04.29.08
Posted in Tom Gilson at 10:34 am by Tom Gilson
You can stay updated on Seaford’s Blog a whole lot more easily than you thought!
If you read even one blog regularly, RSS is for you. It will save you time, I promise.
Some of you may be wondering, “Doesn’t everyone use RSS?” The answer is no; less than 6% of internet users take advantage of this extraordinarily helpful technology.
I’ve read lots of posts on what RSS is and how to use it, but they’re limited in their helpfulness. There are just too many options out there to fully explain any one of them in a post that tackles RSS as a whole. So I am going to use the majority of this article to help non-RSS-users get started on Google Reader.
If you follow these instructions, you will be subscribed to your favorite sites and already saving time by the end of this article.
[From What Is RSS? A Step-by-Step Guide to Google Reader « The Pipers]
If you follow the directions there, there will come a step where you’ll need to know the “feed address” for this blog. Here it is:
feed://blog.sbc-va.org/feed
Does this help? If you have any questions, or if the instructions don’t turn out to work for you, please leave a comment here and let me know.
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04.23.08
Posted in Tom Gilson at 9:53 pm by Tom Gilson
Research from Lifeway and Barna shows that 70% to 80% of young people in solid Christian churches walk away from the faith when they move into young adulthood. Further research, reported by Josh McDowell, says that when those young adults are asked why they left the faith, the number one set of responses had to do with intellectual difficulties with the faith. They’re just not sure it’s true.
Christianity is under continual attack from atheists and skeptics who insist that the faith just isn’t true. They’re becoming more vocal. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Dan Brown, Phillip Pullman, and Bart Ehrman are all New York Times bestselling authors who argue that religion is false and (most of them would say) positively dangerous. They include all religions in that accusation.
Meanwhile over the past 50 years or so, Western culture has adopted a relativistic view of knowledge regarding religion and ethics. Relativism says there is no objective truth that can be known regarding God or morality. If “objective truth” is defined as truth that can be known through science, this is a correct assessment; and for many people, science is the only trustworthy route to knowledge. (We’ll deal with that issue in a later blog posting. For now, let it be sufficient to say that science is not, and cannot be the only route to knowledge. After all, even the statement, “science is the only reliable route to knowledge,” is not a scientific statement–what lab did it come from?)
Here is better definition of objective truth: truth that would be true even if nobody believed; truth that is true in the mind of God, or in the world as it really is. Francis Schaeffer called it True Truth to distinguish it from relativists’ “truth.”
Here’s what relativists consider “truth:” since there is no True Truth out there regarding religion or ethics, but we need meaning and morality anyway, then we all have the freedom to create our own truth. And since every one of us is equally qualified to create our own truth, then every person’s truth about religion or morality is equal. Everybody’s truth is true for him or her, even if it contradicts others’ truth.
Relativists’ great challenge toward Christianity is that we Christians are terribly arrogant and awfully discourteous for saying Christ is the only way to God, that we know this to be true and we know that contradictory beliefs are wrong, and that we desire others to come to this same belief. This breaks all their rules!
But then, what’s wrong with relativism? I can outline only a few things here. For one thing, nobody is a relativist about everything. I picture myself in the doctor’s office asking the nurse, “Is that flu vaccine in that syringe?” She answers, “It is in my truth, what is it in yours?” You get the picture. I suppose there aren’t many relativists who leave the supermarket checkout line without counting their change–they are realists, not relativists, about their money.
Relativism is hopeless self-contradictory. It says there is absolutely no absolute truth regarding ethics and morality; but that’s an absolute statement that purports to be true about ethics and morality. It says that nothing another person holds as true should be treated as wrong, since all truths are on an equal footing, but it won’t hold “Christ is the only way to God” on an equal footing. As I already said, relativism considers Christianity to be incredibly arrogant and rude, even evil, while all the time saying there is no such thing as evil.
There’s an interesting story about this coming out of the 9/11 attacks. This was originally published in the Los Angeles Times just one week after the attacks:
The campuses, once citadels of opposition to military action, generally are quiet, in part, said author and commentator David Rieff, because this generation of students is hamstrung by the “politically correct” education it has received since kindergarten. “The nice kids have been taught that all differences are to be celebrated,” said Rieff, currently a visiting professor at UC Berkeley, “and they’re in full cognitive meltdown. Their homeroom teachers and guidance counselors never told them that there are people in the world who mean them harm.”
“Differences are to be celebrated,” says the relativist, “for all beliefs are equal.” Then came 9/11, and “full cognitive meltdown.” What a descriptive phrase! And what does relativism do with Islamic fundamentalism? It’s a terribly intolerant system, isn’t it? So do we tolerate that intolerance? Mark Steyn concluded, in regard to someone trying to figure out the puzzle that poses,
Lady Kennedy was arguing that our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people’s intolerance, which is intolerable.
I can’t read that without grinning. (The whole article is well worthwhile.) Relativism is also absurd in what it will allow as possibly being moral–like the Holocaust. On my Thinking Christian blog, an atheistic/relativistic commenter named Paul said,
I missed one of your questions, Tom. Just to be clear, I think the Holocaust was wrong. From my culture’s morality, from many cultures’ morality, but not from Hitler’s. I would fight against it no less.
Hitler’s morality was not wrong from Hitler’s perspective, he says. That, to me, is just absurd. And why and how would he fight against it? He doesn’t have any higher morality he can appeal to. For Paul, the only available approach is through power:
A relativistic moral law is made when a group of people (family, tribe, culture, country, etc.) decide to do so. There is no absolute or objective foundation for doing so: as I’ve said before, it is merely a question of power what laws are made…. When differing moral cultures clash, it’s up to power to decide the difference. Doesn’t look pretty, but that’s the way it is, assuming there’s no God.
That’s absurd, too: do we really want to agree that power decides morality? Do we really think that the nation with the most guns gets to decide what’s right and wrong for the rest of the world? Or that the gang with the most knives gets to decide for the whole city?
Finally, at least one relativist is unsure it’s really wrong to say that 2+2=5. Jacob thinks that’s illegitimate, but not wrong. It’s purely a cultural convention, he thinks. This is the depths of absurdity.
Do we really know the Christian faith is true? This blog post only gives a very quick answer to just one attack. But it illustrates that there are answers. This illustration could be extended on and on. On ThinkingChristian.net, atheists have been attacking Christianity’s truth for three years now, and I have yet to see one objection raised that could not be met with a sound answer based on an appropriate combination of Biblical revelation, reasoning, and evidences.
But I would not want that answer to have the wrong result. It could cause some people to hold back on asking their questions about the truth of the faith–they might think questions are bad, evil, or embarrassing. No–questions are one of the best things in the world (outside of good, solid answers, of course). Here at Seaford we’re trying to open up the door for good questions, as a route toward figuring out good answers. Do we really know the faith is true? As time goes on, let’s look at the questions together, and see what answers we find!
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04.22.08
Posted in Gene Cornett at 6:21 pm by Gene Cornett
Unless you have not attended Seaford in the past three months then you know that we have had a lot more business meetings of late. Some of this is normal because there is a lot to discuss in this time of transition. For some years, we have operated with a business meeting once every quarter. However, at the business meeting at the end of March the church voted to conduct monthly business meetings.
It is my opinion that having more business meetings is not necessarily good or bad. What we do in these business meetings (or kingdom strategy sessions as I called them at our last meeting) will determine whether they hurt or help the church fulfill its mission. I have some concerns about how we are proceeding up to this point that I would like to share with you. Seaford follows a congregational system of church government, as do most Baptist churches, though there are some Southern Baptist Churches that use different models. A congregational system of church government means two things typically. One, such churches are autonomous—meaning there is no hierarchy that has authority over the local body. Second, every member has a vote in congregational decisions, as opposed to a group of elders making many of the decisions on behalf of the body.
However, as churches grow larger, they tend to move toward a more representative form of church government. It becomes impossible for such a church to discuss intelligibly all decisions that need making in an open business session. There are simply too many of them. This partially describes what has happened over the last fifteen years at Seaford. As the church grew, committees, elected by the church, made more of the decisions.
Some now feel that this development shifted too much authority into the hands of a few. I cannot address whether or not that is true in a newsletter article. However, if it is true, the healthy solution cannot be that all decisions now need full discussion in business session. One problem (there are others) is that if we continue on that path, it is difficult to see where it will end. There is a danger of moving to silly extremes, what constitutes “silly extremes” would differ from person to person. For instance, we could find ourselves debating the merits of leasing or purchasing office equipment, a discussion I witnessed in a business meeting in my earlier years at Seaford. It is my sense that many members at Seaford have little interest or tolerance for such discussions. A large majority of the now active membership at Seaford came to the church within the last fifteen years, during which time the church was not discussing such things openly. Theoretically, these church members trusted those given responsibility and authority to carry out those decisions to do so. It is my sense that many of these members are now growing uneasy with much of the discussion now taking place in our business meetings. To many of these church members these feel like a distraction from the real work of the church.
What is the solution? There is an interim nominating committee, elected by the church, and now working which will recommend a slate of officers and committee members in our August business meeting. We have a responsibility as a body to pray for them as they work and to come to that meeting prayed up and prepared to elect those we feel God has called into these positions. If church members have concerns about their choices then those members have a responsibility to share them at that time. However, once we elect these officers and committee members then we must trust them to do their work and should not in my opinion overturn their recommendations except in extreme cases. Otherwise, we will find ourselves mired in discussions that are divisive and driven by those who have the courage to make arguments in emotionally charged situations in front of many other people. Such a process largely eliminates the church hearing from our more quiet members.
We can effectively hear from a broader cross section of the church within family forums. Organizing such family forums into small discussion groups, which then choose a table captain to report to the large group, will generate far more opportunity for the body to hear from many church members. As we pray together and talk together, we should be able to more quickly reach consensus or be able to better define the big decisions we need to make as an entire body.
That said, our first family forum will be held Thursday evening, May 14th at 6:30 PM in the Family Life Center. We will then plan to hold a second on Wednesday evening, June 11.
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04.06.08
Posted in Bible Study, Bryan Dunn at 6:06 pm by Bryan Dunn
Rejection of traditional interpretation of the law (Matt. 5:21-48) - Part 1
This is where we get an illustration from Jesus that shows that the Pharisees did not understand the intent of the law. So the choice was keeping the traditions (which were not fulfilling the righteousness demanded by the law) or listen to God in the flesh and be obedient. Six times He said ‘You have heard that it was said…But I tell you…’ (vs. 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43).
Note what Jesus said, He doesn’t say things for no reason. He said ‘you have heard that it was said’; He did not say ‘you have seen that it was written’. Keep in mind the crowd Jesus was addressing – these were not the literate folks. They didn’t have books/scrolls sitting on coffee tables near their TiVo’s. Most could not read or write. Because of this, their knowledge of the law came from public instruction directly from the synagogues. The law was faithfully read, but the spirit or intent of the law was frequently missed or obscured by those expounding on it.
In each of these 6 ‘cases’ to follow, Jesus refers to the law that governs the conduct of people toward others. Why? If the righteousness espoused by the Pharisees did not fulfill what the conduct of the law demanded (as people interact with one another) then it certainly failed to fulfill what God demanded – a righteousness that concerned our conduct towards a Holy and righteous God.
The law is pretty specific - Do not murder. Hard to explain that one away, most everyone could quote it! This was a demand of God’s holiness, however, the Pharisees interpreted the law to mean that as long as one did not take another man’s life, the person was innocent of breaking the law (and consequently they were acceptable to God). The Pharisees were only concerned with the physical act of murder.
Jesus brings in the intent of the law, because it was more than just checking the box to make sure you had not personally taken another man’s life. He said the law required one to refrain from anger. Jesus knew that the act of murder was a symptom of things like hatred, anger and malice. So if someone is full of those things, the law had been violated even though the fruit of murder had not taken place.
And that is the rub for us isn’t it? We may not have killed anyone, but we have relished the thought of it a time or two…and that reveals some nasty stuff in us that perhaps no one else is aware of. And the Word of God is full of what we should do – repent, go to our brother and ask for forgiveness, make peace with them. The Pharisaic interpretation of the law of murder does not fulfill the righteousness of God. And our attempts to live to the letter of the law fall short when we hide the nastiness of anger, malice, and hatred in our hearts. Sometimes it comes out in starting (or continuing) rumors, making assumptions based on minimal facts, and a host of other things. How can we stop this? A point to ponder for all of us.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Audio & Podcasts (Sermons) 2008, Media at 5:54 pm by Bryan Dunn
April 27, 2008 - Sermon Title: Free to be a Slave! - Jack Duffer
April 23, 2008 - Wednesday PM Sermon - Tom Gilson
April 20, 2008 - Sermon Title: Locked Out and Staying There - Jack Duffer
April 16, 2008 - Wednesday PM Sermon - Aaron West
April 13, 2008 - Sermon Title: Of Gyroscopes and Gallop Polls (Part 3) - Locked Out and Staying There - Jack Duffer
April 6, 2008 - Sermon Title: Of Gyroscopes and Gallop Polls (Part 2) - A Firm Place To Stand - Gene Cornett
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Posted in Gene Cornett, Sunday Sermons at 3:42 pm by Gene Cornett
This is a somewhat readable version of my written notes of the message I preached the morning of 4/6/08. I always forget how difficult it is to get these notes into readable format. If you heard the message live, then the there’s little new here in the first portion. You could scroll to point two and begin reading from there.
Of Gyroscopes and Gallop Polls
Part 2: A Firm Place to Stand, 1 Peter 1:3-12
We are in the middle of a series we are calling, Of Gyroscopes And Gallop Polls. After last weeks message I had a couple of our more engineering types give me some coaching on gyroscopes and gyroscopic forces. Gyroscopic forces are involved in keeping a bicycle moving in the right direction. The forward motion of the bicycle automatically steers its wheels underneath its center of gravity. Engineers use phrases like “gyroscopic precession” “steering and angular momentum.” But the point for us non engineers, which everyone would understand, is that when the bike is moving forward, its inertia tends to keep it moving forward, but you can’t balance the bike if it’s standing still.
The idea is that its far more healthy to live as if you have an internal gyroscope, and internal compass that keeps you moving in the right direction in spite of what external forces blow on your life. But the danger is that we humans are far more influenced by the environment around us than we care to admit. There is a danger that we are reacting to the opinions of others rather an internal gyroscope that keeps us in balance. We need to act more as thermostats rather than thermometers. We need to carry our own weather around with us.
This morning’s message is titled “A Firm Place to Stand.” it’s about being secure in your relationship with God. Knowing whether or not your faith in Jesus is real is about the most important question that I can think of. I can’t imagine something that is any more important than this. It’s been said that one of the jobs of a person preaching the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. In any group there are those who know that they do not have faith in Jesus, those who think they have a relationship with Jesus when they do not, those that worry they don’t have a relationship with Jesus when they do, and those who know and are confident that they are in relationship with Christ.
Each of us is in one of these categories. Obviously by far the most dangerous category is the second, those who believe that they are safely in God’s kingdom when in fact they are not. How can you know? Lets think about it like this. All of us have had the experience of traveling in a car to a place we have never been and not being completely confident that we are on the right track. Those with navigation systems in your car, I guess you never have this happen to you any more. Although sometimes navigation systems don’t always work like they are supposed to. Anyway, I’m guessing you’ve had the experience, especially in cities, where you get on an interstate, but you can’t tell right away if you are moving in the right direction. So you look for signs. If you are trying to get to Richmond, you know that you need to get on west 64. But you discover that you are traveling on east 64 you realize, “the signs are showing me that I am not on the right path.” However, if you get on at Ft. Eustis Blvd, and travel west, you see signs along the way, that say, 64 west. A couple of times along the way, you see signs, Richmond, 40 miles or whatever. You feel comforted, I’m on the right path.
So are there signs along the way in seeking to live in this life that show that you are in fact in relationship with Jesus. Once you are on that path, is it possible to mess up so badly, that you in fact take an exit ramp and get off on a different road?
I want to make the case to you this morning that you can experience security in Christ only by making consistent forward progress in the right direction. You may be secure, but if you aren’t moving in the right direction, then you wont experience it, you won’t have confirmation, you won’t live with much confidence, you won’t feel that you have a firm place to stand. Just like a bicycle simply will not operate if you do not keep moving forward, you will have no assurance that you are moving in the right direction if you do not continue to make forward progress. By forward progress, I mean that you are actually changing. Forward progress means that you see some evidence that what the Bible claims that happens in a believer’s life is actually happening in you.
We are in a series of messages on the epistle of 1 Peter. I believe that a major key to understanding this book is to remember that Peter is writing the book to exiles. They are people who are physically displaced, and who are out of sync with much of the rest of that society. There is a real sense in which they don’t belong. The encouragements and the challenges that Peter lays out in the passage, take on greater meaning and poignancy when viewed in that light.
It’s my prayer that in just a few minutes everyone in this room will have greater clarity as to which of these four categories that you are in. knowing your out, thinking you are in, when you are out, thinking you are out when you are in, and confident that you are in. How do we get into that last category?
To find a firm place to stand you need to . . .
1. Fight complacency by developing a greater future orientation toward faith
It is difficult to continue and impossible to thrive in the absence of hope. This is especially true when things are difficult. Without some expectation that things can get better it is hard to maintain forward motion. It helps us to face the pain of the present, if we know there is going to be a pay off down the road.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Peter breaks out into spontaneous worship. He shows why in this long sentence, each phrase of which could take up a sermon in itself. God has caused us to be born again. This is God’s doing and it was an act of mercy. It was not deserved at all. God does this. It’s something only he can do. “Born again” is a vivid metaphor. It’s an excellent word picture that’s meant to haunt us, to work on us, we can never completely work it out in our mind, but thinking about it changes you. It sticks with you. The spiritual transaction of taking a person who has not had a relationship with Jesus to one who does is so dramatic it requires this vivid image, born again. Then we are born again, into a living hope. Born again, has an orientation largely at a fixed point in the past, though I do believe that salvation is a process. We are born again into a living hope. We can’t live without hope. But this isn’t just any hope, it’s real, it’s alive. One of the signs along the way that you are in Christ’s family is that you are experiencing some of this, a living, vibrant alive hope for the future. This all happened through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus resurrection accomplished this.
Verse 4 needs to be heard in light of the reality that Peter’s first readers were exiles, displaced and disassociated. There lives were characterized by a lack of anything permanent or rooted. Peter says to them, God caused you to be born again and He has brought you into an inheritance, (future oriented)—listen to his description of it—an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. In that time there were no banks as we know them, no FDIC, no currency as we understand it. Inheritances would have been more tangible: things that could spoil, fade, or be stolen. Peter lets them know that what they have in Christ cannot be taken away. This all was being kept in heaven for them— they are described like this—who by God’s power they are being guarded through faith. They were being guarded by God’s power. They were being guarded by God’s power. Will you just stop and worship God for a moment for that simple reality. if this has happened to you, if you have genuinely been born again, then you are, according to the authority of God’s word, being guarded by God’s power. You are being guarded by God’s power. for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. That’s still to come.
Why does this matter? I grew up with the very stark question often put to me, and I was taught to put the question to others. “Are you saved?” Saved meant, “are you are Christian”, “have you been born again”, “are you going to heaven when you die.” Very stark, very blunt. To understand the question you had to know something about the Bible. To many now, the question is completely nonsensical—saved from what? A boring sermon. A car wreck. A bad relationship. Saved from what?
The question “are you saved” gives the impression that it all happened in the past. But something is lost when we think of salvation as completely past tense, we lose any sense of the last judgment. This generates a lack of seriousness about the last judgment and I would have to say that seems to be the current orientation with most believers I know. I don’t hear anyone talking about the final judgment before God. It is not those who make a decision for Christ, (not a biblical term by the way), but those who stand firm to the end who will be saved. There is also a lack of tentativeness. In some cases there is almost too much security, or better said, we are too comfortable, there is too much apathy and complacency. Because we look at a relationship with Jesus as having made a decision for Christ in the past and being baptized, like, I got my card punched. I have a passport. I’ve registered for the draft. I got my shots, now I can just go on and not think about that. There’s little healthy awareness that there is a final judgment. There is little healthy doubt about, maybe I could have missed something, maybe I could be wrong. Is there any ongoing evidence that I really have a relationship with God?
Some of you are reading a book right now, much of which I think is probably good, because I hear a lot of you saying that it is helping. However, one of the things that it teaches is that you can actually have had this supernatural born again experience, that it could be real, that you could in fact be on the right road, but then could choose through disobedience to take an exit ramp and be lost. Those with a Wesleyan/Methodist background out of which Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have come, tend to believe that way. This belief creates a level of fear and seriousness that tends to keep people in line, at least for a while. The from the reformed tradition tend to take a view on the other hand of the perseverance of the saints, a teaching based on passages just like this one. If a person has genuinely been born again, if what is described as happening here in verse three has happened, then they are being guarded by God for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That is a protection that is eternally effective. Praise God!
However, we may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Because there is no awareness of the final judgment and no healthy questioning, “am I sure I am on the right road?” “are there any signs that I have in fact been born again?” Because making a decision for Christ, praying a sinners, prayer, being baptized and having your name on a church roll somewhere is not the criteria. Those who endure to the end will be saved.
This greater future orientation gives you a sense of forward motion, it gives you a sense of purpose and sense of a goal toward which to move. It has nothing to do with earning your way into God’s favor, that is not it. But those who are healthy have an awareness that there is a final judgment coming, that salvation is not fully realized until that time and it is extremely prudent for everyone, everyone to keep a check on the signs, do I see the evidence that I belong to God?
You see when you live with this awareness then you can no longer pass off persistent sin as a casual matter. The ability to persist in what you know to be sin and just make excuses about it, whew. Serious business. The ability to persist in gossip. The ability to remain bitter. The refusal to forgive. Harboring of pride. O God have mercy on us.
To find a firm place to stand you also need to . . .
2. Expect the need to express strong faith because of extreme difficulty
1 Peter 1:6-9 (ESV)
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
In this you rejoice, “this” refers to the salvation of which he has been speaking, this salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. If this has happened to you, if you have been born again and if you are paying attention to what this all means, then you will rejoice in this. You will be a joyful person. That is one of the signs along the way. if there is an absence of joy in your life, then for God’s sake, check that out. Don’t go on blaming other people for your lack of joy? The implication of Peter’s words is that the medicine of salvation is so strong, that it will result in joy.
This he says is in spite of great difficulty. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary you have been grieved by various trials. The salvation, the reality of experiencing being born again into a living hope and the knowledge of an imperishable inheritance, and the knowledge that you are being guarded by God’s power for a salvation that is yet to be fully realized is so great, you will rejoice in that in spite of extreme difficulty. He makes this statement as a man who has known great difficulty and being fully aware of what is facing his hearers. He doesn’t use the word “grieved” lightly. He’s not talking about minor irritations. You have been grieved by various trials. Anybody here know a little something about being grieved by various trials?
This is so that, the tested genuineness of your faith . . . So that the tested genuineness of your faith. Your faith has to be tested, otherwise you won’t be able to withstand increasing difficulties in life. The reason these things are hard is because otherwise it wouldn’t be a test. It’s why if you are lifting weights, you add more weight to your repetitions over time. If it wasn’t difficult, it would not cause you to make any progress.
Your tested faith is one of the signs along the way that you are a genuine Christ follower. How well do you weather the storms of your life? When you are grieved by various trials what does that do to you? The fact that you are here, increases the likelihood that you are real. But there are certainly those who what they called “faith” in Christ was destroyed because they became disillusioned through hardship. Trials are coming. They will test your faith in God. But this is what you need. When you face these difficulties and you move through them with stronger faith, then that is a sign along the way that you are on the right road.
1 Peter 4:12 (ESV) 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
Near the end of verse seven Peter says, these trials are “so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Still there is this future orientation. The goal is not just for you not to have a lot of faith. The goal is for you to hear God say to you, “well done good and faithful servant.” The goal is out in the future. The goal is to hear the commendation of God himself. Praise the Lord.
The challenge to faith continues in verse 8. “Though you have not seen him, you love him.” Peter had seen Jesus. He was drawing the contrast. Though you have not seen him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with joy. Here is another sign. Joy. Joy inexpressible and filled with glory. Why! because you are obtaining the outcome of your faith, you are receiving, you are in the process of receiving the outcome of your faith, the end goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Praise the Lord. The knowledge of that, the goal of your faith, when it’s understood for what it is, results in inexpressible joy. Is that your testimony? How can we gossip? How can we backbite? Show me a relational problem not addressed by inexpressible joy. Show me a unity issue in a church that could not be addressed if the parties involved were experiencing this inexpressible joy!
One last thing to help us to grasp this. To find a firm place to stand . . .
3. Never stop probing the full implications of the good news
I use the word probe on purpose. Probe, look with intensity, explore. Children are naturally curious and they love to explore. Either bugs or science of one sort or another fascinates many of them. Others love to take things apart and see how they work. We tend to lose this sense of wonder and curiosity as adults, to our great detriment. Look at this verse.
1 Peter 1:10-12 (ESV)
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
They looked. They searched and inquired carefully. They wanted to understand what they sensed God was telling them. They were searching about the grace that was to be experienced by those to whom Peter was writing. They were curious. They were trying to discover everything they could about it. They understood that it was something to come in the future, the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit. These things, Peter says, are things which even angels long to look. Angels long to look! In spite of all that they know, and you know they know the basics of the gospel. They know more than we do, at least in terms of the intellect. What would they lack? They can’t experience it. They can’t live out the implications of it. It is so great, so overwhelming, the implications of it are so great, they long, they long to look into it. O my goodness, how foolish and slow we are to believe.
Sometimes we act as if we have it all figured out, as if somehow we have exhausted the depths of the reality of our salvation. I am with Tim Keller who says, if we think we have it figured out, we don’t. We should still be amazed and intrigued and should be searching and thinking carefully to more fully plumb the depths of its full implications for our lives. Yes, more of it has been revealed now. But surely the prophets behavior here is something we should consider and be more diligent to pursue.
Conclusion
So what kind of signs are you seeing on the way? What clues are you receiving? Do you see evidence of your faith being tested and refined? Do you see evidence of transformation? What about hope? If you are not seeing signs that you are on the right path, then it is way past time to find out why that is.
If you do see signs then praise God. Be aware of the final judgment that keeps you having just enough seriousness about your life so you are able to allow the Holy Spirit to act as your own personal gyroscope, keeping your life moving in the right direction.
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04.05.08
Posted in Gene Cornett at 10:33 am by Gene Cornett
Many of you know that I am a book person. Kat has accused me of trying to take over our home with them, or trying to make the house look like a library. I’m still trying to figure out why that would be a problem. Anyway, one of the things that happens is that I acquire a lot of books that I’m convinced I must have for the sake of the kingdom of God! Sometimes, ok more than sometimes, a book gets shuffled to the background and I forget about it for a long time, or forever.
This morning I came across one of those as I was looking for something else. I read an idea that I couldn’t resist sharing. The book is, try not to yawn, “The Multiple Staff and the Larger Church” by Lyle Schaller. I know that many will want to navigate to Amazon’s home page and immediately purchase the book. But try to restrain yourself long enough, to finish reading this short note.
Schaller defines a large church as more than 1000 confirmed members or averaging more than 200 in attendance. This only accounts for 15% of Protestant churches in North America. In commenting on the differences in large churches and small churches, he makes this observation:
“The larger the congregation, the more important it is for all members to wear name tags every Sunday morning. One reason is to help members know one another by name. A second reason is to help members identify and welcome visitors. A third reason is that name tags have important symbolic value. They symbolize the acceptance of the fact that this is a large congregation that expects strangers to be present every Sunday, and the regular use of name tags represents a ‘Welcome, stranger! This is my name’ attitude by the members.” p. 20.
This makes sense to me. A good friend of mine is the pastor of a vibrant church in Chesapeake that is a bit larger than Seaford. I had forgotten, but reading this reminded me that they do this every Sunday. Permanent name tags are made up for members and posted on boards in their fellowship area, and arranged by their small groups. A side benefit of this is that there would be a visual reminder of who was not present on a given Sunday based on who didn’t pick up their name tag. This could potentially help us to better care for those who are absent.
What are your thoughts? Would you wear a name tag every Sunday? What about the reality that members would have permanent looking tags, while guests would have handwritten ones? (My pastor friend, always handwrites his own tag so that his looks like a guest tag)
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Gene
P.S. The last two books I’ve purchased are Roberts Rules for Dummies, per a request in the business meeting Wednesday evening and The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity by Phillip Jenkins. The later one is fascinating. I’ll try to stick with it and not forget it.
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04.03.08
Posted in Gene Cornett at 11:27 pm by Gene Cornett
I just read an excellent article posted on the Christianity Today website by Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary. It is a very thoughtful challenge to relate to those with whom we disagree with a spirit of grace that fits the gospel message itself. Though he is speaking primarily about relating to people of our faiths, his words apply as well to the current challenges we face within our own church body. As we make our way through rediscovering who we are as a church body, it is critical that we see those with whom we disagree as whole persons and not allow ourselves to dismiss them as hopelessly out of touch with reality or out of touch with God.
Here’s a short sample from the article by Mouw:
“The obligation of nurturing a gentle and reverent spirit toward those with whom we disagree takes on a new urgency for us today in engaging those who represent non-Christian religions and lifestyles. How do we convey our Christian convictions while displaying a spirit of generosity in our relationships with others?”
An excellent question for relating to those of other faiths as well as other believers with whom we find ourselves in disagreement.
Gene
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Posted in Gene Cornett at 11:18 pm by Gene Cornett
From February 23rd through March 3rd, as many of you know, I was on a mission trip to Jaigaon, India. I was serving with Global Mosaic International, which was started by Seaford member Evelyn Biles. I have sensed for years that I needed to return to doing short-term mission trips, but it has been difficult to get away for different reasons. However, when Evelyn approached me about this trip, I sensed that is was right to go. My assigned task was to teach leadership to Bhutanese church planters. Their spiritual hunger and their passion to reach the country of Bhutan for Christ challenged and humbled me.
I know that many of you prayed for me while I was away. God blessed our trip so strongly. It is difficult to put into words what the trip meant for me. Though I might have guessed at some of the things that I would learn while I was away, these lessons are now strongly rooted in my heart and mind. I will mention only one here. You can read the rest in an extended version of this article on the church’s blog on the website.
Every Christian who is serious about their walk with Christ needs cross cultural ministry experiences. For one, they expose weaknesses. Not everyone could or should travel as far as I did. However, we need to put ourselves in other situations and cultures. In some cases you can do this by just walking across the street or at most traveling across town, since the world has come to us. The most effective way to evaluate the culture you are in, is to encounter one different from your own. For me this trip was a kind of spiritual boot camp. Traveling for two days, stepping out of a vehicle into very unfamiliar surroundings, setting up in a strange hotel, eating strange food and serving in a different culture was hard at first. Yet, I now count the experience as one of the highlights of my life. I saw God at work in the hearts of people who live in very different ways in a remote part of the world. It has shown me something new about God and it exposed weaknesses in my own walk with Christ. They may not sound very pleasant but I greatly treasure the experience.
Additions Lessons from Jaigaon:
1. Seaford Baptist has international caliber teachers and leaders within our church body. Evelyn Biles is one of them. I had to go to the other side of the world to hear her teach. I don’t know if she has time given her extensive responsibilities, but I hope that we can give the whole Seaford body an opportunity to hear from her.
2. We have a responsibility to care about the needs of people around the world. I fear much of the time we don’t think about much beyond our own community, I know sometimes I don’t.
3. Stuff does not make us happy. We need food, clothes, shelter, meaningful work and good relationships. Many of the people I worked with possessed a small fraction of what I possess materially, yet they seemed spiritually on fire for Christ and content with their standard of life.
4. It is important for us to stretch ourselves, to get out of our comfort zones. Every morning I heard an imam singing the Muslim call to prayer. An hour later I heard Hindu music blaring just outside of my hotel and all of this by 6:00 AM. There was the equivalent of a loud block party going on right under my window nightly. I was the only white man I saw for 6 days. I struggled at first to relate to the Malaysians on my own team at raucous dinner celebrations each evening. I fumbled through speaking to Indian and Bhutanese pastors older than me. I wondered what possible help I could offer them. Yet these struggles now are part of what made this experience so dear to me.
5. Serving in a culture where Christians are obviously in the minority is a fascinating and a sobering experience. In Jaigaon, four major world religions were present that I was aware of. Christians would have been the smallest minority. Probably in order were Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and then Christians. I did not see overt persecution or violence. However, several of the young people I met had accepted Christ at the price of losing their family of origin.
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04.01.08
Posted in Tom Gilson at 9:47 pm by Tom Gilson
My last post ran the risk of sending a wrong message: that it takes one key super-leader to shepherd God’s people. No, it takes a definite leadership structure to lead well. I have very painful personal experience with this–experience that drives me to do my best to help prevent the same kind of thing from ever being repeated.
I was one of a small group that were planting a church in Pasadena, California in the early 1980s. What incredible fellowship we had! It was in many ways the ideal church. I’ve never been in another such tight-knit community of believers. We encountered sudden change, though, change that we thought at first was really good for our church. It happened when another church in the community switched pastors, and several members thought the new man was too liberal. Many of them came and joined us, all at one time.
They actually assimilated into our church quite nicely. But the church outgrew our ability to be just a great fellowship. Where once we could all get together–every one of us–for meaningful discussions about the church’s direction, now we were too many for that. We weren’t large–only about 100 people–but we were too big for our old ways to work.
To keep the story short, the pastor didn’t adjust well. He didn’t succeed in setting up a leadership structure for the next phase of our growth. Small disagreements turned into large dissension. Conflict arose between the pastor and the key elder. We ended up donating away all our assets to other Christian groups, and we closed the church. Be assured that there’s a world of hurting contained in that short summary.
Moses started out with a very poor understanding of how to structure leadership among the Israelites. His father-in-law saw this and counseled him in Exodus 18 (ESV):
13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.
The idea was to delegate responsibility and authority among a number of leaders. As Jethro pointed out, that was the only way leading a large company like the Israelites could have been remotely possible. Note that this wasn’t just good family advice. It was one of many examples of delegated authority in the Bible. Others may be found in:
Whoa… that list could get really long! Let’s just focus on two more very significant Old Testament passages and three from the New Testament.
Judges 2:16-23. The main message here is that when the people followed God’s appointed leaders they fared well. Otherwise they fell into idolatry and other sin, and “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.” In those days the result was that they were oppressed by neighboring nations. There’s no telling what the result of the Lord’s anger might be in regard to a body of his people today–but you can count on this, it won’t be something pleasant or desirable.
Nehemiah–the entire book. One good test of this is to read the book aloud. Notice how many names are there–or, how many times you have to pause to figure out a pronunciation! Most of these are leaders–”nobles and officials,” many of them heads of households or clans–among the people. Nehemiah did a masterful job of assigning responsibility for different sections of the wall they were rebuilding around Jerusalem. Another great lesson from Nehemiah is the emphasis on prayer–he led spiritually, not just organizationally.
Acts 6:1-7. The apostles recognized it was inappropriate and unworkable for them to be hands-on leaders of administrative tasks. It was not that administration was a lesser calling. The men they chose to fulfill those roles were full of wisdom, faith, and the Holy Spirit, and one of them went on to become the early church’s first martyr.
Acts 15:1-35. On the other hand, when a major, far-reaching decision had to be made, the apostles became very deeply involved, along with an unnamed group of elders. This was the controversy over whether Gentile converts would need to be circumcised and follow other Jewish law. This was decided in council. It was a council of spiritual leaders, however, and not of all the church. The word “elders” (presbytos) in the New Testament seems to be interchangeable with “overseers” (episkopos), by the way. This was not, at the time, a formal office in the same sense it is in some churches today (”episkopos” eventually become transliterated to “bishop”). It seems rather to have been a matter of appointing to leadership those who were recognized as spiritually equipped for it. We get a hint of this in our final passage today:
Acts 14:19-23. Paul re-traced earlier paths on his missionary travels and
when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
This is not just a principle for ancient times. The modern world hasn’t outgrown it, and there’s no reason to think we’ll ever “move beyond” this any more than we would move beyond any other principle of Scripture. Lyle E. Schaller did considerable research on church leadership and structures for his book The Very Large Church. Seaford, with about 800 in regular attendance, fits his description of “a very large church.” He describes the difference between decision-making styles that work well in
- small churches–where 100% approval of new projects is ideal,
- large churches of 450-700 people–where “broad-based support” of about 80% of members is desirable, and
- megachurches in the 3,000 member range–where support should come from “the majority of leaders, plus the volunteers required to implement [a new project]“
Our church falls in the cracks between the second and third group, but this example nevertheless makes clear the importance of a strong structure of spiritual leadership, appropriate to the size of the congregation. It was already clear in Scripture, so it should come as no surprise that it works that way in actual churches still today.
I’ve lived through one church’s experience with a leadership structure that didn’t match its size. I’ve never wanted to go through that again! Thankfully we have both Scripture and other churches’ experience to guide us to wise approaches to this crucial matter.
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