A while back i came across this Youtube video on scripture memory form John Piper and thought I would pass it along for your enjoyment.
Tag: pastor
3 Questions About Healing and the Kingdom
So I guess it is only fair for me to admit my biases up front when it comes to “healing.” My Theological Assumption: I would like to clearly state that I do believe that God does choose to heal and even miraculously heal certain people at certain times. My Cultural Assumption: I would also like to state that I believe that many Americans neglect a healthy understanding of the miraculous and supernatural because of an over dependence on a skeptical mind (how arrogant to assume that all cultures that hold to a supernatural world are living in ignorance). My Experiential Assumption: I have several friends who despite great prayers and great faith have never experience a divine healing miraculous or otherwise. They were asked to stand up out of their chairs or extend forth their lame hands all to no avail. Many were accused of not having enough faith.
3 Questions About Healing and the Kingdom
So all of this arises out of the need to get something right in my mind. A few times now I have been in a situation where a group of folks will get together with the idea to share Christ with the lost world and a brother of mine will stand up and start talking about healing. Usually when this happens they direct my attention to Isaiah 53:5 (By his stripes we are healed) gloss over the whole sacrifice part of the passage and ask if anyone wants to be healed. The gospel seems to be diminished or passed over by the desire to display a powerful sign of healing.
I understand that while in the midst of preaching the kingdom Jesus healed people. In many instances healing and preaching the kingdom were hand in hand and almost inseparable (Matt 4:23, 9:35, 10:7-8, Luke 9:11 and especially Luke 10:9). Jesus demonstrates that the kingdom is coming by healing and showing us what the kingdom will be like (there will be no sickness or death). This proves not only to authenticate his message, but help us to visualize what it would look like to live under the rule and reign of such a benevolent king.
Yet at the heart of what I generally observe when I hear healing preached is not an announcing of the Kingdom of God, but a statement that God wants you healthy and wealthy. Then some take it so far as to say that if you lack health or wealth you have no faith. I often wonder if such people have searched the scriptures enough to develop and understand a theology of suffering.
So here are my questions…
. . . . . . . . .
- Is there a connection between healing and the kingdom of God?
- Does your theology of healing allow for a theology of suffering? If so how?
- Does miraculous healing still happen today?
9 Reflections on Disciple Now (Part 2)
3. Our teenagers glorified God by serving others with the work projects this weekend (They painted a house, built a ramp, hosted a backyard bible club, and took cookies to the home bound).
4. Our teenagers were given at least one more point of contact with our church family (they stayed in the home of church members and the relationships at Calvary were deepened and developed as students and adults interacted)
5. Our Teenagers were given a positive aim for their life and real reason to remain pure (to glorify God in manhood and womanhood!) Too often the loftiest aim we give our kids is to stay out of trouble… ie… “true love waits” and we fail to provide a positive challenge to our kids to raise the standard.
Short Post: Christian Heritage Conference
So we are on the verge of another great Disciple Now and I started to think about all of the great events that I have had a privilege to be a part of in the past. God has really blessed me to be a part of some cool things! Disciple Now’s, Hunger for the Harvest, Camps, Christian Heritage Conference, etc.
Next to Disciple Now the most amazing events I have ever helped put together were the Christian Heritage Conferences. We would pray over a theme, set up a team of helpers, develop a registrations strategy, line up a top notch speaker, get the word out, set up a bookstore, and all on a shoe string budget. It was amazing!
Christian Heritage Conference
Though I cannot speak for the reason others were inspired, my inspiration came from a well spring of two sources.
One: The rappid movement in our day to redefine “church.” In the struggle to go back to Acts 2 many have missed the blessings that the church fathers in the first few centuries have handed to us as a guide to understanding and interpreting the scriptures (mainly the Rule of Faith). In that many have also completely abandoned church history in order to become a “pure” church like the one in the New Testament. (Which one? Corinth, Ephesus, Pyrgumum, Colasae?) I figured that if we were to take our people down such a road that they should not do so with complete ignorance of what God has done through out history with faithful men and women so that we might be able to face the new gnosticism that such a forgetfulness will soon employ. In short: if we do not learn from the past we are doomed to repeat its error and find ourselves facing the same obstacles that have already once been overcome.
Two: John Piper’s lectures in Christian Biography. I had to make a 16 hour ride home to Missouri one year while in college and was blessed to be able to listen to over 16 hours straight of the lives and times of great men that God had used to bring glory to his name throughout history. I understood then why history (for good or for ill) contributes to who we are today.
From these two wells of inspiration and a great friend and partner in ministry (Kyle Claunch). The Christian Heritage Conference was born to popularize an education of Church history for the benefit of the whole church.
Like all things it morphed and changed over the years. We covered a variety of historical figures and had a variety of Top notch Speakers. We learned to advertise outside of our local areas and expand our vision beyond college students. We contacted home-school associations, history and theology departments at local colleges and history clubs at local high schools. We also contacted pastors in the surrounding associations. We began to hold registrations so we could pull more people in earlier in the next years event.
5 Growth Challenges
Are you looking to grow deeper in your relationship with God? The challenges below are a great place to start.
1. Proverbs Challenge… Read a chapter of Proverbs each day. Read Proverbs chapter 7 on the 7th of the month; chapter 8 on the 8th of the month and so on. Our pastor Chris Aiken does a daily blog commenting on one chapter of scripture and a daily take away from the book of Proverbs.
2. Journal Challenge… Take the Bible reading one step further and keep a journal that you can record your thoughts in. I like to ask myself two questions after I have read and prayed thought the scripture: 1. What does this say about God? 2. How will I respond?
3. My Story Challenge… Write out the story of how you became a Christ follower in 100 words or less and let me review it. Try use every day language and avoid words that are church specific. Highlight three things:
- Life before you met Christ.
- How you met Christ.
- How your life is different now.
You can see a version of mine in the “About Me” section of “Meet Jonathan.” After it has been reviewed take the opportunity to tell others your story and get their input. Post it on your facebook and myspace profiles.
4. Teach others challenge… I encourage our students to take notes on the Sunday Morning sermon and the Wednesday night message. Study their notes and then either through intentional study (like an established Bible study) or in regular conversation (“guess what I learned this week”) share what they have learned in a way that teaches others.
5. Accountability Challenge… I challenge our kids to encourage one another with what they have been learning and doing in smaller groups. I do this by sending out a mass text each asking for prayer requests from those who subscribe and sharing a verse that stuck out to me that day from my daily bible reading (usually from Proverbs since that is one of the challenges).
4 Ways to Pray for Your Pastor in 2009
In the book of Malachi a scathing indictment is issued against priests who cut corners and received less than acceptable sacrifices from the people. The priests were called to a special office of mediation between the people and God which made the charge against their office even more significant. In Malachi 2:5-7 God reminds the priests about the covenant he had established with them through their fathers.
Pastors are not priests. The pastoral ministry is significantly different than the ministry of Old Testament Priests especially considering the work of Christ. Christ offered himself as the perfect sacrifice and now stands as the mediator between God and men (I Tim. 2:5, Hebrews 9:15, 12:24). (This is one reason why we stand so staunchly against the Roman Catholic notion of priest as mediators and mass as a perpetual offering of sacrifice.)
4 Ways to Pray for Your Pastor
Though Pastors are not priests, there are aspects of their ministry that parallel the duties of the priests in Malachi’s day. Pastors are responsible to teach and oversee the body of the church. (Piper does a fantastic job of fleshing this out so I won’t belabor the point.) It is from examining Malachi in this light that I have pulled application from the failure of the priest in Malachi into four ways to pray for pastors in 2009.
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So here is how I pray for myself and the other pastors I know:
- To stand in fear and awe of God’s name
- True instruction to be found on his lips
- To walk with the Lord in peace and uprightness
- To turn people away from iniquity
The Hill House 