What does it mean to “fear the Lord”?

Posted: November 14, 2011 in Bible
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What does it mean to “fear the Lord”?

The Bible says that the “fear of the Lord” is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Prov. 1:7, 9:10). But what does it actually mean to “fear the Lord”? I think the answer lies in Deuteronomy 10.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

Deuteronomy 10:20 says, “Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.”

In sum, the fear of the Lord is to follow, love, obey, and serve him!

via Euangelion

10 Signs That You Might Be Ashamed Of The Gospel?

Posted: November 7, 2011 in Life, Spirituality
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In Romans 1:16, The Apostle Paul states boldly, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to save all who believe”. For Paul, there was no room for shame, embarrassment, or timidity in proclaiming the gospel or even just talking about Jesus.

Are you ashamed?

Top 10 Signs That You Might Be:

10. You hide, get real quiet, or walk away when someone starts talking about Jesus.

9. You don’t ever think about or have a great desire to share your faith or tell others about Jesus.

8. You haven’t invited anyone to church or a Bible study in the last 2 weeks.

7. You haven’t had a conversation with anyone (outside your church/Christian friends) about what God is doing in your life during the last month.

6. You are afraid to carry your Bible or read it in public places. And if you do read it in a public place, when someone you know approaches, you hide it.

5. You don’t take a stand for what you believe in or say anything when you see injustice or something that is wrong.

4. You are embarrassed by people titling you a Christian.

3. You change your radio station from a Christian station to a more secular one when other people ride with you in your car.

2. You only talk about Jesus with Christians.

1. If you are offended or mad at me because of any of the above items…that is a good sign that you are ashamed of the gospel.

Research: Web porn stops men from performing

Posted: October 31, 2011 in Life
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Men in their 20s have a lot to worry about.

Will they ever get a job? Will they ever keep that job for more than a few months? Will they ever have enough money to pay their student loans and still be able to spend $100 a week on pot? Will they ever put their pants on the right way round at the first attempt?

Now it seems that something they do for recreation, in order to take their mind off their worries, is having increasingly worrying effects.

My hard-core reading of Psychology Today caused me to come across a pained and painful piece called “Porn-Induced Sexual Dysfunction is a Growing Problem.”

The thesis behind this frightful news–supported by research performed in Italy and elsewhere–is that Internet porn desensitizes young men to such a degree that, when actually faced with a real human from their target sex group, they are entirely unable to participate as they should.

Indeed, research from the University of Padua in Italy suggested that erectile dysfunction due to excessive Web porn begins for many men in their teens. 70 percent of those young men who came to seek help for performance issues said they were Web porn habitues.

The weary and wise might offer that this problem must be psychological. Yet the researchers declare: “Hold on there, big brains.”

For their belief is that Web porn simply numbs men’s pleasure receptacles, desensitizing responses to the neurochemical dopamine. This is a chemical associated with reward and, in young men, researchers believe that gorging on Internet porn simply shuts down the physiological sense of reward from sex.

Because the Web allows for so many different–and, if the user so chooses–ever more intense stimulations, the mind-body continuum begins to feel nothing at all. Yes, it’s a little like 15 minutes of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

It seems that when these young men are suddenly confronted with a real sexual encounter, the idea of coupling with a real human being feels suddenly numbing–and therefore frightening.

You might wonder what happens when young men try to wean themselves off their Web porn habits. Studies show that they experience all sorts of withdrawal pains, including insomnia and catchall flulike symptoms.

I know that the Web is supposed to be the repository of all that is open and shared and loving. It seems possible, though, that its very ease offers so much of a good thing that the put-upon males of Generation Y just can’t cope, poor dears.

Perhaps all porn Web sites should exclude anyone under 35. For public health reasons, you understand.

via Research: Web porn stops men from performing | Technically Incorrect – CNET News.

The Skinny on the Bible

Posted: October 25, 2011 in Bible, Life, Spirituality
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Check out this video.  Are you like any of these people?  If you can relate to the thoughts, attitudes, or actions of any of them; there is a real need for concern!

How We Got the Bible

Posted: September 5, 2011 in Bible
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10 Key Points 

1.   The Bible is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).

2.  The Bible is made up of 66 different books that were written over the course of 1600 years (from around 1500 BC to AD 100) by more that 40 kings, prophets, leaders, and followers of Jesus.  The Old Testament has 39 books (written from around 1500-400 BC).  The New Testament has 27 books (written from around AD 45-100). 

3.  The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, with some parts written in Aramaic.  The New Testament was originally written in Greek.

4.  The books of the Bible were collected, arranged, and recognized as inspired, sacred, and authoritative by councils of rabbis and church leaders.  This pronouncement was based on careful and intense guidelines. 

5.  Before the printing press was invented, the Bible was copied by hand.  The Bible was copied very accurately, in many cases by special scribes who developed intricate methods of counting words and letters to insure that no errors were made in translation.

6.  The Bible was the first book ever printed on the printing press with moveable type (Gutenberg Press, 1455, Latin Bible).

7.  There is much evidence that the Bible we have today is intensely true to the original writings.  Of the thousands of copies made by hand before 1500, more than 5300 Greek manuscripts, from the New Testament alone, still exist today.  The text of the Bible is better preserved than the writings of both Plato or Aristotle. 

8.  The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed the great reliability of some of the copies of the Old Testament made over the years.  Although some spelling variations exist, no variations affect basic Bible doctrines.

9.  As the Bible was carried to other countries, it was translated into the common language of the people by scholars who wanted others to know God’s Word.  Today, there are still around 2000 people groups with no Bible in their own language. 

10.  By AD 200, the Bible was translated into seven languages; by 500, 13 languages; by 900, 17 languages; by 1400, 28 languages; by 1800, 57 languages; by 1900, 537 languages; by 1980, 1100 languages; by 2006, 2426 languages have some portions of the Scripture.

Sources used for blog post:  The World Christian Encyclopedia; Wycliffe, International and Rose Publishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


On Church Mission Statements

Posted: August 9, 2011 in Missional Living
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By Allan Bevere:

Every church I have served has had a mission statement. I have assisted churches in developing mission statements. Some of those statements have been quite good, others are nothing more than idyllic preference-driven affirmations on how the church can continue to serve only itself. Since the church has a mission, having a mission statement seems quite logical.

But does the church need to develop a mission statement when Jesus has already given us one?

And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you’ (Matthew 28:18-20).

I know that when churches develop mission statements they mean well, but in doing so do they unintentionally suggest that they can improve upon the mission Jesus gave the church some two millennia ago? We are to go to all the nations in order to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and that mission has not changed. Perhaps we feel the need to have a second mission statement because we want to add our two cents, believing we have to have a say in what we should be doing as the church.

Now some might suggest that a mission statement gives more detail, fills out, Jesus’ marching orders he has given to the church. But the experts in mission statements insist that a good mission statement is short and to the point and easy to memorize, and a long mission statement is counter-productive and basically useless. What is shorter and more to the point than Jesus’ charge to make disciples of all nations?

No individual church needs to develop a mission statement. We’ve had one for two thousand years. What each church needs to do is to get to the task of keeping the charge we’ve already been given.

via Jesus Creed.

Is the Bible really God’s Word?

Posted: August 4, 2011 in Spirituality
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If the Bible was really God’s words to us, would what’s inside it change your life?

6 things to consider about the Bible being God’s Word:

1.      A Remarkable Book and Textual Evidence

  • The Bible is the world’s all-time bestseller.  A single Bible distribution organization reported delivering over 627,000,000 Bibles worldwide in one year alone.
  • The Bible was completed in its entirety nearly 2,000 years ago and stands today as the best-preserved literary work of all antiquity, with over 24,000 ancient manuscripts (witnesses) discovered thus far. Compare this with the second best-preserved literary work of antiquity, Homer’s Iliad, with only 643 preserved manuscripts (witnesses) discovered to date.

 2.      The Test of Prophesy

  • Unquestionably, the single greatest evidence lending to the authenticity of the Bible’s claims of divine inspiration is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
  • The Bible contains more than a thousand inspired prophesies.  The vast majority of these prophecies have already come to pass and can be verified by secular history.

3.      The Proof of Archeology

  • The Bible recounts the distant past with great accuracy.
  • Renowned archaeologist Nelson Glueck says: “No archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.”
  • Consider, for example, the biblical account of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
    • Archaeologists have discovered a number of evidences vindicating the Bible’s exodus account, including chariot wheels embedded in coral along the land bridge at the bottom of the Red Sea.

4.      The Proof of Historians

  • Secular history supports the Bible.
  • Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (not a Christian): “Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”  
    • Josephus was simply reporting what he discovered.  he had no motivation to show Jesus as the Son of God.
  • P. Cornelius Tacitus wrote: “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.” 

 5.      The Authors

  • Many of the Bible’s authors were martyred and died horrible, brutal deaths (see above, P. Cornelius Tacitus) in defense of their written testimony.
  • Whiles martyrdom in itself is not unique — what makes the New Testament authors’ martyrdom special is that these men were in a position to know the truth of their written accounts.  Think about it, no one knowingly dies for a lie!
    • For example, the September 11th suicide hijackers may have sincerely believed in what they died for, but they weren’t in a position to know whether their beliefs were absolutely true. The hijackers put their faith in religious traditions passed down over many generations. In contrast, the Bible’s martyrs were in a position to know the truth. They were eyewitnesses (or connected through a single generation) to the historical events they recorded. Either they saw what they claimed to see or they didn’t — plain and simple.
  • These men clung to their testimonies, even to their brutal deaths at the hands of their persecutors, despite being given every chance to recant their stories. Why would so many men knowingly die for a lie? They had nothing to gain for lying… and everything to lose.

 6.      Judge For Yourself

  • What compelling reason do we have to reject the Bible as God’s divine revelation to man?
  • We should lay aside our built in/learned beliefs about the Bible, God, and Jesus, examine the evidence objectively, and weigh the facts ourselves…And then ask: Is the Bible true?
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