Archives: May 2006

This article from the National Review points out that the media made up a huge portion of the “Katrina debunkle” in New Orleans. Was this a ploy just to drive approval ratings down?

“Where to begin? As I’ve written before, virtually all of the gripping stories from Katrina were untrue. All of those stories about, in Paula Zahn’s words, “bands of rapists, going block to block”? Not true. The tales of snipers firing on medevac helicopters? Bogus. The yarns, peddled on Oprah by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans police chief, that “little babies” were getting raped in the Superdome and that the bodies of the murdered were piling up? Completely false. The stories about poor blacks dying in comparatively huge numbers because American society “left them behind”? Nah-ah. While most outlets limited themselves to taking Nagin’s estimate of 10,000 dead at face value, Editor and Publisher—the watchdog of the media—ran the headline, “Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane.”

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God’s Passion for Your Day:

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God!

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem” (Mark 15:33-41, The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

God’s Passion for Your Day:

“To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:15-29. The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

Good article.

“An anonymousized version of a testimony sent to Mark Dever. Read on and enjoy this refreshing reminder about the power of expositional preaching to change both preachers and their people.

Mark,

I am a Senior Pastor of a Baptist Church. I am writing to thank you for your remarks at the Shepherds Conference. Your book 9 Marks has also been a great help. I guess I could simply say you have been a blessing to me and the ministry God has given me.

You should know that what you are doing to help rally reformed pastors to restore the church to health and biblical authority is an important work!

In [this large metro area], churches are wealthy enough to market themselves a crowd (I am also guilty). And how do we market? By asking and supplying what people say they prefer for their church experience. Given that my community finds relevance the most important value to hold, I have been feeding them human enrichment rather than eternal and powerful truth (I have been like Joel Osteen in style with a little SBC culture thrown in). I have grown a church of baptized pagans.

I thought you might be encouraged to hear the short version of what God is doing in me and through me.

I finished [seminary] in 2001 with my M. Div in Church Growth and came to [the church I now pastor]. As soon as I got to [this church], I began to market my church and move full on in contemporary ways (mailers, movies, skits, felt needs preaching, topical preaching, improve your life preaching etc). It worked to grow the crowd. We went from 300 to 500 then to 800. We built a new worship center of 1200 seats. We hired staff and started language congregations on our campus totaling 6 now. We were successful by the worlds standard. What I have seen in these years is a lifetime of church growth tricks, ideas, and miracles in a box. I added up the mailers we have done to be more that 500,000 pieces in these years all with felt needs appeals. Though my crowd was growing, we were not growing a church. We would gain 100 then lose 50 because of fighting and selfish demands of one group with another. I would do another growth campaign and gain more only to lose others. Growing numerically has been a roller coaster! What a miserable thing always looking for the next fad. What a sad life for the local church!

Then, about a year ago God convinced me to teach a verse by verse series through the book of 1st Peter. I dont know why I agreed. I guess since it was Sunday night I thought I would appease some of the more conservative in the church. I thought I would spend about 1 message per chapter. I began early 2005 and now I am beginning chapter 3! I must say that God had a miracle for me in His Word. I began preaching 1 Peter 1:1 and I began seeking what God meant in the text instead of what I wanted to find in the text. Over the summer, the scales fell from my eyes and I saw things previously unknown. Namely, I saw the sovereignty of God in converting sinners! I simply taught each Sunday night what God taught me the week before. The audience sat watching in amazement. They saw God; they saw me alive with the power of God. They saw truth. They didnt know what was happening to me or them but Gods children liked it! I saw them with pads and pens taking down every word I said! Every week since then we have been glorying in the Word.

So, my testimony is that I was able to remain an Arminian and retain a felt needs approach through 8 years of study during Bible college and seminary. None of the great professors could change my mind. What listening to the brightest minds in theology today could not do one summers expository preaching did. Gods Word is powerful not our use of Gods Word but Gods true message in His Word is powerful! Powerful not just to convert sinners but also to transform preachers!

My Sunday night group liked so much the teaching and I loved so much the learning that I began on Sunday in the AM an expositional series through the Gospel of Matthew (a big change from You can have the Abundant Life Now kinds of sermons). Some loved it and others hated it. I would get a call one minute from someone who just discovered some new blessed truth in the Word and in the next moment I would get a call from a church leader saying I was ruining the church with the theological teaching! We are approaching one year in Matthew and I am in chapter 5.

At this time our attendance has dropped back to about 500 but those who remain are happier, more peaceful, and hungrier for God than ever. We are adding new people who are coming because of our beliefs and teaching rather than our gimmicks. Those who came for the bread are moving on but those who love the meat are growing and loving God more.

Frankly, I am in a tension filled time. The members I taught to value growth above all things now want me to pull more growth tricksI am lying in the bed I made. I have a lot of teaching to do to turn this ship completely. What I am working to do at this point is teach biblical values that can empower my membership to make Godly decisions and allow me to move the ministries into a model that honors God not man.

I am beginning to teach the 9 Marks on this coming Sunday in worship and in Sunday School classes. I am working behind the scenes to move the church into some bylaws, covenants, and practices that honor God. I feel that this season will spell the future for this great congregation. We will move on and up or they will reject the hard truths and we will fail.

Please pray for me and this church as I seek to do what you are doing in restoring my church to a healthy model. Only God can do it. He has given me every encouragement that He is at work because He has done so much so far without my help. In fact He did much of this in me without my consent!

Thanks for reading this and I hope my story encourages you to keep your hands to the plow!

1 Tim. 6:6″

Original Location:(9 Marks Ministries)

God’s Passion for Your Day:

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise”” (Mark 10:17-34. The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14-17, The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).

“O that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty, and the holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace.

They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be fools for Christs sake, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they shall appear before His awesome judgment seat.

They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear filled eyes and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit who will witness signs and wonders following and the transformation of multitudes of lives.”

Here’s the text that I’ll be feeding on today:

“For our boast is this: the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will fully acknowledge just as you did partially acknowledge us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say Yes, yes and No, no at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

But I call God to witness against meit was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” (2 Corinthians 1:12-24 The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001).