One more comment regarding Joe who said that Jesus did not put much emphasis on weekly worship. First, Scripture gives no indication that Jesus missed Sabbath worship. Often it indicates that he was invited to speak in the synogogue on the sabbath. Second, Jesus often had his own worship, with many more people than would fit in a regular synogogue. And his sermons were better too. He spoke with authority. Third, Jesus did say that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. But that does not mean he was suggesting that everyone should just do whatever they did every other day of the week. The fact that the Sabbath was made for man, meant it was a gift to man. A gift to be used for what it was intended, not a gift to be squandered and wasted. Many people squander and waste the sabbath on their own selfish desires, on their own false gods of money, or business, or recreation, concerts, meetings, vacation, and organized sports. For some, only a thin thread keeps them connected to the path that Jesus wants us to follow Him on.
Bev, in response to your hint for more official recognition of prayer and prophecy. It has been said that influence often has more impact than "authority". Of course, authority is required... someone must make some decisions. But influence can change the direction of those decisions. Thus often wives without direct authority still influence decisions of their husbands in very dramatic and significant ways. Consider Obama saying that he was influenced to flipflop on homo marriage due to influence of his wife and daughters. This is the practical side of whether it is important or not to sit at a particular table. If decision makers decide that the holy spirit is very important in prophecies, and that prophetic utterances ought to receive more attention, that might be interesting, but it won't gather much steam unless people trust them or accept them or feel that it is important. Another example is synod assessing ministry shares. They do that, but the churches donate about 70 some percent of those shares (I believe). Influence on the relative significance of synod's authority has more imact than the actual authority of synod itself.
Why do I say this? It is because if you really want to have an impact about the importance of prayer, and really want to highlight the possibility and significance of prohetic utterances and spiritual vision, then you have an unprecedented opportunity to do so on various electronic forums. This probably reaches more people than a table at synod, and in a more effective manner. People who respond and listen are more likely to change than those councils and administrators who toss correspondence into the garbage because there is already too much to deal with. Changing practices and understanding from the ground up is likely to be more effective than trying to change it from the top down. Invariably by the time it is changed from the top down (although we shouldn't call synod the top), it has already been majorly changed at the working level. In my opinion.
A prayer conference in Los Angelos or Sacramento does not require the approval of synod, for example. Nor will it necessarily be more effective if it does get that endorsement. Keep in mind also, that particular methods of ministry, or of prayer, may not be the guage of success. It may simply be the amount of time we spend as individuals, and the attitude of prayer that prevails in all our ordinary daily activities. It may be the cumulation of a whole number of different methods and priorities. Carry on, Bev. The need for prayer and the need for us to search for the leading of the spirit is very great. Very great! We need all the encouragement we can get.
Shawn Ferrie has made an eloquent case for his position, and I agree with it, to my own surprise. Those who have been abused, and abusers themselves, are a small percentage of the population - they are somewhat marginalized. To marginalize even further those who are not members of the expected gender in these situations is a subtle form of abuse or addtional victimization in itself. Shawn makes clear that it is not the gender that is at stake, but the hearts and actions of the perpetrators and the humanity of the victims, and the grace of God.
A change is as good as a rest.... I would not say that a bible study or sunday school class should be regarded as work; most of the work is in preparing it ahead of time. If well prepared, then such an activity for the teacher is mostly just a good time in sharing the good news of Christ.
The purpose of Sabbath is not just to sleep all day; it is to spend special time getting closer to God. If Sunday school is too much work, while watching a football game, or playing scrabble, or reading a book, or going skating, or eating a sunday meal and doing dishes is not too much work, then it is not really about what is work and what is not, but it is about our priorities. It's like saying that warming up the car for your wife or bringing her a cup of coffee is too much work. No its not. It's about loving your wife and loving your God.
Most of us work 40 hours a week, five days a week. We get Sabbaths every day, and often two full days per week. Sometimes we fill it with other work, non-paid or sometimes paid work, but often we are just doing things for ourselves that we call recreation. When people use to work twelve or fourteen hours a day six days a week, the sabbath was a way of changing their activities to allow them to celebrate God and what He had done for them. In this era, we need to remember that the sabbath was a gift, yes to give us rest from the week's work, but mostly to spend time listening and fellowshipping with God and enjoying His goodness, unfettered by work responsibilities. Bible studies and sunday school and family devotions make the "rest" happen. Watching the NBA or the NFL does not.
I don't know where is an appropriate place or way on here to express appreciation for what Jerry Dykstra has done for the last five years for the CRC. I don't know him personally, nor do I know exactly the details of what he did, nor do I know whether or not I would agree with everything he did in all aspects. But at this point that doesn't really matter. I would like to express my appreciation for the time and energy and committment he made to this position and to this task. It is important that people accept the call of the Lord to provide leadership, and Jerry has done that. As far as I know, he has done that very well, and I admire and appreciate his optimism and positive attitude. I would think such a task is never easy even though it may also have many rewards. It may be possible that some of the rewards of such a job well done may come many years later, when a particular endeavor begun now finally comes to fruition. In any case, thanks for serving, Jerry Dykstra, thanks for serving the Lord, and may God bless you in your future works of ministry in His service!
Edward, David Brainerd's statement may have been his experience, but maybe it was the way he preached about Jesus crucified. We must always start with Jesus crucified, but also Jesus risen, and also spirit sent. In my own experience, I see people struggling with morality, reverence, patience, immoral behaviour, and how to follow Christ. And they are constantly looking for advice and teaching on it. I cannot forget either the statement in the book of Jude, which says "... they turned the grace of God into a license for immorality...". Paul talks in one of his epistles about going beyond the milk of the gospel (I Cor.3), and in Hebrews 5:11-14 " In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
George Whitfield was right of course, on the necessity of being born again in order to bring the gospel. Although I remember reading a story written by George Macdonald, about a preacher who became born again after he had been a preacher for several years, and yet God somehow used his messages to bring a parishioner to Christ. Still, the message grew in power much more after the preacher became a Christian, and although this was just a story, I believe it to be true.
Yes, surrendering at the cross is the first step, as you say. Too often people only surrender theoretically, saying they are sinners but unwilling to relinquish their sin, or even to name it. Sometimes they are like sinners without any sins. But the cross is not the last step; that's why Jesus sent His Spirit to be with us. After the cross, at which the disciples fled, they waited for Christ to return in His Spirit on Pentecost, and then it was that they could preach and witness and be bold and persevere and heal and suffer in joy.
But we also know soon after, about Annanias and Sapphira... had they denied the cross? had they denied the spirit? Were they simply innocently mistaken, that lying to the church in order to be accepted was okay? Today we have many Christians wanting to know how and how much money to give to the church, how to respect their husbands and love their wives, how to raise their children, how to teach sunday school and dayschool, how to manage sexual relations, how to dress, and how to speak as Christ followers. The desire to follow Christ is who Christians are, but sometimes we do things we don't want to do, as Paul the apostle said. And as a Christian community, we can help each other by using scripture and christian love, (and rebuke and discipline, as forms for baptism, prof of faith, ordinations, and scriptures say) to find better ways to serve and follow Christ. That is what His Spirit does through and in us.
One of the ways of refocussing priorities, is to evaluate how much time we spend on environmental and social issues compared to spiritual issues. When is the last time you saw an announcement about someone's spiritual growth or development in the bulletin, or a testimony about the power of prayer in the service, or a cry for help with the lifestyle or disobedience of a child, husband or neighbor, or a rejoicing in the communication and progress with a witnessing? Compare that to the announcements about choirs, bands, christian world renew, facilities, budgets, etc. Even renaming CRWRC to WR is counter intuitive to the mission goals and priorities of proclaiming the name of Christ, which has now been eliminated from this effort. Christ's kingdom is "not of this world", it is in this world, but it will not exist in our lives no matter what we do, if we do not first acknowledge Christ in what we do.
It's true, Verlyn that educated preaching is useful and beneficial. And I really appreciated your vignettes on various words and phrases. But sometimes the education doesn't seem to help because even the plain reading of scripture is ignored by the supposedly educated. We had a sermon not long ago on Galatians 5:16 to 6:5 (which is a beautiful passage). In the exposition the preacher ignored verse 19-21 and concentrated on 22. Then he threw in a statement to the effect, "don't judge", more or less without explaining it. So, he probably knows greek. But here we have a passage that distinguishes between acts of sinful nature and fruit of the spirit, and he says, "don't judge". The passage says to restore one caught in a sin, gently, but why would you restore him if you cannot first judge whether he is caught in a sin? So he didn't put "judging" into context, didn't explain how the apostle Peter basically condemned Annanias and Sapphira to death for lying, or how Paul constantly was advising, rebuking, admonishing, warning. "Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature" scripture says. (Paul wrote it). So this educated preacher did not distinguish between the judgement of discernment and the judgement of condemnation. Did he then ignore his Greek? or did he ignore the context?
Posted in: Twice (a Month) - the New Normal?
One more comment regarding Joe who said that Jesus did not put much emphasis on weekly worship. First, Scripture gives no indication that Jesus missed Sabbath worship. Often it indicates that he was invited to speak in the synogogue on the sabbath. Second, Jesus often had his own worship, with many more people than would fit in a regular synogogue. And his sermons were better too. He spoke with authority. Third, Jesus did say that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. But that does not mean he was suggesting that everyone should just do whatever they did every other day of the week. The fact that the Sabbath was made for man, meant it was a gift to man. A gift to be used for what it was intended, not a gift to be squandered and wasted. Many people squander and waste the sabbath on their own selfish desires, on their own false gods of money, or business, or recreation, concerts, meetings, vacation, and organized sports. For some, only a thin thread keeps them connected to the path that Jesus wants us to follow Him on.
Posted in: Twice (a Month) - the New Normal?
Scripture says it better than we do, doesn't it?
Posted in: Twice (a Month) - the New Normal?
Bev, in response to your hint for more official recognition of prayer and prophecy. It has been said that influence often has more impact than "authority". Of course, authority is required... someone must make some decisions. But influence can change the direction of those decisions. Thus often wives without direct authority still influence decisions of their husbands in very dramatic and significant ways. Consider Obama saying that he was influenced to flipflop on homo marriage due to influence of his wife and daughters. This is the practical side of whether it is important or not to sit at a particular table. If decision makers decide that the holy spirit is very important in prophecies, and that prophetic utterances ought to receive more attention, that might be interesting, but it won't gather much steam unless people trust them or accept them or feel that it is important. Another example is synod assessing ministry shares. They do that, but the churches donate about 70 some percent of those shares (I believe). Influence on the relative significance of synod's authority has more imact than the actual authority of synod itself.
Why do I say this? It is because if you really want to have an impact about the importance of prayer, and really want to highlight the possibility and significance of prohetic utterances and spiritual vision, then you have an unprecedented opportunity to do so on various electronic forums. This probably reaches more people than a table at synod, and in a more effective manner. People who respond and listen are more likely to change than those councils and administrators who toss correspondence into the garbage because there is already too much to deal with. Changing practices and understanding from the ground up is likely to be more effective than trying to change it from the top down. Invariably by the time it is changed from the top down (although we shouldn't call synod the top), it has already been majorly changed at the working level. In my opinion.
A prayer conference in Los Angelos or Sacramento does not require the approval of synod, for example. Nor will it necessarily be more effective if it does get that endorsement. Keep in mind also, that particular methods of ministry, or of prayer, may not be the guage of success. It may simply be the amount of time we spend as individuals, and the attitude of prayer that prevails in all our ordinary daily activities. It may be the cumulation of a whole number of different methods and priorities. Carry on, Bev. The need for prayer and the need for us to search for the leading of the spirit is very great. Very great! We need all the encouragement we can get.
Posted in: Is Your Teen Safe?
Shawn Ferrie has made an eloquent case for his position, and I agree with it, to my own surprise. Those who have been abused, and abusers themselves, are a small percentage of the population - they are somewhat marginalized. To marginalize even further those who are not members of the expected gender in these situations is a subtle form of abuse or addtional victimization in itself. Shawn makes clear that it is not the gender that is at stake, but the hearts and actions of the perpetrators and the humanity of the victims, and the grace of God.
Posted in: The Inbreaking Kingdom
Great story David!! Music coming not as performance for the group, but from within the group, from within the person!
Posted in: Monday, Monday
A change is as good as a rest.... I would not say that a bible study or sunday school class should be regarded as work; most of the work is in preparing it ahead of time. If well prepared, then such an activity for the teacher is mostly just a good time in sharing the good news of Christ.
The purpose of Sabbath is not just to sleep all day; it is to spend special time getting closer to God. If Sunday school is too much work, while watching a football game, or playing scrabble, or reading a book, or going skating, or eating a sunday meal and doing dishes is not too much work, then it is not really about what is work and what is not, but it is about our priorities. It's like saying that warming up the car for your wife or bringing her a cup of coffee is too much work. No its not. It's about loving your wife and loving your God.
Most of us work 40 hours a week, five days a week. We get Sabbaths every day, and often two full days per week. Sometimes we fill it with other work, non-paid or sometimes paid work, but often we are just doing things for ourselves that we call recreation. When people use to work twelve or fourteen hours a day six days a week, the sabbath was a way of changing their activities to allow them to celebrate God and what He had done for them. In this era, we need to remember that the sabbath was a gift, yes to give us rest from the week's work, but mostly to spend time listening and fellowshipping with God and enjoying His goodness, unfettered by work responsibilities. Bible studies and sunday school and family devotions make the "rest" happen. Watching the NBA or the NFL does not.
Posted in: The Story of the Briefcase
Congratulations, Peter Gordon!! Great changes during your life!
Posted in: The 'Resignation' of Our Executive Director
I don't know where is an appropriate place or way on here to express appreciation for what Jerry Dykstra has done for the last five years for the CRC. I don't know him personally, nor do I know exactly the details of what he did, nor do I know whether or not I would agree with everything he did in all aspects. But at this point that doesn't really matter. I would like to express my appreciation for the time and energy and committment he made to this position and to this task. It is important that people accept the call of the Lord to provide leadership, and Jerry has done that. As far as I know, he has done that very well, and I admire and appreciate his optimism and positive attitude. I would think such a task is never easy even though it may also have many rewards. It may be possible that some of the rewards of such a job well done may come many years later, when a particular endeavor begun now finally comes to fruition. In any case, thanks for serving, Jerry Dykstra, thanks for serving the Lord, and may God bless you in your future works of ministry in His service!
John Zylstra
Posted in: Defining the Main Thing
Edward, David Brainerd's statement may have been his experience, but maybe it was the way he preached about Jesus crucified. We must always start with Jesus crucified, but also Jesus risen, and also spirit sent. In my own experience, I see people struggling with morality, reverence, patience, immoral behaviour, and how to follow Christ. And they are constantly looking for advice and teaching on it. I cannot forget either the statement in the book of Jude, which says "... they turned the grace of God into a license for immorality...". Paul talks in one of his epistles about going beyond the milk of the gospel (I Cor.3), and in Hebrews 5:11-14 " In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
Posted in: Defining the Main Thing
George Whitfield was right of course, on the necessity of being born again in order to bring the gospel. Although I remember reading a story written by George Macdonald, about a preacher who became born again after he had been a preacher for several years, and yet God somehow used his messages to bring a parishioner to Christ. Still, the message grew in power much more after the preacher became a Christian, and although this was just a story, I believe it to be true.
Yes, surrendering at the cross is the first step, as you say. Too often people only surrender theoretically, saying they are sinners but unwilling to relinquish their sin, or even to name it. Sometimes they are like sinners without any sins. But the cross is not the last step; that's why Jesus sent His Spirit to be with us. After the cross, at which the disciples fled, they waited for Christ to return in His Spirit on Pentecost, and then it was that they could preach and witness and be bold and persevere and heal and suffer in joy.
But we also know soon after, about Annanias and Sapphira... had they denied the cross? had they denied the spirit? Were they simply innocently mistaken, that lying to the church in order to be accepted was okay? Today we have many Christians wanting to know how and how much money to give to the church, how to respect their husbands and love their wives, how to raise their children, how to teach sunday school and dayschool, how to manage sexual relations, how to dress, and how to speak as Christ followers. The desire to follow Christ is who Christians are, but sometimes we do things we don't want to do, as Paul the apostle said. And as a Christian community, we can help each other by using scripture and christian love, (and rebuke and discipline, as forms for baptism, prof of faith, ordinations, and scriptures say) to find better ways to serve and follow Christ. That is what His Spirit does through and in us.
Posted in: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing
One of the ways of refocussing priorities, is to evaluate how much time we spend on environmental and social issues compared to spiritual issues. When is the last time you saw an announcement about someone's spiritual growth or development in the bulletin, or a testimony about the power of prayer in the service, or a cry for help with the lifestyle or disobedience of a child, husband or neighbor, or a rejoicing in the communication and progress with a witnessing? Compare that to the announcements about choirs, bands, christian world renew, facilities, budgets, etc. Even renaming CRWRC to WR is counter intuitive to the mission goals and priorities of proclaiming the name of Christ, which has now been eliminated from this effort. Christ's kingdom is "not of this world", it is in this world, but it will not exist in our lives no matter what we do, if we do not first acknowledge Christ in what we do.
Posted in: Playing with Hebrew Word Usage
It's true, Verlyn that educated preaching is useful and beneficial. And I really appreciated your vignettes on various words and phrases. But sometimes the education doesn't seem to help because even the plain reading of scripture is ignored by the supposedly educated. We had a sermon not long ago on Galatians 5:16 to 6:5 (which is a beautiful passage). In the exposition the preacher ignored verse 19-21 and concentrated on 22. Then he threw in a statement to the effect, "don't judge", more or less without explaining it. So, he probably knows greek. But here we have a passage that distinguishes between acts of sinful nature and fruit of the spirit, and he says, "don't judge". The passage says to restore one caught in a sin, gently, but why would you restore him if you cannot first judge whether he is caught in a sin? So he didn't put "judging" into context, didn't explain how the apostle Peter basically condemned Annanias and Sapphira to death for lying, or how Paul constantly was advising, rebuking, admonishing, warning. "Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature" scripture says. (Paul wrote it). So this educated preacher did not distinguish between the judgement of discernment and the judgement of condemnation. Did he then ignore his Greek? or did he ignore the context?