The only reason for living is the achievement of what you value. Nobody should ever sacrifice a higher value to a lower one. You should always aspire to deciding what you value. Until that happens you cannot make any reasonable steps toward choosing a vocation (or anything else).Read the entire, short article here, which goes on to describe the task and traits of a theological teacher.
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Is the Habit of Asking Questions Respectful?If you prefer the print edition, see these sources:
Some may wonder if asking questions of the text is a respectful way to read the Bible. It can be. Or it may not be. An illustration may clarify. Near the time of Jesus' birth, an angel came to Mary and to John the Baptist's father with predictions about what was going to happen. Both Mary and Zechariah asked a question about what the angel he said. But the angel was angry with Zechariah, not Mary. Why?
It had to do with the attitude of their hearts in asking their questions. The angel said to Zechariah, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John? (Luke 1:13). But Zechariah was old and his wife was barren. He was skeptical. In fact he was unbelieving. He expressed this with a question, "How shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years" (Luke 1:18).
The angel did not like this response. Zechariah did not ask humbly how God would do this. He was not submissive and trusting in his question. So the angel said, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time" (Luke 1:19-20).
But Mary's heart was different when she asked her question. The angel had said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus" (Luke 1:30-31). Mary, of course, was perplexed and could not understand how this could be. So she asked, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" (Luke 1:34). Instead of getting angry at her, the angel answered her question as far as he could: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the son of God" (Luke 1:35).
As a side note, back in 2001 I read Susan Schreiner's The Theater of His Glory: Nature and the Natural Order in the Thought of John Calvin
(Baker Academic, 2001) and was introduced to Calvin's use of theater as a metaphor throughout his writings. Schreiner picked up on Calvin's repeated use of theatrum gloriae Dei, "the theater of God's glory," to describe the created world. This volume is an edited version of Schreiner's doctoral dissertation and is an excellent, scholarly introduction to the subject.
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions. It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. "The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!" (Psalm 97:1). "Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Psalm 67:3-4).
But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can't commend what you don't cherish. Missionaries will never call out "Let the nations be glad!", who cannot say from the heart, "I rejoice in the Lord.... I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O most High" (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.
If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!
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 DVDLet the Nations Be Glad! |  Study GuideLet the Nations Be Glad! | |
Let the Nations Be Glad Group Special
Intended for use in Sunday school, youth groups, small groups, or leadership teams, this package includes the Let the Nations Be Glad DVD and 12 corresponding Study Guides.
My family was blessed to have the Gibson family in our home yesterday and this morning. AJ has been a true friend and it has been a rich blessing to watch and hear how the Lord has been molding and shaping him in His image. The Lord has blessed AJ with an amazing wife and three beautiful children! Together they have been serving in the Lord's vineyard for a number of years in Monterrey, Mexico. They have a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are committed to giving of themselves to take this priceless message by means of word and deed to the nations, and they are now serving with To Every Tribe Ministries (TETM), which appears to be an excellent fit. To Every Tribe exists to spread a passion for the supremacy of GodHere are two endorsements worth considering:
among unreached peoples throughout the earth.
I have been acquainted with David Sitton since 1989, when we co-operated together in the Institute Of Tribal Studies at the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, California. I have followed David's ministry of church planting in Papua New Guinea as well as his Tribal Seminar teaching and authoring of important mission resources since then. I highly recommend him and his endeavors for the reaching of the unreached.Don Richardson, Missionary Statesman and best selling author,
(Peace Child; Lords of the Earth
, Eternity in their Hearts
)
Now, please take a few minutes to watch this introductory video and browse through the ministry websiteTo Every Tribe Ministries.
All I have read and heard and watched inclines me to rejoice over the vision and theology and mission of David Sitton. I thank God for his Christ-exalting, God-centered, Bible-based courage to focus his life and ministry on the unreached tribal peoples. Like no one else I know, David Sitton puts his body where his mouth is. The risks are high; the reward is overwhelming. I commend To Every Tribe Ministries for your support and involvement. May the Lord of glory spread his fame through all who partner with this ministry to make a name for Jesus among the nations.Dr. John Piper, Pastor for Preaching and Vision,
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN
Ephesians 5:22-33Piper:Wives and Husbands
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
The mystery is this: God did not create the union of Christ and the church after the pattern of human marriage; just the reverse! He created human marriage on the pattern of Christ's relation to the church.
...marriage is a mystery--it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female, and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union. As Geoffrey Bromiley has written, "As God made man in his own image, so he made marriage in the image of his own eternal marriage with his people."
...It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. It is also important to say husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. (178)
...As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy. (184)
Why does suffering exist? How does it advance the mission of the church? How does God’s grace enter suffering? What is the role of hope when things look utterly hopeless?
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God is written to the white-robed army of martyrs “…until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete.” Editors John Piper and Justin Taylor along with a number of contributors deal with the issue of human suffering as it relates to God’s sovereignty.
Here’s a taste of what you’ll find:
“But when God chooses to overcome our rebellion and Satan’s resistance, nothing can stop him. And when God overcomes him and us, we repent and Satan’s power is broken. Here it is in 2 Timothy 2:24-26.” (Piper, 28).
“The mystery of why God has ordained the evils he has is as deep as the mystery of the evils in our hearts. And just as only God can plumb the depths of our hearts, so only God knows how the hurts we do to each other and to ourselves figure into his loving cure of us who shelter ourselves under the blood and righteousness of his Son.” (Talbot, 77).
“In the life and death of Jesus Christ, suffering finds its ultimate purpose and ultimate explanation: suffering exists so God might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. Everything—everything—that Christ accomplished for us sinners he accomplished by suffering. Everything we will ever enjoy will come to us because of suffering.” (Piper, 87).
“If we are going to emulate our Savior, we have to identify with the people to whom we take his good news. I don’t advocate that we look for suffering; life brings enough on its own. But what I do advocate is that suffering is an important prerequisite to ministering to hurting people. Christ took on our likeness and subjected himself to the suffering that plagues us.” (Saint, 121).
“So often the initial reaction to painful suffering is Why me? If all that God promises only comes true, then why not me?” (Powlison, 172-173).
“Our fears, anger, doubts, and everything else we feel in our pain don’t make God nervous or uncomfortable with us. God still loves us, and he is still for us.” (Shramek, 189).
Newsweek has an interesting article on Victoria Osteen and her new book, Love Your Life. Ms. Osteen and her husband Joel are pastors of one of the largest churches in America, and tens of thousands are buying into their idea of religion as “appreciating what God's given us. He's given us this life, and he wants us to live it to the fullest” (from Lisa Miller's interview with Victoria). The writer’s response to Victoria’s prosperity-gospel: “All this is fine, in the pages of a women's magazine or a self-help book. But what has God got to do with it?”People are starving for the greatness of God. But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the market, but the benefit of any other remedy is brief and shallow. Preaching that does not have the aroma of God’s greatness may entertain for a season, but it will not touch the hidden cry of the soul: “Show me thy glory!” (The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. 1990, p. 9)In times like these, when the economy is down and people are losing their jobs, how do we find comfort and practice our faith? By looking inside ourselves? How about gazing on God in His greatness and believing that since He gave us His Son, He will provide us with everything we need! That's the essence of the Christian life: to trust and enjoy God now amidst suffering and uncertainty and to be willing to wait for our best life then, when we're with Him.
(Author: John Piper)
Happy birthday, John Calvin. Today we celebrate your 499th birthday. Your preaching inspires me to press on with this great and glorious task of heralding the Word of God.
By Paul NelsonWhat impressed me most about this story was the evident hunger for the Word of God displayed on the part of Mr Ballard. One doesn't have to learn Greek and Hebrew to be able to profit from Bible study. However, learning the Biblical languages will greatly sharpen one's understanding of the texts. I'm reminded of Frances Ridley Havergal, whose hymns we love to sing ("Take My Life and Let it Be", "Like a River Glorious", and others). She may have been a bit advanced intellectually, but she learned Greek and Hebrew so that she could better understand the Bible. This ought to be a "no-brainer" for preachers. Not all of us will be first rate linguists but we ought to be as well-equipped as we can.
I grew up as a PK in Michigan. My father knew both Greek and Hebrew, but never taught either one to his four sons, none of whom followed him into full-time ministry. I don’t fault him for that, as he spent his entire ministry in rural or small-town churches where he often had to take secular employment to support his family in addition to pastoring a church.
When I was about 9 years old, we moved to the church where my father had the longest tenure of about 17 years. There was an older couple in that church whom I got to know very well. There names were Sid and Frances Ballard. Since they were in very poor health my father gave me the responsibility of cutting their grass during the summer, shoveling snow during the winter, and doing various small chores to assist them.
The Ballards had been saved under the ministry of the previous pastor, and it was an amazing work of God’s grace, as both had been alcoholics. They had both been divorced and out of alcoholic misery for one another married each other. In an effort to escape the taverns of Detroit, they bought a ramshackle house out in the country about 175 miles northwest of the city. It was no use. The hold of alcohol was so great that they would walk (they were too poor to own a car) the couple miles to the nearest village to buy a bottle. Sometimes they would pass out in the road or in someone’s field on the way home, since they couldn’t wait to get home to consume it.
The previous pastor witnessed to the Ballards, gave them a Bible, and challenged them to read it. While Sid professed to be a skeptic, he did read it. And the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin and self-righteousness, and he was saved. Frances was skeptical of her husband’s profession, but after she saw his changed life, she too was saved. Amazingly, even after salvation, it was more difficult for them to give up their cigarettes than it was to give up alcohol, but God gave them victory over both.
The amazing thing was that this man was truly a genius. While in the Army during World War II, he had worked in counter-intelligence. After the war ended, even though he had no more than a high school diploma, he taught math on the junior college level until he couldn’t keep his job because of his alcoholic habits. When he got saved, he had a desire to study the Word like I’ve never seen in any other man who wasn’t a full-time pastor. He had the time to do so because his health prevented him from working any kind of job. So, he literally taught himself to read both Greek and Hebrew. The previous pastor of the church knew Greek, but had never taken any Hebrew. When my dad came to the church, he was literally God-sent. My dad and this man spent many precious hours studying the Word together in the original languages. And as he studied the Word, God actually renewed his alcohol-besotted mind (Romans 12:2).
Both Sid and his wife, Frances, had children living in the Detroit area from their previous marriages. Their children would occasionally drive up to see them and bring booze, as long as they were unsaved. But after they were saved, when the parents started witnessing to them, the visits from the children became more and more scarce. However, the closeness of this couple to the church family grew ever closer and more precious as their health failed. Because of many years of alcoholism and tobacco use, they both had repeated heart attacks while battling emphysema. During my senior year of high school, Sid went to the hospital, yet again, with another heart attack and died there. Eight days later, Frances followed her husband into heaven.
The law of the LORD is perfect [or blameless]
reviving the soul:
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
Today I received an email from a reader regarding John Piper's Brothers, We are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry (Nashville: B&H, 2002). In the comments to my post on John Piper (1/11/08) I had asked if anyone had read this book. The writer encouraged me to read this book, even if I don't have the opportunity to review it, especially chapter 12 entitled "Brothers, Bitzer was a Banker" (see links to this article below).We may impress one another for a while by dropping the name of the latest book we've read, but secondhand food will not sustain and deepen our people's faith and holiness. (83)
Weakness in Greek and Hebrew also gives rise to exegetical imprecision and carelessness. And exegetical imprecision is the mother of liberal theology. (84)
Where pastors can no longer articulate and defend doctrine by a reasonable and careful appeal to the original meaning of Biblical texts, they will tend to become close-minded traditionalists who clutch their inherited ideas, or open-ended pluralists who don't put much stock in doctrinal formulations. (84)
I was first introduced to John Piper (in print) while I served as a church intern in Detroit, MI. The senior pastor gave me and my co-intern the assignment of reading Piper's Desiring God and discussing it chapter by chapter. I was deeply challenged by this exercise and still think of those sessions fondly. We got to bat around the controversial phrase, "Christian hedonism" and try to understand it.
Here are a few things we all struggle with at times. These are items to either avoid or amend in our expository preaching (in no particular order):For our purposes, here, I'm particularly interested in the inclusion of #5 "Being slavishly dependent on commentaries."
1. Not taking enough time to observe the text of Scripture.
2. Observing things that are not there or are not significant.
3. Not checking and double-checking your observations.
4. Rushing exegesis for the sake of exposition.
5. Being slavishly dependent on commentaries.
6. Preaching too long.
7. Preaching too short.
8. Missing the point(s) of a passage.
9. Abusing the aorist tense .
10. Losing site of the context.
11. Having all heat (passion) and no light (content).
12. Having all light and no heat.
13. Flattening out a text for the sake of a theological system.
14. Erecting a theological “mountain” in the place of a mere theological “hill.”
I don't use commentaries very often, frankly. If I think I'm unsure about what I've seen, I'll check it out. But, by and large, assiduous... See, a pastor only has so much time to get ready for Sunday morning. If you've got a block of ten to twenty hours; wherever you fit in there, and you can only do so much, assiduous meditation on the original languages and prayer are much more important than reading six commentaries. Both is better. Because you might guard yourself from a really stupid mistake if you check it out with another mind. But if you've gotta choose, I'd choose assiduous meditation.
You will not be able to extemporise good thinking unless you have been in the habit of thinking and feeding your mind with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at every available moment. Store your minds very richly, and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having arranged your good things upon the shelves of your mind, you will be able to hand them down at any time without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, folding, and preparing.
This was written by Dr. John Piper, Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1993. Though many years have passed since Dr. Piper created this list, we believe it remains a useful example of the reading of a pastor deeply committed to preaching the glories of the incomparable Christ. Used by permission of Desiring God Ministries. [read more here]
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.
