From One Degree to Another

Phil Auxier's Blog

Connect

Weekend Recap – Bible Intensive and the Dangers of Declension

by

Wrapped up a huge weekend at Crestview.

Before that, though, I was blessed to serve my family on Friday as Meg’s great aunt passed away.  The memorial service was Friday afternoon in Coldwater, KS.  I tried to encourage them with the truth of Jesus being the Resurrection and the Life.  It was a great time remembering lost loved ones with them.

I hustled back to Hutch for a Bible Intensive Retreat with Jim Elliff and Kole Farney.  Our Elders had benefitted from this earlier in the year, so we met as Elders and Deacons with Jim and Kole to think about John 10 together.  It was rich fellowship seeing Jesus is the Door, the Good Shepherd, The Christ, and the Son of God — truths that must be responded to.

Jim graciously filled the pulpit for me on Sunday morning with a sermon out of many passages in Hebrews on the Dangers of Declension.   We included Jim’s handout 5 Resolves for Personal Revival in the bulletin.  I know God used this sermon to call me out of staleness to vibrancy and I’m praying God uses this entire weekend in our body to awaken us to the realities of who He is and what He’s done for us.

Submitting to God’s Word and Your Relationship With God

by

An importantly relevant word from Tim Keller on 1 John 2:3-6, which we’ll look at this coming Lord’s day:

“Unless you see the Bible as God’s Word … That’s certainly how Jesus saw it. That’s certainly how John saw it. Unless you see the Bible as the place where you can find God’s will, you can’t actually have a personal relationship with God. “What do you mean?” you say. Well, let me put it to you this way.

“Plenty of people say, “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I do! I believe in much of what the Bible says, but there are many things in the Bible you just can’t believe anymore. There are things in the Bible we just can’t follow anymore. We realize there are contradictions, and there are some things that are primitive. So I believe in most of the Bible and in the general principles of the Bible, and I believe in Jesus, and I have a personal relationship in Jesus, but I can’t believe everything in the Bible.”

“Now let me show you what you’ve just done. First of all, there is nothing between the two positions I’m about to outline. When you say, “Some things in the Bible are right and some things are wrong,” the only way you can say that is if you have faith at the moment you’re saying that in some other source of authority by which you can sift through the Bible. In other words, as soon as you say the Bible is only partially right and partially wrong, the only way you can say that is on the basis of faith in some authority which is completely and always right.

“You can’t doubt everything at once. You can only doubt something from a platform of faith in something else. Here’s what’s going on. If you say even one verse in the Bible is not true but the rest are, what you’re actually doing is you’re saying, “My discernment, my experience, my reason, my feelings are a more sure authority for deciding what God’s will is than the Bible.”

“So either (and there is nothing in between) … Even if you say there’s one verse that’s wrong, either your experience and your judgment can sit in evaluation of the Bible, or the Bible sits in evaluation of your judgment. Either your feelings are judged by the Bible, or the Bible is judged by your feelings.

“I’ll put it another way. Either your understanding is judged by the Bible, or the Bible is judged by your understanding. There’s nothing in the middle. Now I’m not going to try to prove which one is right to you right now, and you certainly have the right to believe your judgment is valid, more valid than the Bible. You know, be careful. In the 1890s, there were people who were saying these are things modern people can’t believe anymore in the Bible. They’re very different than in the 1990s. They’ll be very different than in the 2090s. I’m not going to try to prove which is right and which is wrong.

“Let me just show you the implications and ramifications of what you’ve just done. There is never a place now where you can see a standard that can cross your moral will. Do you know what’s happened to you? Now that you say, “This doesn’t seem right to me. Yes, the Bible says it’s wrong, but I can’t believe that. Yes, the Bible says this is wrong, but I can’t believe that.”


“In other words, if something doesn’t feel right to you and the Bible says it is right, or if something feels right and the Bible says it’s wrong, now there is no possibility of moral discipline. There is no possibility of a higher standard than your own feelings and your own experience and your own judgment. What that means is you can’t have a personal relationship with God. You’re treating God like a microphone now. If it feels right to you, that must be God’s will. How will you ever know a God who can say even though it feels right, it’s wrong? Because now what feels right is right.

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).  This particular citation is from a 1994 sermon entitled “The Freedom of Obedience”

Some Videos from Sunday School

by

I was privileged to teach the Fundamentals of the Faith summer Sunday School class today and showed a couple of videos.  Here they are:

Jason DeRouchie (OT in 10 Minutes):

The Old Testament in Ten Minutes from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Andy Naselli (NT in 10 Minutes):

The New Testament in Ten Minutes from Desiring God on Vimeo.

John Piper (a video I call God Wrote a Book):

I also recommended the class take in Devin Brown’s (10 Minute History of the English Bible):

I hope these are helpful in introducing you to the message and thrust of the Bible.

Weekend Recap – Retreats…

by

I’m coming off a super busy weekend…

On Thursday and Friday, I was in Hesston, KS with Leadership Reno County kicking off the 2015 class with a retreat.  I love playing a small part in the leadership development of our community.  Many of the things our community continues to work on are big, hairy, adaptive problems.  I think LRC helps equip people, regardless of their background, to make progress in these areas.

As soon as I returned from this, our Elders got away for a Bible Intensive Retreat with Jim Elliff and Kole Farney.  In church work, especially among church leadership, we can spend so much time doing important, even necessary things, that we can neglect the more vital things.  I’ve noticed over the past few years that studying the Bible together would be a great thing.  Jim’s preferred method for reading the Bible is really where we spent much of our time, working through John 1 together.  By the way, Jim did preach for me (and Kole shared his testimony).  ‘Twas a great sermon on what it means to be a True Disciple.

Today, this busy weekend ended by being able to participate in the Reno County Youth Leadership Summit.  I was able to speak on how leadership starts with you and must engage others.

So, I’m pretty beat, but it’s a good tired and I’m grateful to get to serve both our community, local church leadership and the church at large.  Have a great week.

God’s Word Is True…

by

Every Word of God proves true; He is shield to those who take refuge in Him. (Proverbs 30:5)

We live in a day and age that is increasingly hostile to the truth claims of the Bible, which is some ways is to be expected.  A panel from SBTS was recently assembled to Revisit Inerrancy.  I hope you find this video helpful.  You can also download it.

Here’s the video:

I was also helped on this topic by a Piper sermon online: Thank God For An Inspired Bible.