Better than Bible Study…

Circumstances can be disappointing. God never disappoints us. Friends may fail us. Jesus never fails. Family members may hurt us, but there is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother. I am so thankful that God has given us His holy word. 1 Peter 1:18-21 captures the essence of all that God has done and IS doing for us. If we were to try to raise families, live above the negativity of this world, build a church, or reach out to others in need all on our own it would be a miserable failure. We cannot do it on our own. For thousands of years the Jewish nation put their trust in the promises of God to bring salvation. One only need to read Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, Nehemiah, or Deuteronomy to see that God's promises for His people are all at the same time ancient and glorious. WE GET TO BE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EQUATION! 2 Peter 1:19 declares that we have the word of the prophets made MORE CERTAIN. Notice how Peter says "and we would do well to pay attention to it"…He then gives the example…"as to a light shining in a dark place, until the Morning Star arises in your hearts" Wow! God is present when we read the Scripture! God is present when we study the Bible! God is present in every circumstance and situation we face. Look down at your Bible…Look up to the grace of God. He is present to help, mighty to save, and able to fix every situation you find yourself in. As you study your Bible today, consider this quote:

The Bible is the only book whose Author is always present when one reads it.-unknown

Another Great Bible Tool Online!

It's simply amazing to discover the tools available online and through the software at www.logos.com. They have already given us, www.bible.logos.com where you can search the word of God in several versions, copy and paste to your word processor or look up occurrences of phrases in the Bible. Then of course, who could forget the reference tagging language tool that enables you to turn all Scriptures on a web page or blog into hyperlinks like this one 1 Peter 1:3-4. Now for Twitter and other venues where you can turn a Scripture into a short hyperlink, there's ref.ly That's right, no www, no .com or .org or even .edu, just ref.ly . What does it do and why should you care? Click on it and see. When you go to http://Ref.ly and type in a Bible reference like Psalm 91 and then click "Transform" it immediately converts it to a short web address. When the user clicks the "Tweet" button it takes them to their twitter page. When the user clicks the ref.ly address, it immediately takes them to the passage in context and at www.bible.logos.com . Try it. It's fun and amazing at the same time. You can also change the version if you wish. Enjoy discovering more about the wonders of God's word.

Principles for Church Growth….From a Toyota mechanic

My father-in-law worked for Toyota for over 20 years. He is a mechanic's mechanic. The man knows automobiles inside and out. He's also been a member of his local church for well over 40 years. Most, if not all of that time he has been involved in ministry. He's been a youth leader when the church had over 200 members in a town of less than 1000 people. He's been a Sunday School superintendent, board member, and along with his faithful wife, they have supported their church with time, talent, tithe and truckloads of hard work. So what does Dan Hughey have to say about church growth? Plenty. Dan and Marie have faithfully served their church and contributed to the kingdom of God for decades. They have served under pastors who had long tenure, tenuous circumstances, and short experiences. The church has grown, declined, and grown, and declined. What's the insight that requires such an introduction? Simply this: Churches grow when the people of the church have something good to say about the church. Most of us in church know the feeling: there is the sense of emptiness, hurt, frustration and disappointment when attending a church that seems to not have its priorities straight. It may be the pastor, it may be the circumstances the pastor is working with, and it may be the people. One thing is certain…it's disappointing….leaving a church service feeling worse than when you came. No one should have to feel that way, but many do. Naturally, these people cannot speak positively of their church. It's a discussion changer. On the contrary, when things are going well….it's easy to talk about…and enthusiastically endorse what is going on in church. To my insightful father-in-law, it's a game changer. When people can talk positively about their church, the church will grow because the greatest benefit to an organization is word of mouth. For church leaders it's a new way of thinking about Acts 20:28. As James would assert in James 3:8-12, the dangers of our speech and it's inconsistency are lurking. May the challenge of James 3:17-18 be our goal.

The Glorious Church

In our service at Bethel Temple today the sermon was on The Work of the Church. This was
based on the events surrounding the conversion of Saul the Pharisee to Paul the Apostle. Throughout this chapter, we observed that the Work of the Church includes Miracles….God must be active doing what He does best…miracles. It was an absolute miracle that Saul encountered Christ on the road to Damascus and later became the apostle to the Gentiles. We also discovered that doing the work of God involves risk. God's instructions to Ananias, and then Barnabas's encouragement to the apostles in Jerusalem involved a great deal of risk-taking. Finally, we observed how in Acts 9:31, the church was blessed and MULTIPLIED. It's here that I want to make some further comments. The growth of a church is dependent on relationships and multiplication. The Book of Acts talks about how the excitement concerning the Gospel got everyone's attention. It appears today that the "church" is trying everything but the right thing. Ok, I KNOW that I'm not the expert on Church growth, but in my short time so far here on earth (soon to be 45 years)…I've observed that across denominations, churches too quickly go to a business/leadership model that is marketing driven, rather than God-centered. How so? When I worked on a Ph.D. in Administration (at a Baptist Seminary, which effectively focused on Church administration) fourteen years ago, there was this perpetual temptation to baptize (no pun intended) the secular leadership and management literature and push it on the church. There are some obvious things that fit: conflict resolution, planning, leading, organizing, and supervising. The Church, however is different! As an organism that belongs to Christ, we have One who has promised to "Build My Church" (Matt 16:18). We have gifts from God to help with the load (Ephesians 4:11-16). The growth of the church in Acts was nothing short than monumental. Consider the summary statements after 3000 confessed Christ on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:42. Then later, the church added more in Acts 4:4 and Acts 6:7. God was at work in the miraculous and the results of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 10:44-46). So, what's the point? Human enthusiasm and excitement can only go so far…there must be something real happening for people to want to come to your church. Lives must be changed from encountering Christ. We're thrilled at what God is doing at Bethel Temple. May the Lord bless your church too as you focus on the miraculous, make a commitment to manage risk, and see His blessings. Jesus said it best in Matthew 16:18. Let's "keep in step with the Spirit" and see God work in His church.

The Word of God…New and Living!

I am in a family of readers. Every day you can see one of my family with a book in their hand. Personally, I start a lot of books but have trouble finishing them. I'm currently rejoicing that after 4 years of effort, I've now finished Fellowship of the Ring. There is no telling how long it will take to finish the rest of that tome. If you read this blog at all you understand the author's fascination with technology and the study of God's word. Today I'm happy to announce the addition of a new widget to this blog and also available at www.betheltemple.net . Master Media ministries' One Year Audio Bible is in the New Living Translation which is an absolutely fabulous translation of the Bible. You can buy their MP3 player from the One Year Audio Bible site, or they provide the widget for you to upload the HTML to your blog or website. From here, your user can listen to the day's reading that loads automatically with the golden voice of Tom Dooley. Why is this such a big deal? Everyone doesn't like to read. They may be too busy to read. I'm personally thankful that God inspired the biblical writers to write (See 2 Peter 1:19-21) His revelation, I also am aware that many people just don't like to read. So for them, and for us…(the busy ones)…amid the audio Bible genre, there is this widget. Simply click on this widget, copy the HTML text, and paste it into the HTML of your website or blog. Then your users will have another way to encounter the word of God that is "Living and Active" (Hebrews 4:12)

Unselfish Praying….Gets Answers

Consider it a theory if you will. As I say that I picture the opening music of the old Twilight Zone episodes. When?, How?, and Where? Does God answer prayers? Of course, if we knew that, one of life's greatest mysteries would be solved. When I first began working at SAGU, the president was Dr. Delmer Guynes, a great leader and mentor. Dr. Guynes now serves as the Chaplain at SAGU. One of his hallmark statements is that "you can get more answers to your prayers when you pray unselfishly". Perhaps that is what the author intended in James 5:16 about the prayers of a righteous man being "powerful and effective". I decided to do a search in Logos and came up with these results. I know I haven't searched every possible connection, but this simple glance adds much to the theory of results oriented unselfish praying. Place your curser over these references: Genesis 25:21; 2 Samuel 24:25; 1 Chronicles 5:20; Psalm 4:1; Psalm 17:6; Acts 10:4; 2 Corinthians 1:11;Philemon 22. The Disciple's Prayer that Jesus taught His disciples certainly has unselfish characteristics in it especially when you consider that personal requests are at the tail end of the prayer. (Luke 11:2-4). We do have the confidence that the Lord will take care of us. Christian, let's count our blessings. First, we have been forgiven our sins (Romans 10:9-10). As such, we have the resulting peace of God. (Romans 5:1) and if THAT isn't enough we have the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7). Even in times of trial, we have the assurance of God's help. (Romans 8:26-39) All these burdens have been lifted! We have little to concern ourselves with except to pray unselfishly. May God help us to do what works.

God Specializes In It

The notion that God can do anything is, in itself, amazing. Since the Fall of Man, man has been at odds against God by default. We are, as Romans 3:23 states, "sinners." We have all sinned. God is doing all He can to redeem us back. Having sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and not just for our sins, but for the whole world, He daily is doing miracles as men come back into communion with Him. When we read statements like "Nothing is Too Hard for God" and "Nothing is Impossible with God"….we want to believe that is true, but our fallen nature gets in the way. We argue with God. What about the times I asked Him for miracles and received nothing? What about the times I prayed and prayed and prayed, yet still God did not answer? Fair enough questions. James 4:3 suggests one answer might be that we ask from wrong motives. This is understandable considering our faulted sinful stance. It seems from Scripture that God doesn't do everything we ask and He has some kind of Divine standard for answering our prayers that is a mystery to our feeble minds. Those questions, however, should not prevent us from continuing to ask. Consider all the places that God Himself encourages us with the idea that He can do anything AND our prayers make a difference.

Matthew 19:26
Mark 10:27
Luke 1:37
Luke 18:27
Matthew 6:30
Matthew 8:10
Matthew 8:26
Matthew 9:2
Matthew 9:22
Matthew 9:29
Matthew 13:58
Matthew 14:31
Matthew 15:28
Mattew 16:8
This is not an exhaustive list. I do not know the artist but the words are so powerful from Scripture… Got any Rivers? You think are uncrossable Got any Mountains? You can't tunnel through God specializes, in things thought impossible And He can do what no other power can do God must expect us to have faith in what He can do!

The Eleventh Commandment

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus says and does things that broke with the established tradition. Does this make him a rebel? Not so, but He was intent on focusing on essential elements of faith. For instance in Matthew 12, the disciples of Jesus help themselves to grain on the Sabbath. Consider this, Exodus 20:8 clearly identifies the Sabbath as a commandment. There is little doubt that the Pharisees observation of the disciples error was on task…initially. They were breaking the Sabbath. The response of Jesus is amazing. Earlier, in Matthew 9:13, Jesus had given them instructions to "go and learn what this means"…. "I desire mercy and not sacrifice"…..now in Matthew 12:7, in response to the Pharisees rebuke of His disciples….Jesus repeats the earlier instruction….and THEN makes the profound statement of Matthew 12:8…Jesus is the LORD of the Sabbath! In effect, you are looking at the Eleventh Commandment….or perhaps more importantly, THE COMMANDMENT! Jesus changes everything. He should be the center of our universe. Most Christians don't celebrate the Sabbbath…are we in error? I don't think so. Hebrews 4:9 states it so well…now that Jesus has come…..we have our Rest, 24/7. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath indeed!

A New Semester

My new semester at SAGU has begun. It's fun as the students are excited to begin learning about Theology and Bible. While I'm also excited for a fresh start, I had a few items I wanted to mention to keep the fire going in all of our lives. Here goes.

The Mercy of the Lord is New Every Morning. God's love is not dependent on the seasons, our attitudes, or effort. He simply loves us with the abundance of Grace and Mercy that His Scriptures declare.

Rest is essential to mental health. The break that comes between University semesters is a powerful reminder of the value of rest. One of the ten commandments is to remember the Sabbath. In our busy culture this is often the first thing to go. God created us to need rest. We need rest for our physical body as well as our mind and spirit. The Bible has a lot to say about this as well, Jesus promised to provide rest for those who labored and are heavy laden.

Knowledge is power. The sage said it well, the more I learn, the more I learn I have to learn. Reading and classifying is also powerful as we assimilate information and relate concepts one to the other, we become more fruitful and effective. This power set of tools also gives us the capacity to do more and add value to our work and relationships.

So you're not in school? Open your Bible, go read a book, check out a new web page or learn a technological skill. The enhancements will add value to your life all the while reminding you that "His mercies are new!"