Moratorium on Harshness

I see a bitter thread in me. A shadow that puts a dimness on my need to be gracious. I am to be a bringer of peace and brother-love to those with whom I am in Christ. My lifelong tendency toward sarcasm and snide remarks keeps trying to rear up again and again.

And I have seen this in others too, which serves strangely enough not to encourage my own rough handling of those with whom I have differences, rather to frighten me and humble me into remorse for my own instances.

The viciousness between Dispensational and Covenantal folks makes me hurt. I pray that this is the Lord softening my heart and that I’m experiencing a true sense of Christian charity and love for brothers in Him.

No joke, I was praying this morning — more like the Spirit was groaning with mine, since I couldn’t come up with much more than “Give me grace to be wise and faithful to Your Word.” My prayer is out of a sense of need as I deal with my convictions about Covenant Theology and the arguments that Dispensationalists present. I’m studying both from as fair a middle-ground as I can manage, not focusing too much (as I can manage) on any one aspect, be it church, eschatology. And today, more than usual, the general fisticuffs appear to be magnified.

Now, I’m all for being direct and calling a spade a spade. I’m willing to, God willing, stand up for correct theology and doctrine. I hope that I’m a willing teacher and able to reprove someone who sins in my presence should it be called for. But when the great heads in this day, top theologians from both CT and DT camps can conference in peace and brotherly love, but the meta below shows a beast in the back room… That’s what’s been brewing on the Intertubes for a few weeks now.

So I pray again for wisdom and charity. Especially for patience to see the end of a fight and be of few words save those that will build up my comrades in the faith and encourage others to do the same. I hope this blog succeeds in the same.

Westminster Confession is Awesome

There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and withal, most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. — Chapter 2 .1

Wow.

Product of church history. Just loving this. Who knew.

Bible Study on Church Government — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This is part three of three. There are three questions for this week’s Bible Study at church and this is the last one.

Great Doctrines of the Bible by: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Assignment: Volume 3 Chapter 1: The Marks and Government of the Church

ALWAYS USE SCRIPTURE AS YOUR FOUNDATION WHEN ANSWERING QUESTIONS.

Question #3. Of the types of church polity listed, what type most resembles the government your church uses and how are decisions arrived at in your church? How does this government vary from a leadership format that you experienced in another church you attended? Explain how a decision was arrived at in the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. How did the ramifications of that decision effect the foundational beliefs of the young Christian church?

My church is “congregational” or “local-independent” in that there is no higher council or other system of government that oversees practice or teaching for the church. It has a dependence on Scripture and fellowship that isn’t quite so apparent in other churches. I have been to a Presbyterian for a short time and the impression I got was a sort of more codified, dogmatic (in a sense of rote teaching) presented itself. The atmosphere at the church was one of “we believe in accordance with the council and the Bible” whenever teaching took place. This wasn’t bad, per-say as there was agreement between the presbytery and the Scriptures. I grew up in Baptist type churches which, as Lloyd-Jones explained, really do not all conform to the congregational independence they usually claim. In contrast, I have also been to a non-denominational Pentecostal church (of the extreme type) which was entirely independent and had a powerful focus on fellowship but no leadership. Of the churches I’ve seen with outside governance, the Free Evangelical (E-Free) types, those who adhere to the Scriptures, seem to experience the best of a council sort of organization where there is a loose affiliation and a use of councils primarily for church discipline and guidance where the pastor has something to call upon for guidance. I won’t claim a comprehensive or deep knowledge of these types of churches: this is just my impression from experience.

The decision in Acts 15 was reached by consultation among apostles and elders of the church, relying upon the Scriptures (Amos 9:11-12). Matthew Henry’s Commentary deals with the reason for the decision being made and its result. I’m particularly drawn to the note that the churches were already apparently clear on the teaching but there was conflict from the outsiders who were obviously pressing authority from Judea or Jerusalem (Acts 15:1 and 5). The issue was a false teaching, for certain, but there was a second, equally bad issue of holding authority over churches.

The response from the churches when they received the letter undoubtedly came in part from the gracious message that did not assert ecclesiastical authority, rather voiced the beliefs of the apostles and elders from Jerusalem. There was no challenge issued or statement made regarding submission to any church or organization.

My note: I don’t see in Scripture any clear direction for ecclesiastical authority beyond independent local church governance. There is no communication in Revelation from Christ to the Council-Of-Elders-Over-The-United-Church, nor does Paul refer in his epistles to any body of leaders who are over multiple churches. Christ does not set up a council or presbytery or papal system in the Gospels (commonly Matt 16:18). Contrariwise, the example is always individual bodies of believers (the nation Israel, various churches in the N.T.) or the Church catholic (all believers combined). There doesn’t seem to be instance of a good case, in any case: The Pharisees don’t have a divine installation (or even a properly recorded historical origin) and the NT examples of teachers exerting global authority (with exception of the apostles) are all indications of false doctrine.

Bible Study on The Marks and Government of the Church — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This is going to be part one of three. There are three questions for this week’s Bible Study at church and I’m going to try to tackle all of them.

Great Doctrines of the Bible by: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Assignment: Volume 3 Chapter 1: The Marks and Government of the Church

ALWAYS USE SCRIPTURE AS YOUR FOUNDATION WHEN ANSWERING QUESTIONS.

Question #1. Name the 3 main marks of the church and describe the main reasons for their existence. Do these marks exist in the church that you attend? Do you see the fruit of both the existence and non-existence of these marks in churches?

3 Main Marks:
(I’m giving a sample of Scripture references to accompany each Mark) Preaching the Word (1 Timothy 4:6-16, 2 Tim 3:1-4), Administering the Lord’s Supper and Baptism (Acts 2:41-42, Matt 28:19, Luke 22:19-20, 1 Cor 11:23-26), Church Discipline (Matt 18:15-20, Titus 1:10-16)

These marks are in place at my church. They are reinforced both in practice and teaching on a regular basis. The pastor and elders are adhering to the marching orders for pastors found in 1 and 2 Tim.

The fruit of the presence of the 3 marks is a church that knows doctrine, has a desire for greater knowledge of doctrine and manifests the natural result, which is the love for Christ and His people and a desire to reach the lost (1 Thess 1:2-10, Phill 1:12-18). Conversation is about the Gospel, not on “what we did for the community last week” and there is evidence of growth not in numbers but in faith and discernment (Rom 12:2).

The running trend in many (if not most) publicly prominent churches is a blend of philosophy/therapy and works. One might combine Thyatira, Pergamum and Sardis to find a works-oriented, world-praised church on every street corner here. With a little deeper look it should be easy to discover compromising doctrines and practices that betray a desire to please the masses and make the members grow in numbers (1 Tim 6:20-21, 2 Tim 3:15-17, Col 2:8, Rev 2:12,18, 3:1).

“O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.”

I think the point is frequently missed in Matt 5:1-16. The part about salt and light and good works is taken without consideration of verses 11 and 12. If our works earn us worldly praise and we face no suffering or persecution, I think that makes our works suspect. Christ was the first suffered for His message, as did all the apostles and great fathers of the church after them. Those who don’t (Sardis) suffer don’t match up with the Bible’s description of the life of a Christian (Acts 5:41-42, Rom 5:3, Phill 1:29, Matt 10:16-23). I’m not claiming that it’s all gonna be pain and agony here, for God is kind and loving toward His people, but we should expect to face hardship on account of our commitment to Christ (2 Cor 1:3-7).

Regarding administering the Lord’s Supper and Baptism: I’m not going to hit this part right now. I’m not entirely clear on the meaning MLJ has put forth about grace. I come from the Baptist background of ordinances that are public displays and signs of faith, conversion, promise, and unity and I don’t think there is much teaching of particular application of a special grace in that doctrine. I sense that this is not entirely correct but need to study more in order to grasp it. 1 Cor 11:17-34 is key here and I will be working on it.

It is apparent that churches I have attended who do not teach clear doctrine (or are heretical in general) do not seem to have the same reverence for the Lord’s Supper or during it. They repeat the mantra “this is my body…” and do the bread and juice without much call to self-inspection, gospel or, in some cases, even any sense of seriousness. It’s as if it’s just a practice that sort of unifies the group under one banner without any real depth. The same goes for baptism in that one is dipped into the club rather than into Christ.

Too Much For Me

Recently, there has been a rash of blogging about creationism, BioLogos, old-earth and young-earth debates and evolution. Some of it is very interesting. I’m a big fan of Team Pyro’s work, and MacArthur’s discussions and articles, though the ensuing metas pretty much reveal how rough and technical many people can be and how I’m not equipped to deal with them.

Warning: whenever intricate maneuvers, prolific amounts of explanation, tiered references within references to make a point, massive logic processes and mathematical kung-fu are present, I suspect I can be pretty sure the end product is going to either be dead wrong, destructive, useless or a combination of the three.

Occam’s Razor

, a guideline that I try to incorporate in most of my thinking, really seems to be functional here (here’s a

second read on O.R.).

Choose which works:

1. Creator God who made it all, simply in 6 days according to His own statement and then made it so we can explore and revel in how amazingly He did it. But, with a primary focus on His status as God and Creator, the fallen state of Man and creation due to sin, the plan of redemption of said man and creation through the life, death, resurrection and eternal reign of His Son, and the life of those who believe in Him.

OR

1. Creator God who started it all in an unspecified-process, undetermined-time-frame, apparently hands-off in development, possibly even left nearly everything to random chance, then gives an “infallible and inspired” manual filled with symbolism and no specifics, expecting His randomly developed creation (supposedly made in His image) to figure out the whole thing which is (admitted by BOTH sides) too complex to fathom in its entirety, using fantastic reaches of mathematics, probabilities, unstable measurement systems and so-on. Not appearing to have regard for the primary focus of option 1.

Bottom line: It’s all too much for me. Coming from the Biblical side of all of these arguments, I’m pretty much on firm ground, able to learn and understand what’s being presented. What gets me is the insanely complicated and frustrating arguments from the sides that support theories which go against the grain of the Bible’s claims.

I’m not taking this opportunity to go out on a Sola Scriptura tirade, though I’m absolutely an adherent to the Solas (that’s the only way to look at the Bible). What I’m shooting at is the insane amount of labor required to understand the positions of the old-earth, evolution, science-rules people. I realize I’m a simple guy, not too many brains, with no skills in mathematics or any of the high sciences. I’d like to think I’m in a class with the majority of regular old humans. Being saved gives me no better insight into technical stuff than I had prior to.

The problem becomes one of practicality, which points back to what’s obvious: God reveals to us what we need to know and understand and He makes it work for us to believe in Him, trust Him, receive His Son and so-on. Practically, I have to develop a second brain in order to comprehend the “Christian evolutionists,” complete with an entirely new series of additional Bible study and hard work just to grasp their arguments.

What takes an hour or two and hard thinking along with prayer to work out in Scripture, regarding Creation as it is in Scripture, takes twice that (or more) to apprehend from the arguments at such locations as Answers In Creation or at Biologos who argue extensively for old-earth and even evolution. It’s too complicated.

My poor Beloved Wife faces the distinct honor of persecution in this matter as her current geology course at college is based on evolutionary old-earth science and has made no room for her belief in the Word of God. She faces this very same counter-intuitive, complex reference-in-reference science in real life, and it’s frustrating her to no end. Our pastor preached on persecution a bit on Sunday, and he hit a chord with us. The world is a harsh, unforgiving place for the Faithful.

Three Minutes On Women Pastors

For a long while, I listened to KPRZ on the way to work. It was my dose of the Word for the morning. Usually, the lineup was Swindoll and Focus On The Family. Can’t say it was the greatest food but it did a little for a wake-up into the day with Christ.

One thing that really irked me was a little commercial they ran for a local Christian college. The ad featured a dialogue between two new students who meet up as old friends. Guy and a gal. They ran through the “what’re you doing here?” and the girl’s response was, “well they offered all this…and maybe even a pastor or something.” Pregnant pause after that before closing the ad with standard enroll-today blurbs.

Is it really bad that women become pastors? Here’s the classic argument: First the reasoning in 1 Timothy and then the model in Ephesians.

1 Timothy 2:11-14 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. (NIV)

Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (NIV)

These are the authoritative statement on the model and reasoning for why women should not hold Primary Teaching Authority over men. Can they lead? By example? Yes. By wisdom? Yes. By role? No. Look at what women have done in the Scriptures.

It’s not limited to N.T. cultural rules, look at the reference to Genesis. Unfortunately, this is not enough for our day. The world sees loopholes in this argument.

Here is a detailed pile of answers for Women as Pastors.

Women in Christianity are neither dishonored (see Christ’s lineage), nor left out (see disciples). They are included (see Phoebe and Priscilla and Ruth and Naomi) and they are honored above and beyond (see Jesus’ mother, Mary). But they’re not pastors or priests or apostles. The honest truth is that the renewal of our minds in Christ, in our regenerated lives, women are finally restored, elevated to the glory that was theirs in Creation, in the first place.

The issue is never whether men are better than women. The issue is who has what job. And that is not arguable with the Scriptures. This is an attack on the world’s view of women dating back to the very beginning. The corrupted worldview denies the roles God established from the beginning. The world is at war with everything that points to God, never forget that. Women as pastors is just a facet, a visible one of the many attacks on the Scripture, God’s infallible Word.

Click to Set The Record Straight.

Three Minutes For Specific Doctrines

There are plenty of Truths that we assert right off the bat. Christians get the Love of God from the beginning. We also get the basics of sin, Christ’s atonement, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, our repentance and heavenly rewards and such. Those things come up quickly and easily when we are called to Christ.

Others, very important but not always picked up right away are looming in the background. These, such as the truth about the church, sanctification, security of the believer and so-on, are often looming questions that we need further work to apprehend in our lives.

Why are all the doctrines important? Incomplete or erroneous views of Scripture will lead to instability in our faith and practice which can taint or even unravel our grasp of the basics. This can happen either overtly, such as with the truth about our security in Christ which, if doubted, can end up with a giving up on the Faith or a long, hard life of working for what God has freely given us. The sneaky ones, such as God’s design for the church, may lead us into the arena of false teachers and messed up doctrines. At a minimum, not knowing what is to be found in the church can trap us into attending a wishy-washy assembly of weak teaching and easy-believism.

The best way to work this out is to comprehensively study Scripture with an eye for God’s law, standards, commands, promises, roles for His people and creation as well as the differences and similarities between the O.T. and N.T. practices of the Faithful. The N.T. is critical because it reveals  everything the O.T. talked about in its types and shadows. A careful work on the epistles will outline in detail much that is not easily understood prior to Christ’s crucifixion.

Epistles cover discipline, roles of men and women, church, salvation, grace, election and everything else in detail. Epistles alone are not enough, all alone, to build good understanding of doctrine? It’s sure that good cross-referencing will reveal that epistles’ teaching refers to Christ’s teaching and that of the O.T. Paul was a well-educated and zealous pharisee, remember! He knew his Scriptures.

Jesus takes pre-eminence. Read Him and then read what everyone else said about Him, before and after He came to earth! The O.T. had a lot to say about Christ and so did the N.T. theologians (they wrote theology for us!) Paul, Peter, James, John…

Don’t forget that the resources we have, the books that cover theology, doctrine and Christian discussions provide a comprehensive overview of what we should know and believe (and what we should watch out for). They are indispensable help to navigate through the Word.

Three Minutes For Teachers

 

Realizing that Doctrine, and depth of doctrine are extremely important, I’m turning now to the pursuit of doctrine.

Can we teach ourselves all the doctrine we need or sit down with the Spirit for a one-on-one Q&A session? Yes and no. I’m going to rely on an indirect but, I believe you’ll agree, effective argument. The existence of teachers throughout the phases of God revealing Himself to men.

OT: Teachers, Judges, Priests, Prophets, Kings, God Himself and Scripture itself. All these things taught the people. There’s nothing pointing to an individual pursuing, engaging and figuring out God by himself. Always external help.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 11:19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

NT: Same thing. John the Baptist, Jesus, Disciples, Apostles, Epistles, Pastors, Elders, the Holy Spirit. All these things taught the people. Some would say “Just the Holy Spirit, please!” and I answer: hasn’t the Holy Spirit worked in countless men and women over 2,000 years to open the words of Scripture to them and that those men and women, through their interaction, have manifested that work by the H.S. in teaching each other and sharing, recording the understanding?

No verses here, instead read 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, concerning false teachers, the establishment of pastoral/elder qualification.

One thing to note is that false teachers abounded in the NT. Just as they abound today. How do these men come about? Nearly every time you hear a false teacher today, the answer is… “The Holy Spirit led me to…” and there you have it. We have godly Bible teachers to counter the false ones. But that’s not all they do. Teachers collect, organize and work hard with the teachings of Scripture to edify us and drill for us a great foundation of doctrine and application.

Bereans took what the teachers said, headed for their Scripture and found out if what was said was so. We should be hungry for teaching as a help, desire this immensely valuable tool to be used in our Bible study. Teachers are no substitute for an open Bible, but they are essential to help us with our growth. That’s why we have a “body” of believers!

Three Minutes For Doctrine

How deep must we go in the particulars of what we believe? Is it just the Cross and the events surrounding or is there more?

In any case where we are not carefully grounded in truth we are vulnerable to either temptation or doubt. Succumbing to either (both being essentially the same anyway) leads us into a weak or sinful state in which we can compromise more and more of our life in Christ.

Truth is doctrine. Use the same words, wisdom, truth, doctrine, knowledge when you’re studying.

Truth is tied tightly with our relationship with God:

Psalm 25:5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 86:11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

The Spirit leads us in truth.

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Scripture plainly teaches that we must be sound in the faith (1 Tim. 4:6; 2 Tim. 4:2-3; Tit. 1:9; 2:1).

Seriously, 2 Timothy 3:16 is the summary for what we must consider when we’re wondering how much we need to believe. The whole passage which ends with 3:16 is critical to understand the scope of this verse.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Holistic Approaches

I read an article last night about the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was very thought provoking.How America’s Top Military Officer Uses Business to Boost National Security

Now, a little about background here. I’m a fan of Admiral Mullen. He’s like a super genius among the great brains of today’s military. I’m so impressed with him and his contemporaries who are all driving the military with incredible thoughts that reach farther than the stereotypical shoot-to-kill leadership of years past. I’ve read some of the work that’s come from war thinkers these days, and it’s amazing how difficult the issues of modern military cross the lines of politics, economics and just about every other ology and ics you can think of.

Back to the point. “…Mullen views the world through a remarkably wide-angled lens. ‘Mike sees things in a very holistic way,'” This admiral is looking through a huge TV and taking in the whole picture. He sees the wars we’re in and our military reach in general as far more than logistics, tactics and training. He’s looking at the impact of the world on our work and the impact of our work on the world. He is sort of a center-of-gravity for information and has built a program to make use of it. Some of Mullen’s program is stretching or even breaking the traditional processes and boundaries of military thought and practice.

We Christians need to update our thinking in light of this. I encounter encapsulated thinking in me and others on a regular basis. While there is absolutely a security in the exclusivity of the Faith with the scriptures and our tight relationship with the Lord in Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we too often do not consider our impact on the world around us. Worse, we don’t take notice of the impact of the world around us on our own lives.

There are countless warnings in the Bible that we need to be alert, aware and proactive in our daily lives.

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,

1 Timothy 4:16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

2 Timothy 2:4-5 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

2 Timothy 3:1-7 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Those are just what are quickly rounded up from a couple of my favorite books in the Word. They speak to us and the message is clearly about being on guard. This isn’t just a call to build a wall that isolates us from the world. The call includes discernment and the list of details in just these verses indicates there is much to contemplate and consider. How do these elements of the world enter into our lives. How do we keep ourselves from joining forces with the people in 2 Timothy 3? What do we do to counteract that agency in our own lives as well as combat it in the world itself.

The simple Wall answer is to isolate ourselves and become a bastion of proclamation. We can lock ourselves up behind the locked doors of our homes and venture out only for the security of church, gathering there to participate in fellowship but never reaching beyond those two points.

That’s not what we do. We live our lives in the light of the Promise, the Hope of our salvation. We reach out in submission to the Great Commission that directs us to preach the Gospel to the world. That all means we’re outside our homes, in the world, interacting and interfacing with all that is around us. This is good in that we have the countless opportunities to witness not just through proclamation of the Word but through becoming living examples of Christ. “Little Christs.”

The rough part is that exposure is going to happen. We’re going to be tempted by the world’s wares. We need to think holistically about this. We need to include study of the ways that secular things touch our holy things. We need to be able to translate that secular into the holy and be able to discern when a worldly element cannot integrate into holy living and thinking.

ho·lis·tic

// http://img.tfd.com/m/sound.swf (h-lstk)adj.

1. Of or relating to holism.

a. Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts.

b. Concerned with wholes rather than analysis or separation into parts

We need to take a look at the WHOLE PICTURE. That excludes a purely sky-high summary view as being sufficient for effective, faithful life as a Christian. We need to get into the ground-view mode that includes the smells, textures and sounds, the nuances of the way the Bible interacts with our world. We can’t sit on our crowns and just be happy. It’s not like that. Countless sermons and their preachers have demonstrated this fully. I think this sums up a good example:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10959675&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1

T4G 2010 — Session 8 — Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Holistic approach? We need it. How?

Doctrine. I cannot describe well enough how the growth in me is due to study of doctrine, the rules of living and thinking provided in the Bible. Too many Christians pooh-pooh the idea of doctrine “because it’s for those Bible-Scholar people off in the colleges.” I tell you that this is garbage. Every Christian could reach the discerning and spirit filled capacity of the staff at SBTS or Westminster or up there with those great stalwarts of today’s Bible believing churches.

Doctrine is not high-falutin study that is “above and beyond” the call of Christian duty. We are all called to be doctrinally discerning and practicing disciples. And it really means this: deep understanding of the principles of the Word. We don’t just know Christ, we know Christ, his ways, his purposes, his teaching and his promises.

This is holistic work. Understanding and applying the Truth of God, his grace and sovereignty in all aspects of our lives is required. We can’t make up a wall that protects us because there is no escape this side of the return of Christ.

Additionally,

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2

We should be, by nature as sons and daughters of the Most High, as people who are In Christ, be obsessed with the details of our relationship with the single most important person in existence. Knowing God, desiring God, pursuing God is our one purpose.

So we must holistically approach the world too, for in creation how much can we see that reflects God’s majesty, creativity, grace and power? But how much has been subverted to the ends of the Evil One? And how do we know what to do about it?

Some practical points for thought: How do we counter someone who is convinced he is saved once-for-all because he made a choice to follow Jesus. This person asserts he is saved but lives no differently than before. He chose to take on the name of Christian. Deal with that.

How do we know when our pastimes have swallowed up our witness? How can we guard against the intrusion of technology into our lives?

How do we cooperate with the world and not compromise our identity in Christ and spoil our message to those who do not believe? Is this the right product of our hopeful cooperation:

?

Or is there something missing here?

I tell three times: Doctrine Doctrine Doctrine. We cannot guard against nor interface with those things of the world unless we have a deep, ever deepening understanding of Scripture.

It’s not just “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know…”

It’s SO much more than this. And we have to think light-years into the future.

Do I live just as I am with my daughters and wife, simply trying to teach them daily what the “verse of the day” means or pray faithfully at dinner? Or am I to live with their futures in my mind, about how they will grow and grow up. Holistically, what is the world they live in and what will it be like when they are on their own? Are they prepared with an identity that conforms to the Bible’s outline of their lives? Are they prepared to work in the world or will they fall right off the balance beam on the first try because they’ve had no training on what they must be and what the world is.

Therein is my challenge. And so I go back to reading my Bible. Starting with Romans 12:1-2…

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.