by Tim Challies
They are far and away the most common questions I receive: Can you
tell me anything about this author? Have you heard of this book? Is it
safe to read? Sometimes people ask to avoid wasting time or money on a
book that would not be worth either one, and sometimes they ask to avoid
the influence of false doctrine. Since I can’t answer all the
questions, and since I can’t know all the books and authors,
I’ll offer a few tips on sorting it all out and do so in the form of 5
questions you can ask of any book. Read more ...
Monday, May 9, 2016
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Grandfatherly Advice to Young Christian Ladies (and their parents)
"Don't embarrass yourself, your parents and friends with immodest dress!"The end of the school year is near, and there will be parties and proms to attend. Be careful how you dress. Don't feel you have "to show it all." It will demean you and cause boys to think less of you and take advantage of you. If you look cheap, you will be treated as cheap and easy.
Young ladies, you can dress beautifully in a dress that is not skin tight, shoulder-less and revealing immodest!
Dress to bless and not causing embarrassment or awkwardness for all who see you.
A Word to Christian Parents:
Pray and think twice before allowing your daughters (and sons) to attend school proms. Nothing good can come from it. Sexual looseness is on display and dancing doesn't help. Sponsor a formal dinner for teens with an emphasis on godly Christian character with other evangelical churches. An exceptionally fun time can be planned for the enjoyment of all. The teens can then return home from a good time rather than in shame and a seared conscience.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Church-centered Adoption
I recently finished reading again
the excellent book, Adopted for Life, (The Priority of Adoption for
Christian Families and Churches) by Russell Moore.
Here are my quotes from the
book which will be circulated worldwide.
Perhaps in the future, the Lord will
lead you and your church leaders to encourage adoption (James 1:27) in your
church, and also to have a church-sponsored fund which all in the church can
give. This would greatly assist a couple with the huge financial expense of
adoption. This is not difficult and would not affect other church expenses in
any way.
For example: If 100 adults in your
church would each set aside only $2.78 daily (cup of coffee) for three months
(90 days) this would result in a total of $25,000, which would completely cover
the cost of one, perhaps even two adoptions! Even with a small salary, Margaret
and I can do this ($5.56 together for 90 days). So can you.
Perhaps this is something you and
your church would prayerfully consider to the glory of God and for the life of
a child. As our Father in Heaven adopted you into His family, you can adopt an
orphan into yours; they would, therefore, not be an orphan anymore.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
A Few Requests for Prayer for Margaret and myself
1. Please pray for many additional missionaries for the Philippines to serve with all ages -- Camp workers, teachers, Master Gardener, ministry with needy pastors,
builders, leadership development, discipleship, vocational trainers,
etc.2. Building permits for the GROW International Redemptio Christian School (directed by our son and daughter-in-law) among the extreme poor of Metro Manila. There is much opposition from officials regarding permits. Please pray!
3. Funding to purchase 200 Life Application Study Bibles this month ($16 each for total of $3200) for pastors and Christian workers in the Philippines.
4. Today, Margaret and I leave for six days of ministry in Canada. On Sunday I will speak in a church which is sending their pastor to the Philippines in October to be one of the speakers for our CGM Pastoral Care Conference for 250 needy pastors.
5. Please pray for our personal work with God; to be an example of zeal for the glory of God and the Gospel; to retain much of what we study and prepare for ministry in our old age; and to be humble, loving and kind in these dark days.
May our wonderful Lord be praised!
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Q&A with Nabeel Qureshi, author of Answering Jihad
from Tim Challies
NABEEL QURESHI is the New York Times bestselling author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. His latest book, Answering Jihad,
released earlier this month and provides a personal, challenging, and
respectful answer to the many questions surrounding jihad, the rise of ISIS, and Islamic terrorism. Last week, his USA Today op-ed was one of the most read and shared articles following the attack on Brussels. Read more ...
NABEEL QURESHI is the New York Times bestselling author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. His latest book, Answering Jihad,
released earlier this month and provides a personal, challenging, and
respectful answer to the many questions surrounding jihad, the rise of ISIS, and Islamic terrorism. Last week, his USA Today op-ed was one of the most read and shared articles following the attack on Brussels. Read more ...
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Creation / NOT Evolution
Francis Collins, author of “The Language of God” and the
chief architect in the Human Genome Project, and his colleagues at the Bio
Logos Forum argue that we can't read Genesis as a historical narrative but as
more of a poetic narrative. It is not historical prose, they say. It is not
literal, they say, but “literalistic”. BioLogos believe that evangelicals
should embrace the theory of evolution, and they maintain that doing so should offer
no challenges to our Christian faith. Read
more …
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Does the Atonement of Christ Guarantee Physical Healing?
by Paul Tautges
First Peter 2:24 says of Jesus, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” This is one of at least five references or allusions that the apostle makes in verses 2:22-25 to Isaiah 53, the classic Old Testament chapter predicting the suffering of the Savior. In that chapter, the emphasis of God’s prophet is on the substitutionary atonement of the coming Messiah for sin. Likewise, Peter’s use of Isaiah’s phrase “by whose stripes you were healed” is consistent. The context surrounding 1 Peter 2:24 is the healing for sin that is provided for by the work of the Sin-bearing Savior. Concerning the erroneous teaching that the blood of Christ guarantees the healing of illness, Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest writes the following in his Word Studies:
The Greek word translated “stripes” refers to a bloody wale trickling with blood that arises under a blow. The word is singular, not plural. Peter remembered the body of our Lord after the scourging, the flesh so dreadfully mangled that the disfigured form appeared in his eyes as one single bruise.
Thus we have the portrait of the suffering Servant of Jehovah, His blessed face so pummeled by the hard fists of the mob that it did not look like a human face anymore, His back lacerated by the Roman scourge so that it was one mass of open, raw, quivering flesh trickling with blood, His heart torn with anguish because of the bitter, caustic, malevolent words hurled at Him. On that bleeding, lacerated back was laid the Cross. Unsaved reader, this was all for you, just as if you were the only lost person in the universe.
The Lord Jesus died for you, in your stead, took your place on the Cross, paid your penalty, so that God could offer a salvation from sin based upon a justice satisfied. Will you not right now appropriate the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, trust Him to save you? And saint, does not all this make you love the Lord Jesus more, soften and make more tender your heart?
Does not all this make you say, “I can see the blood drops, red ‘neath His thorny crown, from the cruel nail wounds, now they are falling down; Lord, when I would wander from thy love away, let me see those blooddrops shed for me that day?” the blood of Christ heals our sin in that He by one offering put away sin forever. There is no room here for the healing of illness through the blood of Jesus. The Cross was a purely judicial matter. One goes to a hospital when one is ill, and to a law court to take care of legal matters. In the great law court of the universe, the Judge offers mercy on the basis of justice satisfied at the Cross. The matter of bodily illness is not mentioned in the context. Furthermore, the Greek word used here is not confined in its meaning to physical healing. In Luke 4:18 it refers to the alleviation of heartaches, and in Hebrews 12:13, to the rectifying of one’s conduct. In Matthew 13:15, it means, “to bring about (one’s) salvation.” This passage cannot therefore be made to teach the erroneous doctrine that healing of the body is to be found in the atonement as salvation from sin is found at the Cross. The context in which the word is found clearly decides the meaning of the word here, not that of the healing of the body, but that of the salvation of the soul.
Does God heal our diseases? Yes, when He chooses to do so, and sometimes miraculously. But is physical healing guaranteed by Christ’s atonement? No, that is never taught in the Scriptures. Instead, what is taught is that the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross was sufficient payment for our sins, a need that is far more serious than physical illness. Our Great Savior endured the wrath of God against sin in His body on the cross. Our hope for complete physical healing is not found in the Cross, but in the future bodily resurrection that awaits those who believe the gospel.
Source: http://counselingoneanother.com/2016/03/30/does-the-atonement-of-christ-guarantee-physical-healing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+counselingoneanother%2Fmain+%28Counseling+One+Another%29
First Peter 2:24 says of Jesus, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” This is one of at least five references or allusions that the apostle makes in verses 2:22-25 to Isaiah 53, the classic Old Testament chapter predicting the suffering of the Savior. In that chapter, the emphasis of God’s prophet is on the substitutionary atonement of the coming Messiah for sin. Likewise, Peter’s use of Isaiah’s phrase “by whose stripes you were healed” is consistent. The context surrounding 1 Peter 2:24 is the healing for sin that is provided for by the work of the Sin-bearing Savior. Concerning the erroneous teaching that the blood of Christ guarantees the healing of illness, Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest writes the following in his Word Studies:
The Greek word translated “stripes” refers to a bloody wale trickling with blood that arises under a blow. The word is singular, not plural. Peter remembered the body of our Lord after the scourging, the flesh so dreadfully mangled that the disfigured form appeared in his eyes as one single bruise.
Thus we have the portrait of the suffering Servant of Jehovah, His blessed face so pummeled by the hard fists of the mob that it did not look like a human face anymore, His back lacerated by the Roman scourge so that it was one mass of open, raw, quivering flesh trickling with blood, His heart torn with anguish because of the bitter, caustic, malevolent words hurled at Him. On that bleeding, lacerated back was laid the Cross. Unsaved reader, this was all for you, just as if you were the only lost person in the universe.
The Lord Jesus died for you, in your stead, took your place on the Cross, paid your penalty, so that God could offer a salvation from sin based upon a justice satisfied. Will you not right now appropriate the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, trust Him to save you? And saint, does not all this make you love the Lord Jesus more, soften and make more tender your heart?
Does not all this make you say, “I can see the blood drops, red ‘neath His thorny crown, from the cruel nail wounds, now they are falling down; Lord, when I would wander from thy love away, let me see those blooddrops shed for me that day?” the blood of Christ heals our sin in that He by one offering put away sin forever. There is no room here for the healing of illness through the blood of Jesus. The Cross was a purely judicial matter. One goes to a hospital when one is ill, and to a law court to take care of legal matters. In the great law court of the universe, the Judge offers mercy on the basis of justice satisfied at the Cross. The matter of bodily illness is not mentioned in the context. Furthermore, the Greek word used here is not confined in its meaning to physical healing. In Luke 4:18 it refers to the alleviation of heartaches, and in Hebrews 12:13, to the rectifying of one’s conduct. In Matthew 13:15, it means, “to bring about (one’s) salvation.” This passage cannot therefore be made to teach the erroneous doctrine that healing of the body is to be found in the atonement as salvation from sin is found at the Cross. The context in which the word is found clearly decides the meaning of the word here, not that of the healing of the body, but that of the salvation of the soul.
Does God heal our diseases? Yes, when He chooses to do so, and sometimes miraculously. But is physical healing guaranteed by Christ’s atonement? No, that is never taught in the Scriptures. Instead, what is taught is that the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross was sufficient payment for our sins, a need that is far more serious than physical illness. Our Great Savior endured the wrath of God against sin in His body on the cross. Our hope for complete physical healing is not found in the Cross, but in the future bodily resurrection that awaits those who believe the gospel.
Source: http://counselingoneanother.com/2016/03/30/does-the-atonement-of-christ-guarantee-physical-healing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+counselingoneanother%2Fmain+%28Counseling+One+Another%29
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