tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59700524401774637682024-02-18T23:35:50.140-08:00All of Grace"But you have come...to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word..." Heb. 12:22-24Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.comBlogger222125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-14166642754490691312016-07-07T07:17:00.000-07:002016-07-07T11:49:56.002-07:00A New Era in My Life (Updated)<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">Ever since I penned the letter below I have been asked by thousands of people to reconsider my decision to not seek reelection. It has been incredibly overwhelming to hear the response. I have deeply appreciated how many people have expressed to me that they believe I have been their voice on the school board. I do not take that responsibility lightly. As a result, I have been weighed down for the past month as I pray through these requests to reconsider. I have sought counsel from numerous quarters. I have gone back and forth in my own heart and mind. I have asked many to pray for me.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">I want you to know that I have decided to stand by my original decision to not seek reelection. My wife and elders concurred with my original decision. I continue to hold the conviction that my original decision is the correct one.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">I know many of you will not understand why I am "giving up the fight." I am not giving up the fight. I am redirecting my time and effort. I am exhausting myself in preaching the gospel. I am spending my time equipping parents and their children to be godly witnesses of Christ in an increasingly hostile society. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">As I considered the many requests I became increasingly dogged by the concern that staying on the board would be giving Christian parents false hope. Why? I do not believe this battle can be won at the school board level. It is lost. The State and Federal governments have co-opted your local schools. They mean to indoctrinate your children in their radical secularism. They mean to cause your children, and Christian teachers and administrators, to bow to their sex gods. I simply can't be part of enforcing that.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">It is now law in CA that your children must be taught how to have safe homosexual sex, how to obtain an abortion, and that gender does not correspond to biological sex. Think of that! It is legally required to teach your children the LGBTQ sexual mores while simultaneously illegal to mention God. I can't and won't enforce that foolishness. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">I do not know how long Christian teachers and administrators can ethically continue. They will certainly need to increase in their wisdom as they navigate this new legal reality in our state. Please pray for them. I also do not know how Christian parents will afford to find other options for their children. I know they will need to make sacrifices their parents likely didn't have to make. Please pray for them. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">We must wake up to the reality of where our state has headed. We must prepare the church to live as sojourners in a foreign land, a land that feels more foreign by the day. We need to help parents find alternatives to public schools as they disciple their children. We have to shepherd our public school teachers and administrators through wisely and faithfully working in this new legal environment. There are many challenges that face us. I have not given up the fight. I have chosen to direct my efforts fully to these pastoral responsibilities.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">Thank you for 12 years of trust. I am deeply grieved that our state has moved us to this point. In the midst of all of this, I am deeply encouraged that Jesus is in his temple and on his throne. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">For His Glory,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">Chad</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">The following is the letter I sent to my congregation on June 2, 2016:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);">Dear Sovereign Grace,<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />I
am sitting here in my home having just returned from a Kern High School
Board of Trustees meeting. I have almost never discussed my role on the
board with you. I intend to change that with this letter.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />You
are a congregation that has graciously endured my often well-known
public disputes regarding political issues. You have graciously allowed
me to attempt to love my neighbor through that public service, while
also being your pastor. You have done me the great service of not
bringing up my board responsibilities at church and left me free to be a
pastor. I am sure there are times you believe I represented you well. I
am sure there are times when I have not represented you well. You have
been gracious on all occasions. You have corrected me graciously when
necessary. You have encouraged me greatly when needed. I am deeply
thankful for the incredibly mature and kind way you have stood with me
as a brother in Christ and as a pastor. The 12 years I have served on
the board have been made bearable by you.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />Today,
I sat in a meeting as our board voted to bring into our district policy
the full spectrum of the LGBTQ agenda. I realized as I listened to the
numerous legal justifications and requirements that board members uphold
these deeply offensive and immoral laws that I can no longer serve in
this role. I am a Christian pastor above all else. I could not vote for
these policies. I can not remain on a board to enforce these policies. I
spoke out against the board voting for this. I called on them to
realize that they will answer to God on this vote, and they should fear
Him more than the state. I did not prevail.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />I
plan to address further my own personal realization that government
education has been hijacked as a cause for the indoctrination of your
children in nihilism, hedonism, and atheism. I will also address more my
realization that I was naive not to think this was the only direction
government education could go. I am not calling Christian teachers to
abandon their posts. By all means, please keep being a light in a dark
place as long as you ethically can. I am encouraging you to find other
means to educate your children. Please know that this is my advice and
not God's law, nor an official declaration of our church. We believe in
Christian liberty. However, I can tell you after 12 years of sitting
through meetings that public education means to indoctrinate your
children in anti-Christian ideology.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />With
that said, I will not be seeking reelection to the Kern High School
District Board. I will give all my time and effort to being a pastor in
our church. I will also be helping look for alternatives for Christian
parents to educate their kids. I am called to preach the gospel. I am
called to pray for you and minister to you. My time as a public school
board member has come to an end. I am very much at peace with this
decision. While I am not optimistic about the future of our country, I
am deeply optimistic about the future of Christ's church. Jesus will
build his church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />For His Glory,<br style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" />Chad</span>Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-36093508778720652552016-01-01T13:32:00.001-08:002016-09-27T08:52:02.934-07:00A Letter to Young Men Aspiring to be PastorsDear Aspiring Pastor, <br />
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I have been thinking about what I want to write you as a result of your recent desire to pursue pastoral ministry. First, let me say that I thank God for this desire. I consider the privilege of being a pastor of Christ’s flock an unspeakable joy which I do not deserve. It is my great joy and only desire to preach his Word to his people for his glory. I desire nothing more than to see Christ’s fame spread to unbelievers around the world and to see Christ’s church honoring his name by walking in the truth. <br />
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I believe God can be glorified in secular vocations as much as this sacred vocation. However, it remains true that being called into ministry is certainly the grandest of vocations. It is not grand because it is easy, or comfortable, or because it makes you wealthy or powerful. It is sacrificial and often painful. It is can be frustrating and demeaning. It is glorious though to be an under-shepherd of Christ. Few people know the privilege of serving the flock of God which he bought with his own blood. Thus, as pastors we rejoice in our sufferings as we fill up the afflictions lacking in Christ for the sake of his body, the church (Colossians 1:24). <br />
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Being a shepherd of the flock is also a dangerous calling. You will stand before God and give an account for the souls of those in your care (Hebrews 13:17). It is not easy to be an example for the flock to follow day in and day out (Hebrews 13:7). It is weighty to know that teachers of God’s Word incur a stricter judgment (James 3:1). It can be incredibly discouraging to be rejected, mocked, and persecuted as you pour out your heart making an open statement of the truth to those who are blinded by their sins (2 Cor. 4). Many men fall to the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. They prove to be hired hands as they pursue self-preservation and flee the sheep, leaving them to the wolves (John 10:11-14). Many men cannot tolerate the blessing of having their name reviled for the sake of Christ. Most men do not last a life time in ministry. I heard recently that 9 out of 10 pastors who begin in ministry end up leaving the ministry. I have watched men I love and respect fall into grave sin and disqualify themselves. I have watched others lose sight of suffering as a good soldier in Christ and walk away for “greener pastures.”<br />
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This drives me to the central reason I am writing this letter. How do you avoid being a casualty of your own sinful heart, the pull of a world that beckons you to earthly comfort, and the Devil who will seek to bring harm to Christ’s church by attacking her shepherds? While I don’t think there is a silver bullet which will guarantee your pursuit of holiness, faithful preaching of the Word, and endurance in suffering, I do think there is some wisdom to be found in learning from the application of the Word by older men. My best shot at an answer is that you need to start ministry in a wise and Christ-honoring fashion, if you hope to finish in that same manner. So, what does a wise and Christ-honoring beginning look like?<br />
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I think we ought to look to the Scripture for the answer, particularly the Apostle Paul. There is much to gain from Paul as he trained so many young pastors and wrote much of the New Testament. As we look at his writings, I want to focus on Paul’s supreme passion in ministry, his goal for the church, his method in ministry, and his exhortations and his expectations of pastors.<br />
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<u><b>Paul’s Supreme Passion in Ministry</b></u><br />
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Paul tells us his passion in a variety of places. He states it quite succinctly in his letter to the pastors in Ephesus in Acts 20:24.<br />
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<i>24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. </i><br />
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Paul’s life mattered not to him. He only wanted to finish the race the Lord Jesus had given him. What was that race? To testify to the gospel of the grace of God. This is Paul’s supreme passion in ministry. He wants the gospel of God’s grace in Christ to be known across the world for God’s glory. He states the same in Romans 1:1-5 and Romans 15:20-21. This is what Paul was focused on. If you want to last in ministry, you need to begin and finish with this same passion. You need to be ready to pour yourself out for this ultimate end. You need to be committed to preparing for this. You may not fully know yet how much this will cost you. However, you can choose to be committed to paying whatever cost will come. <br />
<b><u><i><br /></i>Paul’s Goal for the Church</u></b><br />
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Paul’s goal for the church was really fairly simple. He tells us his goal in Colossians 1:28-29.<br />
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<i> 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.</i><br />
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Paul states his goal for the church is that they may be presented mature in Christ. His deepest desire for the church is that she grows up in maturity in Christ. He is jealous for her to be singularly devoted to Christ and his gospel (2 Cor. 11:1-4). He wants to see her walk in a manner worthy of her calling (Ephesians 4:1-6). He desires that the church not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but that she knows and speaks the truth in love so as to be mature in Christ (Ephesians 4:14-16). Paul also tells us his method for achieving this goal when he says, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone…” He proclaims Jesus and exhorts and teaches the church. This leads to my next point.<br />
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<u><b>Paul’s Method in Ministry</b></u><br />
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Paul’s method necessarily followed from Paul’s understanding of the gospel. Paul strives with all Christ’s energy precisely by using a methodology that is dependent on Christ’s Spirit to do the real work of heart change. The gospel teaches us that we are dead in our sins. We are unable to believe and obey. We are under God’s wrathful and just judgment. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—“ (Ephesians 2:4-5). <br />
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God is the agent who gives us life. God does this through the unmerited favor he shows us in Christ. He is not provoked by any good in us, but by the fact that he is good. We receive this grace through faith alone in Christ alone. Therefore, we must have a ministry methodology that is likewise dependent upon God’s powerful and gracious working. Paul tells us that his methodology is to “proclaim Him (Jesus).” In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul gives us more insight into his method.<br />
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<i>1Cor. 2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.</i><br />
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Paul teaches many truths besides just the Cross. So, why does he insist he knew nothing but “Jesus Christ and him crucified”? He does so because everything he taught ties back to the center of the story of God and his work: Jesus and his death and resurrection. When Paul teaches on living under unjust government, he ties it back to Jesus and the cross (Romans 13). When Paul teaches on marriage, or having an unjust employer, he ties it back to the gospel (Ephesians 5:21-6:9). Jesus is the center of the story. Our ministry methodology must be constantly tied to proclaiming him. Further, in 1 Cor. 2:4-5, Paul tells us that he intentionally avoids gimmicks, entertainment, and other worldly means of attracting attention, because his ministry is Spirit-dependent and he wants God to get the glory. Paul actually states in 1 Cor. 1:17 that to use these other methods is to “empty the Cross of its power.” I can think of no more damnable statement about worldly methodologies than that! I could multiple examples where Paul speaks of his ministry methodology, but I will end this point with his statement to the Ephesian pastors from Acts 20:26-27:<br />
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<i>26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. </i><br />
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<u><b>Paul’s Exhortations and Expectations of Pastors</b></u><br />
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Paul was not just an Apostle and Missionary-Pastor. Paul was also a man who trained young pastors and elders. He often gave them exhortations as to what mattered in ministry and in their own lives. The first of these exhortations is found to his church plant in Ephesus. We read his exhortation to the elders / pastors in Acts 20:28-31:<br />
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<i>28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.</i><br />
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Paul is deeply concerned that wolves will come in and lead the flock into false doctrine. He commands the elders to be on the alert. He challenges them to follow his example of constant teaching and admonishment. He knows that from the beginning Satan has had no greater desire than to lead God’s people astray from God’s Word. Satan is a liar who comes as an angel of light. He deceptively whispers into the ear of Christ’s bride prodding her to pursue other lovers. He comes as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Christ’s under-shepherds must be diligently on the look out for these false teachers. We must be constantly teaching and preparing Christ’s flock the Word, so that they can spot the wolves and reject their lies.<br />
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Unfortunately, the elders at Ephesus did not seem to have taken Paul’s admonishment to heart. For it was not long until Paul sent Timothy to clean up the mess of false teachers in Ephesus. Paul wrote 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy as letters to a young pastor who needed to be exhorted as to how to do his job. I want you to see Paul’s clear and unambiguous focus in his exhortations to Timothy. Look first at what he says in 1 Timothy 4:12-16:<br />
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<i> 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.</i><br />
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Notice that Timothy is to be a godly young pastor who is devoted to reading and teaching the Bible. He is to immerse himself in these practices. He is to keep a close watch on his own life and on “the teaching” (doctrine). The salvation of the church, in some mysterious way, is connected to the godliness and doctrine of its pastors! While this passage is powerfully telling, I would argue that it does not reach the heights that Paul comes to at the end of his life in his final exhortation to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10-4:5.<br />
<i><br /></i><i>2Tim. 3:10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. </i><br />
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<i>2Tim. 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.</i><br />
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What is Paul’s death bed exhortation to Timothy? Follow his example. What did he do? He suffered for the gospel. How does Timothy follow that example? He remembers the gospel that saved him, which is recorded in God’s Word. He stays committed to the Bible as the inspired and all-sufficient Word of God. A word that can thoroughly equip the man of God for every good work. Further, Timothy is to take up Paul’s incredibly exalted charge to “Preach the Word.” He is to preach the Word when it is popular to do so and when it is not. He is to preach the Word knowing that people will reject it and run after false teachers. He is to be godly, endure suffering, and make the gospel known to unbelievers.<br />
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If your heart beats with Paul’s, you will feel refreshed and encouraged by this word. You will want to get on your face and ask God to give you gifts and godliness consummate with such a glorious calling. You will feel as if the Word is screaming to come out of your mouth in preaching, like “fire shut up in your bones.” And, you will wonder how you become a man who is qualified for this glorious privilege. I think the best way to answer that question is to stress two attributes you need to do well in ministry:<br />
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<b> 1. Godly Character. </b><br />
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We live in an age in which patiently waiting for people to mature is sadly under-valued, while gifting is over-valued. Gifting is more important to our godless culture than character. This has become increasingly true in the church. If you are a talented and attractive figure, who cares if you are a godly man? You are a great guy who has a charismatic personality. You will attract crowds. This is so contrary to the view of Paul. Listen to how he describes the character of pastors when writing to both Timothy and Titus:<br />
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<i>1Tim. 3:1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.<br /><br />Titus 1:5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.</i><br />
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Paul spends the vast majority of his writing on describing the character of the pastor, and comparatively very little describing his competence. Gifting is a distant second to godliness for Paul. Paul’s emphasis is on making sure the pastor is a godly and mature man in the faith. This is where I would exhort you to slow down and grow in godliness before being a leader. Any leader who offers you a pastoral leadership opportunity when you are young in the faith is directly violating God’s holy word. Such a pastor may believe he is doing you a favor. But he is bringing harm to you and Christ’s church. This is why Paul tells Timothy to “entrust these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2).” Maturity over time proves a man’s faithfulness. This requires patience on the part of the young man as he prepares himself for this glorious vocation.<br />
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<b> 2. Doctrinal Competence</b><br />
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Further, it is also vitally important that the young pastor is well-trained in the Word. He must be able to teach. “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” He must be well-prepared if he hopes to discern truth from error. He must be thoroughly conversant with the Bible if he hopes to teach the whole counsel of God. He must be able to understand how every part of the Word of God is interrelated in one coherent story about Jesus. He must be able to articulate that to others with clarity. He also should know how the church throughout history has understood the Bible, so as to learn from the faithful men whom God has given the church. He should be adept at understanding how to answer the deepest needs of his congregation through a proper application of God’s Word. This kind of ability requires solid training in biblical languages, biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, and church history. It would also be incredibly wise to be mentored by other faithful pastors. I would urge you to strongly consider going to seminary, and to intern in a biblically faithful church ministry.<br />
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<u><b>Final Thoughts</b></u><br />
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I have no authority to make decisions about how you approach the next phase of your life. But I would like to give you advice and recommendations based on what I have written above. You will not hurt my feelings if you don’t take my advice. I offer it because I love you, and more importantly, because I love Christ and his gospel. <br />
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1. Please date and marry a woman who is pursuing Jesus. I have seen several men end any hope of ministry because they married unwisely. If I could narrow down just one trait, I would say look for a woman who encourages you to trust and obey Jesus. Any woman you are dragging along with you is an unwise choice.<br />
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2. Please slow down the pursuit of ministry and take the time to grow in maturity as a godly man. I imagine you are chomping at the bit. But what you need more than anything else is time in a biblically-saturated, Christ-centered, local church. You need time to sit under the preaching of the Word and to read your Bible.<br />
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3. Please commit to seminary training. It is easy for young men to arrogantly turn from the immense benefit of sitting at the feet of men who have spent their lives becoming experts in God’s Word. Don’t follow that example. Christ gave these men to his church. Rejoice in that good gift! I am happy to recommend good seminaries to you. I am even pleased to take you to visit some.<br />
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4. Please think about doing secular employment while you grow in maturity. It is incredibly helpful to be able to shepherd men in secular vocations in the church when you have had to face walking with Christ in the secular work world yourself. Further, we should not presume upon the church to provide for us. As Christ’s servants, we are worthy of our wages. However, we are also those who are prepared to serve the church while also providing for ourselves through secular employment. The apostle Paul often did this.<br />
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5. Please commit to learning ministry in the context of a local church that will help you to grow in your understanding of the Word and how to minister in Christ’s church. <br />
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I would love to continue to help you along in ministry, whatever you decide. It is my desire that if you go into ministry, you have the opportunity to start the race in a manner that will help you to finish well. I am jealous for the opportunity to share with you the great joy of ministry I have experienced. I am praying for you.<br />
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For His Glory,<br />
Chad<br />
<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-52694111949083770082014-10-13T15:39:00.003-07:002014-10-14T09:58:44.830-07:00An Open Letter to Ron Vietti and Jim Crews (Revised)Dear Ron and Jim,<br />
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Your message entitled "Exposing Calvinism" has certainly made its rounds this past week. As one of the local Calvinist pastors who was essentially called a "wolf," who was said to be teaching a "doctrine of demons," and who was called a "heretic on steroids," I decided I should at least give some form of response. I have no intent in beginning a debate with you on Facebook. We all know those are rarely productive or generous. I hope to accomplish 5 objectives: 1) Provide a direct answer to your main question, 2) offer an apology, 3) give you a commendation, 4) suggest a few corrections, and 5) issue a few challenges.<br />
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1). Since there is some fear that Calvinist pastors around town may keep their views a "dirty little secret," let me start this by answering your primary question (or at least my paraphrase of it), "do you believe in predestination as Calvin taught it?" Yes. I absolutely believe Calvin properly understood the Bible with regard to the doctrines of predestination and election. Further, I think Calvin properly understood the biblical teachings of the guilt and corruption of man, the effectual nature of God's grace, the particular nature of redemption, and the perseverance of the saints. I have read much of Calvin's work and rarely find much in his commentaries or theology with which I take issue. Have you read his work? I commend it to you.<br />
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2). I want to apologize to you if you believe I have somehow attacked you personally. I barely know either one of you. I don't ever remember attacking you personally. I remember our personal exchanges always being kind and respectful. I bear no personal animus toward either of you. I thank God for men I get to work alongside of whom you personally benefitted. I have certainly taken issue with some doctrines you have taught. I have found some of them to be not only erroneous, but heterodox. It saddens me to think that the largest church in town is teaching doctrine which is heterodox. I don't glory in these concerns. Further, I am not a fan of the modern tendency to make truth personal. Thus, I don't take my problems with your doctrine to be an attack on your person. I believe truth is external to us, which is why I don't take your recent message to be an attack against my person. With that said, if I have said or done something which you have taken as a personal attack, I sincerely apologize. <br />
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3). I want to commend you for attempting to protect the flock from what you consider a false gospel and blasphemy against the character of God. In a cultural moment when so many are afraid to love others by speaking against false doctrine, I am thankful you reject this kind of modernistic sentimentality and relativism. I am thankful you desire to refute those who contradict and to silence false teachers (Titus 1:9ff).<br />
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4). I don't have the intent of staging a debate in this letter, but I want to offer four corrections:<br />
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First, what you represented to be Calvinist doctrine is unrecognizable to me. As someone who holds to the historic reformed confessions and who reads Calvin, Turretin, Hodge, Shedd, Spurgeon, Warfield, Machen, Sproul, Piper etc fairly regularly, I don't recognize what you called "Calvinism." Is it possible you misunderstood Calvinism? The 9th commandment commands us not to bear false witness. I would say this applies to our friends, opponents and enemies. Please don't misunderstand me. You are free to provide assessments of my doctrine I don't agree with. However, when you say, "person A believes X, then person A should be able to heartily agree that X is what he believes." I have never read any Calvinist theologian who denies man has a real choice, nor that God loves all people. Can you point me to one? Have you read "Spurgeon versus the Hyper-Calvinists" by Ian Murray? I commend this book to you. It is published by the Banner of Truth. Spurgeon was a Calvinist who had to fight off Hyper-Calvinists who believed God's love was not for the whole world. These Hyper-Calvinists taught a doctrine called eternal justification and denied the need for evangelism, missions etc. This was a perversion of Calvinism, much like the open-theist perversion of Arminianism taught by Greg Boyd, Clark Pinnock etc.<br />
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Second, when you spoke about election and monergistic regeneration you spoke as if these doctrines arose from Calvin. Luther taught these same doctrines more often than Calvin did (see Bondage of the Will). He was before Calvin. Aquinas taught this nearly 5 centuries before Calvin. Augustine taught the same 11 centuries before Calvin. I would argue Paul and Jesus taught them as well, but that's the real debate, isn't it?<br />
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Third, your history of Calvin's life was just false. The city council of Geneva put Servetus to death for the heresy of denying the Trinity. Calvin was not on the city council of Geneva. Calvin was a pastor in Geneva. Servetus was on the run from the Roman Catholic Church for this heresy. He wanted to flee to Geneva, largely because far less people were put to death there than in the rest of Europe. Calvin wrote him a letter warning him not to come because the city council would try him. Servetus did not take Calvin's counsel and came anyway. He was put to death. Calvin actually asked that the city council do so mercifully. Should Calvin have spoken out more strongly against the State church and the use of capital punishment for heresy? Sure. Does his lack of doing so make him guilty of putting Servetus to death? No.<br />
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Fourth, Calvinists don't believe most babies are going to Hell. We make no claim as to what percentage of people are elect. We make no claims to know who the elect are. Our historic confessions teach that infants who die in infancy go to Heaven. We believe whole-heartedly in evangelism, missions, and prayer. In fact, arguably the greatest evangelists and missionaries in the last several hundred years of history were Calvinists (George Whitefield, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Charles Spurgeon). I could multiply this list for some time, but I think the point is made.<br />
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5). Finally, I want to challenge you in three regards:<br />
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First, I would challenge you to read Calvin himself. Buy a copy of the "Institutes of the Christian Religion." The translation by Battles is particularly good. Read through it slowly. I am happy to meet and discuss this book with you. Since you believe Calvin's doctrine is such a growing problem, wouldn't it be worthwhile to read him first hand? This would help you to protect the flock from his growing popularity. I would be willing to bet that you may disagree with him, but you will find him anything but a wolf.<br />
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Second, I challenge you to either privately or publicly begin meeting with me to discuss our differences. I think public discussions have huge advantages in helping our congregations learn how to think well. However, they also have the disadvantage of creating a more defensive atmosphere. We may rightly conclude after such conversations that the doctrine of the other person is in fact heresy. However, we are commanded to love each other well. I doubt talking at each other will ever accomplish that. The worst case outcome is that we gain certainty our suspicions are correct. You name the time and place, and I will do my best to be present.<br />
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Third, I challenge you to issue a direct and full apology to local Christian high schools. There is no evidence that the doctrine of any teacher at any Christian high school is increasing the likeliness of suicide among their students. This was an incredibly uncharitable, inflammatory, and unsubstantiated charge to make. Many of the teachers at these schools are sacrificing better pay and benefits and lots of emotional time and energy to help parents educate their Christian children. We ought rather to thank God for their work.<br />
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I look forward to discussing this with you more. If you disregard everything else I write here, I ask you to consider issuing an apology to local Christian high schools. Thank you for your consideration.<br />
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For His Glory,<br />
Chad Vegas<br />
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Purpose for Revision: Jim Crews contacted me and pointed out that they never mentioned Bakersfield Christian High School by name. He asked that I change my letter. I am happy to oblige. Between minute 19 and minute 22 of their video they reference pastors in Bakersfield and then go on to discuss local Christian high schools. I made the assumption they were referencing BCHS because I am not aware of any other Christian high schools in Bakersfield. This was an unfair assumption on my part. I sincerely apologize for making that assumption. There certainly may be Christian high schools I have not heard of in Bakersfield. Thank you!<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-1334804332626884962013-11-13T15:06:00.002-08:002013-11-13T15:06:55.608-08:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 7)Edwards provides 3 more positive signs to know if a work is a true work of the Spirit. I want to give a brief overview of those 3 positive signs in today's post.<br />
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1. "The spirit that operates in such a manner, as to cause in men a greater regard to the Holy Scriptures, and establishes them more in their truth and divinity, is certainly the Spirit of God." Commenting on 1 John 4:6 Edwards rightly establishes that a true work of the Spirit is a work which causes us to love his word more and to gain a clearer understanding of his word. If you see a work of a spirit which is not bringing about a greater hunger for the word of God in Scripture, and a greater illumination of God's word to the mind, then you are not seeing a true work of the Spirit of God. Satan may appear as an angel of light but he never points people to the light of God in the Word. Rather, he leads them to increasing darkness. He confuses their minds and leaves them with strange and novel interpretations of what God has said. Satan started this practice in the Garden and he continues it to this day.<br />
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2. "...if by observing the manner of the operation of a spirit that is at work among a people, we see that it operates as a spirit of truth, leading persons to truth, convincing them of those things that are true, we may safely determine that it is a right and true spirit." A true work of the Spirit of God leads men away from error into truth. Satan is a deceiver. The Spirit of God is the truth teller. If a work of a spirit is leading us away from the lies of Satan and to the truth, that spirit is the Spirit.<br />
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3. "If the spirit that is at work among a people operates as a spirit of love to God and man, it is a sure sign that it is the Spirit of God." Edwards draws this mark from the rest of 1 John 4, but particularly from v. 12-13, "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." Edwards presses us to define love as it is so in 1 John 4. This kind of sacrificial payment of great cost to self for the sake of showing kindness to others is the work of the Spirit of God.<br />
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However, Edwards warns us that there is a counterfeit of this love which often appears among those with a spirit of delusion. "Indeed there is a counterfeit love, that often appears among those who are led by a spirit of delusion. There is commonly in the wildest enthusiasts, a kind of union and affection, arising from self-love, occasioned by their agreeing in those things wherein they greatly differ from all others, and from which they are the objects of the ridicule of all the rest of mankind. This naturally will cause them so much the more to prize those peculiarities that make them the object of others' contempt." Edwards names groups such as the Gnostics, and fanatics like the Quakers. He goes on to argue that true love is marked by humility which arises from an apprehension of the free grace and sovereignty of God's love to us in Christ.<br />
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Let me conclude by reminding my brothers and sisters in Christ that we are not cynical, or quenching the Spirit, when we don't believe every spirit. We are being obedient! We are commanded by God to not believe every spirit but to test them, for many false spirits have gone out into the world. I pray we will take the apostle's admonition seriously and test claims of a work of the Spirit. We are commanded to do no less.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-31908203203224884662013-11-12T14:39:00.003-08:002013-11-12T14:40:08.379-08:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 6)Today we turn to the second positive sign that a work is of the Spirit of God. Edwards said, "when the spirit that is at work operates against the interests of Satan's kingdom, which lies in encouraging and establishing sin, and cherishing men's worldly lusts; this is a sure sign that it is a true, and not a false spirit."<br />
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Working through 1 John 4, Edwards has come to v. 4-5 in which John says, "Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them." Edwards wants to drive home the point that a true work of the Spirit causes us to overcome worldliness, not to press further into worldliness. He argued that his readers need to understand John's use of "the world" as defined by 1 John 2:15-16.<br />
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Edwards rightly argues from his understanding of 1 John that a spirit that is at work "after such a manner, as to lessen men's esteem of the pleasures, profits, and honours of the world, and to take off their hearts from an eager pursuit after these things; and to engage them in a deep concern about a future state and eternal happiness which the gospel reveals--and puts them upon earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and the spirit that convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, the guilt it brings, and the misery to which it exposes, must needs be the Spirit of God."<br />
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As a short summary, we have learned so far that 2 positive marks of a true work of the Spirit are that He causes in us (1) a growing esteem for the biblical Jesus, and (2) a growth in holiness as defined by turning away from worldliness and the vileness of sin unto Christ and his righteousness.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-70723146645332438822013-11-05T13:08:00.002-08:002013-11-05T13:09:44.021-08:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 5)Today we turn to consider the sure marks and evidences of a work of the Holy Spirit. Edwards used 1 John 4 as his text and confined his marks of a true work to that text. We will consider those marks from 1 John 4 with him. Let me remind you of the command to be cautious and to "test" claims of a work of the Spirit. Let's be careful to remember that we are not quenching the Spirit, nor being cynical, when we are cautious and test claims. Instead we are being obedient to a direct command.<br />
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<b>Mark 1~ </b>"When the operation is such as to raise their esteem of that Jesus who was born of the Virgin, and was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem; and seems more to confirm and establish their minds in the truth of what the gospel declares to us of his being the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; is a sure sign that it is from the Spirit of God." Edwards points to this mark of a true work of the Spirit from 1 John 4:2-3. When a claimed work of the Spirit of God is such as to "convince them of Christ, and lead them to him--to confirm their minds in the belief of the history of Christ as he appeared in the flesh--and that he is the Son of God, and was sent of God to save sinners; that he is the only Saviour, and that they stand in great need of him; and if he seems to beget in them higher and more honourable thoughts of him than they used to have, and to incline their affections more to him; it is a sure sign that it is a true and right Spirit."</div>
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The apostle John is likely rebuking docetists as he writes this in 1 John. Docetists would claim to believe in Jesus. They denied he had an actual physical body. They believed he only appeared to have physicality. Edwards understands properly that John is arguing that a true work of the Spirit leads us to a greater understanding and affection for the true biblical Christ (though he would also be clear to say that the Holy Spirit could point you to the true Christ as he hardens your heart). Edwards points out the false Christ extolled among the Quakers. He is basically arguing the Holy Spirit leads us into a true biblical understanding of Christ, as best expressed historically in the great Christian creeds. </div>
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Here is the nub of this point: If your "experience of the spirit" does not lead you to a truer understanding and affection for the biblical Jesus, as he is faithfully expressed in the Christian creeds, then your experience can't be trusted. The Mormons claimed great experiences of the spirit, including speaking in tongues, emotional experiences, hearing from God, and healings. Satan is capable of of counterfeits. We must not believe every spirit. We must test them. Tomorrow I will turn to more of Edwards' marks of a true work of the Spirit.<br />
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-65766034275806269512013-10-30T11:15:00.001-07:002013-10-30T11:15:59.223-07:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 4)As we continue working through Jonathan Edwards' work, I hope to cover negative signs 5-9 today. Please keep in mind Edwards is arguing for the idea that certain phenomena are neither signs the Spirit of God is at work, nor signs he could not be at work. These are what he calls negative signs. We will turn next to signs that are necessarily present if the Holy Spirit is at work.<br />
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5. "It is no sign that a work is not from the Spirit of God, that example is a great means of it. It is surely no argument that an effect is not from God, that means are used in producing it..." Edwards seems to be arguing Christians should not deny an effect in one person because the example of another person was the means used to bring about the effect. If a man is moved to worship by seeing others worship as he hears the word, Edwards argues this man's worship is not necessarily less genuine. On the other hand, this man's worship could be just an attempt to conform or follow a pattern seen in others.<br />
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6. "It is no sign that a work is not from the Spirit of God, that many, who seem to be the subjects of it, are guilty of great imprudences and irregularities in their conduct. We are to consider that the end for which God pours out his Spirit, is to make men holy, and not to make them politicians." Edwards is arguing that the Spirit works among men who are sinners. He is working to make them holy, but they still struggle with sin. If one argues the Spirit can't be present where sin is still great, then one has not read 1 Corinthians. However, the Spirit is not present where there is no repentance and growth in holiness.<br />
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7. "Nor are many errors in judgment, and some delusions of Satan intermixed with the work, any argument that the work in general is not of the Spirit of God." It is not only possible but likely Satan will attempt to bring confusion when the Spirit is at work. He will produce counterfeits alongside the true work of the Spirit, so as to confuse God's people. Error and delusions does not necessarily rule out that the Holy Spirit can be at work in the main. Of course, all of this is provided the positive signs of a true work of the Spirit are present.<br />
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8. "If some, who were thought to be wrought upon, fall away into gross errors, or scandalous practices, it is no argument that the work in general is not the work of the Spirit of God." Whenever the Spirit of God is at work in men, there are bound to be men who are phonies. Those men may look like the real deal initially. Their fall is no proof that the work of the Holy Spirit was not working at all. The Spirit of God was at work in the apostles while Judas turned out to be a phony. However, most would have considered Judas the real deal as he cast our demons and followed Christ. The devil always sows tares in among the wheat.<br />
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9. "It is no argument that a work is not from the Spirit of God, that it seems to be promoted by ministers insisting very much on the terrors of God's holy law, and that with a great deal of pathos and earnestness." It seems that many were arguing the preachers of the day were stirring up excessively emotional responses by speaking passionately about the terrors of the law and the coming pains of Hell. Edwards can't imagine the idea of coldly and calmly speaking of people going to Hell. He believes the minister's primary job is to preach the gospel. He also believes we must warn people with tears of their coming judgment apart from Christ. He does not believe we can rule out men's responses to this kind of preaching as superficial fear. The Spirit of God could very much be at work. He also may not be.<br />
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All 9 of these signs could demonstrate we have strange fire and not a true work of the Spirit of God. However, none of these 9 signs necessitate that the general work occuring is strange fire. So, how do we then judge a whether a work is strange fire or a true work of the Spirit of God? To answer that question we will turn to the positive signs of a true work of the Spirit in our next post<br />
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.Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-13807984655083460892013-10-23T09:25:00.001-07:002013-10-23T09:25:51.482-07:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 3)In today's post I plan to list in rather short form three of Edwards' negative signs of a true work of the Spirit. Please keep in mind that Edwards is arguing that these signs neither confirm, nor exclude, a true work of the Spirit. They are simply phenomena that may exist in the midst of true work of the Spirit or under a false spirit. This list begins with the second negative sign, as I already covered the first in my last post.<br />
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1. "A work is not to be judged of by any effects on the bodies of men; such as tremblings, groans, loud outcries, agonies of body, or the failing of bodily strength." Edwards speaks of the connection of soul and body. He argues that these effects on the body may be a result of the work of the Spirit. If a man captures a glimpse of the Hell that awaits him, or the glory of God, he may have many of these effects in his body. These also may be outward effects of false religion. One simply cannot judge a false or true spirit based upon these phenomena.<br />
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2. "It is no argument that an operation on the minds of people is not the work of the Spirit of God, that it occasions a great deal of noise about religion." Edwards' argument here is that an outward and ostentatious display of religious fervor is not a sign of whether a work is a false or true work of the Spirit. The Pharisees caused no little stir with their false religion. The disciples also caused quite a stir in Jerusalem at Pentecost.<br />
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3. "It is no argument that a work is not of the Spirit of God, that some who are the subjects of it have been in a kind of ecstasy, wherein they have been carried beyond themselves, and have had their minds transported into a train of strong and pleasing imaginations, and a kind of visions, as though they were rapt up even to heaven, and there saw glorious sights." Edwards argues that great experiences of the imagination may be present during a work of the Spirit. They also may be present during the work of a false spirit. He particularly believes these may be present among those whose faculty of imagination is "too strong and the other faculties too weak." Those who have less developed intellects and discernment may be subject to their own imaginations. He does not believe their imaginations equate to the visions of the prophets and apostles. But he does believe the imaginations of some can be so overwrought by their sense of the beauty and love of Christ that their imaginations are affected.<br />
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I hope tomorrow to cover at least 3 mores negative signs provided by Edwards. I hope these posts are helpful to spur you to think more carefully about the work of God's Spirit.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-74116106309186470852013-10-22T08:37:00.000-07:002013-10-22T08:37:06.622-07:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 2)I am not expert on the study of Jonathan Edwards. I enjoy reading him occasionally. I appreciate his depth of thought upon a subject. I don't always agree with his conclusions. However, I am thankful to God for giving teachers such as him to the church. As a leader in the First Great Awakening in America, Edwards was well situated to think about what is a true work of the Holy Spirit. This is why I have chosen to blog through his work, "The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God."<br />
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Edwards began his work by following the apostle John in imploring us to <b>not </b>accept every spirit, but to test the spirits. We are positively commanded to examine claims of a work of the Spirit. You are not a skeptic, or quenching the Spirit, if you closely examine a work to see whether it is from God. You are an obedient Christian. Edwards then proceeds to lay out 9 negative signs. These are<b> not</b> signs that a work is from the Holy Spirit. However, many of these works may be true works of the Spirit. Yet, they do not remain as true marks by which we judge a true work of the Holy Spirit.<br />
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The first negative sign Edwards points to is a "work that is carried on in a way very unusual and extraordinary." The Spirit can do a work that is unusual and extraordinary. He can do a work different from what we have seen in previous works. He is not limited to only do what he has done. It is important to note though that an unusual and extraordinary work of the Spirit must always comply with the rules of Scripture.<br />
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If an unusual and extraordinary work does not violate the rules of the Word, it may be a true work of the Spirit. Edwards expects us to see great outpourings of the Holy Spirit. He expects the Spirit to do great works he has not done in the past. He expects us to be skeptical of the claims of these works being works of the Holy Spirit. But we must be careful here! Edwards is not saying that because you witness an extraordinary and unusual work, which does not violate the rules of Scripture, you are thereby witnessing a true work of the Spirit of God. It is <i><b>necessary</b></i> that a true work of the Spirit of God not violate the rule of Scripture. But not violating the rule of Scripture is not <b><i>sufficient</i></b> to determine whether something is a true work of the Spirit. The positive marks which distinguish a work of the Spirit of God must also be present.<br />
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I will continue to work through the negative signs in my next posts. Let me sum up this post with a few thoughts. First, I agree with Edwards. I believe the Holy Spirit can and may do extraordinary works. I also agree that a work being unusual does not disqualify it from being a true work, so long as it complies with the rules of Scripture. Second, I agree with Edwards that a work not violating the rule of Scripture is not sufficient in determining whether a work is a true work of the Holy Spirit. There are lots of counterfeits in the history of God's people. There are signs which sweetly comply with God's Word but which are performed by false spirits posing as angels of light. We must constantly be reminded of our biblical duty to test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone into the world. Third, I found John MacArthur's sermon working through Edwards at Strange Fire to miss the mark here. He did a superb job of walking through the positive signs of a work of the Spirit. At the same time, he seemed to dismiss all contemporary and unusual works as false. His argument seemed to border on using their unusual nature as an evidence they are false. I believe this weakened his case. His charismatic listeners likely tuned him out here. He may have won their attention better by structuring the argument in a similar fashion to Edwards. It is also true they still may have tuned him out for doing his biblical duty of testing the spirits.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-73645077942185901382013-10-21T08:43:00.000-07:002013-10-21T08:43:01.339-07:00Distinguishing Strange Fire from a True Work of the Spirit (Part 1) Last week I participated in live streaming the Strange Fire conference. Lots of controversy ensued as cessationists made their case. One of the saddest displays, for me personally, was the appearance of Mark Driscoll to hand out books as a kind of publicity stunt. In the midst of it all, I began to get questions from members of my own church about the biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit and his work. I thought it would be interesting to begin discussing this by working through "The Distinguishing Marks of a work of the Spirit of God," by Jonathan Edwards.<br />
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Edwards begins his work by pointing out that true works of the Spirit have always been accompanied by counterfeit works. As the Holy Spirit blows, so too do Satan and his emissaries. Therefore, the church needs rules to distinguish between a true work of the Spirit and a counterfeit. Edwards takes us to 1 John 4 as the fullest treatment in the Bible on marks for discerning a true Spirit from a false one.<br />
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Edwards begins by pointing out that believers must be on the alert for false spirits. We must not be those who readily admit that every ordinary, or extraordinary, claim of a move of the Holy Spirit is true. We must be ready to examine every such claim against the signs of a true work of the Spirit given to us by the apostle John in 1 John 4.<br />
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We are commanded by the apostle to <b>not </b>believe every spirit, but to test the spirits. We must be on guard against false spirits. False moves of the Spirit claim to be from God. They appear to look like a true Spirit. Those who perform them look like real sheep and real shepherds. However, we are to be on guard and to test. Why are we to test them? Because <b>many</b> false prophets have gone out into the world. </div>
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We live in a day when we are told not to question someone's sincere experience. However, the apostle is clearly commanding us not to believe everyone's experience, not even our own. We must test every spirit against the rule of the Word of God. Everything must be examined according to the Word the Spirit superintended. Reserving a positive judgment on someone's "experience of the Spirit" is not cynicism. It is obedience to the apostle's command. Test the spirits. Test them against the Word.</div>
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The apostle lays out several marks of the work of the true Spirit of God. Edwards works through those marks. However, Edwards begins by making a negative case. He begins by demonstrating what are <b>not</b> signs or evidences of a work of the Spirit of God. We will turn to those negative signs in the next post.</div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-273557726117467532013-09-17T21:38:00.001-07:002013-09-18T07:09:15.994-07:00What is our Denomination?I am often asked what our denomination is at Sovereign Grace. This is an interesting question that is usually loaded with ideas like, "I hope we aren't in a denomination with some weird ideas or strange cultural practices." Because this is such a loaded question I often like to avoid answering it head on. I would prefer to reorient your understanding of denominational involvement before jumping into the answer.<br />
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In brief, to be involved in a denomination is to partner in the gospel with other churches for the forwarding of the gospel among the nations. There are numerous ways to partner. There can be partnerships that involve just the pastors or the whole church. Those partnerships can include everything from encouraging each other to pooling financial resources to accomplish a mission. Further, partnership need not be limited to a denomination. Partnership can include networks, missions organizations, and pastoral fraternities.<br />
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Let me state first that Sovereign Grace is an independent church governed by elders who are appointed and confirmed by the members of the church. Sovereign Grace has no outside body that governs her. From time to time, our elders bring in outside pastors to coach us and provide advice to us. We even choose to submit to some of that advice because we don't believe we are the great bastion of all wisdom in leading the church. So, we are not non-denominational in the sense that we don't partner with anyone. In fact, we consider it a virtue to partner with other churches and individuals for the advance of the gospel among all peoples.<br />
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Now on to who we partner with. You might say our partnerships are in 3 categories: 1). Pastoral Partnerships 2). Church Partnerships 3) Mission Agency Partnerships.<br />
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1). Pastoral Partnerships<br />
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I partner with several pastors both formally and informally. I coach other pastors and have been coached by other pastors. I train other pastors at times and I am trained by them. I have sat on assessment teams for the purpose of evaluating a man for church planting with other pastors. I partnered with the Acts 29 network for the purpose of advancing church planting for a time. I still partner with many A29 pastors toward that end. My most formal pastoral partnership is with the Evangelical Free Church of America. I am ordained by them and often have the privilege of sitting in on ordination councils for other men.<br />
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2). Church Partnerships<br />
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Sovereign Grace participates with two different groups of churches for the furtherance of the gospel. We partner with the Southern Baptist Convention. Wait, aren't those the culturally odd guys who banned alcohol, dancing, and Disneyland? I'm sure some are. However, the SBC believes in the autonomy of the local church. And, by the way, there are greater freedoms to give up. But don't worry, I am going to Disneyland this week. On the positive side, the Southern Baptist convention employs over 10,000 missionaries worldwide. They have the best disaster relief workers in the world, bar none. They provide amazing retirement and benefits packages for pastors. They also have excellent seminaries that men from our church can be trained at for half tuition. We also partner with the Pacific Church Network. This network is a new network with great resources for planting churches in Southern California. The network will assess, train, coach, fund, and encourage men who are planting churches. We are part of planting 4 churches with them in 2014. The plan is for this number to double each year.<br />
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3). Mission Agency Partnerships<br />
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Sovereign Grace partners with Radius International, and Joseph and Jessica Bonura, to train people to plant churches among unengaged and unreached people groups. We were part of founding this missions organization. Our second class of trainees begins in January 2014. Further, we also partner with New Tribes Mission in the work of Brandon and Brooks Buser among the Yembi Yembi and Biem people groups. We partner with Acts 29 Europe and Steve Timmis for the purpose of planting churches in Europe. Finally, we are also partnering with a few different church plants in Southern California by way of financial support until the end of 2013.<br />
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So there is the list as it currently stands. We reevaluate partnerships over time as best fits the mission goals of Sovereign Grace Church. We do not, however, ever allow ourselves to slip into a solo mission for the advance of the gospel among the nations. Gospel partnership is everywhere modeled in the NT and it is our privilege to join with other churches to see Jesus proclaimed among the nations.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-21126828241695135402013-08-28T16:11:00.004-07:002013-08-28T16:12:15.198-07:00A Homeschooling UpdateSince I took time to write a series of posts on educational options and announce we were going to homeschool this year, I thought I would provide an update from time to time. Our year is going extremely well so far. We still have everyone get up and ready in the morning. However, our morning family worship time has been far less hurried since we don't have to drive the kids to school. I am able to lead the family and then leave for work after getting good time in the Word and prayer with the family. We are super thankful for this privilege. Also, the children are working diligently at their studies and have a lot more time for reading and playing. They are loving it! I will say that homeschooling them in 6th and 7th is a joy for my wife. Homeschooling them K-2 was too much for her. It is going great so far. I would love to know how school is going for the rest of you.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-32431872911811254732013-08-13T08:18:00.002-07:002013-08-13T08:18:20.157-07:00Charismatics, Liberals, and the Haters<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqREp_PVgJo08MP-i-uFAlrBQmI0H2_gh8C-XOLnMq1ahzeXagjESH666kPE6Gd7a0OxaYuR6p0nBFJ0ZUtmcV55-8NpgUyPfEnrBUCijrLJtzRyIING2FN750VYnqWvDwqQ0TLBreqs/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqREp_PVgJo08MP-i-uFAlrBQmI0H2_gh8C-XOLnMq1ahzeXagjESH666kPE6Gd7a0OxaYuR6p0nBFJ0ZUtmcV55-8NpgUyPfEnrBUCijrLJtzRyIING2FN750VYnqWvDwqQ0TLBreqs/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a>As a conservative who holds public office I have had many exchanges with liberals, particularly homosexual activists. I have heard a particular argument numerous times. It goes like this, "who are you to question my experience? My experience is true. For you to question it demonstrates you are an unloving, closed-minded bigot." I'm neither threatened nor offended by that argument. I have no reason to believe that the worldview upon which social liberalism is built has any other grounding than personal experience. There certainly is no place for an absolute truth claim.<br />
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What can be frustrating, however, is when a similar approach to establishing truth and debate with others is taken up by charismatic Christians. I have engaged in far too many discussions with charismatics who appeal to their experience and then argue I am some kind of close-minded, unloving, out of touch with the Holy Spirit, "putting God' in a box" rationalist for questioning them. The charismatics and those with a kind of godless worldview seem to have the same basis for their appeal to truth i.e. "I had this experience and who are you to question it. You clearly don't love well."<br />
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Enter Dan Phillips at Pyromaniacs. He has been bringing up several concerns with charismatic theology as of late. I largely share his concerns. Here is a list of 11 concerns he posted this morning:<br />
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<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Prizing experience over truth.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Unbiblical redefinition of <i>prophecy </i>to validate and legitimatize their experience.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Unbiblical redefinition of <i>tongues </i>to validate and legitimatize their experience.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mistaking feelings for reality.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mistaking self-image for reality.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Complete absence of Acts 4:16-level "gifts"-activity since the first century, endlessly rationalized.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Playing host to (and providing cover fire for) the very worst false teachers.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Avoiding Biblical assessment at all costs, and shaming any who attempt Biblical assessment.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Effectively sidelining the Word of God.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Promising the moon, delivering nothing but excuses, dodges, and blame-shifting — at best.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Effectively relocating the center of authority from God's Word to internal feelings and </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">experiences.</span></li>
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Please don't misunderstand me. I know some careful charismatic theologians and pastors. I love these brothers. I don't buy what they are pitching as a proper theology of the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of them engage the issue quite well. However, increasingly the average person I converse with avoids any engagement at all by claiming they are offended that someone even questions their experience.</div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-43157680422007598992013-08-12T09:10:00.004-07:002013-08-12T09:10:59.160-07:00Homework for Daniel 9 sermon<span style="font-size: large;">I love that I pastor in a church where the people are actually asking me for homework to prepare for the sermon. I am happy to oblige! I am going to post several texts of scripture to read through as you consider our text for this Sunday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. Daniel 9:24. Please read Hebrews 1:1-2; Hebrews 8; Hebrews 9:11-28; Matthew 3:13-17</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Daniel 9:25. Please read Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1, 13; Daniel 8, 2 Chronicles 36:22-23</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Daniel 9:26. Please read Luke 21:5-9, 20-24; Luke 23:26-49</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4. Daniel 9:27. Please read Isaiah 42:1-8; Luke 22:14-20; Hebrews 9:11-28; Revelation 21</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As you try to grasp what is meant by the 70 weeks, I would also recommend you reflect on Daniel 9:24 as the summary of what will occur by the end of the 70 weeks and read the following texts:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. Leviticus 25-26</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. 2 Chronicles 36:17-21</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Genesis 1-2:3</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4. Exodus 20:1-17</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Isaiah 61:1-3</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">6. Luke 4:16-21</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">7. Matthew 18:21-22</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I will not use all of these texts in my sermon. However, I have been studying all of these and several more as I try to wade through what scholars call the swamp of biblical prophecy. Have fun sticking your feet into the swamp. I look forward to us diving fully into it this Sunday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-76103196381788224592013-07-31T14:50:00.001-07:002013-07-31T14:58:29.539-07:00Satan's Schemes<b>As I was working on the studies for our Grace Groups, I was challenged and encouraged by a few thoughts which came from some Puritans. I want to share a few of those thoughts for your edification as well. I hope to share more in future posts. I am deeply thankful to Joel Beeke & Mark Jones for collating so much of this material in their volume, "A Puritan Theology." I encourage you to pick up the book.</b><br />
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><b>The Puritans rightly warned of the need for watchfulness regarding Satan's temptations in the Christian life. The Puritans rightly emphasized the general vigilance we need to employ regarding the devices of Satan and the hope we have in the midst of them.</b></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><b>Puritan Thomas Brooks included Satan's devices in the following quote, "Christ, the Scripture, your own hearts, and Satan's devices, are the four prime things that should be first and most studied and searched." I often attend to the first 3 things which should be studied. I seldom attend to Satan's devices. </b></span><br />
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<b><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Puritan William Gurnall said that no actress has, "so many dresses to come in upon the stage with as the devil has forms of temptation." </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">In other words, Satan tempts us all in different ways. There are a myriad of people with a vast number of different experiences and varying weaknesses. Thus, there are a number of different and personal ways Satan tempts us to sin. It is imperative then that I attend to Satan's devices.</span></b><br />
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<b>The problem with becoming aware of the active and varied nature of Satan's schemes is that I may become easily discouraged. I can't see how I am able to ever out fox the serpent. This is why it is so helpful to remember that Puritan Stephen Charnock said, "The goodness of God makes the devil a polisher, while he intends to be a destroyer." All the Devil can do to a child of God is be used of God to make me more like Christ. He may tempt me and attack me in painful and wicked ways. However, the Lord is sovereign over all and his loving discipline will bring about the peaceful fruit of righteousness in the lives of all his children. Satan can do nothing about that!</b><br />
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-60334440455662264272013-07-18T10:09:00.001-07:002013-07-18T10:21:35.208-07:00How should Christians respond to the Zimmerman Verdict?I have served as an adjunct professor for Eternity Bible College. They have a blog to which I contributed my take on the George Zimmerman / Trayvon Martin case. You can read my take on the subject here: <a href="http://facultyblog.eternitybiblecollege.com/2013/07/a-christian-response-to-the-zimmerman-verdict/">http://facultyblog.eternitybiblecollege.com/2013/07/a-christian-response-to-the-zimmerman-verdict/</a><br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-57365658923088785832013-07-18T10:02:00.000-07:002013-07-18T10:02:19.346-07:00Be Ordinary for GodWhile I was in Hume Lake last week I heard a young woman who oversaw one of the activities providing a "spiritual" lesson for the people who participated in her activity. She told them that while some of them were not necessarily the best at her particular activity they were all special in God's eyes. That was fine as far as it went. However, she took a turn from there to telling one young woman, "You aren't very good at this but you are special. You could be a model." <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I had to fight my gag reflex. What? Is that what you meant by special in God's eyes? She could put her beauty on display and be a model? Was her worth before God in her ability to potentially be a celebrity with regard to her beauty?<div>
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This caused me to reflect on the constant calls I hear in Christian (and secular) circles for young people to recognize they are special. In fact, I read a study recently (can't find it now) that argued a full 25% of young people believe they will be famous. Cue the production of mid-life crisis materials that will be needed in 10-15 years.</div>
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We hear the refrain often though. Christian young people ought to be extraordinary for God. They should be radical for the Lord. They need to do big things for God. We are all special.</div>
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I have a radical thought. What if we started telling people they ought to be ordinary for God? What if we encouraged them to be obedient? What if we challenged them to just redeem the small things for the Lord? What if we told them they are normal and not particularly special? </div>
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Is it possible that we could stop bowing the knee to celebrity? Could we cease placing the weight of glory on personal achievement? Couldn't we just value being ordinary and obedient before God? </div>
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Let's face it. If everyone is special, extraordinary, and radical, then no one is any of those things. Perhaps a long obedience in the same direction is just too ordinary and insignificant in the eyes of our culture but it is a better description of the Christian life than most of what I hear today. So I encourage you to "Go be ordinary for God."</div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-50381442740409676742013-07-08T11:50:00.001-07:002013-07-08T11:50:31.421-07:00What are some implications of God's all-encompassing sovereignty?<br />
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<b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the book "A Puritan Theology," there are several questions that emerge among the Puritans regarding the implications of the providential working of God. The authors of the book collate several implications of God's all-encompassing sovereignty and how the Puritans responded to them. Here are a list of those:</b></div>
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<b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">1. How does God's providence relate to the laws of nature?</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>God works through ordinary means, but He is always the one sustaining and upholding all things. Hebrews 1:1-3, Col. 1:15ff</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>In other words, God made things that operate in a particular manner and he actively keeps them doing so. </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The birds, trees, human body have ordinary ways they operate but God upholds those natural and ordinary ways of operation.</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>2. How does God's providence relate to the freedom and sins of men?</b></span></div>
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<b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Some things we know from Scripture about God's activity regarding our sin:</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>a). God does not tempt anyone to sin. James 1:13</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>b). God does permit men to sin. Acts 14:16</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>c). God withholds grace that would prevent sin. Ps. 81:11-12</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>d). God powerfully limits sin. Job 1:12, 2:6</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>e). God sometimes overrules sin to fulfill his holy purposes. Gen. 50:20, Isa. 46:10</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>3. How can God's providence permit the prosperity of the wicked? </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>a). God is gracious, patient, and generous even with the wicked. Matt. 5:45</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>b). His justice sometimes brings punishment in this life and always in the life to come.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>c). The outward prosperity of the wicked teaches us that outward goods are not the highest blessing God bestows on humans.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>4. Why do the righteous suffer and die alongside the wicked?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Because God never promised to save the righteous from calamity in this life. Eccl. 9:2, Matt. 5</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>5. How does God's providence help us know God's will?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>It is dangerous to read providence, but at times God does give hints of his will thru his providence.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Knowing God's will:</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>a). Get the true fear of God and be truly afraid of offending him.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>b). Study the Word more and the concerns of the world less.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>c). Reduce what you know to practice.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>d). Pray for illumination and direction. Beg the Lord to help you.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>e). After all this, follow providence as far as it agrees with the Word, and no further.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>6. How does God's providence relate to our efforts?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>God determines the means as well as the ends. The means is our faith and repentance in justification, our faith and effort (Bible reading, prayer, mortification) in sanctification.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>"Pride uses means without seeking God, and presumption depends on God while neglecting the means he provides."</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>7. Why does God allow for crooked providences in the life of a Christian?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Thomas Boston listed 7 reasons:</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>a). To prove your spiritual state as a hypocrite or genuine believer.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>b). To stir you to obedience, wean you from this world, and set your eyes on heaven.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>c). To convict you of sin.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>d). To correct or punish you for sin.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>e). To prevent you from committing sin.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>f). To reveal latent sin deep within your heart.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>g). To awaken you from laziness so that you exercise yourself in grace.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>8. How do I meditate on God's providence?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Flavel's recommendations:</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>a). Work hard at remembering and exploring the providence of God toward you. (extensively and intensively trace God's blessings and ways thru your life. Note answered prayer. Give thanks)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>b). Trace the connection between the providences of God in your life and the promises of God in his Word. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>c). Look beyond the events and circumstances of providence to God as author and provider. (think of God's attributes and his work in your life, both in good and difficult times)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>d). Respond to each providence in an appropriate way. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Be thankful in good providences and look to the Lord for comfort and joy even in difficult providences.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Flavel~"Consider all your losses are but as the loss of a farthing to a prince."</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>How do we handle difficult providences?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>a). Learn how to resist discouragement by trusting God is working in his timing toward greater blessing.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>b). Learn not to assume that we fully understand God's ways and purposes, but meditate on his goodness in the past and promises for the future. Trying to solve mysteries too great for us will only breed suspicion toward God.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>William Cowper~</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>God moves in a mysterious way</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>His wonders to perform;</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>He plants His footsteps in the sea</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And rides upon the storm.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Deep in unfathomable mines</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Of never failing skill</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>He treasures up His bright designs</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And works His sovereign will.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The clouds ye so much dread</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Are big with mercy and shall break</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>In blessings on your head.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>But trust Him for His grace;</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Behind a frowning providence</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>He hides a smiling face.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>His purposes will ripen fast,</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Unfolding every hour;</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The bud may have a bitter taste,</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>But sweet will be the flower.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Blind unbelief is sure to err</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And scan His work in vain;</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>God is His own interpreter,</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And He will make it plain.</b></span></div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-53188893651924267762013-07-08T11:32:00.004-07:002013-07-08T11:33:48.767-07:00The Sovereignty of God<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">After preaching a sermon on the sovereignty of God in Daniel 4, I was asked for some of the biblical argument I made for God's sovereignty. I have included here some of my notes on the topic for your use.</b><br />
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<b>When considering the Sovereignty of God I tend to want to point people to 3 truths regarding God's sovereignty:</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>1. The EXTENT of the Sovereignty of God.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>2. The RULE of the Sovereignty of God.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>3. The GOAL of the Sovereignty of God.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>I find Ephesians 1:11 a helpful place to find an outline for the first 3 points:</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>At the beginning of his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul clearly lays out God’s eternal plan to save us, His sending forth of Jesus to accomplish it and of the Spirit to apply it. </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the midst of teaching on our salvation in Christ, Paul is clearly writing of the inheritance we receive in Christ because we have been predestined to receive it. As he does so, he </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">provides the <i>ground</i> for our predestination.</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Everyone who believes in the Bible believes in predestination. </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The argument is over what is the <i>ground</i> of our predestination. </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Is the ground of it God’s foreknowledge of our future free will choices? </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Is God’s decree conditioned upon future free acts of his creatures? </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In other words, is the ground of his eternal decree found in us? </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Or is the ground found in God’s unconditioned, holy, and immutable will?</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>He grounds our predestination in something. </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What is it? </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Does he ground it in our will? </b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>No! He clearly states, </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“</b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; font-size: 16px;">having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.</span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">" </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The ground of predestination is God’s sovereign, holy, and immutable will. </b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Paul takes God's sovereignty even a step further. </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>He claims that </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b>not only</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b> is our predestination to salvation grounded in God’s holy and immutable will, but <i>everything</i> that happens is grounded in God’s holy and immutable Will! </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Notice Paul says, "w</b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">ho works 'all things'.”</b></div>
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<b>Using Paul's statement in Ephesians 1:11 as an outline, we find at least 3 truths regarding divine sovereignty:</b></div>
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<b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">1. The EXTENT of God’s Sovereignty.</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>God works all things according to the counsel of His will! </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How many things? Some things? </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">All things! </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There is nothing that happens that is outside God’s will. </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Someone will say, “certainly we can violate God’s will. What about when we sin?” </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yes, you are violating God’s will of precept, or His Law, b</b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">ut you are not violating His will of decree. </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The text clearly says God “works” all things (that is active) according to the counsel of His will!</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Let me give you specific categories that God sovereignly decreed (I don't remember where I originally got this list. I believe it was from Berkof. It is not originally mine):</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a. Good and evil events (Isa. 45:7, Job 1:21, Jer. 15:2)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Is. 45:7</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I form light and create darkness,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I make well-being and create calamity,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am the LORD, who does all these things.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Job 1:21</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD</span><span style="font-size: 9px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>b. Sinful acts (Gen. 50:20, 2 Sam. 16:10-11, Luke 22:22, Acts 2:23, 4:27-28)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Gen. 50:20</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people* should be kept alive, as they are today.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Acts 2:23</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>c. Free acts of men (Prov. 16:1, 9, 21:1, Rom. 8:28, 35-39)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Prov. 16:9</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> The heart of man plans his way,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but the LORD establishes his steps.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Prov. 21:1</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">John 6:40</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">John 6:41</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> ¶ So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, </span><span style="color: #e62300; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“I am the bread that came down from heaven.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">John 6:42</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, </span><span style="color: #e62300; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">‘I have come down from heaven’</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">?” </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">John 6:43</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Jesus answered them, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Do not grumble among yourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">John 6:44</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>d. “chance” occurrences (1 Kings 22:28-34, Job 5:6, Prov. 16:33, Jonah 1:7)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Prov. 16:33</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> The lot is cast into the lap,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but its every decision is from the LORD.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>e. Details of our lives (Job 14:5, Psa. 139:16, Matt. 10:29-30, James 4:15)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Psa. 139:16</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Your eyes saw my unformed substance;</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in your book were written, every one of them,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the days that were formed for me,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>when as yet there were none of them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Matt. 10:29</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?* And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Matt. 10:30</span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>f. Affairs of nations (2 Kings 5:1, Ps. 75:1-7, Prov. 21:31, Dan. 2:21)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Dan. 2:21</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He changes times and seasons;</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> he removes kings and sets up kings;</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> he gives wisdom to the wise</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> and knowledge to those who have understanding;</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>g. Final salvation of the saints and destruction of the wicked (1 Sam. 2:25, Prov. 16:4, Rom. 9:14-18; Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Pet. 2:8, Jude 4)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Prov. 16:4</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> The LORD has made everything for its purpose,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>even the wicked for the day of trouble.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Rom. 9:17</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Jude 1:4</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Understanding that the EXTENT of God’s Sovereignty is “all things,” w</b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">hat is the RULE of God’s Sovereign Decree? </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Or, rather, what is the GOVERNING PRINCIPLE of God’s Sovereign Decree?</b></div>
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<b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">2. The RULE of God’s Sovereign Decree.</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Another way of asking this question is, </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Is there anything outside of God that determines or constrains what He sovereignly decrees or wills to happen, or is His sovereign will completely free of any external constraints?”</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>“Did God in eternity past look down the corridors of time, and make decisions based on what He saw men would do, or did He decree everything according to His own Sovereign will?”</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Look again at Eph. 1:11 </b></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; font-size: 16px;">"having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will..."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>What does it say? </b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He works all things according to the counsel of His will! He does n</b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">ot work all things according to our will or the will of some other. </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He is God! He is completely sovereign and utterly free in His sovereignty. </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He is not constrained by His creature. H</b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">is will is immutable (unchanging) and holy. </b><b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The pot does not look at the potter and say, "why did you make me this way?"</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>3. The GOAL of God’s Sovereignty is His own glory! Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14</b></span></div>
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<b>What is God's goal in his sovereign decree? What is he after? He is after his own glory. Paul makes his goal clear in repeating that goal 3 times in Ephesians 1:3-14.</b></div>
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<b>In fact, think about the God-centeredness of the whole Bible story:</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>God created. God graciously provided for us. God was sinned against. God promised to send a redeemer. God called out a people for Himself. God provided the Word for His people. God provided the Law to show us our sin. God provided prophets to speak the truth. God provided priests. God provided kings. God sent His Son. God, in the person of Christ, perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the Law, God provided the ultimate sacrifice for sins. God sent His Son to the Cross. God resurrected Jesus from the dead. God sent His Spirit. God elects you. God regenerates you. God justifies you. God sanctifies you. God resurrects and glorifies you. God gifts you for service. God gets the glory!</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>This is why Paul concludes the first 11 chapters of Romans by saying, "</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; font-size: 16px;">For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."</span></div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-60545972731506318172013-06-12T14:09:00.000-07:002013-06-12T14:39:07.305-07:00As the Father sent me...<br />
I am privileged to deliver the charge to the graduates of <a href="http://www.radiusinternational.org/" target="_blank">Radius International</a> this year. I have been given a brief window to preach on John 20:21, "Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." I decided to put the text of my message in my blog to help me stay concise and hopefully to encourage you as well. This is written to be preached and not read, so bear with the grammatical errors etc. I also want to indicate that this text will likely change as I clean it up, make cuts to shorten it etc. This is really my first draft. In fact, I will cut out the whole beginning section between the lines I have placed below due to lack of time, except for the first paragraph. However, I have included it for your reading.<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want to begin by congratulating you all on working so hard this year to prepare to fulfill the Great Commission. I am thankful for the privilege of being part of encouraging you in your obedience to go and preach the gospel among people who have never heard of Jesus. Radius was started as a dream, and eventually became seen as a necessity, for many of us here and it is deeply satisfying to be graduating our first class of students. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Joseph asked me to give you a charge as you leave here and hopefully transition to long-term cross cultural church planting. I admit I feel personally unworthy for such a task. I am always mindful that is only Jesus and His Spirit in me as I proclaim his Word that makes me qualified to stand before you, or anyone else, and proclaim his Word.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Let me start by saying that I consider you all far more obedient than myself to our Lord’s command. It is easy to excuse away my unfaithfulness to a clear command of Jesus to go and make disciples among all peoples. It is easy to say I believed I was called to something else in America. It is easy to say I was ignorant of God’s heart for the nations. But the fact remains that I did not lack the ability to obey our Lord’s command and our Lord’s command lacks no clarity!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yet, I chose my path and I do not regret where it has led me. However, I recognize at the same time that I can be quite thankful for where I am and still realize I should have been more obedient in the past. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why do I bring up my own disobedience to the Lord’s command? I bring up my disobedience because I believe it was driven by fear. I was afraid of losing my own life for the gospel. I was afraid Jesus was not worth the loss of all things. I was afraid I could spend my life on making Jesus known among other peoples and lose out on all that the good life in America has to offer me. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And, I bring up my fear because Jesus understood that fear and even addressed it as he commissioned his disciples.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Look with me at John 20:19-20.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Notice that the disciples have locked the door out of fear. Jesus has died. He was captured, tried, and put to death by the Jewish religious leaders. The disciples were afraid of what would happen to them as well. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How did Jesus resolve this fear?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He came and stood among them and said to them “Peace be with you.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus resolved their fear by showing himself to them as their resurrected Lord and spoke to them “Peace.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want to elaborate on that more, but look with me first at John 20:21.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Notice, this begins with the statement, “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.’”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What an incredible scene! Don’t miss what Jesus is doing here.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His last word on the Cross was “It is finished.” He has paid the debt for your sin in full. He has accomplished what the Father gave him to do in dying for sins.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His first word to his disciples in his resurrection is “Peace be with you.” He actually says this to his fearful disciples twice. Why?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">John Stott answers this well, “We learn then that the Church’s very first need, before it can begin to engage in evangelism, is an experience and an assurance of Christ’s peace—peace of conscience through his death that banishes sin, peace of mind through his resurrection that banishes doubt. … Once we are glad that we have seen the Lord, and once we have clearly recognized him as our crucified and risen Savior, then nothing and no one will be able to silence us.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As those who will go to suffer for the gospel among a people group you have never lived among, and who will sacrifice so much of what you came to enjoy in the US, and who will possibly suffer diseases, hardship, and pain you would not have suffered in the US, is it not good to hear from our resurrected Lord that we have peace with God and thus we really can be at peace in life because Jesus is making all things new?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When you are in the field suffering for the gospel, you will likely reach the point where your only assurance is that you have a Lord who resurrected from the dead and that he is worth it. You may be left with nothing but the promise that you are at peace with God and his eternal peace is yours when you are faced with major unrest in your circumstances. And, you need to know and trust that God’s peace is enough.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is the ever important setting for what Jesus says next.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Look again at John 20:21.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is John’s version of the Great Commission. This command from Jesus to reach the nations with the gospel is repeated at least 4 times in some form in the Gospels and Acts.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When God gives a command it is important. When he repeats it numerous times it only increases the importance and centrality of the command.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, what does this command mean? How has the Father sent Jesus? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, we need to look first at the immediate context and then consider what else the gospel of John says about how the Father sent Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As we look at these two contexts, we will learn at least 5 aspects of Christ’s having been sent that apply to our being sent (I will go thru these rather quickly):</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">1. Jesus hasn’t finished his mission. He is still working it through his church.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></b><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One of the aspects of John 20:21 you don’t readily pick up in English is that verb “has sent” is in the perfect tense.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The perfect tense stresses that this sending was a past act that has ongoing implications.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In other words, Jesus was sent in the past, but his mission continues. He is at work saving people and we are his body sent out to continue his mission.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is what Luke means when he begins Acts 1 by saying that in his gospel he “dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” His birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection were only the beginning of his doing and teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus’s work continues through his body, the church. This is what Paul is referring to when he says in Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church...”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Paul doesn’t mean that Jesus’s affliction lacked anything necessary for our justification. He means that the suffering of Christ is not complete until his ministers suffer with him as we gather his church.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is why Radius focuses on reaching the unreached people groups no matter the cost to us. We want to see Jesus’s message carried to those He wants to save in every tribe, tongue, and nation. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This leads quickly to the second point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>2. Jesus was sent in the power of the Holy Spirit and so are we.</b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Look at John 20:22.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus was empowered by God’s Spirit to speak God’s word and do God’s will. He promises numerous times to give the disciples the same Holy Spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Acts 1:8, Jesus says “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit come’s upon you and you will be my witnesses...”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">No man is saved apart from the work of the Holy Spirit and no man contains in himself the power or skills necessary to be effective in ministry.</span></div>
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The Holy Spirit qualifies you and Jesus promises he will be with you and empower you for the task.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And, the Holy Spirit works through the Word, which is why Radius has focused on equipping you to teach people the Bible story from Genesis through Revelation. The Spirit blesses and empowers his Word to the salvation of people.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.~Romans 10:17</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>3. Jesus was sent to proclaim the good news of salvation and so are we.</b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Look with me at John 20:23.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus went and preached the gospel and cared for those in need. As he did he had authority to offer forgiveness of sins.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As those who are sent, we have authority to offer forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ as well. I don’t mean we can forgive sins, nor does Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His point is that when we bring the gospel to people and they believe, they will be forgiven. When we do not bring the gospel to them, they will not be forgiven as Jesus is the only name under Heaven by which men must be saved.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus came to seek and save the lost. That is what the Father has sent him to do.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now, Jesus has sent us to do the same. This is why Radius stresses church planting and not other good endeavors.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Does Jesus care about the whole person?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Absolutely! However, our ultimate concern is the salvation of their souls for eternity and thus this is why you see the apostles fulfilling the Great Commission by planting churches throughout the book of Acts.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">4. Jesus was sent humbly into the world and so are we.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></b><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the High Priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus says the following, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus did not proclaim the gospel from the heavens.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus was sent to live among us as one of us. He took on flesh and dwelt among us. He humbled himself and took on the nature of a man.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He suffered with us. He grew with us. He felt what we felt. He knew us.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He is sending us in the same way. We are sent to humbly live among people and know them and suffer with them as we bring the gospel to them.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want you to hear how John Stott reflects on this:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“I personally believe that our failure to obey the implications of this command is the greatest weakness of evangelical Christians in the field of evangelism today. We do not identify. We believe so strongly (and rightly) in proclamation, that we tend to proclaim our message from a distance. We sometimes appear like people who shout advice to drowning men from the safety of the seashore. We do not dive in to rescue them. We are afraid of getting wet, and indeed of greater perils than this. But Jesus Christ did not broadcast salvation from the sky. He visited us in great humility. … We cannot give up preaching, for proclamation is of the essence of salvation. Yet true evangelism, evangelism that is modeled on the ministry of Jesus, is not proclamation without identification any more than it is identification without proclamation. Evangelism involves both together.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is why Radius in committed to long-term, incarnational church planting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>5. Jesus was sent to be about the Father’s will for the Father’s glory, and we are sent likewise.</b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Finally, you can’t read the Gospel of John and not notice that numerous times Jesus says he was sent to obey the Father’s will. He is all about the will of his Father.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He is all about the will of his Father because his ultimate end is the glory of his Father.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In John 17:4, Jesus says, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our aim is the glory of God and that aim is hit through obedience to the will of our Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We are sent to do the will of our Lord! We are sent to teach others to do everything the Lord has commanded!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is ultimately why Radius exists at all. We exist because we believe we are sent to do the will of our Lord...and we believe he has been emphatic and clear that we are “to make disciples among all peoples.” It is our prayer you will remain committed to the same.</span></div>
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-70153542666074981312013-06-12T11:08:00.000-07:002013-06-12T11:11:55.101-07:00Making an Educational Decision (Part 5)<br />
I have promised to deliver on strengths and weaknesses of homeschooling, public school, and private schools as we have experienced them. It has taken me a while to get around to that list. The reason it has taken so long is because I have had to reflect so much. My slowness in reflection is driven by two considerations:<br />
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1. I not only have my own children who have been through all 3 educational platforms, but I have seen and worked with thousands of kids who have gone through these various systems.<br />
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2. I want to be careful how I approach this as the academic platform you are using is what Protestants call "adiaphora," or "indifferent matters," or "matters Scripture does not directly address or drive you to by good and necessary consequence." By saying an academic platform is "adiaphora," I don't mean that you don't have a clear command to disciple your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I also don't mean you needn't exercise wisdom in how that is best accomplished. I mean that the Bible does not prescribe a particular academic platform, and your wisdom as to what is best does not constitute a law for everyone else.<br />
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So what follows is my best attempt to summarize what I have seen as strengths and weaknesses in short form. I am not claiming these strengths and weaknesses are researched facts of social science. I am merely commenting on my own observation, so take it with a grain of salt. I hope this will be mildly helpful to you.<br />
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<b><i>Important note:</i></b> I have not been comprehensive. This is a short list. Further, some of the strengths and weaknesses that are shared by public / private schools in contrast to homeschool have been left out and assumed in my list of strengths and weaknesses in homeschooling.<br />
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<b><u>Public School Strengths</u></b><br />
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1. It's already paid for by your taxes. Let's face it, some people have financial struggles.<br />
2. In our local area there are some fantastic teachers and administrators who will bless you and your children.<br />
3. There are many opportunities and activities that are not afforded by other options due to the sheer wealth of money going into the public schools.<br />
4. It can be very good for your children to be exposed to unbelievers and have to trust in Jesus in a more hostile context.<br />
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<b><u>Public School Weaknesses</u></b><br />
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1. Your children can, and likely will, be overwhelmed by the sheer force of secularism in the classroom and worldliness on the playground. This secular and worldly encroachment is growing daily through the laws being passed by our state legislature.<br />
2. The worldview of the curriculum (and sometimes the teachers) is something you will have to spend time counteracting on a daily basis.<br />
3. The public school system is compulsory and thus they tend to believe your children are on loan to you and belong to them.<br />
4. There are several poor teachers who have gained tenure. You will likely run into some.<br />
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<b><u>Private Christian School Strengths</u></b><br />
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1. The curriculum is generally well-aligned with a Christian worldview.<br />
2. The teachers are free to pray and discuss the faith with your children during class time.<br />
3. The playground environment is often better controlled than at a public school.<br />
4. Private schools understand that your children belong to you and thus are less likely to infringe on your parental rights.<br />
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<b><u>Private Christian School Weaknesses</u></b><br />
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1. They can be quite expensive.<br />
2. They tend to overwork students with homework because they believe this is tied to superior academic achievement.<br />
3. There are often less opportunities than the public school (except in large private schools).<br />
4. The schools are often so ecumenical in approach that one wonders if the theology your child is learning is really better than what is offered in public schools. At least your kids are abundantly aware that the public school curriculum is hostile to their worldview.<br />
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<b><u>Home School Strengths</u></b><br />
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1. You have control over curricular and schedule decisions for your children.<br />
2. It is far less expensive than private Christian school options.<br />
3. You are able to flex your educational decisions around the unique needs of your individual children.<br />
4. There is more time to establish a family rhythm of worship and play.<br />
5. Your children are less exposed to worldliness and secularism at young ages.<br />
6. You can expose your children to some of the best classics of western literature that they will sadly never read in private or public school due to the tragic decision in those circles to predominantly use textbooks in the humanities.<br />
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<b><u>Home School Weaknesses</u></b><br />
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1. It is a lot of work. It should not be taken on by those who won't follow through.<br />
2. It is naturally more isolated from other people. This can take a toll on both mom and the children.<br />
3. It can lead to not engaging with unbelievers which is never good discipleship.<br />
4. The pressure of the responsibility of leading all day in the home can overwhelm some moms. They are not faulty women because they can't do this well. They are not less committed to the Lord or their children.<br />
5. Young boys, particularly those approaching or in their teen aged years, can be stifled by being under the thumb of their mom all day.<br />
6. There are less abundant activities and opportunities for your children, unless you are in a more wealthy family or attached to a homeschool cooperative program with a local private or public school.<br />
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<b><u>One Last Matter</u></b><br />
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If you are against homeschooling, you might point out that I left out the fact that homeschool children are more likely to be socially weird. I am not convinced that is a problem with homeschooling. I think that is likely because they are being homeschooled by socially weird parents. Let's be honest, we have seen weird kids in all kinds of settings and they are usually the product of weird parents.<br />
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<b><u>A Final Note about the Holy Spirit and Parental Responsibility</u></b><br />
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Won't sending my kid to public school damn them to a secular worldview and a life of ungodliness? Won't putting my child in Christian school make them into a snob and a natural Pharisee? Won't homeschooling my child make them into a person who is unable to cope with the real world? Doesn't one choice insure a better product in the end?<br />
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The answer to this question is emphatically, "NO!!" Your child is born a sinner. They don't catch the sin disease from other people. The enemy of sin is not only outside your home. Further, there is NOTHING you can do to guarantee your children will be born again and walk with the Lord. The faith of your children is in the hands of the Lord. I have watched public school kids with ungodly parents become some of the strongest Christians I know. I have watched homeschool kids with godly parents become atheists. There is no educational system you can choose with guaranteed spiritual outcomes.<br />
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This does not, however, absolve you from the responsibility of making the wisest possible decisions for your children. You must pray fervently for them. You must teach the Word to them. You must model love for God and others to them. As you fulfill your responsibility, you must point them relentlessly to Jesus as their only hope. You must also insure that you never lead them to believe you, or they, are the hero of their story. Jesus is the only One who can save your kids. Without him rescuing them there is no hope. Please remember this when choosing an educational setting for your kids.<br />
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<b><u>What we Decided</u></b><br />
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For those who care and who have bothered to read this far, we decided to return to homeschooling this year. We look forward to the coming years of discipling our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.<br />
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<br />Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-89223021557611996572013-05-22T09:49:00.002-07:002013-05-22T09:49:36.926-07:00Making an Educational Decision (Part 4)<div>
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I am going to tell a short version of our story for the benefit of helping you see how we have experienced three different academic settings. I also hope this helps you have context for why we have made the decisions we made.</div>
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We began our children's education in a homeschool setting. Our reasons for this were several. We wanted to disciple our children well. We wanted to have maximal time available to shape their thinking and their hearts in a Christ-centered direction. We also believed my son was a bit immature for his age and would not do well in a traditional school setting. Finally, we just plain wanted to spend more time with them.</div>
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We homeschooled our children for 2.5 years. We had a love / hate relationship with homeschooling. We loved the time with our children. We enjoyed the freedom of the pace of study, the curricular decisions, and space it provided our family to establish a good rhythm. We hated the additional stress and guilt it provided to my wife as she constantly felt like she was failing. We hated that our children failed to understand that in a room full of children they could not just blurt out whenever they wanted (which is nearly impossible to teach in a home with 2 children). We hated the homeschooling subculture that pretends their wisdom call makes them superior to those who fail to attain their particular level of righteousness (read self-righteousness). However, on the whole we wanted to keep homeschooling. </div>
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Why did we stop? Well, my wife became very ill. She could no longer homeschool the children. Thus, we had to move them into a traditional school setting. By God's grace we were blessed tremendously by Country Christian School. Our children entered Country Christian School and remained in that school for 4 years. I cannot stress enough what a blessing this school was. They were incredibly kind to our family. Our children benefited from a good curriculum, good teachers, and made sweet friends. My wife loved helping out at Country Christian and received many of the benefits of homeschooling without the guilt of being the lead person in trying to educate our children academically. Frankly, my wife is really built to fill a support role. Her relationship with our son became incredibly close where it was strained when we homeschooled. The only downsides to the school were that the upper grades tend to over burden the children with homework and in the last year we saw our children's love for reading begin to dissipate.</div>
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It was only this year that we made the decision to place our children in the local public school. We did so because we were not pleased with the 6th-8th grade program at our previous school. We loved the school through the 5th grade. But the program was not a good fit for us past the 5th grade. Our local public school, Centennial Elementary, turned out to be a blessing for our family as well. We have only been in the program one year. With that said, the principal and teachers we had at Centennial Elementary were incredibly kind, gracious, hard-working Christian people. They loved our children well. Our children thrived there academically. Further, their love for reading was incredibly well-nurtured at Centennial! The primary downsides for our family at Centennial were that the curriculum is godless (though the teachers were not), my children hated the math book, and my son struggled with the conversations that were to be had on the playground. </div>
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Now we are left to make a decision regarding our next school year. The two options before us are to keep our children in the public schools or to homeschool again. We are strongly leaning toward homeschooling again. My wife has been well for more than 3 years and we believe her health will be good for years to come. This removes a big obstacle for us. Our son really wants to be homeschooled as he has tired of hearing about all the middle school antics. He has loads of friends and social outlets. He just hates the zoo effect that occurs at middle schools. Further, he really enjoyed a more Christ-centered curriculum and wants to return to Saxon math. My daughter is happy either way. She is younger and has a sweet group of girlfriends at her school she will miss. However, she would prefer a Christian education and Saxon math as well. Further, she doesn't want to be at the public school if her older brother isn't. I keep reminding her they would be at different schools if they both stayed in public school, but she doesn't seem to care about that.</div>
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Our concerns in returning to homeschooling primarily boil down to one big issue. Will our children be self-directed enough that my wife won't feel the need to be constantly hounding them? This concern is largely born out of our realization that my wife does not serve well in the role of a leader. She is an incredible support. When my children can look to her to help them and encourage them all is well. When she must be the taskmaster their relationship goes awry. My hope is that I can bridge that some. But, my best efforts to do so when they were younger did not pan out. My guess is that they will be far more self-directed at this age. They have proven to be so in school. </div>
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This concern for my children manifests itself differently for each. Our daughter has the tendency to want to slack off and she pushes back against my wife and not against her teachers. We don't want to provide an atmosphere for her where she is constantly at war with my wife to do her work. Our son is on the verge of being a teenage boy. I do not believe it is healthy for a young man of that age to be under the thumb of his mom all day. In fact, I have seen multiple young men grow up in that scenario and it has not benefited them as adults. Thus, my goal is to take the lead in homeschooling both of them through planning their curriculum, making a calendar, and checking each day to see how their progress is going. I am hoping this will allow my wife to remain in a support role and help them with their studies. This is our planned approach if we homeschool this year. But we won't make that decision for another month or so. </div>
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I will post a list of benefits and weaknesses to each form of education (as we have experienced them) in my next post.</div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-78110775556433504742013-05-15T08:29:00.002-07:002013-05-15T08:35:31.339-07:00Making and Educational Decision (Part 3)Part 1 and 2 of this series can be found <a href="http://bakersfieldchurch.blogspot.com/2013/05/making-educational-decision-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://bakersfieldchurch.blogspot.com/2013/05/making-educational-decision-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I was sitting at my son's basketball practice talking to a young mom about our kids and school. I was telling her that my son and daughter really want to be homeschooled, as they once were. She responded to me that she was opposed to homeschooling. The reason for her opposition was that she was shaped as a person by her teachers. She said to me, "my school teachers were a huge influence on me as a person. I don't want my children to miss out on this kind of influence in their lives." I was stopped in my tracks by that comment. I was stunned. My mouth was closed and that isn't easy to do!<br />
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What this mom reflected to me is actually something we intuitively know about education. We know that our teachers do influence who we are. In fact, Jesus said this very thing when talking about discipleship,<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; font-size: 16px;"> "</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; font-size: 16px;">A disciple is not above his teacher, <i>but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher</i> (Luke 6:40)." Influence is an inescapable aspect of education. People will increasingly reflect the attributes of those who disciple them. Pastors actually lament this reality when they discuss the fact that their churches will often reflect much about themselves. Parents lament this when they see their children running around as little mirrors of their own shortcomings. The principle is really quite simple. We become like those who teach us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; font-size: 16px;">Thus, we would be incredibly naive not to account for "who" is teaching our children. The kind of people we want as the primary teachers of our children are those who love the Lord. We want them to be taught by those who demonstrate the character of Christ. We particularly want them to be taught by those who trust the Lord, apart from whom there is no salvation. We want them trained by those who demonstrate the "fear of the Lord," without which true knowledge is not possible. We want them to be discipled by those who "love the Lord and others," which is the sum of the Law. We want our sons and daughters to be developed as disciples of Jesus. This is the goal of Christian education. This is the responsibility inherent in the stewardship of children God has given to us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light;">The question is then begged whether everything my child is taught must be taught by a Christian. The answer to that question is "not necessarily." To use a non-academic example, my son has been taught how to shoot a basketball by someone who is not a Christian. Does this make my son's love of shooting a basketball an improper ordering of his affections (false worship), so that he is necessarily an idolater with regard to basketball? Of course not. However, is my son influenced by his coach and could the coach's wrong ordering of his affections influence my son in a manner that my son would love basketball too much? Yes! Further, could this same falsely directed form of worship be taught to my son by another Christian also? Yes! Frankly, my worship is often misdirected and I am certain my children's loves are shaped by me as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light;">We must be careful to avoid concluding that there is nothing good our children can learn from other fallen people, even unbelieving people. We believe in God's common grace working in unbelievers so that they often think true thoughts. Their problem is those truths are not placed in a proper worldview nor enjoyed in the context of the worship of God. With that said, we also must avoid falling into the mistaken notion that our children are not being influenced by those who teach them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light;">It is our burden to make sure our children are being shaped into Christians in thinking and in the ordering of their affections (worship). This is difficult work which requires we engage with all those who are influencing our children. We must come alongside our children and help them put everything they are learning in the context of a proper worldview and worship. It will not do to fall into the error that our children have nothing good to learn from other adults (even unbelievers), nor to pretend that other teachers have no influence over what they think and love. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light;">Navigating the various influences you introduce into the lives of your children is difficult work and requires wisdom. In the next post, I will discuss our story and advantages / disadvantages we have found in choices we have made for our children. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light;"><br /></span>Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-41548325676153754012013-05-08T09:27:00.002-07:002013-05-15T08:34:08.651-07:00Making an Educational Decision (Part 2)Part 1 of this series can be found <a href="http://bakersfieldchurch.blogspot.com/2013/05/making-educational-decision-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">If you walk into most conservative evangelical churches these day, you will notice a rise in the number of children who are homeschooled. Homeschooling is a rapidly growing trend among Christian parents for a variety of reasons. What you may also encounter is a general attitude that if you don’t homeschool, then you may be failing as a parent. There is a stench of parental superiority in the evangelical air many of us breathe regarding homeschooling. Homeschool parents are increasingly being represented as the only people who are truly dedicated and willing to make tremendous sacrifice to save their children from Caesar. In fairness, less than a decade ago homeschoolers were seen as weirdos who are going to raise up socially dysfunctional and academically handicapped children. As the evidence is pouring out, however, this image is changing (though admittedly some still suspect this may be a real problem).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As a result of this cultural shift among evangelicals, I am increasingly asked what the Bible says on such matters. I am asked this by dads who want to make good decisions for their families. I have also been asked by moms who feel guilty because some of their friends have been sure to repeat how they sacrifice so much to homeschool because they “really love their children and want the best for them.” Thus, we turn to the question, “does the Bible require a particular type of educational setting?” Does the Bible say anything about whether we homeschool, enroll our children in a private Christian school, or place them in a public school?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Let me compound the problem by suggesting we ought to reject the question as insufficient. The question assumes that education is based primarily in the cognitive arena of transferring information. The argument goes something like this: </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Clearly, our children ought to receive information shaped by a Christian worldview, since all other kinds of learning are a fool’s errand. The public schools have a curriculum that bathes in the waters of secular atheism, thus we should not subject our children to that kind of education. Therefore, if you can afford a Christian school that is a good option. If you can not afford a Christian school, then homeschool is the only Christian option left to you. If you do anything less, you are merely turning your children over to Caesar and you clearly are not taking seriously your responsibility to raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are two possible problems with this line of thought:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Bible clearly commands us to raise our children with both a Christian worldview and as Christian worshippers. This means we need to be devoted to making sure they understand how everything they learn is created and designed by God. Their worldview needs to be distinctly Christian. We need to find a way to instruct our children so they know God is and that he is relevant to their daily lives. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I think it is true to argue that teaching our children a Christian worldview is much easier in the context of a school setting that is assisting us in that endeavor, as opposed to a setting where the worldview is explicitly and self-consciously atheistic. There are many Christian teachers in the public schools, but they oversee a curriculum which intentionally teaches</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> a secular atheist worldview. With that said, this does not necessarily mean it is impossible to raise children with a Christian worldview while they attend public schools. It is definitely going to require more work. It is wise to assess whether you will actually do all the extra work necessary to overcome an expressly godless curriculum. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We also can’t argue that the Bible clearly requires one educational setting. There is no such biblical command. We can’t say definitively that parents who avail themselves of the public schools to educate their children academically are necessarily violating a biblical command. One could argue that the better part of wisdom militates agains that decision, but we must be careful not to make a wisdom call into a command for all to follow.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Further, we need to be thoughtful to establish a rhythm to our Christian lives that is self-consciously an order of worship directed to the Lord. We need to understand that our practices are a reflection of how we see God and humanity and also serve to inculcate in our children a particular view of God and humanity. Let me provide an example: </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>If a family’s week consists of the parents going to work from 8am-5pm five days per week, while the children go to school and do homework, then is followed by multiple athletic practices and hours of watching television at night, and capped off by using the weekend to do some household chores, go to athletic events or mini-vacations, and squeeze in church attendance when there is time, what kind of view of God and humanity are you practicing? What are you teaching your children to love through constant practice? Does it even matter that you tell your children you are a Christian family? Your life is basically a pattern of production and consumption. Your children are being raised to perform up to western standards and to believe rest consists in being entertained. Is it any wonder that so many young people go off to college and walk away from Christianity? Your children have practiced a life of worshipping the world their whole lives!</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We can be people who profess to love Jesus, attend church occasionally, and retain a relatively high moral standard in our home, while we are simultaneously habituating our children in a practice of worshipping the creation rather than the Creator! We can do this whether our children are in public, private, or homeschool settings. The educational setting does not guarantee we will practice a pattern of life that points our children to worshipping the Lord. Please don’t buy into the idea that your regular practices don’t matter. Your children’s loves (thus their worship) are being shaped by the rhythm of life you practice in your family. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What if you reorganized your family’s practices so that most evenings you spent time discussing life while having dinner together, reading the Bible together, and praying together? What if you dialed back the athletic events your children participate in and the kinds of grades you expect from them, so that your family could spend time several days a week enjoying time with the Lord as a family and with your church body? What if you turned the television off and replaced that time playing a game and laughing together? What if you spent time discussing with your children what they are learning academically, how this new information helps them to have a higher view of God, and what challenges they are facing which they can look to the Lord for help with?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want to provide a personal example of how these patterns of life as worship indeed shape what your children love. My son loves football and basketball. He is a fanatic. This is shaped in part by me playing these sports with him. He was asked just last night to be on an all-star basketball team. He was ecstatic about this! He also found out this all-star team is going to a weekend tournament in June. My son asked whether this tournament would interfere with Sunday corporate worship. He is only willing to play in the tournament on Saturday if the Sunday games interferes with Sunday worship. This is a costly decision for him. He loves basketball and he desperately wants to play in this entire tournament. However, he loves the Lord and corporate worship more. Our family practice has always been to guard Sundays from any interference with other activities. This pattern of worship has shaped how our son sees his week. However we resolve this dilemma for him, the resolution will not include devaluing corporate worship so he can play basketball.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The question of whether our children should attend a public school, a private Christian school, or be homeschooled proves to me to be the wrong question to start with. The better question is how are we intentionally building a liturgy (order of worship) into the patterns of our lives that trains our children to love the Lord? Also, how are we using all the resources at our disposal to help our children learn a Christian worldview? Do the academic choices we make impact our answers to the previous questions? Absolutely! We would be naive to think any differently. At the end of the day, our children are either being taught God is and he is relevant to our daily lives, or they are not. This is the parent’s primary responsibility.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I failed to deliver on the question of whether those who teach our children ought to matter to us. I will answer this in my next post. My final post will be on the story of my family and the advantages and disadvantages we have found in each academic setting.</span></div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5970052440177463768.post-24175857085905377722013-05-07T17:02:00.002-07:002013-05-07T17:02:51.900-07:00Making an Educational Decision (Part 1)<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">One of the most significant responsibilities that faces every Christian family is the education of their children. The temptation many of us face is making a distinction between education and discipleship, or more properly a bifurcation between the mind and the person. We see the training of the mind for academic subjects as completely disconnected from the formation of persons. Thus, we perpetuate one, or both, of two errors:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We think learning the core academic subjects must happen in the context of the Christian school, or homeschool, as a kind of “baptized” version of what is happening in the public school model.</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My endeavor in this first article is to address these two errors in how parents see education and their role in shaping their children. In doing so, I hope to begin to establish a basis for making educational decisions for our children.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want to start by addressing what the responsibility of Christian parents is in discipling their children. Two of the most well known texts with regard to discipling our children are as follows:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Ephesians 6:4~Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, <i>but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Deuteronomy 6:4 ~“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 <i>You shall teach them diligently to your children,</i> and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">These texts do not require a Bible degree to understand. Parents are commanded to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They are to teach their children who God is and that they should love him. This instruction is not limited to classroom instruction. This instruction is also not limited to Sunday school, family worship time, or youth group. It is a life encompassing endeavor. All of life is to be patterned in such a manner that we are always pointing our children to Jesus Christ and encouraging them to love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. This is discipleship.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now, here comes the question: “What do Math, English, etc have to do with Christian discipleship...Isn’t academic inquiry really a spiritually neutral endeavor?”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">According to Solomon the answer to that question is, “NO.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Prov. 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Prov. 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus goes on to tell us that one can only achieve the status of a fool apart from him:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #007aaa; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Matt. 7:24</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="color: #007aaa; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>25</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="color: #007aaa; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>26</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="color: #007aaa; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>27</b></span><span style="color: #606060; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Paul reminds us that this is so because Jesus is the wisdom of God and we must renew our minds and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>1 Corinthians 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There is no neutral ground. Our minds are either informed by the fear of the Lord as we look to Christ, or we are caught up in the foolishness of this world. You may rightly object that you know many unbelievers who are great mathematicians. How can we suggest that they are ultimately fools with no real knowledge when they clearly have incredible Math skills?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You would be correct to assert that it doesn’t take the fear of the Lord to have the knowledge that 2+2=4. God’s common grace is at work in our world and so unbelievers know things. Unbelievers can be incredibly proficient academics. However, our goal as Christian parents is not to raise good academics. Our goal is to raise good Christians.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What an unbeliever doesn’t know is that 2+2 always equals 4 for a reason. There is a unity and cohesion in the universe which is designed by God, so that 2+2 always equals 4. There is also a designed diversity in creation that insures that 2+2 doesn’t equal 2. We have this unity and diversity in creation as an expression of our Triune God who is both One in essence and Three in person. Our children need to know that so they can appreciate the creation, even as represented in Math, as an exercise of worship to our Lord. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What I have been discussing until now is called a “worldview.” Our children need to be shaped with a Christian worldview. They need to learn that history is not accidental but is shaped by the Providential hand of God. They need to understand that English is a language that expresses real ideas and that facilitates real communication because God is and thus we can express things truly to one another. They need to see the wonders of science as an expression of the immense power and good intentionality of our Creator. Our children can not worship God if they do not know him and if they can not see all of creation as pointing to him.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">However, even shaping our children’s worldview isn’t enough. If worldview was the only problem parents had to overcome in discipleship, then all education would be as simple as giving them the right information. I think this is what is often assumed in Christian education and among many homeschoolers. I say that because they believe that if they just have a baptized version of what the public schools offer, then all will be well. This is simply not true.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What we often fail to realize is that the entire shape of our lives is to be worship. We are creatures who have hearts. We are not only creatures of mind. We are embodied souls. Our bodies matter. Our minds and hearts matter. Thus, the shape of our lives matter to the education of our children as well. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">J.K.A Smith in, <i>Desiring the Kingdom </i>(a book I highly recommend), speaks of the shape of our lives as a cultural liturgy. A liturgy is an order of worship. All of life is an expressed as an order of worship. The rhythms of our lives both demonstrate what we believe and shape what we love. If I believe that the practice of being human is essentially an exercise of the mind, then I will believe that transmission of information is the burden of education. In other words, I must shape education so that the maximal amount of information is transmitted to another person. If I believe that being human is essentially an exercise of worship, then I will believe my patterns of daily life must train both the heart and mind. In other words, I must shape education so that the whole person is developed for the glory of God.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We live in a culture that has bought into a kind of dualism that sees humanity as essentially being producers and consumers. Thus, all of life is shaped to be as productive as possible. The burden of education is to transmit as much information to these non-worshipping producers as possible, so that they can live a successful life of being highly productive. Often, homeschoolers and Christian schools simply baptize this view of the human person and load children up with a huge amount of academic work (with a Christian worldview of course). After all, what really matters is that our children can be successful and productive, right? And we wonder why the average working man spends too much time trying to achieve while leaving his family with little support (or, alternatively, too much time consuming entertainment). We have taught him to worship at the altar of productivity (and consumption) his whole life. What do we expect to be the outcome?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Whatever schooling option we choose, we must not fall into the trap of believing there is neutrality in education, nor in believing that all that matters is the transfer of information. The worldview and the worship practices that are taught to our children will shape their minds and hearts. They will shape them into wise followers of Jesus, or into fools who say in their hearts "their is no God." There is no other option.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">With that said, my next post will be on whether the Bible requires a particular type of educational setting (homeschool, private, public), and whether those who teach our children ought to matter to us. My final post will be on the story of my family and the advantages and disadvantages we have found in each educational setting.</span></div>
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Chad Vegashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625838908584192631noreply@blogger.com1