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VBS Is Here…

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We started VBS Monday and are having a great week. This picture shows what our auditorium looks like. We have some women with amazing creative abilities who have really made the room look great. If you are a reader, please take a moment and pray for our VBS. Ask God to give teachers the ability to clearly articulate the Gospel and ask God to open the hearts of children to receive this amazing message. Thanks.

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Weekend Recap – Creation

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Yesterday, we enjoyed our guest Pat Nurre who spoke to us on The Evolution Paradigm, where did it come from?

It was a great talk getting at some of the presuppositions that drive the “movement” of evolution. For more info, visit Pat’s website.

I spoke with Pat briefly and he recommended a couple of resources…

For younger families: Answers magazine from Answers in Genesis
For older families: Creation magazine from Creation Ministries International
They also have a more technical journal if you would like the latest scholarly research from a Christian perspective. Enjoy.

Ask Pastor John – Creation

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As we begin to prepare for the weekend (specifically, Pat Nurre’s speaking to us on creation this Lord’s Day), I thought this discussion online from the past week would be helpful.

A follow up post centered on Sailhamer’s view of creation.

Matt Perman wrote an analysis of this view in an article entitled Science, the Bible and the Promised Land.

A critique of Sailhamer’s view is found in this article: Unbinding the Rules.

And a helpful summary of all the issues involved was penned by Mark Driscoll.

Soldiers in Ministry by C.J.

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C.J. gives us a quote for men who serve in ministry and how men can support their local pastor. He writes:

Men who pastor small churches have my deepest respect. These guys are my heroes for the way they quietly and faithfully serve and persevere in difficult and challenging contexts, and do so with joy. That is why, during a panel discussion at Together for the Gospel, I was coming out of my chair as John MacArthur made the following remarks in response to a good question by Thabiti:

Thabiti Anyabwile: I am thinking about folks who are traveling with me. I am deeply encouraged with their being here. And I see other pastors traveling with some of the elders and members in the church. I assume they are likewise encouraged. Any words that you would offer to folks here who maybe aren’t in pastoral ministry? Maybe they are here to support their pastor in the kind of faithfulness you are talking about. Any exhortations to them, practical ways that they can hold the pastor’s arms up in this kind of faithfulness and trusting in God?



John MacArthur: What I cherish the most is a true and loving loyalty. This disloyalty, betrayal, undermining, just cuts the heart out of your pastor. When I talk about loving loyalty, I mean when there is an issue that needs to be addressed you go eyeball-to-eyeball, man-to-man, and you confront it. And I love that. I love when guys come to me and say, “John, I think this is a problem. I think you are overlooking this. I think this is a misstep on your part.” Those are the men I cherish. Those are the men I pull to my heart. 



But what is just terribly debilitating is to feign that kind of affection to the man and then undermine that among the people. That is the most difficult thing. It is the betrayal that that brings. I could endure any problem in a church. I am challenged to solve any problem. But it is so hard when the men that you trust betray you behind your back. Because he is God’s man in your midst, you give him your love and you give him your loyalty. Be honest with him, face to face, man to man, open hearted. But understand the burden that he bears, and you need to be his true friend. You really do.

It is especially important for pastors who serve alone. At a different point in the discussion, MacArthur addressed the struggles single-staff pastors face:

I find my joy in the church in the men I work with, in their growth and their partnership and their love and their loyalty and their support of me. 
 
For me, I think that would be the hardest thing about being a pastor at a small church, being there alone and trying to carry that burden by yourself. That is why some of you are here, because you need this. You don’t even so much need what we say—you need each other. You need to feel like you are a part of something way beyond your own thing, and we embrace you fully.



I have often said the Lord must prefer small churches because he made so many of them. And you guys that are alone in those churches, you are the real soldiers, you are the real warriors. We thank God for you.


MLJ on Finding God’s Will

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Justin Buzzard has an excellent post, with the relevant quote available as a PDF, on what he calls “The Most Helpful Thing I’ve Ever Read About God’s Guidance” from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones advising his daughter when she was seeking to know God’s will. It is taken from Volume 2 of Iain Murray’s excellent bio (p.177):

These are the rules which I would advise you to observe:
1. Never speak to anyone about it. Don’t tell people what you are feeling and discuss it and ask for advice. That always leads to still more uncertainty and confusion. Make an absolute rule of this at all costs. Say nothing until you are absolutely certain, because we are all subject to self suggestion.

2. Do not even think about it and discuss the pros and cons with yourself. Once more this leads to auto suggestion and confusion.

3. In meetings, etc., do not start with the thought in your mind, ‘I wonder whether this is going to throw light on my question or help in any way?’

4. In other words, you must not try to anticipate God’s leading. Believing as I do that God does ‘call’ very definitely, and in a distinct and definite doctrine of a call, and a vocation is distinct from the ‘need is the call’ idea, I believe that God will always make His will and His way plain and clear. With reverence, therefore, I
say leave it to God entirely as regards purpose, time and all else.

All you have to do is to tell God that you are content to do His will whatever it may be and, more, that you will rejoice to do His will. Surrender yourself, your life, your future entirely to Him and leave it at that… You must not go on asking God to show you His way. Leave it to Him and refuse to consider it until He makes it impossible for you not to do so.

Gospel Centered Families

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Timmy Brister reflects on how the Gospel should influence our families:
1. Discipline in the home facilitates gospel mission.
2. Godliness in the home facilitates leadership development.
3. Humility in the home facilitates transparent community.
4. Simplicity in the home facilitates personal sacrifice.
5. Training in the home facilitates disciple-making.
6. Hospitality in the home facilitates ministry to others.

His conclusion:

When you think about the church, wouldn’t we want to see more people engaged in gospel mission, more leaders being developed and empowered, more transparent and authentic community, more personal sacrifice for the advance of the kingdom, more disciples being made, and more people ministering to others? That’s a tall order, right? What kind of program, technique, or best practice can facilitate this? My answer is gospel-centered families. If you do not take the gospel seriously in marriages, parenting, and overall home life, then all kinds of substitutes will attempt to promise what they cannot deliver. May God give us grace to embrace the gospel daily in our lives, in our families, and in our churches!