Created To Be God’s Friend
I had done Blackaby’s Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God Workbook and I have to say that I totally recommend that book. It’s a 12 week workbook that takes you through looking at the world from God’s perspective as well as your place in it.
Since I enjoyed that book so much, when my grandmother passed and I saw this book, Created to Be God’s Friend, by the same author I snatched it up to give it a read.
Much of what is in this book is covered in his Experiencing God series, though this is written after and uses the experience of writing that workbook as part of his illustration.
This book picks up the study of the life of Abraham, with the goal of applying that life to someone in the current time period. As Blackaby is very familiar with his own life, he draws a lot of parallels.
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10 Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing
As someone that is involved in the leadership of a local church, I find that I often have to think about what we’re doing as a church—why is it that some that come in the door never return, or why is it that some people leave in the first place.
That’s one of the reasons that I picked up Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing: How Leaders Can Overcome Costly Mistakes
. I was hoping to gain some insight into what makes churches grow or not grow.
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Jesus and the Bible
…The setting is ripe for a fight. The Sadducees are trying to spark some theological controversy. Jesus has his mind on the cross. The other religious leaders have been barking at he and his disciples for years now. Satan continues to pursue and press upon him. This begs a frustrated response.
Instead, Jesus calmly and clearly turns and quotes the Bible. And not only does he quote the Bible but he makes a theological point based upon the tense of a verb. In other words, Jesus believes that the very words of God in Scripture are true. Every single one of them. He believes they are also from God, authoritative, clear, enduring, and trustworthy (cf. 2 Tim. 3.16-17; Ps. 19.7-14). He appeals to them to settle the debate and silence the critics.
I love Jesus’ confidence in the Scriptures. I love his love for the Word of God.
Read the rest at Ordinary Pastor…
If You Could Hear Christ Praying…
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. (Robert Murray M’Cheyne p. 179)
HT – The Ordinary Pastor
The Inspired King James Version
One of the more recent causes for head scratching has been the King James Version and its veracity. If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time you know that I’m not wedded to any particular version—I regularly read from the King James, I own an ESV, my kids read from NIV, and my wife has tried NLT and NKJV.
Why all the versions? Because the KJV has word choices that are not currently used and uses language that’s no longer modern. We’ve searched for a version that’s easy to comprehend, and the meaning is correct and not obscured.
Of the versions that we’ve tried, I would not recommend the NLT.
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Sometimes It’s Impossible to Agree
There are many things that I puzzle over on a regular basis. Over the next few days I’ll attempt lay out some of them—just put them out there—and see where (if anywhere) the conversation goes from there. We’ll call it the “Points to Ponder” series.
The first one is the difficulty that people have in reconciling differences, or the fact that sometimes it’s impossible to agree.
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Who Is Esaias Anyway?
For a moment, let’s accept the KJV Only argument that the King James is the best translation from a manuscript standpoint as well as from tradition. My question, that has yet to be answered, is “Why has it not been updated since the 1800?”
To give a reference, here’s something that always baffled me as a kid. Who is Esaias?
Matthew 3:3 – For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
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