Powerful Lessons

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind.  

She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend.   He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend,  

'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.' 

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her.  

When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her,  'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?'  

The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift

 

Today

before you say an unkind word

Think of someone who can't speak.

Before

you complain about the taste of your food

Think of someone who has nothing to eat.


Before

you complain about your husband or wife

Think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion.


Today
before you complain about life

Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before

you complain about your children

Think of someone who desires children but they're barren.

Before

you argue about your dirty house someone didn't clean or sweep

Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before

whining about the distance you drive and the traffic you’re in,

Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when

you are tired and complain about your job 

Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

But

before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another

 Remember that not one of us is without sin.

And when

depressing thoughts seem to get you down

Put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and still around.

Evaluating a Sermon

This evaluation is to be used to identify strengths and weaknesses for preachers and their messages. The questions are divided into two main categories: faithfulness and communication. Dr. Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, is credited for the original thoughts for these categories.

We use this form to evaluate Acts 29 and Mars Hill sermons preached....(continue reading)
A blog post from http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/characteristics-of-good-preaching/

The father who Hides Behind the Computer Screen

While preparing for my coming message on some of the distorted concepts of God that affect how we view ourselves and how that affect our relationships with others, I came upon a devotional passage in an issue in Every Day With Jesus by the late Selwyn Hughes, way back in the year 1997.

In that passage, it is written of a story of a lady who pictured God as Someone who always sits behind a newspaper. This has been influenced by the fact that her earthly father sat and read newspaper all the time. And that could have resulted in her thinking that in her father's point of view, newspapers was more important than her.

 

As I read that, I was thinking...how could someone do like that? I told myself, I will never do like that!! Never! Then, suddenly, out of a still small voice, the Holy Spirit convicted upon me, "Yes, you may not be holding and reading the newspaper all the time, but you are certainly hiding behind the computer screen all the time!" That convicted me there and then! I knew I was wrong! Yes, I may not be holding a newspaper, but that because I am using an e-newspaper, and I am hiding behind the computer screen all the time, sending out a message to my children that computers are more important to me than they are! I repented. Often, it is easy to see the mistakes of others, but not of ourselves.

20 Non-Preaching Websites for Better Preaching

A great article from Sermon Central Website with links to good non-preaching resources.......

20 Non-Preaching Websites for Better Preaching

Toni Ridgaway
Content Editor, SermonCentral.com


I just love pastors; they amaze me. Watching a person who can skillfully interpret a message from the mouth of God invariably fills me with awe and a deep desire to worship. My calling is not to preach myself, but rather to support those who undergo the regular spiritual and emotional wrestling matches of producing sermons worthy of the great I Am.

For more than 10 years, I served as staff research assistant to our preaching pastor. His job was to study the Word; mine was to support him with relevant illustrations, facts, data, and imagery to help him better articulate the Word. Since I can't act as personal research assistant to every pastor in the SermonCentral community (although I admit I’d enjoy it!), please accept this gift of 20 website links that might help you in your sermon preparation. These sites have no specific intent to help in sermon preparation, but they do provide great imagery, illustration support, background data, how-tos, cultural applications, and just plain inspiration for better preaching.


Click here for further reading.......

Book Review: Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow by Dr. R.C. Sproul

Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow is a simple, practical book by Dr. R.C. Sproul, that, as the book titled, every Christian needs to read, apply and grow in. Sandwiched within the six chapters, the author injects some very challenging, thought-provoking and Biblical exhortations throughout the entire text. The five things that the author speaks about are bible study, prayer, worship, service and stewardship.

In the chapter on bible study, the author started off with some very encouraging testimonies both of himself (including one on how he was so "infatuated" with the Scripture) as well as the testimonies of those close around him. He then proceeded to talk about the conversion of Augustine and Martin Luther through the Word of God.

The Bible should serve as a mirror for us to reflect on the conditions of our soul. To quote the author: "If I don’t like something I read in Scripture, perhaps I simply don’t understand it. If so, studying it again may help. If, in fact, I do understand the passage and still don’t like it, this is not an indication there is something wrong with the Bible. It’s an indication that something is wrong with me, something that needs to change. Often, before we can get something right, we need to first discover what we’re doing wrong."

I was also particularly challenged in the part where the author said that:

"As helpful as these study aids (e.g. study bibles, commentaries, etc) can be, it is important to remember the purpose behind our study. We must read the Bible existentially; that is, we must become involved in Bible Study what we’re reading. We must not just sit back as spectators, learning facts while remaining untouched and unmoved by the text of Scripture. We must ask ourselves what the Word is saying to us as we read. Only by considering this question will be come to the completeness Paul longed to see in Timothy."

Often if we are not careful, we can treat bible studies and bible readings as a form of academic exercise, a form of chore and routine that we need to complete as part of our daily life. We may have a lot of head knowledge, but little heart conversion.

The last section on the first chapter contains some helpful practical tips on how to study the bible as well as a list of recommended tools.

The second chapter of the book delves with the subject of prayer. In that chapter, the author elaborated on the practical aspects on praying the Lord's Prayer. The author compared prayer to the love letters written by two people who are in love. They write the letters not because they have to, but because they want to. They are passionate, affectionate and take delight in each other.

In the chapter on worship, the author reminds the readers that we need to come to God on His terms, not our terms. He gave us a grim reminder in the story of the sudden death of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, as recorded in Leviticus 10:1-3. Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

The author then reminded us that often we are prone to select the attributes of God that we love like mercy, grace, kindness, blessings but we conveniently put aside other biblical attributes of God that we find distasteful, such as His sovereignty, holiness, justice, and wrath, and toss them aside. In other words, we create and worship a god who is not God; and that is idolism!

In the fourth chapter on service, the author stated that service is not an optional aspect of the Christian life. All believers are called to be servants of God.

However, as the author has elucidated, we need to be clear of our motives for serving. Service is not a means to earn God's favor and merit for our salvation. Rather, the motivation for Christian service is love for God. We serve not to earn salvation, but because Christ already has purchased salvation for us. And it should be our delight to obey God. We should be motivated to serve Him out of joy for what He has done for us.

The author admitted that the greatest weakness in the church today is that many pastors keep looking for approval of men. As the author said, "But as soon as pastors become slaves to human opinion, trying to please human beings instead of God, the message of Christ is compromised. No man-pleaser preaches the whole counsel of God."

The final chapter deals on stewardship. In this chapter, the author exhorted the readers on the importance of giving. Nevertheless, I personally find that the contents in this chapter are rather simplistic than what I have expected. Although the author did say that giving should be an act of worship, yet he should have delved more on this aspect of the motive of giving. For example, I find it rather disturbing in some churches where tithing is exhorted as if like a form of investment with the promise of financial blessings as returns for the "investment" they have put in. Pay the tithe, and God will bless you with more money in return. Refuse to tithe, and God will punish you.

Giving ten percent of income probably is not hard for the very rich ones, for to them, that could simply be a paltry sum. It may also give them a false sense of assurance that they are obeying God and that God is now under the obligation to bless them back in abundance! But how about the very poor, where they are really struggling to make ends need, where they are living from paycheck to paycheck? For someone where every penny counts, does that mean that this person is living under the curse of God? Shall we squeeze out that 10% from him too, or shall we, as a church, bless him by helping him out of his financial rut?

This conclusion chapter on Questions and Answers also contains a point which I find it hard to agree with the author. In that chapter, the author said:

"So I always assume that there are people in worship services who are unconverted, who have never really come to Christ. For that reason, in my sermons I often direct my comments specifically to unconverted people, admonishing, warning, exhorting, and so on, calling them to faith in Jesus Christ. However, I never use the term invitation because I think it is utterly unbiblical. I don’t see where God invites people to come to Christ. Rather, God commands people to come. When you get an invitation to an event, you usually can decline it with impunity. But you can’t decline the call of the gospel with impunity. If you decline that call, you seal your eternal damnation."

Although man is totally helpless and depraved when it comes to eternal salvation, how else would they know that God's salvation is available to them if they are not "invited"? And although that they may have "declined" the invitation at the current stage, the gospel seed has been sown and they may accept Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior at the later part of their life. Nevertheless, I agree with the author that in our zeal to get converts, we may end up having a lot of evangelistic statistics which are not very accurate.

In summary, this book is a great resource to have; it is practical as well as challenging, not just to young believers, but also as a good reminder to matured believers of what it means to be a Christ's disciple.

My Reflections on Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow by Dr. R.C. Sproul (Part 9)

Conclusion Chapter

'Raising a hand never got anyone into the kingdom of God. Saying the sinner’s prayer doesn’t automatically change anyone’s heart. The only way to be saved is through faith in Christ alone, and no preacher can manufacture that.'

But in our zeal to win people, we do anything we can to get people up and out of their chairs. Then we end up with “evangelistic statistics,” which usually aren’t very accurate or helpful.

Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow, R.C. Sproul

This conclusion chapter is where I have trouble accepting a point that Dr. R.C. Sproul has raised.
This is what he said:

"So I always assume that there are people in worship services who are unconverted, who have never really come to Christ. For that reason, in my sermons I often direct my comments specifically to unconverted people, admonishing, warning, exhorting, and so on, calling them to faith in Jesus Christ. However, I never use the term invitation because I think it is utterly unbiblical. I don’t see where God invites people to come to Christ. Rather, God commands people to come. When you get an invitation to an event, you usually can decline it with impunity. But you can’t decline the call of the gospel with impunity. If you decline that call, you seal your eternal damnation."

Although man is totally helpless and depraved when it comes to eternal salvation, how would they know that God's salvation is available to them if they are not invited? Yes, although I agree with Dr. R.C. Sproul that in our zeal to get converts, we end up having a lot of evangelistic statistics which are not very accurate, but isn't it in the Bible also that the invitation for people to come to God is opened to all?

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12 NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NIV)

My Reflections on Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow by Dr. R.C. Sproul (Part 8)

Stewardship

'Giving should be an act of worship.'

'The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). God is the author of all things, the Creator of all things, and the owner of all things. Whatever God makes, He owns. What we own, we own as stewards who have been given gifts from God Himself. God has the ultimate ownership of all of our “possessions.” He has loaned these things to us and expects us to manage them in a way that will honor and glorify Him.'

'The word that is translated “stewardship” in the Bible is the Greek word oikonomia, from which we get our word economy. It is two distinct words joined together to create a new word: oikos, which comes from the Greek word for house, and nomos, the Greek word for law. The word that is translated “stewardship” literally means “house law” or “house rule.” '

'If we spend our money on one thing, we cannot spend them on something else. (Therefore we need to be good stewards on how we spend every penny)'

'It seems, however, that very few Christians believe the tithe still applies. A poll of people claiming to be evangelical Christians indicated that only 4 percent of them tithe. A similar poll indicated that the average percentage of income evangelical Christians give to God’s work is less than 2.5 percent. If the tithe principle is still in effect and the polls are accurate, then 96 percent of professing evangelical Christians are systematically robbing God.'

'He (God) understood market economics, wherein the marketplace establishes the “value” of goods and services. He knew that, left to themselves, people value doctors, business entrepreneurs, and even entertainers more highly than ministers or educators.'

'However, a minister who is being underpaid can hardly help but conclude that people do not appreciate his work. Because I work with so many pastors, I know that many of them experience a profound sense of discouragement because they feel that people do not appreciate
their labor." '

Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow, R.C. Sproul

Again, as in the case of service, the motive behind is very important. If a believer tithes out of a personal decision or conviction,that is good.

This tithing issue has to be handled in a balanced manner and should not be handled in a simplistic manner. Tithing becomes a problem when it is forced upon, or coerced upon.

Tithing should also not be seen as a form of "Christian stock investment", by using the promise of financial blessings as a form of returns for the "investment" they have put in. Pay the tithe, and God will give you more money in return. Refuse to tithe, and God will punish you.

This is not hard at all for the very rich ones. To a very rich man, 10% is simply a paltry sum. It may also give him a false sense of assurance that they are obeying God and that God is now under the obligation to bless them back in abundance!

How about the very poor? How about those who really can't give at all where they are really struggling to make ends need, where they are living from paycheck to paycheck? For someone where every penny counts? Does that mean that this person is living under the curse of God? Shall we squeeze out that 10% from him too?

So, my personal view is that, while the 10% should serve as a guide, it should never be used to inflict guilt upon someone that if they are giving less than 10% or not giving tithes at all, they are living under the abundance of God. The blessings of God are much more than just financial gains - it includes good health, good family support, the ability to laugh, etc.

Tithing should also not be viewed as a litmus test for discipleship. This is especially so if the very rich who gives a lot to the church is made to head the church council board, to be made an elder, etc, etc.