Dr. Roy Fish Has Died: A Heart for Evangelism and a Life Dedicated to Sharing the Gospel

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One of my favorite professors at SWBTS passed away yesterday. Dr. Roy Fish was an amazing man who truly cared for each and every student in his classes. What I remember most about him is his evangelistic heart, yes; but it was a pastor’s heart with that evangelistic passion that every person would find a relationship with Christ. I was just looking through some old notebooks of when I was back in Missouri pastoring after seminary. I found a sermon outline that he preached at the Pastor’s Conference in St. Louis that was “great medicine” for my heart. I think what really spoke to my heart was his passion for the Church to become all she could become and specifically (preaching from Acts 17) bring the Gospel to the next generation. It did my heart good to hear from an old leader stressing to the next generation of leaders to focus on getting the Gospel to the future generations. May we all press on to share the Gospel to the future generations for God’s glory!

Here is a great post from Dr. Ed Stetzer on Dr. Fish’s life and ministry. Enjoy.

Ed Stetzer – Roy Fish Has Died: A Heart for Evangelism and a Life Dedicated to Sharing the Gospel.

Tim Keller on The Church’s Response to Homosexuality

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Came across this portion of a Q & A of Tim Keller at Columbia University. Very interesting in light of recent Chick-fil-A controversy.

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What say you?

Worshiping in Spirit and Truth | RobRash.us

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I really like Rob Rash’s writing style. He is funny, but makes me think.  Here is a great post on Worshiping in Spirit and Truth. It seems that he had been to some of our church services;) Here are a few highlights that I really enjoyed from the post.  Make sure you read the entire post…we have to get this right in the Church!

You can split the church right down the middle…

On the one side you have ‘those‘ people. You know, the ones that get all emotional and cry all the time. They have a little bounce to their step and are prone to raise their hands and say ‘Glory, Hallelujah‘ every five minutes.

We might even consider them a bit crazy.

And…

On the other side you have ‘those other‘ people. The ones that haven’t shed a tear since their birth and carry a 25 pound King James. They have every book of the bible memorized, are annoyed when the service runs long, and appreciate the order of service printed in the bulletin.

We’d probably call them spiritual killjoys.

 

Like Peanut Butter and Pickles

Some things were just meant to go together while other things simply were not. Unless your a pregnant lady, peanut butter and pickles probably sounds gross. They just don’t go well together. But peanut butter and jelly? Well that’s a match made in heaven.

Our worship, needs to be like peanut butter and jelly. It needs to have a solid balance between both spirit and truth. We cannot allow our worship fo God to lean too far in either direction, otherwise we might miss out on all that worship should and could be. It needs to be both.

Worshiping in Spirit and Truth | RobRash.us.

Be Rich Toward God–John Piper

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What an amazing message that John Piper preached to his congregation last week! Interesting that we preached on a similar topic (money). This subject has been right “up in my grill” lately (as it has been all my adult life, really). I think that money and the love of money has been an issue in my life is because it is a discipline…and in general…well, I’m not good with discipline.

I have been preaching over the last five weeks about “Recovery Road.” I have been using the art and outlines of Andy Stanley’s message series he preached last fall at Northpoint Community Church in Georgia. His series is online with several other resources on “The Great Recovery” website that is the brain trust of Dave Ramsey and his ministry. The hope is that God’s ways of money will be embraced by all believers and then start a movement in this nation that will spread all around the world.

In addition to those resources, this sermon here has really taught my heart this week. Enjoy!

 

I am a Church Member–Thom Rainer

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Great post from Thom Rainer…simple, and the truth.

I am a church member.

I will seek to be a source of unity in the church. I know there are no perfect pastors, staff, or other church members. But neither am I. I will not be a source of gossip or dissension. One of the greatest contributions I can make is to do all I can in God’s power to help keep the church in unity for the sake of the gospel.

I am a church member.

I will not let my church be about my preferences and desires. That is self-serving. I am in this church to serve others and to serve Christ. My Savior went to a cross for me. I can deal with any inconveniences and matters that are just not my preference or style.

I am a church member.

I will pray for my pastor every day. His work is never-ending. His days are filled with constant demands for his time; with the need to prepare sermons; with those who are rejoicing in births; with those who are traveling through the valley of the shadow of death; with critics; with the hurts and hopes of others; and with the need to be a husband and a father. My pastor cannot serve our church in his own power. I will pray for God’s strength for him and his family every day.

I am a church member.

I like the metaphor of membership. It’s not membership as in a civic organization or a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in 1 Corinthians 12: “Now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it” (I Corinthians 12:27). Because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a functioning member, whether I am an “eye,” an “ear,” or a “hand.” As a functioning member, I will give. I will serve. I will minister. I will evangelize. I will study. I will seek to be a blessing to others. I will remember that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

I am a church member.

I will lead my family to be good members of this church as well. We will pray together for our church. We will worship together in our church. We will serve together in our church. And we will ask Christ to help us fall deeper in love with this church, because He gave His life for her.

I am a church member.

This membership is a gift. When I received the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, I became a part of the body of Christ. I soon thereafter identified with a local body and was baptized. And now I am humbled and honored to serve and to love others in our church. I pray that I will never take my membership for granted, but see it as a gift and an opportunity to serve others, and to be a part of something so much greater than any one person or member.

I am a church member.

And I thank God that I am.

What would it be like if ALL of us who were followers of Christ lived out these statements? Powerful. Revival. Movement.

Interview::Theology and Practice of Worship

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Here is a great interview of Bob Kauflin with the Desiring God guys on the Theology and Practice of Worship. If you have a few minutes it is well worth the time to watch the interview.  I have been preaching on worship for the last month or so and opened up our Christmas series talking about worship as well. It has been said that “worship is the activity of the human soul.” Everybody worships…the question is not “do we worship?,” but it is “what or whom is the object of that worship?.” We have found ourselves in the American Church with a real problem because we have placed an extremely high value on form and not so much on the theology and “God” behind the worship. We have these crazy things called “worship wars” that should never happen in the Church of Jesus Christ. We fight over the style of the worship, the dress of those leading, the instrumentation of the worship…all the while, the object of the worship is robbed of His deserved glory. I believe that there is always going to be a battle going on for our allegiance in worship. The Bible is pretty clear that (1) we have an enemy; and (2) he is battling hard to get the allegiance and affection that Christ deserves away from Christ and to any other thing that we might worship. The enemy is working overtime to get us distracted from the True object of worship–Jesus. We have had several really good conversations and discussions about worship here in this local body on Sunday nights following the messages, which is so good to see. We need to have honest discussions about worship in “spirit and truth.” One of our senior adults said it so well last night and basically quoted Paul in 1 Cor. 10:31 in our discussion. He said, “when you get up in the morning and have a drink of water…that is worship. When you go to your job…that is worship. When you have time with your family…that is worship.” Amazing time last night! Paul couldn’t have said it better himself!

    So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)

 

Bloodlines::John Piper

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This looks like an awesome documentary from John Piper that goes alongside his new book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. I really look forward to reading the book as well as watching the entire documentary when it is released. Here is the trailer. Praise Jesus for the Gospel!

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6:00 pm

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Well, it is well after 6:00 p.m. in most all time zones and Judgment Day has seemed to have come and gone with much less hoopla than the lead-up to the actual hour. It really is extremely sad to see people who will so quickly, blindly follow a false prophet such as Mr. Camper. It really does, however, make me desire to study and know better the Bible I read so as to “be ready to give an answer for the hope I have.” (1 Peter 3:15)

There is a really good post from Scot McKnight from Jesus Creed about the coming and going of 6 p.m. I really appreciate men like Dr. McKnight that have given their lives to the accurate study and teaching of God’s Word.

You also need to check out my friend, John Hill’s comments on this day…particularly the etymology of the word “Rapture.” Good stuff.

May we all live like tomorrow is “the Day”–without need for predictions…just as Jesus taught us.

Have a blessed Lord’s Day!

6pm | Jesus Creed.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It; and I feel fine!

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Harold Camping’s prediction that Judgment Day is May 21, 2011 has caused Twitter to go crazy; Google searches of “Rapture” and “Judgment Day” explode; the Center for Disease Control to send out a bulletin concerning a Zombie Apocalypse spoof; and even people making a little extra cash off of people who will leave their pets behind! It is shear nonsense!

Here it is “straight from the horse’s mouth…”

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Mark Beeson: Is Heresy Dead?

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Seems that Mark Beeson, Senior Pastor at Granger Community Church has been taking more shots about the methods they use to reach lost people with the Orthodox Gospel of Jesus Christ. He says,

I had another guy poke me in the eye because of the creative methods we use to present the orthodox Good News of the Gospel story. Well, he didn’t actually poke me in the eye, but that’s just because I’m quick as a mongoose.

I wish such folks were as concerned about “presenting” the orthodox Gospel as they are about “how” presentations are done.

I think that this argument against using creative methods to reach people far from God is really silly…but it is also dangerous too. When the Church stops looking outward to reach outsiders, then we cease being the Church Jesus created in the first place.  There have been these kinds of arguments forever, I suppose. For example, the early church, in Acts 15, said that you needed to have a surgery to be a true follower of Jesus Christ! And it wasn’t a minor surgery at that, fellas! Just a very short time after Jesus walked the earth, the early followers began to teach unorthodox ideas and came under sharp debate with Paul and Barnabas.

I love where the conversation and debate leads to finally…James, the half-brother of Jesus speaks up to put the debate to rest. He says, “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” (Acts 15:19) Awesome! Read more