Grace and Peace to you all. 

    This week we will be thinking and discussing the subject of Evangelism and how to handle its\’s failure. As I consider our topic I realized this wasn\’t so much a theological topic as it was a pastoral one. Thus, I wanted this to be more of an encouragement rather than a complete systemic on Evangelism. As usual, we will first define Evangelism, then briefly discuss its motives/how to then how to handle its failure. 

Definition

    Evangelism comes from the Greek word \”Evangelion\” which means Gospel. Simply put, evangelism is the proclamation, or delivery, of the Gospel. Technically speaking this does include Sunday preaching to believers and non-believers alike; however, the intent of the post is to deal with matters relating to personal evangelism to non-believers, and thus we will not deal with Sunday\’s pulpit preaching but rather personal, or direct, believer to non-believer evangelism. Thus, the work of evangelism for our purposes is to personally proclaim the Gospel to unbelievers so that they would become believers in Christ and be saved from the wrath of God (Romans 5:8-10). 

How is this to be done?

    There are hundreds of different methods and strategies on the market today that will tell you how to do evangelism-some are good some are not so good. I\’m not going to tell you how you should proclaim the Gospel in your family, your workplace, etc, mainly because I don\’t know how you should. I do know what the content of your evangelism should be and the motive for how it should be presented. In presenting the Gospel to someone you should: 

1) Actually tell them the good news of Christ\’s death on behalf of sinners

2) Be sincere, loving, and truthful in its presentation

3) Be yourself. 

    IE don\’t try to do your best imitation of _(insert name of hot and trendy pastor/teacher/evangelist here)._ The world has already seen them. God made you and the way you are so that your voice would sing His praise and proclaim the Gospel to the nations. Thus, ignoring the issue of strategy lets us consider the heart of the matter-our motive for evangelism. 

God\’s Purpose in Evangelism: Praising His Glorious Grace

    Consider Paul\’s words in Ephesians 1:5-6, \”…he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.\” 

    God, out of His love for you, willed for you to be saved so that you would praise (overflow with gladness in song) His glorious grace. God wants you to know, experience, feel, how great He is towards you. I recognize that it does not always feel as if God is being great towards us. I\’m sure Job or Joesph of Genesis didn\’t always feel that God was being great toward them in their suffering. But yet, He was. 

    Our suffering is designed so that it would bring us closer to God and in that we would know, and feel, how great He really is. This is God\’s mission in you, and the world, today: To govern over all things so that everyone would know how great He is and how praise-worthy/awesome His grace is. 

    In evangelism, God is drawing forth sinners to Him by showing them their sin in its\’ power, effects, and condemnation. Then He shows them the way of redemption in its\’ person-Jesus Christ, means-belief in Christ, and effect-forgiveness and eternal life through His rich, glorious grace. God\’s purpose in evangelism is to show/reveal to sinners how great, rich, and glorious He is in grace. Let us now consider our own motive for evangelism.

Our Purpose in Evangelism: Desiring to See the Nations Praise His Glorious Grace

    Consider Ephesians 2:10, \”For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.\” 

    You were created by God to do good works for God (not to earn salvation, but to express your love for Him). One of those good works is evangelism. But why evangelize at all? Because we have seen that God is gracious, powerful and justice and therefore we want others to experience that as well. We want other people to know the love, joy, and awesomeness of God. 

    Psalm 67:4 says, \”Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.\” We want others to share in the joy and praising of God\’s great grace that He has freely given us. We evangelism so that we might hear more praising of God\’s great, rich, glorious grace. 

    Before we move on to consider how to handle the failure of our evangelism I believe it would be prudent to briefly consider two cures for the fear of evangelism. 

The First Cure: Faithful Fear

    We are not perfect; our hearts are not as obedient as we wish they were. Often we are more prone to fear man than God; to deny God rather than ourselves; to listen to our own wisdom rather than God\’s. Yet, we are still called to be faithful to God and His commands; chiefly \”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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…\” (Matthew 28:19-20).

    We don\’t always feel like obeying God; we don\’t always love Him as we should and we don\’t always overcome our fear of man in the middle of our lunchbreak chatting with a co-worker. Consider Paul\’s words to the Romans in considering the supremacy of God\’s love over man\’s approval when he says, \”What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God\’s elect? It is God who justifies.\” All this to say, be faithful to God in the midst of your fears of men, failure, and rejection because He loves you now and forevermore. 

The Second Cure: Fearful Faith

    Consider our second cure; fearful faith. Consider a classic verse on fear in Proverbs 1:7, \”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.\” Pastor John MacArthur comments, \”This reverential awe and admiring, submissive fear is foundational for all spiritual knowledge and wisdom…The fear of the Lord is a state of mind in which one\’s own attitudes, will, feelings, deeds, and goals are exchanged for God\’s\” (MacArthur Study Bible). 

    We should not only be faithful in our fear but we should also be fearful, awfully submissive, to God. God has done much for us, He saved us, loved us, provided for us, and in response we live grateful lives towards Him-including fearing/obeying Him. When He commands us to \”love your neighbor as yourself\” we do so by loving them enough to give them the Gospel. When He commands us to do good works we do them because we love Him and not to gain any merit from it. But what do we do when we do these things and we see no fruit from them?

Handling Failure in Our Personal Evangelism

    We are not as successful at soul-winning as we would like. However, I am not convinced that we are nearly as unsuccessful as we think we are. What I mean is this: 

1) God is sovereign-He will save whomever He will 

2) Our salvation is spontaneous-that is we don\’t plan to be converted on such and such date and time 

3) Lastly, salvation is Spiritual-it is first and foremost a work of God\’s Spirit in the life of man. 

    We simply do not know what effects our love, prayers, evangelism, and apologetic efforts will have on eternity. The co-worker who scolded us when presented with the Gospel yesterday might convert tomorrow. Our God-hating father might be a death bed convert. My point here is we can\’t, or shouldn\’t have a \”woe is me!\” attitude when it comes to evangelism. Our chief concern in evangelism is 

1) Did I love my neighbor?

2) Did I express that love in communicating the Gospel of God to them to the best of my abilities? 

3) Will I trust God in His will to use my good work for His glory? 

    Now, we are timely creatures who cannot see into eternity. Thus, from our human perspective, we do fail in our evangelism efforts. Now let us consider how we are to handle our failure in evangelism. First, we are to be humble in our trust, and submission, to God. 

Humble:

    \”Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you\” (James 4:10). We don\’t, fully, know God\’s plan for our lives or for what purpose all our failures are for. Because we are so small, fragile, and weak we should remind ourselves of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God in the midst of our failures lest we become bitter or angry at the Lord for our failure. 

Holy:

    Next, we should be holy-chiefly in our conduct before men. Consider these two verses on our personal holiness, \”but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16); 

and,

\”Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14). 

    Put merely, non-believers will not be drawn to accept Christ if our own lived don\’t show God and His love, peace, and holiness. We should strive to be holy in every area of our lives but perhaps more so when we fail. That way we would continue to overflow in love towards man because of our love of God.

Honest:

    \”Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.\” (Matthew 3:8). In our failure, we should be honest with ourselves before God in considering questions like: 

\”Was I truthful in my presentation of the Gospel? 

\”Did they see their need of a Savior and their access to Him?\”

\”In my heart did I love my neighbor?\”

\”Did I love God in my evangelist efforts or my own glory?\” etc. 

Hopeful: 

    \”Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.\” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Paul perhaps faced more persecution, failure, and rejection in the work of evangelism than we probably ever will. Yet he was still hopeful because he knew that all his work for God, no matter how small or big, would count for eternity. Likewise, all of our works for God have a purpose, even if we can\’t see their fruit. We are doing God\’s work at His will and command therefore it cannot fail because our God will never fail. 

Discussion Questions:

1) How would you define Evangelism? 

2) How do you chose to evangelize?

3) How have you handled the successes or evangelism in the past? And how have you handled its\’ failures?

4) Is the fear of man often an issue for you? If so, how have you overcome it/plan to overcome it?

5) Have you evangelized to anyone recently? If so, how did it go? 

6) Is there someone in your life to who you could be evangelizing?

7) Highs and lows; and prayer requests. 

Related Links: 

What Must I Believe To Be Saved? (Audio)

Why Is My Evangelism at Work So Lame? (Audio)

The Gospel In 6 Minutes (Video)

The Leading of the Lord in Personal Evangelism (Audio)

Not Ashamed of the Gospel (Audio)

Lord, Make Me More Bold (Article)

Five Natural Ways to Get to the Gospel (Article)

Four Ways to Witness to Atheists (Article)

How to Evangelize Professing Believers (Article)

Inspired by the Incredible Early Church (Article)

Do People Bore You? (Article)

Grace and peace to you all.

    There are probably 100 different ways to answer our question/topic for today. For our purposes, I have chosen the answer in this devotional manner to best emphasize all that God has done for us in making us Christians:

The Christian is: 

1.     Forgiven by God, 
2.     Freed from sin, 
3.     Faithful toward God, and 
4.     Fruitful in their life

    I have chosen this answer because I believe it best encapsulates the answer to our question. We will deal with each of these in order. 

The Christian is Forgiven by God

    Understanding the means (Christ\’s death), motive (God\’s love toward you), measure (perfect, eternal) of God\’s forgiveness/grace toward you will make the difference between merely mouthing the words to Sunday\’s Hymns and heart-felt, joy-full praising of God in song on Sunday. Or, if you prefer, how you were made a Christian, why you were made a Christain, and what keeps you a Christian. Let us consider each subpoint to better grasp God\’s forgiveness toward us. 

•     The means of God\’s forgivenss towards you:

     How did God forgive us? Certainly not by our own merits, or works. Then it would not be forgiveness but justice. For God would be giving us what He owed to us if that were the case. If God did not (and does not) forgive us by our own merit then how does He forgive us? 

    Through His Son\’s merit/work. Consider Romans 5:9 where Pauls writes, \”Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.\” To be justified means, \”an act of free grace by which God pardons the sinner and accepts him as righteous, on account of the atonement of Christ.\” (Websters, 1828). It is by the work, or atonement of Christ, His only Son; our Lord, that we are forgiven our sin and trespasses against Him. But what would motivate God to set forth a means of propitiation for sinners like us?

• The motive of God\’s forgiveness towards us 

    Consider what Paul writes in Romans 5:8, \”but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.\” What motivated God to set forth Christ as a propitiation for us is 1) His love and 2) to show us His love by the death of Christ. In brief, let us consider the three main parts of Romans 5:8, first God, then His love, finally man. God is the most perfect, holy, righteous, loving being in all of existence and His love is the purest, powerful, perfect affection ever expressed to sinful mankind who is the most imperfect, unholy, unrighteous, and hostile being of God\’s creation. Indeed, we were the enemy of God in every way. Thus, His motive in forgiving you was to demonstrate to you how great His love for you-His enemy-is. And that love is all the more impactful when we consider the unworthiness of the recipient of that love (us). But how do I know that God will continue to forgive me?

• The measure of God\’s forgiveness towards us

    Consider Romans 5:10, \”For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.\” You are forgiven, or redeemed by God and the resurrection of Christ is your proof of His forgiveness toward you now and forever. And because He now lives you also live with Him. And He is \”faithful and just\” (1 John 1:9) to continually forgive us of our sins. In short, you are forgiven and continually forgiven by Him and are thus continually kept by Him. 

    Moreover, His forgiveness is perfect, your sin cannot take away from it. It is eternal, you cannot lose it. It is inexhaustible, you cannot out sin the grace of God toward you. This is the forgiveness of God for you because of all our sin, wickedness, and trespass; knowing that God saved us from our sins, and eternal Hellfire, to express His love for you is what makes our Sunday praise actual praise and not just hollow words.

    And what other benefits does the forgiveness of God bring to the Christian?

The Christian is Freed from the control of sin 

    One of the benefits of being forgiven by God is that we are saved from the control, or enslavement,  of sin. Consider Paul\’s words in Romans 6:20-23, \”For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\” Our former slavemaster brought death, our new master brings us a purpose for our lives-sanctification- and eternal life with Him. We are saved to be free from sin and toward righteousness. Our sin bore the fruit of death, decay, and destruction in our lives (as well as those around us). But righteousness bears many fruits; chiefly love. 

    It is also worth briefly noting that we are also freed from the condemnation of sin. First and foremost, our sin is against God and, then, it is against man. God now looks at us and sees His beloved Son in us. He sees us as washed, cleansed, and guiltless before Him. So not only are we free of the control of sin in our lives but also the condemnation of it as well. Knowing, and believing, this does not lead us to sin all the more. Far from it (Romans 6:1-5)! We have been changed, raised up to spiritual life. How then shall we continue on in sin? What then are we to do now that we have been made free from sin by the forgiveness of God? How then shall we live?

The Christian is Faithful to God

    \”Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!\” (Romans 6:15). Paul labors the point that we are not to continue in sin but are to be \”slaves of obedience\” in verse 16. Or, to keep in step with our alliterative lesson, we are to be faithful to God. To be faithful is to be obedient to God in the commandments set forth in His word. Some in our day and age, sadly, associate obedience with legalism, otherwise known as Pharisaism which is a \”Rigid observance of external forms of religion without genuine piety\” Or to put it another way, harsh religious observance without love. But those folk forget that the same God who commands their obedience is the same one who commands them to love as well (Mark 12:31). 

    Moreover, Christ says, \”If you love me, you will keep my commandments\” (John 14:15). Thus, to be obedient is to be loving, and to be loving is to be obedient. Our natural response to God forgiving and freeing us from the control and condemnation of sin is to love Him and we love Him by keeping His commandments. Paul says that we are to be obedient \”from the heart\” (Romans 6:17). That is, from the innermost part of us; in our affections, thoughts, and actions. This means, loving Him in our hearts and expressing that love through the actions in our bodies (good works and words) and by abstaining or putting off, the sin in ourselves. In this putting off of sin we grow more and more in love toward God and man and develop more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness, and self-control in our hearts (Galatians 5:22-23). Or, more simply put, in our faithful obedience we led a fruitful life. 

The Christian is Fruitful in their life

    As mentioned before we are saved from sin towards sanctification-our purpose in this life-which leads to eternal life (Romans 5:22). Sanctification is growing in Christ-likeness, or (for the purposes of this study) living a fruitful life. The fruit, or works, of our lives, is a direct result of whatever comes from our heart and whatever it is set on. This is why it is of paramount importance for us to be seeking God in our daily lives; our hearts are prone to wander away from God. We must continually \”renew our minds\” (Romans 12:2) to be transformed or to bear fruit as Christ bore fruit. But fruit does not merely grow and remain on the tree for the rest of its life. We bear fruit so that others can enjoy it. So that others would see our love and feel the love of God. So that others would see our joy and know that it is from God. We bear fruit in our lives so that others would see in us the love, grace, and forgiveness of God and therefore draw them to repentance so they might know God\’s forgiveness as well. Our lives are outwarding focused on loving others and not merely outward obedience. We obey inwardly, from the heart, so that we might obey in loving others outwardly in good works and good words towards them. In short, let them see your fruit (outward love) so that outsiders might know your root (God\’s forgiveness, or love for you).

    In sum, as a Christian, we are forgiven by God, freed from sin, and are in grateful response faithful towards Him and loving towards others so that they would come to know His forgiveness as well. 

1. Our next topic, How to Deal with Failure in Evangelism, should (Lord willing) be posted on 2/19. Followed by Eschatology on 3/5, after that, we do not currently have any topics planned (though I have a dope idea!). Help me to brainstorm about what \”Phase 2\” will look like for us and post some topics/questions etc that you would like to talk about.
2. I\’ve been posting helpful/related links along with the studies. Do y\’all read them? And do you find them helpful at all?
3. One of the biggest struggles I\’ve had while writing these topical studies is deciding exactly what I should write because there are so many different ways to answer our topic for today. How would you have answered this topic? And what biblical texts would you have chosen? 
4. I listed some benefits to being forgiven by God. Can you think of any other benefits not listed here?
5. I defined pharisaism as \”harsh religious observance without love\”. How would you have defined it? And how would you go about loving/correcting a brother/sister in their pharisaism if you saw it in them?
6. How would you have defined obedience? And, how do we be obedient without being legalist/pharisaic? 
7. Do you see any Christians in your life that don\’t seem to be bearing fruit? If so, how do you handle that situation? 
8. And, of course, how can we pray for you?

    Grace and peace to you all. 

    This week\’s topic was suggested for us by Jordan and I thoroughly enjoyed researching and meditating on it. For our topic this week we will be discussing the purpose of the local church in two parts, those being: what is the local church; then what is your purpose in being apart of the local church.

    First, what is the local church?

    Jonathan Leeman, of 9Marks Ministries, defines the local church as, \”group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances. That’s a bit clunky, I know, but notice the five parts of this definition:

• a group of Christians;
• a regular gathering;
• a congregation-wide exercise of affirmation and oversight;
• the purpose of officially representing Christ and his rule on earth—they gather in his name;
• the use of preaching and ordinances for these purposes.\”

Recommended resources: 

Resolve Yourself to the Local Church

The Ordinary People God Chose

Ministry Belongs to the Members

Pray to See the Church as God Does

Love the One You’re With

Every Good Church Is Messy

For the Bride Set Before Him

Discussion questions:

1. Upon reflecting on our last study I thought it was a little long so I wanted to see if something more like this week\’s length was better. Do you all think this week\’s topic length was better/easier or more enjoyable to read? 
2. In your own words, what is the local church?
3. Do you have a local church? If so, do you love your local church, and what are some ways you could possibly serve it better?
4. Who do you think wrote Hebrews? 
5. Recall the immature Christian\’s question, (\”If I\’m saved by faith alone, why do I need to go to church?\”); how would you answer that question if it were presented to you? 
6. I listed a few reasons why I go to church. What, if any, reasons would you add to my list?
7. One of the purposes of the church is to encourage each other. Is there any way we could encourage you today?
8. Do you feel that there was anything missing from this blog that you would like to discuss in the chat? 
9. [Random Question]: I had a dream/idea the other day about us sometime during the summer having a sort of weekend retreat to the beach where we just spiritually recharge; we do some bible studies, sing some hymns and pray for each other and play some (wholesome) board games. Like I said, it was just a dream so I won\’t be super heartbroken if y\’all say no to this (and obviously we\’d need to iron on the details) but what would y\’all say to that? Would you possibly be open to doing a weekend spiritual retreat of some kind together? 

    Now that we have sufficiently covered the Minimalist Method in part one let us now consider how to best maximize our time spent in God\’s word. For our purposes here we focus on Study Bibles and Journaling. 

    First, consider the Study Bible: As the name suggests it is a Bible with various notes to help the reader understand what it is they are reading. The Study Bible will generally include an introductory page on each book of the Bible that explains who wrote that particular book, when they wrote it, why they wrote it, and to whom they wrote. On the proceeding pages, there will be verse notes on concepts, doctrine, words, or actions found in that chapter. 

    In my time since I\’ve become a Christian, there has been quite the explosion of Study Bibles; and they don\’t seem to be going anywhere any day soon. When considering which Study Bible to purchase it is important to remember that our goal of reading devotionally is to grow in Christlikeness. With this in mind consider the following when deciding what to purchase: 

    In brief, those devotional books are rarely written to teach, reproof, correct, or train in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16) and almost never touch on any matters regarding good and sound doctrine. If you wish to supplement your devotional Bible reading I, personally, would suggest a book on a good and sound doctrine; perhaps something like the great Puritan Thomas Watson\’s The Doctrine of Repentance or Dr. R.C. Sproul\’s Knowing Scripture or Charles Spurgeon On God. I recommend a more theological book over a devotional book because they will help you to better see, understand and savor God and all that He is for you, and from that knowledge/truth your heart will be far more stirred to worship than most any devotional book on the market today. 

    One more note on supplements, should you decided to make use of them; whatever you decide to use do ensure that 1) you can be constant in using them and that 2) they will lead you closer to Christ.

Recommended Resources that might be helpful to you as they were me:

• 6 Questions to Ask When Studying the Bible in A Group
• 5 Ways to Flourish in Journaling

Continue reading “How to Read the Bible Devotionally Pt.Ⅱ”

    Grace and peace to you all.

    As I mentioned in the previous blog I chose the topic of devotional Bible reading (you may also think of it as worshipful Bible reading) to officially begin our new Bible study. I believe it is appropriate for us to consider and discuss how to read the Bible for ourselves privately before we really dive into Bible studying publically. The heart of this blog post is to show us all how to read the Bible as a Christian, and why we do so, so that we may enjoy God privately (in our own lives) and publically (within our local church). 

    Before I begin writing directly on the topic at hand it is essential to note that this blog will mainly focus on what I will call the \”Minimalist Method\” for devotional Bible reading and will deal with Maximization and Supplementary techniques in part two of this blog post. And our discussion will primarily focus on part one; the discussion questions in part two we will consider optional.

    To illustrate what I mean by this consider your average, daily intake of food. At a minimum, our bodies need three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) in order to properly function. And there are many different ways of maximizing our daily minimum intake of food; IE each meal should have a good balance of various vegetables for vitamins, various meats for proteins and fats, and bread for carbs. Merely eating three times per day will give you the absolute minimum to sustain your life but having three properly balanced meals per day will maximize that daily minimum. And if you wish to absolutely ensure that you are intaking all that you need for a good, healthy, (Lord willing) long-lasting life you can also take various dietary pills, vitamin pills, or protein shakes. All of these serve as supplements to your daily, balanced intaking of food. 

    It is similar with the Christian life. The Christian needs to be taking in the word of God by consistently reading the word of God. That is the minimum of what we need to \”abound in love\” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13) or \”grow in grace\” (2 Peter 3:18). But we can also maximize our consistent, minimal, taking in of the word by also making use of things like Study Bibles, Commentaries, and various Theological books, or proper Devotional books. And on top of that, we can also supplement our consistent intake by making use of things like journaling, reading and memorization of Scripture, Creeds, and Catechisms, and Hymn singing. All of these things are good and beneficial for the Christian but they can not replace or supersede, the simple reading of the word of God. Thus, this blog will chiefly be focusing on how to devotionally read God\’s word (the Minimalist Method). 

    Now that we understand the basic intent and direction of this blog post let us consider the topic at hand by defining our terms. Briefly, let\’s define the word of God by looking at 2 Timothy 3:14-17 which reads,

\”14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.\”

    Here, Paul exhorts Timothy (a young pastor and dear brother to Paul) to continue on/persevere in reading and studying of the \”the sacred writings\” (IE the Old Testament as well as the New Testament that had been written at that time) and gives at least 4 reasons to do so: 

1. The Scriptures are from God (3:16) and given to him through his Jewish Mother, Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5).
2. The Scriptures are able to make him \”wise for salvation\” IE give the knowledge/instruction to obtain salvation. 
3. The Scriptures are \”breathed out\” by God. As Princeton Theologian B.B Warfield puts it, \”The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that when the Bible speaks, God speaks.\” 
4. The Scriptures are useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness; so that we may be \”complete\” or not lacking anything we need.

    Once upon a time, there were two morbidly obese men and they both went to see a doctor one day. The doctor after recording their weight said to them both, \”If you want to live you have to lose weight.\” They both agreed with the doctor\’s assignment of themselves. They leave the Doctor\’s office and set out to lose weight. 

    One of the two men begins a daily, but simple, exercise routine of waking up every day and going for a brisk half-mile walk until he reaches a more healthy weight. Soon enough, the half-mile becomes easy and he increases to a one-mile walk and soon after that, a five-mile walk and soon after that, he begins to run some of the ways. The other man sets out to run 10 miles every day no matter what. But he soon realizes that he can not run 10 miles at all; indeed he can hardly run a quarter mile and soon becomes discouraged and gives up altogether. 

    It is obvious which of the two men is the healthier one. Likewise, in our own Christian life. It is far more preferable, and profitable, to consistently read a little of our Bibles rather than try to set out on some grandiose, hyper-spiritual, white-knuckle \”Read the whole Bible in a month\” plan. Whenever you decide to read and however much you decide to read it is best to ensure that it is consistent and profitable over the long-term rather than the short term. 

    You will notice I have not written much on prayer in regards to our devotions. This blog was chiefly focused on reading devotionally; perhaps there will have to be a blog on devotional prayer and meditation as well. However, for now, I will write briefly on the role of prayer in our reading.  

    Pray before, during, and after your reading. 

• Pray before you begin reading that the Spirit would \”enlighten the eyes of your heart so that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you\” (Ephesians 1:18). 
• Pray during for the Spirit\’s aid in helping you understand the passage and that its\’ truth would stir your heart to worship and abundant joy in God. 
• Pray after that you might have the love and grace, wisdom, and discernment to live out the meaning of the text. 

    Whatever and whenever you pray do ensure that you pray! God bless your time reading and enjoying His word. 

    Grace and peace to you all. This post will serve as sort of an introduction/housekeeping piece for our new Bible Study; we will not be doing any \”big boy\” theology just yet. 

Before I begin our housekeeping I wanted to briefly state that I truly am grateful and excited for this new Bible study. Not only is it an excellent idea (thanks for that Dennis and Jordan) but also a wonderful application of Deuteronomy 11:19 which reads, \”You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.\” The message here is that we, as Christians, should talk to one another about God, and His commandments, as often as we can in any and all areas of our lives. My heart is encouraged at the thought of getting to talk to you all more constantly and deeply in all different kinds of matters pertaining to life and godliness. 

Now, I will briefly recap what we discussed last night in regards to the motive and means of this particular Bible Study. In essence, this study was started with the hopes of discussing more Systematic, or \”big boy\”, theology. This is indeed very well and good (not to mention exciting and encouraging) however we cannot merely stop at the head (or brain) of true religion but we must also reach the heart (or motive) of it. IE our systematic theology must lead us to increase in godly living, holiness, worship, love, and joy, etc. We must learn to apply our systematics to our daily lives. 

In support of this, I want us to cast our attention to the proof text that I used last night in our first meeting; that being 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 which reads, 

    \”6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? 11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.\”

For the purposes of this post, I want to draw your attention to a few key points in this passage. Those key points being:

• Timothy\’s church lovingly remembered Paul and desired to see them (3:6).
• Paul\’s inexpressible (or inexhaustible) joy for his brothers\’ presence in his life (3:9).
• Paul unceasing prayer for his brothers (3:10, 5:17) and his desire to serve them more (3:10).
• Paul\’s desire for Timothy\’s church to grow in love for the church [local] and the Church [universal] (3:12).
• Paul\’s desire that their love lead to an increase in godly living in putting off sin (\”blameless\”) and putting on of Christ (\”holiness\”) so that they all would be ready for the return of Christ, with His Church, to Earth at the final days. (3:11-12).

then resources. 

Discussion question: In your own expericen what makes for a good/great BS, how can we pray for each other,