2010
What is the Meaning of Christmas?
December/21/2010 05:03 PM Filed in: Culture
An evangelistic short film (10 minutes) from St. Helen’s Bishopgate in London on whether or not the Christmas story happened and what it means—featuring New Testament scholar Paul Barnett:
That's Christmas (Short Film) HD from St Helen's Church on Vimeo.
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Get a Plan to Read the Bible
November/29/2010 11:07 AM Filed in: Christian Growth
Do you have a plan to read the Bible? God's Word is powerful and will change your life. Here are a few reading plans to get started:
My all-time favorite Bible reading plan is The Daily Bible. This is the NIV text put into chronological order so it reads like a story. It is broken into 365 sections, one for each day. It also has brief comments in the text to help explain difficult Scripture. I encourage you to order this from Amazon. You will be richly blessed.
- 30 Days of Reading the Bible for a new Christian.
- Read the Bible in a Year by Genre (Genre means literature type.)
- 180 Day Guided Tour of the Bible. This guide designed by Discipleship Journal is a great overview of the Bible in half a year.
- Reading the Old Testament and New Testament each day.
- Reading the Bible Straight Through.
- Zondervan's Collection of Different Bible Reading Plans
- ESVOnline Bible - This on-line web site lets you add your own notes, book marks and gives you a variety of ways to read through the Scriptures. If you are into reading the Bible online, this site is my favorite.
My all-time favorite Bible reading plan is The Daily Bible. This is the NIV text put into chronological order so it reads like a story. It is broken into 365 sections, one for each day. It also has brief comments in the text to help explain difficult Scripture. I encourage you to order this from Amazon. You will be richly blessed.
Motivated by Greatness - Ben Peterson
November/24/2010 01:31 PM Filed in: Christian Growth
Ben Peterson forwarded me an article he wrote for Thanksgiving. I found it inspiring for our family and read it to my sons to encourage them in wrestling and life. Read More...
I'm Basically A Good Person
October/08/2010 11:56 AM Filed in: Culture
How many times have you heard the phrase, “I am basically a good person?” We live in a safe community of home-spun people with traditional values. We enjoy low crime, low drugs, and good schools. While we have many good things going for us, there is something killing us. It is called sin.
Don’t let the comfort and safety of our community blind you to the sin in our lives. Most of us think we are “basically good people” because we don’t understand how the Bible defines sin. Like our morning look in the mirror, the Bible shows our problem with sin is much more serious than we first realized. Some ways the Bible defines sin are: Read More...
Don’t let the comfort and safety of our community blind you to the sin in our lives. Most of us think we are “basically good people” because we don’t understand how the Bible defines sin. Like our morning look in the mirror, the Bible shows our problem with sin is much more serious than we first realized. Some ways the Bible defines sin are: Read More...
Is God Sovereign Over Death?
August/09/2010 11:19 AM Filed in: Christian Growth | Culture
This past weekend, I preached on God’s sovereignty in the face of death and tragedy. While it is hard to comprehend how God is good, yet sovereign over the tragic deaths of those we love, the Bible tells us both are true. To help us in our thinking, below is a section of a paper I wrote in response to Open Theism, the belief that God lacks sovereignty over all situations.
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40 Bible Verses to Learn this Summer
June/04/2010 08:48 PM Filed in: Scripture
As a freshman in high school, I traveled with Teen Missions, International to Switzerland. That was the summer I first sensed God giving me a desire to serve him full time. One of the most helpful parts of the summer was the Bible memory. I can still remember trying to memorize what felt like a Bible verse a day for the entire mission trip.
The verses I committed to heart are still with me, over 25 years later. I use them on a weekly basis in sermon preparation, counseling and my own personal walk with Christ.
As David, my oldest son, prepares for his freshman year in high school, I know one of the best ways I can help prepare him is to have him commit the same 40 verses to his heart. After some web searching, I found a list of the verses in KJV translation. I reformatted them into the New Living Translation and created a set of memory card.
Note: The format of these cards is intended for double-sided printing.
40 Verses to Learn in the Summer - NIV Translation
I hope others are able to use these cards to help their children memorize these key verses.
The verses I committed to heart are still with me, over 25 years later. I use them on a weekly basis in sermon preparation, counseling and my own personal walk with Christ.
As David, my oldest son, prepares for his freshman year in high school, I know one of the best ways I can help prepare him is to have him commit the same 40 verses to his heart. After some web searching, I found a list of the verses in KJV translation. I reformatted them into the New Living Translation and created a set of memory card.
Note: The format of these cards is intended for double-sided printing.
40 Verses to Learn in the Summer - NIV Translation
I hope others are able to use these cards to help their children memorize these key verses.
Does the New Covenant Trash the Old?
May/21/2010 05:29 PM Filed in: Scripture
Hebrews 8:13 says, "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away."
While teaching that section, I compared the Old Covenant to trash. Was this too strong of a comparison? Was the Mosaic covenant undervalued? At the outset, let me be clear, none of God's covenants are trash. My words were intended to be strictly comparative to what we have in Christ. It is similar to my old computer. When I bought it, I spent good money for what was the latest technology. Today, it is nothing more than scrap metal compared to my Macbook Pro. The greatness of the New Covenant through Christ so greatly outstripped the Old Covenant that the Mosaic Covenant experienced extreme devaluation next to Christ. Read More...
Easter at the SAMI Invitation Tickets
March/21/2010 04:44 PM Filed in: Culture
I gave our congregation "invitation tickets" to help them invite friends to the Easter service.Easter at the SAMI Video Promo
March/20/2010 05:10 PM Filed in: Culture
Video promo I sent to the congregation for Easter.
Marriage - Hold It High, Keep It Holy
March/12/2010 09:54 AM Filed in: Christian Growth
Resources to help in the battle for sexual purity
Practical Steps for Purity and Counting the Cost of Sexual Sin.
Purity for Men
Amazon.com: The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails (LifeChange Books) (9781590521953): Randy Alcorn: Books
Amazon.com: Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World (9781590525197): Joshua Harris: Books
Purity for Women
Amazon.com: And the Bride Wore White: Seven Secrets to Sexual Purity: Dannah Gresh: Books
Amazon.com: And the Bride Wore White Leader's Guide: Seven Secrets to Sexual Purity (9780802483416): Dannah Gresh: Books