Monthly Archives: January 2011

Weekly Links (1/7/2011)

by Stephen Rodgers

Welcome back everyone!  I already said my “Merry Christmas,” so I guess this is “Happy New Year!”  Anyhow, we know that a lot of people are having a bit of a tough time getting back into work, school, etc. after the Christmas break, so I’ll just ease us back into the Weekly Links…

  • I know how much our church enjoys the writing of Paul Tripp, which I wholeheartedly understand and appreciate.  I also know that y’all seem to enjoy New Year’s resolutions…I never got that part.  But regardless, Mr. Tripp has a new article over at Desiring God that I think we’ll all love: Trading One Dramatic Resolution for 10,000 Little Ones. Enjoy!  (WEB)
  • Elder Mike Chon has recently been going through a series on Biblical decision-making. So this article from GTY on Decision Making to the Glory of God was both good and well-timed!  (WEB)
  • The free audio book from ChristianAudio for the month of January is Jerry Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness.  If you haven’t been in the habit of taking advantage of their free monthly book, this would be a great time to start!
  • Ligonier recently did a Q&A entitled “Ask RC Live.” If you’ve enjoyed RC Sproul’s material in the past, then I think you’ll enjoy this as well. (VIDEO)
  • This is a older article, but it’s a good one.  One of the authors of The Trellis and the Vine discusses various ways in which the “average” church goer has ministerial duties in “The Ministry of the Pew.” (WEB)
  • And last but not least, I thought this small devotional by John Stott is a great way to start the new year, as he reflects on “Thoughtful, Total Commitment.” (WEB)

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Recommended Resources

by Stephen Rodgers

Editor’s Note: Just because a source is recommended here does not indicate that every doctrine it professes reflects the beliefs of LBC or it’s leaders (if you are interested, you are welcome to read LBC’s Statement of Faith) or with each other.  Faithful men of God have held positions on secondary and tertiary issues that differ from our own, and we hold them no less Christian for doing so.  God calls Christians to love Him with their mind (Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27) and to examine every teaching in light of the totality of Scripture (Acts 17:11).

Pro Rege

Guide to Recommended Resources

  1. Bible-Reading Plans
  2. Blogs
  3. Daily Devotionals
  4. Journals
  5. Preaching
  6. Sermons
  7. Shopping
  8. Software and Study

Bible-Reading Plans

This section is for various Bible-reading plans that you may wish to pursue in order to bring some order and method to your time in the Word.

  • First up is Professor Grant Horner’s Bible-Reading System. This is the plan that Pastor John mentioned during his recent visit.  It it more of a “life plan” than a “year plan.”  The idea is that you read 10 chapters a day, but never the same combination of chapters twice.  This allows you to become very familiar with where things are in Scripture, as well as see relationships between different parts of the Bible.
  • In terms of one-stop shopping for familiarizing yourself with various plans, it’s really hard to beat the collection of ESV plans. They offer 10 different plans in 5 different formats, and there’s even a podcast subscription for those of you who have joined the iCult (just kidding…mostly).
  • If that’s still not enough for you, then I would refer you to any or all of the following articles and posts…
  • The MacArthur Daily Bible is also available for free in a variety of formats.  I’ve used this plan before, and found it to work well.  Each day you have four small readings: One from the OT, one from Psalms, one from Proverbs, and one from the NT.
  • A number of years ago, I was really struggling with my Bible reading (and honestly, had been for several years at that point), and I took it upon myself to develop a plan that was so focused and forgiving (in terms of schedule) that I would have been ashamed to have failed.  It’s a very simple plan: really read one chapter from the NT every weekday, and use the weekends to catch up.  (It has the benefit of being mathematically elegant since 5/7 of 365 is 260, and there are 260 chapters in the NT). It gave me a renewed appreciation for the word, and a much deeper understanding of the NT to boot.
  • I would think that should be enough for most people.  I’ve personally really enjoyed Horner’s plan, although you do need to read his article to really understand his intentions in designing it.  I would encourage you to be familiar with the others and at least read the articles from DG and JT; they both provide some great links to background information and other resources.  And if you’re still raring to go, there are many other options as well.  (Seriously, there are a lot of options). But as Pastor Patrick wrote, the important thing is how you read the Word, not which plan you use.

Blogs

For anyone looking to fill their mind with great Christian content, I’ve compiled a “Top 10” list of blogs that you might want to start with.  Each of these writers (or groups of writers), consistently put out excellent content.  If there’s interest, perhaps we’ll expand this to a “Top 20” list in the future.  For now it’s just a list, but I’ll update this in the future with more information about each person/place.

And just to be safe, I’ve put these in alphabetical order so that no one can accuse me of favoritism.

  • 9Marks – 9Marks is the ministry of Mark Dever and friends.  They regularly post here on issues related to the church.  9Marks also puts out the excellent 9Marks eJournal.
  • Al Mohler – Al Mohler blogs several times a week with a focus on current events and cultural issues. Just reading him is guaranteed to make you smarter!  And if you’re interested, he has a couple of podcasts you might like as well.
  • Desiring God – This is the blog of John Piper and several other folks at his church.
  • Grace to You – This is the blog of John MacArthur and several other folks at his church. (Note: John MacArthur does not actually blog regularly here, but they routinely post excerpts from his books, articles, and sermons.  Occasionally he will pen a specific article as well).
  • Justin Taylor – Justin Taylor is the VP of Editorial at Crossway, and his blog (along with Tim Challies, see below) serves as a content clearinghouse for the Christian web.
  • Kevin DeYoung – Kevin DeYoung is a pastor and author.  4/5 days of the week, he posts though-provoking articles that make me jealous. 1/5 days of the week he posts a video about comedy or basketball.  Nobody’s perfect.
  • Pyromaniacs – Updated daily, this is a team blog by Phil Johnson, Dan Phillips, and Frank Turk. They are some of the most outspoken voices (who can actually support their statements Biblically) on the internet today, and you would do well to give them a read.
  • Russell Moore – Dr. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He also has a podcast you might enjoy.
  • Sovereign Grace (the CJ blog) – This is the blog of CJ Mahaney and several other folks at his church.
  • Tim Challies – And last but not least, Tim Challies is another great author and blogger who puts out a remarkable amount of high-quality content.

Daily Devotionals

This section is for various daily devotionals that you may wish to use to augment your study and understanding of the Word.

  • DA Carson has an online devotional entitled For the Love of God. For the Love of God is a daily devotional designed to walk a person through the Bible in a year while assisting the reader in discovering the riches of God’s Word. Originally published by Crossway Books (volume 1 in 1998 and volume 2 in 1999), this “blog” is really not a blog at all, but a free digital version of the devotional provided by TGC and Crossway.
  • John MacArthur has a number of online devotionals available, also based on some of his previously published works.  They are available for free, in a variety of formats (I prefer RSS myself):
  • Ray Ortlund has a bit of a mini-devotional blog. Each day, he typically posts a picture, and either a quote or a verse that illustrates a theological truth.
  • Charles Spurgeon wrote some fantastic devotional material as well.  The website for this is a bit strange (in a technical way; in a theological way they are AWESOME), but you can find the daily readings for both Faith’s Checkbook and Morning and Evening here.

Journals

Basically, these are like magazines on the internet. There’s a number of articles, usually centered around a theme, that come out on a scheduled basis. I should warn you that some are far more technical than others, and the length of the articles can vary widely from publication to publication.  But this is a fantastic way to challenge yourself to read wider and deeper at little-to-no cost.

  • 9Marks eJournal – As you know, 9Marks is an organization that mostly revolves around Mark Dever and his folk. Every two months or so, they put out a new collection of articles on a particular topic. Right now the topic is “Deacons,” but previous issues include topics like “Missions,” “Young Pastors,” and others. There’s also an archive where you can browse past issues.  And here on the Beacon, Stephen Rodgers created a topical index of all past issues of it as well, which is an easy way to find what you’re looking for.
  • Acts & Facts – An online journal from ICR dealing with scientific issues pertaining to the doctrine of creation.
  • Bibliotheca Sacra – DTS has published this journal for over 165 years.  Most of the articles require a subscription, but you can find an archive with some sample articles as well.
  • Christ on Campus Initiative – This is another TCG publication, and is relatively new but promising. They don’t have a lot of articles up yet, but some are quite good.  They focus in particular on issues and objections that collegians encounter on campus.
  • Creation Magazine and The Journal of Creation
  • CREDENDAagenda – This is the journal of Douglas Wilson and friends. They have several new articles each week, along with an archive of past printed issues.  Truthfully, the publication of new articles has slowed down significantly, but the archive has some real gems.
  • CredoMag
  • DBTS Journal – I can tell you this: if the books sitting on my shelf are any indication, anything by Doran is going to be excellent.
  • JBC – The Journal of Biblical Counseling has re-launched after a four-year hiatus.  Issues are free for the first month, and are then archived (and retrievable for a fee).
  • JBMW – The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) actually has a Journal on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (JBMW) and you can view past issues for free.  You have to wait 90 days after publication for it to be posted online, but that’s a small price to pay for good material.
  • JETS – What was once the Bulletin of the Evangelical Society has grown into one of the larger theological journals.  Their website also does a great job of letting you view and search for past articles.
  • Kategoria
  • Pulpit Magazine
  • Reformed Faith and Practice
  • RPTS Journal
  • SBTS Journal of Theology – SBTS (“Al Mohler’s Seminary”) has put all their back issues online for free!  Justin Taylor has some recommended articles to get you started. There are some amazing authors there: Carl Henry, Al Mohler, DA Carson, Mark Dever, John Piper, Douglas Moo…the list goes on and on.
  • Tabletalk – Ligonier Ministries is the ministry of RC Sproul and friends, so you’ll see articles from other notable folks like Joel Beeke, Tim Challies, and John MacArthur. For example, April’s edition dealt with the topic of changes in culture and technology. They also have an archive where you can check out past issues. They make a number of articles available for free, but to get access to everything, they’d like you to subscribe for a nominal fee. And here on the Beacon, Stephen Rodgers created a chronological index of several past issues of it as well, which is an easy (or at least easier) way to find what you’re looking for.
  • Themelios Journal – This is a TCG publication, which has been running strong since 1975! DA Carson is the editor, so expect good stuff. It can be a little hard to navigate, but very useful for finding gems. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s the latest issue, a list of some of the highlights, and a sample book review by Kevin DeYoung.
  • TMS Journal – The Master’s Seminary puts a portion of their student/faculty journal online for free.  They also publish an issue on a particular theme per year, so hit the link and see what you can find.  It’s a fantastic resource.
  • WTS Journal – Last but not least, Westminster Theological Seminary also publishes a portion of each issue (usually to articles) online for free.  They encourage you to buy a subscription (or a particular article for a nominal fee), but a good selection of sample articles can be read and downloaded for free.

Preaching

Originally I hadn’t anticipated this section, but I realized that there were a number of good resources out there for preaching that our church could benefit from.  After all, while Pastor Patrick handles the vast majority of Sunday morning sermons (for which we are grateful to him), there are others who step up when the need demands (such as our elders and staff).  So, here are some resources that they might find helpful.

  • Links for Expository Preaching – This isn’t exactly software (mostly it’s PDF files), but I wasn’t sure where else to put it.  Basically, it is a website devoted to providing links to free, online commentaries, notes, and resources.  And it’s broken down in a handy fashion by books of the New Testament.  If you have to preach regularly, or you are studying your way through a book of the Bible, you don’t want to miss this!
  • Preaching Christ in the Old Testament – TGC just recently launched a site dedicated to preaching Christ in OT passages.  They are continuing to add resources and articles even as this post is being written, so if that overlaps with your preaching, it’s a resource you might want to check out.
  • Recommended Commentaries – There are a couple of good lists of commentaries out there, particularly those at bestcommentaries.com and the list that Keith Mathison put together for Ligonier.  Bestcommentaries.com is particularly good, in that it often lets you save money on buying other commentary guides (such as the two excellent ones by Dr. Jim Rosscup).
  • Recommended Reading for Seminary – Here are some links to various recommended reading lists from several seminaries.  In alphabetical order they are: RTS (short list, long list), SBTS (Theology, Culture and Politics, Miscellaneous), TMS, WSCAL, and WTS.
  • Recommended Systematic Theologies – The aforementioned Keith Mathison also put together a list of recommended systematic theologies.  By and large, I also liked the list that C. Michael Patton put together as well.

Sermons

Didn’t get enough of the Gospel on Sunday? Good for you! Listed below are links to a LARGE libraries of available and trustworthy sermons freely available on the internet.

  • Christ Fellowship Baptist Church – And while he doesn’t blog (at least as far as I know), another fantastic place to get some sermons is from Steve Lawson’s church. The man has a distinctive voice and a distinctive style that really make his messages come alive. And he’s one of my favorite expositor’s to boot.
  • Desiring God – John Piper has 30+ years of sermons available here, as well as messages from innumerable conferences. And yes, they are organized, categorized, and have transcripts as well. Honestly, I don’t know what DG feeds their webfolks, but the speed, quality and sheer amount of material that they make available is staggering.
  • Grace to You – Another fabulous resource is what GCC affectionately calls “The Vault.” Here you will find 40 years (!) of sermons by John MacArthur, organized by title, scripture, date…if you can’t find something here to help you, then you’re just not looking hard enough. And the vast majority of the sermons have a transcript as well, so you can read them if you prefer that to listening.  John just recently finished preaching through the entire NT, so you’ll definitely want to drop by.
  • LBC Sermons – Our first stop is the sermon library at our very own church. Ever wish that you could be in two (or more!) Sunday School classes at the same time? Now you can be! As I update this article, there are 695 messages available.  The web team is adding and categorizing more sermons all the time, so if you don’t see something up there, ask Kyle or myself and we’ll try to track it down for you.
  • RefNet.fm – A free 24/7 internet radio station that streams sermons, teaching, music, and news.
  • Sovereign Grace – The folks at SG recently redid their archive, and now you can search by category, speaker, or topic.  You’ll find a number of sermons from Joshua Harris, CJ Mahaney, and notable guest speakers as well.

Shopping

There are a number of good places to get Christian resources from, and a number of them run special deals from time to time.  In my experience, here are some of the better places, along with a few you might not know about.  The short version is that if you’re trying to build your library, you should spend a little time understanding where the deals are.  That’s just a matter of good stewardship.

  • Amazon – Amazon does a good job of having consistently low prices.  They don’t usually have sales with significant markdown, but they’re a good place to start your search to know what a baseline price is.  And they offer free shipping on orders over $25.
  • Christianbook.com – Christianbook.com generally also has prices in line with Amazon or slightly higher, and they don’t give you much of a break on shipping.  However, where they really shine is their twice-a-week discounts (“Midweek Markdowns” are discounts from Tuesday to Thursday; “Fabulous Friday Specials” are discounts from Friday to Monday), their annual catalogs, the “slightly imperfect” section, and the occasional bulk item.  They also heavily discount older editions of books when new editions come out (which is a great way to pick up normally-pricey items like commentaries, at $3-$5 per book).  You can sign up to only receive email notices for their weekly specials as well.  I also like the way they let you run complicated filters to drill down to the products you’re interested in.
  • CVBBS – This is a store that Pastor Patrick likes.  From what I saw, they had some good clearance prices, but some of the other places (Amazon, Christianbook.com, WTS Books) seem to be about the same.  But it’s always good to compare, so I include them here.
  • GBI Store – Again, I hate to say it, but generally I’m not impressed with the prices at GBI.  They do have a sale section however, and I think that they let you pick up books from their bookstore at GCC to avoid shipping (at least they used to; if they still do this, then make friends with one of our seminarians; actually, make friends with them anyways).  Very occasionally they do have a good-to-great deal though, so I’d recommend signing up for their email list.  And on top of that, the once-a-year sale they do in conjunction with the Shepherd’s Conference is amazing (but you have to go onsite to get those prices).
  • Ligonier Store – Overall, I’m not thrilled with the prices at the Ligonier store, with one MAJOR exception.  Every Friday, they do something called $5 Friday where they select a number of resources that are sold for the flat rate of $5.  When they sell out, that’s it.  Depending on what they’re offering and how many copies you want, that can sometimes be a great opportunity, but do remember to watch out for shipping.
  • Scripture Truth Book Company – Again, Pastor Patrick has historically liked this site.  I’ve never used them, so I can’t comment much except to say that from the comparisons I did, you come out ahead at Amazon (it’s just nearly impossible for a smaller company to compete with the free shipping that Amazon offers).  But I’ve seen the occasional great deal there as well, so I include them here for you.
  • WTS Books – The Westminster bookstore normally has books around the same price as Amazon, although their shipping offers are not as beneficial for the consumer.  However, they do have current specials that occasionally are fantastic, a clearance section that is pretty good as well, and they have an “imperfect books” section where they sell discounted copies of books that have minor damage.  (I’ve been quite pleased with the imperfect books I’ve bought from them; generally the wear and tear was somewhere between minor and insignificant).

Software and Study

While there is a variety of Christian software available, I chose to highlight the following resources on the basis of my own personal experience with them, or on the strong recommendation of trusted friends, pastors, and/or colleagues.

  • Amazon.com – You’d be surprised how often that “look inside” feature comes in handy.
  • Biblegateway.com – I’m sure you’re probably already aware of this resource, but this is a handy website for grabbing multiple translations of verses quickly.  What you might not know is that they also have more robust search options for passage lookups, keyword searches, and even a topical index.  They are also the online home to the IVP commentaries, which is one of the few modern series available for free online. There’s some other tricks that you can do with the site, but that should get you started for now.
  • Biblestudytools.com
  • Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) – CCEL is basically an online library of a bunch of old Christian books.  That might not sound terribly interesting, but think about it…this means you can have the writings of Athanasius, Augustine, Calvin’s Commentaries, etc…all at your fingertips.  It can take a little bit of practice to get used to their web design, but once you figure it out, it’s a powerful tool to have in your arsenal.
  • CSNTM
  • e-Sword – My personal favorite Bible-study software, e-sword makes the ESV Bible freely available. Other study guides such as commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, and other translations of the Bible are available as well. Some require a small fee, but many are freely available. For ease of use, price, and value, I honestly believe this is the best software out there.  (Please note, not everyone agrees with me.  e-Sword has made some fantastic improvements lately, but in terms of having digital library support, it falls behind both Bibleworks and Logos, which are generally considered more serious resources…with a more serious price tag. Still, I think that most Christians would benefit from using this software…especially compared with not using any).
  • Faithlife Study Bible – I’m still evaluating this, but it’s worth mentioning.  I believe you can still sign up for free.
  • Google Books and Google Scholar
  • Kindle – No, I don’t mean the hardware.  The Kindle software (which is free) enables the reading of ebooks, and is available on an absolute slew of platforms (PC, Mac, phones, etc.).  Once you have the ability to read ebooks, you might be surprised how many are also free (although you have to hunt around a bit to find them).  Typically, anything that is in the public domain can often be found for free, so if you’re more interested in content than fancy formatting, this can be a great deal!  I’ve compiled a short list to get you started:
  • Libronix/Logos – If you have an ESV Bible, then you have qualified to download the ESV demo version of Libronix. It comes with the full ESV text, several other resources, and it is quite common for new resources to be made freely available (you’ll receive email notifications after you’ve registered). For example, a while back they gave away John MacArthur’s Study Guide to the book of Romans. It’s a bit more complicated to use than e-Sword, but it does give you access to material that e-Sword doesn’t. And since it’s free…why not have both?
  • Mongergism.com
  • The NET Bible – The NET Bible is a fascinating project.  Essentially it is a translation with all of the associated translation notes exposed to the public, and made available to the public for free.  They’ve upgraded their website several times recently, which means you have your choice of the web version, the classic learning environment, or the new learning environment.  I’m old-fashioned, so I prefer the classic version, but play around with them and figure out what works best for you. The parent site (Bible.org) also hosts a variety of articles that are worthy of your attention as well.
  • Online Commentaries – I would caution against only using older commentaries, but they’re a great place to start.
  • Online Seminary Classes – There are a number of places you can find these; iTunesU is an obvious resources (with great courses from places like WTS, RTS, Dallas, Biola, etc.) In fact, RTS puts their entire correspondance curriculum online! The Theological Resource Center is another winner.
  • Post-Reformation Digital Library
  • STEP Bible
  • The SWORD Project – The SWORD Project in many ways is similar to e-Sword (my understanding is that e-Sword is actually an offshoot of the project).  I include them here for several reasons: they are free, they are committed to providing their materials in multiple platforms, and they have certain resources that e-Sword is missing (for example, they have four Czech translations of the Bible, whereas e-Sword only has one (CBK), and it’s not a modern translation).  The packaging of the program isn’t quite as slick as e-Sword, but once you get used to it, it’s still very powerful.  In my opinion, this is one of the most-overlooked resources out there, and that’s unfortunate.

Qualification for Leadership (College)

by Emily Kuo

There is a plethora of books written on leadership, ranging from what makes you a good leader to ways to get people to follow you or ways to get people to do tasks for you. I know this because I was once myself buried beneath the pile of books about leadership. Before I became a believer, I had the great ambition to lead my high school class to foster “inclusion.” I wanted to abolish the social hierarchy in high school and close the gap between the popular kids and nerdy kids. That vision and pursuit today is now vain to me because I have a greater and eternal purpose to have the privilege to take part in God’s kingdom plan. As I have been called to serve on the leadership for our church’s college group, I am excited but at the same time feel and know that I am inadequate. I have the heart’s desire to serve the Lord in whatever way and capacity, but questions flood my mind. How do I know that I am ready? Or will I be effective? How do I know this is the ministry and place God has called me to serve? Studying over the “Qualification for Leadership” packet, my questions were answered and my ministry to serve the Lord in College Life was more affirmed. In sum, the qualifications for a leader are character qualities that every Christian should strive for after regardless of where God has called them.

“Those called into leadership are not necessarily called because of their ability but because of their character.” God commanded David to be prince over his people because he was a man that sought after God’s own heart (1Samuel 13:4). If a servant’s heart is completely surrendered to God and is in a continual pursuit to earnestly know Him and His will, the servant’s motives will be purified and the desire to cultivate character pleasing to God will be simply an aftermath or overflow. However, is the servant faithful? Has he proven himself? Or is it as Chris Mueller puts it, is it “a flash-in-the-pan sort of spiritual enthusiasm”? When I first became a believer, I had strong desires and was in continual euphoria. I was ready to share the gospel to any stranger I met. I couldn’t put the Bible down as I found gem after gem. And I couldn’t take my mind off the things of God. However, my faith was still weak. My convictions were shallow. And my character was inconsistent with the Word. I needed a lot of pruning and shaping of my character and faith. One of the character qualities for an elder is to that he is not a new convert. God’s ways are always wise, if I were to serve on leadership for College Life two or three years ago, I would have been puffed up and had the arrogant heart that God hates. Thankfully, over the years God has placed me in various trials to purify my faith and to shape my character. Indeed I can now see why Paul asks us to rejoice in our suffering, because it “…produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” (Romans 5:3-4). Though some of the various trials sometimes felt heavier than I can handle or brought tears and pain to my soul, they were given because He loves me and with great purpose. Through the trials, He taught me humility. He taught me to depend on Him as He comforted me and was my hiding place and tower. He taught me faithfulness as He Himself was faithful to me. He taught me service that though in the midst of difficulty, my calling to serve and love my church family does not cease. And He taught me worship, for my heart sings to Him not because I know about Him but because I know Him as He’s proven Himself true in my life.

There is still A LOT more work to do in my life as I look at the character qualities that God expects of me. I am encouraged to see that His Spirit and truth has been sanctifying me but at the same time I am humbled and excited to know that “[H]e who began a good work in [me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Therefore, in His grace and power, may I strive to be the woman He calls me to be, so that He may be most glorified. And may my service to Him be motivated by His love for me and a desire to “bring people into the kingdom of God and help them to grow in respect to their salvation.”

Living Theology #50 – Spiritual Gifts (part 1)

by Garrett Glende

We’ve now reached the 52nd chapter of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology so it goes without saying that there has been quite the variety of issues discussed thus far. Any time that you read something that addresses such a wide range of topics – everything from the authority of Scripture to the ordinance of baptism – you are bound to come across statements that you might not agree with. Such has been the case from time to time when reading and studying Grudem’s book. Nothing has jumped off the page as heretical or worth breaking any sort of fellowship over, but there are definitely some points that we disagree on. This dynamic presents somewhat of a challenge when it comes time to putting together an article on the chapter (mostly because I don’t like to disagree with much smarter people) and it’s happened again this week.

The issue of spiritual gifts within the church has been a hot topic in recent years beginning with the charismatic movement and the debate still stands today. It’s an issue that interests people because the different views seem so divided and it’s genuinely interesting to learn about the miraculous sign gifts. But this is not going to be the focus of today’s article. For now, we’ll just look into the basics of spiritual gifts and how we should view them in regards to our own roles within the body of Christ. Next week’s article will examine the more controversial topics, specifically regarding the cessation or continuation of certain gifts.

Grudem defines spiritual gifts as an “ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church.” The main teaching on this topic is found in 1 Corinthians 12-14 so much of our time will be spent looking at passages from this section of Scripture. Paul makes it clear that the gifts “are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11). The Holy Spirit distributes these gifts for the purpose of building up the body of Christ, the church. Verse seven of the same chapter says that “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Paul goes on to describe the church as a body that has many members, all of which work together to make it stronger. One of the Holy Spirit’s roles in this process is that it has given a variety of abilities to all the members in order that this growth might take place. When all members are exercising their Spirit given gifts, then the body will function at its fullest potential, the way God intended it. We must remember this purpose of the gifts, because it will become important later when we look into the sign gifts and how they are viewed today.

There are a few different lists of gifts in the Bible, one of them being found in 1 Cor. 12:8-10: “For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” The above list is not exhaustive, but it shows us that there are surely a variety of abilities that the Spirit distributes (the other lists can be found in 1 Cor. 12:28, Eph. 4:11, and Rom. 12:6-8). It would not make sense for God to give us all the gift of teaching or else we would have no one to do administration. Likewise, He did not give us all the gift of administration because someone is needed to teach. We must note that there is nothing in us that affects what kind of gifts the Spirit gives us. The distribution of gifts is an entirely sovereign act of the Holy Spirit, “who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11).

I know that we’re just scratching the surface here, so I’m hoping that you’ll go study more on your own, but I do want to bring up a point of application. The whole reason why three chapters in 1 Corinthians are devoted to this issue is because the church that Paul was writing to was misusing their gifts and they were jealous of those who had flashier gifts than they did. It’s easy to condemn the Corinthians for such behavior, but I think the same thing goes on in our church today. There’s always a part of us that wishes we had a gift that would make us look godly – something that we could show off. We see others who have been gifted in these areas and we want what they already have. But this completely misses the point of the gifts in the first place! The person who’s gifted in teaching may not have the gift of encouragement or administration, but you might be! But people can even take pride in being the “humble” behind-the-scenes guy who rarely gets credit. Regardless of how we are gifted, we must remember that they must be used in love. Love is the “more excellent way” that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13. We can have all the flashy gifts in the world, but if we don’t have love then we’re nothing. Paul charges the church in Corinth to exercise their gifts with love and in a way that edifies the body. And we must use ours with love as well – because love is eternal and the gifts are not. I’d love to expand on that more, but I’d spoil next week’s article, so I’ll end it here.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions (Part 3)

by Elder Mike Chon

As we continue in our series on decision-making, we will look at some of the common mistakes that believers make in attempting to make God-honoring decisions. You may have seen sitcoms growing up where a boy is interested in a girl and is nervous asking her out to a school dance or similar event. So he decides that if the phone rings in the next minute (or some other equally arbitrary event) then it must be a “sign” for him to ask this particular girl to the dance. As silly as this scenario is, many believers make decisions in their life using similar “signs” to make decisions that have much more serious consequences then asking someone to a school dance. Before we look into how we should make God-honoring decisions, we will first examine the common mistakes that believers make in decision-making.

You may have heard someone share how God has “opened a door” for them…and so this particular decision must be from God. Where did this idea of God opening doors come from? Are “open doors” a sign from God that reveals His individual will for your life? Biblically (1 Corinthians 16:8-9; Colossians 4:3; 2 Corinthians 2:12-13) the idea of God “opening doors” refers to opportunities to be able to effectively share God’s Word. It is never used as an opportunity that God gives to the believer for you to follow so that you will fulfill God’s will in your life. For example, someone may be given an opportunity at another job or company. This new opportunity offers the individual better pay and is the next step to advance in their career. But along with this new opportunity, also comes with it greater responsibility and will require this person to work on the weekends, including Sundays. Not only that, they will have to move to another part of the country, away from family, friends and their church. If this person believes that this opportunity is an “open door” given by God for his life then it would be the right choice for this person to follow this opportunity. But is that a correct interpretation of their opportunity? Is this how believers should make decisions?

You may have also heard someone share how they were accepted to a certain school by a certain date or on a certain color stationary…so it must be a sign that it is God’s will for them to go there. This is called “putting out a fleece” which comes from Judges 6:36-40, from the life of Gideon. Basically it is anything we may interpret conditionally as a sign from God that reveals to us His will for our life. It can be as silly as the boy who determines that he will ask a particular girl to the dance if the phone rings in the next minute, or God wants me to pursue a certain career if I am accepted to this particular school, or God wants me to marry a certain girl if she wears a certain color shirt to church. Do we assume that these signs are always God’s way of showing us His will for our life? Do we believe that God works through “fleeces” like He did with Gideon in our decision-making? Do we put God to the test in order to reveal His will for us?

Both of these methods of making decisions are based on circumstances. I am not saying that circumstances do not matter at all, since they do frame the context that we live in and do play a role in our decision-making (which will be discussed further in the next article). But at the same time making decisions based only on your circumstances is not what God would desire us to do. Before we examine how we should make decisions, there is another mistake that believers make in regards to decision-making.

Have you heard someone make a decision based on the “still small voice” of God or an “impression” they had from God? How about a vision or dream? Many people are waiting for that “voice” of God or “impression” on their heart to make a decision. Someone may share how they heard the voice of God or that God impressed on their heart that they should follow this particular direction for their life. Or that God gave them a sense of peace regarding their decision. The problem with using this as your method of making decisions is that it is subjective. Where did this voice, impression, or dream come from? How do you know that it was from God? As well, is this a true biblical pattern of how God reveals His will for us today? Scripture teaches the danger of trusting only in our feelings because of the condition of our heart (Proverbs 28:26; Jeremiah 17:9). Remember Proverbs 14:12 warns us that even though we may sincerely believe something to be true, we may be sincerely wrong. We must first interpret these subjective feelings and impressions on the objective truth of God’s Word (Proverbs 30:5). Otherwise, we are mistakenly elevating our sinful hearts and minds to the same level as Scripture.

With so many decisions even in how we make our decisions, we need to return to Scripture where God reveals to us how we should be making decisions in our life. One thing is clear, God calls believers to live this life with wisdom (Ephesians 5:15-16; Colossians 4:5). This is also true in our decision-making, that we make decisions with wisdom which we will discuss further in the next article.