THE CHALLENGE: Bible Readings for January 1-7

Sunday, January 1: 

 Genesis 1-2

Matthew 1-2

Psalms 1

Monday, Jan. 2

Genesis  3-4

Matthew 3-4

Psalms 2

Tuesday, Jan. 3

Genesis  5-6 

Matthew 5

Psalms 3

Wednesday, Jan. 4

Genesis 7-8

Matthew 6

Psalms 4

Thursday, Jan. 5

Genesis 9-10

Matthew 7

Psalms 5

Friday, Jan. 6

Genesis 11-12

Matthew 8

Psalms 6

Saturday, Jan. 7

Genesis 13-15

Matthew 9

Psalms 7

Did you get this week's readings done?  Celebrate with a Starbucks coffee or Bluebell icecream and rejoice in God's blessings.



Happy New Year

Resolution One: I will live for God.

Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.

Jonathan Edwards

 

Dear Congregation:

 

We hope you all enjoy ringing out the old year and bringing in the new.  A new year is a great time to renew commitments, make good resolutions, and seek to serve Christ more faithfully.

 

Several announcements concerning worship tomorrow:

 

1.  No Sunday school.  Worship service will begin at 10:40.  The break from Sunday school has been nice in light of Advent services, but it will also be great to get back to the routine next week.

 

2.  No Fellowship Meal tomorrow.  Many members have other family events to attend. 

 

3.  We will have a Fellowship Meal next Sunday, January 8. 

 

4.  We will also be announcing other January plans tomorrow.  These include the resumption of Kids' Quest and a renewed prayer focus for the church.

 

5.  Today's bulletin and announcement will go to print shortly, but let me know of anything we need to include for announcements and prayer requests in future weeks.

 

A CHALLENGE:

 

One my birthday, last Wednesday, Dec. 28, (Thanks to all who called or left FB messages.) I bought the Daily Reading Bible, English Standard Version.  It is designed for reading through the Bible in a year.  Actually, the program in this Bible is reading the Old Testament once, the New Testament twice, and the Book of Psalms twice.

 

This version of the Bible is on sale at Lifeway Books for six dollars.  Other versions of a "through the Bible in one year" are also available.  Guides for daily reading can be found in the backs of some study Bibles and on numerous Internet sites.  So, you can use the Bible you have for this.

 

My yearly Bible reading usually involves reading and rereading certain parts of the Bible.  This past year I read the New Testament in the King James Version because it was the 400 year anniversary of the publication of the King James Version.  I also read portions of the Old Testament. 

 

The  Bible does not include a command to read it over the year in a certain method.  You can read the Old Testament, or the New Testament, or portions of both.   One could, for example, just carefully read the Gospels or the Epistles.  But there is a place for reading the whole work from cover to cover.

 

I encourage you to join me in my plan to read through the whole Bible.  I hope to accomplish the goal of the Daily Reading Bible, which as stated above is OT once with NT and Psalms twice.  I might fail.  I may only get through the NT once and about half of the OT. 

 

Let us see how many of us can publicly commit to trying to read from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 this year. 

Let us see how we can encourage one another and keep one another accountable. 

You have permission to fail, permission to fall short, permission to fall down and get up again.

 

See you at church tomorrow.  Happy and Christ-centered New Year's Eve. 

 

And another thing, if you stay up to see the New Year arrive, take time to offer up a prayer for not only your family, but our church.  2011 was a trying time.  God's hand was heavy upon us, but He never left us.

Dr. Francis Nigel Lee--Brilliant Christian Thinker: RIP

Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, RIP

A brilliant thinker and zealous Christian, Francis Nigel Lee

One of my theological heroes has died.  Dr. Francis Nigel Lee died on December 23 in Australia.  He was age 77.  I was just recently thinking about him because I mailed him a copy of my book just a couple of months back.  I don't know if he ever got it or got to look at it.  When I offered to send it, he sent me his address and said to send it "duly inscribed."  It was my honor to send it.

For an interesting account of Dr. Lee's life, go this this link:
http://biblicallandmarks.com/wpl/friend-to-remember/

More of my experiences in reading the books and corresponding with Dr. Lee are found on my blog:
To continue reading this post...click here.

Sunday's Sermon--I Have Already Forgotten

I don't know how it is with other preachers, but I believe that God put me in ministry so that I would be forced to pray, read, think, speak, and remember essential things.  Most of my sermons are designed primarily for me and secondarily for the congregation.  I am the slowest to hear, the slowest to understand, and the slowest to respond.  My prayer is that my time spent talking to myself in the front of the church sanctuary each Sunday will also be of help to others.

Here we are on Wednesday during the week before Christmas, and I must admit, that not once, not twice, but many times, I have already forgotten or have disregarded what I preached Sunday.

Here are the closing words, the main application of that sermon:

The lesson to be learned: Take time.
Maybe in the mornings, maybe in the evenings, maybe on the day after Christmas.
Hopefully right now: Enjoy, relax, meditate, think, marvel.
In the mad rush of the season, Take time.

So far, I have been rushed, distracted, exhausted, stressed, irritated, and even mildly depressed.  So, I need to listen to myself and Take time.  I need to enjoy the birth of Christ, relax in God's goodness, meditate on God's grace, and marvel at the Incarnation.

The sermon, or at least most of it, is posted here.

Advent Season Begins

One of many great hymns of the season.

The First Sunday of Advent Season, November 27, 2011

Sunday School, 9:30am

Ephesians

Worship Service, 10:40am

Being and Doing

Saturday, December 3

Hanging of the Greens

“Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly”

3:00-5:00pm

There will be food, children’s activities, and decorating for the adults.

This is a family event. Please do leave unattended children.

Sunday, December 4

The Second Sunday of Advent

Fellowship Meal after the Worship Service

Officers’ Meeting at 1:30

(We will begin setting goals and making plans for the new year.)

Further Announcements for the Month of December

Calendars should be posted, e-mailed, and printed later this week.

Yulefest--TCC choir and local school choirs, including Veritas Academy

Friday, December 2 at the Sullivan Performing Arts Center at 7:30

Veritas Academy Christmas Concert: The Light of the World

First United Methodist Church, Arkansas

Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 6:30

Sunday, December 18

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Lessons and Carols--A Christmas Service

10:40am

No Sunday School that day.

Sunday, December 25

Christmas Day

Worship Service at 10:40

No Sunday School that day.

Sunday, November 13: Pray for the Persecuted Church

Some instructions for tomorrow:

1.  Make sure you are not being followed.

2. Conceal your Bible carefully, perhaps by having itsewn inside your coat.

3.  Enter the undisclosed place we are gathering at *&^%,  one or two people at a time, so as to not arouse suspicion.

4.  Be careful about any strangers who show up. They may be agents.

5.  Children whose parents have disowned them will be allowed to stay in homes of church members.

6.  If captured and threatened, remember the crown of glory that awaits you.

7.  Any who are able to make contact with members in prison, please do so, and be extra careful.

8.  Know that Brothers and Sisters in Christ in free lands are praying earnestly for all of us.

No, I have not lost my mind, nor am I more paranoid about our government than I should be.  I am simply trying to describe what many of our brothers and sisters in Christ face every day.  Sunday school tomorrow will consist of prayer time being devoted to the persecuted church.  We have a short video about a conversion experience in Iran.  We also have some materials from Voice of the Martyrs.

VOM, http://www.persecution.com/, has long been a witness to the free world about the trials and tribulations of believers in Communist, Muslim, and other pagan lands where freedom of worship is not allowed.

Let us all join together in the morning to pray and celebrate Christ's coming victory over all His and our enemies.  If you cannot make it to Sunday school, pray at home and on your way to worship.  Pick up one of the prayer lists to pray  for these Christians.  Give thanks for our freedom and their faithfulness.  Repent of our indifference and unthankfulness. 

Also, note that the Voice of the Martyrs' website offers free copies of Richard Wurmbrand's book Tortured for Christ.  That book was greatly used by God to change my life.  I just need to be reminded of it more often.  Pastor Wurmbrand was a great saint of the last century and his works live on after him.

Out to Pasture

I kept warm at last week's Toga Trot

Just a few personal updates:

Several years back, Jeff Bruce gave me a book titled Pastoral Library by Eugene Peterson.  It was actually four books bound together in one volume.  I read quite a bit from that collection and have always had the feeling that I needed to read from it even more.  


4 books in 1

 About a year ago, George Grant recommended Peterson's book titled Eat This Book.  It is about reading the Bible thoughtfully.  Maybe it is a book we should consider reading in a book study.  Just recently, I picked up Peterson's newest work, which is titled The Pastor: A Memoir. I cannot wait to dig into what looks like a wonderful account of Peterson's trials and triumphs in the ministry.

Peterson is a fascinating writer.  He has the literary skill of C.S. Lewis.  At times, one has to read him with a bit of caution.  His views, parts of his theology, and some of his theological guides are a bit shaky.  For example, he is far more at home with Karl Barth than a Presbyterian ought to be. Still, with the caution lights flashing, he is wonderful to read.  (I don't have his popular paraphrase of the Bible, The Message, but I do hope to find one cheap somewhere to have for reference.)

A pastor's war stories

Since I jumped back into the deep end of the pool in June, I have felt compelled to read books pertaining to ministry.  So, during the early summer, I read Gene Getz's Elders and Leaders:  God's Plan for Leading the Church.  Getz has been a leader in the Fellowship Bible movement, but his books on church life and ministry are read by people of all Christian stripes.

A rich and challenging study

 Then, I re-read John R.W. Stott's Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century.  Rev. Stott died last summer after a long life and fruitful ministry of preaching and writing.  I first read this book in 1994.  When I was re-reading it, I realized that I should have been reading it every year or two since I became an elder.  (I would have been a good man if I had been reading Stott every minute of my life, to paraphrase Flannery O'Connor.)  And I hope to pick up and read quite a few more Stott books over the next several years.

Even more relevant for the 21st Century

More recently, I read The Elder and His Work by David Dickson, edited by George K. McFarland and Philip Graham Ryken.  Dickson was a Scottish Presbyterian and his book is a classic on the task of an elder.  Dr. Grant had also recommended that book to me.  I would encourage all men who might even remotely consider the office of elder to read it, and others to read it to help evaluate those of us in the office.  And maybe, we need a book study on this book also.

Practical and direct as one would expect from a Scotsman

I wish I could show you before and after pictures from this workout through these 3 books with anticipation of more results from reading Peterson's memoir.  I know I have been helped, but the road to sanctification is uphill. A Sunday sermon can no more feed you for the week than a Sunday meal can.  We all need to be reading from our Bibles and from good Christian books.  And those readings need to be accompanied with prayers, thoughts, and expectations of change in our lives.

In other news, I have four boxes in my office filled with copies of Punic Wars and Culture Wars ready to ship out.  In one case, a copy is going to one of my heroes of the faith in Australia, Dr. Francis Nigel Lee.  Dr. Lee has been a great Christian writer, thinker, and scholar in Reformed circles for decades.  He has asked for a copy, "duly inscribed," to use his words.  A couple of copies are going to a friend in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  His name is Paul David Robinson and he is both a plasterer (sheet rock man) and a Christian philosopher.  (http://paul-david-robinson.com/biography)  I sure wish I could get him over here to visit us, do some plastering work on my house, and teach the students at Veritas about Herman Dooyeweerd.  (We would also enjoy his accent.)

Please pray for the on-going distribution of Punic Wars.  I have sold or given away about 5 boxes of the book this year.  I need to distribute 25 more boxes of it (hopefully profiting the giver and the receivers).  And I need to get some current writing projects finished.

Finally, please notice the announcement about a play to be performed soon:  A Christmas Corral.    (http://veritashumanities.blogspot.com/)   I stole....I mean, I based based the play on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.   Our Veritas Humanities class will be performing the play in December.  It is set in the American West of the late 1800s.  (We would appreciate any western wear ot western items we could borrow for use in the play.)

God's blessings.