Advice to a Young Pastor

            My advice to a young pastor would be this “In the calling of leadership, people must take priority over paper and production.” [1] This emphasis is made in the first three chapters of The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make and rightly so. Paperwork can become a force-field that keeps pastors from fully engaging and caring for the people that they come across. Finzel states that an effective leader does not view people as an interruption but as an opportunity “…effective leaders make room for people. Leaving them out is a big, big mistake.” [2] An opportunity to do what? An opportunity to do what a pastor is supposed to do, take care of the flock that God has given him. The Pastor and his staff are not a separate entity from the body of Christ. Everyone needs the love and guidance of Christ and compassion and empathy of fellow Christians to help the church mature. This can be achieved partially and effectively through deliberate and personal acts of affirmation. “Encouraging words give people the fuel to go on even in the most intense environments. Show love to your workers and they will follow you anywhere!” [3] According to Finzel this can be done by listening, empathizing, comforting, carrying burdens and encouraging one another both in and outside of work. [4]

            The question remains, how does one balance building and maintaining relationships and the tasks that need to be finished in a timely and excellent manner? The answer is simple if you live by the advice given in the previous paragraph. The people around you will understand and be sympathetic and maybe even helpful if you build meaningful relationships with your church and coworkers and couple this with regular staff meetings, retreats and open and honest communication, [5] you will be able to sit down with your team and delegate the work at hand without sacrificing the people for the paperwork. Every step of this process involves relationship building. A focus on the people around you first and the work in front of you second should be paramount. It should be understood that “Developing good staff relationships should be of primary concern…” [6] This is not merely a bogus exercise but a biblical one.

^“So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” ^[7]

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[1] Finzel, Hans, The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007), 55.

[2] Ibid, 54.

[3] Ibid, 70.

[4] Ibid, 68.

[5] Powers, Bruce, Church Administration Handbook, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2008), 284

[6] Ibid, 277.

^[7] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), 1 Co 3:7–9.

Short Study on Daniel

1) The Identification of the Four Kingdoms

      Stephen Miller explains that the four kingdoms in Daniel 7 relate back to image of the statue in Daniel 2. “They are the same empires represented by the statue’s four parts in chap. 2.^[1] ”The four parts of the statue and the four beasts represent Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Scholars agree ^[2] that the first kingdom in both instances is Babylon but disagreement arises when they try to decide what the remaining three kingdoms are. A strong argument for the traditional interpretation, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, is from the book of Daniel itself. In both Daniel 8:20 and 6:8, 15 the author refers to Media and Persia as a single kingdom. I agree with the traditional interpretation not only because it supports a plain reading of Daniel but also because the Maccabean interpretation, Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece, is rooted in the idea that Daniel was written well after the events took place ^[3] thus making him at best, ignorant, and at worst, a liar. The descriptions of the beasts align with the characteristics of the kingdoms ^[4] themselves and pair this with the previous reasons stated, the traditional interpretation stands up quite well against criticism.

2) The “One like the Son of Man”

            

“and I saw One like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.” ^[5] 

The imagery of the "clouds of heaven" in Daniel is used of God alone throughout the Old Testament. Exodus 13.21 & 19.16, Leviticus 16.2, Psalm 68 and in Isaiah and Nahum as well. The imagery is always connected to God. ^[6] The New Testament allows us to connect the dots of Daniel’s prophecy concerning who this may "Son of Man" may be. When we look at the New Testament Jesus refers to Himself many times as the “Son of Man”, 25 times in Matthew alone, and it also coincides with the imagery used in Revelation 1 & 14 referring to Jesus. The only conclusion is that “Jesus himself is the One who rides the cloud chariot into the final battle. Jesus is the divine warrior, who will defeat the beast, the forces of evil at the end of time.” ^[7]

3) The Identification of the Ram and the Goat

            The Ram and the Goat are both identified by Gabriel. The Ram represented the “kings of Media and Persia” and the Goat “represents the king of Greece.” The imagery involved with the Ram and the Goat line up perfectly with the history of both of these kingdoms. The horn that grows larger than the other represents the Persian dominance in the Medo-Persian Empire and the large horn of the goat represents Alexander the Great and the four horns that replaced him represent the four generals that split Greece up after his sudden death. ^[8]

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^[1] Stephen R. Miller, vol. 18, Daniel, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 196.

^[2] Ibid, 94.

^[3] Ibid, 23.

^[4] J. Dwight Pentecost, "Daniel" , in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), Da 7:1–7a.

^[5] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Da 7:13.

^[6] Tremper Longman, III, Daniel, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 186-87.

^[7] Tremper Longman, III, Daniel, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 198.

^[8] Tremper Longman, III, Daniel, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 206.

Gehenna: The Idea of an Everlasting Fire as Punishment for the Unsaved Dead.

The Greek word "γεεννα" Gehenna appears in the New Testament 12 times. In the NASB it is translated all 12 times as "hell." I will list all of the verses below.  Jesus references the actual burning pile of garbage outside of Jerusalem as an illustration to those listening. It was literally a fire that burned all of the time. He used an illustration of a real place to describe a real place. 

Mt 5:22 

"ButI say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing ,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool ,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Mt 5:29 

"If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Mt 5:30 

"If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

Mt 10:28 

"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Mt 18:9 

"If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

Mt 23:15 

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Mt 23:33 

"You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Mr 9:43 

"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,

Mr 9:45 

"If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell,

Mr 9:47 

"If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,

Lu 12:5 

"ButI will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

Jas 3:6 

And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

Matthew 25:31-46 Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary.
          "This is a description of the last judgment. It is as an explanation of the former parables. There is a judgment to come, in which every man shall be sentenced to a state of everlasting happiness, or misery. Christ shall come, not only in the glory of his Father, but in his own glory, as Mediator. The wicked and godly here dwell together, in the same cities, churches, families, and are not always to be known the one from the other; such are the weaknesses of saints, such the hypocrisies of sinners; and death takes both: but in that day they will be parted for ever. Jesus Christ is the great Shepherd; he will shortly distinguish between those that are his, and those that are not. All other distinctions will be done away; but the great one between saints and sinners, holy and unholy, will remain for ever. The happiness the saints shall possess is very great. It is a kingdom; the most valuable possession on earth; yet this is but a faint resemblance of the blessed state of the saints in heaven. It is a kingdom prepared. The Father provided it for them in the greatness of his wisdom and power; the Son purchased it for them; and the blessed Spirit, in preparing them for the kingdom, is preparing it for them. It is prepared for them: it is in all points adapted to the new nature of a sanctified soul. It is prepared from the foundation of the world. This happiness was for the saints, and they for it, from all eternity. They shall come and inherit it. What we inherit is not got by ourselves. It is God that makes heirs of heaven. We are not to suppose that acts of bounty will entitle to eternal happiness. Good works done for God's sake, through Jesus Christ, are here noticed as marking the character of believers made holy by the Spirit of Christ, and as the effects of grace bestowed on those who do them. The wicked in this world were often called to come to Christ for life and rest, but they turned from his calls; and justly are those bid to depart from Christ, that would not come to him. Condemned sinners will in vain offer excuses. The punishment of the wicked will be an everlasting punishment; their state cannot be altered. Thus life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse, are set before us, that we may choose our way, and as our way so shall our end be."


2 Thessalonians 1:5-9(NASB)
⁵This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. 
⁶For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 
⁷and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 
⁸dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 
⁹These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 
              
These verses are very clear to me. The Greek is even clearer. The very words in this verse indicate a future perpetual punishment of the unsaved. The Greek word "ὄλεθρος" which is translated destruction does not mean complete annihilation, it indicates a perpetual process as well. 


"Thus, health is destroyed when it fails; property is destroyed when it is burned or sunk in the ocean; a limb is destroyed that is lost in battle; life is destroyed when one dies. In the case before us, the destruction, whatever it be, is:

(1) to be continued forever; and,

(2) is to be of the nature of punishment.

The meaning then must be, that the soul is destroyed as to the great purposes of its being - its enjoyment, dignity, honor, holiness, happiness. It will not be annihilated, but will live and linger on in destruction. It seems difficult to conceive how anyone can profess to hold that this passage is a part of the Word of God, and yet deny the doctrine of future eternal punishment. It would not be possible to state that doctrine in clearer language than this. It is never is in clearer language in any creed or confession of faith, and if it is not true that the wicked will be punished forever, then it must be admitted that it would not have been possible to reveal the doctrine in human language!"

Jesus and The Sabbath

This was a short outline I found with some helpful ideas. I never really thought about it until a friend brought it up in discussion. I don't think it was constructed as an end all argument. But it definitely has some good points and is worth reading. 


Jesus and the Sabbath Key Verse: Mark 2:27 "Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." NASB


I.    God Instituted the Sabbath as a Day of Rest

A.    “Sabbath” means a desisting or cessation with more of a negative than a positive connotation. It is a day in which one should not do what he ordinarily does the other six days of the week (Ex. 23:12). God had a humanitarian motive for instituting this injunction against work on the Sabbath.

B.    The same benevolent purpose also lay behind the sabbatical year which was to be observed every seventh year (Ex. 23:11).

C.    In the Decalogue (Ex. 20:8) the Israelites were commanded to “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy [to set it apart from the others],” with further explanation of the command given in verses nine and ten. Deuteronomy 5:14 reveals the Lord’s philanthropic intent that rest should also be given to others.

D.    Besides being a day of refreshment, the Sabbath was likewise a day of corporate worship, commemorating God’s goodness (Ex. 20:11; Deut. 5:15).

 E.    As time went on, however, the Sabbath celebration degenerated into mere legalistic prohibitions which sapped from it God’s original altruistic intent. Our Lord explicitly refuted the rigid restrictions which had developed by saying, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). It was not to be seen as an end in itself but as a means to an end. The Sabbath was, therefore, instituted to bless man and bring honor to God.

  II.    Why Did Jesus Choose the Sabbath Day to Show His Benevolence?

A.    The Lord deliberately performed many of His miracles on the Sabbath.

1.    One such miracle was the healing of the infirm man near the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:5-18). According to tradition it was lawful to carry a sick person on a bed on the Sabbath because the bed was only an accessory, but to carry the bed alone, an ordinary burden, was unlawful. Thus the healed man was criticized for carrying his bed, and Jesus was censored for healing on the Sabbath a man who was not dying.

2.    The casting out of an unclean spirit at Capernaum also occurred on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21-27; Luke 4:33-37).

3.    Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law on the Sabbath after He had returned from the synagogue (Matt. 8:14, 15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38, 39).

 4.    Jesus also healed the man with a withered hand in the synagogue during Sabbath observances (Matt. 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11).

5.    Both the opening of the eyes of one born blind and the “making of clay” which was involved in this healing, brought criticism upon Jesus because they had been done on the Sabbath (John 9:1-16).

 6.    Jesus healed the woman who had a spirit of infirmity on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17).

7.    He cured the man with the dropsy at the home of one of the chief Pharisees on the Sabbath as well (Luke 14:1-6).

B.    By enacting all these miracles on the Sabbath, Jesus endeavored to show the true benevolent spirit of the Law. At the very beginning of His ministry He had declared, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). Jesus thus attempted to restore to the Sabbath its original intent as He also did with other commandments (Matt. 15:3-20; 23:13-33).

C.    By allowing His disciples to pluck corn on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28), Jesus showed that physical needs are to be met on the Sabbath as well. His illustration from the life of David (Matt. 12:3, 4; Mark 2:25, 26) likewise demonstrated that physical needs take precedence over the ceremonial law. Jesus explained that God prefers mercy exercised by man toward his fellows, to sacrifices (Matt. 12:7).

  III.    After Christ’s Resurrection, the Day of Worship Began to Be Observed on the First Day of the Week

A.    During His earthly life and ministry the Lord Jesus honored the seventh day as a day of worship and took care to demonstrate its original beneficent purpose.

B.    The first day of the week was instituted by the disciples of Christ not as a substitution for the Jewish Sabbath, but as a way of commemorating the Lord’s resurrection " And upon the first [day] of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." Acts 20:7 and also 1 Cor. 16:2. Although Jesus could have risen on the Sabbath, He rose instead in the early morning hours of the first day. In Greek that first day came to be called κυριακῇ (from κύριος, “Lord”), the day of the Lord (Rev. 1:10).

 C.    During the first three Christian centuries the Lord’s Day was carefully distinguished from the Sabbath. It was only after the third century that these Christian and Jewish institutions gradually became confused.

Defending The Faith

Today I am going to try and dive in to something I have never really tried before. I am of the mentality that, to those who don't see that the Bible was written by God, too bad. I have never really wanted to try and defend it. I only bring up this topic, not becuase I think it will be some huge evangelical tool. But I think it will greatly help people in building their own foundation. This will be kind of a continuation of the previous post. In the sense that we, the church, need to know the basics, and know where in the bible they are taught. Before I move on though I just wanted to clarify, I didn't want to defend The Bible because I didn't think the people I was trying to defend it from would ever understand. Like Moses trying to talk sense to the Pharoah, it just wasn't going to work. That is a terrible excuse, but that was my thinking. Anyways, We take for granted the basics of biblical knowledge. I have come across people who have no idea what the Old and New Testaments are, I have been asked if they are even part of the bible. This isn't because these people are "stupid", they just don't know. I think it would be rather daunting for someone who has no idea where to start, if they have no one there to help them through it. That is where the church comes in to play. Teaching the chruch the basics and just being able to relate to other people, in a simplified way I think would be a great tool, not for people to become scholars, but for them to be able to correct wrong thinking from the start. Let me use this general example, someone who has no idea about the bible starts asking you questions just on the basics, if they have the wrong idea it can cause them problems down the road. Being able to explain and teach from scripture what is correct could save this person a lot of trouble. This goes for when you are speaking to believers and non-believers. If we don't know what we are talking about how in the world will other people be able to learn from us. Being equipped with the Word of God is a mighty tool and should be used with great care and consideration. We as Christians should be a light in dark places for those who are trying to find their way.

In The Beginning......

I have started a few posts on different places in this manner. Alluding to the beginning of The Bible. They all have one thing in common, they never lasted very long. I am a terrible writer, I probably have a 3rd grade grasp of English grammar. Just enough to get me by without embarrassing myself. So maybe this will be the one that doesn't die an early death. We shall see...........



Anyways, the reasons for even starting this. I suppose it will be like a journal for me as I try to walk with the word. My endeavors in trying to understand what is written in The Bible and then applying it to my Christian walk. I imagine it is difficult for a lot of people, and maybe this will help. But who am I kidding no one else is going to see this, so it's more or less me writing to myself. Now. Back to the topic at hand. I learned awhile ago to try and keep a particular verse in my head at all times. Acts 17:11 http://read.ly/Acts17.11.ESV

It is a short story in Acts where they were amazed that the Bereans were searching the scriptures daily to see if what they were being told was true. I think this is where a lot of people fall away from the word. They take someone's word instead of "searching the scriptures daily" to see if what they are hearing jives with The Bible. I understand a lot of topics are going to be debated until the 2nd coming of the lord. But on the big doctrinal issues, like the deity if Christ, the ressurection etc. Those are very clearly stated in all the gospels and all the bible. But their are people who argue against even these. That's why I have started with this basic idea, everything you hear, read, see, needs to be held in light of the scriptures. It does not matter who the person is.
The Bible should be your measuring stick. Your light in in dark places, and your compass when you are lost. If when you are searching the scriptures the answer doesn't come to in, pray. Talk with your church, because no church should be intolerant of people seeking understanding. Paul was pleased with the Bereans for questioning him and taking to The Bible to check it out for themselves. I think this kind of mentality is lacking with a lot of people. It would be a good place to start, and I think that is why I chose to start here.