Evangelism

Years ago a prominent figure in our brotherhood came to speak to our preacher's group in North Jersey. During his talk he made the statement that our exclusivity was killing our evangelism. Afterwards I happened to be in the car next to him headed for lunch. I took the time to disagree with his statement. I said that our inclusivity is killing our evangelism. I pointed out that ever since I've become a Christian (1973) I've heard that Churches of Christ were one of the fastest growing churches during the 50s. I have often wondered why no one suggested that we recapture the attitudes and message that was present back then. Some may not have liked that our brotherhood was decidedly exclusive in its message but back then we knew who was lost and who was saved. I don't believe that this alone made us evangelistic, but it certainly helped. When we become overly inclusive there is no need to evangelize because everyone appears saved.

Our society today as a whole has moved to the left in its quest to be tolerant. Tolerance means that we accept everyone and their message. No one is lost. So if we evangelize any group we insult them and society jeers at us. Remember when the Southern Baptists were lambasted in the media because they believed that Jewish people in general were lost? I believe firmly that if we don't know who is saved and who is lost then we won't evangelize. I'm not suggesting that we necessarily believe that we are the only Christians but I am saying we must have a clearly articulated message that gives a clear indication of what we believe is the message and the response to it. Without this as a minimum we will have an unclear path for evangelism.

God's dwelling

In going over the Scriptures on the Holy Spirit I noticed something that I had never noticed before. I don't know if any author has ever pointed this out. I don't remember reading it anywhere before. Well here goes.

In the Old Testament God tells Israel that He will be their God, they will be His people and He will dwell among them (Ex.29:44-46; Lev.26:12). When Jesus came to the earth, John records that the word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). And lastly, the Holy Spirit dwells in us (Rom.8:9,11). I think this is significant that each member of the Godhead took turns dwelling with us. I also believe that this should have an impact on how we understand the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit."

I mentioned in an earlier post that in our fellowship there have been two distinct teachings concerning the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. One believes that the Spirit indwells us representatively through the word. The other believes that the Holy Spirit is personally dwelling in us. I think both teachings miss the point of "dwelling." Dwelling isn't about location, it's about relationship. In the Old Testament God isn't telling the Israelites that He is only located among them (He's omnipresent) but that He has a special relationship that He has with no other nation. The same is true of the Christian. The Holy Spirit dwelling in us isn't about His location it's about Him having a relationship with us.

Look at Num.5:1-4 God has the Israelites send out unclean people from the camp because He dwells in their midst. When they send the people out of the camp, these people really haven't been removed from God's actual presence since He's omnipresent but they have been removed from Israel, with whom God does have a relationship.

When Solomon completed the temple, God demonstrated His presence by filling the temple with a thick cloud just as He did with the Tabernacle (1Kgs.8:11-13). Solomon later said that heaven and earth cannot contain God much less this temple (1Kgs.8:27). Surely this has to impact out thinking about the Holy Spirit. We must understand that when the New Testament speaks about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, just as the Old Testament spoke about God dwelling in the temple, that what is in view is not location but relationship.

We might also look at this from another perspective. Instead of dividing the Bible into three historical dispensations (patriarchal, Mosaic, Christian) why not see the Bible in terms of ministerial dispensations - the Father's with Israel, Jesus' with the apostles, and the Holy Spirit's with the church. This is why each member of the Godhead dwells with us - it is part of His ministry.

I do believe that the miracles performed in the early church were proof of the Holy Spirit's dwelling in God's new people the church. The miracles in the Old Testament (the plagues in Egypt, the miracles during the period of the Judges, and the thick cloud in the Tabernacle and Temple) were proof of God's dwelling among the Israelites. I also believe that miracles are no longer necessary. But I believe that in the Old Testament God empowered people for service in non-miraculous ways (Ex.35:31-32) and the Holy Spirit continues to empower us in non-miraculous ways today (Rom.12:6-8). The continuing proof today of the Spirit's dwelling in us is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). This is the Spirit's continuing ministry for the church.

Flustered

Yesterday I experienced something I've never experienced in the pulpit, I got so flustered I had to stop, say something, regain my thoughts, and then continue on. Now, I've lost my train of thought before, I've gotten flustered before, but I've never felt the need to say something. I've always just pretended like it was all part of my lesson. In essence I bluff and find my place. But yesterday I felt so lost that I was sure everyone else was seeing it as well. So I stopped and said something like, "I'm sure Barry Bonds has stepped up to the plate and not been able to swing, and that's what I'm experiencing." Then I got back in the "game" and continued on. Everyone afterwards was quite sympathetic and gracious. Some told me that I shouldn't have said anything because they certainly didn't notice. A lot of them told me it shows I'm human. Of course I already knew that. I just don't like my humanity popping up in front of the congregation. One visiting preacher shared with me a gaff of his from last week. It turned out to be a good experience - for me and the congregation.

Bob's Intelligence Type

Here is the result to my intelligence type.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Sermon Preparation

Kent Anderson brings up an interesting survey from Thom Rainer (Surprising Insights from the Unchurched), some preachers only spend two hours a week in sermon preparation. It sometimes takes me two hours just to find the images I want for my PowerPoint slides. Seriously, there are times when other factors in my week limit my sermon preparation time but I've always felt that at least 10 hours per sermon was a good investment. Charles Hodge has pointedly stated that preachers ought to spend one hour of study for every minute preached. That means I should spend 50 hours a week studying for my two weekly sermons (my sermons are typically around the 25 minute mark). 50 hours plus at least 20 more in meetings, visits, etc. I'm not a work-oholic. Instead I spend about 20 hours a week in preparing for my sermons, which means a little under half my week in actual time.

Sermon preparation consists of reading the text, studying the text myself (word study, context study, historical background, etc.), thinking through possible applications, thinking through the outline for the sermon (my outlines don't always have a 3 point plan), gathering images for the slides, an idea for the introduction (I like to start off the sermon with something to get the congregation thinking), and making sure I have an adequate conclusion. I think my conclusions are the weakest part of my sermons and so I struggle each week with this knowledge.

Of course the adequacy of this preparation is limited by my personality. I'm a big picture thinker and not a detail thinker. So I don't always spend time thinking through the details as thoroughly as I should. Often I think I've got the big picture covered and my optimism tells me that's enough. After I preach a sermon I always come up with ways I should have done it. I guess I can understand what Paul means when he says that our adequacy comes from God (2Cor.3:4-6). It is comforting to know that God is able to use our imperfect and meager attempts and still accomplish good results.

Today's Lessons 11/12/2006

This morning's lesson began a series of lessons on Stewardship. I started off with a look at God's faithfulness to us. The key characteristic of a steward is faithfulness or trustworthiness. I wanted us to first get a sense of God's faithfulness before we start considering our responsibility of faithfulness to God. I have always believed that our response to God grows out of His salvation and grace to us first. The next couple of weeks I will talk about being good stewards of the usual stuff - our money, possessions, time, etc.

Sunday evening I continued my series on Attacks on the Bible's Integrity. It is a difficult series since I'm not really explaining some Scripture or scriptural topic but rather talking about manuscripts, textual evidence, archaeology, and history. However, I seem to get good response. Tonight's lesson was about a web site from an Islamic group that is questioning the typical manuscript evidence that we use to demonstrate the accuracy of our current copies with what we believe to be the possible original text. I found this web site on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog that I have linked to the left of my posts. I think I will wrap up this series next Sunday and start something new.

New Computer!!!!!!!!!!!

I now have a new computer! Long story. Pat's computer was partially damaged at the beginning of last summer while we were still in New Jersey. We were told it would need replacing. So once we moved to Florida, I got on TigerDirect and ordered a barebones kit with no hard drive. My goal was to take Pat's hard drives (complete with Windows XP) and just put it into the the new computer. It would have worked if the OS was anything but XP. No dice, Microsoft doesn't mind if you use the same equipment but not a new computer. So this computer sat and we bought a HP from Office Depot (just like the one her Dad just bought). She's happy. So when my computer died I purchased Win XP from a store on Ebay. Spent the whole day today working on it. First, I installed XP on a standard hard drive (IDE or PATA). Then I installed a new 200 GB SATA (Serial ATA) and made it my boot drive. Then I added the two hard drives from my old computer so I don't have any data loss. Now I have three hard drives plus a CD-ROM and a DVD-CD burner. I am cooking with fire! I'm pretty excited. This new computer is cool. Hopefully I will get back to regular posting.

Sigh

My computer appears to be taking a nose dive. I can't get it to boot up. I am currently trying to find a local company that will look at it. My posts will probably be few until then.

Sunday Lesson 10/29/06

My lesson yesterday was about Brotherly Love from Romans 12:10. I talked about how occasionally my Dad would get tired of the bickering going on between me and my siblings and he would make us hug and kiss each other. They seemed to like that story. I then set about showing that we are family and need to act like it. Even though we are blood family we can still develop family affection. In fact one commentator suggested that the phrase in Romans 12:10 should read "in brotherly love, develop family affection." So I played off of that idea. But we need an ideal version of family for our goal. I suggested that the family shows of the late 50s and early 60s gave us an ideal version of family that is far better than the reality family shows of today. Better that we have this ideal version and moved toward it than wallow in the reality of real family life of today. I then showed how we could develop family affection and ended with some practical suggestions - mostly tied to programs or things we are currently doing.

No lesson Sunday night. The young men did the service. Kevin Holder did the lesson. His text was Philippians 3:13-14. He talked about perseverance. Logan and Killian (brothers living in one of the cottages here at the Christian Home) did the Lord's Supper (their first time being involved in worship). Tyler Newton read the Scripture. Eddie (our youth minister) lead the singing. It was really good. I liked taking a break and I really liked being able to hear our young men take the lead.

The Holy Spirit

Over the years the subject of the Holy Spirit has constantly popped up. I do think that some preachers and churches avoid the discussing Him just because it's easier that way to keep the peace. The elders here at Mount Dora want me to work on some lessons about the Holy Spirit, so I've been working through my beliefs with an eye towards some lessons. It's been awhile since I preached on Him but not because I've been avoiding doing so, it's just that there is so much to study and talk about in a local congregation.

I've been thinking through the question of the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit" issue since that seems to be the most common question that our members have. Our fellowship (at least since I've been around) has two basic positions on the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." The first was popular back in the 40s and 50s. The claim is that the Spirit indwells us through the Word. I can well understand how this viewpoint can develop. If you consider that most of the New Testament is written to Christians who had no written Bible but did have prophets speaking the Word of God by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 12:28) then most of references in the New Testament are seen from that perspective. Such as when Paul says to "walk by the Spirit" in Galatians 5:16. I'm pretty sure myself that Paul's reference to the Spirit doesn't refer to an inner voice that the Spirit speaks directly to the Christian but rather to the Spirit's guidance through the inspired prophet who speaks when the Christians gather for assembly (1Corinthians 14:26, 29-30). So it is assumed that once the Spirit quit performing miracles (at the end of the apostolic age - i. e. once the apostles died) that the Word is all we have.

The other position is that the Holy Spirit indwells us personally. The focus comes from passages like Acts 2:38 where it is believed that the gift we receive at baptism (along with forgiveness) is the Holy Spirit himself. Plus there are several passages where it is mentioned that the Spirit dwells in us (Romans 8:9,11). Along with this position comes the idea that the Holy Spirit actually strengthens us directly as we serve God.

I have a third option that I think reflects the biblical subject of the Holy Spirit but I'm going to wait on discussing that until later. I'm going to blog for awhile about various related subjects on the Holy Spirit. I think this will be a way of articulating my understanding and perhaps even refining my positions. I'm hoping that this will help me in preparing my lessons for Mount Dora.

Sunday lessons 10/22/06

It was a good day today. The morning lesson went well. My title was "What to Hate" and the text was Romans 12:9. Of course Paul tells us to hate (abhor, detest, despise) evil. I pointed out that we avoid or destroy that which we hate. We must let God define evil. If we will hate evil (in our selves and the church) then we will focus our attention on cleaning up our act instead of hurting others. The complement to hate is to cling to what is good. Of course we must also let God define what is good. "Cling" or "cleave" seems to be used for glue in the first century. So if we stick to good, then good will stick to us. This should be our agenda in the church - hate evil, cling to good and let it show in our behavior.

Sunday evening was also good. I talked about The Gospel of Judas. Earlier this year (around Easter) the press was really talking about this document. Although it was discoverd in the 70s, the English translation was just finished. A papyrus codex (book form instead of scroll) was found containing this document. The scholars believe that the document is 31 pages long but only 13 pages were present in the codex. The headlines tried to give them impression that this document could essentially recast our understanding of Judas and Jesus. The document was dated from around 220 to 340 AD. It was written in Coptic (Egyptian) and may have been a translation of an earlier Greek document. Irenaeus condemned a Gospel of Judas in his Against Heresies work that was completed in around 180 AD. There is no way to prove that the one Irenaeus condemned is this Coptic translation. There are some who think it likely it is the same and some who do not. Either way it was still written at least 100 years after the canonical four and is quite Gnostic in its content. It is not a narrative of Jesus' life but a glorification of Judas. Even though Judas is probably the big loser of the apostles in the Gospels, the Gospels do not really glorify any of the apostles in any way approaching what The Gospel of Judas does for Judas. I continue to receive new comments from members that they really like what I'm doing Sunday evening.

Bob's Survey

Okay, Lisa, here is my "What is your favorite . . .?" survey.

1. What is your favorite Bible book?
2. What is your favorite religious book?
3. Who is your favorite Bible character? (other than Jesus)
4. How many plants from the Bible can you name? (thought I would include something a little different)
5. What is your favorite Bible place?
6. What is your favorite Bible event or scene? (e.g. Thomas placing his finger in Jesus' hands and side)
7. What is your favorite Bible text?

No prize for being the seventh one to answer except for the satisfaction of being able to identify your favorite stuff from the Bible.

The Three of Us

Didn't have any pictures on the blog of the three of us. I thought this one was pretty good. This was taken on Sunday during our family reteat.

Manatee Springs

Here's a picture of the information board about the spring. Also a picture of the spring itself. While we were there looking at the spring, a couple of young men came and one snorkled down to the bottom of the spring. There is another section where there are caves below the water's surface. Cave diving is quite popular at this site and at other springs as well. If you click on the pictures you should be able to see a bigger picture. That will be helpful in reading the information on this first picture.

Family Retreat

This past weekend 22 of us went to Manatee Springs for the first ever Mt. Dora Family Retreat. What a great weekend we had! Pat and I got packed and showed up at the building at 1:05 PM. We were supposed to meet at 1:00 PM. When we arrived no one was there. We thought, "Wow, when they say 1:00 PM at Mt. Dora they mean 1:00 PM!" Within a minute or two another family showed up. I called Eddie (our youth minister) and found out that he was hung up picking up our shirts. So apparently we were the early birds. We took off in three vehicles arrived around four o'clock Friday afternoon. One of our senior couples went along as well but they had arrived a little earlier. We got the tents pitched and things set up for dinner. A couple of folks arrived a little later and Loni arrived the next morning. Loni had parent conferences and couldn't get away with us on Friday.

We had a great devotional on Friday night and then of course the obligatory smores. Night time was interesting because it got below 50 both nights. I was glad that warm showers were only a short walk away. We also had great camp fires. We had plenty of wood that lasted until Sunday morning. We also got lots of visitors. We saw deer, armadilloes, and racoons. It was amazing how unafraid of us they were. They were hoping for a meal but didn't find anything.

Our theme for the weekend was "Got Lost" which is a play on "got milk?" and the TV show "Lost." The purpose was to focus on getting lost in Jesus and the word of God. On Saturday after a morning devotional we went back to our tents as families and continued the devotional by focusing on Php.2:5-11 and answering some questions about attitudes that we all have and then had some prayer time. Part of the purpose of the Saturday morning devotional was to encourage family devotional time. Our family never did much in the way of family devotionals. Scheduling seemed difficult. However, we made sure that we taught our kids wherever we were if it was needed.

The park had a covered wagon tour that we all took at 1:00 PM on Saturday. The covered wagon was supposed to imitate the actual wagon many took to way back when to travel to Florida. We got to see the plant life of Florida along the way. We had a good tour guide, John. We ate Sparkle berries (cousin to blueberries, but tasting nothing like them), actually visited a cheeki hut (made by the local indigenous people - not sure I've spelled it correctly), and learned a little of the history of Florida. Florida crackers are native Floridians that have three or four generations of native Floridians behind them. They are called crackers because most of them owned cattle and cracked the whip to guide the cattle.

We also walked a board walk that went from the springs out to the river. It was fascinating to see the springs and to read about it's history and details. It puts out 50 to 150 million gallons a day. Imagine! We tried fishing a little but didn't even get a bite. It was quite pleasant temperature wise on Saturday.

We had Sunday morning worship after breakfast. We sang a few songs, took communion, listened to another lesson by me, and prayed together. Then we packed and cleaned the camp. Lastly we ate lunch and then headed out. We all agreed to wear our shirts for evening services back at the church building. I don't think I've every preached a sermon without a tie on but tonight was a first.

Well that was a weekend. We had people from first grade to 75. I really enjoyed getting to know the folks there on a different level than just at the church building. We told some jokes (I've got some new ones for my family that wasn't present). I'm looking forward to next year.

inadequate divine-esteem

I found this quote in Theocentric Preaching (a blog by Darryl Dash) that is probably going to be at the top of my list of great quotes.

The fundamental problem with most of us is not deficient self-esteem but inadequate divine-esteem. As we submit ourselves to God, [and recognize] that ultimately he operates for his own name’s sake, and that his investment in us relates to agendas far greater than ourselves, we will treasure the grace which he reaches out to us. (Daniel I. Block, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24)

I believe that self-esteem is the result of our focus on God but not the goal. Our problem as Christians is not that we don't believe enough in ourselves but that we don't believe enough in God. One periodical I used to read years ago, pointed out something about the Exodus that has always stuck with me and I think agrees with Block's quote. Basically the author pointed out that in the Exodus God tells the Israelites that when He sees the blood of the lamb on their door posts that He will passover their house and not kill their firstborn. He doesn't say when I see your faith and appreciation in the blood I will passover. If they apply the blood then they trust God. We need to focus on trusting Him more not more on building our self image.

How to do it? Two ways. First, read the stories in the Old Testament because those stories testify of God's faithfulness. If we believe that God is faithful and that He has demonstrated it over and over again, then we will believe that He will be faithful in our lives as well. We will also learn that God's faithfulness isn't always fulfilled the way we want. I'm sure that Joseph prayed for deliverance from his situation immediately. But God's faithfulness wasn't seen in Joseph's life until he had been gone from his family for almost 22 years. Those stories are just good for the kids. The second way we can focus more on trusting Him is to put into practice what He wants. Live faithfully and He will faithfully reward you. Let His word live in your life and see God's faithfulness for yourself. You will grow. It will not be pain-free but you will grow.

This picture is supposed to be Moses leading the people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. To honor my current reading of Exodus I wanted to share my favorite joke about Israel traveling through the Red Sea. There was this freshman seminary student who was reading his Bible one evening. He started cheering and hollering. His roommate came in to see what was going on. The freshman claimed he was excited reading about Moses leading the people through the Red Sea to freedom from the Egyptians. The roommate (a third year student) calmly informed the freshman that once he got to professor X's class he would discover that the Red Sea at that time was called the Reed Sea and was only three (3) inches deep. The roommate left the room and the freshman went back to reading. A couple minutes the freshman was again cheering loudly. The roommate rushed back in and wanted to know what was going on. The freshman claimed, "I can't believe it, God drowned all those Egyptians in just three (3) inches of water!" When we are oriented properly no one can take away our faith!

Responses 10/08/06

We had two responses at the PM services. One came forward asking for prayers for strength to be a better example in front of her co-workers and friends. The other was a baptism. She waited until most everyone had left. She had been studying with one of our elders and his wife. It was a great way to end a Sunday.

We had two baptisms last Sunday evening as well. Two boys from one of the cottages here at the Christian Home were baptized. I'm really excited about the work that the Christian Home is doing. I'm sure that we will see more baptisms in the future (just as in the past baptisms probably occured regularly). God has given us a great opportunity.

Sunday Lessons 10/08/06

Yesterday's AM lesson was entitled "Love Unmasked" from Romans 12:9. Paul says "Let love be without hypocrisy." I showed pictures on the video presentation of actual masks used by Greek actors. I emphasized that hypocrisy is hiding our real self and motives. We can do it through a number of ways that are intentional and unintentional. We need to love (act on behalf of each other) without hidden agendas. It is the only way we can trust each other and function as God's community. I focused on how God loves us and how his love serves as an example for our loving each other sincerely.

Sunday evening I continued my "Attacks on the Bible's Integrity" series with a look at The Da Vinci Code and its attack on the claim that Jesus is divine. The book has a character claim that Jesus' divinity was decided upon at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD by the emperor Constantine in an effort to solidify his political power and the growing power of the Vatican. The character in the book claims that Jesus' followers considered Jesus a mortal man until that moment in history. I showed that the New Testament decidedly claims Jesus as divine by looking at John 1:1-3, John 20:28, and Matthew 2:2,11; 14:33; 28:17. These passages (plus there are numerous others) present Jesus as divine. Then I showed some quotes from three early church fathers (Ignatius 117 AD, Justin Martyr 150 AD, Irenaeus 160 AD), in which they claim Jesus as divine. Regardless of whether one accepts the Bible as true or not, at least the evidence I presented shows that what was accepted as Scripture and what most of the church believed was that Jesus was indeed divine and in some way equal to the Father. Plus some of the passages have people worshipping Jesus and one of the quotes from the church fathers said we should worship him.

My Florida Life Style

Since moving to Florida, I now wear shorts and sandals more often. In New Jersey I mostly wore them during camp week. Other than camp I seldom wore shorts and sandals. Now I wear them at least 2 or 3 times a week. Plus, it's now getting toward mid-October and I'm still wearing them! It has been in the high 80s and sometimes into the low 90s this past week. You can tell the humidity level is down but it's still hot. But the really good thing - I didn't have to mow this week. The grass has definitely slowed down its growth. I'm not at all unhappy about that. I'm really looking forward to the winter months here in Central Florida. It will be a little like the winter months in California where Mom and Dad live.

I really like the Mount Dora area. It will be an adventure visiting the events and seeing the area. When I was growing up I remember looking forward to our moves. Maybe I'm projecting back into the situation but that's my memory. I enjoyed staying put in New Jersey (2 locations in 27 years) but I'm getting use to this move and feeling like I belong here.

Who knows what plans God has for me and family here but I'm up for the challenge. Oh yes, the congregation here has been marvelous! I know God will do good things here.