You Are Eternal

An excerpt from "The Divine Conspiracy",  author - Dallas Willard

The hymn Amazing Grace was found in a recent USA Today poll to be America's favorite hymn.  It is sung at Boston Pops concerts and played at military and police funerals.  It is now a solid part of American if not Western culture, and it accurately presents the future of redeemed humanity:

When we've been there ten thousand years, 

 Bright shining as the sun,

We've no less days to sing God's praise,

Than when we first begun. 

When Mickey Mantle was dying of diseases brought on by a life of heavy drinking, he said that he would have taken better care of himself had he only known how long he was going to live.  He gives us a profound lesson.  How should we 'take care of ourselves' when we are never to cease?  Jesus shows his apprentices how to live in the light of the fact that they will never stop living.  This is what his students are learning from him.

(pages 98-99)

Justifying Doubt

A excerpt from "SCANDALOUS The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus", author - D.A. Carson

Sometimes doubt is grounded in systematic moral choice.  Consider the following passage from the famous writer and social cynic Aldous Huxley in his book Ends and Means.  In this passage, Huxley unpacks themes that, historically, pushed many people to adhere to a philosophy of meaningless, of a valueless world:

For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaningless was essentially an instrument of liberation.  The liberation we desired was simultaneously  liberation from a certain system of morality.  We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust.  The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (the Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world.  There was an admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever.

COLLISION: 6 Tips in Helping People Encounter Christ in Small Groups

 1.SHEPHERDING: Before you shepherd others, continually abide in the power of the Chief Shepherd yourself. Let your teaching be the overflow of the love, joy, peace and patience that you supernaturally gain when you rest in His presence. Among other things, this will prevent you from making the bible study about your own personal issues. There is a time when every leader needs support, but it shouldn’t be every meeting. A shepherd puts the flock’s needs above his or her own (See John 15, Phil 2:1-4).

2.GRACE: Before preaching the gospel to others, preach it to yourself. Remember you were once lost, blind, broken and dead in your sin. Let your gratitude for God’s grace well up in you and let that reminder of your own lostness shape the way you love lost people. Jesus attracted sinners not only because of his teaching but also because of his compassion. In the end it’s simple: grace attracts, pride attacks (Matt 9:9-13, Titus 3:3-8).

 3.PURPOSE: Why are you doing this? What is the end goal? Is the purpose to convey how much you know or is it to help others know Jesus? Is your purpose simply to convey information (which is hugely important!) or is it to allow that information lead to transformation? If the end goal is transformation, then it is crucially important to ask questions and make applications to people’s daily lives. Sometimes sheep need to go slow and sometimes sheep need you to connect the dots for them (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-25).

4.LISTEN: Pause. Ask. Listen. The awkward silence is ok. Listening not only forces your group to engage with the Scriptures and wrestle with its truths, it also communicates that you value your group as people. While it is crucially important to prevent the bible study from devolving into a superficial support group, the leader should be known as a good teacher and a good listener. As a general rule of thumb, the leader should not be doing more than two thirds of the talking (See Matthew 5:37, James 1:19-25).  

5. AVOID MINUTIA: Keep the main thing, the main thing. The tragic temptation of any small group is for the conversation to go negative - quick. You can sense it when you leave a negative conversation. Instead of the dialogue giving you joy; it robbed you of it. By God’s grace, try to keep your focus on His glory, His grace, His cross, His Word, His Spirit, His commands. Try to avoid gossip, religious snobbery, theological rabbit trails, scapegoating the culture and divisive political issues. Don’t assume your flock has the same views on some of these secondary issues as you. A tragedy would be someone being turned off to Jesus because we elevated minutia above the message (See 2 Timothy 2:22-26).

6.COLLISION: Remember your flock is struggling with sin, doubt, worldliness, apathy and pain. They need the Word of God. Don’t shy away from it. Don’t be ashamed of it. Please get them into the Bible! Workbooks, videos, bestselling books are all well and good – but they are not the powerful, penetrating, inerrant Word of God. As you lead your flock take them to a place to where they don’t want to go. Force them to collide with God’s majesty and mercy as revealed in the Gospel and the Bible (Romans 1:16-17, Hebrews 4:12-13).

The Beginning of Temptation

An  excerpt from "Imitation of Christ", author Thomas A. Kempis

Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply.  We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies.  The man who shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return more violent than before.

Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways.  Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to consoled.  

The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways.  Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just.  Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.

Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused  admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.  

Someone has said very aptly: "Resist the beginnings, remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength."  First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil, delight, and consent.  Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry.  And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.

(pages 12-13)