I read the following on Randy Alcorn’s blog:
A Simple Sound Check and the Power of Christ

By Randy Alcorn

In We Shall See God, I share a remarkable story that Spurgeon told about an experience early in his ministry:

In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God.

It was on his deathbed that this man told the story of his conversion, the result of God speaking to him through a single verse of Scripture uttered by Spurgeon. When Spurgeon preached in that building a day or two later, it was to a crowd of 23,654 people. But such is the power of Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin not only of the world, not only of a potential 23,654 people, but of one lone man working in a building when a preacher came to test the acoustics. This man will be forever grateful that when Spurgeon stood up front to do a sound check, he did not simply count to ten!

A question was emailed to me:
In Philippians 3:13 Paul says: “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,”
In the last part of the verse, what is he talking about? Is he talking about his past confidence in the flesh?
Also, was it possible that Paul ever heard Jesus teach? Just curious…
Answer:
In Philippians 3:7 Paul had written that he has counted whatever was gain to him as loss now. And so I think it is most likely that verse 12 is referring to his past life. In 3:8 Paul writes that he counts all things to be loss because it is so much greater to know Christ. In 3:3-6: Paul writes that he has more reasons than any to place confidence in the flesh. Paul writes about is Jewish “pedigree” or Jewish lineage. He writes about his education and background. But now in 3:12: Paul begins to say that he is pressing forward to what lies ahead. He is straining or reaching forward to what is ahead.
So, as a point of application, what do we need to put away? What do we need to forget about in our past in order to follow closer to Christ and serve Him more full?

As far as the second question is concerned. I know of no evidence that Paul ever saw Jesus teach.

blessings in Christ, Steve

This is a common and very good question. What is being asked really gets down to the idea of creation. Was everything created in 6 24 hour days, or millions of years, or somewhere in between? Below I have pasted something that I wrote to answer that question last year on Labor Day weekend.
5. How does one reconcile the 6 day creation in the Bible with the scientific theory of evolution?
a. A book you may be interested in is called “The Language of God” by Francis S. Collins. Dr. Collins led the human genome project. You can barrow the book if you wish. Cedarville University is strongly for a 6 24 hour day view of creation and there is now a lot of evidence for a young earth view. At the same time, many of the professors at Asbury Theological Seminary thought of the creation account in more of a literature way. They would think “Is the creation account meant to be interpreted literally?” If I don’t believe God created in 6-24 hour days it must be because the Scriptures are not to be interpreted literally in those passages. I can never change my view of Scripture because of a scientific theory. So, a thought is do the two views contradict? I believe yes, in the full form of evolution there is a contradiction between evolution and creation. The Bible teaches that God created and that God created out of nothing. However, this doesn’t mean that God didn’t use evolution in some form of another. There are Theistic Evolutionist that believe that God created using evolution. I think one can certainly be a Biblical Christian and believe that but you certainly cannot take evolution in its purest form. Also from my understanding Darwin wouldn’t even take evolution as far as it has been taken by some. I would also argue that though we see evidence of similarities and in the DNA we see evidence of evolution in the genes we have never observed it happen. So, to believe that people or a species changes for the better is different than believing that every form of life on the earth goes back to the ocean.
b. In Genesis God tells the snake that it will no longer walk but crawl and I have heard evidence that snakes did at one time have legs. So God obviously did bring about change. But this doesn’t mean through a long process of what we call evolution. However, all truth is God’s truth and so there are a lot of truth in science and we do have strong similarities and differences with other animals. At the same time people trying to understand truth without God’s Truth as the foundation will find massive problems.
c. Having said all that we don’t have to translate the Gen chapter 1-2 account literally. It can also be translated as allegory which means that we can properly translate the days to be ages and symbolic. There is also the “gap theory” which would mean that there was a gap between Gen 1:1 and 1:2. However, as stated there is a lot of evidence of a younger earth. I would be glad to discuss more of this with anyone. I love these topics.
Okay, moving on… If we are to believe in evolution to its fullest extent (I don’t) then we would believe that dinosaurs were prior to humans. However, otherwise we must believe that dinosaurs were created with the rest of the land animals which would be the sixth day. If you read Genesis chapter 1 verses 20-31 you can see this. But notice in verses 29-30 that humans were initially vegetarians and I think the animals were as well. I think at that time the world was very much more perfect than it is today. Because of this food and everything else was way more abundant and way more nutritious. It was not after after the flood in Genesis 9:1-5 that the people are told to eat meat. The flood drastically changed the world. We have seen what a local flood can do to the earth so think about a worldwide flood. Mount St. Helens erupted and created a canyon 120 or so feet deep in a day. Imagine what happened when Yellowstone erupted which is a super volcano? I did a professor when I was in college who was a geologist. He was on a dig and found carbon on dinosaur bones. Carbon can only exist for about 50,000 years. So this does show that dinosaurs had to have existed in the last 50,000 years.
There is a lot of evidence for a younger earth and I would love to talk more about this. But as listed, there are different types of literature in the Bible and so are not a heretic if we don’t interpret the creation account literally. Though I would say that evolution in its fullest form contradicts the Scriptures. God bless, Pastor Steve

The questions came to me:
Do we know from scripture if Joseph was alive at Jesus’ death?
If not, when did he die? How old was Jesus?
That is a good question.
There is no evidence of what was going on with Joseph after Jesus was 12 years old. In Luke 2:41- 52 we see an account of Jesus being left behind in Jerusalem following the Passover. That is the last mention of Joseph and Joseph is really only implied in that instance (the text simply says, “his parents). In Luke 4:22 the people asked, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son” as they were amazed at his teaching. So, the people apparently knew of Joseph, but no one really knows when he died. It is supposed that he died some time before Jesus began His ministry.
We also know that at the crucifixion Jesus charged John with taking care of His mother, so another instance showing that Joseph was no longer alive. (John 19:27)
God bless, Steve

I want to answer a question:
1. Does God breathe more Scripture into people in the present? (present day)
I think the question is does God still communicate to people in a way that is equal to the Scripture?
Start by reading the following about the power of Scripture.

The Bible can change not only a life but an entire lifestyle. Most of us have heard the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, but few of us have heard how the Bible played a very vital part in that historical event. The Bounty was a British ship which set sail from England in 1787, bound for the South Seas. The idea was that those on board would spend some time among the islands, transplanting fruit-bearing and food-bearing trees, and doing other things to make some of the islands more habitable. After ten months of voyage, the Bounty arrived safely at its destination and for six months the officers and crew gave themselves to the duties placed upon them by their government.
When the special task was completed, however, and the order came to embark again, the sailors rebelled. They had formed strong attachments for the native girls, and the climate and the ease of the South Sea island life was much to their liking. The result was mutiny on the Bounty, and the sailors placed Captain Bligh and a few loyal men adrift on an open boat. Captain Bligh, in an almost miraculous fashion, survived the ordeal, was rescued, and eventually arrived home in London to tell his story. An expedition was launched to punish the mutineers, and in due time fourteen of them were captured and paid the penalty under British law.
But nine of the men had gone to another distant island. There they formed a colony. Perhaps there has never been a more degraded and debauched social life than that of that colony. They learned to distill whiskey from a native plant, and the whiskey as usual, along with other habits led to their ruin. Disease and murder took the lives of all the native men and all but one of the white men named Alexander Smith. He found himself the only man on the island, surrounded by a crowd of women and children. Alexander Smith found a Bible among the possessions of a dead sailor. The Bible was new to him. He had never read it before. He sat down and read it through. He believed it and he began to appropriate it. He wanted others to share in the benefits of the book, so he taught classes to the women and children, as he read to them and taught them the Scriptures.
It was twenty years before a ship ever found that island, and when it did, a miniature Utopia was discovered. The people were living in decency, prosperity, harmony, and peace. There was nothing of crime, disease, immorality, and sanity, or illiteracy. How was it accomplished? By the reading, the believing, and the appropriating of the truth of God!

Okay, the short answer is “no.” God doesn’t communicate to us in that way anymore. Most would say that God developed the New Testament Canon throughout the first century of the church. By the second century we have quotes from the church fathers regarding what letters or books are acceptable for the New Testament Canon.
One source says:
Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Includes index., 1st ed., 700 (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985). He also writes: By the middle of the second century, a collection of the four Gospels was made. At this time, Luke was separated from Acts so that thereafter Acts had a life of its own. If one takes seriously the claim of Tertullian, some type of Christian canon existed before Marcion—a canon that the heretic cut down to his own canon of an expurgated version of Luke and ten ‘corrected’ Letters of Paul. If one does not accept Tertullian’s claim, then by the end of the second century, partially in reaction to Marcion, a NT canon of some sort existed. This canon was a collection of collections (the four-fold Gospel, the Pauline Letters, and Revelation, which was itself a collection of seven letters and seven visions), with the Pauline Letters introduced by Acts and supplemented by several general Letters to counter Marcion’s exclusive focus on Paul. The Christian writings that were produced within a period of seventy-five to one hundred years, in contrast to the period of nearly one thousand years for the production of the OT documents, were now on the road toward acceptance in a twenty-seven-book NT canon normally used by Western Christians today.

Okay, so the question still remains, “WHY?” “Why no more Scripture?”
Okay, about the Spiritual gifts Paul writes that they are given for the up-building of the church.
Ephesians 4:11-13:
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
In the same way that the Spiritual gifts were given for the up-building of the church, God used the Apostles to communicate His Word for the upbuilding of the church. So, when the early church Fathers compiles the 27 books of the New Testament they had a strict standard to go by.
1) The book or letter had to have been written by an apostle or based off of the testimony of an apostle. To be an apostle they would have had to have been a disciple or had been picked by Jesus. See what Paul writes below:
1 Corinthians 9:1:
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?
Paul says that as an apostle he saw the Lord. Jesus chose Paul.
This means that all the apostles were dead by AD 100 and so no others can write Scripture.
2) The New Testament books also cannot contradict the rest of the Bible.

But the main point is number 1. No, though God still speaks He does not communicate in the same way that He did to Peter and Paul and James and John.

Please comment with any questions.

thanks, Steve

I have started reading a book by Gary McIntosh titled: There’s Hope for Your Church. 

Gary is the speaker at our American Baptist Churches of Ohio spring church leadership conference. Gary writes about revitalization for churches. Here are some interesting excerpts:

“At its root, revitalization is a spiritual issue. In a study reported in Your Church, the number one change made in churches that turned around was spiritual, such as added prayer initiatives. Seventy-five percent of the revitalized churches reported starting such initiatives.[19] Pastors and other church leaders regularly overlook this key point, preferring to focus on organizational or facility or program issues. This is not surprising, since dealing with spiritual issues, such as confrontation of known sin, is a challenging part of ministry. It is a mistake, however, to ignore the spiritual dynamic of revitalization.
As you begin the process of revitalizing a church, establish high morals, ethics, and credibility and stick to them. Show your people daily that these principles are more than words—that they live and thrive in you. Leaders who lack such principles are doomed to fail. Consider the following principles of revitalization and begin using them today.

another one:

“When the average age of people in a church is ten years or more above that of the average age in the community, the church finds it is no longer able to relate to the community. Few visitors walk through the doors of the church, and even fewer come back a second time.”

Excerpt From: Gary L. McIntosh. “Thereís Hope for Your Church.” Baker Publishing Group. iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

any thoughts? please share. 

blessings, Steve

I am now reading a book titled: “The Post Church Christian.”

This book is written by Paul and Carson Nyquist. Carson is a pastor and he is part of the millennial generation (born between 1982 and 2000). Paul was a pastor and is now the president of Moody Bible Institute. Paul is a baby boomer and they both are writing about generational differences. Both have theological degrees.

On page 25 of my Kindle edition Carson writes:

“Contrary to common thinking, a shallow version of Christianity is not compelling, relevant, or attractive to us. In fact, it’s the thing that often drives us away from the church.”   

That is an interesting quote. I have heard Barna statistics that show when the unchurched come to church they expect a sermon. My own analysis shows that when the younger generation comes to church they want something. They want depth and challenged or they don’t come. They no longer attend out of expectations. 

Carson also writes: 

“When you’re drowning in a culture of Christianity [Bible belt] that approves of everyone, people will look for more. Why? Because cheap Christianity, with low expectations, is virtually meaningless. I would argue our generation desires a significant faith. We want a Sunday morning message to challenge us to something deeper than tutoring a student or cleaning up a neighborhood.” He continues to say that those are good things but we need  connected to God.

He also writes: “Hearing a message on the nature, character, and power of God inspires us. We want to be challenged to love the unlovely, share our possessions with the poor, or give our lives to something that matters. This is what inspires our generation. We don’t want a watered-down version of God’s Word. We don’t accept a three-point  checklist to complete this week. Token Christianity has nothing to do with following Jesus.”  

As I personally read and listen to people like Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll and others this seems to be confirmed. Francis Chan challenges Christians to go deeper trusting the Holy Spirit and loving God and people in a crazy way. When challenged, this generation rises to the occasion, when not challenged they see no reason to commit to nothing. (meaning there is nothing of importance to commit to. 

When writing about the way things are done because they are always done this way, Carson writes:

      Ken and Deborah Lord, pastors and authors, elaborate on this issue: ‘

      “What if we older, more established church leaders who hold the authority, property, money, and other church resources were to hunt down eclectic, somewhat ragtag, young women and men, and give our power and stuff to them with the instruction, ‘We choose you because you are not like us. Here is your charge: Go after those who are seeking God. Do not copy our ways. Do not do what we have done. Innovate. Try. Fail. Succeed. Forge a new path. Build new kinds of churches and communities.'”

That is what we must do as we have lost this generation. 

Watch this video:

Andy Stanley’s church’s website under leaders on the right:

http://northpoint.org/

Two other great books: “Deep and Wide” by Andy Stanley and Visioneering by Andy Stanley.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=deep+and+wide+andy+stanley&sprefix=deep+and+wi%2Cstripbooks%2C227

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=visioneering&sprefix=visionee%2Caps%2C198&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avisioneering

have a blessed week!

I read the following on the Vertical Church blog:

Prioritize the Word of Truth

I love this: “accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). When I was a kid, I memorized this verse in the King James Version as “rightly dividing the word of truth.” Actually, in the original Greek there’s just one word. It’s a compound word that means cut it straight. Don’t you love that picture? We are supposed to be cutting it straight, rightly dividing, accurately handling the Word of Truth.

We need to cut it straight in our families. When your daughter wants to date an unbeliever—but the Word of Truth says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers”—you go to her and cut it straight. When your son wants to listen to ungodly music in your house—but the Word of Truth says in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . . dwell on these things”—go to him and cut it straight.

Maybe you’re thinking, Hey, to be honest with you, my marriage is not doing very well right now. It’s more work than wow, for sure! I have to be honest and tell you that some days, in my darkest moments, I wonder if I can make it. I’m just not sure I can stick it out for the rest of my life. But the Word of Truth says in Matthew 19:6, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” So put that thinking out of your mind, and cut it straight.

Maybe you’ve been having a hard time at work, and the finances aren’t what they used to be. This hasn’t been a good year; sales are down, and you’ve been tempted to cut some corners. Maybe you’ve thought about withholding your giving to your church because you think, God, I have to provide for my family and cover certain obligations. You’ve been tempted to compromise the Word of Truth. But then you remember Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” No longer will you allow yourself the luxury of wandering from what the Word of God says. You are “cutting it straight”; you are accurately handling the Word of Truth. And you are making the Word of God a priority.

A number of years ago, we had some major rainstorms in our area. Many people had their basements completely flooded. The morning after the storm, two sweet sisters who live next door to us came by and said, “We were calling you on the phone in the middle of the night. We wanted to make sure your basement didn’t flood.”

“Well, we only have cordless phones,” I said. “When the power went out, our phones didn’t ring.”

“Only a couple of cordless phones for a family your size?” the sisters answered. “We have six phones in our house: three cordless phones, and three regular phones.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Wow, you have six phones? For what?” They answered, “Well, we work for the phone company. What do you expect? Isn’t your house full of Bibles?”

I laughed out loud, “Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it is!” I walked away smiling to myself, because that’s what I want our family and our church family to be known for—full of the truth of God’s Word.

That’s almost a decade ago now. Thankfully, those sisters gave their lives to Christ—in fact I saw them in church last weekend.

Check out this sound bite:

If that doesn’t work out go to

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/21660

This is a radio commentary about pornography in Iceland. It turns out they are recognizing the great dangers with an “anything is okay” society. This could be an interesting discussion. Jesus talked about lust and even if a man looks at a woman lustfully he commits adultery in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

Thought you may be interested. Have a great week!

It has been unfortunate that we put the Holy Spirit in a box. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said that “‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”’ So why don’t we live that way? Again I refer you to “Forgotten God” by Frrancis Chan and John’s Gospel chapters 14-17. But I have also typed up something below.
Let me write, I do not come from a Spirit-filled background. I have never spoken in tongues nor interpreted. Meagan can interpret tongues but that is resent. I come from a college that would for the most part be considered cessationalist which means they believe the sign gifts of the Spirit do not exist any more. But my seminary was not that way at all and I am not. I was part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and the Missionary Church USA which both recognize the Spirit in mighty ways, but that doesn’t mean I have.
But as I read about great revivals or renewals or evangelism movements I see the Spirit at work. People get over their tendency to be Spiritual introverts and let their emotions flow. They are so excited and overcome to know Christ and so that is expressed in awesome ways. We need this in our church and our churches. We need this if we ever expect to see another “Great Awakening.” We need this if we want to see many come to know Christ. I want to see this. I want to see masses come to know Christ. I pray that I mean this with pure motives. So first we must be opened to the Holy Spirit. Please read below. I read this in the end notes of Vertical church:

James MacDonald. Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs For. What Every Church Can Be.
David C. Cook / 2011 / Hardcover
http://www.christianbook.com/vertical-church-what-every-heart-longs/james-macdonald/9781434703729/pd/703729?en=google-pla&kw=church-and-pastoral-0-20&p=1167941&gclid=CLWChLqp1rUCFc9AMgodB0EAlA

Pages 315-316 in end notes number 25 for chapter 5: Unashamed Adoration:
John Wesley (1703-1791) was one of the founding members of the Methodist movement, and his journals are filled with descriptions of unusual physical manifestations that accompanied revival. For example, when describing the effects of a sermon on Saturday, July 14, 1759, he wrote, “Several fell to the ground, some of whom seemed dead, others in the agonies of death, the violence of their bodily convulsions exceeding all description. There was also great crying and agonizing in prayer, mixed with deep and deadly groans on every side.” (“Journals of John Wesley,” The Wesley Center Online, accessed January 3, 2011, http://wesley.nnu.edujohn-wesley/the-journal-of-john-wesley-vol-4/the-eleventh-part-section-two/.)
George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a contemporary of Wesley in England. When he heard reports of people responding boldly in Wesley’s meetings, Whitefield confronted his fellow preacher in a letter dated June 25, 1739: “I cannot think it right in you to give so much encouragement to these convulsions which people have been thrown in your ministry.” But a very short time later, Whitefield had to reverse his judgment when people began, without any prompting, to respond outwardly during his meetings. Henry Venn, a contemporary of Whitefield, wrote of the crowds listening to the great preacher: “Under Mr. Whitefield’s sermon, many among the immense crowd that filled every part of the burial ground were overcome with fainting. Some sobbed deeply; others wept silently; and a solemn concern appeared on the countenance of almost the whole assembly.” (Cited in J.C. Ryle Christian Leaders of the 18th Century [London: Banner of Truth, 1997], 253-53).
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) also described the sometimes-unusual events that would accompany a revival. Writing of those who find God’s grace for the first time, Edwards said, “It was very wonderful to see how persons’ affections were sometimes moved— when God as it were suddenly opened their eyes…. Their joyful surprise has caused their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tears often at the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping.” (“A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998], 1:354.)
In his description of the Great Awakening, Edwards wrote, “Many of the young people and children that were professors appeared to be overcome with a sense of the greatness and glory of Divine things, and with admiration, love, joy and praise, and compassion to others that looked upon themselves as in a state of nature; and many others at the same time were overcome with distress about their sinful and miserable state and condition; so that the whole room was full of nothing but outcries, faintings, and such like…. It was a very frequent thing to see a house full of outcries, faintings, convulsions and such like, both with distress, and also with admiration and joy.” (Jonathan Edwards, The Great Awakening: A Faithful Narrative [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972], 4:546-47.)
When considering the physical and emotional manifestations of revival, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) wrote that “these phenomena are not essential to revival yet it is true to say that, on the whole, they do tend to be present when there is a revival. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1987].)