In view of God's sovereignty, what is the role of prayer in a Christian's life? (Dr. R.C. Sproul)

We've been taught that prayer changes things. In view of God's sovereignty, what is the role of prayer in a Christian's life?

First of all, we need to establish that it is the sovereign God who not only invites us but commands us to pray. Prayer is a duty, and as we perform that duty, one thing for sure is going to be changed, and that is us. To live a life of prayer is to live a life of obedience to God.

Also, we must understand that there is more to prayer than intercession and supplication. When the disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” they saw a connection between the power of Jesus and the impact of his ministry and the time he spent in prayer. Obviously, the Son of God felt that prayer was a very valuable enterprise because he gave himself to it so deeply and passionately.

To read more click HERE.

5 Ways to Pray for Your Church (Erik Raymond)

5 Ways to Pray for Your Church Family in 2014

FROM Erik Raymond

As we turn our calendars to a new year, we instinctively make plans to give attention to what matters. As Christians, we know that when we think about our priorities, prayer is right at the top of the list . . . Here are 5 ways that we can be praying for our own church family and other churches as well.

1. Pray for a Hunger for the Bible.

To read more click HERE.

The Benefits of a Church Membership Class (Matt Capps)

January 22, 2014

The Benefits of a Church Membership ClassBy Matt Capps

Joining a local church is an important decision. As pastors and leaders we need to not only help people understand that, but we also need to properly shepherd them through the process of uniting with a local church body. However, according to LifeWay research 64% of churches either have nothing to assimilate new members, or no systemic plan to move people towards membership. This is where a church membership class can be beneficial.

To read more click HERE.

When Church Becomes An Organization - James A.E. MacLellan

Here's a worthwhile excerpt from the Ecclesiastes, NIV Application Commentary, by Ian Provan^[1]:

“Worship services” provide little opportunity for silent awe in the presence of God but plenty of opportunity for performance on the part of a select few professional speakers and musicians, who fill all the space with their words and sounds. Other gatherings of the church are characterized by relentless activity. It is Christian activity, of course, but it still fills the space that might be taken by silent adoration. Thus, “church” comes to resemble simply another form of human group endeavor and indeed often comes to mimic in a serious way the culture around it that is supposedly governed by different values. “Church” is increasingly thought of in terms of organization rather than of people worshiping God together, and leaders bring business and management models to bear on its development—planning growth, programming success, and managing change.

Leadership itself is understood and evaluated from a secular point of view. What counts as “good leadership” in the church-as-organization has been borrowed from the secular world. The modern pastor is seen in this light as a kind of CEO of the company, trained as an expert in problem solving and management, and thus gains respectability in a world and in a church that no longer thinks in a truly Christian way, particularly about the church. He is “a CEO in his study and a shrink in his pulpit.”² As Vinoth Ramachandra rightly notes, “Many seminary graduates are now skilled in management techniques, or counselling skills and even ‘church-planting’ methodologies, but lack any integrating theological vision.”³ The story is told of a Christian leader returning from a church-growth conference puzzled because he had heard no theology and no serious references to God—only the exaltation of technique and numbers.⁴ Church advertising often reflects this ethos, as illustrated in these comments of an advertising executive regarding a contract from an Episcopal church in Minneapolis:

Promoting one’s church and marketing is a big part of evangelism.… George [the pastor] was used to getting on his knees a lot and asking for favors, and he wondered why he couldn’t promote his own parish with messages as hard-hitting as a lot of the ads he’d admired.⁵

The narcissistic, self-absorbed church thus develops by degrees to respond to the narcissistic culture, mimicking that culture in its move from word to image, from passion for truth and righteousness to cultivating intimacy and “good feelings,” from exposition to entertainment, from integrity to novelty, from action to spectacle.⁶ A survey of sermons by evangelical ministers between 1985 and 1990 suggests, in fact, that over 80 percent of these made God and his world spin around the surrogate center of the self. This is related to the professionalization of the ministry, in which the fulcrum around which ministry turns is no longer God but the church, which itself thus turns out to be a kind of idol.⁷ Of this kind of consumerist religion, Jacques Ellul commented rightly a number of years ago that it was not so much a “Jesus revolution” as a “gigantic religious expediency, in which Jesus and the revelation are served up to suit everybody’s taste.”⁸

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² O. Guinness, “America’s Last Men and Their Magnificent Talking Cure,” in No God but God, ed. O. Guinness and J. Seel (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 111–32 (quote on p. 123).

³ V. Ramachandra, Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1996), 18.

⁴ O. Guinness, “Sounding Out the Idols of Church Growth,” in No God but God, 174–88 (quote on p. 165).

⁵ T. Pruzan, “Angels in the Ad Field,” Print (1998), 58–63 (quote on p. 61).

⁶ Ramachandra, Gods That Fail, 18.

⁷ D. Wells, “The D-Min-ization of the Ministry,” in No God but God, 174–88.

⁸ J. Ellul, The New Demons, trans. C. Edward Hopkin (New York: Seabury, 1973), 154.

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^[1] Provan, I. (2001). Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. The NIV Application Commentary (121–122). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

PASTOR JIM'S FAVORITE IPHONE APPS - James A.E. MacLellan

Here are some of my favorite Apple Apps in no particular order:

1. Kindle Reader.  I have a Kindle.  I read a lot on Kindle.  Why?  Because they are cheaper. Every day Amazon gives deals on even Christian books.  There's a large selection and it automatically syncs across any device. I can read on my iPhone, put it down and pick up right where I left off on my laptop or back to my Kindle.  I also like that I won’t lose my library because my books are all stored on the web.

2. Feedly.  Feedly is my favorite blog reader. It helps me select some great blogs of Christian authors like Tim Challies and Justin Taylor, etc.  I also love the functionality to save articles for later or share them on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever.

3. Logos Bible Software.   I have used Logos for years on my PC.  Now they have come up with an iPhone App.  The iPhone app is actually called VYRSO.  Again I have access to hundreds of Bible translations and books, including reference books.   It synchronizes completely with my PC and devices.  Downloads are a breeze.  There are amazing reading programs available and helps. 

4. My PrayerMate.  This is a great tool to help me be disciplined and effective in my prayertime.  I schedule my family, friends and church folks in a way that I can be praying for everyone.  It's a great help to my prayer life.  There is a charge for this App but its worth it.  I think it's under $10.

5. I use Genius Scan to turn my iPhone into a pocket scanner. I use this app to go paperless at home and at church. So this app takes a pic of the document and exports it into a program that I use for wordprocessing called DocsToGo.  I also use it to immediately scan receipts so I don’t lose them.  

6. Skydrive is great.  I don't think it's better than other cloud type drives that save your work online, but it's the one I use. It is basically an online hard drive. I use it to back up all of my important files and documents. Simply drop your files in the folder on your desktop and it automatically syncs to your iPhone, PC, and the web. I also upload my sermons so I can work on them wherever I am if I have time.

7.  I use the Apple App for Podcasts and the other Apple features for my Calendar and Address Book. But all this is syncronized with iCloud.  When I'm at the computer I keep this open all the time.  Another neat thing with the Calendar app is if I schedule an appointment with someone I can send them (through iCloud) an automated email to remind them of our appointment. 

8. I Facebook and I Tweet.  A great App that helps send updates to both locations through one means is HootSuite.  Why do it twice when you can do it once!

9. Last but not least is I love the App for SKYPE.  My iPhone "skypes" really well.   With the iPhone ability to reverse the camera you can not only let the person see your face but you can let him or her see what you're doing, or what problem you have.  Love it!   

John's Sabbatical: Revelation 1:9-20 (James A.E. MacLellan)

John uses this phrase in chapter 1, twice: "the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."   In the first instance, he writes in Revelation 1:2 (NIV), "² who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ;" and the second in Revelation 1:9 (NIV), "⁹ I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus."

In verse 2 we understand the phrase to mean that what John is claiming to write is "the Word of God" and the testimony of Jesus."  This is the same thing stated differently for emphasis.  You could call these two subtitles of the Book of Revelation.[1]   In verse 9 John has not changed the concept.  It is the same. Notice, he did not say he was on the Island because of the edict of the Emperor.  He said that he was suffering because of this Book of Revelation -- this Word of God, the testimony of Jesus.  What is he saying?

"John is saying that God allowed him to go to Patmos in order to receive the content of the Book of Revelation. From a human point of view, John’s difficult personal situation was the springboard to bring to the churches the message of Revelation. (In the same way, Paul would never have written his Prison Epistles—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon—without the “tragedy” of a Roman imprisonment.)" [2] John saw his suffering as serving a greater purpose.

In verse 10 John says that he was "in the Spirit".  This means he was in a state brought on by the Holy Spirit where he was seeing a vision.  This marks the first of four of these statements in the Book.  This provides for us an internal organization to the Book, i.e., the Book is divided into 4 Visions (4:2; 17:3; 21:10).  The first is a vision of Jesus Christ:  What do we "see" in Jesus?  Jesus is:

• With His Church (v13a)
• The Jesus from Palestine, the Son of Man (v13b)
• Our High Priest (v13c)
• ancient One full of wisdom (v14a)
• seeing everything (v14b)
• trampling on His enemies (v15a)
• constantly speaking (v15b)
• holding the Church in His hands (v16a)
• speaking with power and discernment (v16b)
• shining with the glory of God (v17)

To know Christ accurately and savingly is to know Him in all His glory, fully Man and fully God. The default response to knowing Christ is to worship Him. It is to be comforted by the knowledge that He is intimately present with His Church.

[from: http://jamesmaclellan.blogspot.com/]

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1.  Easley, K. H. (1998). Vol. 12: Revelation. Holman New Testament Commentary (12–13). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

2. Ibid, (17).