The Plot that Failed!

Posted by Dan C. on

“On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, 63 saying, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than the first.” (Matthew 27:62-64)

It’s Saturday, the day after the crucifixion of Jesus. The chief priests and Pharisees, who probably didn’t actually believe in the resurrection, did remember that Jesus had said while He was alive that he would rise again on the third day. They did however seem to be afraid that if His disciples stole His body and claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead, it would be harmful to them and their place in society. To protect their status in Jewish society they determined to do everything in their power to see that nothing happened. And so they went to Pilate, who was in charge of Jesus’ execution and burial, and reminded him of Jesus’ teaching and ask that the tomb of Jesus Christ be sealed and soldiers be posted as a guard.

clip_image002Pilate granted their request. He said, “Take a guard. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” And that’s what they did. They went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard.

Maybe Pilate was somewhat amused. After all, if Christ was only a man, it certainly wasn’t necessary to guard Him. He was dead. On the other hand, if He was God as He claimed to be (and perhaps about which Pilate himself had some intimation because of the trial), then all the guards and all the seals in the world would never keep Him down.

The tomb had been sealed shut and the guards are at their posts. Then comes Sunday morning, just before dawn.

The Bible tells us what happened next:

“Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:1-4)

imageThe scribes and Pharisees had hatched plot that would ensure the continuity of their religious authority over the Jewish people. Were they afraid that Jesus might do something, just has He had claimed he would do, either raise Himself from the dead or some miracle take place? That would be absolutely devastating, and of course that is exactly what He did.

They had posted a guard and sealed the tomb. but the Jesus who was more than a man, the Jesus who had said of Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life,” simply broke their seal, scattered their guards, and rose triumphant on that first Easter morning.

As we sing in that great Easter hymn:

“Vainly they watch his bed—Jesus my Savior;

Vainly they seal the dead—Jesus my Lord.

Up from the grave he arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.

He arose a victor from the dark domain,

And he lives forever with his saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

image

Book Review – Remedies for Division Among God’s People

Posted by Dan C. on

imageThis short book (20 pages) presents 12 remedies proposed by Thomas Brooks to address division among God’s people, emphasizing the importance of love, unity, and focusing on each other’s strengths rather than weaknesses.

The divisions I think most strongly about at the moment are those manifested on social media platforms in which ‘personal opinions’ and ‘preferred interpretations’ are trumpeted loudly across social media as if they are the cold hard truth about whatever might be subject matter of a particular post. No passage or doctrine of scripture, and no subject/topic of the day are off limits

The 12 remedies presented are:

Remedy 1: Focus on Each Other’s Graces: Dwell on the positive attributes of fellow believers rather than their weaknesses.

Remedy 2: Union for Security: Unity among believers enhances safety and security.

Remedy 3: Commands to Love One Another: Reflect on God’s commands that emphasize love among believers. ​

Remedy 4: Focus on Common Agreements: Concentrate on shared beliefs rather than differences.

Remedy 5: God as the God of Peace: Recognize God as the source of peace and encourage peace among believers.

Remedy 6: Maintain Peace with God: Keeping peace with God is crucial for maintaining peace with others. ​

Remedy 7: Recognize Close Relationships: Acknowledge the familial bond among believers as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Remedy 8: Understand the Misery of Discord: Discord among Christians harms the reputation of Christ and the church. ​

Remedy 9: Be Proactive in Seeking Peace: Taking the initiative to seek peace is honorable and reflects God’s character.

Remedy 10: Use the Word as a Guide: The Bible should be the standard for evaluating actions and agreements.

Remedy 11: Engage in Self-Judgment: Regular self-examination helps reduce judgment of others.

Remedy 12: Cultivate Humility Among Believers: Humility fosters peace, kindness, and unity within the Christian community. ​

The book can be read online or downloaded as a PDF and Epub for Kindle at The Chapel Library: Remedies for Division among God’s People – Chapel Library

Be Blessed!

Do You Have a Paul & a Timothy in Your Faith Walk?

Posted by Dan C. on

imageI remember a statement from years ago that went something like “Imagine what could happen in the church if every seasoned believer was helping just one younger believer grow in the faith!”

That’s exactly what happened with the older Paul and young Pastor Timothy, not to mention Titus and Philemon. Paul wrote letters to all three to offer instruction and church ‘leadership’ training.

A “Paul and Timothy” relationship is nothing more than one believer coming alongside of another believer to help him/her grow in their faith walk.

I can think of times in my own decades old walk when I needed a more seasoned believer (a “Paul”) to teach me (a “Timothy”) something, clarify scripture, or provide Godly wisdom in a situation and just guide me along .

There have been other times when I ended up serving as a “Paul” to a “Timothy”. At times it wasn’t intentional but just happened because I lived or worked with another believer and the relationship grew naturally. It might have been just started studying the Bible with a coworker or friend. At other times it has been because someone younger in the faith than me walked up to me and told me that he wanted to meet with me and grow.

If you are serving in the military you might be familiar with the term “Battle Buddy”. Paul and Timothy relationships are that and more. No two believers are at exactly the same place in their faith walks and it just happens.

At other times, circumstances automatically create relationships. I remember when I was a recent graduate of the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) and the newest member of an SF “A” team. It’s like being Timothy in a whole room full of Pauls! As the Junior Radio Operator I would definitely be learning from the Senior Radio Operator. I would be trained and learn other SF skills by other members of the team who had different primary specialties. And of course there was the Team Sergeant, the NCO who literally led the team under the supervision of the Team Leader, an officer.

imageLastly, Paul and Peter relationships can be come a bit more formal and formal, following a structured growth pattern designed to help a new or young believer grow into a Kingdom Builder.

I’m sure you get the picture. Both in life and in our spiritual walks we are always learning and always have something pass on.

If someone was to ask me, “Dan, what’s the key to establishing the relationships we’ve been talking about, I have a single two part answer. “Be open about your faith and be available for both roles. That’s it.

When God welcomed this prodigal home he was already serving on a Special Forces “A” team. For me, being open about my faith was a no brainer. The big question I had was “Can I be a fully functioning member of such a tight knit unit and be open about my faith at the same time. We are talking about some highly trained tough soldiers most of whom weren’t exactly models of the Christian faith and some of which were openly hostile toward God and could get rather nervous around, or uncomfortable with others who were openly Christian. Suffice it to say that Christians open and unapologetic about their faith won’t be the most popular folks in the room if the are welcome at all.

So I’ll ask one more time,

“Do You Have a Paul & aTimothy in Your Faith Walk?”

Be Blessed!

Book Review – “Faith Forward Gospel: 7 Myths That Brought Down the Church-and How We Can Get if Back” by Randy Loubier

Posted by Dan C. on

clip_image002[4]In the author’s Facebook AD, he asks us:

“What if we’ve been sharing the Gospel backwards?

Jesus started with GOOD NEWS: “The Kingdom of God is here for anyone who believes.” Not sin, not fear.

Randy Loubier reveals how Jesus invited unbelievers to faith first in *Faith Forward Gospel*.

Rediscover the message that changed the world – and could again. Get your copy today!”

Click the “Shop Now” link and Amazon book offering tells us:

“Most of us were taught to share the gospel by starting with sin and ending with heaven.
But Jesus didn’t.

He started with good news—the Kingdom of God is here, available now, to anyone who believes.”

Since Jesus came to our planet to save his people from their sin, and that Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry began with the message “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mak 1:15), I wanted to find out how the author addressed the issue of sin in his book. So, I bought the book and finally made it all the way through to several appendixes that ‘try’ to ‘prove’ that what he had to tell us in the main part of the book was really true!

In my opinion, the author got off on the wrong foot with his very first myth, “Myth 1: The Problem is Sin” and went downhill from there. In the author’s view, ‘sin’ is not the core problem with the human race, but ‘unbelief’ and ‘pride’. In the author’s own words:

“The Bible informs us that the problem is unbelief. If we don’t believe God is right, best, first, we then turn to pride and/ or disobedience.[i]

That first “myth” is by farther largest section of the book. In the author’s own words again:

“We will take a tour through the Bible, starting with the fall of man and ending with Jesus’ convictions in the New Testament.”

He does exactly that, for about 70 pages, filled with long sections of scripture and a lot of personal experience stories, thus ‘proving’ his point by overwhelming any semi-literate students of the Bible with his ‘clever speech’ .

Myth 1, as well as the remainder of the book is all about the “words” we use when starting a gospel conversation and how we are to never begin with “sin” words because Jesus and the Apostles never did. He focused quite a bit on the use of the Romans Road even calling it one of many “Judaizer like rules” that have been common to evangelism for decades, even disparaging Billy Graham, Ray Comfort and others who dare to talk about sin with unbelievers.

I had more than a few exchanges of comments with the author in which I explained that the issue wasn’t about “words” we begin a gospel conversation with, but about getting to the problem of sin because we need the “good news” precisely because of, and with the “bad news”, not instead of the bad news. That was the content of many, if not most of my comments to the author.

During the difficult and painful reading of the book, I told the author several times exactly where I was in its pages and offered comments, especially when I got to Myth 4 – The Gospel is Unavoidably Offensive, which would jump out at any Bible reader who encounters what the Apostle Paul had to say about the offense of the gospel. Once again, the author’s point was how we present the gospel and with what language we use to start a conversation with an unbeliever.

To date, my last comment to the author was in response to a question the author asked in one of his FB posts, “How much should we talk about sin with unbelievers?”. My response was,

“How much” isn’t the issue. Since the problem of sin is the reason Christ came, it’s the ‘bad news’ that’s the reason for the ‘good news’. NOT discussing the problem of sin is spiritual cowardice. We need to address the issue of sin lovingly and with compassion.

He responded with, “I guess Jesus didn’t get that memo.”

At that point I decided I was finished and left one last comment:

“Well Sir, I think I have the answer to my question about how you discuss the issue of sin with unbelievers – you don’t. I’ve read all of your myths and am up to the section about needing a “fresh start” section that call us Pharisees if we speak of sin to unbelievers. You tell us “unbelief” is the problem that leads to sin over and over as if unbelief itself isn’t a sin. All I have said is that we need to get to the issue of sin lovingly and compassionately when we share the good news. You are all about the “words” we use. That’s not the issue, but it’s HOW we use our words. Tone, compassion, and method vary—but the message includes “sin”. In short, sharing the gospel without any mention of sin and repentance is not the gospel preached by Jesus or the apostles. You seem to disagree.”

He left me wondering if he more resembled Joseph Smith, who was supposedly told by “God and Jesus in a vision that the church up until then had it all wrong, or Joel Osteen, who admitted to talk show host Larry King that he didn’t devote much time talking about sin, to believers or unbelievers.

[i] Loubier, Randal. Faith Forward Gospel: 7 Myths That Brought Down the Church-and How We Can Build It Back (p. 51). Kindle Edition

The First Day of the Week–A Case for Sunday

Posted by Dan C. on

The First Day of the Week

Have you ever noticed that every great event connected with the founding of the Christian Church took place on the first day of the week?

In Lewis Sperry Chafer’s book entitled Grace, he talks about eleven events that took place on the first day of the week.[i]  Those eleven events can be summarized as follows:[ii]

clip_image0021. The first and most obvious, Jesus arose from the dead on Easter Sunday, and that became the basis of the Church’s faith and practice.

2. Jesus ascended into heaven for the first time on that first Easter Sunday.. Maryclip_image004

Magdalene was there in the garden. She had sought to hold Him and Jesus said, “Don’t hold me now because I’m not yet ascended to my Father. But I’m ascending to Him; in the meantime, you run and tell His disciples that I’m risen from the dead.” (John 20)

clip_image0063. He appeared to the disciples for the first time on that first Easter Sunday and bequeathed to them His great benefit of peace. “Peace I leave with you,” He said. He gave them all of those blessings. They weren’t at peace. They were troubled men. They weren’t rejoicing. They were bothered and were filled with fear. He bestowed peace and gave them a cause of rejoicing. (John 14)

4. Jesus broke bread with His disciples on the first day of the week. It happened twice—once on the way to Emmaus where He met with the Emmaus disciples and was recognized by them with the breaking of the bread; and again that same evening back in Jerusalem as He met with the disciples. (Luke 24)

5. On the first day of the week Jesus opened the understanding of the disciples to know what the Scriptures taught concerning Him. We see this on the road to Emmaus. Jesus took them to the pages of the Word of God, to the Old Testament, and began to show how it was necessary that Christ should suffer all of these things and enter into His glory. (Luke 24)

6. On the first day of the week, Jesus commissioned His disciples to the task of world evangelism. He said, “As the Father has sent me, even so send I you.” In Luke He says, “You are witnesses of these things.” (John 20)

7. On the first day of the week, Jesus breathed on the disciples, imparting to them the Holy Spirit. (John 20)

clip_image0108. On the first day of the week, seven weeks after the resurrection, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and began His ministry for the entire age of the Christian Church. (Acts 2)

9. On the first day of the week, the Holy Spirit directed Paul to gather the believers together and preach to them (Acts 20).

10. The first day of the week was established by Paul as the day on which each believer was to lay aside as God has prospered him. That is, they were to take up offerings for the support of the ministry and the expansion of the Gospel. (1 Cor 12)

clip_image01211. Finally, on the first day of the week the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the apostle John on the island of Patmos and revealed to John His heavenly glory. This revelation outlined Christ’s plans concerning the future, the Church age, and the details of His second coming. (Revelation 1)

[i] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace (Chicago, IL: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1939), 272-276.

[ii]Think & Act Biblically Devotional series “Until the Third Day” by James Montgomery Boice

“We Shall See God!”

Posted by Dan C. on

image

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;  And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God.)

(Job 19:25-26)

Job, after losing his family, his possessions, and even his own health was convinced of the resurrection and declared triumphantly, “I shall see God!”

Notice that Job does not say, “I shall see heaven.”

He does not say, ‘I shall see the pearly gates, I shall see the walls of jasper, I shall see the crowns of gold and the harps of harmony,’ but ‘I shall see God’; as if that were the sum and substance of heaven.”[i]

Nor does he say, “I shall see the holy angels.”

Job did not even say, “I shall see those of this world who have gone to heaven before me,”

Job would see all these things: the pearly gates, the holy angels, his children. But over and above and infinitely more glorious than any of these, he would see God.

And like Job, we as believers, will also one day see God! (1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2)

[i] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” in Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 9

CMF BASIC DTO #1: SALVATION

Posted by Dan C. on

Salvation means deliverance from the penalty and the eternal consequences of sin; often referred to as being “saved” or “born -again.” It includes having our sins forgiven, being born into God’s family as His child, and receiving eternal life.

Click the link below to view and/or download the lesson to complete and add to your own set of lesson files:

CMF BASIC DTO 1 – SalvationDownload

Why Does Anyone Accept Jesus?

Posted by Dan C. on

I saw the following well-intentioned meme on FB this morning. It was posted by a wonderful ministry to encourage sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world around us, After all, sharing Christ with a lost world is the primary mission of believers everywhere. As a motivational tool for evangelism, it’s a great statement!

image

Then I felt the need to pause for a moment and think it through. It’s telling me that “I” can be the reason someone comes to Jesus for salvation. Is that really true? I can plant seeds and I can water, I can share the message that Christ died for our sins, but am “I” the real reason someone accepts Jesus? One of my favorite passages came to mind that gave me the answer to my question:

“And on the Sabbath day we (Paul and company )went out of the city (Philippi) to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.” (Acts 16:13-14, emphasis mine).

It can’t be put any more plainer. Lydia heard Paul with her ears, and the Lord opened her heart to pay close attention to, and respond to Paul’s message.

For this old retired guy it means a lot. Think of the message of the gospel as ‘seed’. Seed, to sprout and grow needs fertile ground. Our hearts, by nature are like the ‘bad’ soil by the wayside, along with the stony and thorny ground that from which good plants will not grow. The ‘good’ soil in the parable is the heart God opens to hear and heed the message of the gospel that we share.

So what does all that mean? I’m glad you asked. It means that, instead of being the reason someone is saved, we who share Jesus are just humble farmers blessed with the greatest privilege God has bestowed on his children – imperfect messengers sharing the perfect message!

Food for thought. . . .

image

Be Blessed!

Book Review – “Faith Forward Gospel: 7 Myths That Brought Down the Church-and How We Can Get it Back” by Randy Loubier

Posted by Dan C. on

clip_image002In the author’s Facebook ad, the author asks us:

“What if we’ve been sharing the Gospel backwards?

Jesus started with GOOD NEWS: “The Kingdom of God is here for anyone who believes.” Not sin, not fear.

Randy Loubier reveals how Jesus invited unbelievers to faith first in *Faith Forward Gospel*.

Rediscover the message that changed the world – and could again. Get your copy today!”

Click the “Shop Now” link and Amazon book offering tells us:

“Most of us were taught to share the gospel by starting with sin and ending with heaven.
But Jesus didn’t.

He started with good news—the Kingdom of God is here, available now, to anyone who believes.”

Since Jesus came to our planet to save his people from their sin, and that Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry began with the message “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mak 1:15), I wanted to find out how the author addressed the issue of sin in his book. So, I bought the book and finally made it all the way through to several appendixes that ‘try’ to ‘prove’ that what he had to tell us in the main part of the book was really true!

In my opinion, the author got off on the wrong foot with his very first myth, “Myth 1: The Problem is Sin” and went downhill from there. In the author’s view, ‘sin’ is not the core problem with the human race, but ‘unbelief’ and ‘pride’. In the author’s own words:

“The Bible informs us that the problem is unbelief. If we don’t believe God is right, best, first, we then turn to pride and/ or disobedience.[i]

That first “myth” is by farther largest section of the book. In the author’s own words again:

“We will take a tour through the Bible, starting with the fall of man and ending with Jesus’ convictions in the New Testament.”

He does exactly that, for about 70 pages, filled with long sections of scripture and a lot of personal experience stories, thus ‘proving’ his point by overwhelming any semi-literate students of the Bible with his ‘clever speech’ .

Myth 1, as well as the remainder of the book is all about the “words” we use when starting a gospel conversation and how we are to never begin with “sin” words because Jesus and the Apostles never did. He focused quite a bit on the use of the Romans Road even calling it one of many “Judaizer like rules” that have been common to evangelism for decades, even disparaging Billy Graham, Ray Comfort and others who dare to talk about sin with unbelievers.

I had more than a few exchanges of comments with the author in which I explained that the issue wasn’t about “words” we begin a gospel conversation with, but about getting to the problem of sin because we need the “good news” precisely because of, and with the “bad news”, not instead of the bad news. That was the content of many, if not most of my comments to the author.

During the difficult and painful reading of the book, I told the author several times exactly where I was in its pages and offered comments, especially when I got to Myth 4 – The Gospel is Unavoidably Offensive, which would jump out at any Bible reader who encounters what the Apostle Paul had to say about the offense of the gospel. Once again, the author’s point was how we present the gospel and with what language we use to start a conversation with an unbeliever.

To date, my last comment to the author was in response to a question the author asked in one of his FB posts, “How much should we talk about sin with unbelievers?”. My response was,

“How much” isn’t the issue. Since the problem of sin is the reason Christ came, it’s the ‘bad news’ that’s the reason for the ‘good news’. NOT discussing the problem of sin is spiritual cowardice. We need to address the issue of sin lovingly and with compassion.

He responded with, “I guess Jesus didn’t get that memo.”

At that point I decided I was finished and left one last comment:

“Well Sir, I think I have the answer to my question about how you discuss the issue of sin with unbelievers – you don’t. I’ve read all of your myths and am up to the section about needing a “fresh start” section that call us Pharisees if we speak of sin to unbelievers. You tell us “unbelief” is the problem that leads to sin over and over as if unbelief itself isn’t a sin. All I have said is that we need to get to the issue of sin lovingly and compassionately when we share the good news. You are all about the “words” we use. That’s not the issue, but it’s HOW we use our words. Tone, compassion, and method vary—but the message includes “sin”. In short, sharing the gospel without any mention of sin and repentance is not the gospel preached by Jesus or the apostles. You seem to disagree.”

He left me wondering if he more resembled Joseph Smith, who was supposedly told by “God and Jesus in a vision that the church up until then had it all wrong, or Joel Osteen, who admitted to talk show host Larry King that he didn’t devote much time talking about sin, to believers or unbelievers.

[i] Loubier, Randal. Faith Forward Gospel: 7 Myths That Brought Down the Church-and How We Can Build It Back (p. 51). Kindle Edition