Tag: Jonathan Leeman

The Bible – What is it?

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The Bible – What is it?

  • Instruction manual?
  • Helpful tips on good living?
  • List of commandments
  • Book of good moralisms?
  • Little helps for one’s life?
  • Word of God?
  • A “prop” to support your thoughts and opinions?
  • A “shotgun” to destroy other’s thoughts and opinions?

How you answer that question is everything!

Your answer will likely determine if you will read the Bible or toss it aside.  And, if you do read the Bible, then your answer will determine how you will read the Bible.

It is one thing:

  • …..to affirm and acknowledge the Word of God (mentally), it is quite another thing to see it as ones authority and thus submit to it (functionally) in all areas of life.
  • …..to say I love Gods Word and then not submit ones life to it.
  • …..to read the Bible, memorize a scripture or two, or hear the Word preached, it is quite another thing to seek to apply that word that you have read, memorized or heard preached.

At the end of the day, we all have to ask ourselves:  “what do we believe about this book?”  Is it the very Word of God?  If so…. what does that mean in how we approach it or if we approach it.

Did you know……?

According to Jesus, it is the difference between a fool and a wise man.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

(Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)

The Bible (God’s Word) No Other Book Like It!  It is God’s Word.  How amazing is it that the Creator of the universe has given us His Word.  He is not a God in hiding.  We have His Word because He wants us to know Him.

He is a God who wants to be known!

Amazing – we can know the Almighty God!! Reading God’s Word is not a duty to be performed, it is a joy to pursue.  It is in God’s Word that we come to know God – as He is – as He makes Himself known to us on every page.

I don’t know about you… but, I don’t want a God who I conjure up.  A God who is made up in my mind and in my image.  I want to know the living God – As He is – I want to know Him. Friend, if that is the cry of your heart there is no better place to go than the Word of God.

“The evangelist or the preacher opens his mouth and utters a word, God’s Word. But the Word doesn’t sound just once. It echoes or reverberates. It reverberates through the church’s music and prayers. It reverberates through the conversations between elders and members, members and guests, older Christians and younger ones. God’s words bounce around the life of the church, like the metal ball in a pinball machine.” Jonathan Leeman Reverberation

 

Looking for a church? 4 simple things to consider….

typewriter

The grass withers,

The flower fades,

But the Word of the Lord remains forever

Isaiah 40:8

I have a friend that likes to ask people who visit the church I belong to (Trinity CC): What are you looking for in a church? Whether we realize it or not we all have an answer to that question. We might not even be looking for a church, and yet, we still have an answer to that question.

Maybe it’s:

  • trendy music
  • a cool worship leader with a “tight” band
  • high octane youth group
  • a children’s program that competes with Nickelodeon
  • the look of the building
  • convenient parking
  • a relevant pastor
  • Small – home groups
  • programs
  • vision
  • charismatic
  • non charismatic
  • dynamic preaching
  • creativity
  • missional
  • and on and on and on it goes.

Jonathan Leeman, in his outstanding book Reverberation says: “Are any of these things bad? Not at all. Most are fine or even good. The question is, Where are we placing our confidence?”

I want to re-iterate what J. Leeman said – these are not bad things!  Who doesn’t want relevant sermons, or a good band?!? BUT…..Where are we placing our confidence?

It seems to me that the church today is placing less and less of its confidence where we ought……in the Word of God. The result of a misplaced confidence is concerning.

 4 things to look for in a church:

1.) Does the Word of God drive the church in all of its ministries?

The Word of God must be central to all the church does.  The Word must drive.  This is much more than just reading scripture or preaching from a passage of the Bible.  It is the DNA of the church that hungers for the Word and gladly submits to God’s Word.  So, what is driving the church? What or who is in the drivers seat?

2.)  Due to the above, does the church have a conviction about preaching God’s Word?

We are in and seem to be headed for difficult days!  Does your church preach God’s Word, without apology, and with conviction? If God’s Word is our confidence, then we should not be shy in our preaching and proclamation of it! The goal is not to be politically correct, the goal is to be biblically correct.

Pastors, the most loving thing you can do for your congregation is to preach the Word.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

(2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV)

 3.) Is the church God centered or man centered?

Who is at the center?  You?  Me? A pastor? Dynamic youth leader? a hard working deacon? or a long term member? When we make the church to be primarily about man, we miss out on the very reason we exist as a church.  Why does the church exist? We exist, first and foremost, for the worship of God!  ALL else falls into place UNDER this ultimate and primary purpose.

Have you noticed the Word of God is…..  a God centered book?

4.)  Does the church have a gospel culture?

What is a “gospel culture”?

It is one thing to “know” about the gospel.  Anyone can know the gospel factually. One can even share the gospel with others.  BUT, is the gospel functioning in the life of the church? Does the gospel permeate down into all the ministries of the church? The gospel is the focal point of the Word of God, oh that it would be the focal point of the church!

To read further about what the gospel is click here.

I hope you have found a good church where you love to worship God! There is no perfect church! The church I have the privilege of pastoring is always seeking to grow and is always needing to grow in the above!  We have NOT arrived, no church has!

If you are lacking in conviction about these 4 questions above, pray, and ask God to help you to grow.

Or, if you do have a conviction, and you see ways in which your church is lacking in the above….. Get involved! God has given you a passion for the above for a reason. Get involved and help your church to grow in the 4 areas listed above.

 

Is there more than these 4 things to look for in a church? Sure. But, I hope these are at the core of your heart if you are currently looking for a church to call home.