Our prayer life must be based on Scripture and one of the most encouraging portions of the trustworthy Word is found in Ephesians. Here is a blog article by one of the Cripplegate guys about improving our prayers based on Ephesians 6.
Paul wanted the Ephesians to build a powerful life of prayer – one that was sustained in and out of crises that they faced on earth. https://thecripplegate.com/6-ways-ephesians-6-can.../... Blessings!
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The purpose of this group (To the Known God) is related to knowing and worshipping the Lord. A huge part of that is know Him by His attributes. It also has to do with knowing Him by the Son who, we are told in the letter to the Hebrews (1:3), "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power."
We are also told in the final part of that verse that Jesus came to do one thing and that was to die in our place, "After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high," The world has tended to paint a negative stereotypical picture of the Puritan pastors and preachers, but when we read then in their own words in their sermons, books and letters find a very different thing altogether. The man the Lord used to reintroduce the church, including myself, to the Puritans was Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones via his conference lectures in the 1950s. Men like Dr. Joel Beeke have been the scholars since then to keep that reintroduction and influence going. https://joelbeeke.org/the-foundation-of-puritan-worship.../ Here is a blog article which speaks to our worship of God through Christ and knowing God better. Blessings! I began a new FB group for resourcing and mentoring pastors, seminarians and ministry leaders. It is titled "To The Known God" and will focus on the attributes of God.
I intend to focus for a while on the Lord's holiness as it is the most supreme and greatest His attributes. Isaiah exclaimed this character quality of the Lord in triplicate this a Holy, Holy, Holy! The tells it is one of His attributes that he was to share with us and we should be holy as He is holy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0lH_OwdCfg The theologian my wife and I first learned from on this attribute of God was Dr. R.C. Sproul. Here in this short audio clip he passionately spoke of the details of this great attribute of God. Click above or on the Sproul quote for the link to the 3-minute audio. Blessings! My most favorite authors to read lately are the Puritans. Once you get past the "thee's and thou's" or find a modernized version of their resources (sometimes found at the Monergism website), then they stand tall as a beacon of truth. These Puritan pastors and preachers are those whom we should emulate and follow in their examples of serving and exalting Christ among brothers and sisters and in a hostile world before the face of God.
Whether it was in the circumstances of the Black Plague or persecution from the king, queen or magistrates who kept flip-flopping from RCC/Anglican to Protestant, or standing firm and resolute on doctrinal and experiential purity as opposed to the world, these men are still a reminder to us that we should remain true and carry on in our calling as pastors, preachers and missionaries. We must endure and persevere and trust in the work of the Holy Spirit through us and by way of the Word of God. Yes, ministry is difficult and messy with people at times. I concur on that point and know it well. But people are the ministry! And we must remain steadfast in adding to our faith certain character qualities and values (2 Peter 1:5-11) such as courage, honesty, taking care of people (biblical love) and taking care of things (biblical stewardship). We must remain diligent, steadfast and resolute on the convictions we glean from God's trustworthy Word. https://joelbeeke.org/what-the-puritans-would-say-to.../ Here is a great short article by the premier Puritan scholar Dr. Joel Beeke entitled, "What The Puritans Would Say To Modern Pastors". It resonates with my heart's desire in wanting to excel still more as a biblical shepherd. Blessings! The following short video is just an awesome short account of Tyndale's life, work and example of devotion to the will and Word of God. We have much to be thankful for related to God's work through this great man of God.
Although this Lineage video series on early church history is created and produced by those associated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, still they hold mostly to our same church history even though they veered off later. It is an extremely well made series and I have on found only a couple things that I would disagree with them on...otherwise they are quite accurate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY3XSS_-ax8&t=1s Here on this video about Tyndale, with video footage at the exact locations of his life, we see quite a well done rendering about his life and legacy. Click on the link above or the image/quote below to watch this short video. Blessings! It is rather fascinating to me to listen to an apologist like J. Warner Wallace...aka "The Cold-Case Christianity guy", because his credible answers to curious questions (to borrow a phrase from the One-Minute Apologist), are so well wrapped up in the trustworthiness of God's Word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnjX-VgPMk&t=12s Follow this link to a 30-minute teaching on "Why Moses' Version of the Flood is the Most Reliable Ancient Account". I recommend that if you are pressed for time then watch it in increments. It is truly a captivating presentation and helps in preparing to speak the truth to others. Click on the above link or on the image below... Blessings! Looking back in the OT text and comparing what is there to what is onsite in the Holy Land helps us fill in the gaps in our understanding today as we read the narratives we find there . I can't go there, but the Lord have given some that opportunity and they have passed their findings on to us with video proof.
It's been a habit of mine lately to glean all I can from biblical archaeologists for a greater understanding of the breadth and depth of what God was doing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qlfi6doRJI In particular this is truth with Jacob's encounter with the Lord at Peniel. This gives us a more keen sense of assurance and confidence in God's trustworthy Word when we see this place and how it matches the biblical account. Here Dr. Joel Kramer and his son seek out the ruins of Peniel on the eastern side of the Jordan river. Is this really Peniel, which is near Sukkoth? And does it match the biblical account? Follow the link to discover what Dr. Kramer found there and so glean from, understand, and know the times as God has revealed for us in His Word and for our benefit today. Click on the link above, of the picture below to watch Dr. Kramer's video about Jacob's encounter with God on Peniel. Blessings! This quote from Ligonier Ministries has much truth within it...
"Scripture finds its origin in the mind and character of the Creator so much so that His very words have been “breathed out” for all to hear. When we breathe out in our speech we speak audibly, and when the Lord God Almighty breathed out in speech long ago, His Word was written down by the apostles and prophets." I believe that the Lord superintended all that He wanted to say to us, but that it is the Scriptures themselves which are inspired and not the men. Consider what is written in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 as Paul explained to Timothy what exactly is inspired by God and how. This is vital to help us stand firm against temptation, to know what confession is all about, to receive assurance of our salvation and to be able to trust the Lord's trustworthy Words in His amazingly inspired Book of books! https://g3min.org/the-men-who-wrote-scripture-were-not-inspired-by-god/ Here in this article from G3 we find a greater degree of assurance about the details of the doctrine of Inspiration. May it be for us another stepping stone towards trusting in His promises found in His Word to us. Click on the above link or on the picture/quote below from J.C. Ryle. Note: the final article about this doctrine of Inspiration will follow soon... Blessings! Pastor Robert Today begins a series of blog post considerations related to the characteristic of the Scriptures known as "Inspiration". It is vital doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16-17) to help us stand each day on the authority of the Word of God as our sole authority in faith and practice of service and worship.
This doctrine interconnects and gives credence to the doctrine of the Bible's revelation to us from and of God Himself. Every part of the Scriptures is inspired from Him as he used the various writers to reveal all He wants us to know. Key in this is the concept of it being a written witness forever (Isaiah 30:8), which means that He preserves it forever and it is trustworthy as a witness to all He wants us to know from Him in this supernatural written transmission of His will and actions! Another aspect of this doctrine is in its details of being connected to the character of God Himself (perfect and incapable of error) and inerrancy. With that in mind I think a short quote from this article is very helpful: "...if all Scripture is God-breathed, i.e., it is the product of God and proceeds from God Himself, and if God is incapable of error, then Scripture must include no error in anything that it affirms. Of course, the Bible might inerrantly record the errors that others have committed (and it does), but the Bible does not affirm those errors. A necessary consequent of verbal, plenary inspiration is the inerrancy of Scripture." https://g3min.org/inspiration/?fbclid=IwAR3U8siN7y4CNGCHS7oUecnFhVPsLZIhn1FpD7HWhZ3TBxeQgsYOjUWBETI I hope that this series will not come only from one source when I post links, but here in 2022 the G3 Blog guys have provided some very solid but short articles on this doctrine. I intend to post links to other blog articles which I have found and which I have been reading and re-reading about this doctrine of the Inspiration of Scripture as well. Just click on the above link or the picture/quote below to find this G3 Blog article. Blessings! Pastor Robert It is so important these days to test certain postulations for exegesis and hermeneutics (ie: studying & interpreting Scripture) as there are many who have brought the church and pulpit ministry into the use of allegory. How did we come to this?
Didn't that battle get fought and won or lose out to proper exegesis a long time ago with some of the church fathers? No, not exactly. Allegory comes to us today with the fast and loose interpretation methods of postmodernists. It's rather sinister if one stops to think about it and we know the evil one is behind it just as he was in the garden when he questioned the very words of God (Gen. 3). https://g3min.org/is-christ-in-every-text/ Here in this very important blog article by Dr. Chip Thornton we see what has been happening and how. He says this, "We agree the whole Bible centers on Christ in this way: Every text in Scripture “points” to Christ. However, to dig underneath the text for a deeper (oftentimes, superimposed) Christo-centric meaning is allegory." I highly recommend that we delve deeply into this very concerning 21st century phenomenon. Yet, there is "nothing new under the sun" and so what we have here is again a challenge to God's trustworthy Word. Blessings! Pastor Robert |
Robert Thomas Clark, M.Div. This is the ministry blog of Robert Thomas Clark, It is designed to be a repository of inspiring, impactful & influential posts on biblical truth, themes and concepts, which brings insights and initiates inquisitiveness!. Archives
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