Ephesians 2 Update

As you may recall, I'm doing Ephesians 2 for my exegetical study in Greek class. It's always interesting to start getting into a passage in depth because you don't know what you will find. Will my presuppositions hold up?

I haven't written my syntactical analysis or my sermon outline, but I can tell you that the passage means what it appears to mean. The concept of being "dead" in our sins means that we were spiritually dead. The idea of God "making us alive" with Christ means that God does the work. In other words, salvation is an act of grace, not a smart decision on our parts. Verse 9 speaks to that as well.

This study has reaffirmed my belief in the Doctrines of Grace. God is in charge. We still need to respond, but God gets it all rolling. Verse 10 also reminds us that we are to persevere in our faith as well.

Missionary Man

I love the idea of being a missionary. How cool would it be to bring the gospel to those who haven't heard? Plus there would be such an element of adventure to it. I try to imagine picking up stakes and moving to some place like Italy. Last night I spoke to our friend Shanelle who is serving the Kiwis in Christchurch, New Zealand. She also has helped to establish some small groups in the Philippines and a church may be forming. She is doing great work and it is an honor to be able to support her. I would love to have stories like that.


The problem is the support. The thought of raising it just paralyzes me. I'm not afraid of moving away from all that I know. I'm not afraid of learning a new language. I'm not afraid of learning another culture. However, the idea of raising funds just seems impossible.


When Paul gives his list of offices in Ephesians 4:11 I don't see "fundraiser" listed, though of course some pastors become that. Why must someone with a missionary heart go through the pain of raising funds? Is the church dropping the ball or am I just being a wimp?


I've heard it said that you're either going, sending, or sinning. I'm glad that we can send right now. I'd like to go someday.


Or maybe I should worry about being a missionary here at the bank...

Parenting Seminar

I found the seminar taught by Dr. Stuart Scott to be very helpful and encouraging. I left it with a few takeaways. Specifically, I need to remember that it is not my job to save my children. It is my job to be faithful and it is God's job to save them if it is His will to do so. I think that we naturally have this idea that our children merit God's grace. I know that a part of me thinks like that. However, I know that is no more true for them than it is for me. It is pretty clear that they are sinners who need grace. I pray that God would save them.

There was a challenging aspect to the seminar as well. He raised a good question about prayer. Should children offer petitions to God? It's easy for me to scoff at the unrepentant sinner who prays for God to get them a job, a girlfriend, or through a hangover ("I'll never do this again!"). What is the difference between that and my daughter praying for something or someone? I think a lot of it has to do with how you view Jesus' command to allow the little ones to come to Him. Was He just talking about infants or was He talking about kids? If He was talking about children then where does the so-called "age of accountability" come in to the play? When is it no longer for a child to offer petitions to God?

I don't know if I completely agree with him on this. Lily is a prayer warrior and I really admire that about her. She has a childlike faith. However, I'm not sure that she really understands the gospel. It's so hard to say with someone so young, even if she does seem to be beyond her years sometimes. It is good for her to be in the habit of praying. Every night we give thanks to God for some things and we tell God that we're sorry for what we've done wrong. I think these are good habits.

At any rate, it's all good food for thought. I do know that I am going to keep preaching the gospel to my children as well as to myself. We all need reminders frequently, amen?

Counseling Conference

I just finished day 2 of the IABC conference here in Easley, SC. So far I have found it to be more edifying than the conference I went to in Denver in 2005. The theme of the conference has been on relationships by the book. Last night we had a general session that talked about the progression that Adam and Eve had in committing the first sin and how we go through the same progression. The cure? Knowing and loving God's Word.

This morning I got to share my testimony and then we had a session about divorce and about how God hates it. It's interesting that the ESV does not have the same impact in its translation of Mal 2:16 as the NASB or the NIV. I'll have to ask Randy about that one. The second session was about remarriage and how it often happens when people have not been divorced for biblical reasons. It's not an unpardonable sin, but as pastors we need to examine that.

The workshops have been OK. I attended one last night on how to counsel someone with cancer. The key thing is to point to God's goodness. God may heal the person or not, but He is always good and He always does good, even when it doesn't feel like it. I went to a workshop about marriage that a friend of mine led. It was a good reminder of what marriage is supposed to look like and that it is a covenant, not a contract. The last workshop I attended was about preparing children for the world. The main thing I got from that is to model godly behavior and to look for teaching opportunities in everything.

The highlight has been the parenting seminar taught by Dr. Stuart Scott. My life and marriage have been shaped by his book The Exemplary Husband. Tonight's two sessions were about our children's salvation. He offered us a great encouragement from Isa 1:2 that God parented children, but they turned from Him. If children can turn from the perfect parent then they can turn from us too. Our job is to be faithful in raising our children. It's God's job to save them if it is His will to do so. I need to certainly pray hard for that and that reminds me of the need for that. My anchor must be in my savior, not my children's performance. It has to be all for God's glory.

I hope to write more tomorrow after the two sessions. If they're as good as these two were then I will certainly be blessed.

Struggling for the Gospel

I do apologize for not posting more lately. Amanda was sick last Thursday and I spent the day with the kids. I was sick last Friday. Then there was the weekend and catching up. Here is a verse to contemplate:

Col 1:28-29
(28) Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
(29) For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Let's break this down a little bit. First, we see the need to proclaim Christ. That means that we need to be talking about Him and sharing Him with people. What is part of the message? We are warning people and teaching people with all wisdom. While I do think that the gospel is much more than eternal fire insurance, the warning of eternal condemnation must be part of the message. We have to do this with wisdom. To me, that means we must know our Bibles. We also must exercise care in how we communicate our message to people.

Why do we do this? Paul wanted to present the Colossians mature in Christ. That means that this is not just sharing the gospel to unbelievers, but also helping believers grow in faith as well. I think that this is big part of the "teaching" he refers to. The message from the pulpit, the counselor, or just the Christian friend should be one of helping each other grow in Christ. I think that starts with Scripture. We have to know what it says and then we need to prayerfully apply it.

The image of "toil" is powerful to me. I know that many a minister has been burnt out because the ministry was not done with the energy that Christ powerfully works within us. If we do this on our own we will fail. It will simply be labor and we cannot do it any more than we can keep moving stacks of firewood indefinitely without some external nourishment in the form of food and water.

This is one of my memory verses for Biblical counseling. I hope that you enjoyed thinking through this with me.