BY TODD AHREND
What verses come to mind when you think of the word, "MISSIONS"? Most of us are hard pressed to name more than the old faithful Great Commission. For years our church culture has singled out this passage to be the theme of our missions conferences and the motivation for those who go. It's no wonder that our obedience is slow - who wants to hang their future on one verse? The Bible has a lot more to say on this subject then just the Great Commission.....
BY JOHN PIPER
1. Be aware that your people will often have problems beyond your knowledge and power.
• Is it God's time to heal or to test faith by affliction?
• Is this mental illness or demonic oppression or a mixture?
• Is it fitting and redemptive for there to be a separation from a spouse?
• Will we be presented blameless before the throne or judged for our good and bad works?......
BY RANDY RAYSBROOK
Blame it on Fredrick W. Taylor. Through he lived a century ago, he may still be affecting your understanding of disciple-making. Taylor’s influence was primarily in the industrial sector of America in the late 1890s. It was he who refined post-Industrial Revolution thought by advocating the standardization of tools and equipment in the factory. His ideas helped Henry Ford increase efficiency by focusing on method and speed. His formula: The greatest production results when each worker is given a definite task to be performed in a definite time and in a definite manner.
For many years my concept of discipling others was a product of Taylor's thinking....
BY TIM KELLER
Martin Luther opened the Reformation by nailing "The Ninety-Five Theses" to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. The very first of the theses was: "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." On the surface this looks a little bleak! Luther seems to be saying Christians will never be making much progress. But of course that wasn't Luther's point at all. He was saying that repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life. Indeed, pervasive, all-of- life-repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus....
BY JOHN PIPER
For thoughtful people, how they pray for the soul is governed by how they believe God acts. So, for example, if they believe God changes people's souls so that they make new and right choices, then they will ask God to make those soul-changes through evangelism and nurture. But not everybody is thoughtful about the way they pray. They don't think about what view of God is behind their praying.....
BY RUTH ANN RIDLEY
Issues: Tuning into God’s timing will help you live at a reasonable pace — and still accomplish everything of importance in your life. It all begins with careful prayer and planning, as you give your schedule and all your goals and dreams to God.
Aspects of Christ's global cause can be found in every book of the Bible. Read straight through the passages listed here in one sitting. Watch how this grand theme weaves its way from Genesis to Revelation. Watch how the theme comes through, however, in a way that is compatible with each book and with that books' place in the unfolding of Gods' revelation on the cause....
BY LEE PAIGE
For years I had struggled with the emotional side of feeling God's love for me. I knew in my mind that He did, but the experience in my heart was not there. A dear friend and my pastor sensed this and convinced me to enter into some counseling with him. As part of this healing process, I was to read certain material and then keep a journal of my thoughts and feelings....
BY GEORGE BARNA
Let's get one thing straight from the start. If you want to be a leader, vision is not an option; it is part of the standard equipment of a real leader. By definition, a leader has vision: What else would a leader lead people toward, if not to fulfill that vision? Understand that to be a Christian leader, the vision toward which you lead people must not be a vision of your own making, but a vision God gives to you....
BY LORNE SANNY
One individual helping another — what we call "one-to-one," or what I like to call "giving individual, personal attention” — is at the very heart of the Navigator emphasis. Dawson Trotman, who founded The Navigators, epitomized it more than any person I have ever met....
BY ROGER FLEMING
Silence. Deafening silence. The Jews languished under the severest judgment by the God of Abraham. He had spoken frequently, fervently by the prophets during the devastation of their land by Assyria and Babylon. He had urged them through Haggai to complete the Temple once He brought them back from captivity. But when the unrepentant nation had refused His messenger, Malachi, God fell silent. The frightful famine Amos foretold blighted Israel — a famine of hearing the Word of God (Amos 8:11,12). Four hundred years of silence....
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BY JOHN PIPER
February 23, 2005
The glory of Jesus Christ shines more clearly when we see him in his proper relation to the Old Testament. He has a magnificent relation to all that was written. It is not surprising that this is the case, because he is called the Word of God incarnate (John 1:14). Would not the Word of God incarnate be the sum and consummation of the Word of God written? Consider these summary statements and the texts that support them....
In a Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis writes:
“The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is - what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used. After that has been discovered the temperance reformer may decide that the corkscrew was made for a bad purpose, and the communist may think the same about the cathedral. But such questions come later. The first thing is to understand the object before you: as long as you think the corkscrew was meant for opening tins or the cathedral for entertaining tourists you can say nothing to the purpose about them. The first thing the reader needs to know about Paradise Lost is what Milton meant it to be.” ....
BY KAREN HINCKLEY
For most of the unbelievers I know, repentance conjures up an image of a thin-lipped man in a black suit pointing a bony finger and hissing, "Repent, sinner!" They see Christians as masochists groveling at an angry God's feet, flogging themselves bloody and staggering under impossible loads of responsibility. I've done my time in the grit-your-teeth school of repentance, so I understand where outsiders get their misconceptions. But how can I tell them what repentance really means?....
BY E. CALVIN BEISNER
When the Apostle Paul sought to answer the objections of the Jews in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13-48), he referred repeatedly to Scripture as a reason for his faith. When he found a promise of the coming of the Messiah in the Testament, he attributed that promise to God Himself, believing the Old Testament to be God’s own Word....
The book of Lamentations is the heart-cry of Jeremiah when he and his people were being hurt by God, and by their enemies, and by their own sin. How he speaks of this divine hurting shows us some of the various ways speak about God in our own pain. If we affirm them all, then not one of them will be taken amiss....
Few questions have exercised the minds of people down the ages more than the question of suffering. In an otherwise beautiful world, why is there suffering? The problem at times touches all of our lives.
In these days of instant communication we are confronted regularly with unbelievable suffering caused by the major horrors of famine and war. Who can imagine the suffering experienced by a woman in Croatia who has been raped many times, whose husband had been hacked to pieces and brothers also brutally murdered, and whose house, with all her possessions, has been burned to the ground. Even though we may become immune to such things that happen at a distance, sooner or later suffering strikes closer to home, whether in our own lives or in the lives of those who are close to us.
1. Pray. Ask God for his help for you and for those you want to minister to. Ask him for wisdom and compassion and strength and a word fitly chosen. Ask that those who are suffering would look to God as their help and hope and healing and strength. Ask that he would make your mouth a fountain of life....
BY JOHN PIPER
Contents
Introduction: Faith Alone and the Fight for Joy
To Help Those for Whom Joy Stays Out of Reach
The Foundation of Gutsy Guilt
The Great Work of Christ Outside of Us Confusing Justification and Sanctification Will Kill Joy
John Bunyan Sees His Righteousness in Heaven
Start with Despair in Yourself...
My first attempts at sharing my faith were dismal failures. I was the classic Bible-thumper, the gospel grenadier. On one occasion, heading home from a meeting of dynamic Christian businessmen, I was so enthused that I felt compelled to tell someone about Christ before getting off the plane.
My seat assignment put me next to another businessman. Our conversation consisted of the usual small talk of strangers who find themselves seatmates. Our flight was ending and it was evident the man did not know Jesus....