Monthly Archives: January 2011

Living Theology #52 – The Return of Christ

by Garrett Glende

This article begins the final section in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. We’ve come a long way thus far and it’s fitting that the end of the book deals with eschatology, or the study of last things. Just as spiritual gifts are a highly debated issue, eschatology fosters a fair amount of conversation as well. There are many evangelicals who disagree on certain issues that fall under this umbrella, but it remains to be an issue of secondary nature. Provided, there are some who stray too far away from Biblical truth, some of whom we will address later, but the majority of believers do attempt to derive their beliefs from Scripture. In the coming weeks we’ll deal with a variety of topics relating to the end times. Many will brush them off as confusing or non-consequential, but we should take heed of Jesus’ own warnings about these things and seek to understand them in a manner that changes our hearts and minds.

The first issue that Grudem writes on is the return of Christ. Specifically, how and when Christ will come back to earth. The first major point under this section is that Christ will return in physical, bodily form for all to see. There are those who advocate that Christ will not come back or that He will return in a spiritual sense, but these teachings are misguided. Revelation 1:7 says that “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.” Acts 1:11 states, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” There is little debate in mainstream Christianity regarding the physical return of Christ. The exact timing of His return however, is much more contested (mostly in regards to the millennial kingdom, which will be discussed next week).

What we can say about the timing of Christ’s return is that no one knows the exact day or hour. There is a heavy amount of Scripture attesting to the mystery of the second coming. Jesus says to “watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13). It will come as a surprise to many, “like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2). We see in many places that only the Father knows the timing of this event, yet we also are urged to be ready for it because it is near. Jesus himself says that he is coming soon multiple times in the book of Revelation (Rev. 22:7, 22:12, 22:20) and Peter also attests that “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). The evidence from the New Testament authors illustrates that perhaps they expected Christ to return within their own lifetimes or shortly thereafter, yet it is obvious that this has not happened even 2000 years later. So were they wrong in saying that his return would be soon? To answer this, we must understand that the nature of prophecy in the Bible as one that often does not account for large gaps in time. I’ve heard it illustrated as a mountain range where you see many summits from the distance and they all look equally far away, but when you reach the peak you discover that the others are really much further away. This happens a lot in Old Testament prophecy, as we see both the first and second advents of Christ.

The challenge from Scripture regarding Christ’s return addresses the desires of our hearts. Since we have been saved by the grace of God, we are to “live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13). But do we really wait eagerly for Christ’s return or are we more concerned with our lives here on earth? We want to accomplish things here before we get to heaven. I even see this attitude come up in my own heart as I am soon to be married. Would I rather have Christ come back and be with Him or would I rather be married? I must admit that it’s a struggle in my heart. I think we all have certain things that our hearts are drawn to in this world – even good things. But we should not value them more than Jesus. The unexpectedness of his return should draw us more to the lost, where we must preach the gospel unashamedly. Since no one knows the day or hour, we must proclaim Christ in every corner of the earth. Selfishly, we entertain ourselves with other things and we lose sight of the immanency of Jesus Christ. Together, let’s put aside our worldly desires and focus on loving Christ and desiring to be with Him.

Godly New Year

by Elder Peter Lim

During our New Year’s Eve service, I shared about greeting one another with “Godly New Year” instead of “Happy New Year” because merely being happy for any old reason isn’t enough for a Christian to be fulfilled. Disneyland is famous for its slogan, “The Happiest Place on Earth” but imagine that you were wealthy enough to be there every day in 2011 and didn’t mind paying $8 for a hamburger and the lines for the rides were next to nothing. Would that be enough? While we are at it, let’s imagine that it truly is the happiest place on Earth with no conflicts with other people and everyone is having fun and enjoying themselves all day long. Would that be enough? I would say that it’s a waste of a life. Why? Because as Christians, we are in a spiritual war that is being waged all around us. It is our enemy’s goal that we waste our life with meaningless activities so that we would fail to take advantage of our true mission in life: to make disciples of Christ.

Lest you think that my example of living at Disneyland 24/7 was a silly example, replace it with the pursuit of fine dining, golf, physical fitness, wealth, prestige, travel to exotic vacations, or anything else that people (not you, but other people of course) spend most of their time and money on. Does it still sound like a silly example? Is it getting a little too personal for your comfort? Good! It’s good to examine ourselves to see if we need to change our ways. If your budget and time aren’t being spent for God’s ministry on Earth, where is it going? Is it going to selfish fulfillment?

The book of Jude has a lot to say about this issue. Jude had originally wanted to write his letter to celebrate our common salvation but he felt compelled to warn of the danger of ungodly selfish people who would creep in unnoticed into the church and lead people astray and bring division into the church. Verses 14 and 15 describe what they are like: “It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’” In verse 15 alone, “ungodly” is mentioned 4 times. That gives us an idea of the heavy emphasis placed on the fact that they are very unlike God. So how is it that they crept in unnoticed? (vs. 4) It can only be because they were pretending to be Christians. Perhaps they were even self-deceived into thinking that they were saved. (Matt. 7:22) Regardless, they looked like the real thing. They were nearly indistinguishable. Pretty much all of their defining characteristics are subjective and can be explained away by minimalizing their significance. Even some true Christians must have been confused and they must’ve had conflicts with more discerning observers over the issue of whether these ungodly people ought to be disciplined out of the church or not. It’s not difficult to see that some well-meaning Christians would misplace their loyalties to these ungodly people, having been deceived by the doubts and accusations cast upon the proper leaders of the church. Even worse, perhaps it may have been the case that at least some of the leaders themselves may have been led astray by the ungodly. The ungodly people are described as turning grace into licentiousness, denying the lordship of Christ, rejecting authority, reviling angelic majesties (even the devil) with their own authority instead of appealing to God, killing the mood and unity at love feasts with their selfishness, grumbling, finding fault, following their own lusts, speaking arrogantly, and flattering people for their own advantage (vss. 4, 8-10, 12, 16). These ungodly men cause divisions, are worldly-minded, and devoid of the Spirit (vs. 19). Properly dealing with these men who cause divisions is described in Titus 3:10.

In an imperfect church filled with imperfect people (as all churches are), it is often difficult to distinguish the divisive complainers from people who are weak or young and need to grow. Jude even warns us that some of these people need to be “snatched from the fire” and to have mercy on the doubting. Clearly we are to treat different people differently. However, we are not to show partiality based on differences of such things as ethnicity (Acts 10:34), social strata (Gal. 2:6), loyalties (1 Tim. 5:21), or gender (Gal. 3:28). We are to expose wickedness and deal with sinning believers (Eph. 5:11, Matt. 18). In other words, the criteria that we are to use to base our judgment on involve sinful attitudes of the heart, which are very difficult to bring into question. In order for the leaders of the church to gain a clearer peek into the true condition of the hearts of people, godliness manifested externally by good works is critical. This is one reason why godliness is a defining characteristic of genuine Christians. This leads to healthy churches where the ungodly become obvious and can be pruned out. This isn’t legalism. This is the biblical way in which a church stays healthy.

The U. S. Constitution declares our unalienable right to pursue happiness. Perhaps this is why we wish each other happiness in the new year. Christians have a far greater pursuit: godliness. Therefore, it is absolutely correct for us to greet each other in this new year with “Godly New Year!” We should all strive to be more like Him this year.

Book Review: From the Resurrection to His Return

Book by D.A. Carson

Book Review by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

We live in the last days. No, I’m not about to talk about a particular event in the news that shows a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. It’s actually the time period between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of His return. This is the position of Scripture, which has been written for our instruction, reproof, correction and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In fact, the apostle John himself wrote of the last hour: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” Knowing this, how does God call us to live? Does He call us to live in a certain way?

According to D.A. Carson (even more importantly, Scripture), the answer is yes. In one of his short books, From the Resurrection to His Return, Carson exposits 2 Timothy 3:1-4:8, pointing out what Paul himself instructed Timothy in terms of how to live, since “there will be terrible times in the last days.” Coming from a sermon he’s preached a number of times, Carson draws us to see what is most important for Paul to tell another saint as he is about to pass from this world onto the next. Paul knows he is at the end of his life, and wants to impart the truths of God to his faithful child of the faith, so that he may know how to live and then pass that on to others. Reading like a sermon, Carson goes through Paul’s list of 19 characteristic traits of those who make these times terrible, the same term that is used of the Gadarene demoniac. To make Timothy aware of this not only is to keep him and those who want to be faithful away from such wicked people, but to also keep themselves from temptation, that they themselves would not fall prey to a life of profession which, at the same time, denies the power of God that always changes us. So how does Paul warn Timothy to live knowing all this?

In four chapters, Carson points us to how to live faithfully today in these last days:

  1. hold the right mentors in high regard,
  2. hold few illusions about the world,
  3. hold on to the Bible, and
  4. hold out the Bible to others.

When there are false teachers running amok in the church as well as false professors of Christ, Timothy can’t help but look to faithful men with a real outlook of the world and trusting completely in the Word of God, passing that on to his congregation. Similar to J.C. Ryle’s Thoughts for Young Men, instructions are given to those who are either beginning the journey of following Christ or are at a spiritual crossroads, confused by what they see or read, and how to be faithful to the God who made us all. Paul points Timothy to his own life of faith, and that he should trust him to guide him in the right path, not only because of what he says (even though he is an apostle), but also his example. This is where Carson makes some great insights: “Do you ever say to a young Christian, ‘Do you want to know what Christianity is like? Watch me!’ If you never do, you are unbiblical” (p.26). He also points to those who are in need of a mentor:

You must therefore ask, ‘Does this person I am thinking of follow apostolic teaching? How about his way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, sufferings? What are the virtues and experiences in a potential mentor that are worth imitating? Do you see the point? Choose your mentors and then hold those right mentors in high regard. (27)

He then gives the example of a college friend who was seen as a resource to answer difficult questions believer and non-believer alike had. He also was a fairly brash individual, who would not waste time with people who were playing around and were not serious about the things of Christ. Yet when a self-confessing liberal did not see any substantial difference between one who believes in the literal resurrection of Jesus and himself who didn’t, Carson’s friend answered, “Watch me.” He also told him to move in to his home and live with him for the rest of the semester and see whether he tell there was a difference or not. Though the liberal student didn’t take him up on his offer, he did continue to watch his life and later came to follow Christ. What a bold example of a mentor who knows the importance of mentoring. If only everyone in church saw the importance of finding mentors, as well as believers becoming mentors for the sake of the newborn saints.

Carson then goes on to dispel many believers’ misguided views of the world, driven by the culture’s constant message of tolerance and avoidance of criticism as well as critical thinking, knowing that as people age in life, their wickedness only grows exponentially, not less. We have to be on guard about this in the way we think and see the world around us. What follows is a wholehearted commitment to the Scriptures, the same Scriptures that led Timothy to faith in Christ. Because of what Scripture is (God-breathed revelation), it is practical, and is designed to change our way of life and thought, because it brings us to Jesus. Finally, Paul calls Timothy to give the Word to his people at Ephesus, a call for all pastors to heed. Yet, knowing that Christ has commanded His disciples (not just the twelve) to make disciples and teach them all He has commanded, we as congregants in our churches, faithful believers are to do the same. As you look out into the world of relationships, where is this being fulfilled in your life? We “constantly are to be teaching and declaring the Word of God” (pp. 44-45) to our small groups, disciples, family members, coworkers, and on and on.

This book is small, but packs a punch. It draws us away from our own opinions to the Word of God to direct our hearts and minds to the goal of Christ, and adjust accordingly, with the help of the Holy Spirit. I’m thankful for the number of individuals who have invested in my life to follow hard after Christ, and live faithfully in these last days, and hope to follow theirs and Paul’s example for the rest of my life. I’m sure Paul would agree.

Editor’s Note: You can read this book online for free.

He Expounded Unto Them…

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Luke 24:27

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a most profitable journey. Their companion and teacher was the best of tutors; the interpreter one of a thousand, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Jesus condescended to become a preacher of the gospel, and He was not ashamed to exercise His calling before an audience of two persons, neither does He now refuse to become the teacher of even one. Let us court the company of so excellent an Instructor, for till He is made unto us wisdom we shall never be wise unto salvation.

This unrivalled tutor used as His class-book the best of books. Although able to reveal fresh truth, He preferred to expound the old. He knew by His omniscience what was the most instructive way of teaching, and by turning at once to Moses and the prophets, He showed us that the surest road to wisdom is not speculation, reasoning, or reading human books, but meditation upon the Word of God. The readiest way to be spiritually rich in heavenly knowledge is to dig in this mine of diamonds, to gather pearls from this heavenly sea. When Jesus Himself sought to enrich others, He wrought in the quarry of Holy Scripture.

The favoured pair were led to consider the best of subjects, for Jesus spake of Jesus, and expounded the things concerning Himself. Here the diamond cut the diamond, and what could be more admirable? The Master of the House unlocked His own doors, conducted the guests to His table, and placed His own dainties upon it. He who hid the treasure in the field Himself guided the searchers to it. Our Lord would naturally discourse upon the sweetest of topics, and He could find none sweeter than His own person and work: with an eye to these we should always search the Word. O for grace to study the Bible with Jesus as both our teacher and our lesson!

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Weekly Links (1/14/2011)

by Stephen Rodgers

Hey everyone!  First of all, I just wanted to let you know that the Weekly Links are going to be a bit sparse this week.  Work has been rather exciting lately, and I haven’t had as much time as I normally do to scour the internet to bring you good stuff.  However, I did want to let you know about a few things you won’t want to miss…

  • First of all, I hope you didn’t miss any of the articles this week.  If you did, now would be a great time to review them, since we’re trying to bring material together in combinations that are helpful and timely to you.
  • For example, hot on the heels of Pastor Patrick’s article on reading your Bible, we’ve updated the Recommended Resources page with a list of Bible-reading plans!
  • Along those lines, I also found this GTY article entitled “An Unremarkable Faith” to be a great reminder of what God calls us to, first and foremost.
  • And it’s January, which means there’s a new edition of Tabletalk. This one focuses in on the New Testament epistles.

When work slows down, we’ll be back with more.  But for now, I’d simply challenge you to take the time you would have spent looking over those resources to do some thinking, some praying, and get your plan to read the Word in 2011 all sorted out.  That would be time well spent.

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Singles Life Update

by Abram Kim

Pastor Patrick started his Singles ministry this past fall by going the book of Colossians. This study on Friday nights has been a great follow-up to our Singles Retreat last March, when Pastor Nam Park of Immanuel Bible Church spoke four wonderful messages on the preeminence of Christ through Colossians. I remember that retreat being a tremendous blessing because Pastor Nam’s preaching magnified the person, character, and worth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Through Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the Singles group saw a clearer and greater image of God very God, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Patrick’s teachings from Colossians have likewise been a tremendous blessing for our Singles Ministry. This study, I believe, has renewed our passion to live in light of the preeminence of Christ. We just finished chapter 1 this past Friday. I’ll highlight a few key thoughts from the messages in the following paragraphs below. I pray you will learn what we have been learning as a Singles Ministry Friday nights, but more so that your view of who Christ is will become deeper and richer and fuller.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (Col. 1:2)

Paul starts his letters with this standard greeting, and Pastor Patrick started out the Colossians series. We took a closer look at the author of letter, Paul, the apostle, Roman citizen, and Jew of Jews. We examined the audience of the letter, the saints, i.e., true Christians, who are faithful to Christ and are in the world but not of it. And lastly, we studied Paul’s standard greeting with its focus on the grace of God for Christians, and the peace Christians have in Christ alone.

“… hope laid up for you in heaven.” (Col. 1:5)

As true Christians, we must not get satisfied with the temporal things of this world (i.e., appetizers) but seek the eternal heavenly reward yet to come (i.e., great feast). This hope in future glory is secured above in heaven, and is the reason, purpose, and motivation of the Colossians’ faith and love. The hope of future glory ought to also motivate our lives for godly living today.

“firstborn of all creation… firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:15, 18)

Christ is the firstborn (beginning point), and therefore, the prototype of all of creation, as well as recreation. Christ was the means for creation when God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1-2). Christ is now also the means for the resurrection, for though He wasn’t the first to rise from the dead chronologically, He is the first to rise to never die again (1 Corinthians 15:20f.).

“Him we proclaim…”  (Col. 1:28)

Verse 28 and 29 are Pastor Patrick’s life verse for ministry. Here is the heart of Paul’s ministry summed up in three concise words. There is no other message but this one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a stumbling block (scandal) to Jews and folly (moronic) to Gentiles, but this is Paul’s one message in his preaching ministry (1 Corinthians 1:20f.). Therefore, the goal from the pulpit must be to know and love Jesus better, and not anything else like knowledge that puffs up or something that tickles our ears. Thank God this is the desire of our pulpit as well!

Living Theology #51 – Spiritual Gifts (part 2)

by Garrett Glende

We left off last week in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous chapter on the supremacy of love. We will spend a significant amount of time looking over some of the verses in this chapter, but that comes later. First, I just want to say a few things about spiritual gifts and the charismatic debate. It’s probably obvious to everyone that I’m no expert when it comes to these things and I’m not claiming to be. There are many godly men out there who disagree with me and who have done much more studying on the topic, so I don’t claim to have any sort of leg up on them when it comes to this either. However, I will say that God has given us all the same Bible’s and the same Holy Spirit – so at least we’re equal on that. I say this because I really don’t want to come off as the young guy who shoots down every theologian that he disagrees with. Trust me; it would be much easier to just avoid this whole issue all together. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t do much justice to this series if we could skip over anything remotely difficult, so we’ll continue to tackle each chapter as it comes. And with that, we’ll begin to take a look at some of the issues regarding the miraculous sign gifts and their presence (or lack thereof) today.

Going back to 1 Corinthians 13, we see that Paul emphasizes love because it is the only thing that will last forever. He writes in verses 8-13:

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

This passage contains some of the clearest teaching on the cessation of the sign gifts, so it cannot be ignored. The crux of the argument centers on the interpretation of the word to teleion, translated in the English as “perfect.” It’s clear that these partial gifts will pass away, but it is not clear as to when exactly this will take place. All we can say for sure is that it will happen “when the perfect comes.” But precisely when is this? Grudem interprets “the perfect” to mean the second coming of Christ. He makes a connection between the time when the perfect comes and the refrains of “now…then…” statements in verse 12. The “then” statements would correspond to the time when the perfect comes. He interprets these verses to mean the second coming of Christ, asking, “When shall we see ‘face to face’? When shall we know ‘even as we have been known’? These events can only happen when the Lord returns.” Grudem believes that “the partial” refers to all of the revelatory and confirmatory gifts, not just knowledge and prophecy, arguing that “Paul also intended tongues to be included in the sense of verse 9 as among these activities that are imperfect, but omitted overly pedantic repetition for stylistic reasons…Paul could have listed more gifts here if he had wished.” With the second coming of Christ, Grudem argues, there will no longer be any need for these partial gifts because we will see fully.

While it definitely is the case that Paul considers the second advent of Christ to be a time when these gifts could pass away, he also suggests that it could happen sometime before then. An alternative interpretation to Grudem’s is found in Robert Thomas’ book titled Understanding Spiritual Gifts. Thomas asserts that instead of rendering the word to teleion as “perfect,” it should be translated “mature.” This interpretation is strengthened by the allusions to the maturation between childhood and manhood in verse 11 and the other occurrences of the phrase throughout the New Testament. In its other uses to teleion is found to mean “mature” rather than “perfect” (1 Cor. 14:20, Heb. 5:13-14, Eph. 4:13-14). These verses all speak of some sort of maturity within the body of believers, leading us to believe that this is something that Paul had in mind in 1 Cor. 13:10. Because Paul is not sure when Christ will return, he is convinced that the gifts could cease before then, specifically when the body of Christ is matured. Thomas notes that Paul was aware that sign gifts were given specially during periods of revelation, but were then followed by periods of silence and an absence of miraculous gifts. For example, the time when God spoke directly to the prophets was followed by a silence of 400 years. The Old Testament cannon was clearly closed as soon as this prophecy ceased, which was long before Christ was born. Thomas links this maturing of the Old Testament period to the early church period that Paul was experiencing. He writes:

“He was conscious that he was now in the midst of a new period during which God was speaking directly to His apostles and prophets, resulting in inspired utterances, part of which were taking their place alongside the Old Testament cannon as inspired Scripture. One possibility he foresaw was that this period of prophecy could come to its conclusion before the Second Advent of Christ just as the Old Testament prophecy had come to its conclusion four hundred years before the First Advent. Such a cessation would resemble the gradual development from childhood to manhood.”

I prefer this interpretation of 1 Cor. 13:8-13 because it incorporates a more accurate understanding of the original language, as well as weighing each verse in the passage appropriately. It’s obvious to me that the second coming of Christ would usher in an era where these gifts no longer exist, but at the same time it seems logical to allow for an earlier cessation, as Paul does in this passage. So the question to answer then is, “has this maturation taken place?” If we believe that God is no longer giving revelation and that the New Testament cannon is closed, then it would follow that the signs that accompany such revelation would have ceased upon its closing. The miraculous sign gifts (tongues, healing, miracles) were given to the apostles to prove that their teachings were from God. They existed to show the people exactly what kind of authority the apostles carried. However, upon the completion of the New Testament, the gifts were no longer necessary because the written word of God stood on its own authority. In fact, Peter calls this word something more sure than his own eyewitness account of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (2 Peter 1:19). It needs no accompaniment of signs and wonders.

This article is getting too long, so I applaud you if you’ve made it this far. However, there is one more issue that I’d like to address. Many people today insist that the charismatic gifts still exist today because they’ve had some sort of experience that convinced them of it. Whether it be speaking in tongues or witnessing a healing, they rely on what they have seen to inform their conclusions. I don’t mean to offend anyone when I ask this question, but how do you know that the “tongues” you’re speaking are really from God? Are they really serving their purpose (the edification of the body)? It’s not that I think these people are not sincere in their faith, but I do believe it is misguided and perhaps uninformed. We need to go back to what the Scriptures say about these issues and deal with them at a biblical level. We cannot first claim to know truth based on an emotional experience and then force that belief to fit what the Bible teaches. And this goes for anything in life, not just spiritual gifts. We should be sure to make the Bible our ultimate authority, not our own experience.

The purpose of this article was really just to give you a taste of what is out there to study. I only scratched the surface of the issue and in some ways feel like I’m not doing it justice. Nevertheless, I hope that this may spur you on to want to study your Bible’s more, not just to gain knowledge, but to have your life changed by the truth. There are plenty of good resources out there and I encourage you to take advantage of them. Yes, this will mean lots and lots of reading, unless you get a voice from heaven, of course.

Reading Your Bible in 2011

by Pastor Patrick Cho

Many people make it a resolution each New Year to read through their Bibles. Perhaps that is your resolution this year. And if you are like most individuals, even now in the month of January, you are already behind. Year after year, this resolution is made, and it seems year after year, the resolution is broken. I wanted to offer some thoughts to help you keep this resolution in 2011.

First, it is helpful to consider some not-so-helpful motives for reading your Bible:

  1. Please do not read your Bible because you think that God will do nice things for you if you do. God probably won’t miraculously make that Porsche appear on your driveway just because you read your Bible this year.
  2. Please do not read your Bible as if it is a chore that needs to get done. Reading your Bible should rank higher on your list of priorities than doing your dishes or washing your car. If all you are trying to do is to get to the end of the year to be able to say that you did it, that won’t benefit you much.
  3. Please do not read your Bible solely to impress an individual of the opposite gender. That is all I’m going to say about that.
  4. Please do not read your Bible because you think you are better than others and spiritually superior to them. That was always a pet peeve of mine when someone would ask (looking down their nose at me), “Did you read your Bible today?” just because they had read theirs that day.

I’m sure there are many more not-so-helpful motives for reading your Bible, but these were just a few that came to mind.

So, why should you read your Bible this year? Why put in the effort knowing that it gets difficult once you get past all the narrative sections? Why trudge through the Old Testament Law or Prophets? Why try to make it all the way to Revelation in such a short time? Here are a few reasons:

  1. By reading the Bible at that quick of a pace, you will not lose sight of the overall theme of the book. At a church like LBC where we listen to verse by verse exposition, sometimes it is easy to forget overarching themes. We can get so focused on details in the minutia that we miss how those details contribute to the whole message of a book.
  2. By reading the Bible in a year, you will see how the drama of the Bible unfolds from book to book. You’ll see how Genesis flows right into Exodus. You’ll see the connection between Deuteronomy and Joshua. You’ll sense the flow of narrative from the Gospels into Acts.
  3. By reading the Bible in a year, you’ll see how the different books of the Bible are interrelated. You’ll see the significance of the genealogy of Matthew 1 in light of the promises of the Old Testament. You’ll also see the familiarity of most of the book of Revelation because of what you read in the Old Testament prophets.
  4. By reading the Bible in a year, you’ll become familiar with portions of Scripture you’ve never read before. You’ll see exactly how encouraging Habakkuk is as well as how sad Lamentations is. You’ll walk through all the rich themes in the Psalms. Just think, you’ll crack open all the places in the Bible where the pages are still stuck together from the gild.
  5. By reading the Bible through each year, you can focus on various themes as you read. Perhaps the first time, you can do a study of the Messiah and focus on all the passages that speak of the coming Christ. Then the next year, you can do a study of God’s attributes. Maybe the year after that, you can study the ugliness of sin in the heart of man. There are so many great themes in the Bible that you will never be able to exhaust them all. In other words, you won’t be able to read through the Bible enough!
  6. By reading the Bible in a year, at least in 2011, you will be a doer of the Word and not merely a hearer only by putting your love for God and His truth into practice. You’ll support in your reading your confession of commitment to the Scriptures.

I’m sure there are many other great reasons for reading through the Bible in a year, but these are just a few to motivate you!

Still for most, it’s difficult to practically accomplish this goal. Most people are self-proclaimed non-readers. If this is you, here are some practical tips for reading through the Bible:

  1. Remember that you are reading the Bible – God’s Holy Word. Pray before you read that God would help you get the most out of your time in it. Try not to get in the habit of reading just to check off a box. In fact, read deliberately slowly to help ensure you catch the things you might have otherwise missed.
  2. Use a Bible reading plan to help you pace yourself. Professor Grant Horner of The Master’s College has a helpful Bible reading program that will walk you through several passages of Scripture from different genres at the same time so that you aren’t just reading the book cover to cover (that way you won’t spend a great number of days only in Leviticus or the Prophets, if this is helpful for you). I have a Bible reading plan that walks you through the books in a more chronological way so you can see the story of the Bible unfold chronologically rather than thematically.
  3. Break up the reading if necessary. My Bible has 1328 pages, so dividing that by 365 days, it comes down to a little over 3.6 pages a day. That doesn’t seem like a lot of reading to me, but for some people that is difficult to do in one sitting. If that’s the case for you, read half of it in the morning or midday, and read the rest in the evening.
  4. Prioritize your day. You don’t need to do this legalistically, but you can make your Bible reading a priority. One year, I devoted myself not to eat anything until I did my Bible reading for the day. This was easier for me since I do not typically eat breakfast. There were some days where I made an exception, but generally it helped me to be consistent. If you are reading something else (especially if it is not spiritual like the Twilight series or something like it), commit yourself not to read that before reading the Bible.
  5. Get accountability. It is often helpful to read together with someone. That way, not only can you hold each other accountable, but you can also share observations you’ve made or lessons you’ve learned. More importantly, you can walk through together how you will apply the Word to your lives. One idea would be to start a private blog together with your accountability partner where you both could record what you learned online.
  6. Find an undistracted time to read. This is sometimes the hardest thing to do. You want to read, but you can’t find a quiet minute to do it. For moms (who are typically busier than most), try to read after you put the kids down or while they take their naps. Instead of wasting time on Facebook or surfing the web to “unwind,” pray and read God’s Word.
  7. Buy a good reading Bible. It is helpful to purchase a translation that is easy to read but still faithful to the text. I would recommend the ESV translation because of its readability. For the same reason, I would generally discourage reading the KJV. Also, get a Bible that is portable. That way you can take it with you and read whenever it is convenient (e.g. waiting at the DMV, in the bathroom, on the bus, before class begins, on your lunch break, etc.).
  8. Remember that practice makes perfect. Many people tell me they are not readers. I typically respond by telling them there is little hope for them to be the men and women God wants them to be unless they develop this discipline. My high school English teacher once told me, “The best writers are often those who hate to write.” Reading, in the same way, is a discipline that can and should be cultivated. Get in the habit of reading and make it part of your daily routine. Before you know it, you won’t remember what life was like without it.
  9. Don’t quit. Some people get so far behind in their Bible reading plan that they throw up their arms, give up, and hope for better in the following year. I never really understood this. Why give up? Just pick up where you left off and keep going. Otherwise you will read Genesis every January and never make it to Kings. Just keep reading and whenever you finish, do it all again striving to be more consistent.

These things are written for your benefit and I hope you find it to be helpful. My purpose in writing is to cultivate in you a greater love and appreciation for God’s Word and a greater devotion to Him. Please understand that the majority of what I have written is in principle, not command. There are many ways to help an individual develop a discipline. These are merely some suggestions to help you accomplish your goal of reading the Bible in 2011.

“Best” of Beacon

by Stephen Rodgers

Given that I mentioned it in a previous post, a few people have asked what I meant by the “best of Beacon.” So I’ve decided that for today, I’ll pull back the curtain just a little to give you a glimpse of site statistics and how we use them here at the Beacon.

Site statistics are a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, they can provide valuable insight into your community. On the other hand, they can easily become an idol, and when you find yourself worshiping at the alter of almighty web traffic, you’ve gone too far.  By far, the most popular articles we’ve had are about marriage, former member Tia Han, and photography.  Someday perhaps, we’ll do an article that features taking pictures of Tia getting married, and our servers will simply melt from the traffic.  But it goes without saying that simply doing that so that we can be proud of our numbers would be wrong.  Very wrong.  Note to future editors: don’t do that. Seriously.  No.

So just to be clear, “Best of Beacon” might not be the best title (but given the alliteration, I couldn’t resist). However, for those who are curious, here are some of the top 7 lists of Beacon site stats…

Top 7 Posts

The overwhelming number of our readers seem to land on our home page and poke around to see what’s new.  I’m always a bit surprised how little direct traffic articles get, but considering that we’ve only been driving traffic to particular articles for a little while now, I shouldn’t be.  I am encouraged however, by how many people visit the site.  Once you get past the front page however, these were the most “popular” posts on the Beacon, at least as far as page count is concerned.

  1. Home Page
  2. LBC Ministry Overview
  3. Is Marriage In Your Future?
  4. Life After LBC #2 – Tia Han
  5. Photography Ministry
  6. You’re Not at a Conference
  7. What to Look for in a Church

Top 7 Searches

Did you know that when you search for something on your favorite search engine, then click on a link, the site you go to is able to capture the search term that you used to get there?  Whether you knew that or not, these are the most popular searches that people used to find the Beacon by searching on Google, Yahoo, etc.

I think that quite a few of them were sad that we were a church newsletter, and NOT a company that cleans churches.  And ironically enough, the search for “lighthouse bible church beacon” was a popular one, but not popular enough to make the top seven.

  1. “church cleaning ministry”
  2. “photography ministry”
  3. “knowability of god”
  4. “cleaning ministry”
  5. “pastor john kim”
  6. “thoughts for young men”
  7. “what is a convalescent home”

Top 7 Referrers

And last but not least, these are the top seven referring pages to the Beacon.  A referring page is just a place where your visitors come from.

So we obviously get a lot of traffic from people who are hanging around the church website(s) already.  We seem to get a big chunk from people emailing links to each other, finding older versions of the blogs that were combined into the new Beacon, people reading their RSS feeds, and Facebook.  What’s remarkable is that Facebook is in the #2 spot, and we’ve had our official Facebook presence for only a few months.  However, it was by analyzing the traffic patterns of our top referrers that we determined that creating a Facebook page might be the best way to to reach people with the Gospel.  We didn’t do it to become popular; we did it because we saw a need and an opportunity to tell people about Jesus.

  1. lighthousebc.com
  2. facebook.com
  3. mail.google.com
  4. google.com/reader
  5. shine-the-light.blogspot.com
  6. lighthousebc.com/media/sermonlist
  7. lbcbeacon.wordpress.com

Well, that’s all that we’re going to share for now.  I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour.  I also hope that perhaps this helped you find an article you missed, reconsider volunteering for a ministry, or encourage you to share the Beacon with someone today.  And just so that I send you away with a big smile on your face, this is the most popular picture that the Beacon has ever linked to.

No, that’s not Photo-shopped.  Yes, that’s exactly what you think it is.  And it’s still one of my all-time favorites as well.

Pro Rege

There Remaineth Therefore a Rest to the People of God

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Hebrews 4:9

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, ‘Help me to serve Thee, O my God.’ If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, ‘I am not wearied of the labour, but I am wearied in it. ‘ Ah! Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not for ever; the sun is nearing the horizon; it shall rise again with a brighter day than thou hast ever seen upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labours.

Here, rest is but partial, there, it is perfect. Here, the Christian is always unsettled; he feels that he has not yet attained. There, all are at rest; they have attained the summit of the mountain; they have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go. Ah, toil-worn labourer, only think when thou shalt rest for ever! Canst thou conceive it? It is a rest eternal; a rest that ‘remaineth.’ Here, my best joys bear ‘mortal’ on their brow; my fair flowers fade; my dainty cups are drained to dregs; my sweetest birds fall before Death’s arrows; my most pleasant days are shadowed into nights; and the flood-tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow; but there, everything is immortal; the harp abides unrusted, the crown unwithered, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering, and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight. Happy day! happy! when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and the Eternal Sabbath shall begin.

1.18a