
rules to know when to do either, I’ve never
heard of it. This is one of many reasons the
Lord indwells us with the Spirit. We will be
needing guidance in situations that do not fit
any rule book. When does a pastor submit
to the complaints of some in the
congregation? Here are just a few of my
observations from experience.
1) When the complainers are among
your most faithful members. They have
earned the right to be heard. A wise leader
will listen to them and take their concerns to
heart. 2) When the Spirit within him is
making it clear that everything is not as it
should be. The wise leader will stop and
bring in his best advisors and reconsider
what is happening. 3) When he’s outvoted.
Seriously, if the congregation has shown by
an actual vote that the pastor’s plan is not
acceptable, he needs to recognize that
something is amiss. Either he has a bad
plan or has sold it poorly or the congregation
is rebelling. In any case, if the pastor
proceeds, he’s going to get mighty lonely.
It’s time to regroup with his best counselors
and godliest leadership and decide where to
go next.
Sometimes people rebel because the
plan is unacceptable. At other times, they
are registering a general unhappiness with
either the leadership or the state of affairs
within the congregation. A wise leader—a
faithful, loving shepherd—is always aware of
the mood of the flock. Otherwise, how can
he lead them?
Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist
pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He
blogs regularly at www.joemckeever.com.
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Living out the Living Word
by Justin Lonas
The Example of Jonah
Jonah 4
At last we come to the great
“showdown” of this story—when Jonah
finally speaks honestly with God and, in
spite of his rage and despair, the Lord
teaches him graciously yet again who is
sovereign and just.
Jonah (after taking a rather, shall we
say, circuitous route) obeyed God, delivering
a fiery warning of coming judgment to the
people of Nineveh. To his surprise, they
listened and repented, and, “When God saw
their deeds, that they turned from their
wicked way, then God relented concerning
the calamity which He had declared He
would bring upon them. And He did not do it”
(3:10).
Far from the reaction you might
expect after what looks like a “successful”
delivery of his prophetic message, Jonah
reflected bitterly on Nineveh’s repentance:
“But it greatly displeased Jonah and he
became angry” (4:1). In his grief and anger,
Jonah cried out to the Lord: “He prayed to
the Lord and said, ‘Please Lord, was not this
what I said while I was still in my own
country? Therefore in order to forestall this I
fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a
gracious and compassionate God, slow to
anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and
one who relents concerning calamity.
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life
from me, for death is better to me than life’”
(4:2-3).
Here he reveals his motives for
fleeing the Lord in the first place. Because
he knew the Lord’s character (the phrase,
“compassionate God, slow to anger and
abundant in lovingkindness,” appears
numerous times in the Old Testament),
Jonah did not want to obey. He knew that
God was sending him to proclaim judgment
on Nineveh so the city would have
opportunity to repent and be spared His
wrath, and he wanted no part in it. He had
wished for judgment, for God’s
righteousness and power to be displayed
and Israel’s unique enjoyment of His favor to
be preserved by a blast from heaven.
Instead, the Lord had mercy, protecting
idolatrous, uncircumcised pagans from
receiving the due reward of their sin at that
time.
His sinful yet authentic prayer has
much to tell us about our own hearts and our
own views of God’s ways. That Jonah would
rather die than to witness this result is
telling—he claims to know the Lord’s nature,
but clearly does not understand God on His
own terms. How often, if we are frank, do we
act as though we have earned His favor by
our righteousness, and long for His justice to
be done to others who fail to meet our
standard? Jonah, in spite of what he has
been given just in this small slice of his life
recorded here, still failed (as we all so often
do) to see that God’s mercy and
lovingkindness are His free gifts—that none
of us is deserving of anything but His wrath.
We love the idea of a just and all-powerful
God more than we love God Himself.
In his prayer, we also see that God
indeed desires that we cast our cares on
Him. To paraphrase Calvin’s commentary on
this passage, a bad prayer is still a prayer.
Jonah is whining and grumbling against the
Lord, but he is at least complaining in the
right direction. When we do not understand
the Lord’s ways, or when we are wrestling
with how His plan differs from ours, it is by
far the better part to cry out to Him in our
anxiety than to attempt to solve things on
our own. Jonah’s second choice (to pour
out his anger toward God after obedience) is
to be preferred to his first choice (to flee
from God altogether). As the rest of the
chapter shows, God deals patiently with
Jonah, not answering him according to his
folly, but orchestrating a chastising
illustration to correct him.
First, God challenges Jonah: “The
Lord said, ‘Do you have good reason to be
angry?’” (4:4). One thing is always certain
when the Lord begins questioning you—you
are about to be disabused of any notions of
self-righteousness and are well on your way
to humiliation (see Job 38-41). Jonah, it
seems, was still not in a position to
recognize this, for, after the Lord so quickly
answers his prayer by returning this
question, Jonah is silent. He doesn’t engage
with the Lord, choosing instead to avoid the
question and insisting (by his actions) that
the Lord see things his way instead: “Then
Jonah went out from the city and sat east of
it. There he made a shelter for himself and
sat under it in the shade until he could see
what would happen in the city” (4:5).
Knowing that Jonah was still not
willing to learn, God played on his pouting to
build to the lesson: “So the Lord God
appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah
to be a shade over his head to deliver him
from his discomfort. And Jonah was
extremely happy about the plant” (4:6). Even
in light of Jonah’s decision to wait out the
forty days to “see what would happen in the
city,” God provides a comfort for him—
showing him the unmerited provision he
provides so freely to all of sinful humanity,
causing “His sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and send[ing] rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45).
The stage now set, the Lord finishes
the illustration: “But God appointed a worm
when dawn came the next day and it
attacked the plant and it withered. When the
sun came up God appointed a scorching
east wind, and the sun beat down on
Jonah’s head so that he became faint and
begged with all his soul to die, saying,
‘Death is better to me than life’” (4:7-8). The
Lord gave Jonah’s comfort and the Lord
took it away. In yet another exercise in
missing the point, Jonah wallows in sunbaked agony and reiterates his plea for
death. “Then God said to Jonah, ‘Do you
have good reason to be angry about the
plant?’ And he said, ‘I have good reason to
be angry, even to death.’” (4:9). Jonah still
bitterly clings to entitlement, writhing with
fury at the Lord’s action.
Finally, the Lord moves to bring the
lesson home to Jonah: “Then the Lord said,
‘You had compassion on the plant for which
you did not work and which you did not
cause to grow, which came up overnight and
perished overnight. Should I not have
compassion on Nineveh, the great city in
which there are more than 120,000 persons
who do not know the difference between
their right and left hand, as well as many
animals?’” (4:10-11). Just as Nathan
confronted David about his sin with
Bathsheba against Uriah by telling a story,
so God acted out a parable for Jonah. Here,
He interprets it, and the message is clear—
“you cared more for this plant than for those
I’ve created of infinitely greater worth who
bear My image.”
Though they were vile sinners, the
people of Nineveh, who lived in ignorance of
God’s truth and His ways (the 120,000 figure
seems, according to archaeological records,
to point to the entire population of the city,
not a subset of children or mentally
incapacitated people), yet He had mercy on
them. The Lord even mentions the city’s
livestock as objects of mercy, as a way of
pointing out Jonah’s folly in weeping over
something as lowly as a plant. If the times
and seasons of a gourd vine are appointed
by the Lord, how much more the nations?
Here ends the story. The book itself
offers no interpretation of the events and no
further narration about what happened to
Jonah next. What was the message, and did
he get it? As we’ve endeavored to show in
these few columns, the point of God’s work
in this story is to showcase His sovereignty
and His mercy, and to prefigure His plan to
redeem men from every tribe, tongue, and
nation through Christ’s coming sacrifice. As
God proclaimed to Moses, “I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have
compassion” (Ex. 33:19). Jonah is an
excellent case in point, brought to piercing
climax in chapter four—all of us have
received His unmerited favor simply in
remaining alive and able to repent, as God
in His infinite holiness owes us nothing.
As we’ve also alluded to, it seems
that Jonah did finally comprehend the
lessons of this story—the very existence of
the text (which, given the level of detail and
understanding of inner motives, Jonah must
have recorded himself) is the best argument
for this. Of course, as Paul wrote of the
Israelites, “these things happened to them
as an example, and they were written for our
instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages
have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). So we would do
well to study this story and to prayerfully
seek the Lord’s wisdom in applying its truths
to our lives as well. If we learn nothing else,
let it be that we ought always to listen to and
obey the Lord, even (perhaps especially)
when to do so grates against our deepest
desires.
Like Jonah, we too often look on
those outside the faith as our enemies,
forgetting a) that they have been deceived
just as we once were and b) that the Lord’s
favor is a gift to both them and us. We ought
to grieve with the Lord that blasphemy
against His name endures and flourishes in
the world, and pray and work fervently to
“proclaim the excellencies of Him who has
called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Instead we
rush to appoint ourselves judges over the
nations, upholding God’s lawful standards
and forgetting the Gospel message of His
grace and mercy. The world absolutely
needs to repent from its evil ways, but we
must remember that with repentance comes
forgiveness: “He has not dealt with us
according to our sins, nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities. For as high as
the heavens are above the earth, so great is
His lovingkindness toward those who fear
Him” (Ps. 103:10-11).
To close, it would be difficult to sum
up this story better than John Calvin did in
his commentary some 450 years ago: “Let
us learn by the example of Jonah not to
measure God’s judgments by our own
wisdom, but to wait until he turns darkness
into light. And at the same time, let us learn
to obey his commands, to follow his call
without any disputing: though heaven and
earth oppose us, though many things occur
which may tend to avert us from the right
course, let us yet continue in this
resolution—that nothing is better for us than
to obey God, and to go on in the way which
he points out to us.”
Justin Lonas is editor of Disciple Magazine
for AMG International in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. Table of Contents
___________________________________
Following God
by Erik Christensen
Grace According to the Measure
Ephesians 4:7-10
Starting in chapter four, Paul has
transitioned his focus for the Ephesian
believers from being “in Christ” to now
“walk[ing] in a manner worthy of the calling
with which you have been called.” In this first
part of chapter four, Paul deals directly with
the all-important issues of unity and love. As
believers we are to walk in a manner worthy
which, according to Paul’s focus, is based
first and foremost upon our walk with Christ.
As a result, the unity and love we have with
one another are preserved.
In verse 7, Paul declares: “But to
each one of us grace was given according to
the measure of Christ’s gift.” He has
declared that we are one, emphasizing the
unity of the Body of Christ and our oneness
together. Now Paul emphasizes our
individuality within the Body of Christ. As
believers we do not lose our personalities or
the uniqueness of who we are. In fact, we
are each given grace according to the
“measure”, the weighing out, “of Christ’s
gift.” There is a “Body life” experience as we
are one in Christ, while at the same time we
are unique individuals within the Body.
We are one Body, having one Spirit,
one hope, one Lord, and faith, etc. (4:4-6).
Our foundation is Christ and the salvation
He provides by grace through faith. Paul
now takes a step into that grace and speaks
on the issue of the grace which the Lord
gives in measure on an individual basis
regarding Christian living.
The context here is verse 12 and
following, where Paul writes about apostles,
prophets and other “graced”, gifted men,
given to the Church. Paul begins to speak
on the issue of gifts which are a direct result
of grace. God’s grace is clearly salvific—all
of us as believers come out of the same well
of grace. Yet grace is also transformative, as
each individual one of us has a unique
experience of Grace.
W. Robertson Nicoll, in the
Expositor’s Greek Testament, explains as
follows: “Each gets the grace which Christ
has to give, and each gets it in the
proportion in which the Giver is pleased to
bestow it; one having it in larger measure
and another in smaller, but each getting it
from the same Hand and with the same
purpose.”
Why this gifting of each individual
with a special measure of God’s grace?
Contextually, we see that it is for the unity of
the Body of Christ and the building up of that
Body in love.
Does Christ have the authority to give
gifts of grace? Paul takes an interesting turn
in verses 8 and 9, quoting from Psalm 68
concerning a King’s victory. The key here is
that Christ gives gifts because He is the
Conquering Victor. The Lord has the right to
give gifts of grace because He is victorious.
Paul introduces a very vivid
description of the ascension of the Lord in
victory. After the crucifixion of Christ, the
Lord is said to have descended into the
“lower parts of the earth.” Clearly the Lord
after his physical death did several things.
First of all, He proclaimed victory to those
who did not believe in Him and are presently
in waiting for the final judgment. Peter tell us
in 1 Peter 3:18-20 that the Lord “made
proclamation,” meaning to proclaim victory,
to the “spirits now in prison.” Many see this
prison as the section of Hades where
unbelievers are being held awaiting the final
judgment. The story of the rich man and
Lazarus in Luke 16 gives us insight into this.
Secondly, the Lord brought those
who had believed in the salvation He would
provide as the Lamb (and who were waiting
for His coming), into the heavens, taking
them out of Paradise. Paradise, we think, is
the part of Hades that was not a place of
suffering—sometimes referred to in
Scripture as “Abraham’s bosom”.
Thirdly, the Lord, in ascending into
heaven passed through the “heavens”
making a public display of the “rulers and
authorities,” the satanic forces, having
triumphed over them. (Heb. 4:14 and Col.
2:13-15).
In referring to this, Paul emphasizes
the great victory that the Lord has
accomplished through His death on the
cross and His right to give gifts of grace to
men because of His triumph over death and
the satanic forces of evil.
As believers each one of us has been
given a measure of grace by the Lord. The
grace that has been given us is for the
purpose of serving the Body of Christ, the
church, preserving the unity that we have
with one another, and ultimately for the
building up of the Body of Christ in love.
God’s ways are higher than ours, and His
grace to each one of us is sufficient in the
midst of our lives. As we follow Him, are we
walking in His empowering grace enjoying
the fellowship we have with the Lord and
with each other?
Erik Christensen is senior pastor of
Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. Table of Contents
___________________________________
Points to Ponder
by David L. Olford
The Reality of Resurrection
Text: “For I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received: that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with
the Scriptures, and that he appeared to
Cephas, then to the twelve…”
Thought: The Apostle Paul’s
thorough presentation concerning Christ’s
resurrection and the resurrection of the
believer was prompted by some in Corinth
who denied that there was any resurrection
for anyone. The Apostle’s classic
presentation concerning the reality of the
resurrection proceeds as follows.
I. Gospel Declaration of the
Resurrection—Affirming Christ’s
Resurrection (15:1-11)
In 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, the Apostle
reminds his readers of the Gospel that he
preached in Corinth. This Gospel did not
originate with Paul. He received it himself
and passed it on to the Corinthians. This
emphasizes the truthfulness and the
authority of the Gospel. This is the Gospel
the Corinthians “received” and the Gospel
that saves them, and the Gospel they must
hold fast to as the Gospel truth they believe.
Paul presents here the core of this
Gospel, indicating that the resurrection of
Christ is a fundamental aspect of this
Gospel. The Scriptures provide the
framework for this Gospel of the death,
burial, resurrection and appearances of
Jesus. Just as the burial confirms the death
(for our sins), the appearances confirm the
actual resurrection of Jesus. Verses 5-8 are
devoted to various appearances of the
resurrected Christ, which confirm the reality
of the resurrection. The certainty of the
resurrection receives special emphasis by
Paul here in the light of the error that Paul is
going to address. He then adds personal
remarks concerning his own role as one
included in the witnesses to the
appearances of Jesus (vs. 9-11). Paul’s
restatement of the core of the Gospel
provides the authoritative basis for believing
in Christ’s resurrection.
II. Logical Defense of the Resurrection—
Explaining the Christian’s Resurrection
(15:12-57)
Then, Paul carefully and
progressively confronts the error circulating
in Corinth and answers questions arising out
of his defense of the resurrection. Paul
honestly admits that it would be a very
serious problem if this error (no resurrection)
was true, but the Apostle states
emphatically, “but in fact Christ has been
raised from the dead” (15:20). He has
already given the evidence for this “fact” in
his presentation of the core of the Gospel,
and Paul wipes away all the possible
problems associated with this error by
simply affirming that Christ’s resurrection
took place, period.
But the error at Corinth was not just
the denial of Christ’s resurrection. It was the
denial of any resurrection of anyone. So,
Paul moves on to indicate that Christ was
the “firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep” (15:20). This is part of God’s plan of
salvation—all die in Adam and all in Christ
will be made alive. The believer is to be
resurrected as well “at [Christ’s] coming”
(15:23). Paul’s statement that “the last
enemy to be destroyed is death” (15:26) will
be celebrated again when he reaches the
climax of his defense.
After some further discussion, the
Apostle answers questions that relate to the
resurrection of the believer: “‘How are the
dead raised? With what kind of body do they
have” (15:35). Paul answers these questions
carefully giving various descriptions and
comparisons to explain the nature of the
resurrected body. Glorious, imperishable,
immortal, spiritual, and bearing “the image of
the man of heaven” are some of the
characteristics of this resurrected body
(15:42-49). Paul climaxes his presentation
with words of celebration and victory (15:5057).
Yes, the believer will have a
resurrection body, but it will be transformed
because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God…” (15:50). There will be an
instantaneous transformation for all, whether
alive or dead, when the last trumpet sounds.
Death is to be totally and finally conquered
in conjunction with sin’s effects and the
condemnation of the law. This speaks of
total victory through Christ’s death and
resurrection. And the victory of Christ is a
victory given to the Christian as well.
III. The Practical Dynamic of the
Resurrection (15:57-58)
The Christian is to live in the light of
the victory of Christ. As we have noted, this
is a victory that is given to the believer to
experience and enjoy. Paul wants every one
of his readers to live with the certainty of
resurrection, and the certainty of the
complete conquering of the “sting” of death.
Paul concludes this passage with a
clear word of encouragement and
exhortation. The Christian’s victory due to
the resurrection should lead to tstability. The
believer is to be “steadfast” and
“immovable.” False ideas or teachings, such
as the idea that there is no resurrection,
should not cause believers to be shaken in
their faith. Furthermore, this stability should
be matched by abundant ministry. The
phrase “always abounding” speaks of a
consistent overflow of activity in Christian
service. And the call is to be involved in the
work “of the Lord,” not just for the Lord.
The importance of the last clause
cannot be overemphasized, “knowing that in
the Lord your labor is not in vain” (15:58). It
is this “knowing” that makes all the
difference. It is the knowledge of victory that
leads to stability and abundant ministry. The
practical dynamic of the knowledge of the
resurrection is that such knowledge is the
foundation for Christian belief and service.
Thrust: “Thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ” (15:57).
David L. Olford teaches expository
preaching at Union University’s Stephen
Olford Center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Jewels from Past Giants
The Method of Grace—Part 2 of 2
By George Whitefield
Editor’s Note: Originally delivered by
Whitefield as a sermon, this version was
published as a selection in The World’s
Great Sermons in 1908. Edited for length
and modern spellings.
“They have healed also the hurt of
the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
‘Peace, peace;’ when there is no peace”
(Jer. 6:14)
Further before you can speak
peace to your hearts you must not only be
troubled for the sins of your life, the sins of
your nature, but likewise for the sins of your
best duties and performances.
When a poor soul is somewhat
awakened by the terrors of the Lord, then
the poor creature, being born under the
covenant of works, flies directly to a
covenant of works again. And as Adam and
Eve hid themselves among the trees of the
garden and sewed fig leaves together to
cover their nakedness, so the poor sinner
when awakened flies to his duties and to his
performances, to hide himself from God, and
goes to patch up a righteousness of his own.
Says he, “I will be mighty good now—
I will reform—I will do all I can; and then
certainly Jesus Christ will have mercy on
me.” But before you can speak peace to
your heart you must be brought to see that
God may damn you for the best prayer you
ever put up; you must be brought to see that
all your duties—all your righteousness—put
them all together, are so far from
recommending you to God, are so far from
being any motive and inducement to God to
have mercy on your poor soul, that He will
see them to be filthy rags. God hates them,
and cannot accept them, if you bring them to
Him in order to recommend you to His favor.
My dear friends, what is there in our
performance to recommend us unto God?
Our persons are in an unjustified state by
nature; we deserve to be damned ten
thousand times over; and what must our
performance be? We can do no good thing
by nature: “They that are in the flesh cannot
please God” (Rom. 8:8).
You may do things materially good,
but you cannot do a thing formally and
rightly good; because nature cannot act
above itself. It is impossible that a man who
is unconverted can act for the glory of God;
he cannot do anything in faith, and
“whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom.
14:23).
After we are renewed, yet we are
renewed but in part, indwelling sin continues
in us, there is a mixture of corruption in
every one of our duties, so that after we are
converted, were Jesus Christ only to accept
us according to our works, our works would
damn us, for we cannot put up a prayer but
it is far from that perfection which the moral
law requires. I do not know what you may
think, but I can say that I cannot pray but I
sin—I cannot preach to you or any others
but I sin—I can do nothing without sin; and,
as one expresses it, my repentance wants to
be repented of, and my tears to be washed
in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer.
Our best duties are so many splendid
sins. Before you can speak peace to your
heart you must not only be sick of your
original and actual sin, but you must be
made sick of your righteousness, of all your
duties and performances. There must be a
deep conviction before you can be brought
out of your self-righteousness; it is the last
idol taken out of our heart. The pride of our
heart will not let us submit to the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you
never felt that you had no righteousness of
your own, if you never felt the deficiency of
your own righteousness, you cannot come
to Jesus Christ.
There are a great many now who
may say, “Well, we believe all this; but there
is a great difference betwixt talking and
feeling.” Did you ever feel the want of a dear
Redeemer? Did you ever feel the want of
Jesus Christ upon the account of the
deficiency of your own righteousness? And
can you now say from your heart “Lord, you
may justly damn me for the best duties that
ever I did perform?” If you are not thus
brought out of self, you may speak peace to
yourselves, but yet there is no peace.
But then, before you can speak
peace to your souls, there is one particular
sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet
I fear there are few of you think what it is; it
is the reigning, the damning sin of the
Christian world, and yet the Christian world
seldom or never think of it. And pray what is
that?
It is what most of you think you are
not guilty of—and that is, the sin of unbelief.
Before you can speak peace to your heart;
you must be troubled for the unbelief of your
heart. But can it be supposed that any of
you are unbelievers here in this churchyard
that are born in Scotland, in a reformed
country, that go to church every Sabbath?
Can any of you that receive the sacrament
once a year—oh, that it were administered
oftener!—can it be supposed that you who
had tokens for the sacrament, that you who
keep up family prayer, that any of you do not
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
I appeal to your own hearts, if you
would not think me uncharitable, if I doubted
whether any of you believed in Christ: and
yet, I fear upon examination we should find
that most of you have not so much faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I
am persuaded that the devil believes more
of the Bible than most of us do. He believes
the divinity of Jesus Christ; that is more than
many who call themselves Christians do;
nay, he believes and trembles, and that is
more than thousands amongst us do.
My friends, we mistake a historical
faith for a true faith wrought in the heart by
the Spirit of God. You fancy you believe
because you believe there is such a book as
we call the Bible—because you go to
church; all this you may do and have no true
faith in Christ. Merely to believe there was
such a person as Christ, merely to believe
there is a book called the Bible, will do you
no good, more than to believe there was
such a man as Caesar or Alexander the
Great. The Bible is a sacred depository.
What thanks have we to give to God for
these lively oracles! But yet we may have
these and not believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
My dear friends, there must be a
principle wrought in the heart by the Spirit of
the living God. Did I ask you how long it is
since you believed in Jesus Christ, I
suppose most of you would tell me you
believed in Jesus Christ as long as ever you
remember—you never did misbelieve. Then,
you could not give me a better proof that you
never yet believed in Jesus Christ, unless
you were sanctified early, as from the womb;
for they that otherwise believe in Christ
know there was a time when they did not
believe in Jesus Christ.
You say you love God with all your
heart, soul, and strength. If I were to ask you
how long it is since you loved God, you
would say, “As long as you can remember;”
you never hated God, you know no time
when there was enmity in your heart against
God. Then, unless you were sanctified very
early, you never loved God in your life.
My dear friends, I am more particular
in this, because it is a most deceitful
delusion, whereby so many people are
carried away, that they believe already.
Therefore it is remarked of Mr. Marshall,
giving account of his experiences, that he
had been working for life, and he had
ranged all his sins under the Ten
Commandments, and then, coming to a
minister, asked him the reason why he could
not get peace. The minister looked to his
catalog. “Away,” says he, “I do not find one
word of the sin of unbelief in all your
catalog.” It is the peculiar work of the Spirit
of God to convince us of our unbelief—that
we have got no faith. Says Jesus Christ, “I
will send the comforter; and when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin” (John
16:8), of the sin of unbelief because they
believe not on Him.
Now my dear friends, did God ever
show you that you had no faith? Were you
ever made to bewail a hard heart of
unbelief? Was it ever the language of your
heart, “Lord, give me faith; Lord, enable me
to lay hold on Thee; Lord, enable me to call
Thee my Lord and my God?” Did Jesus
Christ ever convince you in this manner?
Did he ever convince you of your inability to
close with Christ, and make you to cry out to
God to give you faith? If not, do not speak
peace to your heart. May the Lord awaken
you and give you true, solid peace before
you go hence and be no more!
Once more, then: before you can
speak peace to your heart, you must not
only be convinced of your actual and original
sin, the sins of your own righteousness, the
sin of unbelief but you must be enabled to
lay hold upon the perfect righteousness, the
all-sufficient righteousness, of the Lord
Jesus Christ; you must lay hold by faith on
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then
you shall have peace. “Come,” says Jesus,
“unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy
laden and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
This speaks encouragement to all
that are weary and heavy laden; but the
promise of rest is made to them only upon
their coming and believing, and taking Him
to be their God and their all. Before we can
ever have peace with God we must be
justified by faith through our Lord Jesus
Christ we must be enabled to apply Christ to
our hearts, we must have Christ brought
home to our soul, so as His righteousness
may be made our righteousness, so as His
merits may be imputed to our souls. My dear
friends, were you ever married to Jesus
Christ? Did Jesus Christ ever give Himself to
you? Did you ever close with Christ by a
lively faith, so as to feel Christ in your
hearts, so as to hear Him speaking peace to
your souls? Did peace ever flow in upon
your hearts like a river? Did you ever feel
that peace that Christ spoke to His
disciples? I pray God He may come and
speak peace to you. These things you must
experience.
I am now talking of the invisible
realities of another world, of inward religion
of the work of God upon a poor sinner’s
heart. I am now talking of a matter of great
importance, my dear hearers; you are all
concerned in it, your souls are concerned in
it, your eternal salvation is concerned in it.
You may be all at peace, but perhaps the
devil has lulled you asleep into a carnal
lethargy and security, and will endeavor to
keep you there till he gets you to hell, and
there you will be awakened; but it will be
dreadful to be awakened and find
yourselves so fearfully mistaken when the
great gulf is fixed, when you will be calling to
all eternity for a drop of water to cool your
tongue and shall not obtain it.
George Whitefield (1714-1770) was an
Anglican minister and evangelist best known
for his open-air preaching. It was said that
he could be heard unamplified by crowds of
up to 20,000. His preaching in the British
American colonies during the 1730s and 40s
helped spark the Great Awakening, one of
the most profound evangelical movements
of history. He continued to preach and serve
in churches in both Britain and the colonies
until his death. Table of Contents
___________________________________
Counselor’s Corner
by James Rudy Gray
Choosing a Christian Counselor
Counseling is a word full of many
meanings. There are hundreds of
counseling theories and at least 250 types of
psychology. People spend both time and
money seeking help for the issues that affect
them. Christian counseling or Biblical
counseling also has a variety of meanings.
The sheer number of options, theories, and
ministries can be very confusing.
If you need counseling, how do you
choose a Christian counselor? Making a
good choice can seem difficult. Begin with
someone who knows Christ as Savior and
believes God’s Word. Next, find someone
who has training in counseling. For example,
my professional credential as a counselor is
with the National Board for Certified
Counselors. I am an NCC (National certified
counselor). States license people as
counselors as well. An LPC is a licensed
professional counselor. There are several
other designations or specialties for
counselors. LPC is a credential issued by
the state (government) and an NCC is a
credential issued by NBCC (the counseling
profession). Both require essentially the
same preparation and maintenance in order
to stay current. In the case of an NCC, with
which I am familiar, a master’s degree in
counseling from a regionally accredited
institution, 3,000 hours of counseling
experience, and 100 hours of supervision
over a period of two years after earning a
master’s degree are required. In addition, an
NCC must complete 100 hours of continuing
education every 5 years in order to maintain
their certification.
Both an LPC and NCC are secular
credentials. That does not mean the
credential is evil, but neither does it mean it
is Christian. I believe a committed Christian
with a growing faith and a recognized
credential in counseling is the best choice
when making a decision on selecting a
counselor. There are other criteria as well.
The personality of the counselor and
the counselee may not work well. Any given
counselor’s approach to counseling may not
fit a counselee’s needs. For example, a
counselor whose style is brief solutionfocused therapy may not fit a counselee who
needs to stay in the counseling process
longer.
There are numerous Christian
counseling organizations, and some offer
their own credentials for counselors. There
are several Christian professional
organizations a Christian counselor could
join: American Association of Christian
Counselors (the largest in the world),
American Association of Pastoral
Counselors, Evangelical Pastoral
Counselors, the Christian Association for
Psychological Studies, the National
Association of Nouthetic Counselors, and
others.
There are Christian counselors who
attempt to integrate the best in psychology
with the Word of God. Larry Crabb coined
the phrase, “spoiling the Egyptians” which
means taking what is valuable and using it.
Other Christians abhor integrating
Christianity with psychology. The best
approach, I believe, is to find a counselor
with strong professional credentials and an
even stronger commitment to the authority
of Scripture.
Most Christians will likely turn to a
pastor first when they need counsel. Pastors
often have had one or more courses in
counseling as part of their seminary training.
They feel confident to handle some
situations but inadequate in others. Wise
pastors will refer a counselee to someone
with more experience and training when the
need calls for it.
It is not a sign of weakness to be
involved in counseling. In fact, it may be a
mark of strength. Counseling sessions do
not imply that a person is broken and a
counselor can fix them. It does indicate
someone needs help and a Bible-believing,
trained counselor can be God’s tool for
helping a person see themselves clearer
while develop better perspectives toward
life. A significant outcome of Christian
counseling is change. To be able to deal
more effectively with personal issues and to
walk more completely as a child of God are
hallmarks of Christian counseling.
James Rudy Gray is certified as a
professional counselor by the National
Board for Certified Counselors, and is a
member of the American Association of
Christian Counselors. He serves as the
editor of The Baptist Courier, the official
newspaper of the South Carolina Baptist
Convention. Table of Contents
___________________________________
The Story behind the Song
by Lindsay Terry
He Looks out of a Different Window
Song: “People Need the Lord”
“For God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world; but that the
world through him might be saved” (John
3:17).
Both Greg Nelson and Phill McHugh
grew up in the Midwest: Greg is from
Bismarck, North Dakota, and Phill from
Aberdeen, South Dakota. As a team they
have written scores of songs, some of which
have already become standards and will be
sung by Christians around the world until the
Lord returns. Greg said of Phill, his co-writer,
the master poet, “He is a songwriter who
has that certain something that you can’t put
your hand on—a gift from God. Wishing and
hoping for his ability is fruitless. You can
hone it, but you can’t own it completely,
apart from God’s endowment. He looks out
of a different window.”
Greg was born in 1948 into the home
of musical parents, Corliss and Irene
Nelson. Greg learned piano and theory from
his mother. By age twenty-one Greg was
conductor of the Bismarck Civic Orchestra, a
position he maintained for several years.
Phill, born in 1951, to Frank and
Beatrice McHugh, had very little formal
music training outside of a few piano
lessons. As a college-age young man, he
became involved with the culture of the late
1960s, traveling and performing in clubs of
various kinds. Phill said, “All of this affected
me a great deal and drove me to look for
answers. I began to read the Bible on my
own, which started a process that led to my
conversion.”
In an interview in 1989, Greg told me
that he and Phill, at that point, had written
more than fifty songs together. Greg and
Phill gave me the story behind what is
unquestionably their most popular song to
date.
“We were trying to write a song one
day and spent most of the morning talking
about ideas. We decided, about lunchtime,
to go to a restaurant near my office in
Nashville. After we were seated, a waitress
came to our table, and as she approached
us she smiled. Yet it seemed that her eyes
were so empty. She was trying to convey a
cheery attitude, but her face seemed to say
something else. She took our order and
walked away.
“We looked at each other, and one of
us said, ‘She needs the Lord.’ We then
began looking around the restaurant at all of
the people. They, too, seemed to have
emptiness in their faces. We sensed a real
heaviness in our hearts as we watched
them.
“Suddenly we realized that all of
those people needed the Lord. Just as
quickly, we both thought, ‘we need to write
that—people need the Lord.’ We finished
our meal and went back to my office and sat
down to write what was in our hearts. The
pictures from the restaurant that remained in
our minds, coupled with the realization that
millions of people around the world are also
groping for some ray of light, gave rise to
‘People Need the Lord.’
“God has His own timing, and He
orchestrates all things under His control.
Consequently, it was three years before the
song was recorded. We had tried to interest
several people in the song, but they just
didn’t ‘get it’. Finally, the song was
presented to Steve Green—he ‘got it’.”
Phill agrees that it is the most often
used of all of their songs. I remember that I
heard it sung by two teenagers on New
Providence Island, about 150 miles off the
Florida coast, in a small church made up
mostly of Haitians. As Amy and Tina stood
to sing the song that often seems to
missionaries to be the most meaningful song
ever written, I remember that I had never
“really” heard that song until that occasion—
as I looked into the faces of those poor,
needy people.
The element that makes the song
meaningful to almost every Christian who
hears it is the infectious melody that carries
its lyrics, driving the heart cry of lost
humanity right into our very souls.
I hope you “get it”! You and I don’t
have to go to a foreign land, to Africa, Asia,
South America, or China, to find people who
are without Christ. We need only to go
across the aisle at work, at school, at the
office, or across the driveway to the house
next door.
© 2008 by Lindsay Terry. Used by
permission.
Lindsay Terry has been a song historian for
more than 40 years, and has written widely
on the background of great hymns and
worship songs including the books I Could
Sing of Your Love Forever (2008), from
which this piece is excerpted, and The
Sacrifice of Praise (2002).
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Church Builders
by Bernard R. DeRemer
Jonathan Dickinson:
Colonial Church Leader
Jonathan Dickinson (1688-1747) was
born in Hatfield, Mass. He studied theology
at the Collegiate School of Connecticut (later
renamed Yale University), graduating in
1706. Three years later, he was ordained as
minister of the Congregational Church in
Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
After serving various churches in New
Jersey, he led his congregation to separate
formally from the established Church of
England (concerned about growing
pressures on dissenters from the church
hierarchy). In 1717, the church entered the
Presbyterian Church Philadelphia Synod.
Dickinson remained in that body for the rest
of his life.
He was twice elected moderator of
his synod and became a “dynamic and
aggressive leader of his denomination.”
Dickinson was a strong supporter of
Presbyterianism, earning a reputation as a
leading defender of Calvinism in America,
and doing for the Middle Colonies much of
what Jonathan Edwards was doing for the
church in New England.
Dickinson did much “to encourage
revival in the Presbyterian Church during the
time of George Whitefield’s preaching in the
period of the Great Awakening,” welcoming
the revivals while opposing excesses of
emotion. During this time, he also helped to
organize the New York Synod of his
denomination, serving as its first moderator.
David Brainerd and the cause of
Indian missions found a warm friend in
Dickinson. A thoroughgoing Calvinist, he
had little patience with any other theological
position. He “did much to effect harmony
between the factions in the Presbyterian
Church which resulted from controversy on
the revivals (the “Old Siders” and “New
Siders”), and was largely influential in
restoring unity…after the short schism.”
Dickinson, long interested in starting
a new college to serve the Middle Colonies
as Yale and Harvard served New England,
applied for a charter to open the College of
New Jersey along with a small group of
other pastors and lay leaders. The governor
at the time, Lewis Morris, was an Anglican
who opposed the Great Awakening, and he
rejected the application. Following Morris’
death in 1746, they reapplied to the acting
governor who granted the charter for what
became Princeton University. Dickinson
became the college’s first president, hosting
the tiny student body for classes in the
parsonage of his church in Elizabethtown.
He served only briefly, however, dying in
1747 of complications from smallpox.
As an avid public theologian,
Dickinson also wrote widely. His books,
many of which were very influential to the
Church in early America, include: Display of
God’s Special Grace, Familiar Letters Upon
Subjects in Religion, Vindication of God’s
Saving Free Grace, and True Scripture
Doctrine Concerning Some Important Points
in Christian Faith (an able discussion of the
five points of Calvinism).
“…Well done thou good and faithful
servant…” (Matt. 25:21).
Bernard R. DeRemer chronicled the lives of
dozens of heroes of the faith in more than a
decade of writing for Pulpit Helps Magazine.
He continues to serve in this capacity as a
volunteer contributor to Disciple. He lives in
West Liberty, Ohio.
References: Who Was Who in Church
History, by Elgin S. Moyer, excerpts used by
permission of Moody Publishers; Wikipedia,
“Jonathan Dickinson (New Jersey)”.
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Advancing the Ministries
of the Gospel
Foolish Wisdom: Media Evangelism
By AMG International Staff
“We preach Christ crucified, to Jews
a stumbling block and to Gentiles
foolishness, but to those who are the called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God. Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men”
(1 Cor. 1:23-25).
As we at AMG partner with you to
fulfill our mission to evangelize and make
disciples around the world, a lot of what we
do must look very strange to those outside
the Body of Christ. Of course, some of our
ministries among the impoverished and
outcast are appreciated even by nonbelievers, but even then, many would rather
that we dropped the “religious reasons” for
doing good humanitarian things.
No, the work of the Gospel to which
we have been called will always be
“foolishness” and “a stumbling block” to the
world. We know, however, that “the
foolishness of God is wiser than men,” and
so, with your help, we continue in obedience
to Him.
The world calls us foolish for
expecting Muslim villagers in Indonesia to
turn to follow Christ because a young man
comes to town proclaiming God’s Word, but
we see that happening all the time through
AMG-trained church planters there. They
call us foolish for expecting a young girl
living in the streets of Guatemala City,
Kampala, or Manila to be made whole
through Christ and grow up to be a leader
among her people, but we often hear stories
of this through our childcare ministries.
The Gospel through Media
As the world sees what we do,
nothing looks sillier than media
evangelism. It is foolishness to expect a
short Gospel message placed in a
newspaper, magazine, website, or billboard
to catch someone’s eye and prompt them to
correspond with a Christian to learn the truth
and follow Jesus, yet this is precisely what
we see happening all over the world through
media evangelism.
At AMG, we have always used the
media technologies available to us to
proclaim the Good News as widely as
possible, whether through advertisements,
through publishing Bibles, books, and
Gospel tracts, or through radio. Each of
these methods is focused on getting the
Gospel of Christ to those who might never
normally approach a Christian and who
might otherwise never hear it, including
many in countries that prohibit or restrict
public Christian ministry activity.
Why do we continue pursuing such
foolish work, spreading the scandalous
message of Christ crucified in print, on the
web, and over the airwaves? First, because,
like the Apostle Paul, we desire to “do all
things for the sake of the Gospel,” exploring
many ways to proclaim it, so that God
through us might “by all means save some”
(Rom. 9:22-23). Second, we do it because
it works and it does so very costeffectively. We continually see men,
women, and children reached with the truth
and lives transformed by Christ through this
ministry.
Sometimes that fruit is shown very
quickly; at other times, we may never know
the impact a simple Gospel ad or broadcast
may have for the Kingdom of God. Recently,
we received a powerful testimony from
Nikos Papaioannou, a Greek-American who
encountered Christ through AMG’s
newspaper evangelism shortly after coming
to America as a young man in the 1960s.
“Reading [AMG’s ad column in New
York’s Greek newspaper], a great revolution
started in me. This little message of the
Gospel stirred my soul and instantly caused
me such guilt in my conscience and such
anxiety that I could not rest.
“All week I could not find peace and
serenity in my soul until the newspaper
came again. This time with great joy I found
and read again the [column]…and wrote to
request a free New Testament. In a week’s
time the New Testament arrived and I
started reading it eagerly. As I was reading,
the Evil One came to tempt me. I needed
help, so I prayed, saying, “My God, show me
how [these mysteries] are so.”
“When I got up next morning I
remembered that I had left my N.T. under
the tree. During the night, there had been a
big storm and the rain had destroyed the
newspaper and a magazine I had also left
outside. But here is the great miracle—the
New Testament was not affected at all. Not
even a drop on it! I gave my heart to Christ
and He became my Savior, blessed forever.”
As Nikos’ testimony shows, God will
use any means necessary to bring those He
calls to repentance and faith. Will you join
with us in running after foolishness for
Christ’s sake? Advertising space, web
hosting, printing correspondence materials,
and maintaining field staff for these efforts
do have significant costs. Your gifts make
the work of media evangelism possible—
we proclaim the Gospel on your behalf,
using what you provide to touch lives in
many nations. Through this “folly”, God’s
power is displayed through lives transformed
by Christ!
To learn more about AMG’s media
evangelism around the world and how you
can partner with us, please
visit www.amginternational.org or call 1-800251-7206.
Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel
(AMG) International is a nondenominational, international missions
agency based in Chattanooga, Tenn. AMG’s
distinctive has always been its reliance on
national workers to carry the Gospel in their
own cultures. Today, they operate ministries
in over 30 countries around the world
through partnership with national believers.
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Marks of the Master
by the Old Scot
The Beauty of Death
Originally published in Pulpit Helps,
November 2009.
Each autumn, there’s a blaze on the
hillsides. No, not fire, but flame-tinged trees,
glorious with color in the bright sun. How
those masses of bright leaves make our
hearts sing with the joy of living!
Yet those vivid hues of red and
orange and yellow are evidences not of life,
but of death. The leaves—which seemingly
only yesterday were busy factories,
converting the energy of sunlight into food
for the tree—have shut down. Gone is all the
green chlorophyll which worked its everyday
magic. Gone is the rich tree sap, returned
with its stored food to the branches and
main trunk, to sustain life beneath the woody
barricades of bark during the cold and dark
of winter.
What triggers this great change?
Some combination of shorter days and
colder temperatures informs the parent
broadleaf tree that it is time to make ready
for freezing temperatures. The tree
responds by sending a mysterious message
to each of its thousands of leaves. This
command not only causes each leaf to
empty itself; it also calls for the formation of
a special layer of barrier cells at the stem
end of each leaf. This layer of cells acts as a
pre-formed “scab” for the connecting twig.
When the leaf tears loose and falls, the
wound will not “bleed,” because the barrier
cells will act as a cap.
And with the passing of the season of
life and purpose for each leaf, a marvel is
revealed: gorgeous hues of amber, orange,
or crimson, which in many cases were
present from the leaves’ earliest days, but
were masked by the green of the
chlorophyll. In some types of trees, however,
red pigment is created in the leaves by the
action of the sun on the plant sugars, as a
part of the shutting-down process. But in
every case, the appearance of the showy
color signals the approach of death.
God created each leaf to make its
contribution to the good of the tree, and
during its life everything else was
subordinated to that task. Only at its death
does its true beauty appear—and how like
that is to the life of many a child of God!
Christians on earth wear the many
workday hues of ordinary life. They stub
their toes, they catch colds, they grow
weary; their feet hurt (and sometimes their
heads); they get cranky, they make
mistakes; sometimes they feel useless and
unimportant; and they get old. Yet all the
while, a transformation is going on inside,
which will in its own time burst forth into a
glorious individual made in the image of its
Maker and Redeemer.
The Apostle Paul long ago set forth
all there is to know, here below, about the
spiritual body which is to come: “But
someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised
up? And with what body do they come?’
Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive
unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not
sow that body that shall be, but mere
grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.
But God gives it a body as He pleases...” (1
Cor. 15:35-38).
While we can see merely with our
physical eyes, we can no more comprehend
this than the tree can know that someday
spring will again bring blue skies and warm
sunny days. We simply know that death is a
doorway through which we must pass, in
order to come to that better life awaiting us,
in the presence of our God and Savior.
And that is what faith is all about.
The Old Scot (Ted Kyle) served as
managing editor for Pulpit Helps magazine
(Disciple’s predecessor publication) from
1993-2008. He was always fascinated by
the natural world, and readily saw God’s
hand in every detail. Ted went to be with His
Creator and Savior in April 2013.
Sources:
Ingenious Kingdom, Henry and Rebecca
Northen; Encyclopedia Britannica.
Table of Contents
___________________________________
Book Review—April 2014
Fallen: A Theology of Sin, Christopher W.
Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, editors,
2013, Crossway, Wheaton, Ill., ISBN
9781433522123, 291 pages, $19.99,
softcover.
Perhaps the hardest task of
evangelism in the modern West is not in
calling men and women to turn to Christ but
rather drawing them to recognize their own
sinfulness. The Gospel is only good news if
we see the depth of our depravity and, thus,
our need for forgiveness. Fallen winsomely
rises to this task, giving Christians the
resources to discuss sin biblically and
thoughtfully.
Part of the Theology in Community
series, Fallen brings together accomplished
writers and thinkers, including D. A. Carson
and Douglas J. Moo, to shed light on this
key (yet too often neglected) area of
Scriptural teaching.
Over 11 chapters, the contributors
explore what God’s Word teaches about our
sin and its consequences and also address
contemporary application.
Carson opens the volume with the
rationale for its writing, speaking to the
universal nature of sin and the pressing
urgency for Churches to understand it well
and teach on it thoroughly.
Paul R. House devotes two chapters
to unpacking the Old Testament
understanding of sin, first from the Mosaic
Law, and then from the histories, prophets,
and poetic books. Robert W. Yarborough
adds a chapter on the understanding of sin
(and its critical impact on how we
understand the Gospel) in the New
Testament, and Moo’s contribution focuses
specifically on the subject in Paul’s letters.
Christopher Morgan gives a thorough
overview of the way man’s sinfulness is
threaded through the entire biblical
narrative, and Gerald Bray traces the ways
theologians have wrestled with and defined
sin through two thousand years of Church
history.
John W. Mahony considers how to
bring these biblical and theological insights
to bear on the contemporary world and fit
today’s twisted morality into these historical
categories.
Sydney H.T. Page gives a
philosophical explanation of sin, teasing out
the responsibilities of Satan and man in
bringing evil into the world and the role of sin
in coherent theodicy.
David B. Calhoun’s chapter on the
distinction between sin and temptation offers
a personal application of this theology for
spiritual growth. Bryan Chappell closes the
book with a ringing portrait of the beauty of
the Gospel expressed in God’s call for (and
miraculous acceptance of) our repentance
from sin.
This academic but engaging work is
prophetically timely, as our world (and, too
often, the Church) continually seeks to
assuage its guilt by defining down sin. Fallen
brings mankind’s depravity to the fore,
showing clearly our great need for a Great
Savior. It should prove to be an excellent
resource for pastors and Bible teachers to
equip their churches and students to
address the most pressing problems of
today’s world with biblical accuracy and
Gospel compassion.
Justin Lonas
Target: Pastors/Teachers
Type: Theology/Hamartiology
Take: Highly Recommended
Table of Contents
___________________________________
News Update—April 2014
David Cameron Urged to Raise
Blasphemy Law Concerns with Pakistan
Pakistani Christians in Britain have
pleaded with Prime Minister David Cameron
to do more for victims of Pakistan’s stringent
blasphemy laws.
Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the
British Pakistani Christian Association,
raised his concerns during a meeting with
the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.
The call is timely as this week an appeal
hearing against the death sentence of
Christian mother Asia Bibi for blasphemy
was delayed by the Pakistani courts for the
third time. Mr Chowdhry said the Prime
Minister had indicated he would raise the
issue of the blasphemy laws with Pakistan’s
President Mamnoon Hussein during a
forthcoming visit.
“Mr Cameron’s promised efforts on
behalf of the victims of Pakistan’s
blasphemy laws is welcome news,” said Mr
Chowdhry. “However, against this we must
not underestimate the deeply entrenched
support for the blasphemy laws.... We look
forward to hearing what response Mr
Cameron receives.”
Pakistan is one of the harshest
places on earth for Christians, with churches
and Christian neighborhoods the victim of
bombings and mob attacks. Christian girls
are often abducted and forced to convert to
Islam and marry their abductors. Many
Pakistani Christians work in the lowest paid
jobs because of their faith.
Christian Today
Baptist Church Leaders Spark
Revitalization Movement in Response to
Decline
Southern Baptist church leaders are
coming together to organize a revitalization
movement in response to the large numbers
of Baptist congregations that are closing
their doors. Joshua Hedger, director of the
Center for Church Planting at Midwestern
Seminary told the Christian Post, “Churches
are closing in large part because they have
either become disconnected from culture
and/or disconnected from scripture. When
this happens, life leaves the church.”
In recent years, 800 to 1,000 Baptist
churches close on an annual basis, and the
revitalization campaign will move to stop the
crisis. The movement not only opens new
churches, but also breathes new life into
older congregations by changing the
leadership.
The revitalization process can come
in many forms. “In some cases, a simple
change in leadership and culture takes
place. Some fully shut down and allow a
new church to take over their facilities,
assets, and people. Others find themselves
anywhere between those two extremes,”
Hedger said.
Some churches also must deal with
past issues including “problems caused by
members who embodied the works of the
flesh” said Dr. Rodney Harrison, a former
revitalization pastor. Harrison explained that
this part of the procedure can be more
painful due to churches not addressing
these issues previously.
Christian Headlines
Judge Orders Ohio to Recognize Out-ofState Homosexual “Marriages”
U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black
ruled that Ohio must recognize same-sex
marriages performed outside of state limits,
despite a 2004 citizen vote defining
marriage as between one man and one
woman. The judge was appointed to make
the decision by President Barack Obama.
The ruling, which was decided
Monday, means that homosexual couples
married outside Ohio will be considered
legally married, though the state has not
legalized such “marriages”, reports Christian
News. The ruling does not require the state
of Ohio to permit homosexual “marriages”.
Black’s ruling said, “Ohio’s marriage
recognition bans are facially unconstitutional
and unenforceable under any
circumstances. The record before this
court...is staggeringly devoid of any
legitimate justification for the state’s ongoing
arbitrary discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation.”
“When a state effectively terminates
the marriage of a same-sex couple married
in another jurisdiction by refusing to
recognize the marriage, that state unlawfully
intrudes into the realm of private marital,
family, and intimate relations specifically
protected by the Supreme Court.”
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine
is planning an appeal to the ruling on
account of the public’s 2004 vote against
expanding the definition of marriage in the
state. Governor John Kasich is in support of
the appeal according to spokesman Rob
Nichols.
Christian Headlines
Pastor Banned from Feeding Homeless
because He Lacks Permit
Every other Saturday Rick Wood
delivers hundreds of hot dogs and bottles of
water to homeless people in need. But the
people who rely on Wood’s generosity may
soon be left empty-handed.
Wood, who is a pastor at the Lord’s
House of Prayer in Oneonta, Ala., has been
feeding the homeless for the past six years
without a glitch. But, last month, the city told
Wood that he had to halt his mission
because it had passed an ordinance that
regulates food trucks, Think Progress
reported. Though the ordinance pertains
specifically to retailers, the city said that it
still applies to Wood and that he has to
obtain a $500 permit in order to continue
helping the homeless.
But Wood has vowed to continue his
service, like many other advocates who
have faced similar bureaucratic measures.
Last December, Churches on the Street—a
mobile ministry in St. Louis—was ordered to
stop serving hot food to the homeless until it
secured a permit, an expense that would
cost the small-scale operation $150 to $300
annually, the Riverfront Times reported. And
last summer, members of Love Wins
Ministries, an organization that feeds
breakfast to anyone in need on weekends in
Raleigh, N.C., when no soup kitchens are
open, were threatened with arrests if they
didn’t cease their service.
Huffington Post
Rwandan Genocide Remembered after 20
Years
April marks the 20th anniversary of
the horrifying Rwandan genocide. Over
800,000 Rwandan civilians were killed, and
the country still feels the effects of the terror
today.
Civil war between the Hutu-led
government and the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic
Front, the majority of the country’s
population. After the death of President
Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6 1994,
Hutus broke out in riots, the beginning of
100 days of genocide reports Christian
Today.
Samaritan’s Purse Vice President of
programs and government relations Ken
Isaacs travelled to Rwanda during the
genocide to give aid to survivors and spoke
of his experience. “Death is always a
horrible thing, but death perpetuated by the
unbridled darkness in the heart of man is
something beyond horrible; it’s dark and evil.
I’ve never seen anything compared to that
kind of atrocity, and I hope to never again.”
Samaritan’s Purse ran the refugee
camps in Tanzania and Rutare during the
genocide, giving survivors medical attention,
food and water. The organization also
reopened the Kigali hospital after its medical
personnel were either killed or evacuated.
Louis Muvunyi, Bishop of Kigali said
that the nation is still struggling to improve
its education, healthcare and poverty level
with the assistance of Samaritan’s Purse.
“There is hope: for the future, for survivors,
for victims and for the perpetrators,”
Muvunyi said.
Christian Headlines
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___________________________________
Sermon Helps
from www.sermonhall.com
Sermon Outlines
What Every Mother Wants Her Children
to Know
Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6
Intro.: Our roles in life, as men and women,
fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters
are dictated by two factors: 1) our federal
disobedience in Adam and Eve, and 2) our
daily disobedience in our daily lives! Man
cannot change this; not with all his
resources over all time; nor can society,
race, nationality, law, education, family or
wealth!
Foundational Inquiry: If Eve could tell us,
what would she want all of her children to
know?
I. God’s Commandments Are Not Just for
Hearing, but for Obeying!
II. God’s Commandments May Not Make
Sense to Man, but They Don’t Have to!
III. God’s Commandments, When
Disobeyed, Carry Grave Consequences!
Application: Were Eve here now, she would
try to convince you she made a horrible
mistake. She would try to demonstrate that,
every day, Satan is doing to you just what
he did to her—he’s singing the same old
song: “Indeed, has God said, ’You shall
not...?’” (Gen. 3:1). Mothers take note:
Satan, like wolves in the pasture, isn’t after
the mature sheep, those who fight back and
wear “the full armor of God,” he’s after your
little lambs, those who depend on you to
know better and to teach them!
J. A. Gillmartin
Christian Relationships
Philippians 1
Intro.: Many years ago in Korea, I saw a
woman place a paper in a crack in the wall.
It was a prayer to Buddha. The woman was
sincere but there was no personal
relationship. Later I saw a Christian praying.
I saw no written paper or heard no spoken
prayer, but I could understand there was a
relationship between the person praying and
God. Personal relationships make the
Christian faith unique.
I. Christian Believers Enjoy Unique
Relationships with One Another
A. They have fellowship in the Gospel
(v. 7).
1. In the common source of
their salvation
(v. 2).
2. In joyous prayer for one
another (vv. 34).
3. In love for one another (vv.
5-8).
B. They have fellowship in their
activities.
1. In growth in sincere spiritual
state (vv. 910).
2. In growth in understanding
life (vv. 1118).
II. Christian Believers Enjoy a Unique
Relationship with God
A. The basis of all blessings is in
God.
1. Grace and peace (v. 2).
2. Love (v. 8).
3. Fruits (v. 11).
B. The basis of all security is in God.
1. God begins the work of
salvation (v. 6).
2. God will complete the work
of salvation
(v. 6).
3. God uses personal
relationships (vv. 1219).
Conc.: God is offering you a personal
relationship. This was the desire of Paul
(Phil. 3:10) and the promise of Jesus (Rev.
3:20). Will you enter into this personal
relationship and let fellowship deepen?
R. G. Witty
Illustrations
What Do You Want Your Child To Be?
“And all your sons will be taught of
the Lord; and the well being of your sons will
be great” (Is. 54:13). Every parent should
have a dream for his or her children. Here
are three things to consider.
You announce what you want your
child to be by what you teach him. It is not
the church’s responsibility to teach your
children. It is yours as a mother and father.
One man had been in a non-Sunday School
congregation. When asked why, he said,
“We did not object to classes. What we were
afraid of was that parents would quit
teaching at home.” Was he right?
You announce what you want your
child to be by the example you set. It is
amazing how some parents put the ball
games, camping trips, and fishing trips
above attending worship, and then are
amazed that their children leave the church.
Someone wrote, “What you are thunders so
loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
You announce what you want your
child to be by the plans you make for
him. Your children know if something is
really important to you. Have you been
saying from the time they started school,
“Now make good grades so that someday
you can go to college.” They know how
important that is to you. Have you
encouraged them to be a preacher, a
missionary, Bible school teacher, elder,
etc.? By your plans, you have told them
what you think is important.
Anonymous
Not Eatin’, Just Holdin’
Johnny asked his mother, “Can I
have some cookies, Mom?” Looking at the
clock, she replied, “Not now! It is too close to
dinner!”
About ten minutes later, Mother
entered the kitchen. There was Johnny up
on the counter with his arm in the cookie jar
clear up to his elbow. “I thought I just told
you, ‘No cookies till dinner!’” Johnny’s
mother fumed. “Well, Mom, I’m not eaten’ no
cookies! I’m just holdin’ some!”
Each of us has some point of
vulnerability. It may be a problem with
alcohol, or sensuous lusts, or a desire to
gamble even to the point of cheating. We
often compound our problems by putting
ourselves into untenable positions and
precipitous situations. Johnny would have
had a much easier time if he had avoided
the cookie jar. We would not fail so often if
we avoided places where we would be
subject to temptations. Let us cease giving
the flesh easy opportunities!
Anonymous
Bulletin Inserts
On Family
The family altar would alter many a family.
If your children look up to you, you’ve made
a success of life’s biggest job.
In “wedding” the “we” comes before the “I”.
A mother’s love is the nearest thing on earth
to God’s love.
These four anonymous
The most important thing a father can do for
his children is to love their mother.”
Theodore M. Hesburgh
A little explained, a little endured, a little
forgiven, and the quarrel is cured.
Just about the time a mother thinks her work
is done—she becomes a grandmother!
These two via the Old Union Reminder
The main problem in our society is that
people are expected to raise children in their
spare time.
The Book of Living Quotations
It is a wise parent who knows his own child.
Shakespeare
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and
do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
Proverbs 1:8
Table of Contents
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Puzzles and ‘Toons
Church ‘Toons by Joe McKeever
Answers to last issue’s puzzles:
Father Abraham and Hidden Wisdom
By Mark Oshman
Originally published in Pulpit Helps, April
1998
On Following Pages
Table of Contents